“Abe, I need a ride.”

“A ride to where?”

“Home.”

“You can’t take a cab?”

“I’m in a bit of a jam.”

Abe sighed. “And where is this jam that you happen to be in?”

“Monroe. In front of a restaurant called”—he checked the sign—”Memison’s. When can you get here?”

“Oy. Monroe. You couldn’t be someplace closer? OK. I’ll pick you up in front of this Memison’s, but don’t figure on less than an hour and a half.”

“Thanks, Abe. And listen—call Gia and tell her I’m all right. I’d call her myself but I don’t want to hang in the open on this phone much longer. Tell her somebody dosed me with the same stuff that made the preppies crazy but I got through it OK.”

“On the run and stranded in Monroe… this is OK?”

“Just tell her, Abe.”

Jack hung up and looked around. An hour and a half to kill. The clock on the bank said twelve-thirty. Damn. He’d been out for hours, and by now the cops had to know he was missing. They’d concentrate on the hospital first, but when they were satisfied that he wasn’t hiding there, they’d start sweeping the town. Where could he go for an hour where he wouldn’t be noticed?

And then he knew.

8

The phone was ringing. Nadia didn’t budge. It wasn’t her cell phone—that was the only number she’d given the police—so she didn’t care who was on the house phone.

She sat in her mother’s front room, wiping her eyes. She’d found the little Quisp ring Doug had given her the other night. For an instant she saw him sitting at his computer in his boxer shorts, being so sweet, sexy, and silly at the same time, and she burst into tears.

Forcing herself to move, she rose and stepped to the window and watched the preschool children playing in St. Vartan’s Park across the street. She felt lost, sapped of energy. Uncertainty about what to do or who to turn to had gnawed at her, leaving her all but paralyzed.

Doug, where are you? What happened?

“Nadjie!” her mother called from the kitchen. She sounded almost hysterical. “Praise God! My prayers have been answered. It is Douglas!”

Nadia scrambled out of the chair and almost tripped in her mad dash to the kitchen where she snatched the receiver from her mother’s hand.

“Doug?”

“Nadia! How I’ve missed you!”

She burst into tears at the sound of his voice. It was him; oh sweet God it was him.

“Oh, Doug! Doug, where have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you!”

“I’m so sorry about that but this is the first chance I’ve had to call. I’m in trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“I can’t go into that now. Let’s just say I shouldn’t show my face for another week or so.”

“Oh, God! This is crazy!”

“I know it is. Look, can you help me out with a little cash? I don’t dare use my ATM.”