The Twelfth Card (Lincoln Rhyme 6)

Bell thanked the woman for her help.

"Anything we can do." She paused and looked the girl over. "But I really do need to talk to your parents, Geneva."

"My parents?"

She nodded slowly. "I have to say--I've been talking to some of the students and teachers, and to be honest, most of them say your folks haven't been very involved in your classes. In fact, I haven't found anybody who's actually met them."

"My grades're fine."

"Oh, I know that. We're real happy with your academic work, Geneva. But school's about children and parents working together. I'd really like to talk to them. What's their cell number?"

The girl froze.

A dense silence.

Which Lincoln Rhyme finally broke. "I'll tell you the truth."

Geneva looked down. Her fists were clenched.

Rhyme said to Barton, "I just got off the phone with her father."

Everyone else in the room turned and stared at him.

"Are they back home?"

"No, and they won't be for a while."

"No?"

"I asked them not to come."

"You did? Why?" The woman frowned.

"It's my decision. I did it to keep Geneva safe. As Roland Bell here will tell you"--a glance at the Carolina detective, who nodded, a fairly credible gesture, considering he had no clue what was going on--"when we set up protection details, sometimes we have to separate the people we're guarding from their families."

"I didn't know that."

"Otherwise," Rhyme continued, vamping, "the attacker could use their relatives to draw them into public."

Barton nodded. "Makes sense."

"What's it called, Roland?" Rhyme glanced at the detective again. And filled in the answer himself, "Isolation of Dependents, right?"

"IOD," Bell said, nodding. "What we call it. Very important technique."

"Well, I'm glad to know that," the counselor said. "But your uncle'll be looking out for you, right?"

Sellitto said, "No, we think it's probably best if Geneva stays here."

"We're running an IOD with her uncle too," Bell said. The fabrication sounded particularly slick coming from a law enforcer with a Southern drawl. "Want to keep him out of sight."

Barton bought it all, Rhyme could see. The counselor said to Geneva, "Well, when this is over, please have them call me. Seems like you're handling it pretty well. But psychologically it has to be taking a toll. We'll all sit down together and work through some of the issues." She added with a smile, "There's nothing broke that can't be fixed."

A sentence that was probably emblazoned on a desk plaque or coffee mug in her office.

"Okay," Geneva said cautiously. "We'll see."

After the woman was gone, Geneva turned to Rhyme. "I don't know what to say. It means so much to me, what you did."