“Most likely he just took off again.”
“Probably,” I said, but I knew Dan had heard me.
“You’re saying Mondari saw ‘fabricante des bombas’ in the e-mail?”
“That’s what he says.”
“So why is he reversing himself and telling us now? It’s not because you’ve been chasing him around.”
“He’s scared. Remember, I worked with him a long time. I know him in some ways. He’s scared enough to need our help. That’s why he gave it to me.”
Venuti shook his head and said, “He didn’t give Jane anything that specific. All right, Grale, I’ll stop fighting you on this. Let’s move Mondari to a priority and get him in here.”
34
“I need to do more for her.”
The charge nurse neither agreed nor disagreed. She said, “Your niece needs somebody to guide her through the worst.”
When I walked into the hospital room, Julia’s eyes were open but listless. She gave little sign of recognition and had nothing to say about the visit from her friends. I pulled a chair over and took her hand.
“Bad day?”
“Real bad, Uncle Paul.”
“Maybe it’s time to get out of here.”
“What will it be like if I live with you?”
“Hard at first, but we’ll make it into something good. I don’t know how yet, but we will. We’ll give you your mom’s car, and as soon as you get your driver’s license that’ll give you mobility and some freedom. I’ll always be there for you, but you’ll also have to become pretty independent.”
“Can I have friends over if you’re not there?”
“Sure, of course, and I’ll do everything I can, Julia. It’ll just be you and me, but do you like Jo?”
“I like her a lot. Mom said you broke up with her.”
“Jo and I made a mistake.”
“That’s what Mom said.”
“She was right.”
I felt a surge of emotion.
“I’ll tell you a story about your mom. When our mother died, your mom was fourteen, I was twelve. Melissa tried to become a mother to me. That didn’t work because nothing was the same anymore, and I didn’t want a substitute mother. Your mom figured that out and that we needed to start new lives. You can’t start life over, but she realized we’d reached the end of what we’d had and needed to make something different that would make our mom proud of us. I know it sounds sappy, but it was pretty real. Your mom brought us back into life again.”
“Mom did?”
“That’s right, my older sister, Melissa, showed me a way. That was the biggest gift anyone ever gave me. Ever. She was my North Star when it mattered. I think we take a page from her book and make something new and good. I see that part of your mom in you. I always have.”
I didn’t know if I’d reached her or not, but thought I might have. As I was leaving she asked, “Do you have any stories about Dad?”
“I have a million stories about your dad, maybe more.”
“I want to hear all of them.”
“You got it. See you tomorrow.”
Late that night I climbed out of the lap pool and was sitting in a lawn chair talking on my cell with Jo when I received a text from the office alerting me to expect a call from the Nevada Highway Patrol Southern Command. It came twenty seconds later.
“A vehicle with a VIN matching the one you’re looking for was found out on an old desert road running toward Potosi Mountain. That’s the good news. Bad news is, it was on fire.”
“White Mercedes registered to a Denny Mondari?”
“It wasn’t white when we got there, but yeah, and we have an officer on-site. If you’re going out, he’ll wait.”
“Tell him I’m on my way.”
I missed the cutoff road on the first pass and turned around at the break for Highway 159, then retraced slowly until I found the dirt track. It crossed an old military tank road, but it wasn’t until a fire vehicle passed by heading out that I knew for sure. A mile later, I saw the lights of the Nevada Highway Patrol officer and smelled the burned car in the wind.
The highway patrol officer on-site perked up and got cheerful when I said I’d take responsibility for the car. After he left and I was waiting for FBI ERT, I walked a wide area with a flashlight searching for anything that could explain this.