Part 5
Ray’s voice reached Kate through a speakerphone in a hospital conference room. Lena and two agents sat behind her; Ray’s defense lawyer had joined from another line. June was listening from the protected motel but had chosen not to speak.
“You said she’d know,” Ray began.
“She does.”
His breath caught against the receiver. For several seconds the only sound was a bus announcement behind him.
“Is she leaving me?”
“That is not a question I can answer for her.”
“You’re good at answers when they put people in boxes.”
Kate almost told him that he had put her through an open train door. The fact did not require reminding; it sat between every word.
“Why did you ask for me?” she said.
“Kincaid wouldn’t see me. Danner sent two men instead. They wanted the timetable.”
“June has it.”
Ray made a sound that might have been relief or defeat. “Good. She never burns what I tell her to burn.”
“Where are you?”
His lawyer interrupted. “Mr. Vickers will provide his location when surrender terms are confirmed.”
Kate looked at Lena. “You surrender to the FBI and the United States Marshals. Not to me. I am the victim in this case, and I cannot offer you anything.”
“You offered me plenty before.”
“Not enough, and not soon enough.”
Ray was silent.
“We failed you,” Kate said. “You still put me through that door.”
“I picked the slow order.” His words came fast now, as though he had been waiting to spend them. “Danner said use the trestle south of the summit. I chose Alder because the train had to crawl through the work zone. I told myself there was brush below the grade. I told myself you might—”
“You did not save me, Ray.”
“I know.”
In the pause that followed, the anger went out of Ray’s breathing.
“Tell Agent Ortiz where you are,” Kate said. “Then let June decide what she does with the man who comes back.”
Ray surrendered behind a bus depot forty minutes later. He carried no weapon and asked for his wife before he asked what charges he faced. June did not go to him. She sent word through her lawyer that she was safe, that their sons were safe, and that she would speak to him after he had told the truth once without bargaining over it.
On Monday, Lily visited the hospital.
Tom’s mother had braided her hair, but the white ribbons were Lily’s own work, one bow tight and the other sagging. She entered holding Tom’s hand and stopped three feet from the bed.
Kate had prepared simple words: bad men, moving train, hurt but safe. Lily ignored every opening Kate offered.
“Where is the heart?” she asked.
“The FBI has it.”
“Why?”
“I left it in the room so people would know I had been there.”
Lily considered this. “Did you lose it?”
“No. I put it somewhere on purpose.”
“But you said you’d keep it with you.”
There was no legally precise answer to that. Kate held out her left hand, the one without the immobilizer. Lily came closer but did not take it.
“I was trying to get back to you,” Kate said.
“You said four days.”
“I know.”
“If you don’t know, you shouldn’t say a number.” Lily’s lower lip shook, and she pressed it inward until it stopped. “At school, Mrs. Hall says estimate means you tell people it might be more or less.”
Tom turned toward the window. Kate looked at Lily’s shaking lip and stopped searching for a defense.
“You’re right,” she said. “I shouldn’t have made it sound certain because I wanted you not to worry.”
Lily finally took her hand. “Were you worried?”
“Yes.”
“Before the train?”
Kate looked at Tom. “Yes.”
Lily climbed carefully onto the edge of the mattress. For a while she said nothing. She traced the edge of the tape securing Kate’s IV, then checked the empty place at Kate’s throat with two fingers, the same way she had checked the clasp on the platform.
That evening, after Lily left with her grandmother, Tom replaced Kate’s wedding ring. He pushed it over the swollen knuckle slowly.
“I’m not asking you to quit,” he said.
“I know.”
“I’m asking you to give me the whole story, even when you know I’ll hate it. You don’t get to hand me the safe version.”
Kate looked down at the ring. “I thought if I told you everything, you’d make me choose between the trip and you.”
“So you made the choice and hid half of it.”
He did not ask for an apology. He pulled the blanket straight over her fractured foot, then sat in the vinyl chair and opened a medical journal without reading it.
Walter arrived the next morning with a formal memorandum. Because Kate was now the victim and a material witness in an attempted murder tied to her investigation, Main Justice had approved recusal of the Oregon U.S. Attorney’s Office from both cases. Rachel Singh, an Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Western District of Washington, would be specially designated to prosecute in Oregon. Lena would remain the FBI case agent, but Kate could no longer direct interviews, negotiate cooperation, recommend charges, or appear before the grand jury except as a witness.
“No,” Kate said. Walter set the memorandum on the rolling table. “This is not a request…”
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