Dropping Like Spies - A Gallagher Girls Story

Chapter Eight

And then Dad responded to her, sending me into a haze of confusion.

Had he seen me again?  But no, the door was nearly shut, there was no way he'd seen me.  Was it a phone call?  Dad never spoke with anyone on speaker.  Maybe it had finally happened.  Maybe Dad had finally cracked and now he was talking back to the tape, expecting it to respond.

But then the tape did respond and I realized that it wasn't a tape at all.  Aunt Bex was actually there, at Blackthorne, talking to my father.

<t>Begin Transmission</t>

Transcription of Intercepted Intelligence

Transcribed by Operative Morgan Goode

AUNT BEX:  Stop kidding yourself.  We both know that something isn't right.

DAD:  Don't do this again.  Not tonight.  I can't do this tonight.

AUNT BEX: I should have seen her, Zach.  She flew right by me and I should have seen her.

DAD: Stop it, Bex.

AUNT BEX: It's—it's driving me crazy, Zach.

//: The Operative has never heard of anythign driving Aunt Bex crazy.  The Operative has also never heard Aunt Bex stumble over her own words.  :\\

AUNT BEX:  Why else would she fly by like that?  She felw right by the tower and she wasn't there.  It's like she wanted me to see that no one was in there.

DAD: You found the body.

AUNT BEX: We found a body.

//: The Operative's heart hums to life as if it's finally got reason to start beating again, but she tries to control it.   She's spent an entire summer trying to kill the very hope that was flowing through her now.  She can't let a few words send her crashing back down.  :\\

DAD: Dental records don't lie.

AUNT BEX:  Sometimes they do.  You know as well as I do that any record can be faked.

DAD:  She's dead.  That's it.

AUNT BEX: Would you just admit that we're missing something?  Doesn't it feel like we're missing something, Zach?

DAD: Maggie's going to be here any minute.

AUNT BEX: Answer the question.

//:  There is a long and painful silence that follows, during which, the Operative realizes that she's waiting for an answer just as much as Aunt Bex is.  :\\

DAD: She wanted us to stop looking, Bex.  She specifically told us to stop looking

AUNT BEX: What if that means there's something to look for?

//:  The Operative knows that if her father believes it, then maybe she could let herself believe it, too. But he doesn't, or maybe he doesn't want to.  Either way, he voices what everyone else is already thinking.  :\\

DAD: What if it means there isn't?

AUNT BEX: You're unbelieveable, you know that?

DAD: Bex—

AUNT BEX: She wasn't flying the plane, Zach!

DAD: She had to be!

AUNT BEX:  Oh.  I'm sorry.  Were you there?  Did you happen to see it?  Did you watch your best friend crash her own plane into a million bloody pieces?

//:  The Operative winces at the thought of actually having to be there and comes to the conclusion that Aunt Bex is even tougher than she looks.  Dad must know this already, because he responds through gritted teeth.  :\\