“Sorry,” Jack said. “I lost track of time. I was running down the driveway after you, hoping you’d see me.”
He was standing right there as she got out of the car.
He said, “Where is it?”
“I don’t have it,” Kate said. She closed the car door and moved toward the lodge.
“What do you mean? It wasn’t there, or they wouldn’t give it to you?”
Kate opened the front door and went inside, Jack right behind her.
He said, “Want to tell me what’s going on?”
That’s what she wanted to know. She took her coat off and hung it on the back of a chair in the breakfast room. She went in the kitchen and got a glass out of the cupboard, opened the freezer, put a handful of ice cubes in the glass, poured some bourbon, and took a sip. She wasn’t going to offer him one.
Jack said, “You’re kidding about the money, right?” Trying to sound calm. “You’re jerking my chain, aren’t you? It’s in the trunk, isn’t it?”
“Why’re you so concerned about the money?”
“ ’Cause you need it to get Luke back,” Jack said. “Why do you think?”
His eyes stayed on her, waiting for a response, but she didn’t give him one. Now he turned, took a rocks glass out of the cupboard and poured bourbon in it and drank it straight, fixing his gaze back on her.
He said, “Where’s my key?”
She took it out of her pocket and threw it to him. He caught it, put his glass down and walked out of the kitchen. She heard the front door open and heard it close when he came back in a few minutes later. He was tense, trying to hide it, but he couldn’t.
“Okay, where is it?” Jack said. “Tell me what’s going on?”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Kate said. “Why don’t you tell me?”
Jack said, “What the hell’s gotten into you?”
“Giving the money back, the fifty thousand, makes sense now,” Kate said. “With the ransom you’ll make a lot more, won’t you?” Kate had connected the dots and they led right to Jack. Who else? He knew the problems she was having with Luke. Knew Luke had taken off and they’d be at the lodge, the perfect place to pull it off-remote and isolated. Knew if he gave her the money back she’d think she could trust him, and it sounded like he was acquainted with the kidnappers-his comment about them “spending too much time to fuck it up,” like he had inside information. But it was the stolen Lexus that brought it all together, proved Jack was still a crook and got her thinking.
“You’re all stressed,” Jack said. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
She looked right at him and said, “Where’s Luke?”
“How do I know?”
He was lying, she could see it in his eyes. “You’re the only one who could’ve pulled it off.” She walked to the breakfast room table, bent down and took the Beretta out of the pocket of her jacket, racked a round in the chamber, and pointed it at him.
Jack said, “Put it down. This isn’t Guatemala. You’re not going to shoot your way out. These people are pros. They’re good at what they do.”
Kate aimed the Beretta at him. “How many are there?”
“Three. Listen to me,” Jack said, “if you don’t come up with the money…”
He didn’t finish what he was going to say, but the implication was clear.
Kate said, “Where’s Luke?”
“He’s okay,” Jack said. “That’s all you need to know. Give them the money and you’ll get him back. It’s that easy.”
“Them,” Kate said. “Like you’re not part of it, huh?”
“They were going to do it anyway,” Jack said, “with or without me.”
There he was-making excuses, as always.
“Let me ask you something,” Kate said. “What’s your share?”
“What difference does it make?” Jack said. “It’s not going to change your life one way or the other.”
“It already has,” Kate said.
He swallowed the last of his drink.
“You’ve been at it all along, haven’t you? Since the day you left me.”
He poured more bourbon in the glass and looked at her.
“Never really stopped except for my time in stir,” Jack said.
He was confessing now like there was truth serum in the booze. He told her about his thirty-eight months in the Arizona Penitentiary.
Kate listened, not surprised by any of it.
“I’m the way I am,” Jack said. “And I don’t see myself changing. That much I’ve figured out.”
“I came to that same conclusion about an hour ago when a sheriff ’s deputy pulled me over for driving a stolen car.” She told him what happened.
He said, “Cop know who you are?”
“If he did, there’d be a fleet of white Crown Vics parked out front with their lights flashing.”
She was in the breakfast room and he was in the kitchen, two feet of counter separating them, looking at each other.
Jack said, “Maybe they haven’t found him yet.”
“Haven’t found him? He’s right there on Dumas Road, a hundred feet from the main highway, handcuffed to the steering wheel,” Kate said. “I’m the one they’re going to be looking for.” She thought about the consequences of what she’d done, but it seemed trivial in light of her current situation.
Jack said, “Where’s the money at?”
“In a safe place.”
“As long as you have it.”
Kate said, “How’s it going to happen? Are they going to call again?”
“You’re supposed to give me the money,” Jack said, like he was trying out the line. “I’ll take it to them and bring Luke back here. That’s what we agreed to. That’s why I got involved-to make sure nothing happened to him.”
“That’s why you got involved, huh?” Kate shook her head. “To help a kid you don’t even know. Why am I having trouble believing that?” She squeezed the grip of the Beretta.
“I’m being straight with you.”
It sounded weak, like he didn’t believe it either.
Kate said, “Do you really think I’m going to trust you with two million?”
“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” Jack said. “They want the money first.”
“No way,” Kate said. “First, I want to see my boy.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“You better do more than that,” Kate said. “Tell them to bring Luke here, I’ll give you the money. Tell them that’s the way we’re going to do it.”
He said, “I just want you to know I’m sorry about all this.”
“Is that right? I want you to know something too-this kid you’ve kidnapped and put up for ransom is yours.” She let that sink in before she continued. “You hear what I’m telling you? He’s your flesh and blood. You may recall I thought I was pregnant when you left town. Well, I was.”
Jack grinned. “Come on?”
Kate said, “I figured you’d say something like that.”
“If it was true you’d have told me before now.”
“You think I’m making this up?”
Jack’s face went pale all of a sudden, like he might be sick.
“You telling me your husband didn’t know Luke wasn’t his?”
“Sure he knew,” Kate said.
“And he didn’t care?”
