CHAPTER
24
ROBIE DROVE BACK INTO D.C., but he didn’t return to his apartment. Instead, he drove to a school.
He parked at the curb and looked around. This was a nice section of D.C. The school Julie Getty attended was one of the best. But it was not one where uniforms were issued and all the students were the progeny of the upper crust. Kids got in here solely on their merits, not based on their parents’ ability to pay the tuition or donate to the school. Once you got in the tuition was taken care of. The place was based on individuality. There were rules, of course, but the students at the school were expected to march to the beat of a different drummer.
Robie assumed that Julie Getty was thriving in such an environment. He had discovered that her beat and her drummer were as individual as was humanly possible.
He thought about how he would handle this first encounter with her. And then he stopped thinking about it. There was no good way to approach this.
I’m going to take my lumps and maybe that’s best.
The rain seemed to want to linger, and Robie turned on his windshield wipers and watched them shove the water off the glass. He looked at his watch. Anytime now. There was a line of cars waiting to pick up students. There was no bus service at the school, although there was a stop across the street for a public bus.
A few seconds later the doors to the school opened and the students started to stream out. Robie got out of the car when he saw her, turned up his collar against the light rain, and jogged across the street.
Julie was walking near the back of a group of girls. She had her earbuds in and was pecking away on her smartphone. She had come a long way in a short time, thought Robie. When he first met her she couldn’t afford a phone of any kind.
He let the group of girls pass and then stepped forward.
Julie stopped, looked up, and Robie could see first happiness and then anger on her features.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“Fulfilling my promise to come and see you.”
“Little late for that.”
“Is it?”
The rain started to fall harder.
“You need a ride home?” he asked as he saw her shiver.
“I take the bus across the street.”
Robie turned to see a bus gliding to a stop at the far curb. “I thought after last time you’d never get on another bus.”
Robie could see a glimmer of a smile on her face and sought to press this advantage. “I can drive you. We can talk. I can check up on Jerome. Make sure he’s being a good guardian.”
“He’s fine. I told you.”
“Nothing like seeing it for myself.”
“I don’t want you to be here just because you feel shitty about how you’ve treated me.”
“I do feel shitty, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Why, then?”
“Can we get out of the rain?”
“Afraid of melting?”
He pointed to her earbuds and phone. “Don’t want you to be electrocuted.”
“Right,” she said sarcastically.
But she followed him over to his car. They slid in and Robie started the engine and drove off.
Julie pulled on her seat belt. “So why are you really here?” she asked again.
“Unfinished business.”
“That doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“You’re not making this easy.”
“Why should I? You dissed me, but I bet you’ve seen super agent Vance plenty of times.”
“I have, but only once and it was for professional reasons. She was trying to pick my brain on something.”
“More murders?”
“Why do you say that?”
“What else could it be? You and Vance deal in dead bodies. Lots of them.”
“I guess I can see that.”
“But you still got together with her.”
“It’s different.”
“Not to me.”
Robie frowned. “Is this a competition?”
“It’s about being a man of your word, Robie. I don’t like people lying to me. If you didn’t want to see me again all you had to do was say so. No sweat.”
“You think it’s that simple?”
“It should be.”
“I’m here because I was wrong.”
“About what?” she asked.
“I wanted to protect you. I should have known better.”
“What do you mean?”
“In my line of work you make enemies. I wanted to keep those people away from you. I wanted you to have a fresh start. All old ties gone. I wanted you to have a shot at happiness.”
“Are you bullshitting me?” she said.
“Happiness is elusive. I wanted a clean break for you. You almost died with me. I didn’t want that to happen again.”
“So why not tell me that up front?”
“Because I was an idiot.”
“I don’t think so, Will,” she said in a softer tone.
“You know you call me Robie when you’re pissed at me and Will when you’re not?”
“Then try not to make me go back to calling you Robie.”
He slowed for a red light and glanced over at her. “Maybe I wanted to do exactly what I told you I would. Maybe I wanted to keep in touch. Maybe...”
“Maybe you just wanted to be normal.”
The light turned green and Robie started off again. He didn’t speak for a few seconds.
“Maybe I did.”
The rain started to come down more heavily.
“I think that was the most honest thing you’ve said to me.”
“You’re way too mature for fourteen.”
“I’m fourteen in years. Not in experience. I wish I wasn’t.”
Robie nodded. “I understand that.” He looked at her. “We cool now?”
“We’re getting there. Maybe...Will.”
Robie smiled and then eyed the rearview mirror. He registered on the car not immediately behind him but the one behind that.
“What is it?”
He turned to see Julie staring at him.
She said, “I know that look. Is someone back there who shouldn’t be?”
Robie thought quickly. It couldn’t be. There was no way. But then again, why not? Everything that had happened so far had been totally unpredictable.
Now the problem was obvious. He had Julie with him. If he dropped her off she was vulnerable. If he kept her with him she was likely going to be in danger.
He glanced at her again and she seemed to pick up on the anxiety he was feeling.
“Look, when you get nervous, I get scared. What’s going on?”
“I should have followed my gut, Julie, and just left you alone. This is exactly the reason I needed to stay away from you.”
Julie started to look back, but Robie snapped, “Don’t. They’ll know we’ve spotted them.”
“So what do we do?”
“We keep driving normally.”
“That’s it? That’s the plan?”
“We keep driving normally until something happens to make us stop.”
“Okay, that sounds more like it. Then what?”
“We just have to see what happens.”
Robie tightened his grip on the wheel and cast another glance in the rearview. The car was still back there. It seemed to be driving normally too. Robie could be wrong. But he knew he wasn’t. He’d been doing this too long.
So who was following him? His people or somebody else? And if somebody else?
It couldn’t be Jessica Reel. That would break every rule in the book. But maybe that was her strategy. Breaking the rules made you unpredictable.
Well, he thought, I can play that game too.