First Family (10 page)

The boy shook his head.

Neither of them knew for sure where Willa had been in the house. John thought with his mother downstairs. His little sister believed she remembered hearing Willa on the steps going to the second floor a few minutes before Colleen was attacked.

Sean showed them a copy of the markings that had been on their mother’s body but neither of them knew what they meant.

The usual questions of strangers lurking around, odd letters in the mail, or weird telephone calls had gotten them nowhere.

“Would either of you have any idea why your mom might want to see me? Did she talk to you about that?”

They both shook their heads.

“How about your dad? Did either of you see him last night?”

“Daddy was out of town,” said Colleen.

“But he came back last night,” noted Michelle.

“I didn’t see him,” said John and Colleen at the same time.

The little girl desperately wanted to know if they would get Willa back.

“We’ll do everything we can,” Michelle said. “And we’re pretty good at what we do.”

“Now what?” said Michelle as they drove away from the stricken family.

“I got a message from Jane. Tuck will see us.”

“We can talk to everybody, but if we don’t have access to the crime scene and the forensics we don’t have much of a shot at this thing.”

“What happened to my little miss sunshine?”

Michelle glanced in the rearview mirror. “It got burned off back at that house. Those kids are devastated.”

“Of course they are. But they’ll be even more devastated if we don’t find Willa.”

Two Secret Service agents were outside Tuck’s hospital room, but they had been notified of Sean and Michelle’s visit and the pair was quickly allowed in. Tuck was sitting up in bed looking groggy. An IV stand was next to the bed with a unit of meds hanging on it and a line running to Tuck’s arm.

Sean introduced Michelle and put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry about Pam,” he said.

Tears slid down Tuck’s face. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe she’s gone.”

“We just saw John and Colleen.”

“How are they?” Tuck sat up straighter in his anxiety.

“As best as can be expected,” Sean said diplomatically.

“And Willa? Any news?”

Sean glanced at Michelle and pulled up a chair and sat down next to the bed. “No. What can you tell us about that night?”

Michelle drew closer. “Just take your time. Don’t rush it.”

As it turned out, Tuck could not tell them that much. He’d been in the bedroom when he’d heard a scream. He’d rushed to the door and then something hit him in the head hard.

“Docs say I have the mother of all concussions but no permanent damage.”

“What time did it happen?”

“I’d gone upstairs to change. I’d been at a meeting out of town. I got home late.”

“How late?”

“A little bit after eleven.”

“We got there at 11:30,” said Sean.

Tuck looked confused. “You were there?”

Sean took a minute to explain. “Where were you coming in from?”

“Jacksonville.”

“You drove home in your Mercedes?”

“That’s right. How’d you know?”

“You drove straight home? No stops?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, if someone were following you, you might have noticed something if you stopped.”

“Why would someone be following me?”

“Sean’s point is that whoever attacked your family might have followed you home.”

“You mean it was random?”

“They see somebody in a late-model Mercedes, it’s not unheard-of Tuck.”

Tuck put a hand over his face. “Jesus, I can’t believe this.”

“You mind my asking what the meeting was about?”

Tuck slowly removed his hand. “Nothing too exciting. You know I’m a defense contractor. We have a small office down in Jacksonville. My company is a subcontractor on a team working on
a biodefense proposal for Homeland Security. We were just polishing our submission.”

“And you got back right in time to get your head crunched,” said Michelle.

Tuck spoke slowly. “They told me about Pam. How she died.”

“Who? The police?”

“Guys in suits. FBI, I think they said. Head’s still not working right. Sorry.”

They asked him the same questions that they had the children and got the same unhelpful answers.

Tuck smiled weakly. “It was a great day for Willa. She got to go to Camp David for her birthday. How many kids get to do that?”

“Not many,” agreed Michelle. “Too bad you had to miss it.”

“First time I ever missed one. And Camp David too. I’ve never been there.”

“It’s pretty rustic,” said Sean. “So the First Lady has played a big part in Willa’s life?”

“Oh yeah. I mean to the extent she has time. Some days I still can’t believe she’s married to the president. Hell, I can’t believe that I’m his brother-in-law.”

“But you two have always been close?”

“Yeah. I like Dan too. Even voted for him.” Tuck managed a smile before choking back a sob. “I can’t understand why anyone would do this, Sean.”

“There’s one elephant in the room on that, Tuck,” he said.

“You mean that it’s connected to Dan and Jane?”

“Folks know you’re family. You’re a much easier target.”

“But if that’s the case what do they want? If it’s money the president can’t just dip into the Treasury and pay a ransom.”

Sean and Michelle exchanged another glance as Tuck looked from one to the other. “I mean he can’t, right?”

“Let’s just focus on the facts, Tuck. There’ll be plenty of time for speculation.”

“We don’t have time, Sean. What about Willa? They’ve got Willa. She could be…” He sat up in his agitation.

Sean gently pushed him back down on the bed. “Look, Tuck, the
FBI is all over this and we’re going to do everything we can too. What we need now is for everybody to remain calm and just tell us what they know.”

Sean pulled out the copy of the markings on Pam’s arms.

“Do you recognize this?”

“No, why?”

“The FBI didn’t ask you about it?”

“No. What the hell is it?”

“This stuff was written on Pam’s arms with a black pen.”

“Oh my God. Is it some sort of cult thing? Is that what this is?” Tuck’s expression changed from anger to terror. “Has some kind of modern-day Charlie Manson freak with a beef against the government got Willa?”

The nurse came in the room and said sternly, “I’m going to have to ask both of you to leave. You’re clearly upsetting him.”

Michelle started to protest but Sean said, “Right, sorry.” He gripped Tuck’s arm. “You just focus on getting well. John and Colleen really need you, okay?”

Tuck gave a quick nod and sank back on the bed.

A few minutes later Sean and Michelle were climbing in her SUV.

“Got one question,” said Michelle.

“Just one? I’m impressed.”

“Why was Tuck out of town at a meeting on the day of his daughter’s birthday at Camp David? I mean, the polish meeting in Jacksonville couldn’t wait? Or you couldn’t do it by video conference? And was it just me or did he really seem to want to know if the president could pay a ransom from the U.S. Treasury?”

“He jumped on the cult thing a little too quickly too. That’s why I didn’t ask him about Pam wanting to meet with us, because it could be she wanted to meet with us about
Tuck
.”

“So you suspect him?”

“I suspect everybody. That’s why I didn’t mention it to Jane Cox either.”

“I liked your tactic in nailing down that he drove straight home. But do you think this really was just a random thing?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Then do you think this is really tied to the First Family?”

“I did until Tuck said it.”

“Said what?”

“That he was working on a big biodefense project for the government.”

L
ATER THAT EVENING
they drove near the Duttons’ home but didn’t pull down the road they lived on because it was closed off to traffic by portable blockades. In front of the barriers police cruisers and FBI SUVs sat slant-parked. Behind the temporary walls, the road was still clogged with police and forensics vans.

Beyond the barrier zone they could see eager journalists running around with fat microphones clutched in hand, while their videographers trotted behind. News vans with electronic masts raised to the heavens were parked up and down the road. Gawkers were out in force as well, trying to get a peek of what was going on and becoming fodder for the reporters who had little else to do but seek out inane comments since the authorities weren’t talking.

“Okay, so much for tripping through the forensics evidence,” said Michelle.

Sean wasn’t listening. He was staring down at the piece of paper on which he’d written the letters found on Pam Dutton’s arms. He was trying to assemble them in a way that made sense.

“
Chaffakan. Hatka
and
Tayyi
?”

“
Chaffakan
? Like in Chaka Khan? Maybe they’re fans of pop singers with cool names.”

“Will you get serious?”

“Okay,
Tayyi
sounds like Japanese or Chinese. Either a martial art or a relaxation technique.”

“Or how about a code?”

“If so we don’t have the key.”

Sean pulled out his phone and pecked on the digital screen.

“What are you doing?”

“What everybody does these days, I’m Googling it.”

He waited for the search request to load and then started scrolling down the responses. He didn’t look too confident.

“
Hatka
is either an actress or an entertainment company. And
Tayyi
has something to do with Arabs in the sixth century, apparently some tribal groups.”

“Some terrorist thing?”

“Doesn’t feel right. I’m going to try a few more combinations with these letters.” He pecked at the digital keys and got more results until another entry caught his attention.

“
Yi
.”

“What about it?”

“I typed in
Yi
instead of
Tayyi
and here’s what it says.” Sean read off the screen. “The Yi Syllabary’s origins are lost in time but are thought to be influenced by the Chinese writing system. Each character represents one syllable. It was used mainly for religious and secret writings. It’s spoken by millions of people in the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan.”

“So a secret Chinese religious society with a weird language is responsible for all this?” Michelle said skeptically. “But the letters are from the English alphabet, not Chinese.”

“I don’t know. I’m just trying to cop a lead.” He punched in a number and held up a hand when Michelle started to say something.

“Hey, Phil, it’s Sean King. Right, yeah, it’s been a long time, I know. Look, I’m back in D.C. and I’ve got a question about a language. Right. No, I’m not trying to learn one, I’m trying to see if something is a language or not. Yeah, I guess I’m not making much sense. Look, do you know anyone at Georgetown who’s familiar with a language called Yi? From China?”

Michelle tapped her fingers on the steering wheel while he talked.

“Yeah, I know it’s not one of the major ones. But could you check and see if anyone in your department might know? Thanks, I owe you.” He gave Phil his number and clicked off.

When Michelle looked at him questioningly he said, “Buddy of
mine who’s in the foreign language department at Georgetown. He’s going to check and get back to me.”

“Yi-pee.”

He stared at her crossly. “You got any better ideas?”

She was about to answer when his phone rang. “Yeah?” He straightened up and then glanced out the window. “Now? Right, okay.”

He clicked off and then looked puzzled.

“Who was it?”

“FBI Special Agent Waters. We’ve been officially invited to participate in the investigation.”

Michelle slid the gearshift lever to drive. “Wow, Jane Cox really lived up to her billing.”

W
ATERS MET THEM
at the front door. It was quite obvious that the FBI agent had been put on a short leash with a choke collar and didn’t like it one bit. He had them put on elastic booties and instructed them to walk only where he walked. He was obviously taking great pains to sound polite, but it all came out as a near growl.