Brennan bolted out of her chair and pressed her back up against the wall.
"What are wewe doing here? How did wewe get in?" She began to reach for the phone.
"Don't bother. The line is disconnected. Sorry, darling, but I had to take precautions."
"What do wewe want?" she demanded. Keenan started towards her, but Brennan grabbed an antique figurine sitting on her desk. "Don't come any closer!" she warned, wielding the figurine as a club. Her father raised his hands, palms outward, in a gesture of peace and stepped mbele again.
"Now, sweetie, don't be irrational. It's unbecoming. I just want to talk-"
"I said, don't come any closer!"
"Tempe, honestly. I just want to talk, I promise. Here, sit down and I'll just stand over here. Okay?" Brennan glared at him, but slowly settled down into her chair. "What do wewe want, Max?"
"Now, I can't tell wewe everything here, but I will give wewe the basics. First, I'm in trouble. A man is after me and he wants me dead. He had a partner too, but that one's dead now. I-"
"You killed him, didn't you? Max, I thought wewe were retired! And the other one is after wewe because of that." Brennan scowled. "I'm not going to help you!"
"I wasn't going to ask-"
"But wewe wouldn't mind if I did help you, would you? Don't lie to me, Max."
"Sweetie, I'm not lying to you. Now if wewe would stop interrupting me, I could finish my story. I need wewe to trust me."
Brennan stood abruptly and paced back and forth. "Why should I trust you? wewe kill people! wewe burn them and gut them. Why should I trust wewe at all? The Columbus - that's you, right? Dad, wewe killed a man!"
"He was coming after wewe and your brother! I had to protect you!"
"You didn't have to do what wewe did! There are other means. wewe could have turned him in. And why that mixture of flammable substances?"
"I wanted to make sure the job would be done." He tried to songesha closer towards his daughter, but she pointed the figurine at him again, glaring at him furiously. He quietly backed away.
"Well, wewe did your job. His remains are in our lab. But wewe still have failed to answer my swali - why did wewe come to see me? I could care less that this man is after you." She sat back down and folded her arms across her chest, the scowl back on her face. Why did he always have to ruin things? Keenan glanced at her, his own pain written on his features.
"Look, Tempe. I know I was a bad father. I know I abandoned wewe and Russ and I regret that."
"It's too late for apologies."
"I know. The reason why I'm here is because I wanted to tell wewe about your mother."
Silence hung in the air. Once again, Brennan was fighting internally with all of the conflicting feelings welling up inside her. She knew she should hand her father over to Booth right then and there, but he had information she was so desperately wanting to know. She wanted to spit at him, to beat at him and hurt him for what he had done, for all the pain he had caused her. But all Brennan did was nod.
"Good. Meet me at Gilligan's Bar tonight at 8:00. I'll be in the back at a meza, jedwali marked with a picha of Elvis on the ukuta directly above."
"But-"
"Goodbye, Temperence. I upendo you."
"Max, wait-" she protested. She jumped out of her kiti, kiti cha and started over to where he stood, but he opened the window and hauled himself over the edge. Too late she noticed the cord tightly secured to a built-in stone planter on the outside wall. Brennan leaned her head out of the window in time to see Max Keenan get into a dark blue sedan and drive away, blowing her a kiss as he went.
"So that's how he got in," she muttered.