The girls were already asleep when I finally got home. Taylor was in our bedroom, packing for our trip out to the lake house after her father’s service tomorrow. The bed was covered in stacks of clothes to be placed into suitcases. I kissed Taylor on the cheek, then dropped into a leather reading chair we had situated in the corner of our bedroom, feeling exhausted.
“How were the girls tonight?” I asked her.
“Mostly happy. They’re very excited to go out to the lake. But I don’t think they really know what to make of the service tomorrow. We’ve never taken them to a funeral. So for their first to be their own grandfather is going to be heavy, I think.”
“They are surprisingly resilient.”
“I know. Maybe I’m more concerned about me.” She placed a stack of clothes into one of two suitcases. “So did you save the day? Is your client staying?”
“Too soon to know.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’ll be delayed in going out to the lake house for a day or two.”
She looked over, huffed. “Are you serious?”
“I’ll try to wrap it up as quickly as possible, Taylor.”
There was no way I could go out to the lake right now. I had to keep pressing forward in my pursuit of the truth. Although I wasn’t sure yet of my next move, I knew I couldn’t do anything stuck at the lake with my family. I could tell Taylor was more than just annoyed. She was understandably pissed. I had rarely put work above family over the past three years. To do it now when she was at her most vulnerable was probably very confusing. I had prepared what I felt was a viable counterattack in anticipation of this exact response from her. I hoped it would soften the blow.
“This sucks, Alex. You’ve basically been MIA for the past two days. And now you’re going to skip out on us again?”
“I don’t really have a choice, babe.”
“Sure you do. Tell your client to screw off.”
“You don’t really mean that.”
She let out a deep sigh, her shoulders sagging. “I know. It’s just . . .” Another heavy sigh. “I’m just ready for this to all be over already. I don’t even know how I’m going to get through tomorrow.”
“I know what will probably make it easier.”
“What?”
“If you watch the video with me tonight instead of tomorrow.”
“You finished it?”
“Yes. Wasn’t easy. Lots of big emotions. But I think you’ll like it. How about we take a break from packing and go watch it together?”
“Okay.”
A few minutes later, Taylor and I sat together on our oversize sofa in the media room. Taylor snuggled in really close to me, as if she were about to watch a scary move and didn’t want to look directly at the screen. I could feel the apprehension she was carrying in her whole body. After dimming the lights, I pressed “Play,” the music started, and the first photo of her dad appeared on the screen. It was taken two years ago at Easter. He was kneeling behind Olivia and Nicole, his arms wrapped around each of them. Our girls had the biggest smiles on their faces. So did Joe. He looked so happy. It’s how I wanted to remember him. I wondered if there was any pathway forward that would allow that to happen for me. I couldn’t see it at the moment. More photos filled the screen. Within seconds, Taylor was sobbing. And so was I.
THIRTY-ONE
I got a call from Raul the next morning while Taylor and I were out handling some last-minute details before Joe’s funeral service. We were inside Nordstrom department store, looking for hair bows for our girls. I was committed to being with my wife every minute of today all the way through the funeral service. She deserved at least that from me after the last couple of days. I told Taylor the call was from my client in DC and then drifted off into a quiet corner to answer it.
After a quick greeting, Raul got straight to it. “I brought in one of the guys involved in Joe’s abduction. I actually didn’t know he was involved—we brought him in on another charge—but then he hinted to me that he had information about my other case. He wanted to cut a deal. Of course, we don’t cut deals down here, so we just squeezed him a bit until he popped right open.”
“What did he say?”
“Said a guy paid him and a couple of his buddies a hundred thousand pesos to grab your father-in-law, put him in the van, and bring him to a certain location. I showed him a photo of Antonio Perez. He confirmed that was the guy who paid him.”