Page 115 of Shielding Instinct

“Let’s go through this logically.”

“I’d prefer that,” Petra said. “Because I wasn’t sent down here on fairy dust to take down another Prokhorov cell.”

“You weren’t at all.” Rowan insisted. “You were going with Tamika to spread her parents’ ashes. It had nothing to do with work.”

“No?”

“Petra, this wasn’t an op. Tamika’s parents got married down here, and she didn’t know what to do with the ashes. She figured she’d do it here.”

“Why did Tamika land on the idea of spreading the ashes in St. Croix? I would postulate that it was because, about six months ago, your team suspected some activity was going on in the United States Virgin Islands.”

“We couldn’t find it,” Rowan said. “Now we know from Jenny Johnson it was the jump-off spot. They asked their adherents to commit crimes. If caught, they pled guilty, and then The Family moved them to safety and gave their followers a new name. Exactly as you suggested, no passport, no worries. Go to the islands and get a boat. From that boat, jump to a new boat, and everyone vanishes. Pockets get lined. Kudos. That was some masterful speculation. You were dead on.”

“That’s fine. I don’t need kudos. Just back to my list. We can both agree this area was on Tamika’s mind and probablyinfluenced her to come. Once we were here . . .me. OnceIwas here, I found that St. Croix is a small island. Visitors are grouped in hotels and guest houses along the shore. There are only so many restaurants. There are only so many places to go and only so many tourist things to do.”

“To make the Petersons look like they were here on family vacation they’d have to do those things, right? Go to the beach. Take the family to the tidepool,” Rowan agreed.

“In this case, that was part of the Johnsons’ escape. But before that, sure, they probably did things to blend in. Because the Christmas Winds were unusually strong, a lot of the tourist things—hunting lionfish, snorkeling, swimming with horses—were unavailable, tightening an already limited number of things to do. That’s how I ended up in the vicinity of the Johnsons. And then there’s you.”

“Me,” Rowan said.

“Why are you here? Because of Avery.” Petra answered her own question. “Avery was talking to me on the phone when I was at the airport. And when I think of Avery, I think of you.”

“Thank you,” Rowan said with a smile.

“When I saw Herb there, that necklace bothered the shit out of me. It made me feel vulnerable, and I didn’t know why. But I felt compelled to tell you about it. And up until the moment you and Finley pulled up in this parking lot, I didn’t know why.”

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Rowan said.

“I was in your office last July. I was running in and didn’t knock.”

Rowan pointed at her. “I remember that. You ran in. The image was on my monitor. I flipped it off immediately. You must have seen it.”

“Not seen it,” she corrected. “Clocked it.”

“How’s that?”

“If you left the image there and acted like it was a nothing burger, it wouldn’t have stood out to me. That your reflex was to hide the image meant my mind tagged it as significant.”

“You’re a thousand percent right. I’ll have to figure out how never to do that again.”

“Lock your door?” She shrugged.

“I see the whole thing unfolding just the way it would for a brain wired like yours. From the beginning, the necklace bothered you. You knew it was associated with something bad—which it is. Your conscious brain kept looking for the answer, so you went and pressed the mom. You followed the child. You got the necklace. You tucked it into your pocket and kept thinking about Avery, who is tied in your brain to me. All of this makes perfect sense. You had all the steps, but you just didn’t have enough information to put them together. And as you and I know so well, the brain is an incredible thing.”

“It is that. But here are the things that were starlight and pixie dust,” Petra held up a finger, “the unexpected seismic activity.” Another finger went up. “A young girl who was not putting up with that mess. A third finger, “Hawkeye and Cooper.” She smiled over at them so they knew she was still okay, and Hawkeye started over to her.

“Looks like you two are getting on,” Rowan said as he stepped aside. “I need a word with Finley before they take off.”

“Everything okay?” Hawkeye asked as Cooper thrust his head under Petra’s hand.

“Rowan and I were just going over how this all happened, how we got to this place.”

He leaned down and gave her a kiss. “Destiny?” he asked.

Petra snuggled into his arms, laying her head on his chest where she could hear his heart beating strong and steady. “Yes, that’s exactly what I told him. Destiny.”

Epilogue

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