Page 13 of The Death
“Nothing, evidently. She told me not to consider it. She said that there were bad people connected to the job, and I shouldn’t get involved. She acted relieved when I told her that I had no intention of taking the job because I didn’t want to miss one minute with my family.” She grinned. “And then we went on to more important matters. Like the photos of Cira. We both agreed they were much more interesting.”
“And so they are.” Joe was silent for an instant and thenasked, “Did Catherine mention the name of the ‘bad people’ connected to the Fallon job?”
“No, and I didn’t ask since I had no intention of taking the offer.” She smiled teasingly. “But since you’re a detective, naturally you’d be interested in knowing. I’m sure that Catherine will be willing to give you all the information your heart desires when she comes for tea. I invited her to come and see Cira in the flesh as soon as you all get here. Is that soon enough, Joe?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll have to think about it. But in the meantime, Michael just strolled into the room and wants to talk to his mother. Imagine that. So I’ll turn the videophone over to him while I make a few other calls. Bye, Eve. I’ll see you soon, love.” Then he was gone.
And Michael’s face was there before Eve on the screen. He was grinning at her, and she took an instant just to look at him. She spoke to him often on the phone, and yet he seemed to change every time. He was almost twelve and he’d be a teenager soon, with Joe’s close-cut chestnut hair and brown eyes. But that puckish smile and the intensity of the way he stared deep into her eyes was all Michael.
“Hi, Mom. I guess I’ll be seeing you soon, but I thought maybe we should talk for a little while now.” He smiled. “I’ve missed you.”
Was his voice lower than it had been a few months ago? He was growing up and she was missing so many changes, she realized with a pang. “I’ve missed you, too.” She tried to smile. “But you’re doing very well in school, and you seem to have made a lot of new friends. And it’s positively amazinghow many sports teams you belong to now. I’d like to have you home again, but you’ve been happy, haven’t you?”
“Sure I am. And it’s not as if I don’t see you and Dad much. We go back and forth a lot on vacations like this one coming up.” He was silent a moment. “And it was better that I left that school at the lake. Sometimes it was getting kind of hard to be around my friends there. Most of them knew about me, you know.”
She stiffened, and her eyes narrowed on his face. “Michael?”
“It’s okay, Mom.” He was smiling gently. “They just thought I was kind of weird. Let’s face it, psychic stuff can be kind of scary to kids, and I wasn’t old enough to realize I should keep that stuff to myself. You knew about a couple of things that happened with them and even tried to help me out. But I could see that it was hurting you.”
“It wasn’t hurting me,” she said fiercely. “Nothing about you has ever hurt me. You’ve always been a wonderful son. And I’m certain that you were just as terrific to those students at the lake school.”
“Well, some of those kids didn’t think I was all that wonderful,” he said dryly. “When I was trying to help a few of them, I made clumsy mistakes. But when you enrolled me here at my school in Scotland, I made sure I started fresh and I was very careful.” He grinned. “Plus I kept myself busy here to keep out of the other students’ business. Most of the time that seemed to work.”
“But not all the time?” Eve was gazing searchingly at his face on the screen. “I know you, Michael. You can’t resist helping when someone is hurting or in trouble.”
“Neither can you, Mom.” He tilted his head as if considering before he added teasingly, “Gee, do you suppose I inherited it from you?” He shrugged. “You taught me that I have to give where I can. I still do that, but if possible I do it discreetly.”
“Discreetly?” She made a face. “That’s such a grown-up, sophisticated word. It makes me a little sad.”
He laughed. “It shouldn’t. I’ve been growing up for a long time on your watch, Mom. You do it very well.”
“Not such a long time. But every time I turn around, it seems as if you’re changing or thinking deeper or in a different way.” She was staring thoughtfully at him. “And all this talk about your school and what you went through as a little boy. Where is it leading? Why did you really want to talk to me today, Michael?”
He chuckled. “Perhaps to tell you that you’re the wisest mother on the planet? It’s true, you know.”
“Why?” she asked again. “May I help?”
“I don’t know. But I thought I should make sure that you knew what I know about Cira.”
“Cira?” Eve was immediately alarmed. “Has something happened to Cira? Why didn’t Joe tell me?”
“Easy,” Michael said. “As far as I know, Cira is fine. It’s just that you should know.”
“Know what?” she asked in frustration.
“She knows things. I think she’s been trying to tell me about it for the last few times I’ve been playing with her.” He was frowning. “Only she hasn’t wanted to play. She’s been too worried.”
“Michael, she’s only eighteen months old.”
“But maybe that’s why she’s worried. I’ve been studyingabout psychic phenomena lately because I wanted to see if I could find out some answers about myself. But I’m afraid most of those books are wrong. They don’t make sense to me. But one thing that did make sense was that a lot of those doctors think infants have shown signs that they’ve had psychic experiences. It shows up more clearly than in older children because their brains are much cleaner and better defined.”
“And what is Cira supposed to be worried about?” Eve asked. “She looked very happy in those pictures.”
He shook his head “Well, she seems anxious when Jane isn’t in the room.”
Eve gave a sigh of relief. “Michael, I’m afraid that those books you read may be wrong, too. Though I applaud you for trying to pierce the veils of science on the subject. But most babies are uneasy when their mothers aren’t around.”
“But I felt it, Mom. Cira was worried.”
