Part 2 (2/2)
”What did you talk about?”
It was not about, it was around. We talked around an argument about safety, and our future.
”Just small talk,” Clarissa said.
”Can you remember anything specific? Anything at all might be helpful. For example, did he mention anything unusual, or any planned outings or meetings?”
G.o.d, what had he said that she”d be willing to share with these strangers sitting in her home wanting to sift through her underwear drawer? She struggled to remember precisely. ”An Afghan woman was coming to see him in the office. He wasn”t sure what she wanted. He also was to meet some woman from Texas who wanted to visit a refugee camp. And he mentioned his a.s.sistant, Amin. He”s very close to Amin. That”s it.”
”Do you need Amin”s contact info?” Bill Snyder asked, and then Clarissa”s attention wandered as he provided it and Agent Sandy wrote.
”What about you?” Jack asked Ruby after several minutes ”I haven”t spoken to him in maybe two weeks.” Ruby”s voice sounded shaky. ”At least not directly.”
”Directly?” Jack made an openhanded gesture that indicated puzzlement.
”We”re playing an online chess game,” Ruby explained. ”He makes a move in the evening his time and I make a move in the evening my time. He made the last move, about four days ago. I ...” Ruby began to choke up, restrained herself with effort. ”It was my turn next.”
”Did he mention anything in particular to you? Anyone he was meeting, or anything going on in his life?”
”We really only talked about chess,” Ruby said. ”We talk about light things when he is overseas. When he”s home, that”s when he tells me more serious stories.”
”Did he ever bring up being threatened in any way?” Jack asked, his tone casual.
”Not really.”
”He knew-knows that part of the world is not the safest,” Clarissa said. ”But he always said he felt well protected. And he was getting ready to quit. Is going to quit. He”s going to work from New York after this rotation.” She glanced toward Bill Snyder, expecting him to nod in acquiescence, but his face remained expressionless, noncommittal, and she fleetingly wondered if he”d tried to talk Todd out of leaving the fieldwork. ”You know, Todd worked on behalf of Afghans,” Clarissa said. ”Do his kidnappers get that?”
”Simply being a foreigner-”
”I know. I know, of course,” Clarissa interrupted Jack.
”This is a business,” Jack continued. ”He”s an American and he was accessible. A target of opportunity. It”s that simple.”
”What was he doing?” Clarissa turned to Bill Snyder. ”I mean, when they...”
Bill Snyder shrugged. ”Getting ice cream, Amin says.”
”Christ,” Clarissa said.
The kitchen fell silent for a moment. ”And you?” Sandy asked Mikey.
Mikey shrugged. ”Clari”s my only sibling. My only family, really. We”re close,” he said. ”But I wouldn”t know about Todd”s life day to day, beyond what Clari might mention.”
Sandy turned to Angie. ”Tell me about your connection to the family.”
”Well, Ruby and I, we live together.”
”How long have you known each other?”
”I lived with Todd and Ruby for a while when I was a teenager,” Angie said ”How long?”
”About a year.”
”What were the circ.u.mstances?”
Angie shrugged. ”Things were not going so great at home. Todd agreed to take me in. He fed me, watched over me, became a surrogate dad. Probably more than he bargained for.”
”We understand you work as a psychic,” Jack said.
Angie looked as surprised as Clarissa felt. How had they found out so much so quickly? Though she didn”t ask the question, Jack seemed to antic.i.p.ate it. He shrugged in a silent answer.
”I”m an RN,” Angie said after a minute. ”I work with a hospice. But yes, I do psychic fairs on the side, that kind of thing. That”s all.”
”So you get premonitions?”
”Sometimes,” Angie said hesitantly.
”Can you describe one for us?”
”I hope this is not the primary basis of your investigation,” Clarissa said, her voice cool.
”Yeah,” Angie said. ”I actually don”t think this will be helpful.”
”They”re just trying to think of everything,” Ruby said in a soothing way that almost made Clarissa smile. She”d seen this side of Ruby with her father, too: a torrent of emotion almost as if she were a still rebellious teenager and then, at lightning speed, everything under control.
”Okay, well,” Angie began, her voice sounding doubtful. ”Last week there was this guy on the subway platform. It was about ten minutes after five, and I was headed home from work; he was wearing earphones and dark jeans and swaying to the music on his iPod and he looked like, you know, a regular commuter, a little trance-like, into his own isolated world, but whatever. And suddenly he stared right at me in a piercing way that made me think... well, that he was dead. I know it sounds strange, but that”s how it felt. And that he wanted me to do something, tell someone...”
”Go ahead,” Jack encouraged.
”I looked around, and the platform was crowded and I had no idea who to approach, or what to say if I did, and then my train came, and I looked behind me, and I couldn”t see him anymore, you know, like he was lost in the flush of travelers, so I got on the car, and I figured, oh well, that”s it, I must be imagining things.”
Sandy had stopped taking notes, and Clarissa agreed with that decision. Please, she wanted to shout. Let”s get serious here.
”Yes?” Jack said encouragingly.
”Two mornings later, I took one of those free newspapers they hand out at the subway entrance, I think it was AM New York, and I was flipping through it, and there it was. A photo of a man who”d stepped onto the tracks at my station shortly after 5 p.m. My man.”
”Wow,” Sandy said, though she didn”t sound particularly impressed.
”She”s pretty amazing,” Ruby said.
”Have you had any feelings about Ruby”s dad?” Jack asked.
”No, no.” Angie looked embarra.s.sed. ”G.o.d, no.”
”Now can I ask you a few questions?” Clarissa asked. ”Because while all this may serve some purpose that is not occurring to me now, it seems clear what we really need to focus on is what”s happening on the ground in Kabul. Who are you talking to? Where do you think my husband is being held, and by whom?”
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