8:27 a.m.

Melanie fell back in the chair, her hands wringing the khaki shorts she had pulled from the heap of clothes. All that blood. She had seen it on Jared's and Charlie's coveralls. What did she think it was from? And the gunfire. Of course there were victims. Someone probably got in the way, made a stupid move. That's probably what happened.

But four…shot at close range. There had to be a mistake. The media always blew everything out of proportion, hyped the news for better ratings.

She watched Charlie. He was cleaning his high-tops, robbing off the mud with a towel from the bathroom, trying to return them to his standard of bright white. It hadn't fazed him one bit to listen to the report, to hear what kind of mess he may have left behind. Instead, he seemed more concerned with the mess his shoes were in. That's when Melanie noticed he was scrubbing two pairs of high-tops. She had forgotten that Jared had borrowed a pair when he first got out of jail. And here Charlie was cleaning his uncle's shoes, too. Taking care of his uncle. It should have been the other way around-Jared should have been taking care of Charlie.

She smoothed the fabric of the shorts with shaking hands, not taking her eyes off Charlie. Her boy couldn't hurt anyone let alone shoot an innocent bystander. And certainly not at close range. Charlie didn't even know how to fire a gun. They had never had to use guns before. She wouldn't allow it. Wouldn't even allow them in her house. Accidents happened with guns, bad accidents. Maybe that was what had happened in the bank. Maybe it was an accident.

"We have half an hour." Jared startled her, making her jump. She wondered how long he had been standing there, leaning against the wall. "Fill that cooler." He pointed to a small one in the corner. "Maybe with sandwiches and Pepsis. And why aren't you dressed yet? Forget about fashion statements. Just put something the fuck on."

Her cheeks burned, but she didn't move. She could feel Andrew Kane's eyes on her. Charlie hadn't moved from the TV screen.

"You can't boss me around like when we were kids. Jared. I'm not moving until you tell me what the hell happened." There, she'd said it. It didn't matter that her voice sounded small and whiny.

"You let me worry about things. Do what I tell you to do and everything'll be fine."

She couldn't help thinking that was exactly what he had said all those years ago. The other mess they had gotten into. It was almost twenty-five years ago, when she was ten and he was twelve. There had been so much blood back then, too. Blood splattered on the walls and in the cracks of the kitchen linoleum. And there had been a gun, too. Jared had told her he'd take care of things. Everything would be fine, he had promised. It would be their secret.

"I need to know what happened," she insisted, disappointed that her voice sounded too much like that ten-year-old little girl.

"It's not up for discussion, Mel. We need to get the fuck out of here."

Jared pushed past her, bumping her chair. He started going through Andrew Kane's things. He turned over one of the brown sacks, spilling the food contents all over the counter. He ripped open a box of granola bars and started searching the room.

"This is bad, Jared," Melanie tried again. Maybe it had been an accident, she repeated to herself. That's what her mother had told her happened with that Rebecca girl, though Melanie wasn't sure how their mother knew. Jared never talked about it.

Jared ignored her, passing back behind her again. He grabbed two muddy backpacks from under a chair. That was the first time Melanie realized Charlie had remembered to bring her backpack along with his own.

"This yours?" Jared dropped it on the table in front of her. "So you're saved. Probably got a change of clothes and a makeup kit. Right? Go put some clothes on, Melanie."

"On the TV news they said there were victims, Jared."

He swung Charlie's backpack onto the table beside hers and opened it to put the granola bars inside. But instead he started shuffling through the contents, pulling out one of Charlie's comic books, a couple of maps, several Pez dispensers, which he held up for a better look, shook his head then tossed back inside.

He kept one of the maps out and started unfolding it. Then he stopped and with the sweep of his arm, cleared the tabletop of everything-mayonnaise jar, spoons, open loaf of bread, empty Pepsi cans, all crashing to the floor, along with Andrew Kane's suitcase and clothes. The only things to survive his sweep were the two backpacks and the map, which he began filling the table with.

The racket pulled Charlie away from the TV and into the kitchen area. However, Melanie noticed that Andrew Kane didn't flinch.

Charlie stood over Jared's hunched shoulders, not just curious but worried. Melanie recognized that pinched forehead and narrowed eyes. He didn't like anyone messing with the few items he felt were valuable enough to keep in his backpack.

"What the hell are all these red circles?" Jared pointed out several on the map.

"I got a bunch of different state maps." Now Charlie sounded excited, the little kid anxious to impress his mentor. Charlie reached for his backpack and began pulling out a stack of folded road maps. "I circle towns with cool names. You know, someday I'd like to visit them, just to say that I did."

Charlie crouched down closer to the map spread out on the table. "See here-" he put his index finger on one "- Princeton. Bet you didn't know there was a Princeton, Nebraska. I figured it'd be cool to tell people I went to Princeton."

Charlie laughed and Jared actually smiled.

Jared started looking over the map, too. He pointed to a red circle and said, "I see what you mean, kid. Here's Stella, Nebraska. You could tell people you spent the night in Stella." He shoved Charlie with his elbow. "Get it? In Stella?"

Melanie watched them. She couldn't believe the two of them, laughing and making jokes.

"I'm thinking they'll be looking for us on the interstate," Jared said.

"Actually, they think we stole a red pickup from some farmer," Charlie interrupted with a wide grin. "I heard it on the news."

"Really? That buys us some time. We'll stick to Highway 6 all the way to Colorado. Looks like you'll get to go through some of your red-circled towns, Charlie."

"Cool. I've got the Colorado map, too. I've never been to Colorado."

Melanie picked up her backpack, hugging it to her chest, ignoring the crusted mud flaking off and smearing the towel. She stood up, ready to go change, but waited, watching the two men in her life plot her future. Neither of them had even asked if she wanted to go to fucking Colorado. They had gotten her into this mess and yet neither of them seemed to realize how much of a mess it was.

"They said you killed four people, Jared." She didn't mean for her voice to sound so hysterical, but it worked. It got both their attention. "Is that true? Four victims. That's what they said on the news. All shot at close range. Dead."

"Four?" Jared repeated and he looked to Charlie, who nodded his confirmation. "You mean one of those fuckers is still alive?"