Charmed (Second Sight) (6 page)

“Look,” he said. “Honestly, I never wanted the baby.” Isabelle turned to look at him. “I mean, you know,” he said looking at Mac. “It was
her
idea. I didn’t even know she was off the pill.”
 

Daniel had switched gears, the surprise of an FBI agent at his door gone. He’d never asked why the FBI had an interest.

Because he knows why.

“She thought you were
dead
,” Isabelle said. “For god’s sake, Daniel, she’s been mourning you for months.”

“
That
I did not know about,” he said quickly, looking at the floor. “I swear it.”

That was a lie–the lack of contractions a clear giveaway.

“When was the last time you saw her?” Mac asked.

There were two wine glasses on the counter, one with lipstick. The coffee maker was sputtering the last drops of coffee into the mug.

“I don’t know,” Daniel said, turning back to the counter and taking the cup. “I have no idea.”

That was true.

Daniel’s rumpled t-shirt hung loosely on him, except at the stomach, where his gut bulged a little. His sweat pants dragged on the floor but were snug at the waist. He’s been putting on weight. Mac looked quickly at the cupboards, the cooktop island, the stools on the other side of it. Everything was new. Though Daniel hadn’t been here long, he’d managed to put on weight. Isabelle had said he was a computer guy. He probably sat in front of it all the time.
 

“You guys want coffee?” Daniel asked.

“No, thanks,” Isabelle said, putting her purse on the island counter.

Daniel was watching her hands.
 

He knows full well she could do a reading
.

“So you left the commune,” Mac said.

Daniel didn’t look at him, sipping his coffee. When he’d finished, he nodded.

“I
never
wanted to go there,” he said. “It was
really
not my style.” That was the truest thing he’d said yet. “That was
her
idea.” He’d never once asked about ‘her.’ Or the baby. “I finally had to bail on the whole thing.”

Isabelle shook her head.

“But she mourned you,” Isabelle said quietly. “She needed you.”

“She had
Geoffrey
,” Daniel said, leaning back against the counter.

Is that anger in his voice? No. Not quite. Something else.
 

At Geoffrey’s name, Isabelle made a face.

There was silence for a few moments.

“Kayla wants to see you,” Mac said.

Daniel nearly rolled his eyes but stopped himself.

Upstairs, the floor squeaked and they all heard the distinct sound of footsteps.

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “I mean sure. Of course. I’ll give her a call.” He looked from Isabelle to Mac. “Is that all?”

•••••

From the passenger seat, Isabelle looked down the driveway to Daniel’s front door as Mac started the engine. Daniel could hardly get them out of there fast enough.
 

“He’s lying,” Isabelle said, just as Mac said the same thing.

As they pulled away from the driveway and onto the road, Isabelle began to realize how much she’d wanted their suspicions to be false. For Kayla’s sake, but also for her–so that she hadn’t been involved with someone she obviously hadn’t really understood.
 

Daniel had been to the commune, touched the photo after Kayla had left. He must have known she’d left and that the baby had been born by now. Isabelle slowly shook her head. Even though she’d been in love with him, even read him, she’d never have predicted this.

As Mac navigated onto Pacific Coast Highway, the traffic slowed. Cars, vans and the occasional motorhome were parked next to the beach. Surfers were changing into and out of wet suits from the trunks of their cars and fathers were carrying coolers, chairs, and big umbrellas as they trudged through the sand to the water.

“I know it’s not what you were hoping for,” Mac said, taking her hand.

His eyes lingered on hers for a moment before returning to the road. He settled both their hands onto her thigh and his fingers gently squeezed hers. Isabelle focused on the traffic ahead of them.

She was going to have to tell Kayla. It’d be hurtful and hard to believe but she had to know. Isolated on the commune, someone had told her that Daniel was dead. Who had that been? Geoffrey? Maurice? Had the rest of the people there played along? Let Kayla suffer? Or maybe they hadn’t even met him. He said he’d never wanted it. That at least appeared true. He was obviously no minimalist. Suddenly a thought occurred to her.

“How does he afford to live there?” she said, leaning forward and glancing up the cliffs to their left. “What kind of computer work could he be doing?”

For an answer, Mac squeezed her hand again.

“You’ve done what Kayla asked you to do,” he finally said.
 

“If he was at the commune only seven months ago, how did he…”

With traffic stopped at a red light, Mac was looking directly at her. His face was serious–a little too serious.

Wait
.

“You’ve done what you promised,” he said.
Oh, no, no, no. He can’t be serious.
The light changed. “It’s a matter for the FBI,” he said, his tone soft. “It really is.”

Though she’d nearly been ready to get angry, something in Mac’s voice stopped her. He hadn’t actually told her not to interfere. He hadn’t ordered her to butt out. In fact, he’d purposely avoided anything like that.

He doesn’t want to argue
.

Her anger quickly evaporated and her stomach tightened at the memory of how she’d felt after she’d been so curt. It’d been awful. The results had been even worse. She realized she was sitting forward in her seat and slowly sat back.

She didn’t want to argue either.

AS MAC APPROACHED, it was clear that neither Scanlon nor Martinez had heard. They’d all been summoned here by Tim and it made sense that Tim’s boss and Mac’s boss would be present but, as the two FBI Assistant Directors paused outside the Cyber Division Lab, Mac watched in fascination. It was only the slightest of movements. Scanlon held the door for Cassandra Martinez and, as she passed, Lee Scanlon’s hand went to the small of her back for a brief moment.

They have a relationship
.
 

Mac slowed his pace and kept his footsteps quiet, but he needn’t have. Scanlon had been completely focused on Martinez. As the door automatically closed, Mac thought back to the strained first meeting he’d had with the two of them. The tension had been thick enough to slice. And now he knew it hadn’t been turf wars. They’d overcompensated.

Mac paused for a few seconds, then pulled open the door.

As usual, the lab was dark. Tim had just turned to see his boss and Scanlon but as Mac approached, he couldn’t get his headset off fast enough.

“It’s the
same
firewall,” he gushed. “Look!”

Though Mac had no idea what Tim was talking about, he bent down and looked.

Tim turned back to the monitor and brought up two windows, side by side.

He pointed at one and then the other.

Mac read the command lines, directory listings, and file sizes and though he could see that the two screens seemed identical, he had no idea what he was reading.

“How about some English subtitles,” Scanlon said.

He had his arms crossed over his chest and was standing on the other side of Tim with Martinez, who nodded.

“When Mac had us track down Daniel Allmand,” she said. “We found him through his social security number and credit reports. But, what we also found, was his reported income and employer.”

“The Green Earth Commune,” Mac said.
 

Scanlon scowled at him but Martinez nodded.

Daniel’s computer background and the room full of towers upstairs in the mansion at the commune clicked. Someone had to be administering all those machines, hiding them from prying eyes. Mac remembered Daniel looking at Isabelle’s gloves, worried about a reading.

Mac looked at Tim’s screen.

“Daniel has a firewall too,” Mac said. “And it’s the same as the commune’s.”

“Bingo,” Tim said.

Daniel was in up to his eyeballs. But into what? Where did all this money come from?

“And where does that get us?” Scanlon asked.

“Next we prove the connection,” Martinez replied and nodded at Tim.

“Packets,” he said. “Packets through routers. If I know the two end points, it’s only a matter of time before I can find the routers they’re using to pass information.”

“
If
they’re passing information,” Mac said. “The similar firewalls doesn’t prove anything.”

“True,” said Martinez, “but it’s more than a coincidence.”

“Oh I believe it,” Mac said. “I don’t need convincing. It’s a judge that’s going to need convincing before we can execute a search warrant.”

“Agreed,” said Scanlon.

“I’ll get him,” Tim said. “I’ll find the connection. You’ll see.”

He stretched the headphones wide and let them go over his ears.

“Let him work,” Martinez said. “If there’s a tie-in, Tim will find it.”

•••••

Daniel sat down with a thud and a huff at his computer. His head sank into his hands.
 

“
Shit
,” he muttered. It’d been his new favorite word since the FBI agent had left. “
Shit.
”

Kayla had obviously called Isabelle for help.

“Shit!” he yelled and pounded the computer desk in front of him.

“Danny,” came a woman’s voice from upstairs. “Are you okay?”

“Shit,” he muttered. “Go back to bed!” he yelled.

And just stay there.

The computer monitor flared to life. The mouse must have moved and turned it on. He ignored it.

I’ll be damned if I visit the baby. I never wanted the thing in the first place.

That’s when everything had started to fall apart. Kayla had gotten pregnant, fought with her mother, eaten everything in sight, and lost her figure. If he
never
saw her again, that’d be fine. Daniel had quickly agreed to Maurice telling her that he had died. It was supposedly a simple cremation, his family only, no ceremony. She’d bought it. And he’d never visited Green Earth again–not while she was there. He’d worked from his new home.
 

If only she’d just stayed at the commune.

“Oh my god,” he muttered.
 

This was really going to screw up the queue. Maurice must be having fits.

Quickly, he looked over his shoulder then typed in his password. His virtual desktop appeared and he clicked on the web browser and brought up the Coming Home group. He drilled down into the infant adoption forum and scanned through the threads.

Oh dammit. There it is. No one’s even updated the post. The baby is still up for adoption.
 

But of course it was. If
he
didn’t update the post, who would?
 

Maurice had been very clear. Daniel and only Daniel knew the connection between the commune the adoption web site. And that was only because he
had
to know. Only someone with the computer savvy to keep the data secure could do this. And it took someone with the mindset as well. He could give a rat’s ass about selling babies. It wasn’t even illegal. All of those women that Geoffrey had impregnated had signed over their rights to the biological father. All Geoffrey had to do to sell them was use a simple power of attorney. On the other side of the equation, the desperate couples got to cut several months and tens of thousands of dollars off the adoption process.

It was like printing money.
 

But now the queue was screwed up
and his bonus
. Kayla’s baby had gone missing.
 

But as Daniel glared at the screen, a wild thought began to germinate.

Does the queue have to be screwed up?

Isn’t Kayla’s baby also his?
 

“Yeah it is,” he muttered.

I’m the biological father and I have rights.
 

Can’t I just sell–or rather give it up for adoption?

The queue would be preserved. His bonus would be on time. He would be within his rights. And maybe there would be perks–he glanced up at the ceiling toward his bedroom–and not like the ones he was already enjoying. Maybe a cut of the business.
 

Yeah, maybe it’s about time.
 

“Danny?” she called down again.

“Be right there,” he yelled.

Maybe he’d visit the hospital after all.

ISABELLE GAVE THE boiling pot a stir with the large plastic pasta fork. Though she’d prefer wood, the plastic was always a safer bet when it came to readings. She didn’t cook with the gloves on. Not even latex if she could help it.
 

On the back burner the pesto sauce was warming. Mac had texted and ought to be home any minute.

For a moment, she wondered what was going on with the commune and Daniel and–

She stopped herself, for probably the tenth time since she’d gotten home.
 

Mac is right. I’ve done what Kayla had wanted me to do.
 

The phone conversation had gone about as well as could be expected. Kayla had hung up sobbing. At first she’d been relieved but when she’d asked when Daniel was going to come visit, Isabelle had told her the truth. Daniel had only said he would call. And apparently he hadn’t yet.

Isabelle heard the key in the front door and turned to see Mac. He already had his jacket off and was smiling.
 

This
was something she could used to.

“Honey,” he said calling to her as though she were far away. “I’m hooome.”

She couldn’t help but laugh but she kept stirring the pasta.

“I’m in the kiiiitchen,” she called back. It was silly but she didn’t care. “Did you have a good day at the office?”

She didn’t actually know if couples ever really talked like that but she giggled.

“Actually,” Mac said from behind her. “I did. Tim had a breakthrough with Daniel’s computer. He–“