Chapter 3
After a couple of hours of sleep, Lisa awoke to the sound of the doorbell ringing. Shit! She had slept right through her alarm.
"I'm sorry, make yourself comfortable while I take a quick shower."
Jay looked her over. "Bad night? You wanna talk about it?"
"No thanks, I'm paying you guys enough drinks as it is. Be back in a second."
He trailed her to the bathroom. "You know, one of these days you'll have to answer that question with 'No. I had wild premarital sex with some random guy I picked up at the club last night.' or else this whole thing will get boring."
Lisa giggled. "Out!"
Half an hour later Cynthia arrived ("Sorry, but there's this new girl at the reception and she keeps calling me.") with their supplies for the day and the three settled on the couch.
Cynthia watched her cell suspiciously as if she was willing it not to ring anymore while Jay snatched the remote. Lisa leaned back into the soft cushions and ran her fingers through her wet hair. The terrors of last night seemed far away, the sun was shining and her friends made her laugh even more so than the movies did.
Several hours later, Cynthia threw the box of cookies back on the table. "I cannot eat another one or I'm going to hurl. Hey, I'm surprised your father didn't call after that important anniversary yesterday." With a sigh she picked up the box again. "Last one. Can't stop! Ah!"
"No, he's trying to hold back." Lisa cursed under her breath. Next time she would brush and blowdry her hair right away.
"How do you know?" Jay was stretched out on the floor, going for full overeater's drama.
"My mom told me he told her. She also told me that I should tell her if he didn't. Then she'd tell him to stop."
"That's an awful lot of telling."
Cynthia's phone rang. "You know," she said rolling her eyes, "one of these days I'm going to tell HER to stop." She pressed a button. "Hi Carly. What's going on?" After listening for a few seconds, she whispered, "Allright, I need to leave, things are not going smoothly at the hotel."
Jay sat up and yawned. "Okay then, I'll leave as well. I need that beauty sleep, early shift tomorrow. Are you gonna be okay, TC?"
Lisa grinned. "If I say yes, will you believe me?"
Her friend gave her a peck on the cheek and a slap on the butt. "Nope. But we're getting there."
Cynthia gave Lisa a hug. "Call me if you need anything."
"I will, thanks, you guys. Be careful driving, it's a full moon tonight. People go crazy."
Minutes later she was alone again in her appartment cleaning up the living room when the doorbell rang.
"What did you forget this time, Cy…" The words caught in her throat. In the hall stood Keefe, dressed in casual clothes instead of the usual suit. He looked slightly uncomfortable, Lisa noticed, even though he tried to hide it.
"Sir? Please come in." She also noticed that there were no bodyguards this time.
"Thank you, Ms. Reisert. How are you?"
His feeling of unease translated onto her as she eyed him curiously. "I'm doing well, actually. Can I offer you a drink?"
He seemed to ponder the question. Yes, something was definitely wrong. "No thanks, just some water will be fine."
As she turned towards the kitchen, Lisa couldn't help but ask, "Do I need a drink?"
That he didn't reply was answer enough. She slowly walked back to the couch and looked at him. "Mr. Keefe, I suspect you have bad news. I'd really prefer it if we got straight to it."
Lisa braced herself, but nothing could have prepared her for what came out of his mouth.
"Ms. Reisert, Jackson Rippner is alive and he would like to see you."
The glasses shattered on the floor. She flinched when she felt Keefe's hand on her arm, guiding her around the shards to the couch. "Please sit down, Ms. Reisert."
It took her another few moments to shake off the paralysis that seemed to have taken hold of her. "The grave." Lisa's voice was flat, barely a whisper.
"Pardon?"
"Grave number 312 at the State Penitentiary."
"Someone else. I am so sorry."
So they had lied to her. The knot in Lisa's stomach exploded into blinding anger that seeped into her body, flushing her cheeks that had looked so pale just seconds ago. Her muscles contracted and she clenched her hands in an effort to hold down the bile that was rising in her throat.
"And … he would like to see me?"
"I'm afraid so, yes."
"With all due respect, sir, there is no 'would like to' with Jackson Rippner. He wants to see me. What I don't understand is why you would give in to him."
"Ms. Reisert, believe me when I say I feel terrible about this. Back then, I reckoned it would be better for you if you believed him dead. I never thought I would have to tell you the truth." Keefe's voice was apologetic, but matter-of-factly. At least he had the courtesy to spare her the flowery speeches. Lisa motioned for him to go on.
"When we found out how exactly you were connected to the attack on me and my family, we immediately took Jackson Rippner out of the hospital into our … care."
"Jackson Rippner is not his real name, is it?"
"No. But the name's not important, it's the person we're interested in."
"So the name stuck?"
"Yes."
No point in hiding from herself. Lisa surrendered to the memories that came back to her one by one. "Call him Jack, he doesn't like that."
She wasn't looking at Keefe, but she still heard the grin in his voice when he said, "Yeah, we know."
"You know, that man ripped my world apart."
"I realize that." Keefe's hands fiddled with a shard he had picked off the floor. "And I'm no fan, either, to say the least."
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Washington, present time.
He sat in his cell on that little bed that was uncomfortable as hell and stared into space. His body was rigid and his face was motionless, but it was the flicker of his eyes that gave him away.
Jackson Rippner was nervous.
If everything went according to plan, Keefe would be sitting down with Leese at this very moment, dropping the bomb. A faint smile touched the corners of his mouth as he rose and walked over to the window. Full moon, how fitting.
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Lisa got up and slowly walked towards the window, her eyes fixed on the moon.
"Allright, I'm listening."