Run to Me (33 page)

‘And if you don’t stop them?’

She lifted her gaze. ‘Then it’ll be up to you. All that matters is to keep Jesse safe.’

Reluctant to upset her yet unwilling to commit to such a plan, Chase tried to stall. ‘What do you say we discuss it in the morning?’

She hefted the rifle and turned for the forest. ‘There’s nothing to
discuss.’

Zack sat huddled with the blanket around him. He could hear Chase and Shyler talking a short way off but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

In the past few hours he’d been thinking lots about the doctor. Maybe the man had been telling the truth when he said he’d thought Tragg and Vanessa were cops. If he really wanted the others to kill them he never would have driven away or
helped them across the ravine.

Zack hugged himself, remembering the feel of his foot sliding off the side of the log, that horrible sensation of dropping into open space. The rocks had looked a long way down as he’d clung to that branch. He’d thought he was going to fall for sure.

Then suddenly a big hand had closed around his wrist and he was flying upwards. Set on his feet, a large presence
protecting his back, he’d been guided across by those same sure hands, then pushed to safety behind a rock.

He shook his head. He still didn’t get it. Even with the others shooting at them Chase had helped him. Why? To score points with Shyler? Because he felt guilty? If all he’d wanted was to save himself, wouldn’t he just have run off and left them?

At the sound of footsteps Zack looked up.
Chase was walking towards him carrying the backpack. ‘Shyler’s taking first watch,’ he said. ‘I’ll relieve her in a couple of hours.’

Chase sat down, opened the pack and began rummaging through it. ‘Well now, Jesse, what would you like for your first course this evening? Apple or pear?’

Zack hesitated. There were things he desperately wanted to know and this man was the only one who could tell
him. No way did he trust him a hundred per cent, but maybe the little he did was enough. ‘A pear,’ he answered. ‘And it’s Zack, not Jesse.’

Beside him the doctor went still for a moment. Then he held out what was in his hand. ‘Good to finally meet you, Zack.’

Zack accepted the piece of fruit and took a big bite as the doctor did the same with his apple.

‘So tell me, Zack, why have you and Shyler
been pretending you’re her son?’

‘I’m the only one pretending. She really thinks I am her son.’

‘Why would she think that, do you suppose?’

Zack blew out a ragged breath. It was the question he’d been asking himself for the last four days. ‘I saw this picture back at her cabin. It was of her and some guy and a little kid. Could be her family.’ He shrugged. ‘Guess I look like the kid a bit.’

Chase dug the ground with the heel of his boot and dropped the apple core into the hole. ‘So why were you pretending to be Jesse?’

‘I told her I wasn’t but she just kept calling me that. At first it kinda made me mad. But then when Nolan came and tried to kill me Shyler stopped him. I figured she wouldn’t keep doing that if she knew who I really was.’ Zack straightened sharply. ‘You can’t say
anything. You can’t tell her I told you this.’

‘I won’t tell her anything you don’t want me to.’ Chase reached into the pack again. ‘So is Nolan one of the men who’re after you?’

‘He was, but . . . Not any more I don’t think.’

‘I gather he’s one of the casualties back at Shyler’s cabin, then.’

Zack didn’t answer.

‘Well, since you’ve started down this road maybe you can finally tell me why
these people are after you.’

Zack straightened and hardened his voice. ‘First you gotta tell me something.’

‘All right. If I can.’

‘Last week, in your office . . . You treated a kid . . .’

‘I treated several children last week, Zack. What was his name?’

‘Corey. But . . . you wouldn’t know that.’

‘I wouldn’t? Well, how –’ A heartbeat of silence. ‘The John Doe child. You know him? He was with
you?
You
brought him in?’

Zack braced himself to relate the details. ‘There were three of us at the start – me, Reece and Corey. Corey was the youngest and when he got hurt . . . Well, me and Reece . . .’

Chase heard the pained uncertainty in his tone. ‘You did the right thing. Corey definitely needed medical attention.’

‘So what was wrong with him? We saw the ambulance come. Where did they
take him? Was he all right?’

‘They took him to Presque Isle hospital, about an hour’s drive from here. As for his condition, I don’t have the equipment to run all the tests but I suspect he may have injured his spleen.’

‘Is that bad?’

‘It depends on how severely he damaged it. Do you have any idea how it happened?’

Zack bit his cheek, feeling the food turn sour in his stomach. ‘There was an
accident.’

‘In a car, you mean?’

‘It was how we got away. The car drove off the road into a ditch.’

For the next few minutes, Zack gave the details of their ordeal – from their life with the Learys to learning the truth about their rescue to their ultimate escape and arrival in Deadwater. In answer to the man’s gentle probing he even blabbed stuff about his real mother – why she’d left him,
that she’d died, where he’d been since.

‘So what happened to the third boy, Reece?’ Chase asked.

‘Nolan and Vanessa followed us here and found us in the general store. They caught Reece but I got away. Nolan never saw me ’cause I jumped in the back of Shyler’s car.’

They sat in silence.

‘You’ve certainly been through a lot,’ Chase said finally. ‘But why didn’t you feel you could tell me any
of this?’

‘Yeah, right, like you’d really believe me.’

‘Why wouldn’t I?’

Zack held the words in as long as he could but at last they burst out. ‘Because I make promises and then don’t keep them! I’m a liar and no one should ever believe me!’

The man thought a moment. ‘You promised to take care of Reece and Corey, didn’t you?’

Fighting his tears, Zack looked down.

‘Sounds to me like you did
your best. Were you going very fast when the car hit the ditch?’

‘Not too fast.’ Zack wiped his eyes.

‘Then I’d say Corey’s injuries probably wouldn’t have been too severe.’

‘Probably? You mean you don’t know? Didn’t you call the hospital to see how he was?’

‘I did. Several times. They wouldn’t tell me.’ Chase explained why.

‘Then for all you know Corey could be . . .’ Zack bowed his head
again. This time he had no hope of winning the battle.

After a moment he felt the man’s arm slip around his shoulder. The same strength that had helped him across the log was there for him now. He didn’t really want it. He certainly didn’t need it. But if the doc thought it was helping he could knock himself out.

Chase kept his arm around Zack’s shoulders until they stopped quaking and his body relaxed. When he thought the boy was finally asleep he eased him to the ground and tucked the blanket close around him.

The truth was worse than he had feared. At hearing this innocent speak the name Lazaro a knot had tightened inside his chest. The man was a well-known Northside thug – to possess knowledge
that could put him in prison would be frightening to anyone, let alone a ten-year-old.

We don
’
t even know where that guy hid the case! And even if we did, they
’
d kill us anyway!

Chase gazed down at the sleeping form with a sense of awe. Zack’s ingenuity in arranging his and his brothers’ escape and getting them safely as far as they’d come was truly amazing.

As for pretending to be Shyler’s
son, it didn’t take a genius to see his motives went beyond simply trying to evade his enemies. Having to leave his brothers behind had clearly caused him tremendous guilt. What better way to escape feeling hateful than to assume the identity of a child adored? And for a kid who’d been abandoned by his mother and spent the last three years shunted
from one foster home to another, Shyler’s devotion
would have seemed a dream come true.

And that could be the most serious problem – a danger even worse and more immediate than the thugs who were after them. Shyler herself.

‘You really think she killed her kid?’

Chase looked down at the drowsy boy who’d just asked the very question he’d been contemplating. What could he say that wouldn’t destroy the child’s fragile hopes? What should he answer
– what he’d been told or believed in his heart?

‘Zack, you know . . . sometimes things happen to grown-ups. Things that make them . . . well –’

‘Never mind.’ The boy rolled over, pulled up the blanket and settled again. ‘Even crazy, Shyler’s the best mom there ever was.’

Chase sat unmoving. He waited nearly half an hour this time, torn between urgency to complete his next task and wanting to
be sure the boy was asleep.

At last he got quietly to his feet and slipped his hand into his pocket. The mobile was there, right where he’d put it after snatching it up off the floor of the Rover before they’d abandoned it.

Had Shyler killed her son? He wanted desperately to believe she hadn’t, but wanting wasn’t enough. With all that was at stake he had to be sure.

He turned towards the cliff.
He could just make out her silhouette outlined by moonlight where she sat leaning against a large rock. Keeping her in sight, he walked a short way through the trees, just enough to ensure neither she nor Zack could overhear him. The forest had been a problem before but here on the cliff top he should get a signal.

Taking cover behind a tree he opened the phone and hit a stored number. After
three rings his call was picked up. ‘Mr Linnell?’

The man recognised his voice at once. ‘You again.’

‘I’m sorry, we were disconnected last time.’

‘We weren’t disconnected, I hung up on you. Just like I’m going to do now.’

‘No, wait! Please, this is important. I need to ask you about Shyler and Jesse.’ Chase held his breath. No answer but no disconnection either. ‘Mr Linnell, please. I understand
it’s difficult for you, but I need to know how Jesse died. You said Shyler killed him.’

Again no reply.

‘Does that mean you were there? You saw what happened?’

‘I wasn’t there but I know what happened.’

Chase thrust a hand through his hair. He didn’t have time to decipher riddles. ‘Please, Mr Linnell, I need to know.’

‘Well, what version do you want to hear, Doc? Shyler’s or the cops’?’

‘I take it they differ.’

‘You could say that.’

‘Start with hers, then.’

‘Right, the Gospel according to Shyler.’ A second’s pause as the man prepared himself. ‘She picked Jesse up after Little League training, just around dusk. They were walking home when some drugged-out punks trapped them on a bridge and demanded money. Shyler didn’t have much and when she handed it over they thought she was
holding out on them. To force her to pay, they grabbed Jesse and held him over the side of the bridge, at which point either they dropped him or he slipped. By the time Shyler got down to the water he’d been swept away. According to her.’

Chase frowned. ‘But you don’t think it happened that way.’

‘The cops didn’t believe her. Why should I? They never found a trace of the five men she talked
about, despite her detailed and colourful descriptions. You know, she actually gave them all
names based on some aspect of how she’d imagined them. Fish Hook was the leader. Puppet was the one who grabbed Jesse. And then there was Snake and Scarecrow, and some other one I don’t remember.’

Chase tried to keep the man on track. ‘So what did the police –’

‘They think it was a simple case of negligence.
Shyler wasn’t paying attention and Jesse climbed up on the railing. When he fell and died, she made up her story to cover her guilt.’

‘Was Shyler normally careless with Jesse?’

‘No, not usually.’ His tone was grudging.

‘Then why would they think –’

‘Because they never found anything to support her claims. Not one shred of proof. Not a footprint, not a witness, not a fingerprint. Nothing.’

‘That still doesn’t mean . . .’ He couldn’t believe it. ‘Shyler was your wife. Didn’t
you
think she was telling the truth?’

‘I tried, believe me. All through the investigation, the months afterwards. In the end, I just had to accept their version of things.’

Chase gripped the phone.
Of course you did
.

‘I stuck around as long as I could after that. But it was no good. Shyler sensed how I felt
by then.’

‘So you just walked out on her.’

‘Hey, don’t you judge me, you arrogant bastard! You know what it’s like to sleep beside the woman who murdered your child? You have any idea what that’s like?’

Chase took a breath. ‘Did you ever bother to check how she was going?’

‘I heard from a friend she was having problems – panic attacks, nightmares, weird spells where she’d relive the whole
thing while she was awake.’

‘Intrusive flashbacks.’ Chase squeezed the bridge of his nose. ‘Sir, the things you’ve described are symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. They suggest Shyler really did have some kind of horrific experience. Did she ever receive treatment?’

‘She had a bit of counselling after it happened but she stopped it herself. Said she didn’t need it any more.’

‘This
condition would’ve made it difficult, if not impossible, for Shyler to function. She’d have struggled to hold down a job, go out in public, even carry out everyday errands.’

‘I guess that’s what guilt does to a person.’ The line disconnected.

Chase stood a moment fighting his anger. He looked towards the cliff, to the woman keeping watch over a child who wasn’t hers. A woman so desperate to
erase the memory of an event totally beyond her control that she would create an alternate reality in its place.

Slowly his outrage changed to conviction. In every conflict he’d ever known he’d always managed to see both sides. Not this time. This time for better or worse he had chosen. He’d known it before he’d even placed the call. For once in his life he was truly, wholly, unswayably committed.