Edge of the Heat 5 (13 page)

Jessica got up off the bed and began to rock and shush Zoey, even while her own tears continued to roll down her face.

Sara watched her with admiration in her heart. Here was this girl, really little more than a baby herself, and her mothering instinct was as strong as any Sara had ever seen. Sara said a mental prayer of thanks to whatever fate had brought her and Jessica together. Jessica and Zoey were going to do great. They just needed a little helping hand.

Jessica wiped her face and managed to get Zoey quiet. She sat down next to Sara again. “I just wanted to say thanks. No one has ever been good and kind to me, really in my whole life, but especially since I - since I’ve been here in Las Vegas. And well, I never really knew that it could be different, not until I had Zoey. And people here were still mean to me, but I couldn’t stand to be mean to Zoey. So I had to learn - or teach myself how to be kind.” She looked at Sara, her large brown eyes swimming in tears and emotion. “You know what I mean? I just didn’t know how to be nice to someone because no one had ever been nice to me. But because of Zoey I learned. I’m not going to hit her because she’s crying, or throw her across the room because she pooped in her diaper.” Jessica’s face twisted with horrible memories. “She’s just so tiny, you know?”

Sara nodded. She did know. She reached out and caressed Zoe’s impossibly soft cheek. Zoey grabbed her finger and locked eyes with her solemnly.

Jessica went on, smiling at Zoey. “But I was trapped. And I didn’t know how to get un-trapped. But then you showed up. And even if Manny comes and finds me and makes me go back, I’ll always remember what you did for me, Brook. How you treated me like a human being. What you did for me and Zoey.” Jessica turned her smile up towards Sara, but Sara thought it was the saddest smile she’d ever seen. She understood then that Jessica thought this was only a temporary respite, and she’d be back with Manny by the end of the week.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about Jessica. Would you be willing to leave Vegas? Go somewhere far away? Go to school or something maybe?”

Jessica considered. “Manny will follow me, you know.”

Sara shook her head. “I’ll make sure he can’t find you.”

Jessica smiled that sad smile again, looking as if she didn’t believe it for a second. “Maybe.”

“Look Jessica, I know what men like Manny are all about. I know what they respond to. Let’s just say I could ... I don’t know, buy his cooperation. Would you be willing to leave then? Start a new life for you and Zoey?”

Some new, fierce emotion dawned on Jessica’s face. It started slowly, with a curve of her lips. Her eyes opened wide and fixed beyond the walls of the small hotel room. Suddenly Sara could see the woman she would be. Tingles marched up and down Sara’s arms.

“Yes!” she whispered, emotion filling the word, making it pregnant with purpose.

“Do you think your friend, the one with the baby, would go with you?”

“Amanda? Maybe.” She turned her eyes to Sara. “You wouldn’t make us go home or call our families?”

Sara tucked a piece of Jessica’s silky hair behind one dainty ear. “No baby. I know that sometimes home is worse than the streets, or even worse than pimps who hit and threaten.”

Jessica’s eyes filled with tears again. She nodded savagely and turned away, leaping off the bed and making a show of bouncing baby Zoey.

Oh dear one, I’m so sorry that your life up till this point has been sharp tongues, heavy hands, and maybe worse. It can get better. I promise.
Sara sent the thought to Jessica, not speaking it out loud because she knew Jessica wouldn’t be able to fully believe it until she experienced it.

Jessica turned to her, determination in her eyes. “I’ll go. And I’ll ask Amanda if she’ll go. But no matter what, I will go. I don’t want to stay here in Vegas. And I’ll go to school. Anything you think I should do, Brook.”

“Great!,” Sara said. “I’ll start working on the details when I leave here. But first we should have lunch. You got any of that $200 left?”

Jessica smiled and opened a drawer in the desk. She handed Sara $174.

“Goodness Jessica, you should have spent most of this! You have to eat! Zoey depends on you for her nutrition. Look, I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Sara ordered room service and when the food cart came, it held enough food for 4 women. Sara and Jessica ate till bursting. Sara left Jessica with $200 more, telling her to be sure to spend at least $15 for each meal. She asked her not to leave the room again and told her she would bring her news of her new life soon. Sara kissed baby Zoey on one sleepy eyelid, then slipped out and headed to her hotel. She had a lot of work to do.

***

J
essica sat at the computer in her hotel room. She’d contacted a lawyer in Southern Idaho about setting up a trust for the two girls, to buy them food, housing, basic needs, and schooling for the next 5 years. Together, they’d estimated how much that would be. She was in the process of transferring $250,000 into the trust when her computer speakers sounded an ear-splitting alarm.

Damnit
! Her mind screamed in alarm louder than the speakers and her heart doubled its speed. Within an instant though, old habits dropped a cold towel over her panic. Her hands unconsciously flew to her body, patting herself down to ensure her gun and knives were all in place exactly where they were supposed to be. That done, she cleared the desktop in one grand swipe, moving everything but the keyboard and monitors to another desk. She sat down, fingers zipping over the keyboard, pulling up the security camera that had spotted the face that triggered the alarm.

Her heartbeat now trebled.
It couldn’t be
. She took over control of the camera and zoomed in on the face.

It was.

Jerry Mansko strolled through the neighboring casino floor.

S
ara let go of the controls for the camera. If she kept them too long casino security could get suspicious. If their IT guy was good enough he would find her piggybacking off their cameras. If he was amazing, he could probably trace her general location. That would be a disaster.

The camera on Jerry zoomed out, then he walked out of frame. She locked onto him with her own software, and it automatically jumped from camera to camera as he walked out of sight in one and into sight in another.

Sara’s mind careened out of control. Her thoughts came fast and severe, and each one seemed to contradict the last.

He’s agency.

He’s not. He can’t be.

Then what is he doing here?

It’s a coincidence.

It can’t be.

What’s wrong with him? He looks so forlorn, so lost. He’s not working or he wouldn’t look like that.

He is working, and he came here to find me. But how? And if he’s following me what took him so long? And if he didn’t follow me, how did he find me?

No matter who his friends were, and no matter how hard he’d pursued her, it didn’t make sense to Sara that Jerry was agency. If he was, he would have jumped her a year ago, not patiently tried to win her over. She never got any double-crossing vibe from him, ever. He seemed to be genuine every step of the way.
But if he wasn’t agency, and he was exactly what he seemed to be, then how was he currently less than a 1/2 mile away from her in a city over 800 miles away from where she’d left him
?

Jerry seemed to be wandering aimlessly. He didn’t look with interest at anything. She could see none of the spark - none of the generous, joking passion that she associated with him. His open, handsome face looked dead. His clothes looked rumpled, as if he had slept in them. He traversed through the entire casino floor, walked up the three, red-velvet steps into the lobby, and stood in line at the check-in desk.

He doesn’t have any bags.

As she watched, his eyes wandered to the bar. He looked lost, sad, lonely. To her, he almost looked like a scared 8 year old, separated from his mom in the crowd, and trying not to cry. Sara’s heart went out to him. She wanted to know what had happened. What made him look like that? It couldn’t be because she’d disappeared, could it? It’s not like they’d ever had any more than the one date. It’s not like she’d ever promised him anything, or even hinted that maybe there could someday be something between them.

She leaned forward, trying to see him better. Her hand swept her forehead, even though her hair was back. She held her breath and studied his face. A soft part of her mind, one connected to her heart, whispered to her that if she were ever going to have a chance at real life, normal life, this tall, sweet, funny man in front of her could be her way in.

Have you forgotten who you are?!
the other part of her mind snapped. She was starting to feel slightly schizophrenic with these two completely opposite voices in her head. Bitterly, she named this one Miss-All-Business. She recognized it immediately as the voice that talked her through killing someone. It was all business, and couldn’t be swayed with tears, reason, logic, or even her own pain. Miss-All-Business was single-minded, and very cold.

Go to him,
Miss-All-Business jeered at her.
And let’s just say he’s not agency, he wasn’t recruited recently, and he’s exactly who he says he is. And then you can find his head on the front seat of your car someday. Or his blood can drench you when he opens the door for you and triggers an explosion. You can play the ‘I’m-a-normal-person’ game as much as you want, but that doesn’t mean you could ever dare to have a boyfriend, a lover, husband, a child, or even a friend. You’re not normal. You’re just playing normal until you are found. And if you don’t want to see him die a painful death in front of you, you’ll just get out of Vegas and pretend you never saw him. Go, now and don’t look back.

As she watched, war raging in her head, he abandoned the check-in line and walked to the bar. She got a full view of the back of him. What she saw made her breath lodge in her throat. She knew she had to chance it. She took the controls of the camera again and zoomed in on Jerry’s athletic backside.

He was carrying a gun under his shirt. A big one from the looks of it.

So if he’s not agency, and this is just a coincidence, why is a fireman carrying a concealed weapon on his vacation?

Sara didn’t know, but now she knew she couldn’t even just make a clean break. She had to know what he knew at any cost.

***

S
ara watched him for an hour. Miss-All-Business had strangled the voice of her heart into submission. All Sara heard now was a whoosh in her ears, counting time with her bodily functions. She sat in her chair and watched as Jerry nursed three beers and talked to the bartender, worry and heartache clearly stamped on his face. Miss-All-Business didn’t care about his worry and heartache at all. At one point she grabbed her bag and inventoried her drug stash. No scopolamine left. That was OK. She wouldn’t use scopolamine on Jerry anyway. Her heart said no way. Her heart still gave him a 60% chance of being completely innocent, even if he was carrying a gun. And she would never use scopolamine on innocents. It was too dangerous. She did have some sodium pentathol, but if he didn’t stop drinking soon, she wouldn’t even feel comfortable using that.

Sodium pentathol wasn’t quite as tricky as scopolamine, and it had almost zero risk. You couldn’t legally use it as a ‘truth serum’ these days, but it was still useful if you didn’t need a confession that could hold up in court, and if you knew what you were doing. She didn’t need anything to hold up in court, and she did know what she was doing. All she needed was a little time alone with him. Sodium Pentathol tended to make people try to please the questioner, and it made them recite their life stories, even to a simple yes or no question. Sara knew how to get around these two issues though, to get to the real truth. She’d become quite good at it over the years.

Finally, Jerry pushed the bottle away, left a few dollars by his napkin, and headed back out the door to the check in line again. Now was the tricky part. She needed to know what room he was in. At the very least she needed to know what floor he was on. But how to find out? She might be able to hack into the hotel’s computer system, but she didn’t have the computer programs to make it easy. She could go down in the hotel lobby and stand close to him as he got his room assignment, hoping to overhear what floor he was on. She certainly couldn’t just follow him into the elevator. The chance that he would recognize her was too great, even if she wore one of her small disguises. Momentarily, she wished for a hijab, the Muslim dress that covered the hair - or even better a niqab, which covered everything but the eyes. Both were great disguises in America. Most Americans had a strange aversion to seeing them, and would purposely not look at anyone wearing one. But she didn’t have one. That wasn’t something you could just pick up at a Las Vegas strip mall. Oh well, she’d have to work with what she had. She put on a large pair of sunglasses and a scarf, plus a large shirt hat hung almost to her knees and hid her shape.

Sara had already scanned the lobby for hiding spots. There were a few, but mostly she just planned to wait behind him in line. It was dangerous, but so was her whole life. She thought it would work.

She sent the lobby cam image to her cell phone, grabbed her bag, and ran out the door. Miss-All-Business steered her.

By the time she got to the lobby he was still waiting in line, but he was the next to go up. She fell in behind him, so close that she could smell his clean, somehow strong scent. She watched the muscles in his broad back move under his shirt as he fidgeted. Now that he was so close, close enough to smell, Sara’s wayward mind remembered back to the last night she had seen him. At the wedding reception. She’d danced with him, their bodies pressed together. The emotions that had swept through her that night were the same she was feeling now. Uncertainty. Indecision. A little fear? And another emotion she refused to name. It made her feel hot and a little shaky, standing this close to him. She didn’t understand why she was feeling this way. He was just a man, for pity’s sake. Men didn’t do this to her. Men never did this to her. For a moment she wondered if this was the real reason she had fled. If this man’s pull on her had caused her to pull up roots in an instant and pretend it was for another reason.