Caitlin touched Chapman’s shoulder once, then stood up. “Scars just prove you lived through something, Angela. Get ready to go home.”

She walked into the road with her arms up. The headlights caught her, the vehicle slowed. One hundred feet away, she knew she’d made a mistake.

She stood there until Branford’s white SUV came to a stop, his bloody face glaring behind the steady beat of windshield wipers, then she ran around the passenger side and sprinted toward town.

She looked back, saw his headlights swing around. She left the road for the forest, heard his brakes squeak, and his door open.

“Caitlin,” he yelled. “Time to come home.”

She didn’t stop running. “Come and get me, Branford.”

The ground sloped downhill. She hit a patch of wet leaves, slipped, fell on her ass. The momentum took her another twenty feet. She came to rest at the bank of a creek.

I should be scared, she thought, her eyes on the treetops and the night sky. I should be terrified. Even as Branford scrambled down after her, one thought drove away Caitlin’s fear: At least Chapman will get away.

Chapter 84

CHAPTER

84

“ROMAN, YOU’RE OUT.”

Mike rose from the holding cell bench. “Just like that, Detective? What happened?”

Maverick opened the cell door. “Greenwood’s father-in-law dropped the grand theft complaint. Funny thing, his nurse said he never made the call in the first place on account of his having a tube down his throat.”

“That is funny.” Mike followed the woman out into the hallway. “Maybe Greenwood talked some sense into the old man.”

“Who knows? We haven’t heard from Jerry since he blew up on the Chief this morning after having breakfast with a friend.” She handed him an envelope of his pocket things, then wheeled a rolling suitcase out from behind a counter. “Oh yeah. I went back to your hotel to let them know you might be staying with us instead. Oddly enough, the clerk already had your bag stowed behind the front desk.”

“Convenient.” Mike had checked out of his room and left fifty bucks and the bag with the kid fifteen minutes before Maverick had knocked on the door. “Guess they needed to turn the room around. As much as I appreciate the bellhop service, Detective, what about the breaking and entering at Branford’s place?”

“Call me Jane.” She pulled a cigarette out from behind her ear. “Technically, I didn’t get around to filing any charges yet. I couldn’t wrap my mind around how you slipped into Branford’s house without disturbing a thing but managed to give a camera the cleanest face shot I’ve seen in years.”

Mike held back his smile. “I’ve done some stupid stuff in my lifetime, Jane.”