by Harlan Coben
Just like that. Adam laid down the stick and pads and mask and said he was done.
Was that where it began?
Was that the first sign of his decline, his withdrawal? Mike tried to rise above his son's decision, tried not to be like so many pushy parents who seemed to equate athletic skill with life success, but the truth was, the quitting had hit Mike hard.
But it had hit Tia harder.
"We are losing him," she said.
Mike wasn't as sure. Adam had suffered an immense tragedy--the suicide of a friend--and sure, he was working out some adolescent angst. He was moody and quiet. He spent all his time in this room, mostly on this wretched computer, playing fantasy games or instant-messaging or who knew what. But wasn't that true of most teenagers? He barely spoke to them, responding rarely, and when he did, with grunts. But again--was that so abnormal?
It was her idea, this surveillance. Tia was a criminal attorney with Burton and Crimstein in Manhattan. One of the cases she'd worked on involved a money launderer named Pale Haley. Haley had been nailed by the FBI when they'd eavesdropped on his Internet correspondences.
Brett, the installer, was the tech guy at Tia's law firm. Mike stared now at Brett's dirty fingernails. The fingernails were touching Adam's keyboard. That's what Mike kept thinking. This guy with these disgusting nails was in their son's room and he was having his way with Adam's most prized possession.
"Be done in a second," Brett said.
Mike had visited the E-SpyRight Web site and seen the first inducement in big, bold letters:
ARE YOUR CHILDREN BEING APPROACHED
BY CHILD MOLESTERS?
ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES STEALING FROM YOU?
and then, in even bigger and bolder letters, the argument that sold Tia:
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW!
The site listed testimonials:
"Your product saved my daughter from this parent's worst nightmare-- a sexual predator! Thanks, E-SpyRight!"
Bob--Denver, CO
"I found out my most trusted employee was stealing from our office. I couldn't have done it without your software!"
Kevin--Boston, MA
Mike had resisted.
"He's our son," Tia had said.
"I know that. Don't you think I know that?"
"Aren't you concerned?"
"Of course I'm concerned. But."
"But what? We're his parents." And then, as though rereading the ad, she said, "We have the right to know."
"We have the right to invade his privacy?"
"To protect him? Yes. He's our son."
Mike shook his head.
"We not only have the right," Tia said, stepping closer to him. "We have the responsibility."
"Did your parents know everything you did?"
"No."
"How about everything you thought? Every conversation with a friend?"
"No."
"That's what we're talking about here."
"Think about Spencer Hill's parents," she countered.
That stunned him into silence. They looked at each other.
She said, "If they could do it over again, if Betsy and Ron had Spencer back--"
"You can't do that, Tia."
"No, listen to me. If they had to do it over again, if Spencer was alive, don't you think they'd wish they'd kept a closer eye on him?"
Spencer Hill, a classmate of Adam's, had committed suicide four months ago. It had been devastating, of course, hitting Adam and his classmates hard. Mike reminded Tia of that fact.
"Don't you think that explains Adam's behavior?"
"Spencer's suicide?"
"Of course."
"To a point, yes. But you know he was already changing. That just sped things up."
"So maybe if we give him more room..."
"No," Tia said, her tone cutting off any debate. "That tragedy may make Adam's behavior more understandable--but it doesn't make it less dangerous. If anything, it's just the opposite."
Mike thought about that. "We should tell him," he said.
"What?"
"Tell Adam we're monitoring his online behavior."
She made a face. "What's the point in that?"
"So he knows he's being watched."
"This isn't like putting a cop on your tail so you don't speed."
"It's exactly like that."
"He'll just do whatever it is he's doing at a friend's house or use an Internet cafe or something."
"So? You have to let him know. Adam puts his private thoughts on that computer."
Tia took a step closer to him and put a hand on his chest. Even now, even after all these years, her touch still had an effect on him. "He's in trouble, Mike," she said. "Don't you see that? Your son is in trouble. He might be drinking or doing drugs or who knows what. Stop burying your head in the sand."
"I'm not burying my head anywhere."
Her voice was almost a plea. "You want the easy way out. You're hoping, what, that Adam will just outgrow this?"
"That's not what I'm saying. But think about it. This is new technology. He puts his secret thoughts and emotions down there. Would you have wanted your parents to know all that about you?"
"It's a different world now," Tia said.
"You sure about that?"
"What's the harm? We're his parents. We want what's best for him."
Mike shook his head again. "You don't want to know a person's every thought," he said. "Some things should remain private."
She took her hand off him. "You mean, a secret?"
"Yes."
"Are you saying that a person is entitled to their secrets?"
"Of course they are."
She looked at him then, in a funny way, and he didn't much like it.
"Do you have secrets?" she asked him.
"That's not what I meant."
"Do you have secrets from me?" Tia asked again.
"No. But I don't want you to know my every thought either."
"And I don't want you to know mine."
They both stopped, on that line, before she stepped back.
"But if it's a choice of protecting my son or giving him his privacy," Tia said, "I'm going to protect him."
The discussion--Mike didn't want to classify it as an argument-- lasted for a month. Mike tried to coax his son back to them. He invited Adam to the mall, the arcade, concerts even. Adam refused. He stayed out of the house until all hours, curfews be damned. He stopped coming down to eat dinner. His grades slipped. They managed to get him to visit a therapist once. The therapist thought that there might be depression issues. He suggested perhaps medication, but he wanted to see Adam again first. Adam pointedly refused.
When they insisted that he go back to the therapist, Adam ran away for two days. He wouldn't answer his mobile phone. Mike and Tia were frantic. It ended up that he'd just been hiding at a friend's house.
"We're losing him," Tia had argued again.
And Mike said nothing.
"In the end, we're just their caretakers, Mike. We get them for a little while and then they live their lives. I just want him to stay alive and healthy until we let him go. The rest will be up to him."
Mike nodded. "Okay, then."
"You sure?" she said.
"No."
"Neither am I. But I keep thinking about Spencer Hill."
He nodded again.
"Mike?"
He looked at her. She gave him the crooked smile, the one he'd first seen on a cold autumn day at Dartmouth. That smile had cork-screwed into his heart and stayed there.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you too."
And with that they agreed to spy on their oldest child.
Chapter 3.
THERE had been no truly damaging or insightful instant message or e-mail at first. But that changed in a big way three weeks later.
The intercom in Tia's cubicle buzzed.
A brash voice said, "My office now."
It was Hester Crimst
ein, the big boss at her law firm. Hester always buzzed her underlings herself, never had her assistant do it. And she always sounded a little pissed off, as though you should have already known that she wanted to see you and magically materialized without her having to waste time with the intercom.
Six months ago, Tia had gone back to work as an attorney for the law firm of Burton and Crimstein. Burton had died years ago. Crimstein, the famed and much-feared lawyer Hester Crimstein, was very much alive and in charge. She was known internationally as an expert on all things criminal and even hosted her own show on truTV with the clever moniker Crimstein on Crime .
Hester Crimstein snapped--her voice was always a snap--through the intercom, "Tia?"
"I'm on my way."
She jammed the E-SpyRight report into her top drawer and started down the row with the glass-enclosed offices on one side, the ones for the senior partners with the bright sunshine, and the airless cubicles on the other. Burton and Crimstein had a total caste system with one ruling entity. There were senior partners, sure, but Hester Crimstein would not allow any of them to add their name to the masthead.
Tia reached the spacious corner office suite. Hester's assistant barely glanced up when she walked by. Hester's door was open. It usually was. Tia stopped and knocked on the wall next to the door.
Hester walked back and forth. She was a small woman, but she didn't look small. She looked compact and powerful and sort of dangerous. She didn't pace, Tia thought, so much as stalk. She gave off heat, a sense of power.
"I need you to take a deposition in Boston on Saturday," she said without preamble.
Tia stepped into the room. Hester's hair was always frizzy, a sort of bottled off-blond. She somehow gave you the sense that she was harried and yet totally together. Some people command your atten- tion--Hester Crimstein actually seemed to take you by the lapels and shake you and make you stare into her eyes.
"Sure, no problem," Tia said. "Which case?"
"Beck."
Tia knew it.
"Here's the file. Bring that computer expert with you. The guy with the awful posture and the nightmare-inducing tattoos."
"Brett," Tia said.
"Right, him. I want to go through the guy's personal computer."
Hester handed it to her and resumed her pacing.
Tia glanced at it. "This is the witness at the bar, right?"
"Exactly. Fly up tomorrow. Go home and study."
"Okay, no problem."
Hester stopped pacing. "Tia?"
Tia had been paging through the file. She was trying to keep her mind on the case, on Beck and this deposition and the chance to go to Boston. But that damn E-SpyRight report kept barging in. She looked at her boss.
"Something on your mind?" Hester asked.
"Just this deposition."
Hester frowned. "Good. Because this guy is a lying sack of donkey dung. You understand me?"
"Donkey dung," Tia repeated.
"Right. He definitely didn't see what he says he saw. Couldn't have. You got me?"
"And you want me to prove that?"
"No."
"No?"
"Just the opposite, in fact."
Tia frowned. "I'm not following. You don't want me to prove that he's a lying sack of donkey dung?"
"Exactly."
Tia gave a small shrug. "Care to elaborate?"
"I'd be delighted. I want you to sit there and nod sweetly and ask a million questions. I want you to wear something formfitting and maybe even low cut. I want you to smile at him as though you're on a first date and you're finding everything he says fascinating. There is to be no skepticism in your tone. Every word he says is the gospel truth."
Tia nodded. "You want him to talk freely."
"Yes."
"You want it all on the record. His entire story."
"Yes again."
"So you can nail his sorry ass later in court."
Hester arched an eyebrow. "And with the famed Crimstein panache."
"Okay," Tia said. "Got it."
"I'm going to serve up his balls for breakfast. Your job, to keep within this metaphor, is to do the grocery shopping. Can you handle that?"
That report from Adam's computer--how should she handle it? Get in touch with Mike, for one. Sit down, hash through it, figure their next best step...
"Tia?"
"I can handle it, yes."
Hester stopped pacing. She took a step toward Tia. She was at least six inches shorter, but again it didn't feel that way to Tia. "Do you know why I picked you for this task?"
"Because I'm a Columbia Law School grad, a damn fine attorney, and in the six months I've been here, you've barely given me work that would challenge a rhesus monkey?"
"Nope."
"Why, then?"
"Because you're old."
Tia looked at her.
"Not that way. I mean, what are you, mid-forties? I have at least ten years on you. I mean the rest of my junior lawyers are babies. They'll want to look like heroes. They'll think they can prove themselves."
"And I won't?"
Hester shrugged. "You do, you're out."
Nothing to say to that so Tia kept her mouth closed. She lowered her head and looked at the file, but her mind kept wrestling her back to her son, to his damn computer, to that report.
Hester waited a beat. She gave Tia the stare that had made many a witness crack. Tia met it, tried not to feel it. "Why did you choose this firm?" Hester asked.
"Truth?"
"Preferably."
"Because of you," Tia said.
"Should I be flattered?"
Tia shrugged. "You asked for the truth. The truth is, I've always admired your work."
Hester smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm the balls."
Tia waited.
"But why else?"
"That's pretty much it," Tia said.
Hester shook her head. "There's more."
"I'm not following."
Hester sat down at her desk chair. She signaled for Tia to do the same. "You want me to elaborate again?"
"Okay."
"You chose this firm because it is run by a feminist. You figured that I'd understand why you'd take years off to raise your kids."
Tia said nothing.
"That about right?"
"To some degree."
"But see, feminism isn't about helping a fellow sister. It's about an equal playing field. It's about giving women choices, not guarantees."
Tia waited.
"You chose motherhood. That shouldn't punish you. But it shouldn't make you special either. You lost those years in terms of work. You got out of line. You don't just get to cut back in. Equal playing field. So if a guy took off work to raise his kids, he'd be treated the same. You see?"
Tia made a noncommittal gesture.
"You said you admire my work," Hester went on.
"Yes."
"I chose not to have a family. Do you admire that?"
"I don't think it's a question of admiration or not."
"Precisely. And it's the same with your choice. I chose career. I didn't get out of that line. So law-career-wise, I'm in the front now. But at the end of the day, I don't get to go home to the handsome doctor and the picket fence and the two-point-four kids. You understand what I'm saying?"
"I do."
"Wonderful." Hester's nostrils flared as she turned the famed glare up a notch. "So when you're sitting in this office--in myoffice--your thoughts are all about me, how to please and serve me, not what you're going to make for dinner or whether your kid will be late for soccer practice. You follow?"
Tia wanted to protest but the tone didn't leave much room for debate. "I follow."
"Good."
The phone rang. Hester picked it up. "What?" Pause. "That moron. I told him to shut his mouth." Hester spun the chair away. That was Tia's cue. She rose and headed out, wishing like hell she was only worried about something as inane as dinner or soccer practice.
; In the corridor she stopped and took out her mobile phone. She stuck the file under her arm, and even after Hester's scolding, her mind went straight back to the e-mail message in the E-SpyRight report.
The reports were often so long--Adam surfed a lot and visited so many sites, so many "friends" on places like MySpace and Facebook-- that the printouts were ridiculously voluminous. For the most part she skimmed them now, as though that also made it somehow less an invasion of privacy, when in truth, she couldn't stand knowing so much.
She hurried back to her desk. The requisite family photograph was on her desk. The four of them--Mike, Jill, Tia and, of course, Adam, in one of the few moments he would grant them an audi- ence--out on the front stoop. All of the smiles looked forced, but this picture brought her such comfort.
She pulled out the E-SpyRight report and found the e-mail that had startled her so. She read it again. It hadn't changed. She thought about what to do and realized that it wasn't her decision alone.
Tia took out her cell phone and put in Mike's number. Then she typed out the text and hit SEND.
MIKE was still wearing his ice skates when the text came in.
"That Handcuffs?" Mo asked.
Mo had already taken off the skates. The locker room, like all hockey locker rooms, stunk horribly. The problem was that the sweat got into all the pads. A big oscillating fan swayed back and forth. It didn't help much. The hockey players never noticed. A stranger would have entered and nearly passed out from the stench.
Mike looked at his wife's phone number.
"Yup."
"God, you are so whipped."
"Yeah," Mike said. "She texted me. Totally whipped."
Mo made a face. Mike and Mo had been friends since their Dartmouth days. They'd played on the hockey team there--Mike the leading scorer at left wing, Mo the tough goon at defenseman. Nearly a quarter century after graduating--Mike now the transplant surgeon, Mo doing murky work for the Central Intelligence Agency--they still played those roles.
The other guys removed their pads gingerly. They were all getting older and hockey was a young man's game.
"She knows this is your hockey time, right?"
"Right."
"So she should know better."