Private Rogue

Chapter 32

I woke early the next morning and crept out of the cabin without waking Beth or the children. I walked over crackling snow and followed the trail back to the road, and from there, I headed into town. A few vehicles passed me, but it was quiet. The morning rush hour hadn’t started.

Dawn’s tendrils reached over the treetops as I neared town, casting everything in a weak light. The brooding clouds suggested day would come slowly, and when it did arrive there was likely to be snow.

I returned to the mini-mart we’d passed, and offered the same bored teenager twenty dollars to use his cell phone.

“Forty,” he said.

I nodded and handed the bills over in exchange for his cracked old iPhone. He unlocked it, and I moved to the back of the store to talk in private.

“Hello?” Jessie said. She sounded groggy.

“Sorry for calling so early,” I responded.

“Jack!” She suddenly came to life. “I’ve been so worried about you. We all have. The thing at the motel—”

“A set-up,” I assured her. “Designed to get the cops looking for me. They want me found. More importantly, they want Beth Singer.”

“Rafael has been on damage limitation,” Jessie replied. “Turns out there was an emergency call naming you as a suspect, but motel guests who witnessed the incident give a conflicting story. You’re not a suspect anymore, but the cops want to talk to you to clear up a few questions.”

“I can’t do that until we know Beth and her children are safe from the people after them.”

“Who are they?” Jessie asked.

“We don’t know yet, but Donald Singer isn’t who he says he is,” I replied. “How are you?”

“Aching, but otherwise OK.”

“Glad to hear it,” I said. “I’m going to need a ride and somewhere safe to lie low.”

“No problem,” Jessie replied.

“Where do you want to meet?”

“Swiftwater, PA,” I replied. “There’s a bus depot just off the highway.”

“I’ll find it,” Jessie said. “When?”

“Two hours,” I replied.

“See you there.”

“Also, I need you to fill in Justine — especially about Singer. But this guy has serious resources, so we need to be vigilant and careful in our communications.”

“No problem, boss.”

“Thanks, Jessie,” I said finally, before hanging up.

I returned to the front of the store and handed the clerk his phone with a grateful thanks. He shrugged and started swiping it as I left the mini-mart.

I started across the parking lot, but changed direction when I noticed a couple of cops eying me from a cruiser that slowed to a halt on the other side of the street. They might have been genuine police or they could have been part of the crew who’d tried to abduct Beth and the kids. Either way, I couldn’t risk being caught. I headed back toward the convenience store, and nodded at the teenage clerk.

“It’s brutal out there,” I said.

“Well, you can’t live in here,” he scoffed.

“You got a bathroom?” I asked.

“Ten bucks,” he replied.

I shook my head at his greedy opportunism and laid a bill on the counter.

“In the back,” he said, gesturing toward the floor-to-ceiling fridges that lined the rear wall.

As I hurried in their direction, I glanced over my shoulder to see the uniformed cops crossing the parking lot, heading straight for the store. I jogged along an aisle and saw a corridor that cut between the fridges. I went straight down it, ignored the bathroom and headed for the fire exit. An alarm sounded when I opened the door. I sprinted around the side of the building, ran across the parking lot and over to the other side of the street to where the cruiser was parked. I took out a small pocket knife and dug it into the nearside tire.

“Hey!” a voice yelled as air rushed out.

I looked up to see the two cops racing from the store.

“Stop!” the closest yelled.

I ignored him and sprinted into the front yard of the nearest house. I vaulted a locked side gate, dodged a barking German Shepherd, and ran alongside the house until I reached a large garden. There was a chain-link fence at the end, beyond it the woods that surrounded town. I flew across the lawn, jumped onto the roof of a doghouse near the fence, and used a fence post to push myself up and over.

“Stop or I will shoot!” one of the cops yelled.

I didn’t even bother looking round, instead starting to run the moment my feet hit the ground. I threw myself into the snow-laden firs and within moments was lost in their cold embrace.