to his car and drove off. He got on the phone to Blue Man and filled him in.
The man’s remarks were terse. “I would stay away from this eyewitness if I were you.”
“I think I had that one covered on my own. But find out what you can about her. Do you have Jordison?”
“She’s doing fine and eating quite well. She’s cleaned up and has new clothes. Does our help include finding her suitable employment?”
“Yes, it does, preferably somewhere other than here. And make sure she gets a nice bump in salary over what she was making.”
Robie clicked off and sped up. Something had just occurred to him. He needed to talk to Julie. And he didn’t want to do it over the phone.
She was waiting for him when he opened the door.
“I’m not sure how much longer I can just sit in this place and do nothing, Will.”
He closed and locked the door behind him. He sat across from her. She wore jeans, a sweatshirt, lime green Converse tennis shoes, and an exasperated attitude.
“I’m juggling lots of balls,” he said. “I’m doing the best I can.”
“I don’t want to be one of the little balls you’re juggling,” she shot back.
“I’ve got a question for you. Depending on how you answer might change the complexity of everything.”
“What is it?”
“Why the bus? More particularly, why that bus on that night?”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s a simple question, Julie. There are lots of ways you could’ve gotten out of town. Why did you choose that way?”
If her answer was what he thought it would be, things were going to get more complicated than they already were. His head started to throb at that possibility.
“My mom sent me a note.”
“How? You said you didn’t have a cell phone.”
“She sent the note to my school. She did that a lot. They put it in your mailbox and they send an email to your advisor that a student has a note. I went to the office and got it.”
“When did she send it?”
“I guess the day I left the Dixons’. It was hand-delivered.”
“Did the office say your mom had delivered it?”
“No, I just assumed.”
“What did the note say?”
“It said to come home that night. That my mom and dad were going to make some changes. Get a fresh start.”
“Sounds like they were moving.”
“I wasn’t sure about that, but I knew that could be a possibility. All I know is as soon as I got the note I wanted to get out of the Dixons’ house. I dropped off those photographs of them at the foster care agency that night.”
“But what about the bus?”
“That was in my note too. Mom said if they weren’t home when I got there I was to go to the Outta Town bus station and take the 112 bus to New York City. They would meet me at the Port Authority Bus Terminal the next morning. They put cash in the envelope that came with the note.”
“Did you recognize your mom’s handwriting?”
“It was typed.”
“Did she often send you typed notes?”
“Sometimes. She used the computer at the diner. They have a printer too.”
“Why not just come to the school and talk to you directly?”
“She wasn’t allowed to. I was in foster care. They wouldn’t have let her in to see me. But she could drop off a note at the office.”
Robie sat back.
She stared pointedly at him. “You think my mom didn’t write that note?”
“I think the odds are very high she didn’t.”
“Why would someone else send me that information? And the cash?”
“Because they wanted you on that bus. And it was a pretty big coincidence that the moment you walk in the house, the guy comes in with your parents and starts shooting. And think about it, Julie. The man who killed your parents, do you really think he would’ve let you get away?”
“You mean it was all a setup? And he let me escape? So I’d get on that bus?”
“Yes. We wondered where your parents were from the time your mom got off work to when they showed up at their house. I think they were abducted and held until they saw you sneak in the house.”
“But the bus was rigged to blow up. If they were going to kill me why didn’t he just do it at the house?”
“I don’t think that bomb was set on a motion timer to blow up. I think the plan was if we got off the bus they would detonate it remotely. If we didn’t