Livia Lone

57-NOW

When Livia was done laying it out, MacKinnon was almost there. But she wasn’t quite persuaded.

“Why do you need him to come out here?” she said. “Couldn’t you just march into his office and flash your badge the way you did me? And leave me out of it entirely?”

“I don’t think your brother would tell me what I need to know in his office. He’d be in a familiar, comfortable environment, surrounded by all the trappings of his power. I want to confront him someplace unfamiliar. Where he doesn’t know the terrain. Where he’ll be off balance.”

A long moment went by while MacKinnon considered this. Finally, she said, “All right. We’ll look up his office number. And I’ll… I’ll call him. But let me do it from your phone. I don’t want him to know my number.”

Livia shook her head. She understood the woman knew better, and at this point was just protesting as a way of proving to herself that she was in control of at least some of what was suddenly happening to her, no matter how trivial.

“That won’t work. It would be too easy for him to check my number, and figure out something’s wrong with your story. Besides, if he’s sent you baby gifts, he already knows your number. Or could easily get it.”

There was a pause while MacKinnon considered this. Then she said, “I just need a minute.”

“Of course,” Livia said. This woman was about to face a monster from her childhood. A minute would be the least she’d need.

MacKinnon stepped away. Livia heard a door open, then close. She had a feeling the woman needed to be with the dog. It didn’t surprise her. One of the victim support services she worked with had a rescue dog, a shepherd-mastiff mix named Argus, and Livia had never seen an abused child emerge from a scarred shell the way some of the support kids did when they spent time with that devoted animal. Livia thought it had something to do with recognizing the existence of a creature at once powerful and yet incapable of hurting you-incapable of doing anything other than loving and protecting you. She sensed that kind of bond between MacKinnon and the shepherd.

And indeed, when she returned a few minutes later, the dog was with her. It sat alongside her at the table while she did an Internet search on her phone.

“Okay,” MacKinnon said, nodding. “Okay. Okay.” She took a deep breath and blew it out, summoning her courage like someone about to leap from a cliff into dark waters.

She input the number. There was a pause, then she said, “Yes, hello. My name is Rebecca MacKinnon, formerly Becky Lone. Senator Lone’s sister. It’s urgent that I speak with him.”

Livia was impressed by the confidence in her tone. The woman had found her composure, at least for the moment.

There was a pause, then, “I don’t have his mobile phone number. We haven’t been in touch in quite some time. But it’s urgent that I speak with him now.”

Another pause, then, “Yes, please give him this number. If you’re thinking this is some sort of prank, it isn’t. When you tell him it’s Becky and that it’s urgent, I assure you he’ll want to call me immediately. If you wait to deliver the message, you’ll be making a mistake.”

She clicked off.

Livia looked at her. “You okay?”

MacKinnon nodded but said nothing. Then she started to shake. She reached for the dog. It whimpered and licked her hand.

“I’m sorry,” Livia said. “I can imagine what this is stirring up.”

MacKinnon smiled grimly. “Well. I think you can more than imagine.”

“That’s true.”

MacKinnon stared out the window at the sparkling bay. “It never goes away, does it?”

Livia wished there were an answer to that. But there wasn’t.

A moment ticked by. MacKinnon said, “I don’t know if he’ll get back to me right away.”

“He will. If that receptionist is smart enough to get him the message promptly.”

“I hope so. Can you wait for a bit?”

Livia glanced at her watch. It had been close to an hour. Plenty of time still to get back to the airport, and there were dozens of nonstops to Seattle. She nodded and said, “Yes. Let’s see if he has a smart receptionist.”

MacKinnon left her phone on the table and made them another pot of tea. She looked tense, and to take the woman’s mind off her dread of confronting her brother, Livia said, “What’s the honey you’re using? It’s really good.”

In fact, it was good, though Livia didn’t expect anything would soon displace her affection for coffee with milk and turbinado sugar.

“Sonoma County Wildflower,” MacKinnon said. “I get it at the farmers’ market. Glad you like it. I’m afraid I’m a bit of an addict.”

“Well, I could see where that would be a danger. Wish they sold it in Seattle.”

MacKinnon returned to the table and they sat wordlessly for a moment, sipping the tea. Livia asked about the dog, her kids, life in San Francisco. Safe subjects. Comforting ones. She wasn’t sure if it was helping, but it was better than silence.

MacKinnon’s phone buzzed and the woman jumped. “Speakerphone,” Livia reminded her, leaning forward.

MacKinnon nodded and looked at the phone. And kept looking at it.

It buzzed again.

“Becky,” Livia said.

MacKinnon looked at her, her eyes wide, then at the phone again. Her mouth twitched and her expression wavered between fear and determination.

The phone buzzed again.

“Becky,” Livia said. “You can do this.”

MacKinnon nodded. She closed her eyes, and then opened them. And Livia could see the determination had won.

MacKinnon pressed the speaker button. “Hello.”

“Becky, it’s Ezra. Is everything all right?”

Hearing his voice conjured his face, and that of his brother, and again Livia had to suppress a wave of disgust. Apparently MacKinnon was having a similar reaction. She closed her eyes and swallowed, then said, “A reporter came to my house today. Asking me questions. About Father. About when we were children.”

“Hold on a minute, hold on. What reporter?”

“I don’t know. She wouldn’t even give me her name, or organization. But she said she had information, about when-”

“Hold on, hold on. How do you even know she was a reporter?”

Livia nodded grimly. She had predicted Lone would be afraid to talk about anything specific over the phone. That he would be afraid to discuss this in any way other than in person. So far, she’d been right.

“Well, who else could she be?” MacKinnon said.

“I don’t know. Some crazy person. Someone unstable who thinks she can make things up to blackmail us. Who knows? Now, did she say anything specific? Just yes or no, Becky. You don’t have to tell me details.”

MacKinnon glanced at Livia. “Yes. Extremely specific.”

Perfect.

“I need to talk to you, Ezra. I need to know what’s going on. If this is going to affect my family.”

“Nothing’s going to affect your family, Becky. Everything’s going to be fine. Now, I can’t talk right now. I’m in Bangkok and it’s the middle of the night-”

Bangkok? Livia thought.

“-and I have meetings starting early tomorrow and then throughout the afternoon. And the next day. It took a lot to set up these meetings with the Thai government people, and I can’t get free for a bit. I just can’t. But I can stop in San Francisco on the way back. Why don’t I come by? I can stay with you-”

“Absolutely not. You will not stay in this house.”

Perfect, Livia thought again. It was exactly the way they’d role-played it. You have to sound reluctant, Livia had coached her. Not like you’re trying to draw him in-like you’re trying to keep him out. Otherwise he could sense a trap. So make him work for it. Make him feel he’s trying to persuade you.

“All right, fine. I’ll stay in a hotel. We can meet in the lobby. Or anywhere else you like. But I think we should talk about this in person. Not over the phone.”

MacKinnon glanced at Livia. Livia nodded.

“When?” MacKinnon said.

“Three days. I’ll get my itinerary revised and text you my flight and hotel information as soon as I have it.”

“If that woman comes back to my house…”

“Listen. Whoever she is, if she contacts you again, try to get a name. Or at least a phone number. Whatever information you can. Then you get that information to me, and I’ll find out what we’re dealing with. And I’ll handle it. In the meantime, you tell her nothing.”

Livia glanced at MacKinnon and made the okay sign with her thumb and forefinger.

“I don’t like this,” MacKinnon said, again playing it grudgingly.

“Neither do I, Becky. It’s probably just some crank who wants to hurt us. I’ll be out there in a few days and we’ll figure it all out. And… it’ll be good to see you. It’s been too long.”

MacKinnon clicked off.

Livia glanced at the phone to confirm the connection had been broken, then looked at MacKinnon. “You were great, Becky.”

MacKinnon nodded, then started shaking again.

“I know,” Livia said. “I know. But you were great. Completely convincing.”

MacKinnon leaned over and nuzzled the dog’s head. “We’re okay, girl,” she said. “We’re okay. We’re okay.”

A moment passed while she collected herself. Then she straightened and said, “Can you be away for three days?”

“No,” Livia said. “But I can get back easily enough.”

But what she was thinking was, Bangkok.

There was one more thing she needed. Instinct had told her she should wait to bring it up, wait until MacKinnon had first taken some concrete action, like calling her brother. Then what came next would seem a smaller leap. But still… it would be a leap.

“The problem is,” Livia said, “I don’t think he’s going to tell me what I need to know unless I have some leverage.”

MacKinnon’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve dealt with a lot of suspects. Hundreds. And there are various ways you can get someone to cooperate, if you have a knack for these things. If you had a good mentor, like I did. But with someone like your brother… I can’t just ask. I need something to threaten him with.”

MacKinnon shook her head, apparently sensing where this was going, and not liking it at all. “You said you would tell him you tricked me. Pretended to be a reporter. That he would never know I helped you.”

“Yes, I did. And I could do it that way. But what’s really going to get his attention is you and me working together. Two of his victims, with no connection between them other than his crimes, corroborating each other’s stories.”

“No. Absolutely not. You told me. You promised.”

“And I’ll keep that promise. But Becky, if we do this right, it will never come out. The threat will be enough.”

“And what about his threat to me? And my family? And if you’re going to tell me next that you’ll protect us, please, just spare me. I wouldn’t believe you now anyway.”

There was a long pause. The request had been just the opening, and Livia hadn’t expected it to be decisive. Now she had to close.

“Becky. Ophelia did everything she could to protect you. She died trying to protect you.” She paused, then went on. “You can keep faith now with what Ophelia did. With who she was. You can protect someone, too. My sister. Nason. Please.”

MacKinnon shook her head. “No. I told you, no.”

But Livia knew what it felt like when a suspect’s defenses were wavering. It felt like what she was seeing now in MacKinnon’s face, and hearing in her tone.

“She protected you,” Livia said. “And you can never pay that back. But wouldn’t she want you to pay it forward? By protecting someone else?”

“I am protecting someone else. My family.”

“Ezra is your brother. He’s not the bogeyman. And you’re not that little girl anymore. You’re strong. You’re a survivor. Don’t let him control you with fear. Stand up to him, Becky. The way Ophelia did.”

As it had before, MacKinnon’s expression wavered between fear and determination. Then it dissolved and she started crying again. “He killed her.”

“Yes. And you had no choice but to let him get away with it. But now you do have a choice. You have a weapon. Me. Use it.”

That was it. There was nothing more to say. There was nothing to do but wait.

A minute went by. Then another.

Finally, MacKinnon said, “If your sister is alive, and Ezra tells you where she is, you’ll be able to help her.”

“Yes.”

“And if she’s… not alive…”

“Then I’ll deal with that.”

MacKinnon nodded. “But you don’t want a scandal any more than I do.”

“That’s right.”

“You want to threaten him with exposure. And if the threat works, then you don’t actually need to expose him. It’s something like… you’re pointing a gun at him. And if he complies, you don’t actually need to fire.”

“Yes. That’s exactly what it’s like.”

“But then we’ll have protected your sister. Or at least found out what happened to her. But we won’t have done anything to protect the other girls my brother has victimized. The victims yet to come.”

For the second time that afternoon, Livia felt she’d been hit by a judo throw she hadn’t seen coming.

“So,” MacKinnon continued. “What are we going to do to protect them?”

Livia said nothing.

“I’ll help you,” MacKinnon said. “You can tell my brother we’re working together. Tell him we’ll both testify, go to the media, whatever. And if he thinks you’re exaggerating, or bluffing, or making the whole thing up, and he calls me, I swear to you I will back up everything you say.”

Livia said nothing.

“But in exchange for that, you can’t leave him to hurt anyone else the way he and Fred hurt us. You can’t.”

Despite herself, Livia was impressed. She had created so many boxes for suspects in the interrogation room. It was disconcerting to experience one from the suspect’s perspective.

Not that it mattered. She had already known she wasn’t going to just walk away after bracing Lone. If she’d been forced to choose between finding out about Nason and letting Lone live, there was no question she would have chosen the former. But she didn’t expect to have to make that choice. She would squeeze everything possible out of him. And as soon as she was convinced he had nothing more to offer, she would leave him, the way she had left his sick brother. The way she had left Weed Tyler.

But she hadn’t exactly planned on discussing any of this with MacKinnon, either. She realized again her moves were off. She wasn’t as in control as she usually was, she wasn’t as aware of what was happening at the periphery of the game. The Lone girls’ tragedy… it was just too close to hers and Nason’s.

All that said, she wasn’t worried the woman would be any kind of risk. MacKinnon was too motivated to keep her secrets. Protect her family. Continue to live the life she had painstakingly created for herself. Beyond which, of course, she wanted her brother dead. It was about the last thing she would object to, or go to the police about.

“It isn’t fair,” MacKinnon said. “They victimize us in secret, and then the only way we’re allowed to fight back is to be raped again in public? By scandalmongers, by the tabloid press, by gawkers rubbernecking at every disgusting detail of what they did to us against our will?”

Livia sighed. The woman had great instincts. But she hadn’t yet learned not to sell past the close.

MacKinnon held out her hand. “Do we have an understanding?”

Livia hesitated. Then reached out.

They shook.

MacKinnon held on to her hand. “And this is just a request. It’s not a quid pro quo. Not a demand. No more than a favor, really. But…”

She leaned closer and gripped Livia’s hand harder.

“You make him suffer,” she whispered. “For us. For Ophelia. For Nason. You make him fucking suffer.”

Livia nodded and withdrew her hand. It wasn’t something she could promise, she knew.

But she wasn’t going to rule it out, either.