As planned, I go to pick Wallace up from the airport. Baggage claim is drafty and as soon as I spy his bright blue luggage run through the carousel, I snatch it up and wait in a stiff plastic chair next to the window.
Wallace walks up to me and lifts me up for a hug. A strong hug. That's right, a BFF style hug. He lets me go.
"You know, Wallace, you really shouldn't leave your luggage unattended." I lift up the duffel bag and hand it to him.
"Thank you, Veronica." He smiles "I'll keep that in mind. What do you say about getting out of this place? I'm sick of airports." He shakes his head.
"Understandably…how long was the layover in Dallas again?"
"Six hours!" He exclaims.
"You poor soul!" I laugh and we walk together out the door and into the blazing sun.
"So how did the internship go?"
I should've expected he'd ask. Oh boy, what should I have told him? Eye-opening? Scary as hell?
"Good." I finally reply, shocked that I lied to him. "You know, Logan asked me that same question a few nights ago." I raise my eyebrows at him, hinting.
"Oh, really? That's cool." He says coolly, acting unassuming. Fine, Wallace, don't fess up.
"Why did you tell him, Wallace?" I ask suddenly. I can tell I sound completely self-absorbed. Not that I was keeping the whole internship a secret under lock and key, it's just that Logan and I…well, we weren't big with the communication when I found out I was going.
"He came to me and asked where you were. Said you'd done some disappearing act on him. Was I supposed to lie?" Wallace shakes his head tiredly. "What did you do to that guy?"
It's more like what I didn't do the next morning, I think sensitively to myself.
"It was just stupid. The night before I left, I went to visit him at his place…that's all." I cross my arms uncomfortably. Segueing…" So…what did you do for mankind this summer?"
"I see. Subject change." He sighs. "Well, this past month, we refurnished an old school house and organized some transit for students that would normally walk miles everyday."
"You're going to have one hell of a 'back to school essay'."
After Wallace and I watch a movie, I drop by the office and do some organizing for Dad, whom I can only assume is at home fixing lasagna or something equally appetizing.
I still haven't told him that I ran into Mom this summer. I don't know if I should. It just so happened that she was involved in an investment fraud case under the assumed name of Suzanne Astor. She was a secretary at the Morrison Corporation. I demanded to be taken off the case. I still regret that decision.
Normally, Dad keeps two piles of files on his desk: complete and incomplete. Lately, the piles have been mixing together. I leaf through the files, trying to decide whether they should land in pile #1 or #2. I file them tiredly, putting the complete ones alphabetically into the beyond gray filing cabinets. The others are filed by urgency and placed in the exact middle of his faux wood desk.
I cautiously check my surroundings and curiously open Dad's safe. I haven't done that since Duncan and I found the tapes in Lilly's vents. I haven't had to.
My fingers land on a file with a familiar name written in red Sharpie. Lianne Mars. Inspecting the file, I find out that Dad knows. About Suzanne Astor, about the investigation, everything…
Things have just gotten a little more interesting.