Safe house, Gray’s Farm Main Road, Hawksbill Bay.
Jana threw the box of candy to the ground and her jaw muscles flexed. “I’m not mad at you for collecting my mail. What I want to know is why did you bring these letters here? What makes you think I have any interest in that man? He’s dead to me. He’s been dead my whole life! But wait a minute,” she said as she thumbed through the envelopes. “These are all opened. You’ve been reading them, haven’t you?”
“FBI has been reading your mail since you disappeared. I told you before, you killed the most-wanted terrorist in the world and that puts you in danger.”
“Oh,” Jana replied, “the FBI has been reading them. What about you?”
Cade looked at his feet. “No one knew what to do with your mail, so I’ve been collecting it.”
But Jana was fixated. “Yeah? Just what I thought. Did you share these around the office? Everybody get a good laugh? Ha ha. Agent Baker’s dad is in the joint!”
“It’s not like that,” Cade said.
Stone interrupted. “Hey, I don’t mean to jump in the middle of something, but your father is in the pen? What did he do?”
Jana’s face froze. “US Code, section 793,” she said.
Stone thought for a moment. “793? But that’s . . . espionage.”
“Yes,” Jana replied. “My father committed treason against the United States.” Her lower lip quivered but she recovered quickly. “I was two years old. They told me he’d died, cancer. As an adult, I found out the truth.”
“Jesus,” Stone said.
“And Cade here thinks bringing me marzipan and these letters is going to, what? Get me to open up? Find my roots and all that crap?” She moved to within an inch of his face. “You think this is going to change me back into the girl you used to know? What a bunch of psychobabble bullshit!” She threw the letters to his feet.
“Kelly Everson—”
“You talked to Kelly?” Jana blurted. “About me? What gives you the right?”
Stone said, “Who’s Kelly Everson?”
“Headshrinker,” Cade replied. “Counseled Jana through the PTSD. Yes, of course I talked to Kelly. We all did. And she feels—”
“Don’t talk to me about what she feels. I love Kelly, but I don’t want to hear it. Get it through your head. I’m not going back. I’m never going back.” Jana walked into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.
Stone looked at the mass of envelopes at Cade’s feet and the candies spread across the floor. He said, “Well, that went well. Good job.”