Chapter Ten #2
“I don’t know how, I don’t know why. We still had hope he’d come back, just wake up—or we pretended to.
We’d visit regularly. We’d read to him, talk to him, play music or vids.
And nothing. Then my mother called me and told me they couldn’t find him.
His bed, empty, his room, empty. They searched the building, the grounds, and nothing. ”
She lifted her hands again. “All we could think is he’d come out of it, confused, bewildered, maybe frightened.
We looked, of course, so did the police.
We hired a private investigator. And nothing.
I think . . . I think he remembered, and he went away somewhere to end it.
He loved Ari so much, and Luke was, well, just everything to him. I think he didn’t want to live. I—”
She broke off, then pressed a hand to her mouth. “Oh God, oh God, did you find a body? Did you find Steve?”
“No.”
When Olivia closed her eyes, Eve pressed on. “Your parents moved to Chicago three years ago, three years after your brother appeared to have vanished.”
“Yes.” When Olivia opened her eyes again, they had a sheen of tears. “They needed a break from it. Every time they left the house . . . They might see someone—I did it, too—and for a minute, they’d think it was Steve.
“Or just being here, a restaurant, a park, somewhere that had memories. It’s painful. They’re coming back before the holidays. They missed us, especially the twins. So they’re moving back to New York.”
“You’re stating here that your brother hasn’t contacted you, or them, in six years.”
“Not a word. I can’t believe, if he were alive, and aware, he wouldn’t.”
“We have two dead bodies that convince me your brother is both alive and aware.”
Olivia blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“At the time of the explosion, at the time of his wife and son’s death, Lawrence Chu and Ezra Dent were both given large payments, which both took pains to hide in secret accounts.”
“I . . .”
The pocket doors crashed open. “Mom! She’s making those sounds again.”
“Not now. Grayson, Natalia, not now. Look at my face.”
The boy took a look, sighed. He closed the doors again, quietly.
“I never thought I’d want marriage, children. Not like Steve.” Her voice quavered, but she went on. “He and Ari, they tumbled right into it, loved every minute. Not for me, I thought. I met Hector right after Steve’s breakdown. I still didn’t think . . . and then I did.
“I know what Steve lost. I loved them, too, so much, but until I had Hector, until I had my babies, I didn’t really understand. I know what he lost.”
She took two careful breaths. “Are you implying that those two men might have had something to do with the explosion? It was ruled accidental.”
“Someone with the reach and knowledge of Banner-Wyst could, it seems to me, make it seem like one. What was your brother working on, Ms. Redman?”
“I honestly don’t know. I think it was something exciting, but I don’t know what.
I know the last time we talked, the last time I spoke to my brother—and Ari and Luke—they were over the moon about the new baby coming, about the house they’d bought.
We mostly talked about family things, and what I was doing—not work, just doing, seeing. And he said . . .”
She took a moment, steadied herself. “I remember because it was the last time we were able to talk to each other.
He said everything was amazing. At home, at work.
They were going to raise their kids in a house half a block from a park.
He owed the company for that, for being able to have what he always wanted, and more.
And for being able to work on something that would make a difference, a huge difference to so many.
“And he said: ‘Come home, Livvy. Come home. Be part of it.’ ”
“Did you ask part of what?”
“No. No, I didn’t. I said I’d be home for the baby, and we’d talk about it.”
She took another breath. “You think what happened wasn’t an accident. More, you think my brother is alive, and has killed two people.”
“We follow the evidence, and the evidence is leading us there.”
Tears still glimmered, but Olivia’s face, her voice held certainty.
“You didn’t know him. There wasn’t a violent bone in his body. You could ask anyone who did know him. He was smart and kind and funny and loving.”
“And if they killed his family?”
“You believe that? You believe they killed Ari, Luke, the baby, all those people? But why?”
“What would Steve have done if he’d learned something? Something illegal, immoral, unethical. If he’d learned something that was seriously off inside the company?”
“He’d never be a part of it.” A hand to her stomach, Olivia rose, paced. “Never. You didn’t know him,” she repeated. “He dedicated his life to helping people, to finding ways to advance technology for the benefit of people, the planet we live on.”
“And if the company he worked for wasn’t? Or was using his work, or the work of others, he discovered, not to benefit? Maybe to exploit.”
“He’d talk to Ari. And he’d make sure he was right. He’d never just assume or guess. If I’d been home . . . If I’d been here, he might have talked to me. Not just his sister, but another scientist, one he trusted. He’d make sure he could prove it, then he’d bust it wide open.”
Her breath began to hitch. She braced a hand on the back of the chair to stay upright.
“Let me get you some water.” Peabody popped up, eased Olivia into the chair. “Just breathe slowly, and I’ll get you some water.”
Even as Peabody moved to the kitchen, the glass pocket doors opened.
“Mom!” the boy called out. “We’re finished homework.”
“Swear it,” the girl added with a finger crossing her heart.
Olivia took another breath as she got to her feet. “Give me a minute,” she said to Eve, then turned to the twins. “Okay, listen, I need a few more minutes of the just-adults thing.”
“But—” In unison.
“So you guys play in there, without fighting, until I come get you. And it’ll be pizza night. Pizza night,” she repeated. “Without veggies.”
Eve watched two small jaws drop.
The boy let out a whoop as the girl said, “But Dad won’t—”
“He’ll be fine with it. Just wait until I come get you.”
The two kids exchanged a look, a wild, wide grin.
The pocket doors closed.
“Major bribe.” Olivia eased into the chair again.
“He’ll understand. Hector’s really strict about vegetables, but he’ll understand.
Thank you.” She took the glass of water from Peabody, sipped slowly.
“You think Steve’s alive and lucid. Has been alive and lucid for six years. You think he killed those two men.”
“I do. And I think he’ll kill others if we don’t find him, stop him.”
“You don’t know him. I said that before, didn’t I?”
“But you do. Where would he go?”
“We’d hoped, my parents and I, we’d hoped he’d find his way to us. But he never did, and we had to give up that hope. He’d have nowhere else to go.”
“Friends. Friends outside of his work.”
“Yes, he had friends. We gave the police, then the investigator we hired, names, contacts. It led nowhere. Understand, we fought like those two when we were kids.” She gestured toward the playroom. “We fought and we laughed and we hung out and we pissed each other off regularly.
“Do you have siblings?”
“No.”
“I do,” Peabody said. “Two brothers, a sister.”
“Then you know how it is. We were close. Not in each other’s pockets every day, but close. It’s hard for me to believe Steve could be alive and in six years, not let me know. Not let our parents know.”
“But not impossible to believe,” Eve prompted.
“You think the explosion was deliberate?”
“I intend to look into that possibility.”
“If he believes it, I don’t know what he’d do. If he’s alive and he believes that . . . He died with them. He died with his family. If he’s alive, I don’t know what’s left in him, of him.”
She let out a sigh. “If someone took everything that mattered from you, what would be left? If this is true, you have to find him. He needs help. He needs us. If this is true?”
Her eyes went hard, hot, fierce. “You’d better see that Banner, Wyst, all of them, all of it goddamn pays.”
“Give us that list of friends, the name of the investigator you hired.”
When they stepped outside, it was Peabody’s turn to take a long breath. “I believe her. She doesn’t know—didn’t. He hasn’t contacted her.”
“No, but I’ll bet he knows where she is. He knows where she works, he knows who she married, he knows she has two children. He’s in New York, Peabody, and he’s had six years to plan out how to avenge his pregnant wife and his son.”