Page 63 of False Evidence

A minute passed before the response came.

Received:Shit. I wish I could, sweetheart, but I’m not in DC.

Was he lying? Making up an excuse?

Sent:I thought you said you were here until the New Year?

Received:A work thing came up.

Did she believe him? For all she knew, he had a date tonight, and it wasn’t as if she could blame him. She wouldn’t even tell him her name.

She set the BlackBerry aside and hit Play on the DVD. He could do what he wanted. Maybe she’d screwed up in keeping her distance, or maybe it was the right thing to do because he was already moving on.

Another message came in.

Received:I want to see you. I just can’t tonight. If I’d known about yesterday… Shit. I’m already halfway to New York, but I can turn around.

Her heart twisted. She’d always considered Kendall as the one whose emotions moved with the drops and rises of a roller coaster, but now here she was, unable to hold on to one feeling for longer than it took to hit the next curve.

She needed to get her head together. If he came back to DC just for her tonight, she’d be indebted in a way she wasn’t ready for, and she might fall harder than was healthy.

Sent:No. Do your business thing. When will you be back?

Received:Friday.

Christmas Eve. Of course, he was coming back to be with his family for the holiday.

She wished she could afford to go somewhere. Suddenly, it didn’t sound so great to be alone, even if she had scored DVDs of BBC’sPride and Prejudiceand Season One ofSex and the City.

Received:I need to play Santa at a Christmas Eve event for kids in transitional housing, but after that, I’m free if you want to go out.

She sat up straighter.

Sent:You as Santa? I’d kind of like to see that.

Received:Technically, you’ve been invited to play Mrs. Claus.

She snickered.

Sent:Pass, thanks.

Received:Figured. Meet me at the Mayflower after? I could get there by nine.

She considered the question. If she spent Christmas Eve with him, she’d have to come up with a gift for him. Maybe she could make something?

All she knew was she really didn’t want to spend the holiday alone.

She agreed and signed off. He had a drive to finish, and the cheese puffs weren’t going to eat themselves. Plus, she needed to figure out what she could possibly give her mystery man for Christmas.

ChapterTwenty-Two

Catoctin Mountain, Maryland

Present

The attic was a bust as far as computers went. He found two thirteen-inch cathode-ray-tube monitors from the ’90s that weighed a ton, too many outdated cords, floppy disk drives in multiple sizes, a Zip drive, and even an old Apple IIc. Nothing that could run a pre-2010 PC hard disk. The laptop he had with him was a MacBook.

Tomorrow, he could drive to town and see if the thrift store had something that would work, but the odds were against success. Lee could crack it in a heartbeat. Or Raptor could ship a computer to him. He and Lex and Gemma could stay here forever.

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