He sends back a happy face.

If only he knew.

I uncover Lassie’s bowl and put it down. “Here you go, you little perv.”

Meow.

“Yeah, I probably would have done the same thing.”

I microwave some lasagna Isabel made and run back into the bedroom.

Ingrid has pushed herself up at the back of the bed. I hand her a plate of lasagna, a fork, and a glass of milk.

“Guess what?” I say.

She shoves a huge bite of lasagna in her mouth and shrugs.

“My mom wasn’t a terrorist.”

Her eyebrows rise.

“She was a spy.”

She coughs, reaches for the milk, and washes down the bite. “What are you talking about?”

I give her the rundown.

“I can’t believe your dad never told you.”

“He didn’t want me to forgive her.”

After a long second, she says, “I guess I can understand that.”

I tell her about my theory that my mother stole or knew some CIA secrets and that’s why DHS was involved in her murder.

“That would make sense.”

I expand on my theory.

“You think your mom sent you the movie?”

“Who else would send it? It wasn’t my dad.”

I look at her.

She shakes her head. “I didn’t send it to you.”

“Well, someone did and it just happened to be delivered the day my mother was murdered.” I tell her about the autopsy report and how my mother’s body was found less than six miles from my condo.

“Walker told me where the body was found. But it doesn’t mean that’s where her body was tossed into the river. She could have been thrown into the Potomac fifty miles upstream.”

“Well, it’s a big coincidence they found her so close to my place.”

“True, but in the six years I’ve been doing this, there’s one thing I’ve learned: there are a lot more coincidences than people think.”

I nod, but I’m not convinced.

“What movie?” she asks after a lengthy pause.

“Men in Black.”

She smiles. She’s seen it. “And the DVD is actually the movie?”

“So far.”

Last night, I watched nine minutes of Men in Black before heading to bed. The opening scene was a black guy chasing a thief. The thief jumps off a ten-story building, revealing he isn’t human at all. He’s an alien. Then a white guy in a black suit comes in and makes the black cop stare at a red light which makes him forget everything he just saw.

“What about the box the movie came in?” she asks.

“Isabel threw it away.”

She puffs her cheeks.

“Yeah, I know. I keep thinking she wrote something on the inside.”

She shrugs, as if to say, well you can’t do anything about it now, then says, “Let’s go. Movie time.”

I grab the laptop and flip it open.

“Do you have any popcorn?”