She widened her eyes and pulled her head back a little. 'Well, I must say that caught me a bit by surprise.' The room was silent for a moment. 'Your mother know what you do?'
'No. She thinks I'm a pimp.'
Darby laughed uproariously and slapped her husband on the shoulder. Mr. Atlasia was in a more solemn mood than his wife, but he smiled nonetheless.
'Well, I suppose she'll be elated to learn of your shift in vocational emphasis.' Her smile finally faded. 'I must admit your name did sound familiar,' she continued. 'As much as we try to block it out, the media still manages to creep its way in here-the radio, the television, on our doorstep. So we've heard of you. You're the one they call 'The Tracker.' '
Jade cleared his throat and thumbed his silver chain absentmindedly as he considered how to make the transition back to Allander.
'A necklace, Mr. Marlow? I wouldn't expect a man like you to wear jewelry.'
'It's a chain. My mother gave it to me.' And I'll never forget what she said when she handed it to me, he thought to himself. He could see it draped over her outstretched hand, his brother's medical tags swaying beneath her fist. 'Something like a parting gift,' he added.
'Oh. You're not close?'
'No. We don't… no.' Jade cleared his throat a second time and was immediately angry at himself for doing it. Relax, he told himself. You sound nervous. 'Well, I'm-'
'I know. You're here to 'ask some questions,' ' she said, mimicking a businesslike voice and moving her head up and down as she imagined men did when filled with a false sense of importance.
'Just a few. I'll try to make them as painless as possible.'
'That could be difficult, Mr. Marlow. You are hunting my child.' She said it softly, yet sharply, and it stung a little. She wasn't angry, merely stating a fact. Clearly, she was used to hard facts, although after all that Allander had done over the years, Jade hadn't expected to find her quite so defensive.
Thomas began to trace the rocks on the fireplace mindlessly. He hadn't spoken a word since his wife had arrived, but Jade could sense they had a warm relationship.
'Well, obviously it's about your son.'
'Obviously,' she said, her smile returning. 'Of course no one would want to ask questions about us.'
She disappeared into the kitchen for a moment to retrieve makeup from her pocketbook. As Jade asked questions, she put on lipstick and blush, facing away from the men into a round mirror on the wall.
Darby's mood, like her husband's, was oddly giddy, Jade thought. They were all over the map emotionally, still trying to process the feelings moving through them.
'Have you been worried since he broke out?' Jade asked.
'Well, I suppose worried isn't quite the word for it. Concerned. Concerned is a better word.'
'For yourself and your husband?'
'And for him,' Thomas said, finally breaking his silence. He repeated himself as if explaining something to a child. 'She's concerned for him as well.'
'So you still feel close to him?'
'No,' Darby answered. 'But it is our blood running in his veins. We raised him, and he was a sweet, sensitive boy. He was always a little vulnerable, but he was so uncorrupted.' She put her makeup back into her purse and turned around. 'So pure.'
Still she did not sit, but crossed the room and played with little trinkets on the mantel. She seemed to be trying to avoid eye contact, especially with her husband. 'It's hard to let go of that. You understand, Mr. Marlow?'
'No. But I hear you.'
'Fair enough.'
Jade shifted in his chair to face Thomas again. 'How about you, Thomas? How do you feel about your son?'
Thomas didn't look up from his fingers, which still roamed over the curves of the fireplace rocks. He hunched over and grabbed his ankles, looking up at Jade.
'Son… I just don't know. Years of therapy haven't helped me figure that out, and I sure as hell can't give you a three-sentence answer now. But I do know that when… that when your child does a thing, a thing like he did-'
'I think that's enough, dear,' Darby said, cutting him off, her voice maintaining its sweet tone.
Jade sensed something in the brief exchange. The couple wasn't in agreement about Allander. Darby had looked away when she spoke of him, as if she were ashamed for still having motherly feelings toward him. Showing this kind of guilt before her husband seemed strange, especially in light of the closeness Jade sensed between the two of them.
And now she had interrupted her husband-not rudely, but as if she were worried about what he might say. What was 'the thing' that Thomas said Allander did?
'We don't need to get into all that right now,' Darby continued. 'I'm sure Mr. Marlow can read between the lines. Anything else, Mr. Marlow?'
Jade noticed that her tone had changed. Though she was still polite, her warmth had departed.
He had a lot more digging to do; he hadn't even touched the tip of the iceberg. The Atlasias seemed pretty disturbed just by the mention of Allander's name, however, so Jade decided to wait and give them some time to adjust to talking about their son again. He would come back, though, and he would get them to talk, however painful it might be. That was his job.
Jade leaned forward and, with great effort, pulled himself free of the chair. He took a card from his wallet and wrote his home phone number on it.
As he handed it to Darby, he took her gently by the wrist. 'Your husband said he doesn't think Allander will try to contact you. Do you agree?'
The name unnerved her, as it had her husband, and her hand shook ever so slightly.
'We haven't spoken to him in years. I can't imagine what he would want from us now.'
She paused, looking at Jade for a moment. 'You know, Mr. Marlow, we've done a lot to move on, to integrate ourselves back into the community. A lot of charity work, social service-that was our road back to sanity. People don't forget things easily. So you'll have to forgive us if we're less than enthusiastic at the prospect of opening some of these doors again.'
'Yeah.' Jade nodded once. He ran his hand over the back of his neck. 'If you need anything, please call me. Anything. Any hour.' He glanced over at Thomas, who was studying the carpet. 'Thank you both for your time.'
Thomas looked up at Jade and his eyes were strikingly empty. 'Good-bye.' He snapped his head down again. 'Good-bye, Mr. Marlow.'
Chapter 26
After Leah slid her hand into the noose of the tape so that it gathered around her wrist, she worked it back and forth for what seemed like hours. Robbie whimpered as the tape chafed his skin.
Finally, it had stretched enough to allow Leah to slide her sweat-lubricated hand through, freeing it. She ripped the tape from around her eyes and left it dangling from her hair. After yanking on the remaining tape around her waist, she pulled out her other arm. Once she had both arms free, she kicked off her shoes and slid out of her pants rather than trying to extricate them from the coils of tape. She stood, feeling pins and needles through her legs, and pulled the tape from around Robbie's head.
His blue eyes watered as he squinted in the light.
'Before I untie you all the way, I'm gonna go get help, okay?'
Robbie was too weary to scream that he wanted to go with her, so he bit his lip and nodded as the tears began to spill down his cheeks.
Clad only in her shirt and underwear, Leah tiptoed down the carpeted hallway. As she rounded the corner to the living room, she screamed and sank to the floor, landing on her rear. Immediately, her legs began churning,
