Close to You (14 page)

“I bet you were.”

He could sense the distance in her voice. Why shouldn't she be skeptical?

“How's Janie?”

“She's doing pretty well, actually. She starts at her new school tomorrow and she's already made friends with a little boy who lives across the street.”

“She's a great kid. I miss her. And I miss her mommy.”

“You do, huh? The phone hasn't exactly been ringing off the hook, Mack. What's going on?”

“Come on, Eliza. You know how it is. Starting at a new place, looking for somewhere to live. . . .”

“Sure, I know how it is, Mack. All the more reason I'd think you'd want to touch base with the person you love for comfort or to bounce things off of. That's how I would feel, anyway.”

Mack wanted to tell her that he had had to force himself to keep from calling her at least a hundred times in the past days. But he hadn't wanted to prattle about what was going on in London, acting as if his one-night stand hadn't happened. It was easier to avoid the situation by not picking up the phone.

“I'm sorry, Eliza.”

There was silence on the overseas line.

“Eliza? Are you all right, sweetheart?”

“No. I'm not all right.” Her voice cracked. “I don't understand what's going on with us and on top, of that, security here is concerned that there are a couple of nuts out there who are obsessed with me. And, of course, after the nightmare with Mrs. Twomey, I automatically worry that someone will try to get to Janie.”

“What do you mean, ‘a couple of nuts'?” he asked sharply.

Eliza described the meeting with Joe Connelly in Yelena's office that morning.

Mack tried to sound calm. “Try not to worry too much, honey. I'm sure security is on top of it. They're used to dealing with situations like these.”

Eliza had wanted a different reaction. She had been hoping that Mack would say he'd be on the next plane to New York. She wouldn't have accepted the suggestion, of course. She was a big girl and nothing bad had really happened. But she had wanted him to offer.

So much for her knight in shining armor.

After snapping off the television with his remote control, Jerry Walinski reached for the phone on his bedside table and pushed in the numbers he knew by heart.

“Good evening—KEY.”

“Eliza Blake's office, please.”

“They've left for the day, sir. But I can connect you and you may leave a message.”

“Fine. Thank you.”

All through his massage tonight he had been thinking of making this call. He knew Eliza wouldn't be there this late and the fact was he really didn't want to get her on the phone. The thought of speaking with her directly made him tense. What had he been thinking when he had called right after the show on Friday? Lori's leaving for a long weekend had left him without his usual rubdown and he hadn't been able to control himself.

What if he had actually reached Eliza? He wasn't ready to speak to her yet. Better to leave his message and let her think about it. Let her long for him, as he longed for her.

While Jerry listened to the phone ringing to Eliza's office, he reached out and stroked the top of Drake's black snout as the German shepherd laid his head upon his master's
bed. The dog's ears curled back as he listened to his owner's voice.

“I'll be coming to New York as soon as I can, Eliza,” Jerry said, in the huskiest voice he could manage. “I want you and I know you'll want me. I've dreamed about you long enough. Soon it will be time for the real thing. I promise, darling, we'll be together for always. Because if I can't have you, no one will.”

Drake barked in agitation as Jerry hung up the phone and wiped away the saliva that dripped from the corner of his mouth.

The first day of school dawned clear and sunny. The three adults in the brick colonial on Saddle Ridge Road were up well before, their young student. KayKay busied herself in the kitchen, packing the plastic Curious George lunchbox with pretzels and a juice box for snack time. Eliza showered, dressed quickly and searched around for the camera to record Janie's kindergarten debut. Poppie went out to get bagels, announcing when he returned that the newly tuned-up car was running like a top.

Eliza went in to wake Janie. Leaning down, she kissed her daughter's soft brow. The big blue eyes opened slowly and looked up sleepily.

‘Time to get up, sweetheart. We have to get ready for school.”

Janie said nothing, but she bolted upright, throwing her arms around her mother's neck and holding on tight.

“What's wrong, angel?”

“I'm scared, Mommy.”

“It's natural to be a little worried, Janie,” Eliza said softly, stroking Janie's sweet-smelling hair. “Starting something new is exciting, but it can also be a little scary. But I know you are going to like school. The teacher is going
to be very nice and you already have a friend. James will be there with you.”

“How do you know the teacher is nice?”

“Because that's what kindergarten teachers are supposed to be. That's their job. And if they don't do their jobs, they get fired,” she said, trying to reassure her child.

Janie pulled back and looked with wide eyes at her mother. “They get burned up?”

“No, sweetheart,” Eliza tried not to laugh. “That's just an expression. To ‘get fired' means that the boss tells you that you can't work there anymore. Come on now, get up. KayKay has breakfast all ready.”

But Janie barely touched her scrambled eggs and took only a bite or two of her buttered bagel as she sat at the kitchen table. Her grandmother sliced up another bagel and stashed it into the lunchbox, too, as Eliza took Janie upstairs again to dress. Fifteen minutes later, face washed, teeth brushed, hair combed and wearing a pressed denim jumper and her new school shoes, Janie stood patiently on the front stoop to have her picture taken, alone, then with her mother, then with her grandparents.

As she squinted into the viewfinder, Eliza thought of John and wished he were here to see their child go off to school, wished he were able to put his arm around Janie and pose with her on her big day. How much he would have loved this child! He had been so terribly cheated by never knowing her. And Janie, the child who had her father's smile, lived on, without ever experiencing the love her daddy would have showered on her.

It had been over five years now since John's death and Eliza was proud that she had survived losing him, bearing their baby without him, raising their daughter by herself. The tearing anguish had ever so slowly subsided over the years, but it was at times like this, life-event moments that cried out to be shared, that the pain resurfaced.

She had gradually allowed herself to believe in love again with Mack, thought perhaps they would have a life
together. Maybe it wasn't over yet, but something was definitely wrong.

“Mommy?”

Janie's worried face responded to the expression on her mother's.

Snap out of it!

“Come on, kiddo.” Eliza smiled brightly. “We've got to get you to school and Mommy's got to get to work.”

 

On the drive into the city, Eliza called Rhode Island.

“Hi, Mom. It's me.”

“Hello, dear. How's everything?”

“I just dropped Janie off for her first day of school.”

“How is she?”

“Scared, but brave.”

“That's my girl. I can't believe she's starting school already. It seems like she was just born.”

“I know.”

“Everything coming along with the house?”

“We're getting settled. It'll take awhile to get things the way I want them, though.”

“How's work?”

“Okay.” Eliza considered mentioning the calls and letters but decided not to tell her mother about them. She knew her mother's solution would be for her to quit the job. Anytime Eliza was forced to work late hours or cover potentially dangerous stories, her mother always lectured her and suggested that she consider getting out of the business. Yet she thoroughly enjoyed it when her friends talked about seeing her daughter on TV. If her mother knew Eliza was being threatened, she would be apoplectic.

“Have you heard from Mack? How's he doing?”

“He's doing fine, Mom. He's doing fine,” she lied.

“I liked it when you came up with him this summer, Eliza. He's such a nice boy.”

“Mom, he's not a boy. He's a man.” Eliza wanted to get off the phone now. “I'll send the pictures I took of Janie this morning as soon as I get them developed.”

“That would be great, dear.”

“Is Dad there?”

“No, he's out golfing. He loves those clubs you gave him.”

“Good. Tell him I said hello.”

“I will, honey.”

“ 'Bye, Mom.”

Eliza realized she had called looking for a little maternal comfort. She never learned. It was better to comfort yourself.

Her relationship with her parents was complicated and Eliza had spent many hours trying to unravel it in therapy with Dr. Karas. The bottom line: her parents had done the best they could as they raised her while, at the same time, they were struggling with their own problems. In fact, Eliza realized that, in some ways, she had benefited from the chaos of her early years. Her mother's bouts of mental illness and her father's anger and frustration over the situation had spurred Eliza to do well in school and, generally, to try and give them nothing more to worry about, a pattern that continued to this day.

She had become an achiever. An achiever who now sat in the back of her chauffeured car on the way to her powerful job. An achiever whose face was known to millions.

The morning dragged on slowly in the Bowater Building on London's Knightsbridge Road. Mack waited for the afternoon so he could reach Joe Connelly in New York. He wanted to hear for himself what the security director was doing to ensure Eliza's safety.

As Mack was about to leave the bureau for lunch, Marcy McGinnis summoned the correspondent to her office.

“Things are heating up in the Middle East again, Mack We want you to go to Tel Aviv.”

“When?”

“Right away. Go back to the hotel and pack.”

Mack knew better than to ask his bureau chief how long he would be away. Who knew how things would develop in that chaotic part of the world? He might be gone for only a few days if things seemed to settle down and the news could be covered by the regular staff stationed there. But if it really blew up, he could be gone for weeks or more.

He turned to leave McGinnis's office, wondering what she thought of his fling with her assistant. She undoubtedly didn't approve, but Marcy had been with KEY for many years and had seen this sort of thing before. And as he
heard her answering a call from Yelena Gregory in New York, he was certain his indiscretion was the last thing on Marcy's mind right now. The Middle East situation was the nightmare that never ended and Marcy had to move the news troops into positions where their lives could be in danger.

Mack briefly thought about being caught in a Palestinian-Israeli skirmish. That might be a relief. When you started thinking like that, you knew things were bad.

He went to his room at the Mandarin Oriental and pulled clothes from the dresser drawers, packed his dob kit and folded the bulletproof safari-style vest he had grabbed at the bureau. He glanced at the clock and made a final call before he left for the airport.

The good news was they had another call to trace.

The bad news was there was another call.

Connelly listened again to last night's message, which Paige had transferred down to his office.

“ . . . If I can't have you, no one will.”

He recorded the message and made an entry on his computer's
ABERRANT BEHAVIOR
file.

Who was this guy, and where was he? Those were the questions Mack McBride had just asked him, the same questions Connelly was asking himself.

Connelly tried to imagine what the caller might do next He hoped it would just be another phone call. He dreaded the thought of this nut coming to the Broadcast Center in person.

Despite the scanned electronic ID cards necessary to enter, and security guards blocking the way, the truth was that someone could get into the Broadcast Center if he was really determined to—by a simple act of subterfuge where the system was weak. A Chinese-food deliveryman, a contractor with a temporary identification card, someone
mingling with a large group . . . There were so many ways you could just slip in with the others.

It was Connelly's worst nightmare because, once inside, anyone could freely roam the halls, concealing whatever weapon they might be carrying.

She didn't want to tell Eliza before she went on air, especially with the first
FRESHER LOOK
piece airing tonight. In fact, she didn't want to tell her at all.

As she applied eyeliner and mascara, Doris listened to Eliza recount dropping Janie off at kindergarten that morning, cooing at appropriate junctures in the story. It wasn't hard, since Doris was so fond of the child.

“You talked to her when she got home, of course.”

Closing her eyes, Eliza smiled as Doris shadowed her lids.

“Mmm. You'd never know it was the same child who had been clinging to me a few hours before. She was excited and happy and said that Mrs. Prescott, her teacher, was so nice.”

“Thank God.”

“You said it. What a relief! That's a huge load off my mind.”

One load off, another to come,
thought Doris. But she didn't have the heart then to tell Eliza what she had heard this afternoon when the medical correspondent had come in to be made up for the standup for her piece.

Gossip spread like a raging virus.