“What do you mean?”Javi asked.
Lara hesitated as she looked up at Javi.“Oh, I didn’t mean to say that,” she said.“I know how much you look up…looked up to Dad.And it was a long time ago.I’ve not even thought about it for years.Although I guess, maybe that’s why he did want to give you a second chance.Because Mom gave him one.”
Javi had never met Felice Lee.He’d seen photos—there had always been one in the office and in Saul’s wallet—and he’d heard stories.She’d been a doctor, like her daughter.A good one.He didn’t know if she’d have liked him, but from how people talked about her, he’d have probably never found out.
“Fed and doctor, those are two demanding careers to fit in one marriage,” Javi said as he tried to feel his way through the conversation.“One of them is always going to have to take the back seat.”
“It wasn’t that,” Lara said.She took a deep breath and then sighed as she admitted, “I think Dad had an affair.I don’t know how serious it was, but Mom left him.For a while.”
Thatalmostmade sense.One person who’d hobbled their career to make up for bad choices in a relationship taking pity on another.If Javi squinted, he could be a bit disappointed in Saul, but still accept that as an explanation.
It left a few loose ends, though.
“Was it with Kincaid?”he asked.
Lara blinked at him.Her attention, for a second, not locked on the kid she’d almost lost.Surprise gave way to a blurt of laughter.
“No,” she said.“God, no.I mean, it was in Atlanta as it goes…but no.That guy wouldnotbe Dad’s type.It was a junior agent.She used to come with her husband all the time.They even babysat me sometimes.Then one day, they just stopped.Dad stopped going to work, and he was drinking all the time.Mom tried for a bit, and then one day she just took me and left.It was a month before Dad came to find us.They managed to work it out, but I think part of the deal was coming here.So they’d not run into her again, so Dad wouldn’t be in any position to have that sort of relationship again.I mean, there’s you, obviously, but you aren’t his type, and even if you were…I don’t think Mom would have cared, since she was dead by then.She was a very practical woman.”
It still didn’t work for Javi.
Javi didn’t have the right to make that call.He might have respected Saul, but Lara had known the man her whole life.She had the right to claim to know him best.
She didn’t know the FBI, though.
No one hadknownabout Javi and Kincaid, but people had known.And everyone had known about Javi and Eric.If Saul Lee had a history of fucking his subordinates, someone would have brought that up as a reason for him taking Javi under his wing.
“Did you ever hear about the agent again?”he asked.
Lara shook her head.“No,” she said.“When Dad died, I tried to find her, but I couldn’t.I found her husband, but he’d remarried, and he didn’t answer when I emailed.It didn’t seem in good taste to push.I’ve no idea what happened to Jessie Sandoval.”
…
Sandoval.The name had to have come from somewhere, Javi supposed.
“Was her husband called Miles?”Javi asked.
Lara gave him a confused look.“No, but…that’s my brother’s name.He died, but that’s what he was called.Miles.Why?Did Dad talk about him?”
No.
And again, that didn’t fit with Saul.He’d talked about his wife and his daughter and his career, but never his dead son and never the fact that he’d worked in the same office as Kincaid.Atlanta wasn’t New York.The office wasn’t big enough for them not to have crossed paths.
“Thanks,” Javi said.He reached out to pick up his jacket.“That’s really helpful.”
“It was?”
“Sorry.”
She rolled her eyes at him.“I didn’t…I don’t want to be mad at you, I just am,” she said.“Joel said the same thing.No matter how many opportunities she gave you to be a fuckup, you kept just showing up and being a good agent.She was just scared to trust it.”
Javi hesitated halfway through pulling his coat on.
“I’m not sure what that says about me,” he said.
Lara shrugged as she stood up.“It says that you should appreciate Deputy Witte,” she said.“He sees what everyone else does, and he still trusts you.”
She walked away to join Drew in the sand.Javi stared moodily at the sepia-tinted scene as he finished getting his jacket back on.
