The Big Bad Wolf

didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t that I was mad at her, but—well, maybe I was angry. I’d had Little Alex almost all his life, and I couldn’t stand the thought of losing him now. My stomach was dropping like an elevator in free fall. The experience was like seeing your child run into the street, about to have a serious accident, and not being able to stop it from happening, not being able to do a thing. I sat there very quietly and I held in a primal scream that would have shattered all the glass in the office.
    Then the meeting began. The informal get-together. With no bad people in the room.
    “Dr. Cross, thank you for taking the time to come here,” Gilda Haranzo said, and threw a cordial smile my way.
    “Why wouldn’t I come?” I asked.
    She nodded and smiled again. “We all want this problem to be settled amicably. You’ve been an excellent caregiver, and no one disputes that.”
    “I’m his father, Ms. Haranzo,” I corrected.
    “Of course. But Christine is able to take care of the boy now, and she is the mother. She’s also a primary-school principal in Seattle.”
    I could feel my face and neck flushing. “She left Alex a year ago.”
    Christine spoke up. “That isn’t fair, Alex. I told you that you could take him for now. Our arrangement was always meant to be temporary.”
    Ms. Haranzo asked, “Dr. Cross, isn’t it true that your eighty-two-year-old grandmother takes care of the baby most of the time?”
    “We all do,” I said. “And besides, Nana wasn’t too old last year when Christine left to go to Seattle. She’s extremely capable, and I don’t think you’d ever want Nana on the witness stand.”
    The lawyer continued, “Your work takes you away from home frequently, doesn’t it?”
    I nodded. “Occasionally it does. But Alex is always well cared for. He’s a happy, healthy, bright child, smiles all the time. And he’s loved. He’s the center of our household.”
    Ms. Haranzo waited for me to finish, then she started in again. I felt as if I were on trial here. “Your work, Dr. Cross. It’s dangerous. Your family has been put in grave danger before. Also, you’ve had intimate relationships with women since Ms. Johnson left. Isn’t that so?”
    I sighed. Then I slowly rose from the leather chair. “I’m sorry, but this meeting is over. Excuse me. I have to get out of here.” At the door, I turned back to Christine. “This is wrong.”

Chapter 70
    I HAD TO GET OUT of there and put my mind somewhere else for a while. I returned to the Hoover Building, and no one seemed to have missed me. I couldn’t help thinking that some of these agents squirreled away in the home office had no idea how crimes were solved in the real world. They almost seemed to believe that you fed data into computers and eventually they spit out a criminal.
It happens on the street! Get out of this windowless “crisis” room with all the bad air. Work the sidewalks!
I wanted to shout.
    But I didn’t say a word. I sat at a computer and read the latest on the Russian mob. I didn’t see any promising connections. Plus, I couldn’t really concentrate after my meeting with Christine’s lawyers. Just past seven, I packed up my things and left the Hoover Building.
    Nobody seemed to notice me leave. And then I wondered—
Is that such a bad thing?
    When I got home, Nana was waiting at the front door. I was just walking up the steps when she opened the door and came outside. “You watch Little Alex, Damon. We’ll be back in a while,” she called through the screen door.
    Nana limped down the front stairs and I followed her. “Where are we going?” I asked.
    “We’re going for a drive,” she said. “You and I have some things to talk about.”
    Oh, shit.
    I got back in the old Porsche and started it up. Nana flopped down in the passenger seat.
    “Drive,” she said.
    “Yes, Miss Daisy.”
    “Don’t give me any of your lip, either, or your sorry attempts at wit.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “That’s a good example of your lip.”
    “I know it is, ma’am.”
    I decided to head out west, toward the Shenandoah Mountains, a pretty ride and one of Nana’s favorites. For the first part of the drive, we were both fairly quiet, unusual for the two of us.
    “What happened at the lawyer’s?” Nana finally asked as I turned onto Route 66.
    I gave her the long version, probably because I needed to vent. She listened very quietly, then she did something unusual for her. Nana actually