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“We’ll see how it plays out, won’t we?”
“I’m getting marginally frustrated here, and I have other places to be. Let’s just get on with this interview. You tell me what you want to tell me, and if it’s a request you want me to make to my superiors, I’d be happy to do so. But that’s the beginning and end of any kind of cooperation I’m gonna do for you. The rest of it is totally up to you. You’ve already turned in your own parents. You’ve turned in lots of other people in your movement in Germany and Italy. I don’t know what it is you think you have to speak about today. You have no legitimacy.”
Lipori leaned forward on his elbows, still out of reach of Harper. “Mr. Cunningham, I saved your wife’s life. You owe me.”
As forward as Lipori had come, Harper lay back that much and more. He shook his head and then added, “I don’t owe you a damn thing, Mr. Lipori. You attempted to take her life. I’m glad you didn’t. But I don’t owe you a damn thing. I didn’t ask you to put a bullet in her chest to take her life away or to take her heart. You nearly destroyed her. And you don’t even care.”
“You misunderstand me, Mr. Cunningham. I care. She is the vehicle I need.”
“Need? For what?”
“She’s my get out of jail free card. You do play Monopoly, don’t you, Mr. Cunningham?”
“How could that possibly be?”
“Well, I believe your household has had some recent events in the last two days, some intruders?”
Harper must have reacted, because Lipori broke out in a wide grin. His smile looked fragile, unhinged, and dirty.
“And what would you know about that?”
“I know the people who are attempting to kidnap her. Yes, Mr. Cunningham, there are designs to grab Lydia and take her back to Africa. There’s a very heavy ransom on her head. Did you not know this?”
“I don’t believe you. Who would want her kidnapped?”
“The culprits can make money doing it, sir. Now more than ever, we can get into your country and do anything we like. We can rape, kidnap, set bombs, and steal children—all for a price. You thought your government was for sale? No, sir, your government has put a bounty on all your heads. I don’t believe your State Department tells you everything, either, do they?”
“I’ve only heard conjecture. News pundits. I doubt they would keep something like that from me. So let’s just say I don’t believe you, and go on from there.”
“What if I were to tell you that, in exchange for possibly some liberties with my incarceration, I can make it possible for you people to find those individuals who were paid quite a large sum of money to kidnap her? What would you say if I could make that happen, take that threat away? And what I mean by end is you can kill them or capture or whatever. Up to you. Afterall, I saved your wife the first time. You should get to save her the second. Isn’t that fair?”
Chapter 8
Harper turned offthe video. Lydia was locked in a frozen stare at the screen with the little arrow pointing right, indicating the interview had been stopped for now.
Her heart pounded. She didn’t understand how things could get so complicated so quickly. Her lack of memory was making it dangerous for all of them. And now her husband was embroiled in a very dark possibility. If she asked Harper, she knew he’d take this guy out. He’d willingly suffer the consequences also. Without hesitation. He was like Venom on the trail of a bad guy. If she asked him, he would violate every principle of his soul. He’d do that to protect her. She knew that.
She looked up at him. He’d been so silent. His eyes were red, tears streaming down his cheeks. It broke her heart to see this. He had the expression of a defeated man.
“I can’t believe what it must’ve taken for you to sit on this all night last night. You probably never slept, did you?”
“No, I didn’t. I really didn’t want to play this for you,” he admitted as he looked at her through swollen, painful eyes still overflowing with tears. “I am so sorry I did not just off this guy when I had the opportunity. Had I known any of this—”
He broke up without being able to continue.
“Harper, my love, we are in this together. This is such a tremendous burden for you to carry by yourself. It was the right thing to share it with me.”
“Was it? Really? You’re never gonna feel safe here any longer. I’ve totally failed at all this. Why didn’t I see the signs? Why didn’t I realize what was really going on, the danger here?”
“Because you didn’t have all the information. Now I know why they wanted you to play it for me. You say it’s my decision, but it really isn’t. We have to do what’s best for the country. I want to stay here forever. I want us to live life so peaceful and loving that we never want to leave. But that isn’t the reality of the world, is it? And you didn’t make that happen. The world has erupted. It’s no longer the world we used to dream about when we were in high school and went to dances, double dated, went to the drive-in, went for ice cream with our friends. We don’t have that any longer. It’s gone.”
“I’m stubborn. I don’t want it to be gone. I want everything to go back to normal.”
“You mean when we ran around in our convertibles and bought Starbucks drive-through. Nothing was political. Nobody was shouting and yelling at each other here. Now it’s a mess. And we’ve allowed it to become a mess. Harper, we’ve been given the opportunity to clean up part of that mess. It’s an opportunity to do the right thing.”
“But just what is the right thing? I honestly don’t have a plan, Lydia. I’m ashamed to say it. I don’t have a plan this time to save you, to save me. I just don’t know.”
She looked down at the screen. “It says there’s about five or six minutes left. Why don’t you finish it? Then we’ll talk some more.”
