Episode 87

[Author’s Note: We now return to Rin, right after the events of Episode 85.]

(Washington D.C., August 7, 2019)

A frowning woman in her early forties answered the door. There was no doubt that this was Daryl’s wife, though she looked quite different from the photos. Of course, those weren’t taken when she’d been caught off guard by an unexpected visitor while juggling two kids.

Despite having read it countless times, Rin suddenly had trouble conjuring the woman’s name. Kalinda? No, it had a hard consonant. Katrina. Yes, that was it.

Rin mumbled a greeting, trying to sound as casual as possible. It felt uncomfortable. She almost never felt uncomfortable, and that itself made her uncomfortable. Was it really so hard to befriend another woman, even after all these years?

For her part, Katrina seemed less than friendly. She just stared at Rin.

“Can I help you with something, miss?” she asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

Rin took a breath, smiled, and recited the line she had prepared on the walk over.

“Hi, I was wondering if Daryl is around?” She was struck by how childish this sounded when spoken aloud. It was like asking for a playdate.

Katrina looked her over, still frowning. “And why is that?”

Rin hadn’t really anticipated this sort of reaction. Despite all her earlier deliberations, she had disregarded the obvious. There was absolutely no way a beautiful young woman asking for Daryl would fail to make his wife suspicious. Rin was puzzled that she had chosen to set aside something so patently clear. The only excuse she could conjure was that she had lived with herself for too long. She sometimes forgot how she looked. To her, she was just Rin. Only when she planned to make use of it was she cognizant of her form and the effect it had on others. This was bad. She needed to salvage the situation, or she would ruin Daryl’s life — much less accomplish what she came for.

“I’m supposed to have a job interview with him,” Rin replied, realizing how absurd a ploy this was. If she wasn’t suspicious before, Katrina surely would be now.

“At home?”

Rin sighed. She had hoped for an obliging housewife. This was going to be an arduous slog.

“Okay, I lied. I’m his niece,” she offered. “I just… It’s just that I got into trouble, and he’s my only relative in the area.” It had been a long time since Rin had pretended to be a ditsy twenty-two year old. Would a strung-out junkie work better? She wondered how well she could affect the twitchiness and disjointed speech of one.

Katrina stared at her for a moment. “He never mentioned a niece, and you don’t look like a relative.”

Before Rin could reply, Katrina began to close the door. The woman gave her a taut smile. “I’ll let him know you stopped by.”

This sort of thing really frustrated Rin. She didn’t know what magic words would get Katrina to respond the right way. Some combination would work, but which one? Torture was so much easier. It always got the results she wanted. But it was out of the question — at least, for now. Regardless, she had no intention of standing on the doorstep wheedling her way in. That would be undignified, not to mention tedious.

Rin put her hand on the door and looked at Katrina. “I’m sure you’ll forgive my skepticism on that point.”

“God, I suck at this shit,” she muttered as she pushed past the woman and into the living room. “I never need it, you know.”

Katrina gasped and rushed into the center of the room, glancing anxiously toward one of the doors. Rin smiled. That must be where the kids were. However complex modern women pretended to be, they remained the simplest of creatures when it came to their children. This was one of the many reasons Rin was glad she couldn’t have any. Someone in full possession of their faculties would have kept close to the phone. Instead, Katrina had allowed an intruder to come between her and the best means of summoning help. Checkmate in one move. The woman looked around furtively, probably realizing her error.

The living room was implausibly devoid of anything that could serve as a weapon. Was this intentional? Maybe Daryl had fled his old life to the opposite extreme, shunning everything dangerous. Rin shook her head in disgust at the thought. What a waste of a man.

Meanwhile, Katrina had grabbed a television remote that was resting on a nearby table. She wielded this in a threatening manner, and Rin wondered what she hoped to accomplish. Did she imagine that the “off” button would work on her? Given what she had seen of modern Americans, Rin wouldn’t have been surprised. She struggled not to laugh.

When the remote failed to have the desired effect, Katrina screamed that she would call the police. Did she really think that would scare off an intruder? Perhaps it was meant as a signal for the children to hide. That would be a respectable tactic, if fruitless. At least, it would demonstrate a modicum of forethought. Rin picked up the phone that was sitting inches from herself and offered it to Katrina with a smile. The woman’s face fell.

She probably had a cellphone — nearly everyone did these days — and Rin wondered why she hadn’t yet produced it. Was she pretending? Maybe she was worried it would be taken away if she drew attention to it, and hoped to use the thing when an opportunity arose.

Rin didn’t buy that. Katrina was trying to protect her kids, and already had shown herself incapable of rational thought under pressure. She probably just didn’t carry her cellphone while puttering around the house. The look on her face confirmed this.

A predatory gleam inhabited Rin’s eyes. The stench of fear and weakness roused a contempt she found difficult to suppress. This had ensnared Daryl? She had been remiss. Her apprentice had been taken captive years ago and by such an ignoble enemy, yet Rin had failed to perceive it. This was her failure as his master. Perhaps it was her duty to free him. The wound would be so easy to cauterize, and he would recover in good time. Maybe he would finally hate Rin enough to take up his old purpose again.

An irritating noise disrupted her deliberations. Katrina was on the floor, sobbing. Had Rin’s thoughts on the matter been that transparent? She was ashamed to have made such a rudimentary blunder, and tried to reassume the braindead cheeriness of a twenty-two year old girl.

“Please don’t hurt them,” Katrina pleaded.

Rin decided to drop the college-girl routine. It felt pointless now. Them? Ah, yes. The children. She smiled. There were advantages to dealing with an emotionally addled mother. The woman would do anything for her children, and that was just the sort of leverage Rin needed.

There would be nothing cruel or manipulative about it. Katrina had created her own fetters. She could hardly blame others for using the tools she provided. Besides, this was to save Daryl from whoever abducted him. And then… yes, maybe then she would save Daryl from his family.

Despite the temptation, Rin decided against using the children as leverage. She sensed it would backfire. It would force Katrina’s cooperation and facilitate things in the near-term, but who knew what the woman would do later? She most likely would try to flee at the earliest opportunity, and all this trouble would be for naught. Rin would have to explain to Daryl how his fool of a wife had gotten herself killed, along with his kids.

That wouldn’t be the worst possible conversation, but it certainly wouldn’t be ideal. Rin had intended to minimize her interference with Daryl’s life, regardless of what she thought of that life. She would try to hew as close to this plan as possible, and that meant staunching the clusterfuck which was rapidly unfolding.

To help Katrina, she would have to establish a modicum of trust. Threatening the kids would make that impossible. There was no less rational creature than a mother whose brood was threatened. To emerge from this fiasco unscathed, Katrina would require at least a shred of rationality. So, trust not fear. However, Rin had a hard time envisioning a way to earn this trust. If she knew how to manage such things, they wouldn’t be in this alarming position to begin with.

“Look, Katrina, I’m not here to cause trouble,” Rin explained. She tried to adopt a disarming tone, but it sounded plaintive.

Katrina looked like she was about to start crying again. “How do you know my name, and what do you want? Just leave. Please.”

Rin wondered whether the woman was more worried about her kids or Daryl’s fidelity. Perhaps the children weren’t even home.

“Where’s Daryl? I need a word with him,” Rin insisted, her voice again firm.

The expression on Katrina’s face suddenly shifted. Rin recognized the look and smiled. Although less than desirable, a jealous wife would be easier to contend with than an overprotective mother. Amplifying her misconception would be the lesser evil. Rin could try to smooth things over between the lovebirds later. For now, she needed to raise the temperature. And if that furnished an excuse to vent at the pathetic cow who had neutered Daryl, all the better.

“Oh, hasn’t he told you about us?” Rin giggled.

Katrina said nothing, her face a mix of anger, uncertainty, and grief.

“It’s okay,” Rin continued. “He didn’t talk much about you either.” She ran her eyes over the woman. “I can see why.”

Katrina’s features tensed, and Rin prayed she wouldn’t do something foolish. Walking a fine line wasn’t something Rin had much talent for. To her relief, the woman just began to cry again. Having snapped her out of her panic, it was time for the carrot.

Rin offered a warm smile. “There’s really no need for that. It’s not what you think. We’re just friends.” She gently approached the woman.

“It’s not that,” Katrina whimpered.

Rin took her chin in her hand and purred in her ear. “It’s always that.”

However, something about this bothered her. The woman’s distress seemed real. If not this, then what? Rin tried to imagine what a housewife would worry about. The kids. The husband. Losing the husband. There was more than one way to lose a husband. Not just from infidelity.

Rin stepped back. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”

Katrina nodded and resumed her sobbing.

The poor woman probably alternated between imagining that Daryl had left her or had been kidnapped. A husband who was gone — that was her biggest fear. Which would she find worse: loss or betrayal? The key lay in guiding this fear. But there was something more important that Rin had to know first.

“How long has it been since you’ve seen him?” she asked quietly.

Katrina’s frame was still heaving, and Rin wrapped her arms around her. “There, there. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“He’s gone,” Katrina gasped between sobs. Suddenly she pushed Rin away. “Is he with you?”

“Obviously not. How long has it been?” Rin asked again. Eventually, Katrina managed an answer. Three days.

Rin groaned. After three days, most kidnapping victims were beyond help. Unless it was a government. But which one? Rin revisited her previous ruminations and once again concluded that it had to be the United States. Karkov hadn’t changed hats in the last twenty years and hardly seemed likely to abduct the man he had saved. Nothing could be ruled out when it came to him, but if he’d wanted to get Rin’s attention there were much easier ways to do so. Ones with less dire consequences. The main suspect was the obvious one. Arrogance, ignorance, incompetence. That would make a good motto for the United States government, though she doubted it would boost recruitment.

Before Rin tracked down the boy, she would have to secure Katrina and the kids. That was part of what she owed him and had promised herself. She was about to comfort Katrina, but suddenly stopped. She rushed to the front door and locked it.

Rin wanted to kick herself. They had kidnapped Daryl. Why had she assumed Daryl’s family was being left alone? If they were trying to draw Rin out, whoever took him would be watching. The place most likely was under surveillance, and the people involved had no qualms about killing. Merely by showing up, she had put Katrina and the kids in grave danger.