Run to Me (14 page)

They were still on the short lane beside the parking lot. Scanning across it, he caught sight of Nolan running along the edge of the woods. The woman hadn’t
given him away after all.

For a moment, relief engulfed him so fully he rested his forehead against the glass. But on lifting it again his spirits plunged. Coming down the store’s front steps were Vanessa and Reece.

Everything inside him seemed to clench. Reece wasn’t even putting up a fight. The boy looked totally dejected. Defeated.

Abandoned
, whispered a voice in his head.
First Corey ,
now Reece. You deserted them both
.

Zack jerked at hearing the words. It wasn’t true. He would never –

Admit it, you thought they were pains in the butt. Always whining, asking questions. You wanted them gone
.

No! There hadn’t been a choice in either case. He’d done everything he could to help Reece escape. If he’d stayed, he just would have been caught as well. At least this way, with one of
them free, there was a chance he could –

What – rescue them? As if you
’
ll even try. And anyway what do you think you can do? A pathetic, useless loser like you
.

Pressing his face against the seat, Zack fought to silence the awful voice. He’d done the right thing. He hadn’t deserted them. He hadn’t. He hadn’t!

Finally he lifted his head and stared out at the passing landscape. They were heading
in the opposite direction from the depot and were now in an area he’d not seen before. The towering pine trees had become a backdrop to mixed hardwood forest, the flames and golds of its autumn foliage setting the surrounding hills on fire.

The only problem was there weren’t any houses. The further they went along this road, the further he got from food and shelter. He couldn’t imagine the crazy
lady had much of a house.

Still, better there than back at the store. Now that they’d spotted him, Nolan and Vanessa would no doubt be keeping an eye out for him. They might even put his picture up somewhere, in which case he couldn’t let anyone see him.

He eased back down into the tiny space, careful not to nudge the seat in front of him and let the crazy lady know he was there. A few days
ago he probably wouldn’t have fit in a space this small. But all that time without any food . . .

Reminded of his hunger, he noticed the boxes stacked around him. Perched on top of the last one she’d loaded was a plump soft roll, not even wrapped. Now that he’d seen it he could smell it as well. He reached up, grabbed it and crammed it in his mouth.

A half hour later, when the woman turned off
the gravel track and into the woods, Zack was starting to wonder where the hell they were going. He’d had visions of her living in a tree somewhere and was surprised when he caught a glimpse of a cabin. As she followed the driveway around to its front he ducked down and covered his head with the raincoat.

They rolled to a stop. The engine shut off. The driver’s door opened, then closed again.

Zack held his breath.
Please don
’
t reach for the raincoat first
.

The back door opened. The scrape of cardboard as the woman slid the top box from the stack. Receding footsteps.

He peeked out to see her going up the steps to the cabin’s front porch. When she vanished inside he raised his head further.

In front of the car stood an open garage with some kind of shed built off the end. Parked to
one side was a pick-up truck, the one she’d been driving the day before. Forest pressed in around the small clearing, nothing but trees in every direction.

Zack squeezed out of his tiny chink. On legs wobbly and cramped from confinement, he hobbled off into the deepening shadows.

‘What’s eating you?’ Allen said from behind his newspaper.

Chase shifted his gaze from the computer to the man having
breakfast at the table beside him. Now that his father had
drawn attention to it he realised he’d been muttering to himself. ‘Nothing. I’m just thinking about a case.’

‘Complicated, is it?’

‘It didn’t appear so at the start, but it could turn out that way.’ Chase returned his attention to the screen.

‘So what’s the problem?’

‘The problem is I need to follow up on a certain . . . subject .
. . but I can’t find the relevant information.’

‘Wouldn’t give you her phone number, would she?’

His head snapped around. ‘What?’

‘Your mother was the same in the beginning. Had me jumping through all sorts of hoops with her hard-to-get games.’ Allen noticed his startled expression. ‘Well, that’s what we’re talking about, isn’t it? This woman you met?’

‘Am I made of glass or something?’

‘Oh, come on, it’s pretty obvious. You’ve been mooning over that carving she gave you like it was the Venus de Milo.’

‘I haven’t been mooning.’

‘A high school football team on a year-long bus tour wouldn’t do as much mooning as you have these last two days.’ Allen lifted the paper again. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great. As long as it’s love and not obsession.’

‘Obsession? When have I
–’

‘You know what I mean. That thing you do where you have to take care of everyone.’

‘You mean being a doctor?’

‘It would be the best thing for you to finally have a serious relationship. I was starting to wonder about you, to be honest.’

‘I don’t know why I open my mouth.’

‘So she wouldn’t give you her phone number. Big deal. Just look it up.’

Chase quickly closed down the site he’d been
perusing, then decided his father had probably seen in. ‘I’ve tried every search engine on the net and just about every directory in the state.’

‘And this is you not obsessing about it.’

‘Dad, this is serious. She could be in trouble.’

‘I would’ve thought you’d be more concerned about that boy you found in your waiting room yesterday.’

‘I am concerned. But I’ve done everything I could for
him and he’s now getting the care he needs. I’m not sure the same can be said for this woman.’

Allen set the paper down in his lap. ‘So what kind of trouble do you think she’s in?’

‘Never mind.’

‘No, no, come on. You haven’t gotten her pregnant, have you?’

‘I’ve only just met her!’

‘Well, then what kind of trouble could she be in?’

‘I don’t know. If I knew I wouldn’t need to find her so
badly.’

For once his father had no smart reply.

‘It’s nothing I can put my finger on at this stage. I just have a feeling something’s wrong.’

‘A feeling.’

‘Yes.’

Allen lifted the paper again. ‘Looks like I was right to be worried.’

‘What the hell am I going to tell him?’

Nolan paced the cabin’s living area, running a hand through his wind-ravaged hair. He’d spent the entire afternoon scouring the woods behind the general store and found not a trace of the other two boys. ‘He’s left me six messages. I’ve got to call him back. But what do I say?’

From her seat on the couch Vanessa said, ‘Tell him the good news.
Tell him we caught one of the little bastards.’

‘One out of three. That’s your idea of good news, is it?’ Nolan huffed. ‘I doubt Tragg’ll see it that way.’

‘So don’t tell him anything. Don’t call him back till we catch the others.’

Nolan stopped and turned to glare at her. ‘Were you even listening last night when I told you what he said he’d do if –’ His swallow made a clicking sound in his
throat. ‘The man’s a psychopath. Pain is his profession and he enjoys his work.’

Vanessa shrugged. ‘Can’t argue that.’

‘Ballinger’s the critical one. He’s the one we should’ve gotten back.’ Nolan resumed pacing. ‘That bitch must have helped him. She sent me into those woods deliberately because Ballinger
was hiding in her car. He had to have been. He couldn’t have disappeared so fast otherwise.’

‘So tomorrow we just start looking for her. When we find her, we follow her and she takes us to him.’

‘And what if Ballinger’s talked by then? What if he’s told her –’

‘The kid’s a punk; she’d never believe him. And if she has doubts . . .’ Vanessa smiled. ‘That’s where your acting skills come in. We flash our IDs, give her the same song and dance we gave the Learys and the problem’s solved.’

Nolan stood with a hand to his brow. Yes, it all sounded perfectly logical. But the thought of telling Tragg of their failure, of confessing that the boy with knowledge of Lazaro’s affairs had not only escaped but was now being helped –

On the coffee table his mobile trilled. He picked it up, read caller ID and fumbled it open. ‘Tragg! My man, I was just going to call you. Yeah, great news –
we caught the bastards.’

Vanessa blinked at him, her mouth dropped open.

‘Yup, all three of ’em. They’re right here in the cabin with us, safe and sound. And the best part is they never talked to anyone. So everything’s cool.’

Nolan listened, feeling Vanessa’s gaze bore into him. ‘Well, there’s just one problem. You see it . . . it’s been raining up here, really bucketing down, and the only
road into town is washed out. It could be a day or so before we can leave.’

Hearing the words he’d been praying for, Nolan let out his breath in relief. ‘Oh sure, we’ll take good care of them. Yeah. Great, see you then.’ He disconnected.

Vanessa shook her head in disgust. ‘You’re pathetic.’

‘You’re the one who said we’d as good as caught them.’

‘Have you any idea –’

‘If I hadn’t lied he’d
have driven up here!’ Nolan struggled
to lower his voice. ‘Besides, if you’re right, he’ll never find out. He wanted us to meet him at the warehouse tomorrow but that story about the road bought us some time. We now have an extra twenty-four hours to find the others.’

Vanessa rose slowly, stepped in front of him and pressed the point of one stiletto fingernail up under his chin. ‘You screw this
up for me, lover, and I’ll have your nuts in a blender.’

Nolan stared into her cold green eyes. ‘If
we
screw this up I’m pretty sure Tragg will beat you to it.’

She turned away from him. ‘Okay, get that Reece kid out of the closet and let’s find out what he knows.’

Tragg pushed out through the hospital doors, oblivious to the cold. Even the rain, slashing across the driveway in sheets, couldn’t
dampen his present mood. His head was clear, his body pain-free and the matter that had threatened to become a major problem had been taken care of. He was getting the fuck out of this dump.

He turned up his collar and dashed for the rental car Nolan had left for him, parked just across from the main entrance. He unlocked its door, climbed in and sat adjusting the seat and mirrors.

He was heading
home, back to Boston. No point slumming it in some New Hampshire motel when Nolan wouldn’t get there for another day or two. He had people keeping an eye on the warehouse; the money wasn’t going anywhere. He’d only need to get there when Nolan and Vanessa arrived with the kids.

Till then he’d have nothing to do but wait. Something that never improved his mood. Still, the important thing was they’d
caught Ballinger before he’d talked. Before they’d been forced to silence the lot of them.

Starting the car, Tragg felt a smile pull at his mouth. In a way he was looking forward to greeting them – the three runaways and the bungling fuckwit who’d let them escape. Looking forward to that very much.

He reversed the car from its parking spot and started towards the exit at the rear of the grounds.
As he rounded the building a staunch female figure in a nurse’s uniform emerged through a side door. Standing beneath its overhang she swung a coat up over her head and prepared to launch herself out into the weather.

Tragg smiled. Yes, it was her – the sagging matron so fond of giving orders. The ward’s head bitch, so puffed up by her dollop of authority she wielded it like a battle-axe over
patients and subordinates alike.

Perhaps I
’
d better hold onto that mobile for you, Mr Tragg, until you
’
re discharged. We don
’
t allow them on the wards
.

Tragg looked around. The lot was empty and shrouded from view of the windows above by the swirling rain.

When the doctor says complete bed rest, that
’
s exactly what he means, Mr Tragg
.

A laugh escaped him. Clutching the wheel he bent towards
the windshield.

I hope you
’
re not leaving, Mr Tragg
.
The doctor hasn
’
t authorised your discharge yet
.

The woman stepped out from under the portico and commenced her jostling run towards her car. Tragg touched the gas, timing his approach, the acceleration. For a moment she was nothing but a blur in the darkness. Then she broke out into the flood of his headlights.

The woman whirled, ghostly
white. Her features, wrenched by shock and fear, captured in a camera’s flash. She threw herself back.

Tragg heard the satisfying thud of her body bouncing off the nearest parked car.

Zack sat hunched on a granite outcrop shielded by a massive evergreen. The wind had picked up since that afternoon, subtracting another ten degrees from the chill of approaching night. Dead leaves and twigs swirled around him as he stared across the clearing at the lighted windows of the cabin.

In the hours he’d been here he’d had a look around, inspecting more closely the two-car
garage, the carpentry workshop built off its end, the lean-to for firewood and the remains of a vegetable garden out back. He’d walked a wide circle around the premises, keeping the cabin in sight at all times, and discovered his initial impression had been correct – there were no other houses anywhere nearby. He couldn’t have asked for a better hideout. Except for the fact that he was freezing to
death.

Clamping his hands beneath his armpits, he braced himself against another fierce gust. He was also starting to feel a bit sick. He’d thought that after eating that roll he’d feel a bit better, but instead he felt worse. Sick to his stomach and with a strange sense of fullness in his groin.