Alez Kava - One False Move

She could see the boy cower from Jared's words and she was startled by the image of another boy, cowering, bracing himself, not for words, but for blows. Charlie reminded her exactly of Jared as a boy. And when she looked back at Jared she could see how much he now reminded her of her father. Why hadn't she seen it before? Jared's quick temper, his outbursts of rage. No, it wasn't possible.

"Charlie, I'm giving you a chance to make it all up," Jared told him, smoothing his voice into a tone Melanie used to believe was genuine. "I want you to go inside the truck stop. There'll be an envelope waiting. It's in your name. Just ask for it at the counter, okay? Can you do that, buddy?"

Charlie was nodding, and he reached for the car door, but Melanie stopped him.

"Don't, Charlie. You stay put."

"Melanie, stay the fuck out of this." Jared had already forgotten about his soft voice. His eyes were even more frantic now. What did they see? What was he expecting? Were there snipers waiting? Is that what he expected? Is that what he would let happen to Charlie?

She glanced over at Andrew Kane and he must have taken it as an invitation.

"Make a choice, Melanie," Andrew told her, softly, quietly. "This is the end of the road."

"Shut the fuck up." Jared punched the author in his wounded shoulder, then he crouched back down. "Charlie, go on in. And hurry the fuck up. We need to get the hell out of here."

"Charlie, stay put," Melanie told him, and that's when she understood what she needed to do, just like all those years ago. In a brief moment everything became so clear. She raised the gun and pointed it at Jared over the seat. He looked as if he wanted to laugh at her, until his eyes met hers.

"I choose Charlie," she said, and she pulled the trigger.

Monday, September 13

10:30 a.m.

Grace wasn't sure why they were even humoring Mela-nie Starks; maybe she wanted to get Max Kramer more than she realized. Right now they had nothing concrete to connect him to the bank robbery. He had confessed to an affair with Tina Cervante and to giving her the locket with their initials. But that was all. He insisted he had no idea why Jared Barnett would target her in such a violent way. Pakula led the way through the house. Corrine Starks had to let them in because of the search warrant, but she didn't have to be happy about it. One of the young officers Pakula brought along stayed downstairs with Ms. Starks, keeping her from interrupting their search, but the poor guy couldn't shut her up. However, her profanity seemed focused on her daughter, Melanie, calling her a murdering whore. Grace couldn't imagine being put in that position as a mother, choosing a son over a daughter, but then she couldn't imagine having a son like Jared Barnett.

The other officer stayed beside Melanie, keeping a close watch and leading her by the elbow, despite her hands being cuffed in front of her.

"Is this it?" Pakula asked Melanie when they came to the closed door at the end of the hallway.

"Yes," she said.

Pakula opened the door and went in first. He pulled a pair of latex gloves out of his pocket and started to put them on while he looked around the room.

"He said he had some kind of insurance," Melanie said. "I know it'll connect Jared and Max Kramer. I just know it."

It was a small room cluttered with piles of dirty clothes, magazines and boyhood things: a dartboard on the closet door, a baseball trophy and an autographed baseball amongst the empty take-out containers and wrappers. Grace couldn't help wondering if there was really something here or if Melanie Starks was conning them. She and her son, Charlie, were looking at a stack of felony charges that, if convicted, could mean the death penalty for both of them. They kept insisting-though Charlie Starks wasn't quite as convincing as his mother-that Jared Barnett had killed everyone in the bank, but the ballistics report showed two different guns had been used. The second gun, however, had never been found. As much as Grace believed Jared to be a cold-blooded killer, she couldn't see him going into the bank with two guns blazing like some Wild West bank robber.

"He used to hide things," Melanie was telling Pakula, "by stuffing them inside an ordinary object. You know, like a football or maybe a pillow."

Once again, Grace found herself wondering what made someone like Melanie Starks stand by while her brother killed six innocent people. Seven if they counted Danny Ramerez. His body had been discovered late Saturday in a Dumpster behind the Logan Hotel after residents complained of the smell. Ironically, he had been stuffed inside a black garbage bag not unlike the one Rebecca Moore's body had been found in seven years ago. Max Kramer's crack whore-who couldn't seem to get her story right about the convenience store robberies-was able to make a positive ID of Jared Barnett as the man she had seen hauling a black bag out of the Logan Hotel the night Danny Ramerez supposedly disappeared.

As for the convenience store robberies, Charlie Starks admitted-surprising even his mother-that Jared had used them only as practice runs. Charlie had scoped out each store then reported back to Jared who was waiting outside. The boy talked about it as if it were some game the two had played.

Grace crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway, watching Pakula search through Jared Barnett's closet, emptying shoeboxes of baseball cards and tossing out a couple of footballs, neither of which seemed to have any hidden compartments.

She glanced at Melanie Starks, trying to determine if she was, indeed, conning them, hoping to cut a deal for both her and her son. Life with the possibility of parole for Charlie and less time for her. Grace and her boss had agreed that, if Melanie Starks could, in fact, implicate Max Kramer as the mastermind of the bank robbery as well as the murder of Tina Cervante, it would be worth the deal. What an odd twist of fate it would be if Max Kramer, the defender of death row inmates, ended up on death row himself.

"I don't think there's anything here," Pakula said as he dug through the dresser drawers and looked under the bed. He shoved aside the piles of clothing and pulled back the bedcovers and suddenly there it was.

Grace knew as soon as she saw it. Underneath Jared Barnett's bedspread was Emily's stuffed white dog.

"It's Mr. McDuff," she said without realizing how ridiculous it probably sounded.

"Excuse me?" Pakula said.

Grace went over to the bed and picked up the stuffed animal. "Emily's been missing this since Wednesday. She kept telling me that the shadow man took it."

"The shadow man?" Pakula was looking at her now as if she were nuts. Even Melanie looked confused.

"I think your brother must have taken it from my house."

"Why would he do that?"

Then Grace felt it. She found the slot cut into Mr. McDuff's back and, without pulling it out and contaminating it, she could see Jared Barnett had inserted an audiocas-sette. She held it up to show Pakula and Melanie.

"He must have known that I might be the one looking through his things, and of course, I wouldn't miss this. I think we have our evidence." And she looked to Melanie. "If this is what I think it is, you might have your deal."

Two years later Manhattan, New York

Andrew Kane smiled up at Erin Cartlan as she handed him a bottled water.

"They're lined up out the front door," she said, pleased, referring to the line of people outside the door of her bookstore waiting to meet him and get an autographed copy of his new book.

"I hear it's your best yet," the brunette in front of him said, waiting for him to finish her inscription. "East of Normal? Wherever did you come up with that title?"