Perfectly Good Crime

by Dete Meserve

  “The Robin Hood story lives—like most important stories—in the murky shades of gray between what’s good and what’s not. Yet there is such a thing as a perfectly good crime. And that’s why this reporter—who also suspects that the heists are now over—has stopped trying to uncover Robin Hood’s identity and is focusing instead on the light and hope he’s bringing into the world.”

  My report opened the six o’clock newscast. A half hour later, the air had a surreal feel to it as I watched Josh put the equipment away in the news van. It seemed impossible that I had just filed my last report for Channel Eleven and that my next report would be from New York, a city I’d visited but had never lived in.

  When I unlocked the passenger door to the news van, I spotted a manila envelope on the front seat. Josh always locked the van so I was puzzled by how it got there. Kate Bradley, it read.

  “Did you put this envelope in here?” I called out to Josh, feeling the envelope’s contents. Whatever was inside was thicker than paper. Clothing, maybe.

  “What envelope?” he asked.

  I tore it open. Inside was a green felt hat with a red feather. Exactly like the one Jake had shown me—off the record—that was found at the estate crime scenes. As I lifted the hat, a note fluttered to the floor.

  “Saw your report, Kate. Thank you for helping change the world. Esteban.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Traffic was surprisingly light as I headed home late that evening. In fact, it was so light on a long stretch of the 101 that I began to wonder if Super Bowl Sunday had come around or aliens had abducted thousands of Angelenos’ cars. I was seriously considering both theories when traffic came to a sudden crawl.

  My cell phone rang and Eric’s photo flashed on the screen. I put him on speaker.

  “Hey,” he said, his warm baritone soothing my traffic-frazzled nerves. “I’m in La Jolla now. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”

  “Me too.” I couldn’t say anything more. My heart hurt too much.

  I heard the roll of the ocean waves behind him.

  “Where are you?”

  “I came down to the beach to think. There’s something here that you have to see. Something…that makes everything clear.”

  My breath hitched. I was desperate for everything to be clear. “What is it?”

  “I can’t describe it in words. Would you come here and see it with me?”

  His words, gentle and warm, floated in the air. La Jolla is over a hundred miles south of Los Angeles. Two hours in traffic. But I would have crossed mountains and time zones and rivers to see him.

  “Everything will be clear,” he said.

  I pressed hard on the accelerator and smiled, my heart dancing at the possibility.

  By the time I reached the beach in La Jolla, a seaside community on the Pacific Ocean, the sun had already set. I felt a rush of anticipation as I parked my car on a side street and, following Eric’s instructions, started toward a narrow, sandy path that led to La Jolla Cove, a beach tucked between towering sandstone cliffs.

  The moon was hidden by a thick blanket of clouds, turning the grayish night skies black. I heard the sounds of the waves lapping on shore, but a bluff blocked my view of the ocean. A few steps along the dark path, I spotted Eric waiting for me. He was dressed in shorts and a gray T-shirt and his feet were bare. He smiled like a kid with a surprise.

  “Close your eyes,” he said. Then he stepped behind me and placed his hands over my eyes. “You can’t see through my fingers, can you?”

  “Nope. Where are we going?”

  “Ten more steps and you’ll see.”

  I walked in front of him along the sandy path, and after he counted off ten steps, he lifted his hands from my eyes.

  What I saw took my breath away. The water was lit up by an eerie light, like molten blue metal rippling through the waves. On shore, the view was even more astounding as billions of tiny neon blue dots on the sand made it look like twinkling stars had washed ashore.

  “I knew you’d love it,” he said.

  “What is it?” I whispered, afraid to break whatever spell had been cast on the ocean. And on me.

  “It’s bioluminescent phytoplankton. It’s only found a few places in the world. Sometimes it lasts for a week. Sometimes only a few days.”

  We stood there a long while, watching the waves roll in and lap the shore, then bubble on the sand—a few white stars twinkling overhead, blue glow on the sands, and dazzling patterns at the water’s edge.

  “Remember chasing fireflies in the orchard?” he asked quietly.

  My eyes scanned the beach. “This is like those fireflies a million times over.”

  He scooped some wet sand and showed me the glowing blue specks. “When we caught a few fireflies, you said it was like capturing a tiny star. Then I knew. That’s when I knew you were the one, Kate.”

  He turned toward me and the look in his eyes left no doubt he meant it.

  I blinked back tears, feeling like the neon waves slipping onto the beach, one moment certain of my direction, and then realizing I’m being pulled in another. I gazed at the ocean at the neon blue lights carving the shadows and lighting up the waves, certain they were flashing me a message. Stay here. This is where you belong.

  Eric took my hand in his. “One of the things I love about you is that you have big dreams. Important dreams. I could see it the night you interviewed the billionaires about their Mayday Fund. And I realized it again when you told me you wanted to tell stories to change the world. You have to follow your dreams to New York, Kate.”

  “You want me to go?”

  “Your dreams are as important to me as they are to you. If your dreams are taking you to New York, that’s where I want to be too.”

  I stared at the sliver of the moon, peeking out from the clouds, luminous over the blue ocean. “But you can’t go with me.”

  “After we talked yesterday, I asked the fire chief to put in a good word for me high up in the chain of command of New York’s fire department. It’ll take a long time to get trained and certified there, but in the meantime, there’s probably plenty of work for me training their fire teams in swift-water rescue.”

  “Probably plenty of work?”

  “That’s good enough for me right now.”

  A warm sea breeze glided through my hair as I leaned into him, feeling the heat between us, his arms around me. “What about your dreams?”

  “Don’t you see?” he whispered. “Because of you, all my dreams have changed. Now, everything I have ever wanted, everything I dreamed about, only matters if you’re with me.”

  My throat ached. “You can’t—you shouldn’t—give up everything for me.”

  He reached out and touched my cheek. “When I saw this glow-in-the-dark beach last night, all I could think of was you and how much you would love it. Then I realized that even this rare, mysterious glowing liquid fire meant nothing if I couldn’t share it with you. A firefly in an orchard is just an insect. Lights in the dark. But when I’m with you, they’re tiny stars in your hands, lights swirling around our heads.” He cupped my face in his hands. “I want to do this, Kate. This is me starting on a new adventure, a new chapter. With you.”

  Our eyes met for a long moment. A warm shiver radiated through me as I grasped the depths of his feelings for me. The realization both overwhelmed and soothed me, and the moment took on the heightened fullness of a powerful dream.

  I fell in love with him all over again. The first kiss was fast, too heady, taking me by surprise as his mouth moved hungrily on mine. But the next kiss was slower, generous. Heat rushed from my center and my breath caught high in my throat. Even with the brilliant neon blue light show playing in the waves behind us, there was nothing else in the world but him.

  For the first time, I knew where I was headed and exactly where I belonged.