Cherry Hill Park. Washington, D.C. Friday evening. August 6, 2004.

After an hour of wandering, Neal thought he'd seen most of the stalls and displays of the Caffrey caravans that had gathered for Henry's birthday tomorrow. The party was going to be more of a festival, from what Neal could tell. He'd donned a blue tunic now, similar to the red one Henry wore. The immediate family had gathered on a picnic blanket to consume a selection of foods from the caravans. Henry was pilfering pieces of the funnel cake Neal had procured. He professed innocence when Neal complained, but the powdered sugar on his red tunic was a dead giveaway. Noelle was sharing popcorn with her parents. Angela had a snow cone that was melting on her hand because she was too excited to eat.

"It's not just the instruments that are amazing," she was saying. "What blew my mind was the fusion, the merging of styles as cultures meet. The result is something totally new, unlike anything I've ever heard. It's music not just as entertainment, but also as storytelling. It's making me think of music in ways I hadn't even imagined. When I get back to Seattle I'm going to see if I can swap one of my electives for an ethnomusicology class."

"She's found her direction," Henry said in a low voice to Neal. "I don't have to worry about her now. If Columbia has a master's in this ethnomusicology field, then you can keep an eye on her next year."

"What about Dor?" Neal asked, thinking of their grandfather's objections to Angela studying music.

"He won't have the heart to stand in her way when she's this happy. Anyway, this sounds more like theory than performance. That should assuage his fears that she'll be on the road all the time, living hand-to-mouth."

"Henry?"

Henry and Neal looked up. They'd lost track of the conversation. Apparently Angela had taken a break from enthusing about the folk instruments and had a question for them. There was a particularly mischievous look in her eyes. Neal didn't know why, but Henry was turning slightly red.

"Time to head back?" Henry parried. "It'll be getting dark soon."

"You haven't told Neal yet, have you?" Angela asked.

"Told me what?"

"It's silly," said Henry. Definitely turning red.

"Our illustrious cousin – rock musician, investigator at Win-Win, sailor extraordinaire, and with a master's degree to prove he's not just a pretty face – he..." Angela trailed off, laughing.

"What?" Neal asked, looking at Henry.

He muttered something that included "Top Ten."

"Top Ten what?" Neal asked.

Angela cleared her throat. "He was named one of the Top Ten Most Eligible Bachelors of Baltimore last week."

"Surely that's not a surprise," Edmund interjected. "The boy takes after me."

"Way to go, Tiger," Neal said.

Henry moaned and complained at the teasing, but he took it with good humor. In fact all day, Henry was determinedly cheerful. It was as if he was making a point that he was fine and ready to party. Neal thought it was an act rather than actual happiness, but couldn't get through that mask long enough to find the truth.

There were moments when Henry seemed unmasked. In the evening back in the room they were sharing, Henry showed off his new guitar. He'd finally bought the one Randy Weston had been holding for him. It was a beautiful instrument with a great sound, and he seemed genuinely excited to have it. He played part of a song that sounded familiar, but didn't sing the words and Neal didn't recognize it at first. The tune continued to run through his mind as he drifted to sleep and he finally realized it was "Save Yourself" by Jonny Lang – a song about secrets and being haunted by the past.

That was the way behind the mask. As Angela had made clear this evening, the Caffrey Caravan was filled with music lovers. Neal decided to organize an impromptu concert for Henry's birthday when they returned to Cherry Hill Park Saturday morning. It would be one last mission for Urban Legend before they faded back to obscurity. He didn't have all of his crew here in D.C., but Angela, Noelle and Irene could be trusted to help him assemble a new crew. After all, they were equally worried about Henry.

###

The family embraced Neal's idea of a concert wholeheartedly. They took turns keeping Henry occupied throughout the day to make it a surprise. The most complex part was getting their guitars to the park without Henry noticing.

Members of the caravan joined in, too. Those without musical skills set about constructing a makeshift stage for singers.

At 4pm, people started gathering near the stage, drawn by the sight and scent of birthday cakes and cupcakes which were being unloaded from the delivery truck of a local bakery.

Edmund stepped onto the stage and someone handed him a microphone. "It isn't a birthday without cake now, is it?" he asked, and there was a resounding agreement from the crowd. Neal noticed that Edmund picked up more of an Irish accent the longer he spent with his extended family. "Our Henry has a bit of a sweet tooth, as we learned on a long ago birthday when he climbed up on the dining table and we found him digging into the cake with his bare hands." People chuckled. "Don't stand on ceremony, then. Get that cake while you can, before Henry beats you to it." A line formed leading to the cakes as Edmund looked on approvingly. "You may have noticed there isn't a pile of gifts in pretty wrapping paper here. That's because you're Henry's gift. He told us years ago he preferred experiences rather than things for his presents. Well, my wife took that to heart, and this year she organized an event the likes of which I could barely fathom when she first mentioned it." He beckoned Irene up, and she joined him on stage to the applause of the attendees. She wore a costume that she'd told Neal was inspired by the ones in the movie Kiss Me Kate.

It had been an overcast day and cooler than usual, which had been conducive to people going about in renaissance and medieval costumes on an August day. Now the clouds parted a bit, and a ray of sun shone down on the stage. "Am I imagining this?" Neal asked Noelle, who was in costume as a tavern wench.

"No. Things like this always happen around Mom. It's as if the universe knows she was meant to be a star."

Irene was thanking everyone for attending and then asked all the children in the camp to join her in singing Happy Birthday to Henry.

"She's a Pied Piper," Neal said to Noelle when the song ended. "That's where Henry gets it. At the park before the funeral and yesterday afternoon here, the kids couldn't stay away from him."

"And you followed him when he found you in Chicago."

Neal wanted to argue that he hadn't been a kid, but decided she might have a point. Henry had appealed to the Peter Pan in Neal, who might have been afraid to grow up when he was barely eighteen. The lure of adventure with Henry had been a temptation he couldn't resist, a chance to replace dreary childhood memories with something magical.

"Now some of you may have heard of a singing group called Urban Legend," Edmund said. "The members were Henry and two other Caffreys. This summer they clawed their way to fame – if sadly not fortune – on an undercover mission with the FBI to stop an underhanded businessman who was cheating those who want to make their living with music."

"He's making it sound like we're all FBI agents," Neal commented to Henry, who had walked over.

"He's reaching back to his Irish roots and spinning a yarn," Henry said.

"Now in addition to Henry we have the other members of the group here with a surprise of their own. Come up here, Lass, Boyo. Tell everyone what you have planned for us." Edmund handed the microphone to Neal.

"Henry's been my best friend since I turned eighteen," Neal said. "Every year he plans an amazing surprise for my birthday. I do my best to return the favor, but I think for once I'm finally going to outdo him. We've got an incredible array of musical talent here, and in the spirit of the movies our gracious hostess once starred in, we're going to put on a show!"

As the cheers died down, Angela took the microphone. "I already have a list of people who want to perform. I've matched up singers who need accompaniment with musicians. We'll give you an hour to scatter and practice. Then, as a series of food trucks arrive to serve us dinner, the entertainment will begin. And in case you were wondering... Aunt Noelle, if you would, please." She paused as Noelle took a guitar case from its hiding place and gave it to Henry. "Yes, we couldn't do something like this without letting our guest of honor show off with his new guitar."

Neal jumped down from the stage and offered his hand to Angela, who again wore the green renaissance-inspired gown. She picked up a clipboard with a long list on it and told people the order in which they'd perform.

Paige had accompanied her daughter to the event and stood beside Neal. "She's kind of bossy," Neal said in surprise.

"She gets it from her father," said Paige. "He was always bossing his sisters around. As a child she liked to organize things, and as I was often distracted with aircraft designs, I was happy to let her plan our menus and make out the grocery lists. When she showed an aptitude for math, David showed her the household accounts and how he balanced our budget. Next thing we knew she was pushing him away and took over that, too."

Since the concert had been Neal's idea, he kicked off the performances when people returned to the stage area. "Recently I learned that his Winslow grandparents had a nickname for Henry. They called him Tiger. So this is in honor of them." He started singing "Eye of the Tiger" and watched as Henry laughed. Perfect. He wanted Henry to be lulled into the belief that this was purely entertainment. That would leave him open to showing his true reactions to the songs. He wouldn't realize that Neal was playing Jiminy Cricket this time.

Next up were Graham and Julia Winslow. They explained how much Henry had loved being on the water with them. Even as an infant, he'd seemed calmer on a boat. As a result, decades ago Julia had chosen a song she'd thought was an appropriate lullaby for their Tiger, and she sang it with her husband now. Christopher Cross' "Sailing" brought happy memories, judging by the smile on Henry's face.

A group of Irish Caffreys went next. They talked about meeting Henry on his vacation earlier in the year, and they spun a tale claiming that Bono was almost certainly a Caffrey. Then they sang U2's "Beautiful Day."

Neal lounged on a picnic blanket next to Henry. "Did you meet Bono?" he asked his cousin.

"Oh, more than that," Henry said, matching their distant cousins' Irish accent. "I think I saw him in the line for cake this afternoon."

Neal's godfather Trent Lombard was next onstage. He wasn't going to sing, but had requested a song that members of the caravan had agreed to perform. "Some of you may know I'm in the Air Force, as was Henry's Uncle David. And I know what song David would sing for you if he were here." The caravan played Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle." And there was the tiniest crack in Henry's façade as he listened to the song about being free to fly away. Neal had been afraid of this. Henry was tempted to run off alone someplace to regroup and lick his wounds, but Neal didn't think Henry would find peace alone. He needed help.

Angela was on stage next, with a rousing rendition of "Steve McQueen," in which she sounded a lot like Sheryl Crow. Edmund followed with Paul Simon's "I Am a Rock," and of course Irene went with a song from the movies, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Again Henry had a longing look at the idea of escaping to a magical world.

What if his escape wasn't physical? He wouldn't do something desperate like escape with drugs to find his own Oz, would he? Neal told himself his cousin was smarter than that, but what would his form of escape be?

Members of the caravan were up next with "Hanging by a Moment" by Lifehouse and "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain. Then all three cousins took the stage as Urban Legend. They hadn't practiced this afternoon, since they'd had plenty of practice leading up to their sting. They'd told Henry they'd perform whatever he felt like in the moment. He selected Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again," which seemed to confirm Henry planned to hit the road.

As they settled back on the picnic blanket Neal asked, "Where do you want to go?"

Henry leaned back and closed his eyes. "Pops and I are taking the Executive Decision for a run down the coast starting on Labor Day weekend. We'll go down to the Carolinas, maybe further, and then head back home."

That wasn't too bad, Neal supposed. Graham certainly needed time to deal with his own grief. Henry could feel like he was helping Graham, while Graham would make sure Henry didn't do anything too wild. But Labor Day was nearly a month away. Neal wasn't sure Henry could hold on that long. What was he planning to do for the next few weeks?

Angela had wisely planned an upbeat song next. A teenager from the caravan belted out "Tomorrow" from Annie, and Neal saw Irene approach the girl once she left the stage. Probably to offer advice for going into show business, Neal guessed. The singer had an excellent voice and stage presence.

The next group took a few minutes to set up and Neal asked, "Are you going back to your job before your sailing trip?" Julia and Graham Winslow sat on lawn chairs nearby, and Neal saw Graham's head turn in their direction as he overheard the question.

Henry still lay on his back with his eyes closed and hands clasped behind his head. "I don't know. I want to go back, eventually. But I wonder if some of them blame me for what happened to Robert."

"You didn't shoot him," Neal protested.

"No, but maybe my coming to Win-Win and being competitive... Maybe by besting him in the company, I drove him to more extreme measures."

"He practically had to drag you into the company. He pounded in your head all your life that he expected you to try harder and do better at the job. How could anyone blame you for that?"

"I don't know, man. It just doesn't feel like there's a good answer. If I don't go back, I lose something I want. If I do go back, it feels... Awkward? It feels like I need to do something first, to make things right. Atone, maybe."

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"Not atone, exactly. Make peace with... I don't know. I just haven't felt peaceful in a long time. I almost don't remember what it feels like, but I've got to do something to calm all the thoughts and emotions spinning through my head."

Neal thought back to Henry saying he might try a form of therapy popular in India. "Your Beatles' moment. Are you gonna give that a try?"

Henry sighed. "I dunno. I've got a lot to figure out."

The group that sang next had chosen a folk song Neal didn't recognize. They used the dulcimer and other instruments that were new to him. As they prepared to leave the stage, Noelle walked by. "I'm up next. I was going to sing acapella, but I'm having second thoughts. Neal, could you play for me? Nothing fancy, just a few chords to keep me in tune."

He grabbed his guitar and scrambled up. "Sure, what song did you choose?"

She led the way toward the stage area. "I had a few options in mind, depending on how things went. I've decided on 'Someone Waits for You' by Carly Simon."

"Doesn't that sound like you approve of Henry running away instead of staying here to face his issues?" Neal objected when they were far enough away that his cousin wouldn't hear them.

"I don't agree those options are mutually exclusive. I'm starting to think he needs to get away to gain perspective. Don't think of it as Henry trying to escape from his problems, but rather that he's looking for the space and objectivity for healing. The best thing we can do is support him and let him know we'll be here for him when he's ready to come home."

Neal followed her wishes, and provided accompaniment for a wistful, poignant rendition of the song. Hers was the last performance on the stage, but throughout the evening entertainment could be found around every corner. There were jugglers, strolling musicians and folk dancers. There was a living chess game where the pieces were people who fought staged battles when moved to the same position on the massive board.

For a time Neal tagged along as Henry strolled down the aisles. They spotted Angela at the stall for a maker of dulcimers and she waved them over. "I wouldn't have imagined it, but you can actually play pop songs on these. It really transforms the music. Can you play that R.E.M. song again?" she asked someone who was probably a distant cousin.

Angela sang a haunting version of "Everybody Hurts," and halfway through Neal turned to Henry to comment on how good she was. He saw Henry's eyes brimming with tears. Henry reached up to wipe them away, and couldn't hold back a sob.

Neal froze, unsure what to do. Then he heard Graham's voice, which cracked a little as he said, "That's right, Tiger. Let the pain out." Graham hugged Henry a minute and said, "I've been thinking maybe we should start that trip earlier, and extend it a bit. I don't have any commitments for a while. What do you say we head to the Executive Decision tonight, sail back to Baltimore in the morning to drop off Julia and load up on provisions?"

Graham let go of Henry, who sniffed and then stepped back. He was blinking back tears as he nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that," he said hoarsely.

Looking at Neal and Angela, Graham said, "You'll tell Noelle where we've gone? Let her know I'll watch out for him."

Angela nodded and Neal said, "Sure, Pops."

Graham patted Neal on the back. "You're good kids." Then he put an arm around Henry's shoulders and started leading him toward the parking lot.

"His guitar!" said Angela. "I think he should take it."

Neal agreed. Henry needed music. He ran toward the stage, picked up Henry's guitar case and then sprinted toward Henry and Graham. "Here," he said as he caught up with them. "Angela thought you'd need it." Not sure when he'd see Henry again, he stepped forward and hugged him. "Take care of yourself," he said.

"You, too, kiddo."

###

Noelle took the news in silence.

"This will be good, don't you think?" Neal asked. "Being on the boat, it seems to be good for him. And you said he needed to get away."

She nodded.

"And Graham... I mean, you couldn't pick a better person to keep an eye on him. Other than me, of course."

She patted his hand.

"So, umm." Neal seemed at a loss for words.

"Thank you for telling me," she said. "You're right. He needs this. I'm going to miss him terribly, and I thought I'd have a little more time to prepare, but... You're right," she repeated.

"And they're not leaving till morning. You could drop by the dock to say bon voyage," Neal said.

She smiled through the tears gathering in her eyes. "Yes. Thank you, Neal. That's a wonderful idea." She reached up to kiss his cheek. "Have you told my parents yet?"

"Angela volunteered for that job." He paused. "Can I get you anything? There's a lemonade stand around the corner. They have bottled water, too. And I'm sure I saw someone selling mead."

She could tell he'd feel better if he could do something for her, so she requested the bottled water. Once she had it, she thanked him and said she should check on her parents. Neal pointed her in the direction he'd last seen them, and she meandered that way. She would check on her parents, but wanted a few moments to herself, first. She turned down aisles, absently admiring wares in a stall and forgetting what she'd seen as soon as she stepped away. It was getting dark, she realized. Most stalls had lanterns glowing over their wares, and there were campfires going up near some of the tents.

"Excuse me. Are you Noelle Caffrey?" The woman who asked looked vaguely familiar. Of course, most of the people here looked vaguely familiar. Those Caffrey genes had endowed most of the family with Irish features.

"I was. It's Winslow now."

"Of course. You probably don't remember me. I'm Siobhan Caffrey."

Noelle blinked as the memory came back to her. Siobhan was a cousin who'd befriended her the summer their Caffrey grandmother took her along with one of the caravans. She smiled in pleasure at the memories, and started chatting with Siobhan, catching up on each other's lives. They'd corresponded for a few years but then had fallen out of touch.

"As much as I'd like to keep talking," Siobhan said after a few minutes, "there's someone looking for you." She pointed toward a group of RVs. "Over there, in the dark blue rig. You can barely see it in the dark."

"Who is it?"

"I didn't recognize her. She told me her name is Annina."

Annina. That sounded familiar, although Noelle couldn't quite place it. She gave Siobhan her business card with her personal email address scrawled on the back and they promised to get in touch soon. Noelle strolled toward the RV, and saw a woman in jeans as she got closer. "Annina?" she asked.

"Annina Brandel." The woman flashed a badge. U.S. Marshal. Oh. This was the woman who'd shot Robert. "I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Winslow."

"I'm grateful you saved my son. But what are you doing here? Aren't you based in New York?"

"Yes, normally, but there's not much that's normal about this case. You're aware that your ex-husband threatened to expose the location of two protected witnesses?"

Noelle nodded. "I'd heard that."

"We moved them to temporary safe houses while we searched for him. Now we're relocating them. Neal had mentioned this event, and it seemed like the best opportunity to slip in unnoticed by James Bennett's enemies." She nodded toward the door of the RV. "Go on up. We can't stay long, but when the request was made..." She shrugged. "I thought I owed it to you."

Noelle opened the door and stepped inside. It was dark.

"Close the door," she heard a woman say.

When the door was closed, a light came on. She stared at a version of herself that had stayed brunette instead of dying her hair blond. "Hey, sis," said Meredith.

A/N: In this chapter there's a forward-looking reference to Silbrith's The Queen's Jewels, when Henry returns and catches Neal up on his travels with Graham, including a sojourn in India.

The story Paige tells about Angela taking over the household accounts is setting up Angela's part-time job as a bookkeeper in Silbrith's story Dreamer.

If you noticed that Edmund calls Henry his grandson but doesn't introduce Neal as such, that's for Neal's safety. His father's enemies are still out there, so he shouldn't be publicly identified as the missing grandchild.