“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice filled with urgency.
“I think so.”
She was still weak and confused, but she felt no more threat from the couple who had followed them here, intending to kill them.
Jake held her for long moments, then eased away and ran to Kira, who was lying on the ground, pale and still.
“Is she dead?”
“Yes,” Jake replied. He turned, just as Mickey pushed himself up. Rachel screamed, thinking he was going to attack Jake, but he ran in the other direction, into the underbrush and disappeared. Was he trying to get away? Or kill himself now that Kira was dead? Or was he too disoriented to know what he was doing? She heard him tramping through the foliage, followed by a splash, then thrashing in the water, the sounds of a man who couldn’t swim.
She thought about going after him. He would drown if she left him there.
But Jake caught the thought and answered.
He and Kira came to kill us. He’ll try again if you go after him.
Yes,she managed to answer, hating herself.
Stop! We’re finally free of them. Think aboutthat.
She knew he was right. Struggling against her normal compassionate impulses, she pushed herself up and swayed on unsteady legs, looking around.
When another figure appeared on the road, she stiffened. It was the man from the office.
“You folks okay?” he asked.
“Yes. Why do you ask?” Jake said aloud. In his mind he was saying,Nothing happened here. Nothing happened here. Go back to what you were doing.
Rachel added her power to Jake’s. For a moment the man hesitated, then he turned and walked back the way he’d come.
When they were alone again, Jake turned her toward him, and she leaned against him.
“It’s over,” he murmured. “They can’t hurt us now.”
She allowed herself to absorb that for a few moments. “But Carter Frederick is still on the bed.”
He cursed. “Yeah, we still have to take care of him. Somehow.”
“I’ll bet his fingerprints are in the room where he killed Evelyn.”
“It was a hotel room. There were lots of prints.”
“But his should be included.”
“So we drive him back to New Orleans and turn him over to the cops?”
“Let’s give him the good news.”
“What about the other guy? The Badger.”
“I don’t know.”
“Um, where did you get the idea of calling those animals out of the swamp?”
“From the chickens. I used my mind to shoo them off the road so I could get back here. But not fast enough, apparently.”
“Stop. Youwerein time.”
