She smiled, nodded. “I’ll be waiting.”
The three best words he’d ever heard from the woman he loved. I’ll be waiting. He had someone waiting for him. And he’d never leave her waiting long. He grinned, kissing her quickly and getting out of the truck.
The sheriff’s office looked different to him, but then again, he’d had different eyes the last time he’d been there.
“I’m here to see Agent Gallagher,” he said to the woman at the front desk. Her eyes got big and she dropped her pen, standing quickly.
“Oh, yes. Lucas, right?” Her forehead wrinkled. “No, Jak
! I overheard Agent Gallagher . . . well in any case, I met you before, or saw you, anyway.” She laughed, and it sounded high like the bay-breasted warbler. But he had to stop thinking of everything in terms of the wilderness, had to enlarge his . . . frame of something. There was a saying, but he couldn’t think of it right then. But it meant that he finally had names for things he never had before, and he needed to start using them. He smiled, proud of the knowing he had already collected. “Right this way,” she said, looking over her shoulder and blushing for reasons unknown to him. Some things were still a mystery. He followed her, walking to a room with a table in the middle where Agent Gallagher sat, a notebook in front of him.
He stood when Jak walked in, shaking his hand. “I’m glad Harper located you.”
Jak looked down, feeling bad that he’d run away, and still uneasy that this man knew so much about him, personal things he didn’t think he’d ever share with another living soul. “I know you need to get me . . . on record, but Harper and I figured out something new too.”
“What is that?”
Jak let out a breath. “Harper was one of the children on the cliff that night. I thought she was a boy because of her hair. And . . . maybe I just thought we were all boys. But it was her.”
The agent sat back slowly. “How do you know?”
Jak told him about the pocketknife, about pushing Harper up on the ledge, about her memory of him telling her to live.
Agent Gallagher was silent for several moments, shaking his head slightly. “Wow. Okay . . .” He was quiet again. “So, Driscoll caused Harper’s parents’ car crash somehow or . . . lured them off the road maybe, and then Harper ended up with you on that cliff. She was going to be part of his study too.”
A chill went down Jak’s spine. “I don’t know.”
Agent Gallagher nodded, his eyes unfocused for a moment. “All right. I’m going to look at some different angles.” He thinned his lips, his eyes focusing on Jak again. “For now, let’s get your statement, and then I have someone I’ve asked to join us here.”
Jak frowned, but the agent didn’t look worried, and Jak trusted him. He nodded. “I’m ready.”
Agent Gallagher turned on a recorder and asked Jak every question he’d believed he would. Jak told him everything he knew, answering honestly and fully, and when it was done, when Agent Gallagher pushed stop on the small recorder, Jak felt like a boulder had been taken off his back.
The path before him had been cleared and a sense of . . . victory swept over him. His life was his. It stretched out before him. And Harper was waiting to begin it with him.
There was a soft knock on the door, and Agent Gallagher stood, opening it, and letting someone in. Jak looked more closely, standing, his mouth falling open.
It was the redheaded woman who’d told him about the cameras. She came forward, blushing when she saw Jak, lowering her eyes.
He took her hand and shook it, hardly believing she was there, in the real world. Not a part of that old world where war was being fought and enemies were all around. No, she had been a lie too. He was glad to know it.
It hurt to know it.
“Hi, Jak,” she murmured.
“Hi . . .”
“Brielle,” she said. “I told the truth about that.” She blushed again and looked down.
“Brielle is here to give a statement,” Agent Gallagher said. “Her name is unusual and when you told me, I began searching in some of the programs Driscoll had volunteered for. I found your mother’s name from a program she was in twenty-two years ago.” He paused. “And I found two Brielles from more recent programs. Only one had red hair.” Brielle looked at him and gave him a small smile.
Jak took in the information about his mother. That’s how Driscoll had found her then. Pregnant with him. He pushed that aside, looking at Brielle. “Driscoll sent you to me.” Jak said, already knowing the answer.
She nodded. “Yes. He told me his son had lived his life in the wilderness. He was going to bring you back to civilization, but he was concerned your base instincts were too strong, worried you’d hurt someone, especially a woman. He wanted to place you in a real-life situation where you could turn toward those instincts or turn away.” She paused. “I had been prostituting.” Her face went pink. “For drugs. I guess he figured . . . it didn’t matter what you did to me. Maybe I thought so too. I took the money. I took the job.”
“Oh,” Jak said, not knowing how to feel. He felt stupid and used, but he also felt sad for Brielle.
“But I saw the camera at the river.” She made a sound that was sort of like a laugh, only not. “Maybe the old guy forgot it’s second nature for junkies to make sure they’re not being watched. Habit.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, I knew something wasn’t right. Then I met you and, well, I knew something was very wrong.” She swallowed. “I want you to know, that after I met you, after I saw who you really were, it”—she shook her head—“I don’t know. I’d tried so hard to get clean for so long. For me, even for my son, and I’d always failed. But after that . . . after you, I got clean. And, I know it hasn’t been long, but I’ve stayed clean. You inspired me. And now I’m trying to reunify with my boy, to get better . . .” A tear slipped down her cheek and she swiped at it. “I’m so sorry for what I did, Jak. And thank you for what you were to me.”