The Edge of Ruin (26 page)

“What?”

“You are such an ass.” Pamela’s inhalation was almost a moan. “My life depends on your son. So I’d appreciate it if you’d cut it … the fuck …
out
.”

“What are you talking about? It? What does
it
mean?” Robert demanded.

“Cutting him down, demeaning him, undermining—”

“How dare you, sir!” the judge bellowed and shrugged off Grenier’s hand.

“Stop it! Both of you!” Richard yelled. “Stop talking about me as if I’m not here. That’s pretty damn demeaning, too.” He turned to Rudi. “Is the car at the door?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then let’s go.”

They left, and Robert Oort stepped in close to Grenier. He was tense with fury. “I know the game you’re playing. He is
my
son.”

“Then fucking act like his father,” Grenier shot back.

The judge spun and walked away. Pamela glared at Grenier. “He’s trying to help Richard.”

“Really? From where I’m standing it looks like he’s working for the other side.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Pamela said, and she also walked away.

“You know, right now I almost like you,” Angela said, and she patted him on the arm.

R
ICHARD

“
W
e’ve got to stop meeting this way.” The rolling baritone turned the words into a pronouncement.

I looked up from the report I was reading. Grenier, his bulk swathed in a red-and-black-striped bathrobe, stood in the kitchen door.

“You look like a circus tent,” I said and pushed away my cup of cold tea. The light reflected colors off the oily slick on the surface.

“My, my, feeling pissy tonight, are we?” He waddled in and began pulling out the ingredients for cinnamon toast and hot chocolate. “So, how did it go? Promises of support? Are you off to the White House in the morning?”

“The only sound other than my voice was the rip of paper as I tore out the checks I’d written.”

“You should have used the stick, not the carrot,” the former minister grunted. “‘I’ll throw my not inconsiderable millions behind your opponent in the next race.’”

“Somehow I don’t think we’ve got two years.” I watched my knuckles whiten as I closed my hands into fists. “They are such weasels and cowards.”

“What did you expect? They’re politicians.”

“Aldo was a statesman.” The bittersweet scent of chocolate began to fill the room.

“One of the last. And now he’s dead, and I’m sure many others have received discreetly worded warnings. It’s—”

“What you would have done,” I said before Grenier could get it out.

“Exactly.” He pulled the pan of steaming cocoa off the stove and filled two cups.

I cupped my hands around the warm ceramic sides of the mug, and realized the condo had gotten very cold. I found myself looking at the reflective surfaces of the stainless steel appliances.

“What?” Grenier asked.

I took a sip of cocoa, then stood and drew the sword. I quickly touched every reflective surface in the room.

“Ah, yes, that was probably wise,” Grenier said. I sat back down, and we drank in silence. The toaster gave a loud, annoyed-sounding
ding
. Grenier moved to the counter and began scraping butter across the bread. “You know your father is going to blame you for the failure to garner any support.”

“Thank you, really what I needed to hear in the dark hours of the night.”

“Yeah, your father is the stuff nightmares are made of.”

“Don’t. I really don’t want to go there.”

“Actually you do. You got mad at him today. I’d go so far as to say furious. You should have followed through.”

I squirmed under the penetrating hazel gaze, and hated myself for the wash of heat through my body, and feeling like a vise was closing around my head as the anger came sweeping back. “He knows my pattern,” I said levelly.

“Thus ensuring you will repeat it. You’re so cowed from constant criticism that you can barely function when you’re around him. My advice is get your father the hell out of here, and start using your not inconsiderable gifts—charm, charisma, and that wry little sense of humor that breaks out at unexpected times. You’re also cunning and conniving, and I bet you could play dirty if you needed to. So stop censoring yourself, watching every word, and weighing every action. Oh, and among your gifts … your handsome face. So use it.”

Beneath my usual writhing desire to elude the praise, the germ of an idea began to coalesce. I grabbed for it, then pulled back mentally, trying to coax it into focus.

“Papa says—”

“I don’t care what Papa says.” Grenier abandoned the toast and moved in on me. “He distrusts beauty. I’m betting he blames her beauty for drawing him to your mother, and they didn’t suit at all, so he rejects the thing that attracted him.”

“You
really
don’t want to go there after what you did to my mother.”

Something in my eyes sent him skittering in retreat back to the counter. He cleared his throat. “Yes, well, then let’s focus on Daddy. Stop being so damn scared that he won’t approve. He’s never going to approve. He doesn’t like you. He never will. Give it up.”

Occasionally in life you hear something that you just sense is true. It happened in that moment, and it hurt more than any blow or any wound I’d ever received. I pushed away the devastating conclusion, and grasped for the memory of what had happened in Grenier’s office when Papa had come to rescue me. He hadn’t actually said he loved me, but he said the answer to my question was yes. What I’d written was
I hope someday you’ll love me, too
. Saying yes was the same. Wasn’t it?

No. It wasn’t.

Grenier hadn’t been a pastor for almost thirty years for nothing. He saw the hit, and he surprised me by adding softly, “I’m sorry.”

I waved it away. “Doesn’t everybody feel misunderstood by their parents?”

“I think my point was a little stronger than that.”

“Please. Just drop it.” He nodded, and finished thickly powdering the toast with confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon. He returned to the table with the plate, and I took a piece. Butter oozed onto my fingers. “If the monsters don’t get me, heart disease will,” I said.

We then ate in silence for a few minutes. It felt oddly companionable sitting at the table with him after what he had said.

“Rhiana was loitering outside the Capitol today,” I said after I finished off my second slice.

Grenier set down his fourth piece of toast. “And she did what?”

“Nothing. Just watched me.” I took a sip of cocoa. A skin had formed over the top and tried to affix itself to my upper lip. “You know, she phoned me. To warn me that someone was going to try to kill me.”

“Hmm. And from this you glean … what?”

“Bear with me for a minute. There was this girl in high school who really liked me. Somehow everywhere I went, she’d turn up. She took up fencing. She started swimming.”

“Did you go out with her?”

“Eventually.”

“Did you nail her?”

I gave an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know what that has to do with anything, but yes. Anyway, I think Rhiana’s doing the same thing, because when you get right down to it, she really is just a kid. I also think she’s finding that life in Monsterville isn’t as wonderful as she expected, and …” I coughed as I breathed in powdered sugar. “Bottom line, the crush endures.”

“And you’re going to use that to try to lure her back from the dark side of the Force.”

“I’m thinking about it.”

“You’d be stuck with her. It’d be like bedding a cobra. And you’re going to annoy a lot of other women. Probably a few men, too.”

Annoyed, I waved him down. “She comes back. She frees Kenntnis. I don’t see a downside.”

“Just to you.”

“So you’re not in favor of this?”

“I didn’t say that. I just want you to go into this with your eyes open.”

“Believe me, they’re wide open.”

“How are you going to ditch the watchdogs?”

“Enlist one in my desperate need to get laid.” I pushed back my chair, picked up the report, and headed for the door.

“That probably won’t require a lot of acting,” Grenier said, and I felt my ears turning red.

* * *

I picked Estevan. He was the youngest. He was also the horniest and the most romantic. I found him in the room he shared with Joseph, Rudi, and Syd. Everyone else was either on duty or out of the condo. It was Estevan’s sleep period, and he was stripped down to his boxers and starting to lift the covers on the twin bed.

“Hey,
Esse
,” I said, and then I stayed in Spanish. “Sorry to bug you when you’re about to go to sleep, but”—I looked around, and even opened the door, took a look into the hall, then shut it before continuing—“I really need a favor.”

“What you need?”

“I met this girl. Up at the Capitol. I can’t really bring her back here. Talk about trying to fuck in your parents’ house …”

“Oh, shit, man, yeah, I can see that.”

“Anyway, I want to meet her, but turning up with a bunch of guards would sort of wreck the moment.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“So, I was thinking … hoping that the next time you’re assigned to me you could just … sort of … look the other way.”

He was frowning a little and slowly shaking his head. “I don’t know. If you got killed and I was supposed to be guarding you … Oh, man, Joseph would have my ass.”

I let my shoulders slump, and I began to turn away. “Yeah, it’s cool, it wasn’t fair of me to even ask. I just thought you’d understand more than the others. We’re younger than …” I let my voice trail away sadly.

“This girl. She’s special?”

“Very special.” And that, I reflected, was certainly not a lie. “I’ll be careful, I promise. Look, I’m a cop, I know how to look out for myself.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“Please, Estevan. You’re the only person I can trust with this.” And I had him.

I waited until I was back in my room. I turned on the television, and then pulled out my cell phone and hit speed dial for her number. She answered on the fourth ring.

“This is Richard.”

“
A
mericans never take anything on faith. We question. We challenge. We think.”

The music was stirring and patriotic. The images were of American triumphs—Henry Ford and his assembly line, the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, American GIs being embraced in France in 1944, the flag going up at Iwo Jima, and finally a montage of space shots culminating with the first step onto the moon. The narration was supplied by Grenier. His voice was rich and comforting, and it echoed with pride. The final image was the notation
THIS MESSAGE WAS PAID FOR BY LUMINA ENTERPRISES
. The whole thing made Pamela squirm.

“Little manipulative, isn’t it?” Pamela asked.

Grenier dropped a hand onto her shoulder. “That’s what advertising does, my dear. This is our setup, our mood piece,” he said. “We’ll start getting a lot more pointed and specific in subsequent ads. Danny has done an incredible job with the Web site, and has literally hundreds of links to scientific and rational links.”

“You mean like debunkers?” Pamela asked.

“Yes.”

“I see a problem.” Grenier cocked an inquiring eyebrow at her. Pamela had always wanted to be able to do that. Richard could. She had never mastered it. She thought it would have worked well in front of juries to cast doubt on a prosecutor. “According to you the magic is going to start being real. That means the debunkers are going to start having a hard time debunking,” she said.

Grenier stroked a palm across his beard. “An interesting point,” the former evangelist said. “We may need to—”

At that moment Sam came striding into the living room. Angela was with her, and the coroner’s face was tight with tension.

Pamela jumped up from the sofa. Panic was hammering in her throat. She realized she hadn’t experienced a moment without fear since she’d seen that monumental figure beneath that plane.

“What’s wrong?”

Angela opened her mouth, but Sam grabbed her hard by the wrist. “Emergency girl shopping,” the FBI agent said. Her expression was flat and hard, giving away nothing.

Grenier pushed to his feet with a grunt. “Sam, if you’re ever playing poker you probably don’t want to bring Angela along. Judging from the strength of her reaction this probably has to do with Richard, and since I take a very personal interest in Richard—”

“Oh, shut up. Don’t be such a windbag,” Pamela said. She stepped up to face Sam. “Tell me what is going on.”

Sam shrugged, then said, “Richard’s off the reservation.”

“What does that mean?”

Angela broke in. “That he’s slipped away from his security. He’s somewhere in Maryland, and he doesn’t have any protection.”

“And you know this how?” Grenier asked, but Pamela saw a strange expression flash like summer lightning deep in his eyes.

“Because I put a tracer in the foot of his cane, and one in his money clip. The schedule said he was having drinks with Congressman Wilson at the Mayflower, but GPS puts him on the coast in Maryland,” Sam answered. “Estevan was supposed to be with him, and I was trying to handle this without Joseph finding out, but now it’s going to be this big deal and Estevan will probably get fired. I was just going to kill him,” Sam concluded.

“Perhaps Richard has his reasons, and since he is the head of Lumina you should stay out of his plans,” Grenier said.

Pamela rounded on him. “You know about this. What is he doing?”

Grenier’s lips worked for a moment; then he said, “Meeting Rhiana.”

Angela’s hand went to her throat, Sam let out an expletive, and Pamela found herself saying, “You bastard, you’re behind this. You’ve sold us out.” She pressed a hand against her forehead. “Joseph and Rudi are off with my father and Dagmar. Oh, God, what do we do?”

“You’ve got me,” Sam said. “I’m just as badass as any of the boys. Let’s go.” And Pamela joined Sam and Angela as they headed for the front door.

“Wait! Don’t!” Grenier called, but they ignored him. Pamela saw him waddling to the phone as the door shut behind them.

They were in the hall when Sam suddenly froze. She unlocked the door and rushed back into the condo as Grenier was punching buttons on the phone. Sam crossed the room in two strides, yanked the receiver out of his hand, and slammed it back in the cradle.