Saint/Sinner

Chapter 3

“What do they want?” Lucy asked.

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” she said, and looked past the girl, at Walter sitting on the other side of Lucy.

He was staring at the door intently, as if he could divine the answers to their predicament if he looked hard enough. She wanted to tell him there was no way out in that direction. Even if they could break the door down, there were three men with guns on the other side. The only other route of escape was the back window, but it was secured with burglar bars.

“Walter,” she said. When he didn’t react, or even appear to have heard her, she said louder, “Walter.”

He finally glanced over, that look of confusion still easy to read on his face.

“Who are they?” she asked.

It took a few seconds for her question to get through to him before he finally answered, “What?”

“Who are they?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“They knew about the house.”

“The house?”

“The front door was still intact when we got here, remember? They didn’t break in, Walter. They knew enough to keep your alarm system online when we showed up. You had to disarm the front door to let us in. Remember?”

He nodded slowly, and she could see his mind processing the information. But the fact that she’d had to tell him worried her, because she wasn’t going to be able to do this alone. She didn’t want to do this alone. She needed Walter because she couldn’t count on Lucy, who was still stuck to her chest, the girl’s body so tightly pressed against hers that Allie could hear and feel every shallow breath the teenager took.

No, Lucy wasn’t going to be of much help tonight. That left Walter. But she needed the smart Walter, the one who ran his own department at the company, who could calculate the size of a tip to the cent before she could take out her phone to use the calculator app. What she didn’t need — or want — right now was this confused Walter who hadn’t even recognized that these men had been here this entire time, waiting for them.

And they hadn’t come here for her or Lucy, but for him.

“You’re right,” he said.

“And you don’t know what they want with you?” she asked.

He shook his head again.

“Think, Walter.”

“I’m trying…”

“Try harder.”

He sighed and looked back at the door. “I don’t know what they want. I don’t have a clue.”

“Keep thinking; maybe it’ll come to you.”

He nodded, though it clearly lacked conviction.

Allie turned back to Lucy and pried the girl from her chest. “Hey.”

Lucy glanced up, cheeks streaked with dry tears. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her hair was a mess and looked as if it hadn’t seen a comb in weeks.

Allie brushed the teenager’s hair out of her eyes. “You okay?”

Lucy shook her head, her lips quivering.

“It’s okay,” Allie said. “We’ll be fine. Your father and I will figure this out, and we’re going to get through it.” She picked through the girl’s hair, noticing some dry blood at the roots. “Hurts?”

Lucy shook her head, though she must have been reliving the memories, because she cringed a bit.

“It’ll be okay,” Allie said again, as much for the girl as for herself. She would have liked to say it was for Walter, too, but he was already so focused on the door again that she didn’t think he would have heard her anyway.

Lucy leaned back against her, and Allie tightened her grip around her thin body. Too thin. It was one of the very first things Allie noticed about the fifteen-year-old when they first met, and all their dinners together only reinforced that first impression. Lucy didn’t eat enough, and that was more evident than ever.

“He knew your name,” Walter said.

The sound of his voice surprised her, and she looked over. By the way he was staring back at her, she could tell that a new factoid had just occurred to him, and he was certain it was vital information. Walter was so easy to read.

“How did he know your name?” Walter asked.

“I’m guessing they did research on you,” she said. “Makes sense they’d know who you’re dating if they went through the trouble of knowing where you’d be this weekend and how to get past your home’s security.”

“They knew about the vacation…” The gears were spinning again, new information being added. “You think this is work-related?”

“I don’t know, Walter. Is it?”

Again, that cloud of confusion. “I don’t know, Allie. I swear, I don’t know what’s happening here or why.”

She nodded, believing him.

Or, at least, she believed that he didn’t know. But the man named Jack (Yeah, right) hadn’t left any doubt that all of this was for Walter; she and Lucy just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Suddenly, Lucy pulled away from her chest.

“What is it?” Allie asked.

“Apollo,” Lucy said. “Did you let him out of the car?”

“No. I didn’t get the chance.”

“You think he’s okay?”

Allie smiled and nodded. “I’m sure he’s fine. I’m more worried about us.”

Of the four of them, Apollo was the last one she was afraid for. Lucy and Walter had only seen the domesticated dog that lived in her apartment in the city, but Allie knew what he could do. What he could really do.

“I didn’t hear any gunshots,” Walter said.

“You wouldn’t,” Allie said. “They have suppressors on their weapons.”

“Suppressors?”

“What people call silencers in the movies.”

“Oh.” Then, giving her an almost amused look, “How do you know that?”

“I wasn’t always your secretary, Walter. I had another life before I went to work for Gorman and Smith.”

“Something with guns? Dan showed me your résumé. I didn’t see anything with guns on it.”

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, she thought. And I don’t want to tell you. I don’t want to tell anyone.

“It’s in the past,” she said instead.

“Are you sure it doesn’t have anything to do with this? What’s happening tonight?”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. This is about you, Walter. This — whatever it is — is one hundred percent about you.”

“Maybe…”

He drifted off again, this time his eyes downcast on the carpeting in front of them. She didn’t know what he was looking at. If there were no answers at the door, there were even less chances of an answer popping out of the carpet.

“Walter,” she said, injecting just the right amount of emphasis to get his attention.

“What?” he said, turning back to her.

They were only a few feet apart, with just Lucy between them, but he looked distant, lost among the wallpaper behind him.

“We have to get out of here,” she said.

“I know that.”

“No, Walter, you don’t understand; we have to get out of here.”

She held his eyes, hoping he would understand. She didn’t want to say it out loud, didn’t want Lucy to hear. The girl was already terrified; Allie didn’t need her paralyzed with fear of impending death, too.

Do you see it, Walter? she wanted to ask him. Do you see it?

Finally, he nodded. “I know,” he said quietly.

She sighed with relief, but it didn’t last long, because she heard the padlock on the other side of the door jingling. Lucy tensed against her and she had every right to, because the door opened a moment later, and Jack stood in the open frame.

“Time to go to work,” he said.