Paul was laughing now. “You’re a suspicious bastard,” he said. “Did you confront her?”
“Nah, never had to. I called her on my cell and then called the cell company—we have the same one—and asked if they had towers on Prince Edward Island and they don’t. Then I asked for the location of the receiving tower for the cell call I had placed.”
“And?”
“Manhattan,” Ginter answered, giving an especially tough bolt a final tug.
“That’s great!” Paul said, laughing. “But how could she call you from the old guy’s apartment? Wouldn’t he have minded?”
“I figure he was at work hawking aroma bottles during the day and at night she just turned her cell off.”
Paul shook his head. “Where’d you learn to be so damn clever, the army?”
“Hey, I was in the army, I wasn’t a cop,” Ginter said. “I just figure it pays to be always thinking, if you know what I mean. Never trust anyone. There are too many pathological liars out there.”
Paul continued to chuckle. “So anyway, when do the Newark Yankees come to town next year?” he asked.
“Middle of May. You cool to go?”
“I’ll have to check. You’re talking next year for crying out loud.”
“’Cause I got a favor to pay off, y’know?”
“The ticket agent wants to see the Yankees?” Paul guessed.
“Ever since they moved to Newark they’ve been her team.”
“Pencil me in. Promise her for later in the season, she’ll forget all about you by then. That’s a whole year away.”
“So how’s wild, wonderful Concord? Can you hand me that oil pan now? The barbecue was nice.”
Paul got up and took what he assumed was the pan from the bench and put it in Lewis’ outstretched hand. “No different from the last time you asked. No different from the first time you asked. No different from when the last Redcoat left, except for the increased traffic and strip malls.”
“Man, you’re suffocating there. Nice house and all, but still.”
“I’m sure not in the Cambridge bachelor pad anymore.”
Lewis nodded. “That Agency apartment in my building’s still empty.” He tapped a few times with the screwdriver and smacked his palm on the fender as he stood up. “Good to go.”
“The tall blond guy with the crew cut? When did he clear out?”
“When his plane went down over Chile.”
“Ah.”
“I snagged the barbecue. They’ll never notice.”
“You robbed the dead?”
“No, I robbed the next guy. He never used it. He wasn’t there too long either. Have another beer, Paul.” Lewis held out a can.
“Stays on my breath,” Paul said. “Valerie’d kill me.”
Lewis shook his head. “How’s Grace?”
“Grace is Grace. She’s first in her class, and her project on Robert Kennedy made all-Northeast District.”
“Smart kid. Good thing she’s got her mother’s looks, too.”
Paul chuckled before turning serious. “You know that Grace is adopted, don’t you?” he asked.
Lewis nodded.
“She actually does have her mother’s looks,” Paul continued. “And she has both her parents’ brains. They were good people, both of them.”
“You knew them?” Lewis asked. “I don’t think I knew that.”
“Chuck was with me at Cornell. It was always Chuck and Beth, me and Amanda. I guess we thought we’d always be.” His voice trailed off.
“They got married?” Lewis asked softly.
Paul nodded. “A few years later. By then Amanda had moved on and Val and I were married. When Chuck and Beth got pregnant Val and I had been married about four years with no kids. Didn’t look like we were ever going to have them,” he added ruefully.
“What happened?”
Paul shrugged. “They were so excited when they got pregnant. Beth was older, mid-thirties, and they had been trying for a while. During a routine ultrasound they found cancer. They told her that she could have chemo but it would have meant…”
Lewis nodded. “Yeah, I know. What happened to Chuck?”
Paul snorted. “About three weeks before Grace was born Chuck just dropped dead. No warning, nothing. A brain aneurism—a congenital time bomb that finally went off. Nothing could have been done. That sort of thing. Beth couldn’t even leave the hospital to go to the funeral. She called me to Albany, where he had been teaching. She asked us to adopt Grace at birth. She knew she didn’t have much time.”
“How much time?” Lewis asked.
Paul swore. “She died when Grace was less than two months old. They released her for hospice care and we took them both back with us.”
“You and Val?”
Paul nodded. “I picked them up at the hospital in Albany. Beth was pretty weak but she got to spend her final days with Grace.”
“And Valerie was O.K. with that?” Ginter asked carefully.
Paul took another sip of his beer. When he finished he let out a soft burp. “Grace was born in March. I was teaching three classes that semester. This was before you got here but there was a hiring freeze back in 2010. Mai Johansson was the department chair, remember her?”
Ginter nodded.
“A real witch in some ways,” Paul said. “I told her I couldn’t finish the semester because I was going to do hospice care for a friend. She nearly had a stroke. She threatened to fire me on the spot, told me she’d make sure MIT sued to get my whole salary back. Said I was all done. I figured I was.”
“What happened?” Ginter asked.
Paul laughed. “I told her I didn’t give a shit. I guess back then I still didn’t.”
Paul took another sip. “Anyway, it all worked out. Wolfe covered one of my classes. Would have covered all three if her schedule had allowed it. She’s a good egg. Then, after taking my head off, Johansson covered a second one. She grumped like hell and I limped through the third class until the end of the semester. By then Beth was gone.”
Paul turned to Lewis. “When I look at Grace I can see Beth so clearly. It’s scary how much she looks like her mother. I guess she’s the last link I have to Ithaca. Amanda and I didn’t make it and Chuck and Beth are dead. Grace is what I’ve got left. Things don’t work out like you think they’re going to when you’re 25.”
Paul sat staring at the far wall. He started to take another swig of his beer but the can was empty. He threw it against the wall. Lewis watched wordlessly.
“Okay, I’ve decided what to do about Amanda,” Paul said suddenly.
“Be still my beating heart,” Lewis said, packing up his tools.
“I’ll pretend Grace is working on a summer school project about 20th Century America. I’ll ask her what was the one event she’d nail as the turning point between free America and Soviet America.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Lewis said. “Then what?”
“What do you mean, ‘then what?”
“After she tells you, do we bring her in?” Ginter asked.
“Bring her in? Why would we do that?”
“Guidance. There’s a lot more we could learn, Paul.”
“It’s risky. Too many people in the know,” Paul said quickly.
“It’s even riskier going back without knowing what the hell we’re doing,” Lewis said. “In Special Ops we learned that over half of every operation is intelligence. Put the best guys with the best equipment in a situation with skimpy intelligence and they’ll get their clocks cleaned by tribesmen with spears.”
“You think we need to bring her in?”
Lewis wiped his hands. “Let’s see if you think she’s trustworthy first,” he said.
“Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
“Three heads are better than two.”
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
“Don’t let your meat loaf.”