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Annie walked over to a small vanity and opened her jewelry box. Like the rest of the room, the box was organized. She took off her wedding ring, put it on the table, and pulled out a black velvet pouch. “This was my mother’s ring. It’s the only thing I really care about.”
The pain in Annie’s voice hit me. She had no living family, no close friends, no one she trusted with the truth—except me, a virtual stranger she’d met only three months ago. She was leaving her abusive husband and there was no turning back. I knew it, she knew it.
“Bring the kids’ things in here and I’ll pack. I know they’ll want toys—only take things they really, really need. A favorite stuffed animal. A few games or books for the road.”
“PJ has an iPad. I know he’s young, but...”
“No iPad. No phones. No electronics of any kind. Nothing he can use to track you.”
Annie’s lip quivered. “I—I didn’t think about that.”
“I did. Just get the clothes, any important papers you might need.”
Now tears fell. “He keeps everything locked in his safe. I don’t have the combination.”
Of course he did. Damn bastard. “That’s okay. I have good forgeries of what you need with your new names, but the originals might come in handy. Don’t worry about that now. Go. Clock’s ticking.”
While Annie went to the kids’ rooms, I searched her bedroom, looking for anything that I could use against Peter Carillo. Important items were likely in the safe in the closet. Bet his guns were in there as well.
Annie came back with a laundry basket filled with boys’ clothes and a worn blue blanket. “PJ can’t sleep without it. And his pillow.”
“Good. I’ll pack everything. Go get Marie and her things.”
Eleven minutes left. PJ’s things filled most of the smaller suitcase once I’d stuffed in the pillow and blanket. That was okay. Again, I selected a change of clothes and rolled them into the duffel, then added the blanket, which freed up room for Marie’s clothes in the suitcase. When my nephew was little, he couldn’t sleep without his T. rex stuffed animal. We used to tease my younger sister about her attachment to a small beanbag dog named Rosie, until she lost the dog when we were camping at the Grand Canyon and cried for a week.
Annie came in with another laundry basket of baby clothes for Marie. “Grab everything else I put on the list—diapers, medicines, ointments, whatever. Go.”
Annie obeyed without question. She was strong. At least now she was; I hoped she stayed strong over time—when she was alone, scared, with only two young children as company.
Babies were messy, so I put three clothing changes into the duffel plus a handful of diapers. The rest went into the smaller suitcase, and by the time Annie came in with Marie and a diaper bag, I had everything zipped up.
I carefully searched the diaper bag for any sort of hidden tracker. Annie watched me, but didn’t speak.
“Anything else? Anything important? You can’t come back.”
“You said no electronics, but what about a portable DVD player? For the car—it’s a long drive. There’s no internet or anything. PJ loves his shows, and...well... I don’t know what to tell him. I don’t know how he’s going to handle this.”
“He’ll handle it if you handle it. He’s almost four. He looks to you for everything.” My timer went off. Dammit. I set it for five more minutes. “We have to go. Grab the smaller suitcase.” I took the large suitcase and duffel off the bed and went downstairs.
PJ was standing on the other side of the child safety gate. He looked at me with curious eyes as I hauled the dark purple luggage over the railing. “Who are you?”
“A friend of your mommy’s.” While I’d been working with Annie for nearly three months, we never met around PJ, fearing he might say something to his dad. No matter how innocuous, even an innocent comment could put the plan in danger. Put Annie in danger.
Behind me, Annie said, “PJ, go put on your shoes, okay?”
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Okay!” He ran to the laundry room where his shoes were lined up in cubby holes.
“Do you have food for the drive?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t take any money out of your account?”
She shook her head. Peter Carillo tracked all household expenses, but for the last fifteen months—since she found out she was pregnant with Marie—Annie had been planning to leave. So she’d been taking cash back at the grocery store—twenty dollars here and there, not every trip. Keeping change. On her own, she’d saved up just over three thousand dollars. Hid it in Marie’s room under the diaper pail lining. Brave, and a sign that I was right about Annie: she wouldn’t fail me.
