Читать книгу Andrew Gross 3-Book Thriller Collection 1: The Dark Tide, Don’t Look Twice, Relentless - Andrew Gross, Andrew Gross - Страница 41

“Who have you told?”

“No one.” She stared back at him. “How could I? My kids … after what they’ve been through, it would kill them, Lieutenant. How could they even begin to understand? My friends?” She shook her head, glassy-eyed. “What am I possibly supposed to say to them, Lieutenant? That it was all some kind of crazy mistake? ‘Sorry, Charlie’s not really dead. He’s just been fucking deceiving me over the past year. Deceiving all of us!’ At first I thought maybe you hear about people who come out of these life-altering situations, you know, affected….” She placed her finger on the bank forms. “But then I found these. I thought about taking everything to Saul Lennick. Charlie was like a second son to him. But I got scared. I thought, what if he’s really done something? You know, something bad. What if I was doing the wrong thing …? How it would affect everybody. I got all scared. Do you understand what I mean?”

Hauck nodded, the stress clear in her voice.

“So I came here.”

Hauck picked up the bank papers. Because he was a cop, he had learned over the years to withhold his reactions. Gather the facts, be a little circumspect, until a picture of the truth becomes clear. He looked at the bank form. Charles Friedman was there.

“What is it you want me to do?”

“I don’t know.” Karen shook her head in consternation. “I don’t even know what he’s done. But it’s something…. Charlie wouldn’t just do this to us. I knew him. He wasn’t that kind of man, Lieutenant.” She pushed a wisp of hair out of her face and wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand, tears smearing. “The truth is, I don’t have any fucking idea what I want you to do.”

“It’s okay,” he said, squeezing her arm. Hauck stared back at the screen. He ran through the usual responses. Some crazy shock reaction—amnesia—from the bombing. But the bank form dismissed that one fast. Another woman? Embezzlement? He flashed to the scene in the parking lot with Karen’s daughter. Two hundred and fifty million dollars. Yet Saul Lennick had assured him Charles’s hedge fund was perfectly intact.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what did you find in there?” Hauck asked, pointing to the record for the safe-deposit box.

“Money.” Karen exhaled. “Lots of money. And a passport. Charlie’s picture, with a totally assumed name. A few credit cards …”

“He left this all behind?” A year ago. “This may have been just some kind of backup.” Hauck shrugged. “I guess you understand, this wasn’t unpremeditated. He was planning this.”

She nodded, biting her lower lip. “I realize that.”

But what Charles could never have planned, Hauck knew, was how he would execute this. Until the moment came.

His thoughts settled on another name. Thomas Mardy.

“Listen.” Hauck swiveled to her. “I have to ask, did your husband have any history of … you know …”

“Did he what?” Karen stared at him. “Did he play around? I don’t know. A week ago I would have said that was impossible. Now I’d be almost happy to hear that’s what it was. He had that passport, those cards.… He was planning all this. While we were sleeping in the same bed. While he was rooting for the kids at school. He somehow managed to get away from that train in the midst of the chaos and say, ‘Now it’s happening. Now’s the time. Now’s the time I’m going to walk out on my entire life.’”

For a few seconds, there was only silence.

Hauck pressed his lips together and asked again, “What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know. Part of me wants to just put my arms around him and tell him that I’m happy he’s alive. This other part … I opened that box and realized he’s kept a whole part of his life secret from me. From the person he supposedly loved. I don’t know what the hell I want to do, Lieutenant! Slap him in the face. Throw him in jail. I don’t even know if he’s committed a crime. Other than hurting me. But it doesn’t matter. That’s not why I’m here.”

Hauck wheeled his chair closer. “Why are you here?”

“Why am I here?” Tears rushed into her eyes again. She clenched her fists and tapped them helplessly against the table. Then she looked back up at him. “Isn’t it pretty obvious? I’m here because I can’t think of anywhere else to go!”

Hauck went over to her as she just folded, weightlessly, into his arms. She buried her head on his shoulder and dug her fists into him. He held her, feeling her trembling in his grasp, and she didn’t pull away.

“He was dead! I mourned him. I missed him. I agonized on whether his last thoughts were about us. There wasn’t a day when I didn’t wish I just could have talked to him one last time. To tell him I hoped that he was okay. And now he’s alive….”

She sucked back a breath, wiping the tears off her dampened cheeks. “I don’t want him hunted down. He did what he did, and he must have had some reason. He’s not a bastard, Lieutenant—whatever you might think. I don’t even want him back. It’s too late now. I have no idea what I even feel….

“I guess I just want to know … I just want to know why he did this to me, Lieutenant. I want to know what he’s done. I want to see his face and have him tell me. The truth. That’s all.”

Hauck nodded. He squeezed her arms and let go. He kept a tissue box by his desk. He pulled a couple for her.

She sniffled back a smile. “Thanks.”

“Part of the job. People always seem to be crying in here.”

She laughed and dabbed her eyes and nose. “I must be like a goddamn train wreck to you. Every time you see me …”

“No.” He winked. “Anything but. However, you do seem to present some intriguing situations.”

Karen tried to laugh again. “I don’t even know what the hell I’m asking you to do.”

“I know what you want me to do,” he replied.

“I’m not sure where else to turn, Lieutenant.”

“It’s Ty.”

What he said seemed to take her by surprise. For a second they just stood there, drawn to each other. She brushed a wave of auburn hair away from her still-raw eyes.

“Okay.” She sucked in a breath and nodded. “Ty …”

“And the answer’s yes.” He sat back on the edge of his desk and nodded. “I’ll help.”