Emma comes into the room and straight over, puts her gun on the nightstand, starts working on the bonds. The girl keens and thumps against the bed. Her eyes are straining. A ragged cloud of dark hair, the scent of sweat and urine, a girl who went to anightclub and is now in hell. A girl who plays the oboe, a girl who looks like Emma.
Emma sits on the bed, wanting to weep, fingers trembling as she tries to unpick the knots. ‘It’s all right,’ she says. ‘It’s all right. We’re here for you. Are you Linda?’
One of the girl’s hands comes free. She rips off the tape, her voice hoarse. ‘He’s outside. He’s outside. Oh please, get me outta here, oh please—’
‘We’re getting you out,’ Emma confirms, finally loosing the other knot. She goes to work on Linda’s ankles, feeling an aggressive urgency. ‘Stay quiet. I’m not leaving here without you.’ To Travis, she says, ‘The other doors?’
Travis seems numb with shock, staring at Linda Kittiko, at the conditions in the innocuous beige room. He snaps out of it. ‘Two more across the hall.’
‘I’m the only one here,’ Linda rasps, scrabbling and scratching at her wrists where the remainder of the rope makes pink, bleeding circles.
‘Let him check,’ Emma says as Travis goes back to the hall.
‘Stay with me!’ Linda shrieks out, she’s crying. ‘Oh god, please—’
Emma shifts quickly, puts a finger against the girl’s open mouth. ‘We’re not leaving you. Quiet now. He has to check.’ She renews her efforts with the ropes. ‘Linda, think for me. Where is the man who did this?’
‘Outside, outside.’ Linda rocks on the bed, seems delirious, desperate to get out.
‘How long ago?’
‘I don’t know. Hours. I don’t know where. I only saw this room and the bathroom. He goes out and down the stairs, and then I hear a door down there near the back of the house.’
‘Okay, that’s good.’ The last knot is done. Emma helps Linda swing her legs over the edge of the bed. ‘Lean into me. We’re getting out of here.’
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Kristin braces herself as the car corners sharply again. The smell of exhaust and the bog of the Monongahela River tears through the car with the breeze. She listens to Simon’s laughter crest and sigh away, feeling happier than she has in years.
This is what it is to be complete. This is what it means to be free.
‘Where do we go now?’ she wonders, speaking half to herself.
‘Anywhere.’ Simon’s voice is light with release. ‘We can go anywhere at all.’
‘First, we should leave Pennsylvania.’ Kristin lifts a weak hand and swipes her hair away from her mouth. ‘Maybe go toward Lake Erie into Canada. We could be in Toronto in five hours.’
‘And then where to?’ Simon sounds amused, all indulgence.
‘Europe first, I think.’ Kristin considers. ‘Lisbon. And then Morocco – it has no extradition treaty with the United States. I’ve already made arrangements to get the money that belongs to us.’
She clambers to sit up. Simon is driving fast along Boulevard of the Allies, smeared blood drying on his face, his gaze moving to take in the traffic lights, the cars around them, the glow of the city. He seems enraptured.
‘Or we could do something completely unexpected.’ In the rear-view mirror, the ultramarine of Simon’s eyes turns thoughtful. Mischievous. ‘Don’t you want to see what Emma Lewis and Travis Bell will do next?’
Kristin’s mouth opens in surprise.
‘Dearest, where do you think is thelastplace the authorities will look for us right now?’
Kristin lets out a snort of laughter. Controls it with a palm against her lips, gives up and allows a smile to emerge. ‘You think we should go to Beechview?’
Simon grins. ‘I think we should go to Beechview.’
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Emma adjusts as Linda braces against her, then remembers her gun on the nightstand. She scoops it up and it’s fine, she can hold the gun in her right hand because Linda is on her left. But the girl is in rough shape, and when she tries to rise, her knees won’t stiffen.
Just as Emma manages to get them both up, Travis comes back in. Linda jumps.
