Infinity Chapter 102 - Absolution

[itztigress3]

Chapter 102 – Absolution
POV:  Zac
Word count:  3188


November 10, 2015

Prior to Epcot was hectic and fast-paced and I was so glad she had lists of what we needed for everyone because we had met with my family and hers, using conference calling for the three oldest, and informed them about what happen. My parents were concerned that Ian had died by my hands, but I assured them it was fine. Even if I truly wasn’t sure if it was. Amanda had been very helpful when Emily told her what happen. I was beginning to warm up to her some more.

Epcot itself had been spectacular. All of my family came and her brothers, wives, and children met us there Monday. Amanda flew out Monday afternoon but Sean remained in Oklahoma because he was working. It was good to see Amanda, Eliza, and Emily talking and being happy. Having extra people meant help to keep up with all of the rambunctious and hyperactive children. Alexander got to ride some of the children’s rides this time and he seemed thrilled about that. Robert and Casey were glad Emily could ride and by some miracle of a chance, they got her on Disney’s biggest roller coaster! I was shocked when she sat down next to me, and even more that she made it through the ride.

We stayed after our concert obligations and that Saturday William had his 2^nd birthday party in Disney style with everyone present. He had a blast as did the other children and Disney had made me feel very happy.

Yet, coming home was bittersweet, because there was still the FBI lingering. While they had cleaned up any blood from the house and the yard, the memories were still present in my mind. I am sure Emily also remembered it and it was a taint on our happy home. We weren’t even home a good hour before Agent Stewart called us and requested a formal meeting with us. Given we had to return to work this week, we chose to set it up at 3CG and we also made sure Clayton could be present. Casey agreed to watch the two children so we could meet with them uninterrupted.
We had arrived at the office at 7:45 and Clayton joined us at 8:45, we went over some business related issues first and then we sat and waited in the office. I looked at him.

“They can’t charge me can they?” I asked.

Admittedly, I hadn’t been worried with Adam about being charged, that was a clear case of self-defense because we were being held. Ian however was not holding us and my overall perspective was that I could have injured him and called the police. I’d worried myself to the point of nearly being sick. The way the interview had gone made me feel like they were planning to charge me.

“Zac I talked to the district attorney that is handling the case and she said they would not process or bother because it’s clearly self-defense. Ian McDermid stalked, abused, and hurt you and your family. No one will convict based on that. Added, when your fans found out what that sick bastard did the DA would be toast. We also want to contain those details.”

“Could federal charges apply, even if state or city ones didn’t?” I asked.

“No, they cannot.”

That was a relief but I was still a bit paranoid. Agents Stewart and Rodriguez arrived at 9:45 and because there was so many we chose to use the conference room. I could still remember what we’d done here and I was sure Emily noticed that look because she slightly nudged me. Agent Stewart and Rodriguez were the only two that came and they settled beside each other. I didn’t even want this meeting, not after the way they treated me. However, Emily assured me they were needed because of Glen.

“Good Morning Mr. and Mrs. Hanson and Mr. Jones.” Agent Stewart said.

“Morning.” We replied.

Agent Rodriquez simple nodded which is all we gave him in return. He was usually the quiet one anyway.

“I want to first apologize to you Mr. Hanson. We had to assume it was one way until we could gather the evidence and gather what we could on our own. However, our agents whom interviewed you were too harsh and have been spoken too about that.”

“They were very harsh.” Mr. Jones said.

“We agreed and they’ll be spoken with. We would like to assure you that no charges will be filed. The evidence is clear that it was done in self-
defense.”

I just sat there because I knew that already, but hearing that they weren’t filing charges was a relief.

“Mr. McDermid killed our agent before the shift change was supposed to take place. He used the agent’s uniform and badge to gain access to the property and then killed the other two agents. He used Emily’s alarm code to disarm the system to get inside, the cameras switched on however because the code entered was to disarm and record, we believe that is why he was hacking into your web cams, to see the codes and apparently he did at least once.” Agent Stewart said.

“It would make sense; it’s the only way he could have gotten them.” Emily said.

“He came in before you woke up; he was in Isabella’s room when you went downstairs. Evidently, he thought she would be in her own room.
When you came up, he heard you and knew he had to get you out; it appears he used a recording because while we hear the drums on the cameras no one is in there and they do not move.. It shows him going into the master bedroom and then you coming up, there is no camera in your master bedroom but we suspect he did not go near the bed. He wasn’t in there long enough.”

“Is there anything else besides that?” I asked.

“Mr. Ashford was informed of his death and he’s very upset. But, he did give us a bunch of fake names Ian has used over the years and we found two more houses.”

“How can someone that is broke as you claim he is, have so many houses?” Emily asked.

Agent Rodriguez looked up. “The properties are not in his name, there in the names of what we suspect to be victims either of violence or identify theft. We’re still working on that angle, Mr. Ashford has indicated at least one of the two he gave us was an elderly lady who was killed. It appears that her social security checks were direct deposits and bills were paid. No family members.”

“So, he is personally broke but he’s been scamming people?” Clayton asked.

“Appears so, he quit his job at the university right before the notes began. Glen is well off financially and we think some of Ian’s funding came from him. But Mr. Ashford is convinced that Glen was not aware of or privy to Ian’s financial records.”
The room grew quiet but I had a burning question but I wasn’t sure I wanted the answers to it.

“How did Ian die? The shots were aimed at his abdomen, they shouldn’t have been fatal.”

“One bullet was a through and through, it was found about 25 feet from where you were. The second bullet however hit a rib and ricocheted; it hit the ventricle artery of the heart and punctured the lungs. There would have been nothing we could have done by the time we arrived he was dead.”

I had wondered how and why my shots had killed him because they shouldn’t have been fatal but it sounded like a plausible reason. I was aware that bullets could do that and it sounded legitimate.

“Is there any progress on Glen?” Emily asked.

“We have canvases on all of the houses but he’s kind of vanished. We believe he may have left town. Is he still bothering you?”

“Yes. Daily messages promising I’ll be with him.”

“We’re leaving the protection detail at least through the holidays and we will continue to monitor houses and track phone numbers. Anytime he sends a message let us know.” Agent Rodriguez said.

We nodded.

“What happens now?” Clayton asked.

“Well, even though he is dead we will continue to investigate his background and follow leads given by Mr. Ashford. We will try to solve anything we can on the funding and houses. However, unless you just want updates on that we should not need to bother you concerning
him.”

“Can you just e-mail an update?” Emily asked.

“Yes.”

“I don’t want much information just to know how he funded everything when he was in debt.”

“Understandable. Concerning Glen, we have not seen evidence of him back at the house in his name or at the addresses, Mr. Ashford gave us. Therefore, we’re assuming he also has a second address in someone else’s name. We’ve traced the numbers he is texting from and there all burner phones.”

“We figured they were.” I said.

“You said you saw his mother at Mr. Daniels funeral?” Agent Rodriguez asked.

“Yes. She was there but it was brief and she seemed surprised that I knew about Glen. Why?”

They exchanged looks and it felt like they wanted to say something, but didn’t want to at the same time. We patiently waited for them.

“She made a call to one of the burner numbers shortly after the viewing. We obviously have no idea what was discussed but we wondered if she had asked or insinuated she was there as a spy.”

“Her husband and David were pretty ok friends. I assumed her purpose was to pay her respects but I didn’t see her husband.”

“I didn’t see her at all.” I said.

“No evidence to say she was, but we have an agent watching her house as well since she is his mother.”

“What about his father?” I asked.

“His father passed away eight years ago, his step-mother died four years ago.”

“Is there anything you will need from either of them?” Clayton asked.

“We have his written statement already and we have what we need. Unless something comes up, no there is nothing else.”

“If that’s all then we should get back to work.” I said.

“Do you have any additional questions?”

“No.” We said.

We got up and said our goodbyes and Emily walked the agents and Clayton to the front door. I went to the studio where Taylor had Alexander sitting at the drums and Isaac was holding Isabella. Casey looked a little frazzled.

“Did you call in reinforcements?” I asked.

“Oh god I had too. She started crying for food and then as I was feeding her Alexander got into the stack of papers on his desk and scattered them everywhere. I had to call for help.”

I giggled. “We’re done with the meeting. There not pressing any charges of any kind.”

“What actually killed him?” Isaac asked.

“Second shot ricocheted around punctured his lung and an artery of the heart. There would have been nothing they could have done, they believe he hacked the webcams and got Emily’s code to get in. The one he used turned the cameras on inside though, so they caught everything.”

“That’s good news. Did Craig come over and check the wires and things?” Isaac asked.

“Yes. He did as soon as we got home. Checked all the wires and reprogrammed all codes again incase Ian gave them to Glen.”

“What is going on with him? Emily seemed a little distracted at Disney.” Taylor said.

Leave it to Taylor to notice someone being distracted; he was the king of being distracted easily after all.

I fell onto the sofa beside Casey. “He stepped up the frequency of his messages. Craig can’t even figure out how he bypassed the program on her phone. He tried numerous ways and nothing. He went through it completely looking for bugs or viruses or anything and he found nothing.”

“What about the content of those messages?” Casey asked.

“He’s gotten more descriptive on what he would do to break her. There almost but not quite as bad as Adam’s were.”

“How is she handling it?” Taylor asked.

“She is standing right here and you could just ask her. To answer, I’m handling it the best I can Tay. We still have agents following us and watching and Eliza promised to be around when she could be.”

We all looked at her and Isabella cooed at her voice. She came on into the room and pulled up a chair on the other side of Casey. Isaac tickled Isabella getting a nice laugh and he smiled.

“I miss having a little baby at the house.” Isaac said.

“Hey, it’s your turn to have a little girl. Taylor and Zac already have one.” Casey said.

“Nikki may kick my ass if I ask for another baby; Everett and Monroe already drive her insane when I’m not home.”

Casey turned and looked at me. “Then why don’t you have another one?”

“Well..we will but not right now. Damn Casey, Isabella is only four months old!”

“So? Nine months from now and she will be a year old. So get to work! I want another godchild.”

Emily looked at him and then we all cringed when she smacked him upside the head. He rubbed the spot and feigned being hurt, I was sure it hadn’t hurt that bad.

“I guess Emily says no to that idea.” he smirked.

“Zac says no! I really don’t think we can handle three under three.”

“I know I can’t. Two is hard enough.” Emily said.

Taylor was oddly very quiet, even Isaac was cracking up about our banter but Taylor was not.

“Tay?” Emily asked.

“We are thinking about another one, Natalie would like another little girl. Penny would love a sister, as excited and over the moon as she is with Jasmine and Isabella, lord help a little sister.”

“Natalie would not have to do anything.” Casey said.

“True! Penny really is a little mama and I promise Taylor I will buy her another doll.” I said.

“Please, the child has like eighty of them. She’s not too concerned, when she asked where she was Natalie explained that a bad man tried to hurt Isabella and that Sarah saved her. Penny is fine without a replacement.” Taylor said.

Emily smiled. “Well, I mean I did spend a bit at Disney on her.”

“A bit? Ems you got like princess treatment for the child. We will never top that shit. You have to stop doing that!” Tay said.

Emily just laughed. “Nope. Not happening, you’re just going to have to try harder. Anyways, are you guys going to try to be productive at all
today?”

“We’re going to work on a stream concept and a new song, Christmas themed.” Isaac said.

“In that case let me take the hellion and princess so you can.”

“Aren’t you chronically behind?” Taylor quipped.

“Between maternity leave, problems, and epcot yeah, but Sean has done incredible I just need to verify a lot of stuff and then check the merchandise.”

“How about you take the princess as she’s going to want to be fed soon and we’ll keep him down here. We’re not going to be recording and he may provide inspiration.” I said.

“Are you sure?”

I nodded and she agreed, just taking Isabella with her and really, Alexander was no trouble with drums around, although we did have lunch and a diaper change before getting down to business. The afternoon seemed to fly by and before long it was after five and we were heading home. I traded off, taking Isabella so she could cook dinner or find something. I still felt weird being home because I could remember what happen even though the blood was washed away, even though there was no sign that anything bad had occurred.

Alexander was actually kind of playing with Isabella, she was kicking and watching him move and he would bring her toys and move them closer.

“Are you ok?” Emily asked.

“Yeah.”

She sat down beside me and watched them for a moment.

“Feels bad doesn’t it? Even though you know he’s a bad man and deserves everything he got it still feels bad, wrong.”

“Feels like it did with Adam.” I said.

She turned my head some. “I know. It feels wrong even though you know it was right. I can’t make it go away Zac, I can’t take that away. I can try, but it won’t work.”

She then directed my head to where Isabella was laying and laughing at what Alexander was doing near her.

“I can’t take the pain away nor can I make you forget what happen or how it felt. What I can do is remind you why you did it. You done it because you thought we were all dead, because you thought he had killed Isabella in his arms, I cannot say whether he knew or not, but I doubt he did. He knew what he was doing. You were afraid he would take you and then punish you by going after the rest of the family. I know it hurts, I know it feels wrong and you feel bad about it. But, that is what makes you different from them. You care about how your actions and behavior affects other people. You cared about how Robert felt about what happened. You have a conscious Zachary, it is telling you it’s wrong. Ian, Adam, David and even Glen don’t have that. They don’t care.”

I looked over at her. “But doesn’t that make me as bad as them?”

“No. You are a great man Zachary. You aren’t out there raping and killing women and children, you’re not abusing us or threatening too. Look at what you do, you are a wonderful husband who does anything he can to make me happy. You are a great father that provides for them everything they ever wanted and you love them deeply. You’re a great brother and son, caring about your family. You are a great musician who adores the fans and you do everything you can to prove that. You are not them and that is why you feel bad.”

I laid my head on her shoulder, felt her fingers in my hair, and smiled. She sat there for a little bit before finishing dinner. I cleaned up while she and Isabella took a bath and then Alexander and I showered. By 10, they were both tucked in snugly in their beds and asleep. I let her get comfortable before I snuggled up, heard the slight chuckle before her fingers tangled into my hair.

“We’ll be fine, right?” I asked.

She kissed my forehead. “Yes.”

We were almost asleep when the phone went off but she just turned her ringtone off and then snuggled back  up against me. I wasn’t going to complain about that. I was certain I was asleep before she was.