Andy stood at her mother’s grave, staring at the yellow roses she’d placed there. The green leaves stirred in the slight breeze, the buds still wound too tightly to bother with the cold wind sweeping across the city today.
Andy had known she’d be here one day, staring at a life well lived, but she’d always imagined it would be later. That she’d be older and stronger. Less in need of a mother. Less in search of what could have been possible between them.
But it was done. Katherine Andrea Bouchard had used up her last life. Her last little bit of luck. As a dreamer, she’d been wounded once, in Milan in 1988. She was still very young, constantly flirting with danger, intoxicated by the possibility of what Ma Soeur could achieve.
Andy stared at the words on her mother’s headstone. Datum perficiemus munus. We shall accomplish the mission assigned. The motto of Ma Soeur. Kate rested in a row of Ma Soeur women who had come and gone before her, dating back to 1631. Some of the graves had been moved from Avignon, in France, when Louis XV prosecuted Ma Soeur for coming to the aid of one of his mistresses.
She touched the headstone. Murmured the words all of Ma Soeur had chanted as Kate was buried. Dei sub numine viget. Under God’s spirit she flourishes.
Deo ac veritati. For God and truth.
Dominus vobiscum. The Lord be with you.
Rest. You have fulfilled your destiny.
May She guide you.
May the Sisterhood prosper.
She touched the small cross around her neck. “Old woman. Why did you have to go and cheat on Claire?” she whispered.
Claire was not buried here. By Ma Soeur’s laws, she would lie in a second, adjacent graveyard, with a stone carrying only her name, along with the rest of the handful of Ma Soeur women who had betrayed her guiding principles.
Andy touched the granite slab, cold and unyielding. Murmured the motto again.
It provided no solace.
“Kate.” She inhaled deeply and felt the prick of tears behind her eyes. “Mom.”
It was one of the laws of the universe Andy could never fathom. Why your mother remained your mother, regardless of what hurt she might have caused.
She tapped the headstone with a single finger. “I’ll come and talk to you again. Try to behave till then, eh?”
She turned, shrugging deeper into her coat. The car door swung open as she approached the vehicle. Isabelle got out. She slipped her hand around Andy’s waist, as if wanting to carry her.
“I don’t need help,” Andy said.
“I hear you.”
Andy gingerly stepped into the SUV and fastened the seat belt.
Isabelle got behind the wheel. She started the engine, looking at her expectantly. “Caroline wants to see us.”
“Now?”
“Yes. I think she wants to know if it’s okay for her to take over Kate’s position. If she has your approval.”
“Why even bother. I’m not interested. Not remotely.”
Isabelle nodded, her eyes soft.
Andy knew what she was thinking.
“Have you thought about us? Staying?” Isabelle asked.
Andy shook her head. “No.”
“At some point you will have to, sweetheart.”
Andy wished she wouldn’t smile at her with those eyes that knew everything, leaving Andy with so little choice.
She looked out the window. The day was miserable, the wind picking up speed. She rested her hand against her neck and felt the steady pulse of blood, of life. She remembered Kate’s dead eyes looking at her. Isabelle’s knife under the table.
Isabelle saved her life.
She owed Isabelle her life.
“Deo ac veritati,” she whispered under her breath.
Why was the truth always so damn unavoidable?
* * *
Caroline was in her element. It was hard not to notice. Andy watched as she wrapped up a phone call to David. He was out with Iona, keeping an eye on a congresswoman who was to be gunned down tonight in what was looking less and less like a drive-by shooting.
Caroline was at ease where she sat in Kate’s black leather chair. The chair and the 173-year-old desk were the only furniture that remained as Caroline worked to make the space her own.
Andy felt no resentment. Stepping from the elevator, she’d wondered for a moment what she would feel when she walked in here, but there was only relief that no one expected her to do this job. To take on this enormous responsibility.
Caroline nodded. “Yes, yes. Okay. But make sure no one sees you. Congresswoman Leslie was appointed through our assistance, and she knows it, but we don’t need the rest of the world to know. We’re going to push her all the way for 2028. We need to keep her safe, but we need to make it low-key. We really don’t need any more publicity.”
She listened again. “Okay. Thanks, David.” She put the phone down. “Andy. Isabelle.” She walked around the desk and greeted them both with a kiss on the cheek. “I’m so glad you are well,” she said, holding Andy’s hands for a moment. “You had us worried there.”
Andy shrugged. “It’s all thanks to Isabelle and her knife.”
“Yes. I’ve heard.” Caroline looked at Isabelle. “That’s partly the reason I wanted to talk to you. You make a brilliant team. We would like to hang on to you. Both of you.”
Andy sat down. “About the other reason you probably want to talk to us? You don’t have to worry about your position. I’m happy for you. You have a good strategic mind. And with René as your second in command, the tactical aspect of the business is covered.”
Caroline gave a vague smile. “As brutal and direct as always. What about staying then? May I have an equally positive answer?”
Isabelle reached out and placed her hand on Andy’s, her eyes asking the same question.
Andy didn’t pull away from her touch. “I don’t know. I have no pressing business anywhere else. I don’t need to go back to London anytime soon. The Black Sheep is in capable hands.”
“If you need time after what happened to your mother, I understand,” Caroline offered.
“Time to do what? Mourn a mother I never really knew? It’s more like mourning the concept of a mother. What she could have been now that there is no hope that she could finally become that elusive, caring being I’d hoped for as a child.”
Andy blinked at her emotional outburst and immediately regretted it. Isabelle squeezed her hand, rubbing her other hand up and down Andy’s arm.
Caroline looked away.
Andy had slept with both women in this room. Only one wasn’t scared of anything she was throwing at her.
She held Isabelle’s hand. Felt the firm, unwavering grip. “I’ll think about it and let you know. First I have to do something.”
Caroline nodded. “René told me. Take as long as you like. We’ll be here waiting.”
Andy nodded, then tried to change the topic. “Have we learned yet how Claire managed to kill Arlene Hampton?”
“Jam says the Major Case Squad has arrested a security guard for selling security tags to the Russians and to a woman who fits the description of Claire. We assume she followed Kate to her date with Arlene, perhaps surprising Arlene just after Kate left. We’ll never really know. Wiping the CCTV that night also killed all evidence of her arrival. I’m guessing, however, that she came up through the basement. It seemed very convenient that those cameras went down a day before the murder.”
“And the bullets that killed Kate?”
“Your mother’s gun,” Caroline confirmed softly.
Andy sighed. “That’s that then. Kate’s life finally caught up with her.”
“Doesn’t mean she deserved to die.”
“Maybe not, but it doesn’t provide much solace, does it?”