"How much do you remember about Simone Walker?" Cal asked her as they strolled along the sidewalk in the direction of the hot dog vendor in front of their building. Gillian turned her head and almost asked, "Who?", when she realised who he was talking about.
"Like I said this morning. Not much. Simone's family moved into the house next to us over summer break the year before. She was very shy and because school hadn't started yet, she hung out with me every day."
"Was there anything wrong with her? Family problems?"
"No, why?"
They'd reached their target and put their conversation on hold. Cal ordered a kebab and then watched in amusement as Gillian composed her hot dog. He exchanged smiles with the vendor who was instructed to put mustard, but not too much, some ketchup, lots of sweet pickle relish, and a few onions on her hot dog and to top everything off with Sauerkraut.
"Oh, hang on, there's still a bit of meat peeking out, you should cover that as well." He teased her and pointed at the naked end of the sausage. "I've got it." Cal reached into his pocket to pull out a twenty-dollar bill. Gillian grabbed his kebab and walked over to an empty table. Cal pocketed the change and carried their Italian sodas to where Foster was waiting.
Gillian thanked him for the invite, as he put down the cups. He angled for the chair on the opposite side of the table with his foot and pulled it over, so he could sit next to Gillian.
"When you interviewed Nicole, she showed a strong reaction when she talked about Simone. As if she knew a secret about her. I thought maybe it had something to do with the abduction." He explained before he took a bite.
Gillian swallowed and sucked at her straw, before she replied, "You think Simone had something to do with Nicole's disappearance? That's impossible, she was with me the whole day."
"I know. But I think Nicole knows something about Simone that caused friction between them. Could explain why Nicole reacted so strongly that day when you rejected her for Simone."
"I only knew Simone for about two years. I told you her family moved a lot. She was a nice girl. Very polite to adults and authorities, never got into any kind of trouble. I think she spent too much time by herself; she had no close friends because she moved a lot."
Cal nodded. "So when are you gonna tell Daniel the good news?"
"That Nicole is his sister?" Gillian raised her eyebrows, and then glanced at her watch. "He'll be stopping by this afternoon."
"I think I'm going to lean on Nicole a bit and see if I can find out what she knows about Simone. I'll take Torres with me into the cube."
Gillian nodded. "Has Ben had any luck finding her?"
Cal shook his head. "No, it's like Simone Walker dropped off the face of the earth. He and Torres were able to find the mother who lives in Idaho now. But she wasn't much of a help. Simone ran away from home when she was fifteen. According to her mother she hitchhiked to California to become an actress."
"And like thousands young girls before her Hollywood ate her up and spat her out before she even stepped foot into the door of a casting agency." Gillian finished the story.
"The last time Mrs. Walker heard from her daughter was twenty years ago. Simone must have been in a pretty bad state, she asked to come home but her mother was broke. The house was about to be foreclosed. Her husband had left her shortly after Simone ran away and took all the money with him. She had nothing to offer her daughter."
Gillian shook her head sadly. "It's sad you know. So many lives ruined by one event. Nicole was a beautiful and smart girl, destined to go places. Look at her now. She has no one she can trust, she's got no family of her own, and she's estranged from her parents and brother. You never imagine your life ending up like this." Gillian explained and Cal immediately picked up on the fact that she was drawing parallels to her own life.
"I don't know, love, I think you're doing pretty well. I mean, you've got a successful firm, work with a British hunk… You coulda done a lot worse." His cocky grin made Gillian laugh out loud.
"Yeah, quite the catch you are", her voice dripped with sarcasm. "But Nicole and Simone weren't that lucky."
"That's 'cos they got no Cal Lightman to look after them." He waggled his eyebrows as he lifted his cup to finish off his soda.
Gillian furrowed her brows and snatched the cup out of his hand. Cal almost reeled from the electric jolt her touch caused when her fingers brushed against his. He was thankful he was wearing sunglasses, so Gillian couldn't see the arousal flash in his eyes. He swallowed quickly and tried to camouflage his reaction but thankfully Gillian was busy drawing a long gulp from his straw. Cal closed his eyes telling himself to not go there. Oi. Too late.
"Well, the soda tastes normal, so the extra dose of big ego must have come with your breakfast." She grinned at Cal who stared at her open-mouthed.
"Oi! I didn't have breakfast this morning because someone ate my cinnamon roll!"
"That was yesterday, Cal." Gillian ribbed him playfully.
"Right, which means you still owe me one. Don't think I'll forget." He nudged her back, "Maybe I'll just take it out of your wages."
"Make sure you tell that to your payroll officer…oh wait… that would be me." She smiled brightly at him.
0~0~0~0~0
"Oi! Torres! You're with me!" Cal shouted as he breezed through the hallway of the Lightman group. Torres raised her eyebrows at Loker, who shrugged, indicating he had no idea whatsoever what Lightman was up to.
Ria caught up with Cal who filled her in on his suspicions that Nicole was hiding something about Simone Walker.
"Reynolds is checking the usual paper trails, credit cards, SSN, name changes. He found an old address from two years ago but is at a dead end now. It seems as if Simone Walker does not want to be found."
"Well that usually means someone is in trouble." Cal said as he pulled the door to the cube open.
"Why am I back here?" Nicole sounded agitated.
"Because this is where we take the liars." Cal retorted simply and gauged her reaction.
"I'm not a liar!" She replied indignantly.
"Yes, you are. You've been hiding something from us all along." Cal stated, taking notice of her hands playing nervously with each other.
"I've got no secrets." Nicole exclaimed.
"What do you know about Simone Walker?" Ria stepped forward.
"I barely knew her." Nicole countered.
Ria held up her hand in a can you believe her gesture and looked at Cal, "We've got a liar."
"I know. What is it about Simone Walker that you don't want us to know?" Cal bent down in front of her and studied her eyes.
"I don't know anything about Simone. She was Gill's friend!" The woman retorted exasperated. Cal glanced at Ria to see if she's caught it, too. When Nicole referred to Gillian, she seemed grateful instead of jealous.
"See, that's the part I don't believe. Did you spend much time together without Gill?"
"No. How many times do I have to tell you I do not know Simone Walker." She looked him straight in the eye and Cal suppressed a smirk. She continued, "The first time I saw her was the summer before school started, maybe a month or so before. We were coming back from a vacation in the Hamptons, Gillian couldn't come with us because she was sick, so when I returned I went straight over to her place only to find out she'd found a new best friend in my absence. From that point on Simone followed Gillian like a puppy for the rest of the school year."
0~0~0~0~0
Gillian tore her gaze away from the cube, when the door opened. Heidi led Daniel in.
"Sorry, I'm late." Daniel said.
"No you're not. You're tense because you know this is the big reveal." Loker piped up from his chair and turned off the sound. Both Gillian and Daniel sent him a death glare, so Eli scrambled to his feet mumbling something about coffee.
"Why's she back in the there?" Daniel nodded towards the cube, "I thought you'd finished the evaluation when you called me?"
"We did, well we do have an answer to your question." Gillian skipped a beat, "Cal is just following up on some reads he got when Nicole talked about Simone. He thinks Simone may have had something to do with her disappearance."
"Nicole, huh?" Daniel bit his lips, "So you think it really is her?"
Gillian nodded. "I know you'd rather have some form of scientific proof like a DNA profile…"
"I thought what you were doing here is science? That's why I came to the Lightman Group in the first place."
"It is. Everything we do here is legitimate and based in science. But it only works so far for a hundred percent certainty."
"So you're saying you have doubts?"
"I'm saying that to the best of my knowledge the woman in there is Nicole Livingston."
"I don't believe it." Daniel objected. "How can you be so sure?"
"She knows stuff, Dan. She knows things she could only know if she's Nicole. Little details from our childhood. Things I've never shared with anyone else but her. Stuff she couldn't read up on, find on the internet."
Daniel looked at her in disbelief still. "Why is it so hard for you to accept that your sister is back?" She put her hand on his arm comfortingly.
Daniel looked at her hand on his arm and then straight into her eyes, "I don't know, Gill. I just know in my heart she's not my sister."
0~0~0~0~0
"Whoa!" Ria cocked her eyebrows, "What was that?"
Nicole had been edgy and nervous all through the interview but just tensed up tremendously. Torres looked at Lightman whose interest had increased tenfold as well. They both turned around to see what had changed. That's when his look fell onto Daniel and Gillian outside the cube. He cursed himself for not frosting the windows, so Gillian could watch.
"You don't like Daniel, do you?" Torres latched onto the reaction she'd seen a moment ago.
"You're crazy. Daniel's my brother. I love him." Nicole dismissed, pulling a face.
"No you don't", Cal noted, "Which is ok because you barely know him." He cocked his head sideways and studied her face. "You're scared of him, you are." How could he have missed that?
"What did he do to you?" Torres demanded. It would explain the shoulder-shrug when Nicole referred to the abduction in a previous interview. Perhaps he made her leave.
"Nothin'!" Nicole spat. Cal frowned for a second then turned around to study the interaction between Daniel and Gillian. They had not noticed that they had the attention of the occupants of the cube because they were immersed in conversation. Cal noticed how Daniel kept leering at Gillian's breasts and half-wanted to step outside the cube to smack the tosser.
Torres found it amusing to study Lightman as he observed the couple in the lab. Oh there was so definitely something going on between Foster and Lightman. She couldn't wait to gossip with Eli later on.
When Gillian touched Daniel's arm Cal pouted and straightened himself up. They were getting awfully cosy out there. He was half-tempted to cut the interview short and break up their tête-à-tête. He'd better keep an eye on that wanker. Cal put his mask back into place and turned around with new vigour.
"What's the deal with your brother? What is he hiding?" Cal tried a different approach.
"How should I know? I haven't seen him in thirty years." She bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders. Torres and Cal exchanged smiles. They loved it when people did the classic combos.
0~0~0~0~0
"So have you thought about us?" Daniel enquired softly.
"This is not the right place to talk about this." Gillian glanced at the cube.
"Shall we talk about it over dinner? My place? I cook quite well for a bachelor." He put his free hand onto her shoulder.
Gillian narrowed her eyes in thought, "I really don't think that's such a good idea."
"Afraid I can't behave myself?" He teased her.
"No!" Gillian shook her head.
"Afraid you can't behave yourself?" He chuckled.
Gillian rolled her eyes, "I just need more time to think about it."
Daniel glanced at the cube, "Is this about Lightman?"
"No! This has nothing to do with Cal. We're just friends remember?"
"But there is someone else?"
"No", Gillian drew the word out, "I just came out of a relationship that ended not so well."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Who's the idiot? I'm gonna knock some sense into him."
Gillian laughed out loud. "Good luck finding him, the DEA gave him a new identity and relocated him." Right now Daniel reminded her of Nicole. "You know Nicole said the same thing about you, when I told her you dumped me for college."
"She did?" Daniel seemed surprised.
"Yeah, she even said it in the same tone." Gillian affirmed. Maybe that would help Daniel accept the truth.
"So rain check?"
Gillian nodded vaguely, "I'll call you later."
"Ok. I can wait." Daniel shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at her curiously, "It's been thirty years, what's a day or two more?"
"Come on, I'll see you out." She put her hand on his back and guided him to the door.