“Big time. And now I want to see the lab.”
He nodded.
“And your notes and test results on RU2.”
“Now? Wouldn’t it be easier if I gave you the computer disk?”
“No, I’ll take the papers to bed with me and browse through them before I go to sleep.” She moved toward the door. “I need to decide for myself whether you’re a genius or some crackpot.”
“Oh, I’m a goddamn genius,” he murmured. “No doubt about it.”
He was a goddamn genius.
No doubt about it.
Kate thrust the last pages back into the briefcase he had handed her and dropped it on the floor beside the bed. She turned off the light on the bedside table, but already a predawn grayness lit the room. She had meant only to glance through Noah’s work, but she had been caught, held in thrall by the possibilities.
No, not possibilities. Miracles.
If only RU2 had been available three years ago . . .
Noah had already developed RU2 and was testing it at the time Daddy had forced her to make that hideous decision.
She swallowed to ease the tightness in her throat. It was stupid to look back. What was done was done.
Look ahead. If she worked hard enough, she could do something more special than she’d ever dreamed.
She could be part of the miracle.
Phyliss, Joshua, and Noah were already at the breakfast bar when Kate came into the room the next morning. “Good morning.” She handed Noah the briefcase. “Thank you. Interesting reading.”
“Hi, Mom. Noah said to let you sleep. Want some pancakes?”
“Just orange juice.” She poured herself a glass and sat down. “You’re almost finished?”
Joshua nodded. “We’re going over to the forest ranger station.”
Noah was frowning. “What do you mean, ‘interesting’?”
He was like a little boy begging for praise after winning a contest. Well, he wouldn’t get it from her. She would begin as she intended to proceed. After that night of immersion in RU2 she was already intimidated enough by Noah. It would be difficult to hold her own on a professional level. “Actually, very interesting.” She sipped her orange juice. “How did you sleep, Phyliss?”
“Like a log,” Phyliss said. “And you?”
“Well enough. The country air must agree with me.” She glanced at Noah. “I have to talk to Seth Drakin first, but I think we may stay awhile.”
A brilliant smile lit Noah’s face.
“This is neat.” Joshua called down from the fourth landing of the forest station. “It’s like a tree house. Hurry up, Mom.”
“I’m hurrying,” Kate said. “If I don’t get a heart attack first.” She glanced back over her shoulder at Noah. “You didn’t tell me this place has as many landings as the Washington Monument.”
“You’re exaggerating,” Noah said. “The ranger has to be high enough to sight forest fires.”
“If I ever get up there, I may never come down,” Phyliss said grimly. “Who needs a StairMaster?”
“Hi.” Seth Drakin was leaning over the top deck, his expression as boyishly eager as Joshua’s. “Pretty cool, huh?”
“Awesome,” Joshua said as he took the last steps two at a time. “How far can we see?”
“About thirty miles. Good to see you again, Joshua.” He handed over the pair of binoculars he was holding. “You can see a big lake to the north.”
Joshua frowned. “Where?”
“Here, let me help you focus.” He squatted beside him and adjusted the binoculars. “Now?”
Joshua nodded. “Wow. I can even see a bird on that pine by the shore.” He crossed the deck and stretched over the rail, the binoculars pressed to his eyes. “And there’s a campfire. . . .”
Kate was about to tell him to get back from the rail when Seth moved quickly to his side.
“Hey, don’t hang over the rail like that. Lyle hates carpentry work and I promised him that I’d treat those rails like they were made of straw.”
“Sorry.” Joshua backed away. “Who’s Lyle? The ranger?”
“Yep.” He pointed to the north. “Want to see the cabin you stayed at last night? It looks as close as the next room.” He smiled at Kate as she reached the top landing. “You had a late night last night.”
“You could see in my bedroom?” she asked warily.
“Well . . .” He smiled mischievously. “Yes.”
She tried to remember whether she had undressed in the bathroom or bedroom last night.
“But I’m no Peeping Tom. I just took a peek and then got out.”
Maybe. His smile was a little too innocent.
“Could you see my room too?” Joshua asked.
“Nope. You must be on the other side of the house.”
“Maybe Mom and I could change and we could signal each other.”
“We’ll talk about it. I think I have a better idea.” Seth turned to watch Phyliss as she struggled up the last steps. “I’m Seth. You must be Phyliss Denby.”
“I’m not sure,” she said breathlessly. “I was when I started up these stairs. I may have passed into the afterlife.” She gazed out over the expanse of forest and the hills in the distance. “But, you know, it may be worth it.”
“Campfire?” Noah asked, his gaze to the north.
“A honeymoon couple,” Seth said. “I paid them a visit at five this morning, and they didn’t even invite me to breakfast.” He mournfully glanced at Phyliss. “All I had was a bowl of Total and a cup of coffee.”
“Sounds like a well-balanced meal to me,” Phyliss said blandly.
“What kind of grandmother are you?” Seth said in disgust. “That opening should have led to an offer of gingerbread cookies and pot roast for supper.”
“Have you been living in a cave for the last thirty years?” Phyliss asked.
“Sometimes.” Seth smiled at her. “Okay. We share the cooking?”
“Or work out trades.” She returned his smile. “If Kate decides we’re to stay.”
Seth turned to Kate. “You wouldn’t make me stay here alone? I didn’t peek, honest.”
“We’re going to live here?” Joshua asked, his eyes wide with excitement.
Kate said, “You and your grandmother and Mr. Drakin might stay here. Would you like that?”
“It would be cool.” He suddenly frowned. “You wouldn’t be here?”
“Your mom has to work in the lab at the cabin and there’s only one bedroom here.” Seth added, “You and your grandmother will share, and I’m going to bunk on the couch in the living room.”
Joshua slowly shook his head. “I don’t think so. I have to stay with Mom.”
“You could keep an eye on the cabin with the binoculars,” Noah said. “I promise to watch over her. I know I fouled up the last time, but I don’t do that very often.”
“Maybe it would be okay,” Joshua said doubtfully. “You’re pretty good with that rifle.”
“This isn’t a set deal,” Kate said. “I have to talk to Mr. Drakin first. But if we decide it’s the best thing to do, I’ll jog over every day to see you.” She added, “And you can come to the cabin.”
Seth quickly shook his head. “He’ll be too busy. I promised Lyle we’d keep an eye out for fires, and Joshua will have to take his watch. But you can come here and help us.”
“Is there a phone?” Joshua asked.
Seth nodded. “And I’ve already programmed the cabin number into it.”
“Phyliss?” Kate asked.
Phyliss nodded. “I can handle them.”
Kate still hesitated.
“She can’t make up her mind until she looks the place over to make sure it’s not a hovel,” Seth said. “Will you keep watch while I take your mom inside, Joshua?”
“Sure.” He raised the binoculars to his eyes. “Do I look for smoke?”
“And anything else that might pose a problem.” Seth opened the door for Kate. “Keep a sharp eye on those
honeymooners. They weren’t paying any attention to their campfire this morning.”
“I’m not sure I want Joshua to keep an eye on those honeymooners,” Kate murmured as she entered the station. It was surprisingly cozy, with a denim-covered couch and easy chair, and the kitchenette and breakfast bar across the room.
“He’ll probably get quite a few lessons in biology while he’s here, but the honeymooners were in the tent the last time I saw them.” He turned to face her and the boyishness fell away from him as if it were a hat he discarded. “Okay. You’re not sure about me. So ask me questions.”
“Will you answer them?”
“Most of them.”
“Why does Noah think you can keep Joshua safe?”
“I can shoot, I’m woods savvy, I don’t trust anyone, and I made Noah a promise.”
“Promises are broken all the time.”
He shrugged. “I prefer to keep mine.”
“Anything else?”
“I like kids.”
She could tell that by the way he’d handled Joshua, but she wasn’t sure how much of a kid he was himself. He had shown her a completely different side of the man who had come running up her driveway that night.
“Fifty-fifty,” he said as if reading her mind. “Joshua and I will bond but I can keep it under control.”
“You’re the one who told Noah about Ishmaru.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re buddies. I know a lot of people. What did you tell Joshua about Ishmaru?”
“The truth.”
“Did you tell him you wanted him away from you for his protection?”
“No, do you think I wanted to scare him to death?”
“I think he’s more scared about something happening to you.” He smiled. “Nice kid. Smart too.”
“I don’t want him to feel threatened.”
“I’ll try, but there’s no way I can promise. Blindness can be a risk.” He stared directly into her eyes. “If you put Joshua in my hands, he’s mine. He won’t come to the cabin, because that would nullify moving him here. You can visit him here, but not without phoning to let me know so that I can meet you and make sure you’re not followed. If I think it’s safer to move him, I’ll move him. I’ll try to let you know, but if I see a risk, I won’t do it. Is that clear?”
“Very clear.” She should resent his arbitrarily taking over Joshua; he was her son and responsibility. But she didn’t resent it. She felt relieved and comforted by the all-encompassing wall Seth was building about Joshua. “But he’s not yours, he’s mine. And if I think you’re not taking proper care of him, I’ll push you off this tower. Is that clear?”
He smiled. “I got it.” He waved a hand at the door. “Now you’d better go tell Joshua I have your stamp of approval.”
She said dryly, “There’s no way you’ll have my stamp of approval if you let him become a damn voyeur with those binoculars.”
It took over half the day for them to unpack Phyliss’s and Joshua’s belongings and get the two of them settled in the station. It was almost sunset when Kate and Noah got back to the cabin.
She felt oddly flat as she climbed the steps to the deck.
“You’re very quiet,” Noah said as he unlocked the door. “It’s going to be fine, you know. Joshua is happy.”
“I know.”
“Seth will take good care of him.”
“He’d better.”
“If you’d had doubts, you wouldn’t have left Joshua.” His gaze searched her expression. “What’s wrong? I want to make things right for you. What can I do?”
“I just miss him,” she said simply.
“You only left him ten minutes ago. You spent hours away from him when you went to work every day.”
“So I’m not reasonable. This is different. I feel as if I’ve sent him away to boarding school or something. You couldn’t understand.”
“No, I don’t.” He crossed the room to the wall phone in the kitchen. “But I’ll see if I can fix it.” He pressed a number on the dial. “Two is the ranger station.” He spoke into the phone. “Seth, let me speak to Joshua.” He held out the receiver to her. “Talk to him.”
She took the receiver. “What will I say?”
“Whatever you want to say. Ask him about his first day at boarding school.” He moved around the breakfast bar into the kitchenette. “How about spaghetti for dinner?”
“Fine,” she said automatically. “Hello, Joshua.” She thought quickly. “I was wondering if you’ll need another pair of binoculars. . . .”
She hung up the phone ten minutes later.
“Feel better?” Noah asked.
She did feel better. She had known Joshua was just a phone call away, but the brief connection had reinforced the fact and lessened the isolation. “Yes. How did you know?”
“It must be because I’m sensitive as well as brilliant.” He looked up from the tomato sauce he was stirring and grinned. “Lucky guess.”
She smiled back at him. With a dish towel wrapped around his waist and a smear of tomato sauce on his chin, he appeared very un-geniuslike at this moment. “That’s what I thought.” She moved around the breakfast bar. “What can I do to help?”
“Get out of my kitchen. I’m very possessive about my dishes.”
“You have a secret recipe?”
“Hell yes.” He grimaced. “Haven’t you noticed? I’m great on secret recipes. But I promise this one isn’t another RU2. No catch-22’s. It will only delight the palate.”
She sensed bitterness layered beneath the lightness of those last sentences. “RU2 may be the single most valuable medical breakthrough in history. It will save millions of lives.”
“And has already taken almost a hundred.” He paused. “No, I took those lives. I created RU2. I knew what the fallout might be and I went ahead with it. Anything that happens is on my head.” He took the pot of sauce off the flame. “As it will be on yours if you help me.”
She stared at him, puzzled. “Why are you warning me? You did everything but kidnap me to get me to work on the project.”
“I just want you to know that—Dammit, I don’t know.” He shrugged wearily. “I guess I feel guilty and want to share a little of it. Or maybe I want you to tell me to go to hell and walk away.”
“And then you’d come after me and convince me to come back.”
“Probably.”
“Certainly.” She said brusquely, “So shut up. You didn’t mesmerize me into agreeing to stay. I made my decision. I could have walked away. I didn’t.” She went to the cabinet. “Does this idiotic culinary possessiveness of yours include setting the table?”
“No.” He watched her get down the plates, and a slow smile lit his face. “You don’t find me mesmerizing?”
“Sorry.”
“Damn.” He took the boiling noodles off the stove and moved over to the sink to drain them. “I must be slipping.”
She found herself smiling as she set the table. She was beginning to feel comfortable with him, she realized. This wasn’t the brilliant scientist whose work astounded her, nor the relentlessly determined man who had shot out her tire. He was more human, vulnerable. He was the Noah who had sat in the diner and smiled at the waitress and made her feel as if she were the most important person in his world.
But Kate wasn’t Dorothy; she had to live with Noah for the next weeks. She had to work with him and hold her own.
“Hurry up,” Noah said as he poured the sauce over the noodles. “If you’re lucky, I’ll let you take the garlic bread out of the oven.”
“That’s slave work.”
“Yep.”
To hell with putting up barriers and holding her own. She couldn’t work in an atmosphere in which she was constantly on guard. As he had said, they were in this together. It would do no harm to be friends. “Take it out yourself. I choose my work.” She sat down at the table, spread her napkin on her lap, and announced, “I’m waiting to be served.”
When she went to he
r room that night, the first thing she saw was the hurricane lamp on the windowsill. The candle was lit and casting shadows on the wall. There was a note from Noah beside it.
You really can see this room from the ranger station. Seth thought you could light the candle every night and tell Joshua that it’s your way of saying good night.
She smiled as she gently touched the glass globe with her finger. Very thoughtful of Seth. He had not impressed her as the kind of man who would think of the little things. It made her feel more comfortable about leaving Joshua in his care.
She looked out at the darkness and whispered, “Maybe this will work out after all. Good night, Joshua.”
Noah waited only until the door closed behind Kate before he dialed Tony at the lodge.
“It’s about time,” Tony said sourly. “I thought you’d dropped off the planet.”
“Did you switch to a digital?”
“Yes, the day after you told me.”
“Good. Any more deaths?”
“No.” He paused. “What the hell happened in Dandridge?”
“Nothing good.”
“I’d say that’s an understatement. She killed a policeman?”
Noah went still. “What?”
“There’s a warrant out for her arrest in the killing of one Caleb Brunwick. You didn’t know?”
Noah muttered a curse. “Of course I didn’t know. It’s crazy.” Not so crazy, he realized. What better way to take Kate out of the picture and discredit her after Ishmaru had failed. “What’s the motive?”
“The word is that she flipped after the murder of her ex-husband and blamed the police department. She sent a note to the police commissioner telling them that she had taken a life for a life.”
“Forgery.”
“And several coworkers testified that she was suffering from exhaustion and depression.”
Ogden had woven his net and was drawing it tight. Christ, he had moved faster than Noah had thought possible. “Lies.”
“Well then, she’d better get back there and clear it up.”
Which was exactly what Ogden wanted her to do. If the frame was good enough, she’d be held. If it wasn’t, she’d be set up for Ishmaru again. “What’s happening with Ogden?”