‘Do you have a working phone?’ Kit asked.
‘Not allowed. You know that.’
‘Could you talk to Ike?’
She stretched her legs into the sleeping bag and smiled. ‘He hates me. Besides, he’s an idiot.’
‘You two are like squabbling siblings,’ she said. By now, you’ve got to know how Lucas operates. Ike might not fit your definition of smart, but he wants to do the right thing, and he cares about what happens to you. He let us stay here last night when Lucas wanted to shove us into that basement. Talk to him, please.’
Jessica seemed to think it over. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to approach him.’
‘Why not?’ Kit demanded. ‘It’s our only chance.’
‘If Ike tells Lucas, you realize we could both end up in that cooler, don’t you? Worse, maybe.’
‘Ike knows that too. He was shocked when he saw what happened to her.’ She glanced at Sissy. ‘Please talk to him, Jessica. I know he’ll help us.’
‘Then why don’t you?’ Jessica asked.
‘I’ve tried, but I wasn’t around from the beginning the way you all were. Coming from you, it will make a difference.’
Jessica rose from the sleeping bag. ‘You’re asking me to put everything on the line.’
‘I’m putting everything on the line too.’ Kit got up as well. ‘It’s called escalation. If we don’t get away from here right now, the games are going to involve more than darts, shell casings, and a night in the cooler.’
‘Escalation?’ she asked. ‘What are you really doing here, Katherine?’
‘Trying to stay alive. The same as you are. Come on. Let’s hurry before Sissy wakes up.’
‘There’s only one way I’ll talk to Ike,’ Jessica said, ‘and that’s for you to come with me when I do it. That way, you’re risking as much as I am.’
‘I’m fine with that.’ She wasn’t fine with it, though. Jessica would stand a better chance alone, but she still seemed suspicious of Kit. ‘Let’s go.’
Although she was able to make her way down the ladder, she knew the constant use of her ankle had made it worse. Only a sprain. She needed to hope it was only a sprain, nothing worse.
Jessica beside her, Kit limped toward the house and stopped before they reached the porch.
‘Lucas is probably in there. We’ve got to figure out a way to get Ike alone.’
Ike came around from behind them. ‘Get me alone? Why?’
Jessica gasped, and Kit stifled a scream.
‘What are you doing out here?’ she demanded.
‘How soon you forget. My job was to look over you all last night.’ He glanced up at the treehouse. ‘How’s Sissy?’
‘Still sleeping,’ Kit said, ‘but she seems worse than before. She keeps passing out. Jessica and I need to talk to you.’
‘Might as well go in and discuss it with the group.’
‘You know better than that,’ Kit told him. ‘What’s going on here is wrong.’
‘We’ll work it out.’ He squinted toward the house.
‘Lucas has changed,’ Jessica said, and glanced around nervously as if someone were overhearing the conversation. ‘Ike, we’ve got to leave here.’
‘Lucas has other ideas.’ Ike motioned to where the truck had been parked the night before. ‘Angel’s finally here, but Lucas sent Wyatt to pick her up. Picking up people is my job.’
‘He’s trying to get rid of you,’ Kit said. ‘I told you that when he made us go out in the fog.’
‘And I told you it was a test.’
‘What about what happened to Sissy? Was that a test too?’
‘Technically, she was breaking the rules,’ he said.
‘But she didn’t know what she was doing. I thought you believed in free will.’
‘We do,’ he said. ‘I talked to Lucas last night. That’s the best I can do.’
‘He’s not going to listen,’ Kit said. ‘He thinks you crossed him, that you’re getting too much power.’
He stared down at his spotless shoes, meticulous like everything else about him. ‘It’s not the first time I crossed him. We always work it out.’
‘You want to believe that, but you know better,’ she said. ‘You all shared a vision of what this place would be like, and it probably got you through some hard times, but it’s not what you thought it would be like because he isn’t what you thought he was.’
‘She’s right,’ Jessica said slowly. ‘Lucas isn’t on our side any more – if he ever was. We need to leave before he does something really crazy.’
‘He already has,’ Kit said. ‘What are you waiting for?’
‘Transportation, for one thing. We won’t get far on foot.’
She looked at the pocked road leading from the place and knew they would not make it as far as the restaurant without a vehicle – any vehicle.
‘What about that?’ She pointed at the side yard.
‘The golf cart?’
‘It’s better than nothing, and we don’t have that far to go.’
Ike stared at the dim shape through the wisps of white. ‘It’s about as secure as a skateboard.’
‘There are only three of us,’ she said. ‘We’ll be OK.’
He took a step toward it. ‘What about Sissy? We can’t leave her like this.’
‘We’ll come back for her,’ Kit said.
Ike looked at the empty parking place in front of the house. ‘Lucas has videos,’ he said. ‘All of us doing something. He calls them his files.’
‘The Weasel had files too,’ Kit reminded him. ‘But if he uses them, he exposes himself. The same is true of Lucas. Hurry, you two. We need to leave before Wyatt gets back.’
‘Why not wait?’ Jessica stepped away from them. ‘Wyatt doesn’t like it here either.’
‘He’ll like it better now that he’s driving my truck,’ Ike said. ‘Let’s come up with a plan. We can’t just run until we know where we’re going.’
‘I have some friends who could help us,’ Kit said. ‘One of them is a former cop. Another one has a true-crime blog and radio show.’
‘Why didn’t these high-up friends help you before?’ Ike asked.
‘I don’t know.’ She scrambled for an answer. ‘Maybe I was too ashamed to admit I needed help.’
‘And now these friends will still help you? Don’t believe it, and don’t believe they will help us.’
‘Trust me,’ Kit said. ‘I promise I won’t let you down. You know you hate it here, Ike. And the next crazy scheme is going to be even worse than locking Sissy in that cooler.’
Just then, the pickup pulled into the gravel drive before the house. Wyatt drove, a woman beside him.
‘It’s Angel,’ Ike said. ‘She’s here.’
The pickup door opened, and a large girl in a brown jacket a couple of sizes too small for her jumped from the truck. She had broad shoulders, thick red hair, shaved on one side, three bird tattoos on her neck, and an attitude Kit could feel from where she stood.
The redhead walked up to her, and Kit wanted only to run. But she couldn’t go anywhere, could only hope the girl didn’t recognize her. That was ridiculous – of course she did.
The smallest tattoo rested just beneath the redhead’s earlobe. No, not birds. Bats. The girl from the shelter. The one who took her boots. Their eyes met, and Kit knew that Angel recognized her.
‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded.
‘I don’t have to answer to you,’ Kit said.
Lucas and Theo drifted outside.
‘Angel.’ Lucas came out on the porch and put out both hands. ‘Welcome. Now that you’re here, we’re all together again.’
‘What about her?’ Angel gave Kit the same predatory look she had in the shelter. ‘She’s not one of us.’
‘She is now,’ Lucas said sweetly. ‘You two play nice.’
‘That might be difficult,’ Kit said. ‘Considering that this girl stole the boots right off my feet at the Sacramento shelt
er.’
Angel laughed. ‘Wish they’d fit me. Turns out I got a good price for them, though. I only wish I knew you were heading here. I would’ve hitched a ride.’
‘Same here.’ Kit backed up closer to Ike, knowing she had missed her only chance to talk him into leaving. ‘When we met, I didn’t know where I was going.’
‘Oh, no?’ The girl started for the front door. Ike opened it for her, and she turned before going in. ‘All you wanted at that shelter was to find Jessica. Looks like you found her after all.’
All eyes turned on Kit.
‘It wasn’t this Jessica I was looking for. I never found my friend.’
Nobody spoke.
Finally, Lucas went to the top step and looked out at them as if picturing himself a rock star greeting his fans. ‘Let’s forget the disagreements for now,’ he told them. ‘That would make the Weasel too happy. Come inside, and let’s plan how to finally get ourselves some good, old-fashioned vengeance.’
TWENTY-FOUR
The sign in the arch-shaped window of Richard McCarthy’s animal hospital said Closed. John Paul knew he should have called first, but he had driven here on impulse. Part of the reason he had decided to was regret that he had ended his last meeting with Kit Doyle’s ex by losing his temper. The rest of the reason was that he knew the poor bastard must be out of his mind with worry.
In the parking lot, he called the office, expecting voice mail to pick up. Instead, McCarthy answered in a harsh, scared voice. ‘Hang on,’ he said, and John Paul heard the front door rattle. ‘I’ll be right out.’
The door opened, and McCarthy stepped outside. Although he looked professional enough in his white coat over jeans, his movements were overly careful, like a man taking every precaution to keep from falling apart.
He met John Paul on the sidewalk and stopped abruptly. ‘Is she OK?’
‘I don’t know.’ John Paul headed down the walk, unable to stand in one place. At this time of day, the parking lot was full, and shoppers pushed carts in and out of the supermarket at the end of the center. ‘We did find someone – a witness.’
‘Someone saw Kit?’ McCarthy motioned past the supermarket to a park-like area. He must need to move too. That’s what not knowing could do to you. It could make doing nothing, even just standing still, feel like giving up.
‘The witness who came forward saw somebody in Fowler who matches Ms Doyle’s description,’ John Paul said. ‘God, where?’
‘It’s bizarre.’ John Paul studied McCarthy’s fixed expression, trying to guess how much he could handle. ‘There was a fire.’ No other way to say it.
Other than his clenched fist, McCarthy registered no emotion. ‘Was Kit hurt?’
‘Apparently not.’ They walked past a park bench, and the smoke from a smoldering cigarette on the sidewalk burned John Paul’s nostrils. ‘The witness was almost killed. She ran a small produce stand that she and her late husband had operated for years. Some kids in the area were harassing her, stealing fruit, trashing her displays, that kind of thing.’
‘Kids.’ McCarthy managed to keep the anger from his voice, but he couldn’t hide the flush that spread over his cheeks. ‘Did they set the fire?’
‘That’s what the witness says.’
‘And Kit? How was she involved? Was she hurt? Where is she?’
‘Hang on,’ John Paul told him. ‘The witness is barely coherent. They burned her place down with her in it. Ms Doyle got her out.’
McCarthy sank down on the park bench. ‘So Kit’s alive? For sure?’
‘As of Wednesday.’ John Paul sat at the end of the bench. ‘She left with the kids in an old truck. Firefighters arriving on the scene saw them.’
‘But if the kids set the fire, and Kit rescued the woman, why would she leave with them?’ he asked.
‘I’m just telling you what happened. That’s all I know.’
‘And my niece?’ he asked. ‘Jessica?’
‘The witness couldn’t identify any of the others. Just a bunch of kids, she said.’
They sat there like that for a moment, McCarthy clearly trying to make sense of what he had just learned, and John Paul telling himself he had done the right thing to come here.
‘What’s going to happen next?’ McCarthy finally asked.
‘I wish I knew. Farley and I are going to do a segment on it. Maybe somebody else will come forward.’
‘You can’t do that.’ McCarthy whirled to face him. ‘You could be putting Kit and Jessica in worse danger.’
‘The media has already covered their disappearance,’ John Paul said. ‘We want to do more, go deeper, and appeal to anyone who might have seen anything out of the ordinary.’
‘I’m asking you not to. Those kids are psychopaths. We already know that.’
‘Then the sooner we get Kit and your niece away from them, the better.’
‘I said no. It’s too risky.’
‘It’s worth the chance,’ John Paul told him. ‘We don’t have anything else.’
McCarthy rose from the bench and shot John Paul a look of disgust. ‘You’re really going to gamble with their lives, aren’t you?’
You did that the day you let you ex get in the truck with that kid. John Paul didn’t say it. Instead, he reminded himself that McCarthy was expressing fear more than anything else.
‘Ms Doyle … Kit is more than our co-worker,’ he said. ‘She’s our friend. We’re going to use everything we have at our disposal, and that includes the radio segment.’
‘And that’s the real reason you came here today, isn’t it?’ McCarthy said. ‘It wasn’t to tell me about the witness who saw Kit. It was to make yourself feel better about what you’ve already decided to do.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’
‘It’s the truth.’ McCarthy started back toward his office again. Then he stopped. ‘I knew Farley Black was a media whore,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t have guessed it of you.’
As John Paul watched him stride down the sidewalk, he tried to tell himself McCarthy was just dealing with fear. And it was true, wasn’t it? He hadn’t come here today because he had doubts about doing the segment.
The stench of smoke burned his nose, his eyes. John Paul stretched out his leg and crushed the cigarette butt with the toe of his shoe. Then he took out his phone and called Farley.
TWENTY-FIVE
As the others filed into the living room like children coming into school from the playground, Kit stood outside in the cold, shivering with Jessica and Ike. Part of her shivering was fear, though. Somehow, she had to explain away what Angel had just revealed: that she had been looking for Jessica.
Jessica’s brown eyes radiated suspicion. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. ‘It’s pretty creepy that you just happened to be looking for someone named Jessica and ended up here.’
‘All you and my friend have in common is a name,’ Kit lied, forcing the panic from her voice. ‘She doesn’t look anything like you. Besides, we have more important things to discuss. Like how to get out of here.’
‘It’s too soon.’ Ike walked in the direction of the treehouse, and they followed. ‘Lucas says I always overreact, and maybe he’s right. Let’s wait a day or two until Sissy is better.’
‘Sissy isn’t going to get better if we stay here,’ Kit told him. ‘If we wait, she may never get better.’
‘Well, until your ankle is stronger, then.’
‘Jessica,’ she said. ‘Tell him we need to leave now.’
‘Lucas will be suspicious if we don’t go in with the others.’ In spite of her hesitant tone, Jessica’s jaw was tight and stubborn. She looked back toward the house. ‘We might as well hear what he’s going to say.’
They were having second thoughts. More than that, distrust seemed to be part of their DNA. The moment Angel made her revelation, they had drawn closer together and farther away from Kit.
‘You heard what he said. He wants to plan revenge on the Weasel.’
‘H
e’s been talking about that since we were kids.’ Ike’s rigid posture made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere. ‘Let’s not piss him off any more than we already have.’
‘You go on,’ Kit said.
Bad ankle or not, the day was as clear as it was going to get, and she might be able to make it to the main road alone. In spite of the fog, the weather had warmed somewhat, and she had a good chance of making it to the restaurant or maybe hitching a ride with a nearby farmer.
Jessica and Ike exchanged glances. ‘Better if you come inside with us,’ he told her. ‘We can’t plan until we hear what Lucas wants to do.’
‘I don’t want to go back in there,’ Kit said. ‘If you won’t come with me, I’m going on my own. I can make it if I take my time.’
‘Not a chance.’ Ike towered over her on one side, Jessica only a few steps ahead of them. ‘Let’s go in there unified,’ Ike said. ‘We don’t want Lucas to sense anything else, and he probably already suspects something.’
‘You really think you owe him anything after he gave your driving job to Wyatt?’ she asked.
‘Wyatt and I go back pretty far.’ Ike looked down at his gloves.
‘But he’s a First Year,’ Kit said. ‘And so is Angel. I can already see Lucas playing divide and conquer.’
‘Sounds like the game you’re trying to play.’
Kit pretended not to understand. Jessica was wrong to believe that this guy wasn’t bright.
‘It might sound that way, but it isn’t.’ She met his odd, mismatched gaze. ‘I’m just trying to explain how it looks to me.’
‘What do you think, Jessica?’ His voice dropped, and Kit sensed a tenderness Jessica didn’t appear to notice.
‘I don’t like it,’ she said, ‘but we’ve got to look united. Lucas knows what happened when the Weasel tried to turn us against each other. We all turned against him.’
‘Then it’s decided,’ Ike said. ‘Take my arm, Katherine.’
‘I can walk.’
It wasn’t a lie, but the pain had grown sharper and more persistent. Kit guessed that Ike knew it. He slowed down as Jessica reached the front door ahead of them and went inside.
Goodbye Forever Page 19
