Then she called the office.
“Are you coming in today?” Nadine wanted to know.
“There isn’t any point. I just dropped off Oliver Crane’s DNA sample.”
“How exciting! Congratulations, Kate.”
“They promised to rush the results to the agency. When the envelope arrives, will you give me a call? I’ll probably be at home.”
“Of course I will. Right away.”
SEVERAL HOURS LATER, KATE was three chapters into a crime novel, and still not captivated, when Jay called.
“I’m not sure what to do with myself,” he said. “I’ve typed up my final report and submitted my expenses.”
“Waiting for the lab results is killing me,” she admitted.
“Want to go for a walk?”
She hesitated. Was spending more time with Jay a good idea? But she couldn’t resist the opportunity to be with him. “Sure.” She grabbed her jacket and keys and met him a few blocks from Riverside Park.
Though he was wearing his aviator sunglasses, she could sense him watching her as she approached. She stopped a few feet from him, awkwardly stuffing her hands in her pockets.
“So. How are you?” she asked.
“Been better. I’m sorry I overreacted the other day. I want—” He cleared his throat. “It seems like it would be a good idea if we could be friends.”
“I’d like that,” she said.
They started walking again, and it seemed they’d only taken a few steps before they encountered a young mother with a side-by-side stroller.
“Twins?” Kate asked.
The mother nodded. She was probably asked this all the time, but she didn’t seem to mind. “A boy and a girl. The only time I can get them to nap at the same time is when we go out for a walk.”
“You’re a baby magnet,” Jay said once they were out of sight.
“Weren’t they adorable? Did you see those dimples?”
Jay reached over, took her arm and tucked it under his own. Kate swallowed at this display of easy intimacy, but she didn’t try to withdraw.
Because it felt good to be walking with Jay like this. It felt natural.
“We said when the competition was over, we’d share war stories,” Jay reminded her.
“That’s right, we did.” And the contest between them was as good as over. Oliver Crane’s results were going to give Hannah the answer she needed.
Kate glanced at Jay. “I wanted to know the worst thing that happened in all your years of flying planes.”
“Still want to know?”
She nodded.
“Some pilots go a whole career without making an emergency landing. And some emergency landings are really just precautions. But on Christmas Eve two years ago, I was flying into LaGuardia when my left landing gear failed to lock into position.”
Jay’s face was white and Kate knew he was back there, in the cockpit on that night. She squeezed his hand to bring him to ground. “That sounds serious.”
“It got my adrenaline racing,” he agreed. “Part of the problem is, you never know for sure if the landing gear really is malfunctioning, or if there’s just a glitch with the computer system. It was too dark for me to pass over the flight tower and have the air traffic controllers take a look for me. At any rate, even if the gears were down, they might not be locked. So I had to go into the landing blind.”
It sounded terrifying to Kate. “How do you land a plane without wheels?”
“Well, I had the landing gear on the right side and the nose. But it’s still a tricky thing, keeping the plane level to avoid the worst-case scenario.”
“Which is…?”
“Landing off balance and cartwheeling the plane.”
She covered her face at that appalling picture.
“Plenty of other stuff can go wrong, too. Fire. Crashing too hard on the runway…”
“Not good options.”
“No. So, first we had to burn off surplus fuel, which meant circling the airport for about an hour. I had a full load that day—over two hundred lives including passengers and crew. A lot of them were saying their prayers, but my crew and I knew we had their safety in our hands.”
“Talk about pressure.”
“It’s part of the job. Only you never know when your skills are going to be tested.”
“Once you’d burned off the surplus fuel—what happened then?”
“I had to go in for the landing. The flight attendants did a great job of keeping the passengers from panicking as they braced for the worst.”
“What about you? Were you scared?”
“No time for that. I had to stay one hundred percent focused on the landing. I touched down the right rear landing gear first. It held solid, so I held the nose up for as long as I could, but finally there was no more fighting gravity. I prayed that the landing gear on the nose would lock, and it did. The runway had been foamed down and I could see the emergency crews waiting to step in to help us. But I still had to get that left-hand side of the plane down to earth. That landing gear just wouldn’t come down.”
“How did you do it?”
“As gently as I could, but we still hit hard, with a god-awful noise. A few of the passengers started screaming, but they stopped once they realized we were safely on the ground. The underbelly of the plane was pretty beaten up, and we had some smoking, but no serious flames.”
“You brought it down safely.”
“Well, it was down, but not without damage. Most important, though, all the passengers and crew made a safe exit. There were only a few minor injuries from the rough landing.”
“Weren’t you tempted to hang up your wings after that?”
“Didn’t even think about it. I was out the next morning, flying back to Frankfurt. Just another night’s work, really.”
“Don’t be so humble. You were a hero, Jay. It’s only thanks to you that all those people on that plane lived.”
“Bringing them home safely is just part of the job. It must have been the same for you, Kate, working for the NYPD.”
“You want my worst story now?”
He nodded.
“It doesn’t have a happy ending.”
He squeezed her hand.
“About three years ago I was called to the scene of a corner-store robbery. The thief shot the owner’s daughter seconds before I arrived on the scene because she’d had trouble opening the safe. Her name was Biju and she was only sixteen years old.”
“This world is some screwed-up place, isn’t it?”
“I caught the guy, and EMS was on the scene in ten minutes. But they weren’t fast enough to save the girl. Most likely, though, nothing could have saved her. Jay, she’d taken the bullet to her head. It was—it was awful.”
He slipped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “You caught the guy. Hopefully he paid for what he did.”
“It’s not much consolation when you consider a life was lost.”
“God, Kate, over and over again you amaze me.”
THE NEXT MORNING Jay received a call from Nadine. “I’ve just heard from BioFinds Lab,” she said. “The DNA testing results are in. Can you be at the office in half an hour?”
“No problem.” He walked to the subway stop with Eric, then they each headed in opposite directions. He’d given up accompanying his nephew to school. He’d decided that at this point he had to trust that Eric was going to classes. If he wasn’t, Jay would probably find out at his next scheduled talk with the homeroom teacher or from a phone call from the police.
Nadine was waiting for him when he arrived. “Everyone’s in the conference room.”
“Including Kate?”
She nodded, then followed him down the hall, carrying a plate of bagels and cream cheese.
As Jay stepped into the room, he saw Kate standing alone by the window. She looked tired and tense, and her gaze went from his face to the envelope on the center of the table.
“All right,” Lindsay said. “The big moment has
arrived.”
No one took a chair. It was as if all five of them were too nervous to sit.
“Kate?” Nathan picked up the envelope and handed it to her. “Why don’t you do the honors.”
Kate ran her tongue over her top lip, then tore the envelope open.
“Oh my God,” Nadine said. “This is so exciting.”
“These are the DNA test results for Oliver Crane,” Kate reminded them unnecessarily. She glanced over the paper, then heaved a sigh. “Negative.”
Silently, all five of them processed the news. Nadine was the first to speak.
“So…by the process of elimination, that means Gary Gifford is Hannah’s father.”
“That’s right,” Lindsay said. “Well done, Kate. You, too, Jay.” She reached over to shake his hand. “I wish we could offer you both a job. I really do.”
Nathan clasped his shoulder. “I’m sorry, buddy. But you gave it a great shot.”
Jay nodded his thanks, his gaze still on Kate. She was taking her success modestly. In fact, she seemed a little uncomfortable with it.
He approached her, offering a hand. “Well done, Kate. You deserve the job.”
“Nadine, could you please phone Hannah and tell her we’d like her to come to the office as soon as possible?” Lindsay asked. “This is the sort of news that ought to be delivered in person.”
“I agree,” Jay said. “It’s going to be a bit of a shock. Nadine, you should tell her to bring her husband along if at all possible.”
“What do you mean by ‘a bit of a shock’?” Lindsay asked. “Is there something we don’t know about?”
Jay waited, looking at Kate to fill in the blanks. When he realized she was as confused as the others, he asked, “Didn’t you find out why Gifford was in the care home?”
“I asked, but they wouldn’t tell me.” Her eyes narrowed. “But you know, don’t you? How did you find out? I assumed he wouldn’t talk to you, either.”
“He wouldn’t. But I talked to the music teacher at Brooklyn Heights High School.”
“The woman he loved?” she asked softly.
He nodded. “She told me why he took early retirement. Coach Gifford has Huntington’s disease.”
“Oh, no,” Nadine said. “Poor Hannah.” As everyone in the room turned in her direction, she explained, “I have a cousin who married into a family with that disease. The offspring have a fifty-fifty chance of being a carrier.”
“And if that happens, they are sure to contract the disease themselves, and have a fifty-fifty chance of passing it on to their children,” Jay added.
“Oh my God,” Lindsay said. Everyone fell silent.
“The good news,” Nadine said quietly after the shock had worn off, “is that Hannah can get tested.”
“I’m not so sure she and her husband will consider that good news,” Nathan said drily. “But I don’t see any way around this. She hired us for information, and we found it. Now it’s our duty to share it with her.”
HANNAH AND JEREMY managed to make it to the agency on their lunch break. Both arrived breathless, and hopeful, holding hands as they entered the conference room together.
Jay couldn’t stand to look them in the eyes, so he got up to pour water for everyone. The bagels at the center of the table hadn’t been touched, and Lindsay offered them to their clients. Unaware that soon they would have no appetite for food, they each helped themselves.
“We’ll get started as soon as Kate—” Lindsay stopped talking as Kate breezed in, bringing the chill from the city streets with her.
She’d said she was going for a walk, yet her skin was pale. Maybe she was just upset about the upcoming meeting. She kept her gaze on her notebook, which was okay, since Jay wouldn’t have been able to meet her eyes, anyway. He didn’t begrudge that she’d won the competition. But he realized that this would probably be the last time they saw one another. He wasn’t as happy about that as he ought to be.
“Hi, everyone. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.” Kate settled into a chair opposite from Jay, folded her hands on the table, then looked expectantly toward Lindsay.
“We were just starting,” Lindsay assured her.
Despite Kate’s apparent ease, Jay could tell she was stressed. As a cop she must have had plenty of experience telling people bad news, but this was a matter close to her heart. Kate, more than anyone at this table, knew what it was like to want a child of her own.
“You’ve found my father?” Clearly the mood in the room, which was cautious and restrained, had Hannah puzzled. She checked out everyone’s faces, then turned to Jeremy for reassurance.
“Yes, we have,” Nathan finally said. “Hannah’s father is Gary Gifford. Jay and Kate both found him in a nursing home in Brooklyn Heights—”
“A nursing home?” Jeremy asked. “He can’t be that old.”
Nathan held up a hand, asking for a moment to explain. “Kate determined that Gary was Hannah’s father by the process of elimination, since he refused to provide a sample of his DNA. We have test results from Oliver Crane, and we already had results from James Morgan, so I’m afraid there can be no doubt.”
“What do you mean, you’re afraid?”
Kate bravely took the floor. She leaned toward Hannah, her own eyes glistening with tears. “The reason your birth father was in a care home at such an early age is because he suffers from a genetic neurological disorder.”
“Did you say genetic?” Jeremy asked sharply.
Kate nodded. “I’m afraid Gary Gifford suffers from Huntington’s disease.”
“Huntington’s? Are you sure?” Jeremy spoke in a loud voice. He let go of his wife’s hand.
“I’m afraid so,” Kate replied, her tone a quiet, calm contrast to Jeremy’s.
There was momentary silence as the couple absorbed the devastating news.
“I worked in a nursing home one summer,” Jeremy said. “I saw people with that affliction. Oh my God.” He buried his face in his hands.
Hannah looked very small and alone now, with her husband falling apart on one side of her, and the information slowly percolating into her consciousness. “Huntington’s is fatal, isn’t it?”
“It’s a neurological disease that affects a person’s emotions, intellect and ability to move. The symptoms usually present during middle age, and yes, after a period of ten years or so, it is eventually fatal.”
“Oh, God.” Hannah placed a shaking hand over her mouth.
Kate reached over to touch her shoulder. “You aren’t automatically a carrier, Hannah.”
“What are my chances of—?” She couldn’t manage to finish the sentence, just looked mutely at Kate.
Kate closed her eyes briefly before saying, “Fifty percent.”
“Oh, no.” Hannah’s face crumpled like a child’s and Jay wished her husband would console her, but Jeremy still seemed in a state of shock.
With a deep breath, Hannah held her tears at bay. “So I could get this disease and I could pass it on to my kids?”
“If you are a carrier,” Kate pointed out. “If you aren’t, then there is no risk to having children.”
An eerie, calm acceptance seemed to settle over Hannah. “You know, Jeremy, I thought you were being paranoid when you insisted that we find my biological father before having kids. Now I see how right you were. And I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to be married to me anymore.”
Jeremy stared at her, horrified.
Jay was pretty shocked, too. If that husband didn’t hug her soon, then he was going to go over there and do it. But before either he or Jeremy could move, Hannah rushed out of the room. A second later they heard the reception door slam shut.
“IS THIS A CASE WHERE IT might have been better to let sleeping dogs lie?” Nadine asked half an hour later. Her eyes were pink and puffy as she poured from a fresh pot of coffee.
Kate held out her mug, needing the shot of caffeine in the absence of anything stronger. No one had left the conference room sinc
e Jeremy ran out after his wife.
“I can’t believe what a jerk her husband was.” Jay was still fuming.
“Give him a break,” Lindsay said. “He had a big shock, too. And would they be better off not knowing about Hannah’s family’s medical history? I don’t think so. Can’t they do prescreening on the embryo, to make sure the child won’t be a carrier?”
“Yes,” Kate agreed, wishing it were just that simple. She’d been stewing over the situation since she’d found out why Gifford was in the nursing home. “But if the test comes back positive for Huntington’s, then Hannah will know, for certain, that she’s a carrier, too. Would you rather live the rest of your life dreading the eventual onset of Huntington’s, or be blissfully ignorant of the risk?”
“I wouldn’t want to know,” Nadine said firmly.
“I think I would,” Lindsay said.
Kate glanced at the guys. Both of them shrugged.
“It puts Hannah in a tough position, for sure,” Jay said.
“Unfortunately we can’t do anything to help her,” Nathan said. “But we have our own difficult situation to deal with here.”
Lindsay went to stand by him, her expression serious. “Nathan and I are both very impressed with your work, Jay. Given that you’re the one who learned about the Huntington’s…well, that makes it all the more difficult not to offer you a position here.”
“I understand,” he said. “I’ve already packed up my stuff. There wasn’t that much.” He nodded at Kate. “The office is all yours.”
Jay headed for the door.
But Kate stepped in front of him.
“Wait, Jay. When I left the office right now, I didn’t just go for a walk. I made a phone call.”
Where was she headed with this? He studied her eyes. She was clearly upset, but he didn’t understand why.
“I’ve been offered another job,” she explained. “It’s with a large agency in SoHo. I was just speaking to the managing partner, Everett Ashenhurst. When he heard I had ten years experience with the NYPD, he offered me a position on the spot.”
“But why, Kate?” Lindsay burst out. “This job is yours. You found Hannah’s father. You won the contest, fair and square.”
The P.I. Contest Page 16
