Don't Say a Word - Barbara Freethy [46]
She stared at him with pain and confusion. "But you don't know for sure, do you? I mean, you were just a little boy."
"That's true. It's possible that I'm mistaken." He didn't think he was wrong, but something inside of him wanted to get that look of betrayal out of her eyes.
Julia turned to Stan. "Do you know if my mother- if Sarah-was in Moscow when that photograph was taken?"
"I don't know," Stan replied. "Alex was there. I wasn't."
"What do you know about that trip?" Alex asked. "Was there some hidden agenda that I was unaware of?" "You need to let this go, Alex," Stan said abruptly.
"Give me a reason to let it go."
"It could be dangerous to you, to your mother, maybe even to Julia."
"Be more specific."
Stan's gaze darted away in an evasive manner. Alex was surprised and disappointed. He'd always counted on Stan to be up front with him, tell him the truth no matter what it was. Now he had the distinct feeling that Stan was about to lie to him.
"Your father made several trips to Russia in the two years before he died," Stan said finally. "He was fascinated with the country and the people. He took any opportunity he could to get an assignment over there. He even got you into that theater group, so he could take you with him. He wanted you to see that part of the world, and he wanted you with him. I told him it was a mistake. I believed that Charles was sticking his camera into places where it didn't belong. He had a few run-ins with the government, but we were usually able to smooth things over. I wasn't sure that would always be the case. So I told him to be careful, to follow the rules and not take photographs of anything he wasn't cleared to shoot."
"Like the photo of the girl in the orphanage," Alex said. "What was in that picture that no one was supposed to see?"
"I don't know. Charles wouldn't tell me, but he was upset that the photo had been published. He hadn't realized it was on the roll he sent to the magazine."
Alex knew why, because he'd taken the photo. "What else did Dad say?"
"He asked me to look out for you and your mother if anything happened to him."
Alex felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up at those strangely prophetic words. "My mother doesn't think Dad's death was an accident. Is that what you're saying, too?"
Stan's eyes filled with regret and guilt. "There were a lot of unexplained details. They couldn't find another car or your father's body. And-"
"They didn't find your father's body?" Julia interrupted, her blue eyes wide with shock. "You never told me that, Alex."
He swallowed hard. "I don't like to think about it.'' He paused, knowing that he had to explain, even though it made him sick to his stomach to go back to those memories. "They found his car, but everything inside of the car was ripped and washed away, the seat cushions, the steering wheel, the spare tire… It was a twisted shell of metal. I saw it when they pulled it up the side of the cliff. They were still trying to find my dad…" He drew in a much-needed breath. "They searched all the next day. Mom and I waited at the edge of the bluff. I thought I'd see him again. I thought they'd find him swimming or floating the way he'd taught me to float on my back when I got tired."
"Oh, Alex, I'm so sorry," she whispered.
Her words brought him back from the past, and he was grateful. Clearing his throat, he said, "Yeah, well, it's over. Or at least I thought it was over." He shot Stan an angry look. "I didn't know at the time there were so many unanswered questions. Why didn't you get those answers, Stan? You were one of my father's best friends. You should have raised hell if you had doubts. You should have made those detectives work overtime to get to the truth."
Stan's mouth drew into a hard line. "I was going to do just that, but I got a call from a man named Daniel Brady. He was a close friend of your father's, too. He worked for some government agency; I was never sure which one. He was very cagey about who he was and what he did. After your father's accident, Brady told me to back