Safe House Under Fire

by Elisabeth Rees

  Astrid flopped on the bed next to her mother. “Are you sure that this FBI guy isn’t exaggerating? He seems kinda repressed, like he’s full of trapped gas or something.”

  Lilly couldn’t help but laugh at this fitting description of Agent David McQueen. It was then that she noticed him standing at the slightly open door, listening to their conversation, his head cocked to the side as if amused. Or annoyed. When her gaze met his, he held it for a few seconds, saying nothing.

  She tried to imagine this buttoned-up man parenting two daughters, but couldn’t envisage him playing with toys or reading books, especially while wearing his dark suit and tie. Given that his children were now adults, she guessed that his age would be somewhere in the midforties, a good ten years her senior, yet he could pass for a much younger man. With a full head of curly brown hair, smooth tanned skin and a neatly trimmed beard, he was attractive without being too polished or high-maintenance. He had an outdoorsy look that was most definitely Lilly’s type. Not that it mattered anyway—romance was a thing of the past for her, and her sole focus was placed on raising her daughter.

  “May I come into your room, Astrid?” David asked, knocking on the door. “I promise to keep my trapped gas where it is.”

  Astrid sat upright and shifted closer to Lilly. She clearly wasn’t comfortable with the burly FBI agent who had invaded her home.

  “Sure,” she said, with affected nonchalance. “Whatever.”

  He entered the room, surveying the mixture of teenage music posters and babyhood relics. He also couldn’t fail to notice the colossal mess on the floor. Shoes, purses, belts and makeup palettes were strewn across the carpet, and his expression didn’t hide his disapproval.

  “I wanted to let you know that we’ve managed to secure a safe house for the coming week,” he said. “Goldie and I will escort you there and remain with you until Gilbert Henderson is in custody.”

  “Do you have any leads on him?” Lilly asked, desperately hoping that he might have been captured already by a patrol unit.

  “We found the stolen van abandoned in a Pittsburgh parking lot, and we’ve got detectives reviewing the security footage of the stores in the area to see if we can track his movements. He’ll crop up on the radar sooner or later, I’m sure of it.”

  Remembering David’s description of this guy as both cunning and smart, Lilly wasn’t so sure.

  “Why can’t we stay here?” Astrid said, picking at chipped nail polish. “You could stay here too and then when this guy comes back, you arrest him.” She put her palms up in the air. “Mission complete.”

  “It’s not that easy,” David replied. “This house has too many points of entry and it’s a single-story home, surrounded by lots of dark hiding places. I’m not comfortable protecting you here.” He checked his watch. “I’d like to be gone in one hour. Do you think you could have a suitcase ready by then?”

  “So that’s it?” Astrid said, rising to stand and fold her arms. “You get to make all the decisions about where and when we go?”

  “Yes.”

  Astrid looked at Lilly imploringly. “Mom,” she whined. “I don’t want to go.”

  “You have two options,” David said. “You come with me or you place yourself in serious danger. Do you really want to do that?”

  Lilly stood between David and Astrid. “That’s enough talk of danger,” she said, rebuking the FBI agent. “Astrid and I will be ready in an hour.” She fixed him with a hard stare. “Okay?”

  “There’s just one more thing,” he said. “We’ll be trying to blend in, to look as normal as possible. We don’t want to attract any attention when we go outside.”

  Lilly wasn’t sure what he was getting at. “And?”

  “And Astrid sticks out like a sore thumb in that gloomy costume she’s wearing. She needs to change clothes and wear something more suitable. Might I suggest jeans and a sweatshirt?”

  “Gloomy costume?” Astrid said with incredulity. “You’re so old and stupid. You don’t know anything about being cool.”

  “Astrid!” Lilly said sharply. “That’s enough.”

  David smiled. “I admit that I don’t know anything about being cool, but I know a lot about witness protection, and you cannot wear those type of clothes if you want to fade into the crowd.”

  “I expect you want me to wear a pretty dress with flowers and bows, right?” Astrid said sarcastically. “Like your own daughters probably did.”

  Lilly saw a sudden change come over him, a sadness clouding his eyes, and she knew that Astrid had hit a raw nerve.

  “This is getting a little out of hand,” she said, taking hold of David’s arm and leading him to the door. “Astrid, please pack your suitcase and change clothes. You can wear black jeans and your hooded sweatshirt.”

  “And black lipstick?” Astrid said hopefully.

  “Yes, black lipstick too,” Lilly replied, feeling too drained to argue on this small point. “Be ready in an hour.”

  With that, she steered David out of the room and clicked the door closed behind her, instantly hearing rock music playing on Astrid’s speaker.

  “You shouldn’t give in to her like that,” David said. “She needs to follow strict instructions.”

  “Oh, come on,” Lilly shot back, her mood darkening. “Do you really think that a little black lipstick is going to attract a huge amount of attention?”

  “It’s not just the lipstick. It’s a slippery slope. Once you give in to one small demand, it soon snowballs into much bigger things. And if you lose control of her, it’ll be impossible to get it back.”

  Lilly breathed slowly in though her nose and out through her mouth. “I know you have an important job to do, and it’s understandable that you want Astrid to play by the rules, but she’s just a kid. You can’t poke fun at her clothes like that and expect her to respect you. She has thoughts and feelings just like you, so quit being so hard on her, okay?”

  He seemed to think long and hard about Lilly’s reprimand. “I’m sorry, but I’m only saying these things for your own benefit. I don’t want you to make the same mistake as I did.”

  “What mistake?”

  He briefly closed his eyes. “It’s nothing.” He turned to walk down the hallway. “I’ll wait in the living room while you pack a suitcase.”

  Lilly watched him stride away and pondered the words that he had left unsaid.

  * * *

  David kept a close eye on the street outside while Lilly brushed her daughter’s hair in the hallway and tied it up in a ponytail. With her bright blond strands and olive-toned skin, Astrid really was a carbon copy of her mother. Both tall and rangy, they possessed a Viking quality, women who were undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. Lilly was clearly strong-minded and raising a strong-minded daughter, but she had so much to learn about teens. Astrid was already pushing her boundaries, perhaps even going off the rails, and Lilly’s response was to compromise. One thing you should never do with an errant teenager is compromise.

  Goldie was performing one last security check of the house, ensuring that the sensor alarms were working correctly. These sensors would give them a warning of unauthorized entry. If Henderson came looking for Lilly and Astrid here, the silent alarm would trigger an immediate police response.

  His cell phone buzzed, and he slipped it from his pocket to look at the display, smiling on seeing Chloe’s name.

  “Hi,” he said, hitting the answer button. “How are things in Penn Hills today?”

  “Good.” She sounded happy, and he was pleased. “The sun is shining.”

  “Listen, Chloe, I’m glad you called because I have to go away for a week with work, so I won’t be able to come see you for a while, okay?”

  “Sure, Dad. I’m fine with that. I don’t need to see you every day, you know. I’m a grown woman now.”

  “I know.” He foun
d it impossible to cut Chloe’s apron strings. “Thanks for reminding me.”

  “I wanted to tell you that I had a job interview early this morning, and it went really well. I think I’ll get it.”

  “A job interview? Really? Why didn’t you tell me? Where is it?”

  “Whoa,” she said. “One question at a time, Dad.”

  He deliberately slowed down, remembering that Chloe needed time to process information.

  “Okay,” he said. “What job is it?”

  “An assistant at the local grocery store,” she said, with an obvious smile. “It’s a nice place and the staff are friendly and the manager said I could take extra time to learn the shelf-stocking system if I need to.”

  “That’s great, honey, really great,” he said, feeling disappointment sink deep down into his belly. “I’m proud of you.”

  Before the accident, Chloe had been expected to graduate top of her class, and the medical profession was her passion. At the age of twenty-one, she should have been a doctor in training, not hoping to stock shelves at a grocery store.

  “If I manage to hold down this job, then I might be allowed to move out of my assisted living apartment and rent a regular place with my friends. That would be really cool, right?”

  “Yes, it would,” he said. “I’ll say a prayer for you tonight.”

  “Thanks, Dad. I’ll call back soon. I love you.”

  “Love you too, sweetie.”

  He hung up the phone, his stomach a twist of knots. He should have been pleased that Chloe was on the cusp of regaining full independence, preparing to move out of the apartment where a qualified nurse was on hand in case she needed it. Her rehabilitation had been arduous, but she’d made good progress and had regained full use of her body. Yet her brain could only recover up to a point and had lost its ability to think quickly, to retain information and to learn complex things. It pained David to accept that he should carry the burden of blame. If only he hadn’t allowed her to go out with her boyfriend that night. If only he’d realized that she was making bad choices. If only he hadn’t given her the benefit of the doubt. The words if only tormented him.

  “Hey.” Lilly was standing next to him, wearing a pastel blue sweat suit that was almost the same color as her eyes. “Are you all right? You’re miles away.”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” He pocketed the phone. “Are you guys ready? Goldie is just doing the final checks.”

  “We’re as ready as we’ll ever be,” Lilly replied, glancing down the hall at Astrid, who was swiping her finger down her phone. “It’s crazy to think we’ll be prisoners in a strange place for a while. I can’t quite get my head around it.”

  “You won’t be prisoners. You’ll be in protective custody.”

  She gave him a thin smile. “It kind of sounds like the same thing to me.”

  “Not really. Prisoners have a strict routine and they’re confined to a small cell for most of the day.”

  “Okay, okay, I get it. Boy, you really are a stickler, aren’t you?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been called worse.”

  She put an index finger on her lips, as if recalling a fact. “I know. I seem to remember somebody calling you old and stupid recently.”

  He laughed.

  “I’m sorry about that,” Lilly said. “Astrid sometimes lashes out when she’s afraid or unsure. She doesn’t mean any harm. Do you think you could cut her some slack?”

  “I’ll try,” he said, knowing that he would struggle to do so. “She can call me as many names as she likes, but you know how I feel about following rules.”

  “Yes, I do. Even though I only met you a few hours ago, I feel like I understand you perfectly.”

  He wasn’t sure whether this was a good or bad thing. “And how are you holding up, Lilly?”

  Moisture collected in her eyes and she took a sharp intake of breath. “I keep thinking about how close I came to death this morning. What would Astrid do without me? Who would look after her? It’s terrifying to think about what might happen.”

  He heard a quiver in her voice and realized that she was trembling, so he put both hands on her shoulders to comfort her.

  “You’ll get through this, I promise.”

  “I don’t want Astrid to see me scared,” she whispered, leaning into him, wafting a perfume of spiced vanilla. “Can you distract her for a couple minutes while I compose myself?”

  He gave one shoulder a squeeze and left her side.

  “Hi, Astrid,” he said, picking up her suitcase in the hallway. “You look nice.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I look like a norm.”

  “A norm?”

  “A norm is a normal person. A person like you.”

  “Oh, right.” This was awkward. “Thanks for the compliment.”

  She tugged at the sweatshirt. “I hate this stuff. I’m just glad that my friends can’t see me right now. I mean, who wears sneakers unless they’re running?”

  At that moment, Astrid reminded him so much of Chloe at the same age, obsessed with her image and the judgment of others. He had tried to placate his daughter at the time, tell her it didn’t matter what her friends might think, offer her an alternative viewpoint. He wasn’t going down that road again.

  “Plenty of people wear sneakers,” he said. “That’s the whole point. You need to look like everyone else, so I want to see you in sneakers all the time, okay?”

  She put one hand on a jutted-out hip. “Don’t you ever get tired of being right?”

  “Not usually.”

  Astrid’s gaze slid past his, toward the open door of the living room, and landed on her mother.

  “Is Mom okay?” she asked. “She looks nervous.”

  “She’s doing fine.” Lilly obviously had an astute appreciation of the danger they were facing, whereas Astrid had somehow managed to overlook the fact that a gunman fired a shot at them this morning. “She’s just worried about you.”

  Astrid’s expression softened. “Mom worries all the time, about lots of things. She worries about my grades and my confidence and my friends and my future. She never seems to worry about herself.”

  “That’s the life of a parent, Astrid,” he said. “Your mother’s job is to make sure you’re safe and secure all the time. Nobody in the world will ever love you like your parents.”

  Her softened expression now became hard again, eyes narrowing and lips pinching. “What do you know?” she said, turning her back on him. “You’re no expert.”

  While David stood in bewilderment, wondering what on earth he’d said to provoke such a reaction, Goldie came in through the front door and closed it behind her.

  “I’ve scoped out the street and the car,” she said. “It’s all clear.”

  She then clearly noticed Astrid leaning against the wall, stone-faced and silent, arms wrapped round her waist. The older woman immediately enveloped the teenager in a hug and whispered some words of comfort, assuming she was anxious about the risky situation. Goldie was a tough cookie on the outside but loving and warm inside, a trait that had come in handy numerous times when dealing with nervous clients, and David was thankful for it now.

  While Astrid was being soothed by Goldie, he approached Lilly.

  “I think I upset Astrid,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m not what sure what I said, but Goldie’s with her now so she’s doing fine.”

  “Did you mention her father?”

  “Ah.” Now it became clearer. “Not exactly, but I might have implied that both her parents love her.”

  Lilly lightly brushed his arm. “It’s not your fault. It’s a touchy subject. Astrid’s father hasn’t seen her in over two years and it upsets her that he doesn’t even try to make contact. She blames me for it. I wish I could make Rylan see what a beautiful daughter he has, but he never seems to listen.”

/>   David shook his head. How could a father sleep at night without checking that his little girl was secure and safe? How could a man be so weak and selfish? He felt a new level of respect for Lilly for stepping up and attempting to provide the stability that her daughter badly needed.

  “It’s tough being a single parent, huh?” he said.

  She rubbed her temples over the silky blond strands. “The toughest job in the world. Are you speaking from experience?”

  “My wife, Carla, died fifteen years ago, when our daughters were only six and ten years old. I raised them alone.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Lilly said with sincerity. “That must’ve been hard on all of you.”

  “It was,” he said, reminded of the dark days that had followed the loss of his wife, of the constant fear that he would not be able to fill a mother’s shoes. “It’s not easy being both mom and dad. There’s nobody to pass the baton to when you’re at the end of your rope.”

  “I hear you.”

  He dropped his voice. “Teenagers can be especially rebellious, and that’s when being a single parent really tests your character. You have to stand firm and be the boss.”

  “Is that what you did?”

  “That’s what I should’ve done.” The regrets never stopped tumbling through his mind. “And I just wanted to give you the benefit of my parenting experience.”

  “Thank you,” she said, skirting past him. “I’ll bear it in mind.”

  But he knew she wouldn’t. As she went to her daughter and hugged her tenderly, he saw that she was a parent who would struggle to implement the tough love approach. Astrid could pout and cry and get away with doing whatever she wanted, even if it meant going to a party with her drunk and reckless boyfriend. Just one small decision could wreak untold consequences.

  And Lilly had no idea of the terrible choices that a teenage mind could make.

  * * *

  “We’re leaving now,” Lilly said, removing one of her daughter’s earbuds. “You need to turn off your music and keep your wits about you.”