Page 22 of Delusional

Owens was saved the trouble of answering when Kimmy walked in holding a letter.

“This was in the mailbox for you, Tom.”

Owens realized Ellis was staring at him. Hard.

“Who did you tell where we were staying?”

Owens ignored him. A smile crept across his face when he saw the envelope. There weren’t many people who still called him Tommy. His brother and uncle were the only ones he could think of.

He opened the white envelope with his name scrawled across the front along with the address of the Airbnb. There was a short note. Tommy, hope this helps. Can I come visit? We worry about you. Love, Spencer.

Ellis raised his voice and demanded again, “Who did you tell we were here?”

Owens felt no need to answer immediately. He took the money order his brother had sent and tucked it into his pocket. Then he looked up at Ellis and said, “I needed some money, so I called my brother, Spencer. When I lived in the cabin, I got by on almost nothing. I didn’t realize that living in a city eats into your cash reserve so quickly, even if you’re not paying rent or for electricity.”

Ellis leaned back and gave Owens a nod. “Everyone needs money. Doesn’t matter what your cause or interest is, it costs money. Even we need operating capital. We might have to address that in the near future.” He didn’t elaborate. Without saying anything else, Ellis stood up from the wooden table and padded down the hallway toward his bedroom.

Kimmy sat down next to Owens and put her hand on his arm. He’d never try to express any feelings of affection to the pretty blond girl. But he liked it when she showed him some attention. He liked it when she talked to him.

Kimmy asked, “What’s bothering you? C’mon, you can talk to me.”

Owens took a moment, then said, “This isn’t what I expected to be doing. I was trying to extend the warnings Ted Kaczynski gave to the world. He was right about so many things. People really didn’t listen to him back then. I hope people listen to us now.”

“We’re trying to make the world a better place. You can never be upset doing that.”

“Somewhere along the line I strayed from what Ted would’ve done. I use a lot more tech than he did. I may not have a phone, but I use computers and I watch the news on TV sometimes. I read newspapers online. I like to hear what they have to say, even if they’re usually spouting the same narrative.”

Kimmy took her hand off Owens’s arm when Ellis walked back into the dining room. That’s when Owens realized what they could do.

He turned to Ellis and said, “I know our next target. I mean, after we send the Virtual Spaces message.”

Ellis sat down in the seat right next to Owens. “Tell me.”

“It’s a ConEd facility. We can knock out the power grid, which will affect millions. The whole country will talk about it.”

Kimmy looked at him with hopeful eyes. “And we won’t have to hurt anyone.”

Owens thought through his plan quickly and said, “Probably not.”

CHAPTER 25

MAGGIE CHIN AND I stood together on the walkway leading to the Vega household. Maggie said, “Who on Earth do you think is the devil?”

“Internal Affairs. And not just anyone from Internal Affairs. Investigator Sergeant Virginia Gaines. Affectionately known throughout the NYPD as ‘The Terminator.’ My boss gave me the heads-up that the jerk who assaulted the Pakistani woman earlier has been telling the media and IA that I assaulted him.”

“That’s insane. Does IA really get on a case from merely a single phone call from a citizen, without doing any background at all?”

“I can’t think why else she’d be here.” We stood there silently and watched as the middle-aged Black woman, dressed in an exquisite and professional skirt and top, stepped out of the Ford. She could’ve been someone’s mom headed to church.

Then she looked up at me and made a face. I took it as a bad sign. She grabbed something out of the back seat and walked toward us.

“Hello, Virginia.” I put on my best fake smile as she stepped onto the walkway near us.

She gave me a curt nod and said, “Bennett.” Then she looked at Maggie and asked, “Who’s this? Another partner Dennis Wu can’t make a case on?”

“Ha, funny. Except we caught the real sniper.”

“And I’m sure you didn’t try to hinder the investigation into… what’s his name…” She snapped her fingers. “Trilling. The Army vet. Where is he?”