LEAVING TURNED OUT to be more of an adventure than expected. A crowd was collecting around the emergency vehicles. Children and dogs played on the sidewalks, mothers with strollers congregated to talk in worried whispers. Several had their phones out, filming the scene.
“We should have gone out the back door,” Dani murmured as they crowded off the porch into a sea of blue uniforms, who apparently had nothing better to do than wait around for them to leave so they might... what? Truly investigate? What kind of power did William have anyway? None of this was natural. None of this even vaguely looked natural.
“The tin-foil hat crowd is going to have a field day with this. Don’t look, dear. Some of them have face recognition software. Here.” Elaina rummaged in her purse and came up with a large pair of sunglasses that she plopped onto Dani’s face before Dani realized what she was doing.
“This way.” Maria seemed not to care, nodding casually at the officers and walking out, head up, shoulders back, like she owned the place. The police fell back, a veritable Red Sea parting before Moses.
“You’ve got more balls than most men I know,” Dani murmured, finding a grudging respect for the woman despite the anger that was going to take a lot longer to work through than some heist together on a Saturday afternoon. Though, so far, as a bonding activity it wasn’t bad, even if she had some new bruises to show for it.
“So, where are we really going?” Marcus asked as he got behind the wheel, unperturbed by the arriving media vans. He took the rental car around the block as slowly and reluctantly as any man heading to a bridal show would do. It took some careful navigating, and a lot of feigned indifference when someone pointed the car out to some yahoo holding a television camera.
Dani really was starting to wonder what was going to be showing up on the news that night. “I’ll tell you when we’re out of here. Just get us back to the expressway.”
Once free of the immediate police influence, Marcus gunned the engine and headed across the surface streets to the highway at a speed just shy of what would likely get him a ticket. Dani couldn’t resist looking back. Once past that street, everything just looked so utterly normal. Regular houses, with regular people who did ordinary, regular things.
When has my life ever been anything like that?
For a moment she felt a pang of something akin to loneliness, or even loss. She missed her brother and what had passed for family. She had no idea what to do with this woman next to her, who was her mother. Or the father who had so many masks she couldn’t tell which one was him anymore.
I can’t think about this anymore. I need to focus. The end is in sight. I just need to get us there.
“I don’t want us to get stopped,” Dani warned Marcus, noticing that the needle on the speedometer had been steadily creeping up since they’d gotten on the main road. “I know where the stick is, but we need to get to it before anyone else does. Especially if William is right about ‘other players’ involved now.”
“So?” Marcus pressed, asking again. “Where are we really going?”
“We really are going to the bridal show, Marcus,” Dani said, twisting her hands nervously in her lap. Usually she was so unflappable but this...this entire situation was not to her liking. “I handed the flyer to William and almost died. I banked on him having no interest in weddings and lace.”
“Trust me,” Elaina smiled, “that man wouldn’t recognize a bunting from a Kleenex. He has no concept of weddings.”
Maria turned to her, her eyes clear and assessing. They were both in the back seat; Elaina had taken the passenger seat up front with Marcus. “Frankly, my dear, considering everything Marcus told me, I am rather surprised you do. It’s quite a change from trekking through jungles while being shot at.”
“He told you about that, too?” Dani looked at the driver, who patently ignored them.
“Excuse me?” Elaina asked, turning to face them. “What am I missing?” Her face was alight with eagerness, eyes bright and interested. “Tell me everything!”
“Well,” Dani colored, “it was a long time ago...”
“Three months,” Marcus muttered, not quite under his breath.
“Don’t help,” Dani snapped. “I’m still not so sure about you. You were supposed to be my father’s guard. Why were you telling tales about me? And how in the world did you know about that anyway? I sure as hell wasn’t writing home about my escapades.”
Marcus suddenly became very interested in traffic, making a left-hand turn with exaggerated care.
“He was never your father’s guard, my angel.” Maria put a hand on her daughter’s arm. “He was assigned to be yours. A position he filled for sixteen years.”
“Why so long?” Elaina asked. “I would think that they, whoever they are, could have replaced you after five or so, to keep the assignment fresh.”
Marcus craned his neck, to regard a street sign with rapt interest. “Would you say that I turn right at the next light to get the on-ramp? I can’t tell where that sign is pointing.”
Maria laughed. “Why do you think?” She smiled. Like the rest of us, he allowed his emotions to get in the way of his job. I daresay we all fell for the men to whom we were assigned. So did he.”
“You were in love with my father, Marcus??” Dani quailed.
“That is not what I meant, angel!” Maria said hotly. “His feelings are more paternal.”
Dani blinked. Marcus was busily studying the road ahead, his foot a little heavier on the accelerator than it had been a moment before. His knuckles were white where he gripped the steering wheel.
“Were you assigned to your husband?” Maria asked Elaina.
“Only after the wedding,” Elaina said. “No, I had to leave the agency when we became a couple. I was only a researcher, never did much in fieldwork, but still, it was interesting work.”
“Analyst?” Maria asked.
“Intel and projections,” Elaina said, blushing modestly. “We looked for trends, spots where trouble might break out, where things might go wrong, and fed real-time data to the agents. It was a lot harder in the days before internet searches and email.”
“I bet! A great deal of my information came from that department,” Maria said, leaning forward, eyes alight with curiosity. “They were the only people who supported me. You don’t know a man named Robinton, do you?”
Dani opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, not sure how the conversation had gotten so derailed. A moment ago, they’d been talking about the bridal show, and now it was old home week at the spook circle?
“No, but it’s been a quarter century since I was there.”
Dani sat up, noticing the signs for the next exit, and frowned. Weren’t they going the wrong way?
“He was a good man. Oh, for heaven’s sake, angel, if you have something to say, just say it. Don’t drill a hole into the back of the man’s head; just speak up.”