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Brand's list to
kill, I don't think that would be much of a problem. Then, stashed
away in the hotel room we provide for you, you'll have all the time
you need to talk to me."
    The line didn't go dead
but no voice came back through.
    "Does that sound
better?" Allison asked.
    "Don’t think you
can just grab me like some in bullshit novel. I don’t care about
all of your surveillance techniques or whatever else you have, you
understand that? I’m rich. As fuck. You know what that means? It
means my voice shouts louder than the normal jokers whose rights you
violate. It means I’ll have more lawyers knocking down whatever
door you sit behind than you can possibly imagine. So don’t
threaten me, ever. Now, what do you want?"
    "I'm going to need
to be in contact with you, perhaps daily. As I'm sure you're aware,
Matthew Brand escaped and I've been assigned the case. That means,
just so you understand the magnitude, that there are approximately
one-hundred and fifty thousand state and federal officers looking for
him right now, and I'm in charge of them all. I think that you might
have as much information about Brand as anyone else and I'm going to
need that information. Access to your notes. Access to you. Around
the clock even."
    Laughter came through
the phone.
    "I destroyed the
notes on Brand years ago, and as far as access to me, I'm actually
about to take a vacation. You're more than welcome to come along, as
your voice sounds like you'd be pretty decent in bed, but I won't be
able to make it out there to Phoenix to speak with you people."
    "That's really the
way you want to take this?"
    "How about we take
it this way? This is your phone number, right? I can call you back on
it?"
    "Sure."
    "My lawyer will be
calling you back within five minutes."
    The line went dead for
the second time on Allison.

Chapter Seven
    "Can I talk to
Mom?"
    Jerry turned the wheel
of his SUV and the vehicle rounded the street corner slowly.
    He hated the question.
If he never heard it again, his life would be much happier. Allison
left two days ago and Marley kept asking Can
I talk to Mom? It's not that he didn't want her calling;
the reason he hated hearing the question was because of the answer.
No, she couldn't. It was something they had agreed on when Marley was
born. They couldn't let her think that she could talk to her Mom
whenever she left, because Allison wouldn't be able to answer all the
time.
    Allison called once a
day, at the same time, and the whole family was able to speak with
each other. Marley seemed to understand that a year ago when Allison
had left, but things were different this year. At ten, she was
questioning.
    Jerry slowed the car
down and then stopped at a red light. Another ten minutes and he
would drop her off at school. Hopefully there she would forget about
her Mom for a few hours and then Allison would call tonight.
    Except Jerry didn't
want that. At all. He didn't want to tell his daughter no, that she
couldn't speak to her Mom and had to wait for the appointed time. He
didn't want his daughter to stop questioning the rules laid out
before her. What he wanted
was for Allison to start paying attention to her family more than her
job.
    "You want to call
her?" He asked, looking to the passenger seat.
    "Can I?" A
smile bloomed across her face.
    Jerry looked forward
again, the light green. He pressed the accelerator and the car rolled
into the intersection. What was the harm in her calling?
    "Do you think
she'll be busy?" Marley asked.
    The harm was that
Allison would be busy. That Mom wouldn't answer and that light in
their daughter's eyes would dim as quickly as it ignited. The harm
was that he was about to actively, for the first time, go against
something Allison and he had agreed on ten years ago without
consulting her.
    "You miss her
don't you?"
    Marley turned from
looking at Jerry to staring out the window. She was quiet for a few
seconds.
    "Yeah. I mean, I
know she's busy and she's doing something good for