I looked up from the page we were examining in dad’s journal to see Mike’s questioning eyes, “What?”
“I’ve been meaning to ask, what happened to your family that day? Mrs. Glenn said her husband was waiting for your parents in the car, were they planning on going somewhere?”
“Mom and dad heard the bombing start, and knew we were in trouble. He hid me in the faux room, and he and mom went to their offices. They never came home either. I heard people come in the house, but like dad said over and over, I waited in the room until I didn’t hear anything. I was so hungry by the time I came out, and so afraid for where my parents were.”
“I’m sorry, Sara.”
“What about yours?”
“We live far enough away from the city, so by the time the military got there and stopped the terrorists, we were never targeted.” He fidgeted with his pen, “At least all this time I’ve thought it was terrorists. Come to find out it was someone from the Global Embassy.”
I could feel his eyes still on me, which made it hard to breathe, so I went to the lighted table and looked at the name we’d deciphered off the third piece of the map we’d tracked down earlier today. “We don’t know that yet, we don’t know who it was. Find anything in dad’s journal?” I felt like an idiot knowing I’d just been looking at the same page he was.
He sucked in a deep breath and let it out as he hung over the open pages, “Other than he wanted to spend more time with your mom, nothing yet.”
“Keep going over every page, we don’t want to miss anything.”
“Do you know that name?” He pointed at the map.
“Delgado. I think he’s the Mexican Representative. He and his wife were always so nice to us. I think he has the last piece of the map, dad trusted him. Once we get the map together, we can figure out why it’s important.”
I dialed the number on dad’s Rolodex, once Delgado got on the line, I knew I’d have to be quick. He answered yes and no to my questions, forcing me to get creative with them. He said no he wasn’t able to talk about it at the moment in detail, and no, the map wasn’t at his house, that yes he could get it to me. He would send it sometime today. Yes via email. “We may have to wait on that one for a while, he seemed pretty occupied.”
“I found something over here.”
His voice was getting that usual spark to it, I hadn’t heard it for a couple days. “What’s up?”
“Your dad mentions weapons here, and that he doesn’t trust some of the Representatives.”
“We already knew that. we just needed to know who.”
“I’ll find out who, you order dinner. I’m finally getting somewhere.” He looked to me and froze, eyes wide and blank, “Wait a second. You said you overheard someone speaking about the weapons. Did he go on the trip with your dad?”
“Yes, I had to practically catch dad coming out of the bathroom to speak with him privately that day in Florida.”
“Who went with him to Florida?”
I pointed to the journal, “I think he mentions it, flip forward to June thirteenth.”
“He mentions Delgado and also-” He froze again, although he tried to speak past the hitch, he only stared at me.
“Who?”
“Rembrandt.”
“The American Representative!”
He put down dad’s journal and came close to me, almost too close. I could feel his warm breath on my nose, “Think, Sara. What exactly did you hear that day?”
My mind was a total blank. Mike grabbed my hands, “Take a deep breath and let it out slowly.” I obeyed. “Close your eyes and walk me through it.”
Faith Love Creative 