No Ocean Deep

by Cate Swannell

  If the expression on Jo’s face hadn’t been so fierce, Cadie would have found her lover’s gesture comical. Instead she reached out and gently took Jo’s hand, pulling her back down in to her seat.

  “Jo, sweetheart, let’s be rational about this,” she had said, smiling at her disturbed partner. “What exactly is it that you think she can do?” She had squeezed Jo’s long fingers. “It’s not like she can kidnap me and sell me into white slavery.” The words were accompanied by a wide smile and she watched as Jo visibly relaxed a little.

  “Honey, that bitch is not rational, honestly,” Jo had replied, still perturbed beyond belief by Cadie’s news, despite the light spin the blonde was putting on it. “I don’t think she knows right from wrong anymore.”

  Cadie had nodded, knowing that if what Toby and Jason had told her was accurate, her 12 years’ experience dealing with Naomi might not be enough for whatever had happened inside the senator’s psyche in the last few months. But she had decided not to voice those doubts to her agitated friend across the table.

  “I’m sure she’s gonna try and put on a show for the media,” she had told Jo. “You know, like she did the last couple of days here.” She watched as Jo tilted her head as she listened, concentrating on Cadie’s words. “I’m almost positive that she may try and force me into playing the dutiful, returning, soon-to-be-pregnant wife.”

  Jo had snorted, remembering Naomi’s desperate and, to Jo’s mind at least, almost hilarious attempt to keep Cadie by her side by announcing to the waiting media that they were planning on becoming parents as soon as they returned to the United States. Cadie had gazumped that idea by telling the journalists that if she was going to spend the rest of the year making babies, then she was going to extend her Australian vacation for a while longer, in preparation.

  “Anyone who can come up with that as a blackmail attempt can come up with just about anything to keep you in the country,” Jo had muttered, taking a sip of her now almost cold coffee.

  Cadie had watched the dark-haired woman, trying to figure out a way to reassure her.

  “The bottom line is, I have to go sweetheart,” she had finally said. “My visa runs out in two days and I know you’d rather do this whole immigration thing the legal way.” Cadie had ducked her head to try and catch Jo’s rather elusive gaze. “Right?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Jo had grumbled. “But I don’t have to goddamn well like it, do I?” The Australian had glared at Cadie again, provoking an affectionate chuckle from the blonde.

  “No, you don’t have to like it, darling.”

  “I swear, if that lunatic lays a hand on you, Cadie, I’m coming after her with the biggest stick I can lay my hands on. I’ll beat the crap out of her.” Jo had, momentarily at least, allowed the angry, dark young woman she had used to be emerge through her eyes and Cadie watched it happen, fascinated. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before, of course but it was only her innate trust in Jo’s control that allowed her to observe it calmly.

  “I love you, Jo,” she had said quietly. Immediately the fiery intensity of Jo’s expression had softened into something much more benign and beloved.

  “I love you too,” Jo had husked. “You’re going to tell me that you can handle Naomi, and that I shouldn’t worry about it, aren’t you?”

  Cadie had nodded, smiling across at her lover. “Yes.”

  Jo had sighed, admitting defeat and resigning herself to a few weeks of tortured worry. “Okay.”

  And now here we are, Cadie thought as the banking of the plane as it turned to head across the Pacific brought her back to the present moment. I’m getting further and further away from Jo and closer and closer to who knows what. A knot tightened in her stomach at the thought of whatever she was flying towards. This is ridiculous, she decided. I can’t spend the next 24 hours worrying away at this or I’m going to be a wreck. She thought about the long, draining trip ahead. Or more of a wreck than I’m already going to be anyway.

  Jo sat glumly in the back of the taxi. Detective Harding had booked her into a decent hotel in the heart of the city, not far from the criminal court complex. She had barked the name at the taxi driver and left the rest up to him. Right now the last thing she wanted to do was take in the sights of Sydney, a city that held so many dark and unwanted memories for her. But it was hard not to find herself recognizing landmarks – a nightclub still operating, a restaurant where she’d spent many a night by her former boss’s side – and the further towards the centre of the city they got, the more familiar the landscape was becoming.

  At least Ken had the good sense to find a hotel away from King’s Cross, she thought. It would have been too much to find herself in the middle of her old haunts. Too many nightmares waiting for me there, she realized.

  Instead she let her mind wander back to Cadie. A glance down at her watch told her that only a couple of hours had passed since her lover’s flight had departed.

  Probably drinking a nice glass of champagne and watching a movie, Jo imagined. Wish I was with her. Maybe one day we can make that trip together. That might be nice. I’d like to see where she grew up.

  The headline on the front page of the newspaper lying on the seat next to her blared its message. DIMARCO TRIAL BEGINS TOMORROW.

  And maybe pigs will fly too, the ex-assassin thought grimly.

  Chapter Ten

  Helena Jones stood calmly in the arrivals area of Dane County Airport. Despite its small size, Madison’s only airport was a busy portal, serving the state capital more than adequately. Even at this hour of the night – Helena glanced down at her watch and noted that it was just after 11pm – people were still streaming in and out of the terminal, most of them coming on and off the small commuter flights from Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Chicago. The petite and elegant woman stayed still as passengers milled around her, preferring to keep her eyes fixed on the small door that opened out onto the tarmac.

  It had been four months since she had seen her only daughter. That had been a Christmas visit cut short when some urgent business had unexpectedly taken Cadie and Naomi back to Washington.

  There's been an awful lot of water under the bridge since then, Helena thought. She had known for a long time, of course, that all was not entirely well in her daughter's relationship with the senator. Cadie had kept most of it to herself, but it didn’t take much for a mother to know when things were not quite right. A long, and well overdue, phone call from Cadie when she had made her escape from Naomi in Sydney, had filled in all the details.

  Since then Helena had had the chance to speak a few times, briefly, with the woman who had stolen her daughter's heart, and had found herself quietly impressed with Jo.

  Not that that would be difficult after Naomi, she ruefully admitted. Naomi had always been utterly charming whenever she had been in their home here in Madison, but Helena had seen enough of the senator in her own environment to know there was a mean streak there that had developed more of an edge over the years.

  Jo, she wasn’t yet entirely sure of. The Australian had sounded very pleasant on the phone, if shy and reluctant to talk about herself. Her daughter was head over heels in love, that much was obvious, but there was also a much quieter sense of happiness in Cadie when they had talked on the phone, that pleased her mother very much.

  Cadie had called home, sounding tired and a little sad, once her plane had landed in Los Angeles. She was due any minute on the shuttle from Minneapolis. Helena moved to one side slightly so she could see around the large, farmer-type walking towards her from the tarmac. She was rewarded with the sight of her daughter's compact frame coming through the door, a backpack hanging from one shoulder and a light sweater over her other arm.

  Cadie caught sight of her mother and broke into a broad smile, dropping all her load on the floor before walking into Helena's open-armed embrace.

  "Hi Mom,” Cadie said, trying hard to keep the weariness out of her voice. She had forgotten just how draining the trip from Sydney would be a
nd it felt like about three days since she had had any kind of decent sleep. Let alone a meal that had any flavor to it at all.

  “Hello darling,” her mother replied, happily squeezing Cadie in a gentle hug before they stepped back for a good look at each other. The two women were more or less the same height and resembled each other enough that there was no doubt to anyone walking past that they were related. The only real differences were in hair color – Helena’s was a refined silver-grey throughout – and build, Cadie having muscles in all the right places, while her mother tended to be more willowy. "My, look at you, so brown,” Helena said, brushing a lock of blonde hair off Cadie’s tanned face. “You look wonderful, dear.”

  Cadie grinned at her ever-elegant mother, who didn’t have a hair out of place, and was wearing a beautifully turned-out pantsuit. “Well, I feel like I’ve been dragged through a bush backwards. I can’t wait to get out of these clothes.” She rubbed her face wearily and glanced at the older woman again. “You, on the other hand, look fabulous, Mom,” she said. “Sorry I'm late. We got held up on the ground in Minneapolis.”

  “That's okay. I've been having fun watching people.”

  Cadie smiled. Her mother had always been the quiet observer of people, finding amusement in the quirks of strangers.

  “Thanks for coming and picking me up,” she said, as she picked up her backpack again. Her mother wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she reciprocated, sliding her own arm around Helena's waist as they walked towards the baggage claim area. “It was lovely to know there was going to be a friendly face at the end of all this traveling.”

  “Well, of course, darling. I wasn’t going to make you catch a cab to the house, after all.” Helena smiled at Cadie, the mirror image of her own eyes glinting back at her. “You must be exhausted.”

  Cadie shrugged. “Actually I just feel kind of discombobulated. It's weird to hear all these American accents again.” They reached the baggage carousel assigned to her flight and she put down her bag again. “I was just getting used to hearing nothing but Australian sounds.”

  Helena laughed gently, sensing that there was more than a touch of, if not loneliness, then a certain pining in Cadie's manner.

  “I suspect part of that is just because you're missing Jo,” Helena said, chuckling quietly at her daughter's startled response.

  “Gee, Mom, nothing like cutting to the chase,” Cadie replied.

  Helena shrugged. “I think we know each well enough not to beat around the bush, don't you?”

  Cadie didn’t reply, but squeezed her mother again in a silent acknowledgement. It felt good to be around someone warm and familiar. A siren sounded somewhere and the red light on the wall above the carousel began flashing. Machinery ground and the belt jolted into motion.

  “The good news is my bag was probably one of the last ones on the plane,” Cadie said. “So, in theory it should be one of the first ones off.” Several bags pushed through the rubber strips at the start of the beltline, none of them Cadie's.

  “Nice theory,” Helena murmured, provoking a snort from Cadie. “What's your plan, Arcadia?” she continued. “How long are you going to be with us?”

  Cadie stifled a yawn. She kept one eye on the conveyor belt as she thought about her answer.

  “Well, I thought I'd spend a few days with you and Dad, while I get over the jetlag and get my sleeping patterns back to at least functional. And then, I guess, I'd better drive down to the Chicago house and pick up the rest of my stuff.” Can’t say I'm looking forward to that, she thought glumly. “That's mine,” she said, grabbing her one piece of wayward luggage as it drifted past.

  “I left everything Naomi sent up when she first got back in boxes in the basement,” Helena said. She grabbed one side of the handle of Cadie's bag, and the blonde got on the other side. “I thought it best that you go through them, but at first glance it looks like she just threw in whatever she could reach easily.”

  Cadie sighed as they began walking towards the main exit and the car lot. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” she muttered. “I'd be amazed if Naomi even knew what was mine and what was hers.”

  Helena kept silent, knowing that trashing Naomi was probably not the best idea at the moment. However acrimonious their parting had been, Cadie and the senator had spent a lot of years together, and Helena knew better than most that that added up to a lot of mixed feelings.

  Cadie shivered, surprised by the cool bite to the wind as they walked outside the terminal.

  “I forgot it can still be a bit cold in April,” she said wryly. They stopped long enough for her to pull on her sweater.

  “It was a late winter, remember?” Helena said. “No snow at Christmas and then it all starting coming down in early January.”

  “That’s right,” Cadie murmured, remembering the heavy snowfalls just before they had left for Australia. “I guess three months in the sun can make me forget Midwest winters.”

  “Mmmm sounds lovely,” Helena said. “I must persuade your father to take me out there one of these winters.”

  Cadie laughed and picked up her side of the bag again. “Well, now you have the perfect excuse. You know you can always come and stay with Jo and I.” She grinned. “And, it looks like her parents are going to move up there as well.”

  They reached the car and Helena handed Cadie the keys. She watched as the blonde opened the trunk and lifted her luggage up. “This really is what you want, isn’t it?” she asked quietly. Cadie nodded, finding tears suddenly very close to the surface. Her mother saved her from actually having to string a sentence together by kissing her on the cheek softly. “It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s actually wonderful to see that look in your eyes again. It’s been a while.”

  Cadie smiled wanly. “It has,” she finally managed.

  “Come on. Let’s get you home.” Helena glanced knowingly at the blonde. “So you can give Jo a call.”

  Jo rubbed wearily at her eyes. So far she had done nothing but sit on the hard, wooden bench outside Criminal Court 1. She hadn’t been called since the committal proceedings had begun at 10am and she had a sinking feeling the rest of the day was going to be more of the same. From what she could gather from Harding’s sporadic updates, the hearing was so far mired in legal argument, largely over the preliminary decision to allow Josh to testify by video.

  “We could’ve had him testify and be done with it by now, for all this arguing,” she had grumbled at the time. Harding had just shrugged his shoulders and gone back inside the courtroom, leaving Jo to her own devices.

  This afternoon doesn’t seem much different, Jo pondered. Same old lawyers in the same old wigs and robes, talking the same old crap. She sighed and looked at her watch. Just after three. Can’t imagine they’re going to go much longer. Judges don’t like to be late home for dinner, after all. She grimaced ruefully as she leaned back against the wall, her arms crossed. Should’ve brought a good book.

  She felt a rhythmic vibration on her hip and dug into her trouser pocket to retrieve her cell phone, flipping it open.

  “Madison.”

  “Yep, that’s where I am.” Cadie’s soft, welcome tones were like an instant shot of muscle relaxant for the tall, tense Australian.

  “Hiya, gorgeous,” Jo breathed. She let her head drop back against the wall. “Damn, it’s good to hear your voice.”

  “Mmmm, likewise. Where are you?”

  “Sitting outside court like a shag on rock. Just like I have been all day long.”

  She heard Cadie sigh. “They haven’t called you yet, huh?”

  “Nope. Don’t think they will today either.” Jo glanced left as someone opened the courtroom door from the inside and walked through. But it turned out to be just a reporter, notepad and pen in hand, and she turned her attention back to the phone. “Where are you, more to the point?”

  Cadie laughed quietly and Jo absorbed every second of it. “Well, I think I’m at Mom and Dad’s place, but as my brain dribbled out of my ears a
bout 10 hours ago, I can’t be certain.”

  Jo looked up at the drab ceiling of the corridor and let herself smile at Cadie’s weary humor.

  “I’m glad you got there safely, sweetheart.” She remembered what time it was where Cadie was. “And go to bed, for crying out loud.”

  “I will. I just wanted … I just needed to talk to you.”

  Awwwwww. “I’m glad you did. I needed to hear you talk to me.” Jo heard Cadie shifting her position, and tried to imagine her lover’s face. “I think I’ve figured out that I really hate being out of contact with you.”

  “Oh yeah,” Cadie agreed. “I’m ready to get some sleep, hopefully start to feel human again, and get all this housekeeping done so I can come home again as soon as possible.”

  Mmmm, music to my ears, Jo thought. “Just in time to get jetlagged again, huh?” she said out loud.

  “I won’t care if it’s you I’m using as a pillow, darling,” Cadie replied, her smile almost audible through the phone line.

  Jo chuckled. “And who are you using as a pillow tonight?” she teased.

  There was a pause and a sound of something that could well have been bedclothes being pulled back.

  “Winnie the Pooh, actually,” Cadie finally replied, provoking a more solid laugh from her partner.

  “Fair enough,” Jo conceded. “Call me in your morning?”

  “That’ll be pretty late in your night, won’t it?”

  “I don’t care,” Jo said, her voice suddenly rough with tears. “Please?”

  “Of course, okay,” Cadie answered, and Jo could hear that her lover wasn’t so far from crying herself. “I miss you, Jo-Jo.”

  “I’m right here, love,” Jo replied, trying to be reassuring. Somehow, saying that from a distance of 9000 miles, no matter how good the quality of the phone line, just didn’t wash. “I miss you, too.”