Chapter 33

CAPITOL HILL, WASHINGTON DC.
Martha was seated on the massive white couch that more or less swallowed her entire frame. She was nursing a cup of very hot tea, so hot that the ceramic cup burned her fingers, causing it to be a beet red. She insisted that was the temperature she wanted, had insisted on a very hot bathe earlier on too and her skin was just shy of being burned by the stream.
Her hair was pulled up in a very tight bun with not a strand of hair out of place, her lips bare and cracked, her wrinkled face even more unappealing considering she hadn't moisturized as she usually did after her shower. She wore a thin black gown costly enough to buy a car yet it looked like rags on her.
Senator Brownson had left the seat to her and instead sat beside on a single seater, across Detective Bryan who sat directly opposite her. Brownson didn't know what to expect from his wife but was sure her serenity and calm since the text and video recording their received was a charade, a mirage, a mere facade he knew would blow off any second now, he didn't want to be directly at reach when her explosive anger came. As much as he loved and wanted his soon home, he knew getting burned with the hot coffee wasn't going to help anyone at all.
Her hot bathe, the steaming hot tea she was drinking with a wince was all a twisted way of her punishing herself for whatever Moses was passing through and he knew it but he knew if he did utter a word, she may as well do worse, like actually boil herself in the tub just like it had been done to Moses.
"Animals!" He snapped as he remembered the gore video.
"Sir, we are doing everything to make sure the location of that video is discovered. They used an encrypted line, it is absolutely secure but me men will work it out, what we need is time, we wi___" Bryan was cut in abruptly by Martha's loud cackle.
She laughed so hard and tossed her head back, allowing some of the hot coffee to splash on her chest, she didn't was much as wince or grimace even as the hot liquid burnt her frail skin.
"Time? Time?" She asked with another laugh and looked between her husband and the detective.
"Time is what I don't have. Time is what my son, our son, does not have. And you sit here and let him talk about time?" She turned to ask Brownson.
"Darling please, let the man do his job" he replied.
"His job? He can't do his job with my son in his grave! There will be no job for him at all! None!" She snapped and rose, smashing the ceramic cup on the tile just as Brownson had predicted.
"Calm down honey, please" he plead and rose to hold her frail frame. She stared at him stoicly and he halted his movements, letting her stand and returning to his own seat.
"Ma'am, I can assure you that we are doing our very__"
"Shut the hell up! Your very best would have been protecting my family, my baby and not letting him fall into the hands of those monsters. No! You let him be taken and now you're assuring me? It's not your child! You have no idea what it means do you! Do you detective?!" She snapped, pointing at him with a menacing glare.
"I do know how you feel, any crime against a citizen is a crime against the Bureau, I know what it__"
Martha was laughing again, a deep wounded life that sounded a little - a lot actually - deranged. Bryan had to keep quiet and look at the lady. Brownson swallowed and plead with her to be calm.
Martha shook her head, stomped her feet and laughed again, this time even louder, higher above the sound of the TV and everything else, Brownson was certain half of neighborhood could hear her even through their stereos.
"He knows what it feel...he says he does" she laughed again and threw her head back.
"I could show you how it feel, exactly how it feels actually. I had just a taste of how it feels" she offered lovingly, smiling at him
"Darling, I'm sure that isn't what he meant" Brownson cut in and begged with her to seat. She did but looked away from them, her eyes now on the Tv,unfocused and unconcerned.
Brownson sighed, her attention span was even shorter these days and her drugs weren't exactly helping her. One minute she was angry, raged and crying and the next she was worried about what she was going to have for dinner or if the right linen was being used for the sheets the previous night. It was all a coping mechanism for her loss and he knew it, he just didn't know how long she would live like that.
"Who ordered the attack?" Brownson asked.
"He's in custody at the moment. He has made his statement but clearly he was just being irrational, he thought it would be in your best interest to get the culprits as well as___"
"He will rot in jail!" Martha snapped as she was suddenly in the conversation again.
"I was ready to take my child, I could see him, I swear I was soooo close to him! And then what? The fool shoots his gun and that evil pregnant lady runs with my child! My son! I lose him again! All because if some amateur trigger happy son-of-a-bitch! He'll pay!" Martha snapped.
"He's still in custody darling, we will get our son back" Brownson assured.
"Promise?" She asked, almost childishly.
Brownson nodded and turned to the detective, asking. "What next?"
"Well, my men are still digging up everything, footages from the fair, CCTV and around the area, staff and everything else that needs investigations. We will come up with a report in no time" Bryan promised.
"Time is what we don't have!" Martha said and glared at the man.
"I'm afraid we'll have to take it easy this time, one wrong move and you may lose your child. I do not say this to frighten you, it is simply the truth and I just let you know this. The man that shot is a new recruit at the security agency. He did confess to wanting to impress you and was sure his shot was a done deal, he is a good aim actually from reports, his only crime is assumptions and carelessness, no motive. I interrogated him myself and would advise he be let go__"
"He goes no where! Not until I have my son back, his carelessness has cost my son's life!" Martha screamed
"If I know these sort of criminals correctly then my guess is they wouldn't want to waste their bargaining chip. Brownson Jnr is still alive and they know they need him to get to you" Bryan replied, making Martha keep quiet and hoping he was right.
"What do we do now?" Bryan asked.
"Play along, comply to all their demands, all of them, I'll advise everyone in charge of this case to walk on eggshells with whatever information they get. They have become desperate and it is just a matter of time before they slip up, once that is done, we'll be ready to smoke them out" Bryan advised.
"Comply to everything?" Brownson asked, thinking about the authorization they had requested and how on earth he could get those without soiling his hands and his name.
"You heard him! Everything! I want my son back! I want him back alive or dead! I want him!" Martha snapped and left the sitting room, stomping up the stairs.
Brownson stared after his wife and have a dejected sigh.
"Please help me, I'm losing my mind" he begged the detective.
"I know. We are doing all we can" Bryan assured.
"Oh God" Brownson muttered and looked at the broken cup on the tiled floor, just like his life, beyond repair as it seemed.