I could tell by the tremor in his voice what his abandonment of them did to him. He held himself responsible.
“But you came back in time to save Francis from the first attempt on her life.”
He shook his head, nostrils flared. “Not hardly. That girl saved herself, swam out of a deathtrap, hiked five miles to a farmer’s house, and called me. I was . . . involved in doing some interesting jobs for the government at the time, and luckily I had the connections to get her protection, though when someone that powerful wants you dead, safety becomes a rather tricky notion.”
“What sort of evidence does she have? Is it actually necessary for Iris to take the stand?”
“Enough,” he said abruptly. I could tell by his demeanor that this rare and liberal flow of information was being shut down. “I didn’t come here because I enjoy chitchatting with you. I came to give you enough answers so you’ll have a clue what you need to do if Iris endangers herself to see you again.”
“Francis,” I corrected quietly, feeling just sick about it.
“Iris,” he stressed. “She goes by Iris now. If ever anyone deserved a fresh start in life, it’s her.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Three days later, Iris showed up at my door, goodbye in her eyes.
She didn’t even try to touch me, in fact, she stayed several feet away at all times, and I found myself relieved by that.
“Hello, Francis,” I said stonily.
She flushed. “Please don’t call me that. I’m Iris now. Always.”
“I came to apologize, and to say my piece, now that it’s all out there.”
I watched her, arms folded across my chest, trying to reconcile all of the things I felt about her.
Guilt, longing, disgust, desire, shame, tenderness, anger, pity, animosity.
Love.
Yes, still that.
But what did that matter? How could a situation so screwed up possibly amount to anything?
“First off, do you have any questions?” Her voice was very small, as though she was all of a sudden intimidated by me.
I hated that, but saw the necessity of it. “What was real? I know you researched me, to shape yourself into what you thought I wanted. I want to know what was real.”
She took a very deep breath, and began to speak, “In every relationship, there’s someone that loves the other more, someone that would be crushed if it all ended. Between you and me, I am that someone. I’ve always known it would be like that.”
I studied her like I’d never seen her before, wondering what on earth to do with her.
“I’ve loved you for so long it’s become part of the patchwork that makes me who I am. You are the thing that drives me to go on, to stay safe in a world that lost its use for me years ago. You have no faith in me, which is fair, though it makes me sad, but my faith in you saved my life.”
Her fists were clenched, and she looked like she was about to cry.
It took everything I had not to take her in my arms, but the worst thing I could do was lead her on, and so I held myself back.
“That’s what was real, Dair,” she continued in a trembling voice. “My love for you is the realest thing I know. I’d like for you to remember that.”
We were both quiet for the longest time, just looking at each other, tears trailing down her cheeks in a steady flow.
“Goodbye,” she said finally, in a choked voice, and fled.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
She didn’t come back, and I’m ashamed to admit, for about the first six months, I was mostly relieved about that.
I was just so conflicted where she was concerned.
It was touted as the trial of the century, though Diana J. Baker wasn’t technically the vice president anymore when it all took place.
I didn’t get a front row seat for the proceedings. Hell, I didn’t get a seat at all.
I was left as in the dark as everyone else in the country, watching the coverage on television.
Diana had a wily team of attorneys who postponed and argued about every little detail, insisting until the very end that the entire case needed to be thrown out.
The evidence against her, however, was staggering. Countless incriminating papers with her signature, accurate accountings of exactly where and when specific crimes took place, recordings of her admitting to illegal acts, and shock of shockers, even videotape of the woman alluding to her part in some of the crimes.
When it became public that the mysterious witness who’d gathered the brunt of the evidence was the assumed dead granddaughter, well, needless to say, the press had a field day.
About a third of the evidence was ruled inadmissible, but the other two thirds were more than enough to do the trick.
She was found guilty for an impressive roster of crimes, including multiple counts of conspiracy, extortion, racketeering, money laundering, bribery, embezzling, voter fraud, felony counts of financial corruption, obstruction of justice.
The list went on and on. Diana had been playing a very dirty game for her entire political career, and it was finally all laid out there, for the world to see.
They even managed to get her for tax evasion.
They couldn’t make the murder charges stick, but the rest would keep her in jail for the remaining years of her life, and more importantly, completely destroyed her reputation and effectively ended her political career.
Her husband, Jonathan Mitchell Baker, was also dragged into the mess, facing many of the same charges. His lawyers sold him as the silent, innocent spouse, but he didn’t fare much better than his wife.
Iris, with her hair dyed black again, glasses on, looking solemn and achingly beautiful as she took the stand in the eleventh hour of the proceedings, became a national sensation overnight, particularly with the male half of the country. She started getting added to hottest and sexiest lists in various publications, and was considered, in general, to be something of a hero. People loved the idea of a gorgeous, brave, brilliant young thing taking on a crooked politician and coming out ahead.
I’d graduated from conflicted to just missing her by then.
Of course, no one that big ever went down alone, and as numerous dangerous figures became implicated in the crimes, the danger to Francis Baker, as she was known, was overwhelming.
It all came to a head just days after she finished testifying. The story went that, while in transit, at a stoplight, a van pulled up beside the car she was being transported in, and six men in ski masks jumped out of said van.