It was Evelyn’s mother who gave her a ride to the airport. Lara wasn’t happy that Evelyn was leaving again. She made that clear with a lecture on how Evelyn should take better care of herself, which Evelyn did her best to tolerate. She’d asked her father to drive her since she’d known Brianne, her younger sister, had to work, but he’d had a tee time that conflicted. To be helpful, he’d lined up Lara, and once her mother had agreed, Evelyn didn’t feel as if she could change her mind and take her own car. That would not go over well after the difficulty they’d had getting along on their trip to San Francisco.
“You still have stitches in your head,” Lara complained as they reached Logan Airport.
“They won’t be there long,” Evelyn responded, watching the signs for the various airlines slip past.
“Do you know a doctor in Hilltop? Who will take them out?”
Evelyn shrugged. “Maybe I’ll do it myself. It can’t be hard.”
Her mother shot her a dirty look.
“Okay, I’ll drive to Anchorage and have a professional do it.”
At last, they reached the drop off and Lara pulled to the curb so Evelyn could get out.
Claiming she was going to miss her flight if she didn’t hurry, she said a quick goodbye and grabbed her luggage.
She’d rushed off so fast she thought she’d forgotten something when Lara called before she could get on the plane.
“Mom?” She stepped out of the boarding line so that she wouldn’t hold anyone up. “Don’t tell me I dropped something in your car.”
“No, nothing like that.”
“And you haven’t run out of gas...”
“Of course not. Your father would never allow me to take the car if it didn’t already have gas.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Maybe nothing. It’s just that...some guy honked at me a few seconds ago, and when I looked over, he flipped me off.”
Evelyn wasn’t sure how to respond to this. Her mother wasn’t that great of a driver. She drove too slow or changed lanes at the worst possible moment, so Evelyn could understand someone getting frustrated enough to make a crude hand gesture. “Did you cut him off?”
“No! I didn’t do anything! I was driving along in my own lane when he came up on the side of me. And it wasn’t as if he was angry. He was grinning like...like he knew me and was excited to see me again.”
A smile didn’t sound in keeping with the road rage her mother normally inspired. “But you didn’t know him.”
“I’ve never seen him before in my life.”
“So...why do you think he did that?”
“I have no idea.”
A woman’s voice came over the intercom. “This is the final boarding call for Alaska Air flight number 1261 to Anchorage...”
Evelyn was out of time. She had to go. “It could be that he thought you were someone else, someone with whom he might joke around. Maybe he was trying to be funny.”
“I guess,” she said.
Evelyn pictured the worried face that would go with that voice. “Where is he now? Can you see him?”
“No. He sped away.”
Then it had to be nothing, a simple case of mistaken identity. None of the psychopaths she’d worked with over the years knew her mother. They didn’t live in the same place they had when she was attacked, and they kept their number unlisted. It would be difficult for anyone to find them, especially randomly, on the road, but if someone was targeting Lara for nefarious purposes, he’d remain in the vicinity, most likely follow her. “Just keep an eye on your rearview mirror, be aware of what’s around you at all times, and keep your phone handy,” she said. “If you see him again, call the police. It’s better to be wrong and safe than right and sorry.”
“Okay,” she said.
All the other people on the flight had boarded and the attendants were getting ready to close up the plane. “I’ve gotta go,” Evelyn said. “I love you.” Then she sighed and turned off her phone. Since Hilltop didn’t have cell service, she wouldn’t be able to use it much in Alaska, not once she left Anchorage.
But she’d had her landline installed at the bungalow, she reminded herself. She could check in on her mother that way.
***
The surgery had paid off. Lara hadn’t even recognized him. When he’d honked and given her the finger, she’d looked over at him, completely baffled. It was about the funniest thing he’d ever seen.
Everything else had paid off, too, “Andy” decided. He’d stayed away from Evelyn and her family for twenty excruciatingly long years and, in that time, he’d carefully set up the perfect cover, complete with a wife who supported him financially and step-kids who made him look no different than any other family man. And now his patience and planning were going to bring him exactly what he’d craved since he was seventeen. He’d found Evelyn. He’d finally fucking found her, just like he’d always dreamed!
Suddenly, Andy could’ve kissed his latest victim, whether she was dead or not. If she hadn’t croaked, he wouldn’t have gone to Evelyn’s parents’ house quite so early. He wouldn’t have been sitting there when her mother came out. He wouldn’t have been driving behind Lara when she traveled to the gated condo complex where Evelyn must live.