Deception Road

by Peggy Staggs

  Jack let my hand go and picked up his cookie, then set it back down. “It wasn’t her beauty that held my attention it was her gray eyes so full of warmth. Her genuine smile. It had a shy quality, as if she was in an unfamiliar world. She was the embodiment of everything good and wholesome. Long walks in the country, coffee on Saturday morning... God, I needed all the normal I could get. Ralph told me how hard she’d worked to get where she was and about her stubborn streak.” He smiled. “She is the most stubborn woman I’ve ever known. Do you think it’s possible to fall in love with a story and a photo?” He didn’t wait for my answer. “I didn’t until—” He pulled out his wallet and removed a picture in a worn photo sleeve. “Ralph gave me this that day. I don’t know why. A proud dad, I guess.” He handed me the picture. “Ever wonder why I was never around when she was here?”

  “I did. I thought it was odd; you being so close to Ralph and Stan.”

  “It wasn’t an accident.” He rubbed his chest where his ribs hurt. “She deserved more than I could give her then. More than I can give her now. Look what she went through yesterday.” He didn’t say anything for a time. “When I first got here, I was suffering from PTSD. Those girls, my men.... I was dealing with nightmares and depression. I couldn’t be with anyone. Hell, I was having a hard time being with me. The only things keeping me going were this photo, my job, and Lois. The night Ralph was murdered, I didn’t recognize her right away. She was covered with her dad’s blood. When I did.” He sipped his tea and moved his cookie around. I waited for him to go on. “I was afraid she’d be nothing more than a beautiful face in a picture. A fantasy. One I’d conjured up to stay sane. I was wrong. She is more than I—.” He glanced out the window at the winter cold. “I made a promise to myself a long time ago,” he paused. “I’d only get married once. It won’t happen now. I could never be with anyone else.”

  I saw something I never thought I would. Tears pooled in his eyes. “Aunt Jane, I don’t know how to go on without her.”

  I needed to put this right. “There’s an old woman who knows exactly what Don March told her.”

  His smile was weak as he asked, “Who is she?”

  “Don’t you get cute with me, Jack Trace.” I let it go. I told him word for word what the Boss had said me. “Some of it was real hard to make out, she was crying so hard.”

  He flinched as he took a deep breath. “Damn, March. That story is a lie.”

  “Are you going to tell me what happened over there?” I watched him over the rim of my cup.

  He nodded. “The girl they sent us to rescue had been—” again he fixed his eyes on the snow outside. “The poor kid had been raped so many times, she—” He dropped his head. “She ended up with God knows what and died six months later. Her parents couldn’t deal with her death. Her mother crawled into a bottle, and her father ate his gun. A whole family destroyed.” He paused. “Most of the rest of the girls are recovering. Some are doing better than others.”

  “And the one he said you murdered?”

  “I told myself it was part of the job. I might have found another way, made a better choice. She left me no option. She’d already put a bullet in me, and she’d aimed her weapon at one of the girls.”

  “What about all the money and such?”

  He studied his tea then said, “Some terrorist in Africa is living it up. When reinforcements arrived, I wasn’t going to risk one more life for a bag of rocks. The girls and my team were more important. You can replace cash. Those young people deserved a chance. Five of my men had given their lives so they would survive.” He looked from his cup to me. “If it hadn’t been for Ralph and Stan doing the right thing, the honorable thing, there’d be forty American bodies rotting in Africa right now.”

  “How do we put this right?” I knew one thing for sure, he wasn’t the kind of man who’d give up no matter how bad the odds were. He had to realize he sat at a crossroad with only one real choice.

  He gave me the saddest smile I’ve ever seen. “I’m not sure we can.”

  I turned away from the pain on his face and busied myself with more tea. “Jack Trace, you listen to me. She’ll be back. She left all her clothes and fancy shoes behind. The cats too. I know the girl’s heart after last night. She needs time, but she’ll figure out the most important part of her life is sitting right next to me.”

  He started to say something, but I didn’t let him.

  “You know it as well as I do.” I sighed. These two... “No matter what, she’ll be back to hear your side of the story. She is her father’s daughter.”

  “She already thinks she knows. I told her his version was the truth.”

  I gave out a loud sign this time. “Jack.” These two needed a road map. “You know as well as I do how smart she is. She’ll turn what Mr. CIA told her over and over in her head. She’ll talk to her friend Sophie, and she’ll figure out he lied to her. She already knows what kind of man he is.” I pointed my finger at him. “She knows what kind of man you are too. Now, then.” I looked him straight in the eye. “You have to decide how long you’re going to give her before you go back there and bring her home?”