In the Grey (56 page)

“
What?” he
asked.

“
Poor Sami,” Alex said.
“Sorry. I know that’s not me being a great friend to you. You were
injured
and
had
brain surgery, and my sister beat you up. It’s
just . . .”

She paused to collect her
thoughts before looking at him.

“
I can’t think of anything
worse for Samantha than knowing she can be under someone else’s
control and have to do things against her will.”

“
I agree,” Raz said. “I
can’t imagine what it would feel like to be vulnerable to another
person’s control. If I had access to that senator, I’ll tell
you . . .
He
left her vulnerable.
He
started this mess. And
I’d . . .”

“
That’s why you and I
don’t have access to him.”

He shook his head and made
a disgusted face.

“
One good thing is that
all of this has gotten her more interested in therapy,” Raz said.
“She went to see a few people last year, but nothing’s ever
stuck.”

“
She’s too smart,” Alex
said.

“
Sharp, honest, and
self-aware,” Raz nodded. “Anyway, she’s working through a list of
private-pay therapists. Your mom’s paying, so money is no object. I
think she’ll find someone she can talk to. She really wants to get
whole. She wants to be able to trust herself.”

“
Kind of puts a crimp in
the whole ‘let’s have a baby’ thing,” Alex said.

“
It does,” Raz said.
“And . . . I don’t know, it’s just sad. That’s all.
Beautiful girl, smart, thoughtful, sharp, and all this crap. Breaks
my heart.”

“
You’re a good friend,
Joshua Peretz,” Alex said.

He flushed, and she
smiled. His hazel-grey eyes caught her eyes and for a moment, the
look expressed what they couldn’t put into words. Someone moved in
the hallway and he looked away.

“
Work?” he
asked.

“
Sure,” Alex said. “You
want to help?”

“
Can I stay here?” Raz
asked.

“
I don’t see why not?”
Alex shrugged. “They can tattoo in the chair or at the
table.”

“
Then I’m ready when you
are,” Raz said.

“
Okay,” Alex looked down
at the stack in front of her. “First is a printout of an email from
the G2 about the ear and the finger. Let me
see . . .”

Alex logged into her
computer and then into her email. She read the email and clicked
through on the link.

“
What’s the verdict?” Raz
asked.

“
I’m
reading . . . ,” Alex said. “Short answer – the
finger and the ear are not Jack Mac Kinney’s. ‘We apologize
for not informing you sooner. We were waiting for confirmation of
the source of the items in question.’”

“
And where was that?” Raz
asked.

“
Uh . . .
finger was removed from a corpse . . . looks like
the person was cremated,” Alex said. “They must have taken the
finger and then cremated the body.”

“
Good thinking,” Raz
said.

“
Ew,” Alex
said.

“
What?” Raz
asked.

“
Family is one of those
‘save the body for the rapture’ folks,” Alex said. “The body was
not slated for cremation. The whole thing is a big debacle. The
Gardaí have arrested a couple of people.”

“
I wonder if there’s
something special about that particular body,” Raz said. “Something
to hide.”

“
That’s a good question,”
Alex said. “I’ll ask.”

“
And the ear?” Raz
asked.

“
They’re not sure,” Alex
said. “DNA isn’t in the registry. They’re not even sure it’s Irish
DNA.”

“
The earring?” Raz
asked.

“
It’s Jack’s,” Alex said.
“They postulate that they took his ring and earring and
then . . . what?”

“
What do you think
happened to him?” Raz asked.

“
No idea.”

Her door opened. MJ’s
uncle and her Fey Special Forces Team friend Michael Scully’s
brother, Jeb, stood in the doorway. He held up a portable tattoo
machine. His red hair had more grey than the last time she’d seem
him, but his wizened smile spoke his thoughts on the irony of the
situation.

“
You sure?” he
asked.

Alex nodded.

“
We’ll set up over here,”
Jeb pointed to her conference table. “They want team leadership
first. You want to go first?”

“
I’d rather Mattie and
Joseph did,” Alex said. “I want to work while I can.”

“
We’ll try to keep it
down,” Jeb said, and started setting up.

Raz got up from the couch.
He took a chair from in front of her desk and set it next to her.
He sat down with a sigh.

“
I won’t be able to hear
you,” he said.

Alex smiled. She didn’t
want to tell him that she was glad he was there, because she really
wanted him home resting. But she was glad he’d come in to help.
Alex got the other chair for his feet. He smiled.

“
Question: Is Jack
Mac Kinney alive?” Alex asked.

She looked up to see
Joseph unbuttoning his shirt. Wearing just his light-green T-shirt,
he sat down and put his right arm on the table.

“
You want it above or
below the green one?” Jeb asked.

“
Below,” Joseph
said.

“
Fine by me,” Alex
said.

“
Same design?” Jeb asked
as he swabbed Joseph’s arm. “A string of Vivaldi
F’s
?”

“
Please,” Alex
said.

“
Easy enough.” Jeb started
to work.

“
Maybe we should ask the
team,” Raz said. “They’ve been working on this for most of the
week.”

Alex looked up to see
Sergeant Dusty grinning at her. Clearly, he’d arranged the tattoo
party.

“
Can you bring the team
in?” Alex asked.

He stepped aside and the
team filtered in. Vince came over to hug her. He let her go and
Matthew hugged her. Trece came over to show her what one session
with laser does to a teardrop tattoo. He and White Boy had shaved
their heads to get rid of White Boy’s brown hair. Zack set a red
rose on her desk.

“
Okay, okay,” MJ said.
“You’re wearing her out!”

Troy gave her a hug in
response. The team’s mood was happy and light.

“
The Fey would like to ask
you about Jack Mac Kinney, so settle down,” Matthew
said.

The team found seats
around the table or at the sitting area. Royce and Margaret sat on
the floor.

“
Do we think Jack
Mac Kinney is alive?” Alex asked.

“
We’re fifty-fifty, sir,”
Matthew said. “The Gardaí checked the locations you suggested and
found nothing.”

Alex held up a memo with
that information.

“
I have a program tracking
shipping packages and parcels from Ireland,” Troy said. “I’ve found
some anomalies, but nothing outside of ordinary
stupidity.”

“
What about ships?” Alex
asked.

“
Nothing unusual,” Troy
said.

“
What about relief
supplies?” Alex asked.

“
What do you mean?” Troy
asked.

“
Ireland has a long
history of sending relief supplies to conflict areas, particularly
refugee areas,” Alex said. “I don’t know if it’s because they only
received their independence in 1922 or they’re Catholic or what,
but they are very generous with relief.”

“
Relief packages aren’t
subject to the same kind of scrutiny the other shipping receives.”
Raz nodded and looked a little green from the effort. Colin kneeled
down to check on him.

“
Okay,” Matthew said. “Why
would Jack go with the relief effort?”

“
Anyone?” Alex
asked.

“
Could have been drugged,”
Leena said.

“
Sent in a packing crate,”
Alex said. “Good thinking.”

“
I keep wondering what
would make him go,” White Boy said. When everyone looked at him, he
blushed and mumbled something.

“
No, tell them,” Trece
said.

White Boy looked at Trece
and Trece nodded.

“
I had some time on my
hands; you know, when we were in the ICU,” White Boy said. “I
started to think about Jack; you know, try to think like Jack.
Steve always says you have to think like an asshole to figure out
what he’s up to. I’m no great thinker.”

“
Aww,” the team said. Raz
threw his wool hat at White Boy.

“
Not a big stretch for you
to think like an asshole though,” Trece grinned.

“
That’s the truth,” White
Boy chucked. “But I don’t think it would be a stretch for Jack
either. I asked Eoin about it. He said Jack was people smart, but
not book smart. He’s a hard worker too. Like me.”

White Boy
nodded.

“
So why do you think he’d
go?” Alex asked.

“
Oh right,” White Boy
smiled. “I was thinking and thinking, and then I realized that from
what everyone says, Jack really loved his wife. How do you say her
name?”

“
Neev,” Troy
said.

“
Her,” White Boy said. “I
bet he’d go anywhere if he thought he was saving her or helping
her. Eoin told me he would do anything for her ever since they met.
‘He just loves her.’ Eoin said that. So I figured he’s doing
something for her.”

“
What?” Alex
asked.

“
What does he do?” White
Boy asked. “If it was me, I’d be guarding someone or maybe working
in the yard or training or . . .”

White Boy
shrugged.

“
You smarties can figure
that out,” White Boy nodded.

“
Ok, who did the profile?”
Alex asked.

“
Leena, Colin, and I,”
Vince said. “And I think his idea is valid. We found a number of
times that Jack sacrificed himself for Neev.”

“
Move to the Republic,”
Colin said.

“
Have children,” Leena
said. “After the Maze, Jack wanted open space and quiet. His PTSD
was bad, but they still had as many kids as she wanted.”

“
Five,” Vince said. “I
know you read the transcript of the interview with the Mister where
Neev says she’s not a great mother. But her kids said they were
great parents and grandparents. They agreed that their mom could be
harsh, but they could chide her out of it. They called it ‘her
moods.’ When she was nasty to Jack, he would laugh and laugh until
she was laughing along with him. We think they were really
happy.”

“
He didn’t leave her,”
Leena said. “No way.”

“
I don’t think so either,”
Colin said.

“
If their kids could get
visas, they’d be here with her,” Vince said.

“
So what White Boy’s
saying fits our profile,” Colin said.

Joseph got up from his
seat, and Matthew sat down. He showed the team his new Fey Team
tattoo. They applauded and he bowed.

“
Very nice, Jeb,” Alex
said. He nodded and started working on Matthew.

“
Okay, so who lured Jack
away from home?” Alex asked.

“
If what you’re saying is
true, that wouldn’t be easy,” Raz said.

“
Damned hard,” Vince
nodded.

“
So what do we think would
lure Jack Mac Kinney from his bed and out into the world?”
Alex asked.

“
Sick cow,” Cliff
said.

“
I bet you’re right,” Alex
said. “Vince, can you call his son and ask?”

Vince picked up his cell
phone and made the call.

“
What is it that Neev
said?” Raz asked. “Something about going to town.”

“
I went to town. When I
came back there was a note on my kitchen table,” Alex read from the
transcript.

“
I caught that, too,”
Royce said.

“
What?” Alex
asked.

“
Why did she go to town?”
Raz asked.

“
That’s right,” Vince
said. “They belong to a co-op. Their milk is picked up and
distributed. Their groceries are delivered from the
co-op.”

“
Same order every week,
with a turkey or ham on the holidays, their daughter said,” Colin
said.

“
Neither of them is a
drinker, and Neev is supposed to be a great cook,” Leena said. “She
made most of their food.”

“
Church?” Alex
shrugged.

“
They went on Sundays,”
Royce said. “I spoke with their priest. He had no idea Jack was
gone. He hadn’t seen Jack in months, but said that was normal. Neev
came almost every Sunday, but Jack only came ‘when the spirit moved
him.’ That’s a quote.”

“
Gardaí?” Alex asked about
the Irish Police.

“
No,” Matthew said. “I
talked to them; they had no idea Jack was missing. They were kind
of freaked out about it. I guess the Garda stationed there is good
friends with Neev and Jack.”