In the Grey (12 page)

Trece lay back on the bunk
and wondered it meant to be a viper. Vipers were deadly poisonous
snakes native to the Americas, a home built kit plane, and a
helicopter flown by the US Marines. Trece had no idea what Alex
meant by “Emanuel is a viper.” After driving himself crazy, he
settled into missing Luz and White Boy. For the last twenty years
or so, if he wasn’t with Luz, he was with White Boy. Finally, he
got sick of himself and practiced his Alex-mandated Zen
meditation.

The viper would be up
soon, and Trece would have to deal with him.

At least he was
safe.

He smiled and thanked
whatever God arranged for him to meet Alex Hargreaves and then
remembered that her father had sent him to Bosnia. The image of God
he’d learned in catechism – the white man with the long white beard
sitting on a throne in the fluffy white clouds – now had Patrick
Hargreaves face. He laughed out loud. Closing his eyes, he settled
into his meditation.

F

Saturday
evening

November 6 – 5:35 p.m.
MDT

Denver,
Colorado

“
Hey,” Alex came out of
the house carrying two beers. She gave one to Troy and sat down in
an Adirondack chair next to him. “The boys love the
garden.”

As was common in Denver,
yesterday’s snow was a memory today. The ground was wet, but not
yet frozen.

“
It’s November,” Troy
said. “It snowed yesterday.”

“
And there’s still food to
harvest?” Alex nodded.

“
Blows my mind,” Troy
said.

“
What did Cian send them
out for?” Alex asked.

“
Kale and carrots,” Troy
pointed to where the boys were plucking carrots from the beds.
“Wyatt and Fionn are . . .”

“
Amazing,” Alex said. “It
was fun to watch everything grow this summer.”

Last fall, Wyatt and
John’s nephew, Fionn, presented a plan to turn their patch of grass
into garden beds. After much worry, lots of planning, and days of
intense shovel work, they had a bounty of fresh vegetables that had
sustained them all summer. Of course, Max and Alex’s beehives
deserved a lot of the credit.

“
What do you think about
chickens?” Troy asked.

“
Fionn seems to have his
heart set on them,” Alex said. “But John thinks he’ll get into med
school next April. I don’t know how he’ll take care of the
birds.”

“
Child labor,” Troy said.
“The boys are excited. Fionn told them he was going to rescue
chickens from those bankrupt egg farms. The boys are over the moon
at the idea of saving anything, even chickens.”

Alex smiled.

“
It’s nice to have them
here,” Alex said. “You’re generous to share your boys with
us.”

Troy laughed.

“
Why is that funny?” Alex
asked.

“
You or John or Max or
Wyatt; you guys are always ready to take care of them,” Troy said.
“I would be lost without Cian and Eoin, and your help with Hector
James, and . . . just everything. Hermes loves
Samantha. We’re really happy here. I am.”

“
But?”

“
We should probably
leave,” Troy said.

“
Why?” Alex
asked.

Troy turned to look at
her.

“
I don’t know how to say
this,” Troy said.

“
What?”

“
I didn’t tell you
everything today,” Troy said.

“
I know,” Alex smiled and
took a drink of her beer. “I also know that you’ll eventually tell
me.”

Troy snorted a
laugh.

“
Cian was funny this
afternoon,” Alex said. “Did you expect him?”

“
No,” Troy said. “The boys
must have told him we were meeting to talk about the drones. He’s
their best friend. I guess that sounds creepy.”

“
But true,” Alex
said.

“
Did you learn what you
wanted to know?” Troy asked. “From the boys, I mean.”

“
I don’t know what I
wanted to know,” Alex shrugged. “I just wanted to know what they
did. They’re such sweet boys. It would never occur to them not to
tell me everything.”

“
And thar warn’t nothin’
ilse t’ know,” Troy did his best Cian impression. Alex
laughed.

“
Are you done
interrogating these boys?” Alex added in Irish Gaelic.

Troy laughed. The boys
looked up when he laughed, and he smiled at them.

“
Hector James is going to
show me how to make the drones work,” Troy said under his breath.
“It’s a connection thing. I hadn’t thought of it, maybe
ever.”

“
You mean Dahlia came up
with it?”

Troy nodded.

“
You’ll let me know what
you learn?” Alex asked.

Troy nodded.

“
Is it weird that they
belong to you?” Alex asked.

“
The boys or the drones?”
Troy smiled. “Yes to both.”

Alex smiled.

“
Are you waiting for me to
tell you what I didn’t say this morning?” Troy asked.

“
I am,” Alex nodded. Troy
laughed. Hermes ran over with his hands full of carrots.

“
Here,” Hermes
said.

Troy held open a cotton
bag and Hermes stuffed the carrots into it. He ran back to where
his brother was plucking kale leaves off a plant.

“
I gave the plans to you,
Alex,” Troy said.

“
To me?” Alex raised her
eyebrows in surprised.

Troy nodded.

“
I told you to give them
to Dahlia,” Troy said. “You must have because she got
them.”

Alex gave a slight shake
of her head and looked at the beehives along their back
fence.

“
Why is that a secret?”
Alex asked. “I used to bring Dahlia all kinds of stuff from you.
Every trip through DC included a stop to drop stuff off to
her.”

“
It’s not a secret,” Troy
leaned closer to her. “I didn’t want you to get in trouble with
your dad.”

Alex laughed.

“
Ferrying presents to my
love?” Troy nodded. “It wasn’t exactly legal.”

“
It wasn’t illegal,” Alex
said. “It wasn’t . . . anything really. I just wish
I’d known what was going on. Poor Dahlia.”

Troy looked
away.

“
Do you remember giving
her the plans?” Troy asked.

“
No,” Alex said. “Like I
said, I was always delivering something via the Olivas underground
railway.”

“
It would have been right
after she had Hector James,” Troy said.

“
The keys to your heart,”
Alex nodded. “I do remember that. I went to see her in the
hospital. Max came along. Hector James was a beautiful baby. He’s a
wonderful child.”

“
The plans were in that
set,” Troy said.

Alex nodded.

“
Has it occurred to you
that Hector killed my Dahlia because she knew he was a fraud?” Troy
asked.

“
It has,” Alex
said.

“
She would have never said
anything,” Troy said. “Ever.”

“
I know,” Alex
said.

“
Hector would have known
that,” Troy said. “Did he plan her murder because she left him? Or
to keep her quiet? Or something else?”

“
We should ask your
father,” Alex said. “I bet he knows.”

“
How?” Troy asked. “He
won’t see me.”

“
Use the mother network,”
Alex said. “Your mother is still in contact with him,
right?”

“
Just until they finish
sorting out their finances, property, his book royalties and
contracts, crap like that. She schleps up to Lewisburg Prison once
a month to see him for an hour,” Troy said. “She thinks she’ll be
done by the end of the year or January. Then she’ll sell the house
and move here.”

“
What about Helen?” Alex
asked.

“
Helen?

“
Your sister? The boys’
aunt?” Alex asked. “She’s stable now. I bet she knows more than
you’d think.”

“
Why bother her?” Troy’s
flushed with guilt. “She hasn’t done anything wrong. She’s paid
horribly.”

“
You won’t visit Helen?”
Alex asked.

“
I doubt she knows
anything, honestly,” Troy said. “She was my father and Hector’s
loyal minion. For her loyalty, they tortured her outright all of
her life. Don’t you think she’s paid enough?”

Alex looked away from
him.

“
I know that look,” Troy
said. “What?”

“
I wonder what she knows,”
Alex said. “That’s all. The next time I’m in DC, I’ll have to stop
by and ask her.”

“
She hates you,” Troy
laughed.

“
It does sound fun,
doesn’t it?” Alex smiled.

“
Not to me,” Troy
said.

“
You think you can get my
father to give up information?” Troy raised a skeptical
eyebrow.

“
You just miss the joy of
super selfish people,” Alex said. “Once you know they only care
about themselves, they are fairly easy to manipulate. We can throw
in a benefit or two. Tell us what we want to know and you
get . . . I don’t know. What would you give
him?”

“
A silver bullet straight
through the heart?” Troy said.

“
Snacks,” Alex said. “I’ve
never met a man that couldn’t be bribed with snacks.”

“
What snacks?” Hector
James asked. His hands full of kale, he walked over to where they
were sitting.

“
See what I mean?” Alex
smiled.

“
How ‘bout French fries?”
Hermes asked.

“
French fries? French
fries?” Cian said as he came out onto the deck. “What? That will
ruin your dinner!”

“
Please!” Hermes
begged.

“
Pretty please!” Hector
James added.

Cian made a show of
thinking it through.

“
Magnificent idea!” Cian
said.

“
Yea!” the boys
cheered.

“
In you go! Do you have
carrots?”

“
Daddy has them,” Hector
James said.

Cian took the bag from
Troy. He followed the boys into the house.

“
Why would you move out?”
Alex asked.

“
Guess I figured you’d
want me to,” Troy shrugged.

“
Because I forgot
something?” Alex asked. She waved to Raz as he came in the back
gate. He waved and went in his carriage house.

“
Because . . . ,” Troy shrugged. “My life
is in the center of this crap.”

“
So is mine,” Alex
said.

“
Ever wonder why that is?”
Troy asked.

“
Sure.”

“
Any ideas?”

“
None,” Alex got up from
her chair. “Let’s go in before we get too cold.”

She waited for Troy to get
up and was about to follow him inside when she heard her name. Raz
waved to her from his carriage house.

“
You go ahead,” Alex said
to Troy. She added in a loud voice, “Save some carrot and kale stew
for me.”

“
Kale chips!” Cian yelled
from the kitchen.

She ran down the path to
avoid hearing whatever else Cian yelled at her back. Raz opened his
door before she knocked and stepped back to let her into his
carriage house. She followed him to his sitting area, where he gave
her a cup of coffee.

“
Coffee?” Alex drank it
down. “That feels caffeinated.”

He nodded.

“
What’s up?”

“
You look happy,” Raz
said.

“
I was egging on Cian,”
she said.

“
Like always,” He
smiled.

She nodded.

“
Where’s your phone?” Raz
asked.

“
In my back pocket,” Alex
said. “Why?”

Alex took the phone out to
show him. He took the phone from her.

“
It’s turned off,” Raz
said.

“
Oh right,” Alex gave him
a guilty smile. “I turned it off when we went to talk to the boys.
What did I miss? I was with Colin and Troy. Wouldn’t they have told
me?”

“
Cee Cee Joiner put a
young woman on life support,” Raz said.

“
Again?” Alex shook her
head in disbelief.

“
Second time this year,”
Raz said.

“
Where?”

“
Chongqing. He’s there
illegally.”

“
China? That’s weird. We
were just there,” Alex said. “Did he get caught?”

“
Caught, tried, and is
scheduled for execution,” Raz said.

“
Oh,” A wave of sadness
overcame her and she sat down on his couch. “Really?”

“
I thought you’d be
happy.” Raz sat down next to her.