“I’ll take care of her,” Lucinda shot back, agitated. “I did it before, I can do it again. And what if they figure out who my friends are? All they have to do is look on my Facebook page. Are they going to go after them, too?”
Dom put up his hands. “Okay, I hear you. I’ll share your concerns with my boss. We did not anticipate they would go this far.”
“You should have,” Lucinda snapped.
I didn’t pile on. I could tell from Dom’s expression he felt bad enough.
“Listen, I promise you.” Dom raised a finger. “I will defend your lives and Ethan’s with my own. You have my word.”
Wiki nodded, his young face solemn. “Mine, too.”
Lucinda fell silent, and so did I. They had just made a vow to take a bullet for us, and I gave their words the weight they deserved. My wife and son were all I had left, all that mattered now. Losing everything clarified my priorities on the spot. If the FBI could keep my family safe, that was all I really needed. My anger ebbed away.
I thanked them both.
Lucinda said nothing, folding her arms.
Chapter Thirteen
I tried to sleep but couldn’t, thinking about the house, the office, Lucinda’s studio. I didn’t know how the government would value my business or hers, but it paled in comparison to one thing.
Allison.
I opened my eyes and checked the clock. Its glowing digits read four-fifteen a.m. The bedroom seemed oddly bright, and I realized the glow was coming from Lucinda’s side. I turned over to see the covers over her head and light coming from underneath, like a girl reading with a flashlight.
“Honey?” I lifted the covers, dismayed to find her on the laptop.
“I didn’t want to wake you.” Lucinda closed the laptop, but not before I glimpsed the screen, groaning.
“Facebook?”
“Don’t worry, I’m on my summer intern’s account. Remember her, Rebecca Robertson? I made her an account so she could contact my clients. I never bothered to close it.”
“What if Rebecca realizes you’re using her account?”
“She forgot about it, I’m sure. She hasn’t posted since July.” Lucinda’s expression darkened. “I checked Melissa’s page, and it’s awful. She knows about the house fire, and the fire trucks are still there. Our street is cordoned off. They saw on the news that your office burned, too.”
“Oh no.”
“So she drove over to my studio, and cops told her that it was vandalized. You should see what she posted.” Lucinda reopened the laptop, pressed a key, and the screen woke up Melissa’s Facebook page. The header showed her and her husband, Seamus, with their daughter, Courtney, in Avalon.
I shifted up on my elbows and read the glowing screen.
I’m sending all the love in the world to my dearest friend Lucinda and to Jason, Allison, and Ethan.
It jarred me to see Allison’s name, and I had to remind myself that Melissa didn’t know. I read on.
I don’t know where you guys are or what happened and I am worried sick. I know you will see this and I am begging you, please please call me, Lucinda. Any time of day or night, I just need to hear your voice and know that you’re OK. I know that you are a wonderful loving family and these rumors cannot be true.
I blinked. “What rumors?”
“I don’t know.” Lucinda moaned. “I wish we could tell them we’re in witness protection.”
“No. We can’t. Don’t.”
“What if something happens to them because of us? They should be warned, they could be in danger.”
“We’ll talk to Dom in the morning.”
“Look.” Lucinda started scrolling through the comments, already 175 of them. “Everyone’s worried. Look at these comments.”
I scanned them, and they were mostly parents of Allison’s and Ethan’s friends:
Judy Wright-Cobb We love you Lucinda and the Bennetts! We hope you are okay and we are praying for you! Please be safe! XOXO
Sally Liatsis What is going on? This is so crazy! I just saw them at the game! What happened? They could have been kidnapped! I’m so worried about Lucinda! She is the best!
Deb Gallagher What if they died in the fire? Did anybody think of that? What if they were asleep when it broke out? They could all be dead!! Why haven’t the police announced anything? #Fishy
April DelVecchio Did you see her studio was trashed, too? She took pics of us two years ago and it’s still my header. This is like a mystery in our own backyard! Connect the dots to foul play! Lucinda, I love you and I’m worried about you!
Ali Choudhoury I’ve been texting and calling Lucinda and she’s not responding. My son Jake knows Ethan and he isn’t, either! I hate to be alarmist, but something must really be wrong. This is not like them. Not at all!
I got the gist. I put an arm around Lucinda, and her laptop slid to the side. “Honey, it’s better not to go on Facebook.”
“It helps me. It’s our life.”
Not anymore, I thought but didn’t say.
“I hate that they’re upset and there’s nothing we can do. It’s a terrible way to treat people. They love us.” Lucinda met my eye, exasperated. “They’re not going to forget about us.”
“They have to.”
“But what will happen? What will they do?” Lucinda shook her head. “The FBI isn’t doing its job. How good can they be if they let the house burn? Your office? My studio? Why didn’t they anticipate that? It’s like they didn’t think it through.”
“You heard him. Their focus is on us, not property.”
“I hope to God we made the right decision, coming here.” Lucinda looked away, and I touched her arm.
“Of course we did. You saw, we got out just in time. They’d kill us, honey. They wouldn’t think twice. You get that, right?”
“Yes,” Lucinda answered, her voice hushed. She slid off her reading glasses, her eyes glistening.
“Ethan will take his cue from us. He didn’t want to get out of bed. He didn’t want to go downstairs. He wasn’t even excited about the laptop.”
“He needs time.”
“We have to make sure he doesn’t contact anybody. If you figured out a way, he might, too.”
“This is just so terrible. . . .” Lucinda heaved a sob, out of nowhere. “I’m trying, I’m really trying . . . but she’s all I think about. . . .”
My heart wrenched. I reached for my wife, hugging her close while she began to cry.
“And . . . she’s so young, just a kid . . . it’s so wrong, that she . . . isn’t with us . . . she’s in some morgue, all alone . . . and now we won’t even be at her funeral . . . I just want to . . . I wish we could change it all . . . go back . . .”
“I know, I know,” I repeated, having nothing else to say.
The only way out of this hell was through, and all I could do was wrap my arms around her and hold her until she finally fell asleep at dawn.
Chapter Fourteen
I woke up, put on the same T-shirt and gym shorts, and disabled the burglar alarm, leaving Lucinda asleep. I peeked in on Ethan, who snored cuddling Moonie, so I went downstairs. I opened the front door onto a sunny morning, then went to the laptop in the kitchen without making coffee. I wanted to see if there was any report of our house fire.