Nick could already see the smile on Matt’s face, and he hadn’t even left the room.
Chapter 5
In the heavily-wooded suburb of Hampden, Maryland, Nick opened the front door of his two story house expecting to see his wife’s easy smile. Julie had a knack for seeming excited to see him even when he was precisely on schedule. That surprised expression she first showed off when he knelt down to propose and continued to shine at him every time he came home. As if the mere act of finding his way back home was an accomplishment to admire. How he loved that expression. If only he could find a way to verbalize those thoughts, those emotions that remained hidden deep inside. She had to know, yet the words somehow escaped him.
Nick circled back through the kitchen, then the den. “Honey,” he called.
When he returned to the front foyer, a sound came from upstairs. He leaned over the banister and heard someone sobbing. Nick ran up the stairs two at a time. As he moved toward the master bedroom, he slid the gun from his holster. He could hear Julie whimpering now. His heart jumped as a loose thought ran through his mind. Kemel Kharrazi.
With his gun drawn, he crept up to the doorway of his bedroom and peeked inside. His heart sank. Julie sat on the floor with her back against the side of the bed. Her knees were pulled up into her chest while she wiped away tears with an overused ball of tissue. Without looking up she said, “I just got off the phone with Lynn.”
Nick holstered his gun and sighed. She had just spoken with his brother’s wife. She knew about Phil.
He watched her sniffle with bloodshot eyes and streaks of moisture blotching her face. Her short brown hair was twisted into sharp angles. Yet as distraught as she appeared, all he could think about was how striking she was. Even at her very worst, in her most awkward moment, he adored her. He couldn’t imagine anyone or anything more beautiful. He wanted to tell her right there, right then. But he didn’t.
He sat next to her and gathered her into his arms. He sat quietly while Julie blurted out her sorrowful thoughts in small dosages. “Poor Lynn,” she sobbed. “The kids don’t know yet.” More sobs. “They think he’s just away on business.” Her firm body wilted in his arms.
“It’s okay,” he whispered.
“I’m so sorry, Nick.” She looked up at him with big Bambi eyes. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
Nick pulled her closer and she dug her wet face into his chest. He caressed her cheek with his fingertips. It was strange to see her so distressed, she had such a strong personality and so few low points.
“Who is it?” she asked. “Who has Phil?”
Nick chewed on his lower lip. He could feel her stiffen in the silence.
“Nick?”
His reluctance was only making it worse. He whispered, “Kemel Kharrazi.”
She gasped. “In America? How could that be?” She twisted in his arms and looked up at him. “Nick, what’s going on? Tell me right now.”
Amazing, Nick thought. She saw the big picture immediately. She was always right there with him. Never a step behind. For an investigator like Nick, it was rare too be followed so closely.
“I’m not sure, sweetie.”
“You know something, though.”
An open-ended question. Just like a good interrogator. She wasn’t going to let him off the hook, so she sat and waited for his response.
Nick took a breath. “Kharrazi is in America with a squad of soldiers.”
When he stopped there, she said, “Well he certainly didn’t go through the trouble of sneaking into the country with a platoon of followers just to kidnap Phil Bracco.”
Nick shrugged. “He’s not your typical terrorist. He’s a Georgetown graduate, extremely bright. Maybe too bright. You know what they say about people with skyrocket IQ’s,” he said, looping his index finger around his right ear.
She just stared.
“All right,” he said. “Kharrazi wants us to release Rashid Baser in exchange for Phil.”
She pulled back and examined Nick’s face. “You’re serious?”
Nick nodded.
“He can’t be that naive?”
“No, he isn’t.”
“Then what’s it all about?”
Nick shook his head. “I don’t know. That’s what I’m going to find out.”
Julie suddenly looked horrified. “You’re going to Vegas?”
Nick didn’t respond. He wanted to soften the blow, but she was too quick for him.
Julie wiped her eyes, then stood up and brushed off her lap, as if to wipe away her vulnerability.
“Nick,” she said, “look at me. I’m thirty-six going on eighty. There’s only so much I can handle before. .” she looked away.
“Before?”
She wiped the side of her nose with the tissue ball and seemed preoccupied.
“What are you trying to say, Jule?”
She turned her back for a moment, took a step away, then turned back around to face him. “Please don’t go. Please. I don’t know how else to say it? It’s just too much for me to handle. First Phil is taken, then you tell me about Kharrazi. . ” She pulled back the hair from her face and tried to maintain control. “I dread answering the phone because I just know one day I’m going to hear Walt Jackson’s voice say, ‘I’m sorry, Julie.’”
Her eyes welled up and her lower lip trembled. She leaned forward and Nick was there to collect her once again. She embraced him like he was a soldier leaving for war. He wasn’t sure she would ever let go of him. He could feel her tiny frame shudder in his arms.
“Please,” she pleaded. “Not Kemel Kharrazi. Not him.”
Nick waited for her breathing to settle into a rhythm before he said, “He’s my brother, Hon. He’s the only one I’ve got.”
“What about me?” she said with short gasping words. “What about our family? The kids?”
Nick almost said, “What kids?” but he knew what she meant. It seemed their plans for having children and a normal family life was always put on hold because of his career. With him they were always one year away before they could slow down and make time for their marriage.
She maintained her death grip around his torso. “I know it’s tougher for me in the summer, Nick. I mean without the students to look after, I have all this time to reflect. But you don’t need to be chasing the most dangerous terrorists in the world. Can’t you just. .” she didn’t finish and Nick didn’t know if it was because she ran out of ideas, or because they’d had this discussion so often that Nick could finish on his own.
She pulled back and locked eyes with him. “Nick, I love you. I just know you’re going to be a terrific father. You don’t do anything halfway, and I can already see you giving our kids horseback rides and splashing water at them in the tub.”
Nick smiled. It was his dream to have children, but he never even allowed himself the privilege of imagining what it would be like to hold something that precious. To be that important to another human being.
He cupped her tiny face in his hands, “I’ll tell you what. . we won’t be having this conversation a year from now. I promise.”
Julie forced a meager smile and sniffled.
Nick pulled a couple of tissues from a box on top of the dresser and handed them to her.
She blew her nose and said, “I almost forgot. How did it go with Dr. Morgan?”
Nick took advantage of the shift in conversation to search for a garment bag in the walk-in closet. “Good.”
Julie brushed past him and pulled the bag from a high shelf, unzipped it and threw it open on the bed. She opened a dresser drawer and retrieved a single pair of socks and underwear and threw them into the garment bag.
