“And you lost it all.”
“In the blink of an eye.”
“Then how did you open the bar? I thought you did that with your savings?”
“That’s where you come in. This businessman offered to pay me double what I lost for one name.”
I gasped teasingly. “You used me.”
“Charley, it’s not funny.”
“Right. Sorry. But, Dad, really, it’s not that bad.”
“It is, actually, and it gets worse.”
“Oh,” I said, understanding. “You gave him the name, and now you were indebted to him, only he knew you had a secret weapon.”
“Yes. I led him to believe I had a confidential informant.”
“What happened to the first guy? The first name you gave him?”
He bit down, embarrassed to say. “He was never found,” he said at last.
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
“As you can imagine, I retired soon after. I told him I no longer had access to my CI.”
The gravity hit me. “Dad, he could have killed you.”
A sad smile thinned his lips. “He did, actually.”
That time, I gasped for real. “What happened?”
“He got himself in a bind, needed my informant.”
“And you refused. So, your death was my fault, too. Just like mom’s.”
“Charley, you can’t honestly say that about your mother. Not after what you’ve just been through.”
He was right. Beep was worth the risk that went hand in hand with pregnancy.
“And my death was entirely my fault. I was never perfect.”
“You were in my eyes.” I leaned forward. “And you still are.”
“Charley, I used you for years to advance my career. That doesn’t exactly qualify me for Father of the Year.”
“We work with what we got. Do you think I resent you in any way? I would do the same today. You never placed me in any danger. You caught bad guys that I led you to. We were doing a good thing.”
“Yes, bad guys that I asked you to lead me to. That alone placed you in danger.”
“Do you blame Uncle Bob for what he’s doing? Special Agent Carson? Or her FedEx?”
“No, but you’re older now, hon. It’s different. You know what you’re getting yourself in for most of the time. I just let you advance my career while leaving you completely in the dark as to what was at stake. And then there’s the whole Denise issue.”
“What about her?”
“I should have been harder on her. I shouldn’t have let her treat you that way. But I could sense her fear. She believed, Charley. She always believed in you. For her, that was the problem.”
“Denise and I are finding our way.”
“And I want to thank you for that. You have a bigger heart than people give you credit for.”
“Right?” I said in complete agreement. “Now, who actually pulled the trigger? And who is this businessman?”
“No. And I mean it. Your uncle is closing in, thanks to you and that anonymous tip. You’ve done enough.” He smiled down at the little princess, and a soft squeak sounded.
“Uh-oh,” I said to her, unlacing my hand to pat her mouth with the blanket. “Someone burped.”
“Don’t worry, Beep,” Dad said. “What happens in the closet stays in the closet.”
The door slid open then, and Spanky and the Gang stood in the exact same positions as when I’d closed it.
“We were getting worried,” Angel said.
I turned, but Dad was gone. I could smell him on my clothes and on Beep’s blanket.
Osh stepped inside and turned full circle. “Seriously, what the hell?”
“I don’t know, but we need to have a powwow.”
* * *
This time I hunted Denise down and gave her Beep for a while. She was more than happy to take her while Osh and I went hunting.
We went into the office, where it was quieter. No need to alarm Denise.
It didn’t take us long to find him, since I could summon him right to me. I did so and immediately grabbed his wrist so he couldn’t vanish.
“Wh-what’s going on?” Duff asked, his eyes wide behind the glasses.
“How does this work?” I asked him.
“Wh-what?”
“And you can stop stuttering now,” I added. “How does this work? Who do you report to?”
He looked down at his wrist, then back at me. “You don’t know what it’s like down there,” he said, vying for the sympathy angle. “You are burned alive.”
“I know. I visited recently.”
He had the decency to look shocked.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t know that.”
“I haven’t been able to hang around much,” he said, scowling at Angel. “Rey’aziel caught on. Sent the kid to babysit. Can’t turn around without him watching me.”
I turned to Angel. “Is that what all that was about?”
Angel shrugged. “We’re also watching a few more.”
“We?”
“Rey’aziel has a whole army of spies watching other spies.”
“Why didn’t he just tell me?” I asked, appalled. “I thought this was something horrible like you two were trying to figure out which asylum to have me locked in once Beep was born.”
He snickered. “We decided that months ago.”