Silent Run - Barbara Freethy [105]
“But you got some help.”
“From Andy Hart. He was the only one I confided in. He swore that he would never tell anyone, and I trusted him.”
“What about your other friends, Catherine and Teresa? Catherine said you never contacted her after you disappeared from Chicago.”
“I sent her a note. I didn’t want her to worry, but I guess she still did. I didn’t contact Teresa at all. It was bad enough that Andy knew where I was. I couldn’t risk any leaks, and I couldn’t put anyone else in danger. After a while, as the years passed, I started to relax. Victor was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Nothing bad had happened in a long time. I thought maybe they’d given up on me. I was lonely and tired of running, so after about five years I went to San Francisco. Andy was there, and I thought it would be nice to live near someone I knew. That’s when I met you.”
“And lied to me, too,” Jake said grimly. “It was just another game, wasn’t it?”
“No, it was never a game,” she denied. “I was a lot older when I met you. I had suffered for the lies I told Victor. I didn’t lie to you on a lark. I was just used to being someone else.”
“You should have told me after we moved in together, after we had a baby together.”
“I couldn’t. You were so great. I didn’t want to lose you.”
“Stop right there,” he said sharply. “I don’t want to talk about us.”
“We have to get it out.”
“Not now.”
“Okay,” she said warily. “What else do you want to know then?”
“When did Victor get out of jail?”
“Eight months ago, he got out on parole. I had no idea it could happen that fast or that he would have to serve only a third of his sentence. I’m sure his family was responsible for getting him released so quickly. At first I tried to tell myself that he wouldn’t come after me, that it had been too long. I went to see Andy. I confided to him my fears. He told me I should be ready to leave town just in case. He made up some fake birth certificates for Caitlyn to match my IDs. Three days later, Andy was dead. His house had been ransacked. Andy was the only one who knew where I lived.”
“So you ran.”
“Yes. I wiped our apartment clean, because I didn’t want anyone to put you and me together. I didn’t think Andy would have left any clues in his house, but I couldn’t be sure. You were out of the country. There was no one to leave Caitlyn with, so I grabbed her and I ran. I took a bus to San Mateo, another to San Jose, a third to Santa Cruz. I hid out in a motel there, thinking I would buy myself some time until you came back from your trip.”
Jake started shaking his head. “That’s enough, Sarah.”
“But, Jake, you have to know that I tried to contact—”
“I don’t want to hear any more,” he interrupted. “I don’t know whether you’re lying or not. But I can’t drive and listen to this, and right now we need to get to Caitlyn. So just shut the hell up.”
Sarah sat back in her seat and stared out the window, knowing what she’d known all along: that Jake would never forgive her.
Jake’s stomach was churning, his heart racing, his mind spinning with a million questions, but he couldn’t ask them now. There was a ton of midmorning traffic on the maze of LA freeways, and he needed to concentrate on getting out of town as fast as possible. He forced a lid down on the anger bubbling through his veins. He couldn’t afford to lose his cool. There was too much at stake. And while part of him did not want Sarah to utter one more word, another part of him knew he still needed more information.
“How