“Oh? What did you see?”
“I saw a couple circling the wagons around a secret. But I could be completely wrong. As you say, this is a high-stress time. So down the mountain we go. You have my number. Call me if anything changes, and I’ll do the same.”
They climb in the car, and Woody puts the window down. “Where are you headed?”
Juliet glances back at the house, can swear Lauren is looking out the bathroom window, watching them, but then the window is empty, the curtains falling back into place. She flips her keys in her hand.
“I’m going to go see Zack. He needs a warning that the hordes are about to descend.”
66
VAIL HEALTH HOSPITAL
Juliet finds Zack outside the hospital, walking, talking on his cell phone. Kat sees her daddy and woofs excitedly. Juliet parks and lets her out. The Malinois makes a beeline for Zack’s side and glues herself to his leg. He smiles down at her and finishes his call.
“How’d it go?”
Juliet rubs her forehead. “I have a headache the size of Manhattan. Listen, the Nashville media has the story. We’re not sure how...”
“I talked to them. I have a friend at Channel 4. I gave him a call. If we’re doing this, I want to do it my way.”
She feels her mouth drop open unbecomingly, then forces it closed. “Could you have maybe given us a heads-up first? Lauren and Jasper were blindsided, and they didn’t take it well.”
“Sorry. But I don’t know who to trust out here, and I know my friend. He’s not going to screw us.”
There is a bench by the front doors. He sits on it heavily.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. The medicine’s making me feel weird. I have my second round in an hour. They say it will be worse than the first. If I’m going to be incapacitated, I wanted to be in control of the message first.”
“Still, Zack. This is a family decision.”
His gaze is unreadable.
“What did the reporter have to say?”
“He was thrilled to hear we found Mindy and promised to handle the story as carefully as he could. I take it someone from the station called Jasper and Lauren?”
“Yes. Jasper didn’t react well. Seriously, Zack, you should have talked to us first. We’re all in this together.”
He glances toward the mountain before he looks at her. “See, that’s the thing, Juliet. You are all in this together. I, on the other hand, am alone. I realized that when we were talking earlier and decided I want to be in control. I also talked to my former colleagues, and I have calls in to Vivian’s doctors at University Hospital. The investigation will take its natural course, but I’m allowed to ask for answers, too.”
“You’ve been busy.”
“What am I supposed to do, sit back and wait? Mindy and I discussed it, and we decided it was the best course of action.”
“You talked to Mindy?”
“Damn straight I did. This is her life we’re talking about. Did everyone forget that? She is going to be the center of this maelstrom, yet no one stopped to think to talk to her. Well, I did. I wanted her to know exactly what was happening. Keeping her out of the loop isn’t good.”
“She’s a sick little girl—”
“She’s a strong, vibrant young woman who needs something to fight for. I will never keep secrets from her. Never. She deserves to be part of the decision-making process. It’s her life. One she’s had absolutely no control over for nearly a month.”
Juliet opens her mouth to speak, then closes it, looking at Zack with new eyes. He ducks his head and puts a hand on Kat’s muzzle.
“I don’t mean to yell. I feel awful, I’m scared, and my daughter is dying before I have a chance to know her at all.”
“Don’t apologize. You’re right. Mindy should be consulted. Lauren and Jasper are grappling with some serious fear right now. Remember, they’ve had the care of her for seventeen years. They love her.”
“I love her, too,” he says, teeth gritted.
“I know you do. We all do. This isn’t a competition, damn it. We have to stick together, because the media—”
“Juliet, I think you forget that I’ve been dealing with the media for seventeen years. It was especially bad the first couple of years. They were at the funeral. Outside the police station. At my wife’s grave. They lived on my front stoop. They had close-ups of every tear, every grimace, every scream in the night. It was a constant inundation. Of all of us, I’m the only one who knows what’s to come, and how important it is to get out in front of it. You’ve only ever been on one side of a situation like this, doing DNA to help capture a criminal. You have no idea what it’s like to be the sole focus of the media and police attention. I do.”
Kat woofs and goes on alert. There is something in the trees to the side of the hospital. Deer? Squirrel? Could be anything. But her short bark seems to pull Zack together. He runs a hand over his face, scratches Kat’s ears. She calms but keeps a watchful eye on the woods.
“We should go in and let you take a rest. You’re looking pale.”
“Yeah, well, I’m tough. I’ll go in shortly. What else is happening? When will we have some answers?”
Juliet shrugs. “Unfortunately, I don’t get to work on any of this, so I don’t know. Woody will be back with us soon, I’m sure. My assistant is doing a double-check run of the evidence the Nashville cops brought. By the way, Jasper and Lauren lawyered up. Do you feel like you need legal representation? I know some people.”
He sighs. “I figured that was coming. They’ve been too kind. It’s one thing to acknowledge the man who fathered your child, but when push comes to shove, the reality of losing Mindy was always going to cloud their judgment. I have a lawyer in Nashville. I’ll let her know what’s happening, see if she wants to coordinate. But Mindy is the one who gets to make the decisions here. I’ve already told her I won’t stand between her and her parents, but that I’d like to be a part of her life.” A smile now, at last. “Silly kid said I should move out here, that I could get tenure at the University of Colorado in Boulder and we could all live together.”
“It’s not a terrible idea, you know. I mean, it’s not like they have ski slopes in Nashville, and Mindy will never be separated from the mountains. They’re as much a part of her as her hands. If you want to be near her, Colorado it is.”
He plays with Kat’s lead. “We’ll see.” His watch chimes. “We should probably go in. My next infusion is in fifteen minutes, and I’m not looking forward to it.”
“Zack, wait. How is Mindy doing? Since she seems to be confiding in you...”
“Honestly? She’s pissed. She wants the dog, but the doctor won’t let her.” They laugh together for a moment, easier with each other.
Over Zack’s shoulder, Juliet sees a news truck glide into the parking lot.
“We better get inside. The hordes are arriving.”
67
Mindy, stuck alone in the clean room while her immune system is crashed in preparation for the possible life-saving treatment, tries to wrap her head around her new normal. There has been so much to absorb, so many lightning-fast changes, that she hasn’t had time to process any of it. Her biodad, her mom’s weirdness, the letters...they are important. Why else would her mother have them stashed away?
Mindy didn’t have a chance to get them back to their hiding spot. She’d spent hours in the bathroom, hiding from her mother, reading through them several times, practically committing them to memory.
Now, the more she knows about Zack, the more disturbing the letters become. She recalls the last few, worrying a nail.
August 1996