Dreamland

But finally the hall dumped them into a lobby, and then they were through the revolving doors and out into the dark.

The cold was shocking. The wind cut right through her sweatshirt and wrapped a hand around her lungs. The sky was clear. The glare of the hospital complex couldn’t quite obscure a smattering of stars. Dea wrapped her arms around her chest, inhaling clean, sharp air, watching her breath condense in clouds. It felt like a long, long time since she had been outside. She still half expected an explosion of shouting to begin at any minute, hands to materialize from the dark and grab her.

But they made it to Co

Co

“All right,” he said. “Talk.”

“Not here.” She heard the wail of an approaching siren and tensed; but it was only an ambulance, pulling into the ER.

“Dea . . .” His hands tightened on the wheel. For a second, she was terrified he would order her out of the car.

“I promise, I’ll explain everything. I swear. But we’re not safe here.”

He exhaled—a long, heavy breath. “Where do you want to go?”

She shook her head. She was out and free and she had nowhere to go. She couldn’t go to Gollum’s—it was the first place the cops would look, and besides, Gollum was already covering for Co

She thought of the envelope full of rolls of twenty- and fifty-dollar bills, stuffed into the soft interior lining of the passenger seat in the VW.

“My car,” she said. “I need to get into my car.”

Co

“I wasn’t trying to—” She broke off. There was no point in trying to explain what had happened; it would have to wait until they were somewhere safe. Somewhere else. Instead she said, “I really wrecked it? Bad?”

“You drove straight into a tree,” Co

She thought of two thousand dollars, shredded underneath the metal teeth of a giant machine. She needed that money.

“We have to check,” she said. “We have to make sure. Maybe they haven’t . . . demo’d it yet.” Seized by sudden inspiration, she said, “It’s evidence, isn’t it? It’s evidence of a crime.”

“What are you talking about?” Co

“That was my mom’s car. And the police think she’s on the run. So they might keep the car, right?” The more she talked, the more it sounded possible. “Maybe—maybe they think the car is a clue. Or—or like proof that she was doing bad stuff. She probably stole that car.” Dea knew for a fact that she hadn’t, but she needed to make Co

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.” He yanked the key out of the ignition, cutting off the engine.

Dea took a long breath. “Okay, look. There’s money in that car. I need it. I have nowhere to go. If I get caught, I’ll get thrown back in there.” She jerked her head toward the hospital, looming toward the sky like a vast white wave tu

For a long time, he just looked at her. Then he turned the ignition back on and put the car in drive.

Dea had crashed somewhere on the border of Marborough and the flat run of land on the western side of it. There was only one tow company she knew of: Sanderson’s, which was actually in Pellston. Mark Sanderson was in Dea’s grade, and rumor had it he sometimes lent out cars to his friends for drag racing. If your car went to Sanderson’s, there was no telling what it would look like when it came out.

They drove to Pellston in silence, with black space hurtling past them. Co

She couldn’t believe that only a couple of months earlier she’d taken Co

Dea had driven past Sanderson’s Tow and Impound lot plenty of times but never paid it much attention. It was bigger than she’d remembered, a large lot encircled with a high fence and illuminated with large floodlights. In contrast to the surrounding darkness, it looked like the set of a movie, and the rows and rows of cars, lit up from above, were like carefully arranged toys.

The gate at the entrance was closed. A laminated sign instructed them to buzz. Co

Co

“So what’s the plan?” she said. But Co

“What are you doing?” he whispered, glaring at her. They were standing on either side of the hood, facing off. “Get back in the car.”

The tattooed guy had shut the gate behind them. He shook a cigarette out of a pack and stood smoking, watching them from a distance.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Dea spoke softly, so Mark’s brother wouldn’t hear. “I’m coming with you.”

“Let me handle it,” Co

She hesitated. She’d been assuming she could just weave her way among the cars, looking for the VW. Still she would need fifteen minutes at least—more, given how weak she felt—and Mark’s brother wasn’t taking his eyes off her. But she was sick of sitting around and waiting; she’d been sitting around, waiting, for days.

So she followed Co

She caught Co