He wondered, afterwards, whether he had dreamt that Riggins visited, came to his house. Paul Cjelli never mentioned him after that, but kept glancing to Dirk was an odd look in his eye, just a glance. Sometimes Dirk wished that he could read minds and could tell what his father was thinking about, why he was looking at him like that. It wasn't quite disgust, it had hints of curiosity and interest, for once in his life, Dirk guessed that he had interested Paul without even meaning to.
Of course it had - a CIA officer turning up out of the blue, talking to him about lord knows what?
They'd probably made some sort of deal, and whatever it was, Dirk liked it so far. Paul hadn't been beating him ever since Riggins had left, no harsh words only the odd looks and from time to time short, curse conversations. Paul couldn't care less about what was going on in his son's life, but he was trying harder than he ever had before, and that was what mattered.
"Listen, kid," Paul sat him down at the table one night. "You're a good kid. You never complain, even though you should, and you never ask for anything."
Dirk stayed silent. "That Riggins guy- remember him? He admitted that it wasn't the only time he'd met you, that you'd known each other for more than a year now. He told me about the whole name thing, I can try and call you Dirk if you want, but I have a better offer to propose for you."
Dirk perked up slightly. This was different to any other conversation he'd had with his father, this time he was sober and thinking straight, all thoughts concentrated on his son. The sudden change of attitude was really throwing Dirk off, but he nodded and weakly asked, "What's the offer?"
"Riggins told me about the detective thing, too, and he said that if you wanted, you could go and join him. It'd mean leaving England, because he works in America, but you could go and...I don't know...help them out? Permanently, if you wanted to, or just for a bit. And I want you to know, kid, that if that's what you wanna do then you should take up the offer. I know that you are still young, Sv-Dirk, but maybe with a bit of training you could be their youngest agent, huh? What d'ya say?"
Dirk sat with his mouth open, staring at Paul Cjelli. This was a different man, this was a complete transformation from his usually drunken father and there was no way it was going to stay like this. Dirk's fantasies, of helping Riggins, were actually coming true.
It was the best feeling in the world.
