Escape (37 page)

Lee lived five minutes from the Red Fox. Her house was at the end of a narrow road. Shy and unimposing, it was little more than a box with a roof. More modest than the others we passed, it was very Lee with its taupe siding and brown shutters, as if it wanted to fade into the woods. She was easily several acres from her nearest neighbor, and with much of that land treed, she had privacy. The downside, of course, was that neighbors couldn’t see who came to her door.

Her truck was alone in the dirt driveway. If someone was with her, he had either been dropped off by another person or had parked elsewhere and come on foot through the woods. We intentionally parked in front to announce our arrival, but even then James wanted me to stay in the car.

I refused. I said we had no proof that Lee was in danger, and that I would be better able to read her face and her voice than he would, since I was the one who knew her. I wasn’t being left out of this. She was my friend.

As we walked to the front door, we watched for signs of movement inside, but though the windows were open, they were shielded by blinds. We saw no light through the slats, heard no talk, no music. The early evening air was warm and still, the only sounds those of spring peepers in the woods.

I rang the doorbell. When Lee didn’t answer, James knocked. We called her name. Nothing.

The cameras were still in place, looking like part of the drain pipe at the eaves, but since they didn’t relay images in real time, they wouldn’t help now. That said, there was no sign of violence or struggle—no overturned chair on the porch, no broken window, no shattered lock. The only thing that might be remotely telling was the laundry basket in the backyard. It held a single pillowcase, wet and wrinkled, though the rest of the sheets had been neatly hung.

“She might have been surprised here,” James whispered.

“Or her headache got so bad she couldn’t see straight.” Or think or talk straight.

Clinging to that last little bit of hope, I called her cell. She picked up after a single ring.

“Lee. It’s Emily. We’re out back. We just want to make sure you’re okay. Can you open the door?”

“Uh …” There was a lengthy pause. “Uh, okay. Wait a minute.”

That was exactly how long it took. When she finally opened the door, her inky hair was messed and she wore a robe, but she didn’t look sick. She didn’t squint, as she might have with a migraine. Her hazel eyes were wide, too wide, and her hair didn’t hide either one.

“I’m okay,” she said. “I just need sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She tried to close the door, but James’s foot was in the way.

“Is someone here?” he asked softly.

“No. I’m alone.” She didn’t blink. “Thanks for coming.”

He let her shut the door and, taking my elbow, led me back to the car. As soon as we were inside, he started the engine. “Call the cops.”

“He’s still there, right?” I asked, pulling out my BlackBerry as he turned around in the driveway.

Nodding, he drove down the street. “How’d she seem to you?”

“Scared.”

“Right. Call the cops.”

“Lee is fastidious,” I said. “She wouldn’t leave a wet pillowcase in
the laundry basket. Besides, Lee isn’t bold. She’d have to be pretty frightened to look you in the eye that way for that long.”

“Or hopped-up on something.”

“No way.”
I was furious at him for even suggesting it. “She never did drugs. She wouldn’t.” But someone else might, someone who was forcing her into something she didn’t want. It would be a different form of abuse.

“Make the call,” James ordered. Having reached the main road, he turned the corner and pulled over. I had barely conveyed the message, when he took the phone from me. “Have them park out of sight,” he told the dispatcher. “We don’t want anyone spooked by a cruiser.” He ended the call, gave me back the phone, and opened his door.

“Where are you going?” I asked in alarm. I had assumed we would wait there until the police arrived.

“I’ll circle around and see what I can find.” He stared at me. “Drive back to the Red Fox, Emily. I want you there.”

“To do what?”

“Be safe. I don’t want you taking chances.”

“What about you?” I cried. “You’re taking chances.”

“I’m not pregnant.”

“What’s he going to do—shoot at me? You need someone to watch your back.”

“Not you.” He climbed out of the car.

“Then the police,” I called, leaning over the console. “Wait ’til they get here, James. You’re not trained for this.”

“And the Bell Valley cops are?” he said as he bent back down to see me. “I’ll bet I’ve talked with more criminals than they have.”

I probably had, too, but I kept picturing the mean eyes of Rocco Fleming, who probably didn’t know right from wrong. And whoever had hired him? Not much better.

“What if he’s an ex-con? What if he’s armed? How’re you going to protect yourself?”

“I have common sense and, by your own claim, a way with people.”
His tone turned soothing. “Emily, I am not doing anything rash. I’ll be perfectly safe, but if you’re at the inn, I’ll have one less worry.”

Still I argued. “We had every reason to be at her house just now, but if you go again, it’s suspicious. I think you should wait for backup.”

He was suddenly impatient. “Would you have Jude wait?”

“Don’t mention Jude. Jude is a stuntman. Jude can’t
live
without danger.”

“And you think I can’t handle it?”

“What I think,” I said, struggling to speak clearly with my heart in my mouth, “is that you can handle it just fine, but that you are much, much, much more precious to me, and if anything were to happen to you, I’d be crushed.”

He stared at me for a second, then leaned farther in to give me a single fierce kiss. “I love you, too, Em,” he whispered against my lips and backed away. “Go. I’ll see you at the Red Fox.”

I didn’t try to stop him as he loped off. Nor, though, did I start the car. My stomach was churning. I hadn’t eaten in a while, but I wasn’t going back to the inn for a cracker when James was out there. Besides, I had a granola bar in my purse. So I sat with an arm around my middle and nibbled while I scanned the road in the direction James had gone.

The nausea persisted. I opened my door and sat with my feet on the ground, trying to get a handle on it, but the only thing exposure to the air did was to alert me sooner to the arrival of the police. Not that I wouldn’t have heard even with the doors closed and the windows rolled. There were two cruisers, sirens blaring.

They did kill the noise when they sped past me, but they didn’t stop. With the squeal of tires, they turned the corner. Not about to be left behind, I closed my door, scrambled over the center console, and followed. They parked right in front of Lee’s house. I was pulling up behind, frantically searching for James, when he darted from behind the house into the woods and came through the trees to the street.

Emerging twenty feet from us, he shot me a punishing look, but
he wasn’t any more pleased with the police. “So much for stealth,” he said, and, hands on his hips, gave them a slightly breathless sum-up of our concern. “She could be alone in there or not, but something’s not right,” he was concluding when my phone rang.

Lee started talking the instant I clicked into the call. “Why are the police here? I … I … I didn’t ask you to come, I don’t want the police, this is a … a private thing, and you all need to … to respect me and leave.”

Someone was feeding her words. I heard it each time she paused.

“Do you know him?” I asked.

“Please leave.”

“Is he threatening you?”

“I want to be alone.”

“Okay,” I said, playing along. “But you call if I can help.”

I heard a click and she was gone. I raised my eyes to James. “He’s threatening her.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

Two other cars had pulled up. One was the charcoal SUV that had sat for so long on the green. The other belonged to the chief of police.

We were gathered on the street, with the cruisers between us and the house, which, I suspected, was one of the reasons James didn’t mention my returning to the Red Fox. The other was his own focus.

“I’m going in,” he announced when the two men reached us. “My guess is that someone came here just to scare her, but it’s gotten out of hand—and that’s our fault. He knows we’re here,” he said. “We can’t just walk away. He knows we’ll be watching. He knows we’ll follow him when he leaves. I can talk with him. Make a deal.”

“Shouldn’t I be doing that?” asked the police chief.

“This is my strength, sir. I’ve spent hours in prisons talking with guys like this. I know how their minds work. He may be less threatened by me than he would by you.” James was also younger and civilian, perhaps less threatening than the chief in his khakis and badge.

“What kind of deal?”

“I won’t know that until we start to talk, but trust me,” he added dryly, “I’m an expert at plea-bargaining.”

“I won’t just let him walk away,” the chief warned. “I protect the people who live in my town.”

“I understand. But Lee’s safety comes first. We need to get him out of that house.”

“Who the hell
are
you? I haven’t ever seen you before.”

James tipped his head at me. “You know her. I’m her husband. I’m a lawyer working on Lee’s case. I’m with a firm in New York.”

The New York part did it. I could see the way the chief’s eyes changed as soon as James said it. He might think lawyers caused more trouble than they were worth, but New York was New York—and I might resent that, but it was fact.

His voice carried new respect. “Okay. Go give it a try.”

I had a sudden flash of fear. Plea-bargaining in a prison meeting room with a guard in view was different from this. James was right; the presence of the police had upped the ante. I didn’t want him going anywhere
near
that house.

But he shot me a look as he turned. His eyes were blue and avid, filled with determination—filled with
excitement
—and I caught it. How could I not? Here was rain after a drought.

Besides, how could I stop him, when what he said made sense? If anyone could defuse the situation, James could.

He started up the front path with a hand in his pocket, but halfway there took it out and held both away to show whoever that he was unarmed. Watching him go, my stomach turned. The baby didn’t like this any more than I did.

My BlackBerry vibrated as he knocked on the door. Thinking it might be Vicki, I pulled it out.
James
. Immediately understanding what he’d done, I clicked in. When he knocked again, the sound echoed in my phone. Putting the connection on speaker, I held it so that we could all hear. I might hate my BlackBerry as much as I resented New York, but it was coming through for me now.

We watched, listened.

“It’s me, Lee,” James said, head down, deep voice muted by the phone. “Open up. I can keep the cops at bay if you do.” He paused. “Open up, Lee.”

After another minute, the door cracked open. The robe was gone, leaving the sweatshirt and shorts she must have been wearing beneath. Through the phone, her voice was distant.

“Go home. I’m okay.”

James stood with his head up, back straight. “I want to come in to make sure.”

“He’s … he’s someone I know. We’re … we’re … you know.”

Having sex? I didn’t think so.

James wasn’t falling for it either, because he said, “I want to meet him, Lee. If I can convince everyone out here that you’re okay, we’ll leave. But no one’s moving until I meet the guy. Let’s just clear this up and move on.”

She didn’t turn away. I saw fewer details as the sun inched lower, but I pictured her holding his gaze for dear life. After an agonizingly long moment, the door opened wider, but only enough to let him in. I heard the thunk as it closed, then, through the phone, a coarse “Who the fuck are you?”

James said his name, adding, “I’m a friend.”

“Not of mine. She already told you to leave, but you came back with a crowd. What part’a
no
don’t you get?”

“It’s a small town—” James began in what I assumed was an explanation for the concern of the police, but his words were lost to the roar of a car. I looked up as the black Range Rover careened around to park head-in at the nose of the first cruiser.

The cavalry had arrived.

Dismayed, I struggled to hear James. “… care about her,” he was saying. “What’s with the gun?”

“I got a permit. Live free or die, and all.”

“You don’t need a gun. I don’t have one. Want to put it away?”

Jude was at my shoulder, staring at the phone. “What’s goin’ on, babe?”

I shushed him with a hand, but it was too late.

“What the hell?” the man inside cried, having clearly heard a voice in James’s pocket. “Hands up!” Seconds later, he muttered, “You
shit
,” then yelled directly into the phone, “What, you all have nothing better to do than stand around in the street playin’ Hawaii Five-O? You are embarrassing this woman. I have every right to be here. She invited me in.”

The phone went dead, all sound gone.
Connection terminated
, my screen read.

I glared at Jude, who seemed more alarmed by my reaction than by what he’d done.

“How was I supposed to know?” he asked. “No one told me it was bad. All Amelia said was that you were at Lee’s.”

I didn’t know where to begin. Throwing a hand in the air, I pocketed the BlackBerry and faced the house, leaving the police to brief him. One of their own, he was a giant in their eyes for the places he’d been.

He was contrite when he joined me. “They don’t think he’s local. No accent.”

“He knew the state motto.”
Live free or die
.

“It’s on the license plates.” Jude looked around. “No car? I’m gonna look.”

“Jude—” But he was off, sprinting back down the street and into the woods. He would go through to the next road, where either a car or an accomplice might be. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to try. Helplessness didn’t suit Jude.

It didn’t suit me either. I was dying standing there, just waiting with James in that house.