“What?”
“The bottom row. Fill those in, you should be able to take it from there.” After registering his surprise she added, “Though I wouldn’t bet on it.”
He looked down at the sheet then back at her. “How do you know that?”
She shrugged. “Maybe it’s just easy to figure out when you’re a kid.”
Then he made a small sound with his mouth half open, asked her to repeat the numbers, looked down at his puzzle, and started scribbling. While he filled in the squares in his lame little puzzle, Tessa turned back to the wall of the airplane and stared out the window, searching the sky for something. Anything.
But all she could see were miles and miles of clouds.
42
Alice McMichaelson sighed and slumped into her recliner.
After taking Jacob to his last soccer game for the year (they won four to three thanks to Jacob’s two goals) and maneuvering through traffic and then stopping by the library to drop off Brenda’s overdue books and check out another stack that she’d probably finish by the end of the weekend and swinging through McDonald’s to get some lunch and then crawling past that nightmare construction zone on highway 240 West, she’d finally made it home.
Whew.
She kicked off her shoes. Stress. That was the problem. Starting a new job, arriving late for work, not getting enough sleep last night, running around all day with the kids.
She took a deep breath and let her thoughts wander back to work. She really liked this job. The bank was going through a merger-Second National had been bought out by Montrose Intl. Investments last month, and transferring files and accounts had been a nightmare because the two banking companies just happened to use different computer programs-surprise, surprise. But that was one of the reasons they’d brought her on board. They needed extra staff to help with the transition and she needed the money. Garrett had never sent any child support and it was tough enough just making house payments. She had to keep this job. She had to.
She sighed again, then reached down and rubbed her left foot. Ah, that felt good. Tonight, once the kids were in bed, she could do some studying, get ready for her exam on Monday. But for now it just felt good to relax.
Jacob had deposited his soccer clothes in the middle of the hall and disappeared into his room to play video games, and the truth was, she didn’t even care. A few minutes ago Brenda had emerged from her room just long enough to find a bag of Cheetos. Alice watched her daughter return down the hallway and then let her eyes wander around the living room. Could use some cleaning. Vacuuming mostly. But then again, it wasn’t so bad, really. Being a single mom with two kids, what did you expect? She’d managed OK. And maybe she wouldn’t be single forever. She was still young enough to start over again and hadn’t lost all of her looks-at least not yet. And there were a few guys who’d shown interest in her, after all.
She brushed at a stray wisp of hair. Never did find that brush, though, and it bugged her. Usually she prided herself on knowing where everything was around the house.
Well, not a big deal. She’d buy another dumb brush. And at least she didn’t have to get up for work tomorrow, just take the kids to mass at ten, and after that she had all day to relax. She could make it through until then. Yes. She could manage.
In a few minutes she would get up and straighten the living room. She closed her eyes and whispered a small prayer and rubbed her foot while the weekend drizzled past her outside.
The angels were winning.
At least for now.
43
Ralph suggested we take a breather and then reconvene in half an hour to debrief. It gave us all a chance to collect our bearings, refocus, grab some coffee, whatever. While everyone else went their separate ways, I had one of the paramedics take a look at my shoulder.
He pulled out the blade-like slat of wood that the explosion had buried six inches into my back, cleaned the wound, and smeared the area with antibiotic. “You really should have this stitched up,” he said. “There’s a lot of muscle damage.”
“I’ll be all right,” I told him. “Just butterfly it shut with some bandages.”
“Are you a doctor?”
“Not that kind of doctor. I used to lead wilderness trips, though. Learned first aid for that.”
“Might leave a scar.”
“It wouldn’t be my first.”
He gently bandaged the wound and then patted my good shoulder. “You be careful out there.”
I thanked him and headed inside for the meeting. On the way past the senator’s office I noticed Ralph and Lien-hua standing by the water cooler. Water, good idea. Rinse the bile out of my mouth. I grabbed a cup.
“That shoulder all right?” asked Ralph.
“Yeah. It’ll be fine. Little sore though.” Actually, it was killing me. “You two OK?”
They nodded.
“Listen,” I said, “did you see any evidence at the house before the explosion?”
Ralph took a deep sigh. “A leather jacket in his closet. Looked like the one our guy was wearing last night. I didn’t grab it though because we didn’t have the search warrant yet, and then there wasn’t time to go back for it after you yelled ‘bomb.’”
“Lien-hua?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. Nothing.”
Just then Margaret and Tucker walked in. They nodded a silent greeting to us and headed to the conference room. Ralph joined them, but Lien-hua stayed by the water cooler a moment longer.
“So honestly, is your shoulder OK?” she asked.
“Honestly, it hurts like the dickens.”
“The dickens?”
“My mom used to say it.”
“Oh. Well, anyway. I wanted to say… thanks.”
“For…?”
“At the house. You covered me with your body. You protected me. You didn’t have to do that.”
Ah. She noticed.
“I hadn’t noticed.”
“But…”
“Yes?”
“Don’t ever do it again.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I don’t need protecting, Agent Bowers. I can take care of myself. I’m a big girl. Understand?”
“Um, I-”
“Do you understand?”
“Yeah,” I said. No, I thought. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you don’t want me to protect you, but that you’re thankful to me when I do?”
“I would give that analysis an A,” she said with the flicker of a grin, and walked away, leaving me standing there by myself with an empty paper cup in my hand.
I will never, ever understand women.
I rinsed out my mouth, threw the cup into the trash, and followed Lien-hua to the meeting.
