Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
S he drove. Of course she drove. Harrison didn’t have a car anymore. Willow had imported a forensics team from somewhere to go over what was left of it. They would be there in the morning.
He sat in the passenger seat, pretending to look out the window at the passing terrain, but he was actually looking inward, at his life. Or lack of one. He’d had work. He’d had nothing but work, with brief side journeys to visit his sister in her life and their dad in his life. He should’ve seen them far more often.
“We’ll get it back.” Maria had said it multiple times.
“I don’t know.”
She was quiet for a minute. Then she said, “What if you don’t?”
He swung his head around to look at her. “What if I don’t get it back?”
“My mamma says when you’re worried or in a state of dread, think of the worst thing that can happen, and figure out how you’d get through it. Because you know you will. You got no choice. She says it takes away the dread. So, what if you don’t get the prototype back?”
“I guess… I can make another. Unless the person who took it takes my rights to it, as well.”
“You can make another. You have all the notes and things?”
“Backed up to cloud storage. Yeah.”
“So, if this person tries to take your rights, all that’s proof it was yours. You could take them to court, if you had to.”
“That’s true.”
“And you’d most likely win. You’re in the right.”
“I probably would win, if it came to that.”
“See? Better, right?”
He looked at her. She was always so upbeat, with the possible exception of a breakdown in the restroom at Manny’s just before her ex had shown up. It was kind of amazing. “Better,” he said. Not much, but she was right. He could build another prototype. He could prove he’d worked on the original design. And there was the patent, too.
She drove under the Texas Brand arch, along the winding driveway, and pulled along in front of the inviting front porch.
An hour later, Harrison was enjoying an unnecessarily huge dinner with Maria’s Aunt Chelsea, Uncle Garrett, Bubba, and Blue Boy. The droopy bloodhound laid under the table, watching for scraps. He only took those that fell within reach of his tongue, with minimal physical motion required.
He’d been fielding questions about his life in New York, his research, and his mom, once he’d mentioned her.
“I’m sorry you lost her,” Chelsea said. “If you ever want to talk, it’s what I do.”
“Thanks,” he said. “That’s kind. This place…” He set his fork down. “It’s special. I appreciate your hospitality.”
“Any time,” Garrett said, and the others echoed the sentiment.
Harrison didn’t think he’d ever felt more welcome, other than in his own home. This family was like a bigger version of his own. Oh, their surroundings were different. Their customs. But the love, the core that held the rest together, that was alive and well in the Brands. It was too familiar to doubt, and too warm to resist.
After dinner, his offers to help clean up firmly refused, he’d headed up to his room. First, he took a long hot shower, and then, from the rocking chair by the window, placed a video call to his dad and sister. They both answered.
“Harrison!” his father said, beaming. “Oh, it’s good to see your face, son. How is the car trouble?”
He hadn’t told his dad the whole story and neither had Lily, as far as he knew. He’d asked her not to. “Well, the truth is, Dad, my car was stolen. They were after the prototype and they got it.”
“ What ?”
“What about the backup?” Lily asked.
“We don’t know. Carrie went to pick it up, and then she went missing. Her car’s at the school. The safe was open, the backup’s gone. She’s not answering calls or texts, and her phone’s off line.”
“Oh my God.” Lily pushed her silvery blond hair off her forehead, gathered it into her fist atop her head, then shook it before letting it go. Their mother used to do the exact same thing when frustrated.
“What are you going to do, son?”
“I don’t know. I’m here, for now. Safe and sound. And the FBI’s involved, so?—”
“The FBI?” They said it in unison. There was a tap on his bedroom door, and he called, “Come in.”
Maria came in, dessert plate in hand. Chocolate cake. God help him. “You missed dessert.”
“Who’s that?” his sister asked, while his dad looked at every corner of his computer screen. He only did video calls on the computer.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Maria said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“It’s okay.” He got out of his rocker, taking his phone with him to stand beside Maria. “Dad, sis, this is Maria. She’s part of the family who… uh, took me in.”
“Oh, that’s Maria.” That was Lily, and her voice carried both a lilt and a question.
“Maria, this is my sister Lily and my father, Hyram Hyde.”
Maria smiled fully. “Well, hello, folks. It’s so nice to meet you. My goodness, Lily, you are stunning. And Hyram, it’s a pleasure. You’ve raised an amazing son. I want you to know, we’re taking good care of him.”
“I can see that,” Hyram said with a nod, probably at the cake she held.
She laughed. “So is the H a thing?” she asked.
“The H?” Harrison asked.
“Harrison Hyde, Hyram Hyde.”
“Oh, yes,” Hyram said. “My wife and I decided we’d name our daughter after her, and our son after me, but I didn’t want to saddle my boy with Hyram , so I just went with another H name.”
“And Lily, that was your mother’s name?” she asked his sister.
“Yeah. Lilly Marie. I’m Lily Ellen. But I don’t think I’ll ever live up to it.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Maria looked up at Harrison. “I’ll go, let you have your family time.” She set the cake on a stand, and leaning into frame once more, said, “It was so nice to meet you both.”
“You, too,” they called. Maria backed out and closed the door.
And then Lily said, “That girl is at least halfway in love with you, big brother. You realize that, right?”
“More than halfway,” his father said.
And that pretty much ruined any hope Harrison had of sleeping that night.
The next day, after breakfast, Maria said, “We’re gonna distract you for a couple of hours. You’re gonna want to wear shorts. You bring any shorts?”
“I did, as a matter of fact.” Harrison headed up to the guest room and rummaged around in his duffel for a pair of shorts. He hadn’t unpacked. Didn’t expect to be around that long.
When he went downstairs, Maria met him at the bottom, then headed for the front door. Blue Boy lifted his head from the braided carpet in front of the fireplace, sighed heavily, and lowered it again. Outside, there were motors rumbling.
Four ATVs were lined up in front of the porch. Two of the ATVs had people on them. He couldn’t see their faces behind their visored helmets but he presumed they were cousins.
“Have you ever ridden one?” Maria asked, leaning close so he could hear her.
“Nope.”
“C’mere.” She took his hand and pulled him to a small, red four-wheeled vehicle. “This makes it go,” she said, demonstrating the throttle. “And this makes it stop. Ever drive a stick?”
“Learned on one.”
“Good, this here’s your shift. No clutch necessary. Only four speeds, see the diagram?”
“Yes.”
She took the helmet that was dangling by its strap from the handlebar and handed it to him. “It’s easy.”
It was. Harrison followed Maria with the two masked bandits bringing up the rear, and he knew she was taking it easy on purpose.
The Texas Brand was something to see, though. Vertically challenged woods, with paths created by cattle, rolling pastureland, with the desert nipping at its edges in some places, and a wide, blue sky. There were large, slow-moving cows, lazing in the shady woods, or grazing in the grassy places. They ranged from mostly white with red blotches and freckles, to mostly red with white patches. But their most distinct feature was their long, nearly horizontal horns. It was hypnotic watching them move, because the horns gave them a slow-motion quality.
Beautiful creatures.
No horses out there, he noticed. The horses grazed closer to the main house.
At length, they left the trail and meandered through trees that gave way to a small pond with water so clear you could see straight to the bottom. He recognized the swimming hole from his recent horseback tour. There was a tire hanging by a rope from a tree limb that extended out over the water.
Maria stopped her machine and took off her helmet, shaking her curls free. Harrison pulled up alongside and removed his own. When he got off, his legs felt a little stiff. Partly from his trail ride yesterday. The other two pulled up in the same way, got off and removed their helmets. The two blond cousins, the siblings. He thought they were the youngest and tried to recall their names until Maria saved him. “You met these two earlier, my cousins Orrin and Drew.”
“We heard about your car,” Drew said. “That stinks. I’m really sorry.” The sparkle of youth infected her eyes and her sympathetic smile. She was young, twenty-one or two he guessed.
“Thanks. It’s just a car, and it’s insured.”
“I think your project being stolen stinks more,” Orrin said. He was probably a little bit older than Drew. Same coloring, same lithe build, but in a sturdier version. The exuberance was missing from the brother. He had a sullen look to him. In that way, he might be his kid sister’s opposite. “Maria told us you’d been working on it for seven years.”
“That’s why we’re gonna help you get it back,” his sister said.
“You are?” Harrison glanced at Maria, knowing she’d be ready with an explanation.
She didn’t disappoint. “Know how Drew got her name?” Then she grinned and nodded at Drew. “Tell him.”
Drew, nodding, said, “Mom’s a P.I. Penny Brand Investigations. And it’s got a penny on the logo, so you don’t really know if it’s the brand name or her name, but it’s really both.”
“Because her first name is Penny,” Harrison interpreted. “That’s pretty clever.”
“I know!” She kept talking while Maria unstrapped a giant picnic cooler from the back of her ATV. It was so heavy it seemed to stretch her arms. He hurried to take it from her, but she dodged him and said, “I got it.”
Drew hadn’t missed a beat. “Anyway, when my mom was a kid, she was nuts about Nancy Drew. The books were old, even for her generation. But she loved them. The stories inspired two of her life goals; become a P.I. and, if she ever had a daughter, name her Nancy.”
He was still trying to figure out how this connected to her helping him get his prototype back, but he had to admit, he was into the story at this point, so he paid attention. Orrin spread out a big blanket. Maria started taking food out of her cooler and laying it out with a stack of hard plastic plates and real silverware.
“But when she held me for the first time, and started calling me Nancy, Mamma said I howled. Every time she said that name, I would just wail. And then my dad?—”
“My Uncle Ben,” Maria said in a quiet aside as she took two covered dishes from the cooler and whipped off the lids. Leftover chocolate cake and a full-sized pie. Apple, maybe. His stomach growled.
“Well, my dad took one look at me and said, “Drew. Not Nancy, but Drew.” Well, I stopped bawlin’ and looked him right in the eye.”
She was beaming. What a happy young woman she was. Harrison smiled and caught Maria smiling too. They shared that for a second, smiling for the same reason at the same time like a shared secret.
He looked at Drew’s brother. “How about you, Orrin? Your name’s not very common.”
Orrin said, “I’m named after our grandfather, Orrin Brand. No magical story behind it.”
“Don’t be a pissant,” Drew said.
He didn’t reply.
Maria sat down, took a plate, and everyone else followed her lead. And for a while, they were too busy pretending to weigh the options before deciding on a piece of each. And then they were too busy eating to talk. They poured themselves long, tall glasses of sweet tea from a cooler Orrin had brought, and sat in a shady spot underneath a low, broad-limbed tree. The tree reached right out over the pond, some of its tendrils touching the water, like it was taking a sip.
“I can’t recall ever being in a more peaceful place,” Harrison said at length. “You’re so lucky to have all this.”
“Yeah?” Maria said. “I thought you planned to live in some University-owned mansion for elite professors who saved the world.”
“I don’t think I put it quite like that.”
“She reads into things,” Drew said. But she was looking from one of them to the other with curious eyes. Then she shook herself visibly, and said, “So the reason we’re here— our mom has resources we can… use. And we know the ropes.”
Orrin nodded. “We’ve been learnin’ the ropes since birth.”
“We were either with her at her office or with Dad at his dojo our whole lives,” Drew went on. “So we can do two things really well. We can sleuth, and we can fight.”
“Fight?” Harrison couldn’t stop himself from blurting the question. She was five two and so slightly built he thought a strong wind could carry her away.
“We have three black belts each,” Drew said with a little bit of pride.
“We know our stuff,” Orrin agreed, nodding. “We can help.”
“So, what’s your theory, Harry?” Drew asked. “What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know.” He took a sip of the tea and realized nobody had spoken, and everyone was looking at him, waiting for a better answer. Okay, what did he think? “I think someone stole both the prototypes of my solar tile. I think they’re probably planning to sell the technology. I just don’t know how they think they can get away with it. It’s patented in all four of our names.”
“You and your research team,” Drew said.
“Yeah.”
“Names?” She moved her phone a little when she asked, and he realized she was recording, rather than taking notes.
“Carrie Sayre, S-A-Y-R-E. Robert Philipson, one L, and Solomon Hadik, all Os, H-A-D-I-K.”
She smiled so widely he was confused. And then she said, “Thanks for takin’ me seriously.”
“Like I’m gonna doubt the daughter of a P.I. named after Nancy Drew who has three black belts?”
Drew laughed and blushed. She reminded him of his sister, before they’d lost their mom. Since then, Lily had been… muted, her light, dimmed.
“So, it’s patented, you said,” Drew went on. “Have you seen the patent documents yourself?”
“No. Carrie took charge of all that.”
“And she’s missin’?” she asked.
“I’ve been getting updates from her husband, my sister, and the head of my department. Willow’s in touch with the FBI. There’s still no sign of Carrie, though. Her credit cards haven’t been used. Her phone is either dead or turned off, I guess.”
“Would you send me their photos?” As Drew asked it, she tapped his phone with hers and her number popped up on his screen as a new contact. He saved it, then scrolled to his photos, tapped three of them, and sent them to her. Then as an afterthought, he opened his contacts and shared Carrie, Robert, and Solomon’s info with Drew as well.
“I’m sendin’ you a link,” Drew said, simultaneously with the whoosh sound effect and another notification. “That’s where you can search patents. Find yours. But later, the signal’s weak out here and it’ll take all day, and that water’s waitin’.”
“And we waited fifteen minutes after the meal, despite that it’s a myth with no science behind it,” Maria said. “Last one in’s a rotten egg.” She peeled off her shirt on the way to the tire swing. She had a bikini top underneath, baby blue. She hit the tire, one foot on the inner edge, one hand on the rope that held it, leaning back like Tarzan’s Jane to make it swing, then wider, and then she hooted as she let go and plunged into the water.
The other two followed her, so Harrison guessed he was the rotten egg.
He was only a few years older than Maria. But he hadn’t acted like that since high school. No, maybe even middle school. He peeled off his shirt, kicked off his shoes, ran to the tire, and just went for it, swinging way out and letting go. He splashed down into cold water, sank deep, then thrust out his legs and paddled up again. When he surfaced, the three cousins were hooting and raising their hands for high fives.
Harrison looked at their grinning faces and then past them at the serenity around him. It was sinking into him, this place, soothing him, making him believe everything could still work out okay.
Maria splashed him, and he dove and swam away. They played like a bunch of kids and eventually slogged to the shore. Drew had towels in her ATV’s storage compartment and as she handed them around, hoofbeats approached. Fast ones.
He toweled off fast, every alarm bell in his body going off at once as he pulled his shirt on. Willow came riding in on her thoroughbred, Sundance. She slid to the ground, walked purposefully to him, put her hands on his shoulders, and opened her mouth. Then she closed it again.
“What?” A hole opened in his stomach.
Willow lowered her head. “Your research partner, Solomon Hadik… he’s dead, Harry. I’m so sorry.”
The word dead slammed him in the chest, knocking him a few steps backward. “Solomon’s dead?” He had to repeat the words to make sense of them. “Solomon’s dead ?” And then questions came. “When? How? What in the name of God— he was a vegan for cry?—”
“We don’t know the cause of death yet,” Willow said. “There was a break-in at his apartment, signs of a struggle, but no obvious injuries severe enough to have killed him. We’ll know more after the autopsy. The FBI wanted to put you into protective custody. But Uncle Garrett and I convinced them you’d be just as safe at the ranch with a sheriff and deputy. I’d like you stay, for the time being.”
“But—”
Drew said, “I think that’s smart. Cause how’s anyone gon’ get away with takin’ credit for, much less sellin’ rights to something that four scientists can prove they invented unless?—”
“Unless they get rid of the four scientists,” Orrin said, finishing his sister’s sentence. “Dang.”
“Shoot,” Drew whispered.
Ice crept up Harrison’s spine. “My God, what about Carrie?” He paced a few steps away, then back. “What if they killed her, too? What will her poor husband do? He needs her.”
“If your friend Carrie can be found, the FBI will find her,” Willow promised. “Multiple agencies are coordinating on this from Ithaca, and they’re sending a team here, to work the case from our end. My part, for right now, is to keep you alive. This just got a lot more serious, Harry. And a lot more dangerous.”
He swallowed hard.
Maria slipped up beside him, clasped his hand and said, “Nobody’s gettin’ anywhere near him on my watch.”
“We got your back, Harry,” Orrin said, stepping up to clap a hand on his shoulder.
“Pack up and let’s head back to the house,” Willow said. “I’ll ride with you to keep watch.”
And she did just that, riding alongside their ATV caravan. Harrison had never felt more exposed. His nape and the small of his back, tingled as if they could feel crosshairs trained on them. He wished Maria would cut loose and go faster but yelling that at her would make him look cowardly, and he’d rather brave the fires of hell than look bad in her eyes.
He’d never felt bigger than when she’d thanked him for standing between her and the Rottweilers. The way she’d looked at him had been— wow.
The attraction between them was intensifying, no question about it. He needed to spend time figuring out what to do about that. But he couldn’t even begin to give it the thought it deserved, not when Solomon, a man he’d worked with for seven years, was dead. Maybe murdered. And Carrie, missing. Maybe dead, as well. And Robert…
Harrison had worked with Robert Philipson for seven years. He just couldn’t believe his friend could be behind this.
There was a plethora of vehicles out front when they got back to the ranch. They pulled their machines to a halt and shut off the engines. Maria took off her helmet and said, “Guess the call’s gone out.”
“What call?” Harry asked.
“The call that a Brand’s in trouble,” she said, noting Uncle Wes’s truck, Uncle Elliot’s truck, Uncle Ben’s truck, her mom’s van, and Uncle Adam’s big tan SUV.
When they went inside, the house was packed. Everyone was talking at once, they’d all brought food… and shotguns, none loaded. “You don’t go indoors with your hat on or your gun loaded,” was one of her favorite “Uncle Garrettisms.”
Maria glanced up at Harry. He was looking around with wide eyes, so she cut a whistle to shut them all up. “Everyone, this is Harry?—”
“Harrison.”
“— Hyde.” She looked Harry right in the eye. “And whether some thief steals credit for his solar tile or not, everyone here should know he’s the one who created it. He’s the one who helped save the world. Assumin’ we do.”
“Hot damn!” Uncle Wes said. Everyone joined in, shouting hell, yeah or its equivalent. Harry’s cheeks turned red. He muttered “thanks” several times as her relatives applauded him. The ones close enough clapped his back or shoulder.
“Not just me,” he said, softly, which had the effect of silencing everyone in the room.
Uncle Garrett and Bubba stood side by side. Bubba had grown as tall and broad as his adopted dad, but he had the swarthy complexion of his birth father. His mother had been Chelsea’s sister. He’d always called them Aunt Chelsea and Uncle Garrett, even though they were legally his parents.
Uncles Elliot, Adam, and Wes stood together. Aunt Chelsea was offering sandwiches from a platter she’d manifested from thin air, and the other aunts, Esmeralda, Taylor, and Kristen were sending speculative looks between her and Harry.
“I had a team,” Harry went on. “Solomon was brilliant. There wasn’t a problem he couldn’t think his way around. He was socially awkward, and painfully shy, and too old to be single, as his mother told him a hundred times.” He paused and swallowed. “He was her only son.”
Heads lowered around the room.
“And Carrie…” He had to stop for a breath. Maria saw him swallow. “She’s a middle-aged woman with a genius IQ and a husband who needs her. He has early onset Alzheimer’s and no one else to rely on.”
“Hold onto hope,” Aunt Chelsea said. And everyone murmured in agreement.
Baxter, Maria’s oldest cousin emerged from the throng. He had shaggy blond hair and black-framed glasses. He handed Harry a white box with an apple on its lid. “Figured you’d need a laptop. We heard yours was ruined in the car.”
“Holy… Baxter, that’s too much.”
“We went in together, we cousins,” Baxter said. “We want you to have it.”
“This is…” Harry clutched the box in one hand. “That’s an amazing thing to do. Thank you. I can log into the cloud, download my backup designs, my notes.” He wove straight through the fam to the stairway, talking more to himself than anyone else, and took the stairs two at a time. “I can search for the patent, check Carrie’s social, and Robert’s too, and…” He was still talking all the way out of earshot.
Maria shook her head, then looked at the amused faces of her relatives. And one by one, they looked back at her, their eyes full of questions.
Oh, heck, no. She wasn’t ready for that. “I’m gon’ um…” She searched her mind for a reason to go upstairs after Harry. “He’s gon’ need the Wi-Fi password!” She headed for the stairs herself.
“If the whole gang’s stayin’, we’re gon’ need to make use of the bunkhouse,” Uncle Garrett called. “This family’s outgrown the ranch house.”
“I call the bunkhouse for the cousins,” Trevor shouted, and her other cousins agreed loudly as Maria climbed the stairs.