by Kate Swain
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I promised. “Tell Lucas I felt sick?” I added, as I reached for my coat. I was desperate to get out of here. I went to the door and he called out to me as I unlocked it and headed sadly out.
“I’ll tell him. See you tomorrow, Tessa. Take care.”
I shut the door and ran down the steps to the lobby. When I reached it, I leaned against the wall and shut my eyes, tears running down my cheeks.
“I just know that I’m in danger.”
21
Tessa
I called Laney when I got home. She hadn’t seen the photo, and I was glad. At least that meant I could forget all about it. I didn’t want to dwell on it. She told me about her weekend and we had a good laugh. When I went to bed, I felt better.
I know it’ll be okay. It was one name – I am being silly.
How likely was it that the hit-men were going to read the paper, see my name, and make the connection? There must be a dozen Tessa Anders in this area. At least, I hoped so.
It wasn’t a common name.
I went to the shower, forcibly blocking out all the negative thoughts. I would forget about it, and so would everybody else. In a week, it would all have died down anyhow.
Work continued as usual – Lucas was getting better fast now, and I was sure that he would be able to have the cast off even earlier than the doctor had suggested. By the weekend, he was already lively and full of his usual playful happiness.
I had suggested to Laney that I would be in town on the weekend, and she had invited me to stay. Something told me that breaking my routine would make sense. I packed on Friday evening and went to catch the bus to her neighborhood.
“Tessa!” she greeted me as I jumped off the bus, running to me and wrapping her arms around me. She looked up at me, her eyes earnest. “You’re looking good! You must be having a good time?”
I nodded. “I guess.”
She knew about my father’s death – I had made it sound like an accident, rather than explicitly telling her he had been killed by anyone. I didn’t know why, but hiding the truth made it easier for me to forget what had happened, and so I hadn’t told anybody and I wasn’t even sure if the police knew, or what they were doing.
I was too frightened to go anywhere near the police, just in case those guys were watching me.
Laney drove me to her apartment, and, as soon as the door was shut, I felt better. If the guys had been searching for me, the only place where there was any certain trace of me – at the hotel – was going to prove a dead end. I was glad I wasn’t there right now. I could relax for these hours.
When I caught the bus back on Sunday evening, I was amazed by how tense I was the instant we started to approach my neighborhood. I was on alert, looking out of the windows, eyeing everyone on the street, even the others on the bus. I knew it was ridiculous.
“How are they going to find you?”
Unless they had links to the whole of Kansas City, one twenty-two-year-old girl with red hair and green eyes was untraceable. I was safe here. Far safer than I would be in a small place.
I made myself go to my room and go to bed. I had to rest, or I was going to be exhausted at work, and that wasn’t going to do anybody any help at all. I wanted to be in a good headspace tomorrow – I had been so strange all week since the photograph issue, and I wanted to make it up to Lucas this week.
“Hi!” I called as I came into the apartment. “How is everyone?”
“Tessa!” Matt was on his feet as I came in, opening the door for me. I felt bad. He had texted me once or twice while I was away, and I had been non-committal, not wanting to make him worried. He looked like he had been even more worried by my sudden distance.
“Hi, Matt,” I said, squeezing his hand as I went across the room to where Lucas was sitting at the table, finishing his breakfast, a big bowl of muesli. “Lucas! Hi! How are you?”
“Fine,” Lucas said mildly. “Are we going already?”
I nodded. “Have a good day at work,” I said to Matt, who was heading out to the hallway, reaching for his leather coat as he went.
“I will. You too,” he said. He held up a hand in farewell, and I thought I could still see a confused, worried expression. I felt my heart twist painfully. I wished I could let him know how much I appreciated his help! It was as if his kind action was meeting nothing but sorrow.
“When will they take this off?” Lucas asked me as we walked to the car.
“In another three weeks,” I reminded him, grateful to have another topic at hand. “Though I think if you go to the doctor this Friday, he might be able to say if you’ll need another three, or if they can do it next week. Bones can heal fast.”
“Daddy says I’m a strong boy,” Lucas said proudly. I felt my own heart twist at the soft look on his face. Matt was a wonderful father, I thought. And Lucas was a wonderful son.
“Yes,” I nodded. “You are.”
I turned away before I could let him see the glint of tears in my eyes. He sat down in the car and we headed off to the school. Once I had dropped him off, I leaned on the steering wheel and took a deep breath. I kept on feeling overwhelmed these days.
“You need a rest,” I told myself.
I sighed and looked down to check my phone for the time. It was still early. I considered what I should do today. Laundry was one thing that was always a challenge. I decided that, since I had the car with me, I could take it past the hotel and collect my dirty laundry, then drop it off at a laundromat across town. I could go and fetch it on the way back from school.
I drove back to the hotel, feeling a bit guilty. I didn’t like risking Matt’s car by driving it more than I had to. I stopped outside the hotel and ran in, then came out with my laundry. I got a strange feeling as I walked back to the car. I couldn’t be certain what it was, but I stopped in my tracks, my hair standing on end.
“Just walk slowly,” I told myself. I was being ridiculous. I must be. Nobody was going to be hanging around out here all day, waiting for me.
I stepped out onto the sidewalk and went across to my car. While I was walking, I caught sight of a car.
It was an ordinary car – a white Toyota, inconspicuous and like any other car in this big city, except for the fact that it wasn’t any other car.
I had seen it on the other side of the hotel when I arrived.
“Oh, shit.”
I took a deep breath, not sure what to do. I had noticed it out of the corner of my eye when I went into the hotel. It was unusual to see cars with windows tinted that dark. At least, it was odd to see reasonably respectable-looking cars with windows tinted that dark. I looked the other way and walked to the car, fighting not to run. I didn’t want to draw attention to it or let the drivers know I had seen them.
“Shit,” I whispered to myself, getting into my car and locking the doors. I rested my head on the steering wheel. I was shaking so hard that I couldn’t take the keys out of my pocket. I slipped them into the ignition and turned on the car. Then I glanced in my wing-mirror and saw the car. It was still where I had last seen it, over opposite the front door. I watched, hoping that they hadn’t seen me.
I didn’t see any changes and so I pulled out into the traffic.
When I had gone to the end of the street, I glanced back, but I could see nothing. The traffic was dense in front of me, but the street behind me was empty and it was too far along for me to see the hotel.
I drove back to the laundromat and dropped off the laundry, then went to Matt’s house, feeling shaken. I felt too scared to walk to the bus stop, so I sat where I was in the kitchen.
“What was that?”
I sat there for a while, thinking about it. I managed to convince myself out of the belief that it was anything to do with me.
“You’re not a rock-star,” I told myself with a sour smile. I didn’t know why I thought it would be possible, trained hitmen or not, for two men to find me after a week, on the strength of seeing my name in the news. I w
as sure that, if anybody was going to try to follow me, it would take a few more weeks than this.
Kansas City was a big place.
I went out and went to wait at the bus stop, feeling every moment as if somebody was going to shoot me. I tried to calm down but I couldn’t feel at ease until I was on the bus. There was nobody else on there at this time, and I started to relax a little as we pulled back into town.
When I got off, I tried to decide what to do. I didn’t want to go near the hotel – even the thought of it made me feel sick.
“I should do groceries.”
I felt for my wallet and headed to the grocery store. When I was done, I made myself walk to the hotel. The car had gone. I let out a sigh of relief. Maybe I had made all this up. It was just a car with tinted windows and it just changed over to park on this side of the street when I arrived.
“Maybe they were waiting for a parking space.” I shook my head at myself. I really was being silly.
I headed up to drop off my groceries, and then worked on my portfolio until lunchtime.
When I walked out to the bus, I almost stopped breathing. There was a white car with tinted windows at the end of the street.
I ran back into the hotel lobby and waited, and then I made myself walk out and get on the bus. If I let white cars control my life, I was going to get to the point where I just stayed in the house. I marched out and waited at the bus stop, deliberately looking at my phone and ignoring the cars until the bus arrived there.
I got out and walked the block to Matt’s house, and then went in to get the car. When I came out again, I felt my throat close up. There was a white car in the street outside, and there was no mistaking it. It was the white Toyota, with tinted windows. It must have followed me.
“No.” I ran back inside and slammed the door, thinking wildly. The main thing on my mind was that I couldn’t drive to the school. If they followed me and saw me with Lucas, I would never forgive myself. I had already led them to Matt’s home. What could I do?
I thought fast. There was a back door out of the apartment block that led into the garden. If I went out and walked around the back, I could get out through the fence and then leave from there. I would be on the other side of the block to the car and I would have to find the nearest bus-stop.
“Tessa, you have to,” I told myself firmly. I went to the window, hanging back so that I could see the street but the occupants of the white vehicle wouldn’t be able to see me. I didn’t know if they had seen me go into the house or not. I cursed myself for bringing danger to Matt’s door.
“Stop it,” I told myself, fighting the rising fear. I would sneak out of the back, take myself to Laney’s and tell her about what had happened. What other choice did I have? Things had got really dangerous now and there was no other choice for me but to inform the authorities. This was getting too dangerous now.
I took a deep breath and walked out of the apartment block into the garden. I looked around. There were balconies that looked down onto the grassy courtyard. I needed to be fast, before one of the occupants came out and asked me why I was climbing out when any sensible person could just leave via the front door.
“You can do this,” I told myself, recalling how, as a little girl, I had loved track. I could definitely do this. I had almost forgotten how simple it would be for me to sprint the distance and climb over the fence. I looked around. One of the balcony doors shut, and I knew that for a few minutes, I was utterly unobserved. I took a deep breath, then ran for it.
“Go, go, go!”
I threw myself across the gap, disappearing into the bushes by the fence. I held my breath, hoping nobody had used this place as a convenient drop-off for household waste. It smelled a bit rank. I climbed up, my feet finding places to grip that I hadn’t even imagined were there. Then, kicking and gasping, I slipped over into the street beyond.
I looked around, quite amazed at myself for a moment. I had got out! I looked left and right down the street, glad it was empty at this time of day. It was a quiet, leafy street, and I imagined most of the occupants were probably out at work, or ensconced in their houses, avoiding the crisp cold air.
“Now what?”
I looked around, stilling my fear. I would walk down to the place where I was most concealed, then take my phone out and see if I could find a bus stop. It didn’t really matter which bus, so long as it wasn’t a line that took me past Matt’s house, or the hotel. I walked to where bushes grew by a big wall and stood in the gap where, from the street, nobody would see me.
I found a bus line that had a stop near here, and put my phone on Directions, then slipped it into my pocket. I only had to walk down the street and around the corner, but I wanted to be sure I didn’t get lost.
When I reached the bus stop, I had to wait five minutes. Every second was an exercise in trust. I had to stand there, facing the road, knowing that the men who killed my father could easily drive past. I had to convince myself they were stationed outside Matt’s house, waiting for me to come out.
The bus arrived and I clambered on, terrified and breathless. I hung back in the last seats, hoping that I was right and the line went nowhere near where my enemies might be waiting.
This was crazy, I told myself, leaning back and closing my eyes. I was an ordinary person!
I got off at a bus stop near the center and walked to a shopping mall, where I could sit down, maybe have a coffee, and think.
I found a quiet café inside the mall so that there was less chance of anybody from the street seeing me. I took my phone out to check if the batteries were okay, and thought about what I should do. I decided that my original plan would have to do.
I would contact Laney, ask to stay with her for a while. Then I would have to contact Matt, and tell him I wouldn’t be at work. I would also have to subtly find a way to warn him, just in case the hitmen wouldn’t give up, even when it was clear I had disappeared somewhere.
I paused, wondering what to text to Matt. In the end, I sent a message as cool as possible.
I am sick and can’t pick up Lucas. Really sorry for not saying sooner. Talk later?
By then, I might have a concrete plan sorted out. I couldn’t say what I was going to do for sure yet – not until I had talked with Laney and we had figured out something between us. I would get in touch with her and then call Matt and explain myself.
Knowing I was only deferring the problem because it hurt me too much to think about leaving Matt, I finished my coffee, paid the bill, and left.
I had the problem of how to go back to the hotel and fetch my things and pay for my stay, but I reckoned I would have to take the bus back and hope that they were still waiting.
I jumped off the bus, heart pounding. There was nobody there. I ran into the hotel, threw my things into a shopping bag, and ran down to reception. While I was there, waiting for them to sort out the bill, I called Laney.
“Tessa! Are you okay?” she asked, after I’d asked, sounding concerned. “Of course, you can stay! I’m just worried about you. It’s unlike you to ask something like this at such short notice. Where are you now?”
“I’m in Kansas City,” I said briefly. “I’ll explain when I get there. I can’t thank you enough for this – literally, I don’t have the words.”
“Oh, Tessa,” she said, somewhat deprecatingly. “It’s nothing, really.”
I swallowed hard. She would never know, I think, that she had actually saved my life. “It is,” I said.
I said my farewells and hung up, then headed swiftly down to the bus. By now, I knew the way to Laney’s with the bus fairly well. I felt myself relaxing more with each passing mile. As soon as we got there, I would be safe.
I just wished I knew that everyone I loved would be safe now, too.
22
Matt
I drove to school, a mix of hurt and sadness weighing on my heart. I stopped at the school and took my phone out of my pocket, wishing that there would be a message, but there was no
thing. I had texted Tessa back the moment I received her message, but she hadn’t replied. I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t answering or why she had just left.
“Damn it! What just happened?”
I had no idea how Tessa could have gone from being fine to being sick so quickly. Either it was some really weird sickness, or it was something else and she hadn’t told me. I thought back to the day when I’d come back early to celebrate her winning the photography competition. She had been weird that day – she’d expressed more than once that she was feeling tired and unwell. I felt stupid. Maybe this wasn’t sudden.
She’d been a bit off-color since then. I had just been so confused by it, I hadn’t bothered to question anything.
“I’m stupid,” I muttered under my breath. Somebody spoke from the back of the car.
“Daddy? You okay?”
I whipped around quickly to open the door. “Hey, son,” I said hastily, covering my look of sadness at once. “How was school?”
“It was okay,” he said mildly. “Daddy? Where’s Tessa?”
I felt my brow clench with a frown. I hadn’t actually given any thought to what I was going to tell my son. I had been too distracted by my own response to the problem.
“Um, Tessa got sick,” I said, telling him the same account that she had relayed to me. It could have been true.
“Oh.” His small brow knitted together concernedly. “It’s not bad is it, Daddy? She’s going to be alright?”
I let out a long sigh and felt annoyed with Tessa for the first time. She had promised Lucas she wasn’t going anywhere! He was super-sensitized to losing people, and that was a fact she knew. She was letting him down badly.
“Yes,” I informed him, hoping I was right. “She’s going to be fine.”
