She would offer herself up if she thought that would work, but playing the kidnapped child stumbling out of the forest was a path full of too much uncertainty. Autumn had said that she could protect Ariel, but look what had happened to her website. Autumn couldn’t even protect herself.
The Forbes family must have figured this out. They seemed to have normal lives. Zachary had a website for his film work. Jonathan was listed all over the Duke University directories. The parents were frequently mentioned in their church’s online bulletin. They had a lawyer who knew how to issue statements for them.
That statement had made it very clear that the family didn’t want to hear from her. Forcing herself on people was not something that nice girls did. Colleen was going to do it anyway.
I’m sorry. I know you want to be left alone. I understand that, believe me. But I don’t know what else to do.
Colleen couldn’t remember if she had ever called Directory Assistance to get a phone number. She had always used the internet. She dialed zero on the phone. That operator told her to call 411, which she did. The person who answered that line was able to give her the number for the Duke University linguistics department.
Two actual people. Amazing.
The department secretary said she would connect Colleen to Professor Forbes’s office. Colleen secretly hoped that he wouldn’t answer.
But he did. “This is Jonathan Forbes.” His accent was lightly Southern, more North Carolina than Ben’s Georgia one.
“Professor Forbes, my name is Colleen Ridge. I am a Norwegian-to-English, English-to-Norwegian interpreter.” Why had she said that?
“Yes?”
“I’ve studied with Keith Alvord.” That was her most famous professor.
“He is an excellent scholar. How can I help you? I don’t need any interpretive services at the moment.”
No, of course, he didn’t. “Oh, no, that’s not why I am calling.”
“Then again, how can I help you?”
“I’m calling about Autumn Chase and your brother Gideon. I think that I—”
“I have nothing to say about that.” His voice became formal. “Please give my regards to Professor Alvord.”
“Don’t hang up. Please don’t hang up.”
“I have nothing to say. Now I must excuse myself.”
“Wait…wait…” What could she say? How could she prove herself over the phone? I have your mother’s eyes. Anyone could say that. What could she say?
Oh, of course. That was it. She could say anything. “Say something in a foreign language.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“An obscure one. Urdu, Pashto, one I don’t know.”
He paused, then said a string of syllables. She repeated them. And she knew that she had done it perfectly. However fluent he was in this language, that was how fluent she would have sounded.
“You know Portuguese?”
“I didn’t know for sure it was Portuguese. Try me again.”
He did.
“That’s Hebrew, isn’t it?” she asked after parroting the sounds. During seventh grade she had attended several bar mitzvahs. “I don’t know the Afro-Asiatic languages if you want to try one of those.”
“Why are we doing this?” he asked.
“I can repeat any sound that you make. And surely someone else in your family can.”
“My older sister, but she isn’t as good as you,” he admitted. “So what is it that you are suggesting?”
“All I can be sure of is that I was adopted, I have an October birthday, and I look like your mother and sisters.”
It was a moment before he said anything. “My mother still thinks about Gideon every day. For all the pain he caused her, she thinks about him every day. Every time someone says that he might have had a child, it’s really hard on her. You do understand that we have to be suspicious.”
“Of course, and I don’t want money. Really. I’m a teacher; I have a job. My father is a dentist, and he is from a family of means. Are you online now?” She gave him her school’s URL. “Go to the foreign language department. There are pictures of all the teachers. My name is Colleen Ridge.”
He was silent, and then—“Ah…no, Ms. Ridge. There is no listing for anyone by that name.”
Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit. Ben had wiped her off the faculty rolls. How suspicious this must look. “Oh, please, don’t hang up. I can explain that. Search for a picture of the Latin club. The teacher…there’s no name, but that’s me.”
She forced herself to wait silently, praying that he wouldn’t hang up.
“Yes,” he said slowly. “The eyes…the mouth…” Then speaking in Italian, he asked, “Are you my brother’s child?”
It was easier for her to answer in French. “Yes, I think that I am.” Then she switched to English. “But please believe me, I am not after money.” She knew that she had already said that, but she needed to say it again.
“I talked to my younger brother yesterday,” he said, “after Autumn named Gideon. He did say that Gideon came to Canada for a few days while he was shooting Cards. He didn’t have a clue about anything happening between him and Autumn, but I’ve always suspected that Zachary hadn’t liked working with her, so he probably didn’t spend much time with her.”
“Oh.” Colleen had never heard about anyone not liking to work with Autumn. It hardly fit with her public image.
“I hope you won’t be offended,” he continued, “if we ask for a DNA test.”
“Oh, no, not at all. I already sent mine in, although I haven’t compared it to Autumn yet.” She asked him to hold while she got the information about the lab and her specific code number. “You should probably see if you can get them to tell you about the results. I’m sure that they just have my email and cell phone, and both of those are down.”
“I’m not going to bother my parents yet. Can I do it, or should I ask one of my sisters?”
“The sex doesn’t matter, and they trace connections through aunts and uncles all the time.”
Aunts and uncles. How strange that sounded. This man might be her biological uncle.
“Then I will take care of it right away, but—and maybe this isn’t my business—why can’t you use your phone or email? Is it related to this?”
“Oh, yes. That’s why I called.” What a ditz she was being. “I don’t need money, but I do need help. Gideon’s fans have hacked a friend’s identity. Neither one of us can use our phones or the internet. That’s why I’m not on the faculty list at school. We’ve had to cancel our credit cards. I’m hoping that your family has some way to manage things like this, although I can’t imagine what it would be.”
“Ah, yes”—there was the slightest laugh in his voice—“being related to Gideon Forbes is an acquired skill. We do have people who keep tabs on the craziest of fans. We have to. Zachary oversees everything for the rest of us. I will speak to him and call you back.”
“Oh, I would appreciate that. Really I would.” She gave him the phone number. “But it’s a landline without an answering machine. So you may have to keep trying,”
“I will do that. In the meantime, I hope you will refrain from calling our parents. Mother used to get her hopes up so much, and then we would find out that the person was crazy or after money. Now that she has the other grandchildren, she seems to have accepted how completely Gideon is gone. We hope you can respect that.”
“Oh, yes, of course, anything.”
“There is one more thing. You don’t sound as if you grew up in the South. Is that correct?”
“I am from a Chicago suburb, but my father is from Georgia.”
“Then you might understand. This was years ago, but the first time the possibility of Gideon having a child came up, my mother asked us to promise that if it turned out to be true, we were to assure that person that there was room for him or her in the family burial plot.”
* * * *
Colleen exhaled as she hung up the phone. Ever since she had seen Ben crossing the lawn from the boathouse, things had been getting steadily worse: Grannor’s will, the search for Ariel, Gideon and his fans, leaving her job, being cut off from her friends. For the first time she felt hopeful. This man was what uncles were supposed to be like.
Which was more than she could ever say for her uncle Norton.
She needed to call her father. “Is there any way I can catch him between patients?” she asked the receptionist. “I’ll be as quick as I can.”
She first had to reassure her father that the security firm was here, one man on the dock, another in a car angled across the base of the driveway. Then she told him that she had contacted Gideon Forbes’s brother.
“Oh.” His voice was heavy. “I thought you weren’t going to do that.”
“We needed help, Dad.” She explained her reasoning. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Oh.”
Almost everything on Autumn’s message board and the Find Ariel website had been about the mothers. There was some talk about the “bio dads,” but little about the man who had raised the children, who had given them his name, who had loved them every bit as much as his wife did.
“Oh, Dad, please believe me,” she exclaimed. “This family is no threat to you. You’re still my dad. You’ll always be my dad.”
“They are your blood, Colleen.”
“Norton and Laura are yours, and they are horrible people. Of course I got things from my biological parents: my build, my facial features, my ability to learn languages. But my values, my morals, they are from you and Mom. Why do you think I am a good teacher?” She needed him to believe this. “It isn’t because of my genes. It is because of you, the way you listen to your patients and try to figure out what they are saying even when they don’t have the right words. You respect them even when they are putting Mountain Dew in a baby’s bottle. You’ve always said that they are not bad people for doing that. They just have terrible information.”
“That is fortunately improving.”
She was not going to let this conversation be about dental care even if he was more comfortable talking about that. “I don’t know how you got that way. Grannor was the complete opposite.”
“I did learn from her, from both of them,” he said slowly. “The one thing I knew is that I didn’t want to be like my parents. That’s why I left Georgia as soon as I could. I wanted to be the opposite of them. Until I met your mother, that was my map, my only map, not being like them.”
“My version of the map was a whole lot easier to follow. I never had to read it upside down like you did. That’s true of Sean and Finn too. You have been their role model, Dad, not the Bannings, but you and Mother.”
“I’ve always given your mother the credit for how well you three turned out.”
“Well, don’t,” she said bluntly. “Take some of it for yourself.”
“That is very sweet of you.”
“No, it isn’t. I’m not being sweet or nice. I am telling the truth, and Mother would agree. Ask Genevieve. She knows what was in Mother’s heart.”
“Yes, she does…but, Colleen, you know what probably bothers me the most about your calling that other family? You needed help, and it was something I couldn’t do.”
* * * *
There were two more eggs in the nearly empty refrigerator. Colleen used them to make cookies for the security guards. She could feel her natural optimism returning. She didn’t know how this would end, but it would. By next January she would be back in the classroom. The heirlooms would have been shipped to wherever her cousins wanted them. The ownership of the lake house would be settled. Things would be normal. Maybe not pre-Ben normal, but everything else would be just fine.
When she stepped out on to the patio to take some cookies to the guard on the dock, he frantically waved at her to get back inside.
Waiting for normal might be tedious, but she was willing to humor the overprotective men in her life for a few more days. Her father loved her; the Healy family loved her in a different way. Ben might not love her in the way he used to, but he did wish her well. So she was going to accept her role as a fragile blossom because rationally she did know that there was a danger out there, and this seemed like the best way to handle it.
In the middle of the afternoon Ben called. He was finally leaving the resort. Did she have anything to add to the grocery list? She told him to be sure and get eggs. Around five the phone rang again. She assumed that it was Ben calling to find out about salted or unsalted butter, large or extra-large eggs.
“Ms. Ridge? Colleen?”
It wasn’t Jonathan Forbes; the voice was similar, but the accent was more muted. It must be his brother Zachary.
“Oh, thank you. Thank you for calling.”
A quick, soft laugh came across the phone line. “Jonathan said that you’d know my voice, that you can do the things our sister can. She teaches French just like you.”
“Really?” That couldn’t be a coincidence.
“But she doesn’t know Norwegian. At least she didn’t at Christmas. She probably could have learned it by now.”
This was how the O’Connells, her mother’s family, talked about each other, lighthearted, teasing, and warm.
“First,” he continued, “I have to apologize. Getting tied up with Gideon is not easy, but I think we’re on track to clearing things up for you and your friend.”
“Just like that? That fast? You knew who the hackers were?” She couldn’t believe it.
“We have a pretty good idea of who are the ringleaders among Gideon’s fans and who has this kind of skill. So we made a deal with them.”
“A deal? What did they want? We haven’t been able to figure that out. They are going to be so disappointed in me. I’m really ordinary.”
He laughed again. “They’re disappointed in all of us. They want us to be Gideon reincarnated or to at least spend our lives worshiping him.”
He explained the deal the family had made. This particular cluster of fans had in their possession some writings of Gideon’s, rough drafts of a number of songs and two drug-fueled journals. Not only had the documents been stolen, but the family owned the copyright on them. “We have piles of injunctions to keep them from circulating or publishing anything. We are giving them permission to publish one of the rough drafts in a week if the hacking stops within the next twelve hours and another one in six months if there is no reoccurrence.”
“But this was so fast. How did you do everything so fast?”
“We have a number of different plans in place because we have always worried about the fans messing with the grandkids, and it sounds like you are the oldest of their generation.”
The grandkids’ generation? Did she have even more cousins? “But you don’t know that,” Colleen protested. “I know I look like your mother and sisters, but people resemble each other sometimes.” The first candidate on Autumn’s TV show had been a woman who randomly resembled Autumn. “Why are you doing this for me before we have gotten any of the results?”
“Whether or not you are related to Gideon, you are struggling because of him. Mom and Dad have been cleaning up after him since he was five, and now the rest of us do it. But I should warn you that if the DNA is a match, this is all just a start. Gideon’s normal fans are going to be interested in you, and then there are all of Autumn’s. You have to manage the publicity. We can help you through the worst of it, although I suppose Autumn has offered too.”
“Yes, but my goal is to avoid publicity. That doesn’t seem to be hers.”
“No, it wouldn’t be. But you’ve done a great job so far. The hackers think your name is Leah or Leia, something like that. Someone in the office has it written down.”
“Leilah?”
“Yes, that’s it. But they keep hitting a brick wall with her. They can’t even find anything associated with a Leilah who would be the right age, but they still seem to think it is her. Do you know who she is?”
“Yes, but she doesn’t have anything to do with this, and she is a lot older than me.”
So Leilah had ended up doing Colleen a service, distracting the hackers in their search for Ariel.
“Do you all have a way of figuring out if the hacking has stopped?” he asked.
“I don’t, but I’m sure Ben—my friend—will know.”
“As soon as you check, get back in touch so we can authorize the first release of the rough draft.” Then Zachary said that he had to leave for a meeting, but that the DNA results should come soon. There was a branch of the lab not too far from the Duke campus. Jonathan had driven over and given his sample in person.
Colleen was still staring at the phone when she heard Grannor’s car come up the drive. Ben pulled around to the kitchen door. That’s what they did after going to the store.
She hurried to open the kitchen door. She had so much good news to share. Ben got out of the car and came around to the rear. The cavernous trunk was full of grocery bags. “Good God, you got a lot.”
“I had Nate’s credit card. Why not let him buy us raspberries and prime rib?” Then he grew serious. “Did your headmistress call? Does she want you to take the leave of absence?”
Had that call only been this morning? So much was happening. “Yes, but maybe I won’t have to now.” She didn’t want to start telling him until they had the groceries inside. She reached in the truck and picked up two of the bigger bags. Ben scooped up the handles of several bags at once and shoved those up over his arm so he could carry more. He followed her in the kitchen. Once she had set her bags down, she helped him untangle himself.
“I have news. I called one of Gideon’s brothers, and—”
“I thought that they didn’t want to hear from you.” Ben started to unload the groceries.
“He did want to hang up on me, but once I could recite what he said in Portuguese, he was really wonderful.”
“Portuguese?” Ben had been about to get the rest of the groceries, but he stopped, a little bewildered. “What does speaking in Portuguese have to do with anything?”
“I never said I could speak Portuguese. That’s what I had going for me, that I couldn’t. Here’s the good part, he—actually, the other brother—thinks that they have stopped the hackers.”
Ben drew back. “How? Between my guys from school and the team at the money managers, where did they find people better than that? And so fast?”
“They aren’t doing anything fancy-schmancy technical. It’s plain, old-fashioned blackmail and bribery.” She explained the stolen papers and the deal the Forbeses had made with the hackers. “Do you have a way of checking to see if the hacking has stopped?”
“I have an after-hours emergency number for the money people. But if the brother gave them twelve hours to stop, that won’t be until the middle of the night.”
“Would you try now anyway?” She didn’t want to wait.
“Okay, but we need to get the rest of the groceries. There’s ice cream in one of them.”
She went outside for the other bags and listened to Ben’s conversation as she looked for the ice cream.
He was shaking his head as he hung up. “I’ll be damned,” he said. Ever since the hacking started, there had been a steady stream of pea shooter attacks on his investment account. They weren’t creative or challenging, just annoying. “At 3:17 p.m. Eastern time, they suddenly stopped. The guy I talked to is worried that they could be gearing up for something more sophisticated.”
“Or it could be over.” Why couldn’t he be a little more hopeful? “Will you call your hacker friend?”
“Don’t call him a hacker. He isn’t anymore.” But he turned back to the phone.
She quit working on the groceries to watch him. He was shaking his head again, but it was a good shaking, expressing disbelief, not disappointment or disapproval.
“You know those four little charges they put on my credit card?” he said when he was done with the call. “They issued a refund. They added up the amount and credited the account even though the amount was insignificant.”
“That was weirdly honorable of them. Or they’re trying to send a message to Gideon’s family, saying that they were laying down their guns. What about Autumn’s website?” She had forgotten to say anything to the Forbeses about that.
“Autumn’s people have suspended her site from their end so it’s harder to know the status of that, whether or not they got rid of the porn link.”
“Did you ask your friend about the other site, the Find Ariel one?”
“The damage has been done. There’s no way to make that good without access to the actual computers. One of my friends crashed the site. It’s probably best to leave it to its eternal rest and hope that the administrators learned a lesson. I bought one of those rotisserie chickens. Can we have dinner now? I’m starving.”
“Okay, but there is one other thing. The hackers thought that Leilah was Ariel.”
“Leilah?” He was surprised. “Why would they think that? Oh, right, after she left, I did a pretty deep search for her. That would have looked suspicious, much more than the couple of calls I made to you. Do you know if they harassed her?”
“They were looking for someone my age, so apparently not. Do you have any idea where she is?”
He started to cut up the chicken. “No. She doesn’t want to be found. I am going to respect that. Now tell me about the Forbes family.”
As they ate, Colleen told him everything she had learned.
“They have a point about the publicity,” he said eventually. “This hacking may be over, but remember all those people outside the hotel, they are still going to think that they own you. I imagine that your school isn’t going to want you back until things die down.”
She supposed he was right. If the DNA came back as a match, it was foolish to suppose she would be teaching the fall semester. “Zachary says that the people who manage Gideon’s affairs will help me.”
“What about Autumn?”
Colleen dropped her napkin across her plate. It had been such a relief to deal with the normal-seeming Forbes brothers that she hadn’t thought much about Autumn all day. But the start of all this had been a young girl who, however successful she had been, had been vulnerable enough to be seduced by an older man.
“I don’t know, Ben. I feel so conflicted. Why can’t she and I meet like two normal people?”
“Because she doesn’t have a normal life. She’s dangerous, Colleen. You need to be careful.”
“Dangerous? You aren’t serious, are you? That’s so harsh.”
“Remember what happened in DC.”
Oh, Lord. He had lost control for ten minutes, and now he was never going to let go of it.
But she had to admit that she had been scared that day. “I think a lot of that was all the mystery associated with not knowing who Ariel was.” As usual she was trying pretty hard to look on the bright side. “Once everything is out in the open, what is there to worry about?”
“It will be a different kind of danger. She will try to turn you into her mini-me. She’s going to want you to go to appearances with her. Her stylists will do whatever stylists do, hair, makeup, designer gowns.”
Colleen actually liked the sound of a makeup artist and a designer gown. That would be fun. “Why does that worry you?”
“I wouldn’t want to see you taken over by that relationship. It wouldn’t make you happy to go to LA and live in her shadow.”
This was annoying. Here they had had all this good news, and he was being Mr. Doom and Gloom. “Why are you so sure you know what will make me happy? What are you asking of me, Ben? To repudiate her? Not to give her a chance?”
“Not to let her break your heart.”
He was asking that? Hadn’t he been the first person to break her heart?
“Don’t you trust me to make those decisions for myself?” She stopped, her hands suddenly dropping to the table. “That’s it, isn’t it? All this, and you still don’t trust me, do you?”