“Don’t call me that.”
“Fair enough. But please listen to your old man. Sometimes you’ve gotta raise your hands and walk out from cover. Surrender. Giving yourself over to the authorities is never a preferable choice, but sometimes it’s the only smart one.”
“I’m not surrendering.”
“Technically it wouldn’t be a surrender. Wilson only wants you for ‘questioning.’ That doesn’t mean arrest. He gave me his number. Why don’t I call him, get him back over here, y’all sit down together and—”
“No.”
“Brynn—”
“No! I can’t turn myself over to them. Not now, anyway. Not yet.”
“Okay, okay. You want time to think about it. I get that. Say, first thing in the morning.”
She shook her head. “Even if they cleared me, I can’t afford the time it would take to sort out everything. I’m racing the clock.”
“Clock? What clock? There’s a deadline?”
“A crucial one.”
“Then all the more reason for you to stop the clock. Call Wilson now. Maybe if you cut a deal, gave him and Rawlins something on Hunt in exchange for—”
“No.” She scooted to the edge of her seat. “I listened to you, now you listen to me. In spite of what it looks like, I’m doing a good thing. I swear to you on Mother’s grave.”
“But you can’t tell me what it is?”
She shook her head.
“Rawlins acts tough, but Wilson is a reasonable person. I bet he would understand if you explained—”
“Possibly when it’s over, I will. But not before.”
“How come?”
“Because they could stop me.”
“Maybe not. Convince them your motives are honest.”
“You’re not listening. Guilt or innocence isn’t the issue. It’s time.”
“Sweetheart, Brynn, I’ve got experience with these things. I know the approach that cops respond to. Let me—”
“You can’t help with his, Dad, and, anyway, you have to go to work.”
“I can skip work.”
“I wouldn’t let you do that.”
“But—”
“You’re wasting your breath,” Mallett said.
Wes turned to him. “It’s my daughter and me talking here. I’ll ask you kindly not to interrupt.”
Mallett said, “She’s not turning herself in, and neither am I. And every second she spends arguing with you about it is squandering time better spent.” He came off the stool. “Yes or no on the car? If it’s no, we’re leaving.”
Wes looked between the two of them, saw the resolution in both their expressions, and realized that it was two against one, and he was the odd man out. He looked at Brynn with a frown of consternation. “I couldn’t talk you out of dating that wild Hendrix boy, either.”
“And I survived him.”
“Yeah, but look where you are now.” He gestured toward Mallett. “He’s a step or two down, you ask me. But”—he sighed—“you’ve got my car for as long as you need it.”
She didn’t hide her relief. “Depending on how things go, it could be several days before I can return it. How will you get to work?”
He pointed to the chessboard. “A greeter at the store is a friend of mine, lives in the neighborhood. We ride together every now and then. Pick up a pizza on the way home. Share it over a game of chess.”
“He won’t mind the inconvenience?”
“She.” Reading the surprise on Brynn’s face, he chuckled. “I’m a thief, not a monk.”
She reached across the table and touched his hand. “Thank you.”
He acknowledged her thanks with a nod, then heaved another sigh and slapped his thighs as he came to his feet. “What state do you want to be from?” At their quizzical expressions, he said, “We need to swap out the license plates.”
Turning, he walked toward the bedroom, saying over his shoulder, “If y’all are going on the lam, you’ve got a lot to learn.”
11:39 p.m.
Wes had always kept an “emergency kit” somewhere in the house. His present one was in the crawl space under the floorboards of his closet floor. In the old trunk, they found several license plates that hadn’t expired, a variety of new cell phones still in their boxes, a Ziploc bag stuffed with cash, which Brynn and Rye declined, and a prison-issue toiletry kit, which she claimed.
With Mallett’s help, Wes got all the floorboards back into place. Brynn excused herself and took the small dopp kit into the bathroom with her, and Wes and Mallett returned to the living area where they plugged in the phones to charge.
Wes sat down in his recliner. Rye took one of the chairs at the table, tilting it onto its back legs, propping himself at an angle against the wall.
“She looks done in,” Wes said.
“Both of us are sleep-deprived.”
“You’re welcome to stay here till morning, get some shut-eye.”
“You heard Rawlins. If they were to come back and find us here, you’d be in trouble with your parole officer. Besides, she needs to get on her way.”
“To?”
Mallett shook his head. “If Brynn didn’t tell you, why do you think I would? My loyalties lie with her.”
“Of course,” Wes said, nodding. But he questioned whether loyalty was the only foundation for their solidarity. Sparks flew every time the two looked at each other, and even when they were avoiding eye contact, there was a simmering awareness between them.
Wes idly scratched his armpit. “You two didn’t meet until last night?”
“That’s right.”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” He situated himself more comfortably in the recliner. “Just, you got awfully wrapped up in her problem.”
“Too wrapped up.” Mallett was looking cornered and restless again. “But that ends soon. She gets gone, I’ll be out of it.”
“Brynn will go her way, you’ll go yours.”
“Yep. Just a day later than scheduled.”
“It’s been quite a day, though.”
“You can say that again.”
“You and Brynn gonna stay in touch?”
“No. Better for all concerned.”
“Especially you.”
Mallett’s green eyes narrowed a fraction. “You’re damn right.”
Wes gave him a critical once-over and snuffled. “You think you’re too good for my girl?”
“Other way around.”
“I hear ya.” Wes took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “She’s too good for me, too.”
“That’s plain enough.” Mallett looked around the shabby room. “She was desperate, or she wouldn’t have come here. She wants nothing to do with you.”
“She tell you that herself?”
“Didn’t have to.”
Wes gave Rye a sad smile and said softly, “Son, you’ve got it wrong.”
“How’s that?”
Wes reached over, picked up a bishop from off the chessboard, and rolled it between his palms. “Brynn had it tough growing up. All the odds were stacked against her, but she put her shoulder to it, and worked like the devil to achieve what she set out to do. When she became a doctor, got her position in the hospital, no daddy was ever prouder than me.”
He paused, studied the chess piece, noticed that the paint was wearing thin in spots. “I didn’t want to be an embarrassment to her, something in her life that had to be explained or made excuses for. I didn’t want her having to claim kin with an old con.” He tipped his chin down and looked at Rye from beneath his brows. “Was me, not Brynn, who stipulated that she have nothing to do with me.”
Mallett held his gaze as he slowly lowered the front legs of his chair to the floor.
Their stare held until Brynn came out of the bedroom.
Mallett looked at her and said quietly, “Time to go.”
12:04 a.m.
Once they were underway in Wes’s second-or third-hand compact, little was said for the first fifteen minutes.
Brynn stared out the passenger seat window, tracking rivulets of rain as they formed and streamed down the glass. Following the path of one with her fingertip, she broke the silence. “He seemed well, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know what he was like before.”
“Before, he was just as he was tonight. Unchanged except for a little more gray hair and an inch or two around his middle.”
“He’s been hitting the pizza with his lady friend.”
Brynn gave a wistful smile. “I’ve never known him to have girlfriends.”