field trip day, and the kids are going to a water park. Will won’t be back until five.”
Lake squeezed her temple, thinking. She had to make this work.
“Okay, why don’t I get there just before five? I’ll visit Amy and then surprise Will with a quick hello when the bus returns.”
“All right, then, I’ll let Amy know,” he said. She could detect from his tone that she’d left him vexed and grumpy. Tough, she thought.
After she signed off, she dragged the hall table in front of the door again. Two photos toppled over as she gave it a final shove. For a moment, she just stood and stared at the scene in front of her. It looked right out of a horror movie—the door barricaded as if she were expecting the arrival of a homicidal doll or a serial killer hoisting a chain saw. Though Jack would be picking the kids up from camp in less than a week and a half and taking them to the Hamptons for another week, after that they would be back here with her. How could she explain the nightly barricade to them? Or what had happened to Smokey? How could she put them in danger?
There was only one way to stop all this, and that was to expose the clinic. Everything—the kids’ safety, her safety, life as she’d once known it—rested on that. And that, in turn, depended on whether Rory could find the information she needed and if Archer could supply it to the right people. It had been ages since she’d relied on anyone, and now she was banking on two people she barely knew. It felt unfamiliar, uncomfortable.
She faxed the kids, telling Amy she couldn’t wait to see her but saying nothing to Will about her visit. For dinner she nuked a frozen French bread pizza that tasted of ancient freezer burn. She ate it with Smokey at her feet while she searched online for the New Century Research company that Rory had mentioned. Nothing came up. It was an organization that clearly preferred flying under the radar.
At eight she tried Archer again. Still voice mail. It seemed odd not to hear from him since he’d seemed eager for an update. Maybe he was on to the next best story. Next she rang downstairs on the intercom. It was the night doorman who answered, having obviously been called in early. He had no news of Bob, he said. She dug the number for her neighbors out of a drawer, thinking Stan might have heard something. An answering machine picked up. Great—so much for his staying in for the night.
Exhausted, she decided to turn in early and bunk down in the living room again—she felt more secure somehow, knowing she could keep an eye on the door. As she tossed a bed pillow and summer blanket onto the couch, she recalled how safe she had felt at Archer’s last night—a place where no one could find her.
She was leafing listlessly through a magazine when the phone rang. It had to be Archer, she told herself. But when she picked up the receiver and glanced at the screen she saw that the caller was Molly. She nearly dropped the phone in shock, as if it had morphed into something venomous. And yet she knew it wouldn’t be smart to put off the conversation—she had to pretend things were perfectly normal.
“Hi there,” Lake said, as a way of answering.
“You okay?” Molly demanded. “I got that frantic message from you last night and then couldn’t reach you.”
“Oh—sorry. I—I was a little worried about how my presentation went—the one at the clinic—and I just needed to talk. Sorry if I made it seem like an emergency.”
“Your voice sounded really rattled. So it didn’t go well?”
“Actually, I’ve heard some feedback since then and they liked it,” she lied. “Sometimes it’s just so hard to know in the moment.”
“And there’s really nothing wrong? You still sound funny to me.”
“No, you just caught me as I was getting ready for bed. Everything went fine.”
“If you say so,” Molly said. Lake could almost see her shrugging, unconvinced. Molly obviously sensed something was up. How perfectly gleeful she’d be, Lake thought, if she knew the truth and could run to Jack with it: “Here’s something for your custody case, darling—her client thinks she was spying on them.”
“What about that murder?” Molly added before Lake could chase her off the phone. “Has anyone been arrested? I haven’t read any news in