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LATER IN THE MORNING, everyone put on boots for a hike along the rest of the Falls Trail. The loop was slightly over four miles, and steep in places. Zan thought it would be a challenge for Lucy and Emily, but it went well. Rainer and Brian only had to carry the two little girls for the last half-mile or so.
Back at the campsite, Mel produced the components of their dinner from the cooler. Standard burgers-over-the-fire fare, with portabella mushrooms and big slabs of marinated eggplant for Rainer. After they had eaten and cleaned up, everyone gathered around the fire. The exhausted kids sat quietly in their parents’ laps. Brian broke out the beer again. They all had toasted to a successful hike with five-year-olds when Mel remembered there were musicians in their midst.
“Zan. Did you bring your guitar?”
“Yep. And Rainer brought his violin.”
“Oh no. We forgot last night,” Emmett said. “Will you play?”
“Sure thing,” Zan said. She and Rainer went to the car and returned with the instruments.
“You are in for a serious treat,” Emmett said. “Zan is an amazing guitar player.”
“Wait until you hear Rainer,” Zan said. “Let’s see. How about some bluegrass?”
They’d been working on Salt Creek, a classic, and laid into it as soon as they tuned up. Zan was picking fast and clean, leaning back with a grin on her face, before she handed it off to Rainer, who played a scorching version of the same pattern. They never took their eyes off each other as they zoomed through the happy tune, playing in tandem and then trading off to play intricate breaks. Emmett’s friends from the university stared at them wide-eyed.
“Wow. You two should be professional musicians,” Caroline said. Mel shot her a faux-sour look, which made Zan laugh.
“Mel hates it when people say that to me, but she has nothing to worry about. It wasn’t in the cards.”
After a parade of bluegrass tunes, Emmett suggested that Rainer play something baroque.
“Zan told us that’s your specialty.”
Rainer nodded, tuned up for a moment, and then began Bach’s Chaconne, a piece famous for its haunting shades of loss and hope. The onlookers listened in perfect stillness. They remained silent for a few moments after he’d finished. Zan swallowed and blinked.
How are you mine? I still can’t believe it.
Emmett appeared almost as affected as Zan. “‘With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things,’” he said.
“Thank you, Emmett.” Rainer bowed his head. “Whose words?”
“Wordsworth. Tintern Abbey.”
“Hanging out with all you poets and musicians is making me feel inadequate,” Mel announced. “Lucky for me music hour is over because we have some sleepy little girls here, and a sleepy little boy, from the looks of it.”
The parents took their children off to the tents. Rainer and Zan put their instruments back in the trunk. When the kids were asleep they started to work on their remaining beer. Emmett broke out his scotch and they piled more wood on the fire.
“Maybe you guys should play again,” Emmett said. “I think the kids would sleep through it.”
“I don’t know, Emmett.” Mel shook her head. “You know Lucy. If she wakes up, she won’t go back to sleep. She’ll be afraid she’s missing something.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s almost quiet hour anyway.”
“We should tell stories around the campfire,” Rainer said. “I’d love to hear one of your FBI stories, Zan.”
“I don’t know, Rainer,” Zan said. “I don’t think anyone would be interested.” Immediate protests from the others revealed this was not the case.
“All right, then. What do you think, Mel? Which one should we tell?”
“You ever heard the Perez story, Rainer? From back when Zan was a pup agent?”
“No, I have not.”
“Ugh. Perez? You’ll wonder what the hell kind of a job I have.”
“Oh, come one. They’ll love it.”
“Well, it is pretty funny,” Zan said. “Go ahead, Mel.”
“Perez was this Dominican gangster, a real bad guy, involved in drugs and guns and human trafficking, so we were all working on it,” Mel said. “He had a weakness for beautiful women. Poor Zan had to go all party girl and hang out in his Delaware Avenue nightclub until he noticed her and invited her up to his VIP room.”
“That does not sound pleasant,” Rainer said.
“Oh my god, Zan, do you remember those outfits?” Mel asked.
“Remember them? They are the stuff of my nightmares.”
“What did you have to wear?” Emmett asked. Zan just snorted and waved her hand at Mel.
“Super-short, skin-tight dresses and stilettos with four-inch heels. Zan had to practice in the hallway because she could barely walk in those heels. All the straight male agents stuck their heads out to watch her until the boss came out and yelled at them. What did he say, Zan?”
“Back to work, dick slaves.”
They doubled over laughing.
“And oh god, the hair!” Mel said, wiping her eyes. “Do you remember that big hair?”
“Ha! The hairspray gave me a sneezing attack when I was trying to get cozy with Perez. Lucky for me he thought it was cute.”
“Trying to get cozy with Perez? What kind of a case was this?” Rainer asked.
“I was the new kid then. I had to keep Perez occupied while agents searched his house and office before they raided the club. We were worried someone might tip him off, and he had the means to flee.”
“Tell him the rest. You’ll love this one, Rainer,” Mel said.
“So, they’re taking too long and I’ve been in this asshole’s company for a while. He tells everyone to leave the VIP room and he thinks he’s going to take off my dress,” Zan said.
Rainer scowled. “I thought I was going to like this story.”
“He pins me on the couch and gropes me and I have no choice but to let him do it, you know, because I can’t blow my cover. When it’s getting just about intolerable the tactical agents finally bust into the place. I push Perez off me and yell, ‘FBI!’
“And Perez is pissed, royally pissed,” Zan continued. “He screams, ‘You fucking bitch,’ and grabs me by the big hair. I can’t get to the .22 in my purse, so I take off my shoe and stab him in the eye.”
“Excellent!” Rainer said.
“And the guy is staggering around with his hands over his eye,” Mel added. “And the agents grab him, and the boss comes over to Zan and says, ‘Nice work, Agent O’Gara,’ and Zan says, ‘They don’t call them stilettos for nothing, sir.’”
When Mel said this Rainer delivered a laugh so booming that everyone stared at him with startled eyes.
“Oh, I’m sorry. The children,” Rainer said, smiling meekly, trying to sink his head down between his shoulders. “I usually mind my laugh, but I really enjoyed that story.”
The party spent most of the next day at the campground’s beach, a crescent of white sand they trucked in from somewhere. The lake was calm and not deep. The kids ran around screaming and splashing with total abandon, but by afternoon the weather had changed. Thick, charcoal clouds hung in the sky to the southwest. Zan checked the forecast on her phone.
“Christ. Yesterday the forecast said thunderstorms overnight, but now it’s predicting them for around 5 p.m. It says they could be severe.”
“Camping in the pouring rain is always a lovely experience,” Victor said.
“The good news is, storms often come and go quickly,” Caroline said. “Why don’t we go for dinner at that place down the road with the good pie? Maybe it will have passed by the time we’re finished.”
“Good idea,” Brian said. “I love that pie.”
They walked back to the campsite for a change of clothes and then to the bathhouse to get cleaned up. Mel asked Zan to help her with Lucy.
By the time they got back to the campsite, the wind was blowing so hard the tree limbs were creaking and shuddering above their heads. They all stashed their stuff inside the tents then headed to the cars. Mel and Emmett were in front with Lucy, followed closely by Zan and Rainer with everyone else behind.
The wind got worse. Mel asked Emmett to go pick up Lucy, who was wobbling around about fifteen feet behind them, next to a giant old maple tree, its wizened bark revealing its age.
As Emmett turned to get her, a powerful gust came through. Zan watched, bewildered, as Rainer snapped his head up to look at the maple, then dashed over to Lucy. He stood over her, his arms spread, as a massive limb tore off the tree with a sickening crack and fell on him, careening to the right as he leaned in that direction. Mel froze in terror. The others screamed as Zan ran to Rainer. As deep red blood stained his side. They all stood still as if they weren’t exactly sure what they had seen. Lucy started to cry. Rainer crouched down to talk to her.
“It’s okay, Lucy,” he said in a gentle voice, pointing to the massive tree limb. “It missed you, see? You’re all right.” As he said this, Emmett ran to Lucy and scooped her up.
Mel reached them a moment later. She put her arms around both Emmett and Lucy. Over and over, she kissed Lucy’s face. “You’re okay. You’re okay. Lucy, my baby.”
Lucy stopped crying. Once she was safe in her parents’ arms, Zan found her voice.
“Rainer, honey, oh my god, your back. We need to get you to a hospital.” She placed her hands near a foot-long bloody scrape along his right shoulder blade.
“I’m all right, Zan.” Rainer lifted his right arm and rotated it. “You see? A trip to the hospital is unnecessary. I’ll just wash it off.”
“Are you crazy? You are not all right! You’ve got a giant bleeding gash on your back!”
The others stood there for a few seconds with their mouths hanging open before joining Zan to insist that Rainer go to the hospital. Sarah ran back to her campsite and got a towel to stanch the blood.
“I’m fine,” Rainer insisted, as Zan applied the towel to his back and held his arm. She scowled at him and tried not to cry.
I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, ever.
Mel and Emmett came closer, Emmett still holding Lucy. Mel looked at Rainer like she wasn’t quite sure what he was.
“You risked your life to save my child,” she said.
“Ah, Mel, you exaggerate. Injury, yes. Not my life.”
“No, Rainer,” Emmett said. “Your life. That limb must weigh 300 pounds. It fell right on you. I watched it fall right on you.”
“It may have looked like that, but it didn’t hit me squarely. It fell to the right of me. Glanced off me, really.”
“It fell right on you,” Emmett repeated.
“If that were true, I’m sure I would be lying on the ground,” Rainer said. By this time, the wind had eased and the first fat drops began to fall from the sky. “Let’s get out of this weather before something worse happens.”
Mel hugged him, taking care not to touch his wound.
“Rainer, thank you,” she said, tears in her eyes. Zan squeezed his hand. She knew he was touched. The group moved off toward the cars then, after agreeing to go to the hospital in Bloomsburg, a nearby town.
Philadelphia
Zan sat in her office reading news online and drinking coffee, mulling over the camping trip. What she’d first thought would end with mutual dislike between her boyfriend and her best friend had turned completely around.
Too bad it was at the expense of Rainer’s body.
When the group of campers had arrived at the emergency room in Bloomsburg, Rainer insisted they go to dinner per the original plan. He said there was no reason for them to wait around for hours in an emergency room. Then the stubborn man refused an X-ray. Zan tried to convince him, as did the doctor, but he wouldn’t be persuaded. On questioning from Rainer, the doctor admitted that his arm and shoulder joint seemed fine. He cleaned out the wound and bandaged it. After Zan and Rainer got back to Philadelphia, she insisted he do nothing but rest, eat, and submit to her massages.
She had a great time spoiling him rotten, but the incident—and the whole trip—had an unexpected effect. Zan’s worry over whether the others would like Rainer slapped her out of her own perception. Viewing him through their eyes helped her understand Mel’s initial reaction to him. She felt bad she’d ever got angry.
I need to tell her this.
When Mel arrived, Zan marveled at her partner’s early morning cheerfulness.
“Good morning!” Mel said. “Happy to be back at work?”
“Meh.”
“Hey, I think I can use a little routine after that dramatic camping trip.”
“That’s what you get with Rainer along. Drama seems to follow him around.” Zan took a sip of her coffee. “Hey, remember how I got mad because you said Rainer is strange? Well, I’m sorry, because you’re right. Do you know that man refused to get an X-ray? It’s like, tree limbs falling on him, no problem, but god forbid he be exposed to a little radiation. What a flake.”
“Watch it now,” Mel said with faux-sharpness. “Don’t you dare say anything bad about Rainer. That’s my boy.”
“Oh, it gets worse. He insisted on using this smelly salve on his shoulder. That his business manager gave him, no less. It had a strange texture and kept shocking me with static electricity. I’ve been forced to accept it. Rainer is a weirdo.”
“At least he’s weird in a superhero kind of way.” Mel started to laugh but stopped at the look on Zan’s face. “What’s got you thinking like this?”
“I can’t figure him out. I get that he grew up in a different culture, but you know, I’ve met Europeans. Rainer seems like he grew up in a culture unto himself.”
“Some people are eccentric.”
“He’s rich enough for that label, eh? What do people say? If you’re poor you’re crazy and if you’re rich you’re eccentric?”
“Jesus, Zan. I didn’t mean to make you feel insecure about your relationship. I just wanted you to be cautious. And really, I was out of line. Rainer is a wonderful man.”
“I know, but he’s giving me serious cognitive dissonance.”
“How so?”
“Sometimes he seems so devoted to me, I expect him to fall at my feet and ask me to marry him. But like I told you before, there’s this huge part of his life he won’t let me share. He should have asked me to move in with him by now.”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
“What? Invite myself to move in?” Zan rose abruptly to pace. “I don’t want to do that. I would suggest we get a place together, but he lives in that fabulous compound. Who would give that up? I’m in a bad spot. He has to ask me.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Has he gotten any better about the business stuff?”
“He’s trying, but even with that, he’s just so weird. Case in point, when we talked about it I said to him, ‘When you’re on a business trip you never call or text to tell me how your day went, like if you met some asshole or something.’ So the next trip, I get this text from him that says, ‘All going well here. I met some assholes.’”
Mel burst out laughing. “That’s adorable.”
Zan couldn’t help but laugh, too. “Yeah, I guess it is. My adorable, smoking-hot weirdo.” She sat down and shook her head. Time to think about work, not Rainer. “Hey, Mel. Nguyen wants to talk to me today. Think it’s about the daggers?”
“I’d lay odds.”
Deep in the bowels of the federal building, Zan made her way down the dark halls back from the shipping room. She’d just prepared a dagger to send off to France, leaving her more excited than any agent had ever been to be somewhere so dank. Mel had called it. Nguyen could not abide leaving dangerous criminals out in the world. He’d given her permission to pursue the lead. One of the blades was now packaged and processed and would be on its way that afternoon.
Nguyen had also helped her with the paperwork to clear communication with Martin Grenat, the FBI’s legal attaché in Paris. Grenat agreed to inquire about the dagger with the auction houses identified by Charlotte Emory, but that didn’t mean he was pleased about the task. He was all about terrorism, so Zan could tell she had a lot of frustrating telephone calls in her future, trying to get this man to attend to the lowest of low priorities.
Still, it was promising. She couldn’t wait to tell Rainer that his assistance paid off. Ever since his fight with Pellus, she sensed pain in him. And fear, but she wondered if it was her own insecurity. Sometimes it broke her heart to look at him, and she couldn't understand why.
I guess that’s love.