Plan B

Caroline bristled at this and I could tell she was about to launch into some kind of response. But I gave her the high sign to let me handle this. "I do not know where Alan is. I do not know what he may be doing. I talked to him yesterday when he told me he was picking the kids up at school."

"But let me give you some insight. I'm sure he's feeling betrayed, anybody would when looking at that picture. And yes, I know my brother and his first thought would be to protect his children from a threat. And you have become a threat Susanna."

"I would never do anything to hurt my children!!" Then more crying.

"But you have hurt them Susanna. You have not only cheated on your husband but you've cheated on your children too. I don't know the whole story about you and your boyfriend, but surely you gotta see how your lying and disrespect harms them too. Alan has to be doubting everything your marriage stands for. You've broken his trust, and I'm sure he's trying to figure out how to minimize the harm that will surely follow from your betrayal. Probably even figuring out how to keep them from finding out any of the sordid details." Then I pointed at the printout.

Diane jumped in right then just as I knew she would. "You were dumb Suze, did you really think you could hide an affair from Alan. He's one of those cyber guys for crying out loud. That picture is probably from cameras he has hidden all over the house. And if I'm right, that printout is just a still shot from a video he has of your little romp with tennis-boy. For all we know he's got the whole house bugged and has video of you in surround sound and living color." Still more sobbing; Diane had played her part perfectly.

"Diane, I think you should stay with Susanna tonight. We should all just wait to hear from Alan. He's probably taken the kids somewhere so they wouldn't be exposed to all this. For all we know he's flown them down to Disneyland for the weekend. Let's all keep in touch and I'm sure by Monday we'll have heard from him when he's calmed down a bit. You have to acknowledge that seeing you with tennis-boy has probably shaken his world to the core. Surely he's trying to figure out where to go from here; divorce or counseling, or something." Did that woman have an unlimited amount of tears?

But of course we did not hear from Alan by Monday. Nor for the rest of the week. By the next Friday Susanna had gone from grief and crying to angry; very angry. Caroline and I had been calling every day, dutifully checking to see how she was doing and asking if Alan had called. Diane had not gone back to her apartment and had made arrangements to work remotely while she was at Susanna's supporting her. We got to see her progression first hand - she was hopping mad that Friday when we called.

"That bastard; he can't take my babies from me. Alfred, have you heard from him at all, in any way. I know you lawyers shade the truth, so don't try your tricks with me."

"Susanna I swear to you I have not had any communication with Alan since the day they disappeared. Nothing, nada, zip. I do not know where my brother is."

"Well that tears it; I'm going to the police. This is kidnapping, he's taken my children to god knows where and I don't have any idea when they're coming back. Diane and I are going to the police station to file a report that Alan has kidnapped the children. And Alfred, I'm getting a lawyer."

"Susanna, I truly wish things had turned out differently. I wish you'd never had an affair, and I wish my brother had not disappeared with the kids. I won't try to talk you out of going to the cops; you gotta do what's best for you. We'll call you tomorrow to check in and find out how things are going. And you'll need to give me the name of your lawyer since he'll probably have questions for me in my capacity as Alan's lawyer."

I turned to Caroline and we just hugged. What a mess.

"Al, what would your mother have done in a case like this? Alan is so much like her after all."

"Ha, mom would have gone after her with a kitchen knife. And she would have had choice words for Susanna the whole time she was stabbing her. It's just that Susanna wouldn't have understood any of the Spanish curses mom would have been hurling at her." We both had a good chuckle over that, and then some more hugging.

The police were a bit reluctant to get involved once they understood what had gone down. As my brother's lawyer they called me right away after Susanna had filed her complaint; and I gave them everything I knew. Including one of the printouts that I had saved. Then we sat back and waited.

It was a whole 'nother week before the FBI got called. But that was only after Susanna made the local PD's life miserable. I could not blame her, she was genuinely distraught. Again I sat for an interview, but this time it was serious. The US is party to the Hague Convention on Kidnapped Children and the Feds take this seriously. Alan was going to be charged with a felony kidnapping in absentia.

However, there was no trace of Alan and the kids. I certainly didn't know where they were. The FBI got warrants to pull cell phone records of calls and GPS tracking. They found out that Alan's call to me was the last one made from his phone, between his office and the boy's school. There was some record of all of their phones being at the mall, and then the trail went cold. Zip, nada - those phones didn't register anywhere. Alan's credit cards had not been used since before the day before their disappearance. They had fallen off the face of the earth.

Caroline and I kept up with Susanna and Diane, although not every day like that first week. It wasn't until two more weeks later that Alan's car was discovered in the long term parking at SJC. The Feds told us they had found the kids school backpacks in the trunk with the clothes they'd been wearing that day. But that was it, no cell phones, no other clues left behind as to what happened.

It had now been four weeks since the disappearance and the trail had gone cold. The Feds were stumped, just because they found the car at the airport didn't mean that they'd boarded a flight. There was no record of Alan booking a flight on any airline. Security footage at the airport had rolled over, meaning they only store that footage for a short time - certainly not four weeks' worth.

Susanna was not faring well. She was looking haggard and thin. She looked like she'd aged ten years in those four weeks. The Feds were not giving her anything to cling to, and Alan had not left any footprints to indicate where they might be.

We were down to calling Susanna about once a week. We decided to pay her a visit. I knew it was going to be a tough afternoon; and it was.

"Thanks for coming guys; it means a lot to me that you haven't shunned me for my part in all this."

I was thinking of my mom again, she'd be clutching her rosary with her left hand and with her right pointing straight up, aya esta el que ve todo. But to Susanna I said "Caroline and I want Alan and the kids back almost as much as you do. I really miss my brother."

"How could he do this to me!? The fling with Colin wasn't a love affair, I didn't, uh don't, have any feelings for him. I haven't even talked to him since all this started. Alan has overreacted and gone nuclear when I was just harmlessly scratching an itch." I felt Caroline's hand tighten her grip on mine.

"Look, I know it looks bleak right now, but Alan has to come back some time. He has ties to the community here, his job is here, and the kid's school is here. Even though there's only a month of the school year left, he can't be thinking of staying away much longer. I bet we'll hear from him any time now."

"That's what I keep thinking too, but he hasn't so much as texted me. Or you. You'd tell me if he contacted you, right Al?"

"Absolutely, I'd call you right away, I promise. And then I'd call the FBI right after. They still suspect I know where Alan has gone, but I swear on the souls of my children that I don't know where they are."

"When I see him I'm going to kill him. Right after I finish hugging my children, and then groveling at his feet to beg his forgiveness. I just don't know how I can go on without my family." Queue the waterworks.

Caroline jumped in thinking to change the subject, "Howz work going, are you going into the office much?"

"Yes, and no. They've been very understanding after I was out that whole first week. I can work remotely as much as I need, as long as we meet our deadlines. I've been going in only once a week to show my face and try to keep something in my life normal."

"Susanna, why don't you go get changed and we'll take you to dinner. Let's get you out of this house for a bit, it can't be easy rattling around this big place all by yourself."

The next few months went by slowly, painfully. I was stoic in the face of my brother's disappearance knowing he'd planned for this. But Susanna, she took it hard. She became a recluse, only going out to do her shopping and a day or two in the office. The holidays were particularly hard - Thanksgiving and then Christmas. The spirit of the holidays just seemed to plunge her deeper into depression.

It was finally just before Thanksgiving that Susanna started seeing a counselor. I don't know if the counselor was helping or not, she didn't confide those things in me. It seemed like she and Diane grew closer, and Susanna even tried to be a better friend to Caroline. I remember one of them told me that Susanna had said her body had shut down. It was probably Diane who said that Susanna wouldn't or couldn't get turned on even if it was raining Chippendale dancers.

Then Christmas came and we got a call from Susana, literally on Christmas day. "Alfred, you gotta come over right now. I just got an email from Alan with a picture of him and the kids!!"

So we rushed over there and Susanna was on that same couch crying again. She was clutching two pieces of paper. "I printed them out so I could look at them. Look at my babies!" She handed me the two sheets. On one was that same screen shot of her and Colin, the other was of Alan and the kids. But it was an odd picture; they were standing in front of a white background. Standing normally, dressed normally, with regular every day smiles on their faces. But there was nothing else, the white background was all there was, wherever they were one couldn't tell from the picture. There were no clues to be found. It wasn't even a Christmas portrait, just them smiling at the camera.

"Susanna you gotta call the FBI and tell them you received this email. Maybe they can trace where it came from! It might have electronic clues as to where they are."

"I already did that, I forwarded the email to the agent in charge. He got right back to me and gave me instructions on how to send it to him and preserve the email headers. Whatever those are, he seemed to think it was important. Anyway he said it would take a day or two to analyze the email to see if it had any clues in it."

"Was there any message in the email?"

"No just the two pictures as attachments. The address didn't make any sense to me; it wasn't Alan's regular email address. I opened it because the subject line said Merry Christmas."

"Well it seems the pictures are the message then. First off we can see that they are safe and healthy. Judging by the looks on their faces they aren't being held anywhere against their will. The boys look like they've grown a little bit, comparing them to Alan's height. Julia also looks a bit older; her face has a more mature look to it. And she looks like she's filled out a bit too."

"We've already seen that second picture. So taking them both together I'd say the message is that they are safe and healthy but that Alan hasn't gotten over your betrayal."

"I want my babies back! I want my husband back! I wish I'd never met Colin! I want my life back!" This time there was no stopping the sobbing. I just shrugged but Caroline hugged Susanna and rocked her back and forth.

The agent got back to Susanna first thing Monday morning. Nothing, the headers were a mess. The email message had gone through so many anonymous relays that they couldn't tell if Alan was five hops or five hundred hops away on the internet. Don't ask, I don't know what that means.

The next five years dragged by slowly for Susanna. I was sad missing my brother, but Caroline and our two kids filled my life with joy. Each of those next five Christmas days Susanna got the same picture from Alan. Or rather a staged picture just like the rest, in front of that same plain white background. During that time the boys went from precocious 13 year olds to fine looking 18 year old young men. And Julia blossomed from 17 to a beautiful young lady of 22.

Throughout Susanna had kept in contact with the FBI's Office of International Kidnapping. She sent them copies of each of the pictures at Christmas, and each time was told the case had gone cold and there was nothing they could do. They are also mostly concerned with kidnapped children under 16, as they are most at risk from being taken from familiar surroundings and developing problems. Her kids were no longer children, they were adults. Furthermore they seemed happy, healthy, and not under duress. This case was not going to get any attention.

= = =

It had now been seven years since my brother had invoked Plan B. His sons were turning twenty-one, and Julia was 24 or 25.

Susanna was still in her house, although Diane had finally moved in with her. We're not sure if Diane dated or not, but she and her sister seemed to get along great. We were still visiting them about once a month, any more than that was just too painful.

Susanna had taken down all the decorations in the hallway and color printed and framed each of the seven Christmas pictures. She was a shadow of her former self. She had managed to continue her career; she was now the CFO at one of the big valley companies. I'm sure she was pulling down metric dollars; but if she was you couldn't tell. She didn't dress any differently; she still drove the same car Alan had bought for her. And the house looked exactly the same. I was like she was frozen in time and space.

It was in the springtime of that seventh year that I received an envelope with no return address. But it had a Costa Rican stamp on it so I knew not to throw it away. I opened it in the privacy of my home office and inside were two plane tickets to Costa Rica, and a fully paid for reservation for a week-long stay at the Tamarindo Dira hotel. The dates were for two weeks hence.

It being a Saturday, Caroline was out doing the grocery shopping. I had been out front mowing the lawn when the postman had come by. Now I was sitting at my kitchen table with a glass of some amber liquid I only opened on very special occasions.

Caroline came home a few minutes later and that's where she found me. I gestured for her to sit down and I poured her a couple of fingers. Without a word I pushed the papers over to her and waited for her reaction.

I had never seen her eyes get that big before. She downed the glass in one gulp and then, "Fuck, that's one hell of a surprise." If you knew my Caroline, you would be surprised that she even knew what that word was.

"Mi Amore, we have to go."

"Yes, my love. We have to go."

And that his how after seven long years I got to see my brother's face again.

= = =

"Ah, señior Alfredo, so happy to see you here. We are happy that you and your wife have come to stay with us. Don Stefano has said that you are a great friend of his. He has made all the arrangements and asked that we ensure that you charge anything you desire to your room. He has taken care of everything."

"Um, do you know when Don Stefano will meet with us?"

"Sadly no. However he has already been here with his family since yesterday. I believe he has business meetings with associates while he is here on holiday. He has said that you are celebrating the coming of age of his sons. Do you know the two young men?"

"We have not seen Don Stefano in some time. Although he has been in our hearts and minds daily. We are very anxious to see him and his family again."

"Well I'm sure he will find you soon. Let us get you settled after your long trip from California. Once you are comfortable please come back down and we'll have a table ready for you. Even though it is only afternoon, I'm sure some refreshments will get you into 'vacation mode' as the kids say."

Once we got into our room, we got showered and put our clothes away. It felt great to wash the travel off and get into fresh clothes. Then back downstairs where we were ushered to a table overlooking the pool. We each got something tropical and had just taken our first sips when Caroline gasped. I quickly stood up, turned around, and found myself face to face with my brother. "Hermano!" We crushed each other in embrace, pounding each other's backs. There were tears of joy running down my face when we stepped back to look at each other. Alan, Don Stefano!, went to Caroline and embraced her. She was crying too, both of us overwhelmed at the site of him.

"Please Alfred, sit down. Here let me sit where I can see you both. Caroline, a day has not passed for you; you look as beautiful as ever." Just then the waiter came over with a glass for Don Stefano and set a bottle on the table.

"I prefer to drink wine now. Maybe later you can try some with your dinner. We have been supplying the Tamarindo for many years now."

I picked up the bottle and read the label - Dos Hermanos. I looked at my brother and gave him a questioning look.

"Everybody makes the mistake of thinking our winery is named for my sons, but it is for a different pair of brothers."

I had to get the napkin again to dab my eyes, this was all so emotional. "Al- um Don Stefano, you have to tell us everything. We have not had any word from you or about you for seven long years. We want to hear the whole story."

"And you will, I promise to hold nothing back. I will answer all your questions, and some that you maybe haven't thought to ask. But that is for tomorrow; today I just want to bask in your company. To absorb your presence and be happy that we're going to be all together this week. My children will join us shortly; they each have business to attend this afternoon. But we will all be together at dinner; and for lots of activities the rest of the week. I have made plans for us to enjoy some sights, a boat ride, and lots of fine dining. But all of these will give us privacy so we can talk uninterrupted, and away from those who might overhear."

"For now, please tell me about yourselves. I want to hear how you have been, what you have done, and about your children. They must be all grown up by now."

And so we did, Caroline and I recounted the last seven years of birthdays, special events, funny stories, and home life. Both of us sensed that Alan didn't want to hear about Susanna, so we didn't mention her at all. But before we knew it, the sun was setting, and the bottle was empty. Caroline and I had been talking nonstop for hours, Alan had sat in rapt attention throughout, hanging on every word. It was an afternoon of laughter and love.

"Let's take a little walk around the grounds, and maybe go down to the shore for some sea air. I want you two to relax and leave your cares behind this week. Then when we come back you can freshen up in your room and we can meet in a bit for dinner. My children will be free by then and will join us. They are very anxious to see their Tio Alberto and Aunt Caroline."

---

"And so when we arrived in Liberia I felt that we had covered our tracks well. And then from there to here I hired a private car which further obscured our trail." Dinner plates had been cleared and ices and flan were served with a strong coffee.