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“That was unpleasant,” Hart said.
Lewis nodded.
“I was telling you, they were tweakers. Probably slamming their own stuff. Nobody cooks meth without using it. Maybe not at first but they get addicted. It eats their souls.”
“Yeah,” Lewis said softly. Then he came back to earth, Hart could see in his eyes.
Hart continued, “Way I figure it is this.” He showed him the GPS on the BlackBerry. “It’s nearly six miles to Point of Rocks, going that way, upstream.” He pointed right. Then he indicated the gorge, to their left. “But that way, up that hill, they’ll be at the interstate in forty minutes, an hour. And that’s where they’re going.”
“You’re sure?”
“Pretty sure. She told me she was. When we were in the van. But she’s the Trickster, remember? She knew there was a chance I’d survive the crash. Which meant that she had to give me information that’d lead me in a different direction. She’d said the interstate, thinking I’d believe it was really Point of Rocks.”
“You think she was playing that game?”
Hart put away the BlackBerry and strode up and down the riverbank. “Hey, Lewis, what’s that look like to you?” He shone the flashlight on the ground.
“Like, I don’t know. Somebody was sweeping, covering up footprints.”
“Yeah. It does.” He walked to the base of the steep hill. “Okay. Here we go.” He found a broken branch. “Here’s her broom. They did come this way. And look at that…” He pointed out a tiny set of shoe prints. “That little girl. In the camper. She must’ve got out.”
Lewis had gone quiet again, and he rubbed his tattoo-the cross on his neck-compulsively.
Hart said, “I’m not inclined to kill children. We’ll take care of the women but let the girl be.”
But, fu
“One thing I want to say. I should’ve before. But…”
“Go on, Comp.”
“That robbery I told you about?”
“The robbery?”
“The bank.”
In the snow, Hart remembered. Where he’d traded shots with the bank guard who was a former cop. “Yeah?”
“Wasn’t quite honest with you.”
“That right?”
“Something’s been eating at me, Hart.”
He was no longer the sarcastic “my friend.” And hadn’t been for hours. He said, “Go ahead, Comp. What is it?”
“Truth is…we didn’t get away with fifty thousand. Or whatever I said. Was closer to…okay, it was closer to three. Really two and some change. And, okay, it wasn’t a bank. Was a guard refilling the ATM outside…and I only fired to scare him. He dropped his gun. And peed his pants, I think. He didn’t have any backup piece either… I boost things up sometimes, exaggerate, you know. Got into the habit around my brother. Kind of had to, growing up…got disrespected a lot. So. There you have it.”
“That’s it, the confession?”
“Guess so.”
“Hell, Comp, I wouldn’t want to work with somebody didn’t have a healthy ego. Way you can look at it, you made two thousand bucks for, what, two minutes’ work?”
“’Bout that.”
“That’s about sixty thousand an hour. And he peed his pants? Hell, that made it worth it right there.” Hart laughed.
Lewis asked shyly, “You still interested in doing a heist together, you and me?”
“You bet I am. Sooner we’re done here, the sooner we can start pla
Repressing a grin, Lewis tapped his cigarettes again, like a good Catholic blessing himself.
THE TREK WAS much harder than she’d anticipated.
The hillside was so steep in places that it couldn’t be climbed, at least not with a nine-year-old in tow. Bry
“How about there?”
Bry
The women continued upward, looping around a formation of limestone, twenty feet high. Bry
A brief respite as they traversed a fairly level trail. Then upward again, gasping for breath, all three of them.
The sound of the Snake ru
“Oh, no,” Michelle whispered. Bry
She sighed in frustration. The men couldn’t be more than a half mile from the interstate but the hike was taking forever. To go back and find a way around the wall would add another ten minutes.
Bry
“Damn right, I can.”
Bry
“I guess. Rudy wants me to ride piggyback sometimes. I don’t like it. He smells bad.”
Bry
Michelle nodded and boosted the girl up, whispering, “Can you handle her?”
“No choice,” Bry
The theme for the evening.
Though the burden wasn’t as great as it could be. She was thinking how thin the little girl was…and about the sad fate that had landed her squarely in such neglect.
They started up the cliff, a foot at a time. Heart slamming, legs burning, Bry
Amy, with her arms around Bry
Her rubber legs propelled her another five feet, then ten, grasping handholds harder than she needed to, fingers cramping. Even her toes curled, as if she were climbing barefoot.
Finally, an eternity, her head was over the edge, and she was looking at a flatter plain. In front of her was a huge tangle of forsythia. Not daring to look down, she grabbed all the vines within arm’s length in her right hand, tested them and, with a deep breath, let go of the rock. She pulled herself halfway over the edge and then said, “Amy, go over my head. Put your knees on my shoulders and climb. When you’re on the top, stop. Just stand there.”
Bry
A child used to doing exactly as she was told.
Bry