I held back for the next several questions, until inevitably someone asked, 'What about motive? Can you tell us definitively at this point that Talley and Hennessey were operating on their own? And for what reason?'
'We're looking into all possibilities,' I said right away. 'What I can tell you is that the two gunmen responsible for the Patriot sniper killings are now deceased. The city should go back to normal. As to any open aspects of the investigation, we have no comment at this time.'
Siegel looked at me but kept his mouth shut, and we moved right along with our dog and pony show.
The full truth, which we would never share with the press, was that we had plenty of reasons to believe Talley and Hennessey had been following someone else's game plan. Maybe we'd find out whose, and maybe we wouldn't. If I'd had to guess that morning, I would have said this case was as closed as it was going to get.
It happens. A lot of police work is about skimming the bottom layers off things without ever getting to the top. In fact, that's exactly what the people at the top count on. The ones who work for them – the guns for hire, the thugs, the street criminals – those are the ones who absorb most of the risk, and all too often they're the only ones who take the fall.
Something about 'foxes in the henhouse' comes to mind.
Chapter 108
AFTER TWO MORE DAYS of boring and exhausting paperwork, I took a long weekend and spent some time playing what the kids like to call Ketchup. Mostly it's just me turning off my cell and hanging out with them as much as possible, although Bree and I did sneak away for a few blessed hours on Sunday afternoon.
We drove up to a place called Tregaron, in Cleveland Heights. It's a huge neo-Georgian mansion on the Washington International School campus, available for rentals in the summer months. We got a tour from their tightly wound community relations director, Mimi Bento.
'And this is the Terrace Room,' she said, walking us in from the grand foyer.
It was a parquet-floored hall with brass chandeliers, open to a canopied patio at the back. Beyond that were the pristine gardens and a view of the Klingle Valley. Not too shabby. Beautiful, actually. And classy.
Ms. Bento checked her leather folio. 'It's available August eleventh, twenty-fifth, or… next year, of course. How many guests were you thinking?'
Bree and I looked at each other. It seemed weird that we hadn't thought about this in much detail, but we hadn't. We wanted to keep it somewhat small, I guess. It was all kind of new for us.
'We're not sure yet,' Bree said, and the corners of the woman's mouth turned down almost imperceptibly. 'But we definitely want the ceremony and reception in the same place. We'd like to keep everything relatively simple.'
'Of course,' she said. You could just see the dollar signs getting smaller in her eyes. 'Well, why don't you look around a little more, and I'll be in the office if you have any questions.'
Once she was gone, we walked outside to see the terrace. It was a perfect spring day, and easy to imagine a wedding happening here.
'Any questions?' Bree said.
'Yes.' I took her hand and pulled her in. 'Is this where we'd have our first dance?'
We started swaying right there while I hummed a few bars of Gershwin in her ear. No, no, they can't take that away from me…
'You know what?' Bree said suddenly. 'This place is absolutely gorgeous. I love it.'
'Then it's settled,' I said.
'Except I think we should skip it.'
I stopped dancing and looked at her.
'I don't need to spend the next few months thinking about what color the invitations are going to be or who's going to sit next to who,' she said. 'That's someone else's wedding, not mine. Not ours. I just want to be married to you. Like now.'
'Now?' I said. 'Like – now?'
She laughed and reached up to kiss me. 'Soon anyway. After Damon comes home from school. What do you think?'
I didn't have to think. All I needed out of this wedding was for it to be exactly what Bree wanted – fancy mansion or Washington courthouse, I didn't care. As long as she was there.
'After Damon comes home, then,' I said, and sealed the deal with another kiss. 'Next question: do you think we can sneak out the back, or do we have to tell Mimi?'
Chapter 109
THE BACKYARD WAS BEAUTIFUL, the way everyone did it up for us. Sampson, Billie, and the kids had put little white lights in the trees, and candles everywhere you looked. There was jazz in the air, and a dozen high-backed chairs arranged on the patio for the friends and family we'd invited on short notice.
The kids stood up with us for the ceremony – Ali, with the rings; Jannie, beaming in the beautiful white dress we'd let her splurge on; and Damon, looking like a taller and much more self-aware and confident version of the kid we'd dropped off at Cushing last fall.
As for Bree, no surprise, she was stunning in a simple white strapless dress. Simple and perfect in my eyes. She and Jannie had the same little white flowers in their hair, and Nana sat proudly in the front row with a single hibiscus tucked over her ear and a sparkle in her eyes that I hadn't seen in the last few years.
At six thirty sharp, our pastor from St. Anthony's, Dr. Gerry O'Connor, nodded to Nana that it was time to start the proceedings. She'd made one request for today – that she be allowed to offer up a convocation of her own sort.
'I believe in marriage,' she said, standing up to address the group. You could hear the church in her voice already. 'More specifically, I believe in this marriage.'
She came over to where Bree and I were standing and took each of us by the hand. 'You two haven't asked me for this, but I'm giving you to each other tonight and I am so honored to do it.
'Bree, I never knew your parents, God rest their souls, but I have to believe they'd be pleased as punch to see you marrying my grandson. This man is a good man,' she said, and I could see a few rare tears brimming in her eyes. 'He's my one and only, and I don't share that lightly.
'And you,' she said, turning to me. 'You have hit the jackpot here, mister.'
'Don't have to tell me that,' I said.
'No, but when did that ever stop me? This woman is love, Alex. I can see it on her face when she looks at you. I can see it when she looks at the children. I can even see it when she looks at loquacious, silly old me. I've never known a woman more generous with her spirit. Have you?' she asked the larger group, and they all came back with a decisive 'No!' or, in a few cases, 'No, ma'am!'
'That's right,' she said, and leveled a bony finger at me. 'So don't ever mess it up!'
She sat back down while everyone else was still laughing, many of us through our own tears. Just a few words, but she seemed to have covered everything beautifully.
'All yours, Pastor,' she said.
And when Dr. O'Connor opened his book to begin, and I took in that circle of smiling faces around me – my best friend, John Sampson; my grandmother; my beautiful children; and this amazing woman, Bree, whom I'd come to realize I couldn't even imagine trying to live without – I knew that his first two words could not have more perfectly captured everything that was in my heart and mind at that exact moment.
Those words were 'Dearly Beloved.'
