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“Yes, I see,” the reporter said, as if checking a box on an intake form.
“What’s all this about? You going to beat around the bush or tell me about your crazy idea she’s still alive?”
“I’m getting to that. A couple more questions first. She ever talk much about her work?”
“Not much. Nor did I talk about mine. At the time, I was a SEAL. Maybe I was around to be the bodyguard. I’ve thought that from time to time.”
“Her protection detail, like what you do now.”
“Correct. But I’m joking with you a little. I don’t really think that way.”
“I got that. And you left right after you got the news of her assassination, that correct?”
“Yeah. I was getting ready to leave anyway. I was considering changing careers. Moira and I were gonna get married. Do something that was a little more safe, if you know what I mean. Having both people worried for their lives, turning around looking behind them all the time, not sure who is real friend or foe? After a few years, it does get old, unless you like being alone. We were planning a life together.”
He didn’t think he revealed more than he should. He still had the trust going on.
“She talked about you a lot. She told me how much she loved you. I sincerely believe that.”
“Okay, so show me this picture you say you have, and tell me why you think she’s still alive. I doubt what you’re saying, because she got the full honors treatment, the certificates of commendation, an award from several publisher groups, burial expenses paid for by the US—the whole nine yards. I got communications from the State Department, which surprised me a little, but I was told later she did some research for them. I even got a letter—a handwritten letter from the president.”
“Yes, impressive.”
“Why are you asking me questions? You’ve done your research. You probably know that if you know anything about me.”
“And you’d be correct.”
The rush of people in the restaurant distracted Dimitri. He observed the oddness of the different personalities there as if he should recognize somebody. There were young staffers in suits, briefcases over their shoulders, on their cell phones or tablets constantly while they ordered and while they talked with each other. There were older more casually dressed gentlemen, probably lobbyists or advisors of one kind. There were truck delivery drivers and uber drivers showing up to pick up orders or deliver an early lunch. Traffic cops, men with orange vests blocking or barricading construction sites, hardhat workers without the hardhats, plumbers and electricians, and tree trimmers crowded the tables. Always needed lots of tree trimmers. Dimitri had often wondered how much the city spent on trimming just the trees in DC.
The reporter drew out a picture that was grainy but still easy to determine. There were two people walking side-by-side down a rocky shore. He scanned his phone and pulled up a video of the same two people and played the clip.
It looked like Italy to Dimitri. He examined the two people, both women. They were thin and well-tanned, one more so than the other. One of the women in the video was definitely Moira.
He wasn’t going to get very excited because this picture could’ve been taken at any time during the last three to four years since she’d spent quite a bit of time on beaches in Greece and Italy. Even Turkey.
“So when was this taken?” he asked.
“Three weeks ago.”
Dimitri’s stomach fell all the way to his ankles. At the same time, the barista brought over his cappuccino and the vanilla latte for Jordan. Blueberry muffins and bagels and cream cheese waited in a little basket left between the two of them, along with a neat little pile of napkins.
He swallowed. Hard. “Who took this, you?”
“And that has to stay my confidential source, Dimitri. I did obtain it from the photographer though, and I know him to be an honorable person. He does research for me from time to time.”
“U.S. citizen?”
“No.” He shook his head. “He’s someone I use, someone who is very good at what he does because nobody notices him.”
Dimitri was thinking he could use someone like that sometimes, since it was often hard with his busy schedule to find people outside the system he could rely on for back up information. That back up sometimes saved his life or the lives of the people he was protecting.
“Okay, so how did all this happen. You hired this person to find her?”
“Sort of. I was actually looking for the person she is with. Do you know that lady?”
Dimitri looked at it carefully, thought he saw something in her face that he recognized, but at last, he came up blank.
“Nope. She might be familiar, but I just can’t place her.”
