“No. I think the Crow was going to meet some others, but they’re still a long way away. And they can’t figure out where we are”—she broke off for a huge yawn—“without him to tell them. Tell Dan we’re safe. And tell him to make sure my dad gets that.”
Billy relayed this message. When he ended the call, Abra was curled up on the bed, knees to chest, snoring softly. Billy covered her with a blanket from the closet, then went to the door and ran the chain. He considered, then propped the desk chair under the knob for good measure. Always safe, never sorry, his father had liked to say.
14
Rose opened the compartment under the floor and took out one of the canisters. Still on her knees between the EarthCruiser’s front seats, she cracked it and put her mouth over the hissing lid. Her jaw unhinged all the way to her chest, and the bottom of her head became a dark hole in which a single tooth jutted. Her eyes, ordinarily uptilted, bled downward and darkened. Her face became a doleful deathmask with the skull standing out clear beneath.
She took steam.
When she was done, she replaced the canister and sat behind the wheel of her RV, looking straight ahead. Don’t bother coming to me, Rose—I’ll come to you. That was what she had said. What she had dared to say to her, Rose O’Hara, Rose the Hat. Not just strong, then; strong and vengeful. Angry.
“Come ahead, darling,” she said. “And stay angry. The angrier you are, the more foolhardy you’ll be. Come and see your auntie Rose.”
There was a snap. She looked down and saw she had broken off the lower half of the EarthCruiser’s steering wheel. Steam conveyed strength. Her hands were bleeding. Rose threw the jagged arc of plastic aside, raised her palms to her face, and began to lick them.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THAT WHICH WAS FORGOTTEN
1
The moment Dan closed his phone, Dave said, “Let’s pick up Lucy and go get her.”
Dan shook his head. “She says they’re okay, and I believe her.”
“She’s been drugged, though,” John said. “Her judgment might not be the best right now.”
“She was clear enough to help me take care of the one she calls the Crow,” Dan said, “and I trust her on this. Let them sleep off whatever the bastard drugged them with. We have other things to do. Important things. You’ve got to trust me a little here. You’ll be with your daughter soon enough, David. For the moment, though, listen to me carefully. We’re going to drop you off at your grandmother-in-law’s place. You’re going to bring your wife to the hospital.”
“I don’t know if she’ll believe me when I tell her what happened today. I don’t know how convincing I can be when I hardly believe it myself.”
“Tell her the story has to wait until we’re all together. And that includes Abra’s momo.”
“I doubt if they’ll let you in to see her.” Dave glanced at his watch. “Visiting hours are long over, and she’s very ill.”
“Floor staff doesn’t pay much attention to the visiting rules when patients are near the end,” Dan said.
Dave looked at John, who shrugged. “The man works in a hospice. I think you can trust him on that.”
“She may not even be conscious,” Dave said.
“Let’s worry about one thing at a time.”
“What does Chetta have to do with this, anyway? She doesn’t know anything about it!”
Dan said, “I’m pretty sure she knows more than you think.”
2
They dropped Dave off at the condo on Marlborough Street and watched from the curb as he mounted the steps and rang one of the bells.
“He looks like a little kid who knows he’s going to the woodshed for a pants-down butt whippin,” John said. “This is going to strain the hell out of his marriage, no matter how it turns out.”
“When a natural disaster happens, no one’s to blame.”
“Try to make Lucy Stone see that. She’s going to think, ‘You left your daughter alone and a crazy guy snatched her.’ On some level, she’s always going to think it.”
“Abra might change her mind about that. As for today, we did what we could, and so far we’re not doing too badly.”
“But it’s not over.”
“Not by a long shot.”
Dave was ringing the bell again and peering into the little lobby when the elevator opened and Lucy Stone came rushing out. Her face was strained and pale. Dave started to talk as soon as she opened the door. So did she. Lucy pulled him in—yanked him in—by both arms.
“Ah, man,” John said softly. “That reminds me of too many nights when I rolled in drunk at three in the morning.”
“Either he’ll convince her or he won’t,” Dan said. “We’ve got other business.”
3