She pulled the knit cap over her much shorter but still blond hair, lifted her baby out of the infant seat, and went inside. The word “Office” was written in magic marker on the first door. Jamie knocked and a seriously overweight woman with graying hair opened the door and stepped out into the hall. She introduced herself as Ruby Duffy.

“You got a husband?” she asked Jamie.

“No, ma’am. It would be just me and the baby.”

Jamie followed behind the woman as she laboriously climbed to the third floor and unlocked the door to an apartment on the backside of the building.

The apartment was bleak. Jamie took in the dingy windows, worn linoleum, stained sink, and mouse droppings in the corners. The double bed took up so much room in the tiny bedroom that the two bottom bureau drawers wouldn’t open all the way. The minuscule kitchen was an alcove off the living room. The living room’s only furnishings were a sofa and chair, both upholstered in cracked brown vinyl, and a battered coffee table. The bathroom was no bigger than a closet, and the only closet was so shallow it offered only a row of hooks on the back wall from which to hang clothes. But the apartment was cheap and the water that came out of the hot-water faucet was actually hot.

Mrs. Duffy announced that she required a month’s rent in advance.

“I have a dog,” Jamie said.

“No dogs,” the landlady said and started for the door.

“He’s a very good dog. Could I just bring him in and let you meet him? You’ll see what a nice dog he is.”

Mrs. Duffy frowned. “You want me to meet a dog?”

“Just to see how well behaved he is,” Jamie said. “Please. I’ve come a long way, and I just don’t have the energy to look further.”

Mrs. Duffy cocked her head to one side and regarded Jamie and then the baby. “How old is the baby?” she asked.

“Three days,” Jamie said.

“Where’s the father?”

Jamie hung her head. “He’s not in the picture,” she said.

“He the one that put that bruise on your forehead? I don’t want someone like that showing up here and causing trouble.”

Jamie touched her forehead. “No,” she said, revising the story she had been about to tell. “I tripped and fell. The baby’s father doesn’t know anything about the baby,” she said, thinking of poor dead Sonny.

The landlady looked dubious. “You have a job?” she demanded.

“Not yet. But I have enough money to tide me over until I find work.” Jamie leaned her cheek against her baby’s head. “Please,” she begged. “I am exhausted, and it’s getting late.”

“If you’re planning to write a check, you won’t be able to move in until Monday morning-after I call the bank and make sure it will clear.”

“I can pay you in cash.”

Ruby stepped a bit closer and touched the top of the baby’s head. “Three days old,” she said reverently.

Then she stepped back and folded her arms across her ample bosom. “Okay. A two-hundred-dollar security deposit for the dog. Up front. There’s parking behind the building. Don’t leave anything inside of your car if you don’t want it broken into.”

She followed the woman back down the stairs to her apartment, which was more spacious than the one Jamie was renting. Even so, two oversized recliners, a big-screen television, and an enormous rolltop desk filled up the entire front room. Ruby Duffy had to turn her body sideways to get to the desk.

Jamie paid the rent and deposit and signed the lease as “Janet M.Wisdom.” The name was only temporary, she told herself. Someday she hoped to reclaim her own name, but for now she was grateful for Janet’s.

She put Billy in the baby sling and, with Ralph following at her heels, began carrying her possessions up the three flights of stairs and dumping them in the tiny living room, which turned out to be a seemingly endless job. She took several breaks, once to nurse Billy, and others to simply sit and catch her breath. Her stitches hurt and every muscle in her body protested that she simply could not take another step. When she had the interior of the car emptied, she decided that the things in the trunk would have to wait until tomorrow. At least there was nothing visible to tempt thieves.

Then she loaded the baby and Ralph back into the car and drove to the nearby grocery store to buy a few groceries, mouse traps, and some cleaning supplies.

She made up the bed, got the baby settled, and ate a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk before walking down the hall to the pay phone.

She stood there for a minute, coins in hand. But maybe this call wasn’t such a good idea. What if the phone was tapped?

It couldn’t be, she told herself. No one knew that she was here. But what if Mrs. Brammer had let something slip to a friend or neighbor? Or her husband had? Maybe their phone was the one that was tapped.

Jamie felt as though she was going to pass out if she took one more step. Maybe she should wait until tomorrow to call Mrs. Brammer.

Instead, she loaded up the baby and the dog in the car one last time and, keeping to residential streets, drove to far north Oklahoma City and placed her call from a drive-up pay phone near a service station.

“Mrs. Brammer, it’s Jamie. I’m sorry to be calling so late.”

“Jamie, thank goodness!” Mrs. Brammer said. “I’ve been waiting all day for you to call. Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have a phone number where you can be reached?”

Jamie hesitated. “No, and please, you must not tell anyone about me,” she added. “Except your husband and Joe, of course.”

“Are you in hiding?”

“Yes. I am in hiding. I haven’t broken any law,” she hastened to add, “but I am in trouble. Serious trouble. Do you have any idea when Joe might call again?”

“Not really. It could be tomorrow or several weeks from now.”

Jamie ended the call by saying that she would try to call again the following Thursday evening.

She drove home by another route, getting lost on the way. Almost an hour had passed by the time she returned her car to the parking space in the alley behind the apartment house. She waited for Ralph to relieve himself before going inside. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to climb the stairs. Just one step at a time, she told herself.

She drank another glass of milk, fed the baby, and then at last was able to take a shower. A long, hot shower. Even though the bathroom was dirty, it was the most wonderful shower she had ever taken in her life.

She put on one of the flannel nightgowns that Amanda had given her, picked up her baby, and crawled into bed with him. Ralph jumped up on the bed and curled up at the foot. “We’re home,” she told her baby and her dog. Then she began to weep. She wept because she was more exhausted than she had ever been in her life and every muscle in her body felt as though it were on fire. She wept because she was lonely and faced an uncertain future. But mostly she wept because she was afraid.

So very afraid.

The next morning, she finished unloading the car and dyed her hair. The results were discouraging. Her hair not only looked as though it had been trimmed by a lawn mower, it was now a flat shade of brown that made her skin seem sallow. She wanted to cry, but she had already done enough of that.

Her aching body begged her to leave the cleaning and settling in for later, but she had been raised by a woman who believed that rest was allowed only after the chores were done. And it was such a small apartment.

Her grandmother used to say that scrubbing was good for the soul, and it did prove to be good for her spirits as she scoured away years of grime and mouse habitation and polished the two windows until they gleamed. Cleanliness gave the shabbiness a genteel quality that reminded Jamie of the little house in Mesquite.

“You mean that you couldn’t find a single person in Guymon, Oklahoma, or Liberal, Kansas, who remembered seeing Jamie Long?” Gus demanded.