Case of Lies

“I’d like to stay,” Nina said. “But I have to help take out this asshole. This has to stop.”

“Nina, I have no right to say this, but I feel compelled. Don’t go back to Tahoe. You’ve almost been killed twice. This killer’s on a rampage, trying to eliminate everyone, witnesses, lawyers. You can’t tell what he might do.”

“I’m a big girl,” Nina said.

But Kurt didn’t accept that. “You’re a young woman and you are a mother. You don’t belong in the line of fire. Is this how it always is for you? This stress? This worry?”

“No, of course not. We have a life,” Nina said. “We have a dog, a big one. He could teach Franz a few things about bringing down funky prey. My brother and sister-in-law-I’m crazy about them. Bob loves his cousins.”

“You know, Bob’s very protective of you.” He said this as though it had great significance.

“He’s fourteen, just a kid. I watch out for him. What are you getting at, Kurt?”

“He doesn’t want to let you out of his sight.”

“He has so much heart. He doesn’t get incredible grades-he’s not like Silke Kilmer, you know? He’s a complete, perfect, normal human being. He goes to school. He plays ball. He loves his dog…”

“You don’t have to tell me. I wonder if you have any idea how well I know him and how intensely I love him.”

“Stop. Kurt. Please, stop. You make me feel guilty.” She stopped and faced him.

“He has your focus and pragmatism, Nina. Your depths of emotion.”

“He has your musical talent.”

“Keep after him with lessons.”

“He looks like you.”

“He reminds me of you. He reminds me of us.”

An earthquake of feelings shook through her. She touched the scar on his cheek. He flinched.

“Sorry.”

“I try to forget it’s there.”

“Did I ever tell you,” she said, wishing she could bring him up to date on who she was now but afraid they had lived too many years apart ever to make up for the lapses, “that I was shot a few years ago, before you came back into Bob’s life? It happened during my first murder case, when I had just set up my practice at Tahoe. A bullet brushed my lung. I hate the scar.”

“Poor Nina,” Kurt said. He appeared angry, but after a minute or so, during which he put his hands in and out of his pockets a few times, balling them up and releasing them, he finally said, “When you’re young, you can’t foresee the amount of tragedy, how much baggage you’ll carry into adulthood. No wonder we all seem so serious and burdened to the young.”

“It’s true.” The girl she was saw sweet things ahead. The hardships, like car crashes, struck so suddenly there was no preparing.

“I try to remember the alternative and appreciate that all I received was a scar,” Kurt said. “But I don’t like being marked.”

“That’s it. You never forget. You just don’t get over it. I’m really feeling bad about involving you in this violence. I put you at risk. I didn’t realize-”

“It’s everywhere,” Kurt said. “Don’t worry, I can handle it. It’s you and Bob I’m concerned about.” He put his arm around her.

“Don’t,” she said, shrugging it off. “You watch out,” she went on. “I’ve been through a lot lately. I’m not myself.”

They came to a pond where swans glided, bordered by a grassy yard with a carousel. They sat down on an iron bench and watched a few kids go round and round. A few feet away she saw a gaily decorated cart selling hot dogs. It was just another November weekday in Germany, not a holiday for them, not many people about.

Cold, she held her arms around her chest. Kurt had picked up a stick from somewhere and begun to draw lines on the gravel.

“So this is Germany.”

“It’s the Kurpark. We have a casino here in Wiesbaden, pretty famous. I’d take you under other circumstances.”

“What time is the flight?”

“Eight-forty. Listen, Nina, about the flight. I have to tell you something. It’s hard to say.”

“Well? What could be so difficult after-”

“I only bought two tickets.”

Puzzled, Nina said, “What about Elliott? He’s coming back with us.”

“He’s going back with you. Bob isn’t.”

Nina shook her head. “No, no, no,” she said. “This is crazy. You can’t take Bob away from me.”

“He asked me how he could get a gun when he goes back.”

“What?”

“He said he would protect you that way.”

“Oh, no.” But she thought about the bolos, Bob’s relentless rock-throwing. “No.”

“You’ve put yourself in a line of fire twice in the past month,” Kurt said. “What if Bob’s beside you next time, sick with worry about you, immature. Trying to be the man in your life.”

“It’s not like that with us. I’m the parent. He knows that I’d do anything to keep him safe. He’s fine!”

“Anything?” Kurt sounded almost, not quite, casual as he asked what amounted to a piercing question. “I called the high school and talked to the vice principal. She faxed me a permission form to allow Bob to take a leave until after Christmas vacation. She’ll work with his teachers. They can send him lesson plans so he won’t fall behind.”

“You can’t do this! I need him with me.”

“You have to sign the form.”

“I won’t.”

“Do you remember that time you wouldn’t leave the cabin at Fallen Leaf? The local squirrels infected with plague. Signs all around. Signs hammered into trees. Danger. Hints of an ugly death. Still you wouldn’t leave.”

“Of course I do. Note, please that I didn’t catch anything.”

“Then you were alone. You risked only your own life. I believe,” he said, “individuals should control their destinies, right down to choosing death, if they must. I admired your left-brained willfulness. You said the odds favored your survival.”

“Is that why you parked yourself out front and made me your mission?”

“My destiny was different. Mine involved-” He sighed. “Shall we walk some more? There’s a path around the lake.” His voice stayed calm.

They walked for a while along the gravel path. A pale setting sun broke through the cloud cover and more children came out. She couldn’t take her eyes off one particular chubby-cheeked toddler ru

“Look, Kurt, what I admire about myself is that I can admit it when I’m-occasionally-wrong,” Nina said, feeling pain with every breath. “Bob stays with you.”

He took her by the shoulders and turned her so she faced him, appearing entirely unsurprised at her change of heart.

“Did you already tell him?” Nina asked.

“No. We’ll tell him together. This will be a good time to consolidate our power. Two parents can prevail when one might not.”

“This murdering animal is ruining my life,” Nina said, unleashing only a little of the anger that burned in her. “The minute he’s caught, Bob comes home.”

“Of course. You could stay, too. Reconsider. Paris is only eight hours away by car.”

“No. I do my job. I always do.”

His head tilted as he considered that, as he considered her, in her wholeness.

Paul would be mad. Kurt wasn’t. What did it all mean?

“Sweet of you to offer,” she said.

“Once you would have followed me anywhere.” He was smiling now, looking at her with Bob’s deep-set bluish-green eyes. “We didn’t follow up very well after the trial.”

“How do you mean?” Nina said. “You and Bob got to know each other. He spent a whole summer with you in Sweden.”

“You were with Paul.”

“And you? Were you alone?”

“A girl from Uppsala. An artist.”

“Ah. The paintings in your room?” He nodded. “So…”

“So. When my contract ended in Sweden, I decided to come back to Wiesbaden. We met for a few weekends, once in Copenhagen. But it petered out.” He pondered this, then added, “Franz never accepted her. She sneezed when he merely rubbed demandingly against her leg.”

“You’re alone now?” Nina prodded.

“I’m used to it.”

“Well, just don’t get used to having Bob around.”