Page 79 of No Safe Place

Just then, there was a loud diesel rumble from outside. It was followed by a sharp whistle from up the stairs to the second floor behind us.

We looked up as Mario poked his head over the banister.

“Yo! Yo! Yo!” he barked. “They’re on the move.”

Mathias looked at me.

“But I thought you said things would get better,” he said.

“They’re just getting desperate,” I said reassuringly. “I’m telling you, this is over.”

There was another diesel rumble, another whistle.

“Come on,” Mario said. “What are you waiting for? Get up here and man your battle stations. They got that freaking cherry picker moving around again.”

“We’re going to die,” Mathias said, rubbing at his brow.

“No,” I said, clapping him on the back. “People might die. But it won’t be us.”

68

Cushing opened his eyes.

The phone was ringing.

The empty bottle in his lap rolled to the floor with a crash as he leaped up from his chair by the bedroom window.

He scooped the phone off the floor.

“Martin, bad news,” Frank said. “Jodi didn’t make it. She’s dead.”

“What? No! That can’t be right. No,” he said.

“You’re in shock, Martin. Just breathe. Take a deep breath.”

“But I thought you said—”

“There was an accident,” Frank said.

The reality of it hit. What he had done to Jodi was like a black void opening up inside of him.

He had done this. He was a murderer. He had murdered his wife.

Why had he called Frank?

Why?

A sound came out of him. A keening.

“That’s good, Martin. Cry it out. Cry it out.”

He couldn’t think straight.

“She and the New York investigator had a cop helping them to get out. There was a shoot-out between him and our people. Jodi got hit in the cross fire. Probably by this cop. There was no pain. She didn’t suffer. It was instant.”

“No,” he moaned. “What am I going to do? Where is she? I need to go there. I—”

“I’ll take care of everything, Martin. Take a sleeping pill. Knock yourself out. You need to sleep. When you wake up, I’ll call,” Frank said and the phone went dead.

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