Serial

81

New York, the present

Quinn and Pearl’s plane lifted off from LaGuardia at six o’clock that evening. The closest airport to Edmundsville was St. Louis’s Lambert International. From there they could rent a car, wend their way to Interstate 70, and drive west out of the St. Louis area.

In mid-Missouri, they could stay at a Hampton Inn just off 70, and in the morning drive less than an hour to reach the Evans house. If they left the motel about nine-thirty, they should easily arrive well before Link Evans. Evans’s flight touched down at ten o’clock, and his drive from the Kansas City airport to home was slightly farther than theirs, leaving them plenty of time to talk to Beth Evans before her husband got home.

The flight from LaGuardia to St. Louis seemed longer than it was, maybe because of the infant in the seat behind Quinn that somehow kept managing to touch cold and sticky miniature fingers to the back of his neck. While they were deplaning, the kid looked over at Quinn from his mother’s arms and grinned, as if they shared a secret: There were people, and then there were people who plagued them, and that was that.

Quinn and Pearl traveled with only rolling carry-ons. As they made their way through the crowded terminal to where they could rent a car, Quinn said, “That kid behind us was driving me nuts.”

“She was great,” Pearl said. “She didn’t utter a peep.”

“How do you know it was a she?”

“Could have been the pink dress.”

As they rounded a corner to leave the secure area, Pearl’s rolling suitcase bounced over Quinn’s toe. He was pretty sure she’d done it on purpose.

The drive toward Edmundsville was better than the flight to St. Louis. Their room was reserved at the motel, so there was no hurry. The sky was cloudless and tinted a deep purple. Though the day had been warm, it was so pleasant now that Quinn felt like putting down the Ford Taurus’s windows. He didn’t, though, knowing Pearl would complain about her hair blowing all over the place. She had no idea that he thought she was sexy with her hair all tousled by the wind. Or maybe she did know that, and she figured he was the one who’d made it clear that this was a business trip, so let him yearn. There were people…

The motel was so well kept it looked as if it had been built yesterday, even though the architecture was a couple thousand years old. It had tall fluted columns that looked like the entrance to a Greek temple, with cars parked outside instead of chariots.

They checked into a room with a king-sized bed-Quinn’s idea-then rolled their suitcases along a long hall toward an elevator to the second floor.

“I noticed they serve breakfast,” Quinn said. “Means we can stay in bed pretty late tomorrow in case we don’t get much sleep.”

“Why would we not get much sleep?”

“We might be busy in a carnal way.”

“You would think that,” Pearl said.

“You’d be surprised what I might think,” Quinn told her, as he used the key card to unlock and open the door on only the fourth try.

The phone was ringing as they entered the room and deposited their suitcases on the bed. Quinn cursed inwardly. This didn’t bode well. Not that Pearl seemed to be getting in the mood. But then you never could tell about Pearl.

Quinn snatched up the receiver, thinking he’d hear the voice of the desk clerk downstairs checking to make sure everything was to their satisfaction.

Instead he heard Fedderman: “Things have changed, Quinn. Lincoln Evans’s flight tomorrow was canceled, so he booked another for this evening. He’s in the air now. He’ll change planes in Pittsburgh and will arrive in Kansas City at nine-thirty tonight.”

“Which means he’ll get home about ten-thirty.”

“Roughly,” Fedderman said.

Quinn glanced at the multifunctional alarm clock nightlight sleep timer radio on the dresser. “It’s almost nine o’clock now.”

“That nine-thirty is central time,” Fedderman said, from far away in the eastern time zone. “Just so there’s no mistake.”

“We’re in sync,” Quinn said.

He felt a stirring deep in his hunter’s heart. It was all coming at them fast now, the way it sometimes did. Any damned thing could happen, and they had to be ready.

“One other thing,” Fedderman said. “Tom Stopp really does have a brother, and his name is Marvin and he’s in California, writing for TV and the movies. Or struggling to, anyway. He’s got a sister Terri, too. Beautician, unmarried, likes the ladies.”

“Thanks for the confirmation, Feds.” So much for that TS possibility-if Tanya Moody actually did scrawl those two letters in blood. “Call me on my cell if anything else happens. We’re gonna be on the move.”

“Good luck, and whatever else you can use.”

Quinn placed the phone’s receiver back in its cradle. Pearl was standing by the window, staring at him now instead of at the swimming pool below, knowing the game had unexpectedly changed. There was a special intensity in her dark eyes. He doubted it had anything to do with motel sex.

“We’re checking out,” Quinn said. “We’ve got more driving ahead of us tonight.”

He explained to her about Fedderman’s phone call.

Without having unzipped their suitcases, they got them down from the bed and headed for the door. They didn’t talk as they rode the elevator down. Their minds were already an hour’s drive away and on a dozen things at once. The endgame did that to people.

They didn’t bother checking out. Probably it was done automatically tomorrow anyway. The clerk had already run the company charge card.

As they rolled the suitcases across the lobby’s tiled floor toward the exit, Pearl said, “There goes that free breakfast.”

She didn’t sound as if she cared.