Page 102 of Hail Marry
She doesn’t come back right away like I expected her to, though.
“Luca!” she calls, and the tension in her voice has me jogging toward the entryway.
Tori comes into view, and there’s something off about the way she’s smiling at whoever’s on the doorstep.
She looks at me, her eyes widening the slightest bit in a clear message of danger.
I emerge far enough into the entryway to see the open doorway and two people standing on the doorstep. A middle-aged woman with chin-length blonde hair holds a clipboard in her crossed arms, and beside her, a gray-haired man with a round face and a mustache lets his clipboard sit against his leg.
“Mr. Callahan?” the woman asks.
I nod, ready to tell them I’m already registered to vote or, if they’re selling Girl Scout cookies, we’d like six boxes of each. But inside, I know they’re not here for either of those things.
I don’t see any police insignia, though. So that’s good, at least.
“I’m Joyce Lambert, and this”—she gestures to the man beside her—“is Ron Taylor. We’re with U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services. We just have a few questions for you and Victoria.”
I suppress the urge to look at Tori. “Oh. Okay. I’ve got to get to the hotel for team meetings. We’ve got a game tomorrow.”
“He plays for the Admirals,” Tori explains, wrapping her arm around my waist. “Any chance you could come back another day?”
“We won’t take much of your time,” Ron says, which is a polite way of sayingwe’re doing this now.
My stomach is tight, and Tori’s fingers press into my side. What is immigration doing here?
It doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice about whether to let them inside, so I nod. “Come on in.”
“We’ll just ask you a few questions and take a quick look around, then get out of your hair,” Joyce says with a polite smile as I shut the door behind them.
This isn’t something Preston mentioned, and I pray the questions she’s referencing are ones Tori and I have prepared for because, otherwise…
“How long have you lived here?” Joyce asks, looking around.
“Um, let’s see…” I wrack my brains, but I can’t think straight.
“Beginning of May, right?” Tori says. “That’s when we came looking, at least. So I guess it would’ve been mid-May when you moved in.”
“Yeah,” I say, feeling a bit calmer after seeing how calm she is. “That’s right. I think the contract started May fifteenth.”
Joyce and Ron both scribble on their clipboards, then glance at each other.
“Mrs. Callahan,” Ron says, “you said ‘youmoved in.’ What did you mean by that?”
A string of swear words courses through my head.
“Oh”—Tori laughs—“I didn’t move in right away because I was still working in L.A., but Luca had already started training season here in San Diego.”
“I see…. And whendidyou move in? Or have you?”
“About, what, six weeks ago?” She looks at me for confirmation.
“Yeah,” I confirm. “Right after the Fourth of July.”
More scribbling. “So,” Joyce says, “you lived apart for a couple of months.”
“Yeah, but we saw each other when we could,” Tori says. “His schedule has been crazy all summer, so even if Ihadbeen here, we wouldn’t have seen much of each other.”
They both nod, then Joyce looks up. “Can you show us around the house a bit?”
