He was talking with colleagues when the chase came to its climax. Walter G. Callivant drove his car through the gates of the Cowper’s Bluff Nature Preserve. He took an old path directly to the bluff and drove his car over the precipice and into the Chesapeake below.
“That’s where they must have hidden his real car,” Matt whispered to the weeping Nikki.
“And why they put it off-limits all these years,” she choked back.
“I’m very sorry for your loss,” Captain Winters told Daniel Callivant.
“My father must have been under more of a strain than we thought.” Nikki’s dad looked desperate to get out of the room. Maybe he was afraid there was a suicide note with dangerous confessions upstairs.
Winters maintained his grip on the man’s hand for an extra second, giving him an appraising look.
Sure, Matt thought. He’s got to be checking him out over that EMP gizmo.
Winters turned to Matt. “Can I give you a lift home?”
“I’ll drive him home.” Nikki Callivant wiped the tears from her delicate cheeks. “And I won’t be back, Father. Mom has some relatives in Washington. I’ll arrange to stay with them.”
She took a deep breath. “Remember how we were discussing whether I’d take my senior year abroad? I’m going. And when I come back, I’ll be of age to use the trust fund Uncle George left me. It’s not Callivant money.”
Nikki paused. “But then, I’m not a Callivant anymore.”
Daniel Callivant stared, stricken, as his daughter began leading Matt to the door. “Nikki! You can’t be serious! We have to talk—”
She looked over her shoulder. “Not now,” Nikki said. “Not ever.”
Captain Winters walked with them, sending a puzzled, suspicious glance Matt’s way. But if Nikki wasn’t going to say anything, neither was Matt.
He didn’t know if the truth behind Walter G. Callivant’s suicide would ever come out. He couldn’t even be sure the Senator and Daniel would receive just punishment. A lot of things happened behind the scenes in Washington — especially when national security was involved. He knew he and Winters would do their best to put those responsible for the sim deaths behind bars, but it wasn’t exactly a certainty that these powerful men would get what was coming to them. That all lay in the future.
Right now Matt wanted to get home. But before he did that, he had to make sure Nikki Callivant got safely to her car and away from the men who had almost killed her to further their own ambitions — her family.
Matt remembered an ending line from an old Lucullus Marten story — something that was pure Monty Newman.
Maybe what I did was more personal than professional. But when a girl has just disowned her family, she could use an arm around her shoulders.
That’s exactly what Matt gave her.