Investigations

After quitting her job, Natalie will drive to the airport. She will ask the lady at the ticket counter for a seat on the plane leaving for London Heathrow, and the lady will name a price that Natalie will pay without flinching before she receives the ticket with her name on it. The line at the security will be short because it is a weekday in April, and soon, Natalie will nod politely at the other passengers while searching for her seat on the plane. She will sit by a window looking out at the airport building before watching the pastel clouds as the sun disappears behind the horizon and everything turns to darkness. Natalie will fall asleep after they serve the food – chicken or pasta – and will wake up when the pilot makes the announcement that the plane will begin its descent to Heathrow in half an hour. She will brush her teeth in the tiny bathroom of the plane and tie her hair up into a ponytail before returning to her seat, from where she can now see the river and the city sprawling around it.

The airport is big and confusing, with too many signs and shops with expensive souvenirs, and she will be relieved to emerge from the doors that lead out to where the taxis wait. Natalie will sit down in the backseat of the car, the air inside cool and clean, and she will hand a note to the driver with an address written on it. It is not her own handwriting, but Amanda’s, her friend who does the investigative work for the local newspaper. The driver will nod and navigate the car through the city as it wakes up to another Thursday. He will make careful small talk about the weather while they wait in traffic, and it will take more than half an hour until they reach the street that she didn’t know existed until 48 hours ago. 

Natalie will pay the driver and then stands on the curb for a few minutes in the light drizzle, holding onto her bag that still has her work shirt in it before she walks up to the apartment building and places her finger on the doorbell underneath the name Carter. When his voice on the other side says hello, she will catch her breath and tell him her name, and there will be silence for a few seconds before the door buzzes and lets her in. The hallway will smell like fruity detergent, and he will stand in the doorway on the third floor, his curly hair short, wearing clothes that she doesn’t recognize. They will not hug until he lets her into to the apartment and closes the door. 

As he makes coffee, she will sit in the kitchen and watch his familiar movements with tears in her eyes. They will sit opposite each other, both sipping their coffee without cream or sugar, and he will begin to explain. He will recall how he found the files when running through the lines of code, and how the documents weren’t password protected after he scanned his employee ID. He will say that the supervisor didn’t know, and he will admit that, yes, he did copy the information to a hard drive that he took back to his apartment to have a closer look at what he had found. Curious, stupid little brother. Natalie will shake her head in disbelief as she hears the story unfold a second time, the details more coherent told by its protagonist. He will say that the electoral fraud looked straightforward and clean written out like they had on the files, and that misuse of campaign funds and foreign interference had appeared like meticulously documented inevitabilities in the end. 

But he will remember the panic as the intelligence officers searched his apartment, and how he didn’t sleep the night before the activists picked him up. There were people outside his apartment in Houston with posters that read information about the public = property of the public! and crimes against democracy and justice for Tim Anderson. While Natalie holds her breath, he will recount how they shaved his hair on the drive to the airport, how they gave him a passport with the name Gideon Carter and a one-way ticket to London. How he allowed them to take his phone and give him a new one, the screen saver the photo of a woman he had never seen. He will say that he was sure the stewardess knew who he was, but that she didn’t call the police, and how he felt claustrophobic the entire flight until they finally reached London. How he signed a document saying that he would never return. 

Natalie will cry silently as she listens, and they will hug, her cheek pressed against his shoulder. She will tell him that she will stay with him, and he will not believe that she is serious until many weeks later. In the evening, they will go out for dinner in a small pub around the corner, and Natalie will be impressed by his convincing British accent. Sometimes he will look over his shoulder as if he expects to be followed. 

***

Before she quits her job, Natalie checks her messages from Amanda. Her friend has called her while she was in the meeting and has left a voice mail that Natalie listens to, her hands clammy and her heartbeat loud in her ears. Amanda’s voice is gentle. “Hi. I’m sorry – I don’t know why I’m doing this over voice mail. I was wrong, it wasn’t him. I talked to them again today, and they have no idea where he is. Could be anywhere in the world. I’m really sorry Natalie, I feel so bad that I got your hopes up. Call me when you get this, okay?” Natalie presses her hand against her mouth to suppress a sob. Then, she deletes the message and pushes her phone down to the bottom of her bag before she goes back to work.