“Well, if I am a creep I’d tell you that I’m quite sincere.”
“So where does that leave us?”
“At you making up your own mind based on observation. Sound reasonable?”
“What do we talk about so I can start observing?”
“Personal histories are an accepted protocol. I’ll go first. Like I said, I’m divorced, no kids. I told you I was a problem solver and I am. I’m a lawyer, but don’t hold that against me. I’m down here doing some due diligence for a client embroiled in some nasty litigation. You?”
“Married and never a mom like I told you before. I used to have a career.
Now I sit at home or I sometimes go out. That’s about it.”
“Without your husband? I mean what part of beautiful and intelligent doesn’t he get?”
She held up a warning finger. “You’re treading the creepy line.”
“Sorry. I’ll retreat to a respectful position. What do you do for fun?”
“I don’t do anything for fun. I think I’ve had my share of fun in life. Now it’s all downhill.”
“Come on, it’s not like you have one foot in the grave.”
“Don’t I?”
“You’re not ill or anything?”
“Not in the sense you’re thinking, no.”
He sat back and swirled the wine around in his glass. “Okay, you qualify at least in the top three of the most interesting women I’ve ever met. Just so you can put that in context, my ex never even made the top ten.”
“Which tells me you’re a poor judge of character.”
“I’ve gotten better.”
“My husband would make anyone’s top five list. He’s actually very interesting. At least what he does is very interesting.”
“And what’s that?”
She shook her head. “Loose lips sink ships, you know.”
Sean appeared to be puzzled for a moment. “Sink ships? Is he in the military? I know they have a big presence down here.”
“He’s with the government, but not that branch; although he used to be. Vietnam.”
“Vietnam! But you’re not that old.”
“He waited a long time to marry. Why he decided to go for it after all those years on his own, I can’t tell you.”
“What then? FBI? I’ve got some ex-Army buddies who joined up with the Bureau.”
“Have you ever heard of Camp Peary?”
Sean slowly shook his head. “But it sounds familiar. Is it a camp like for kids?”
She smiled. “In a way, but the kids are really big with toys to match.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Camp Peary is a training center for a government agency whose initials start with C and end with A. Does that spell it out for you, no pun intended?”
“CIA! Your husband works for the CIA?” he said in a furious whisper.
She looked at him with suspicion. “You’re sure you never heard of Camp Peary?”
“I’m from Ohio. Maybe it’s famous around here, but the news hasn’t reached Dayton. Sorry.”
“Well, my husband actually runs the place. Again, it’s not exactly a state secret.”
Sean appeared stunned. “Valerie, let me ask you one simple question.”
“Why would a man like that let his wife go to bars by herself and have dinner with strange men?” Sean nodded. “Well, let me give you a simple answer. He doesn’t care what I do. Some days I don’t know why he married me. Well, I do. I make a terrific first impression. But with Ian, the effect wore off.”
“So if
She shrugged. “Divorces tend to get nasty and take too much energy. You said you’d been divorced. Isn’t that true?”
“Very true,” he admitted. “I guess he keeps pretty busy. I mean with the war on terror and everything.”
“Or it just could be that I’m not interesting enough,” she said.
Sean sat back and looked pensive. “It was love at first sight for my wife and me. But then she changed, or I changed, who the hell knows. She didn’t like lawyers very much. I guess it was doomed from the start.”
“Maybe that’s what happened to me too.”
“Why, how did you and Ian meet?”
“I was with a private contractor that worked with CIA. My field is or was bioterrorism long before it became so popular. Ian and I met at a conference in Australia. That was before he’d been promoted to run Camp Peary of course. I’d actually visited the place before I even knew Ian. But I got burned out and left. He still revels in that world. That’s the difference between him and me. And it’s become a big difference.”
“Wait a minute. That’s why it sounded familiar. Didn’t they find a body at Camp Peary?”
Valerie nodded slowly. “The guy apparently climbed over the fence and shot himself.”
“Damn, why would anyone do that?”
“Everybody has issues, problems.”
“You sound like you speak from experience.”
“We all speak from experience, Sean.”
After dinner was over they walked down the street together.
“This was a great evening, Valerie, thank you.”
“It was a depressing evening, due in large part to me.”
Sean remained silent. He simply didn’t have a good answer to this. Finally he said, “I’ll be in town for about a week. Would you like to do this again?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said.
“Could I at least have your phone number?”
“Why?”
“Is there any harm in talking?”
“There’s harm in everything.” Even so, she reached in her purse, pulled out a pen and piece of paper and wrote a number down and handed it to him.
“You can leave a message there; if I don’t call back, well, I’m sorry. Thank you for saving me from another night in that bar. Goodbye.” She touched his arm, then walked off down the street, leaving Sean feeling very troubled. Valerie Messaline was probably what she seemed to be: a lonely woman treading water until something happened. His only viable lead to Camp Peary had just disappeared. Now where should he start looking?
The answer came to him almost as quickly as the question had. The only thing was, would he have the courage, or more accurately, the level of insanity needed to pull it off?
CHAPTER 55
MICHELLE DECIDED TO COMBINE her Viggie duty with a bold tactical move. There was still daylight left so she took the girl down to the boathouse after getting permission from Alicia. There she outfitted Viggie with a proper life jacket after ascertaining that the girl was only a fair swimmer. They pulled a kayak out and were soon on the water with Viggie in front with a paddle and Michelle guiding the craft from the rear while she instructed Viggie on the proper paddling motion.
She quickly mastered the correct motion and soon her cuts were smooth and efficient through the water. Viggie was certainly stronger than she looked, Michelle decided.
“This is fun,” Viggie said as the wind whipped through her hair.
“I love it,” Michelle said. It only took her two cuts in the water with her paddle before she was once more in the groove. When you’ve paddled, collectively, hundreds of thousands of miles in the water, the muscle memory is ingrained.
They quickly came, as Michelle had planned, to the area of the York across from Camp Peary. She stopped
