Surrendering to her growing paranoia, she paid cash for her purchases, just in case somebody had spotted her car leaving the area around the White Rose Mental Health Facility and remembered the tag number. This way, the police would have no record of her movements. No way to track them. Of course, there were the store security cameras to think about, but it was too late now anyway. She wondered if Levi could do something about them, and decided he probably could. Maria was starting to think she’d barely scratched the surface of what he was capable of. She considered mentioning it to him, but decided against it. He’d seemed moody and unresponsive since freeing Adam.
She walked out of the store, nodding thanks to the elderly greeter standing next to the shopping carts, who thanked her for shopping and asked her to come back again. As she crossed the parking lot with her bags, she stuffed the sales receipt in her purse. With any luck, she could claim the purchase on her taxes—if she sold the book.
The book, she thought. Yeah, like that’s ever going to happen now. I’m aiding and abetting a murderer—and the ex-Amish magician who helped him escape by creating some kind of flaming hole in time and fucking space. Maybe I can write the book from prison. What the hell was I thinking?
Then she remembered the voice on her digital recorder. She felt the blood drain from her face.
Maria halted, afraid that she was going to pass out. When the dizziness had passed, she hurried to the car. She climbed behind the wheel and handed the bags to Adam without speaking. Then she gave them each a bottle of water and started the car.
“Thank you,” Levi said. “You must have read my mind. I was indeed thirsty.”
“Yeah,” Adam agreed. “Thanks.”
“There you go,” she said. “You’ve got a new suit of clothes. Sunglasses and a hat, too. You’re a new man.”
“Cool shades.” Adam pulled the items out of the bags. “I really appreciate it. I’ll pay you back when I can.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Maria said. “You can pay me back by helping us out.”
“Should I change now, or wait till later?”
“Wait,” Maria said. “Let’s get this over with first.”
“We’re not far,” Adam replied. “Just a few more minutes.”
“I know the way,” Levi said.
“You were really at my house?” Adam asked him as they pulled out of the parking lot.
Levi nodded. “Yes. Right after your arrest and once since then. I was looking for the book.”
“The…people that live there now. What are they like?”
“They seemed like a very nice family. Husband and wife. Two kids. A dog. Good folk. I didn’t speak to them for very long, I’m afraid. Just asked them a few short questions.”
“That should have been us,” Adam whispered. “Me and Tara and Big Steve. That should have been us. The only thing missing were the…kids. We miscarried several times. That’s why, when Tara got pregnant after Hylinus, I just…”
He stopped talking, unable to finish. Moaning, he buried his face in his hands and wept.
“Adam,” Levi said softly, “I know that you are hurting right now. And I know this won’t be easy, seeing your old home. But I need you to keep your wits about you until we’ve retrieved the book. Then we’ll talk about this, okay?”
“You don’t understand,” Adam cried. “The ultrasound…the picture…the baby had horns! She said it was mine, but it had fucking horns, man! That’s why she tried to hide it from me. What was I supposed to do?”
Maria’s grip tightened around the steering wheel. She stared straight ahead, slowing as they approached a red light.
“I know,” Levi soothed the distraught man. “I know. But we need to focus.”
“It should have been mine,” Adam wailed. “I was supposed to be the father—not him! Not the satyr.”
“Which way?” Maria asked, stopping at the light.
“Left, and then straight through the next light,” Levi told her, turning back to Adam. “Mr. Senft, I need you to be with me. Put this behind you for just a little longer. Can you do that for me?”
Sobbing, his face still hidden, Adam nodded.
“Good.” Levi turned around again and stared straight ahead.
When the light turned green, Maria made the left. The streets were deserted. Levi opened his bottle of water and drained it without pausing for air.
“Are you okay?” she asked him.
“I’m fine.” He screwed the cap back on the empty bottle. “Tonight’s occurrence took a lot out of me, and I’m tired. That’s all. But I’ll be okay. I just need to prepare myself.”
Maria sipped her iced cappuccino. “For what?”
“For what’s to come. For what I have to do next. I like it even less than flying.”
“You don’t like to fly?”
“No.”
“I love it,” Maria said. “I always ask for a window seat.”
Levi shuddered.
They passed through another intersection.
“At the next light,” Adam said, “there will be a gas station on the left. Go straight through it and then, about twenty feet later, you’ll see the fire house on the right. Turn down that alley.”
Maria followed the directions. The gas station was closed for the night. As they drove by it, Adam pressed his palm against the window. His expression was full of grief.
“Did you used to go there for cigarettes or something?” Maria asked.
“A friend of mine worked there. Leslie.”
“Did she visit you while you were in the hospital?”
Levi started to speak, but Adam interrupted him.
“The last time I saw Leslie was when she had Merle’s dick in her hand. She cut it off with a rock, trying to protect Hylinus.”
“Oh…”
“She was shot by a police detective named Ramirez,” Levi explained, taking over for Adam. “On the night of the fire, Detective Ramirez and Adam, along with several of their friends, confronted Hylinus during a mating ceremony. Mr. Senft’s wife, his friend, and several other women were…accompanying the satyr.”
“Ramirez,” Maria said. “I spoke with him on the phone earlier today. Seems like a week ago already.”
“He knew the truth,” Adam whispered. “And he let them railroad me anyway. Because he didn’t want to admit that he’d been wrong. He didn’t want to believe, even after being confronted with the proof. He was a coward.”
Maria slowed as they approached the alley. She switched her turn signal on, but before she could make a right into the alley, Adam flung the car door open and leapt out into the street.
“Adam!” Levi shouted.
Maria slammed on the brakes. “Oh shit.”
Before they could react, Adam had fled into the alley, disappearing from sight.
“What should we do?” Maria yelled.
“Go after him—drive!”
She turned into the narrow alley and her headlights speared the fleeing man. Maria floored it, and the car shot forward. But as they closed the distance between them, Adam stopped running. Holding his sides, he walked a few more feet and then stopped at the rear of a two-story house with gray vinyl siding. The house was sandwiched between the alley and Main Street. There was a detached garage and a driveway at the rear of the property, and a large oak tree in the center of the yard. A red Toyota and a blue minivan were parked in the home’s driveway. Adam glanced at them and then collapsed, kneeling in the driveway. He clawed at the stones, his hands curling into fists.
Maria glanced around. To her left was the community Fire Hall’s parking lot. Beyond it lay a grassy vacant lot and a playground with swings and monkey bars. Beyond the playground was a dark line of trees. To her right were a row of houses, including the one Adam knelt in front of.