The Escape Artist (42 page)

“Wait right here,” she said to her son. She ran inside again, terrified that the police would pull up in front of Adam’s house at any second and catch her there. But she grabbed the monkey and was back in the car in less than a minute.

She drove away from Adam’s neighborhood as quickly as she dared, then slowed her speed to the legal limit for the rest of the drive home. The last thing she needed was to be stopped for a ticket.

She tried to plan what she would do when she reached her apartment. Had Lucy or Ellen seen the show? Ellen didn’t watch much TV, but Lucy was another story. Could she get in and out of her apartment without either of them noticing her? Thank God she’d thought to keep the bulk of her money at the apartment. Forget taking the computer, though. The felt-tipped marker was the most important thing. The first chance she got, she’d stop to alter her license plate number with it. That thought gave her some comfort, but when she glanced behind her at her son, who was cuddling his monkey, eyes at half mast and thumb in his mouth, she was overwhelmed with the sense of having failed him. She was a terrible mother, uprooting him again. Uprooting both of them. How many times would she have to do that?

She was nearly to her apartment when a unsettling thought crossed her mind. That address she’d given the 911 dispatcher. There was something wrong with it. Hadn’t she told her North Plain Street? That wasn’t right. She pressed on the brakes so hard that her car skidded to the side of the road, and she yanked the list from her purse with a sense of dread. Switching on the overhead light, she scanned the names.
Ryan Geary. Pioneer Way
.

No. How could she have done that? In her nervousness, she’d given the dispatcher the next address on the list rather than the Geary address.

She looked at her watch. Ten minutes to nine. There was no time to drive to her apartment and call the police from there. She made a left turn at the next corner, wondering if she was thinking straight. This was crazy. She stepped on the gas and headed toward West Annapolis.

Turning into the Geary’s neighborhood, she spotted a man walking a dog on the sidewalk. She pulled close to him and rolled down her window.

“Call the police,” she said to the man. “Tell them to go to seven-seventy Pioneer Way. It’s an emergency. Hurry!”

The man looked at her blankly for a moment, but as she drove away, she could see him in her rearview mirror, running in the opposite direction down the sidewalk.

“Cody, I’m so sorry,” she said to her sleeping son as she drove.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I tried, kiddo. I tried to keep us safe.”

She was crying by the time she reached the Geary house. It looked as she remembered it, set apart from its neighbors, small patches of woods on either side of its broad lot. The front porch light was on, along with a few lights in the second story windows. Someone was home. Kim spotted Adam’s car parked in front of the wooded lot to the left of the house, but Adam himself was nowhere in sight. Uncertain what to do, she parked her own car behind his.

Then she spotted him. He was crouching in the woods not far from the street. He was looking at the house, and he didn’t seem to notice her car. What was he waiting for?

She got out of her car and locked it quickly. She hated leaving Cody alone, but had no option. He would be safer in the car than he would be with her.

She ran as quietly as she could toward the woods. She slipped into the trees, nearly tripping over their roots in the darkness and cringing at the rustle of leaves under her feet.

Adam started as she neared him and spun around. “Kim!” His face was lit only by the light coming from the house, but she saw the shock in his eyes. “What the hell are you doing here?”

She stopped a few feet front him. “I know what you’re doing, Adam,” she said, her voice shaking. She remembered his gun. Did he have it with him? What if he killed her? What would happen to Cody?

“Sh,” Adam said. “Get out of here, Kim.”

“No, I won’t. I can’t let you do it. I called the police.”

He looked at her, and even in the darkness she could detect anger in his features. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “I told you I’d take care of it.”

“Where is it?” she asked. “Where’s the bomb?” Her eyes searched the ground around him for the package.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t have time to explain it to you. You have to get out of here.” He turned back to the house, and a terrible thought passed through her mind: maybe he’d already planted the bomb. She peered through the trees, but couldn’t see the front porch clearly from where she stood. Maybe some member of the Geary family had taken the package inside and now Adam was merely waiting for the explosion, waiting for whatever satisfaction he could get from hurting Ryan Geary.

“Adam, did you—” Her attention was suddenly drawn to the street, where a taxi swerved to a stop in front of the woods. Kim did a double take when a man emerged from the back seat.

“Linc?” she said softly. Then louder, “Linc! Over here!”

“Shush!” Adam suddenly turned on her, pushing against her shoulders and knocking her down. “Shut up, Kim!”

Linc had started toward the house, but turned at the sound of their voices. Kim raised herself to her elbow and called out to him again, and he ran through the trees and was quickly at her side. He bent low to help her up. “What are you doing here?” he asked her. Then he noticed Adam.

“Get down, you two, and shut up!” Adam demanded.

“Are you Adam?” Linc asked, pulling Kim to her feet. “He’s the artist, right?” he asked Kim. “Has he already left the bomb?”

“I don’t…” She shook her head, unable to believe Linc was truly standing in front of her. “How did you know—”

“I know all the people on the list were convicted of drunk driving, and—”

“Oh.” Kim’s hand flew to her mouth. “That’s it!” she said. “I should have—”

Adam suddenly turned on them both. “Look, neither of you knows what’s going on, and you’ve got to get out of here!” He looked toward the patch of woods on the other side of the house. “There!” he said suddenly. He sprang forward and started to run through the trees toward the house, but Linc was too quick for him. He lunged toward Adam and tackled him to the ground. Adam went down hard, and Kim heard him groan. She saw him roll over, blood on his forehead. Linc crouched next to him, one knee on his chest.

She dropped to the ground by the two men. “We’ll hold him here,” she said to Linc. “The police are on their way.”

“Then get out of here, Susanna,” Linc said. “Leave before they come. They don’t have to know you were involved in any of this.”

Already, she could hear the faint sound of a siren in the distance, and she felt frozen to her spot on the forest floor as she tried to think. Maybe she still had time to escape. But how would Linc ever be able to explain his involvement in this mess?

Looking down at Adam, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him. Adam touched his hand to his forehead, then stared at the blood on his fingers. He tried to get up, but winced and fell back to the ground even before Linc kneed him again in the chest.

Adam looked at Kim, his eyes narrow with pain. He grabbed her hand. “It’s not me, Kim, “ he said softly. “It’s Jessie. I think she’s going around to the rear of the house.”

“What’s he talking about?” Linc looked at her. “Who’s Jessie?”

In a horrified instant, she understood. She looked toward the street, but there was no sign of the police and the siren was still weak and distant. They would never arrive in time.

“Stay with him,” she said to Linc.

She ran out of the woods, cutting through the side yard to reach the rear of the house. The small back porch was dark, but the moonlight illuminated a wide, grassy yard interrupted only by a swing set.

She crossed the back yard and stopped short when she came face to face with Jessie, who was emerging from the woods, an express mail package in her arms. She stopped walking when she spotted Kim.

“Jessie,” Kim said. “Don’t do it.”

“This isn’t any of your business,” Jessie said.

“Please, Jess. Put the box down. Or give it to me.” She reached her trembling arms out in front of her. “I understand why you’re doing it, but please. Forget the vendetta. It’s only hurting you in the long run.”

“A
vendetta
.” Jessie looked very calm, and a small smile played at her lips. “Good word,” she said. “And I admit that’s what it is. Revenge, pure and simple. It feels great.” She started walking toward the dark back porch of the house again, but Kim darted in front of her.

“If you leave the package, I’m only going to warn the people who live here not to open it,” Kim said. “So why bother?”

“You won’t warn anyone,” Jessie said calmly. She raised her right hand, and for the first time Kim saw the gun. It looked like the gun from Adams night table, and it was pointing directly at her. She had the feeling Jessie wouldn’t hesitate to use it.

The wail of the siren was closer now, but Jessie didn’t seem to hear it, and Kim wasn’t certain which of them had more to fear from that sound. She raised her own arm slowly to point to the swing set in the back yard. “Did you see the swings, Jessie?” she asked. “Children live here. They could get hurt.”

Jessie shook her head. “There’s only one person’s name on the package. He’ll be the only one—”

“What about the children at Sellers, Sellers, and Wittaker? That bomb didn’t have their names on it, did it?”

Jessie flinched, and Kim knew she’d hit a nerve. The magnitude of the carnage at the law firm had been an accident.

The barrel of the gun had drifted downward, but now Jessie lifted it again, pointing it at her once more. Kim had to make herself hold her ground. She knew firsthand the damage a gun could do, and she wanted to turn around and run from it.

Her throat was dry, and she swallowed hard. “Liam and Molly were innocent victims,” she said. “But so were those children at the law office.”

“Please don’t talk about them.” Jessie hunched up her shoulders as though she could make them reach her ears and block out Kim’s voice. The sirens were very close now. Jessie had to be able to hear them.

“And so are the children in this house,” Kim said. “They’re innocent, too. Just as innocent as Molly and—”

“Stop it!” Jessie said. “I said don’t talk about them.”

“Are you going to take that risk again?” Kim asked. “Hurting, maybe killing some more little kids?”

Jessie suddenly dropped to her knees, and Kim jumped, fearful that the gun would go off,

“I never meant for those kids to get hurt,” Jessie said. She was crying. It was too dark for Kim to see her tears, but she could hear them in Jessie’s voice. “Their mother should never have brought them into work with her.”

“I know,” Kim said. She could hear car doors slamming in front of the house, more sirens. Any minute, it would all be over. Jessie’s vendetta and her own escape. “I know you would never intentionally hurt any children,” she continued, and she could hear the tears in her own voice. “And I’m sure you don’t want to hurt the children who live here, either.”

Jessie was sobbing. The gun shook with the trembling of her body.

“Please put the gun down, Jessie,” Kim said.

To her surprise, Jessie obeyed her. She set the gun on the ground next to her, and Kim closed her eyes briefly in relief. She took a step forward, but Jessie immediately raised her hand in the air, palm forward, to stop her.

“Stay back!” she warned.

Kim stopped walking, horrified to see that Jessie had slipped the fingers of her other hand under the lid of the box.

“Jessie, no!” She took another step closer, but Jessie quickly grabbed the gun again, and Kim froze.

“I just wanted Molly back,” Jessie said, a catch in her voice. “That’s all I wanted,” Her fingers still in the box, Jessie quickly lay down on top of it. Before Kim could even think of reacting, the world exploded with a burst of light and noise. She heard herself scream as she fell backwards, and a searing pain cut across her forehead. In an instant, all was black.

THE AIR WAS FILLED
with smoke and sirens when she opened her eyes again. She tried to get up, but someone was holding her down.

“You’re all right.” It was Linc’s voice, and she leaned back against him.

She was vaguely aware that he was moving her, turning her, and she knew there was something he didn’t want her to see. “Linc?” Her voice sounded weak and far away.

“You’re all right,” he said again. She felt his hands on her shoulders, and she wondered if he was trying to support her or if he was simply holding onto her to keep her from running away again. Maybe they were both the same thing.

She heard voices, so loud they hurt her ears, and wide bands of light cut through the darkness. The earth vibrated as people ran past her. She had the feeling they were running in circles, and she closed her eyes because the sounds and lights were making her dizzy.

Cody
.

She tried to sit up, but there was no strength left in her body. Letting herself lean back against Linc, she sat still as a statue, waiting for her fate. She knew she would not be running away again.

THERE WERE MORE POLICE
officers at the hospital than there were doctors and nurses. At least it seemed that way to Kim. Two of the officers, a stern-faced young woman and a man who reminded Kim of her father, were sitting with her and Linc in the small waiting room, but they were not the same two who had been questioning her for the last hour. She had not bothered to lie. The jig was up, and she knew it.

“What time is it?” she asked Linc. He was sitting close to her on the hard, vinyl-upholstered couch, and Cody was on her lap. The three of them formed a tight, inseparable unit. For a little while longer, anyway.

“A couple minutes after midnight.” Linc answered without looking at his watch.

Kim had completely lost track of the time. All she knew was that a child protection worker, armed with her own set of questions, was on her way to the hospital, and that unless a miracle occurred, the social worker would take Cody from her. Kim held onto him now as he slept on her lap. The social worker would have to wrench him from her arms.