The Greatest of These by Greg Wendleton (booksvooks txt) 📕

with the groceries. There were enough bags of food to last for a month, or so it seemed.

“That’s a lot of groceries!”

Scott replied, “Yeah, it always looks like more than is actually there.”

Leilani added, “Remember boys, there are four mouths to feed for another nine days.”

Scott and Jerry mumbled some incomprehensible words that were meant as concurrence of Leilani’s pronouncement. The men just kept grabbing paper bags by their handles and carrying them into the kitchen.

I was walking into the kitchen as the two men walked in from outside. “Are there more bags that need to come in?”

“Yeah, I think there is one more load.”

I walked out the door and down to the street and grabbed the remaining three bags from the back end. The man hidden in the brush on the hillside overlooking the house just caught a break. That wasn’t Chad Wilhite, but it wasn’t an FBI man either.

As I reentered, carrying the three sacks, Special Agent Presley had a defeated look on his face. “I shouldn’t have let you go out to the street. There may be someone hidden on the hillside keeping tabs on our activity.”

“Oh crap, I never gave that a thought.”

“From now on, you, Chad and Jamie can only go out onto the lanai. We can’t risk giving anyone a chance to see you.”

While we stocked the refrigerator and pantry with the groceries, Leilani went to work at the stove preparing a breakfast fit for a king. She cooked bacon and sausage, scrambled eggs and made pancakes. Chad and Jamie, lured by the aromas walked into the kitchen looking like rested vacationers. Amazing what a hot shower and a good night’s sleep can do for a body.

The six of us sat around the dining room table and feasted on what Leilani had prepared. The Kona coffee blend she had brought was like silk. It was so smooth and robust. I was invigorated by the food and the caffeine. But I had nowhere to go, except the lanai.

While the Crowleys volunteered to clean up, Special Agent Presley asked Chad, Jamie and I to join him in the bedroom he had claimed as an office. He informed us of the overnight activities on Oahu and the planned release of the FBI official statement scheduled for 10:00am local time.

“Oh my gosh”, exclaimed Chad, “did anyone think to notify my sister and step-mother that we aren’t actually dead or missing?”

“This is the first I’m hearing of additional family members. Get me their addresses and we will send agents to their homes immediately.”

Chad supplied the address in central Missouri of his sister and his step-mother outside of Kansas City. There was less than an hour before the release would be made public. It was going to be cutting it very close.

Special Agent Presley, again instructed the three of us to not go out the kitchen exit or go into the front yard of the house. It was our responsibility to help safeguard their location. We exited the bedroom and waited for the press release and the frenzy of the twenty-four-hour news networks to bust loose. In the meantime, I was going to sit outside on the lanai, breathe the fresh, salt tinted air, and look at the gorgeous view.

Not long after I had gotten comfortable in one of the cushioned wicker chairs, Leilani stepped through the sliding glass door. “Do you mind if I join you?”

“Not at all, please.” I stood as Leilani took a seat near my chair.

“I’ve always loved this view. When we lived here, I would sit here for hours soaking in the beauty.”

“This was your home?”

“Yes, before Scott reached a higher level of success in the real estate business and we built our current home in Lahaina. We lived here for almost twenty years, I guess it was. We kept it and began using it as a vacation rental.”

“It’s a marvelous property. What I wouldn’t give to call it home.”

Leilani chuckled, then sighed. “I’ve often thought that same thing over the past decade. Our home in Lahaina is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but it is just too large for the two of us.” She took a long inhale and slowly let it out. “Scott is tired of the Vrbo and Air B&B crowd and is thinking about selling it.”

“Really? Wow, I wish it was something I could consider, or afford.”

“Well, you never know. Would you like for me to speak with Scott about it?”

“Would you? That would be great!”

“I’ll see what I can get the seller to reveal.” She smiled and then closed her eyes soaking it all in. Probably remembering simpler days.

I closed my eyes as well and dreamt of better and simpler days ahead.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

It didn’t take long for my dream state to be interrupted. Special Agent Presley open the sliding door and said, “You might want to come in and see the news channels. All hell is breaking loose.”

Pictures of Chad, Jamie and I were plastered on every news channel as well as the local news. The reporting followed many different scripts. Some outlets were calling us traitors, spies, thieves and other unkind adjectives. We were accused of faking our deaths for monetary gain, while trading human lives for the greedy love of money. It was ugly. How could they take two plus two and come up with two hundred?

Jamie sat, stunned, on the couch in the living room watching this story unfold before her. “Oh, my Lord, how can they say those things about us? Chad, this is awful.”

“Don’t worry dear, the truth will come out and our names will be cleared.”

Special Agent Presley said, “Rest assured, the FBI will find those bastards and we will restore your reputations.”

As the day crept along the sensationalism grew worse. Camera crews were camped outside the Wilhite childrens homes, except in Europe. Camera crews were also set up outside my home and Chad and Jamie’s house next door. Dear God, please be with Fonda during this dark chapter. Give