Andrew Gross - No Way Back

I shook my head against him. “I never went to the police, Dave. I couldn’t.”

“You shot a murderer in self-defense. You’d just watched him kill someone, right? No one would question it.”

“That’s not all that happened, Dave. I was scared. I realized my life was about to fall apart. Because of where I was. I just wanted to get home to you.” I lifted my face. “But that’s not all … The guy I shot wasn’t just a murderer. I checked him out and saw his ID after. He was a government agent, Dave. He was from Homeland Security.”

The rest I told him as if in one long, rambling sentence. How I ran from the hotel room, straight into the killer’s partner. How he shot at me, and I had to run. “I fled down the fire stairs, David. I’m lucky to be alive.”

“Oh God, Wendy …” I sensed both sympathy and disbelief in his voice. I didn’t know if I would believe it if he was telling it to me.

“I don’t know what I stumbled into, Dave. But whatever it was, it was a murder. And something these people wanted to cover up. If I went to the police, they would have brought me back to the hotel, to the very people who were trying to kill me. I’ve never been so afraid in my life. All I could think of was getting back here to you.” I cupped his face. “I knew whatever we had to do, we could do it together. Honey, I’m so sorry for what I did. I never meant for this to happen.”

“But it did. It did happen.” I could see he didn’t know how to react.

“Yes, it did.” I nodded guiltily.

“Does anyone know who you are?”

“I don’t think so. But it’s going to come out. There may be security cameras. And Pam knows I was there. I texted her about this guy. Besides, I killed someone…”

He blew out his cheeks and nodded somberly. “We don’t have any choice but to go to the police.”

“I know.” Though the thought of it filled me with dread. A married woman up in a strange hotel room—to screw some guy she’d only met an hour earlier. Then shooting a government agent and fleeing … Would it be seen as just trying to cover up what I had done? I thought of my family and stepkids. It was all going to come out. “I’m scared, Dave.” I kind of fell against him.

Again he wrapped his arms around me with a lukewarm squeeze. “I know you’re scared. We can let someone intercede. A lawyer. There’s Harvey Baum from the club.” He’d handled Dave’s divorce. “Or Hal …”

“Who the hell is Hal?”

“Hal Pritchard. He’s been advising us on the deal.”

My mind suddenly flashed to it. Given the sordid publicity, who the hell would want to merge with them now? “Dave, I’m so sorry I got you into this. I know how important everything was tonight.” I hugged him. “I can’t believe this has happened.”

“We’ll get through this,” he said. “They’ll have to understand. The rest … ” He looked at me measuredly. It was clear what he meant. “The rest we’ll have to deal with later. There are gonna be some things we have to talk over. Okay …”

“Okay.” I nodded against his chest. I shut my eyes, as if I could wish this whole nightmare away.

“This other guy,” Dave said. He pulled himself away from me. “The one who you …”

I knew perfectly who he meant. The one I went up there with. “Curtis.”

He shrugged. “What do you know about him? Who is he? What did he do?”

“I don’t know anything about him, Dave. I just met him at the bar.” I winced, hearing just how that sounded. “He just sat down, while I was waiting for Pam. I don’t even know if Curtis is his real name. Wait a second, I took his phone …”

“You took his phone?”

“From the room. I thought I might need it. To help me prove what happened.”

I ran up to the bedroom and came back with my bag. Dave had turned on the television. It was almost 11:00 P.M. “This had to have made the news …”

I dug around in my bag, searching for his BlackBerry, and found it, at the bottom next to my iPhone.

I put the bag down and a weird feeling came over me. Something didn’t seem right.

Like something was missing.

I sifted through my purse, finding my makeup kit, my e-reader, trying to figure out what it was. Then it hit me.

My tote bag. With my program and some materials from the conference. It wasn’t with my bag or on the kitchen island, where I put things down when I come in.

A feeling of dread came over me.

“What’s wrong?” Dave asked.

“Something’s not here.” I went out the kitchen door to the garage and searched around my Audi. It wasn’t there either. I recalled I’d had it at the bar. I’d even joked to Curtis about it. And I remembered taking it up to the room. I’d thrown it on the floor along with my bag and coat. We weren’t exactly focused on that then. But in my haste, I must’ve left it.

For the third time that night my insides turned to a block of ice.

I came back in, my face no doubt white. Dave looked at me. “What’s missing?”

“My program. From the conference I went to today. It was in a tote bag. Along with some other stuff. It’s not here …”

“Our life is falling apart. Who gives a shit about the fucking tote bag, Wendy?”

“You don’t understand … it’s not the program.” I could have cared less about my goddamn program.

It was that it said Wendy Gould. Pelham, New York on the printed label on the cover.

It could identify me.

My heart clutched in horror. The people looking for me, who had tried to kill me twice to keep what I had seen quiet …

They probably had my name right now!

“Dave, we have to leave,” I said, urgency crackling in my voice.

“We will. I just want to see if it’s public yet. Then I’ll call Harvey—”

“Dave, you don’t understand. I think they know who I am. We have to get out of here now!”

That was the moment the news came on. The lead-in sent a shiver down me: “A shooting in a room at a posh midtown hotel, and two people are dead.”

I watched in horror.

The reporter came on and described how an unspecified victim had been shot in his room at the “posh” Hotel Kitano, along with a second victim—details still unclear—“who was rumored to be a possible government agent.”

She said that a third person was being sought. A woman , who might have been in that room when it all happened, and who had fled the scene.

My stomach wound into a knot. I was that third person.

The person they were looking for was me!

The newscast went on. By this time they’d have found the tote bag. So they had to know who that third person was. More than three hours had passed. If the police knew, why weren’t they already here ?

The only possible answer hit me. And it didn’t make me feel any better. If the NYPD had it, they’d have been here by now. The neighborhood would be lit up with flashing lights. They wouldn’t have even mentioned a third person on the news …

They would already have me in custody.

But if the people who had killed Curtis had found it first, they’d want to keep the whole thing quiet. They might not hand it over so quickly. They’d be just as scared that I’d be in the hands of the police and divulge what I had seen, which they’d want to cover up. Which meant …

I felt my throat go dry.

Which meant they might be heading here themselves, at that very second. To finish the job.

Their role in all this could remain secret as long as I stayed away from the police.

Or was dead.

Suddenly I became encased in sweat. We weren’t safe here. We had to get out of here now.