Page 78 of At Midnight Comes the Cry
Clare squatted to retrieve jars of bananas and peas and meat pureefrom the lower cabinet, balancing Rose against her chest. The can of formula and a spare bottle were on the counter. Clare held it up. “Do you know how to prepare this?”
“Trust me, if Tiny can do it, it ain’t that hard. Throw it in.”
Clare added a small feeding spoon, a bib, and a face cloth. It felt like aiding and abetting, but the last thing she wanted was for Rose to get hungry and dirty.
“Out the door.”
“Can I put my boots on?”
“Can I put my boots on?” he mocked. “I thought you were tough. Knocking me down, threatening me with the cops. You can make it to the car in your sneakers.”
She stepped out of the kitchen, Rose over one shoulder and the diaper bag over the other. There was a mud-splattered SUV parked behind her Subaru. She walked toward it. Behind the fence, Oscar was howling.
“Open the front door.”
“She should be in the back.”
“I said open the front door!”
Clare swung the door open. “There’s no baby seat.”
“Kids rode around in cars for fifty years without baby seats. She’ll be fine.”
“Please. The back would at least be safer. Please.”
“I want to keep her right close to me, in case there’s trouble.”
Clare laid Rose on her side, curled against the back of the seat. “If you let me have the blanket, it’ll pad her against the seat belt.”
Cal handed her the overnighter. “Help yourself.”
She folded the fuzzy blanket and set it against the baby’s chest before clipping the seat belt in place. She set both bags on the floor and stepped away, hands raised. “Please, Cal. I’m begging you. Don’t hurt her. Please don’t hurt her.”
“I told you I was going to take back what’s mine. Do you remember what else I said?”
Clare nodded.
“What was it?”
It took her two tries to get her voice out. “You were going to hurt me.”
“Turn around.”
She couldn’t stop her shaking. Then, a rustle and a snap and a crushing pain in her skull and her cry was silent as she blacked out.
12.
Yíxin Zhào leaned forward in her seat and pointed toward a gap in the trees barely visible from the narrow road. “There.”
She and Hadley were on their way to the hunting cabin the attorney and Clare had found the day before. They had a ride with Lieutenant Pelletier and a deputy as a courtesy—and because a guide who had already been there was more of a sure thing than a GPS signal in the mountains. The departmental truck they were in was hauling two snowmobiles, as was the truck following behind them.
“Have you ever been on one of these things?” Hadley had whispered as they were loading up at the county depot.
“No.” Yíxin kept her voice down. “But I don’t think we should tell them.”
“Agreed.”
Hadley mechanically checked her vest, strapped tight beneath her departmental parka. She also had her own pistol this time around, though with the memory of losing the chief’s gun in the snow still fresh, she was hoping she wouldn’t have to draw at all.
