“How do you know Nick?” asked Jenna.
“I’m not sure I do know him,” said Alex.
I laughed too hard, then steered the conversation toward Jenna. “So how’ve you been?”
“Good. We won our first game tonight.”
“Terrific.”
“Not really. The other team didn’t show up.”
I glanced at the group of women in clean uniforms ordering drinks at the bar. “Well, any excuse to celebrate.”
“Right.” Her smile faded. “Is there any news on your dad?”
“We’re making progress, I think. Long way to go, though.”
She lowered her voice, as if to keep things just between me and her. “I wasn’t just being polite when we talked on the phone. If there’s anything I can do, please let me know.”
I felt her touch my arm as she spoke, just the tips of two fingers resting an inch or so away from my pulse. It was hardly any contact at all, but it was the first physical connection since the breakup, and I could have kicked myself for allowing it to confuse the hell out of me.
“I’ll definitely let you know. Thanks.”
One of her teammates called from their table and raised a glass. Jenna looked at me and said, “Guess I better get back to the victory party.”
“Sure. You go ahead.”
She smiled weakly and was gone. I returned to my seat and took a long sip of beer, only to meet a cold stare from Alex.
“Are you playing games?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You picked this joint because you knew she’d be here, didn’t you?”
The accusation stunned me, but the strange truth was, I’d been thinking about Jenna a lot since yesterday. The ultrasound had triggered memories of the good times between us-getting engaged, planning a wedding, dreams of our own future family. We’d even gone so far as to toss around possible names for children. We settled on none but were in complete agreement that there would never be a Moon Rey, Sting Rey, or X Rey.
“I swear, this was a total coincidence.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute.”
“Why would I want to see Jenna?”
“You didn’t. You wanted her to see you. With me.”
“What purpose would that serve?”
“You tell me.”
“You think I was trying to make her jealous or something?”
Alex didn’t answer. She simply rose, dug in her purse, and threw a ten-dollar bill on the table to cover the tab. “I thought you could be more professional than this, Nick. I’m doing you a huge favor by staying on your father’s case. Don’t blow it by messing with my head.”
“You have the wrong idea, totally.”
She just glared, silent.
“Alex, please don’t go away mad.”
She left without another word, not so much as good-bye. I was about to follow when I sensed that someone was watching. I turned, expecting to see Jenna giving me a sideways glance from across the room. I saw only the back of her head. I scanned the entire bar. Not a single set of eyes was on me.
Yet the feeling of being watched was almost palpable.
It gave me a creepy sensation that I tried to shake off quickly. I finished my beer in one long swig and headed for the exit, resisting the urge to look back at Jenna-or whoever else it was who’d made me feel watched.
28
The Swede was beginning to freak. Matthew had been watching Jan closely the last few days, fearful that he might do something stupid. He’d been acting strange ever since the guerrillas took the Canadian into the jungle and shot him. One minute he was withdrawn, the next surly and angry. Perhaps it was his way of grieving. He and Will used to argue and hurl insults back and forth, and only after the execution did Matthew get the sense that the two men hadn’t merely worked for the same mining company but had actually been close friends.
Just days after Will’s death two new prisoners arrived, a young married couple from Japan. The woman spoke English and told Matthew what had happened. They were bird-watching along the Colombian border near Ecuador, one of the most beautiful hiking areas in the world. They’d felt safe because they were traveling with a guide who knew the area and, presumably, the dangers. Joaquin and four of his guerrillas surprised them near a mountain stream during their lunch break. The guide was Colombian and talked to Joaquin for nearly half an hour, at times a heated discussion. In the end the guide went free and the tourists were taken away at gunpoint. The woman had been angry at first, suspecting that the guide had pleaded for his own release and not theirs. Soon she realized that the more likely scenario was that she and her husband had been set up from the very beginning, led into Joaquin’s lair by their own guide, who was probably haggling with Joaquin over his commission.
The arrival of new prisoners further unsettled a group that was already on edge from the execution. The threat of death had always been in the air, but the lone gunshot that had pierced the night and the empty space around the campfire the following morning had made it all too real. Each of them had submitted to captivity while clinging dearly to the notion that a prisoner was more valuable alive than dead. Surely Joaquin wouldn’t discard his merchandise and deprive himself of a hefty ransom. Will’s death and the wisdom of the old-looking Colombian with orange hair-“Flea Man,” as Jan called him-had set them all straight.
“Sometimes it’s just easier for a guy like Joaquin to negotiate with the family for the return of a dead body,” said the Flea Man.
With tensions running high, Matthew was thankful for his new source of sanity: fishing. While Joaquin and his abduction team were out hunting for Japanese tourists, Matthew had convinced the remaining guards that he could fish trout from the stream. They were as tired of the bland diet as anyone, so they let him try. He fashioned a hook from a small safety pin, and the line was a six-foot length of thread he unraveled from the frayed hem of a canvas tarp. Worms and grubs were a plentiful source of bait. In the company of two guerrillas, he fished almost an entire afternoon and caught sixty-one trout from a quiet eddy near a fallen log. They were no bigger than his hand, but anything larger would have snapped the line of thread and taken off with his only hook. Last night Aida had grilled them over the fire in the hut, and the guerrillas ate most of them. She brought the five smallest ones to Matthew, his reward for having caught them. The other prisoners got the usual rice and beans. Matthew gave one fish to each of them. Even with the heads on, they were barely enough to add a little flavor to the rice.
Yesterday it had rained all day, so they didn’t go fishing. This afternoon, however, the sun was shining, and the guerrillas were hungry for more trout. They’d found another safety pin, and Matthew rigged up a second line with more canvas thread. He told them he couldn’t watch both lines at once without risk of losing one of them, so they let him bring along a fishing buddy. The prisoners drew straws to see who could go. The Swede won.
They left camp after lunch and returned to the same eddy, about a fifteen-minute walk. Four guards went this time because of the extra prisoner. For added security they chained the prisoners together at their ankles. Aida and her boyfriend perched themselves atop a rock in the sun. They were soon groping each other. The two other guerrillas entertained themselves with a Spanish-language travel book that Joaquin had taken from the guide who’d led the Japanese tourists into trouble. Every few minutes they hooted with laughter, pointing at yet another passage that read, “This area is safe for tourists.” Travel books were like the kidnapper’s guide to hunting and fishing.
In thirty minutes Matthew had caught eleven trout. The Swede hadn’t caught any.
“Will you stop making me look bad?” said Jan.
“You’re doing fine. Just be patient.”