J. Gonzalez - They

“What do you want from me?”

“I want you to tell me the truth! The past month you’ve been acting like… like you’re on some goddamned spy mission! Every time we go out you’re always looking in the rearview mirrors like some paranoid freak ! Like you’re afraid we’re being followed. And you’ve checked the phone lines outside the house half a dozen times, and don’t tell me that whatever it is you’ve been scouring the floors for is your high school class ring. I found it in your junk drawer the other day. You think somebody’s bugged the house. You can’t keep lying to me, Mike. This has something to do with John and what happened to Jesse, doesn’t it?”

Mike felt torn; he wanted to tell Carol everything he’d discovered, but he also wanted to protect her. And he couldn’t keep lying to her. Perhaps the best thing to do was to give her a little bit of the truth. He nodded reluctantly. “You’re right, honey. It does have to do with Jesse. His son, Frank, recently contacted me. He’s trying to find out what happened to Jesse, and I’ve just been helping him out a little. That’s all.”

“That’s what drove John crazy!” Carol said, her cheeks flushing red.

“I’m not John, honey.”

“No, you’re not, but…” Her lips trembled as she tried to muster the sentence out. “For God’s sake, Mike, I know you kept me in the dark on a lot of what happened to John, but you can’t do it anymore. I know something is up. I know something terrible happened. Exactly what, I don’t know, but I know something bad happened.

“Listen,” Mike said. He took Carol by the shoulders and sat her down on the bed. “I’m sorry I haven’t been telling you the whole truth. But… well, I felt bad for Frank, and he’s doing most of this on his own. I’m just pointing him in the right direction. I’m just—”

“Then why are you leaving town if all you’re doing is pointing him in the right direction?” she asked, accusation in her eyes. “Surely Frank’s a big boy now. Can’t he take care of himself?”

“Yes, but he asked me just this once to fly back east with him. His mother recently passed away and she left a lot of papers behind and he asked me to help him sort through them and provide some sort of explanation.” The lie slipped easily through his lips and he hoped Carol bought it. “That’s all I’m doing. That’s all I told him I would do. He seems satisfied with that.”

“Are you sure you even want to do that?”

“What do you mean?”

“All John did was do a little checking, too,” Carol said. “He even had other people doing the work for him. And what about Jesse’s sister and her husband? They had a private investigator and look what happened to them .”

Mike nodded. “Yes, I realize that, but all that happened a long time ago. And I’m not getting close to it the way they did, either. Frank is the one getting his hands dirty. All I’m doing is making suggestions.”

Carol appeared to think about it. Her eyes were worried and scared. “Why didn’t you tell me all this sooner?”

Mike took Carol’s hands in his. “Because I didn’t want you to worry like this, that’s why.” He leaned forward and gave her a kiss. “I promise, I’m not getting too involved. I’m being careful. I’m only going to be back in Pennsylvania for a week tops, and all I’ll be doing is going over paperwork and photo albums with Frank and answering his questions, giving him some background. That’s all. Anything Frank wants to pursue on his own, that’s his problem.”

“I just hope it doesn’t become our problem, too,” Carol said.

“It won’t. I promise.”

Carol looked at him, as if trying to read his thoughts to see the lies floating there. Finally she looked away. “God knows I want to believe you,” she said. “But…”

“You still don’t believe me.”

She shook her head reluctantly. “No.” She looked at him. “I—I don’t know what to think.”

“I’ll be fine.” He rose to his feet and helped her up. He picked up his duffel bag and together they walked out to the garage where the car was parked. “I’ll be gone a week. I’m just going to help Frank get a good start and be there to answer any questions he has. That’s all. Once he’s settled in, I’ll come home.” He opened the rear door and stowed his bag in the back seat. He turned to Carol and smiled. “Okay?”

Carol had that pleading look in her eyes again. She grasped his hands. “I still don’t feel right about this, Mike. Please don’t go!”

“I’ll be fine,” he said, kissing her again. “I promise. Okay? I don’t intend on getting into this as deep as John did.”

Something on Carol’s face seemed to change; her eyes clouded over, her features became grave, dark. “Somehow I don’t know if I can believe that.” Then she turned and walked out of the garage back into the house.

“Carol!” Mike called out as she slammed the door to the laundry room that opened off into the garage. For a moment he almost sprinted after her. She was clearly pissed off about not only his evasiveness, but leaving for a week to work on this. He also sensed she knew that what he was telling her wasn’t the entire truth. They’d been together long enough to know when one or the other wasn’t being entirely truthful. Carol had obviously sensed that Mike was bullshitting her with his story, and that pissed her off. He started across the garage, intending to go into the house to apologize and tell her everything but then he stopped. He was already behind schedule, and if he stayed and apologized and offered a truthful explanation to Carol that would take hours; she would no doubt argue her point even more. He would miss his flight, and it was imperative that he, Frank, and Vince be on the same flight. He couldn’t miss it.

What if she’s right, though ? he thought as he stood at the driver’s side of the car. What if something happens to me when I’m out there? With all the trouble I’ve taken to conceal my identity, my work will disappear along with me. What if something happens to all of us ?

He was just about to head back into the house to tell her about his David Connelly pseudonym, to tell her where the key to his safe deposit box was, the whole truth to what was happening. But that would simply result in another argument. And he couldn’t be late for this flight.

He opened the door to the car and slid behind the wheel. He started the car, opened the garage door, and then backed down the driveway. I’ll call her tonight , he thought as he cast one quick glance at the house before closing the garage door and heading out of the neighborhood. I’ll call her from the airport, tell her I’m sorry, and tell her where I’ve left the key to the safe deposit box. I’ll tell her that everything she wants to know is there, that if something should happen to me she’s to make sure the information gets out. She’ll probably be curious and open the box anyway but that’s fine. Let her read through it and come to terms with it. We can talk about it when I get back .

Still, he wasn’t entirely satisfied with that decision. But it was the best he could do.

Mike Peterson drove to LAX, wishing Carol hadn’t been so snoopy, hoping it didn’t come back to hurt either of them.

THEY WOUND UP not staying in Lititz after all. Instead, Vince directed them to an out-of-the-way motel in Ephrata. They’d already made the decision prior to take-off in Los Angeles that they would stay overnight in Philadelphia. Mike asked a travel agent at the gate for a list of hotels near Philadelphia International Airport and succeeded in getting a room at one with a late checkin. This way they had a room waiting for them when they arrived at 2:30 a.m., East Coast Time.