''Actually no I didn't know what I was going to tell them.
When the doctor asked me who you were, the answer just popped out It was plausible. I had a newborn. We were traveling together. Our ages are compatible." She looked at him and shrugged, as if the lie's advantages were obvious.
''And I couldn't dispute it."
''That's right You couldn't dispute it."
"As my wife you exercised a lot of control."
"That was the general idea."
"What did you tell them about Marshal Fordham?"
"That she was your sister.)'
"How'd you convince them of that?"
"They just took my word for it."
"She was Hispanic "
"They didn't know that at the time."
"Oh. Right Their couldn't recover the car because of the flood."
"Which also worked to my advantage."
"Yeah, everything was going your way. Good thing Miss. Fordham was dead, huh?"
"That's a horrible thing to say!" she cried.
''Was she dead?"
"What?"
"Was she already dead when the car went into the creek?"
She turned her head away and stared at the far wall for a long moment He could tell that she was furious. Her jaw was working, and there were angry tears in her eyes when she turned back to face him. "Fuck you."
"You have, he replied with matching contempt. "Many times. " They glared at each other. "Did you let Rosie Fortham drown?"
She was silent.
"Answer me, damnit!, he shouted. "Was she already dead when"
"Yes! Yes. She died on impact. I'm certain the coroner's report will confirm that."
He wanted to believe her. It appeared that she was telling the truth. From a personal standpoint, he hoped she was. But the criminologist in him was mistrustful. She was a damn good liar.
"Why didn't you leave me in the car to drown?" he asked.
"You could have walked away. It might have been days before our bodies were discovered, miles downstream from where the accident occurred. It would have been even longer before we were identified. You could have completely disappeared in that amount of time, Kendall, and your trail would have grown stone cold. Why'd you pull me out?"
She licked at a tear that had rolled into the corner of her lips, although she no longer looked angry. These were tears of remorse. "You've slept with me, made love to me, and you have to ask me why I saved your life? Any life? Do you actually think I'm capable of walking away and letting an injured person die? Don't you know me better than that?"
He leaned over her. "I don't know you at all. You're a stranger to me, as much a stranger as when I walked into your front yard in Denver and saw you for the first time."
She shook her head, refuting everything he had said.
"You've told so many lies, Kendall, spun so many tales, I don't know what's truth and what's fiction."
"Kevin wants to nurse."
He jerked his head back. "What?"
The baby was gnawing at Kendall's breast and plucking at her blouse. It completely disarmed him. "Oh. Go ahead."
Short hours ago, he had made love to her. He had explored her body with his hands and lips. But he couldn't watch now as she opened her blouse and offered the hungry infant her breast. He felt as guilty as a teenager getting an erection in the confessional as he recounted his carnal sin to the priest.
It was damn near impossible to maintain a professional posture while watching her nurse her baby. Fortunately, he didn't have to, because Kendall stunned him with a question of her own.
"Who is Lisa?"
"What do you know about her?"
"You talk in your sleep. More than once you've mumbled something about her. Who is she? Your wife? Are you married?"
Her concern struck as funny, but his laughter was shore-lived. "You've kidnapped a federal officer, but you're worried about committing adultery?"
"Are you?"
"No."
"Then who is Lisa?"
"She's just . . . this woman." Kendall continued to stare at him, compelling him to explain. He gave her a thumbnail account of his and Lisa's relationship. "She left like that," he said, snapping his fingers. "And it didn't even put a dent in my emotions. No more than when I met her."
"She was just a warm body to sleep with."
He immediately went on the defensive. "Exactly. It was as hassle-free as any sexual relationship can be. Besides, it made no difference to you. I talked about her in my sleep, but that didn't stop you from fucking me, did it?"
"You're as much to blame as I for . . . that."
"Hardly. I didn't ask to become involved in your life. In fact, I raised hell with Jim for turning you over to me. If I'd had my way, I would have washed my hands of you in Dallas.
Why did you involve me, Kendall?"
"I had no choice, remember?" she shot back. "I tried sneaking out of the hospital, but you caught me and insisted on coming along."
"You had countless opportunities to ditch me before we got here. Every time I used the men's room, for instance. Why didn't you just drive away?"
"Because the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to keep you with us. Even though you were on crutches, you provided Kevin and me some protection."
"I wouldn't even touch him, wouldn't go near him."
"But I didn't realize that until we were here." She looked at him thoughtfully. "I've been curious about that. Why did you take such an instant dislike to Kevin?"
"Not to Kevin in particular. To all babies."
"Why?"
He gave a brusque shake of his head, indicating that the subject was off-limits. "Where are we, exactly? What's the name of that town?"
"Morton. We're in eastern Tennessee, near the North Carolina state line." She told him the history of the house. "No one except Grandmother and I ever came here. I knew this would be a good place to hide." She looked up at him and added earnestly, "John, I couldn't go back to South Carolina and testify against Gibb and Matt."
"The government needs your testimony to convict them."
She contradicted him with a strong shake of her head. "By now I'm sure Pepperdyne has found some files in my Denver apartment. I had a year to compile them. They're comprehensive. They contain a lot of incriminating information about key members of the Brotherhood. If the government can't convict them of murder, there are other charges they can get them on. Just like when they nabbed Al Capone on tax evasion.
"I witnessed what they did, John, and there aren't words to describe the horror of it. Hours before he was executed, spoke with Michael Li. He was a bright, gentle, mannerly | young man. When I think of the terror and agony they put | him through . . ." |
She lowered her head and gazed sadly into near space. Then she looked up at him again. "They've cost me everything, I John. Thanks to them I became a fugitive, a criminal in my own right. I can never practice law again. And I was good," |
she stressed. Tears flowed from her eyes. "I believed in what I I was doing. I wanted to help people=, wanted to make a difference. They robbed me of the opportunity.
"Believe me, I want more than anyone. to put these monsters behind bars for the rest of their lives. ]I'm willing to do my part as a good citizen, but I'm not willing to die for the cause."'
She paused for emphasis and hugged her baby closer. "I don't want Kevin to grow up an orphan as I did. And if I go anywhere near Matt and Gibb, they'll find a way to kill me, and it will be a brutal death."
John understood. Her responses were perfectly normal.
"They can't hurt you, Kendall," he said softly. "They're in jail".
"Not any longer. They escaped three days ago."
John's first reaction was astonishment, then suspicion. Was she lying? "How do you know?"
"Rick) Sue told me when I called her."
"When?"
"Today."
"That's why you were so upset when you got back from town?"
She
nodded. "I don't know any of the details because I hung up right after she told me about their Escape."
He plowed his fingers through his hair and took several turns around the kitchen while trying to review the thousand and one implications of the Burnwood's-' being free. When he came back around to Kendall, she started rebuttoning her blouse.
Kevin was asleep in the cradle of her arms.
"How far are we from your hometowns? Sheridan, right?"
"About ninety miles."
"That close?"
"And they've been there." She told him about the FBI's aborted ambush in her grandmother's house. "The intruders weren't identified, but it was probably Matt and Gibb."
"No wonder you wanted to leave tonight. If I'd known they had escaped, I would have gotten us out of here days ago. As It IS, there's
"Wait! What did you say?" Kendall slowly came to her feet. "You said that you would have gotten us out of here days ago?" Helplessly, he watched the changes in her expression as she assimilated the significance of his words.
"Then your memory . . . It didn't return just now. You've known . . ." She raised her hand to her mouth and caught a gasp. "You've known, and yet you . . . Damn you!" She struck him hard across the face. "How long have you known?"
He caught her wrist before she could hit him again. "Ken dall, listen to me! We haven't got time to thrash this out now.
"Oh, I think we do, Dr. McGrath," she said with a sneer.
"Why don't I lie down on the couch so you can practice a little more psychology on me? I'm a real case study, aren't I?
You're just dying to open me up and find out what makes me tick. You're really into analysis, and you do your best work while I'm lying down!"
"To say nothing of how well you perform lying down!" he shouted.
"You bastard."
"Look, you're the one who wanted to play house with a mana stranger that you kidnapped. You're the one who made up the story that we were married. And, I might add, you were damn convincing. So don't blame me for responding like a husband."
He propped his crutch against the table, took her shoulders between his hands, and pulled her close, pressing Kevin between them.
"All you can blame me for is acting out the role you wrote for me, Kendall."
"You played along to learn my secrets so you could use them against me. Tell your friend Pepperdyne about me. Discuss and analyze me. You manipulated me." -"No more than you manipulated me," he fired back.
"When did you get your memory back? Tell me. When?"
His fingers closed tighter around her arms. "Even now you don't realize how unsuitable I was to play the part of husband and daddy. But you were perfect in your role, the longsuffering wife, staying with her injured husband even though he had broken his marriage vows and cheated with another woman. You added just the right touch of martyrdom while holding out the promise of forgiveness and reconciliation.
"You were aloof but within reach. Modest but accessible.
The sexy woman no man can resist. Damn you, Kendall, you seduced me with the whole package, and you knew you were doing it. You made me want you. I wanted you to be mine. I wanted . . . wanted Kevin to be mine. It's the first time in my life that I've wanted that kind of oneness with anyone.
"See, I've never been any good at relationships. In fact, I've been lousy. I refused to let anyone get that close. But I think the amnesia changed me. Now that I know what it's like to need someone and to be needed, I don't want to go back to being the man I was."
His voice cracked, and, as though the speech had drained him, he rested his forehead against hers. "By sleeping with you I've violated God knows how many ordinances and rules and laws. When this is all over, they'll throw the book at me.
I'll claim I was doing my duty the only way I saw fit under the circumstances, but I doubt they'll buy that."
He raised his head and looked deeply into her eyes. "I fooled you, yes, but no more than I tried fooling myself. Duty be damned. The only reason I made love to you every night was because I wanted to. No, I had to."
He doubted that she realized what a momentous statement that was. It was the closest he had ever come to professing his love to anyone.
Or maybe she did realize its import, because the fight had gone out of her, too. Gazing at him mistily, she reached up and touched his mouth. "I shamelessly manipulated you, yes.
But I swear to you on Kevin's life that what happened between us was real."
They kissed, their mouths open and intimate. Even when they pulled apart, they continued to nuzzle. Against his lips, she murmured, "I love you, John, but I must protect Kevin.
And you. And even though you'll never forgive me for this, that's still what I'm going to do."
Before he realized what was happening, she had whipped the pistol from his waistband and pushed him backward. He careened into the kitchen stove. Unbalanced, he slid to the floor, crying out in pain and outrage.
Kendall kicked the crutch out of his reach. "I'm sorry, John." She sobbed. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you take me back."
She fled through the screen door, which banged shut behind her.
The pain in his shin radiated up through his thigh and groin and belly and now seemed to be erupting out of the top of his head with volcanic impetus. He folded his arms around the injured leg and hugged it to his chest.
"Kendall," he called after her on a dry gasp of pain. Then louder, " Kendall ! "
He didn't think for a minute that she would come running back. Therefore, he couldn't believe his ears when he heard the screen door creaking open.
He opened his eyes and blinked her into focus.
She had returned. But not alone. And not by choice.
Chapter 38
You could set your clock by Elmo Carney's daily routine.
He got up every morning at 4:30, drank a cup of coffee, and then, rain or shine, sleet or heat, he went to the barn to milk his small herd of dairy cows. At 5:55 on the dot, he got into his pickup and drove the two miles into town to eat breakfast at the cafe, which opened at 6:00.
This had been Elmo's weekday routine since his wife's death.
He resented Saturday's. when the cafe didn't open until seven, and Sundays, when, as soon as the milking was finished, he had to exchange his overalls for a jacket and tie and go to church. His stomach always growled during the service.
This morning began no differently from any other. He milked his cows, then struck out for town, having no premonition in{ what awaited him around the bend. He was lost m a daydream about soda biscuits and sausage gravy when the apparition materialized just beyond the grille of his truck.
Having emerged from the dusty bushes along the ditch, it planted itself dead center in the road and waved its arms high above its head.
Elmo practically stood up on the brake pedal and the clutch.
The tires grabbed for traction.
arthritic joints. The truck skidded the final few yards and managed to stop only inches from the phantasm.
Elmo's heart was in his throat as he watched it run toward the passenger side of his pickup and open the door. "Thank God you came along, mister."
It climbed into the cab of his truck and slammed the door.
"I've been waiting for hours," it complained. "Doesn't anybody live out here? And where the hell are we anyway? I've lived in Sheridan all my life, but I don't recall ever being out this way before. I sure as hell won't ever want to come back, that's for damn sure!"
She paused and looked at him, motioning toward the gear shift. "Well, what're you waiting on? get the lead out, "ramps. I've got to get to town p-r-on-to."
Stupefied, Elmo gawked, his hands frozen on the steering wheel. It walked, it talked. He could even smell it. But he still couldn't believe it was real.
"Great," it muttered in exasperation. "As if I haven't already been through enough, the person I flagged down turns out to be a dimwit. This has been a really shitty week."
She waved her hand in
front of Elmo's glazed stare. "Yoo-hoo!
Gramps? Anybody at home in there? Blink. Do something, for God's sake. What's with you? Haven't you ever seen a naked woman before? Or haven't you ever seen a natural redhead?"
Pepperdyne was awakened by a commotion in the squad room.
An hour ago, he had finally surrendered to his exhaustion and lain down on the cot the Sheridan PD had set up in the office for his use.
He hadn't thought he could fall asleep, and intended only to rest his eyes. But he mus t have slept soundly. Even though he had been abruptly awakened, he felt refreshed.
He sat up and swung his feet to the floor just as a policeman The old brakes protested like burst into the office. "Mr. Pepperdyne, you'd better come on - out here."
"What's going on? Have they been found?"
"They" could have referred to any number of people, but Pepperdyne didn't specify as he followed the officer into the squad room where one cop was talking to a scrawny farmer in overalls and the others on duty were crowded around the windows that overlooked the front lawn of city hall.
"What the hell is going on?"
His angry roar captured everyone's attention, including that of the farmer, who approached him, obsequiously removing his dozer cap.
"You Mr. Pepperdyne?"
"That's right. Who're you?"
"Elmo Carney's the name. She told me to come in here and fetch Mr. Pepperdyne. Nobody else, she said. But I swear to you on my sainted wife's grave that I ain't did nothing improper or illegal.
"I's just on my way to have breakfast, and there she was, a-standing slap dab in the middle of the road, mother nekkid and a-waving her arms. Nearly gave me a heart attack. Climbed right into my truck, she did"
"Excuse me. Who?"
"A redheaded lady. On the chubby side, she is. Said you'd"
Pepperdyne didn't wait for more. He rushed toward the door. "Is she hurt?"
"Yes, sir, but like I said, I ain't did nothing to her."
"Somebody toss me a coat. A jacket. Something."
An officer rushed forward with a yellow rain slicker. Pepper dyne grabbed it and left the squad room at a run. He sprinted down the corridor, through the front door, and down the steps. He didn't stop until he reached the faded blue pickup parked at one of the parking meters.
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