Chelsea almost laughed, as that’s what she’d labeled Eli—but with a different meaning. “Planning to quit Eli and settle down? Kids? The works?”
“I haven’t got that far, but I am done with Eli.” She grunted as she caught a box so heavy she nearly fell. Chelsea helped her. “See what I mean? He’s always doing things like this.”
“Is he? You mean things outside the government?”
“Oh, yeah. He got shot in one of them, but he did bring down three men who were selling government secrets. But the way he did it was illegal. If the US didn’t need him so much, he might have been put in prison. What was he like as a kid?”
“The same,” Chelsea said. “I don’t think he’s changed at all. Except physically.”
Pilar gave a little laugh. “Half the women in the office have made a play for him, but he doesn’t even notice them. Jeff started spreading it around that Eli had been in love with a girl who died and couldn’t get over her. I think that was supposed to make them back off.”
“They tried harder?”
“Definitely! They started dressing to entice him. I’m sure the huge increase in sales of push-up bras created a surge in the stock market.”
“What about you? You interested?”
“Not in the least. He’s too nerdy for me. I have a blue-collar background. Lanny can repair a transmission. He has grease under his nails. He—”
“Pilar,” Eli said through the fence, “where is Dad?”
“Right here,” came the deep male voice of Frank Taggert. “Chelsea, you look beautiful, as always.”
“Mr. Taggert,” Chelsea said and kissed the man’s cheeks. He stood straight and tall, and even in the darkness she saw that the years hadn’t put a pound on him. “You flew here just to help Eli?”
“Of course. He’s my son.”
Around them, in absolute silence, three men in black picked up the boxes and carried them away.
“How is Miranda?”
“Well,” Frank said. “Come on, let’s go.”
“But Eli—” Chelsea began.
“He’ll be here in a minute. Everything is taken care of. It’ll be daylight soon and people will be getting up.”
When Chelsea saw that Pilar was with them, she followed Frank down the road to where his car was parked.
Eli stayed behind to make sure a new lock was put on the empty shed, then vaulted over the fence and left.
One of the men reconnected the motion-sensing lights on the shed. They came on for a few seconds, then went off again. On the ground, the sleeping dog began to stir.
At last, everything was quiet and looked just as it had before the invasion of so many people.
Inside the house, Abby Ridgeway was sorry the show was over. Earlier, she’d awoken hungry and had pulled a bottle of water and a bag of corn chips out of the pantry. She’d meant to go back to her room and look at some adult websites her mother had forbidden with her blasted parental controls. It hadn’t taken much work to figure out what her mom’s password was.
It wasn’t that Abby actually wanted to see the sites, but right now she was furious with her mother. She had given away the money for Abby’s prom dress to that sleazy, slimy creep Orin Peterson.
In the last few years since her father . . . died—Abby refused to believe what she’d been told of her dad’s death—she’d often told her mother what she thought of Orin. But her mother always said that he had been through a lot that Abby knew nothing about. She’d told Abby about some of it: a dying wife, a bankrupted business, living on food stamps. Poor, poor Orin.
But Abby hadn’t believed any of it. She and her friend Scully had done some research and found that Orin was still connected to Longacre Furniture. Abby told her mother what they’d found out.
Grace had asked Orin about that, and he’d said that yes, his name was still officially on the board but he received no money. In other words, he’d sweet-talked and cried and pleaded so much that Grace had believed him.
After that her mother refused to listen to anything Abby had to say about what had happened. Grace said that her husband had given his life to keep the shame of it all quiet and she was going to honor that. Abby was forbidden to ever again speak of anything that had to do with her father or Orin or even about Longacre Furniture.