procedure and I told them I came back because I’d forgotten something. When I left the storage room, I had the sense someone had been watching me in there.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“No-it was just a sense I had. And then this morning I got this weird hang-up. And then another one a little while later. I’m all alone here this weekend and I’m just really scared.”
Lake’s stomach knotted. She’d put Rory in possible jeopardy and she had to do something about it.
“Is there any way your husband could cut his trip short?”
There was a pause as Rory seemed to consider the option.
“No, I can’t ask him to…It’s-it’s a really important client and so much depends on this trip.”
“Do you have anyone else you can call? Someone from your family-or a neighbor?”
“No, no one. We only moved here about a year ago, and people haven’t been very welcoming. It’s not an inclusive community here at all.”
“Maybe the calls are unrelated,” Lake said, though her alarm was growing. “Just because someone saw you going through files doesn’t mean they think you were doing anything wrong. You might have been just checking out some patient info, right?”
“But they probably saw that the files were missing,” Rory said, almost pleading. “They probably know what I was up to.”
“What do you mean,
“I took some files with me. I didn’t dare photocopy them.”
“You have the files with you now?” Lake said, incredulous.
“Yes. About ten of them.”
“
“Yes,” Rory said. “They have those letter codes you talked about. Not every file I checked had them, but I took the ones that did.”
With her free hand, Lake ran her hand roughly through her hair. This was exactly what she’d hoped for. She had to see those files-and she owed it to Rory to make sure she was safe.
“Rory, why don’t I come to your place? I’ll take the files so you don’t have to worry about them.”
“Are you sure? I’m all the way up in Bedford Hills. It’s over an hour north of the city. I can make photocopies tomorrow and figure out the best way to get them back in the drawers.”
“I’m actually upstate now-a ways north of you, even. I can leave in a few minutes. Just tell me the address and I’ll use my GPS.”
“Well, if you really wouldn’t mind, that would be great,” Rory said. “I just feel so nervous.”
Rory rattled off the address and Lake said that it would take her at least an hour to get there. She told Rory to lock all the doors and windows and to call her on her cell if she had any problem. And if she felt in danger to call 911.
By five forty-five the bus still hadn’t arrived. Lake was torn about what to do. If she split now, Will would be upset, and yet she was anxious to get to Rory’s. Finally, at six, just as she was firing up the engine of the car, an old yellow school bus waddled into the parking lot. Will was one of the first to trip down the steps, and after scanning the parking lot for his mother’s car, he bounded toward it and climbed in. A counselor waited outside.
Will’s silky blond hair was still damp and his cheek bore the crease from a nap on the bus. He seemed more than happy to see her, and also hyper, on a sugar high from the junk food he’d probably consumed at the water park.
“I went on the log ride five times, Mom. My clothes were soakin’.”
“It was fun, huh?”
“Yeah, awesome.”
“And what about tonight? What’s planned for later?”
“We’re having pizza. They ordered like a hundred pies.”
“Excellent.”
“Yeah, we were supposed to have a cookout but it’s gonna rain. There’s gonna be this big thunderstorm.”
As he glanced out of the car window, clearly wondering what he was missing up the hill, Lake stole a nervous look at her watch.
“Why don’t I let you catch up with your friends now?” she said. “I just wanted to be sure to say hi.”
“Okay, bye, Mom.” He offered her a tight hug and flashed his crooked grin. “Tell Smokey I said hi.”
She’d been on the road just ten minutes when the rain started, big fat drops that pelted the roof of the car and seemed to explode on the windshield. She needed to call Rory with an update but she didn’t dare take a hand off the wheel. At the first chance she pulled off the road and into the parking lot of one of the caboose restaurants Jack had loved to mock. It was growing dark, and through the streams of rain the blue and white lights from the restaurant sign undulated eerily. This was one of the times of year she’d never loved being up here-when the days grew shorter and there was an utter forlornness in the air.
Rory picked up on the first ring. There had been no more hang-ups, she said, but with night coming, she was feeling more and more scared. Lake explained how far behind schedule she was.
As she pulled onto the road again, barely able to see, a sense of dread began to build in her. What if someone
The rain was coming down in torrents now and at times she had to plunge the car through huge pools of water that had formed on the blacktop of the two-lane road. Things were better on the interstate, and yet more than a few cars had pulled onto the shoulder to wait out the storm. Lake kept going, feeling she had no choice. As it was, she wouldn’t reach Rory’s until after eight.
Three-quarters of the way there, the rain stopped as quickly as it had started. She picked up the pace and the GPS recalculated her arrival time. When she was just fifteen minutes away, she peered through the windshield, surprised at what she saw. Rather than the suburban sprawl she’d expected, she was in horse country. The roads were lined with split-rail fences, and occasionally through the dark she caught sight of a huge house set back from the road and lit up like a cruise ship. She remembered that Rory had said she lived in an old gatehouse.
As soon as she pulled into the driveway she understood why Rory felt so afraid. The house was down a long driveway and there wasn’t another house in view-not even the main estate house that the gatehouse must have once been a part of.
After turning the car off, Lake twisted her body and surveyed the area. Rory’s gatehouse, she saw, was two stories and made of stone. The first floor was brightly lit and a security light above the small garage illuminated the driveway. The garage door was open, showing the front of a small car butting out. There was no sign of anyone outside, and yet Lake knew that with all the trees and hedges on the property, it would be easy for someone to lurk in the shadows.
Before climbing out of the car, Lake called Rory’s home phone number.
“It’s me out here,” Lake said when Rory picked up. “I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you at the door.”
As Lake tore across the yard, the muddy ground sucked at her clogs. Rory flung open the front door just as Lake reached the top step of the porch.
Rory’s blond hair was held back in a simple ponytail today. She was wearing stretchy black capris, obviously pregnancy pants, and a matching maternity tunic. It was the first time Lake had seen her without makeup, and on her left cheek there was a patch of inflamed skin that looked as if it had been picked at worriedly.
“I’m so sorry,” Lake said as Rory relocked the door. “Because of the rain I had to drive at about fifty most of the way. Are you okay?”
“I just got another hang-up,” Rory said. She shook her head back and forth quickly, as if that would make everything stop. “It’s like they’re trying to figure out if I’m here or not.”
“Okay, let’s talk about what to do.”
“Why don’t we go into the kitchen? I can make us some tea.”
“All the other doors are locked-and the windows?” Lake asked.
“Yes,” Rory said. “Everything.”
Lake followed Rory from the hall into a living/dining room. It appeared as if the interior had been gutted to