She climbed the stairs to the second floor and looked in each of the bedrooms and bathrooms, but detected no evidence that anyone had been inside.
She stopped in her old bedroom and picked up the telephone to dial the message number. It said, 'You have eight new messages.' She heard the voice of Sharon Curtis. 'This is Sharon, from a long time ago. I'm calling from a pay phone. I'm still well, still safe. I'm sending a girl to you. I hope you can give her the kind of help that you once gave me.' The rest of the messages were all the voice of the young girl downstairs. The first began 'You don't know me, but—' and the last said, 'I'm going to try the place Sharon said to look for you. If you get this message, please call me. Once again, my number is—'
She went back downstairs and held the door while the young woman stepped into the kitchen, then closed and locked the dead bolt before she turned on the light. 'It's safe for the moment. Nobody's been in here.'
The young woman said, 'It's nice here. Cozy. Do you live alone?'
'This is the house where I grew up. My grandfather built it. I don't live here anymore.' She pulled out a chair from the kitchen table. 'Have a seat. I won't be long.'
Jane went upstairs again and dialed Carey's cell phone. She waited through the message: 'You have reached Dr. McKinnon. If this is a medical emergency, please call the following number: 5559852. If you would like to leave a message, you may begin at the tone.' Jane heard the tone, and said, 'Carey, I'm afraid I have to leave tonight without seeing you. The bomb was planted by a crew of professionals. There are six of them—four men and two women—who have been trying to kidnap a pregnant girl who had checked in for observation yesterday. I'm with her now. One of the men got a dislocated knee tonight, so if you have a way to check with other hospitals, you might find something out and tell the police.' She paused. 'I love you, and I'm sorry.' Jane went down the hall and descended the creaking stairs.
When she reached the first floor Jane stopped for a second to look through the lighted doorway at the girl sitting in the kitchen. She looked exhausted, as if only the fear was keeping her from collapsing. Her light green eyes looked faded, almost gray, and her face was pale. Jane moved on. She opened the door to the cellar staircase and descended into the cool underground. The old walls were made of big stones held together with mortar, but she'd had them reinforced with rebar and concrete a few years ago.
Jane opened the stepladder and climbed it to reach the hiding place in the rafters, the old heating duct from the coal furnace that her father had removed when she was a child. She reached in, pulled out the steel box she kept there, balanced it on the top step of the ladder, and rifled through the items she had hidden there. She set aside a large stack of hundred-dollar bills, and selected four different driver's licenses with her picture on them and sets of credit cards in the same names. She took one quick look at the special sets she kept in leather folders, then returned them to their corner of the box. These were the identities she hoped never to use. One set she kept in case something went wrong. It was for a married couple and had pictures of her and of Carey. The other set was placed there in case everything went wrong. It held papers for each of them with different surnames.
She put the money and her four false-identity packets into her purse, then hid the box, put away the ladder, climbed back upstairs, and entered the kitchen. She could hear nothing but the ticking of the clock on the wall as the girl turned to stare at her. 'What do we do now?'
'First we get ourselves something to wear from the closets upstairs. We can't go any place in scrubs. I don't keep that many clothes here anymore, but I have a couple of pairs of black drawstring yoga pants that are mid-calf length, and I think they'll fit you, and lots of running shoes. If they're too big we'll use thick socks to make them fit. And we'll take a couple of hooded jackets and sweaters. Come on.'
They climbed to the second floor and went into one of the bedrooms, where Jane began pulling things from the closet and the dresser drawers. 'See if any of these looks as though it might fit you.' While the girl picked up some of the clothes, Jane said, 'You know, you haven't told me your name.'
'Christine Monahan.'
'Where did you come from?'
Christine looked surprised at the question. 'San Diego. That's how I know Sharon.'
'This man—the father of your child—do you think that what he wants is to kill you?'
'Richard Beale. I think he wants to hurt me. I don't know how bad.'
'Why does he?'
'I think because I left him. He doesn't like it if somebody doesn't do what he wants. He likes to control everybody around him.'
Jane was silent for a few seconds while the two changed their clothes. Christine was holding things back, but she didn't seem to be lying about her predicament. Jane could wait to hear the rest until they were away from here and in motion, but there was something else she had to get out of the way now. 'There are some things that you should know before we go any further. This isn't as simple as it was ten years ago when Sharon came to me. It's not as safe. I made a lot of people disappear before I met her, and a lot after her. For every runner there are chasers, and some of them have seen my face. There are people looking for me—people who would do anything to get me in a small room someplace where they can ask me questions. It's possible that the most dangerous thing you've ever done is come here to see me.' She paused. 'That's one of the reasons why I stopped doing this.'
'You're ... retired?'
'It was never a job, never a business. I simply stopped doing it about five years ago. The last person I took out of the world was me.'
Christine said, 'Are you saying that you're not going to be able to help me?'
'No. I just need you to know what comes with my help. It isn't all good.'
'If I hadn't found you, they would have caught me tonight. I wouldn't be here at all.' Her eyes were beginning to fill with tears, but she wiped them away. 'I appreciate the warning, but it doesn't change anything. If you're still willing to help me, then I want you to. I'll try to be as easy as I can.'
'Don't worry,' said Jane. 'I'm willing.'
'Thank you,' she said. She looked at her reflection in the mirror in her borrowed clothes, shrugged, and turned to Jane. 'Then what's next?'
'Now we run.'
3
Jane drove with an almost animal alertness, looking in the car's mirrors for other cars, stopping at residential intersections with her window down to listen for the sound of engines and to see whether another vehicle was shadowing her on a parallel street. After a few blocks she made a right and headed out of town.
The roads out of Deganawida were stories. Where Main Street left the city it became Military Road, the straight-surveyed road the British army had built between Fort George where Lake Erie flowed into the river, and Fort Niagara, where the river emptied into Lake Ontario. Jane made her way south, heading for one of the old trails that her ancestors had worn into the forest hundreds of years ago. It was the western end of the Wa-a-gwenneyu, the trail that ran three hundred miles from the spot that was now the foot of Main Street in Buffalo to the end of Iroquois territory, where the Mohawk River met the Hudson.
Jane drove eastward for twenty minutes in silence. The road gradually became more suburban, and then the streetlamps and lighted buildings were farther apart. The darkness of houses with windows blackened for sleep enfolded them for longer periods, and the quiet and calm reassured Jane. Night highways were usually deserted, and when they weren't, the darkness and the glare of headlights provided anonymity.
Christine said, 'Why were you at that party? Do you work at the hospital?'
'No. My husband is a surgeon. I was one of the people who volunteered to put on the benefit. It's the kind of thing that people expect of you if you're a doctor's wife. It's a good thing to do, and it's part of the role—the disguise.' She turned to Christine. 'I suppose that brings us to an unpleasant aspect of our relationship.'
'Ours? You and me?'
'Yes. When I agree to take you away from your troubles, I'm saying that I know it's possible that someday your enemies will trace you partway and find me. In your case, that's pretty likely. They saw me, and they saw my car. I'm prepared for that.'
'You're prepared? How can you be?'
'I mean that if they catch me, I won't tell them where you are. I'll die with that information in my memory, and only there.' Jane turned again to look at Christine.
