The Escape (John Puller, #3)(106)

“I know.”

“Did you tell anyone about your mother’s phone call that night?”

“No one ever asked me. My mother flew home the next day. She handled everything.”

“Meaning she kept you and your sister from talking to anyone?”

“Pretty much, yeah. And the cops were convinced it was just a hit-and-run. They weren’t looking beyond that.”

“I’ve actually spoken to your mother. She intimated that she thought it might have been connected to one of your dad’s cases.”

“Did she tell you that she had called him that night?”

“No, she somehow left that out.”

“Well, then?”

“I take it you don’t get along with her?”

“No, I don’t. Even if this hadn’t happened with my father, my mother is not the warm fuzzy type. She had her kids but I don’t think she had any interest in actually being a mother. I was a lot closer to my dad. And after he died my grandmother pretty much raised us, not her. So now I have nothing to do with my mother. And she seems perfectly fine with that.”

“Does she know you suspect her?”

“I’ve never mentioned it to her. She scares the shit out of me if you want to know the truth.”

“I think that’s a good thing, actually. I meant the not mentioning part.”

“I truly wouldn’t put anything past her.”

“If she did have a role in his death, do you think it was for the money?”

Dan shrugged. “I would hear my dad sometimes in his little den after he’d been hitting the booze a bit.”

“What would he say?”

“He had really bad arguments with my mother about things. And when she wasn’t around, he would go to his den and talk to himself.”

“And say what exactly?”

“I just caught snatches here and there. And he didn’t seem to be making much sense. But it seemed he had a problem with my mother and what she was doing in her job.”

“And do you know what that was?”

“I know she spent a lot of time in Russia.”

“As part of a START verification team?”

“I think that’s right, yeah. At least I found out about that later. She never talked to me about her work.”

“Why would that bother him? She was helping to dismantle nukes.”

“It didn’t seem like he had a problem with that. I think it was more personal.”

“Meaning someone she worked with?”

“All I know is I heard my dad once say he’d kill the guy if he had the chance.”

“Kill the guy?”

“Yeah. And my dad was a pretty calm person. I don’t know what he found or heard, but he was definitely pissed off about it.”

“What does your sister think?”

“She was closer to our mom than I ever was. She wouldn’t agree with anything I’ve been saying. They see each other a lot. They’re tight. My mom has even helped my sister out financially.”

“Where does she live?”

“In Gaithersburg, Maryland. She has a clothing store up there.”

“She do well with it?”

“She does okay. Like I said, I know Mom helps her out financially.”

“Does that surprise you? I mean, given what you’ve told me about your mother?”

Dan shrugged. “My sister won’t bite the hand that feeds her. So she tells the woman what she wants to hear. But to give our mother her due, if she loves anyone, it would be my sister.”

Puller wrote some notes down and said, “She told me about making the Olympic team in the biathlon. She said she might have won the gold.”

“Did she tell you she didn’t compete?”

“Yeah, some sort of medical issue.”

Dan laughed.

“What’s the joke?” asked Puller.

“ I was the medical issue.”

“Come again?”

“She was pregnant with me. They wouldn’t let her compete.”

“Was she upset about that?”

“She was so upset about it that she never mentioned it. I only found out from my dad.”

“Hey, it takes two to tango. She knew what she was doing.”

“My dad said she claimed he messed with her birth control pills.”

“Did he?”

“Who knows? If she wanted to win a medal in the Olympics she knew she couldn’t do it while heavily pregnant. Maybe my dad did do it. She was so controlling. Maybe he wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine. And it might be one reason she never really took to me. I guess I represented her missed opportunity at glory.”

“It may or may not have been someone’s fault, Dan, but it sure as hell wasn’t yours. You weren’t even born.”

“Sounds logical. But some people are not swayed by logic.”

They sat in silence drinking their coffees.

Puller finally said, “I’m surprised you’ve talked to me about all this.”

Dan gave a mirthless laugh. “I guess I surprised myself. But when you called out of the blue, I thought, well I just thought—”

“That the truth might come out and justice would be finally served for your father?”