Fatal, Family, Album

by Joanna Campbell Slan

  That seemed like a fast fix to me, and I must have betrayed my thinking because Sanders said, “Fortunately, St. Louis is well-prepared for visitors who are high-profile. We have a good handle on people who know the drill. I suspect that Priva was okayed back then.” Sanders did this little shrug of explanation. “That’s one reason we suggested the prince come here, to St. Louis. Most of your various law enforcement bodies have had a dry run at a visit like this.”

  Detweiler agreed. “We’ve also had a lot of political visitors. Just before Robbie Holmes took his leave of absence, we did a mock drill, taking us through various training scenarios. Robbie has been careful to keep all our certifications up-to-date.”

  “But it’s always harder when kids are involved. Let’s face it, little ones are unpredictable,” Brawny said “I know Anya and Erik, and they know me. They’re accustomed to paying attention to what I say, but what about the other children?”

  “We can only rely on what we’ve been told. I’ve stressed to their families that their children have to be able to pay attention. I realize we’re talking kids here, but some are more compliant than others.” Montana sighed.

  “Will there be media?” I asked.

  “Of course. We’re in the process of vetting and credentialing members of the press.”

  “There will be some sort of ceremony, I would guess. Otherwise there will be nothing for the media to record.” Brawny’s eyes narrowed as she imagined the scene.

  “Of course. After we have all our players in place, we’ll load up the royals at their hotel. The ambassador has his own driver. We’ve designated that the cars will pull up under canopies and awnings that we’re having erected.”

  I must have seemed puzzled because Brawny turned to me with an explanation. “It’s a best practice to erect a curtain around the routes in and out of the final destination to make the movements of the protectees more difficult to track.”

  “That’s right,” Sanders said. “There will be cars, escorts, and decoys in the mix of vehicles. Once we arrive at the North Entrance to the zoo, we’ll whisk the dignitaries out of the vehicles. It’s customary for a child to present the duchess with a bouquet. The granddaughter of the zoo president will do that at the Welcome Desk inside the Living World. The royals will walk through the Living World under an awning and board the train. The train will take the prince, the duchess, and their children to a covered stop near the rhino enclosure. Prince William will make a short presentation there, mainly a photo op, explaining his efforts to keep these animals from extinction. Then he, his wife, his children, and the ambassador will climb back on the train. They’ll go back to the Living World. The president of the board of directors for the zoo will give Will a signed book about the zoo as a keepsake. Ditto the Hungarian ambassador. The prince will likely say a few words. We’ll also arrange for each of the children to receive a stuffed toy. All the children. We don’t want a tussle to break out over sharing. The kiddies will play for a few minutes, and then we will whisk the royals out the way they came, relying on subterfuge and decoy vehicles.”

  “Explain, please,” I said.

  “Without going into too much detail, a limo will pull up. Decoys dressed like the royals will hop in. The motorcade will drive away. A few minutes later, a secure vehicle will arrive and the real royals will get inside that car. After that, the Hungarian ambassador will leave in a second car.”

  After studying the map, Brawny asked, “Counter-snipers will be stationed around the area, I presume?”

  “Of course.”

  A chill ran through me. Snipers? Counter-snipers? What had I committed to? I opened my mouth to voice a protest, but the words stuck in my throat. After choking on them, I decided to wait and ask Brawny for details about the snipers. The thought of men training guns on my children made tiny stars dance at the edges of my vision.

  “Snipers? How do these people cope with this? The royals, I mean? What would it be like to be a target, day in and day out? To know your children are constantly at risk? No amount of money or power on earth could be worth this sort of stress and danger. Not to me.”

  Sanders gave me a sad, small smile. “Not to most of us.”

  Brawny jumped in. “Remember the prince didn’t ask for this type of notoriety. He was born into it. His mum, Diana, tried to protect him from the hoopla. She raised him to be as normal as she possibly could. Under the circumstances, that is. As for Kate? She’s a rare jewel. Seems to be able to keep her head on straight. One can only presume that her relationship with her husband makes all this hassle worthwhile. From afar, it might seem like a fairytale. Up close, I suspect it’s more like a nightmare. Especially when you consider bringing wee little ones into the mix.”

  Wee little ones. Anya and Erik. My babies.

  Was I out of my mind?

  CHAPTER 30

  After I heard all I had been cleared to hear, I took Ty upstairs for a diaper change and a nighttime snack. My tiny fellow looked more and more like his father every day. As I admired him, I wondered what would happen when Erik realized he didn’t look like Detweiler or me. How did other families cope with a child with different ethnic roots? That worry could be tucked aside until later, I decided.

  Lifting Ty to my shoulder, I paused to enjoy the décor in his room. Over the expanse of three walls, I’d painted a mural of animals marching two by two onto an ark. It wasn’t perfect, but it turned out better than I had thought it would. The paired creatures crossed a pastoral background and a daisy-covered field, past giant oak trees, and going up and down over rolling hills of grass.

  I picked up the white, green, and yellow colors in a trio of fabrics that Brawny had pieced into a quilt perfectly sized for Ty’s crib. Next she used the same fabrics to make a quilt for a twin-sized bed, a place that came in handy when Ty was up and down all night. She’d also used white dotted Swiss to make crisp curtains and tied those back with yellow and green sashes. A comfy pillow rested on a white rocking chair. All in all, this had become one of my favorite rooms in the house. No matter how gray the day, the cheerful colors lifted my spirits.

  Noises drifted up from downstairs. The slap of leather soles against the marble foyer. The creak of a door opening. The slamming of that same door. The FBI agents and their demands were leaving. Good riddance, I thought. Take your predictions of violence and get out of my house, I silently warned them. You’re making a mess of my life.

  This nursery was a happy place. A room full of light and love and joy. However, as I rocked Ty, I had to be honest with myself. The longer I rocked, the more I had to admit that I was using the room to avoid my husband. That caused my stomach to knot up.

  As I heard him trudge up the stairs, I could tell he was unhappy. Each footstep echoed with sadness. Usually he races up and down the steps like a cartoon of a mountain goat. Not today.

  In self-defense, I wiggled the rocker around so I faced the window. I didn’t want to face my husband, even though I realized how cowardly I was being.

  The door opened with a metallic protest. I made a mental note to oil it.

  “Kiki?”

  “Uh-huh?”

  “How’s Ty?”

  “He’s fine.”

  “Catherine agreed to come over tomorrow and watch him while we’re at the zoo.”

  “Good.” But I didn’t look directly at him. Instead, I saw him in my peripheral vision as I stared out the window at the naked branch of the big maple tree.

  He stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest—and he did not look happy.

  “You need to make a decision, babe. A tough choice. Either Anya is our daughter or she’s your daughter. You can’t have it both ways.” His voice was totally reasonable, and anyone else would have thought he was fine, but I could pick out the rasp that suggested he was hurt.

  “I know her better than you do.”

  “Yes, you do. I can’t argue that.” He inhaled deeply. I could hear the air being draw into his lungs. “I know law enfor
cement and the dangers of an operation like this better than you do. That’s why we should act like a team. To make important decisions about our children together.”

  “She’s my daughter.” I have no idea why I blurted that out. Maybe the whole stress of our commitment to this endeavor was tugging at me like a loose thread that had been caught on a twig. I had the sense of coming unraveled. Frayed at the edges. Worst of all, I knew I was being hurtful to the man I married. Detweiler had always treated Anya as his own. He’d adopted her legally. In some ways, he’d been more of a dad to her than George had, although my late husband had been there for the first eleven years of Anya’s life, George had been distracted to say the least. Detweiler, despite the demands of his job, gave Anya his total attention. He was transparent, without any hidden agendas.

  Detweiler called my bluff. “You don’t mean that. I know that you don’t. If you do really think that, then you’re fooling yourself. I’ll agree that you know Anya best. Maybe you do know what’s best for her, but you can’t let the stress of this drive a wedge between us. Please don’t ever question my love for Anya. That’s not fair to me, and you know it.”

  I swallowed hard and kept staring out the window. My pride got in the way of the words I should have said.

  “There are details I need to nail down for tomorrow,” he said.

  But I didn’t respond.

  After a few minutes, he turned around and left.

  CHAPTER 31

  When I crawled into bed, Detweiler was still downstairs. I pulled up the covers, feeling miserable and scared. For the first time in a long time since meeting Detweiler, I felt alone in the world. I had made a terrible mistake in how I handled our meeting with the FBI. On the surface, an outsider might not have noticed the seismic shift, the way our world had tip-tilted. Try as I might, I couldn’t get comfortable.

  Later I felt Detweiler join me. I inhaled his familiar smell, the scent of Safeguard soap and a touch of patchouli. He didn’t reach for me as he usually did. At first, he rested with his back to me. Then he rolled over. This he repeated several times. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I pulled my arm out from under the covers.

  “Sorry,” I whispered as I tried to caress his face. Instead, I poked him in the eye.

  “Ouch!” He sat bolt upright.

  “Sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you okay? Can you see?” I sat up, too.

  His shoulders heaved. “No. I’m blinded. Permanently. That means my career in law enforcement is over.”

  “Oh, no. Oh, no.” I covered my face with my hands. “Let’s get you to the ER.”

  He burst into laughter. “Can I drive?”

  That got me laughing, too. Soon we were holding each other and trying not to make too much noise. We snickered and chortled and giggled until we were exhausted.

  “I really am sorry,” I said, when I could at last get enough air to breathe properly.

  “I know you are. You wouldn’t have tried to take my eye out if you were angry. Right?”

  “You sure you’re okay?”

  His laugh was soft. “As long as I have you in my arms, babe, I am okay. Definitely okay.”

  ~*~

  Anya and Erik were grumpy about getting up early on a Sunday, but they changed their tune when we explained we were going to the zoo. They grew even more excited when Detweiler explained we would be meeting Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.

  Anya could barely sit still. “I think I’ll faint,” she said.

  “Don’t you dare. That’ll cause a huge problem.”

  “I was just teasing, Mom!”

  Brawny gave us a quick tutorial in manners. “Royal protocol says that you call them, ‘Your Royal Highness,’ when you first meet. After that, you call them ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am.’ You don’t touch them. They can touch you. They’re pretty relaxed about all this, but you do want to make a good impression.”

  A knock on the door signaled that Catherine had arrived.

  “Auntie Catty,” Erik yodeled with delight. Anya threw herself into Catherine’s arms. When she let go and moved away, it was my turn to give my sister a hug. “Thanks for helping out with this.”

  “I’ve missed my nephew. This is a great chance to have a little bonding time.” So saying, she walked over to Ty’s bouncy chair and lifted him out.

  Detweiler walked in. “Hey, Catherine. Good to see you, but I’ve got to go.” After brushing black dog hairs off the leg of his khaki pants, he addressed the children. “Please notice I’m dressed as a ‘civilian,’ not as a cop. That’s on purpose. I will blend in with the crowd. Pretend you don’t know me, okay? Listen to Brawny and your mother. I’m there to help protect everybody in case of bad guys, so I’ll be keeping an eye on all of you. I’ll never be far away.”

  After hugs all around, he left.

  Brawny had suggested that both our kids wear navy and white. That put Anya in a navy skirt, a white blouse, and a navy cardigan sweater with pockets at the hem. Erik wore the same combination, except that he had on pants instead of a skirt. That left me to run upstairs and dig through my closet. Hanging in the very back was a navy blue wrap dress. Totally simple, perfectly plain. Although I hadn’t lost my post-baby poundage, I miraculously managed to tie it around me. As an after-thought, I found an old navy sweater at the bottom of my dresser. It had been George’s, and I’d forgotten it was there. When I buttoned the sweater over my wrap dress, it disguised the extra flab around my waist. The loose fit and deep pockets seemed useful. After a quick confab, Brawny and I decided that I would bring along the animal kits that Rebekkah had put together. Along with a handful of glue sticks, these would keep the children busy if need be.

  Rather than give me a copy of the schedule, we agreed that Brawny would direct our actions. A quick breakfast was in order. I sniffed the air curiously. “Fish sticks?”

  “Young sir demanded them. I felt it was better to do as he wished and be sure he had a full tummy than to argue.”

  Anya wanted pancakes, of course. She talked non-stop with Catherine, telling her about her project on penguins.

  A rap on the front door sent us all into a mad scramble. Brawny answered it and came back with Curtis. I introduced him to everyone. Curtis was wearing nice khaki pants, a white button-down shirt, and a navy blazer. On the lapel was an enamel pin.

  “That’s the Hungarian flag!” I was pleased that I recognized the banner.

  “Yes, ma’am. It is indeed.”

  We had coats on and were ready to hit the trail when Brawny’s phone rang. She stepped into Detweiler’s office to take the call. When she came back, her face had shut down. She didn’t look like “our Brawny.” There was a severity, bordering on anger. With a nod of her head, she signaled that Curtis and I should step away from the kids.

  “Chatter has escalated. The only thing they know is that there’s to be an exchange. We’re to keep our eyes open, but not to interfere unless it puts one of the children in harm’s way.”

  “That’s what sniffer dogs are for.” Curtis sounded loose and relaxed, but I noticed a twitch in the muscle that ran along his jaw.

  Anya poked her head around the corner. “Can we go? I can’t wait!”

  CHAPTER 32

  Hurry up and wait. Hurry up and wait. That seemed to be the order of the day. Curtis drove us to the North Entrance of the zoo, as per his instructions. We came to a barricade where guards were standing. Curtis flashed an ID. Walkie-talkies crackled. A valet ran over to open our doors. Once we were out, he drove the van away. It was cold outside, but we were all so keyed up that we barely noticed the temperature.

  “This awning wasn’t here when Brawny and I visited.” Anya pointed at the white canopy overhanging a red carpet that marked an obvious pathway. Two uniformed cops bookended the red carpet. At the far end of the path was a longish table with a metal detector and body scanner. Two more men in uniforms stood on either side of the x-ray machine. A third man with a dog stood at parade rest, blocking the pat
hway.

  “Very observant about the canopy,” Brawny said to Anya, while avoiding my eyes. “This is common when a dignitary arrives. Wouldn’t want our beautiful Kate to get rained on, would we?”

  I bit my bottom lip. So Brawny’d decided not to mention snipers in front of my child. Good. Her explanation had been helpful but not alarming.

  Our nanny flashed her ID at one of the uniformed men and explained who we were.

  “You’re expected. Adults? I need to see all of your IDs please.”

  We handed over identification. After the guard inspected them, he made a call on his walkie-talkie.

  Brawny held Erik’s hand, and I held onto Anya. We were processed through the metal detector and came up clean. A uniformed female officer led us into the Living World building. Jennifer Moore was waiting for me, as was Lee Alderton. Both gave me a hug and welcomed the children as well. I introduced Lee to Curtis. Of course, Jennifer already knew him. She’d recommended him to me.

  The area around the Welcome Desk had been decorated with flowers. Velvet ropes marked off the area where the royals would be walking. A low table was set off to one side. Around it were eight kid-sized chairs.

  The kids were invited to sit down. Another family joined us. They had three little girls. They looked to be ten, seven, and six. I was too nervous to pay attention to their names. Jennifer gave each child a coloring book and crayons. Anya decided to sit with the younger kids. She encouraged everyone to color. We adults stepped to one side and waited. All of us had our cell phones out, but a professional photographer appeared with a huge Nikon. Jennifer nudged me. “That’s the official photographer. She’ll take photos, post them online, and share an access code with you.”

  Walkie-talkies crackled. The royals were on the move! A general flurry of excitement bubbled up around us. Although I tried to be “cool,” I felt anything but. Like my daughter, I’m a confirmed Anglophile. This was a big moment for me. It occurred to me that Nicci Moore was going to be really jealous of Anya, and that would be kind of, sort of, cool.