LuAnn swallowed hard. She was going to be rich all right. By cheating. “I am,” she said slowly. “It’s just now that I made up my mind, everything’s going to change. My whole life. And Lisa’s, too. It’s a little mind-boggling.”
“Well, I understand that. But keep in mind that this particular change is definitely of the positive variety. It’s not like you’re going to prison or anything.”
LuAnn fought back the catch in her throat and clenched her bottom lip between her teeth. “Can’t I please take the train up today? Please?”
“Hold on for one minute.” He clicked off. LuAnn looked up ahead. A police cruiser sat on the side of the road, a radar gun perched on the door. LuAnn automatically checked her speedometer and, although she was under the speed limit, slowed down slightly. She didn’t breathe again until she was several hundred yards down the road. Jackson clicked back on, his abrupt tones startling her.
“The Crescent pulls into Atlanta at seven-fifteen this evening and arrives in New York at one-thirty tomorrow afternoon. Atlanta is only a couple hours’ drive from where you are.” He paused for an instant. “You’re going to need money for the ticket, though, and I’m assuming you’ll need additional funds, perhaps for some travel-related incidentals.”
LuAnn unconsciously nodded at the phone. “Yes.” She suddenly felt very dirty, like a whore pleading for some extra cash after an hour’s work.
“There’s a Western Union office near the train station. I’ll wire you five thousand dollars there.” LuAnn gulped at the amount. “Remember my initial job offer? We’ll just call it your salary for a job well done. You just have to show proper identification—”
“I don’t have any.”
“Just a driver’s license or passport. That’s all they need.”
LuAnn almost laughed. “Passport? You don’t need a passport to go from the Piggly-Wiggly to the Wal-Mart, do you? And I don’t have a driver’s license either.”
“But you’re planning to drive a car to Atlanta.” Jackson’s astonished tone was even more amusing to her. Here the man was, orchestrating a multimillion-dollar scam, and he could not comprehend that LuAnn would operate an automobile without a license.
“You’d be surprised how many people ain’t got a license for anything and they still do it.”
“Well, you can’t get the money without proper identification.”
“Are you anywhere nearby?”
“LuAnn, I only came to glorious Rikersville to conduct my meeting with you. Once it was done, I didn’t hang around.” He paused again and LuAnn could hear the displeasure in his voice when he spoke next. “Well, we have a problem then.”
“Well, how much would the train ticket be?”
“About fifteen hundred.”
Remembering Duane’s money hoard, a sudden thought struck LuAnn. She again pulled off the road, put down the phone, and quickly searched the car’s interior. The brown leather bag she pulled from underneath the front seat didn’t disappoint her. There was enough cash in there probably to buy the train.
“A woman I work with, her husband left her some money when he passed on. I can ask her for the money. A loan. I know she’ll give it to me,” she told Jackson. “I won’t need no ID for cash, will I?” she added.
“Money is king, LuAnn. I’m sure Amtrak will accommodate you. Just don’t use your real name, of course. Use something simple, but not too phony sounding. Now go buy the lottery ticket and then call me back immediately. Do you know how to get to Atlanta?”
“It’s a big place, or so I’ve heard. I’ll find it.”
“Wear something to hide your face. The last thing we need is for you to be recognized.”
“I understand, Mr. Jackson.”
“You’re almost there, LuAnn. Congratulations.”
“I don’t feel much like celebrating.”
“Not to worry, you have the rest of your life to do that.”
LuAnn put down the phone and looked around. The car windows were tinted so she didn’t think anyone had actually seen her, but that could change. She had to ditch the car as fast as possible. The only question was where. She didn’t want to be seen getting out of the car. It would be pretty hard to miss a tall, blood-caked woman hauling a baby out of a car with tinted windows and a chrome figure doing nasty things on the vehicle’s hood. An idea finally hit her. A little dangerous perhaps, but right now she didn’t have much alternative. She did a U-turn and headed in the opposite direction. Within twenty minutes she was pulling slowly down the dirt road, and straining to see ahead as she drew nearer to her destination. The trailer finally came into view. She saw no other vehicles, no movement. As she pulled in front of the trailer cold dread poured over her as she once again felt the man’s hands around her throat, as she watched the blade swooping toward her. “You see that man coming out that house,” LuAnn said out loud to herself, “you’re gonna run right over his butt, let his lips kiss the oil pan on this thing.”
She rolled down the passenger window so she could check for sounds coming from within but heard nothing. She pulled a diaper wipe out of Lisa’s bag and methodically rubbed down all of the car’s surfaces that she had touched. She had watched a few episodes of America’s Most Wanted. If it hadn’t been too dangerous she would have gone back inside the trailer and wiped down the telephone. But she had lived there for almost two years. Her fingerprints would be all over the place, anyway. She climbed out of the car, stuffing as much cash from the bag as she could under the liner of Lisa’s baby seat. She pulled her torn shirt together as best she could. She noiselessly closed the car door and, holding Lisa with her good arm, she quickly made her way back down the dirt road.
From within the trailer, the pair of dark eyes watched LuAnn’s hasty departure, taking in every detail. When she suddenly glanced around the man stepped back into the shadow of the trailer’s interior. LuAnn didn’t know him, but he wasn’t taking any chances at being observed. His dark leather jacket was zipped halfway up the front, the butt of a 9-mm visible sticking out of the inside pocket. He stepped quickly over the two men lying on the floor, careful to avoid the pools of blood. He had happened along at an opportune time. He was left with the spoils of a battle he had not even had to fight. What could be better? He scooped the drug packets off both the coffee table and the floor and deposited them in a plastic bag that the man pulled from his jacket. After thinking about it for a moment, he put half the stash back where he had found it. No sense being greedy, and if the organization these boys worked for got wind that no drugs had been discovered by the police in the trailer they might start looking for who took it. If only part of the stash was missing they’d probably assume the cops had sticky fingers.
He eyed the fight scene and then noted the torn fabric on the floor; recognition spread across his features. It was from the woman’s shirt. He put it in his pocket. She owed him now. He looked at the remnants of the phone, the position of each man’s body, the knife and the dents in the wall. She must have walked right into the middle of this, he deduced. Fat man got the little man, and LuAnn somehow got the fat man. His admiration for her increased as he noted the man’s bulk.
As if he sensed this observation, the fat man started to stir again slowly. Not waiting for the fat man to recover further, the other man stooped down, used a cloth to snatch up the knife, and then plunged it repeatedly into the man’s side. The dying man grew momentarily stiff, his fingers digging into the threadbare carpet, hanging on to the last seconds of his life, desperately unwilling to let go. After a few moments, though, his entire body shook for an instant and then slowly relaxed, his fingers uncurled and splayed out, his palms flush against the floor. His face was turned to the side; one lifeless, blood-filled eye stared up at his killer.