The Blue Nowhere

hour. He hung up.
    “I’ll come back,” the hacker said.
    “I know you will.”
    The men faced each other for a moment. They shook hands. Gillette nodded and started for the door.
    “Wait,” Bishop asked, frowning. “You have a driver’s license?”
    Gillette laughed. “No, I don’t have a driver’s license.”
    Bishop shrugged and said, “Well, just don’t get stopped.”
    The hacker nodded and said gravely, “Right. They might send me to jail.”
    T he house smelled of lemons, as it always had.
    This was thanks to the deft culinary touch of Irene Papandolos, Ellie’s mother. She wasn’t the traditional wary, silent Greek matron but a sharp businesswoman who owned a successful catering company and still managed to find the time to cook every meal for her family from scratch. It was now dinnertime and she wore a stained apron over a rose-colored business suit.
    She greeted Gillette with a cool, unsmiling nod and gestured him into the den.
    He sat on a couch, beneath a picture of the waterfront at Piraeus. Family being ever important in Greek households, two tables were filled with photographs of relatives in a variety of frames, some cheap, some heavy silver and gold. Gillette saw a picture of Elana in her wedding dress. He didn’t recognize the shot and he wondered if it had originally shown the two of them and had been cropped to remove him.
    Elana entered the room.
    “You’re here by yourself?” she asked, not smiling. No other greeting.
    “How do you mean?”
    “No police baby-sitters?”
    “Honor system.”
    “I saw a couple of police cars go past. I wondered if they were with you.” She nodded outside.
    “No,” Gillette said. Though he supposed that troopers might in fact be keeping tabs on him.
    She sat and picked uneasily at the cuff of the Stanford sweatshirt she wore.
    “I’m not going to say goodbye,” he said. She frowned and he continued, “Because I want to talk you out of leaving. I want to keep seeing you.”
    “Seeing me? You’re in prison, Wyatt.”
    “I’ll be out in a year.”
    She laughed in surprise at his effrontery.
    He said, “I want to try again.”
    “ You want to try again. What about what I want?”
    “I can give you what you want. I will. I’ve done a lot of thinking. I can make you love me again. I don’t want you out of my life.”
    “You chose machines over me. You got what you wanted.”
    “That’s in the past.”
    “My life’s different now. I’m happy.”
    “Are you?”
    “Yes,” Elana said emphatically.
    “Because of Ed.”
    “He’s part of it. . . . Come on, Wyatt, what can you offer me? You’re a felon. You’re addicted to those goddamn computers of yours. You don’t have a job and the judge said that even when you get out of jail you can’t go online for a year.”
    “And Ed’s got himself a good job? Is that it? I didn’t know that a good income was important to you.”
    “It’s not a question of support, Gillette. It’s about responsibility. And you’re not responsible.”
    “I wasn’t responsible. I admit that. But I will be.” He tried to take her hand but she eased away. He said, “Come on, Ellie. . . . I saw your e-mails. When you talk about Ed it doesn’t exactly sound like he’s perfect husband material.”
    She stiffened and he saw he’d touched a nerve here. “Leave Ed out of this. I’m talking about you and me.”
    “Me too. That’s exactly who I’m talking about. I love you. I know Imade your life hell. It won’t be that way again. You wanted children, a normal life. I’ll find a job. We’ll have a family.”
    Another hesitation.
    He pressed forward. “Why are you leaving tomorrow? What’s the hurry?”
    “I’m starting a new job next Monday.”
    “Why New York?”
    “Because it’s as far away from you as I can get.”
    “Wait a month. Just one month. I get two visits a week. Come see me.” He smiled. “We can hang out. Eat pizza.”
    Her eyes swept the floor and he sensed that she was debating.
    “Did your mother cut me out of that picture?” He grinned and nodded at the snapshot of her in her wedding gown.
    She gave a faint smile. “No. That was the one Alexis took—on the lawn. It was just of me. Remember, the one where you can’t see my feet.”
    He laughed. “How many brides lose their shoes at the wedding?”
    She nodded. “We always wondered what happened to them.”
    “Oh, please, Ellie. Just postpone it for a month. That’s all I’m asking.”
    Her eyes