Suspects(59)
Chapter 15
The DGSE agents got her past the security lines and onto the plane before anyone boarded. She and Patrick settled into their seats. First class had been fully booked, and she didn’t care how they got there. She would have flown coach if she had to. She texted Martine once she was on the plane, and thanked the DGSE agents before they left. They waited just outside the plane to observe the other passengers boarding, and would stay there until the doors to the plane were closed and the flight took off. They had already shown their badges and credentials to the cabin crew, who had been notified that they had a VIP on board, with special government protection. They texted ahead to New York to be sure she got VIP service when she disembarked. The captain had been advised too. He recognized the name and knew who she was.
She reclined her seat immediately after takeoff, and lay wide-awake, thinking about Mike, willing him to live. This couldn’t happen to him, and to her again. They had only been together for four months, but he had become an integral part of her life in a surprisingly short time and had turned a tragic time into something she could live with. He made her happy. She would have sacrificed anything if she could make a deal for his life now, even give her own.
She couldn’t sleep and didn’t watch a movie, and she declined the meal when they offered it to her. The flight would take eight hours and arrive at ten p.m. New York time. She knew it would be too late to see Mike at the hospital. The other patients would be settled in for the night, although the ICU never slept and tended to their critically ill patients round the clock. They had told her she could come to see him at nine a.m., so it would be a long night once she got to the hotel around eleven-thirty. She knew Martine would have arranged a car and driver for her and advised Patrick. All Theo had to do was get to the hotel and to the hospital the next day. She had read somewhere that people in comas could hear you speak to them, and all she wanted to do now was sit next to him and hold his hand and tell him how much she loved him.
She finally dozed off halfway through the flight. Patrick covered her with a blanket and turned off the overhead light. Most of the passengers slept after the meal, and a few watched movies. He watched one, sitting next to her, and checked on her from time to time. Her eyes were closed and she was sleeping peacefully, but once in a while he saw a tear on her cheek. He had been told the reason for their trip to New York and felt sorry for her. She had been through so much, and the American who had been visiting her periodically seemed like a good man. He appeared to have a close connection with the DGSE detail, and Patrick wondered if he did police work of some kind, but didn’t want to ask. He seemed to be fully trained in security operations and Patrick had noticed that he was armed, which meant he was probably a federal agent of some kind.
Theo woke up on her own half an hour before they landed. She hadn’t eaten during the flight. She went to wash her face and brush her hair, and she looked serious and worried when she got back to her seat. She didn’t like being out of touch for so long. If anything had happened while she was on the flight, she had no way of knowing. The thought of it panicked her. What if he had died while she was on the plane? She tried to force the thought from her mind.
When they landed at Kennedy and the plane stopped at the gate, two Homeland Security officers came on board to escort her and Patrick off, as the other passengers watched and wondered who she was. A movie star maybe, or someone important. She followed them with a serious expression, and Patrick walked close to her. They were escorted rapidly through immigration and customs, and their bags were among the first ones off, with the first-class baggage. They had given her every privilege possible, even though she wasn’t flying first class. The Homeland Security officers and the airline’s VIP agent walked her to the SUV waiting for her at the curb. They couldn’t have done it faster if they’d flown, and she thanked them before they drove away. Patrick was sitting in the front seat with the driver of the SUV. She called the hospital as soon as they left the curb, and spoke to the nurses’ station again, and got the same report she had before. There had been no change, but at least he was still alive.
It took them an hour to get to the hotel, and she was escorted to her suite, with an adjoining room for Patrick, for security reasons. The last thing they wanted was for her to get kidnapped in New York, but she knew that wouldn’t happen. The men who were after her were far away now.
The view from the living room of her suite on the forty-eighth floor was amazing. Room service had left wine and pastry, chocolates, fruit, and champagne for her, but she paid no attention to it. Mike was all she could think about.
She was only sorry she hadn’t called his office sooner, but she kept thinking he would call and was just busy or sick or thoughtless. It never dawned on her that he might have been shot. It occurred to her that they led strange lives, the two of them, he in law enforcement, and she as a target for people who poisoned her and wanted to kill her and hurt the people she loved. They were two sides of the same coin, facing the same evil forces every day, she as a target and potential victim, and he as the hero who protected and saved people like her. In an odd way, they complemented each other, and completed each other.
She slowly undressed and took a shower, then realized she had forgotten to bring a nightgown with her. She was going to sleep in one of the hotel’s terrycloth robes that came with the suite. It was one in the morning by then, and she had another eight hours to get through before she could see him. It was already seven in the morning in Paris by then, and she was wide-awake. She lay on the bed and turned on the TV. She paid no attention to what was on the screen, but it was comforting to hear voices in the room.