“That’s really how you see me, isn’t it?”
He turned away, but remained silent.
Vera spent several minutes fantasizing about punching him in the face. “Why are you expending so much energy on trying to find Caro, anyway?”
“Why do you think? She’s my daughter.”
“Now who’s bullshitting, Daddy? Caro’s a thing. She ran away from you, so you couldn’t have her.”
“Oh, please!”
“As opposed to me, who ran right back into your arms.” The vulpine smirk returned to Vera’s face. “Caro is someone neither your wealth nor your influence can affect. That’s something you simply can’t tolerate, Daddy.”
“Not true.”
“Of course it’s true. You think I don’t know you. You’re so fucking defended a fucking termite couldn’t get in, that’s what you think, isn’t it? You don’t fool me, you old bastard. You stand naked in front of me, I see you for what you are.”
He continued to stare ahead. “I made myself what I am today; I didn’t have anyone’s help. Not that I didn’t take favors when they were offered or exchanged for others. Only an idiot would have refused. But I’m my own man, Vera, always have been. That’s the one thing I’m most proud of. So when you … I’m not interested in anyone’s opinions of me—especially yours.”
“Why would you? You’re the center of the world.”
“That’s the spirit, honey!”
She chuckled. “Oh, Daddy, you’re so transparent, and d’you know why? Because you’re such a shitty parent. Having kids was never your thing. Your wanting Caro back has nothing whatsoever to do with her being your daughter.”
“Your attempts at psychoanalyzing me are laughable.”
She ignored his jibe. “It’s about you, Daddy. Everything’s all about you. Caro ran away from you and that’s what you can’t tolerate.”
“That’s nonsense and you know it.”
She shook her head, moving out from her corner to close with him again. “You keep trying to undercut me, but I’m the
Carson stared out the window at the blur of the passing cityscape. “Eddy’s opinion mattered to me.”
“But your brother is dead, Daddy.” She slid farther toward him. “And that’s the crux of it. You never got over your brother. He was younger than you and yet he was elected president of the United States.”
“Not without my help!”
In the small silence, Vera said, “You see? It’s all laid out like the grid of a landing strip. If only you could see it.”
Carson’s voice was bleak. He seemed suddenly lost in time. “See what?”
“How much Edward meant to you, how much you loved him.” She stared at her father for a moment, and when she spoke again her voice had softened considerably. “Did he love you back, Daddy?”
“I … I don’t know.”
“Sure you know. You must know.”
“He accepted my help. He was grateful. He—”
“Fuck it, Daddy! Would you for once tell the truth?”
“It would be easier if he hadn’t thanked me.”
“But he did.”
“Oh, yes. Thanking people was always one of Eddy’s strong suits.”
“You say that like it’s a congenital defect.”
“It made him less sincere,” Carson said, “in my opinion.”
“Uh-huh, too nice for you, was he?” She nodded. “I can see how you’d view that as a defect.”
Carson’s lips moved without him saying a word out loud. Then he pinched the bridge of his patrician nose. “The trouble was, I never knew where I stood with Eddy.”
Vera threw back her head and laughed, causing him to whip around as he glared at her.
“What’s so damn funny?”
“Your brother made you insecure. God, I didn’t think anyone could do that to you.”
“You never knew Eddy.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“Well…” Carson stared at his hands. “There was no way I could let you meet him. You understand that.”
“I understand that you had to keep your Main Line connections intact until you acquired enough power on your own.”
He shot her a sharp look. “That’s a pretty cynical way of looking at it.”
“Ours is a cynical world, Daddy.”
He nodded, almost, she thought, ruefully.
“Damn if it isn’t.”
THEY MET Annika in an open field near the airstrip. The wind was blowing, dragging her hair sideways across her face. Her hands were dug deep in the pockets of her trench coat, a stance like Humphrey Bogart’s in
Jack came halfway toward her, then abruptly stopped. Alli, at his side, broke away and ran pell-mell toward her. Just before she reached her, Annika took her hands out of her pockets. Jack automatically tensed. This was a weird moment. He was half expecting her to have a Sig Sauer in one hand.
Instead, Annika threw her arms wide and enfolded Alli, hugging her tight.
“I can’t believe it,” Alli said. “I’ve missed you so much.”
Annika kissed the top of her head. “Honey, honey, honey,” she crooned.
Then she looked past Alli to where Jack stood. The most peculiar smile broke out across her face, part solemn, part impish, but altogether tentative.
All this time, Thate, present under Jack’s sufferance, stayed back at the periphery of the field. It was difficult to know what he was looking at, impossible to know what he was thinking.
Alli, though reluctant, knew it was time to walk away. That left Jack and Annika. They were standing twenty feet from each other.
“I was too late with Arjeta and with Billy.” With one hand, she drew her hair off her face. “I found him before the cops did, but there was nothing I could do.”
“You could have called me.”
Her smile changed shape slightly. “And how far would that have gotten me?”
She was right, of course. At that point, he never would have listened to her. He came toward her, aware that his heart was beating painfully hard. He felt a roaring in his ears.
“I’ve seen Edon’s back.”
“Yes, well, where you were, I imagined that might happen. Thank you for saving her and all the rest of them.”
“Why are these three girls so important?”
“They know a secret.”
“Edon doesn’t.”
“No. But Arjeta told Liridona. I went to Washington to find Arjeta, to save her, but I was too late.”
“You want to know the secret.”
“I care about these girls. Deeply.”
“But the secret—”
“Jack, please recall what I told you. Secrets are our only weapon against the forces that seek to manipulate us.”
Jack believed her. No matter that he wanted to believe her, that, like Alli, he needed to believe her. He kept walking until he was just a handsbreadth away from her. He could smell her then, and his heart melted a little bit more.
