“I ate so much junk when I was in the service and more active, but the life of a barista isn’t as physically demanding, so if I wanted to stay in shape, I had to change a little in how I ate,” he explained, reaching into the freezer to fill the glasses with ice and giving Ellie a glimpse of a small stash of ice cream in pints.
“Are you sure the healthy eating isn’t more about making room for your dessert addiction and less about staying healthy?”
Joe shut the door to the freezer quickly and grinned. “The ability to make wise trade-offs helps too.”
They talked through dinner, and Ellie felt herself relaxing for the first time in days. She didn’t want to admit it, but having Dr. Garrison on the loose and able to get close to her on multiple occasions, despite her security, was unnerving. Something about him capturing Pemberton because he’d threatened her made the circumstances different—at least in the short term. She knew better than to think she could always trust the mad scientist, but for now, he seemed to want her safe and healthy, so there was no reason to keep her guard up tonight.
After complimenting the meal, which was perfectly prepared, Joe once again mentioned his mother by pointing out it was all her doing. She’d had several daughters, but somehow when it came time to teach someone how to cook, it was usually just him and his mother in the kitchen. It got to the point that when she had to work late, Joe was the one asked to pitch hit in cooking dinner.
“She’d refer to me as her number two when food was involved,” he explained, triggering a memory of a dream Ellie had had several nights earlier.
“Hey,” Joe called out, waving his hand in front of her face when it seemed she’d zoned out. “Where’d you go?”
“I was just thinking of something my dad used to say,” she answered, combining his reference of her being his number two with the perfect ten spot where they used to talk in the tree at her mother’s house.
“Do you want to share?” he prompted when she was quiet for a while.
“How do you feel about climbing trees?” Ellie asked.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in them, if that’s what you’re asking,” he replied, not fully answering her question. “Why?”
“You know those journals of my dad’s that I keep trying to figure out?”
“Sure,” Joe answered. “You said they were in some kind of code you couldn’t decipher.”
“I think he put something in the tree in my mom’s backyard that will be helpful,” she explained, knowing it sounded farfetched. “He used to say that when he had something he didn’t want anyone to know about, he’d make a note in his journal that was based on a person and a place. I remember him calling me his number two, and we used to climb the tree in the backyard together when I needed to talk or he wanted to share something just between us, so we called that our ten spot.”
“Let me guess,” Joe interrupted. “The repeating notation in his journal is 210.”
“Exactly!” As she said it out loud, she began to get more excited about the possibility of finally understanding why her father wanted her to have those journals.
“So, you want to go now, at seven o’clock at night?”
Ellie glanced out the window and sighed at how ridiculous it was to go on a wild-goose chase after dark.
Joe stood up and began quickly pulling the dishes off the table. “Because if you do, I’ve got the perfect pack to carry that will have room for whatever you might find in that tree, and there’s a few flashlights and a night-vision scope in it too.”
“Night-vision?” she asked, realizing when he said he’d spent a lot of time in trees, it was probably waiting for a mark to appear when he was a sniper. She watched him wash the dishes, noticing the occasional view of his tattoo on his inner arm.
“Pays to be prepared for anything,” he answered, not commenting on how she was standing there watching him. “Should we warn your mother that we’re coming?”
“Are you sure you don’t mind such a big detour on our date?” Ellie asked, having some regrets of her own when she was faced with the reality of seeing her mother.
“I like adventure,” he said. “Besides, we’ll be outside, climbing a tree, which is kind of romantic, so even if we come up empty-handed, it’s a cool way to spend some time, right?”
“Are all the Phillips men romantics like you?” Ellie teased.
“There’s no one like me,” he replied with a mostly straight face.
She didn’t respond, but down deep, she knew it was true.
****
Janice flung the front door open before they could even ring the bell. Ellie realized Joe had been scanning the area when they got out of his truck, his eyes going between the car that had followed them from his house to the one that was here to watch her mother. Hoping she could ease whatever had him on edge, she explained that her mother had her own detail since Garrison had threatened to hurt her family, and Janice was the only direct relative she had now. His shoulders lowered as he admitted the addition of the second car had him concerned that the threat had somehow elevated.
“Look at you two,” Janice called out when they came onto the porch. “You’re sharing secrets like an old couple would.”
Ellie decided to let that one go as a kindness to her mother, allowing her to live in a fantasy where Ellie and Joe were an old couple. “Hey, Mom.”
“Let me take a look at you,” Janice replied, pulling back from their brief hug to examine her daughter. “Honestly, can’t you wear something with a little more color to work? You’re in the basement, for heaven’s sake. Would the Bureau collapse if an agent walked in with some red, or even a royal blue? Your coloring looks so good in bright colors.”
“It’s wonderful to see you again,” Joe interrupted Janice before she worked through the entire color wheel. “And your home is lovely,” he proclaimed, walking in when Janice took a step back.
Ellie marveled at how effortlessly Joe moved her mother to his will.
After they had come into the living room, Janice offered everyone drinks. Joe looked at Ellie, clearly deferring to what she wanted to do.
“Mom, if it’s okay with you, I just want to take a look in the backyard first. I’m not sure having a brandy is a good idea before climbing a tree.”
“I’m not sure why you have to climb that thing at all, much less at night, but I know better than to stop you, because it’s never worked when I’ve tried it before.” Janice turned on the lights to the backyard, but none of the spots were designed to illuminate the tree twenty feet off the patio.
Janice left them alone once they stepped out into the backyard. Ellie couldn’t remember her mother ever coming into the backyard, other than to host cocktails at a dinner party when Ellie was very young. The closest Janice ever came to enjoying the outdoors was attending Garden Club luncheons.
After the sliding door closed, Ellie took Joe’s hand and pulled him along to the tree where she often came as a girl to think. Slipping under the low branches, she pointed to the left side of the tree, indicating Joe should climb up that side. She didn’t think her father would care about Joe taking his side, and she didn’t like the idea of anyone following behind her. It was certainly cool outside, but she was so excited to be back in the tree that had often been her sanctuary that she hardly noticed her lack of a heavy jacket. Besides, the air was unusually still, with no breeze or sounds being passed along in the night.
Ellie didn’t need to look to know where to put her hands and feet. The tree had grown, and it had been years since she been here, but her body had done it enough to know the way by rote. After working up to her designated perch, she sat on the branch and faced the trunk of the tree.
“This is where I used to come when I needed to think,” she explained, figuring she owed Joe a few more details for why they were in a tree at night. “Dad had a way of knowing when I wanted company and when I just needed to be here by myself.”
She could see his silhouette moving as his hands ran over th
e trunk of the tree. “It’s okay to sit,” she encouraged.
“Thanks, but it feels…sacred somehow,” Joe spoke quietly. “How often did you come here?”
“Anytime I needed to get away from my mother or had something I needed to work through. When there were big decisions or things I couldn’t understand.”
“So, a lot,” he summed up. “When were you here last?”
“Right after Dad died.” She rubbed her chest where a hollow feeling appeared when she admitted that.
“Did you see anything unusual in the tree then?” Joe asked, keeping her from getting lost in her memories.
“No, but I didn’t look for anything either. I was…” Ellie didn’t know how to explain what she’d been like that day. She was lost, a blubbering mess who didn’t understand how the most important person in her world could be gone.
While she was in her mind reliving that day and trying to come up with words that would do it justice without making her sound like an idiot, Joe moved around to her side of the tree, standing on a branch below Ellie’s perch, putting them eye to eye, with Joe’s hands on her lower back, using her to steady his stance. “You were grieving,” he summed it up for her.
“How is it being back here today?” he asked, as though he somehow knew it was still hard. That coming back to this place made her father feel real again.
“With you here, it’s easier than I thought it would be,” Ellie told him. “I think he would have liked you.”
“I hope so,” Joe whispered.
“Why?” Ellie didn’t understand why her father’s opinion mattered now.
“Because if he were here, I would do this right and tell him that I think he had the most amazing daughter and that, with his permission, I’d like to date her.”
“Do people still say things like that?” Ellie teased, knowing the old traditions didn’t matter as they once had.
Joe shrugged. “What do you think he would have said?”
At that moment, a light breeze began to blow, and Ellie could have sworn she’d heard it whisper yes. It faded nearly as quickly as it had begun.
“I think he’d say it’s up to me.” She decided not to ask Joe if he’d heard anything and risk sounding unstable if she was the only one hearing voices in the wind.
“And what do you say?” Joe asked, looking down at her lips before quickly glancing back up to look her in the eye.
Ellie felt the tension between them begin to grow and leaned forward slightly, wanting to finally see what it was like to give into what had been building between them but hesitant to lose the tension of this moment. Joe met her partway when she leaned to him but didn’t seem to be in much hurry either.
Finally, it was Ellie who couldn’t take the pressure anymore, so she broke the silence. “I’d say yes.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Joe moved ever so slowly to bridge the remaining distance between them. He tilted his head slightly to the right and hovered with only an inch separating their lips. Just as she was about to ask what he was waiting for, Joe touched his lips to hers, softly at first, as though asking permission and not wanting to frighten her. The sparks she had once thought she felt between them when they’d been close were nothing compared to the sensation of having his lips on her and his arms wrapped around her. If this hadn’t been her favorite place before, it certainly would be now.
Joe pulled back as slowly as he’d first moved to her, and Ellie missed the contact as soon as they broke apart. There was nothing she could do to stop the smile from her face, and the moment he saw her expression, he grinned just as boldly.
Ellie had never minded silence, but for some reason, the quiet of the moment made her feel just nervous enough to try and fill it in by saying something awkward. She put her hands on his chest, taking a second to marvel at how well-sculpted it was before remarking, “It took us a while to do that.”
Joe leaned forward once more and nodded. “We’ve got some lost time to make up for, then.”
It took them twice as long to find the will to pull apart again.
“Not that I’m complaining, but weren’t we here to look for something?”
Ellie couldn’t believe she’d forgotten about the purpose for coming to her mother’s house. She swung her head to the right, looking for anything that might resemble a clue from her father.
“Hey,” Joe called softly, getting her attention once more. “I’m not asking to complain, but the sooner we find the connection to the journals, the sooner we might be able to return to my house for some ice cream.”
“Is ice cream all you want?” Ellie teased as Joe placed a soft kiss to her forehead.
He seemed to find her question amusing, based on the quiet laugh. “No, but it’s all I’m admitting to in the place where you probably feel closest to your father.”
Understanding his reasoning and not eager to spend any more time in Janice’s backyard than necessary, she agreed and began to look around for anything that could fit the bill of a tool to help her understand her father’s journals.
They each took a penlight and looked all over the limbs and trunk of the tree, but Ellie had to admit there was nothing there other than the signs of nature. She hated to admit defeat, but there was nothing else to do. Overwhelming sadness came over her when she realized there was no clue from her father here. As long as she was gathering evidence or connecting through this files and journals, he seemed more alive. Hitting a dead end felt final, and Ellie feared it was the reality for her that she had received everything she ever would from her father and she wasn’t smart enough to figure it out.
Before she could vocalize her decision to stop looking, Janice’s voice called out from the back door. “I’m not sure what you’re searching for, but I would have figured you’d dig up whatever it was he buried at the base of that tree, where the root is you continually tripped over when you were little.”
“Mom!” Ellie yelled. “You knew Dad left something for me in the backyard, and you didn’t think to tell me?”
“He told me not to,” Janice explained. “He said when the time was right, you’d find it yourself.”
Ellie and Joe made their way quickly down the branches to the ground below. “I don’t suppose you have a field shovel in that pack, do you?” she asked jokingly.
“I’ve got this…” He lifted a small spade and grinned. “Told you I was prepared.”
“Just for that, you can dig first,” Ellie countered, exhilarated by the renewed sense of being close to a discovery.
She found the root her mother had spoken of and guessed the flat area of dirt between that and the next root would be where her father had left something for her. Joe began by pushing the straw and clippings away with his hands and then carefully began to dig, using the side of the spade instead of the point at the end. Ellie assumed he was trying to preserve whatever might be hidden there.
Kneeling down to angle the light so that she could see better, she heard the sound of the spade hitting something before she could ask if she could help. They shared a grin as Joe spun the handle around so that she could take it and finish unearthing whatever was there.
Ellie dropped the tool and resorted to using her hands to remove the last of the soil from the top of a metal box before she lifted it up where they could both see.
“Do you want a minute by yourself?” Joe asked, seeming to understand this could be a very personal moment for her.
“You helped me find it, so you should get to see whatever it is,” Ellie assured him, not wanting him to leave after joining her on this much of the adventure together. After spending so much time alone, she was excited to have someone to share whatever they had found.
Brushing off the box, she realized it was an old metal lunch box with Charlie’s Angels on the front. “This used to be mine,” she said to explain her sudden nostalgia at looking at the long wavy hair of the women on the front.
“It suits you,” Joe replied, moving closer to her side and puttin
g his hand on Ellie’s shoulder so that she could lean against him.
Slowly, she lifted the lid of the box, trying to keep any dirt from falling inside. Joe moved the flashlight to better illuminate the contents. Inside were hundreds of pieces of paper, all with her father’s handwriting on them, listing dates with shorthand meeting details, including names and topics discussed. A few had file numbers inked on the bottom as well. As she flipped through the pieces of paper, some of the numbers began to repeat, and she knew that those exact files were hidden in a box in the back of her linen closet.
“For a man who didn’t want you to pick up his investigation where he left off, he certainly gave you a lot of clues to ignore,” Joe said, expressing a thought similar to what she’d been thinking.
Realizing there was more to this discovery than she could dig through on the ground at night, she pushed the paper aside and found a picture of her with her father, when she was around eight. Her hair looked remarkably like one of the women on the front of the box, and she was holding a trophy from field day at her elementary school.
“I remember this day,” Ellie said, touching her father’s face through the glass. “I’d won the trophy because there was a long obstacle course as the last event and it had several difficult sections to get through. Most of the kids gave up part of the way through, but I refused to stop. After I crossed the finish line, Dad pulled me aside and told me he knew I’d win. When I asked how he could be so sure, he told me it was because he knew I wouldn’t quit halfway through and the moment I started, he knew I’d cross the finish line too.”
“Do you still think he wants you to stay out of whatever his final case was?” Joe asked.
Ellie thought it through. Her father had been clear that it wouldn’t be safe to try to finish what he started, but everything else he’d done had been leading her to this moment. “I don’t know if he wanted me to finish it, but if I got this far, I don’t think he expected me to walk away either.”
“Do you mind me walking along some of it with you?” Joe asked, leaning against her more closely.
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