What Julie had to tell me was even more devastating than that simple math makes it appear, because Gallagher represented by far the greater of the two opportunities. What we were doing in searching for shelters was a long shot at best.
Weird as it may sound, hearing about Gallagher’s death made me realize for the first time that Bryan might die as well. Of course I had known that intellectually for quite a while, but I was so wrapped up in the “hunt” that I kept the truth about Bryan’s situation tucked in the back of my mind.
Now it was front and center, and it made me so scared that I felt nauseous.
“How bad is it?” Julie asked.
I wasn’t going to lie to her. “It’s very bad,” I said. “And it’s my fault.”
“How is that?”
“I should have started this search days ago. Instead I focused too much on Brayton, and on convincing Gallagher to let Bryan go. I thought that was our only real shot, so that’s where I spent my time.”
“It was the logical thing to do,” she said.
“No, the logical thing when you have a kidnapping is to look for the victim. I was too intent on convincing Gallagher, and not spooking him.”
“Are you going to tell Bryan?”
“I don’t know,” I said, because I didn’t. “I’ve been getting his hopes up, because mine were up, and because I don’t want him taking those pills. I’m afraid if I tell him what happened he might panic and take them. What do you think?”
“I think we need to keep him alive until we can’t keep him alive any longer,” she said. “Hold off on telling him.”
“OK. For now.”
“You want to hear the rest of what Lou said, about Gallagher going to see Carlton, and then going to the site of the drilling?”
“Will it help us for me to hear it?” I asked.
“Probably not, but you never know.”
She told me the rest of it, and I filed it away to use after Bryan’s rescue.
“I’m coming out there,” she said. “I want to help search.”
“OK. I don’t blame you.”
I told her where I was staying, and that I’d book a room for her. Unfortunately, I only would need to book it for one night, because that’s all we had left.
The media was not yet reporting that Chris Gallagher was the person killed in the blast. Based on what Julie had said, it was unlikely that the body had been ID’d yet or, for that matter, even recovered remotely intact.
If there was enough left of the car they could probably trace it to Gallagher in that way, especially if it was owned or rented by him. If it was borrowed, it would take that much longer. Trying to recover and test DNA would take longer still.
I couldn’t stop myself from wondering what the hell Gallagher was doing at Carlton’s house, or the disputed land after that. But that was for another day.
Soon Julie would be here, and together we would find Bryan.
Or we wouldn’t, and then nothing would ever be the same.
Julie arrived ninety minutes later.
She met us in the hotel restaurant, where Emmit and I took her through the progress we had made, and where things stood. As updates go, it wasn’t a pleasant one, because we were not getting anywhere.
Of course, in the kind of operation we were conducting you’re always getting nowhere, unless and until you have one hundred percent success. We’d certainly eliminated possibilities; officers had filed reports indicating that they had already checked out seventy-one confirmed bomb shelters.
In four of those instances, they were refused admittance until they threatened to bring the owners to the station and make their lives miserable. Failing that, the officers would have gotten search warrants, but it was unnecessary, because in each case there was ultimate compliance.
It was getting late, and we all decided to get four hours’ sleep and meet very early in the morning. There was nothing we could do anymore that night, and we needed to be refreshed for the next day. Left unspoken was what we all knew: it was Bryan’s last day.
Emmit went upstairs first, leaving Julie and me. We ordered a drink, just one because of that need to be completely alert the next day. It also might help us sleep, although at that point I didn’t think a sledgehammer to the head could put me out.
“Have you told Bryan about what happened to Gallagher?” she asked.
“No. Not yet.”
She nodded. “Good. Please give it a little time. We’re going to get it done tomorrow.”
I had strong doubts we would, but saw no need to mention it at that point.
Sitting with her right then was weird but not awkward, if that makes any sense. It was weird because of the awful situation we were facing, and because we were two people who had been in love with each other for six years.
After that one night, we never talked about it or our feelings for each other, and we definitely weren’t about to now. But it hung out there over the table like a fairly large-sized watermelon.
Since we couldn’t talk about that and we certainly didn’t want to discuss Bryan’s plight anymore, Julie asked me, “So, at the end of the day, did Steven Gallagher kill Danny Brennan?”
“No way. We can add that to the list of things I’ll have to live with.”
“He raised the gun, Luke. He was going to shoot either himself, or you. The fact that he didn’t kill Brennan didn’t make him less dangerous.”
“Yeah,” I said, with as little enthusiasm as I was feeling. “Did you see
“Yes. Great movie.”
“Bryan saw it the other night; he assumed I hadn’t seen it, because it seemed too upscale for my taste.”
She laughed and said, “I would assume the same thing.”
At least I think that’s what she said. I was focusing on the fact that when she said it she put her hand on my arm. It was like a jolt of electricity; she could have been reciting the Gettysburg Address and I wouldn’t have noticed.
Finally I said, “I saw it the night it came out.”
“Then you had a date that chose the movie.”
She had removed her hand, so I was hearing clearly again. “Guilty as charged, counselor. Anyway, Bryan wrote about the relationships that the brothers had, and compared it to the relationship between the Prince and the speech therapist. It showed him that family isn’t enough; you need to work at being friends.”
She nodded as if she understood; I guess when you live with someone for six years you get a good idea how
