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“Okay, but you can’t let me win. Or I won’t get better.”
“Asher,” Leah said again. “Enough.”
After that, the kids were quiet. Asher leaned against Kinnick and closed his eyes, while Leah mostly looked out her window. They made it to the outskirts of Sandpoint—motels and stores and turnoffs to the ski resort—without anyone from the Rampart coming up behind them. But still Kinnick’s mind was racing. (Should he stop and call someone? Where? Who? How? Did they even have pay phones anymore? Was Chuck okay back there? What were those gunshots? What if Shane had already called the police and reported his children kidnapped by their grandfather?) He could feel the adrenaline coursing—a tingle in his arms, an occasional buzzing sound in his ears.
“You’re not going to answer that?” Leah asked.
“What?”
“The phone? Do you want me to get it next time?”
Kinnick reached down to the cupholder, where, over the picture of Chuck and Lucy, the screen read:4 Phone Notifications. He had forgotten what a buzzing phone sounded like. “Shit!”
Asher stirred.
“Sorry about that,” Kinnick said.
“It’s okay,” Asher said. “TheS-word isn’t taking the Lord’s name in vain, so it’s not blaspheming. Mom and Dad even say it sometimes, but I’m not supposed to.”
“I shouldn’t, either,” Kinnick said. He pulled the truck into a gas station parking lot and let out a deep breath. They were finally at a junction. Two highways converged here, each leading back to Spokane. They could come in from either the north or from the east, and with countless backroads, whichever route Kinnick took, it would be easier to avoid the Pickups of the Lord from this point on. Kinnick turned to the kids. “I’m not used to the sound of a buzzing phone. Leah, if you hear it again, could you—”
And then, as if demonstrating what he was about to say, the phone began buzzing again. Kinnick picked it up and saw the smile of Lucy Park, her eyes behind a large pair of sunglasses. At first, he thought this was some kind of futuristic video call—he knew those existed—but, no, apparently, this was simply how Lucy was identified when she called Chuck’s phone. That was new.
Kinnick held the phone out in his open palm, afraid he’d do something wrong—
Leah reached over and swiped the little green telephone receiver image from right to left. She pointed to her own ear, smiled, and mouthed,You can talk now.
“Uh. Hello?” Funny, he hadn’t spoken into a phone in seven years.
Lucy sounded frantic. “Kinnick! Where the fuck are you?”
“Oh. We’re... uh... in Sandpoint.”
“Why didn’t you answer earlier? I was worried sick!”
“I forgot how to use this thing,” Kinnick said.
“Christ, you stupid fu—” But she caught herself. “I can’t believe you guys went up there! What were you thinking?”
I was thinking about raccoons, Kinnick thought, but he didn’t say it.
“Listen,” Lucy said, “Chuck’s on his way to Spokane in a helicopter. Meet us at Sacred Heart.”
“The hospital?” The gunshots— “Jesus, what happened to Chuck?”
Three
What Happened to Chuck
As he watched Kinnick and the kids disappear through the Rampart gate, it occurred to Chuck Littlefield, listening to his pickup rattle down the hill, that he might have made a mistake. He was prone to rash, dramatic gestures like this, when a more patient strategy was often the wiser course. Ah well. Nothing to be done about it now. Recalling the months he’d spent playing poker at the tribal casinos near the Spokane airport, Chuck thought:Yep. I’m pot-committed now.
So, he stood calmly in the dirt yard of the Rampart, at the point of an equilateral triangle, Pastor Gallen to his left, the Bible school teacher to his right, the Glock tucked into his waistband in back, beneath his shirt. The pastor said, “Sister Charlotte, why don’t you take the kids back into the chapel and finish their afternoon lessons.”
She nodded and, without a word, walked back toward the open door, where three wide-eyed kids were peering out.
“Should probably keep them in there a while, too,” Chuck added helpfully. He tried to give a friendly smile to Pastor Gallen, who nodded evenly. For the moment, anyway, they seemed to have the same interest. Keeping everything calm.
Sister Charlotte ushered the kids back inside.