I tucked Edwina under one arm and extended the other hand.“It’s been a long night.Would you mind?”
He hauled me upright.“You look pretty good for not having slept for twenty-four hours.”
“So do you,” I said.
He smiled.“Occupational hazard.”
“Will you let me know what happens?”
He said he would.“Would you like me to walk you to your car?”
“I can find it,” I said.“And I’m not so tired that I’ll pass out on the way there.Just go inside and see what’s going on.”
He nodded.But he stood there and watched while I carried Edwina across the lawn, all the way until I was in my car and on my way down the street.
I was still too wiredto sleep, so after taking a shower and getting into fresh clothes, I loaded Edwina back into the car and drove to the office.I had told Diana someone would be there most of the day, and with Rachel and Zachary both laid up at Southern Hills, it looked like that someone would have to be me.
Good thing, too, because she did show up just a few minutes after I arrived.“I’ll let you listen to the message,” I told her, “but a whole lot has happened since we left the Arena last night, and we’ll have to talk about some of it.”
She was pale and looked like she hadn’t slept well, with dark circles under her eyes.She didn’t have that jittery, over-tired edge I sensed in myself, though.I probably looked like a monkey on speed, all twitchy and jumpy.
“What happened?”
“Message first.Then I’ll tell you.”
She listened to the message.Then I told her everything that had happened in the less than twelve hours since I’d seen her last.Ending with, “I don’t know whether it’s true or not.She could be lying to everyone, including her friends.But this girl took a big risk getting here to find her father, if he isn’t really her father.”
Diana didn’t say anything.
“Did Steven spend any time in Russia, between twenty and twenty-five years ago?”
“That was before I knew him,” Diana said, “but yes.Steven spent time in a lot of places back then.He was a photo journalist.He was in Berlin when the wall fell.And he was all over Europe and the Middle East for the decade after that.I’m sure he didn’t stay celibate all that time.If he had a child with someone he slept with over there, she never told him, though.”
“Or maybe he just didn’t tell you?”I suggested.
She shook her head.“He would have told me.He would have wanted to help.To send money, or to bring them here.If she really is his daughter.”
“So you think it’s possible that she might be?”
“Anything’s possible,” Diana said.“But I guess we won’t really know until we find them.”
No.And maybe not even then.“Any more thoughts on where they could be?”
“I’ll call the family again,” Diana said.“Maybe one of them has heard from him by now.But no.Other than that, I can’t think of anywhere they might have gone.Although if they were hoping to get a hundred thousand dollars yesterday, and they didn’t, they’re probably still around Nashville somewhere.”
Probably.“Did you freeze your accounts?Or Steven’s accounts?”
“Jaime did,” Diana said.“Yesterday.And they aren’t frozen.But they’re flagged, so that if Steven shows up, they’ll call 911 and delay him long enough for the police to show up.”
“But so far, he hasn’t tried to get any money?”
Diana shook her head.“I’ll guess we’ll just wait.Sooner or later he’ll need money.”
Sooner rather than later, probably.There are only so many places someone can stay for free.“I don’t suppose you guys own camping gear?”
“No,” Diana said.“My idea of roughing it is a cabin in the Smoky Mountains.With a hot tub.”
There’d been a photograph like that in their house the other day, of the two of them at a mountain cabin.“Do you own something like that?Could he have gone there?”
