“Some people who come in here aren’t as free to go as others,” he said.
Bordain said nothing, but walked out and wasted no time getting to the end of the hall. Vince came out of the break room to watch him go.
“He didn’t take that well,” Mendez said.
Vince shrugged. “Go figure.”
62
Halfway up the ladder the world went silent. Gina had no idea how much time it had taken her to get this far. It seemed like days must have passed. Each step up was more difficult than the last, her body was more exhausted, her mind drifting in and out of reality. With each step she had to rest longer, and with each rest she felt more inclined to just go to sleep and fall into the next dimension.
She thought she might be crying, but it was as if all aspects of her—body, mind, spirit—were drifting apart and losing the connection to one another. Marissa had stopped talking to her. Silence rang in her ears.
She was close to giving up. The little bit of rotten food she had eaten had come back up from the pain and the effort of moving. What adrenaline she had used to start the climb was spent.
Starving and dehydrated, she had no energy reserves to draw on. Unknown to her, the concentrated acid in her empty stomach had begun to eat through the stomach lining. She was aware of that pain because it was new and sharp. The pain in her broken ankle was so enormous and had been so continuous that in a weird way it had become like deafening white noise in her head. The pain in her shoulder where she had been shot throbbed now like a bass drum. Infection had begun to set in.
I just want to lie down.
No one told her not to.
She couldn’t remember how long she had been standing on this rung. She had hooked her good arm through the iron loop and put her head against the dirty concrete wall to rest. Just for a minute ... and then another ... and another ...
In one tiny corner of her mind she was very afraid, but that little voice wasn’t strong enough to wake her. It tried to shout, but seemed so far away.
I don’t want to die!
Her pulse was shallow and quick. She wondered dimly if that meant not enough blood was getting to her brain.
If she could just lie down and rest. If the pain would stop for just a while ...
If she could just let go ...
Then she did let go, and her body felt weightless, and it seemed to take forever just falling and falling.
NO!!!
“No!”
And BANG! Like that, all the disparate parts of her being slammed back together, and her body jerked as if she had been given an electrical shock. She grabbed tight to the iron rung as her good foot started to slip.
Climb! Marissa’s voice shouted. Damn it, G., climb!
Dry wracking sobs shaking her, Gina forced herself to reach up for the next rung.
Even as she did it, she was thinking, I can’t do it. I can’t make it. I’m so tired. I feel so weak.
You can do it, Gina! You have to. Do it for me. Do it for Haley. One more. Come on. Come on!
One more.
And then one more.
Her head hit the rotten door. She pushed it open.
And then she was lying on the ground, in the mud, the steady cold rain drenching her to the bone.
63
“I love a school holiday,” Franny said, pouring the coffee. He made himself at home wherever he was, particularly in Anne’s kitchen. “Thanksgiving, Christmas, Sixth Graders Putting Cherry Bombs Down the Toilets Day.”
The resulting plumbing catastrophe had given the children and teachers of Oak Knoll Elementary an unexpected long weekend.
“I’m glad for the company of another adult,” Anne said. “The mind of a four-year-old can be exhausting to keep up with.”
“They haven’t been dumbed down by society yet at that age,” Franny said, doctoring the coffee with cream and cinnamon. “Everything is possible.”
They went into the family room with its big bank of windows looking out on the backyard. The rain was still coming down. Haley and Wendy were busy with dolls at one end of the room. Franny and Anne each took a big stuffed leather chair near the windows.
“Haley asked me if I would be her mommy until her mommy is done being an angel,” Anne said.
“Oh!” Franny’s eyes filled with tears. “That should be in a children’s book!”
“A children’s book about death?”
“They take it better than we do. What did you tell her?”
“Yes, of course. I’d keep her forever,” Anne admitted wistfully.
“Maybe you will.”
“I can’t think that way. I’m sure she has relatives somewhere. Everyone does, right?”
“That doesn’t mean she should go and live with them,” Franny said. “What if her relatives are toothless rednecks living in travel trailers in one of those fried food states in the middle of the country? Oh! What if they’re carnie people?” he asked, getting carried away with himself, as usual. “Next thing you know Haley’s in a sideshow as the Bearded Baby.”
Anne chuckled, appreciating the distraction that was her friend.
“This is a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon,” she said. “Good company, a hot drink, watching kids play.”
Franny smiled at her until his eyes disappeared.
“What?”
“You’re going to be such a good mom!” he said.
“If Vince and I ever get to sleep together again,” Anne said dryly.
“You’ve been staying with Haley?”
Anne nodded. “She’s having some pretty scary nightmares.”
“You know all about that. Has she named the k-i-l-l-e-r yet?”
“No. She calls him Bad Daddy. She says he was dressed all in black. Vince is going to bring home some kind of photo lineup of men who knew her mother. Maybe she’ll pick one out. But there’s always a chance the killer wore a mask.”
“Don’t you think he tried to k-i-l-l Haley because she could identify him? Why else?”
“Maybe he’s just plain evil,” Anne said. “How about that?”
“Mommy Anne!” Haley called as she came running from the other end of the room. “Look at my dolly Wendy gave me!”
“That’s a really special doll, isn’t it?”
“I’m gonna call her Kitty,” Haley announced, “because I want a kitty.”
“Okay! That’s a good name!”
Anne rolled her eyes at Franny as Haley scampered away. “We’re lobbying heavily for a kitty.”
“She couldn’t be cuter if she was my child,” Franny said.
The front doorbell rang and Anne jumped like she’d been given an electric shock. She could almost feel the blood drain from her face. This was part of her post-crime sentence, to panic at the sound of the doorbell when she wasn’t expecting anyone.
Franny frowned. “I’ll see who it is.”
Anne followed him at a distance to the front of the house, trying to calm herself, to tell herself there was no reason to panic. Peter Crane was sitting in jail. He wouldn’t be on the other side of her door ready to attack her.
No. It wasn’t Peter Crane at the door, but a whole other kind of threat Anne realized as she heard Franny say, “Maureen Upchurch. How’s your nephew? Has he been incarcerated yet?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Unlike some people, I have friends,” Franny said.
Anne moved around him to see Maureen Upchurch and Milo Bordain on her front step.
Because of her aversion to surprise guests and because of Vince’s background with the FBI, she and Vince had taken great pains to keep their address private. But of course Maureen would have access to her address because of Haley. And here she was, looking as put out as always.