“Cold.” A laugh. “Hey, my new friend, whatever you like is good for me.”
“Let me give you an address, and we’ll meet right around dark.”
When he got home it was nearly midnight. He found Katherine sitting in the darkness on the couch. The only light on was down the hallway. Her arms were crossed and she held herself. He touched her face, felt the wet streaks of tears, and her face was hot.
“I am so upset. I remember when her father left I promised her what I would do for her. She doesn’t remember, she was too young, but it was about this time of year, and Jack hadn’t had a job offer in eleven months. Then he got the offer from the security firm, and the only position they had for him was in Alaska. He had just one day to decide, and I think he was as relieved as I was. I knew when he left he wouldn’t be back and that the marriage was over. I don’t even know where he stayed when he got there, but I think he had a girlfriend later on and he didn’t call very often. He never came home again.”
Katherine was quiet, looking at him in the darkness. These were memories he knew she’d rather leave undisturbed, but she continued now.
“I let Maria sleep in my bed for six months. She turned inside herself. Her little smile went away. She used to smile all the time, and she stopped laughing. I made her promises then, one of those was that we would always be close and I would always take very good care of her. Do you know what she said tonight, John? She said she can’t live around me. Sometimes I think she hates me.”
“I think a lot of it is about struggling with herself. She’s eighteen and wants to be independent but can’t be. She’s not financially independent, but if she was she might be ready to get out there on her own.”
“That’s ridiculous, she’s in high school. When I was a senior in high school that would never have occurred to me, and of course I got angry with my mother, but wanting to move out of the house, I would never have thought like that. She says I’m a control freak and I’ve always micromanaged her life. Am I a control freak?”
“Sure.”
“All I’ve ever tried to do is make sure she has the most opportunity she can.”
“And you’ve done that. Now she wants to do it on her own.”
“She doesn’t know what she wants. She doesn’t know what she wants to study or where to go to school.”
“She’ll figure it out.”
“She’s been eighteen for all of two weeks. She’s just a girl still, so what are you saying?”
“I’m saying she wants to grow up, and the best thing you can do, or we can do, is show her a way to be. I was on my own as soon as high school was over. I remember what it feels like.”
“This is my daughter, and she’s still in high school. She’s sleeping on a couch in some ratty apartment in San Francisco. Are you telling me that I should accept that?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying talk to her as though she was thirty. She’s not, she’s just a kid in so many ways, but she’s ready to step it up a notch.”
“No, she’s not.”
“Try her.”
34
Early the next morning he sat at the dining room table and wrote his report on his laptop. In a separate file he added what they’d learned in the past two days, and then he read through everything to date. He had coffee with Katherine. She left for San Francisco, and he was on the phone with headquarters and the team as they continued driving home.
Outside, the sky was white and smooth, and when he talked with Shauf she was still way up north but said it was the same blank sky. He made more coffee, grilled a cheese sandwich, cleaned his gear and guns, switched trucks, and drove into San Francisco to the FBI Field Office.
“I can only give you five minutes,” Ehrmann said.
“My questions won’t take long. You let us follow her all the way up there before backing us off. That’s a long ride, Stan. Why didn’t you tell me before you’ve had her under surveillance?”
“I did tell you. I said we lost her, and we’re lucky you found her again.”
“Why didn’t you tell me last week she was alive?”
“Because we’re very close to our takedown, and it’s a very dangerous group we’re targeting. You’d seemed to have already accepted the idea that she burned you. I had planned to brief you when the time came.”
“You’re putting a lot of energy into following her. You could pick her up but you’d rather follow her. You’re hoping she’ll lead you somewhere.”
“We are.”
“Where?”
“To more individuals associated with this crime ring.”
No kidding, Stan, but what individuals? If he asked about Karsov again he’d get a blank answer.
“Why did she go to the trouble to stage her abduction?”
“We’re not sure who she was trying to fool.”
“Not us.”
“No, not you.”
“The FBI?”
Ehrmann shrugged.
“Make a guess.”
“I can’t do that for you.”
Nothing about Ehrmann was squirrelly, but he was acting squirrelly, and Marquez felt like the guy in the room who was only getting part of the picture. He understood the Feds thought Anna might lead them to more players in this Ukrainian mob group they were targeting, but there were gaps, and he could tell he wasn’t getting the whole picture. Maybe he wasn’t asking the right questions. Ehrmann waited for the next one, and Marquez didn’t ask it. Instead, he stood up. Ehrmann’s five minutes was up, and if it was an hour it wouldn’t make any difference today.
From his truck he checked in with the team. They’d started driving early this morning from the Oregon border and were still a hundred miles from Sacramento and the safehouse. He recrossed the Golden Gate, drove up the mountain, and waited for Maria to get home. She didn’t have a sixth or seventh period today so was home by 2:00. She came in the door, then called, “Dad, where are you?”
“Back here working on your bathroom door. Do you want to take a walk?”
“Where?”
“On the mountain.”
“If it’s not a long one.”
“We’ll turn around when you say so.”
They drove up to the lot across from Mountain Home Inn and walked the paved road past the ranger station and water tanks, then up the steep climb to the fire road before saying much.
“Here’s the deal. As long as you’re going to school and talking to your mom every day while you two work this out, you can keep staying with Stacey and Wendy.”
“Mom’s okay with that?”
“Yes, but the deal is you and your mom have to talk at least half an hour a day.”
“That’s weird.”
“Not as weird as you moving out, and besides, what’s weird about talking to your mom every day?”
“Why for half an hour?”
“So there’s a chance you’ll communicate.”
“You mean it’s my fault.”
“I’m not interested in fault.”
“Does Mom agree with this?”
“I wouldn’t be telling you otherwise.”
She thought on that as they came around another long rising curve, and Marquez looked out at the dark blue of the ocean. Maria’s long-legged stride was like her mother’s. He watched her pick up a piece of serpentine and flick it off the slope, send it over the manzanita and oaks. It made him remember her at nine, the way she used to race up here.
“So I’m supposed to go back to San Francisco tonight?”
“No, you’re already here. I figured you and I could go see my fishing friend, and maybe we can grill some halibut or bass tonight. That sound okay?”
She was quiet too long. She sensed some trick in all this, or maybe it bored her to think about riding around with him and picking up fish from his friend. But then she nodded.
They ended up grilling hamburgers instead of halibut, and he left Maria and Katherine talking near the fireplace, the light of the fire catching their profiles. From the deck he called in and asked dispatch to help him check three hang-up calls on his cell, numbers he didn’t recognize, two from the same spot.