SHIRLEY, NEW YORK
Marissa came home and headed immediately to the fridge for a snack. The eight-year-old’s skin was lighter than her mother’s and darker than her father’s, but her eyes matched the blues of both her parents. She had Steven’s strong chin and Laura’s straight jet hair, most of which she’d lost during chemotherapy, but it was growing back with a vengeance since her cure.
“I want you to get an early start on your homework,” Laura said. “Rick’s coming for dinner.”
“Yay!”
“And we’re having steak.”
“Double yay!”
After sending her off to hit the books, Laura settled herself in the family room and opened The Ties That Bind, the coffee-table book by Rick’s brother. She found it fascinating and easy to read, but her thoughts kept wandering away to Emilie Lantz and how Laura could get that dose of ikhar into her without anyone knowing—especially Emilie.
By the time Rick returned, she’d made it halfway through the book—his brother Keith had crammed it with photos. Marissa, still dressed in her softball shorts and jersey, ran to the door to let him in. She heard their voices approaching from the front hall.
“Did you see the game?” Marissa said. “Did you see?”
“Only parts of it. Had some work to do.”
Laura smiled. That meant Rick had watched highlights on SportsCenter.
“The Metropolitans were awesome!”
Laura had gathered from Marissa’s cries of “Yes! Yes!” last night that the Mets had won their game.
“Had some hot bats, that’s for sure. Let’s just hope they stay hot.”
“They will,” Marissa said. “This is our year.”
The eternal optimist, she thought.
“Sure is, kiddo.” Rick deepened his voice into announcer mode. “The Year of the Metropolitans!”
“Yeah!”
“Hey, how’d softball go?”
“Super. Ms. Hernandez says I’ve got a great arm.”
“Well, you practice enough.”
“Rick’s here,” Marissa announced as the pair entered the family room.
Laura closed the book. “Well, that’s a relief. I was wondering who that strange man’s voice belonged to.”
Rick looked offended. “Who’s strange? I’m not strange.” He looked at Marissa and scrunched up his face. “Do I look strange to you?”
Marissa thought this was hilarious, as only an eight-year-old could.
“Finish your homework before dinner so you can just hang out the rest of the night.”
As Marissa took off down the hall, Laura held up the oversize book.
“Your brother did a good job with this.”
Rick shrugged. “Knew he was smart, but never read anything he wrote.”
“He’s a good explainer. He makes a convincing case that every living thing on the planet is genetically connected. I don’t see how anyone could read this and deny evolution.”
“Unless you’re someone like Bishop Ussher.”
Laura couldn’t resist. “When did he become a bishop? I thought he was still rapping.”
Rick didn’t miss a beat. “Between concerts and recording sessions he calculated that the world is only six thousand years old.”
“Doesn’t leave much time for dinosaurs.”
“Everyone knows dinosaurs are a hoax.”
“Oh, right. Forgot.” She replaced the book on the table. Time to get serious. “So what’s the story with your brother?”
Rick paced back and forth while he told her about Keith liquidating his assets, about the forensic accountant and the trail of money to Grand Cayman, about the apartment he abandoned, passport and all.
“So,” she said when he was through, “the consensus is foul play?”
Rick nodded. “Had everything going for him, and nothing to run from. Can’t see it being much else. Paulette’s sure it had something to do with this monkey he brought back from Mozambique.”
“Based on what?”
“Her intuition.”
“Well, never underestimate a mother’s intuition where her child is concerned.”
“Except he’s not her natural child.”
“Speaking of which, did you ever hunt down your natural folks?”
Rick shrugged. “Every orphan’s quest, right?”
“Not all.”
“Well, if they’re not looking, I guarantee you they’ve thought about it. Anyway, I wasn’t a true orphan at first. My mother gave me up. But she’d been dead for years by the time I tracked her down. Overdose.”
Laura laid a hand on his forearm. “How awful.”
“Giving me up was probably the best thing she could do for me.”
“And your father?”
“Unknown. Not listed on the birth certificate.” He sighed. “So … I told Paulette—who’s not my natural mother—that I’d help find Keith—who’s not my natural brother.”
She was catching a strange vibe from Rick. “You’re not sure how to react about Keith, are you.”
“If Hari locates him, I said I’d go bring him back.”
“I get the feeling you didn’t like him too much.”
Rick shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “I worshipped him as a kid—absolutely worshipped him. To my mind at the time, my older brother knew everything. I’d follow him around the yard and into the woods we had in Switzerland and he’d name everything we passed—animal, vegetable, mineral, didn’t matter, he knew the common name and the scientific name.”
Laura grinned. “Impressive. Maybe he was making them up, trying to impress his kid brother.”
“But he wasn’t trying to impress anyone. He was testing his knowledge. And if he’d come across something he couldn’t identify, he’d pull out his little notebook and jot down a description.”
“So you were close?”
“Not a bit. I was closer to my sister Cheryl.”
Laura shook her head. Baffled. “I don’t get it. You worshipped him but—”
“Oh, I wanted to be close to him but it never worked out.”
“Was he your mother’s fave? Got a Tommy Smothers thing going here?”
He laughed. “You mean, ‘Mom always liked you best’? No. Even though she did, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Keith was so self-contained. Didn’t need anybody else. And something like that—not being allowed past the gate—only makes you want to get inside more.”
“Did you ever get past?”
He shook his head. “No. And eventually I realized there was nothing for me on the other side. What’s the expression? ‘There’s no there there.’ That fits Keith. Had his own world and wouldn’t let anyone in it.”
She recalled his brief Wikipedia biography. “Yet he managed to get a doctorate and a position at NYU, and then write a bestseller.”
“I know. Amazing. That’s why his getting attached to this mystery monkey was so out of character. Maybe it broke through his shell.”
Laura was developing a mental picture of Keith. She had some half-formed ideas but didn’t want to say anything yet.
“So let me get this straight. He’s not your real brother and he never let you in, but you’re going to find him and bring him back.”
He shrugged. “Well, yeah. Still remember the good times. Fond memories of those walks in the woods and how I looked up to him. Sure, I was frustrated that he was so unreachable, maybe even a little hurt.”
Oh, I’m betting a lot hurt, Laura thought.
“But he’s my brother. And when someone abducts your brother, you do something about it.”
And there it was. This was the Rick she’d come to know. In so many ways an independent spirit and free thinker—some of his ideas were way out of the box—but when duty called, Rick answered.