The Winner by David Baldacci

CHAPTER NINE

LuAnn stopped at a gas station rest room and cleaned up as best as she could. She cleaned the wound on her jaw, pulled a Band-Aid out of Lisa’s diaper bag, and covered the cut with it. While Lisa slurped contentedly on a bottle, LuAnn bought her lottery ticket and some ointment and gauze at the local 7-Eleven. As part of the ten numbers she picked, she used her own and Lisa’s birthdays.

“People been coming in here like damn cattle,” said the clerk, who was a friend of hers named Bobby.

“What happened there?” he asked, pointing to the large Band-Aid on her face.

“Fell and cut myself,” she said quickly. “So what’s the jackpot up to?” LuAnn asked.

“A cool sixty-five mil and counting.” Bobby’s eyes gleamed with anticipation. “I got a dozen tickets myself. I’m feeling good about this one, LuAnn. Hey, you know that movie where the cop gives the waitress half his lottery winnings? LuAnn, tell you what, darling, I win this thing, I’ll give half to you, cross my heart.”

“I appreciate that, Bobby, but what exactly do I have to do for the money?”

“Why, marry me, o’ course.” Bobby grinned as he handed her the ticket she had purchased. “So what do you say, how about half of yours if you win? We’ll still get hitched.”

“I think I’ll just play this one all by myself. Besides, I thought you were engaged to Mary Anne Simmons.”

“I was, but that was last week.” Bobby looked her up and down in obvious admiration. “Duane is dumb as dirt.”

LuAnn jammed the ticket far down into her jeans. “You been seeing much of him lately?”

Bobby shook his head. “Nah, he’s been keeping to himself lately. I heard he’s been spending a lot of time over Gwinnett County way. Got some business over there or something.”

“What kind of business?”

Bobby shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t want to know. Got better things to do with my time than worry about the likes of him.”

“Duane come into some money that you know of?”

“Come to think of it, he was flashing some cash around the other night. I thought maybe he won the lottery. If he did, I think I’ll just go kill myself right now. Damn, she looks just like you.” Bobby gave Lisa’s cheek a gentle rub. “You change your mind about splitting the pot or marrying me, you just let me know, sweet cheeks. I get off at seven.”

“I’ll see you around, Bobby.”

At a nearby pay phone, LuAnn dialed the number again and once again Jackson picked it up on the first ring. She gave him the ten digits from her ticket and she could hear him rustling paper on the other end of the line as he wrote them down.

“Read them to me once more, slowly,” he said. “As you can understand, we can’t have any mistakes now.”

She read them again and he read them back to her.

“Good,” he said. “Very good. Well, now the hard part is over. Get on the train, do your little press conference, and sail away into the sunset.”

“I’m going to the train station right now.”

“Someone will meet you at Penn Station and take you to your hotel.”

“I thought I was going to New York.”

“That’s the name of the train station in New York, LuAnn,” Jackson said impatiently. “The person meeting you will have a description of you and Lisa.” He paused. “I’m assuming you’re bringing her.”

“She don’t go, I don’t go.”

“That’s not what I meant, LuAnn, of course you can bring her. However, I trust you did not include Duane in the travel plans.”

LuAnn swallowed hard as she thought back to the bloodstains on Duane’s shirt, how he had fallen off the couch and never moved again. “Duane won’t be coming,” she said.

“Excellent,” Jackson said. “Enjoy your trip.”

The bus dropped off LuAnn and Lisa at the train station in Atlanta. After her phone call with Jackson, she had stopped at the Wal-Mart and purchased some essentials for herself and Lisa, which were in a bag slung over her shoulder; her own torn shirt had been replaced with a new one. A cowboy hat and a pair of sunglasses hid her face. She had thoroughly cleaned and dressed the knife wound in the rest room. It felt a lot better. She went to the ticket counter to purchase her train ticket to New York. And that’s when LuAnn made a big mistake.

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