She reached across the table and put a hand on mine. It was cool and dry and soft, but somehow emanated such strength that I glanced down at it. A faint haze of gray and black hair coated the back. She squeezed my hand and stared into my eyes. “Do you think you might reconsider?”
“What?”
“We need to know more about CLAD and what they’re up to. What they know and what they are planning to do next.”
“Why?” I asked, shaking my head. “Look, I know you two are philosophically opposed or whatever, but I don’t want to get drawn into some kind of competition between groups.”
She shook her head. “It’s not that at all.”
“Then what is it?”
“As I said before, that is a longer conversation that I look forward to having with you, but right now, I have to ask you to trust me. I assure you, it is vitally important.”
I sat back and looked away, shaking my head. “I don’t know,” I said. “I wasn’t lying when I told Ogden about the FBI, about how I didn’t want to be an accessory to CLAD’s murders. I wasn’t making that up.”
“I know,” she said, squeezing my hand again. “And I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t important. But we’ve been unable to get inside and determine what they’re really up to. You do that, earn their trust and find out what they’re doing, and the benefit could be incalculable.”
“Why?”
“Because I have some very sensitive, big-picture plans to undermine Wells that CLAD could be putting into serious jeopardy, whether they know it or not.” Her voice was calm, but her eyes betrayed her anxiety. “Will you at least consider it?”
I thought for a moment, then nodded again.
“Excellent. I’ll look forward to our next conversation, and to answering more of your questions, but meanwhile, you can report back what you learn through Sly.”
“If I agree to help.”
“If you agree.” Then she sat back and seemed to fully relax. Her eyes twinkled. “So. You and Rex. That’s terrific.”
“Do you know him?”
“We’ve met briefly. But everyone speaks exceptionally highly of him.”
“He’s great.”
“How long have you two known each other?”
“We met right before Pitman. But as it turns out, we were friends as kids.”
“Really?”
“His name was Leo Byron.”
She screwed up her face for a moment, thinking, then her eyes went wide. “Wait a second, do you mean the tiny little boy who used to live on your block?”
I nodded and she whipped her head around, looking toward the front of the house, where Rex was waiting with Sly. Trudy had told me Dymphna had been present in my life when I was very young, but I never expected she might have known Leo.
Dymphna shook her head. “Well, I had no idea.” She thought for a moment. “And when did he get his splice?”
“Five or six years ago. Why?”
“Wow, he must have been young. I don’t know if I can condone getting spliced at such a young age,” she said. And this from the woman who invented splicing, I thought.
The sparkle in her eyes faded and suddenly she seemed almost cagey. “Do you have any friends who’ve gotten spliced more recently?”
“Most of them. My friend Claudia got spliced in the fall. Why?”
She relaxed a bit but waved off my question. “Just curious,” she said. Then she added quickly, “How about you, have you ever thought about getting spliced?”
“I’ve thought about it, but so far it hasn’t seemed right for me.” I shrugged. “Sorry.”
“Not at all,” she said, shaking her head. “I was just curious. It’s a big decision. And it’s not for everyone.”
Dymphna walked me around to the front of the house, where Sly and Rex were drinking iced tea and catching up. They both shot to their feet when they saw us—or more accurately, when they saw her.
“Sly,” she said, dipping her head at him.
He didn’t salute, but he might as well have, his body was so rigidly at attention. “Dymphna,” he said, dipping his head back at her.
“And Rex,” she said, reaching up to squeeze his shoulder. “It’s such a pleasure to see you again.”
His face blushed slightly as he glanced in my direction. He hadn’t told me they had met before, and I guess he was wondering how this was going over. I cocked an eyebrow at him, leaving him wondering.
“Ma’am,” he said.
“And apparently we go back a little further than I realized.”
He tilted his head. “Ma’am?”
“When Jimi was a preschooler. Before I went away. I remember her little friends. You were the sweetest child.”
The blush on Rex’s cheeks deepened to a full-on red face. “I…I don’t remember…”
“Of course not, honey. You were too young,” she said, smiling at him just like Mom and Trudy did. I was worried what would happen if his face got any redder. Sly looked away, biting back a grin.
Dymphna turned back to me. “Jimi, I can’t tell you how much it means to me to see you again.” She pulled me in and hugged me tightly, then stepped back, holding my shoulders at arm’s length. “I’m sorry to say I have to get back to work. But I intend for us to meet again. In the meantime, please think about what we discussed, keep in mind how important it is, and let Sly know what you decide.”
Rex gave me a questioning look, but I ignored him for the moment. We would talk in the car.
“Maybe…” I started to say, but suddenly got choked up. I cleared my throat and fought back the emotion. “Maybe while you’re still in the area, you could come and see Trudy and my mom.”
She smiled, and suddenly she seemed choked up, too. “Sure,” she said quietly. “We’ll have to be careful, but that would be very…nice.”
We hugged once again, then Sly, Rex, and I got back in the van.
Dymphna stood in the driveway, watching us. Sly pulled us up to the pylon and raised the bridge. Rex and I waved through the window and Dymphna waved back.
We drove across, and when we got to the other side I looked back, but she was gone.
FIFTEEN
We pulled up next to the rusty mailbox and when Sly got out to lower the bridge again, Rex turned in his seat. “So? How did it go?”
I shook my head. “It was very, very strange.”
“I’ll bet.”
“She wants me to change my mind about going with Ogden.”
“She wants you to go?”
I nodded. “She says Chimerica needs to know what CLAD is up to. She wants me to find out. Or us, if you’re in.”
“If you’re in, I’m in. But…are you in?”
“I’m thinking about it,” I said, as Sly got back into the car.
“Thinking about what?” Sly asked.
I looked at Rex and he shrugged. I decided then that if we were trusting each other, we were trusting each other. “We met with a guy from CLAD earlier. He wanted us to help him break into one of Wells’s Life Sciences facilities. He said there’s something bad going on there. We said no.”