shrubs.
'Follow me,' I said, getting out.
Rachel climbed off the floor and opened her door. Her face was pale, her hands shivering. The shooting at my house had put her into shock. It had rattled me, too. I had killed before. I'd injected my own brother with narcotics and potassium, then watched the last spark of consciousness wink out of his eyes. But blowing a man's brains out was something else. And when Geli Bauer learned that I'd killed one of her people, she would move heaven and earth to take her revenge.
I walked over to Rachel and pulled her against me, hugging her as I once had my wife and daughter. 'We're going to be all right,' I said, not really believing it. Her hair smelled familiar. My wife had used the same shampoo. I put the memories out of my mind. 'But we have to run. Do you understand?'
She nodded into my chest. I stroked her hair, still not quite believing what had happened myself. Thirty min¬utes ago, I'd believed the nightmare was over. Ewan McCaskell would call back, and the president would take control of Trinity. Now that hope was blown to hell.
'We're going to walk a little ways,' I said, 'and then we're going to borrow a car. Nobody will bother us. With me carrying Fielding's box, it'll look like we're sell¬ing something. Can you do it?'
She nodded.
I got Fielding's box from my car and started down Oak Street, Rachel beside me. 'There's a hedge in these backyards that runs behind the lots on my street. You'll see it in a minute. We're going to cut through it to my street. I'll tell you when.'
Using the sidewalk, we quickly covered the hundred yards back to where I'd seen my roof. I walked her past two more lawns, then said, 'Right here. Cut between the houses.'
A wooden privacy fence blocked the space between the two houses I'd chosen.
'If the gate's locked, we'll climb over,' I said.
'What if someone's in the backyard?'
'I'll deal with it.'
The gate opened easily. The backyard contained some plastic playground equipment and a parked lawn mower, but no people. With my hand in the small of Rachel's back, I guided her across the yard. There was no gate in the back fence, so I bent and interlocked my fingers, boosted her over, then slung myself up and dropped to the ground beside her.
The space between the fence and the hedge was only a couple of feet wide. I crawled through an opening at the bottom of the bushes, then got to my feet behind the utility shed where I'd hidden Fielding's box earlier. Rachel followed, grabbed my hand, and pulled herself up. I didn't know what the shed's owner did for a living, but I assumed he had some sort of sales job, because he was hardly ever home.
The interior was dim, and it stank of dead mice and motor oil. A row of tools hung from hooks on a peg- board. I was looking for a crowbar like the one in my attic, but I saw nothing like that. Kneeling, I scanned the area beneath the shelves. The owner stowed fishing gear there. Nothing heavy enough for my purpose.
'I feel sick,' Rachel said.
'It's the smell. Go outside.'
As she left, I saw a twelve-pound sledgehammer lean¬ing in the corner. I picked it up and walked outside. Rachel was bent over with her hands on her knees.
'What's that for?' she asked.
'Stay close.'
I trotted up to the back door of the house, drew back the sledge, and swung it in a roundhouse arc at the lock. The door caved in. Dropping the hammer, I ran into the dark house. Rachel followed. I didn't hear an alarm, but it could be silent. Wired straight to a security service.
'We want the kitchen,' I told her.
'This way. I smell garlic and dish soap.'
'Look for wall hooks. We need car keys.'
'It would help if you turned on the lights.'
I hit a wall switch and flooded the kitchen with light. It was a showplace, filled with professional Viking appli¬ances in stainless steel. While Rachel searched the walls for hooks, I pulled open drawers. One held dishrags. Another practically spewed coupons, which seemed odd.
Someone who could afford Viking appliances didn't need to cut out coupons.
'Key!' Rachel cried, grabbing something off the countertop.
I took the key and examined it. 'That's for a riding lawn mower. Keep looking.'
The next drawer contained jars of nails, screws, glue sticks, and paper clips. No keys.
'Why did you pick this house?' she asked.
'The guy's single and never home, but I know he has two cars.'
'Got it!' She pulled a square black key from a hook under a cabinet. 'It's for an Audi.'
'That's it.'
Just as in my house, you had to go through the laun¬dry room to reach the garage. The same contractor had probably built both homes.
'How did you know the key was for an Audi?'
'My ex-husband drove one.'
I opened the door to the garage and saw a silver A8 sitting there like an answered prayer. The guy's other car was a Honda Accord. He probably took the Accord to the airport to sit in the Park amp; Fly and saved the flag¬ship Audi for his road trips.
'Anybody with an eighty-thousand-dollar car has a security system in his house,' Rachel said over my shoulder.
'The cops are definitely on their way. Key?'
She slapped it into my palm like a nurse passing a scalpel to a surgeon, and twenty seconds later we were pulling onto Willow Street, the garage door sliding down behind us. I looked up and down Willow, being careful not to turn too far right when I looked toward my house. I didn't see anybody. Not even a yardman.
'What good is stealing this car if the police come check out that guy's alarm?' Rachel asked.
'The police won't know what was taken. They don't know this car was there. They'll have to track down the owner, and he's probably on a business trip to God knows where.'
I made two quick turns and swung onto Kinsdale, headed east toward Interstate 40. Traffic was fairly heavy, and I was glad of it.
'Where are we going now?'
I reached into the backseat and grabbed Fielding's Ziploc-sealed letter from the box, then laid it on her lap. I pointed to the line, Lu Li and I are driving to the blue place on Saturday night.
'The blue place?'
Steering with my knee, I searched the Audi's console and found a ballpoint pen. Then I pulled the letter out of the Ziploc and wrote Nags Head/The Outer Banks beneath Fielding's cartoon White Rabbit.
'Why can't you tell me out loud?'
I scribbled, They could be listening.
She took the pen and wrote, HOW? WE JUST STOLE THIS CAR!
'Trust me,' I whispered. 'It's possible.'
She shook her head, then wrote, Is there something at Nags Head? Evidence?
An image of Fielding's pocket watch came into my mind. I took the pen back and wrote, I hope so.
She wrote, Cell phone in my pocket. Try to call Presi¬dent?
I took the pen and wrote, It's not that simple now.
'Why not?'
There was no way to write all I needed to say. I pulled her close and whispered into her ear. 'Once they heard Ewan McCaskell's message, they knew they could elimi¬nate me and tell the president whatever they wanted to explain my death. Yours, too.'
'What kind of lie would explain that?'
'An easy one. By now the president has been told that my hallucinations have progressed to psychosis. Ravi Nara will write a formal diagnosis. He'll say I've become dangerously paranoid, that I believe Andrew Fielding was
