Plucking it from behind the sunshade, he tapped the kids arm with it. Look here what I found, darlin, just for you.
Plucking it from behind the sunshade, he tapped the kids arm with it. Look here what I found, darlin, just for you.
Her momma picked up her cue and sang out, Oh, Emma, looka here-its your favorite! What do you say? You tell Mr. Starr thank you, now.
So, like any child above the age of two being raised in the South, Emma had to sit up straight and sniffle out a Thank you, sir. She could have been dying, and shed have pulled herself together and managed it somehow.
It broke the ice, though, and by the time Caitlyn joined them in the cab he and Emma were good buddies, and she was telling him all about which particular supergirl this action figure was and the names of all her friends, and all the cool things they could do. She hadnt quite got so far as to sit on his lap, but she was leaning against his knees and drowning him with her eyes, which, it struck him, bore a fair resemblance to those little cartoon supergirls eyes.
It made his heart hurt to think how sweet and little she was and how badly she wanted to trust somebody, and what a lousy hand life had dealt her so far. And how he was just about to make it worse for her, maybe, at least for a while.
In the long run, though, he knew he was doing the right thing, what was best for her and her momma. Hed had close brushes with some bad apples like this Ari Vasily, and if there was one thing hed learned from the experience it was that dangerous people like that were best left to the professionals to deal with. And as for the courts, wellsure, they got it wrong sometimes, but they generally straightened things out sooner or later. The thing to do was get a good lawyer
Yeah, and that got him thinking again about the pile of law books under his passengers feet, and the exam waiting for him back in Georgia, and the hard work and tough years it had taken him to get to this point and what it would mean to the rest of his life if he blew it now. That gave him the resolve to put the Kenworth in gear and do a turnaround through the abandoned gas stations parking lot, and a few minutes later he was back on the interstate, growling his way toward South Carolina.
Andersons Main Street, which ran straight down through the town and past the courthouse square on one side and the police station on the other, had been landscaped and refurbished in the old downtown section and was closed to big-truck traffic. Following the truck route signs, C.J. found a place to park one street over, with a well-lit and mostly empty parking lot between him and the police stations back door. With the big diesel engine throbbing and the air-conditioning blowing cold, he looked over at Caitlyn and tried to think of something to say that would justify what he was doing to her. She looked reproachfully back at him, not making it any easier for him.
As he tried to read her eyes, it struck him how tangled up with one another two strangers could get in a short period of time, under the right circumstances. He felt again that strange reluctance to let her go, a dragging weight of denial at the realization that she was going to walk out of his life forever.
It was Mary Kelly who broke the edgy silence, hitching herself forward in the sleeper so she could look out the window. Whyre we stoppin here? What is this place? Caitlyn?
But she already knew. C.J. opened his mouth to explain, but before he could get a word out, her head was swiveling toward him, her mouth a big round O of dawning realization, and panic and denial in her eyes.
Caitlyn reached around and put a gentling hand on her arm. Its okay, she murmured, as if she were soothing a child after a nightmare. Its going to be okay.
Mary Kelly wasnt buying it. She shook off Caitlyns hand, looking like a hunted animal. Her eyes darted back and forth between Caitlyn and C.J., and her voice was high and scared. No-I-we cant go in there! We cant go to the police-theyll send us back, you know they will! Theyll lock us up and take Emma. Hell take her away, you know he-
Shh, Caitlyn hushed her, with a warning tip of her head toward Emma, who was waking up and looking scared by all the commotion. Its going to be okay. I promise-
Its the best way, C.J. broke in, meaning again to explain himself but only sounding harsh and angry with his gravel-filled voice. You couldnt keep on running like that, not with He, too, tipped his head toward the little girl, not daring to meet those big dark eyes peering at him over her mommas shoulder. Sooner or later either the cops are going to catch up with you, or somebody worse will. And then whatre you gonna do? Somebody might get hurt, for sure its going to be traumatic for her. You want her to see her momma arrested? Shot? Hauled away by force? Remember what happened to that little Cuban kid? He was shouting by this time, and Mary Kelly just kept staring at him until finally a tear pillowed up on her lashes and slipped away down her cheek.
Well, that did it. He said, Aw, hell, under his breath and turned around in his seat so he was facing forward and didnt have to look at her or her kid anymore. Instead, he stared squinty-eyed at the windshield while his heart thumped in shallow, trip-hammer beats.
Beside him, Caitlyn unhooked her seat belt and got turned around and up on her knees on the seat so she could look Mary Kelly eye to eye. Its going to be okay, he heard her say in the kind of firm, confident way parents do when they talk to their kids. I promise. Okay? Come on-lets go inside. Emma, you first-give me your hand, honey. Come here to me. She opened up the door and started backing out, showing the little girl how to climb out of the sleeper.
C.J. cleared his throat. Uh, you want- Maybe I should go in with you, he said, not happily.
Caitlyn shook her head, and that ghost of a smile, the ironic one, hovered around her lips. That wont be necessary.
You sure you dont want me to call my sister-in-law? Shes in Atlanta-could probably be here in a couple hours.
Her eyes zeroed in on his, flared silver for one incredible moment. Then the shutters came down and she looked away. Thanks-well be fine.
Emma was standing beside C.J.s seat, peeking at him past his shoulder. He felt something nudge him there, and looking down, saw the supergirl action-figure toy hed given her, clutched tightly in her hand. She waggled it at him, both a shy and silent thank-you and a wave goodbye. Then she scrambled across the seat and dropped down out of his sight.
Mary Kelly followed, brushing at her cheek and moving like somebody going to her own execution. At the last minute, framed in the doorway of his truck and her face a mask of shadows, she paused. Im not blamin you, Mr. Starr, and I want to thank you for all you done for Emma and me. I truly do believe you just dont know what it is youve done. She sniffed, tried hard to smile one more time, and then she, too, dropped to the ground. The door closed with a flat and final thunk.
C.J. sat and watched them cross the mostly empty parking lot, bathed in light that turned everything a washed-out bluish gray, like death. Caitlyn had her arm around Mary Kellys shoulders, and Emma was clinging to her mommas hand and sort of hop-skipping the way little kids do to keep up. He didnt know whether he expected them to bolt and scatter for the shadows like flushed mice before they got to the entrance or not, but he didnt take his eyes off them until theyd disappeared inside the police station.
He felt wrung outdrained. He couldnt seem to talk his muscles into moving, not even enough to do what needed to be done to put his truck in gear and pull off down the street.
Which, C.J. told himself, was maybe a good thing. Because it was probably the only thing keeping him from going after them and bringing them back. And that, he knew, would be the biggest mistake of his life.
Chapter 3
Whatelse could I have done?
C.J. had spent the last twenty-four hours asking himself that question and still hadnt come up with an answer. His mind played and replayed it for him while he was churning up the interstate, like a piece of music sung to the rhythm of his eighteen tires. It was there in the background noise of his thoughts while he dropped off his load in Jersey, got new marching orders from his dispatcher, made his way down to Wilmington. Now, with an overnight to kill waiting for his load to be ready, he was holed up in a motel room with nothing but his thoughts, and hed never been in worse company.
What the hell was I supposed to do? I didnt have any choice. I didnt! Stretched out on the bed in his undershorts and T-shirt, he stared up at the ceiling and argued with his conscience. What would it have cost you to drop them off at the airport? They could have at least rented a car there. Most likely nobody would ever have known you were involved.
Most likely
C.J. wasnt all that comfortable with most likelys.
The TV program hed been watching without really seeing had ended and the eleven-oclock news was coming on. He reached for the remote. Maybe hed have better luck on HBO; nothing like gratuitous violence to numb the mind and quiet a restless soul.
While he was feeling around for the remote amongst the tumble of bedspread and yesterdays newspaper he heard the anchorman begin his intro. And then
Topping the news this evening: a niece of former president Rhett Brown is in jail tonight in South Carolina on contempt charges, after refusing to comply with a judges order to reveal what she knows about the whereabouts of a Florida millionaires missing daughter. For more on this breaking story we go to
With remote in hand and scalp prickling, C.J. jerked around and squinted at the TV screen. Too late. He caught only the barest glimpse of a file-photo head shot before the scene shifted to a young, slightly windblown woman correspondent standing in a nighttime courthouse square lit by old-fashioned-style street lamps, the wide empty courthouse steps behind her.