"Could we?" She's looking at me with those big brown eyes, and I see the challenge in them. "Really? How many times can we run before we're just running forever?"
"As many times as we need to, until this Detective Chen gets fed up and closes the case."
"No." She shakes her head. "Running can’t be the answer, where you're always looking over your shoulder, unable to relax because we’re waiting for the next problem, never building anything real."
"This is real," I say, gesturing at the apartment, at the life we've built. "We made this real."
"And if we run, we lose it. And what about all my work? It would all have been for nothing."
"But we would be safe."
"Would we?" She stands up, pacing the lounge as her anxiety builds. She is normally so put together, that I’m shocked at how she is reacting to this. I don’t like to see her unsettled. "Or would we just be hiding again? Waiting for the next detective and another reopened case, the next reason to run?"
I don't answer, because I know she's right. Running is what we've been doing since Gary Hollis, and was the trigger for creating James and Roxy Brennan in the first place. But at some point, we have to be able to live.
"The cover is good," Roxy says, still pacing. "The IDs are solid and our story is consistent. We've been here for months, building a life, establishing ourselves. We don’t even have friends that could be suspicious or cause problems. James Brennan is a contractor. Roxy Brennan is a photographer. We're normal and boring. Exactly the kind of people no one looks at twice."
"Until you're in a gallery," I say. "What if your face is in an art magazine and your work is being reviewed and people are paying attention?"
"So we use that." She stops pacing, turns to face me. "We use the visibility as armor."
"How?"
"Think about it. Detective Chen is looking for a couple from months ago. A couple who vanished into thin air, most likely dead with no trail of what happened to them."
"I’m still not following."
"We're not that couple anymore. We're James and Roxy Brennan. We have jobs. An apartment. A life. We're living our lives in the open, paying our taxes and existing in the system."
I'm starting to see where she's going. "So if she's looking for people who disappeared…"
"She won't find us, because we didn't disappear. We're right here, living and working like everyone else. Building careers."
"It's a risk."
"Everything's a risk." She comes over to me, and puts her hands on my shoulders. "But running is a bigger risk. Running means we lose everything we've built, and it could raise suspicions from people you work with as it’ll be out of character for you."
I nod, agreeing with what she is saying.
"We need to trust the cover we made for ourselves. Doing legal work and not hiding. I don’t think anyone would think to connect us to a cold case from so long ago in another state."
I look up at her, this woman who's always been braver than me, always been willing to face problems head-on instead of running from it.
"You really think it'll work?"
"I think the best way to hide is to be seen."
It's counterintuitive, but exactly the kind of bold move that could either save us or destroy us.
"Okay," I say.
"Okay?"
"We stay and see how it plays out."
She exhales, relief and determination emanating from her body.
"And if Detective Chen comes looking?" she asks.
