Dragonfly: A Sean O'Brien Novel by Tom Lowe

Author:Tom Lowe [Lowe, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KIngsbridge
Published: 2019-01-17T22:00:00+00:00

FIFTY-SIX

O’Brien looked from the bookcase to the coffee table and decided to take a gamble. He walked closer to the hospice bed, removed the TV remote from the rocking chair, and sat down. He looked at Patricia Thurston’s face—deep furrows, her brow creased, but yet hope coming through the fog of cataracts in eyes that still carried a subtle radiance. “Mrs. Thurston … you said earlier that you’d made your peace with the Lord, correct?”

“Yes. Not because I have cancer, long before that. Everybody dies. Death doesn’t frighten me. What scares me is when I watch the TV news and see what’s going in our world. The horrible way some people treat each other. My father used to shake his head and say the greatest rule in the universe only has eleven little words with large meaning, but it’s the one rule most broken.”

Wynona asked, “Would that be the Golden Rule?”

“Yes. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” She looked from Wynona to O’Brien. “It seems so hard for so many people to truly follow that.”

O’Brien nodded and said, “What do you think happened to Richard? He violated the Golden Rule and that resulted in the deaths of at least ten CIA employees.”

“None of that was Richard’s fault. He was a victim, too.”

“No ma’am, sadly, he was not a victim within the CIA, he was a victim of his own greed and power. He chose to sell American classified secrets to the Russians and he was paid well for his services. That’s how he could afford to buy and deed this condo to you.”

“It’s not true.” She looked up at Wynona, searching for some affirmation she was right.

Wynona said, “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Thurston, but it is true.”

The grandfather clock chimed seven times. And then the room was quiet. The hospice nurse opened the door to the kitchen and asked, “Do you need anything, Mrs. Thurston.”

The old woman shook her head, a strand of white hair breaking across her face. ‘No thank you, Isolda.” The nurse nodded and disappeared back in the kitchen.

O’Brien said, “Ma’am, the last thing that Wynona and I want to do is to deliver bad news to you, but I have to believe in your heart of hearts that you know, or suspect Richard did those things he was found guilty of doing. There is a mountain of hard evidence, proof—video and audio of Richard selling secrets and taking money. Some was cash. Some in electronic deposits to offshore accounts he opened under the name Burgh LLC.”

Patricia Thurston coughed and looked up at O’Brien, cleared her throat, her face filled with repressed thoughts. After a moment, she lowered her voice to above a whisper and said, “I pray for his soul every night before I go to sleep. He was always such a good boy, bright and spirited. My husband, who spent a career in the military, used to push Richard really hard when he was a little boy. Too hard, I felt, and I would say so.

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