Finding North (7 page)

Alex smiled. Cian had made
Troy’s sons, Hector James and Hermes, bakers-in-training. Their
baking training helped carry them through the long days and nights
after their mother was murdered. Over the last few years, they had
become good cooks and great bakers. Plus, they liked playing
Matthew’s video games.

“
And John?”

“
He called to say he has
one last case, and he’ll be home,” Quince said. “I haven’t seen
Ooljee at all today.”

“
Today’s one of her
spiritual training days,” Alex said. “Her grandfather picked her up
last night.”

Sergeant Margaret Peaches’
daughter was on the spirit way when she lived on the Navajo
Reservation. Once a month, her grandfather either arranged for a
Native American shaman to continue Ooljee’s training, or he picked
her up himself.

“
That’s so cool,” Quince
said.

“
It is cool,” Alex smiled.
“If you want to, you can take the rest of the day off. I’m sure
between everyone, we’ll have fun.”

“
You remember we’re going
to Santa Fe tonight,” Quince smiled.

“
You and the handsome
Jason,” Alex smiled.

Quince had met Jason at
the wife-swapping party, where they had been hired to help the
catering company. Both soldiers were stationed at Fort Carson. The
ridiculousness of the entire thing had made them fast friends. By
the end of the year, they were dating. Alex thought Jason might
propose during their weekend away. But having married John after
knowing him for thirteen hours, she had no idea how “regular”
people managed the timing of their relationships. Quince beamed
with excitement for her overnight trip.

“
It’s a long drive,” Alex
said. “Go.”

“
Thank you, sir,” Quince
said. “As always, my duty is with you. If you need me, for any
reason, just call, and I’ll . . .”

“
Have a wonderful time,”
Alex said. “That’s what I want.”

Her son laughed at
something Raz had done, and the child in her arms giggled. For all
of the pain, struggle, and sorrow surrounding their mother’s last
days, Máire and Joey were happy babies. They laughed easily and
cried only when provoked. Their delicate build and light-brown skin
made them seem like exotic birds plucked from the desert wilds to
live in the high-altitude mountains of Colorado.

Quince leaned in and
kissed Máire. She went to Raz and said goodbye to Joey. She gave
Alex a wave and went downstairs to her room. Alex wandered into
their private living room, where Raz was talking to her mother and
cuddling Joey. When Máire saw her brother, she cooed in greeting.
Joey looked up at her voice and laughed.

“
They are so happy,”
Rebecca said. “I didn’t expect it.”

“
They are such easy-going
babies,” Alex said. “We’re lucky.”

Rebecca nodded.

“
Listen,
Mom . . .” Alex started.

“
I’m not going anywhere,”
Rebecca said. “I promised Cian I’d help with Sunday dinner,
plus . . .”

Alex raised her eyebrows
and wondered what Rebecca wanted.

“
Your nanny is leaving,
and you need your antibiotics.” Rebecca got up and followed Alex
into the hallway. “You need my help.”

Alex’s head went up and
down to agree with her mother, but, inside, she sneered. She was
definitely going to regret letting her mother in the door. Truth be
told, if she hadn’t had her morning brush with death, her mother
would not be sitting here right now. Rebecca smiled as if she had
heard Alex’s thought.

“
Where’s Max?” Rebecca
asked.

“
He and Wyatt went
skiing,” Alex said. “They’ll be here for dinner.”

“
I’m sure you have some
work . . . or . . .” Rebecca
said.

A shadow of sadness moved
across Rebecca’s face, and for the first time, Alex realized that
her mother had aged. They had been at odds most of her life.
Whatever semblance of peace and understanding they’d gained in the
last few years had been lost when Alex and Max kicked their parents
out of their lives. While her father was robust enough to get past
it, she’d clearly broken her mother’s heart.

“
Why don’t you come down?”
Alex asked. Rebecca’s face brightened. “You can play with the twins
in the basement. We’ll be right there if you need help. I mean, if
you don’t mind.”

“
It sounds fun,” Rebecca
said.

“
Great,” Alex said. She
turned to head down to the basement.

“
But
first . . .” Rebecca started.

Alex turned to look at her
mother.

“
Patrick told me why you
did what you did last Christmas,” Rebecca said. “And, while I don’t
like what you did or how you did it, I wanted to say thank you.
Those men who broke in a few years ago . . . and I
had to . . .”

Her mother sucked in her
breath and swallowed hard at the memory of being attacked in her
own home. Alex put her hand on her mother’s arm to steady
her.

“
They were looking for the
book I gave you,” Rebecca said. “Weren’t they?”

“
I don’t think we’ll ever
know,” Alex said.

“
Please don’t do that,”
Rebecca said. “I need to know. Plus, it’s the only thing that makes
any sense. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve party. You went home
with everyone. I talked to Sami before going to bed. She was
laughing and happy. She said you were excited about Christmas, and
then . . . A few hours later,
and . . .”

“
Mom,” Alex
said.

“
I wanted to tell you
that . . .” Rebecca nodded. “I don’t care if they
kill me. Being away from you kids and my grandchildren, especially
now that we’re home in Denver . . . Well, I may as
well have been dead.”

Rebecca nodded.

“
I say, ‘Let them try,’”
Rebecca said. “Because . . .”

Rebecca’s large hazel eyes
filled with tears. Seeing Rebecca’s sorrow, Máire put her tiny hand
on Rebecca’s face. Rebecca smiled at the baby.

“
I understand,” Alex said.
“And I’m sorry. We were really trying to . . .
protect you, mitigate the damage.”

“
Yes, I understand that,”
Rebecca said. “I don’t like it, but I do understand it.”

“
I’m sorry to have caused
so much pain,” Alex said. “Pain seems to be the currency in which I
trade.”

Rebecca smiled. She took
Máire from Alex.

“
Yes, I can see you’re
suffering,” Rebecca said.

Alex smiled. She stuck her
head into the living room and waved for Raz to come with her. He
looked up from Joey and smiled.

“
Shall we?” Rebecca
asked.

Raz got up and followed
Rebecca to the basement stairs. Alex quickly tidied the living
room. She grabbed the twins’ changing bag and the blanket from the
floor. She opened the chest near the end of the room and stuffed
the blanket inside.

Closing the lid, she saw
her mother’s handbag. She’d never seen her mother without her
handbag tucked on her shoulder. Even when she was with Grace or
Paddie, Colin’s son, her mother’s handbag was never far from her.
The fact that this handbag was sitting next to an armchair in her
living room meant that, for the first time in Alex’s life, her
mother was not thinking of the next social event or photo op. Her
mother was truly present with the twins.

“
Are you coming, Alex?”
Rebecca asked.

Alex smiled and left the
living room.

FFFFF

Sunday
afternoon

May 15 — 5:17 p.m.
MDT

Denver,
Colorado

“
Where did you get this?”
Alex asked.

Rebecca sat with Máire on
her lap, and Raz held Joey. They sat on a loveseat near the gas
fireplace in Alex’s office. The babies had fallen sound asleep in
the warm safe room. Trailing an IV bag on a metal stand, Alex took
her antique map off the wall.

“
I’m not sure,” Rebecca
said. “My father had one on the wall in his library.”

“
Really?” Alex
asked.

“
He was very interested in
cartography,” Rebecca smiled.

“
Really?” Alex repeated.
She took the map from the false wall covering the gun safe and
looked at her mother.

“
Yes, really,” Rebecca
said. “I think that’s why I never thought it was weird that you and
Max were so interested in maps. It wasn’t until you were in base
schooling that I realized it wasn’t quite normal for your
four-year-old children to draw a detailed map of the base.
Certainly, that’s what the principal thought.”

Alex set the map on the
floor. She unhooked her IV bag from the stand and dropped it next
to the map. She sat down and turned the map over to get access to
the back. The cheap frame bent with pressure.

“
I’ve never known anyone —
besides Alex and Max, of course — who draws maps,” Raz said. “Did
your father draw maps, too?”

“
I think so, but I don’t
know,” Rebecca said. “I didn’t know him well, and I never spent any
real time with him. I was never alone with him, not once. Alex, do
you remember that caliper I gave you and Max when you
were . . . gosh, I think you were eleven? It
belonged to my father.”

“
I have it this year,”
Alex said. She took her Spyderco folding knife from the band of her
pants and used it to flip back the inexpensive aluminum stays that
held the thin cardboard backing to the map.

“
What does that mean?” Raz
laughed.

“
There’s only one, so we
switch off having it,” Alex said.

“
Since you were eleven?”
Raz asked.

Rebecca shot Raz an amused
look, which Alex caught. She shook her head.

“
We’ve each had it
thirteen times,” Alex said. “Next year, Max will have it one more
year than me.”

“
Don’t forget — you’ll
have it again the following year,” Rebecca joked.

“
Max is older, so he gets
to go first,” Alex said. “I have it in my safe with a bunch of
other precious things. I’ve used it a few times. It’s fun to feel
the history.”

Alex turned her attention
to the map in her hands. She used her knife to lift up the thin
cardboard backing. Carefully, she peeled the cardboard from the
map.

“
There’s nothing written
here,” Alex said. “There’s a kind of mark,
but . . .”

Alex pulled up an edge of
the map.

“
There are three maps
here,” Alex said. “No, four — not counting the one facing out. The
paper they are on is very thin and looks old.”

Alex carefully pulled a
map from the stack of maps inside the frame. She lay it face up on
the floor and removed the next. She did the same until all five
maps were face up on her floor. The map that had been facing out
was not the same quality or age as the other four.

She got up and put the IV
bag back on the stand. She picked up one of the four maps and
brought it to her map table. She pulled her adjustable round
magnifier over the map and turned on the light.

“
Be right back,” Alex
said.

She jogged into the
bathroom to wash her hands. When she was walking back, she heard
Rebecca ask Raz about Alex’s weight. Raz told her mother that
everyone was concerned but that John was monitoring it. She cleared
her throat so they knew she was coming.

She went directly to her
map table. Looking through the magnifier, Alex ran her fingers over
the map’s lines. Alex scowled and picked up the next map. She went
over the surface of each of the four maps with slow, deliberate
purpose.

“
Ok, I’m dying from the
suspense,” Raz said. “What’s going on?”

“
They’re definitely
copies,” Alex said. “Not cheaply made. The paper is old, possibly
from the time of the original maps. The copies are hand drawn,
which could imply that whoever made these copies had access to the
originals, which would be . . .”

Alex shook her head and
looked at the ground.

“
Which would be?” Raz
asked.

“
Oh, sorry,” Alex said.
“This kind of copy is something you do when you own something
that’s truly too valuable to display. They’re sometimes called
insurance copies. I mean, you don’t want to risk something so
precious to a fire or earthquake or whatever. I don’t think they’re
made as often now, but in the early nineteenth century, every
painting, map, even books, anything of great value had this kind of
copy made — one to display and one to pass to your children. Do you
recognize these, Mom?”

Rebecca came to the table
to take a look. She shrugged.

“
I know that I’m a huge
disappointment, but maps look like maps to me,” Rebecca said.
“Especially the old ones. I don’t have your eye for
them.”

Alex scowled.

“
Don’t worry,” Raz smiled.
“She gives me the same look when I can’t tell one map from the
other.”

Rebecca and Raz laughed.
Alex gave them a disgusted look, which made them laugh
harder.