In the two king-size beds, the four boys lay as oblivious to the world as if this were the first sleep of their lives, as if thousands of nights of unpaid slumber must now be accounted and rectified before morning.
Luther was drawn toward the rollaway as though it was the most appealing bed he’d ever encountered. He would already have been deep in sleep if he hadn’t needed to call Rebecca at nine o’clock.
He went into the bathroom, so as not to disturb the children. He closed the lid of the toilet and sat down. With his disposable phone, he called her disposable and soon learned that Rob Stassen’s Buick had gotten them to Rockford, but not with the anonymity they wanted. An hour and a half earlier, they checked in to an older hotel, a few blocks from where they abandoned the station wagon.
Alarmed that they had been followed but proud of the initiative with which they had shaken off their surveillance, Luther said, “How will you get to Chicago in time tomorrow?”
Rebecca said, “I don’t like the bus terminal or train station.”
“I don’t like them, either.”
“I fibbed to Robbie Stassen, said I was going to Madison to move Aunt Tandy in with Mom. So I thought…I didn’t want to call Mom for help, that might be too obvious. But whoever these people are, they can’t have every phone tapped, can they? So I called Aunt Tandy. Is that okay?”
“I think so. You had to do something.”
“I told her Jolie and I are in Rockford, my Toyota went kaput, could she loan me a car. She has two, never sold Uncle Calvin’s.”
Just across the border in Wisconsin, Madison was no more than sixty miles from Rockford.
Luther said, “You didn’t tell her why you’re in Rockford?”
“I made up a story. Turns out Aunt Tandy has a boyfriend.”
“What is she—eighty?”
“A young seventy-nine. The boyfriend is seventy. She’s a cradle robber. She’s driving Calvin’s Dodge. The boyfriend’s following in her car, so he can take her home. They’ll be here in half an hour.”
Luther said, “You’re amazing, how you’re handling all this.”
“You should realize, being married to a wild man like you has given me nerves of steel.”
He smiled. “I am a tough case to handle.”
“You’ll never know how tough, sugar. So Chicago tomorrow and then what? Where do we go from there? Where are you?”
“On the move. I’ll know by tomorrow night where I’ll be next.”
“I need to see you, Luther.”
“Me, too. More than anything. I love you. Remember that place we went that time on holiday, where most likely Twyla was conceived?”
“It’s unforgettable.”
“Go there tomorrow. You’ve got my number, I’ve got yours, but if anything goes wrong, I’ll know where to find you. How’s Jolie?”
“She’s a natural-born fugitive. No posse is ever going to track her down. She wants to talk to you.”
“Daddy?” Jolie said when she took the phone.
“Hi, candygirl.”
“You haven’t called me that in forever.”
“No offense meant.”
“None taken. Daddy, tell me straight, is it all falling apart?”
“Is what falling apart, sweetheart?”
“The country, the world, civilization, the human experiment.”
“Everything’s always falling apart, Jolie, but at the same time it’s always being rebuilt.”
“Excuse me, but that is a load of cow pies. You’re better than that, Daddy.”
“You’re right. Listen, it’s not all falling apart. There’s an evil thing going on, and like all evil things, it’s going to end badly for the people behind it.”
“Are we going to be okay? You and Mom and me and Twyla?”
The girl was too smart to be reassured by platitudes. “All I can say, Jolie, is I’ll do everything I can to be sure we’re okay.”
“Good. Okay. That’s all I wanted to hear. I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you, too, Jolie.”
After the call ended, even as tired as he was, Luther did not go at once to bed. He stood at the sink, gazing at his reflection but not seeing himself, seeing instead Rebecca and Twyla and Jolie, their faces risen vividly in memory as if actually materializing in the mirror, conjured there by the intensity of his love. He said the briefest prayer that heaven’s protection would be granted to these three precious women, for he was not confident that doing everything he could do for them would be enough.