I'll Walk Alone - Mary Higgins Clark [118]
“Yes. Yes.”
“Well, ma’am, I hope what I am going to say is some comfort to you. Your father’s final words were, ‘Tell my Glory that I love her.’ “
She pushed the button to disconnect the call. I have to go home now, she thought wildly. I have to put my arms around him one last time. What was the reservation that had been made for her? Yes, 10:30 tomorrow morning at LaGuardia, Continental Airlines to Atlanta. I’ll change the reservation. I’ll go straight home. I have to see him. I have to tell Daddy, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
She opened her laptop. Half out of her mind with grief and regret, her fingers moved automatically to the Continental Airlines Web site. For a few minutes her fingers raced over the keys. Then she stopped. I should have known, she thought. I should have known.
There was no reservation in the name of Gloria Evans to Atlanta at 10:30 A.M.
There was no Continental Airlines plane leaving at that time to Atlanta.
Margaret/Glory/Brittany closed the computer. He’ll be here soon. He won’t have the money. I’ll never escape him. He’ll hunt me down with the same hatred he has hunted Zan Moreland. Her sin was not to want him and mine is that I am a threat to him.
He would be here soon. She knew it. She was standing at the window facing the road. A white truck was slowly passing the house. She gasped. Larry Post had been waiting in a white truck when she left Central Park with Matthew. If he was coming here now, it was to make sure she never had the chance to give Ted up to the cops.
It was too late to get Matthew and go to the car. Her eyes wild, she knew what might work. Rushing upstairs, she picked up Matthew, who was still asleep on the bed. The same way he was when I took him out of the stroller, she thought. She carried him downstairs and put him on the inflated mat in the closet.
“Are you going now?” Matthew asked drowsily.
“Very soon, Matty.” She knew she didn’t have to warn him not to make a sound until she came back for him. I taught him well, poor kid, she thought.
The sound of the bell ringing resonated through the house.
She locked the door of the closet and dropped the key behind the server in the dining room on her way to the door.
A smiling Larry Post was looking in the kitchen window. “Brittany, I’ve got a present for you from Ted,” he called out.
83
That was a good lunch,” Willy said complacently as he sipped the last of his cappuccino.
“Yes, it was. And, oh, Willy, I just know that Detective Collins is looking at all this in a different way. I mean, it’s going to be as plain as the nose on your face that no woman about to kidnap her own child would bother to change her shoes for an almost identical pair. But what scares me is that whoever is behind this might start to panic if he finds out that the detectives are starting to believe Zan.
“And the question is whether after all this, even if Zan can prove her innocence, there’s a limit on how much longer she can keep herself going if Matthew isn’t found.”
Willy agreed, his expression now weighted with concern. Then, as he reached for his wallet, he said, “Honey, just as I was leaving the apartment to meet you, Penny Hammel called. I didn’t pick up.”
“Oh, Willy, I feel kind of mean. I had my cell phone turned off when I was meeting Detective Collins, but when I called you I saw there was a message from Penny and frankly I didn’t want to be bothered listening to it. I was too excited thinking about the fact that maybe the tide was turning for Zan.”
She looked around. “I know it’s not polite to use your cell phone in the restaurant, but I won’t be talking, just listening.” Alvirah turned away from the table, trying to give the impression she was reaching down for her pocketbook. She opened her phone and pressed the number to receive her messages. Then as she listened her face went pale.
“Willy,” she said, her voice shaking. “I think Penny may have found Matthew! Oh, sweet Lord, it