in. And he didn’t have his extra charger because he’d packed it in his messenger bag, which was back in his hotel room.
Shit. Larry thumbed to the phone function and pressed Allie’s picture to call her, but the call wouldn’t go through. A warning came up, telling him he didn’t have enough power to make a phone call. He thumbed to the text function, found her name, and hit the microphone icon to dictate.
Text me where you are going, it typed, then he hit SEND.
CHAPTER 77
Allie Garvey
Allie got a text alert on her phone and glanced over to see the banner on the top of the screen. It was from Larry.
Text me where you are going
Allie felt touched. He cared enough to ask, but she still didn’t want to tell him over the phone. She picked up the phone, scrolled to the text function, and hit the microphone icon to dictate.
Tell you later, hope you understand, love you
She pressed SEND and set the phone back down, traveling south in the darkness. It seemed like a pretty area, but she couldn’t see at night. Allie didn’t know much about New Jersey except her in-laws’ house in Clifton. She had no idea where she was going.
She double-checked her GPS, but she was going the same way as the blue line. She hadn’t known that Julian had two homes. The TV news had shown a video of his beautiful stone home with outbuildings and horses in Pennsylvania. If his New Jersey home was even half as nice, it would be a palace.
She’d know soon enough.
CHAPTER 78
Julian Browne
Julian raced along the back roads. He was on a schedule, and so far, so good. He hadn’t taken long at Mac’s, and he’d arrive ahead of Allie, as he planned. He doubted she’d get there earlier than he told her to. She was a rule-follower. Fat kid Allie Gravy.
Julian zoomed ahead, swerving this way and that, as the two-lane road went past cornfields and dog kennels. Allie wasn’t stupid, just naïve. She trusted him because she’d grown up in the same development as he did, as if geography were any guarantee of character. Sasha had thought the same thing, evidently.
People like us don’t kill people, she had said.
Julian shook his head, musing as he drove. Both Allie and Sasha were completely wrong. People like us do kill people, and it doesn’t matter at all if you grew up across the street from someone. It was random that Julian had grown up across from Sasha, and that the two of them had met at all. Or because he had loved her so much, maybe it was luck. Or fate. Or an Act of God.
Julian veered left, then right, enjoying the sensation of the car hugging the turns. He didn’t believe in God, but he was starting to wonder about randomness, fate, and luck. Something was coming together in his life, especially because, since Hurricane Sandy, he was in the Act-of-God business. Every insurance policy had an Act-of-God clause, and that’s why nobody was paying off and flood insurance was so insanely expensive. Because nobody could ensure against such a thing.
Julian whizzed by small clapboard houses, their cheap lights on within, their televisions flickering. He felt himself buzzing, thinking more clearly than ever before, all of his senses on high alert, every piston firing like a superb and powerful engine. Killing was an Act of God, after all. God was the only one entitled to give and take life, and whether the killing occurred in a hurricane or as a result of a bullet, Julian didn’t see the difference. And if you performed Acts of God, you became God. Or a god. Or at least godlike. Because he had to admit to himself, that’s how he was feeling.
Julian breathed deeply as he drove, letting the air fill his lungs, inspired, literally. He was in the zone. He could do no wrong. Everything was falling into place. He was going to run Browne after having been trained to do it, all his life. He had everything ahead of him, and the future was limitless. All he had to do was get rid of Allie, who was driving like a lamb to the slaughter.
Well, the butcher was ready.
CHAPTER 79
Larry Rucci
Larry watched the Allie-dot turn onto Route 206 South. He was getting more worried. She would have left behind the suburban sprawl, and it would be getting more and more rural. Route 206 traveled south through the Pine Barrens, a pine