James Grippando - A King's ransom

“Of course he knew. Granted, cases get reassigned all the time even without any string-pulling, but it can’t be an accident that this one landed in front of Penas. Duncan couldn’t have handpicked a more favorable judge.”

“Why is he being such a bastard?”

“Because he truly believes that my family defrauded him and his client. Duncan pushes hard in any case, but he’ll push to the limit if he thinks he’s been screwed.”

“Then why not just let his client say it under oath?”

“Maybe he has the same questions about Guillermo that I have. He doesn’t want his client to go on record saying that Lindsey’s the bad guy till they’ve sorted it all out.”

“I feel so awful for your father.”

I signaled the bartender for two more Dark ‘n’ Stormies. I hadn’t eaten all day and already had a decent buzz. I knew better than to drink and drive, of course, but that didn’t seem to keep me from blundering my way down certain metaphorical roads.

“Did you feel funny about coming to Bermuda with me?”

Jenna seemed to stiffen at the sudden turn in conversation. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.”

“The fact that we were going to have our honeymoon here?”

“Well, yeah .”

“Not really.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Well, maybe a little.” She cracked a smile and said, “Okay, a lot.”

“Why did you come?”

“Gee, with questions like these, I may need Duncan Fitz to defend me.” She was trying to make light of it, but the way she was playing with her hair, I knew she was uncomfortable.

The bartender set up our drinks. I finished the old one and started on the new. “When you first agreed to help me with the case, you said you were doing it for my dad, not for me.”

“That was probably harsh. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m bringing it up only because it’s an important piece in a big puzzle that’s come together for me since the kidnapping. After all the disappointment that you and I went through, you still love my dad. My mom, after the drinking and everything else they went through, is still totally in love with him. Yesterday I saw Lindsey, and even she seems to have made a connection. It was last night, while I was trying to fall asleep on the floor in Lindsey’s hut, when it hit me. Nobody seems to have any issues with my dad. Except me.”

“You’ve always said that, and to this day I don’t understand what you mean. What issues?”

I paused, thinking how best to put it. “Did you ever know you loved someone and know that they loved you, too? And then this one thing happens. It might be a stupid thing. But for some reason, you won’t allow yourself to look past it. Forever and ever it’s stuck there, right between you.”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“The crazy thing is, you know it doesn’t belong there, keeping you apart. Yet for some reason neither one of you steps up and clears it away. It just festers. And before you know it, that stupid little thing actually defines your relationship. It might even destroy it.”

She blinked hard, as if my words were hitting too close to home. It was unintentional, but I knew where I’d led her: to that day in the park when I’d been such an idiot and told her no, no, no, I wouldn’t marry her, my well-intended but misguided way of keeping it a surprise that I’d already bought a ring to give her on her birthday.

“I can see where something like that could happen,” she said, staring into her drink.

Part of me wanted to seize the opportunity and make this conversation about us. But it promised to be an awfully long plane ride home if I took that leap and fell flat on my face now. I chickened out.

“Anyway, that’s kind of what happened between me and my dad.”

“I’m sorry. What was the little thing?”

“What little thing?”

“The one that became such a big thing between you and your father?”

“Just something he did to me when I was twelve.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“It’s really not worth it.”

She seemed reluctant to pry. “You two do seem to have a strange relationship,” she said vaguely.

“You noticed, huh?”

“A week ago you said you didn’t even know that your dad had a sister.”

“No one ever told me.”

She sipped her drink and said, “She died very young. Drowned. Seven years old.”

“My dad told you all that?”

“We had just that one short conversation at my father’s funeral, the one I told you about. He only mentioned that he’d lost a sister. The rest I learned on my own.”

“When?”

“After I talked with you last week, my curiosity sort of ran away with me. I did a computer search on obituaries for anyone named Rey from the Florida Keys. Had to go back quite a ways, but I found it. Her name was Stacy.”

“How did she drown?”

“A boating accident was all it said. I made a copy, if you want it.”

“Sure, thanks. I’d like to see it.”

I selected a couple of cashews from the bowl of mixed nuts on the bar, then shook my head. “This is exactly the sort of thing I don’t understand about my father. Why wouldn’t he tell me he had a sister who drowned?”

“Maybe it goes back to that thing you were talking about. When you were twelve.”

“What could that possibly have to do with his sister’s drowning?”

“Hard for me to say, without your telling me what it was. And I’m not suggesting there’s a direct link. More likely it just turned out to be one of those pivotal moments in your relationship when your father decided that you didn’t care. So he never got around to telling you about the sister he’d lost. He probably didn’t tell you a lot of things. It wasn’t worth it anymore.”

I could have told her that she had it backward, that what had happened when I was twelve wasn’t something I had done. It was something he had done to me. But I said nothing, knowing yet again that she wasn’t really talking about me and my father.

She was talking about us.

“Another round?” asked the bartender.

Jenna and I exchanged a quick glance. She looked sad, and I would have liked nothing more than to fix things. But she hadn’t believed me then, and I didn’t see why she’d believe me now. She probably never would believe that I truly had bought the ring before that blunder in the park, that I hadn’t just panicked and asked her to marry me to keep her from running away.

“No, thanks,” I told the bartender. “I think we’ve had enough for one night.”

Jenna and I caught the morning flight to Miami. She was going to cab it home, but I talked her into letting me give her a lift. Driving out of the airport, I plugged my cell phone into the cigarette lighter and phoned my mother to let her know I was back. She was frantic.

“I’ve been trying to reach you. Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“Battery ran out. I’m sorry.”

“We got a package this morning.”

“From. . them?”

“It’s a videotape of your father.”

“Have you watched it yet?”

“Yes.”

I was almost afraid to ask. “Is he alive?”

“Yes,” she said, straining. “Oh, Nick, he looks so awful.”

I steered toward the exit for Coral Gables. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Call Alex.”

“I did. She’s on her way here.”

“Great. You did exactly the right thing.”

She fell silent, as if collecting her composure. “It barely even looks like him,” she said in a weak, shaky voice. “I almost didn’t recognize him.”

“I know it has to be a shock, but believe me, this is such good news. He’s alive. We know he’s okay.”