“If you’ll give me a good deal,” she said. “Otherwise, I’ll have to take my business elsewhere.”

The man took in her disheveled appearance with a knowing look and shook his head. “The price stands as is.”

Jamie shook her head. “If I pay what you ask, I won’t have enough money to buy gas.”

He dropped the price one hundred dollars.

Jamie could almost feel her pursuers getting closer by the minute. She nodded.

When he asked what name she wanted on the bill of sale, she told him Mary Johnson.

With the infant carrier anchored in the back with a seat belt, she drove south for fifteen or twenty blocks and stopped by a drive-up pay phone at a service station. She might as well call the Brammers’ number in Houston one last time. By the time her call was traced and someone arrived at this location, she would be miles away.

A man’s voice answered the phone. A young man. Jamie clutched the receiver saying nothing. Was it one of Gus Hartmann’s men just waiting for her to call? Waiting to threaten her? To lie to her and tell her that all they wanted was the baby and nothing would happen to her if she would give him up?

But then the voice said, “Jamie, is that you?”

She leaned forward and rested her head against the steering wheel. It had been a long time-another lifetime ago-since she had heard that voice. “Joe?” she whispered.

“Oh, my God, Jamie, what in the world is going on with you?”

“I can’t explain. I just called to say I wouldn’t be calling anymore. They know where I am now. I have to find someplace to hide. They even killed my dog,” she said, her voice breaking. “And they are listening to us now.”

“Jamie, listen to me very carefully,” Joe said. “Remember that Sunday afternoon when we planned to take your grandmother to a very special place?”

She tried to think. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It was someplace historical that Gladys had never been to before.”

Jamie rubbed her forehead. “I can’t think, Joe. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she repeated. “And they are tracing this call as we speak. They’ll be here any minute now.”

Joe kept talking, his voice calm and low. “It started to rain, and we decided not to go. Gladys put a pot roast in the oven, and we played dominoes while it was cooking. Gladys won.”

Jamie racked her brain. She was so afraid. And tired. Hungry. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t. Granny was always cooking pot roasts. Always beating them at dominoes.

But then she remembered. It had been a terrible rainstorm with ferocious lightning and thunder.

“The lights went out,” she whispered.

“Yes. Can you go to that place-the place that we never went to?”

“I don’t remember the name,” she said, “but I remember what it was near.”

“Get yourself there as soon as you can. I’ll be there at noon tomorrow and again at dusk. And the next day, too. I’ll be there every day until you come.”

“I don’t know how long it will take me. My situation is…difficult.”

“So I gathered. You just get there, and I’ll be waiting.”

“But you’ll be followed.”

“Just come, Jamie.”

“Yes. I’ll come. I’m going to hang up now. Good-bye.”

She quickly hung up the receiver, disconnecting herself not only from Joe but also from the ominous someone she knew had been listening to their conversation.

She had actually spoken to Joe. And had a plan.

She pulled out into the traffic and drove west instead of south in case she was being followed. Could they have put a tracking device on this car? She spent several minutes convincing herself that was unlikely. Okay, think, she told herself.

Her pursuers would realize the location she and Joe had agreed upon would have to be within a day’s drive of Houston. They would be alerting the highway patrol and local law-enforcement agencies. She forced herself to think of the maze of highways and roads in Texas. Of the hugeness of Texas. And allowed herself to believe that it just might be possible. But she had to be clever. And she was too exhausted for clever. Too exhausted and hungry.

They were expecting her to head south into Texas, which eventually she would have to do. But not right away.

She would take her time. Let the searchers get in front of her.

She drove north, avoiding the main thoroughfares. She wound her way through an area where there were stately old mansions as large as hotels, and even farther north, past gated communities with brand-new mansions. She drove carefully, ever mindful of speed limits and stop signs.

Not wanting to waste gas, rather than driving around aimlessly she made frequent stops, pulling into a parking space and just sitting there for a time. She stopped at a service station to use the restroom and buy a sandwich and a bottle of orange juice. Twice she stopped to feed Billy and give him some time out of the infant carrier. Finally, keeping to secondary roads, she began winding her way south, continually checking her rearview mirror.

When darkness finally came, she filled the almost empty gas tank, bought a couple of candy bars, filled the empty orange juice bottle with water, then headed south on a county road several miles east of Interstate 35. Soon it was late enough that she had the rural roads pretty much to herself. When the moon rose, she turned off her headlights for long stretches, not exactly sure why, except that it made her feel invisible. She knew from her drive across the western half of the state that its county roads were laid out in one-mile squares, and she would go south for a time, then east, then south again, until she had to maintain an eastern course around sprawling Lake Texoma. She bypassed the town of Durant, then began winding her way south again until finally she turned south onto Highway 78.

Given her meandering path, it was almost dawn before she crossed the Red River into Texas. She knew that she had to sleep for a while. When she stopped for gas in Ridings, she studied the Texas map on the wall, then asked the elderly attendant if she could pull behind the building to nurse her baby and rest for a time. When he didn’t respond, she asked him again in a louder voice, and he nodded.

The clock in the car didn’t work, and she had left her watch in the apartment, but when she woke, she estimated by the sun that it was midmorning. Arriving at her destination by noon was out of the question. But hopefully she would be there by dusk.

Still keeping to country roads, she headed south once again, ever watchful even though she hadn’t a clue as to the form her enemy would take. She wondered if she would ever feel safe again. The word itself sounded elusive, like something at the end of a rainbow, something she might wish for but never achieve.

Now that she was in the state of Texas, however, she did allow herself to wonder what it would be like to see Joe again. She hoped that she could at least clean up a bit before she made her way to their meeting place.

Then what?

She knew that he would help her. That was the kind of person he was. And perhaps it was best not to go beyond that. If she didn’t allow herself to expect more, she would not be disappointed.

That was hard to do, though.

Texas was not laid out in precise squares like Oklahoma, and she had to be careful not to lose her way as she endeavored to keep to rural roads. Early afternoon, she crossed over Interstate 30, which she knew connected Dallas to southern Arkansas. A couple of hours later she crossed Interstate 20, which connected Dallas to Shreveport.

The motor began to overheat south of the town of Athens.

She stopped at a service station and sprayed water on the radiator then drove very slowly into Corsicana. She parked the car near the bus station and gathered up her baby and her few possessions.

The bus didn’t leave until the morning. After she bought a ticket to Brenham, she had just enough money to buy a banana and two candy bars. She filled the bottle with water in the restroom.