His mother answered, and I had to clear my throat before my voice would work. “Hi, Gladys, it’s Aydan. How are you? Recovered from the party yet?”
She laughed. “No recovery required. It’s easy being the groom’s parents. It’s such a nice change from marrying off girls!”
“That’s great,” I said absently. “Um, I have a quick question for you. There was a guy at the shower that you wouldn’t have known, but I noticed him talking to you…”
“Oh, yes. I can’t remember his name, though. He seemed very nice, but a little absent-minded. Why, is there a problem?”
I cleared my dry throat again. “No, no problem. I just didn’t manage to connect with him before I left. He’s sometimes a little pushy about his investment business so I was just calling to apologize. I hope he didn’t bother you.”
“No, of course not! We actually had quite a nice chat once we’d straightened out your name.” She giggled.
“Um… what do you mean?”
“Oh, it was funny! He asked if I was a friend of Arlene’s, and of course I had no idea who he was talking about. I said so, and when he pointed you out I realized he’d misspoken. When I told him he’d said Arlene instead of Aydan, he laughed and laughed. He’d just come straight from his office where he’d been talking with another client whose name was Arlene, and he said you’d never let him hear the end of it when you found out he’d mixed up your names. He was quite charming.”
An icy band of sickness tightened around my stomach. Arlene Widdenback. My cover identity.
I was so screwed.
I forced a laugh. “I’ll be sure to give him a hard time when I see him again. Well, I’d better let you go. I just wanted to make sure he hadn’t been a pain. Lola said he was glad-handing everybody.”
“No, not at all. He was very nice.”
I said my goodbyes and pressed the disconnect button before tottering over to the kitchen drawer to fumble out a secured phone.
Stemp answered on the first ring, as always.
“It’s Aydan,” I said, fighting the quiver of nerves in my voice. “I’ve just had a note from one of Nicholas Parr’s friends. He showed up at the wedding shower at my place on Saturday looking for Arlene Widdenback…” I trailed off, suddenly realizing Stemp hadn’t attended. Had he declined an invitation? Or had Spider deliberately excluded him?
Irrelevant. I shook myself back to the issue at hand and went on, “…but I left before he could introduce himself.” I read the note to Stemp and described my conversations with Lola and Gladys.
After a brief pause, he said, “This sounds promising. I wonder whether it’s arms smuggling or money laundering.”
‘Promising’ wasn’t the word I would have used. More like ‘fucking terrifying’. I didn’t trust my voice, so I mumbled a non-committal ‘hmm’ and waited for him to continue.
“Excellent,” Stemp said with satisfaction. “I was wondering how long it would take for Parr’s former associates to come looking for Arlene Widdenback the arms dealer. We took the backbone out of Fuzzy Bunny; now it’s time to gut the rest of their network. I’ll assign analysts to run Frederick Labelle through the system right away, and they should have a preliminary report for you by tomorrow morning. I’ll leave it up to you as to when you return his call.”
Fear paralyzed me. My heart barely quivered in my chest, as if afraid a solid beat would shatter me into pieces. Betrayal curdled my stomach.
All this time I’d been slowly convincing myself I was safe, and Stemp had been using me for bait.
His voice jolted me. “Anything else?”
“No,” I croaked.
When the line went dead in my ear with Stemp’s usual abruptness I let my hand fall to the table, closely followed by my forehead.
Oh, God, not again.
Four damn months of therapy and unrelenting mental effort, and I was just getting back to almost-normal. I couldn’t do this. I’d quit, and to hell with Frederick Labelle and all the rest of them.
If only Stemp would let me keep my gun…
My whole body felt weak and tremulous. Dragging myself up from the table, I tottered to the fridge and ate some cold leftovers without tasting them. After my makeshift supper I picked up the phone, still feeling shaky.
Spider picked up on the second ring, his ‘hello’ sounding as cheerful as ever.
“Spider! How are you?” I demanded. “Are you okay?”
He laughed. “I’m fine. I don’t have a life-threatening allergy to alcohol or anything, I just get really red in the face and really drunk. They checked me out at the hospital and sent me home to sleep it off.”
“Thank God,” I said. “Do you know who spiked your drink?”
“Tim says it was Tyler Brock, but I don’t know. Tim gets a little… over the top sometimes. Anyway, it was no big deal, but I’m sorry it spoiled the party for everybody.” His voice went serious. “Lola said Kane had a family emergency and you guys rushed away. What happened? Is… Did somebody… die?”
“No…” I hesitated. “At least I hope not…” I took a deep breath and told him the whole story.
“Oh, Aydan,” he said when I was finished, his voice quivering in sympathy. “That’s horrible. How can I help?”
“I don’t think there’s anything you can do right now, but I’ll let you know if I think of anything. I’d better get off the phone now in case they’re trying to call.” I summoned a cheerful tone. “I’m glad you’re okay, anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow… oh. No, I guess I won’t,” I amended. “I forgot you’re on vacation until after your wedding. Are you getting excited? All ready for the big day?”
“I’m so excited I can hardly sleep,” Spider blurted, then gave a self-conscious chuckle. “I guess that’s a little silly. I mean, we’ve been living together for months, but… but…” A laugh burst out of him, so full of joy that I smiled despite my worries. “…I can hardly believe I’ll be married to the love of my life on Saturday! And we’ll be together for the rest of our lives. I just… I feel like a kid with Christmas coming. Only this is so much better because I already know how good my gift is!”
“I’m so happy for you and Linda,” I said, my heart warming. “I feel as though Christmas is coming this weekend, too.”
“Thanks, Aydan. It’s going to mean a lot to us to have you there to help us celebrate. And maybe…” The smile went out of his voice. “Maybe Kane will have some good news by then, too. I really hope so.”
“Yeah. Me, too. Hey, Spider, one more thing. Do you remember talking to a Frederick Labelle at the party?”
“No, should I?”
“No, probably not,” I reassured him. “I think he came late, at the same time as Brock…” I trailed off, struck by a sudden thought.
Did that mean anything?
No, it couldn’t. Brock had almost as high a security clearance as Spider. He couldn’t be in cahoots with any friend of Nicholas Parr’s…
“Aydan? Are you still there?” Spider’s voice brought me back to the present.
“Yeah. Sorry, I zoned out for a second there. I’d better hang up before I fall asleep on my feet.”
He laughed. “You’ve had a busy couple of days! Get some rest, and thanks again for hosting our party. ‘Bye!”
I hung up and stood irresolutely beside the phone for a few moments. No point in trying to call Kane or Hellhound. Hellhound would still be driving, and Kane would be beyond cellphone range out in the woods.
Nothing to do but wait.
Chapter 11
When my phone finally rang at ten-thirty in the evening, I pounced on it.
“Hey, darlin’.” Arnie’s characteristic rasp sounded weary.
“Hi.” I swallowed. “Anything new?”
“Nah.” Defeat flattened his voice. “Search parties are in for the night. They can’t risk ‘em in that rough terrain in the dark. John an’ I came in, too, but John’s already headed out again, an’ I’m gonna follow him right after I get off the phone. We�
��ll keep lookin’ through the night ‘til the regular search teams start up again in the mornin’.”
“Oh.” I gulped at the lump in my throat. The urge to try to convince them to quit for the night was strong, but I knew it was futile. They’d be going out with their high-tech infrared and night-vision equipment.
“John figures we’ll have a better chance of findin’ him at night,” Hellhound said into our momentary silence. “I… Hell, I’m just hopin’ we’re still lookin’ for somethin’ that’ll show up on infrared.”
My stomach clenched at the thought of a small lifeless body lying cold and alone in the woods. “Me, too,” I choked. “I’m hoping with everything I have. Good luck. Stay alert and take care of each other. Watch out for bears and cougars, and take lots of water-”
Hellhound interrupted gently, “We’ve done this a time or two before, darlin’. An’ this time at least nobody’s shootin’ at us. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”
“I know you will.” I sighed. “Just… I just wish I was there.”
“Wish ya were, too. Gotta go. Get some sleep, darlin’. ‘Bye.”
“’Bye,” I echoed, and lowered the handset slowly.
I slept uneasily, half-expecting the ring of the telephone at any moment. When my alarm sounded at six-thirty I opened my eyes to red rays of early sunshine fingering through the slats of my blinds and a stubbornly silent phone.
Sighing, I dragged myself out of bed. Halfway to the bathroom the phone rang and I nearly leaped out of my skin, pivoting in midair to dive across the bed and snatch it up.
Kane’s tired voice answered my breathless hello.
“Good morning, Aydan. I hope I didn’t wake you. Hellhound said you usually get up at six-thirty.”
“I was up,” I said hurriedly. “Did you… um… how did it go?”
His discouraged exhalation told the story, but his voice was level when he said, “We didn’t find any trace. Considering how far we searched last night, along with the area the other searchers covered yesterday, I’m beginning to doubt that we’re looking in the right place. I’ve called in all the favours anybody ever owed me to get more resources on this search, but… he… he’s only six. He couldn’t have gone that far…” His voice wavered, and he took a breath. When he spoke again his voice was a hoarse rasp. “They’re bringing in cadaver dogs to search downstream today.”
Sickness closed around my heart. Please God, don’t let them find anything…
“Maybe it’s good news that you haven’t found him,” I blurted, grasping at straws. “Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place entirely. Maybe… maybe… some Good Samaritan found him and they don’t have a cell phone and their car broke down…” My improbable fabrication wasn’t helping. “He’s okay somewhere, I just know it,” I finished lamely, trying to sound positive.
Kane drew a deep breath. “That’s what Alicia says, too. She says she’d know if he’d died. That she’d feel it somehow.”
“There, see?” I encouraged.
“That’s unrealistic, Aydan, and you know it. A six-year-old alone in the wilderness for nearly forty-eight hours? They aren’t looking for Daniel anymore. They’re looking for his body, and that may never be found. It could be pinned under a log in the river, or dragged off by a wild animal…” His voice went husky and I knew he was fighting for control. “Soon they’ll call off the search.”
I clenched my fists, the pain in his voice wringing tears from my eyes.
“There’s got to be something we’ve missed,” I choked. “This just doesn’t make sense. There must be more to it. Maybe Murphy wasn’t alone. Maybe…”
I shut up, realizing that the thought of Daniel being taken by a stranger wasn’t much more comforting than the thought of him lost in the wilderness.
Kane let out a breath. “I don’t know whether to hope for that or not,” he said, voicing my own thoughts. “But there’s no evidence to support it. I got an updated report from Mayweather. There were other boot prints at the site, but Murphy’s overlaid all of them so they were likely from a previous camper. Forensics discovered droplets of Murphy’s blood on the toe of his boot, but any minor injury could have caused that. And there was a partial footprint in a patch of soft ground a few yards away from Murphy’s campsite. It was leading away from the site, and the imprint was from someone in sock feet.”
“From Murphy running around without his boots,” I put in.
“Probably,” Kane confirmed dispiritedly. “It was his size.”
I swallowed hard and held my voice level. “There’s more to this, I know it. Why don’t you get some sleep…”
“No, I need to-”
“You need to sleep now,” I interrupted. “You’ve been up far too long. You’re no help to anyone when you’re this tired.” He began to protest, but I overrode him. “John, you know I’m right. Find a doctor to prescribe a sleeping pill if you need to, but get some sleep. Now put Arnie on.”
Kane grumbled, but a few moments later Hellhound’s tired rasp tickled my eardrum. “Hey, darlin’.”
“Hi, Arnie. I know you’re exhausted so I won’t keep you. Just make sure you wrestle John into bed and hit him with a rubber hammer if you have to. And then go to bed yourself.”
“Thanks, darlin’, I will. I’ll call ya this afternoon an’ let ya know what’s happenin’.”
We said our goodbyes and hung up, and I trailed gloomily into the bathroom. Shampooing without my usual vigour, I reluctantly contemplated what would happen if Daniel was found dead. Or never found.
What would Kane do? It had taken four months for him to recover from the trauma of his last mission. Could he ever recover from losing the son he’d so desperately wanted?
And did he even realize what he’d done by quitting the Department? His military and law enforcement career had been his entire life, and now he’d thrown it all away…
I blinked, realizing I’d been staring blankly at the shower wall for several minutes.
Slowly reaching for my conditioner, I considered for the first time what Kane’s snap decision would mean to me. He and Spider and I had fallen into a comfortable and efficient routine of decryption and investigation. Who would take his place?
My throat tightened. Nobody could ever take his place.
I shoved my face into the hot spray.
When I walked into the lobby of Sirius Dynamics an hour later, it was an effort to summon my usual smile and banter while the security guard signed me in.
Wandering up the stairs to my office, I dropped into my desk chair and stared at the opposite wall. What the hell was I supposed to do? With my team gone, I couldn’t even use the top-secret network key that allowed me to eavesdrop on every digital communication in the world.
I blew out a breath. Well, I could use it. I could go down and collect it from Spider’s lab in the secured area, and there was nothing stopping me from slipping into the data tunnels of the internet without backup. I hadn’t needed Kane to rescue me from the virtual reality network for months, so theoretically I should be safe.
But it had been really good to know he was there if I needed him…
I shook myself and focused on the computer screen in front of me. Surely the analysts would have a report on Frederick Labelle by now.
My email screen popped up and I let out a breath. A nine AM meeting request from Stemp. At least I only had forty-five minutes to kill.
Forty-five minutes to wonder whether he’d assigned me a new team now that Kane had quit.
Or…
Oh, God. Maybe he expected me to take over Kane’s role as a field agent.
Oh, shit.
By the time I walked into Stemp’s office on the dot of nine AM, my palms were moist and my throat was dry. He greeted me pleasantly, and I managed an almost-normal-sounding ‘good morning’ in return.
“Please, sit.” He indicated the guest chair in front of his desk. “Do you have Kane’s weapon?”
I nodded and lowered myself into the ch
air, feigning relaxation.
“Thank you,” he said. “Please return it to Stores.”
“He could really use it right now,” I said, trying not to sound accusing. “He’s out in the wilderness, and there are bears and cougars…”
I trailed off as Stemp nodded. “Yes. It was unfortunate that he quit.”
“Well, you pretty much forced him to,” I snapped. “What did you think he was going to do? Say ‘yes, sir’ and abandon a child he’s always wanted but never knew he had?”
“I was hoping he’d retain enough professional detachment to step away from the investigation.” Stemp sighed. “I had planned to place him on personal leave, but I wasn’t surprised that he quit. It wasn’t my ideal scenario, but it’s likely best for him in the long run.”
“What the… Best for him?” I stared at him, anger boiling up in my chest. “How the hell do you figure it’s ‘best for him’ to force him to choose between his child and his career?”
Stemp studied me with his usual reptilian composure. “I wasn’t certain that he hadn’t already.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I’ve known about Daniel Wyatt Kane since he was born. The ex-Mrs. Kane made no attempt to conceal his existence. His birth and parentage were duly registered. She remained in the family home. The most cursory check would have revealed all of this to Kane. Since he never mentioned a child, I assumed he had reason to pretend the child didn’t exist. Since the ex-Mrs. Kane never traced Kane’s employment here to demand child support, I surmised he was providing support through discreet channels.”
Stemp raised one shoulder a fraction of an inch in what served him for an eloquent shrug. “In our line of work, concealing a child’s existence to protect the child is not an unreasonable act.”
I gaped open-mouthed, my anger draining away. Of course he would have assumed Kane was concealing his relationship to Daniel. Stemp was doing exactly the same thing with his young daughter overseas.
He spoke into the silence. “Returning to your original question regarding Kane’s resignation… under these circumstances, the scope of action available to Kane as an agent and a military officer is… quite restricted. However, as a civilian…” Stemp shrugged again, meeting my gaze meaningfully without completing the sentence.
The Spies That Bind Page 9