Jeffery Deaver - The Sleeping Doll

"Somebody's dead. In Salinas. It just happened."

Salinas? Jennie thought.

"Oh, the escape from that prison or whatever? Yeah, I just heard about it."

"David Pell, no, Daniel. That's it."

"Isn't he, like, Charles Manson's kid or something?"

"I don't know. But I heard some people got killed."

"He's not Manson's kid. No, he just called himself that."

"Who's Charles Manson?"

"Are you kidding me? Remember Sharon Tate?"

"Who?"

"Like, when were you born?"

Jennie approached the women. "Excuse me, what's that you're talking about? An escape or something?"

"Yeah, from this jail in Salinas. Didn't you hear?" one of the short-haired housewives asked, glancing at Jennie's nose.

She didn't care. "Somebody was killed, you said?"

"Some guards and then somebody was kidnapped and killed, I think."

They didn't seem to know anything more.

Her palms damp, heart uneasy, Jennie turned and walked away. She checked her phone. Her boyfriend had called a while ago but nothing since then. No messages. She tried the number. He didn't answer.

Jennie returned to the turquoise Thunderbird. She put the radio on the news, then twisted the rearview mirror toward her. She pulled her makeup and brush from her purse.

Some people got killed…

Don't worry about it, she told herself. Working on her face, concentrating the way her mother had taught her. It was one of the nice things the woman had done for her. "Put the light here, the dark here-we've got to do something with that nose of yours. Smooth it in…blend it. Good."

Though her mother often took away the nice as fast as shattering a glass.

Well, it looked fine until you messed it up. Honestly, what's wrong with you? Do it again. You look like a whore.

Daniel Pell was strolling down the sidewalk from the small covered garage connected to an office building in Monterey.

He'd had to abandon Billy's Honda Civic earlier than he'd planned. He'd heard on the news that the police had found the Worldwide Express truck, which meant they would probably assume he was in the Civic. He'd apparently evaded the roadblocks just in time.

How 'bout that, Kathryn?

Now he continued along the sidewalk, with his head down. He wasn't concerned about being out in public, not yet. Nobody would expect him here. Besides, he looked different. In addition to the civilian clothes he was smooth-shaven. After dumping Billy's car he'd slipped into the back parking lot of a motel, where he'd gone through the trash. He'd found a discarded razor and a tiny bottle of the motel's giveaway body lotion. Crouching by the Dumpster, he'd used them to shave off the beard.

He now felt the breeze on his face, smelled something in the air: ocean and seaweed. First time in years. He loved the scent. In Capitola prison the air you smelled was the air they decided to send to you through the air conditioner or heating system and it didn't smell like anything.

A squad car went past.

Hold fast…

Pell was careful to maintain his pace, not looking around, not deviating from his route. Changing your behavior draws attention. And that puts you at a disadvantage, gives people information about you. They can figure out why you changed, then use it against you.

That's what had happened at the courthouse.

Kathryn…

Pell had had the interrogation all planned out: If he could do so without arousing suspicion, he was going to get information from whoever was interviewing him, learn how many guards were in the courthouse and where they were, for instance.

But then to his astonishment she'd learned exactly what he was doing.

Where else could somebody find a hammer of yours?…Now let's think about the wallet. Where could that've come from?…

So he'd been forced to change his plans. And fast. He'd done the best he could but the braying alarm told him she'd anticipated him. If she'd done that just five minutes earlier, he would've been back in the Capitola prison van. The escape plan would've turned to dust.

Kathryn Dance…

Another squad car drove quickly past.

Still no glances his way and Pell kept on course. But he knew it was time to get out of Monterey. He slipped into the crowded open-air shopping center. He noted the stores, Macy's, Mervyns and the smaller ones selling Mrs. See's Candy, books (Pell loved and devoured them-the more you knew, the more control you had), video games, sports equipment, cheap clothes and cheaper jewelry. The place was packed. It was June; many schools were out of session.

One girl, college age, came out of a store, a bag over her shoulder. Beneath her jacket was a tight red tank top. One glance at it, and the swelling began inside him. The bubble, expanding. (The last time he'd intimidated a con, and bribed a guard, to swing a conjugal visit with the con's wife in Capitola was a year ago. A long, long year…)

He stared at her, following only a few feet behind, enjoying the sight of the hair and her tight jeans, trying to smell her, trying to get close enough to brush against her as he walked past, which is an assault just as surely as being dragged into an alley and stripped at knifepoint.

Rape is in the eye of the beholder…

Ah, but then she turned into another store and vanished from his life.

My loss, dear, he thought.

But not yours, of course.

In the parking lot, Pell saw a turquoise Ford Thunderbird. Inside he could just make out a woman, brushing her long blond hair.

Ah…

Walking closer. Her nose was bumpy and she was a skinny little thing, not much in the chest department. But that didn't stop the balloon within him growing, ten times, a hundred. It was going to burst soon.

Daniel Pell looked around. Nobody else nearby.

He walked forward through the rows of cars, closing the distance.

Jennie Marston finished with her hair.

This particular aspect of her body she loved. It was shiny and thick and when she spun her head it flowed like a shampoo model's in a slo-mo TV commercial. She twisted the Thunderbird's rearview mirror back into position. Shut the radio off. Touched her nose, the bump.

Stop it!

As she was reaching for the door handle she gave a gasp. It was opening on its own.

Jennie froze, staring up at the wiry man, who was leaning down.

Neither of them moved for a moment. Then he pulled the door open. "You're the picture of delight, Jennie Marston," he said. "Prettier than I imagined."

"Oh, Daniel." Overwhelmed with emotion-fear, relief, guilt, a big burning sun of feeling-Jennie Marston could think of nothing else to say. Breathless, she slipped out of the car and flew into her boyfriend's arms, shivering and holding him so tightly that she squeezed a soft, steady hiss from his narrow chest.

They got into the T-bird and she pressed her head against his neck as Daniel carefully surveyed the parking lot and the road nearby.

Jennie was thinking how difficult the past month had been, forging a relationship through email, rare phone calls and fantasy, never seeing her lover in person.

Still, she knew that it was so much better to build love this way-from a distance. It was like the women on the home front during a war, the way her mother would talk about her father in Vietnam. That was all a lie, of course, she'd later learned, but it didn't take away the larger truth: that love should be first about two souls and only later about sex. What she felt for Daniel Pell was unlike anything she'd ever experienced.

Exhilarating.

Frightening too.

She felt the tears start. No, no, stop it. Don't cry. He won't like it if you cry. Men get mad when that happens.

But he asked gently, "What's the matter, lovely?"