by Leigh Irwin
“But I don’t see how paying all that money out for worthless reports does anything for the Chinese. What did they think Keith could do for them?” James asked.
“It’s a kind of long-term project, and sometimes they succeed and sometimes not, according to the FBI woman. They stay in touch after the student returns to the US to finish college. They offer them more money, for supposed scholarships and grants, and as graduation gets closer, they encourage them to apply for jobs at the State Department, or with a private company where there’s lots of confidential information. If they get hired by one of these companies, they pay them a huge bonus. After all that time and all that money, the Chinese are in a position to really turn the screws. That’s pretty much what happened to Keith.”
“So then Keith recruited your dad, like years later? But what did the Chinese expect your dad to do for them? He’s just an airline pilot, and there’s nothing particularly confidential about that business,” James noted, shielding his eyes as he squinted into the sun’s glare.
“But that’s exactly why they liked my dad. The idea was that Keith would steal whatever the Chinese wanted and pass it on to my dad, who’d deliver it to the Chinese in person when he flew to Shanghai. Dad was going to be their courier. He wouldn’t make anyone suspicious, since he traveled to Shanghai all the time anyway.
“But it never got that far, because things unraveled that afternoon when Dad pushed Mom off our balcony. Or at least Dad told the FBI he’d never actually delivered anything to the Chinese. Who knows if he was telling them the truth…. I’m not sure I’d believe anything he said at this point,” I added, jumping down from the boulder. Suddenly, I was itching to move on and talk about something else.
James still sat there pondering while I stood in front of him impatiently.
“So your dad implicates Keith and spills everything he knows about this Chinese spy ring in exchange for a lighter sentence in his murder case. Unbelievable!”
He shook his head and joined me. We strolled along the path, heading south, passing a few fellow walkers. The air was fresh and tangy. I always felt freer and more myself whenever I was near the ocean. We watched the sun sink into the mist that clung to the horizon, coloring the sky orange and pink, and then jogged back to James’ house.
Chapter 33
“Mom! I just want to see him. Why not? He is my father, after all!” Emma was shouting so loudly that James and I could hear her from the front porch before I even opened the door.
“Well, I guess that’s my cue to get out of here! Good luck!” James laughed. He kissed me quickly, gave me a bear hug and bounded down the stairs to his Dad, waiting for him in the car.
I slid the key into the lock and opened the front door, closing it softly behind me. They were in the den. Pam was sitting in her usual chair, and Emma was standing in front of her, hands on hips and red-faced.
“Hello,” I said uncertainly, studying each of them. Pam tried to give me a welcoming smile, but it came out more like a grimace. Emma turned to stare at me, exasperation written all over her face.
“Mom doesn’t want me to go see Dad, even though she said I could the first time I asked.” Emma’s eyes flashed angrily.
“I never said you couldn’t see him. I just said that we should think carefully about it. I’m worried it’ll just upset you,” replied Pam. I stood rooted in place, not daring to voice an opinion.
“Oh…. Well, anyway, I’m home,” I said lamely and turned to leave the room.
A few minutes later, Emma knocked on my door and let herself in. She plopped down onto the bed, looking glum.
“I didn’t know what to say, so I decided I’d better not say anything,” I told Emma, hoping she’d understand.
“It’s okay. I know. It’s just that I really miss my dad!” Her eyes filled with tears and her lower lip trembled. I put an arm around her shoulders.
“Maybe you could write him a letter first. You could ask him any question you want, and depending on what he says, you could decide if you still want to visit him,” I suggested.
Emma looked at me, sniffled and climbed off the bed.
“I guess I could try that first. I am kinda scared about going to a prison. Tom keeps telling me it might not be a good idea. He thinks I should wait a while longer, just like Mom said, and it sounds like you agree with them. I’ll think it over.” She gave me the barest hint of a smile, blew me a kiss, and headed to the door. “Thanks, Sam.”
After that, Emma wrote her father every week, and he always wrote back. She read each letter to me before she mailed it, and she shared her dad’s responses.
Pam did go to visit Keith at the prison regularly, at least once a month. But when she returned, she invariably looked sad and haunted for the next few days. She told us little, and we didn’t ask.
Keith’s case dragged on for the following eighteen months. He finally struck a deal with the FBI. He gave them all the information he’d amassed over the past twenty-plus years, in exchange for a reduction in his sentence. Life in prison became a 35-year sentence, with a chance of parole, although no one thought he had much of a chance of ever getting out. If he did get paroled, it most likely wouldn’t be until he was at least 75 years old. I couldn’t imagine it, or what any of our lives would look like that far in the future.
My dad would be in jail for the rest of his life, without any possibility of parole. The information he’d given the FBI eliminated the death penalty from his sentence, but between the FBI and the police, no one wanted to be remembered for giving a murderer and a spy even a tiny chance of going free again.
I couldn’t disagree, but the day I learned about Dad’s sentence was one of the worst of my life. I was surprised at the overwhelming sense of bewilderment and loss I felt. For a time, I was unable to get through a single day of school without dissolving into tears. I finished my sophomore year at home with the help of a tutor, and I met with my psychologist, Dr. Anderson, three days per week through the rest of that year. By the time our junior year started, I felt strong enough to return to school.
Life had dealt Emma and me terrible luck, but at least we still had each other. James and Tom stood by us as well, but the person who really saved us was Pam. Without her, I don’t know how Emma and I would have survived.
Chapter 34
“Come on, girls! We’ll be late,” Pam called impatiently from the foyer. I finished applying my mascara and watched Emma give her hair a final swipe with the hairbrush. We stood side by side, staring at each other’s reflection in the mirror that spanned our double sinks. I smiled and Emma smiled back, neither of us needing to say a word. Then we hurried down to the waiting car.
“Are you nervous?” Pam asked, searching my face in the rearview window. I sat next to Emma in the backseat and thought about everything that I’d been through in the past two and a half years, and I realized that I wasn’t at all nervous. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world for Pam to adopt me. After all, she and Emma were my family.
They’d also suffered their own terrible tragedies during those years, but our struggles had forged a bond between the three of us that would never break. I was filled with joy and gratitude that despite all that I’d lost, on that day I would gain a mother and a sister. I was home at last.
About the Author
Leigh Irwin is a lover of books and reading, who became an author after retiring from a career in banking. This is her third novel. Her second novel, More Than College, is available on Amazon.
