Page 78 of The Secret
“You don’t think I like him because he’s a nice guy?”
He tilts his head. “I’m sure that’s a bonus.”
“Wow. You really hate women, don’t you?”
“No, not at all. I just don’t think you have a sincere bone in your body, and you know how to use men. What you’ve mentioned about your past history confirms it.”
Oh my God! Is he ever a guy to jump to conclusions. I thought maybe he’d been stuck out on a farm in the sticks for too long, but this is way beyond that.
“Look, Jed, Dan told me what happened with you and Linda …”
His eyes widen as the skin reddens at the base of his throat, and his voice comes out flat and sarcastic. “That’s good because you’re a carbon copy of her. But I don’t think you should presume to get what’s gone on in my life, Liss. I’ve seen a lot of women like you.”
“I’m glad you understand me so well after two days.”
His mouth curls at one corner. “And now we see the real person coming out.”
“Oh, for God’s sake! You’re character assassinating me based on nothing at all, and you expect me to not defend myself?”
He folds his arms across his chest. “You need to stop chasing around after Dan.”
“Chasing around? … You do know he came to findme, right?”
“I’m sure you left a trail of breadcrumbs … He said you turned up at a meeting in Joburg.” He leans close into me. “How did you eventually find him, Liss? Did you use someone to track him down?”
My mouth gapes. Does he know about the private investigator? Did Dan tell him? But he’s gotten completely the wrong end of the stick.
“Yeah, like three years ago,” I say, with a frown. “Dan and I met in Congo. Then he disappeared … I mean …” How much has Dan told him? “He came to see me in New York after I left, and then he went back to Zimbabwe, and all contact abruptly stopped. I was worried about him.”
This is an odd conversation to be having with Jed. Does he really know so little about Dan and my relationship? I believe the story Dan told me about his father’s assassination and what they had to do, but is something else going on here? Maybe I should have checked his story? But God, I don’t want to doubt him.
“Did Dan tell you I used a private investigator?”
Jed folds his arms over his chest.
“It was a guess. A good one as it turns out. We knew someone was trying to track him down; the security services told us. But we didn’t know who it was. They looked into everyone Dan had contact with.”
My breath halts. They looked into me? And the other volunteers too?
“An extreme reaction for a ‘friend’ to use a private investigator, yeah?” Jed pulls me back into the conversation.
I almost laugh at this comment. On the one hand, he’s right, but on the other hand …
“Look, Jed, why don’t you talk to Dan about this?”
“I want to hear from you why you’ve gone to such great lengths to find him.”
“Oh, for God’s sake. We were close in Kiwanja. He came out to see me in New York.”
I grimace. Is he going to use this to distort what we had to fit his cynical view of the world?
“We texted and emailed every day, and then the texts stopped without warning. I was concerned. I came out to Zimbabwe to try and find him.” And how strange was that visit to Harare? “As I searched for him, I thought at first he’d cut off contact and didn’t want to see me anymore, and I wanted an explanation. But when I got to Harare, I was increasingly concerned that he’d disappeared and left no trace. It was odd. I was worried he was lying in a ditch somewhere, and no one was missing him. He didn’t tell me anything about his family, you, or Benny. I felt like the only person who cared.”
Jed’s lip curls at me. “So, you were close, but he didn’t tell you about his family? Must have cost you a bit. Flights, fees. Dan tells me you don’t have any money.”
“I don’t. My friends in New York helped me out, and I paid them back.”
It’s important that I’m honest with him. Will he use this information against me somehow? Maybe. But I don’t want to be caught out in a lie. “You need to speak to Dan about his and my relationship. I don’t think I should be the one to fill you in. Suffice to say, I’m not the one doing the chasing.”
