“She made her threats.” He paused. “And he made one in return.”
“What?” said Mercy a bit breathlessly.
“If she continued to make waves, if she kept demanding this nationwide search for you, if she kept drumming up attention for the matter . . . he would have your sister and Tim . . . ” He paused and eyed her knowingly.
“What the hell! How could a government guy do that?”
“It was a different world back then, Mercy. The mob was still a big deal. A lot of muscle. He was in too deep with them. And while your mother helped take down a lot of very bad people, there were a lot of other very bad people still out there. And this traitor was not about to have his entire reputation ruined over this.”
“You mean he threatened to tell the mob where my mom and her family were?”
“And that’s why they vanished overnight without a trace from Andersonville. She had lost one daughter. She couldn’t lose another. But I know that she continued to do all she could, spent time and money, everything she had, in trying to find you. I know this because I tried to help her do so. From the very moment you disappeared, I never saw her smile again. All the life, all the happiness was . . . struck clean from her.”
Mercy looked down. Her features had a lost, disbelieving component to them. “Then why didn’t you out this asshole?” she said sharply.
“By the time your mother confided in me, he was dead. He died quietly in his bed and was given a hero’s send-off for many years of faithful public service. He is now buried at Arlington National Cemetery.”
“How screwed up is that?”
“Very. And your mother couldn’t tell the truth at that point about him. No one would believe her, and it would have alerted the men still after her where she was. It would have put Tim and your sister in terrible danger. Your mother was caught in a box with no way out.”
“And you never told Lee any of this? Why not?”
Now Lineberry shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “The easy answer is that I took an oath never to divulge official secrets. But if you want the blunt truth, your sister idolized your mother. She lived with her far longer than you did. Even after Amanda left her, your sister continued to have deep feelings for her. And I knew that if I told her all of this, she would be obsessed with finding her. She would put everything else on hold. She—”
“She wouldn’t have had her own life, you mean? She’d just be chasing all of this down and never do her own thing?”
“Yes. And maybe put herself in danger. And your mother believed if Atlee had no idea where she was, that would protect her. That’s why she left her.”
They sat there in silence for a few moments as Mercy processed all this.
“Look, I . . . I appreciate your honesty. I don’t get much of it. People sort of look through me.”
“I never will,” he said forcefully. “That you can take to the bank as easily as the check I’m going to write you.”
She glanced up at him. “You’re different than I thought you would be.”
“You’re exactly like I thought you would be.”
“Meaning what?”
“Indomitable.”
“That’s a nice, fancy word. But I wasn’t that way for a long time. I let people screw me.”
“But no more.”
“No. No more.” She looked at him. “Will you ever tell Lee what you just told me?”
“I think it might be better coming from you. And that decision I will leave entirely to you.” He rose. “And if you don’t mind, I’d like to have your sister and Carol come back in. We need to take a little trip, a long overdue one.”