Archie held Sara close as they moved out of the administration office. Henry was behind them, Ben in his arms. Eight members of the Hillsboro SWAT team flanked them, four on either side. Their weapons were drawn, fingers on their triggers, knees bent. Archie knew that Gretchen was long gone, but no one was taking any chances. They were ready to shoot. Archie could hear the sound of children’s voices coming from a classroom. They were singing. There was an old lady who swallowed a cat. Imagine that, she swallowed a cat. Some teacher was trying to keep her students busy. Their voices and the footsteps of the cops were the only sound. Archie held Sara’s head down on his shoulder. Her wet pants were cold against his arm. She swallowed the cat to catch the bird. … She swallowed the bird to catch the spider. That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. He could hear Sara then, eyes still squeezed shut, face pressed against his shirt. She was singing, too. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. The front doors opened, and they stepped out into the light.
Emergency vehicles ringed the perimeter of the school. Patrol cars, ambulances, fire trucks. Behind them, news vans. Two helicopters overhead. They had evacuated the back of the building and children stood in groups in front of the school. Many parents had already arrived, but most would just now be hearing about the siege, leaving work, speeding to the school, their worst fears burning in their chests. They would arrive to find their children safe. They would take them in their arms and carry them home and they would weep with relief and they would move on.
Archie envied them.
Jeff Heil, a detective on Archie’s squad, fell in step with Archie, guiding them toward the street. Heil was light-haired. His partner, Mike Flannigan, was dark-haired. They were both medium build and square-jawed and clear-skinned. Archie called them the “Hardy Boys.”
Heil didn’t say anything. He just led Archie by a light touch on his elbow, keeping such pace with Archie that the two were almost pressed together. Heil was using his body, Archie realized, to shield Archie and his children from the news cameras.
Archie heard the mayor before he saw him. Buddy was barking orders at some patrol cops, telling them to move the press line back. His yellow tie flapped against his dress shirt as he swept toward Archie.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I want to see Debbie,” Archie said.
“She’s in the car,” Buddy said. He walked them across the grass to a waiting black Town Car with city plates. The SWAT team moved with them. Archie could hear the distant sound of media shouting his name. He held Sara closer and glanced back at Henry and Ben. Ben’s face was pale, but he held his head up, eyes trained on the activity that surrounded them. Archie could still hear Sara singing. But I dunno why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps shell die.
A tall Japanese man opened the back door of the Town Car. Archie recognized him as part of the mayor’s security detail.
Debbie sprang out of the car, hands over her mouth. When she saw them, she burst into tears and the hands fell and opened wide. Sara lunged from Archie toward her mother, falling into Debbie’s arms.
Debbie fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around Sara, so that their entire bodies were touching. Henry unwrapped Ben’s thin freckled arms from around his neck and set the boy down and Debbie held an arm out for him and he fell into their hug.
Debbie looked up at Archie. Her eyes were red, her face pale. “Did you get her?” she asked.
“I’m sorry,” Archie said. Debbie closed her eyes for a moment and then loaded the children into the backseat of the car with her. Archie turned back to Heil. “Make sure all my lines are tapped,” he told him.
Heil glanced back at Henry.
“Did it as soon as we heard she was loose,” Henry said.
Of course he did. “Right,” Archie said. He climbed into the backseat. Sara was on Debbie’s lap, Ben in the middle. Ben had taken Sara’s hand and held it in both of his. Sara stared out the tinted window at the distant television cameras.
“We’ve got to go,” Heil said, getting in up front in the passenger seat.
Henry leaned in the open door toward Archie. “Who would Gretchen go after?” he asked.
Archie thought about it, tried to distance himself emotionally from the question. “Debbie,” he said. “The kids. Anybody who means something to me.” He looked past Henry, at the police cars, the children, the school. There weren’t that many people left he allowed into his life. But Gretchen knew him well enough to intuit who they were. He’d made it easier by taking one of them down to meet her. He looked for Susan now, in the crowd, the shock of aqua hair. But he didn’t see her.
“Where is she?” he asked Henry.
“Who?” Henry said.
“Susan,” said Archie. “Find her. Make sure she’s okay.”
From inside the car, Sara’s voice was tiny. No, I dunno why she swallowed that fly. She looked up at her mother and smiled, her apple cheeks dimpling. “You think Gretchen is pretty, right?” she asked.
Debbie threw Archie a withering look and then rested her head in her hand like she had a headache. “Sara,” she said calmly. “Shut up.”
CHAPTER
28
I’m glad you’re fine, Bliss,” Susan said, twisting around to face her mother in Henry’s Crown Vic. Her mother hadn’t said much since Henry had picked them up at the hospital. Susan and Claire had arrived at the house after the ambulance. The only ingredients in the chocolates, it turned out, was the stuff you made chocolate out of. Gretchen’s motive had been to terrorize, not kill.
“I wish we’d known that before they pumped my stomach,” Bliss said. “With a hose. In the yard.” She pulled at a bleached dreadlock. “In front of the neighbors.”