and the kids while he was eating his sandwich, so he'd stayed at the sub.
She closed her eyes.
It was small, a dozen tables at the most. Blue-and-white-checkered curtains, hardwood floors, and suspended lighting fixtures with glass tulip bulbs at the ends. A small counter stood across from the door.
She'd sat at a table near the far side of the counter. The files were stacked in front of her, on the other side of her plates and plastic drinking glass. She'd lifted the files one at a time, glanced at the cover page, then put them down in a second pile.
She couldn't. They weren't clear enough yet.
She'd heard burgers sizzling on the grill. The young cook cursed as hot grease spattered onto his arms.
She took a whiff of the fries cooking in the fryer. Damn, they smelled good.
Andre Kolonchovsky. Tevye Soldonoff. Lucius Dannisaya…
It was working. Each file was more visible and detailed than the last.
Danique Relyea, Garen Totenkolpa, Poul Farenevla…
The diner's door opened and shut, ringing a tiny copper bell attached to the frame.
Vladmir Yaltsin, Dimitri Ivanov…
She stopped and pictured the file folder in her hands. Wrinkled manila, soft from wear.
Focus on the file page.
Perfect. Clear as day…
Dammit.
Cathy hung up the phone after twice trying to dial Hannah back and having it go to voice mail. Hannah must have turned off her phone. She'd probably realized that Cathy wouldn't give up on the argument.
'Mama, will you read me a story?'
'Not now, Donna, I have to-' She broke off as she raised her head and saw Donna standing in the doorway. She was carrying her favorite book of fairy tales, and she was actually looking tentative. Her Donna who was always a whirlwind of activity and confidence. She smiled. 'Sure, that would be fun. Which one?'
' 'Beauty and the Beast.' ' She came over to the couch and plopped down beside Cathy. 'I like the beast better than the other princes. He's not boring.'
'No, he's not.' She pulled her into the curve of her arm and brushed the straight, fair hair back from her daughter's forehead. 'Suppose we do it together? It's always better that way. You need to practice reading the story yourself.'
'That's what I told her.' Ronnie stood in the doorway, frowning. 'She wasn't supposed to bother you. I told her I'd read it to her.'
'I'm not bothering her,' Donna said defensively. 'She likes fairy tales. That's why I picked this book.' She looked up at Cathy. 'You do like it, don't you?'
'I like reading with you. It's one of my favorite things.' Cathy held out her hand to Ronnie. 'Come on and sit with us. I haven't had a chance to be with you today.'
'I came to see you earlier.' He moved toward her. 'You were on the phone with Aunt Hannah.'
How much had he heard? Probably enough to worry him. 'She sends her love.'
Ronnie looked at Donna, who was busily turning the pages of her book. 'I want her to come home, Mom.'
'So do I. But she'll be fine, Ronnie. She's very smart.'
'The Beast,' Donna prompted. 'I'll read the first page.'
'That will take you an hour,' Ronnie said. 'Let me do it.'
'Will not,' Donna said. 'I'm good. Mama said so.'
'She just wants to-' He stopped and then nodded. 'Yeah. I noticed you were getting better yesterday when you were reading that Dora book.'
'You did?' Donna's face lit with excitement. 'Honest?'
'Honest.' He dropped down on the floor at her feet. 'Go ahead. Let me know if you have trouble with a word.'
'I won't have trouble.' Donna turned to the first chapter. 'Mama, you just sit back and listen. I'll do the whole story. I told Ronnie this would make you happy.'
Was that what this was all about? Good God, her five-year-old was administering therapy. The story made Donna happy, so she wanted to spread the joy? Cathy was touched. In the midst of sorrow, there was this sudden rainbow. 'You were right.' Cathy leaned back and her hand caressingly touched Ronnie's head as Donna turned the first page. 'And that makes you very smart, young lady.' She gazed down at the huge beast standing in the doorway of his castle. 'He's pretty ugly, isn't he?'
'Beasts have to be ugly,' Donna said matter-of-factly. 'But that's okay, they always turn out to be princes in the end.'
Only in fairy tales, Cathy thought. Hannah was dealing with a hideous reality right now and not letting her help. She was scared to death this Kirov would prove to be an uglier beast than the one in Donna's book.
And the finale of the story would bring not a happy but a deadly ending.
Hannah caught up with Kirov behind the motel, strolling in a surprisingly charming small Shakespeare Garden. Small plaques with quotes from the Bard were scattered among the lush, colorful flowers.
'I wouldn't have expected a garden like this behind an ordinary motel,' she said.
'Beautiful flowers are a cheap way to dress up the ordinary.'
'I never would have taken you for a botanist,' Hannah said.
'I'm not.' Kirov nodded toward one of the plaques. 'I'm more interested in the Shakespeare quotes.'
'Your stepbrother was a fan of Western literature. I guess that's something you shared.'
'I suppose.' He frowned. 'But we certainly didn't share a love of mythology. I still don't know why there was a mythology book in his cabin. I did a few crude chemical tests on some of the pages last night, and I don't believe there are messages scribbled in invisible ink. That would have been too easy. Pavski had a chance to go through all those books before the Kremlin jerked the sub away from him and sent it to Finland. He obviously found nothing.'
'Those are some of the most widely read stories in the history of the world. Maybe there's no special meaning to it at all.'
'Possibly, but I knew all the men who might have occupied that cabin, and it doesn't seem like something that any of them would have cracked open. Strange.'
'How well did you know them?'
He raised an eyebrow. 'The crew? I tried to know them as well as I knew every piece of equipment on that sub.'
'That's smart. I guess your life depended on each and every one of those people.'
'More to the point, they were trusting their lives to me and their other officers. The least I could do is to try and get to know them.'
'You knew some of them for a long time, didn't you? All the way back to the naval academy in St. Petersburg?'
'It was called Leningrad at the time, but yes. Some even earlier than that.'
'Earlier?'
'I had known the assistant engineer since grade school.'
Chalk one up for Kirov, Hannah thought. She'd read that engineer's mate Alexander Rotonoff had grown up in the same neighborhood as Ivanov.
'What was his name?'
'Alex Rotonoff. A good man, yet limited outside his narrow expertise.'
Chalk up another one.
They rounded the corner and proceeded down another path. 'If I remember your file correctly, your father
