Page 156 of Life and Death
Edythe seemed to accept that. Whatever her problem with Archie was, she didn’t doubt him now.
“What are we going to do with the Jeep?” he asked.
Edythe’s voice had a hard edge. “You’re driving it home.”
“No, I’m not,” he said calmly.
The unintelligible stream of profanities started again.
“We can’t all fit in my truck,” I mumbled.
Edythe didn’t seem to hear me.
“I think you should let me go alone,” I said even more quietly.
She heard that.
“Beau, don’t be stupid,” she said between clenched teeth.
“Listen, Charlie’s not an imbecile,” I argued. “If you’re not in town tomorrow, he’s going to get suspicious.”
“That’s irrelevant. We’ll make sure he’s safe, and that’s all that matters.”
“Then what about this tracker? She saw how you acted tonight. She’s going to think you’re with me, wherever you are.”
Eleanor looked at me, insultingly surprised again. “Edythe, listen to him,” she urged. “I think he’s right.”
“He is,” Archie agreed.
“I can’t do that.” Edythe’s voice was icy.
“Eleanor should stay, too,” I continued. “She definitely got an eyeful of Eleanor.”
“What?” Eleanor turned on me, looking betrayed.
“You’ll get a better crack at her if you stay,” Archie agreed.
Edythe stared at him incredulously. “You think I should let him go alone?”
“Of course not,” Archie said. “Jess and I will take him.”
“I can’t do that,” Edythe repeated, but this time she sounded defeated. The logic was working on her.
I tried to be persuasive. “Hang out here for a week”—I saw her expression in the mirror and amended—“a few days. Let Charlie see you, and lead this hunter on a wild-goose chase. Make sure she’s completely off the trail. Then come and meet me. Take a roundabout route, of course, and then Jessamine and Archie can go home.”
She was beginning to consider it.
“Meet you where?”
“Phoenix.”
“No,” she said impatiently. “She’ll hear that’s where you’re going.”
“And you’ll make it look like that’s a trick, obviously. She’ll know thatyou’llknow that she’s listening. She’ll never believe I’m actually going where I say I am going.”
“He’s diabolical,” Eleanor laughed.
“And if that doesn’t work?”
