The Pardon

Chapter 46

Cindy received a bouquet of flowers when she arrived at the studio that Friday morning. They were from Jack.

“Please be there for me today,” the card read. “I need you.”

She wanted to pretend that the message didn’t affect her, but it did. Leaving Jack hadn’t made her stop loving him. In fact, leaving him was the easy part. It was staying away that was the test. Tuesday morning, after attempting to be cool and distant with him, she’d felt her resolve eroding. Gina’s death had reminded her of how little time there is to do anything in life-of the purposelessness of grudges and resentment. Gina had probably died believing that Cindy hated her. Cindy didn’t want the same thing-God forbid! — to happen to Jack.

By the time she received the phone call, at ten o’clock in the morning, she’d already made up her mind to go over to the courthouse.

“Miss Paige,” a woman said over the phone. “This is Manuel Cardenal’s paralegal. Sorry to bother you, but he asked me to call you right away.”

“Yes,” she said with trepidation, afraid the trial had already accelerated to a verdict.

“Both Mr. Cardenal and Mr. Swyteck are in court right now, so they couldn’t call you themselves. But they need you to come down to the courthouse. Mr. Swyteck needs you to testify for him. It’s extremely important.”

Cindy was confused. How could anything she had to say help Jack’s case?

“I was about to go over there.” She looked at her watch. “I can be there by ten-twenty-will that be in time?”

“Yes, I believe so,” the woman said, “but please hurry.”

Once Cindy heard the click on the other end, she sprung into action. She picked up her bag and rushed out of the office to the parking lot. The tires of her Pontiac Sunbird squealed as she accelerated out of the lot. She weaved in and out of traffic as she raced toward Frontage Road-the quickest route to the courthouse.

Ordinarily, Cindy was no speedster, but now was the time to see just how fast her Pontiac could go. She jammed down the accelerator and squeezed the steering wheel tightly, glancing intermittently at the speedometer as it pushed its way toward uncharted territory, past eighty-five miles per hour. The road was nearly deserted, and she was covering the distance in record time until she rounded a wide turn and suddenly the engine started to sputter. She was quickly losing speed.

“Come on,” she urged as she pumped the accelerator. The car lunged forward a little, but the engine just gasped, then died. She coasted to a stop and steered off the road to the gravel shoulder. She pressed the pedal to the floor and turned the key. The ignition whined, but the engine wouldn’t fire. She tried again. Same response.

“Not now,” she groaned, as if she could reason with the vehicle. She didn’t see a single car on the road, and she suddenly wished she had a car phone. She glanced in her side-view mirror and gave a start as she was suddenly staring into the face of a stranger.

“Can I help you, miss?” he said-loud enough to be heard through her window.

Cindy hesitated. The man’s voice sounded pleasant enough, but the way he’d suddenly appeared out of nowhere seemed strange. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw an old gray van parked a short distance down the road. She looked at the man but couldn’t read his expression, since most of his face was covered by the brim of his baseball cap and big dark sunglasses. Then she remembered: Jack needs me. She cracked the window half an inch. “My car-”

“Has sugar in the carburetor,” he finished for her.

Cindy gulped. “I need-”

“To get to the courthouse,” he interrupted again.

Her eyes widened with fear, but before she could react, the window suddenly exploded, and she was covered in a shower of glass pellets. She screamed and pounded the horn, but her cries for help quickly turned to desperate gasps for air as the hand of a very strong man came through the open window and wrapped tightly around her throat.

“Ja-ack!” her strangled voice cried.

“It ain’t Jack, baby,” came the snide reply. Then he reached for his sheath and showed her the sharp steel blade that had grown very cold since it had been used on Gina Terisi.