Chapter 51

An hour before sunrise, Joshua was already prepared for his journey.

He’d gotten fewer than four hours of sleep, and his lack of rest had little to do with the assorted aches and pains that wracked his body. He’d been busy.

Late last night, he’d stopped by his parents’ house and picked up his father’s .357, a holster, and a box of cartridges. He had no longer had any reservations about traveling with a firearm. His desire to arm himself was greater than any fear of being arrested.

He’d spent several hours cleaning up the house, too. Sweeping up the broken glass. Righting the furniture. Getting the bloodstains out of the carpet. Setting out new photos in place of the ones Bates had damaged or destroyed. Trying to make the house livable again.

It would take days of work, fresh paint, and new furniture to get their home back to its former state, but he did the best he could with limited time. Allowing it to remain in a state of chaos seemed the equivalent of letting Bates win.

He’d packed an overnight bag that contained the gun and ammo, toiletries, and enough clothes for a couple of days. He didn’t intend to be away from home any longer than that.

Coco waited in her pet carrier on a chair in the kitchen. Eddie had agreed to keep the dog while Joshua was away. Joshua picked up the kennel and started for the garage, happened to glance at the reminder he’d written himself to bring her dog food to Eddie’s, and took her kibble out of the pantry. He plucked Coco’s toy stuffed dog off the counter, too, put both food and the toy in a large plastic bag.

Coco made an inquisitive whimper.

“You’re going on a vacation, kiddo,” Joshua said. “You’ll be staying at Uncle Eddie’s house. When Daddy comes back Mommy will be with him.”

Although he spoke those comforting words to the dog, he had no idea how he would feel when he saw Rachel. Would he hate her? Would he want her to come home with him? Would he want to resume their lives, as before? Would he want a divorce? He felt a jumbled mix of feelings that he couldn’t sort out.

The only matter of which he was certain was that he had to protect her. She was carrying his baby. As long as Bates was on the loose, Rachel’s life, and the life of his child, was in danger.

During his brief period of sleep last night, he’d dreamed, a third time, of walking the beach with Rachel and their son. Upon waking, he’d been too disturbed to return to sleep. Thoughts of Bates roaming out there in the darkness, possibly getting closer to Rachel, kept him on edge. He’d paced through the rooms with the gun, vainly wishing that he could teleport to Rachel’s side like a character in a sci-fi movie. He would not relax until he was with her again.

In the garage, he placed the dog on the SUV’s passenger seat. He clipped his driving directions to the sun visor.

It was a four-and-a-half hour drive to Darien, where the island’s ferry dock was based. After he registered with the visitor center, he hoped to catch the noon boat to Hyde Island.

And then, he hoped to find his wife, and figure out what kind of life they would have together . . . if they had one at all.

* * *

“Have you seen the news this morning?” Eddie asked.

Joshua entered the house with the pet carrier and Coco in one hand, the plastic bag containing the dog’s toy and food in the other. “No. What’s going on?”

“Tanisha,” Eddie said. “The sista who co-owned Rachel’s salon? She was found murdered in her house last night.”

Shock hit Joshua like a blow below the belt. He dropped onto the sofa. “Tanisha?”

“Yeah, man,” Eddie said. He sat on the arm of a nearby chair. “You know Bates did it.”

Joshua couldn’t speak. He’d talked to Tanisha only a couple of days ago, and she’d been her ordinary self, full of joy and positive energy. She couldn’t be dead.

“Do they know when it happened?” he asked woodenly.

“The cops said she never showed up at the salon yesterday, so they’re saying it happened two nights ago.”

“And Bates came at me yesterday,” Joshua said. “I bet he forced Tanisha to tell him where we live. Then he . . . ” He swallowed, unable to finish.

“Yeah, you don’t need to say it. They named him as a suspect. Showed a picture of him, the whole nine.”

“Did they mention me or Rachel?”

“Not yet, but you know it’s coming. Nothing ever stays secret for long. News crews are probably getting set to bum rush your crib.”

“I’ll be long gone.” Joshua looked around the quiet house. “Are Ariel and Gavin still sleep?”

Eddie glanced at his watch. “Maybe for the next fifteen minutes. Then the rat race begins. Why?”

Although Eddie had said his family was sleeping, Joshua lowered his voice to a whisper: “Bates is going to be looking for me—he thinks I can lead him to Rachel. But since I’m going to be gone . . . what if he finds out about you?”

Fear quivered through Eddie’s face, but it was replaced by a frown. “Wait, how the hell would he find out about me?”

“I don’t know. But he found out about Tanisha, didn’t he?”

Eddie didn’t answer. His silence, and his worried gaze, was response enough.

“You’ve got to be careful,” Joshua said. “You have any kind of weapon here in the house?”

“With a rambunctious kid running around?” Eddie asked. “No, man. We don’t have any guns here.”

“How about something else?”

“Now that I think about it, Ariel has a stun gun she carries in her purse. I could ask her to let me keep it here with me. But it’s just a stun gun—it’s not going to kill anyone.”

“I hit Bates with three rounds from a .38, and that didn’t stop him, either, remember?”

“Damn, dawg. You make him sound like the Terminator or something.”

“I don’t mean to scare you. I only want you to be on your toes.”

“I’ll be on code red, trust me.”

“Remember what I said about him being invisible—for lack of a better term.”

Eddie nodded. “I remember that. Don’t know if I believe it, but I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Okay.” Joshua took his car key out of his pocket. “Honestly, I doubt he’ll come around here. There’s too much heat on him for him to risk staying in the area.”

“But it wouldn’t matter if he can walk around invisible, like you said.”

Joshua pursed his lips. “No, I guess not.”

“We’ll be fine.” Eddie shook his hand, and then they exchanged a brotherly hug. “Go find your lady and bring her back safe, all right?”

* * *

Driving south on Interstate-75, Joshua kept a circumspect eye out for any vehicles that might have been following him. He didn’t know what kind of car Bates would be driving, so all vehicles were questionable.

He’d moved his overnight bag to the passenger seat, and unzipped the pocket that contained the loaded .357. He could have the gun in his grip within two seconds. It would only be a matter of clicking off the safety.

He had never foreseen such a transformation in his personality. He’d gone from a man who strenuously avoided confrontations to a man who had gunned down a person in his home; from a man who would capture spiders in his house and transport them outdoors to avoid stepping on them, to a man who drove around with a lethal weapon close at hand and an eager trigger finger.

He glanced in the rearview mirror, scanning the highway behind for suspicious cars trailing him. His eyes were webbed with red, but shone with steely resolve.

He missed the soft-hearted, innocent Joshua, the Joshua he’d seen in the mirror before chaos and violence had taken over his life.

But that man was gone, perhaps never to return.