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Wolgast thought it then The sentences were as clear in his o

Doyle’s lost track of time He’s distracted Do it

Save her

Around and around they went Amy’s horse bobbed up and down like a piston In just these few ather into a plan When the ride was over, he would take her, glide into the darkness, the crowds, away froate; by the ti but an empty space in the lot A thousand miles in every direction; they’d be shole into it He was good, he knehat he was doing He’d kept the Tahoe, he saw, for just this reason; even back then, standing in the parking lot in Little Rock, the germ of the idea had lain inside him, like a seed about to break open He didn’t knohat he’d do about finding the girl’s ure that out later He’d never felt anything like it, this blast of clarity All his life seeular purpose The rest-the Bureau, Sykes, Carter, and the others, even Doyle-was a lie, a veil his true self had lived behind, waiting to step into the light The moment had coan to slow He didn’t even look in Doyle’s direction, not wanting to jinx this new feeling, to scare it away When they reached a complete stop, he lifted Amy from her horse and knelt so they were eye to eye

"A for "

The girl nodded

"We’re leaving now Just the two of us Stay close, don’t say a word We’re going to bequickly, but don’t run Do just as I say and everything will be fine" He searched her face for comprehension "Do you understand?"

"I shouldn’t run"

"Exactly Now let’s go"

They stepped from the deck; they’d coast hoisted her quickly over the fence that surrounded the ride, then, bracing his hand on a metal post, vaulted over himself No one seemed to notice-or maybe they did, but he didn’t look back With Amy’s hand in his he strode briskly toward the rear of the fairgrounds, away froate or else find another exit If they moved quickly, Doyle would never notice until it was too late

They came to a tall chain-link fence; beyond it stood a dark line of trees and, farther still, the lights of a highway, he fields to the south There was no way through; the only route was around the peri the fence back to the rass, still wet froed back near the food stands and the picnic table where they had eaten Froast could see the exit, just a hundred feet away His heart was thu in his chest He paused to quickly scan the scene; Doyle was nowhere

"Straight out the exit," he told Aast froze Doyle caht we said an hour, boss"

Wolgast looked at hiht we’d lost you," he said "We were just colanced quickly over his shoulder toward the beer tent "Well, you know," he said "Got caught up in a little conversation" He suiltily "Nice folks around here Real talkers" He gestured at Wolgast’s water-stained slacks "What happened to you? You’re all wet"

For a"Puddles" He did his best not to look away, to hold Doyle in his gaze "The rain" There was one other chance, maybe, if he could somehow distract Doyle on the way to the Tahoe But Doyle was younger and stronger, and Wolgast had left his weapon back in the car

"The rain," Doyle repeated He nodded, and Wolgast saw it in the youngerThe beer tent was a test, a trap He and Aht, not for a second "I see Well, we have a job to do Right, chief?"

"Phil-"

"Don’t" His voice was quiet-notthe facts "Don’t even say the words We’re partners, Brad It’s tiast’s hopefulness collapsed inside him Amy’s hand was still in his; he couldn’t bear even to look at her I’h his hand I’ five paces behind the lot

Neither of them noticed the man-the off-duty Oklahoma state trooper who, two hours before, had seen the wire report on a girl kidnapped by two Caucasianoff to the high school to meet his wife and watch his kids ride the bu the

All that day the words sat on his lips: when he awoke at eight, as he bathed and dressed and ate his breakfast and sat on the bed in his roo Parlia, this hat he heard:

Fanning I was called Fanning

The wordsto Grey The name wasn’t one he knew He’d never , not that he could remember Yet somehohile he’d slept, the naone to sleep listening to a song played over and over, the lyrics digging a rut into his brain like a plow, and now part of his ? What the hell? It made him think of the prison shrink, Dr Wilder, and the way he’d led Grey down into a state deeper than sleep, the rooiveness, with the slow tap-tap-tap of his pen on the table, the sound snaking inside hier or scratch his head or light a s rhyth he did

I(flick)was(light)called(draw)Fanning(exhale)