She thought quickly. Tyler, Stone had AOL software on its computers;
she could access the mailbox from there. She grabbed her coat, raced to
the front door and flung it open. Her scream was easily heard up and
down the street.
Lee Sawyer was standing there, looking less than pleased.
She caught her breath and grabbed at her chest. “What are you doing
here?”
In response, Sawyer held up the newspaper. “You happen to catch this
story?” Sidney stared at Ed Page’s picture, recognition all over her
features. “I… I haven’t, no, just–” she stammered.
Sawyer stepped inside the house and slammed the door. Sidney retreated
into the living room. “I thought we had a deal. You remember?
Exchange of information? Well, we’re gonna talk. Right now!”
he bellowed.
She pushed past him toward the door. He grabbed her arm and flung her
on the couch. She jerked back up. “Get out of here!” she screamed.
He shook his head and held up the paper. “You want to go it alone out
there? Then your little girl better get another mommy.”
She hurtled forward, slapped him across the face and wound up to do it
again. He grabbed both her arms and put her in a bear squeeze.
She struggled furiously.
“Sidney, I’m not here to fight you. Whether your husband did anything
wrong or not, I will still help you. But dammit, you’ve gotta be
straight with me.”
They struggled across the room and fell onto the couch, she awkwardly on
his lap, trying her best to slug him. He held her tightly until the
tension in her arms finally faded away. He released her and she
immediately pulled away to the far end of the couch and put her face in
her lap. He slumped back and waited. Sitting up, Sidney wiped away the
tears with her sleeve. Licking her lips, she looked over at the
newspaper on the floor. The photo of Ed Page beckoned to her.
“You talked with him on the plane from New Orleans, didn’t you?” Sawyer
asked the question very quietly. He had watched Page get on the plane
in New Orleans. The passenger manifest revealed Page had sat right next
to Sidney. That fact had not been important, until now. “Didn’t you,
Sidney?” She slowly nodded. “Tell me about it. And this time I mean
everything.”
And she did, including Page’s story of Jason’s switch at the airport,
and Page following her and tapping her phone.
“I talked to the medical examiner’s office,” Sawyer said when she was
finished. “Page was killed, by someone who knew exactly what he was
doing. One puncture wound to each lung. A precision cut through the
carotid artery and jugular vein. Page died in under a minute. Whoever
did it was not your typical street vermin wielding a pocketknife looking
for some crack money.”
Sidney took a deep breath. “That’s why I almost shot you in the garage.
I thought they were coming for me.”
“You have no idea who ‘they’ are?”
Sidney shook her head and rubbed at her face again. She sat back and
looked at him. “I really don’t know anything other than the fact that
my life has sunk far past hell.”
Sawyer gripped one of her hands. “Well, let’s see if we can get you
back to the surface.” He stood and picked up her coat from where it had
fallen on the floor. “The investigative firm of Private Solutions has
its headquarters in Arlington, across from the courthouse. I’m going to
pay it a visit. And right now, I’d prefer to have you where I can keep
an eye on you. You game?”
Sidney Archer swallowed hard as she guiltily felt the diskette in her
pocket. That was one secret she could not bring herself, as yet, to
reveal. “I’m game.”
Edward Page’s office was located in a nondescript low-rise office
building opposite the Arlington County Circuit Court building.
The security guard on duty could not have been more accommodating after
seeing Lee Sawyer’s credentials. The guard led the way to the elevators
and in another minute, after being deposited on the third floor and
walking down the dimly lit corridor, they stopped in front of a solid
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