“I finally got a good look at the guy, waiting for him to leave the hotel one day, but didn’t have a clue who he was. It was only after some Appropriations Committee thing was on CNN did I recognize him as Ted Lawson and that was when I really grew suspicious. Evan had moved in by now, but I couldn’t wait. I planted tiny cameras around the house to watch her, to see what she was doing. I had her on tape, putting the cell phone in the bathroom, but Evan got to it first.
“And while you guys were talking to NCIS, I was duping her computer and hacking into Ted Lawson’s personal email. Everything about our mission was in there. Everything about how Frannie came into my life, years earlier, was there as well. Lawson’s affair with Christina Charlotte was detailed and Frannie’s involvement with her murder.
“Aside from the fact that my wife …”
The way he says the word wife is laced with disdain. I don’t know how he stomachs using that word to describe her right now.
River clears his throat and starts again. “She was in an incestuous relationship with her brother. They share the same dad, but different mothers. They also have a child together, who is about twelve. She was one of the girls we rescued in Cuba.”
River lets out a heavy sigh and shakes his head. “I had no idea she was this fucked up. There were no signs, not that I was looking for any. Mental illness isn’t something to mess with and Frannie, whose real name is Donna Ingram, was so caught up in a delusional world that the only way to stop her was to shoot her.”
“Explain your house then,” Nate demands.
River leans back in his chair and shakes his head. “She knew I was on to her. I refused to sleep with her, or eat her food, and asked her where she was when Ryley and her mom were at the hospital. I knew where she was because I could see her on my phone fucking her brother all over the house.
“The day my house blew up, I had left her a note saying that I knew about her relationship with her brother and I was going to out them, publicly. I didn’t know she was responsible for the care packages at that point, and I definitely didn’t know Lawson had done anything to Claire. If I had, I would’ve killed them both.
“Anyway, she left after I confronted her. I held a gun to her head and had fucking tears in my eyes because even after everything I had found out, at one point in my life, I loved her. I was stupid and let her talk me down only to have her run out the back door. I chased her, but lost her. There was a car waiting for her down the street.”
“That’s not what you told us,” Evan says angrily. “In fact, you told us that she left you because you had been apart for so long.”
River nods. “I know. I wasn’t sure what you knew, but I had a feeling. I knew you’d want her, but I wanted her dead. I wanted to see the life leave her eyes for what she had done to us. It was my job to protect you.” He looks at Rask, Evan, and finally me. “I let you down. I bought the evil into our lives and I needed to be the one to extinguish it. That day you guys came over I was at my lowest. I wanted to end my life after you detailed everything you knew. All I could think about was the pain everyone went through because of me.
“I had rigged my house earlier, hoping to end both our lives. I couldn’t live with the idea that I failed my team and I couldn’t let her continue to live, but my weaknesses got the best of me and instead of blowing up the house with her and I in it, she had escaped. The day you came over, I had a gun sitting on the table and you didn’t even notice. I was going to end my life because I had failed you.”
“You failed yourself,” I say, harshly.
He shakes his head and wipes away the tears on his face. “I had no idea where Penny was, McCoy, or I would’ve told you.” He looks from me back to Evan and Nate. “After you left, I had no choice. I had to hunt her down and prevent her from hurting anyone else. The moment you walked out, I got up and walked out my backdoor, tripping the line to set off the bomb.”
“Where’d you go,” Ryley asked.
“Back to the hotels where Frannie had met her brother. Every few days I’d have an idea of where she was, but she knew I was after her so she moved around a lot. I hacked Cara’s phone and found out where you were looking.”
“How’d you know she was in Penny’s house?” Nate asks.
“I followed these four SEALs I know and they led me right to her.”
“I KNOW YOU SAID you needed space, but I can’t not talk to you now that I know you’re alive,” I tell Penny who is silent on the other end of the line. “I hate this. I hate that we’re not together. I hate that you’ve lost Ray. I have never been so confused in my life. Loving you has been the easiest thing I’ve ever done, but not having you in my life is the hardest.”
“I know, I wish things were different for us.”
Does she? Can I ask her without her closing up and refusing to talk or do I change the subject? There isn’t a book on how to win your wife back after she’s been married to someone else for so long because she thought you were dead. I need a
fucking instruction booklet of things I’m allowed to say, ask, and think when I’m talking to her because the last thing I want to do is upset her.
“I’m sorry, Penny. I never meant for any of this to happen.”
“I know you didn’t, Tucker.” Her voice is soft and there’s a hint of tiredness. Glancing at my watch I see it’s almost eleven for her and should probably let her go, but this is the first time she’s answered since I left her in Vermont.
“I think you’re a brave woman. I should’ve told you that when I saw you, but my words were jumbled and everything was happening so fast. I can’t fathom being in your situation, thinking I’m gone and having to deal with Lawson. I’m going to kill him when I see him, Penelope.”
“Please don’t.”
Her simple statement takes me back. In fact, I’m confused. Why wouldn’t she want this piece of shit dead?
“Why not?” I brace myself for her reasoning.
“Because you’ll go to jail and I can’t have that.”