Hers was the first face he saw amidst the throng of reporters, the only face he wanted to see. Her gentle embrace, warm and welcoming, took full account of his aching frame. He wished the media would leave them alone. As though his thoughts had been magically read a large number of uniformed police hove into view and dispersed the intruding press. He held her for what seemed forever, eyes shut to block all else from his mind but her.
“At least the clothes are a reasonable fit,” she said. “There is a car waiting outside.”
The door to freedom swung open. At the other end of the corridor another door opened and he recognised the familiar face of a woman.
“Will, help Matt, please,” said Gratia, attention drawn to a standing figure some distance away from them. “I will only be a moment.”
Matt resisted Will’s attempts to move him along.
“Wait,” said Matt.
He’d been desperate to escape this place for so long but he couldn’t help but watch as Gratia approached the woman with the infant cradled to her bosom.
“A beautiful child,” said Gratia. “Ilsa isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“She has Matt’s eyes.”
“His temperament also,” replied the tall woman, eyebrow arched in surprise.
Gratia slipped a finger into the grasp of the little hand and smiled.
“He told you?” queried the woman.
“No.”
The woman glanced towards Matt, watching them intently through anxious eyes, and she smiled.
“I assume it happened in China.”
“Yes,” admitted the woman.
“Does he know?”
“I denied it.”
Gratia nodded as she withdrew her finger from the child’s tiny grasp.
“As it happened I needn’t have called on you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“A different source came forward to help Matt.”
“Why would you think it was not one of mine?”
“It was someone you have no contact with, someone who wanted to help Matt.”
The eyebrow arched for a second time.
“I did enjoy our last meeting,” said Catherine. “You should call again, when you are next in the area.”
Gratia smiled kindly at the child and cooed affectionately before continuing.
“Tell me, Catherine,” asked Gratia. “How does it feel to discover you have been used, manipulated by others?”
She hadn’t expected an answer and wasn’t surprised when it didn’t arrive. Gratia turned to leave.
“Why him?” asked a seemingly bemused Catherine, face drawn in curiosity. “When there are so many others who could provide you with so much more? Why a float plane pilot and part time assassin from the backwaters of Canada?”
Gratia slowed her pace, took three more steps, and then spun suddenly on her heels.
“There is one other thing you should know,” she said, face dressed with the pleasantest smile she could manage. “If you as much as speak to my man again I will claw the eyes from your sockets with my bare hands.”
“What was that all about?” asked Matt.
“Babies are so cute.”
They rode quietly to the airport, Matt doing his best to try and suppress the emotions bubbling under the surface.
“What are you thinking about?” asked Gratia.
“Kronk,” he said after a pause.
“You shouldn’t. Marius Kronk committed suicide a week ago. They found him hanging from a tree close to his home in Atlanta.”
“He never struck me as the suicide type.”
“Clearly he was,” said Gratia.
“Jack Keller is only ten letters,” said a confused Will.
“There are eleven in John Kennedy.”
Suddenly he felt free of it at last. All that remained was to find the right moment to talk to her.
Chapter Forty Four
Moonlight Confession