The Blue Zone

PART FIVE
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

Kate waited on the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights, the skyline of lower Manhattan towering across the East River behind her. Joggers ran along the walk, and young families pushed strollers. Rollerbladers wove in and out of the Sunday crowd. The sprawling span of the Brooklyn Bridge with its steel-gray cables stretched above her. She knew she could count on the crowds. Kate had come here many times. Taking Fergus on a run. Breezing through the shops on Montague Street with Greg. She scanned around. Two policemen were standing nearby. She stepped a little closer to them.

He was somewhere out here.

It was a perfect autumn afternoon, and it made Kate recall how she had graduated from college on such a day. She still kept that picture on her desk-her in her cap and gown on the Green at Brown-everyone’s smiles so bright and proud, her head leaning on her father’s shoulder. The sky had never been bluer than it was on that day.

He’d been lying to her-even then.

Kate prayed she was doing the right thing. Her brain was dull from the lack of insulin, and even her blood felt thick and a little slow. She knew she wasn’t thinking so clearly. She glanced at her watch: 3:30. He was making her wait. She checked inside her bag for the gun and glanced again at the cops.

Please, Kate, please don’t be making the biggest mistake of your life.

Then suddenly she saw him, materializing out of the crowd, as if from nowhere.

Their gazes met. He stood a short distance away, as if letting her grow accustomed to the sight, a familiar yet uncertain smile. He was wearing khakis, an open-necked blue shirt, the ubiquitous navy blazer. His hair was shorter, almost shaved. The tan was gone. His face was leaner than she’d ever seen it. It was like some low-budget sci-fi movie-someone inhabiting someone else’s body. A jogger crossed in front of them. Kate’s every nerve stood on edge.

“Hello, pumpkin.”

He didn’t make a move to hug her. If he had, Kate didn’t know what she would do. She just looked at him-her eyes drawn to every familiar feature. There was a part of her that wanted to put her face against his chest and her arms around him as she had a thousand times. There was another part that wanted to tear into him with anger. So she just squinted into the faraway regions of his eyes.

“Who are you…Daddy?”

“Who am I? What do you mean, pumpkin? I’m your father, Kate. Nothing that’s happened can change that.”

Kate shook her head. “I’m not sure I know anymore.”

He smiled fondly. “You remember how I took you down the mountain at Snowmass that first time? How you followed right in my tracks? And how it was me you came to when you got dumped by that jerk from BU, that actor? How I hugged you and wiped the tears out of your eyes-”

“I don’t have any tears now, Dad… I asked you who you are. What’s our real name? It isn’t Raab. I know that now. What’s the truth about our family? Rosa -where was she really from? It wasn’t Spain.”

“Who’s been talking to you, Kate? Whoever’s been telling you these things is lying.” He reached out a hand to her.

“Stop!” She backed away. “Just stop, please… I know the truth. I know, Daddy. How long you’ve been working for them. Mercado. How it was that the FBI found out about you. Who turned you in.” She waited for him to say something, anything, to deny it, but he just kept staring at her. “Who was it who shot up our house that night? Were you even protecting us, Dad? Were you even afraid?”

“I was always protecting you, pumpkin,” he said with a nod. “I’m the person who helped nurse you back when you got sick. I was the one there in the hospital when you opened your eyes. You know that, Kate. Who was the first person you saw? The rest, what does it matter? Anything else is just a lie.”

“No.” Kate’s blood surged with rage. “It does matter, Dad. It’s all that matters. You want to see what a lie looks like, I’ll show you.”

She reached into her bag and came out with something and placed it in his hand. It was the snapshot of him and his brother in front of the gate in Carmenes.

“Look at this, Daddy. This is a lie. This is the lie you’ve been telling your whole life, you bastard.”