good of you to join us, Director Milner,” Walder said.
“My pleasure,” Director Milner said.
Riley watched the director’s face. Did she notice a slight smirk as he nodded at Walder? She couldn’t be sure. But she knew that Walder didn’t command a whole lot of respect in the Bureau, neither by his subordinates nor by his superiors.
After the last of her Quantico colleagues congratulated her, the next wave of well-wishers stirred up powerful emotions for Riley. They were people she’d met in the line of duty – family members of murder victims, or people she’d saved from becoming victims. Riley hadn’t expected them to be here, especially not so many of them.
The first was a frail, elderly man that she’d rescued from an insane poisoner last January. He took hold of Riley’s hand with both of his and tearfully said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” over and over again.
Riley couldn’t help but cry herself.
Then came Lester and Eunice Pennington and their teenaged daughter, Tiffany. In February, Tiffany’s older sister, Lois, had been murdered by a sick young man. Riley hadn’t seen the Penningtons since she’d solved their case. Riley could hardly believe they were here. She remembered them as distraught and grief-stricken. But they were smiling through their tears, happy for Riley and grateful for the justice she had given them.
As Riley exchanged emotional handclasps with them, she wondered how much more of this she could take without fleeing the room in tears.
Finally came Paula Steen, the elderly mother of a girl who had been killed twenty-five years ago in the case that Riley was being honored for today.
Riley felt truly overwhelmed now.
She and Paula had been in touch for many years now, talking by phone on every anniversary of her daughter’s death.
Paula’s presence here today took Riley completely off guard.
She clasped Paula’s hands, trying not to break down uncontrollably.
“Paula, thank you for coming,” she managed to stammer through her tears. “I hope we can still stay in touch.”
Paula’s smile was radiant, and she wasn’t crying at all.
“Oh, I’ll keep calling once a year as always, I promise,” Paula said. “As long as I’m still in this world, anyway. Now that you’ve caught Tilda’s killer, I feel ready to move on – to join her and my husband. They’ve been waiting for me for a long time. Thank you so much.”
Riley felt a sudden pain deep inside.
Paula was thanking her for the peace she now felt – thanking her for allowing her to die at long last.
It was too much for Riley to process.
She simply couldn’t speak.
Instead, she clumsily kissed Paula on the cheek, and the elderly woman walked away.
People were leaving now, and the room was markedly less crowded.
But the ones who most mattered to her were still here. Blaine, Crystal, Jilly, April, and Gabriela had stood nearby watching her this whole time. Riley felt especially good about the look of pride on Gabriela’s face.
She also saw that the girls were smiling, while Blaine’s expression was one of awed admiration. Riley hoped that this whole ceremony didn’t intimidate him or scare him off.
Coming toward her were three people whose faces she was especially happy to see. One was her longtime partner, Bill Jeffreys. Standing right beside him was Lucy Vargas, an eager and promising young agent who looked up to Riley as a mentor. Next to her was Jake Crivaro.
Riley was surprised to see Jake. He’d been her partner years ago and had long since retired. He’d come out of retirement just to help her on the Matchbook Killer case, which had haunted him for years.
“Jake!” Riley said. “What are you doing here?”
The short, barrel-chested man let out a raspy laugh.
“Hey, what kind of welcome is that?”
Riley laughed a little too and hugged him.
“You know what I meant,” she said.
After all, Jake had headed back to his apartment in Florida as soon as the case was over. She was glad he was back, even if it was a lot sooner than she’d expected.
“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” Jake said.
Riley felt a renewed wave of guilt as she hugged Bill.
“Bill, Jake – this isn’t fair.”
“What isn’t fair?” Bill asked.
“My getting this award. You two did as much work as I did.”
Lucy took her turn to hug Riley.
“Sure, it’s fair,” Lucy said. “Director Milner mentioned them. He gave them credit too.”
Bill nodded and said, “And we wouldn’t have done anything at all if you weren’t so damned stubborn about reopening the case.”
Riley smiled. It was true, of course. She’d reopened the case when nobody else had thought it was possible to solve.
Suddenly she felt a new wave of confusion over what had just happened.
She looked around and said to Bill, Jake, and Lucy, “All these people – how did they know about this?”
Lucy said, “Well, it was in the news, of course.”
That was true, but it didn’t explain things as far as Riley was concerned. Her award had been announced in tiny news items that scarcely anyone would have noticed unless they were looking for it already.
Then Riley noticed a sly grin on Bill’s face.
He contacted people! Riley realized.
He may not have reached out to every single person from her past, but he’d put the wheels in motion.
She was startled by the contradictory emotions she felt.
Of course she was grateful to Bill for making sure that this day was nothing short of extraordinary.
But to her surprise, she was angry too.
Without seeming to realize it, Bill had set an emotional ambush for her.
Worst of all, he had made her cry.
But she reminded herself that he’d done it out of friendship and respect.
She said to him, “You and I are going to have a little talk about this later.”
Bill smiled and nodded.
“I’m sure we will,” he said.
Riley turned toward her waiting family and friends, but she was stopped in her tracks by her boss, Team Chief
