A String of Beads (Jane Whitefield, #8)(72)

They walked along for a few more paces, and then Jane took Mattie’s hand and put a stack of bills into it. “Another reason was to give you this.”

“What’s the money for?”

“We needed to be sure you’re provided for.”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s important that I be able to tell Jimmy that I saw you and made sure. What he’s doing isn’t easy, and it helps if he’s not trying to check on you himself.”

“That phone call.”

“Yes,” said Jane. “He didn’t know what a bad idea it was. I’m hoping he won’t make a mistake like that again. Somebody was monitoring your phone, so they got his number and the cell tower where his signal was picked up and transmitted.”

“The police?”

“I think they were something else. They shot at us, and police wouldn’t do that at first sight.” The two women walked for a time, and then Jane said, “We should probably get back to your house. My nights are kind of busy right now. It’s when I can see people, but they can’t see me.”

“All right,” said Mattie. “It was really sweet of you to check on me and let me know what’s happening—that he’s all right.”

“I wish—” She stopped and stood perfectly still. “Hear it?”

Mattie was still too. “Cars.”

“They sound like they’re heading up your road.”

“Police?”

“I don’t think they’d come to ask questions at night without calling, and this sounds like two or three cars.”

“Who, then?”

“I’m wondering if the people who have been trying to kill Jimmy got tired of waiting for him to come to them,” Jane said. “Where’s your car?”

“It’s beside the house. Didn’t you see it?”

“I came through the woods from the cemetery by the council house.”

“The car’s on the other side, up the driveway.”

“You have the keys with you?”

Mattie held them up. “My house key is on the same ring.”

“This is going to be tricky. Give them to me, and you take these.” She handed Mattie her keys and took Mattie’s. “Stay in the woods off the trail for a few minutes, until you hear the cars leaving. Then go through the woods to the council house cemetery. You’ll find a blue VW Passat parked there. Take it. Drive to Rochester. There’s a big Hyatt Hotel on East Main Street by the Convention Center. Drive into the underground garage, take a ticket from the machine, and park. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”

“But what if it’s only the police?”

“If it is the police, I’ll see them and come back here for you. If I don’t come back right away, go. Do you have your cell phone with you?”

“No. It’s in the kitchen.”

“Good. Leave it.”

Jane took a step off the path, but Mattie stopped her. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes,” said Jane. “Positive. Listen for the cars, and I’ll see you later in Rochester.”

“See you.”

Jane melted into the woods. She moved swiftly at first, gliding between the tall trees toward the house. When she reached a thicket of saplings growing beside a stand of oaks, she crouched in the thicket and watched.

There were three cars, all of them big and dark, two of them SUVs with tinted side windows. A black sedan stopped just ahead of the intersection of Mattie’s road and Council House Road, where it could guard the crossroads without drawing much attention. The other two stopped at the Sanders house, one across the driveway, and the other in front of Mattie’s front door.

The doors of the two vehicles opened and six men poured out, moving quickly onto the porch. All were wearing street clothes, and none displayed badges or identification. They didn’t call out or knock, just kicked in Mattie’s front door and stormed into the house, spreading immediately from room to room as they filled the building from bottom to top like a flood. The first man through each doorway had a pistol drawn.

Jane advanced to the rear of the house and then slipped around the corner to the garage side just before two men opened the back door and stepped onto the back porch. Jane dropped to her hands and knees to cross under the side windows and crawled to the front of Mattie’s brown Toyota Camry. She stayed low to slide into the driver’s seat with the keys already in her hand. She started the engine and slammed the door as she swung backward onto the front lawn.

The SUV in front of the driveway moved to block her in, but she drove across the lawn into the small garden Mattie kept, cutting through a row of squash and beans and onto the road.

The sound of her engine drew the attention of the men in the house, and she heard two shots, then one more, but didn’t hear or feel anything hit the car. Jane accelerated toward the intersection where she could see the big black car waiting. The driver started his engine and turned his headlights on, throwing a glare into Jane’s eyes as she approached.

Jane switched on her high beams as the other driver pulled his car away from the shoulder and tried to block the road. She kept speeding toward it, and she could see both men in the car duck down to prepare for the collision that was coming. She took that moment to veer to the left and off the road into a weedy field. As she bounced along she heard and felt the drag of the tall weeds against the undercarriage of the car, then accelerated up and over the shoulder onto the road again. She switched off her lights just as she heard two more shots.