I shook my head. It wasn’t like my mom and I ever worked out together. I’d had a stationary bike in my apartment for the winter, and I biked outside in the summer. “She goes someplace that offers yoga classes. She says it helps her stay calm.”
“That’s probably about half the gyms in the city.”
I could wait and hope to reach her soon enough that we could still get someone out to Ahanti’s apartment today or tomorrow, but it was already getting late in the day. On a Sunday, our chances of finding someone willing to come in were already slim and got worse by the hour.
Once again, I’d have to call my dad.
As much as I’d been wishing earlier that he would come in and make this whole mess go away, I still didn’t want it to look like I needed his help. I didn’t want to reinforce his opinion that I wasn’t capable.
But Ahanti mattered more than my pride, and last time, he had eventually agreed to assign a private investigator to her. Too bad we hadn’t also given him Terrance’s picture when we’d given him Cary’s. This whole thing might already be over if we had. At the time, though, Terrance hadn’t even been someone we considered.
My dad didn’t answer his phone, either.
Unlike my mom, I did know where my dad would be on a Sunday afternoon. It was too late in the day for golf, which meant he’d either be at my parents’ apartment or at their office. Since he’d taken so much time off the past couple of days, the office seemed most likely.
I put the address into our car’s GPS for Mark’s sake, and we easily found a parking space. My parents’ office was in a business complex that housed doctor’s offices and a bank, so everything else was closed today.
“Want me to come with you?” Mark asked.
Maybe it was silly—not to mention cowardly—but I did. My dad would at least have to speak to me and be civil with Mark around or risk losing face. If Edward Dawes feared anything, it was a stain on his reputation.
The escalators in the building didn’t run on weekends, so we took the stairs. By the time we reached the office, I was out of breath. Only part of it was due to the hike.
My dad answered the door, wearing a polo shirt and khakis. It was about as casual as he ever got. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d put on a suit to come down here, just in case.
“Shouldn’t you be at some church service?”
To anyone else, even to Mark, it probably sounded like an innocent question. I knew better. My dad used to belittle my Uncle Stan for his faith for years before Uncle Stan’s career change from cardiologist to maple syrup farmer completely dissolved their relationship. Uncle Stan used to debate with him for hours, trying to show him how logical Christianity actually was. I don’t think my dad ever listened. Even though it was years ago, from what I remembered of it, Uncle Stan calmly reasoned and my dad mocked and talked over him. To him, needing to believe in a higher power was a sign of weakness.
I wasn’t about to rise to his bait. “We went this morning, but then this afternoon, Ahanti ended up in the hospital.”
I mentally kicked myself and prayed my dad wouldn’t ask why. Succumbing to a panic attack wouldn’t earn her his sympathy. Hopefully he’d assume her stalker made a move that injured her.
I wouldn’t give him time to ask. I plowed forward with, “I’m going to need to keep using the investigator you assigned to this to watch a new suspect, and I need a referral to a security firm as well.”
The handwriting expert I could add in later. If I tacked it on now, it’d be too big an ask, and he’d be sure to deny something, simply to make it clear that he was in control. Right now, I was only technically asking for one additional thing, and it was the one I needed most to keep Ahanti safe. Until we were sure her apartment wasn’t under surveillance, she’d never be comfortable there.
My dad leaned back on his heels and crossed his arms, and the floor felt like it dropped out from underneath me. He was going to turn me down. I should have waited to talk to my mom. I could still do that and go around him, but not without further damaging our tenuous relationship.
“You can’t keep expecting to use firm resources when you refuse to be a part of this practice,” he said.
I wobbled slightly. It felt like I’d been shoved.
Mark’s hand brushed my back as if he saw it and wanted me to know that he had my back. Or maybe it was his way of trying to tell me not to back away from this, metaphorically or physically. Or maybe he was just afraid I might drop from all the strain of the past week.
Whatever his reason, something deep inside my chest felt like it hardened. Mark had known me for less than a year, yet he’d been by my side through every crazy thing I’d done. How much more should my dad be there for me when I asked him?
This was not how we were going to play this. My father did not get to leverage Ahanti’s safety to force me into doing what he wanted. He might not agree with or like my choices, but they were my choices. If they were mistakes, they’d be my mistakes. I’d learn from them and be stronger for them.
I mimicked his pose, arms over my chest. My father only respected strength. I could give in, take his job offer, and get what I wanted for Ahanti. But he’d never respect me, and nothing about our relationship would ever get better.
No. I’d been busy and happy in Fair Haven, and even if Mark and I moved back to DC, it wasn’t a given that I’d simply come crawling back to my old job. “You can’t expect me to even consider returning to the firm here when you haven’t given me a reason to. I don’t need your job. The way I see it, you want me back much more than I want to come back.” I stretched a hand in Mark’s direction. “When that’s the case, you woo the candidate. I’m not a penitent prodigal begging for you to take me back”—I might have taken a bit too much pleasure in the Biblical reference given his earlier jab—“so if you want me to even consider your job offer, you need to show me what’s in it for me.”
I planted my hands back on my hips. When I did that, it made me look a bit more like my mom, the one person in the world that my dad truly respected. My rant would either make him furious or finally earn a little of that same respect for me. Regardless, I wasn’t going to be weak because he saw me as weak. I’d grown a lot in my time away. I knew my flaws, but I had a lot of good strengths, too. I was worth being wooed.
His stance didn’t shift, but his eyes crinkled at the corners a touch. “I suppose I can start by showing you all the resources you’d have at your disposal as an attorney with our firm.” He moved out of the doorway. “Come inside.”
My dad arranged for the firm’s security expert to be at Ahanti’s apartment the next morning. It turned out I’d been right about how often they needed him. Between the death threats they received personally and the ones their clients often received as well, they practically had a firm on retainer.
I got keys from Geoff and delivered them to the security guy.
I spent the next morning with Mark, finally taking him to some of the tourist spots I’d promised. We rode up the Washington Monument and visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and walked hand-in-hand along the Tidal Basin. If we were going to make this decision together, I wanted him to have as much knowledge of the area as possible. I hadn’t hated living here. It definitely had advantages in the way of museums, art galleries, and cultural events that Fair Haven didn’t.
Mark was buying us lunch at a food truck when my phone rang. Ahanti’s name and picture appeared on my screen.
It was earlier than I’d expected. I’d hoped to have her apartment swept and prepped before she was ready to go home, but I hadn’t received a call from the security firm yet. They had warned me that the process would take hours. When they were done, though, Ahanti would have monitored alarms on her windows as well as her door, a new lock, and she’d be able to speak and shower, secure in the knowledge that no one was watching her.
“Hey, are they discharging you now? My surprise isn’t ready yet.”
“Not yet.” Her voice sounded tentative. “But I got a visitor.”
Oh crap. What if it was Terrance? Would she be able to sound so calm if that were the case? I had told her that she needed to play along with her stalker if he ever outed himself as such. “Are you in trouble?”
“He said I’m not a suspect in Cary’s death anymore, so I don’t think so, but I know you’ve always told me police are allowed to lie. I thought it’d be better if you were here for any questions he wanted to ask me, just in case.” It almost sounded like there was a smile in her voice, as if she were smiling at someone in the room with her.
Based on what she’d said, it had to be Detective DeGoey.
I waved to Mark. “No problem. We were just grabbing lunch. I’ll be right there.”
