"You're her," Remington said. "The woman in the picture. Oh God."
Eileen and Laura looked at each other, both concerned about Remington's reaction to seeing Eileen. "Remington," Laura said in a soft voice, "what are you talking about?"
"Whatever he's talking about, I'm sure he'd be more comfortable doing it in my room instead of the hallway, don't you agree?" Eileen asked, stepping back into the room so that Laura could lead Remington inside.
"Thank you."
Remington was still shaking his head in disbelief. "I can't believe it. If he'd told me- explained-"
Laura gave Eileen an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry- I don't know what's-" She and Eileen both turned toward Remington as he began to laugh. "Remington?"
Eileen touched her son's arm to get his attention. The laughter stopped, and Remington's eyes met blue ones that were an exact match to his. He covered her hand on his arm as he tried to explain. "Not long after Daniel found me, I needed some money to help a friend. Daniel wanted me to forget my 'friends' back in Brixton. But I couldn't do that." He sighed, and looked not a little ashamed as he continued. "I remembered seeing Daniel looking at a silver framed photograph a few times, and I knew he kept it in his bedside table. I figured that I could sell the frame for a few quid, -"
"So you stole it?" Eileen guessed in a non judgmental tone.
"Yes," Remington admitted. "When he discovered it was missing, Daniel knew I'd taken it, and looking back now, I can see that he was frantic with wanting to get it back- but he never yelled, never raised his voice. He very calmly asked me where I'd sold the frame and photograph, then left the flat for several hours. When he returned, I asked him what was so important about the picture-" he smiled at the memory, "asked if the woman was his 'bird'. Daniel said no, that it was just someone he'd known a long time ago. Then he asked me how I would feel if he went through my things and sold something of mine."
"Did he find the photograph?" Laura asked.
Regret tinged Remington's voice. "Not to my knowledge. And he never mentioned it again. But I never went through his things again. And then I forgot all about it-" he looked at Eileen. "Until you opened that door. You were the woman in that picture."
Eileen nodded. "I think I know which picture you're talking about." The woman moved away to pick up a shoebox that had been sitting on the table before the sofa. She rifled through its contents, then took out a photo. "Is this the photo you remember?" she asked holding it out toward him.
Remington accepted the picture, and Laura moved closer to look at it as well. A much younger Eileen smiled at them, her dark hair windblown, her blue eyes shining with love. "Yes," Remington said after a long moment. His eyes lifted to the current image of the same woman. "You're alive. You're really alive." Eileen bit her lower lip, tears in her eyes as she watched him. "Oh," Remington sighed, pulling her into an embrace. "You're alive."
Laura watched the scene, feeling a bit like a fifth wheel. But Eileen's eyes opened and found her, and warmed her with an inclusive glow of gratitude. "Oh, Harrison." She sniffed, then gratefully accepted the handkerchief that Remington offered. "I suppose I shouldn't call you that. Laura tells me that-Harrison called you- Harry?"
Remington pulled her to sit beside him on the sofa, then patted the fabric on his other side for Laura to join them. "Yes. I always wondered why he chose the name. He wouldn't say when I asked. The name doesn't matter."
"But it should," Eileen insisted. "Do you think of yourself as Harry? Or Remington?"
"Remington," he answered without hesitation. "I stopped being Harry some time ago. To everyone except Daniel, that is. And a few of my old friends."
Eileen lifted a shaking hand to touch his face. "You look so like my father when he was young." She picked up the shoebox again. "After I found the adoption records, I went up to the attic and located these. I suppose the maids had put them there after Father sent me to Switzerland. I hadn't looked at them since before you were born," she explained, then pulled out an old black and white photograph that could have been of Remington and a dark haired, smiling little girl. "That was my father," she told him, and turned the cardboard over to read what was written. "When he was a few years older than you are now."
"There is a resemblance," Laura admitted. "I'm sure Daniel saw it as well-"
"And so would Father have done," Eileen noted. She apparently noted the anger in Remington's eyes- anger he tried unsuccessfully to hide. "Don't think too harshly of him, dear. He thought he was doing what was best."
"For whom?" Remington couldn't help but ask. "Himself? He destroyed Daniel's life, mine- all for his own selfish ends. I'm sorry. I can't forgive him as easily as that."
"I haven't said that I've forgiven him," Eileen said quietly. "Only that you have to put yourself in his position at the time. And what good does it do now to carry all that anger around with you? You can't rail at him, all it will do is eat at you until that's all that's left is the anger."
Remington smiled, taking her hand in his. "Thank you. I'll try to remember that."
Laura touched the box of pictures, indicating one on the top of the stack. "Is that- Harrison Daniels?" she asked.
Laughing, with a devil may care grin and jet black hair, a young Daniel looked into the camera. "Yes," Eileen confirmed, picking up the picture. "I took it using his camera. He was laughing because I was having so much trouble figuring out how to use it. But he said that I'd done very well when he developed it."
Remington gave Eileen a surprised look. "HIS camera? When HE developed it? Daniel refused to touch a camera unless he needed one for a con," he said. "And he said he hadn't a clue about the developing process."
Eileen sighed deeply. "He was an artist with a camera," she said. "I kept telling him that he could make his living taking pictures if he wanted-" Her smiled vanished as she recalled further and Remington and Laura exhanged glances as they recalled a similar conversation between themselves. "He had to pawn the camera just before he and his friends- tried to rob that bank. I tried to reclaim it after the trial, but the pawnbroker refused to give it to me without the proper ticket." She touched the shoebox. "These are all I have left of him."
Remington covered her hand with his. "They WERE all you had left," he reminded her. "You have me now."
"So I do." She reached over to take Laura's hand. "I have the two of you. I just wish Harrison had been here. I wish he had tried to find me-"
"But he did," Laura said. "Harrison went to see your father after he was released from prison. In fact, apparently things got a bit heated, because Harrison Daniels was threatened with deportation for having threatened Michael O'Casey's life."
"You think that Father told him that I was dead, don't you?"
"I think that's exactly what he did," Laura said. "And then to rub salt in the wound, he told Harrison that your son had been placed for adoption."
Eileen nodded. "He would have done something like that," she agreed. "Father hated Harrison so much. I never realized HOW much until they were both dead."
"Daniel loved you," Remington told her. "I could tell that from the way he talked about you when he told me who he was. And I can remember the way he looked at that picture years ago."
"Daniel. Harrison." Eileen sighed. "I suppose we'll never know what his real name was, will we?"
Remington looked at Laura, who answered. "It was Harrison Daniels," Laura confirmed. "You were right. He didn't lie to you about that."
Eileen closed her eyes in a silent prayer of thanks. When she opened them, it was to ask, "When did he tell you the truth?"
"Just before he died," Remington said, his eyes darkening at the memory of the minutes he'd wasted because of his anger at that revelation.
"But- you and he had known each other for some years by then."
"Yes. But when Daniel found me, I'd built up quite a bit of anger toward my missing parent." Seeing Eileen pale, Remington quickly reassured her. "Not toward my mother. I'd been lead to believe that you were dead. There didn't seem to be any reason to be angry with you about that. With God, maybe. But not you. Whenever I had asked about my father, I was told that he hadn't cared enough about me to stick around. Not knowing the truth, each time something happened to me I blamed him for it- until by the time Daniel ran into me in Brixton, I would have turned and run as fast and as far as I could had I known who he was. So he decided to be my friend, help me. Teach me how to survive in a world that wasn't always kind or forgiving."
"He taught you how to run cons, didn't he?" Eileen asked, and again there was no reproach in that soft voice. Only an acceptance that Laura wished she could achieve so easily.
"As I said, he taught me to survive in his world. The only one he knew. And it was the only way to keep me with him, after all. If he'd shipped me off to a school, I'd have likely run away. But he did turn me into a gentleman, someone who could one day leave that life for another, better one." He took Laura's hand. "And for that, I have this wonderful woman to thank. Daniel saved me from a short, unhappy life in Brixton. But Laura gave me a new life, a new name. A chance to start over again."
"I wondered how you had made the transition from confidence man to world famous detective," Eileen said with a smile as the telephone rang. Frowning, she answered. "Hello?…Mr. Green…Yes, I did. But I didn't expect you to return the call until…Really?…" She turned her blue gaze to Remington. "As a matter of fact, yes, I did. Why do you ask?…Oh?…No, I'm not certain when I'll be returning to Dublin…I'm aware that I have to sign the papers, but…Yes, that would be better…When?…Thank you…Yes. Goodnight." She hung up the telephone, but kept her hand on the instrument for a moment. "How strange."
"Is something wrong?" Remington asked.
"That was my father's solicitor. Stuart Green. I called his office just after returning to the hotel to leave him a message that I wanted to change my will-"
"That's not-" Remington began, but Eileen gave him a look that only a mother could give to her son.
"I think it is."
"Didn't Mr. Green approve of your decision?" Laura wanted to know.
"He said he would change it, but asked if I had met with Remington yet, and if I was returning to Dublin soon. When I said no, he said that my father had left a letter for me- and one for you as well- to be delivered should I make this trip after his death. He's going to send them by courier- along with the final papers on the sale of Father's business."
"A letter?" Remington repeated.
"He sent you a check," Laura said, and when two sets of blue eyes found her, she continued. "After we returned from Ireland a couple of years ago, remember? The check written on a blind account?"
"Ah," Remington recalled. "Of course. He must have seen my photo in the news report about our saving Xanadu."
"And realized who you probably were."
"I remember that incident. In fact, I'd met Mrs. Armdale on a few occasions," Eileen confirmed with a shiver. "Odious woman. Always talking about her late husband, about how he had depleted the family fortune and she was barely able to keep things together. Made herself sound so put upon. Wondering how she was ever going to manage. I disliked her intensely. Edward and I were in Bangkok when she tried to kidnap that horse, and when we returned, he asked how the race had gone. Father told him about the kidnapping, and that an American detective on holiday had solved the crime. I asked where the paper was, because I knew the woman, was curious. But Father insisted that it had been thrown out with the rest of the rubbish where it belonged. I didn't understand his anger at the time. Now I do, of course. He couldn't have let me see that newspaper, because if I had seen your picture-"
"You would have known he lied," Laura finished.
"Why send me a check?" Remington wondered. "What if I had managed to trace it back to him?"
"I tried to do just that," Laura explained, and smiled when Remington looked at her with surprise. "While you were able to accept that check without question, I couldn't. You know me when it comes to a mystery. But the account was a blind, set up so that I couldn't trace it. I think he felt guilty about what he'd done and wanted to make amends."
"Then why not simply get in touch with me?" Remington asked.
"You didn't know my father," Eileen reminded him. "He couldn't have admitted what he had done and risk losing my love for him. So he tried to buy off his conscience, I'm sure. Father always thought that money would buy anything," she said sadly.
"I suppose we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out, won't we?" Remington asked.
"I suppose so. Why don't I order some tea?" Eileen suggested. The telephone rang again, and she picked it up. "Hello?…Yes, she is. Just a moment." She turned to Laura. "It's Mildred-?"
Laura took the telephone. "Yes, Mildred?"
"I'm sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Steele, but Mr. Baker's here and insisting on speaking to you or Mr. Steele about his case."
Laura glanced at her watch. "Wonderful. I forgot about the appointment."
"What is it, Laura?" Remington asked.
"Mr. Baker's waiting at the office," she explained. "We had an appointment."
Remington winced. "So we did. I thought Mildred was going to reschedule?"
"I tried, Mrs. Steele," Mildred said, hearing Remington through the connection. "But Mr. Baker was out of pocket. I played phone tag until he walked in the door."
"I'll be right there, Mildred," Laura said. "Keep him from leaving."
Laura hung up the telephone, but when Remington started to stand, she shook her head. "You stay here and talk to your mother," she said. "I can handle Mr. Baker."
"Are you sure?" Remington asked. "I'm sure that-" he glanced at Eileen, suddenly uncertain about what to call her.
The woman smiled, seeming to understand. "I understand business calling," Eileen assured them. "If you have to go-"
"No. It's nothing that I can't take care of. You two need time to get to know each other." Remington was on his feet.
"You're certain you don't mind?"
"Hmm. I'll get a cab downstairs. And I'll be back as soon as I take care of Mr. Baker."
Eileen took Laura's hand. "Thank you, Laura."
"I didn't do anything."
"You brought my son back."
Remington gave Laura a self conscious kiss on the cheek as he saw her to the door. "Don't be long."
"I won't be." She smiled at him, waving as she turned toward the elevators.
He closed the door and looked at his mother. "She seems very special young woman," Eileen commented.
"Laura's certainly special. I've never met a woman quite like her."
"I have the feeling that you'd met quite a few women, with your looks and charm," Eileen said with a teasing light in her eyes.
"One or two," he admitted ruefully. "But none of them managed to accomplish what Laura has."
"Capture your heart?" Eileen asked as she sat down again.
Remington nodded. "Before I met Laura, I never spent very long in one place. I suppose I was looking for something, for somewhere that I belonged. I found both here."
"How did your father feel about that?"
Remington paused. Hearing Daniel referred to as "your father" was still a novelty. "I think he knew that I had found my place. But that didn't stop him from trying to lure me back to the life." Shamefaced, he glanced at her. "I know I'm probably a disappointment in that area- the fact that I was a con-man and a thief-"
Eileen smiled. "Like father like son, isn't that the old saying? I'm just glad that you're alive- and that we're together at last. The past doesn't really matter in that context. You could never disappoint me, Remington. I'm your mother."
Remington stood there, looking into those blue eyes, and saw the acceptance, the love. He dropped to his knees beside her chair and buried his face in her lap as the tears began to flow…
Laura flagged down a taxi and opened the door. "Century Plaza, please," she told the driver as she got inside. Drained by the emotional scene that she had just gone through upstairs, and lost in her own worries and fears, she failed to notice the familiar face of man sitting behind the steering wheel. It was only when they were on the road that he spoke.
"Hello, Laura."
To Be Continued---