“Mandy!”
Marie leaned back with a laugh as Tracey about squashed her sister in a hug, her coat trailing behind her. “You’re real; you’re thin; I’m so envious; you’re coloring your hair-oh man, that means I’m going to be doing it soon too. What happened? Where have you been? Why didn’t you call me? Oh, you look good.”
Mandy wrapped her arms around Tracey and just smiled. “I missed you too.”
Tracey impatiently pushed aside the coat and sank onto the couch on the other side of Mandy. “Marsh, you should have warned me. I about had a heart attack.”
“Hmm, I could have.” He came around behind the couch and took the coat out of her way, then leaned over and kissed her. “You like surprises.”
Marie laughed at the way Mandy was checking out Marsh. “He’s a cop too, Connor’s partner,” she whispered.
“And I love him most of the time he’s not winding me up this way,” Tracey added, pushing Marsh aside and turning back to her sister. “But we’ll talk about him later. What happened? Start at the very, very beginning and don’t leave out a comma.”
Marie saw the stress Mandy was under reappear and squeezed her hand. “You want that coffee first?”
“I think I’d better.”
Marie got up. “What do you want to drink, Tracey?”
“A soda is fine.”
Connor had poured the coffee and the iced tea. He opened a soda for Tracey as Marie joined him to take the tray. She looked at him, at the steady gaze he gave her in return, at the quiet way he was watching the reunion, and she knew then something of what was coming. She was starting to think again and to put together the pieces. The most striking of which that the cops had felt this reunion needed to be held on a gated estate with rock walls well after dark.
“Thanks.” She refused to let her smile change as she took the drinks back to her sisters. “Don’t feel like you have to hurry with the answers, Mandy. I know they aren’t going to be easy, and we’ve got all night. But why don’t you start with what happened the night Greg was shot?”
Mandy smiled in thanks at the quiet opening and sipped her coffee before she moved to settle into the chair across from her sisters so she could face them both, and then she nodded. “Do you two remember where I used to live, the apartment block?”
Marie nodded.
“Greg lived north, more uptown, but we had a favorite restaurant that we went to on Friday nights down near my place,” Mandy began, and Marie reached over to take Tracey’s hand. One or both of them were going to end up crying before this was over-Marie just knew it. From the corner of her eye she saw Connor follow Marsh and the chief into the next room.
“We were talking about where we would live after we were married, laughing over our clashing styles for colors and carpet and my dislike of having a housekeeper. It was late when we finally paid the bill and walked back to the car. Greg drove me home.” Mandy stopped her narrative, and Marie just waited.
“Did you see the shooter?” Tracey asked quietly.
“I think it’s best if I not answer that,” Mandy replied finally. “One of the bullets that hit Greg came through him and struck me in the side.”
Marie closed her eyes.
They talked about New York. They talked about the missing years. Marie listened to Mandy and to Tracey and couldn’t find words to ease the ache in her own heart. So many years lost and gone forever.
“They want money; they can have the money,” Tracey said, insistent, bitter, her anger growing.
“It’s not going to be that simple, Tracey. Oh, how I wish it could be,” Mandy replied. “Listen to the guys and stay within the protection they provide. Please don’t take chances.”
“You’re not coming home.”
“I can’t, Tracey. The world thinks I’m dead, and it has to stay that way. For all our sakes.”
“When will we see you again?” Marie whispered.
“I don’t know,” Mandy said quietly in return. “Tonight is already a huge risk.”
“The cops can’t do anything?” Tracey pushed.
“They’ve been working to make it better for a long time, and it is getting better. But it’s more dangerous now than ever before as they try to bring it to an end. I don’t want you two being dragged into my troubles.”
“You should have called us; you should have let us help you. We’re family,” Tracey insisted, pacing away from the couch.
“I did what I thought was best.”
“Like you are now, disappearing again? You’re my sister; I want you in my life. You could have at least picked up the phone and called me once in a while.”
Marie watched Mandy take the charge and saw the flicker of emotion cross her face before it went still. “There’s more. Isn’t there, Mandy? There’s more than what you’ve told us.”
She hesitated but finally nodded. “They killed a cop who had knowledge of where I was at. They beat him to death in his own home just to find out what he knew.”
Tracey paled.
“I can’t be in your life again, not until I can do it safely. I can’t. My worst nightmare is that they go after the two of you to get to me.”
Marie leaned forward. “We’re not going to increase that burden on you, Mandy. We’ll listen to the guys, and we’ll follow their advice. You do not have to worry about us,” she promised, knowing she’d push Tracey toward that somehow. “What do they have in mind to keep you safe? Is everything that can be done being done?”
“Yes.”
“There must be some way we can safely see you and talk with you,” Tracey persisted. “I don’t care if we have to book a flight to Alaska and meet you in an igloo somewhere. It matters that we be able to see you again. The money ought to be able to buy us the means to do at least that much.”
“The reporters around the new money make it risky for a while. When it calms down more-”
“Let the reporters-”
“Tracey!” Marie cut her off. She had been the one Marie thought would best be able to adapt, and she was absorbed in the anger of it, the unfairness of it, and the bitter hurt.
“Sorry,” Tracey muttered, walking back over to the windows.
“I understand the anger and the pain of this,” Mandy offered softly. “It’s not what I want either. But caution is how I’ve learned to live, and that doesn’t change easily.”
Tracey turned, her arms folded across her chest. “So we see you a year from now, another night when the guys don’t take us home, but instead take us to some out-of-the-way place where you are?”
“Maybe.”
“You’re my sister! I want my family back. Why don’t we buy a secure house like this one and a small army of guys to secure the grounds and travel with us so we can be a family again? If the threat is that severe, then let’s attack the problem, not just try to hide from it.”
Marie found the thought appealing. “Could you consider that, Mandy? Coming home to somewhere very safe? I know you’re worried about us, but there have to be options better than your disappearing again. Please, there have to be better options than that.”
“I don’t want to be burying one or both of you,” Mandy cried, lifting her hands to cover her face for a moment and fighting for her composure, then tucking her hands back around her waist. “You have to understand Richard Wise. He wants money and he wants me dead. Anyone around me just becomes targets, and I can’t live with that. I don’t want to be gone and lonely like the last eight years, but I can’t live with the fact my presence puts your lives at risk. Don’t ask me for that.”
“Then find something in the middle that works. Use the new money to find somewhere safe to stay and then let us come visit. It can’t be that impossible to arrange for us to safely get to where you are. It can’t be, Mandy. We’re family and we’re not going away this time. We’re not letting you disappear.”
Marie didn’t want to be the one mediating between Mandy and Tracey. She wanted to be the one curled up in a chair crying over everything she’d heard and the pain Mandy had lived through in the last years and the tragedy of
