Living Proof

by Kira Peikoff

  “For how long?” Jed asked.

  “As long as it takes. I hope not longer than a few days or a week. I’m also going to be monitoring her during the day, which means I’ll be out of the office from now on.” Dopp turned to his left. “So Trent, from now on, you will be staying here and catching up on everyone else’s paperwork, while we’re out in the field. And I mean a thorough analysis of all reports. I’ll need updates throughout the day.”

  Trent nodded, expressionless. A lock of hair fell into his eyes, but he did not appear to notice it. Dopp coughed, unexpectedly feeling sorry for him. He really was quite young; Dopp had to admit that it had been his own mistake to think Trent could handle the case alone, with no proven experience as an undercover agent. But he had seemed so promising, Dopp remembered. And now he just looked pathetic.

  “I know it’s a bit of a demotion,” Dopp acknowledged. “But it’s not personal, you know that.”

  “Boss,” Banks said, and then wavered. “I thought the department couldn’t afford overtime?”

  “We can’t,” Dopp replied. “As it stands now. But on Monday, I’m going to let a few people go.”

  Banks’s lips fell slack, but he said nothing.

  “But not me?” Trent blurted.

  Dopp turned to him. “No, you’re still our only direct link with Arianna. Who knows if that will end up coming through after all?”

  “So we’re just going to sit outside of wherever she is and wait for her to come out and then follow her?” Jed asked.

  Dopp smiled for the first time that morning. “Well, yes, but now we finally get to the good news.” He lifted his briefcase to the table and rummaged inside for a white laminated folder. “Here we go,” he said, opening it. Inside was a single sheet of paper, stamped and signed in all manner of judicial formality. The three men peered curiously at it.

  “This piece of paper,” Dopp said, “is our key to solving this case. I finally got us permission from a judge to tap her cell phone. It came through early this morning. I was on the phone pretty much all of yesterday working it out.”

  “Thank God,” Banks sighed.

  “That’s fantastic!” Jed exclaimed. “Just what we need.”

  Trent nodded, looking amazed. “But didn’t you just resubmit the application?”

  “I got Senator Windra to pull some strings for us. He let me send the application directly to one of his judge friends. And Arianna’s little lying episode yesterday gave us reasonable suspicion, so it was a no-brainer for the judge to sign the form and fax it over to me this morning.”

  “Wow,” Trent said. He leaned back in his chair, then forward. “Helps to have friends in high places.”

  Banks was bobbing his head. “Impressive.”

  “Very,” Jed said.

  Dopp smiled, thinking that he had done the right thing by exploiting his connections in Albany. Not only did he make major progress, but he had also gained the admiration of his employees. How absurd it was to remember that his ego had almost stopped him from asking for help.

  Trent put his elbows on the table and clasped his hands. “So how exactly is this going to work?”

  “Well,” Dopp said, “I’m about to call her mobile carrier and relay the judge’s permission over so that they can bug her phone as soon as possible. First I wanted to get all the details straight with you three. Whoever is on duty will wait outside of wherever she is, in a car equipped with a radio interceptor. The interceptor will pick up any sounds near the microphone of her phone, even when she’s not using it. So whenever she drops the bomb to anyone—it doesn’t have to be Trent now—we’ve got her right then and there.”

  “It’s perfect,” Jed said. “It’s practically over.”

  “Finally,” Banks agreed.

  “That’s the hope,” Dopp said, turning to look at Trent, who was nodding eagerly like the others. “Oh, and one last thing. Trent, I have a note about her cell phone number, but I just want to double-check it with you. Can you imagine how stupid it would be to go to all this trouble for the wrong number?”

  For a brief moment, Trent did not appear to have understood. And then he reached into his pocket to pull out his own phone. “Sure. One second. Here we go.” He cleared his throat, staring at his phone. “Ready?”

  “Yeah, yeah. What is it?”

  “It’s 212-723-3223.”

  “Good. Thank you. That’s just what I have here.”

  * * *

  When the meeting was over, Trent harnessed all his self-control and managed not to race out of the room. Instead he plastered on a smile and nodded while the others wished Dopp luck during his first monitoring shift, which was to begin immediately. As the four men walked to the elevator, Dopp explained that he had ordered a car to be waiting for him downstairs with all the necessary radio equipment. It was to be a gray electric sedan, a few years old, and utterly indistinct. All Dopp had to do was drive it to Arianna’s building, park it across the street, and wait for the phone company to remotely install the wiretap. Then they would be “in business,” assuming, of course, that she was at home. If not, the surveillance would have to wait until she returned. And if she happened to be out, it would be for the last time with privacy.

  When Dopp noted this fact, he smiled. Trent’s skin crawled.

  At that moment, the elevator doors opened and the four men walked inside, single file. They each took a corner of the small space, but Trent’s sleeve brushed against Dopp’s as they stood still, feeling the elevator’s measured descent. There was no room to move away. Trent wondered if this was what prison was like: crammed in one room with your least favorite people. A feeling of constriction crept into his collar, then his throat. He wondered if he’d ever have to find out.

  At last—or maybe within seconds—the doors parted. Trent stepped out first, inhaling deeply. The other three followed. Outside, it had begun to rain. As they approached the glass lobby door, Trent saw a gray car idling in front of the building. It looked dreary and plain, just like the sky. The windows were an even darker, tinted gray.

  “Ooh,” Jed called. “That must be the one.”

  “Our new office,” Banks said, slapping Jed on the back. “If it even gets that far.”

  Dopp was beaming. As they walked out the door, everyone opened up umbrellas, except for Trent. He had forgotten to check the weather.

  An official-looking man in blue blazer got out of the car as Dopp approached the edge of the sidewalk. Banks, Jed, and Trent hung back. The cold rain slithered inside Trent’s collar and down his back, but he hardly noticed as he watched his boss shake hands with the man. Dopp nodded as the man spoke and gestured, pointing to devices inside the car that Trent could not see. After a minute, Dopp signed a form—probably an expense report for the department, Trent thought—and then took the keys.

  Dopp thrust them into the air like a trophy.

  Banks and Jed clapped, and Trent had no choice but to mimic them.

  “See you at eleven tonight, Jed,” Dopp called. “Outside her building unless I call about a change.”

  “You got it,” Jed hollered back.

  Dopp waved, jingling the metal keys, and then disappeared into the car. Trent heard the engine rumble and saw the headlights turn on, projecting parallel beams onto the slick street.

  As soon as the car jerked away, Trent knew what he had to do. He said good-bye to the others, ran up to an empty cab sitting at a stoplight, and jumped in. He squished into the leather of the backseat, feeling his wet shirt and pants clinging to his skin. The driver eyed him crossly.

  “Sorry,” Trent muttered. Dopp’s car was already out of sight, on its way downtown. With little traffic on Saturday morning, Arianna had at most ten minutes until he got there.

  “Well?” the driver snapped.

  “Seventy-third and Columbus, please.”

  The cab sped ahead, and Trent looked away from the rearview mirror, where the driver’s brown eyes were watching him with dismay. Then he called the number
he had been forced to give his boss. The phone rang only once, giving him no time to decide what to say or how.

  “Hey!” Arianna answered.

  “Hi.”

  “Are you feeling better?”

  “Umm, yeah. Look, Arianna, you have to come to my place right now.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Just trust me. Leave right now.”

  “But Sam just left, and I was going to lie down.…”

  “Listen to me. You have to leave this minute. And don’t bring your cell.”

  “Why not? You sound panicked.”

  “Just come over and I’ll explain. Don’t make any calls. Hurry.”

  * * *

  With a sense of dread, Arianna tossed her phone onto the kitchen table, grabbed her purse, and wheeled herself out the door. She felt woozy, as if she were high on the most disparate drugs. One moment, Sam was here and they were marveling at his achievement, at the extension of her life, and then the next, Trent was shattering her newfound peace with some strange crisis of his own. And what did her cell phone have to do with anything?

  All she wanted was to hoist herself out of her sedentary jail and lie down on her bed. At this time of morning, the sun would be slanting through her window, bathing her red comforter in warmth. She had been looking forward to resting with the gentle light on her face, as soothing as chamomile tea.

  But as soon as she left her building, she saw that it was pouring rain. With a sigh, she wheeled to the street corner to wait for the rare van cab, which could accommodate her chair. As raindrops pelted her and cars zipped past, her irritation toward Trent mounted. Why did he have to go and upset her now, of all days, and drag her out into this mess? She wanted to be there for him, of course, but it was difficult enough to manage her own situation right now, let alone his. And, seriously, she thought, why couldn’t he have come to my apartment? It was so much easier for him to hop on the subway than for her to wait in a downpour for the right cab.

  Finally, a yellow van taxi pulled up, and she wheeled up its ramp into the roomy backseat. She instinctively felt for her phone to call and tell Trent she was on her way, but then she remembered it was on the kitchen table, that he had bizarrely told her to leave it at home. Something in his voice had warned her not to disobey his instructions. Her heart thumped against her chest. She hated the anticipation of bad news, which was often worse than the news itself.

  Trying to discard her mind’s wildest scenarios—her cell phone was somehow an explosive device or spreading radiation—she stared out the window at the raindrops zigzagging down the glass, blending together into larger drops. As her eyelids drooped, she realized she was exhausted. Last night, instead of sleeping, she had talked on the phone to Megan about vacations they had always meant to plan—Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, Napa Valley, Switzerland. To be able to swim, hike, climb, and snowboard again seemed a miracle. At 4 A.M., she had hung up the phone and spent the next four hours grinning into her pillow, twirling atop the apex of happiness. And now, she felt herself crashing.

  When the cab arrived at Trent’s building, she hurried up to his seventh-floor apartment and rang the bell. He must have been waiting at the door, for it opened instantly. She gasped, forgetting both her annoyance and fatigue. Adrenaline shot darts of fearful energy through her veins.

  He was crying.

  “Oh my God, what’s wrong?” she asked, reaching up to him.

  He shook his head and closed the door behind her. He wept quietly, sniffling and wiping his cheeks with the palm of his hand. It was distressing to see any man cry, but especially him; Arianna had never seen him so distraught.

  “Baby, what’s going on?” she asked gently, as catastrophic thoughts took over: he was ill; a family member was dead. “I came as soon as I could.”

  “Thank you,” he mumbled. He drew a deep, shaky breath. “I don’t know how to tell you this. But I can’t hold out any longer. You have to know.”

  She felt her eyebrows knit together. “Know what?”

  He grimaced.

  Louder, she asked: “Know what?”

  “I’m not a novelist,” he choked out. “I’m a DEP agent.”

  A buzzing. That’s all she heard in her ears, as if her brain were reverberating from a solid whack, and all logic and sense and order had been upended. She clutched the cushioned armrests of her wheelchair, feeling insane.

  “Huh?”

  Trent fell on his knees to her level. She backed away. He bent over the ground she had cleared, elbows planted on the floor, as a silent sob shuddered through him.

  “What the—what the hell is going on?” she sputtered.

  He snapped back up, and his reddened eyes widened. “It’s not what you think. I’m working against them now, but they don’t know it. Just let me explain.”

  She backed away farther, nearly to the door. “I have to get out of here.”

  “No, please, give me two minutes. I’ve been helping you for weeks, please just let me explain.”

  “Do it fast before I get the hell out of here.”

  “I’ll tell you everything.” He barely paused as the words began to tumble out. “For the past three years, I’ve been an agent there, but I hated my job and all of its damn paperwork and I only did it because I thought it meant I was doing something good with my life. I was trying to be a good Christian, even though I never felt like one and I hated myself for that.

  “Then back in October, my boss got suspicious of your clinic because you were reporting these incredibly high numbers that went against all precedents. So he had me do some research, and when we found out who your father was, and about your rallies in college, we got even more suspicious about what you might be doing with all those embryos. But you had never messed up an inspection or audit. We knew you were smart. So my boss assigned me to go undercover and try to get to know you, so that you might eventually let me in on what you might be doing, and then we could take you down. The whole point was to come at you from the side, where you weren’t expecting it.”

  Arianna was breathing heavily; the words were coming faster than she could process as her mind connected certain events from the recent past: the random audit she had passed in October and, mere weeks later, meeting Trent at the book signing.

  “How did you know I would be there?” she demanded. “At Dakota’s signing?”

  He looked sheepish. “That message online was from me, not the publicist.” He stood up to pace, avoiding her dumbfounded gaze.

  “For a while,” he said, “I felt like I was doing a good job getting to know you, with the bike rides. And I kept asking you about science and your work to see how you would react, not because it was for a book. And then, that night you kissed me, everything started to change. I felt weird, but I ignored it. Then after your accident you told me you were sick and we realized that you had a motive to steal embryos. Knowing I was tricking you and you were so sick made me feel even worse, but I ignored myself again. It was for a good purpose, I kept thinking, though even then I found it hard to place so much more value on embryos than actual living people. Something about that seemed off all along, but I didn’t understand what. Then after you told me you went to church, it just went against how I thought of you, and my boss agreed that he thought you might be lying. So he wanted to observe you himself. Our thoughts were pretty much confirmed when we went and had dinner in Long Island, and you admitted to doing abortions. See, those were my parents, but Gideon, well, he’s actually my boss, Gideon Dopp, director of the whole New York City Department of Embryo Preservation.”

  Arianna’s jaw dropped as the memory of that night came into focus; the hostility of those people had taken her aback at the time, but Trent had hardly seemed one of them.

  “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” she whispered.

  “I needed your trust to protect you. Let me just explain the rest. Jed, my friend, is also one of them.” She gaped and Trent winced. “He came along to talk up how loyal a friend I was, so you would
start to trust me. I know; it’s horrible. But anyway, after that night at Dopp’s house, I felt this crazy urge to protect you from all of them, and I realized that I actually did want you to open up to me. It was so insane, because it went against everything I knew was right and moral. I got it in my mind that I was going to quit the case, and I told Dopp so the next day. But then he convinced me that you were worthy of suspicion, because of the abortions, and that I was just being impatient. And I didn’t know how to defend you then. I didn’t realize there was another way of thinking, though I knew you couldn’t really be evil. Then right after that, you showed me the museum and the lab. And, you know this part, the whole world just fell into place for me. It was amazing. Everything you said and believed reflected the conclusions I was starting to come to on my own. I finally understood that it was religion that was the problem all along; I had been trying to believe something that didn’t make sense in order to do something that didn’t make me happy. No wonder I was miserable for so long.

  “So it was done; I knew I loved you and I was completely on your side from that night on. And you don’t know how much I wanted to quit my job! How guilty I felt for lying to you! But I realized that I couldn’t quit or tell you the truth. My job gave me the power to keep them away from you, and I needed your trust to be able to do it. Plus you’ve been getting so weak that I couldn’t risk upsetting you. The truth is that if they catch me, we’ll both go to jail. But all I’ve wanted was to keep you safe, to keep you ignorant of all of this, until you were okay again. And now that you’re so close, I hate that I have to do this to you now, but I have no choice.”

  Arianna blinked, still gaping. “Why not? And wait, what about the crackdown? You were the source all along! You leaked the news!”

  Trent nodded. “I had to find a way to prepare you. Jed had nothing to do with it. After you passed that surprise inspection, Dopp was furious, and he started sending Banks there every day to intimidate you and corner you into wanting to spill to me. And every day, I told Dopp that you weren’t talking. He’s been getting frustrated with me. So he applied for a warrant to bug your cell phone, but the first time, the judge turned it down. I was so relieved.