Pretenses (10 page)

We left the suite and went down to the beach, where many of the hotel guests were gathered. The nights were cool, but it was still a little sticky out. I had decided to wear a multicolored bikini with a matching sarong that extended to my ankles.

A Jamaican band was singing Ziggy Marley's version of “No Woman No Cry.” They were good. I saw Kelly and Simon at a table near the dance floor. Simon was a tall, well-built white D.C. detective with a pleasant personality. He would go on to become police commissioner someday, I thought. Kelly really cared about him. He was one of several hundred officers in the police department who wanted to date her. But Simon was just smart enough to let Kelly come to him; at least that's his version of the events that brought them together.

“Hi, lovebirds,” I said when we reached the table. “I know you two are
having a wild time.” Kelly smiled when I looked at her. She knew I had heard them on the terrace. I just wanted to bust her chops a little. “So what are you guys having? I'm starved.”

“I'll bet you are.” Kelly laughed. “Somebody was pretty loud upstairs.”

Keyth and Simon were used to our back-and-forth verbal jabs. I loved Kelly, and she loved me. I don't know how we had become so close, but we had clicked almost immediately at Howard University. From the day I had met her, she had just been so down-to-earth.

“Can I get you something to drink, baby?” my husband asked.

“I want some food, Keyth. Bring me a chicken kabob with shrimp.”

Simon went off with Keyth to get the food.

I
WAS FOCUSED ON
the Assassin, going over everything in my mind, trying to figure out what was going on. I had worked with Kelly long enough to know that she was thinking about the case, too.

“So what have you come up with so far, Kelly?”

“I think we've got a homicidal nymphomaniac who, judging by the name she chose to register under, has deep desires to be a Hollywood actress. And if not that, she loves to be on stage. Probably watches the news to see what people are saying about her.”

“I agree, and I think if we're going to catch her, we'll have to be on the lookout for Hollywood names. I think she's been using celebrity names for some time now. I don't think she'll change. She's also arrogant. A professional like her would never leave evidence of her crimes out in the open like that.”

“You think she'll use that name again?” Kelly asked.

“Hard to say. She may, just to throw us off the trail.”

“How so?”

“Well, if she registers as Susan Lucci again, we have to bite on something like that, which would give her more time to do whatever she wants while we waste valuable time staking out a room she has no intention of returning to. On the other hand, she may use it because we would think that she's too smart to try that again. You never know with a cold-blooded killer like her.”

Keyth and Simon came back with our food. Then Keyth said, “I know you two are talking about the Assassin, aren't you?”

“Yes, but we're done,” I told him.

“No, go ahead. Simon and I wanna watch the De La Hoya fight. The bartender told us they were showing it in the hotel lounge. Do you mind?”

Normally I would watch the fights with my husband, but he was right. I did want to discuss the case with Kelly. “Keyth, tell the truth. If the fight wasn't on, would it be okay if Kelly and I discussed the case?”

He laughed.

“I knew that was only an excuse to watch. Just wanted you to know I wasn't fooled,” I told him.

“Okay, you got me. We'll be back when it's over, which could be five minutes or an hour.”

“Okay. If we're not here when you guys come back, we'll be upstairs.”

After they left, Kelly said, “You two have a great relationship. I admire it. You guys still make passionate love. It's hard to believe you're married to each other.”

“Well, when you find the right one, it will be like that,” I told her. “You thinkin' about marrying Simon?”

“We've talked about it. He wants to, but I've been down that road before. Besides, Simon has secrets that he's unwilling to share with me. He tells me to be patient and he'll open up, but I don't know. Something kinda bothers me about him. We've been together for a year-and-a-half now and he still hasn't opened up. I haven't even met his parents.”

“Really? After a year-and-a-half? Why do you bother? You're not getting any younger,” I said.

Kelly grinned. “Because the sex is good. But I'm not sure if he's the one. If I ever get married again, I need my man to be more open. Until that happens, I don't see any reason to rush into anything.”

“I know what you mean. Don't do it unless you're sure, Kelly. Don't let him or anyone else pressure you into doing something you'll regret later.”

“I won't.” She sipped her margarita. “Why do you think she's killing key government officials?”

“It doesn't make much sense. If it were just the NSA Director and the communications tech, that would give us reason to concentrate there. But the judge doesn't fit with those two.”

“I know. And what about the people at the Four Seasons? How do they fit into all of this? Or do they? Is it possible that it was just a coincidence that Winston Keyes called the Hyatt Regency?”

“Maybe, but I doubt it. Keyes and the woman probably have a lot to do with it. The problem is, we don't have anything on Keyes and we don't know who the rich woman is. We don't even know if Winston Keyes is his real name. I mean, if the Assassin can register under Susan Lucci, Keyes could certainly be an alias.”

“The Assassin has the advantage. She knows where, when, and who the next targets are—if there are any more targets. She's run up a serious total as it is.”

“They'll be more, Kelly. I saw part of the list, remember? Besides, if there weren't any more, why was she still at the hotel after she hit Gordon Scott? She should've been gone long before we got to the hotel, don't you think?”

“Good point. Okay, then we need to start checking other hotels. But then, that would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. She could be anywhere, from D.C. to Alexandria to Bethesda and anywhere in between.”

“Maybe. Or maybe she's bold enough to stay in D.C. I mean, she picked a hotel a few blocks away from FBI headquarters, for God's sake. If she would do that, she's bold enough to pick a hotel right in the heart of D.C., maybe even the same hotel.”

Kelly and I looked at each other. We were thinking the same thing.

“That would be perfect,” I continued. “Who would think to look in the same hotel for a fleeing assassin? Come to think of it, when I briefed Ford and Flynn, I asked them about the suitcase and laptop. They said they didn't find either.”

“Maybe she hid them somewhere in the hotel and came back to get them.”

“No, she had another room, Kelly. No way she would just leave them hidden somewhere for the FBI to find. She had another room. That's
where she put them. Then led us away from the hotel. I bet she went right back after she ditched us.”

“Exactly. She had gotten rid of the disguise. She could waltz right back in there, and no one would suspect her. We gotta tell Ford and Flynn. They can view the videotapes. Maybe they'll spot her. And if we're truly lucky, she'll still be there.”

“Why wouldn't she be? She thinks she's so much smarter than us.”

“Well, she is pretty damn smart, Phoenix.”

“I know; I just don't want to admit it.” I laughed.

“What do we do if she's not there?”

“Then we concentrate on the judge. We find out who had a grudge against the judge and who had the money to pay an expensive girl like Susan Lucci.” It was the only name we had for her. Might as well use it until we got more information. “We should probably make some calls to Japan and see if they know anything about ninjas for hire.”

“You really think she's a ninja, Phoenix?”

“I think it's highly possible. Even if she's not a ninja, she's definitely a highly skilled martial artist. That much I know for certain. You don't maintain the kind of control she exhibited when you're thrown fifty or sixty feet over the front of a car you've just rear-ended if you're just a regular Jane. She's probably trained all her life, which also explains how she can keep a cool head while riding a bike at full speed through a busy intersection.”

“If it comes down to it, do you think you can take her?”

“I don't know, Kelly. She doesn't have the same value system I have. And that gives her a huge advantage. For example, if it were necessary, she would have shot innocent civilians in the lobby of the hotel with the Uzi she was carrying.”

“Too bad it melted in the explosion. We might have gotten a print.”

“That's another thing she has going for her—she's lucky.”

“She'll make a mistake. They always do.”

“Yeah, but we have to catch her before the last hit. Otherwise, she's gone forever.”

Simon and Keyth were coming back to the table. They hadn't been gone very long. The fight must have been over quickly, I thought.

“Look who's coming back, Kelly. What do you bet they're gonna want to go upstairs and do it again?”

“No bet. I know Simon, and I know me. Even if it isn't on his mind, it's on mine.”

“Mine, too.”

Keyth had the strangest look on his face when he reached the table. He sat down and took my hand into his. I looked into his eyes and saw that they were welling with tears. Whatever it was, it was serious.

“It's your father, Phoenix. The Assassin got him.”

W
ASHINGTON
, D.C., was a sweltering 98 degrees when we returned. Keyth's mother, Dorothy, and Savannah met us at Dulles International. Savannah ran to us, screaming, “Mommy and Daddy!” Keyth picked her up and hugged her. I just didn't have the energy. I still felt as if I'd been hit in the stomach with a sledgehammer.

“How was your trip to St. Thomas?” Savannah asked. “I told all the kids in my class where you were.”

“We had a good time, honey,” I heard Keyth tell her.

Dorothy drove, and my husband and daughter rode up front. I needed the entire back seat to myself. My father was dead, and I had never, ever thought of him dying. And to die at the hands of that homicidal nymphomaniac? Images of law enforcement officers standing over his dead body, making the wisecracks we tended to make, irritated me. I was so hurt that my pain consumed my anger at the killer. Tears rolled down my cheeks like a waterfall. I opened my eyes and saw that my daughter was staring at me. She seemed puzzled by the tears.

She stretched out her arms, indicating that she wanted me to reach for her and pull her into the back seat. I did. I held on to her, and she comforted me. I rocked my daughter, and the anguish I felt gushed forth like a sudden thunderstorm. I cried hard. Soon, Savannah was crying with me. Not long after that, Dorothy and Keyth began to cry, too. The remarkable thing was that my daughter didn't ask me why I was crying.
Amazingly, she just sympathized without explanation. I loved her more, if that were possible, for allowing me to cry without my having to tell her anything.

We were finally home. Keyth brought our bags into the house, then left to take his mother home. When he returned, we all stretched out on our big bed and mourned my father's passing. For the first time since the assassinations began, I didn't think about them or about “Susan Lucci,” as we had dubbed her.

I
BURIED MY FATHER
three days later. In the days before that, as we prepared for the funeral, I tried to remember all that was good about him and us. The time we had spent in China was foremost on my mind. It was there I learned to speak Mandarin and Cantonese. Learning about the Chinese culture was a great experience.

When we returned to the United States, my exposure to Eastern philosophy enabled me to be a better American. From the monks, I had learned the meaning of tolerance. When one is able to look at one's self and see one's self, only then can one know what true tolerance is. It was the ability to see my own attitude, my own selfishness, my own intolerance that allowed me to accept Phoenix first and then those whom I met on the way to self-actualization.

My father was given full military honors because of his time in the Navy. I was surprised to see President Davidson at Arlington Cemetery. Many other representatives from the intelligence community attended, too. While I appreciated the gesture, I wished the President had not come. Everywhere he goes and everything he does becomes a national event.

Consequently, the media was there, filming my family's grief. I wanted to knock their cameras out of my face.

A crowd of people I had never met surrounded the grave site. My father evidently had a lot of friends whom I didn't know. One particular couple really stood out. They weren't talking to anyone, not even to each other.
The man was black, and the woman with him was Asian. They were well dressed and accompanied by two tough-looking black men. I assumed they were bodyguards. I felt my FBI instincts start to kick in, but I didn't want them to. This wasn't the time or the place to think about investigating people. However, it did give me an idea that I would later explore.

The honor guard fired their rifles in unison with military precision. I was startled when I heard the first shot. I looked at Savannah, taking in all the pageantry of her grandfather's funeral. I don't think she fully understood the finality of death yet. At some point, she would wonder; then she would ask her father or me why Granddaddy didn't come to pick her up and take her to the zoo anymore. Keyth and I would deal with her awakening together as a family.

President Davidson personally presented the flag to me, and a million lights flashed in my eyes. Somehow, I knew the pictures would end up in The Washington Post the next day.