Page 48 of The Hero
“Chappy! Cal! Jack! Get in here! Right now! It’s an emergency!”
Glad that she was taking her call seriously, Marlowe waited what seemed an eternity before April came back on the line.
“I’m going to put you on speaker, hon. Everyone’s here. Tell us what’s going on.”
Taking a deep breath, Marlowe did just that. “Again, my name is Marlowe, and I’m in Cambodia with Kendric. I’m an archaeologist who was on a dig in Thailand. I was accused of something I didn’t do and ended up in prison. My brother works in DC, and he has a lot of connections, and I guess he got a hold of someone named Willis, who works with Kendric. He came to Thailand and got me out of prison, and we’ve been on the run. We managed to make it into Cambodia, near the airport, and were supposed to fly back to the States soon. But Kendric got sick.”
Marlowe’s voice hitched, and she forced herself to keep going. “I don’t know how to get a hold of this Willis person, we don’t have any money, Kendric is unconscious, and I’m scared to death he’s going to die! Please, he’s talked so much about all of you. Will you help him?”
“Marlowe, this is JJ. You know who I am?”
“Yes,” she said, wiping away the tears that had fallen from her eyes as she’d been speaking. “You’re Jackson Justice. You were the one whodecided to get out of the Army and play rock paper scissors to decide where to settle once you were all out.”
“Holy shite, shedoesknow who we are,” muttered a man with a British accent.
“You’re Cal Redmon, from Liechtenstein,” Marlowe babbled. “You suffered the most as a POW because of those asshole captors, and Kendric admires you so much, you have no idea.”
“I’m scared to hear what Bob said aboutme,” a third man said.
Marlowe sighed. “And you must be Chappy. If you really want to know, he thought you were crazy for marrying a woman you’d known for days, who was trapped in your cabin during a snowstorm, but now he thinks you and Carlise were meant to be and he’s very happy for you.”
“You’re in Cambodia?” JJ asked, redirecting the conversation.
Marlowe took another deep breath. “Yeah, near the Phnom Penh International Airport. Please don’t be mad at Kendric! He lied to you about the sick aunt, and he’s been working with Willis because he’s been ... unsettled ... there in Maine. He loves it,” she said quickly. “Loves working with you guys and the weather and everything, but he said he needed more. So he’s been working with Willis to help rescue people overseas.
“But I think he’s officially done with that. He told me more than once while we were trying to get to the airport that he thinks he can fulfill his need to help others in a different way. Maybe working with a rope rescue group or something. He loves all of you so much, he’d be devastated if you kicked him out of the business and stopped talking to him,” she said, before realizing she was babbling again.
“Relax, Marlowe, we aren’t kicking him out,” JJ said.
“Although wearegoing to have words,” Chappy said sternly.
“Can’t believe the bloke didn’t tell us what he was doing. What a wanker,” Cal added.
“Will you help him?” Marlowe asked anxiously.
“Of course. Tell us where you are and what’s wrong with Bob,” JJ ordered.
Marlowe did her best to describe where they were staying. She couldn’t remember the actual name of the shop, mostly because it wasn’t in English, but she told Kendric’s friends that it sold a variety of groceries, then described all the other shops around it. She went on to give them the highlights of her escape from the prison, and how she and Kendric had barely made it across the border.
“He scraped his back on the fence and then waded through really nasty water. We slept in a barn afterward, which I don’t think helped. The scrapes are really gross now. Red and green, puffy, and there’s a lot of pus coming out of them. I’ve cleaned them as best I can, but it’s not helping. He’s been delirious and in and out of consciousness.
“I don’t care what happens to me, but please,please, can you come and get him? I’m afraid to bring him to a hospital, not that I know how I would even physically manage that. The Thai and Cambodian authorities are looking for us, and I can’t let him go to prison for helping me. He did nothing wrong—”
“Didyou?” Chappy interrupted.
Marlowe closed her eyes. “No,” she whispered. “I swear. I don’t use drugs. I don’t sell drugs. I didn’t have anything to do with the yaba pills that were found in my stuff. I’m pretty sure it was my coworker who planted them. I caught him stealing artifacts from the dig site. Ancient coins. And I think he turned me in so he could get away with it.”
“Holy crap,” April whispered.
“Who?” JJ asked sharply.
“Um ... his name is Ian West,” she answered, not sure why he wanted to know so badly. She closed her eyes, shaking her head as she added, “It doesn’t matter.Please.I seriously don’t care about myself. I’ll go back to prison if that’s what it takes to get Kendric help. He can’t die. He can’t! I’d never forgive myself.”
Marlowe finally opened her eyes and saw the shopkeeper frowning at her. Her time on the phone was going to come to an end soon, and she needed these men to believe her.
“Can you give us a second to talk?” JJ asked.
His words didn’t reassure Marlowe. “Yes, but ... I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to talk. The shopkeeper whose phone I’m using is looking impatient.”
