Next, he roughly flipped over Duane, squinting in the dim light as he tried to determine if the chest was moving up or down. Just to be safe he used several carefully aimed thrusts to make certain Duane Harvey joined the fat man in the hereafter. He tossed the knife down.
In another few seconds he was through the front door and around the back of the trailer where he plunged into the woods. His car was parked off a little-used dirt trail that snaked through the heavy woods. It was windy and rough, but it would deliver him onto the main road in plenty of time to take up his real task: following LuAnn Tyler. When he climbed into his car, his car phone was ringing. He picked it up.
“Your duties are at an end,” Jackson said. “The hunt has officially been called off. The balance of your payment will be sent to you via the usual channels. I thank you for your work and I’ll keep you in mind for future employment.”
Anthony Romanello gripped the phone hard. He debated whether to tell Jackson about the two bodies in the trailer and then decided not to. He might have stumbled onto something really interesting.
“I saw the little lady tearing out of here on foot. But she doesn’t look like she has the resources to go very far,” Romanello said.
Jackson chuckled. “I think money will be the least of her worries.” Then the line went dead.
Romanello clicked off his phone and pondered the matter for a moment. Technically, he had been called off. His work was at an end and he could just return home and wait for the rest of his money. But there was something screwy going on here. Everything about the job was somehow off. Sending him down here to the sticks to kill some hick chick. And then being told not to. And there was Jackson’s passing reference to money. Dollars were something that always held Romanello’s interest. He made up his mind and put the car in gear. He was going to follow LuAnn Tyler.
Chapter nine
LuAnn stopped at a gas station rest room and cleaned up as best as she could. She cleaned the wound on her jaw, pulled a Band-Aid out of Lisa’s diaper bag, and covered the cut with it. While Lisa slurped contentedly on a bottle, LuAnn bought her lottery ticket and some ointment and gauze at the local 7-Eleven. As part of the ten numbers she picked, she used her own and Lisa’s birthdays.
“People been coming in here like damn cattle,” said the clerk, who was a friend of hers named Bobby.
“What happened there?” he asked, pointing to the large Band-Aid on her face.
“Fell and cut myself,” she said quickly. “So what’s the jackpot up to?” LuAnn asked.
“A cool sixty-five mil and counting.” Bobby’s eyes gleamed with anticipation. “I got a dozen tickets myself. I’m feeling good about this one, LuAnn. Hey, you know that movie where the cop gives the waitress half his lottery winnings? LuAnn, tell you what, darling, I win this thing, I’ll give half to you, cross my heart.”
“I appreciate that, Bobby, but what exactly do I have to do for the money?”
“Why, marry me, o’ course.” Bobby grinned as he handed her the ticket she had purchased. “So what do you say, how about half of yours if you win? We’ll still get hitched.”
“I think I’ll just play this one all by myself. Besides, I thought you were engaged to Mary Anne Simmons.”
“I was, but that was last week.” Bobby looked her up and down in obvious admiration. “Duane is dumb as dirt.”
LuAnn jammed the ticket far down into her jeans. “You been seeing much of him lately?”
Bobby shook his head. “Nah, he’s been keeping to himself lately. I heard he’s been spending a lot of time over Gwinnett County way. Got some business over there or something.”
“What kind of business?”
Bobby shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t want to know. Got better things to do with my time than worry about the likes of him.”
“Duane come into some money that you know of?”
“Come to think of it, he was flashing some cash around the other night. I thought maybe he won the lottery. If he did, I think I’ll just go kill myself right now. Damn, she looks just like you.” Bobby gave Lisa’s cheek a gentle rub. “You change your mind about splitting the pot or marrying me, you just let me know, sweet cheeks. I get off at seven.”
“I’ll see you around, Bobby.”
At a nearby pay phone, LuAnn dialed the number again and once again Jackson picked it up on the first ring. She gave him the ten digits from her ticket and she could hear him rustling paper on the other end of the line as he wrote them down.
“Read them to me once more, slowly,” he said. “As you can understand, we can’t have any mistakes now.”
She read them again and he read them back to her.
“Good,” he said. “Very good. Well, now the hard part is over. Get on the train, do your little press conference, and sail away into the sunset.”
“I’m going to the train station right now.”
“Someone will meet you at Penn Station and take you to your hotel.”
“I thought I was going to New York.”
“That’s the name of the train station in New York, LuAnn,” Jackson said impatiently. “The person meeting you will have a description of you and Lisa.” He paused. “I’m assuming you’re bringing her.”
“She don’t go, I don’t go.”
“That’s not what I meant, LuAnn, of course you can bring her. However, I trust you did not include Duane in the travel plans.”
LuAnn swallowed hard as she thought back to the bloodstains on Duane’s shirt, how he had fallen off the couch and never moved again. “Duane won’t be coming,” she said.
“Excellent,” Jackson said. “Enjoy your trip.”
The bus dropped off LuAnn and Lisa at the train station in Atlanta. After her phone call with Jackson, she had stopped at the Wal-Mart and purchased some essentials for herself and Lisa, which were in a bag slung over her shoulder; her own torn shirt had been replaced with a new one. A cowboy hat and a pair of sunglasses hid her face. She had thoroughly cleaned and dressed the knife wound in the rest room. It felt a lot better. She went to the ticket counter to purchase her train ticket to New York. And that’s when LuAnn made a big mistake.
“Name, please,” the agent said.
LuAnn was fiddling with a fussing Lisa and thus answered automatically, “LuAnn Tyler.” She caught her breath as soon as she said it. She looked at the clerk, who was busily typing the information into her computer. LuAnn couldn’t change it now. That would obviously make the woman suspicious. She swallowed hard and hoped to God the slip would not come back to haunt her. The woman recommended the Deluxe sleeping car accommodations since LuAnn was traveling with a baby. “There’s one available and it has a private shower and all,” the woman said. LuAnn quickly agreed. While the ticket was being processed, the sales agent raised an eyebrow when LuAnn pulled some bills from under Lisa’s baby seat to pay for the ticket, stuffing the rest in her pocket.
LuAnn observed the woman’s look, thought quickly, and smiled at her. “My rainy day money. Figured I might as well use it while the weather’s nice. Go up to New York and see the sights.”
“Well, enjoy yourself,” the woman said, “but be careful. You shouldn’t be carrying a lot of cash up there. My husband and I made that mistake when we went years ago. We weren’t five minutes out of the train station when we got robbed. Had to call my mother to send us some money so we could come home.”
“Thanks, I’ll be real careful.”
The woman looked behind LuAnn. “Where’s your luggage?”