Chapter 23
Violet held on tight as the police car slewed around a corner, pressing Malcolm into her, and her against the door.
The windshield wipers barely kept up with the rain.
It seemed impossible that Jennie could see the road, yet they roared ahead, and the eldest child of Maggie Wise kept glancing in the rearview mirror like the devil was on their trail.
Violet wondered if maybe he was.
“What are they?” she asked.
Malcolm glanced at her, then at Jennie. Maybe his sister hadn’t heard the question over the engine and the wipers.
Violet thought he might repeat it so she would respond, but he faced front again, silent.
This reunion had been unexpected, but it didn’t seem like either of them felt like celebrating it.
Jennie Wise.
Violet had heard her name so many times, but the rest of the family had always seemed to skirt around providing details.
She’d been on her own for years. Elias had called her “the world traveler” and shared that Jennie’s infrequent letters had come from as far away as Japan.
She’d been all over Europe and somewhere in Africa.
Now here she was, driving this stolen police car, and Violet felt numb and lost, and wanted to scream, but also curious.
“Jennie,” she said, more loudly, “if you’re here now, it’s no coincidence. I know you know what’s happening, what they are.”
Malcolm twisted in the seat, ducking to see through the rear windshield. “I can’t see anything. Can you tell if they’re following?”
Jennie ignored him, hands on the steering wheel. The car bounced through divots and potholes in the road. Jennie began to smile to herself as they put more distance between themselves and the train wreck.
“Are you deaf?” Violet snapped. “I’m talking to you!”
The other woman flinched, then shot Violet a dark look. “Give me a second? I’m trying to figure out how to keep us alive till morning!”
“You were grinning like a fool a second ago.”
The smile returned. “Because it worked. I didn’t know if it would.”
Malcolm twisted to face front, jostling them both from his middle seat. “What worked? What are you talking about, Jen?”
“I killed one. I’ve read that it could be that simple, but I didn’t know if it would actually work,” Jennie said. “But it did! I killed one!”
Violet felt a flicker of hope, even as questions and recriminations raged. “Sounds to me like you expected all this. Whatever secrets Maggie had, she shared them with you.”
Jennie shot her brother an icy look. “She didn’t do me any favors. It was all for her, and for Malcolm.”
“Me?” Malcolm glanced over his shoulder again, still searching for pursuers. “What’s any of it got to do with me?”
“You were always the golden child. Her baby boy.”
Violet saw lights ahead. The road remained dark, but a couple of miles farther, there were telephone poles with streetlights, and that meant people. She told herself there was safety in numbers, but even in her head, it sounded like a lie. Numbers hadn’t helped the survivors of the train wreck.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Malcolm said.
“You never wanted to know,” Jennie said. “But it’s time now. If we can live till sunrise, I’ll tell you what I know.”
“There’s a town ahead,” Malcolm said. “We can get help.”
“You’re not listening. Sunrise is the only help that’ll matter. You want to end this, the only way is by putting Maggie in her grave. If you try to get help in this town, you’ll only get more people killed, and you’ll lose whatever head start we’ve got.”
“We’ll follow your lead, Jen,” Malcolm said, “but if we stick with a stolen police car, we won’t get far before the good guys try to stop us.”
“Goddamn. You’re right.” Jennie stared at the lights growing brighter ahead and the nighttime silhouette of a small downtown. “We’ll have to risk swapping vehicles. We need something inconspicuous. Something with room for the crate and the three of us.”
Violet started scanning the roadside. If they had to wait until they were passing through the town, the chances of trouble were much greater.
They’d passed the occasional house already, and a farm with a fenced-in field of dark shapes that might have been cows, but now as they drew nearer to the downtown, there were more homes scattered along the road. They passed beneath streetlights.
“Slow down,” Malcolm said, craning his neck to look out the windshield, through the rain.
They approached a side street. A sprawling Victorian sat on the corner. Beside the house, set back a way, was a ramshackle barn with a pickup truck parked in front of it, and another vehicle alongside the barn, hulking beneath a tarp.
“Let’s go,” Malcolm said. “Turn out the lights and pull into the driveway. We don’t want anyone seeing an abandoned police car on the road. When we’re in, keep it as quiet as we can, but if trouble starts, remember, we don’t have time to be gentle.”
Jennie clicked off the headlights and turned into the rutted driveway. She let the car roll to a stop beside the pickup truck and killed the engine. They all paused, watching the house to see if any lights would come on.
After a moment, Malcolm nudged Violet, who reached for her door handle.
“There’s one thing,” Jennie said, and Violet paused.
“What’s that?” Malcolm asked.
“If Elias attacks you, and you hesitate, you will not survive. If it comes to it, are you willing to kill him?”
“To save myself, maybe not,” Malcolm replied. “But to fulfill this promise to Maggie or to protect Violet? Hell yeah. I’ll kill him a dozen times.”
Jennie looked to Violet. “What about you?”
Violet felt an icy trickle down the back of her neck. “That thing back there isn’t Elias.”
“Good,” Jennie said. “You’re learning. Stay focused and we might just survive this.”
They climbed out of the darkened police car, listening to the rain and the thunder of their own hearts.