Biological Father

"Did you find the agent?" Why was I suddenly afraid of the answer?
"No," he answered. His face was calm, unemotional but there was something panic-inducing in his eyes. "We believe, Nikolai, a Russian Spy has something to do with it. We don't think the missing agent is dead."
Nikolai. There that name was again.
"He's being held captive and they are tormenting him for secret information?" I guessed and he gave a stiff nod. "Did you ever consider that he's dead?" My voice sounded sad, even to my own ears.
His eyebrows knit together. "Yes but we don't have evidence and as long as there's no body we still have to believe he's alive."
His gaze became appraising.
"That's strange, he just vanished?" I asked, sceptical.
"He disappeared around the same time Nikolai got involved with his wife."
I looked at Roman anxiously. "Why don't you ask the wife?"
He shrugged, but his eyes were still intense. "That's the problem — we think she's with Nikolai on this."
He didn't look at my face. He was staring through the windshield at the people crossing the street with no interest.
I racked my brain for a solution. "Don't they have kids that can help?"
"A daughter, yes." He looked at me then, the expectancy intensified as the seconds progressed. It was a long three minutes.
I frowned. Something sounded very familiar about this story. I felt something on my thigh — his warm fingers. My heart picked up but it had nothing to do with his touch. I finally understood what he was telling me.
"Let me get this straight — I'm the daughter, right?"
"Right," he confirmed nervously.
I wanted to turn towards him, to see if he was as nervous as he sounded. But I couldn't; my thoughts were a jumbled mess. The guy who had come to see me at school, Daniel, was he also working with my father? What about my mother, did Jennie even marry Carmine for love? Was she even my mother? God Dammit, was anything about my life even real?
"Say something please," he interrupted the dragging silence. "Don't you have a slap or two for me?"
"No actually." My voice sounded strange
He was sceptical when he looked at me. "There must be something wrong with you."
"Why?"
"I just told you I'm investigating your father's disappearance," he said with a sad smile, but I could still detect the real curiosity in his deep voice. "...and that I think your mother is responsible for it and you're sitting here as calm as if I just told you the weather."
"Hmm," was all I could say.
He was serious again. "What's really brewing in that head of yours?"
I pursed my lips and tried to sort through my thoughts. "I guess I'm trying to figure out who the guy who came to see me works with."
"What guy?" He just looked at me, eyes full of some emotions I couldn't comprehend.
I grimaced. "I don't remember his name — but he had a lip ring, blondest hair I'd ever seen and... Daniel..."
He smiled wider; his teeth flashed in the sun. "Oh, he's harmless, he's a private investigator. Hired by a Miles."
"My uncle?" I ran my hand over my face. "Tell me my uncle is not a secret agent."
"He's not."
I laughed.
"That's funny?"
I looked up to see his eyes watching me, suddenly intense.
"No... Well, yes." I smiled. "My uncle is out of shape I seriously can't imagine him jumping over fences."
"Oh." He smiled. "I think he's just got a... hunch that something bad happened to his brother."
"Jennie said my father was going to kill her if she hadn't killed him first."
" Do you buy that?"
I hesitated. "I... Er... I do." I worked to sound wholehearted. Obviously I didn't fool him. Something occurred to me. "Nikolai? You mean Bill?"
"He's real name is Nikolai."
"But shouldn't Bill speak with a Russian accent."
"He's an agent. We're supposed to be good at what we do."
I nodded thoughtfully.
"Perhaps I should tell you this now," Roman said staring at me with intense, anxious eyes. "Nikolai is a hypnotist. Used to work for the police force to help witnesses who had blocked out a murder or something similar to recall the events.
"He is not a regular hypnotist. He doesn't require someone's permission in order to carry out the session. It's a gift, you see, something no one else can do.
"He's very good. He's really reliable. I am sure that he's probably the only person who can hypnotise people and make them do things they would never normally do or make them reveal information they wouldn't otherwise share with him."
"Let me get this right. You're saying Bi—Nikolai turns the general myths about hypnotist into truth?" My heart thudding, I glanced at Roman, it stopped completely but thankfully started back up again.
"That's right."
"Holy shit."
He frowned and his voice was almost a whisper when he spoke, "What?"
"I'm just...if my father didn't die, then who the hell is in the freezer that's in the basement?" I whispered harshly.
His fingers gently brushed my hair back from my brow. I barely breath. Maybe it was the nearness of his body that sent my heart into a chaotic rhythm.
"That's what I'd love to know," he answered grimly. He bought the car back to life. "We did run a DNA test and the results confirm what we already know." He turned the corner and drove down the darkening streets. "It's not your father in the basement."
A spasm of hope flew through me. There was a chance that dad was still alive? I smiled. But then the smile vanished as a new thought troubled me. "Is Jennie even my real mother?"
He grinned. "Yes."
"Are you sure? You ran a DNA test?"
"Yes." He was grudgingly honest.
I was both relieved and disappointed.
"Bi — Nikolai is not my father, right?" I held my breath.
He frowned at me impatiently. "You're a true blood Lynn."
I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God."
He smiled up at me, but his eyes were still troubled.
"Jennie," I snarled the word. "My mother, does she know that Bill is Nikolai?"
His lips pressed together into a hard line. He turned his attention back to my face. "We still need to find out."
"How difficult can it be?" I glared at him. "It's either she knows or she doesn't."
"Relax, Nuru." He spoke in that quiet, persuasive voice that made my knees melt. "Remember, Nikolai is hypnotic," he reminded me with a scowl. "She might not even know what she's doing."
"For her sake — I hope that's exactly what's happening," I mumbled as coolly as I could manage.