by Steven James
It seemed like a long shot and I knew it would likely keep the agents busy for a while, but I was running out of ideas.
I went back to work, but it wasn’t long before Ralph mumbled, “I might have something.” He rotated his computer so I could see the photos he’d pulled up of the macabre carnage left in the wake of a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. “There’s a covert assignment that Tyree had in Kandahar two months before his contract expired. That same week there was a bombing during a funeral in Kandahar.”
I calculated. That would have been after Chekov left the GRU. “Valkyrie.”
“It was never verified for certain, but yes, it does look like he was behind it.”
I thought things through. “So where does that leave us? Valkyrie connects with Tyree in Kandahar. Maybe Tyree is involved in this bombing, or maybe he isn’t, but either way, Valkyrie somehow recruits him and then orchestrates this counterfeit drug operation, using Tyree as his muscle at the facility?”
Ralph was tracking with me. “For whatever reason, Tyree tortures these two guys, puts ’em in the hospital—apparently working with this unknown woman. I don’t care if you’re into motives or not, Pat, but why would they get this drug to Margaret’s brother, to Natalie Germaine, and then try to cover it up?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. But I’ll be honest, I can’t help but think that Valkyrie might have coordinated it simply because he could, simply to show that he could get to the family members of a congressman and the FBI Director. It fits the profile Lien-hua drew up on him last winter.”
“To prove that he’s untouchable.” Ralph nodded. “To show that he can do what he wants, when he wants, to whoever he wants.”
“We should get Lien-hua’s take on this.” I rose.
“Hang on, buddy.” He grabbed my elbow. “I’ll go fill her in. You sit down. You’re the dad. You’re not supposed to see your daughter until she’s all ready for her prom.”
“How do you know that? You only have a son and he’s not even out of middle school yet.”
“Brineesha tells me these things. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
68
6:24 p.m.
A few minutes later, though, it was Brineesha, not Ralph, who ascended the stairs. “You should go talk with your daughter. Encourage her. She’s really nervous. She doesn’t think she’s pretty.”
“She said that?”
“Not in so many words. But there are other ways people communicate. Especially girls.”
“And she wants me to talk to her?”
“She needs you to. Lien-hua and I have been telling her that she looks fine, but it might mean more coming from her dad. You know how important this night is to her. Go on. That boy is going to be here in just a couple minutes.”
Downstairs, I found Tessa standing on the edge of the living room beside the open bathroom door, eyeing herself uncertainly in the mirror. A clutter of makeup paraphernalia lay spread across the bathroom sink’s counter.
Lien-hua and Ralph were in the bedroom, presumably so Tessa wouldn’t hear them conferring about the case. Ralph’s dumbbells and weight sets had been pushed to the side of the living room to make room for Lien-hua to stay down here.
One glance at Tessa and I knew my daughter had nothing to worry about. She looked amazing. Maybe too good. I remember being a teenage guy. I remember how they think.
“Hey, Tessa.”
“Hey.”
As it turned out, Lien-hua had great taste and the dress accentuated Tessa’s figure without being too tight or seductive. It reached the floor and I wouldn’t have seen her red Converse shoes if she hadn’t been fluffing the dress to the side, trying to see what it looked like at different angles.
The black raven tattoo curling around her left upper arm served to gently accent the dark allure of the dress.
Her right arm bore the line of straight scars from her cutting days, but she’d become used to them and, for the most part, seemed to accept them as simply another part of her life’s story.
She wore her hair pulled back into a loose bun with a single crimson ribbon woven into it, and had on her typical black fingernail polish and dark eyeliner. A leather clutch purse that I hadn’t seen before sat on the edge of the couch. It matched the color of the ribbon. I guessed she and Lien-hua must have picked it up while they were dress shopping.
“You look great,” I told my daughter. “Really. I’m not just saying that. The other girls at the dance are going to be blown away.”
“Huh,” she scoffed. “I doubt that.”
“Don’t.”
She was cute, no, way beyond cute.
Elusive, mysterious, gorgeous.
She’s beautiful. Your daughter is beautiful.
Man, this guy Aiden better treat her right.
She hesitated, studied her hair in the mirror. “I don’t know if I should wear it like this. You think it’s okay? Really?”
To put it mildly, Tessa was not one to worry about how she looked, and seeing her so concerned about it right now just underscored to me how much this boy meant to her.
I put my hand lightly on her arm to reassure her. “I know you’re going to have a great time. You’re very pretty. Your mom would be proud to see you tonight.”
At last she turned from the mirror and looked at me directly. “I need to tell you something, Patrick.”
“What’s that?”
“I know I’ve always been sort of weird about boys—never really hooking up with, well, the best guys in the universe. You know what I mean.”
“There’ve been a few times, yes.”
“Anyway, Aiden’s different. I really like him. And I just wanted to say thanks.”
“Thanks?”
“For trusting me.”
“For trusting you.”
“I mean, last week we were talking about guys. Remember? At the picnic? And I told you how I didn’t like it when you met them at the door and scared them off or checked up on ’em or intimidated ’em, or anything like that. Thanks for trusting me with Aiden, for not probing or asking me all about him, things like that. It means a lot.”
An uncomfortable itch began at the back of my neck and crawled down my back.
She leaned up on her toes and gave me a light kiss on the cheek. “Mom would be proud of you too.”
That did it.
“Listen, Tessa, there’s something I should probably . . .”
Upstairs, the doorbell rang.
“Oh, that’s him.” Her eyes grew large. Nervous. Excited. “What is it? What were you gonna say?”
“Hey, listen, I’ll tell you later. Why don’t you head—”
“No, don’t do that. You know I hate it.”
“Do what?”
“Bring up something and then tell me we’ll talk about it later. Tell me now or else you know how much it’ll bug me and I don’t want that. Not tonight.”
I heard Brineesha answer the door and invite Aiden into the living room. Her words were faint, but I could just make them out: “You must be Aiden. Tessa’s been looking forward to seeing you. She’ll be right up.”
“In this case, Tessa, I think it might be—”
She placed her hands on my shoulders. “What is it, Dad? I need to get up there.”
“I did.”
“You did what?”
“Check up on him.”
She lowered her hands slowly. “What does that mean: you checked up on him?”
“I called the school’s safety officer. Just because I love you and I was—”
“You what? You called the cops to check up on Aiden?”
“No, well, I mean . . . the safety officer—”
“Just say what he is. He’s a cop.”
“Aiden seems like a great kid. I wasn’t even going to bring it up
but—”
“You knew how I feel about that.” Something deeper than disappointment crossed her face. “I told you.”
I almost wished she would slap me or sling her hands to her hips and yell at me, anything like that, but she didn’t. Instead, the look of affection she’d had for me just moments ago had evaporated, and all I saw on her face was a look of betrayal instead.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to hurt you or anything.”
“That’s not the point.” She shook her head fiercely. “The point is, you didn’t trust me.”
“No, I do trust you. It’s just—”
“Tessa!” Brineesha called cheerily from upstairs. “Aiden’s here.”
Now my daughter’s anger became evident. She snatched up her purse, but the top was open and her lighter and a pack of cigarettes tipped out.
Before I could say anything, she blurted, “Do not even go there. I know how you feel, okay?” She held her hand up, palm toward me. “Just don’t.”
She retrieved the lighter and the cigarettes, then stood, her eyes showing a mixture of fire and pain. “If you would have asked me I could’ve told you he was a great kid.” Her words bruised the air between us. “You didn’t have to call the cops.”
“I’m sorry, I—”
She whirled away up the stairs.
As she disappeared, Ralph poked his head out the doorway of the room where he and Lien-hua had been consulting with each other. He rubbed his forehead in empathy.
Lien-hua gently called me over to the door, and when I got there she urged me to go and talk to Tessa.
“I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to talk right now.”
“Then just tell her you love her. Don’t let her night start out like this. Tell her that much, trust me. She needs to hear it.”
I sensed she was right and hurried up the stairs to try to catch Tessa before she met up with her date.
69
I was too slow.
By the time I got upstairs she was standing shyly in front of Aiden. Brineesha had stepped away to give them some space.
This was the first time I’d seen him: Caucasian. Medium build. Tousled blond hair. Athletic. He was wearing a lightly starched tux. He appeared as nervous as my daughter.
Actually, that was a little reassuring. Nervous was good.
He held a red rose corsage for Tessa’s wrist. It had black lace and either he’d somehow found out what color ribbon and dress she’d be wearing, or he’d guessed right, because it would match her outfit perfectly.
“Hey,” Tessa said to him.
“Hey. You look really great.” His eyes glanced across the scars on her forearm, but didn’t linger.
She stared demurely at her feet. “Thanks.”
“Hello, Aiden.” I held out my hand to him. “I’m Tessa’s father.”
“Hello, Mr. Ellis.” It was natural for him to assume I shared Tessa’s last name, and I didn’t correct him.
He shook my hand. A strong grip.
Tessa was avoiding eye contact with me.
They both stood there awkwardly and I knew it wasn’t the right time to pull Tessa aside to talk to her, even if it would be to simply tell her that I loved her. “She needs to be home by midnight, Aiden.”
“Yes, sir.”
He fumbled with the corsage as she lifted her left wrist. He slid it carefully over her hand, then, like a gentleman, he held out his arm to her and she took it in hers.
“Back by midnight,” I reminded them both, at a loss for what else to say.
“Yes, Mr. Ellis.”
“Have fun.”
Tessa said nothing.
I got the sense that anything else I said right now was only going to embarrass her, especially telling her here in front of Aiden that I loved her. And embarrassing her was the last thing I wanted to do.
As he opened the door, she finally spoke to me and said stiffly, “Good-bye, Dad.”
“Good-bye, Tessa,” I told her.
Only when she was gone did I realize that I hadn’t taken any pictures of my daughter and her date.
70
Aiden started the car and pulled onto the street.
Despite how glad Tessa was to be here and the tinge of electricity that still rippled through her from when Aiden had brushed his hand across hers when he slid the corsage onto her wrist, she couldn’t leave the deal with her dad behind.
Even after all this time Patrick didn’t trust her judgment.
Of course he doesn’t trust you. You told him yourself you don’t have a good track record of finding respectable guys.
“I like your tattoo.” Aiden drew her out of her thoughts. He was glancing at the raven on her left arm. “It’s way cool.”
She couldn’t help but think back to the trip to San Diego when she got it. The guy who owned the tattoo studio had tried to sexually assault her. “Yeah, it’s got quite a story behind it. I’ll have to tell you sometime.” Now was definitely not the right time.
“Okay. Cool.” A pause. “I never saw your scars before.”
“I usually wear long sleeves.”
“Right.” Another pause. “So, did it hurt? I mean when you . . . ?”
“Cut myself.”
“Yeah. When you cut yourself.”
“Yes. But it hurt worse when I didn’t do it. I don’t know if that makes any sense.” By Aiden’s expression Tessa couldn’t tell if he understood or not. “I had a lot going on in my life.” She wasn’t sure she should tell him the rest, but she did anyway. “My mom died.”
“Man, I’m sorry.”
“It was a couple years ago. I’m doing better.”
She thought about how she would have cut tonight, feeling like this, if it was a year ago.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
“Thanks.” She felt like she could really use a smoke but didn’t want to light up in Aiden’s car.
They drove for a few minutes. She wished he would take her hand, maybe put his hand on her knee, but he didn’t.
“Hey, listen, can you check my cell?” He indicated toward his phone, which lay between the seats. “See if Melody texted us yet? If they’re at the restaurant?”
“Sure. Yeah.”
She checked the texts and saw that the other two couples were already there. “I’ll let ’em know we’re on our way.” Without having to look at the phone she tapped at the buttons to send the text, and her thoughts returned to Patrick and how he’d gone behind her back and checked up on Aiden.
Because he didn’t trust her.
He doesn’t trust you because you don’t deserve it.
It’s not Patrick’s deal, it’s yours.
The words ripped through her, ruined her, crushed her.
Because she knew how true they were.
71
Looking concerned, Brineesha joined me by the door. “Something happened downstairs, didn’t it?”
“I said something I shouldn’t have,” I told her simply, then returned to the basement to talk about the case and to try to distract myself from thinking about what had just happened with my daughter.
Lien-hua was on the couch. Ralph loomed near the doorway to the bedroom.
“Let’s not talk about it,” I said. “I feel bad enough already.”
At first neither of them spoke, then Lien-hua tried her hand at reassuring me. “Brin and I got some good pictures of her.”
“Good.”
“By the way, when we were at the dress store I asked Tessa to be my maid of honor.”
“Really? What did she say?”
“She said yes.”
“That was sweet of you to ask her.”
“It only made sense.”
The conversation petered out.
Ralph cleared his throat
. “Hey, I was thinking I might throw in some pizzas for supper. What do you prefer—pepperoni, or pepperoni?”
“Pepperoni,” I said.
“I’ll take pepperoni,” Lien-hua told him.
“Good choice. Let me grab a couple pies. I’ll be right back.”
When he’d left, Lien-hua said, “Pat, you need to hear this: if I were Tessa I probably would have felt offended too.”
“I’m her dad, Lien-hua. It’s not easy to know when to pull back.”
I really didn’t want this to slip into an argument, but thankfully, after a brief pause she said, “She’s a resilient girl. Don’t worry. I’m sure she’s going to have a great time.”
“I sure hope so.”
When Lien-hua went on, she did what I was hoping and left the topic of my clash with Tessa alone. “So, about the case. Ralph told me what you were thinking, that Valkyrie might have gone after family members of high-profile government officials just to prove he could. I agree, though I think it might also grow from his past involvement in the GRU. Possibly to make a statement to them, to show he’s able to do on his own more than they’re able to do as a group.”
Despite the fact that we were talking about motives, I had to agree that what she was hypothesizing did make sense, especially considering who the victims were.
“Ralph mentioned your search for video footage at the airports in India. It got me thinking. Tyree and this woman were in Atlanta last week when he left his prints at Corey Wellington’s apartment. Then he showed up in Kadapa over the weekend to torture those two men.”
I could see where she was going with this. “Security cameras at the Atlanta airport. Since Corey’s house is in Atlanta, it would make sense that they would’ve flown out of there.”
“It’s the world’s busiest airport, has the most extensive security presence of any airport on the planet. If anyone had the cameras to catch the two of them on tape, they would.”
“Right,” I said. “And then we can use facial recognition. Maybe catch the two of them checking in or boarding a flight, figure out what names they’re traveling under.”
