Kerry stood up and exhaled. “If we can’t prove anything, then, yes,” she agreed. “Or, to be more specific, if we can’t provide information to the authorities that will allow them to prove it. We’re just the analysts.”
“Bet Dar doesn’t feel that way,” Mark commented. “Man, I can’t believe she grew up there. My brain can’t process that.” He glanced at Kerry. “Weird.”
“Why?” Kerry asked, pausing in the doorway on her way out.
Mark shrugged, a little uncomfortably. “I don’t know. It was like when she took us out to that little island place, y’know? I just figured she went through the same kind of growing up around here that I did.
Malls, football games, whatever.”
Kerry studied him. “Didn’t figure her for a redneck?”
Mark scowled. “She’s not a friggin’ redneck. She’s just a, a—”
“Cracker,” Kerry supplied gently.
304 Melissa Good
“No way.”
“Mark.” Kerry came back over and sat down, resting her hands on her knees and putting her envelope down. “I love Dar. You know that, right?”
He blushed.
“She’s my best friend, and my partner, and I wouldn’t trade her for anyone or anything in the world,” Kerry went on. “She’s not embarrassed by her origins, so why should you be?”
Another shrug. “It’s just weird.”
Kerry sighed. “I think it makes her achievements all the more spectacular,” she said. “Because she really did start from nothing, and everything she’s gained has been on her own terms, and by her own brilliance.”
Mark looked up. “Yeah.”
After a speculative look, Kerry admitted, “I envy her for that. It must be an amazing feeling to know you’ve totally controlled your own destiny.”
Mark played with the chip puller he used as a paperweight. “She has, hasn’t she? I never really thought about that,” he told Kerry. “Hey, you had lunch yet?”
Kerry let the subject change pass. “Not yet. Want to go down?
They’ve got lamb shanks today.” She stood back up. “I think Mari said she was going down about now, too.”
Mark joined her and carefully locked the door to his office behind them. “Not like you could drag that box anywhere, but ya never know.”
“Mm,” Kerry agreed. “You never do know.” She glanced around the office, and gave the staff there a brief smile. Most smiled back.
Brent just looked away from her.
CECI SELECTED A glass from the cabinet and went to the refrigerator, opening the door and standing on her tip toes to reach the handle of the milk dispenser on the top shelf. She watched the glass fill, muffling a chuckle as it finished. She then took a step back and closed the door. The condo was quiet, and despite Dar’s disclaimer, seemed no untidier than it usually did. Which was not at all, save a collection of laundry awaiting attention in the utility room.
That didn’t really surprise her. Though Dar had maintained a nest of teenage clutter in her younger years, the room had never been dirty, per se, just full of stuff. Things that held Dar’s capricious interest, or things that Andrew had given her, all jealously hoarded in neatly labeled boxes stacked everywhere.
She’d had time, when she and Andrew had dog-sat, to wander over the condo, and had found herself smiling at childhood vestiges she’d found tucked away in inconspicuous corners.
Those things had meant something to her daughter. Ceci studied Red Sky At Morning 305
the glass of milk, then shook her head and made her way through the living room and into the bedroom where Dar was resting. She held out the glass. “Figured you’d need this.”
Dar got caught in mid-chew. She hastily swallowed a mouthful of brownie and accepted the milk, taking a sip of it to wash down the rich treat. “Thanks.” She indicated the tray. “Not bad for instant.”
“Mm, yes.” Ceci sat down in the comfortable chair near the bed.
“Shocked the hell out of me, I have to admit.”
Dar grinned slightly. “I know the feeling. I made dinner the other week and was totally amazed at it being edible.”
One of Ceci’s silver-blonde eyebrows rose. “What was the occasion?”
Dar hesitated, then shrugged. “Nothing special. I just felt like doing it.” She was aware of the always perceptible discomfort between them, and suddenly felt very tired of it. Life was, she’d come to realize, just too damn short sometimes. “Hey, Mom?”
Ceci detected the change in Dar’s tone, and she leaned forward a little. “Yes?”
Dar took a deep breath. “We’ve got a pretty lousy past with each other.”
Uh-oh. Ceci felt her heart move up into her throat. “Brownies weren’t that bad, were they?” she joked faintly.
That made Dar smile, and she realized her mother was a lot more nervous than she was. “No.” She glanced down and collected her thoughts, then looked up. “Can we just forget it all and start fresh from here?”
It came around a blind corner and smacked Ceci right between the eyes, leaving a sting as though she’d been hit with a mackerel. She found herself gazing right into Dar’s intense face, the echo of the question reminding her strongly of the one she’d asked Andrew the night they’d been reunited. “That what you really want?” she asked quietly.
Dar nodded.
Ceci felt absurdly like crying. “I’d really like that, too,” she said. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but you don’t realize all the good things about being a mother until you aren’t one anymore.”
Now it was Dar’s turn to be caught off guard. She blinked and felt a surge of juvenile memory as she stared at her mother’s face. “That’s all right,” she finally said, a touch of hoarseness in her voice. “When you’re a kid, you never appreciate your parents until you don’t have them.”
Ceci felt the sting of tears, and she reached out instinctively, laying a hand along Dar’s cheek. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I abandoned you.”
Dar sucked in a breath that was almost painful, so tight was the pressure against her chest. She was caught by her mother’s gaze, unable to look away. “I’m sorry I didn’t understand the pain you were in.”
306 Melissa Good The tension lessened. Ceci rubbed a thumb against her daughter’s skin. “I’m glad we’re getting a second chance at this.”
The surface under her fingers moved as Dar smiled. “So am I,” she answered softly, glancing away, then returning her eyes to her mother’s. “I think I like you.”
Ceci bit her lip, a surge of improbable, ridiculous relief almost making her burst out laughing. “Yeah, I think I like you, too.”
It was turning out to be an interesting day after all, Dar decided happily.
KERRY SAT BEHIND her desk, one hand propping up her head as she scrolled through screens of data. She paused to make another sticky note, punching out the letters with one finger, then continued her task.
“Ms. Kerry?” Mayte’s voice broke into her concentration. “I have the Navy officer here to see you.”
Ah. Kerry straightened and took a sip of her herbal tea. “Great.
Send him in.” She leaned back in her chair as the door opened and Captain Taylor came in. He was dressed in his Navy uniform, and he tucked his hat under his arm as he crossed the carpeted floor to her desk. “Afternoon, Captain.”
“Ms. Stuart.” The officer inclined his head politely. “May I sit down?”
Kerry gestured toward the chair. “Of course. How’s it going down there?”
Captain Taylor shook his head gravely. “I’m afraid we’re going to come up empty-handed, Ms. Stuart. My team’s been in there for hours, and they haven’t come up with anything other than the mess that was left of the computer center.” He paused. “And we have six people who swear it was just a botched exercise. They even submitted the docs for the setup and showed me the dummy rounds. Apparently some live ones got mixed in.”
“Uh-huh.” Kerry took another sip of tea. “Do you believe them?”
The captain gave her a direct look. “Ms. Stuart, it doesn’t matter a hill of beans what I believe. All that matters is what I can prove. I can’t prove anything beyond some colossal screw-ups, and some of them involve your personnel.”
Kerry’s eyebrows lifted. “My personnel?” she asked sharply. “We didn’t make any mistakes.”
The captain shifted uncomfortably. “The fact is, ma’am, you were there without the permission of the base commander.”
“Cut the BS.” Kerry smiled kindly at him. “We were there because General Easton asked us to go there and cover his butt because you couldn’t get a team on the plane fast enough.”
Captain Taylor made a face, seemingly unconscious of it. “The general asked that you protect the data. You didn’t. In fact, because of Red Sky At Morning 307
your presence, its destruction was pretty much guaranteed.”
Kerry pointed a finger at him. “Captain, if you seriously think you’re going to shift blame to me or to anyone else at ILS for your inability to maintain military and administrative control of your own base, think again.” She stood up behind her desk and fixed him with a resolute stare. “We did the best we could, and you don’t know just what that best is yet.”
“Ms. Stuart, you don’t seem to re—” The naval officer stopped and regarded her warily. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
Kerry opened her mouth to explain, then slowly closed it again.
Some instinct was telling her to keep the lock box under wraps, and she’d learned over the last year that this instinct of hers was usually right. “We have a lot of data. We’re not finished analyzing it yet,” she temporized. “We may not have a smoking gun, but we may have enough to nail the people there most responsible.”
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