“All right, all right,” I muttered. “But what about Elizabeth, if that’s really her name. What is she? Some supersecret spy you met while rapelling down some treacherous cliff in Burma?”
“Maybe, in your own warped mind.” He was laughing at me now, but he still wasn’t spilling the beans. And why did that not surprise me? Jackson had always been the stoic one in the family, quietly going about his business. He’d been great at keeping secrets, like the time he caught me behind the school gym, kissing Richie Kirk. Back then, I was shocked that he hadn’t told my parents about it. There were other incidents as well.
So I guess I didn’t care if he told me the whole story. For now. It was enough to know that much of Jackson’s past was truly secret. I would honor that. And I was glad to know that Elizabeth—or whatever her name was—was innocent of harming Trudy or Amelia.
Which meant that I could take her off my suspect list. And we would have to look elsewhere for the killer.
*
The three of us walked out to the dark parking lot together, and Derek and I waved good-bye to Jackson.
“That was fun and educational, too,” I said as we watched Jackson drive his truck out of the lot.
“The wine was very good, too,” Derek said, smiling broadly as he unlocked the car and held my door open for me.
“Always.” I turned to look at him. “Do you believe Jackson was telling the truth when he said he didn’t know Elizabeth would be here?”
Derek’s expression sobered. “I do. He has no reason to lie to us, other than evading other details of his past. But I don’t hold that against him.”
“I guess you’re right.” I shut my door and watched Derek circle the car and climb into the driver’s seat.
“I should’ve known he was in intelligence,” Derek muttered a moment later as he glanced in his rearview mirror.
“I’m surprised you didn’t,” I said lightly. “You people seem to have a built-in radar when it comes to detecting that aspect of one another.”
“And I missed the signs with Elizabeth, too.” His frown deepened.
“I don’t blame you for that. She’s a whole different story. She told me the reason I wasn’t able to place her accent was because she was a navy brat and had traveled all over the world. Now I wonder if she just said stuff like that so I wouldn’t realize that she’s a German spy or something.”
“I doubt that she’s German,” Derek said, chuckling.
“You’ve probably figured out what she really is.”
“Mossad, I imagine,” he murmured.
I stared at him. “You think she’s Israeli?”
“Not positive, but it’s an educated guess,” Derek said, checking his rearview mirror again. “Mossad has a discreet relationship with Thailand’s intelligence community.”
“Okay. So what’s the connection?”
He glanced at me. “The tattoo on Jackson’s left arm is a Thai phrase.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “What tattoo? My brother has a tattoo?”
Derek grinned. “You’d know about the tattoo if you had toiled in the fields like I do.”
I laughed. “Oh great. So what’s the word?”
He pronounced the phrase using a sharp, guttural tone, sounding completely unlike himself.
“Wow. What does that mean?”
“Tranquility.”
I thought about it. “That suits him. But couldn’t he have gotten it anywhere?”
“It’s possible, but not likely. Thailand is made up of hundreds of communities, each with its own language and colloquialisms. The phrase tattooed on Jackson’s arm is from an obscure area in northern Thailand. I doubt he could’ve gotten it anywhere else in the world.”
“How do you know so much about Thailand? Did you work there, too?”
“Yes, briefly. I had to take immersion courses in languages and customs in order to complete the mission.” He glanced in the rearview mirror once again.
I could tell he was distracted, so I relaxed and enjoyed the ride. Two seconds later, I gasped and turned to him. “Wait a minute. If she’s Mossad, she could be looking for artwork stolen from the Jews. That’s brilliant, Derek. It has nothing to do with Thailand, but it’s brilliant.”
“Thailand simply provides a possible connection between Jackson and Elizabeth.”
“Right. There are so many different threads to this situation, I can’t keep them all straight.” I thought of the rest of Elizabeth’s backstory. “Is she really the granddaughter of a friend of Trudy’s?”
“We’ll have to ask her.” He pulled over to the side of the road.
“What’re you doing? Is something wrong with the car?”
“No. I saw someone sneaking over the hill back there.”
“It’s so dark out, how could you see them?”
“They had a flashlight turned on for a moment. They were headed in the direction of the caves.”
“Damn it! We’ve got to stop them.” I shoved my door open and had one foot on the ground before Derek grabbed my arm.
“Brooklyn, wait,” he ordered, yanking me back. “Close the door, please. The interior light might alert them.”