SPOILER WARNING CONTINUES: However, all events described as taking place after Loubar escaped are of my own invention, and some are to be chronicled in Mirrored Images.

When Daniel returned with the water, he made certain that Angie had a firm grasp on the mug before letting go, brushing her hand with his fingertips even as he pulled his hand away. She looked at him gratefully, then turned and fixed the same thankful gaze upon Alex.

Angie took a few sips, more to wet her throat and give her some stability than out of any great thirst, though she knew with the crying she had done that there would be a price to pay if she didn’t drink much now.

“Believe in the power of hope,” Angie said, staring again at the mug. She sighed, feeling better than she had when she first began her story, better than she had when she first came to the Island. “You know, I dreamt this morning that Rollie called me and told me that. It was so real. Then I find the mugs, and I think, oh, what a coincidence. Until I saw the sunrise give this church such a halo, and that’s when I found out this mug was different. Then I was sure it was a sign, that my prayers would be answered. I guess they were, too, just not the ones I thought.” She looked to Alex, then to Daniel, and said, “You have been so good to me. My friends ... well, I would never have survived without them, but you two, total strangers .... I ...”

She took a deep breath, and said, “Thank you. Both of you. Not just for your kindness, though that is just so ....” she faltered, and feeling tears well up, said, “But now I know Loubar will never fool me again. I will always be able to tell him from anyone he disguises himself as, because he will never be able to show the warmth, the concern, that I have seen in the two of you today.”

“I’m glad I could help,” Alex assured her sincerely, then looked to Daniel, who had the saddest look on his face that she had ever seen. Before Alex could even wonder about the reasons, Daniel asked Angie, “Do I get the impression this Loubar has fooled you more than once?” There was something in the way he said ‘fooled’ that made Alex think he meant ‘seduced’, and Alex felt her concern for Angie grow even more.

“Yeh,” Angie admitted, though she didn’t quite realize the implications of Daniel’s special emphasis on ‘fooled’. “I guess I should wrap up my story, huh, before we get to see this church bathed in sunset?” She gave a wry smile, one that barely moved her lips and went no further than that in her expression.

“Well, let’s see. You know about the attempt on the Trade Minister, and how we helped stop that from happening. Rollie and I figured out where Loubar had to be shooting from, and as Rollie was entering the hotel he saw Loubar, disguised as him, leaving, so he took off after him. I ended up following behind. I found this gun that Loubar dropped ... learned later from Rollie that he had caught Loubar and Loubar dropped the gun while fighting with Rol. I caught up to the two of them fighing in the lake, and I couldn’t tell which was which, they looked the same, they sounded the same ... but one had a knife, and Rollie doesn’t carry a weapon, so that’s the one I shot. Then he went and proved to me he was the real Rollie, so I started shooting at the other one, but Loubar got away. And Rol wasn’t seriously injured, though he couldn’t use his arm for awhile and he has scars from it.”

“As you do,” Daniel said gently. Angie nodded, not trusting herself to look at him while combating the pain of her memories. “Oh yeh,” she said, “scarred for life, that’s me. But maybe now they won’t show so much, huh?” She sipped more water, and when she was finished, Alex said, “But they did capture Loubar the next day, right?”

“Yeh, he was getting to be an embarrassment to the F.B.I., so Washington sent two special agents the next day, and they worked out a plan with Rol, me, and our detective friends Mira and her partner Francis, and we got him. And I got death threats. Me. Just me.”

Angie shook her head, then quickly continued. “See, this is where I should have told them all I told you. All of them were convinced this was part of Loubar’s vendetta against Rollie. We never did figure out how he was sending them, he didn’t have access, they had to be coming from an outside source, but even I couldn’t trace them back. Anyway, Loubar was wanted in so many countries that it was a ‘delicate political situation’, and while everyone was squabbling over who got first dibs, Loubar escaped. So the agents we worked with offered to put me into the Witness Protection Program, but I said, no. It wouldn’t have done any good anyway, too many people know me, and I had too much to lose. Maybe I should have said yes, because Rollie disappeared that day, and I lost almost everything I thought I was fighting to keep. We tried to find him, or at least get some word from the agents, we thought maybe Rollie said yes to the Program to protect me, but I guess the agents were transferred to another office or something, Mira couldn’t find them in Washington. That was really scary for awhile ... I thought Loubar had killed them, but I finally found some friends of theirs who assured me the agents were alive, just having, uh, difficulties with their agency at the time. Anyway, I gave up my apartment and moved into Rollie’s loft, figuring if he ever came back he’d come there first. But one night Loubar showed up, disguised as Rollie .... fortunately, my friend Lucinda was over at the time. She knew right away it wasn’t Rollie, and we fought him off. So then I rebuilt the entire security system .... and there’s more, but you don’t need to hear the rest. We had people all over the planet looking for Rollie, and that’s how I met Callie. When she found out I had locked myself up in the loft and never went anywhere, she started insisting I had to come out and visit her.” Angie considered telling them the rest, of how she had emailed Callie a picture of Rollie as she had so many others she met, asking them if they had seen anyone that looked like him. Callie had never said a word then about Daniel, but instead had kept insisting that Angie needed a getaway trip. Then the tickets had arrived and Angie had flown out here just to escape the prison she had created for herself out of fear.

“She said it would do me a world of good, and she was right,” Angie said, “though it almost didn’t work out. I got a call this morning from Mira, my police officer friend. Loubar was captured in Seattle yesterday, disguised as Rollie, about to board a ferry for here. He’s confessed to killing Rollie and claims there isn’t enough left to give a decent burial to. I, uh, was pretty upset when I heard that,” Angie confessed sheepishly, as if ashamed of her natural reaction to such unsettling news.

“Do you believe that?” Daniel asked her with a worried look and tone.

“No,” Angie replied firmly. “Loubar wants to hurt me. That is the one thing left for him to do, make me believe that Rollie is dead. But I know Rollie is alive; I can’t explain it, that’s another long story,” Angie had already decided not to mention Mangela, his visit to her, nor any of the other events that led to her decision to come to Hope Island. She had spent way too much time dwelling on the past as it was; it was time to start living for the future again, especially with Loubar captured. She doubted he would escape a second time, but if he did, she would not let him ever make her cower in fear again.

“Again, both of you, thank you so much for listening to me,” Angie told them, and gave the mug back to Daniel. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to use the Ladies’ Room,” and she quickly went to her stated destination.

Alex looked to Daniel, and saw the strange stillness in his expression that had been there earlier. “Is something wrong, Daniel? You’re taking this so .... strangely.”

“I think Rollie Tyler is the lowest piece of scum on the face of this earth,” he said angrily, unable to hold back his self loathing any longer. “To have walked out on Angie like that, leaving her alone with that .... that monster .... stalking her. He should be horsewhipped for what he put her through.” Then he put his head in his hands and cried, not even caring if he had just blown his cover with the woman he had become so fond of in such a short time.

“Daniel, you are totally stressed out. No sleep, when was the last time you ate, huh? and worried about the fisherman, and now this. What you need is a good meal and about ten hours of solid sleep. Horsewhipped. Somehow, I don’t think ministers are supposed to think that way.”

Daniel raised his head slowly, swallowed, and regained his composure. “You’re right, Alex. It was not very Christian of me to say that. You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

“I am the soul of discretion, Daniel. I won’t speak a word of it to anyone.”

“Loose lips sink ships?” he asked, a smile starting to form even as he asked.

“You bet your borscht loose lips sink ships,” Alex stated authoritatively, and they both grinned at that.

Angie knew nothing of this when she joined them a little bit later, just that they were smiling at each other in a way that made her wonder if there was anything more than friendship between the two.

“So, Angie, I was telling Daniel he needs breakfast and about eight hours of sleep,” Alex told her.

“Ten, you said,” Daniel corrected her.

“Whatever. Care to come to breakfast at the Widow’s Walk? My treat,” Alex added, even as Angie seemed about to decline, “for both of you.”

“Come on, Angie, breakfast sounds like a good idea to me,” Daniel encouraged her.

“Okay, but I have to call home first and check in with Blue,” she said, fishing out her cell phone. “My security system,” she told them, not wanting to take the time to explain about the computerized robot dog Rollie had built. “If I don’t check in, there are safeguards built in ...” and Angie looked at her watch. “Oh no, I’m late, oh, dear.”

“I’ll just wait in the car,” Alex said, and looked at Daniel to see if he was coming with.

“I should close up here, first,” he told her. Alex nodded and left.