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AND REGISTRATION .”  
    She already had it ready for him and handed it out through the driver’s-side window as calmly as she could.  
    The officer took them and glanced at both, then glanced back at her. She could see her face reflected in his sunglasses and tried guessing whether or not she looked guilty.  
    “Do you know why I pulled you over?”  
    Always deny, the man who’d once been her husband had told her, because if you admitted fault then you were automatically guilty. She didn’t know why she thought this now or why she went along with it, but she did.  
    “No.”  
    Studying her license as if it were a rare baseball card, he said, “I clocked you doing fifty-eight in a forty-five zone.”  
    “Really?” Her voice surprisingly steady. “I wasn’t aware I was going that fast.”  
    “We normally give about a five mile per hour cushion, but—”  
    “There was a bomb threat.”  
    “Excuse me?”  
    “At my son’s school. I just got a message about it and was on my way there. I, well, as you can imagine I’m sort of freaking out and didn’t realize how fast I was going. I mean, I know it’s no excuse, but ...”  
    She let it hang there, surprised that the lie came out so smoothly, wondering at what moment Cain would call and ask her just what the hell she thought she was doing. Except for what happened in the middle school parking lot, he always seemed to know where she was, what she was doing. Was he following her in a car? If so, where had he gone now that she had been pulled over?  
    “Yes, I heard about the threat.” The cop had been studying her license and registration again but now glanced up at her. “But the elementary school is in the opposite direction.”  
    She just stared back at him, at her reflection in his sunglasses that had suddenly begun to look more than guilty. She thought about Matthew, how according to Cain he was waiting for her at home, and she wanted to tell the officer this, tell him how her son had been abducted and how Reginald Moore had been blown to pieces and how she had thrown up in his backyard.  
    Remembering this last bit, she quickly reached up and touched her mouth, hoping that no vomit residue was there.  
    “Ma’am?”  
    She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”  
    He stared at her for a long moment, saying nothing, and then finally nodded and said he’d be right back.  
    It took him five minutes before he returned with her ticket, another minute for him to explain the details of the ticket, and then, with a sort of flourish, he ripped it off his board and handed it to her.  
    She took it from him, feeling like a volcano about to erupt. She should already be home, should already be with Matthew, but instead she was here with this cop staring down at her with eyes she couldn’t even see.  
    “How about we slow it down a little,” he said. “If you plan accordingly, there’s never any reason to be rushed.”

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 11

    N OT EVEN TEN seconds after she had pulled back onto the road, the cell phone vibrated.  
    Cain said, “What the hell was that?”  
    “I was pulled over for speeding.”  
    “You told him about me, didn’t you.”  
    “No.”  
    “I don’t believe you, Elizabeth. You’re a liar. You’ve been living a lie for the past five years.”  
    She glanced at the rearview mirror. The cop was still parked alongside the road, finishing up his paperwork.  
    “I just want my son.”  
    “And you’ll get your son. If you’d just listen to me, you’d know that by now. My intention here is not to harm you or your son unless I’m given no other choice.”  
    “You killed that man back there.”  
    “He killed himself.”  
    “You were the one that put that collar around his neck.”  
    “From the moment he touched a child—no, from the moment he thought about touching a child—his fate had already been sealed. Besides, I did him a favor. I did the entire town a favor.”