Free Dead End Fix by T. E. Woods

afternoon. And this evening the chef was preparing an eight-thirty barbecue. For four people.
    A flush of heat surged through Lydia’s body.
    She maneuvered out of the hotel’s data system. Thirteen minutes later, she had successfully chartered a flight that would take her directly to Virgin Gorda, BVI. She’d used the company and pilot before, and they guaranteed excellent service and complete confidentiality. The agent assured her the plane would be ready for takeoff when she arrived, and estimated a landing in Virgin Gorda just before midnight local time.
    Your dinner party may be over by then, Allie. But you’ll have one more guest to consider.
    She left her communications console, went into her office, pulled a copy of
To Kill a Mockingbird
from the bottom shelf, and pressed the button hidden behind it. The back wall of her office slid open.
    Lydia entered her arsenal and made her selections.

Chapter 11
Seattle
    “Hayden?” Mort knocked on the door to his granddaughter’s bedroom. “It’s Papa, honey. Can I come in?”
    Mort heard the shuffle of slippered feet behind the pine door.
    “I’m feeling lonely out here, sweetie. I sure could use some company.”
    “I don’t feel good, Papa. Maybe you could go downstairs and come see me some other time.”
    Mort’s heart broke at the sound of the girl’s voice. Hayden had isolated herself since her twin disappeared. Robbie and Claire tried their best to comfort her, but they were overwhelmed themselves. A team of FBI agents in their home, demanding access to every intimate family detail, fueled the family’s despair.
    “That’s a 10-0, Hayden.” Mort hoped the police scanner code for “poor reception” would be enough to get his granddaughter to let him in. “Repeat.”
    The door opened wide enough for Mort to see Hayden’s blue eyes, swollen from crying. “Papa, I’m so scared.”
    Mort bumped the door open with his hip and scooped Hayden into his arms. He paced the hallway with her, rubbing her back as she sobbed into his shoulder. “Me too. We’re doing everything we can to bring your sister back. It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay.”
    He carried his granddaughter back and forth across the patterned carpet runner in the upstairs hall. Robbie and Claire had chosen a roomy Dutch Colonial when they moved to Seattle from Denver. Their master bedroom was at the east end. At the center of the hall was the entry to their daughters’ room. Hayden and Hadley shared a large space with wide windows—Robbie and Claire insisted that what little sunlight Seattle offered shine in on their girls. Mort walked and cooed, whispering assurances until Hayden’s sobs drifted first into sniffles and then into one heavy sigh. Then he carried her back into her bedroom and laid her head on her pillow. Hayden’s bed was separated from Hadley’s by the old wooden desk Robbie had once used for his own homework. Hayden’s bedspread was tufted gingham as green as a meadow in spring. Hadley’s was the same fabric in pink.
    Mort settled himself on the floor between his granddaughters’ beds and waited for Hayden to say something.
    “I shoulda told Mommy and Daddy about the phone Aunt Allie gave Hadley.” Hayden’s voice was barely a whisper. “They woulda stopped her for sure. Hadley mighta been mad at me, but that’s better than her being disappeared.”
    “This isn’t your fault.”
    “I made a promise, Papa. Hadley made me promise not to tell, so I didn’t.” Hayden’s eyes were wide. The plea in them stabbed into Mort’s chest like a red-hot dagger. “I didn’t think it would be bad. I didn’t think that for one stinkin’ minute.”
    Mort remembered the first time he saw Hayden’s eyes. She was less than two hours old. Mort had been sitting with Edie for nearly six hours at the same Seattle hospital where Robbie and Allie had been born. Playing cards, reading the papers, drinking bad coffee, and waiting for news. When Robbie finally came to get