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Rick?”
    “What about him?”
    “When he called, he seemed quite concerned that he did not know where you are. Considering how close you two have been, it was odd that he thought I would know your whereabouts when he doesn’t.”
    Annie sighed. “Rick and I are not close now, Mom. I don’t tell him everything.”
    “When I told him about the car, he was concerned something happened to you.”
    Yeah, right. He wishes.
    “I’m fine,” Annie said. “I just need to take care of a few things before I come home.”
    “You still haven’t said where you are.”
    “It’s better if you don’t know, Mom. Trust me.”
    “That sounds ominous. Are you going to have to break my kneecaps?”
    “Maybe. You know, the usual top secret stuff with a tech company in the cutthroat modern business world.”
    Myra laughed. “Next you’re going to tell me not to bother my pretty little head about it.”
    “Something like that.”
    “I don’t understand most of your techno-garble anyway. Do you want me to get your car out of hock? I could go to your condo for the extra keys.”
    “Don’t bother. E-mail me the name of the tow company, and I’ll deal with it.” After a pause, she added, “Use the private family e-mail address.”
    They were quiet for a beat, then Myra spoke, “Honey, are you really all right?”
    “Fine, Mom. I’m fine.”
    “I love you.”
    “I love you, too.”
    After the call disconnected, Annie considered her phone. For years she literally never powered her phone off. Perhaps the moment had come. It might at least slow down Rick’s search. With no doubt in her mind that it was only a matter of time before he wore down his contact in the police department and triangulated her location, she powered off and stuck the phone back in her pocket.
    Her attention reverted to the motel before her. She had not stayed anywhere but a five-star resort in years. Her business dealings required a certain image of success. But this place was a portal to another world. No one would think to look for her here.
    Rufus Beiler assumed she wanted to leave as soon as possible. Annie certainly had led him to that conclusion. But a nondescript motel in a place she had never been before might be exactly where she belonged now. The Steamboat Springs reservation had already gone to waste. Westcliffe might be just the place to set up a temporary headquarters and try to thwart the alliance that Barrett and Rick had formed.
    Instinctively, she reached for her phone to log on and see if the two men she had trusted most—until a few days ago—had managed to do any damage in the last two hours. The black screen reminded her she had taken step one in cutting herself off from them.
    Annie decided. Ten minutes later, she put seventy dollars cash on the counter in the motel’s small lobby.
    “We do take credit cards.” The middle-aged woman behind the counter tended toward plump and battled gray. “Debit also.”
    “Cash is more convenient for me.” Annie could not afford to reveal any movement on her financial accounts right now. Rick knew too much about them, and Barrett could get into anything he decided to get into.
    Except my program,
she thought,
at least so far.
    “My name’s Mo,” the woman said. “Let me know if you need anything. Breakfast runs from seven to nine.”
    The room was modest and in need of fresh paint, but the owner clearly wanted to bill the place as belonging in the twenty-first century. The television was small, but it was a flat screen with basic cable channels. The high-speed Internet access would let her use her computer without turning on her phone. Annie plugged in both laptop and cell phone to juice them up.
    Next she spent a few minutes scrambling the passwords of every online account she could think of, even minor sites she had no reason to believe Rick would be interested in tracking. She checked on the secure server that backed up her software program and breathed relief when she saw no