“I know.”
“I’ll get it from him while you’re gone,” London said.
“No, just stay here. I already have enough to worry about.”
“I just can’t sit here,” she said. “I won’t.”
Wilde recognized the look in her eyes. He got the gun from the drawer and handed it to her.
“Where do I carry it?”
Good question.
Her purse was gone.
Wilde grabbed a paper bag out of the cupboard.
The gun went inside.
Twenty minutes later he was on the roof of the abandoned warehouse with a white paper bag in his left hand. Inside that bag was a grilled cheese sandwich, a pack of peanut butter crackers and a chocolate bar. In his other hand was a bottle of RC.
Alabama wasn’t there.
“Alabama.”
No answer.
He checked behind the vent just to be sure she hadn’t fallen asleep back there.
She hadn’t.
She wasn’t there.
He headed back into the building to see if she was taking a leak somewhere.
“’Bama!”
No answer.
She must have headed over to the BNSF office.
Wilde headed back to the roof to have a quick peek at River’s place. As he got closer to the parapet, he spotted the binoculars sitting on the ledge.
That was strange.
Then he saw something even stranger.
Alabama’s purse was over by the heating unit.
He opened it up and rummaged through. It was hers all right. She must be around somewhere.
“Alabama!”
Silence.
He leaned over the parapet and checked the ground to see if she’d fallen off.
She wasn’t down there.
He checked everywhere.
She wasn’t there, not on the roof, not inside the building, not even in the area around it.
Wilde went back to the roof and pulled in River’s place with the binoculars.
It was empty.
The doors were shut.
His car was gone.
125
Bristol’s little blond squeeze Jaden didn’t show up for the four o’clock meeting in the alley. Waverly paced and checked her watch every five seconds. Where was the woman? Was she just late or not coming at all? Ten after the hour came and went. At a quarter after, Waverly left.
On her way out, she encountered Jaden coming from the opposite direction.
They headed to the back of the building.
“Sorry I’m late,” Jaden said. “I zigzagged around. I wanted to be absolutely sure no one was following me.”
Her words were laced with stress.
“What’s wrong?”
“Bristol’s the killer,” she said. “There’s no question in my mind.”
“Did he confess it?”
“No,” Jaden said. “But when I started to bring up Cleveland, he said he’d never been there. It wasn’t so much what he said but the way he said it. The more I talked about it, the more agitated he got.”
“So he was hiding it.”
“More than hiding it, trying to deflect it,” Jaden said. “I might have pressed it too far. By the time I was done, I had the feeling that he knew that I knew something. He knew that I was probing him. When he looked at me it was like an alligator looking at a frog.”
“It’s time to run.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” Jaden said. “I’m doing it right now, as we speak. I’m never going back.”
Waverly exhaled.
“Good.”
“I’m going to take a cab to the airport and just fly somewhere.”
“Where?”
She shrugged.
“I don’t know. Not San Francisco, that’s for sure.”
“That’s a good plan.”
They walked out of the alley, hugged goodbye at 16th Street and headed in opposite directions.
This was good.
If nothing else positive came of everything that had taken place, at least Jaden wouldn’t be the next statistic.
Suddenly someone tapped Waverly on the shoulder.
It was Jaden.
“You’re still going after him, aren’t you?”
Waverly nodded.
“Yes.”
“I should help.”
“No, you shouldn’t.”
“Yes, I should. Don’t get me wrong, I’m scared, but I owe you something for saving my life.”
Waverly retreated in thought.
“I need a way to trap him,” she said. “Do you have any bright ideas?”
126
