“I’m sorry.”
Bradley closed his eyes. “It’s a part of my life I try to forget about.” There was silence for a moment and then he added, “Having a little girl was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Lauren smiled. “According to my mother, that’s what my father said about me.”
“Is he still alive?”
Lauren looked down. “No, he died when I was fifteen.” She recounted her story of the intruder and the Colt, then told him, “My dad was a very proud man. He didn’t handle being confined to a wheelchair very well. I don’t remember him being happy much after that happened. Just bitter.” She closed her eyes and for a moment was lost in memories of her father. “A few years after getting shot a blood clot from his leg caused an embolism and he died. We thought we’d beaten that burglar that night. But in the end, we only bought my dad another five years. A miserable five years.”
Bradley reached over and brought Lauren close. With the armrest in the way, it was somewhat awkward, but it was exactly what she needed at the moment.
“Lauren,” he said, brushing her hair off her face, “I don’t think you realize how much your father cherished those years he had with you. He may never have told you how much they meant to him, but I can tell you if he had it to do all over again, he wouldn’t have traded those five years in a wheelchair for anything if it would’ve meant you weren’t there to spend them with him.”
Lauren was silent, her head buried against Bradley’s left arm and chest. “He died in my arms, Nick. All of a sudden his body convulsed and then he went limp. I didn’t know what was happening. My mother was at the market, and I didn’t know what to do. I called for an ambulance and then looked at him on the floor, wearing only underwear. I guess when he died, he lost his bladder. I smelled it, the urine… I quickly dressed him and tried to drag him into his bed so he’d have some sense of dignity when the ambulance arrived.”
She went quiet again, but it was only because she was fighting the urge to cry. She lost the battle suddenly as tears dripped freely and she began to weep. “All the life had drained from his body… he was limp, there was just nothing there, nothing I could do. I couldn’t get him onto the bed.” She kept her face buried in his arm, hoping no one around her was aware she was crying. Finally, she wiped the tears away, took a deep breath to calm herself, and said, “You’d make a damned good shrink, you know that? I’d forgotten all about that night. It was very painful.”
Bradley gently brushed away the few remaining tears on her bruised face. Lauren knew he was trying to comfort her — and, she had to admit, it was working. He had actually brought out repressed memories of her father that she had buried so deep no counselor had been able to reach them. Perhaps Michael’s disappearance and her ordeal in the cabin had opened her mind enough that it would now be able to heal. She composed herself and pushed away, sitting upright in her seat. “I’m sorry, that was very intense.”
“Please don’t be,” Bradley said softly, realizing her discomfort. “We all keep more than we’d like to admit bottled up inside. I think of all people, you’d agree with that.”
Lauren nodded, then turned away and looked out the windows on the opposite side of the plane.
Bradley placed a hand on her forearm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I want you to know that I’ll never let anything happen to you. Consider me your guardian angel.” He smiled. “Not that you need me. Maybe I should hire you to watch over me.”
Lauren smiled and rested her head against Bradley’s solid shoulder, staring out at the night sky as the whoosh of the wind lulled her eyes closed. As he stroked her hair, she fell asleep again, memories of swinging on the hammock in her daddy’s arms drifting silently through her mind.
30
Melissa Knox shut her spiral notebook, gathered her papers together, and chatted for a moment with her friend Holly, who was inviting her to a party this weekend.
“I’ll see if I can make it, I have to check with my father,” she said as they walked into the hallway at The George Washington University’s Media and Public Affairs Building. She turned and looked back at the area outside the lecture hall, where Agent Stanfield was supposed to be waiting for her. He had been her personal bodyguard the last few days, a security measure her father had insisted on. As annoying as it had been, she suddenly felt naked in his absence.
“Missy, you okay?” Holly asked.
“Yeah, I just — that agent who was assigned to me isn’t here.”
“The good-looking guy with the tight ass?”
Melissa laughed. “That’s the one. But don’t get your hopes up. He’s married.”
“Too old for me anyway. Besides, he’s too stiff. He hardly smiles.”
“He’s all right. Just doing his job. I talked to him a little bit on the way to school.” They entered the stairwell and began descending the steps.
“So where is he? I thought he’s supposed to be your shadow,” Holly said, enunciating the word shadow with a spooky intonation.
Melissa shook her head. “I don’t know. Probably out front, waiting for me to come out of class. He knows I’ve got econ next, so it’s not like a secret where I’m headed.”
“I’ll see you after class at J Street,” Holly said, pushing through the doors leading to the second floor.
Melissa was descending the steps of the building when she noticed a middle-aged man dressed in a sweater and jeans approaching her.
“Miss Knox!” he called out with an arm raised, as if he were waving to her.
She stopped walking and clutched her schoolbooks in front of her chest. “Yes…”
“I’m Special Agent Luger,” the man said as he displayed his credentials. “I need you to come with me, please.”
Melissa hesitated. “Where’s Agent Stanfield?”
“He was just called away to the Washington Field Office, a problem with one of his cases. Our special agent-in-charge sent me to relieve him. But on the way here I was informed that a security issue has arisen and he wants me to take you to a secure location immediately.”
“What kind of security issue?”
“It has to do with the letter Director Knox — your father — received. He did tell you about the letter, didn’t he?”
Melissa’s eyes darted around the campus in front of her. “Yeah, he told me about the letter. But that’s why Agent Stanfield—”
“Miss Knox, I don’t mean to argue with you, but it’s extremely important we get off this campus immediately. I’ll explain in more detail once we get in the car, where it’s safer.” Luger rubbernecked his head around H Street, then took her by an arm and led her off toward 21st Street. “Car’s this way.”
31
Jonathan Waller stifled a big yawn as he pulled into the parking garage at headquarters. He had just received a call in which he was ordered to report immediately to Director Knox’s office.
“I’m already on my way. I’ll be there in less than five minutes,” he said. He could tell by the strained tone of Liz Evanston’s voice that something was wrong.
When he walked into the director’s suite, Scott Haviland was on the phone, Knox was pacing in front of the window, and Special Agent-in-Charge Lindsey was scribbling notes on a pad.
“No, let’s divert Calahan to this as well. I need some answers.”
Waller’s stomach rumbled, but he could tell by the tension on everyone’s face that he was not going to be eating anytime soon.
“Took you long enough,” Lindsey said to Waller. “We’ve got some bad shit going down.”