it was necessary. Kate simply hadn’t wanted anything left for her at the hotel and he couldn’t blame her. The police would probably be rifling through her things by now anyway.
So they had spent two hours in the Leesburg outlet malls just outside of town, jumping from one store to the next. Quinn-who hated shopping above all else-actually found himself enjoying it. For one, it was such a normal activity that it was easy to forget they were under imminent threat of death. The day was bright, the sun was shining and hundreds of people were with them. The night before felt like a bad dream.
The other thing that was hard to miss was how much Quinn felt like Kate’s boyfriend. He waited outside the dressing room with the other boyfriends and gave a thumbs up or down anytime she came out with something new. Granted, some boyfriends got to go inside the dressing room, but Quinn wasn’t complaining. He just enjoyed being with her.
And it was then that he finally knew it: he was in love with her. He had only known her a few days, but it felt like forever. She had literally left him to die in his own apartment because of her trust issues and he didn’t care. He looked at her and everything was better. He was with her and everything was right. Had he ever been in love before? Quinn had thought so. He had believed he was. But that felt like a pale imitation of what he was going through now. And he knew it was real because of this: Quinn was in real danger. Kate could very well-almost certainly would-get him killed. And he didn’t care. The thought of abandoning her, of running from her, was unfathomable. He would never do it. He would die for her.
“What are you smiling about?” Kate asked him as she showed off her latest pick of clothes.
“Nothing,” he replied, and wiped the smile off his face. He was going to die, but he was in love. He didn’t feel alone anymore.
Within ten minutes, they were back in the car. If Kate was scared, Quinn had trouble seeing it.
“He could have followed us out here, you know,” Quinn said.
“That’s true and he could follow us now,” she replied. “But I don’t think so. He has other plans than just me and he can’t afford to watch us all day. He can’t be everywhere at once. Besides, let him watch me. Let him see me not cowering in front of him. That will frustrate him more than anything else.”
“So where are we off to?” Quinn said.
“Same plan as before,” she replied. “Bluemont.”
“The police are going to want to see us,” Quinn said. “After the hotel and everything.”
“They can wait,” she said. “Their job will be to cover this whole thing up. I’ll talk to them when we’re ready.”
They headed out on Route 15, heading south. The drive was less than two hours away, but the further they got away from Leesburg, the better. It felt safer.
Chapter 18
Saturday, Oct. 21
Bluemont was bigger than Quinn expected. He had thought he would find a small, dusty town. Instead, it was a medium sized town in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The town’s business had clearly once been coal mining, which explained why it had grown so much. Now it looked like it also catered to hikers of the Appalachian Trail and other tourists.
Kate and Quinn pulled into the biggest hotel and made a reservation. From there, they went to find the Bluemont Gazette. Unsurprisingly, the building was closed because it was a Saturday. It was a small office. Quinn doubted more than five people worked there.
They hit the streets. They stopped into a bakery, whose owners said they didn’t know anyone at the paper and had never heard of Thomas Fillmore. They dropped by a hardware store where the owner said the same thing. By the time they hit the grocery store, they knew something was up.
“Never heard of him,” the lady at the customer service desk said. “I know most everyone in town, so maybe you are in the wrong place.”
“You know anyone at the Bluemont Gazette?”
“That old rag?” she said. “I’m surprised it hasn’t shut down.”
Quinn and Kate looked at each other. The woman’s face was beet red, she wasn’t looking them in the eye and she seemed extremely nervous.
Quinn leaned in conspiratorially.
“Can I tell you a secret?” he asked the woman. He glanced at her badge. “Ms. Hawkins?”
“Well sure, honey, but everyone calls me Midge,” the woman said.
“I don’t want anyone else to find out about this,” said Quinn. “But Katrina here… well… she has a very special reason for finding Mr. Fillmore.”
“I told you I don’t know any…”
“I heard you, but I thought if you knew why we needed to find him, you might be a little more sympathetic to our plight,” he said. “Maybe it would jumpstart your memory.”
Quinn hurried on before she could interrupt.
“Katrina here used to live in Loudoun County, over in Virginia,” he said, and Midge nodded as if she understood. “Well, her parents went through a nasty divorce when she was just a little kid and she never really knew what broke them up. Her mom, God rest her soul, was recently diagnosed with cancer and told her the truth: Katrina’s birth was the result of an affair. Now she wouldn’t tell her who, but she found these old letters up in the attic and eventually found out that Thomas Fillmore was her father. Apparently, he left Loudoun about 12 years ago. Katrina is desperate to find him before her mother dies. He was the one true love of her life.”
Kate was looking at Quinn with an expression that mixed awe with disapproval. She was impressed how easily he could lie, but a little disturbed by it as well.
“Please, Ms. Hawkins,” Quinn paused awkwardly. “Midge, we need your help. I know Mr. Fillmore is a private man.”
Midge Hawkins looked around the store to see if anyone else could overhear them. She leaned in closer.
“You don’t know the half of it,” she said. “He is the most paranoid man I ever met. He practically keeps tabs on any stranger that comes into town.”
“So you know him?” Quinn said. “Fantastic, Ms. Hawkins. Could you help us, please?”
Quinn took Kate’s hand and gave it a squeeze.
“It would mean so much to us,” he said. “We were fixing to get married soon and…”
Kate squeezed his hand sharply. He was putting it on a little too much for her taste and she worried it would spook Midge Hawkins. Instead, it worked like a charm.
“Well, I never could be one to stand in the way of love,” she said. She grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. When she slid it over to Quinn, he saw with relief it was an address.
“Thank you so much, Ms. Hawkins,” Quinn said. “God bless you. Really. You don’t know what this means to us.”
He put his arm around Kate and she tried not to look alarmed. How in the world this worked she had no idea. She would have seen it was an act after about five seconds. But Midge Hawkins was beaming from ear to ear.
“Now don’t tell him I said anything,” she said. “I don’t know what he’ll do, but please keep me out of it.”
“Mum’s the word,” Quinn said, and made a zipping motion across his lips. “Thank you so much.”
They turned and walked out of the store, walking quickly back to the car.
“Don’t you think you laid that on a little thick?” Kate asked when they were safely in the car.
“Did it work?” he asked.
“You have a way with people, I’ll give you that,” she said. “Is that your reportorial style-lying?”
“Not generally, no,” he said. “But the old puppy-dog, I-just-need-some-help works particularly well on a certain kind of female, namely older women who are reminded of their sons or grandsons.”
“You’re kind of evil, you know that?” Kate said.
Quinn smiled. “Yeah, but I bet you dig that about me.”
Kate looked away, but he was right. She did dig that about him. In fact, her feelings toward him had moved 180 degrees in just a day. Now that there were no doubts about whether he was working with Lord Halloween, she
