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“Think of the victims’ loved ones.” This was hitting below the belt, but he would use any device he could. “They stay in touch with me, you know. E-mails. Phone calls. Heart-wrenching shit, and I know you’re not flinching because of the expletive. You know those people want and deserve—”
“Stop!”
She was off the sofa like a flash, streaking with the swift grace of a black cat out of the room. He knew she’d opened the front door because he felt a gust of damp air. Reluctantly, he got up and followed her into the foyer. She was holding the front door open, staring down at the floor between her bare feet, her posture rigid.
When he reached her, she raised her head, glaring with those crystalline eyes. “I’ve made a good life for Sarah and me here. But I would abandon it all in a flash. I would disappear again. Keep pestering me, and I will. You know I can.”
“And you know that I’ll keep looking for him until I find him.”
“Waste of time. He’ll never let himself be found.”
“Are you sure? Have you ever thought that it might be a relief to him?”
She gave a bitter laugh. “Come now. Next you’ll be telling me that it would be the best thing for him.”
“Wouldn’t it?”
She didn’t maintain her defiant gaze for long before turning her head aside. Seeing a tiny chink in her armor, he took advantage of it. “You know it would be best for him, Rebecca. It would be a hell of a lot better for you, too. You could stop worrying about me spying. You could use your legal name. Wouldn’t that be better for everybody?” He took a step closer to her and spoke with urgency. “Help yourself by helping me. Give me a hint, put me on a trail.”
“You’re asking me to betray my brother.”
“He’ll never know the information came from you. I swear that.” She was listening, so he pressed on. “You don’t want to abandon your pretty house here, leave your charming shop. And, even if you did, what about Sarah?”
She shot a look up at him, and he thought, Aha! A score.
“She was a child when you left New York, too young to understand the implications. Running away with Mommy in the dead of night was a big adventure. It wouldn’t be like that now. She would balk. She wouldn’t want to leave her friends. She would resent you for making her.”
“It’s almost time for her to get home. You have to go.”
“Will you tell her that I’ve been here?”
“Do you think I’m crazy?”
“Then how will you explain being so upset?”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Jack. You don’t have the ability to upset me.”
“That you called me by my first name indicates just how upset you are. Furthermore, you’re lying. I think it upsets you a lot to keep your daughter living a shadow life.”
He could tell she wanted to kill him for saying that. She was bristling. “Leave.”
Their standoff lasted for several moments, neither giving an inch, then he swore under his breath. “All right, I’ll go. For now.”
“And don’t come back.”
“No promises of that.” He stepped out onto the porch. “Thanks for the use of your bathroom.” He pulled his jacket up over his head.
“Special Agent Connell?”
He turned.
“If you go anywhere near Sarah with the idea of weaseling information out of her, I’ll run you down with my car and then I’ll castrate you.”
Chapter 25
The press conference was conducted in the atrium lobby of the hospital. The SO’s public information officer kept his statements short and sweet, providing little more information than that dictated by Emory Charbonneau herself.
Following the official statement, Jeff Surrey stepped to the podium and thanked all the law enforcement agencies and the dozens of volunteers who’d participated in the search for his wife. Then he petitioned members of the press to leave them in peace while she continued to rest and recover.
