Olga pushed the pager button for the cordless phone she kept in the den-the one thing she'd done that defied her husband's wishes, but he was gone and there would be no arguing about being 'true to the house' The phone handset called out to her from a sofa cushion in the living room. She fished it out, put her feet up on an ottoman, and waited for the earthquake that was sure to come when the phone rang again.
It had been only a matter of time.
Jenna finished the conversation with her father, cut short by a cheap cell phone they'd stolen from a man at the counter of the minimart. The theft was completely impulsive, but after being called a murderer, a kidnapper, and an 'artsy' high school student, just about anything went by then. Jenna looked at Nick with disapproving eyes. His new look would take some getting used to. Nick had shaved his head earlier this morning and a slight rash had developed, making his pasty white scalp look something like a bruised strawberry. He sat glumly on the curb, the light of day eclipsed by the hour.
'My dad said my mom called about us,' she said.
'No surprise there. I knew we couldn't trust her.'
'She's my mom. And we can trust her. She called my dad, not the FBI'
Nick lit a cigarette, his last one. 'As far as you know.'
That hurt a little and Jenna didn't try to hide it. 'Don't be like that. Look, both my parents say the same thing. We need to turn ourselves in. We didn't do anything wrong'
Nick wasn't buying any of that. He slumped back down on the sofa. The mine building was rancid, creaky, and drafty. His family was gone, his house was gone. His life was over.
'Nobody's calling you a killer,' he said.
Jenna pushed her long dark hair over her shoulder. He had a point. Words were so stupid, so hurtful, and at that time, so useless. They could hurt, but not calm.
'In her message,' she said, finally, 'my mom asked my dad if he knew anything about Angel's Nest.'
Nick exhaled and his eyes followed Jenna as she moved closer and sat next to him. He turned his gaze to the grimy floor and searched for words.
'My dad warned me about that,' he said while patting his irritated scalp. 'He said to me ... before he died .... Nick let himself to go back to that upstairs bedroom, back into the depths of the worst memory he'd ever hold.
'Get out ... son ... go. Not safe. Angel here. Hide. You're in danger Won't stop until you're dead.'
'Angel?' Jenna asked. 'He called you angel?'
'He never called me that. He called me NickNack, but not Angel. I thought it was some weird comment, you know, like seeing an angel before you die.'
Jenna couldn't make the connection. 'What do you think he was saying?'
'I don't know, but I thought he was warning me about an angel now.'
'Or Angel's Nest?'
Nick nodded, it seemed to make sense. 'My dad said that was the name of the adoption agency in Seattle. It was what he and Cary McConnell argued about. We're going there'
'We can't.' Jenna could feel fear rising in her.
'I need to know,' he said. 'You can stay. You can go back to your mom' When he said the word 'mom,' his voice cracked slightly, almost imperceptibly. 'I'm going.'
Jenna knew then that it was too late for her. She'd lost any choices she could make when she decided to help Nick. She cared about him. She trusted him. She thought that he could even be right about her own mother. Maybe she couldn't understand. Maybe she wouldn't really believe them.
'I know where Shali keeps an extra set of car keys,' Jenna said.
Chapter Twenty-three
Saturday, 6:26 A.M., Cherrystone, Washington
Early Saturday morning two cars were headed out of Cherrystone. One, a bland Honda Accord driven by the detective in search of her daughter and a killer, and the other, a VW bug with a flapping ragtop driven by the suspected killer and the same daughter. Neither of the drivers or the sole passenger knew the other was on its way to the same destination, for the identical purpose. Getting out of town hadn't been an easy prospect for either. One had to steal a car; the other had to squirm a little.
Emily Kenyon didn't exactly argue with Sheriff Brian Kiplinger to leave the investigation, but he wasn't thrilled about it. 'I know you have personal problems, Emily,' he had said, 'but we're up to our necks in alligators here and we need you to wrestle a few.'
It was a lame metaphor, but Emily knew what he meant. Her investigation had been stymied by her daughter's inadvertent involvement, the FBI had offered to step in, and the Spokane police had drawn their line in the sand, too.
'I get that' Her dark eyes flashed. 'But, look, I think that some of the answers to what happened at the Martin place will be found in Seattle.'
Kip crossed his burly arms and narrowed his gaze. 'And maybe your daughter, too?'
Emily bristled at the mention and wished she'd just called in sick. 'Jenna is not a runaway. She's not a victim here. I know she's just trying to help a friend. I believe that. Why is that so hard for you to accept?'
'Emily, I'm your boss' Kip shifted his frame in the chrome-accented chair that was the only luxury in his office. He rocked backward and steadied the chair by putting his foot on the leg of his desk. 'You're talking to me like I'm your ex. I don't know what happened. I'm glad you think Jenna is all right. But I just talked to a woman who buried her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew out at Green View two days ago and she's none too happy that we haven't picked up Nick guilty or not'
The dialogue played in her head as she climbed the mountain pass where yellow flashing lights advised drivers to watch for falling rocks. The remaining snow piled on the shoulder was coated in gray sludge and had almost disappeared. She could see the conical yellow and pale green forms of skunk cabbage as it fanned out along the swampy edges of a waterfall-fed bog. The AM radio talk show that had kept her somewhat entertained, out of her own head for almost an hour, began to crackle. The blowhard's voice faded. She pushed FM and the radio scanned through several Latino stations before landing on Celine Dion singing that song from Titanic.
Jenna loved that movie when she was a little girl. She thought that Leonardo DiCaprio was the cutest boy ever Cute and artsy. Maybe that's how she views Nick Martin?
As Celine worked her vocal chords into an unqualified frenzy, Emily began to wonder once more why Olga MorrisCerrino had changed her mind and would only speak to her in person.
'Some things are better covered face-to-face,' she had said when Emily had called back that evening. 'Come up here. I'll pull my files. I might even fix you lunch.'
'Lunch would be good,' she said, before saying goodbye.
She didn't know it, but a half hour ahead of her Honda, Shali Patterson's stolen VW sped down the mountainside, the radio playing the same Celine Dion song.
Saturday, 10:45 A.M., Mercer Island, Washington
Mercer Island, Washington, barely felt like an island. It was pinned to Lake Washington by Interstate 90 and a pair of bridges, one of them floating on the surface of Seattle's Lake Washington on enormous concrete pontoons. The lake was so deep and a suspension bridge so costly, that at the time of its conception a floating bridge seemed a good idea. Mercer Island was named for Asa Mercer, who'd famously brought women from back east to marry the loggers carving out the great forests. It seemed that Mercedes Benzes, BMWs, and Jags were the only cars that exited the interstate to the island's addresses.
David Kenyon was a surgeon making big bucks, but not so much that he had been forced to live on the island with Microsoft millionaires, sports stars, and the very few that actually carried a whiff of old money from the lumber and gold of Seattle's past. His girlfriend, Dani, however, was a social climber of the highest order. She stretched the doctor's income like a tube top on a stripper-to near breaking. But she got the island house. Not waterfront, but view. And not peak-a-boo view, either. The house was a 1960s rambler that if plunked down somewhere in the Midwest wouldn't cost more than $150,000. On Mercer Island, it was a cool million dollars.
It wasn't all that early in the morning, but Dani was in bed and David was padding around the house when he heard a knock at the door. He found Jenna and Nick, standing outside, looking scared. Instinctively he went to Jenna
