of opening her eyes exhausted all her stores of strength. Cassie dropped to her knees between Kibble's outstretched legs.
'Thelma! Thelma, what happened?'
Without waiting for an answer she already knew, Cassie reached up and jerked one of the two dresses she owned off a hanger. She bunched it in her hands and moved in close to Kibble to use it as a compress. She saw a single bullet wound high on Kibble's chest. A tremendous amount of blood had leaked from the wound. So much that Cassie was stunned that Kibble was still alive. She pressed the dress over the wound and looked at Kibble's lips. They were soundlessly working as Kibble attempted to say something.
'Thelma, don't talk, don't talk. Was it Karch? A man named Karch?'
The mouth stopped working for a moment and there was a slight nod.
'Thelma, I am so sorry.'
'-ot me wi' my own gun…'
Her voice was no more than a rasp.
'Thelma, don't talk. I'm going to get help. You hang in there and I'll get help. Can you hold this?'
Cassie lifted the woman's left hand and put it over the bunched dress. When she released her hold the hand started to fall away. Cassie reached over to a plastic laundry basket and dragged it over. She overturned it and pulled it in tight against Kibble's side. She raised Kibble's left arm again and propped the elbow on the overturned basket. She then put the left hand back onto the makeshift compress. The weight of Kibble's huge arm kept her hand and the compress in place.
'Hang in there, Thelma,' Cassie ordered. 'There's no phone in the house. I have to go to my car. I'll call for help and be right back. Okay?'
She waited and saw Kibble's jaw start to tremble as she tried to say something.
'Don't answer! Just save your strength. Help will be here soon.'
Cassie started to get up but saw Kibble's mouth still working. She was determined to say something. Cassie leaned in close and turned so her left ear was close.
'He knows…'
Cassie waited but there was nothing else. She turned and looked at Kibble.
'He knows? He knows what?'
Kibble's eyes came up to hers and Cassie knew that what she was trying to say was important.
'Karch? He knows what, Thelma?'
She turned and leaned in again.
'Your daughter. He… has her picture.'
Cassie sprang back as if punched. She looked at Kibble with fearful and alert eyes. She then looked down at the pillowcase next to her as if it might contain a bomb set to go off at any moment. She grabbed the bag and turned it over, dumping its contents. She grabbed up one of the albums – the one she called the school album – and opened it. The first photo was missing from the clear plastic window. Written across the window in a black marker was a message that froze her heart.
NO COPS 702-881-8787
Without a doubt she knew what the message meant.
'Go…'
Cassie looked up from the photo album to Kibble.
'Go now… go get her…'
Cassie looked at her a long moment and then nodded. She jumped up and ran from the closet, taking the photo album with the phone number in it and leaving everything else behind.
37
FROM a steady distance of three blocks Karch's Towncar trailed the white Volvo wagon as it left the Wonderland School. As Karch expected, the Volvo didn't go far. It stayed on Lookout Mountain Road until it almost crested the hill and then turned down a driveway next to a 1920 's-style home set well back from the road. Karch slowed and by the time he was abreast of the house he saw the woman and the little girl with the happy-face backpack heading toward the front door of the house. He went on by and turned around in a driveway a block farther up the street. He went back down the street and parked at the curb across the street from the driveway with the Volvo wagon parked in it. The woman and child were inside now.
Karch noticed the real estate sign on the property and the smaller hook-on sign announcing the property was in escrow. He thought another piece of the story was falling into place. He believed that if he ever got the chance to ask Cassidy Black, she would tell him that everything started with that sign. She saw that sign and put things into motion.
'And here we are,' he said out loud.
He had been doing that a lot lately – the audio commentary when no one was around to hear it but himself. But he wasn't worried about it. It ran in the family. He used to sit in the bedroom and listen to his father in the next room talking to himself in the mirror. He'd do it while running quarters over his knuckles – both hands at once – and practicing coin and card gags. He always said the patter was as important in the art of the sleight as anything you did with your hands. Words could be part of the misdirection as well.
He heard a shout and looked over at the house. The girl had come outside. She had changed and was now wearing denim overalls over a long-sleeved T-shirt. She was kicking a ball with a ladybug design on it around the yard and finding something in the activity to yell about. Karch saw the woman standing just inside the open front door and watching over her. He waited and watched and eventually the woman stepped back into the house and out of sight. She apparently felt confident in the safety and sanctity of the yard.
Karch checked his watch and waited for her to come back to check on the girl. He wanted to get an idea of the time intervals and then he would know how much time he had. While he waited he thought some more about Cassidy Black. He believed he would soon have the high card in the game they were playing. And the last deal would be on his table, not hers.
The woman came back to the door to check on the girl after six minutes. Karch had also been counting the cars during that time. Only three had gone by. Traffic was beyond prediction but he figured, to be safe, he had between two and three minutes from getting out to getting back in.
He picked the Renaissance Investigations report off the seat next to him and checked the name once more. He then got out of the car and crossed the street, checking the surrounding houses for witnesses as he went. There were none that he could see. As far as he was concerned he had the green light. The plan was a go.
The girl looked up from her ball when he got to within a few feet of the picket fence at the front of the property. The fence was a design flourish, not a safety measure. It was barely higher than Karch's knees. If needed he'd be able to reach over and grab her.
The girl didn't say anything. She just stopped her playing and looked at him.
'How do you do?' Karch said. 'You're Jodie Shaw, aren't you?'
The girl looked back at her house and didn't see her mother at the door. She looked back at Karch.
'You are, aren't you?'
She nodded and Karch took the last few steps to the fence. He had his hands in his pockets, a subliminally nonthreatening pose.
'I was hoping so. See, your daddy sent me over from the office to pick you up for the surprise party.'
'What su'prise party?'
Karch took his hands out of his pockets and stepped up to the little fence. He dropped into a baseball catcher's stance so he would be closer to her level. His face was still above the top of the fence. He looked over the girl's head at the front door. No sign of the woman but he knew he was on a clock. He turned his head and looked over both shoulders. No neighbors anywhere. No cars coming. He still had the green.
'The party he's having for your mommy. He doesn't want her to know about it. But it's going to be a lot of fun. With a lot of your friends there and there's even going to be a magic show.'
He reached over the fence to her right ear and seemed to grab a quarter out of thin air. When he had
