Flower Girl: A Burton Family Mystery Read Free Page A

wanted to keep tabs on me in order to track him, not just to recruit me into the company. Newsome and Rapier were dodging around their real mission.
    I wanted to keep the dialogue going. So far their goals meshed with mine. What I really wanted to know was what had happened to my father and why was I listed as officially dead. I had found out how and when my mother died but otherwise I knew nothing of her. However, having no other family, I also wanted to know about my father’s second wife and whether I had a step-sister or brother. Maybe his frequent and lengthy absences were to be with them. Then, I also had to ask myself, did I really want and need him in my life? Hell, I had rarely seen him since my rescue, with the exception of graduations.
    The interview seemed to be at an end when Agent Newhouse said, "We have one last question, it is 'Classified Top Secret: Need to know only'."
    I nodded and she asked, "A hacker friend of his set up his computer with a nearly untraceable line that has the code name Michaela."
    "Any idea what Michaela means?" Agent Rapier asked. "It may be code for something. We think it may have something to do with his second family."
    Agent Rapier paused, then continued, "Burton has acquired contacts all over the world, and he is superior in one skill, he is a sniper par excellence."
    "Is Michaela a person or what?" I asked.
    It soon became apparent to the agents that I had no knowledge that would help them.
    It also became obvious to me that the CIA has been shadowing Reddy for a long time, another little inconsistency in their cover story about being at my house to recruit me. They never did provide the details of the job they were supposedly recruiting me for. I also knew that Reddy hated being shadowed and therefore left so many fake trails that the CIA had probably been spending considerable time and manpower chasing false leads. Until they mentioned that he had listed me as his beneficiary, I wondered how they even knew that I was his daughter. Essentially, his daughter died fifteen years ago.
    The agents' questions about Michaela made me suspicious about the real intent for their visit, even though I had no idea who or what she was.
    I thanked Agents Newhouse and Rapier for the CIA's interest and silently thought, Reddy has many secrets. I need to nudge him at least enough to find out more about my mother and his second wife and family. I am awakening to a deep seated and perhaps repressed need to know about my heritage.
    In the meantime, the CIA wasn't going to get any secrets about Reddy Burton's whereabouts out of me. I had that much filial piety for my absentee father.
    I want to tell the agents that Reddy may be a sniper or if you must, a hit man, hired gun, or assassin, call him what you may; however, I am trying to call him father.
    Â As the CIA agents’ four-door black Chevrolet Suburban turned the corner two blocks away with a squealing of tires, Reddy burst out of the basement. "Were those agents asking if they could see the workshop in the basement?"
    "They wanted to know where you are, and I think they want to find something or someone called Michaela." I replied.
    The Basement Workshop
    Without another word, he began installing a scrambling device on my house phone, then another on my cell phone, and on all the electronic internet stuff in the house. Within an hour, he made the place safe for confidential calls and swept it for listening devices and mini-cameras. He was certain that those CIA bastards left several listening and spying devices inside and outside and maybe even attached something to my car. He found three infrared detection devices that he carefully removed.
    However, he wasn't satisfied. He went back into the basement and came back with another device that looked like a ray gun from a Star Trek episode with a small fan shaped antennae. He held the antennae in his left hand and the ray gun in his right as he double- and triple-checked every nook and