With a strangled cry, the dam broke. Her whole face clutched and wrinkled, and her body racked with sobs. Hudson let her cry, stifling an urge to put an arm out to comfort her.
“Oh God you scared me,” came out between sobs. She lifted her head. “You really won’t hurt me, will you?”
“No, I really won’t. I just want to talk with you, and then I’ll go.”
“Oh, don’t go!” She took his arm with both hands and put her face on his shoulder. “Come back to the house with me.”
Her touch sent a shiver through him. “I said I’m a friend of John Krestinski’s and I am, but this visit out to see you is strictly on my own. I don’t think the FBI would welcome my interference with a witness under protection.”
“I don’t think I like the FBI any more.”
“Why? Isn’t that woman...?”
“Her name’s Dora. I don’t know Mr. Krestinski. When I went to the FBI four months ago, they assigned Sammy Gardner to me. He’s real nice. And open-minded, he cares about people, not like most policemen. I took an apartment in the North End, and he stayed with me until last week.” She brushed a cheek with her knuckle. “Last Saturday he went out for groceries - I was told not to go out at all so he had to do all the shopping - and he never came back. Instead it was Dora. She told me Sammy had been taken off the case for fear they’d identified him. Her instructions were to hide me in a new location, and I was to go with her.”
“Normal precautions; the FBI is good at that.”
“So we came way out here, and she never talks, just sits there looking at me. Then when she left for the service yesterday they put a man in, not like Sammy, an oaf who kept wiping his palms on his pants as though he wanted to wipe them on me.”
“But you liked Sammy.”
“Yes! We were...we became close.” Her sniffles had stopped, and she dabbed at her eyes with a Kleenex.
“Closer than you and Andre?”
“I’ve almost forgotten him.”
“He hasn’t forgotten you.”
“We lived together two years.”
“Loni, I need to talk with you about your father. Maybe there’s something in his past that will help.”
She glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to get back. Dora gets real angry.”
“You knew your father’s apartment had been bombed?”
She bobbed her head blowing her nose.
“He came up to where I live in New Hampshire, to Wallace Carver’s house - you know him?”
She nodded. “When Daddy was going through bankruptcy.”
“He’s my next door neighbor, and my wife and I became involved.” He turned to her. “She looks a lot like you. My wife. That may have been part of the problem. In any event she was nearly kidnapped.”
“Oh, no! Because of me?”
“Not your fault.”
The girl brought hands to her head. “What’s happening? First Daddy, then your wife...”
“She’s okay, but we’ve got to find the people that are doing this. Can you tell me anything about your father’s business acquaintances, particularly recently?”
She raised her head. “I haven’t seen anybody since I went to the FBI. Before that Andre and I almost never saw Daddy. I tried to get us together, as a family you know.” She smiled tentatively. “That was a disaster. I bought us seats together at shows, coaxed Daddy to get Andre into his club, tried to buy each the same clothes I bought the other so they’d at least look alike. It didn’t help. It wasn’t that they didn’t like each other; they just didn’t have anything in common.”
“Have you ever been to that club?”
“No. It’s just old people.”
“Andre isn’t old.”
“For him it’s a good place to meet people who’ll help with his environmental stuff.”
“Do you know anyone your father was afraid of?”
“Daddy was always afraid. After his bankruptcy he went to work with some men who really scared him.” She turned to look at Hudson. “You know he was in drugs?” Hudson nodded. “Those were the frightening people.”
“Did you ever meet any of them?”
“Once, there was a man I met when daddy and I were shopping. He was wearing a cowboy hat. We only talked for a few minutes and he left. He was in a hurry to go someplace.”
“Shopping where?”
“In Boston. He was just coming out of a store on Washington Street. Daddy introduced me.”
“Name?”
“Mr. Cabral. Daddy called him a business associate. But after he left I thought Daddy would collapse. He was real pale and told me to forget I’d ever seen him. Now that was silly, wasn’t it? How could I forget him when I’d just been introduced?”
“Did you hear a first name?”
“Gregory, maybe?”
“What store was he coming out of?”
“Oh God, I wouldn’t remember that. Is it important?”
“I don’t know what’s important and what isn’t. Could be Gregory?”
“But it wasn’t. Wasn’t Gregory. It sounded more foreign.” She worked on it some more. Then gave a little sigh. “No, it won’t come. I’m sorry. You came all the way out here for that?”
“I was following the urn wherever it took me. Were your instructions to empty it into...what’s the name of that river?”
“White River. No, this was my idea. I don’t think daddy cared where he went after he died.”
“Heaven or hell all the same?”
“Oh, no! That sounds awful. I meant what happened to his body. You know, his ashes.”
“He wanted to be cremated though?”
She nodded. “I just thought a pretty river that runs down to the sea would be a nice place for daddy. You know, they say humans came from the sea originally. It isn’t dust to dust but water to water, and I felt...”
She glanced at Hudson and saw he wasn’t listening. His eyes were focused on something far away. “What’s the matter?”
“Sokwai sibo.”
“What?”
“Sorry. I’ve got to make a call, and I don’t think my cell will work in these mountains”
“Mr. Krestinski?” He nodded. “Come back to the house with me. You can call from there. And maybe you could ask him for somebody other than Dora.”
“I don’t think...”
She took his hand in both of hers. “Please?”
They’re not her lips but they’re such lovely lips… “Well, I could ask him how Sammy is.”
“Yes! Will you? Oh please, please!”
Hudson made the mistake of looking into gray eyes that had turned misty and found his head was slowly nodding.
Dora’s face flashed relief seeing Loni, but quickly clouded over as Hudson came through the door carrying his colorful pillow. Loni’s front seat had been a pain Hudson wasn’t going to have repeated in a house that might only have hard chairs.
“Who’s this? Loni, you know better...”
Hudson, watching closely, could detect no sign of recognition. “It’s alright, Dora. This is Hudson Rogers. He’s a friend of Mr. Krestinski’s.”
“Who?”
“John Krestinski,” said Hudson. “Don’t you FBI people talk to each other?”
“Loni, what have you told him?”
“Nothing he didn’t already know,” replied the girl. “That you’re FBI, part of the protection program. So is he, sort of. His family was nearly killed protecting my father.”
Dora thawed a little. “Well, you’re here now. Might as well have some coffee. Then we’ll call to see what to do. Those of us in Witness Protection have no contact with the rest of the FBI.”