“Maybe, but he left after I answered him. I don’t know. Just thought I’d mention it.”
“Cheers for that,” Deidre told her.
Naomi interrupted, bringing their plates. Holly moved to one side to let her put them down on the table in front of Deidre and Niall, then excused herself so they could settle into their food.
“What do you think that was about?” Niall asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, but he could tell from her tone and the way she looked away when she answered that she knew more than she was saying.
He let it go. This was no place to discuss some things. Instead, they ate their breakfast and went for a stroll around London. It was nice to feel free with her, rather than being on the run or in hiding as they had been when they first met.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Deidre
“What are you not telling me?” he asked as they walked along the River Thames.
“What do you mean?” she asked, averting her gaze.
“Deidre, I’ve built a life around knowing whether someone is telling me the truth or not. I don’t know what’s up, but I do know that you are avoiding discussion of something, and I have a feeling it has to do with your strange visitor at the cafe.”
“Let’s sit for a while,” she said, guiding him toward an empty bench a little farther out of the way than the ones nearer the heavier populated tourist areas.
Niall sat down beside her as she bit her lip and looked down for a moment. When she looked up, he was watching her, studying her demeanor. She had thought it best not to worry him with any of it but could clearly see that he wasn’t the sort to stand for secrets.
“Just tell me,” he said sternly.
“I wasn’t keeping it from you. We just haven’t really had a chance to talk about it,” she told him with a smile. “We’ve been busy since you arrived.”
“That’s fair, but we have time now, so talk,” he replied.
Deidre explained to him about the men coming to the house and the events that followed. He listened without interrupting and then raised his hand to his face, stroking the healthy crop of facial hair that had appeared since she last saw him with his hand.
“It was my understanding that the identities being issued belonged to individuals who existed only on paper,” he said.
“How does someone exist only on paper?” she asked.
“They take birth certificates for which no proper death certificate can be located and give that person life. So, you’re looking at people who were stillborn or died when they were young without being properly put into the system for anything. The most you should find of Deanna Caine is an old hospital record from her childhood, and even that is rare.”
“Well, this one has a house and a father who is sending her on a treasure hunt. Deanna Caine is a very wealthy woman.”
“What have you done with the money?” he asked.
“Nothing. I left the money in the bank right where it was and the money I retrieved from the assorted storage lockers is hidden in my closet, along with a little box that I can’t get open.”
“That’s good. At least if someone comes looking for it, you’ll still have it, but we need to find out what is going on before that happens.”
She nodded in agreement and he continued.
“Okay. I’ll take care of it. I’ll get in touch with the Scouser and make arrangements to sit with him on my way back to Ireland.”
“You can’t just call and ask him?”
Niall chuckled. “You met him, right? That man discusses nothing on the phone. In order to set up your new identity, I had to send a courier ahead of you to pay him and tell him what was needed so we could see if he could make arrangements for you.”
“Aye. That sounds about right for him.”
“In the meantime, just don’t put yourself in any risky situations. Be careful who you open the door for. I’ll be here for a couple of more days, so maybe your friend at the cafe will turn back up and we can figure out what all this is about from that angle too.”
“Do you think he really gave me an identification that wasn’t clean? Would he have done that?”
“I don’t know. He has an exceptionally good reputation, but he’s not someone I’ve used personally before. He came highly recommended by people who don’t make mistakes, so I guess we’ll just have to see what shakes loose. The whole thing could just be some sort of weird but harmless situation.”
“I sure hope so. I’d really like to stop looking over my shoulder at some point. I had thought that would happen if Trill was put down, but now I have this hanging over my head.”