Out of the Dark (17 page)

“I’m on my way back to the office,” Luke said. “I’d be happy to give you a ride.”

“That’s settled, then,” Sam said, and got up from the table, giving his half-eaten breakfast a regretful look. “I guess you’re going to get my strawberries again after all.” He hurried from the room, anxious to confront the man who was selling him out.

Jade waved a goodbye, then glanced down at her plate. Thanks to Luke’s unexpected arrival, she hadn’t even eaten her own.

“That looks awfully good. Aren’t you hungry?” Luke asked.

“I was,” Jade said.

Luke sighed. “Please don’t.”

“Don’t what?” she asked.

“Don’t put any more walls up between us. Friends aren’t supposed to have to climb walls just to say hello.”

“I don’t know how to have a friend, let alone be one,” Jade muttered.

“You were doing all right yesterday.”

She glanced up, looking to see if he was being sarcastic. He was not.

“Yesterday was yesterday.”

He shrugged. “And today is today. So, like I said…the waffles look good. Aren’t you hungry?”

“Yes, actually, I am.

“Then dig in,” Luke said.

Jade forked a big bite of waffle, speared a strawberry on the end of the tines, then poked it in her mouth.

“Mmm,” she said.

Luke watched as the tip of her tongue slid across the surface of her lips for the sprinkle of powdered sugar that she’d dropped, then reached for his coffee cup. He had to have somewhere to put his hands besides on her or he might very well lose his mind.

J
ade was finishing her breakfast when she remembered something she’d wanted to do.

“The mall is on our way to the hospital, isn’t it?”

Luke nodded as he finished his last drink of coffee.

“Could we stop there on our way? I want to get some warm socks for Raphael. His feet always feel cold.”

“Absolutely,” Luke said.

Then Sam came back into the room. “Shelly Hudson called. She wanted me to tell you that she’s still thinking of you, and that if you need her for anything, you just have to call.”

“She’s a very nice lady,” Jade said.

“Yes, she is. She used to baby-sit for Margaret and me sometimes.”

“With me?” Jade asked.

Sam nodded. “From the time you were born until you disappeared.”

Jade looked startled. “Good grief…she’s changed my diapers.”

Both men burst out laughing as Jade blushed.

“So laugh,” she said. “It’s a bit daunting.”

Then Sam remembered something and pointed at Jade.

“Wait! Don’t leave yet. I have something for you,” he said, and hurried out of the room. He was back moments later with a pad of checks and a debit card. “Here, honey…I’ve been meaning to give these to you and kept forgetting.”

“What are these?” Jade asked.

Sam sat down beside her and put his arm around her shoulders.

“Temporary checks for the checking account I opened for you. Also, this is an extra debit card from my account. Use it until your own card comes in the mail. Five thousand dollars will be deposited each month in your account, so don’t worry about running low.”

Jade’s mouth dropped. Five thousand dollars? Each month? She’d never had that much in one year in her life. She kept looking down at the checkbook, then back up at Sam. Finally she shook her head in disbelief.

“Sam…I don’t know what to say. I still have a little money from the last art show. You must know that I didn’t expect this.”

Sam shook his head and then smiled. “Bless your heart, honey. I know I don’t have to, but I want to, understand?”

She glanced at Luke. He was eating the last bites of waffle that she’d left on her plate.

“Well, you’re no help,” she muttered.

He looked up and then grinned. “What am I supposed to do? Unless Sam wants to adopt me, I’m afraid I’m out of this loop.”

There was a small drop of strawberry juice on the edge of his mouth. Jade stared at it, then at the curve of his bottom lip, until her face felt hot.

Since it was obvious that Luke was full of silliness, she was going to have to face this alone.

“I’ve never taken charity from anyone in my life.”

Sam frowned. “It isn’t charity, darling. You’re my daughter. It’s rightfully yours as much as mine.”

Jade fingered the checkbook cover, then opened it up.

“I’ve never written a check before.” Then she sighed. “Truth is, I’ve never had enough money at one time to even open a checking account. We moved around so much, it didn’t seem wise.”

Sam hoped he didn’t look as startled as he felt.

“I’m sorry. Obviously I wasn’t thinking or I might have realized that. I don’t suppose you have a driver’s license, or any other form of picture identification, like an old school ID or something of the sort?”

“Driver’s license? I can’t drive, Sam. What would I have learned on? As for a school ID, I’m afraid I’ve never been in school…or at least a real school, like other kids.”

“Never?” Luke asked. “Then how did you learn to read or count money or—”

“There was a woman in the People of Joy who’d once been a teacher. Solomon made her hold classes for all the children within the group. It wasn’t constant, and there were lots of times when she was too stoned to come to class, but I learned what I learned. The rest came after we ran away. Raphael is smart…really smart. He taught me a lot—about everything. He can do…I mean he would have been able to do anything.”

She felt sick to her stomach, guilty that, for a time, she’d almost forgotten Raphael’s fate.

Luke’s expression was somewhere between dismay and anger. Again he thought of what he would like to do to this Solomon character as Sam tried to smooth things over.

“Don’t fret. We’ll tend to all of that another day, so for the time being, don’t worry about writing any checks. Just use your debit card. It’s like cash. Luke will show you how it’s done. You’ll catch on in no time. Oh, yes…there’s a pin number that goes with that. It’s 7373. Luke, do you have time to take her to an ATM and show her how it works?”

“Absolutely,” Luke said.

Jade’s head was spinning as she repeated the pin number. Having money was more complicated than she’d thought.

“7373.” Then she frowned. “But what if I forget it?”

Sam smiled. “It should be easy for you to remember. It’s your birthday.”

“My birthday is in July?”

For Luke, it was the last straw.

“Son-of-a-bitch,” he muttered, and stalked out of the room.

Sam was stunned. “You didn’t know your own birthday?”

“I guess I might have at one time, before Mother died, but if I did, I’ve forgotten it.”

“We used to have the best parties,” Sam said, and then he slapped the table with the flat of his hand. “And, by God, we will again! Go on with you now. Luke’s probably waiting in the car.”

Jade dropped the checkbook and debit card into her purse and got up from the table; then Sam walked her to the door. Just as they reached the foyer, she turned around and gave him a hug. Then, before he could say something that would rattle her even more, she ran out the door.

Luke was sitting on the front steps. He stood as she came out, then held out his hand. To his surprise, she took it and let him lead her down the steps to the car.

“Buckle up,” he said, as he seated her in the car.

She reached for the seat belt as Luke circled the car and then slid behind the wheel. Even after they were both buckled in and ready to go, Luke still sat, staring blindly out the windshield.

“Luke?”

He jerked, as if coming out of a trance, then started the car but left it in Park.

“Jade, sometimes you just about break my heart. I hope to God that one day you’ll let somebody love you the way you deserved to be loved.”

She couldn’t look at him for fear that he would see how badly she wanted that to happen, but she had to say what she was thinking.

“What if I’m not able to give that kind of love back?”

He looked at her then, his voice thick with emotion.

“It’s in you, honey. You just need to trust enough to let it go.”

“What if that never happens?”

“It will—when you’re ready,” Luke said, then put the car in gear and drove off.

Johnny Newton was dressed and sitting in his car. From where he was parked, he could see who came and went at the Cochrane home, although he could not be seen. He watched as a younger man came out of the house with Jade Cochrane, then waited as they got into a dark red sports car, then waited some more while they had some kind of conversation. He picked up a pair of binoculars from the seat beside him, training it on their faces, and watched as their expressions ran the scale of emotions.

“I think he wants to fuck you, baby,” Johnny said, and made a mental note to learn how to read lips. Then he shifted the view to Jade’s face and whistled softly between his teeth. “Sweet…you’d almost be worth taking the time to do it right.”

As soon as the car started to move, Johnny dropped the binoculars onto the seat beside him and put his car in gear. He counted to three, then started down the driveway just in time to see the red car turning the corner up the block. Taking care not to be noticed, he began to follow. He had made no plans to take Jade Cochrane out today, but he’d figured out how to do Raphael. Trouble was, they never left the poor bastard alone. Someone was with him in that isolation room all the time, and Johnny liked privacy when he worked. But he was also getting bored and figured that if the opportunity presented itself, he would take the chance. It might be interesting to see just how close he could get to her without alerting her that she’d become a target. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. And because he was thinking about how easily her soft flesh would yield to a knife, he got careless. Had he known that the man with Jade Cochrane was an ex-cop with his own private security business, it might have made him think twice about what he was doing. But he didn’t, and because he liked to play close to the edge, he got himself made.

Luke saw the flash of sunlight in his rearview mirror as it glinted off the windshield of the car behind him. Out of habit, he noted it was a gray, late-model sedan and then returned his attention to his driving. Jade was counting and recounting the twenty dollar bills they’d taken from an ATM. He wished he’d had a camera to capture the shock, then delight, when she came away three hundred dollars richer than she’d been when they arrived. It wasn’t as if she’d never seen ATMs, but she’d never had the opportunity to see how they worked, and it was obvious she was fascinated.

“We’re almost at the mall,” Luke said.

“Oh! Okay,” Jade said, and quickly put the money back in her purse.

As Luke turned off the street into the mall parking lot, he noticed that the gray sedan was still behind him. However, at least two dozen other cars were also signaling a turn into the mall, so he ignored its presence.

“We’re looking for socks, right?”

She nodded. Conscious of the large amount of money in her purse, she clutched it close against her chest.

Luke circled an area of the parking lot twice before he found a parking place near the wing closest to JCPenney’s. It was as good a place as any to buy some men’s socks.

“Ha! There’s one!” he crowed, and wheeled into an empty parking space that a woman in a PT Cruiser had just vacated.

Jade almost smiled. “It doesn’t take much to please you, does it?”

Luke arched an eyebrow in pretend dismay. “You wound me, woman. Are you insinuating that I’m shallow?”

She laughed aloud.

Luke shuddered and then quickly looked away. Her laugh made him feel naked—stripped to the bone by the joy in the sound.

“Okay,” he said shortly. “Let’s go buy some socks.”

Jade tightened her grip on her purse and got out of the car.

Johnny Newton saw them park and get out. He watched as they crossed the parking lot and then disappeared inside the mall. He’d had a brainstorm as he’d watched them circling the lot, but without knowing how long they would be inside, he didn’t have time to waste. He knew they were on their way back to the hospital, but he needed to slow them down so he get to Raphael without interference. He parked in the first parking place he found, and as soon as they were out of sight, got out on the run. Moments later, he was beside their car. With a quick glance around to make sure he was unobserved, he took a knife from his pocket, dropped to the concrete, rolled onto his back and then pulled himself as far under the front of the car as he could go.

The concrete was hot against his skin, even through the layers of his clothing. The acrid scent of burning oil and hot rubber seared his nostrils as he reached for the brake line. He heard voices and the sound of someone laughing as he thrust the knife into the line. A thin smear of fluid coated the knife as he pulled it out. Without wasted motion, he closed the blade and slid out from under the car. As he jumped to his feet, he startled a pair of teenage girls who were on their way back to their car.

They gasped in unison, eyeing him nervously as they clutched their bags and increased their stride.

“Boo!” he said, and then wiggled his hands toward them, as if he were putting them under some spell.

They screamed and started to run.

Johnny laughed aloud and then cut across the parking lot back to where he was parked. He was in his car and gone before the girls reached their vehicle. His plan hinged on getting in and out of Raphael’s hospital room without having too many people running interference, and he had just given himself the time and space to do it.

Jade kept looking for a clock. The longer she stayed away from Raphael’s hospital room, the more anxious she became.

“What time is it?” she asked, as they hurried down the mall with her purchases.

Luke glanced at his watch. “Almost ten.”

“Oh God…I’ve been gone three…almost four hours. What if—”

“Raphael is all right,” he said.

“How do you know?” Jade asked.

“Because if he wasn’t, the hospital would have called Sam’s house. And Sam knows you’re with me, so he would have called my cell phone. So since Sam hasn’t called us, we can assume Raphael is okay. That’s how I know.”

“Oh.”

It made sense. It also gave Jade permission to relax.

“Sorry,” she said. “But every moment I’m away from him is a moment I can never get back.”

Her voice broke as she looked away, and when she did, she saw a little girl standing up against a storefront. She was standing with her back to the windows, and Jade could tell by the look on the child’s face that she was frightened.