Page 25 of Waiting for Him
Harry grinned. “I ain’t stupid, son. I’ve known what happened to Irina’s brother and family for years, or at least I thought I did. Their pictures are all over the place in there. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Although, I’m sure I’m missing a few pieces of the puzzle, along with Irina.
“So, how do you want to do this? She’s in the kitchen making coffee and heating up my pie.”
Boomer looked at Kat, who shrugged, then back at Harry. “You know her better than we do now, so we’ll follow your lead.”
The other man nodded. “Okay. Why don’t you wait out here then and give me a few minutes?”
The couple agreed and watched as Harry disappeared back into the house. It was four, maybe five minutes before the door flew open, and a shorter, older version of Kat came barreling out to the front yard. She gasped and cried out but never slowed down, running straight to her niece with open arms. Tears fell from both women as they embraced. Irina kept pulling back, staring at Kat, and then hugging her fiercely again. “Katerina, Katerina! Oh, my Lord! I don’t understand, but I’ve never been so happy in my life. My Katerina is back!”
Boomer joined Harry on the front steps, leaving the two women alone for a few minutes.
“I take it this is going to be a long story, isn’t it, son?”
“Yes, sir.”
Harry raised an eyebrow at him. “If you’d like, I can come back later. I just wanted to make sure Irina didn’t need me.”
He thought about it a moment and decided Harry might come in handy. Once they left, they’d need someone to keep an eye on Irina just in case anyone came here looking for them. He’d also call Ian and see if Trident had some contacts they could use to protect the older woman. Kat would be devastated if anything happened to her aunt. “If it’s all right with you, sir, I think it would be better if you heard everything.”
Harry tilted his head in acknowledgment and continued to watch the tearful reunion.
Twenty minutes later, the four sat around Irina’s dining room table, sipping coffee. The pie in front of each of them went untouched, except for Harry’s. While listening to Kat tell the older couple what had happened twelve years ago to the present, Boomer regarded the quaint little home. Pictures of Katerina, Alex, and their parents were strategically placed throughout the rooms, and it was apparent how much Irina loved and missed her family.
Sadness filled his chest as he spotted a picture from Alex and Boomer’s graduation ceremony. He remembered the photo of the Maier family well because he’d been the one to take it with Kat’s camera at her request. The four of them looked so happy, their futures bright with promise. But all the happiness had been destroyed by greed and evil.
He shook his head to clear the anger building up inside him and returned to the present.
Kat’s story was interrupted by the occasional “Oh, dear,” and “You poor child,” from Irina. She hadn’t let go of her niece’s hand since they’d come into the house, and Boomer knew the feeling of needing to be connected to the long-lost woman.
When Kat took a breath after telling them how she ended up at Trident, Boomer took over. “We’re doing everything we can to keep Kat safe, Irina, but we need your help. Ivan gave her a key to a safety deposit box in Norfolk. Only a photograph was inside, and we hoped you could tell us where it was taken.”
As Kat took the picture out of her purse and handed it to Irina, Boomer gave the retired Major a military hand signal to indicate more had happened in Norfolk and that he’d fill the man in later. Kat had agreed with him when he’d suggested they not tell her aunt about the attempted kidnapping the day before. It would only worry her.
“Oh, my, this brings back memories. This is your dad when he was about five or six years old. So, I was about seven then. That’s my mother’s prized rose bush at the corner of the house. It was beautiful. This is the house we lived in first before we moved to Durham. We moved to Murfreesboro when I was twelve, almost thirteen. That’s when Daddy took over the pharmacy here. Before then, he worked for other pharmacists.”
Normally, Boomer wouldn’t have minded the woman reminiscing the past, but she’d skipped over some important information. “Irina, do you remember the name of the town the first house was in, the one in the picture?”
“Oh, of course. That’s what you need to know, isn’t it? This was our house in Mint Hill, about a half-hour east of Charlotte.”
Boomer nodded. “I’ve heard of it. My bosses grew up in Charlotte, and their folks still live there. You wouldn’t happen to remember the address in Mint Hill, would you?”
“Of course, dear. It was 58 Sycamore Road, but it’s not there anymore.”
Everyone stared at the woman in confusion as Kat asked, “What do you mean, Aunt Irina?”
“Didn’t your father ever tell you? Well, obviously, he didn’t. Our home in Mint Hill burned down—there’s nothing left. As far as I know, the property is still abandoned.”
“What? How come I never heard of this?”
While Kat was shocked, Boomer held back a groan. He’d thought the old house was where they had to go next, but now he wasn’t so sure.
Irina patted Kat’s hand. “It was no secret, Katerina. I guess you just don’t remember ever hearing the story. The house was struck by lightning one night and went up in flames. Luckily, we all got out unharmed, but the house was a total loss. The only things left were a pile of rubble and the chimney. That’s when my father took a job at a pharmacy in Durham. The pay was better there, and my grandmother had just passed away, so we were able to stay in her house for a while.”
Irina stood, went to the bookshelf, and retrieved an old photo album that looked like it was from the 1970s. She brought it back to the table and handed it to Kat. “This has all our pictures from back then. We still have them because my mother had brought them to her sister’s house one day and accidentally left them there.”
Kat fingered the flower-covered album. “I remember this. Mom kept it with all our other albums.”
“I have them all, Katerina.” She pointed to the shelf, and Kat’s eyes followed. They filled up when she saw the stack of albums her mother had kept in the family room. “When I had to sell your house after . . . after the accident, I kept everything with sentimental value. Some of it’s up in the attic, but I liked flipping through these at night when I was missing you all so terribly. I always wondered what would happen to everything after I was gone, but now . . . now it all belongs to you, my beautiful Katerina.”
