Taken (34 page)

“
Ah
. The diplomatic answer. You don’t like the idea?”

“I think it’s . . . got a certain unexpected
wow
factor to it.”

“I am who I am. A survivor. If I don’t change my name, people will find me. I like my name, the family history that goes with it. So it seems better to face up to that press interest rather than try to sneak around it. Give the press what they want—photos of me—then tell them to go away until after the election. This fall I’ll have an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with one network, and the others can use the film in their own formats. I can rewrite that press release to politely say, ‘I’m glad to be back. I’ll talk about it after the election when law enforcement is comfortable with my doing so and not before.’ Jeffery and my parents can point to that press release rather than answer questions.”

Matthew saw her planning skills flexing to fit new circumstances and had to smile. “You’ve been thinking about this.”

“I have.” She leaned back against the couch, finished her drink. “Besides, Charlotte pointed out this incredibly lovely dress, and I found the perfect heels. I need somewhere to wear
them, and the national press would find it to be a nice visual,” she stated lightly.

He laughed. When he turned serious again, he offered one observation. “Having your name and photo out there in the public domain means strangers are going to walk up to you with questions and comments and think they know you. Finding that peace you need isn’t going to be as easy.”

“I like people in small doses. Let’s get the craziness over with so I can go on with my life.” She turned to look at him. “But my going public complicates life for you. You aren’t going to want that press coming anywhere close to Becky once again.”

Avoiding the press was instinctive with him. But the press had its uses. “I’ve got forty-eight hours to think about this, so let me mull over the idea.”

“This only happens if George is arrested tomorrow night.”

“I’m thinking that happens. Shannon, don’t worry about me and Becky. This is the kind of decision you need to make based on what’s best for you. Becky and I will be fine.”

Shannon nodded. “It makes sense, coming forward now. I want to keep my name. I want to walk into my brother’s office when he’s governor and not have people surprised to see me. I want to have a gallery show one day with the invitation saying:
Shannon Bliss, photographer
. I want to be known for who I am. Shannon Bliss. Tough survivor. Not half bad in the looks department. Knows how to show off a great pair of high heels.”

He laughed, and she joined in. He held out his hand. “Hello there, Shannon Bliss,” he said, thinking she could have gone ahead and described herself as beautiful. “I’m glad you did your research and found me.”

She slid her hand into his, sealing the greeting. “Thank you, Matthew. For all you’ve done to get me to this place.”

“You’re very welcome.”

“This is turning out to be a nice wrap-up for the evening,” she said. “I need some sleep, and since I promised no eleven p.m. moment for you to regret, I’m turning in now. I’ll see you in the morning, Matthew.”

“You will,” he promised, understanding what she was feeling. “Good night, Shannon.”

He watched her head down the hall, leaned his head against the couch. Two more days, get past the press conference, then he’d let himself think about the emotions he was feeling tonight. She was a lovely woman, brave and strong, and he was enjoying walking this journey with her. She needed him right now, and he was a better man when needed. What would come later for the two of them would have to wait for time to unfold. He wisely turned off the television and took himself off to bed.

M
atthew swatted one of the few bugs that had flown by and landed on him this sunny Sunday afternoon. “Shannon’s looking more relaxed,” Jeffery remarked as they watched Ashley run across the backyard, showing off her skills on a Slip ’N Slide chute, screaming with delight when she landed in the water pooled at the end. Shannon was standing with Cindy in the shade of a tree, also watching the fun. Matthew was intrigued to see she had her camera out. She hadn’t lifted it to take a picture yet, but she had come prepared. Ashley, along with her kittens, would be immortalized before the afternoon was over, he was sure.

Matthew didn’t know how much he should say to Jeffery, but he mentally reversed their positions and thought about what he would want to know. He decided to be more expansive than he might under different circumstances. “Shannon cried last night for the good part of an hour, seemed to unwind most of her knotted emotions,” he said to Jeffery. “How are your parents doing?”

“Dad called, mostly to say thanks for arranging the evening,
which told me he wanted to say something else and had changed his mind. Mom didn’t say much when I drove her home. She’s . . . pretty subdued. I think she knows it’s only a matter of time before Shannon asks who her birth father is.”

“She won’t ask her mother,” Matthew replied. “My firm is already answering that question for her.”

Jeffery shot him a quick look. “Have an answer?”

“I can tell you who is
not
her father,” Matthew said. “But, yes, I think we know. DNA is running now to confirm the suspicion. Your father mentioned to Shannon last night before they went inside that he knows who her father is, thinks he’s a pretty good guy. So I have a hunch the name we’re looking at now is the right one.”

“Are you going to tell Shannon when you know?”

“When she asks, yes. And she’ll tell you if she wants you to know.”

“Might be rather awkward shaking hands with the guy, not knowing he’s my sister’s father.”

“Nothing about this situation is particularly comfortable. Do you remember much about how things were between your mom and dad going into that Memorial Day weekend?”

“I thought Mom was going to leave my father,” Jeffery replied, obviously choosing to offer an equal level of candor. “It had been a worry in the back of my mind for a couple of years. I remember that Mom had made a point of encouraging Shannon to spend the weekend with friends, confirmed with me a few times that I too had plans and would be away for the long weekend. She wanted to talk with Dad in private. Shannon probably hadn’t picked up on those vibes, but I remember wondering if she was finally going to tell him she was leaving.”

“She would have been okay with a divorce?”

“On her terms, yeah, Mom would have walked away. We were drifting as a family. Mom wasn’t happy. It was clear even back then that they were married because they had children, not because they were close. Knowing now that Shannon wasn’t his daughter, I believe Mom was simply waiting until Shannon had her driver’s license, had some independence, before she announced she was done with the marriage.”

“Do you think she would have gone to be with Shannon’s father?”

“I don’t know,” Jeffery said. “What I do know is that Mom had been doing more than just a spring cleaning of the house—she had organized her world, had begun to talk about her own dreams and ideas for her future. Sometimes it would be couched in phrases like ‘after you kids are grown,’ and other times it would be ‘I think I’ll enjoy trying this over the summer.’ I gradually realized Dad wasn’t very prominent in her plans.”

“So the divorce didn’t surprise you when it came.”

Jeffery shook his head. “No.”

“Do you know if your parents had that conversation the weekend Shannon went missing?”

“I expect they did. But when I got home, the search for Shannon had begun. Calls to her friends. They asked me to drive the route she would have taken home in case she’d had car trouble. Whatever they talked about wasn’t in the picture once it was known Shannon was missing.”

“Were Shannon and your mom close?”

“Like two peas in a pod. Mom used to ask Shannon for fashion advice—and actually take it. She was dreaming of Shannon’s future: a lavish wedding, a home in the area, a good husband. Mom had life for Shannon all mapped out. Not a bad dream, really, just one that seemed more Mom’s desire to redo her own
life. She hoped Shannon would meet her ideal guy while she was still in high school. My sister was popular—she probably would have found him if she wanted to dream that direction. But she was mostly talking about college options and becoming a chemist or maybe a pharmacist.”

“Really?”

“She was taking chemistry that year and loved it.”

Matthew tucked that away to think about later. “Are your parents coming over for dinner?”

“Dad said he’d pick Mom up—a first since the divorce—and that they’d be here at five. You might want to plan a call, need to leave with Shannon around quarter to six. I think less is more for all of them right now.”

“I’d agree with that.” Matthew shifted the subject to one he’d been pondering for several hours. “Shannon’s told you she’s considering coming forward at the press conference tomorrow?”

Jeffery grimaced. “Yeah, and I’ll do my best to talk her out of it. One crisis in her life at a time.”

Matthew drank more of his iced tea, didn’t respond.

“What? You think it’s a good idea?”

“It’s growing on me,” Matthew replied, gazing at her across the yard. “She’s trying to wrestle back control of her life. Standing up to the press and saying ‘I’m back’ is her version of a preemptive offense. She then stays with ‘No comment’ until after the election. Police briefings and reporters putting together leads will wear out most of the story before she speaks about it this fall. In the meantime, people she’s meeting with can get over the shock of knowing who she is. She can acknowledge the truth of her identity, but then say she can’t talk about it until the investigation’s complete, and the rest of their conversation will become more normal.”

Jeffery gave him a long look. “You’re giving me the pretty version of how this plays out. There’s another not-so-pretty way. The press photographing her every step, stalking her, interviewing anyone she ever speaks with to see what she says.”

Matthew could see that outcome too. “I think she wants to take the risk it doesn’t go that far. If it does, she goes into hiding—which is basically what she’s doing now—only with a bunch of reporters playing hide-and-seek.”

“You think it’s worth the gamble?”

“At your press conference tomorrow, she’s there to give the press their photos. Then, over the Fourth of July weekend, you talk about how nice it is to have your sister home. The following weekend you and Cindy can host a gathering for friends and family and neighbors who want to stop by, so that Shannon can meet people in your personal circle. She announces which reporter she will sit down with for an interview after the election. The worst is over in a couple of weeks. You avoid the charge you’re using the publicity of her return to benefit your own political chances, as well as any charge you hid something from the public.”

Jeffery thought about it. “I don’t know, Matthew. If we stay with the plan that I announce her return and state she’s not in Illinois, the press can follow me but they can’t get to her for the rest of the summer. She needs those months without any added stress. This puts her immediately into the thick of things without a break.”

Matthew understood his concern, yet he also saw Shannon’s point of view. “If we wait, going public is something else to have to deal with in her future. She wants to get the problem over with, not have it hanging over her.”

“You think she’d be okay?”

“If George is arrested tonight, Shannon wants to do this. I’m inclined to say okay, try to move aside any obstacles rather than try to talk her out of it. It’s a big decision, and I believe she’s made it. So I say we stand with her and let her do it.”

Jeffery took a while to respond. “If we go this route, I need to make around, oh, thirty calls tonight to get people organized. Everything from security for Mom and Dad, so reporters aren’t ringing their doorbells every few minutes, to some additional security for Ashley at day care. Reporters will interview even a two-year-old if given the opportunity.”

“If you think of the relief you’ll feel when you’re past all this, the idea’s not so bad,” Matthew commented.

Jeffery smiled. “You’re talking me into it. There are family members I was going to call before the press conference—Mom’s got a sister out in Colorado, who will want to travel back to see Shannon, and there are cousins in Texas. I’ll start making those calls tonight. We do this, Matthew, you’ll be able to keep her safe?”

“John’s convinced me he can get Shannon out of the building where the press conference is being held and back to the apartment without the press trailing us. Since he’s done a lot of this kind of thing, I’ll take his word for it. It’s already arranged for Shannon and Rachel to go up to Shadow Lake for the following weekend. Shannon will be fine; no one will be able to locate her there. You and Cindy, your parents, aren’t going to be so tucked away, but it’s not going to last more than a few weeks.”

“I’ll talk to Cindy tonight, let her know. When will you know about this George guy?”

“By ten tonight is my guess.”

Jeffery nodded. “We announce her return two weeks after she’s reappeared. I suppose there’s a symmetry to the way it’s
playing out. The election is certainly going to decrease in importance. To be fair, I should call my opponents about an hour before the press conference, so they hear this from me before it’s on the airwaves.”

“Make it half an hour. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do, but I want Shannon in the building first, not on the way.”

Jeffery chuckled. “Deal.”

Matthew crouched down beside the patio chair, where Shannon was sitting between her parents, sharing coffee with them. “Shannon, we need to go,” he said quietly. She turned to look at him. He added before she could ask, “It’s early, and there isn’t news yet. But if you plan to attend the press conference tomorrow, there are some logistics to deal with still this evening.”

She nodded, excused herself from her parents with warm hugs for each, gathered up her camera and canvas bag. She went over to say goodbye to Ashley, thanked Jeffery and Cindy for the evening.

“Their backyard neighbor has realized who I am,” she told him as they walked to the car, “either on his own, or maybe Ashley said my name this morning when she took over her new favorite picture book to show him. He didn’t come over, but he gave me a smile and a little wave as he was watering his roses.”

“We knew this was likely, one way or another. In a day the news goes public. He’ll be able to say he knew a day before everyone else.”

“What kind of arrangements for tomorrow?” she asked as he backed out of the driveway.

“John has some instructions to go over with you. And Paul called.”

“What’s going on?”

“They arrested six people in New Mexico without incident about an hour ago.” He pulled out his phone, offered it to her so she could read the names.

He glanced over. She’d gone very still. Stress had rolled back in on her. “How’d it feel being around your parents today?” he asked to pull her out of the memory.

She handed him back his phone. “Okay. It’s hard for me to get over how much they have changed in eleven years, especially my mother. On the whole it’s easier to talk with Dad than Mom. She seems . . . more worried about what this has done to our relationship than when we first saw each other. She didn’t comment on my dress, my hairstyle, the makeup. In the past I would have expected something personal. She asked about you, what I thought about Jeffery and Cindy, how I liked being an aunt. On the bright side, my parents do seem cordial with each other.”

Matthew was pleased she was saying “my parents” without any hesitation. “I’m glad it’s not turning out to be as awkward as you had feared.”

“We’ll get through this.” She looked over at him. “Do you know who my real father is?”

He glanced at her, then back at the road. “Are you ready to hear that?”

“Dad sat there at the table knowing the answer, and Mom of course knows. I didn’t. It felt like an elephant was sitting there with us.”

“We’ve narrowed it down to a likely name. I might have something confirmed to tell you later tomorrow.”

“Tell me, please, when you know. I want all these shocks to be over as soon as possible. I want the truth about my birth father. I want the cops to make the arrests, get the evidence sorted out. I want the press to know who I am, for them to get beyond their interest in me.”

Matthew reached over for her hand. “Crashing through walls works so long as you don’t break something in the process.”

“I know it’s not logical and it sounds nearly manic, this all-out push forward, but I feel such an incredible internal pressure now to get this done, whatever the price. Let the chips fall. Let me deal with it. It’s got to be less stressful than this daily drip-drip of something else landing on me.”