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Richland Court was a short street of pleasant New England saltboxes and Cape Cods ending in a
circular turnaround. Crow had grabbed a free newspaper called The Anniston Shopper on his walk from
the library and now stood at the corner, leaning against a handy oak tree and pretending to study it.
The oak shielded him from the street, and maybe that was a good thing, because there was a red truck
with a guy sitting behind the wheel parked about halfway down. The truck was an oldie, with some
hand-tools and what looked like a Rototiller in the bed, so the guy could be a groundskeeper—this
was the kind of street where people could afford them—but if so, why was he just sitting there?
Babysitting, maybe?
Crow was suddenly glad he had taken Barry seriously enough to jump ship. The question was, what
to do now? He could call Rose, but their last conversation hadn’t netted anything he couldn’t have
gotten from a Magic 8 Ball.
He was still standing half-hidden behind the fine old oak and debating his next move when the
providence that favored the True Knot above rubes stepped in. A door partway down the street
opened, and two girls came out. Crow’s eyes were every bit as sharp as those of his namesake bird, and
he ID’d them at once as two of the three girls in Billy’s computer pix. The one in the brown skirt was
Emma Deane. The one in the black pants was Abra Stone.
He glanced back at the truck. The driver, also an oldie, had been slouched behind the wheel. Now
he was sitting up. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. On the alert. So she had been gaming them. Crow
still didn’t know for sure which of the two was the steamhead, but one thing he was sure of: the men
in the Winnebago were on a wild goosechase.
Crow took out his cell but only held it in his hand for a moment, watching the girl in the black
pants go down the walk to the street. The girl in the skirt watched her for a second, then went back
inside. The girl in the pants—Abra—crossed Richland Court, and as she did, the man in the truck
raised his hands in a what gives gesture. She responded with a thumbs-up: Don’t worry, everything’s
okay. Crow felt a surge of triumph as hot as a knock of whiskey. Question answered. Abra Stone was
the steamhead. No question about it. She was being guarded, and the guard was an old geezer with a
perfectly good pickup truck. Crow felt confident it would take him and a certain young passenger as
far as Albany.
He hit Snake on the speed dial, and wasn’t surprised or uneasy when he got a CALL FAILED
message. Cloud Gap was a local beauty spot, and God forbid there should be any cell phone towers to
clutter up the tourists’ snapshots. But that was okay. If he couldn’t take care of an old man and a
young girl, it was time to turn in his badge. He considered his phone for a moment, then turned it
off. For the next twenty minutes or so, there was no one he wanted to talk to, and that included Rose.
His mission, his responsibility.
He had four loaded syringes, two in the left pocket of his light jacket, two in the right. Putting his
best Henry Rothman smile on his face—the one he wore when reserving campground space or fourwalling
motels for the True—Crow stepped from behind the tree and strolled down the street. In his
left hand he still held his folded copy of The Anniston Shopper. His right hand was in his jacket pocket,
easing the plastic cap off one of the needles.
4
“Pardon me, sir, I seem to be a little lost. I wonder if you could give me some directions.”
Billy Freeman was nervous, on edge, filled with something that was not quite foreboding . . . and
still that cheerful voice and bright you-can-trust-me smile took him in. Only for two seconds, but