Page 70 of Killing Time

Holding the image of the house she’d sketched firmly in his mind, he closed his eyes and imagined them standing on the sidewalk out front.

And just like that, they were there.

The air here in Phoenix was warmer — not hot, but mild and friendly, seeming to scoff at the idea that winter was only a few weeks away. At once, Ruby let go of his waist and gazed around with interest.

“They planted those since the last time I was here,” she said, pointing at the bougainvillea with its hot pink flowers that had begun to cover the outer courtyard wall and a couple of tall, slim palm trees that appeared to stand sentinel on either side of the front walk. “But then, I know the house was almost brand-new when I visited with my mother and Abigail a couple of years ago.”

It was certainly a handsome place, very different from the houses in Jerome or Cottonwood or Clarkdale. They weren’t here to admire the architecture, though, but to see if the de la Pazprimacould offer them some much-needed help.

“Ready?” he asked, and Ruby shot him a red-lipped grin.

“Born that way.”

A little buoyed by her confidence, he stepped up to the gate and rang the bell that hung next to it.

Now all they could do was wait.

17

TIME IS A RIVER

A trayfinally appeared in the hall outside my prison bedroom about an hour and a half after my talk with Jasper. Only a discreet knock, one I hurried to answer — only to find that whoever had dropped off the tray had already disappeared.

And as soon as I’d picked it up and closed the door behind me, I heard the soft snick of the lock slipping into place.

Clearly, the Wilcoxprimuswasn’t taking any chances.

Not that there was much I could even do. His magic was so much vaster and stronger than mine that I doubted I’d ever be able to escape this place under my own power.

In the meantime, though, I needed to eat.

It seemed he’d thought the hour was close enough to lunch that he could dispense with breakfast food, so my meal was a ham sandwich with cheese and just enough spicy mustard to make it interesting. Accompanying the sandwich was an apple, and I couldn’t help shaking my head.

Add in a bag of chips, and it wasn’t too different from the sorts of meals I might have found in my lunchbox before I got old enough to decide that chips and sandwiches weren’t thatgreat for me and I’d be better off getting a salad at my school’s lunch room.

I took the food over to the window so I could sit down in the chair there and look out at the backyard. Not much to see, true, but it was better than staring at the wall.

As I’d feared, the day had only gotten darker and gloomier, and I could have sworn I saw a few isolated white flakes begin to drift down from the lowering sky. Nothing close to real snowfall yet, but in Flagstaff, it was usually a matter of when it would happen and not if in terms of getting a decent storm.

Since I wasn’t a weather witch, I knew there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Speaking of things I couldn’t change, I wished this bedroom overlooked the front of the house rather than the rear. I supposed this was a prettier backdrop, but what I really wanted to have was a view of the garage. That way, I’d have some idea of when Jasper was coming and going, and whether I’d have a snowball’s chance in hell of escaping once he was out of the house.

If he intended to go anywhere at all. It was the weekend, and therefore theprimuswouldn’t be expected at one of his businesses downtown. And unfortunately, I knew next to nothing about him, had no idea whether he was like my cousin Lucas, who seemed to spend every spare minute on the golf course, or whether Jasper was the sort of person to stick close to home unless he had some sort of other pressing engagement to draw him out.

The house seemed eerily quiet, though, which made me wonder whether his son Joseph was even home. Surely a boy of around three or four would make lots of noise, although maybe he was off at someone’s house so he could play with his cousins. In my own time, people were always sharing babysitting duties so their kids could have a chance to hang out with each otherand their parents could grab some free time to go to the movies or go shopping or just sit down and have a date night with their spouses. I had to imagine things weren’t too different now, although I doubted anyone asked Jasper to watch their kids.

Then again, this house was big enough that I supposed Joseph could have been having the mother of all Lego parties somewhere else, and I’d never hear a single peep.

Did they even have Legos in 1947?

Not being able to whip out my phone and consult its built-in AI to supply me with the answer to that particular piece of trivia, I had absolutely no idea.

However, since it seemed as if Jasper didn’t have a problem with leaving me to my own devices, I figured I should try to take this time to get myself out of this mess.

The window was as locked down as the door, so I knew I wouldn’t be escaping that way. Not that the prospect would have been too appealing even if I’d been able to open the window. I was at least twenty-five feet up, thanks to the home’s high ceilings and the way it was elevated above the landscape, and I couldn’t see any helpful ledges that would have given me a place to land.

Which meant the only thing that could possibly help me would be my time travel gift.

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