Golden Bird

"I know you're right, Mom ... thanks."

Sara gave her mother a squeeze, then ran upstairs before the men opened the kitchen door.

* * * Jack Hogan sat in the corner booth of the Red Rooster, a home-style diner on Main Street, Saxon Mills, Vermont. It was about 7:30 in the morning, and Jack had been driving all night. He cursed the waitress. The place wasn't even busy, so where the hell was she? He needed coffee-now.

He rested his elbows on the table and held his head in his hands. Jesus Christ!, he thought, how the hell did I ever get into this mess? But of course he knew, and he swore that after this was over he would never gamble again. He ought to just take the five hundred dollars he got in advance from Abdulah, and take off for Canada, but somehow he knew those Arab bastards would find him and kill him. They might even try to get at him through Stella. He couldn't let anything happen to Stella. No, he had no choice, he had to go through with it.

The waitress came up to the table. "Excuse me, sir. Would you like a menu?"

He snatched the menu from the girl and growled, "Get me some coffee."

"Right here sir," she said as she poured a cup of dark steaming liquid into a mug and placed it in front of him. "Do you know what you want or should I give you a minute?"

Jack didn't dare let her go, God only knew how long it would take her to get back. "I'll have two eggs, sunny, homefries, sausage, and white toast. And can you speed it up, sweetheart, I'm starving."

"I'll see what I can do, sir." replied the girl, forcing a smile as she took his order and hoping this wasn't an indication of how her whole day was going to be.

Later, when Jack was just mopping up the last of his eggs with a sliver of toast, he looked up to see two more customers come into the diner. He did a double take as he recognized their faces. Shit, he thought, it just can't be this easy. But sure enough, that was her and her boyfriend. He'd figured it would take at least a day or two just to locate her, but here she was. Maybe his luck was changing after all.

He accepted another cup of coffee from the young waitress who was grateful for his mood change, and when the couple he had been eyeing finally rose to leave, he quickly threw down some bills and followed them out. He watched the couple kiss and part while pretending to read a poster about a baked bean supper being held at the Methodist church on Saturday night. He tailed the woman down the street where she stopped in front of Pearson's Hardware store. She unlocked the door and walked in, closing the door behind her. The sign on the door read: OPEN 9:00 AM CLOSE 6:00 PM.