Lisa Scottoline - Save Me

Kristen held out the phone. “Eileen wants to talk to you.”

Rose stared at the phone, but she couldn’t take it. She didn’t want to know. She couldn’t hear it, not now. And not from a grief-stricken mother.

“Take it,” Kristen said, softly. “Please.”

Rose shook her head, no. The only sound was the crickets chirping and the moths hitting the car headlamps.

“No, it’s not that,” Kristen said, reading Rose’s expression. “Amanda’s alive, still in Intensive Care, but I messed up, I’m so sorry. I told Eileen about Bill’s being murdered, and she’s freaking out. Please, take the phone. Calm her down.”

“ What? ” Rose felt stunned. “You told her? Why would you do that?”

“It just came out.” Kristen covered the phone with her palm, stricken. “She called to tell me that a man came by the hospital looking for me, saying he was my father. It had to be someone sent by Modjeska or even Modjeska himself. I said, ‘Watch out, he’s a murderer,’ and she said, ‘What are you talking about,’ so I told her.”

Rose kicked herself. She should have warned Kristen not to blab.

“Rose, talk to her. Explain it to her. She has a right to know, doesn’t she?”

“Of course she does, but not now. Not this way. She’s at her daughter’s bedside, for God’s sake.”

“Please talk to her. I told her we’re calling the FBI, but she’s going to the plant to confront them.”

“To Homestead ? When?”

“Now. Tonight. She says it’s the Harvest Conference, and all the bosses will be there. She’s going to confront them about what really happened to Bill and the peanut machines and-”

“No, she can’t.” Rose grabbed the phone. “Eileen, don’t go to Homestead! It’s dangerous for you-”

The phone line went dead.

“No!” Rose thumbed to the log, then pressed CALL to call Eileen back. The phone rang and rang, then went to voicemail, and she left a message. “Eileen, please stop! Don’t go to the plant. They’ll kill-”

“End of message,” interrupted a mechanical voice.

Rose took Kristen by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “Listen to me. You have to go to the FBI. Right now, by yourself. There’s no time to lose.”

“I have to go without you?” Kristen’s eyes rounded, panicky.

“Yes, I have to stop Eileen. If they think she knows what happened to Bill, they’ll kill her before she can breathe a word.”

“But what about you? They’ll try to kill you-”

“No, they don’t know me, and even if they did, I look different than I used to. You hardly knew me, remember? Let’s go, hurry.” Rose hustled to her car with Kristen behind her, tugging at her elbow.

“But I’m afraid.”

“I know, honey.” Rose opened the car door. “But there’s no other way. You can’t go to Reesburgh with me, that’s walking into the lion’s den.”

“Can’t I stay here?”

“In a cornfield?” Rose touched her arm. “The sooner you get to the FBI, the safer you are. Isn’t there anybody you trust, who could go with you?”

“My boyfriend, I guess. Erik. He’s the greatest guy ever, and I dumped him for the senator. He wanted to get married. He’d do anything in the world for me.”

“Then call him, right now. Have him come get you. Go to the FBI in Philly, in his car. Do not stop.” Rose got into her car, twisted the key in the ignition, and looked out the open window. “Call Eileen back, too. If she doesn’t pick up, keep trying. Tell her not to go to Homestead.”

“Okay.”

“You’ll be fine. You can do it. Alohomora. ”

Kristen smiled, shakily. “That unlocks things.”

“Whatever. Be safe.”

Kristen straightened up. “Okay. You, too.”

Rose hit the gas, steered the car onto the road, and took off. She flew down the country lane, heading for the turnpike toward Reesburgh, keeping an eye out for cops. She passed one car, then another, barreling ahead in the cool, dark night, the gold stripe at the median glowing in her high beams.

Her heart was pounding, her teeth grinding. She hoped she could get to the plant in time. She’d left from farther away, and Eileen would have a forty-minute head start, unless one of her family members at the hospital had talked her out of going or delayed her.

Rose knew she wasn’t as safe as she’d let Kristen believe. She’d left a major loose end at the plant today. The supervisor would wonder why the new hire had left and he’d probably call Trish, to check up on her alleged cousin. And when Trish told him she hadn’t sent her cousin to the plant, they’d notify security, who’d be on the lookout, especially tonight, with the corporate prom.

Her left hand kept a death grip on the wheel while her right hand fumbled on the seat for her phone. She pressed L, and the phone rang and rang, then went to Leo’s voicemail. She didn’t want to scare him but she couldn’t keep the emotion from her voice. “Babe, call me! I’m on my way to Homestead. Please, hurry-”

BEEP. Suddenly the phone went black. The battery had lost power.

“Damn it!” Rose tossed the phone aside and hit the gas.

Rose tore down the turnpike and reached the Reesburgh exit in record time, but she still had the sinking sensation that it wouldn’t be good enough. She squinted at the dashboard clock, its red digits aglow. 9:17.

She had failed. She’d be a full fifteen minutes behind Eileen. The realization brought tears to her eyes. There couldn’t be one more death, not one. Not while she drew breath.

She blinked the wetness away and kept her foot on the gas, zipping down the fast lane. She flashed her high beams at a white VW to move out of her way, but all the cars were braking, their red taillights on at a curve in the road. She fed more gas, hoping the bottleneck would break up or she could pass on the right.

She zoomed around the curve, but the white VW was slowing even more, below the speed limit. The state cops had pulled somebody over on the right shoulder, and a police cruiser sat idling behind a blue van, its bar lights flashing red, white, and blue. Traffic slowed as it passed the scene, on temporary good behavior or gawking. The VW slowed to a crawl.

“Come on!” Rose slammed her palm on the wheel. She glanced over at the shoulder, then looked again. The driver of the stopped van looked like Eileen.

Rose switched into the slow lane, double-checking. A woman driver. Short blond hair. It was Eileen, and she was driving the same car she’d showed up in at the hospital, that awful night.

Well, are you happy now?

Rose passed Eileen and the state police car, her thoughts racing. What if the cop hadn’t stopped Eileen for speeding? What if they’d found out that Eileen was on her way to the Harvest Conference? Would they alert someone at the plant? Homestead security? Mojo, too?

Rose’s gut churned as the traffic picked up speed. She wasn’t following Eileen anymore, she was leading her, and it put her in a better position. She steered off the exit and down the ramp, then took a left onto Allen Road, keeping an eye on the rearview for Eileen’s blue van.

She sped up. She had to get to Homestead before Eileen, and now she had a fighting chance. There was no traffic, and Reesburgh was dark and empty, the town gone to sleep. She sped past the CVS, the line of box stores, and finally the elementary school, where it had all begun.

And now, finally, it would end.

Tonight.

WELCOME TO HOMESTEAD SNACK FOODS, read the sign, and Rose saw it with new eyes. The campus was quiet without the hubbub of school groups and visitors, but the streetlamps and the windows in the corporate offices blazed with light, like a plastic town in a model train set-up. Bright, false, and lifeless.