Chapter Sixty-Four

Marcus knocked on the hotel room door in a coded sequence, for security purposes. Two knocks followed by three would signal the agent to open the door. Two knocks alone would alert her to danger. And the five other FBI agents on loan from Valdas now patrolled the perimeter and had the entire floor blocked off, so there was no chance of a maid bumbling in and getting shot.

Within a couple of seconds, Agent Lee was at the door, opening it cautiously, her gun at the ready. The beautiful young black woman had short-cropped curly hair and bright-green eyes. She gave Marcus a nod and then let the door swing open. Walking back to a small table where a Subway sandwich sat half eaten, she said, “Let me just grab this, and I’ll take it down the hall. Give you guys some alone time.”

“You’re fine. Don’t worry about it. Finish your sandwich,” he said.

Dylan didn’t even look up as Marcus entered the room. The boy was too engrossed in his own little world. He wore a black ninja costume with Apple earbuds attached to his skull. Dylan sat atop the bed, but all the hotel’s comforters and blankets had been stripped away, leaving nothing but the bare sheets. All manner of Lego vehicles, fortresses, and play-sets covered the bed. Heroes and villains of all kinds were represented in Lego form, from Star Wars to Robin Hood.

There was just enough room on the bed behind Dylan for Marcus to slip in and take a seat, looking over his son’s shoulder. He pulled out Dylan’s earbuds and said, “Do I even get a hello?”

Dylan looked back at him with a smile and said, “Hola, Padre. That means: Hello, Father. Agent Lee has been teaching me some Spanish.”

“That’s awesome, buddy. It’s a good skill to have. What are you doing here? You got what looks like SpongeBob on the TV. Then you’re listening to your iPhone. And all while you’re building this magnificent fortress here.”

“I wasn’t actually watching SpongeBob. Agent Lee turned that on. She told me I needed to watch some cartoons instead of the History Channel.”

With her mouth full of sandwich, Agent Lee said, “A boy your age should only watch so many World War II documentaries in one day.”

Marcus ran a hand through the boy’s hair. It was the same color as his own. He said, “She’s right, buddy. It’s great to learn, but sometimes you need to let your brain rest.”

“That’s what I’m doing,” Dylan said, going back to his work on the Lego kingdom.

“What were you listening to?” Marcus asked.

“The MythBusters podcast.”

Marcus didn’t know how to respond to that. It didn’t really seem appropriate for a boy who wasn’t even double digits yet, but he also didn’t know what kids were into these days. Maybe watching World War II documentaries and listening to podcasts was perfectly normal. When he was a kid, he had spent hours memorizing encyclopedias, so he had no room to judge.

“I’m sorry I’ve been away so much with work.”

“That’s okay. I don’t mind. I like being on the road with you where I don’t have to be at school, and I can spend all day working on my Legos. I’ve been able to try out a lot of new ideas that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.”

Marcus said, “That’s good, buddy. But it’s still not okay for me to be gone. I should be making more time for you. It’s just that we’ve had a lot going on lately with this case. A lot of things hitting all at once. To be honest, I don’t know if I’m coming or going. But that’s no excuse. I guess I’m just trying to say that even though I haven’t been hanging out with you as much as I would like, I want you to know that it’s not always gonna be like this. And it definitely doesn’t mean that you’re not important to me. You are the most important thing in my world. I want you to know that. I love you, kid.”

Dylan didn’t look back at him, didn’t pause his building, but the boy said, “I love you too, Daddy.”

Closing his eyes and thinking of how much of a failure he was as a father, Marcus said, “How about I help you out. Maybe we could put this piece over here.” Then he picked up a large blue Lego and attached it to the flying fortress that Dylan was creating—which reminded Marcus of one of those flying aircraft carriers from the Marvel movies.

As soon as the block was in place, Dylan began shaking. The boy’s breathing became rapid and his whole body trembled. Dylan snatched the block from his Lego masterpiece and threw it across the room. Through clenched teeth, Dylan said, “That doesn’t go there. I have these things all planned out. What, do you think I’m just sitting here sticking pieces together? No, there’s a certain way that all of it needs to fit together.”

“Okay, my bad. But it’s really not that big of a deal, buddy. It’s not permanent. I put it there, and you took it off. You don’t need to be so angry about it. That’s the cool thing about Legos. There’s no set way that you have to do it. You can’t make any mistakes when building these things. And if you do, you can just tear it down and build it again. It’s not permanent.”

“You don’t understand. Can I just get back to work? I’m sure you have a lot of things you need to do on your case.”

“I don’t understand why you’re so upset. You’re much more important to me than some case, and I—”

“I need to use the bathroom. I’ll see you later. Love you,” Dylan said, and then he grabbed his iPhone and earbuds and headed for the bathroom.

Marcus just nodded and watched him go. After Dylan slammed the door and turned on the exhaust fan, Marcus said, “What am I doing wrong, Agent Lee?”

The young agent raised an eyebrow and said, “Don’t look at me. I don’t even have a cat.”

“Great, thanks. I’ll leave you to it, but if he starts requesting weapons grade uranium to go into some of his Lego creations, be sure to drop me a text and let me now.”

“Agent Williams?” she called after him. “Has there been any headway in finding Jerrell? I mean, Agent Fuller?”

He could hear a tremble in her voice. He said, “The two of you were close, I take it. I didn’t know.”

“They wouldn’t let me be an active participant in the investigation to find him, because of our . . . relationship. But I volunteered to help with his case in any way I could, so they gave me this job.”

After explaining the few twists the investigation had taken, he said, “I can’t promise that we’ll find him alive. Not at this point. But I haven’t given up hope, and I never will.”

Grabbing him with an unexpected and awkward hug, Agent Lee wiped a tear from her eye and said, “Thank you, Agent Williams. Jerrell is one of the best men I’ve ever known, if anyone could survive something like this, it’s him. And don’t you worry a bit about your boy. I’ll keep him in line, and if anyone wants to get to him, they’ll have to go through me.”

~~*~~