Page 18 of Collapse

“Whatisyour name?” She wasn’t telling me things because her boss had told her to now. Nor did I think it was completely due to our dire situation. It was because she had been keeping it to herself for so long. She even smiled as she looked straight ahead at nothing in particular.

“It’s Maggie now,” she said, “before that, it was Peggy.” She turned her head a little so she could look up at me. “And before that,” she continued, “it was Margaret.” Her smile weakened but didn’t falter. “I hated changing it. I let it slide on the surnames. Alder, Evans. They’re not mine, they never have been, and I didn’t care. But my given name? That’s all I have.”

So, she had refused to give it up. Kept to variations of it. A way to claim her own self despite the bad things that had happened to her. And to think that a week ago, I would have relished in getting this information. Now? I cared, but not the same way. Now, I felt sorry for her. Not pity. It was sad what a bad hand she’d been dealt on account of her ability.

“Anyway,” she continued and looked down again. “I would've had a new name soon.”

That took me aback. “Why?” I asked. She seemed so calm about it despite what she’d told me. She sat relaxed against my side, her cheek resting on my upper arm. The garage was cool, and the warmth from her felt oddly comforting.

“Yorov…FBI...haven’t you been paying attention?” She didn’t sound annoyed. Only tired.

“Won’t they just find you again?”

“Not if—” She stopped herself a moment. “Not if we can figure outhowthey found me. Then we won’t make the same mistake twice.”

She had been about to say Eddie. I was sure of it. There was no one else in Ashport with that kind of reputation for dealing with identity fraud. Apparently, he dealt in more than what we suspected him of.

“Anyway,” she continued. “That won’t matter unless we can get out of this.”

“Yeah, well…thewhenis up to him.” I glanced toward the office again. He was still on the phone, his voice a low undecipherable rumble. The call lasted ten more minutes before he hung up and came into the garage carrying a chair. He placed it about six or seven feet from us and sat down, bending forward and leaning his arms on his thighs. His dark suit was stained from his attack on us earlier–light dusty patches he hadn’t bothered to brush off. That showed how much he cared about the expensive suit.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he began and looked at us with a blank expression. “Preparations are being made for your transport to my boss’s office. In a couple of hours, we’ll continue driving to the nearest field office. From there, you’ll be taken by car and plane. For our short drive, you’ll be sedated, as I don’t trust you.” He actually threw in the smallest of smiles at the last part. Still, transport by plane? We weren’t being sent on a short trip. And his boss, whoever that was, had some serious authority within their organization to pull this off. There were no warrants out on us. We hadn’t even been arrested.

“You do realize you’ve kidnapped a cop?” I said. “What do you think will happen when my colleagues realize I’m nowhere to be found?”

The agent did not seem the least bit concerned about this. “We have ways of calming such situations down–besides Detective, you’ve been mixed up in a lot of non-legal happenings in the last few days, haven’t you? If need be, I’m sure we can rustle up some charges.”

“Why did you bring him anyway?” Evans asked. “Are you enjoying the kidnapping thing so much you just added more people to your plan?”

Even with my mind tumbling from the implied blackmail, I saw she had a point. Larkin could simply have left me on the roadside and only taken Evans.

“Seems these days that wherever I find you, Ms. Evans, I also find Detective Hansen. I figured the best way to keep you in a cooperative mood was to bring your boyfriend along as well.”

“That’swhat you think?” she asked and sat up straight, leaning on the metal pipe again. “You’ve misunderstood this whol—”

“You misbehave and make my job difficult–he pays,” Larkin broke her off.

“But—”

“Did I speak in a language you don’t understand?” He stood up, making it clear this conversation was over. Evans opened her mouth to say something but kept quiet. The look on the agent’s face did not speak of false threats. As he grabbed the chair to take it with him I noticed movement in the office. I leaned to my left to see better and inhaled sharply.

“Andrea.”

“What?” Evans said beside me.

“Andrea,” I repeated and raised my voice to make her hear me. She stood inside the office, though I could only see her from her shoulders up. She looked around in confusion until my shout got her attention. If she came where her focus object was, I figured Evans’ purse with Andrea’s locket was in the office. Larkin must have taken our stuff with him.

She turned and saw us, and then ran through the door. I had, after all, seen Evans’ hand pass right through her when she first appeared at Rob’s house.

“Oh, Andrea,” Evans said, relief on her face.

Larkin, on the other hand, drew his gun and aimed it at her, telling her to stop. She did. Even attempted to raise her hands, and then seemed to remember his gun couldn’t hurt her. She ran past him, toward us. The look on his face as his arm passed through her when he attempted to hold her back was likely what mine must have been the first time I saw it. He seemed utterly shocked. Odd, considering he knew about Evans and Yorov. Maybe he didn’t know much about the rest of them. Or care.

“Maggie. They’re leaving,” Andrea said as she stopped in front of us. “Something bad is happening.” Then she actually looked at us and realized we were tied up. She glanced back at Agent Larkin. “What’s going on? What kind of trouble are you in?”

“Listen, Andrea,” Evans said, her voice calm and as comforting as she could muster. “One of your kidnappers is dead. That’s what has them all riled up. I don’t know if they know, but him being missing must have them in a panic by now. It’s the guy with the tawny hair. I killed him.”

Andrea looked shocked at this blunt admission of such an action but nodded her understanding of the situation. It probably explained a few things for her. She looked ragged and tired in addition to being panicked.

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