Read Out of Reach: A Novel for Free Online Page B

dollar bills.
    Too bad Janie wasn’t here. It was a little early in the day for ice cream, but that would make it even more fun. Erin stood and started toward the small crowd of children, thinking she could buy Janie a treat for later.
    When she got closer, however, she saw that the vendor wasn’t dishing out ice cream. Not yet, anyway. Instead, he was performing simple sleight-of-hand tricks for his captive audience. A squeal of delight escaped one little girl as he pulled a coin from her ear, then made it disappear again with a sweep of his other hand.
    He wasn’t bad for a playground magician. In fact, the longer she watched, the more she realized he was very good. And there was something familiar about him. At first she couldn’t say exactly what, but then realized it was his hands. The way they moved, with an economy of motion, plucking a coin from the air or stroking a child’s cheek, without quite touching . . .
    Erin shivered.
    Where?
    She studied those hands, and him, certain she’d seen him before. It nagged at her, tugging at a memory and making her uneasy. Nothing else about him helped place him. He was between forty and fifty. Five-ten or -eleven. Pale blue eyes. Balding. Soft around the middle. And nondescript. Which in itself bothered her.
    When he finished his act, he started handing out ice cream to his eager audience. The children, however, weren’t done with him and begged for more tricks. He accommodated them, giving out another ice-cream bar and making the dollar of the boy who’d bought it disappear in midair.
    Erin had to know where she’d seen him before.
    She started across the grass to ask, then stopped, natural wariness or her CIA training taking over. Besides the sense that she should know him, there was something else disturbing about him, something that seemed not quite right. She told herself she was being foolish. He was, after all, only an ice-cream man, and none of the kids seemed the least bit shy around him. Still, Erin hung back, standing among the watching parents, taking note of the name on the cart— KAUFFMAN FARMS FINE ICE CREAM —and memorizing his features.
    When the children finally released him, Erin fell back with the others. Though she kept an eye on him, with a quick glance or two as he closed down and readied his cart to move on. She gave one of the children a quick push on a swing, smiling at the mother who was busy with a toddler on a nearby plastic duck. Another quick look over her shoulder, another push, and Erin stepped away from the swing set.
    He walked down the path, heading for the picnic grounds, his little bell announcing his approach.
    Erin followed, weaving through the children as they raced from one piece of equipment to the next. She’d reached the edge of the playground, where she’d have to head across the grass toward the path . . .
    “Miss Baker!”
    Startled, she turned toward the child’s voice.
    “Look, Mama, it’s Janie’s aunt.” A little girl, familiar, ran toward her, a woman about Erin’s age trailing behind. “It’s me, Alice. Don’t you remember?”
    The child slid into place. Last week, when Erin had picked up Janie from a birthday party, she’d given this little girl a ride home.
    “Of course I remember you,” Erin said, glancing at the retreating ice-cream cart.
    “This is my mom,” Alice said, tugging on the woman who’d just caught up to her daughter.
    Erin wanted to hurry after the man as he disappeared around a bend in the path, but what could she say?
Excuse me, but I think I’ve seen the ice-cream vendor before, and I want to follow him to see if I can remember where.
Put like that, it sounded ridiculous.
    So she forced a smile and tried to focus on Alice and her mother. “Hi, Alice’s mom, I’m Janie’s aunt Erin.”
    The other woman laughed. “Please, call me Rose. Thanks for bringing Alice home last week. My car picked the wrong day to get a flat tire.”
    “Is there ever a good day for that type of