Assumed Identity

8

“It concerns the woman I told you about in New Orleans,” Buchanan said after ordering food. “The friend who sent me a message asking for help. The one I was supposed to meet at Cafe du Monde. Except she didn’t show up.”

Holly nodded. “Your former lover.”

“No. I told you we were never lovers.” Buchanan brooded. “In fact, I think that’s when a lot of my problems started. Because I didn’t commit to her.” He remembered how much he had wanted to, how much he had denied himself for the sake of duty.

Holly’s face didn’t change expression. But her eyes did, narrowing, assessing him.

“One of the last things I told her,” Buchanan said, “was that she couldn’t be in love with me because she didn’t know me-she only knew who I pretended to be.”

Holly’s eyes narrowed more. “It certainly seems you never stop acting. For example, right now. I can’t tell if this is the truth or more manipulation.”

“Oh, it’s the truth. Even if you don’t believe it, it’s the truth. This is one of the most honest things you’ll ever hear from me. I want to help her because I want to be the person I was when I knew her. I want to choose to be somebody and to stay that somebody. I want to stop changing. I want to be consistent.”

“Because of all the people you impersonated?”

“I told you, I don’t know anything about-”

“Don’t act so defensive. I’m not trying to get you to admit to anything. You want to stop changing? Why make it so complicated? Why be somebody else? Why not be yourself?”

Buchanan didn’t answer.

“You don’t like yourself?”

Buchanan still didn’t answer.

“This woman, what was her name?”

Buchanan hesitated. All his instincts and training warned against revealing information. He prepared to lie.

Instead he told the truth. “Juana Mendez.”

“When you knew her, I’m assuming you were on an assignment together.”

“You know what you can do with your assumptions.”

“No need to get touchy.”

“Since the first time I spoke to you, I have never revealed confidential information. Everything I’ve said about my background has been hypothetical, a ‘what if’ scenario. As far as you’re concerned, I’m an instructor in military Special Operations. That’s all I’ve ever admitted to. This has nothing to do with the story you abandoned. I want that understood.”

“As I said, no need to get touchy.”

“After you left New Orleans. .” He told her about his drive to San Antonio, his discovery that both Juana’s and her parents’ homes were under surveillance, and his search of Juana’s records. He omitted all reference to the man he’d killed. “Drummond and Tomez. The files for those names were the only ones that seemed to be missing. Juana was a security specialist. I have to assume those people were clients.”

“Important enough to need protecting.” Pensive, Holly walked toward the briefcase she’d set on a chair and opened it. “I used the reference system at the Post.”

“That’s why I had to get in touch with you. I didn’t have access to anyone else who could get the information I needed as quickly as you could.”

“You know. .” Holly studied him. “Sometimes you might consider trying to impersonate somebody with tact.”

“What?”

“I don’t delude myself that you’d go to all this trouble if you didn’t have something to gain. All the same, it wouldn’t have hurt you if you’d also left the impression that you found me interesting.”

“Oh. . I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted. But if you were this charming with Juana Mendez, it’s no wonder things didn’t work out.”

“Look, I’m trying to make up for mistakes.”

Holly didn’t speak for a moment. “Let’s see if this helps. Drummond and Tomez. I had my suspicions, but I wanted to check thoroughly before I made any conclusions.”

“Drummond is Alistair Drummond,” Buchanan said. “I more or less figured that already. The last name brings him immediately to mind. He’s rich, famous, and powerful enough to fit the profile.”

“Agreed. I kept checking, but he’s the only Drummond I think we should consider.” Holly pulled a book and several pages in a file folder out of the briefcase. “Bedtime reading. His biography and some printouts of recent stories about him. I’d have given you his autobiography, but it’s such a public-relations whitewash that it’s useless for dependable information. Certainly it doesn’t show any skeletons in closets, and in Drummond’s case, skeletons in closets might not be a figure of speech.”

“What about Tomez?” Buchanan asked.

“That was harder. I’m a Frank Sinatra fan myself.”

“What’s he got to do with. .?”

“Jazz. Big bands. Tony Bennett. Billie Holiday. Ella Fitzgerald.”

“I still don’t see what. .”

“Listened to much Puccini lately?”

Buchanan looked blank.

“Verdi? Rossini? Donizetti? Not ringing any bells? How about titles? La Boheme. La Traviata. Lucia di Lammermoor. Carmen.”

“Operas,” Buchanan said.

“Give the man a cigar. Operas. I guess you’re not a devotee.”

“Well, my taste in music. .” Buchanan hesitated. “I don’t have any taste in music.”

“Come on, everybody likes some kind of music.”

“My characters do.”

“What?”

“The people I. . Heavy metal. Country western. Blue-grass. It’s just that I never got around to impersonating anybody who liked opera.”

“Buchanan, you’re scaring me again.”

“For the past week, I’ve been thinking of myself as a man named Peter Lang. He likes Barbra Streisand.”

“You really are scaring me.”

“I told you, I’m changeable.” Buchanan-Lang smiled oddly. “But no one I’ve ever been had an interest in opera. If he had, believe me I’d be expert enough on the subject to give you a lecture. What does opera have to do with the name Tomez?”

“Maria Tomez,” Holly said. “The name occurred to me immediately but not as strongly as Alistair Drummond. I wanted to make sure there weren’t any famous or rich or powerful people named Tomez I didn’t know about.” Holly took another book and file from the briefcase. “And indeed there are some, but they’re not pertinent here. Maria Tomez-to quote from her press releases-is the most controversial, charismatic, and compelling mezzo-soprano in the opera world today. As far as I’m concerned, she’s the only candidate for your attention.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because for the past nine months, Alistair Drummond and Maria Tomez have, despite the difference in their ages, been an item.” Holly paused for effect. “And Maria Tomez disappeared two weeks ago.”