Annie dropped the poker to the floor and looked at Keith.
He said, "All right... it's all right..."He continued to speak softly to her as he moved around the sofa. She took a tentative step toward him, then a longer step, but the chain pulled taut and she stumbled. He caught her arms and moved her gently back into a chair, making her sit down. He took off his shirt, put it around her shoulders, and put his hand on her cheek. "It's okay."
Keith stepped away from her and picked up the poker. He took a long stride toward the sofa and brought the poker down with all his strength on the top of Baxter's already smashed skull. He noted, irrelevantly, that Baxter was in his underwear, that his skin was pale, and that his sphincter had let loose.
Keith threw the poker on the floor and turned to Annie. He said quietly, "I killed him."
She didn't reply.
He said again, "Annie, I killed him. He's dead. It's over."
She looked at Keith.
He knelt in front of her and took her hands, which were cold and clammy. He said, "It's okay now. You're going to be all right. We're going back to Spencerville now."
She nodded, and tears ran down her cheeks. She said, "Thank you."
This wasn't the time, Keith thought, to thank her for saving his life, because Keith wanted to establish a different set of events in her mind. He rubbed her hands and asked her, "Are you hurt?"
"No." She touched his face where the blood was still wet from the knife cut. "You're hurt."
"I'm fine." He saw a bruise on her face and bruises on her legs. Her eyes looked all right, though her skin was pale and cold. As he held her hands, he felt that her pulse was fast but regular. "You're okay. You're tough."
She ignored this and said to him, "He has the keys around his neck. I want these off." She jiggled the manacles around her ankles. "I want them off."
He smiled at her. "Okay."
He stood, went over to Baxter's body, and ripped the key chain off Baxter's bloody neck. He knelt in front of Annie again and, as he tried a few keys, he noticed the padlock hanging from the chain and the shackle running through the big eyebolt. He asked, "How did you manage that?"
"I unscrewed it with the poker."
He nodded. Keith unlocked the leg manacles and rubbed her ankles. "Okay?"
"Yes."
"Let's get you dressed and out of here."
She didn't seem to want to move, but then she looked at Cliff Baxter slumped dead over the back of the sofa and said, "Yes, I want to get out of here. Help me up."
He stood and helped her stand, turning her away from the dead body. He walked with his arm around her as she made her way toward the hallway, his shirt draped over her shoulders.
She stopped and moved away from him. "I can do this. Wait here. I'll be dressed in a few minutes."
"Okay."
She hesitated a moment, then looked at him and asked, "There was someone else outside, wasn't there?"
"Yes. Billy Marlon."
"Is he dead?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry."
"Not your fault."
She looked at Cliff Baxter, then at Keith and said, "I killed him."
He didn't reply.
She put her hand on his face and looked into his eyes a long time, then said, "I knew you'd come."
"I told you I would."
"Well... I hope you think it was worth it."
He smiled at her and kissed her. "What are friends for?"
Chapter Forty-three
Billy Marlon's pickup truck rolled south along Route 127. By the time Keith and Annie reached the Ohio border, the dawn was breaking over the frosty fields and meadows.
Keith glanced at Annie and said, "Why don't you try to get some sleep?"
"I want to stay awake and look at you."
He smiled. "I've looked better."
"You look fine."
"You, too," he said. In fact, he knew, neither of them looked their best, but Annie had put on some makeup and was wearing a white wool turtleneck and jeans. She had washed and bandaged his knife wound, but neither of them had wanted to stay in the lodge long enough to shower, or for her to pack anything, and he hadn't taken any of the guns. There had been a sort of silent consensus between them to leave everything behind and get out of that house of horrors.
He said to her, "I broke into your house before I came to the lodge, to look for clues. I wanted you to know that."
"That's all right." She smiled again. "You're such a gentleman. Was everything clean?"
"It's a nice house." He added, "You're still a neat freak."
"There's a pig inside trying to get out."
"Good."
They drove on in silence awhile, and when they spoke, it had little or nothing to do with the last three days.
She'd held her hand in his for most of the drive down, and even when he used the floor shift, she kept her hand over his. This reminded him of when they were in high school, on those occasions when he couldn't use the family car, and he had to pick her up in the farm truck, and she'd keep her hand on his as he shifted gears.
Keith said, "It's going to be a beautiful day."
"Yes. I like to see the sun rise." She added, "Especially this one."
"Right." A few minutes later, he said, "Billy Marlon told me you were always nice to him. He appreciated that."
She didn't reply.
Keith said, "He wanted to do what he did. He had a score to settle."
"I know. I know about his wife."
Keith nodded.
Annie said, "I always knew that, one day, all of Cliff's bad deeds would catch up with him." She added, "He did bring it on himself."
"That's usually the case."
She asked him, "Would you have killed him? I mean, if you didn't have to kill him in self-defense?"
"I don't know. I really don't know."
"I don't think you would have. It's all right. You're a good person. You made me a promise." She added, "I didn't make any such promise to anyone."
He didn't respond to that but changed the subject and said, "We'll stop at a roadside place up ahead near the Interstate. I'll buy you breakfast."
"I look awful. So do you."
"I have to meet someone at the truck stop."
"Oh... the man you called from the lodge?"
"Yes."
"Your friend from Washington?"
"Yes."
She didn't say anything further, and, a few minutes later, Keith pulled into a truck stop off the Ohio Turnpike. She said, "I'll stay here."
"No, I want you to meet Charlie, and I want you to call your sister."
They got out of the pickup truck and went into the coffee shop.
Charlie Adair was sitting in a booth near a window, wearing the first and only British tweed suit in the place, drinking coffee, smoking, and reading a newspaper. He stood as they approached, smiled, and said, "Good morning."
Keith and Charlie shook hands, and Keith said, "Charlie Adair, I'd like you to meet Annie Baxter."
He took her hand and said, "I'm very glad you could come."
"Thank you. I'm very glad I could be here."
They all sat, and Charlie ordered two more coffees. He said, "This is a great place. Everyone here smokes." He asked Annie, "Do you mind if I smoke?"
Annie shook her head.
Charlie lit another cigarette and said to her, "Keith and I had some words before he went up to Michigan, so we wanted to apologize to each other in person."
Annie replied, "And you wanted to get a look at me."
"Absolutely. You're beautiful."
"I am, you know, but not at this moment."
Charlie smiled, then said, "I think you are." He added, "I'm not going to take Keith away, so let's be friends."
"Okay."
Keith said to Annie, "Don't trust a word he says."
She replied, "I already figured that out."
Charlie smiled again.
The coffee came, and they sipped on it. Charlie said to Annie, "Here's something you can trust me on Keith Landry is the finest, bravest, most truthful man I know."
She smiled. "I know that."
Keith said, "I think that's enough." He said to Charlie, "This woman saved my life."