Kate nodded back, holding her breath. This time neither did she.
Her father stepped into the house and took off his coat, ashen. He gave Kate a halfhearted wink, then Sharon a stiff hug.
“Who are those people, Ben?”
He merely shrugged. “We’ve got some things to talk over as a family, Sharon.”
They sat around the dining room table, which didn’t exactly make anyone feel relaxed, because they never sat in the dining room. Ben asked for a glass of water. He could barely look any of them in the eyes. A day before, they’d been thinking about Em’s SATs and planning their winter trip. Kate had never felt such tension in the house.
Sharon looked at him, uneasily. “Ben, I think you’re scaring everyone a bit.”
He nodded. “There was something I didn’t quite go into last night,” he said. “There was someone else who came to me at the office, who I introduced to Harold as well. Someone who was looking for the same arrangement as the guy I told you about, from Paz. Convert some cash into gold. Get it out of the country.…”
Sharon shook her head. “Who?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter anyway. Maybe he proposed a few things I shouldn’t have agreed to.” He took a sip of water. “Maybe they got some things I said on tape.”
“On tape …?” Sharon’s eyes widened. “What kinds of things are you talking about, Ben?”
“I don’t know.…” He stared ahead blankly, still avoiding everybody’s gaze. “Nothing very specific. But just enough that, combined with the payments I received, it really complicates things. It makes it all look pretty bad.”
“Bad …?” Sharon was growing alarmed. Kate, too. They’d been shot at the night before! Just the fact that the conversations had been recorded was insane.
“What are you saying, Ben?”
He cleared his throat. “This other guy …” He finally looked up, pallid. “He was FBI, Sharon.”
It was like a deadweight had crashed into the center of the room. At first no one spoke, only looked in horror.
“Oh my God, Ben, what have you done?”
He started to unravel it in front of them, in a low, cracking monotone. How all the money in the past few years—the money that paid for the house, their trips, the cars—was all dirty. Drug money. How he knew it but just kept doing it. Getting deeper. He couldn’t pull out. Now they had him. They had his voice on tape offering the same arrangements to an undercover agent. They had the monies he’d received, the fact that he’d set up the connection.
Kate couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her father was going to jail.
“We can fight this, can’t we?” her mother said. “I mean, Mel’s a good lawyer. My friend Maryanne, at the club, she knows someone who’s defended people for securities fraud. Those Logotech people. He got them a deal.”
“No, we can’t fight this, Sharon.” Ben shook his head. “This isn’t securities fraud. They have me dead to rights. I had to cut a deal. I may have to go to jail for a while.”
“Jail!”
He nodded. “Then I’ll have to testify. But that’s not even it. It’s deeper than that. A lot deeper.”
“Deeper?” Sharon stood up. She still had her apron on. “What could be deeper than that, Ben? We were almost killed! My husband just told me he’s going to jail! Deeper …? You plead. You pay a fine. You give back whatever you took unfairly. What the hell do these people want from you, Ben—your life …?”
Raab jumped up. “You’re not seeing it, Sharon.” He went over to the window. “This isn’t a bad stock trade. These are Colombians, Sharon! I can hurt them. You saw what they did last night. These are bad people. Killers! They’re never going to let me go to trial.”
He threw back the curtains. Two agents were leaning on the Jeep at the head of the driveway. A police car blocked the entrance up by the pillars. “These people, Sharon … they’re not here to drive me home. They’re federal agents. They’re here to protect us. That’s exactly what these bastards want from me.” His eyes filled with tears and his voice rose to a harried pitch.
“They want my life!”
Sharon sank back into her chair, her glassy gaze remote and uncomprehending. A heavy silence settled over the room.
Kate stared at her dad. He looked different to her suddenly. She saw it now. There was no hiding it anymore. He knew. Every night when he walked through the door. Every wonderful trip they took together. Even when he held her last night, and promised her he would never go to jail …
He was lying.
He knew.
“What are you saying, Dad?” Justin gaped. “These people want to kill you?”
“You saw it, Just! You saw it last night. I can unravel part of their organization. I can expose them in a trial. These are dangerous people, son.” He sat back down. “The FBI … they don’t think we can go back to a regular life.”
“We …?” Emily leaped up, straining to understand. “You mean all of us? We’re all in danger?”
“You saw what happened last night, honey. I don’t see how any of us can take that chance.”
“So by ‘a regular life,’ you’re saying what, Dad? That these guards’ll be with us when we go to school for a while? Or into town? That we’re basically, like, going to be prisoners …?”
“No, that’s not what I mean.” Raab sat, shaking his head. “I’m afraid it’s a whole lot more than that, Em.”
There was a pause, as if an earthquake had shaken the roof and they were sitting there watching it about to collapse. Except it wasn’t the roof but their lives that were suddenly imploding. Everyone stared at him, trying to figure out just what that meant.
“We’re going to have to move away, Ben,” Sharon uttered somberly. “Aren’t we?”
It wasn’t even a question. A glaze of tears filled her eyes. “We’re going to have to hide, like criminals. Those people out there, that’s what they’re here for, isn’t it, Ben? They’re going to take us from our home.”
Kate’s father pressed his lips flat and nodded. “I think so, Shar.”
Tears ran down her face freely now.
“Take us where, Dad?” Emily shouted in frustration. “You mean like somewhere else around here? Another school, nearby?” This was her life that was suddenly being ripped from under her. School, friends. Her squash. Everything she knew.
“I don’t think so, Em. And I’m afraid you won’t be able to let anyone know where you are.”
“Move away!” She turned to her mother, then Kate, waiting for someone to say this was all some kind of joke. “When?”
“Soon.” Her father shrugged. “Tomorrow, the day after …”
“This is fucking crazy!” Emily screamed. “Oh, my God!”
It was as though he’d come home and told them that all the people they knew, all the things they did, had been wiped out in some terrible accident. Except it was more like they were the ones wiped out. Everyone they knew. Their history.