Cross Fire - James Patterson [41]
I was already walking from the bedroom up to my office, and waited until I’d closed the door behind me to go on.
“I kind of did,” I said. “You showed up out of the blue and, even worse, you lied. More than once.”
“I only lied because I thought our son deserved to see his family together!”
It was as if we’d started fighting in record time, which was saying something for us. The whole thing made me feel exhausted. It brought back the terribleness I’d felt during the court case over Ali.
“Ali sees his family together every day,” I said. “Just not his mother.”
She sobbed again. “How can you say a thing like that?”
“I’m not trying to hurt you, Christine. I’m just telling it like it is.” My patience, meanwhile, was hanging at the other end of a very thin thread. Christine had brought this on herself with her terrible inconsistency as a mother.
“Well, don’t worry, because you got your wish. I’m at the airport.”
“My wish is that we could all be happy with the choices we’ve made,” I said.
“Just as long as you’re happy first, isn’t that right, Alex? Isn’t that how it’s always been?”
And then my thread snapped.
“Do you remember leaving me?” I said. “Do you remember how I begged you to stay in Washington? Do you remember leaving Ali? Damn it, does any of that even register with you anymore?”
“Don’t you curse at me!” she shouted back, but I wasn’t finished.
“So now what? You think just by showing up here, you can change everything that’s happened since then? It doesn’t work that way, Christine, and I wouldn’t change it if I could!”
“No.” Her voice was constricted now. Tight as a drum. “Apparently not.”
Then she hung up on me. I was stunned but also a little relieved. Maybe this was some kind of test, to see if I’d call back, but I wasn’t even remotely tempted. I sat on the office couch, staring at the ceiling and trying to collect myself again.
It was almost shocking, to think how much I’d loved Christine, once. Back then, there was nothing I wanted more than for all of us to be a family forever. Now, it felt like someone else’s history.
And I just wanted Christine out of my life.
Chapter 54
IT WAS JUST short of midnight when Agent Anjali Patel stepped out to the curb on E Street in front of the Hoover Building, craning her neck, searching for a cab. As soon as he saw her, Max Siegel pulled around the corner and lowered the passenger-side window.
“Someone call for a taxi?”
She gave him a nice view of cleavage as she bent down to see who it was. “Max? What are you doing here? It’s late.”
“Sorry about earlier,” he said. “Had to run out unexpectedly. I just came back for my car, but maybe I could give you a ride and you can fill me in.”
Her glance up the street said everything. Not a cab in sight, not much traffic at all.
Max Siegel’s coworkers seemed to prefer him at a distance, which was exactly according to plan. Distance afforded him the privacy he needed and could always be broached if and when he wanted it to be. Like right now.
“Come on,” he said. “I won’t bite. I won’t even talk about Cross behind his back. Promise.”
“Um… sure,” she said with a practiced smile, and got in.
Her perfume was lemony, he noticed. Or maybe it was her shampoo. Nice anyway. Feminine. She gave him an address in Shaw.
Then she proceeded to chatter on about the case, making sure to fill up any spaces that might have otherwise been left open to the awkwardness of small talk between them.
Siegel drove fast, goosing the yellow lights where he could. He hadn’t been with a woman since the real estate agent, and damned if he wasn’t getting a little hard just thinking about her.
When he turned onto her block, he mashed the gas pedal once more and then coasted to a stop in front of a dark storefront just past her yellow-brick townhome.
“Hey, that was it,” she said, looking back. “You missed my place.”
Chapter 55
KYLE LOOKED BACK, too. The block was still clear of any traffic or pedestrians.
“Oops. Sorry. My fault.”
“All right, well…