Maybe I'd find Phin there, happy and healthy.
Maybe I wouldn't sit home all night, worrying about things I couldn't change.
I couldn't leave Sam by himself, not after my little talk with Charles.
But he wasn't the best partner to bring with me to break into the store.
People would overlook a woman wandering around the Uptown mall in Richland even after most of the stores were closed.
It wasn't that late, a little after nine at night.
The crime rate is relatively low in Richland--and most of what crime there is tends to be committed by gang members or teenagers.
Sam .
.
.
I imagined the hypothetical conversation as I drove down the interstate.
Officer: "Tell me, did you see anything unusual last night?" Random witness: "There was this big white dog.
Huge.
And really white, stood out in the darkness like a beacon." Yep.
Sam made matters more difficult.
So I would just act like I knew what I was doing and hope no one ever called the police to investigate.
"I don't know what I hope to discover in the bookstore," I said.
"There is hardly going to be a note telling me where Phin is, right? Still, it's a start.
If we don't find anything, maybe we'll go break into his apartment.
It's better than sitting around at home, right?" And the pack was meeting at Adam's house that night.
I knew why he'd called the meeting.
He wanted to find out who'd been playing games with me.
He'd called me to tell me what he was doing--and asked me to stay away because he hadn't had a chance to show me how to defend myself from pack members crawling around in my head.
I should have gone over anyway, confronted my enemies.
But it was different when all your enemies could do was kill you.
"I don't want to stay home knowing how much of a coward I am," I told Sam.
"I should have gone to Adam's when I saw them all arrive." He grunted.
"But the thought of them being able to make me do something I would never .
.
." I was pretty sure that it hadn't just been lack of opportunity that kept Adam from teaching me how to protect myself.