“I grew a potato in a jar,” Seth reminded her.
“Yes, I’d forgotten that.”
“Irene flew with my dad in his plane,” Seth said to Frank.
Frank happened to be looking at Elena when Seth said it and saw her wince.
Seth was rambling on, talking a mile a minute about the dogs, the beach, his new pal Irene.
“So, Elena,” Frank said when Seth paused for breath, “I haven’t even asked you about where you work.”
“I’m a PI now,” she said. “I got my license not long after I left the department.”
“Pete’s wife is a PI. You should meet her. You’d get along great. Are you on your own or with a company?”
“On my own. I do a little insurance work, mostly workers’ comp investigation, some heir hunting.”
“So that gives you time to home-school Seth?”
“You told him about that, huh?” she asked Seth.
“Yes. My mom’s a good teacher,” he said to Irene, then frowned. “Mom, am I going to flunk now?”
“No, why should you?”
“I can’t study. You know — the fire.”
“We’ll be able to get our things out soon. What we can’t get out, the insurance company will help us replace.”
“Gordie Howe?”
“He might be just fine. We don’t know yet. What’s important is you’re safe, and I’m safe, and My Dog’s safe.”
“And Frank.”
“Yes, and Frank.”
“And I have my treasures.”
“Yes, but if we’re ever in a fire again—”
“I know.”
“You scared me to death, Seth Lefebvre.”
“I’m sorry.” He turned away from her and back to Irene. “Stay here — I have something to show you.” He stood up, seemed to remember something, turned back to Elena and said, “May I please be excused?”
“Yes, you may.”
He hurried to the guest room, taking care to prevent Cody from following him in.
“He’s great,” Irene said. “You must be so proud of him.”
“I am,” Elena said. “I am.”
Frank thought of the videotape Polly Logan had given him. “Elena — has he ever seen a videotape of Phil?”
“What? You have a tape of Phil?”
“Yes.” He explained where he got it. “I brought it home.”
Seth had overheard the last of this and said, “I have a tape of him too! Wanna hear?”
“Sure,” Irene said, then glanced at Elena, who was pressing her fingertips to her lips. “But maybe we should save it for another time.”
“No,” Elena said. “No, it’s fine.”
He ran over to the stereo, treasure box in hand. “Hey, Frank! Can you show me how to work this thing?”
Frank obliged. They gathered in the living room. Frank noticed that Elena was focusing on the cat, not meeting anyone’s eyes. What the hell was going to be on Seth’s tape?
As soon as Irene came in, Seth said, “Ready?”
“Yes.”
He opened the lid of his treasure box a narrow crack, slipped his hand in, and pulled out a cassette. Frank put it in the machine and pressed the play button. Seth reached into the box again and pulled out a black-and-white photo. A photo of Lefebvre as a young man, in a U.S. Air Force uniform, standing next to a plane. “That’s him,” he whispered to Frank as the tape went past the leader. Through the speakers, they heard a male voice say, “You’ve reached 429-5555. You know what to do.” There was an electronic beep, the soft hiss of tape, then silence.
“Wow, that’s so awesome!” Seth said. “I’ve never heard it on a big speaker before. Play it again!”
Elena’s head was down, her hair hiding her face.
Frank rewound the tape and played it again. This time Seth said the words along with his father.
“It was on his answering machine,” Seth explained to the silent adults. “We made a bunch of copies of it, because it was inside the machine and we were afraid the machine would break, right, Mom?”
“Right, Seth,” she said softly. “A digital recording.”
