went downstairs to make his breakfast, but she was already thinking about her day. She would have to get to the hospital to help prepare for the benefit that night. She remembered listening for Carey's heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. She'd had absolutely no premonition that in twenty-four hours things would be this different.
She saw a man standing in the entrance of the building, just inside the glass doors. He seemed to be browsing in the display rack for brochures for tourist attractions, but his eyes would flick upward to focus on Christine for a second or two, then return to the rack. Jane bent her legs to pull her feet back from under the table and shifted some of her weight onto the balls of her feet. She glanced at Christine, and saw her notice the man, but her face gave no sign of recognition. She simply turned away from him and continued her phone call.
Jane added the man to the array of sights that she was holding in her consciousness. He obviously wasn't one of the six, but he could be someone who represented some other danger. She would know him if she saw him again.
Her sense of how long things should take made her turn her attention to Christine in the phone booth. Jane saw her turn to the side, her head down. She was saying something emphatically, and she was crying.
Jane turned her eyes away to watch the road. She had been waiting for something, and now she saw it. Two identical black cars flashed past, and Jane waited, still looking out the window. After a minute or two another pair of black cars went by. Jane stood up, took the check to the cash register, and paid for their breakfast. Then she walked to the phone booth.
Christine saw her and hung up. Jane opened the door and handed her a napkin to dry her eyes. 'They just went by, heading east. Let's use the restroom and get back on the road.'
In a few minutes they were in the car again. As they buckled themselves in, Jane said, 'Did you learn anything I need to know?'
'Not exactly,' said Christine. 'Nothing is different. It's all awful.'
'In what way?' Jane drove out of the lot and accelerated along the entrance ramp.
'At first he sounded the way he used to when I was with him. He said he missed me and had been so worried about me, and where was I and what could he do to help me. He said he knew I must need money and a place to stay. He tried to get me to check into a hotel somewhere and let him know where, so he could come and pick me up. He sounded so sweet, so sincere.'
'Did you ask him about the six people he sent after you?'
'He said he didn't know anything about that. At first he said it couldn't be the same ones who worked for him. Then he said they only used to work for him once in a while, doing security on buildings. He said they don't anymore, and maybe they're trying to kidnap me to make him pay a ransom.'
'Is there any chance that any of that is true?'
'I know they didn't just work for him once in a while. They were in and out of the office all the time. They made a lot of money. He seemed to have forgotten that I paid them. And we never hired anybody for security on the buildings. They were all rented out, and if tenants wanted guards for their stores or offices, they hired them. When I was talking to Richard, I really wanted to believe what he was saying. I even said to myself that I would make myself believe him. Maybe he wasn't telling the exact truth, but that didn't mean that the lies were important. Maybe he was just telling little lies to keep me from worrying or being afraid. He said he loved me and wanted me back, so maybe he was just lying to smooth things over. But he blew it.'
'How?'
'He said something about you. He said you must have turned me against him. He wanted to know who you were and how I knew you. Don't you see? How could he know you existed if the six didn't tell him?'
'I can't imagine.'
'I told him it proved he was lying, and then he changed. He started trying to scare me. He said that I was carrying around his child and endangering it, and that if something happens to the baby, he'll consider me a murderer. And if nothing does, then after the baby is born, Richard will make sure it's taken away. It was so horrible.'
'You've had your conversation. Is there anything he didn't tell you that you'll need to know?'
'There are a thousand things I want to know. If he wants me, why did he treat me so badly? If he didn't want me, why did he make such an effort to keep me around? What will he do if I don't get caught in a month? A year? What will he do to me if I do get caught?'
'He didn't tell you?'
'Not the truth.'
'Then is there any reason to talk to him again?'
'No.'
'Then don't. From now on, any time you talk to him, you'll be putting yourself in danger of having him find you and give you the answers.' Jane reached the first exit after the rest stop, took it, and paid the toll, then drove back to the Thruway on the westbound side and took another toll ticket.
'What are you doing?'
'It took us a long night and some luck. But right now, I think we have all four of them driving east following that long-haul truck with your cell phone attached to it. We have Richard thinking that they're about to catch up with us before we reach New York City. We have a good identification for you and a better set being made. It's time to drive as hard as we can in the opposite direction.' Jane paused. 'You might want to get some sleep.'
'Can I turn on the radio?'
'Sure. But won't it keep you awake?'
'I go to sleep with the radio on,' said Christine. 'I know it's weird, but it's a habit.' She turned it on and pushed buttons until she found a station that she seemed to approve of, and settled back in her seat.
An hour later when the music was replaced for the fifth time by a commercial for a mattress store in Rochester, a news bulletin came on. 'Late-breaking story,' said the newswoman. 'Seneca County Sheriff's deputies have found a man's body beside a road in a rural area south of Waterloo this morning. The man was carrying no identification, but he was driving a rental car, so the Sheriff's office expects that they'll have positive ID soon. Our information is that he was shot to death execution style some time during the night. His body also showed signs of having been hit by a car, but the spokesperson refused to speculate on how that related to his murder.'
Christine was sitting up again. 'They killed him because he was hurt?'
'Because they didn't want to leave him there to answer questions.' She drove on for a few seconds before she acknowledged Christine's stare. 'It helps to learn to think the way your enemies do. You spend less time being surprised.'
6
Jane drove west as far as Exit 50 on the edge of Amherst with a growing feeling of tension. She took the exit onto the Youngmann Expressway, got off at Millersport Highway, and drove to the big old stone McKinnon house. She pulled into the driveway and around the house and stopped in front of the garage, where her car was hidden from the street.
Christine awoke as soon as the car stopped moving. 'What?' she said, her eyes blinking. She sat up. 'Where—What are we doing?'
'This is my house—the one where I live with my husband. We've got to do this quickly.' Jane got out and stood still, studying the house.
She had already seen that there was nothing obvious like a broken windowpane or scratches around the door lock, but she was looking for signs that were subtler. The hose attached to the spigot at the corner of the house was still in exactly the same position, snaking along the back to the row of rosebushes she had watered before leaving for the hospital. There was dust along the outer windowsills on the first floor. She had noticed it yesterday, but not had time to clean them. The dust had not been disturbed. Christine was out of the car now, at Jane's side. Jane said, 'They haven't found their way here yet.'
'Why are we here?'
'Slight change of plan.'
'We're going to stay here?'
'No, we're going to the airport to rent a car.'
'Is something wrong with yours?'
