A few minutes later, Lien-hua, Ralph, and I drifted back together on the edge of the parking lot. Margaret strode up to us, jittery and tense. No one said a word. Then Agent Tucker and Sheriff Wallace found their way over to us, and I spoke softly, but to all of them. “When he talked to me last night, he called himself the Illusionist. He told me, ‘You can’t have her. I saw her first.’”
Ralph’s teeth were clenched. “The sawing the woman in half trick.”
“That’s sick,” said Sheriff Wallace.
Margaret turned to Lien-hua. “Where did you say Grolin works?”
“ MountainQuest magazine. He writes the outdoor column.”
Wallace nodded. “I know the place. It’s out on highway 25 on the way to Hendersonville.”
“Find him. Bring him in.”
Dante turned to me. “Dr. Bowers?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I have my phone back?”
“Oh yeah. Sure.” I reached into my pocket, pulled out the handful of parts that used to be his phone, and handed it to him.
“What on earth happened to it?”
Ralph answered for me. “He dropped it.”
“Something like that,” I mumbled. “I’m really sorry. I’ll buy you a new one.”
He shook his head, stuffed the pieces into his pocket, and then motioned to a couple of uniformed officers who followed him to a patrol car.
I felt bad, but then Margaret turned to me and I prepared to feel worse. I was sure she was going to rip into me about disregarding her orders and heading over to Grolin’s place. “Get that shoulder looked at,” she said. “Have the EMTs check it out.”
Now that was a surprise. Considering the circumstances, her concern was somewhat moving.
“I’ll be all right.”
“Dr. Bowers, there is a piece of wood sticking out of your back.”
No wonder it hurt.
“Get that taken out. You get an infection, it costs us more money. I don’t want the Bureau to have to spend any more money on you than it has to.”
Oh. Well. In that case.
“Ralph?” she said.
“Yeah?”
“I want you to do the questioning.” Her voice was iron. Flat and cold.
He nodded.
She tried to stay calm, but her voice began to quaver. “No kid gloves, Ralph. He put that girl in my car.”
He nodded again. “I understand.”
Joseph Grolin, here we come.
41
Tessa stared out the window of the 737 at the towering castles of clouds surrounding the plane. Glowing corridors of vapor and light split open to encircle the plane, to welcome it into their fairytale landscape. At one time she might have been impressed, even astonished by this journey through gossamer light, but today all she saw was a bunch of stupid clouds.
When she was younger she used to lie on her back in the summer grass and look up at the clouds with her mother, pointing and giggling and finding mystical creatures in the sky; mermaids and dragons and fairies. Just like all children do at one time or another.
“See that one,” she would cry. “It’s a unicorn!”
“Yes,” her mother would say. “I see it. I see it.”
Whatever the clouds really looked like, Tessa could always find a unicorn.
But not anymore. No, today there were only clouds in the sky. Shapeless and blank. No unicorns. Just misty haze surrounding her. In fact, she hadn’t seen a unicorn in a long, long time. She couldn’t even remember when.
She glanced over at the profile of the man escorting her. He’d told her his name: Special Agent Eric Stanton. He didn’t really look like an FBI agent, more like an accountant. Hair parted on the side, baby face, clean shave. But he wasn’t wearing a ring, and he wasn’t really that old-maybe twenty-two or so-and he might have actually looked cute if he could lose the tie and the old-man-looking glasses, grow a little soul patch… ruffle up his hair a little…
“Yes?” He was looking directly at her now. “Did you need something?” He had soft brown eyes.
“Um, no.” She looked away, out the window again. She hoped she wasn’t blushing.
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
He leaned close. She could smell his aftershave.
Gak. Why did he have to use aftershave?
“You OK, kid?”
Kid!
“I’m fine.”
“Well, that’s wonderful,” he said sarcastically. “As your chaperone I’m very glad to hear that.”
She looked at him again. What in the world was wrong with her! The guy was probably over thirty! Old enough to be her dad. She folded her arms and glared at him. She glanced momentarily at the Sudoku puzzle he was working on. He’d been struggling with it for the last hour or so. It was rated “expert.” Huh. Yeah, right. He should have probably been doing one rated “toddler.”
She studied it for a few brief seconds. “Six, nine, eight, four, one, three,” she said.
“What?”
“The bottom row. Fill those in, you should be able to take it from there.” After registering his surprise she added, “Though I wouldn’t bet on it.”
He looked down at the sheet then back at her. “How do you know that?”
She shrugged. “Maybe it’s just easy to figure out when you’re a kid.”
Then he made a small sound with his mouth half open, asked her to repeat the numbers, looked down at his puzzle, and started scribbling. While he filled in the squares in his lame little puzzle, Tessa turned back to the wall of the airplane and stared out the window, searching the sky for something. Anything.
But all she could see were miles and miles of clouds.
42
Alice McMichaelson sighed and slumped into her recliner.
After taking Jacob to his last soccer game for the year (they won four to three thanks to Jacob’s two goals) and maneuvering through traffic and then stopping by the library to drop off Brenda’s overdue books and check out another stack that she’d probably finish by the end of the weekend and swinging through McDonald’s to get some lunch and then crawling past that nightmare construction zone on highway 240 West, she’d finally made it home.
Whew.
She kicked off her shoes. Stress. That was the problem. Starting a new job, arriving late for work, not getting enough sleep last night, running around all day with the kids.
She took a deep breath and let her thoughts wander back to work. She really liked this job. The bank was going through a merger-Second National had been bought out by Montrose Intl. Investments last month, and transferring files and accounts had been a nightmare because the two banking companies just happened to use different computer programs-surprise, surprise. But that was one of the reasons they’d brought her on board. They needed extra staff to help with the transition and she needed the money. Garrett had never sent any child support and it was tough enough just making house payments. She had to keep this job. She had to.
She sighed again, then reached down and rubbed her left foot. Ah, that felt good. Tonight, once the kids were in bed, she could do some studying, get ready for her exam on Monday. But for now it just felt good to relax.
Jacob had deposited his soccer clothes in the middle of the hall and disappeared into his room to play video games, and the truth was, she didn’t even care. A few minutes ago Brenda had emerged from her room just long enough to find a bag of Cheetos. Alice watched her daughter return down the hallway and then let her eyes wander around the living room. Could use some cleaning. Vacuuming mostly. But then again, it wasn’t so bad, really. Being a single mom with two kids, what did you expect? She’d managed OK. And maybe she wouldn’t be single forever. She was still young enough to start over again and hadn’t lost all of her looks-at least not yet. And there were a few guys who’d shown interest in her, after all.