Save Me - Lisa Scottoline [120]
Rose headed back to the factory floor to ask Juanita about the lighting, but stopped when she noticed a man approaching her at the screening station. It could have been the supervisor, Scotty, and Rose didn’t want to take any chances of his calling Trish. She did an about-face, walked back toward the locker room, and hurried out of the building.
Five minutes later, she was in her car and driving away from the plant, in the late-day sun. She whipped off her hairnet, glasses, earplugs, and gloves, but she didn’t pull over to take off her uniform. She couldn’t risk getting caught, and her brain was buzzing. So Mojo had lied about Bill Gigot’s death, trying to make it look more like an accident, which only made it more likely to be murder.
She hit the gas, heading into Reesburgh, where traffic was picking up. She didn’t understand why Mojo would have killed Bill Gigot and she wished she could bounce it off of Leo. She glanced at the dashboard clock—5:15. He’d just be getting out of court, so maybe she could reach him. She fished her phone out of her purse, slowed her speed, and when she came to a traffic light, hit L. She waited for it to ring, but the voicemail came on, and she left a message. “Call me when you can. Love you.”
She pressed END, then dialed Annie while the traffic light was still red, but there was no answer there, either. The traffic light turned green, and she cruised forward, trying to decide what to do next. She still didn’t have any evidence to take to the state police, and she wasn’t sure how the murder of Bill Gigot was connected to the school fire, except by Mojo. It was a puzzle with pieces missing, but she felt oddly closer than ever.
She drove ahead, looking through the windshield at the narrow strip of highway, barely seeing the trees with their turning leaves, and her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number on the screen, but didn’t want to miss a return call if Leo or Annie were calling from a different phone, so she picked up. “Hello?”
“Rose?” a woman said, between sobs. “It’s … Kristen.”
“Kristen, what’s the matter?” Rose asked, alarmed. The teacher sounded like she was crying hard.
“I need … help. Please … help me.”
“My God, is it the baby? Are you okay? Kristen, call 911. I can’t get to Lavallette in time.”
“No, it’s not … the baby. I’m so scared. Please, I need to talk to you. There’s nobody else.”
“What is it? I’m here. I can listen.” Rose was already looking for a break in the traffic, to pull over on the shoulder. “What are you afraid of? What’s going on?”
“I can’t tell you over the phone.” Kristen’s crying slowed. “Where are you?”
“In Reesburgh. Where are you? Are you in New Jersey?”
“I can’t say, but … I need to see you. I’ll text you when and where to meet me, after we hang up.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Rose, everything I told you was a lie.”
Chapter Sixty-nine
“What’s going on?” Rose was sitting in her car with Kristen, having convinced the teacher that her appearance was a master disguise. It was after dark, and they were parked at the edge of a cornfield, in the middle of the farm country outside of Reesburgh. The air was cool and fresh, and the only light came from the full moon, her car’s high beams, and the dashboard, which shone upward on Kristen’s young face, showing the wetness to her eyes. Her gray T-shirt and sweats looked thrown on.
“Rose, I lied to you, about everything. Well, not one thing. I am pregnant.”
“Okay.” Rose tried to slow her heart, which was hammering. She’d taken off her Homestead uniform, which she’d had on over her clothes.
“But it’s not my boyfriend’s baby, like I told you.”
“Whose is it?”
“Um…” Kristen hesitated, sighing. “Let me just say, I wish it was his baby, because he’s a great guy. And he didn’t break up with me,