“Tourmaline.”
“Yeah. They had other colors, but I thought you’d like black the best.”
She set the box back onto the table.
“Do you like it?”
Tessa shoved her cereal bowl to the side and blinked, letting her eyelids rise very slowly. “So that’s what this is all about.”
“What?”
She looked around the room. “This. All this.”
“What are you talking about?”
Her eyes became razors. “Why didn’t you ask me if I wanted to move to Denver?”
“What do you mean?”
“After Mom died. We just picked up and moved. Why didn’t you ask me if I wanted to move?”
“Well, I just thought it might be best for both of us to get some space-”
“For both of us?”
“Yeah.”
“And how did you come to know what would be best for me?” “Tessa,I-'
“We’re supposed to be a family. Families make choices together about what’s best for everyone, not just for the one in charge.”
Her words seared the air between us. I had no idea what to say. “Listen, I-”
“You took me away from all my friends.” Her lips quivered for a moment, and then the dam broke. “My mom dies, and you make me leave everyone I know and move across the country, and all I ever wanted was a family like Cherise has-a mom and a dad-and when Mom met you, I thought maybe it would happen, just maybe I’d finally have someone to teach me the things dads are supposed to teach their daughters-I don’t know, like about life or guys or whatever and maybe come to my volleyball games and make me do my homework when I don’t want to and tell me I’m pretty sometimes and give me a hard time about my boyfriends and take a picture of me in my prom dress and then stand by my side one day when I get married…”
My heart was breaking, wrenching in half, but I felt powerless. “I never knew-”
By then tears were rolling down her cheeks. “You never asked!” Her voice was ripe with pain.
“I’m so sorry, Tessa, I-”
She grabbed the necklace box and threw it at my chest. The tourmaline necklace clattered to the floor. “You can keep your stupid necklace, Patrick!” She rose from the table. “You can’t buy my love!”
Tessa swept out of the room, and I sat there, stunned, suspended in time. A cold silence swallowed the room.
Go to her. Tell her you’re sorry. Do something!
I stood up and started for her room. Stopped with one foot in the hallway.
Wait. You need to give her some space. Right now that’s what she needs… remember? Reach out to her slowly… That way she knows you’re not going to hurt her.
Maybe I could drive over to the federal building, retrieve the rest of my things, and then come back to straighten things out. I didn’t want to push her, pressure her. I wanted to respect her, show her I really did care.
I slipped into the master bedroom, grabbed my wallet, and then plugged Ralph’s cell phone in so that when he picked it up later it would be charged. As I passed Officers Muncey and Stilton on my way through the dining room, Patricia Muncey asked what was up. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I mumbled, preferring not to explain what was really up.
The black cat nearly tripped me as it jumped out of the way when I threw open the front door. Once outside, I had to turn my collar up against the freezing rain that had begun to splinter through the dark morning clouds.
I climbed into the car and headed to the federal building. All around me the day seemed soaked with the foretaste of death.
73
Tessa collapsed onto the bed, sobbing. Her heart screamed out, ached for love, but no one heard. No one at all.
She hated Patrick and she loved him at the same time. Both! She wanted to hug him and she wanted to slap him. It didn’t make any sense, but it was true. It didn’t matter though. Nothing mattered.
She pulled out the razor blade.
She couldn’t stand this anymore. Nothing had changed. She flew all the way out here, and nothing was any different. Patrick wasn’t her dad. Of course he wasn’t. No one was. What was she really hoping for, anyway?
She heard a car engine outside her window and looked up from the bed just in time to see Patrick backing down the driveway.
Going off to work again. Running away. Leaving her alone.
There’d always be another killer out there somewhere. That’s what really mattered to him, anyway. That’s what he loved. Not her.
If only she wasn’t in his life, they could both be happy.
In that instant she knew what she had to do: go back to New York. Hitchhike to the City. Maybe she could move in with Cherise or one of her other friends. She was old enough to get a job, to live on her own. All she had to do was slip out and get away before he came back. It’s what he really wanted, anyway. It’s what they both really wanted.
After all, it wasn’t his fault he’d fallen in love with a woman who had a stupid teenage daughter. What was he supposed to do? Suddenly know how to take care of a teenager? Suddenly care about the daughter too, just ’cause he loved her mom?
Tessa wiped at her tears and looked around the room.
She could solve everything by leaving. That’s what she needed to do.
She slid the blade into the back pocket of her jeans and flopped her suitcase open. She couldn’t bring the whole thing, way too obvious. Just the knapsack. That’s all she would need. She yanked it out of the closet and began to stuff her clothes inside it.
74
Ten minutes after leaving the house, I walked up to my desk in the federal building. The office chatter drifted into silence as I walked in. No surprise there. I gave a slight nod to the people staring at me and maneuvered between the tables to my makeshift work station. I didn’t see Ralph, Lien-hua, or Sheriff Wallace, just Margaret watching me from behind the glass door of her office.
I ignored her.
I stared at my desk. Not a whole lot here. A couple notepads, a framed picture of my wedding, the mic patch I’d been using and must have forgotten to turn in. As I was grabbing my files, papers, notes, I noticed a manila folder-today’s briefing. There was really no good reason for me to look at it now except that Margaret wouldn’t want me to.
I flipped the folder open.
The Hazmat team in New Mexico had sent in the tissue samples, and the lab found a bacterial agent, just as I’d feared they might. Pathogen type: unknown.
Aaron Jeffrey Kincaid made sure the preparations for the meal were going well and then slipped quietly away from the family. He had a special role to fulfill in today’s narrative. There was someone he needed to meet.
The phone on my desk rang. I looked around. No one else nearby. I should just let it ring. After all, I didn’t work here anymore.
