Cold Silence (A High Stakes Thriller) (43 page)

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Authors: Danielle Girard

BOOK: Cold Silence (A High Stakes Thriller)

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She sat in one of the chairs belonging to the modest dining room set she'd bought to fill the room. She and Ryan had eaten in that room only a half dozen times. Sometimes they did on Christmas or Thanksgiving, to make the occasion feel more special, but it never did. Instead the room felt strangely fancy and overly large for just the two of them. Usually they preferred the comfort of the small kitchen table. Thinking what the struggle for TecLan had done to Travis and Peter, she'd keep her cozy kitchen table any day.

Travis sat across from her. "So what now?"

She frowned. "You wanted to talk."

"About what happens from here, what you're going to do."

She shook her head and leaned back in her chair, giving him time to sweat. "I don't know yet." She considered what she would do. She'd thought about the offer the FBI had made, but she wasn't sure she could go back to Chicago without Mark there. There was always the San Francisco office, they'd said. She wasn't sure about that either. She liked it here, for sure. And Ryan had friends. She thought about the colonel and Florence and even Roni. And maybe she had friends, too.

"I hope you know those people are being punished."

"I noticed the company has taken a hit with the news, too."

He watched her face. "Hopefully people will realize it wasn't the company's fault and give us the benefit of the doubt. I assume the media has contacted you as well."

Cody had to smile. Travis was still thinking about how this would affect his company.

"What's so funny?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

"I think it's fair to ask. I mean, I'd like to prepare myself—" He halted. "And Peter for whatever reaction you will have for them."

She laughed, standing from the table.

He stood, too. "What?"

"Nothing," she said again. "I'm not going to say a thing, Travis. I don't want anything to do with the media, and the police will make a statement on whatever they discover. That's good enough for me."

"But what about the police and the FBI? They've come by the house twice to talk to me. They must have asked you about my involvement."

She shrugged. "They asked, but I told them I honestly don't know if you were involved." She met his gaze. "And I don't. You say you weren't, and I'd like to believe that. I want Ryan and Peter to stay friends."

She thought about that weekend. "I gave the police Oskar Kirov. That was enough for me." Actually, it had taken a water search crew twelve hours to find his body in the lake. But they had him, all the same. The loss of life had been staggering. The three Russians, plus Kirov, and the hired kidnapper. Jennifer Townsend. Dmitri Kirov. Mei had even related the story about Feliks Kirov and his boyfriend. All of them dead.

She shook her head and looked back at Travis, who was watching her. "But one rule from now on..."

"What?"

She smiled. "Absolutely no more overnights at your house."

Travis laughed.

And so did she.

With that, she showed him to the door, and he promised to be back for Peter later in the afternoon. As she watched him walk to his car, she genuinely hoped the police found no evidence of his involvement in the kidnapping. She wanted to believe there were good people in the world, and she thought maybe he had potential.

* * *

That night after the house had cleared out, she and Ryan had their last root party. They'd had hot dogs for dinner after insisting Roni and the colonel go home for a change. After all the good food they'd been eating, she was amazed at how wonderful hot dogs tasted.

She made root-beer floats, and Ryan found a sack of hard root-beer candies that had probably been in the cupboard for a year. He put two on top of each of their floats like cherries. They quickly sank to the bottom and Ryan shrugged.

They sat on the bathroom floor and drank their floats as Cody cut two half circles out of the bottoms of plastic bags to act as smocks. She thought about how she used to wrap up all the evidence of their dyeing and take it to a different dump site. This time she'd shove it in her own trash. It was almost surreal not to be running anymore.

Ryan slurped the last of his float and then set down the glass, picking up the box of hair dye and looking at it.

"Is it going to be weird to be blond again?" she asked.

"I think I'm going to like it," he said.

She smiled. "Oh, yeah?"

"I heard blondes have more fun."

Cody choked on her float until she felt it tickle her nose. "Where'd you hear that?"

He shrugged, wearing a shy smile. "Someone at school."

Cody pulled one plastic bag over her head and handed the other to Ryan.

"Can I ask you something, Mom?"

"Of course."

"What's my name going to be?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, people are calling me Ryan O'Brien." He scrunched his nose.

"You don't like it?"

"It sounds dumb."

She watched him for a moment, wondering what was going through his mind. "I guess we should probably use Riggs."

His eyes widened. "Can we?"

She nodded.

"Ryan Riggs," he said as though testing it out.

"You like it?"

He nodded, smiling. A moment later, his smile disappeared and his brow furrowed. "What about you?"

"I'll go by Riggs, too. You want us to have the same name, don't you?"

"Yeah, but what about your first name?"

She pondered. She hadn't thought about her name in a long time. She'd always just taken for granted that it would occasionally change over the rest of her life. "I don't know. What do you think? Megan Riggs?"

"I kind of like Cody."

"Cody Riggs?"

He hesitated and focused before nodding slowly. "I think so."

"Cody Riggs," she repeated.

"Yeah, Cody Riggs."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Okay. Cody Riggs, it is." She picked up her root-beer float and took a long draw on the straw.

Ryan rolled onto his back and giggled.

She reached out and tickled him. "What on earth is so funny?"

"I'll bet I'm the first kid who ever got to name his mom."

She winked. "I'll bet that's true."

Ryan leaned back, clearly impressed with himself. He pulled the plastic bag over his head as Cody snapped on the plastic gloves that came with the kit. "That's so cool. Wait until I tell the kids at school."

And for the first time, she thought how nice it must be for him to be
able
to tell. How nice it would be for them both.

The End