The Book of Lies - Brad Meltzer [34]
When my dad first saw the coffin, he was definitely scared. But the way his hands crawl like tarantulas across the side—as fast as they’re moving—now he’s excited. Digging his fingers into the lip of the casket, he lets out the smallest of grunts.
With that, the coffin opens.
22
Hold on . . . I’m booting up now,” Special Agent Naomi Molina said, reaching down to turn on her home computer while working hard not to spill her oatmeal across her keyboard. It was harder than it looked. But like any Jewban (Jewish mom, Cuban dad), finding balance was everything for her.
It started when Naomi was eleven years old, which was when she discovered her first calling, sports (over Dad’s screaming, “Cuban girls should only wear dresses!”). Taller than all the prepubescent boys, young Naomi was an all-star catcher two years in a row.
“Jeez, Nomi, whatcha on, a Speak and Spell there?” Scotty teased through the phone, laughing his snorty laugh.
“Scotty . . .”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up,” Naomi said through a mouthful of oatmeal as she flipped through the files she’d been faxed this morning. She had known something was wrong when Timothy didn’t report in last night. She’d been working with him at ICE for nearly two years now. Timothy always reported in.
When Naomi was sixteen and fully hugging her wild side, she started working at her dad’s repo shop, translating insurance documents from Spanish to English. And when her father died a few years later, that’s when she found her second calling.
“What kinda oatmeal?” Scotty asked. “No . . . lemme guess: cinnamon, brown sugar.”
Naomi stayed silent and swallowed another spoonful, hating that at thirty-four years old, she’d become that predictable.
She was eighteen when she went out on her first repo job, breaking into an old orange Camaro with an ease that would’ve made her dad proud. That was the next five years of her life: cars, boats, motorcycles, Jet Skis, even a plane once—she could find and break into anything. It was dangerous, though. And that was always the problem with the repo business: lots of headache, no stability, and it always attracted the worst employees—sleeping all day and working all night makes for a tough crew to manage. But Naomi managed it—even loved it—until the parties went too late and the drinking was too much.
She saw it in her boyfriend first, when he started with the heavier drugs. Then with her friend Denise, who called her up one morning and in a heroin rush said, “Nomi, I can’t handle Lucas. My head’s not on straight and—and—and—I’m thinking of— I don’t wanna hurt my boy!” she’d sobbed about her son. “Please, Nomi—I’m dropping him off now—I need you to take him! Just for— I need to get better!” Lucas was two at the time. Today he was eight. He’d been with Naomi every day in between.
Every life has forks in its road. And sometimes, the tines of that fork stab deep. A year later, her repo business was sold, her boyfriend was long gone, and Naomi Molina was back to translating documents for a local insurance company. It took three months for the itch of excitement to hit, which was when she applied for a job at Customs, eventually getting promoted to her third calling: as a special agent at ICE.
For nearly two years, she’d been working with Timothy, which is why she got the report about his abandoned car being found on Alligator Alley this morning. But in total, all it took was four short years for an impatient, plus-size, single girl with a splash of purple hair to be magically transformed into an impatient plus-fluffy-size single mom with a L’Oréal medium-maple dye job and an eight-year-old son who refused to learn how to tie his shoes.
“Mom,” young Lucas asked as he entered the living room, “can you—?”
“You wanted basketball shoes, tie them yourself,” Naomi threatened, still poring over the reports as her computer finally began to boot up. “Otherwise, wear the Velcro ones.”
“Didja try teaching him using two bows?” Scotty asked through the phone in his heavy Bronx accent.
“Scotty . . .” Naomi shot back.
“Yeah?