“Let me come pick you up. I can be there in five minutes.”
And then John Deere can shoot us both! “No, I’ll meet you at the apartment. It could take a while. Bye.” She hung up and shut off her phone.
I’m the next victim! She grabbed her backpack and headed slowly toward the lobby. There’s safety in numbers. I need to wait till some other employees are leaving the building.
If she tried to shield herself among a group, she’d be putting their lives at risk! She stood frozen in place. She might never see Natalie again. She wished she could at least say goodbye. She glanced in the direction of the data-entry room. Tyler was heading toward her, or rather, toward the elevator that she’d past.
He sneered at her. “You’re setting interesting hours,” he snarled, just as, behind her, the elevator dinged and the door opened. Tyler’s expression changed, and he straightened his shoulders. Ellie turned. Ethan emerged from the elevator.
“Good afternoon, Doctor McGavin,” Tyler said.
Ethan greeted them both with a nod, and said, “Afternoon.”
“My parents and I were talking about my college applications,” Tyler began, “and we were wondering—”
“Tell your father I said hello,” Ethan said, barely even breaking stride as he walked past.
Tyler cleared his throat and ducked into the elevator just before the doors shut. Ellie headed for the lobby. She planned to run to the Metro station. If she made it that far, she would take zig-zagging Metro lines till she got to her stop.
#
Jake and Daniel jumped to their feet when Ellie opened the apartment door.
“Why didn’t you give me the name of the restaurant?” Daniel immediately demanded.
“What happened?” Jake asked, simultaneously.
“I didn’t want all three of us to get killed,” Ellie said. “I got here as fast as I could without jeopardizing anyone else’s safety.”
“Anyone else’s safety isn’t the point! Your own safety is!”
“Let her speak,” Daniel growled at Jake.
Ellie sank into the nearest chair and covered her face with her hands for a moment. Her whole body was trembling. “I went to Jennifer’s office with the intention of resigning. Before I could tell her that, she insisted we go get coffee at Olé Café. I recognized the shoes of the gunman who shot me and my dad. He was standing directly behind me in line at the coffee shop.”
Both men said the same four-letter word.
“Did McBitch text anyone en route?” Jake asked. His voice was now calm, but his expression was somber.
“She typed something on her computer just before we left ABTC.”
“You can’t go back there or to school,” Daniel stated.
“Could they be tracking Ellie’s location through the cellphone you gave her?” Jake asked him.
Daniel didn’t answer. He shifted his gaze to her. “You’ve never given the number to anyone there, including Natalie, right?”
She shook her head. “Just you and Jake.”
“And not even Natalie knows your number?” Jake asked.
“No, she doesn’t!” Ellie snapped. “Don’t you understand that a head shake means ‘no’?”
She sighed and stared at the floor. Her heart was pounding again. The McGavins are manipulating me. They wanted me to get here safely. They kept the bugs in place and are letting me come to work solely to make me give Jake the message that they want him to turn himself in.
But that news could push him over the edge. He might let the McGavins kill him out of some misguided hope that it’ll save Daniel’s and my lives. It won’t. They kill people without compunction.
“You can’t see Natalie again,” Jake said.
“I know that!” I’ve endangered Natalie, Mom, Grammy, the Bixbys. “I’m jeopardizing everyone’s life! I don’t even know what happened to Fiona . . . my friend in Albany. She was so kind to me. I’ll never have another friend for the rest of my life!”
“Yes, you will, once we get the McShits behind bars,” Daniel said. “And till then, you have the two of us.”
“Daniel’s right,” Jake said.
Ellie tried to psych up her spirits by agreeing with them, but all she could think was: I have no right to keep what Jennifer said about Jake a secret. But if the McGavins know I’m Ellie Montgomery, and they kidnap my mom, they’ll be able to force me to lure Jake into a trap! I don’t want to die! I don’t want Jake or Daniel or Mom to die!
“Did you get a good look at the goon the McGavins hired?” Jake asked.
Ellie’s heart was pounding so hard that it took her a moment to focus on the question. “He was wearing a John Deere hat, so all I could tell about his hair was that it’s brown. Blue-gray eyes. Fortyish. Five-nine or ten. Medium build . . . a little overweight. The bridge of his nose was a little crooked. I’d recognize him again, but there was nothing so distinguishing about him that you’d be able to pick him out. Other than the gash in his leather boot.
“There’s a fifty-fifty chance that Jennifer bought my story that I simply got dizzy and nauseated,” Ellie continued, “and that’s why I had to run to the restroom.” Which also means there’s a fifty-fifty chance they could go after my mom in order to get to me!
“Good,” Jake said, though to Ellie’s ear, he sounded unconvinced.
Daniel explained how he’d missed the call by virtue of not hearing his phone when a taxi cab had hit its brakes, setting off a cacophony of honking cars, and that he didn’t notice she’d called for another three or four minutes. Predictably, Jake was annoyed at Daniel, but he moved on relatively quickly.
“I’m going to use a fake identity and your cash,” Daniel said to Jake, “and get us into a furnished three-bedroom rental immediately. We’re shutting down our computers. We’ll get new computers with new IP addresses at the new apartment.”
Ellie held her tongue. She wasn’t going to tell Jake or Daniel what she had just now decided she needed to do; she knew they would stop her.
She claimed she was tired, went to her room, and turned on the radio so no one could overhear her. She grabbed her cell phone and stared at it. Making this phone call went against her better judgment, but she had no choice. She hesitated for a moment, but dialed her grandmother’s number and held her breath as it rang.
“Hello?”
The pang of hearing her mother’s voice was so painful, Ellie gasped. She almost hung up, but she had to try and warn her mother that her life, too, might be in danger.
“Hello?” her mom repeated.
Chapter 26
“Is this Cassandra Montgomery?” Ellie managed to say into the phone.
“Yes, it is,” her mother answered.
“Hello.” Making up a name on the spot, Ellie said, “My name is Mary McCarthy. I was a friend of Elony’s. Of Ellie’s.”
There was a pause. “And how did you know Ellie?”
“I met her at the debate summer camp she attended last summer in San Francisco.”
“She told me about a friend she made who went to high school in Denver.”
“Yes, that’s right. That’s me.”
“What’s the weather like in Denver?”
Ellie grimaced. She couldn’t risk turning on her computer, and her cellphone was low-tech. It was two hours earlier in Colorado; it would be a few minutes before four p.m. She’d never been to Colorado, but the winters there were probably pretty bad. “It’s cold and snowing a little.”
“According to the Weather Channel, Denver’s having unseasonably warm weather. Mid-sixties. Not a cloud in the sky.”
“I must be in a different weather pattern from the Denver airport.”
“Stop lying to me, Alexis. I recognize your voice.”
Ellie was stunned and held her breath, not even wanting her mom to hear her breathe.
“Trust me on this point,” her mother continued. “When somebody comes to your home and tells you she is the daughter you buried less than two weeks earlier, you ten
d to remember every last detail.”
“Please don’t hang up on me,” Ellie said. “This is urgent.”
Again, there was a long pause, which was agonizing to Ellie. If she merely blurted out: The man who shot Daddy and me might come after you next, her mother would dismiss her as a complete crackpot. She had to stay calm and let her mom take the lead.
“Why did you run away from home, Alexis?”
“You’ve spoken with Alexis’s parents?”
“Of course I have. They came here, accompanied by a police detective.”
“Are they okay?”
“No, Alexis. They are not okay. They miss you, and they’re worried sick about you.”
“I’ve caused everybody so much pain,” Ellie cried. “I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone. Now, thanks to me, everybody is in danger. I’m the reason Dad was killed.”
“Why, Alexis? Tell me why my husband was killed.”
“Is there a tap on your phone?”
“No. Unfortunately, that’s the truth. The Bixbys wanted me to authorize a wiretap, but I just couldn’t agree to that.”
“Why not? You think I’m some crazy, stupid kid who’s complicit in the deaths of your family.”
“I . . . I don’t know why,” she said.
“Dad always used to tell me: ‘Cry for five minutes, then look at something that makes you happy.’ Nothing makes me happy now.”
She heard what sounded like a sob. She’d made her mother cry. Not for the first time, Ellie thought in despair.
“How do you know about that?” her mom asked in a choked voice.
“Because I’m Ellie. Because Ethan and Jennifer McGavin did this to me. They switched me into Alexis’s body. They’re the head doctors at the Alzheimer’s and Brain Trauma Center. In Washington, D.C. Where I interviewed last May. They invented a device that digitized my brain patterns as I was dying, and then they injected them into Alexis’s brain. They basically shifted my soul into another body. And now they’re chasing after me. Dad was collateral damage to them . . . an innocent casualty. You don’t have to believe me. But you need to get Grammy and yourself out of there. Right now. Just move into a hotel room. Anywhere.” She decided to pick the longest length-of-stay that she knew her mother might agree to, and added, “Just go and stay in a hotel for three weeks. This will all be over, one way or the other, by the middle of February.”
The resulting silence felt interminable. “Mom?” Ellie asked.
“Answer one question for me: Where do I hide my diamond necklace?”
Ellie’s eyes welled-up once again, this time from relief and joy. “In the bag of cotton balls in the linen closet upstairs.”
“Ellie.”
“Yes. It’s really me, Mom.”
“Come home.”
Ellie started crying so hard with relief that she could barely speak. “You have to get out of there. Meet me at a hotel, partway between here and Philly. Between Washington and Philadelphia, I mean. We can choose a place on—”
“No, Ellie. We’ll get our signals crossed, and we’ll try to meet at the wrong hotel. You can be here in less than two hours. We can leave together. I lost you once. If you don’t show up, and I lose you again, it would kill me.”
Ellie was dying to see her mother. Nothing bad can happen to Mom in just two hours. “Okay, Mom. I’ll come. I have to get Daniel’s car keys. He’s a friend. He’s helping me.” She looked at the clock. She would hit rush-hour traffic. “It could be more like three hours. Pack some clothes, and be ready to leave. Both you and Grammy. Okay?”
“Yes.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise, Ellie. Just . . . please hurry, but drive safely.”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you, too, sweetie.”
Ellie’s heart was racing. She felt such a myriad of emotions, she considered packing some clothes in her backpack, but decided Jake and Daniel would never fall for it if they saw her carrying anything. Anyway, she’d be back sometime tomorrow morning. Her hands were trembling again. She was just being an alarmist. She took a deep, calming breath. All she knew for certain was that the gunman was in the area. The McGavins wanted to get to Jake, not to her. They probably really did need to exploit his intelligence to fix some problem with his brain flash drive.
She tried to push away her fear with a happy thought—her mother believed her!
Daniel was never consistent with where he put his keys. If he’d left them out in the open, she would pocket them and sneak out the door. She emerged from her room, intending to head to the kitchen sink for a glass of water if Daniel or Jake was watching. Nobody was in the living room, although Daniel’s bedroom door was open. She scanned the living room, then the kitchen. No sign of keys. She checked the pockets of his bomber jacket. Empty.
Frustrated, she clenched her fists. He must have them with him in his bedroom. She crossed the room and stood in his doorway. The keys were on the corner of his desk where he was seated. “Hey, Daniel. Where’s Jake?”
“Out pacing the sidewalks, per usual, now that it’s dark. I told him he should stay here, out of sight, but you know how he gets.”
“Yeah. Meanwhile, you’re using the computer. Weren’t we supposed to shut them down?”
“There’s no way a hacker can put a remote keystroke tracer on my computer,” he replied. “I’m setting up an appointment for a rental for us. Immediate occupancy.”
“Let me see the photos,” she said. Looking over his shoulder, she strategically leaned on the desk, putting her hand over his keys in the process. The screen showed a nondescript building. “That’ll do, I guess. Is it near here?”
“It’s closer to downtown. I already have fake IDs for another identity. My name’s going to be ‘Philip Carter’ now. You and Jake will be my roommates, but ‘Philip Carter’ will be the only name on the lease.”
“I take it Philip makes a good living and can swing the lease all on his own?”
He snorted. “Due to his agreement to pay an insane amount of cash up front.”
“Money talks,” Ellie said, straightening and swiping Daniel’s keys.
“It does indeed.”
“I think I’ll grab some leftovers and read War and Peace. I’ve got a book report due on Monday, and I need to keep up appearances.”
“Sounds good.” He rose. “There’s just one little problem.” He gestured at the computer screen with his chin. “Take a look.”
She doubled back to see what he was talking about. The instant she brushed past him, he shut his bedroom door and planted himself in front of it. “The problem is: You don’t know where I parked my Beamer.”
Chapter 27
Damn it! Ellie thought, but said, “Pardon?”
“Hunting for my car is going to delay your plans to split.”
“I’m coming right back. I just didn’t want you to stop me.”
“To stop you from trying to lure the killer away from the apartment? Is that what your little plan is?”
“No, Daniel. I need to go see my mom. I need to get her and my grandmother relocated to someplace safe, while there’s still time. Once ABTC figures out that I’m Ellie Montgomery, they’ll try to find me by grabbing my mom.”
“How do you figure that? She’s ninety miles away. You’re right here. If they can’t find you, they won’t go after your mother in Philadelphia.”
“But we’re about to go into hiding, and they already know precisely where my mother is.” She paused; it occurred to her that they didn’t know that her mother was at Grammy’s house. “The thing is: if the McGavins kidnap my mom, I would surrender to them in an instant. They could force me to do anything they wanted.” Ellie hoped that Daniel didn’t ask: Like what? She didn’t want to admit that sparing her mother’s life was the one thing that could tempt Ellie to sabotage Jake’s research files and his efforts to stop the McGavins.
Daniel grimaced. “I wish I had a good argument.” He searched her eyes. “Let’s
go get your mother checked in to a nice hotel.” He held out his hand for the keys.
“You’re coming, too?”
He gave her a warm smile. “I have no choice. Do you think I’d allow a sophomore in high school to drive my BMW?”
Ellie was so touched she felt like hugging him. Instead she jokingly groaned and dropped the keys into his hand. “Fine. Be my chauffeur.”
They both donned coats, and Ellie waited for Daniel at the door. He grabbed a notepad and pen. “I’m leaving a note for Jake.”
“Don’t tell him where we’re actually going,” Ellie said. “In case John Deere breaks in here, looking for us, I don’t want my mom’s name mentioned.”
Daniel started to protest, then stopped and started scribbling. “I’m writing that we’re going to visit with a friend of the family and not to wait up. That’ll confuse him, but he’ll decipher it after a while.”
He left the note on the kitchen counter, then started poking around at the very back of the shelf in the coat closet. He stuffed something metallic into a pocket of his leather jacket. Alarmed, Ellie realized what he’d just done.
“Daniel! You’re carrying a gun?!”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, his blue eyes meeting her gaze. “I’ve got a permit.”
Ellie searched his handsome features but couldn’t tell if he was lying or not about the gun permit.
“Odds are, we won’t have any troubles whatsoever. But if we do run into John Deere, I want to be armed.”
Realizing he was right, Ellie gave him a grim nod. She couldn’t even meet up with her own mother safely without a bodyguard who was packing a gun. Her life had turned into a surreal nightmare with no escape.
#
The traffic was maddeningly slow. Ellie was anxious during the entire drive. She felt guilty for not telling Jake what Jennifer had said at the coffee shop. If she told Daniel now, it would seem like the two of them were teamed against him once again.
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