him.”
“Sawyer. Isn’t he the big guy who came to the house?”
“But the FBI’s looking for you. You can’t contact him.”
“Dad, it’s okay. He’s on our side. Hang on.” She turned into a gas
station and pulled up to a phone booth. While her father held sentinel
in the car with his shotgun, Sidney dialed Sawyer’s home. As she waited
for Sawyer to answer, she watched as a white van pulled into the gas
station. It bore Rhode Island license plates. She eyed the van
suspiciously for a moment and then completely forgot about it as she
watched a car carrying two Maine state troopers pull into the station.
One got out of the car. She froze as he glanced in her direction.
Then he went inside the small gas station building, which also sold
snacks and drinks. Sidney quickly turned away from the remaining
trooper and put the collar of her coat up. A minute later she got back
in the car.
“Jesus, I thought I was going to have a stroke when I saw the police
pull in,” Patterson said, his chest heaving.
Sidney put the car in gear and very slowly pulled out of the lot.
The trooper was still in the gas station. Going for coffee, she
surmised.
“Did you reach Sawyer?”
Sidney shook her head. “God, I can’t believe it. First I have the disk
and no password. Then I get the password and I lose the disk.
Now I have the disk back and I’ve lost the password again. I’m losing
my mind.” She pulled at her hair.
“Where did you get the password in the first place?”
“From Jason’s electronic mailbox on America Online. Omigod!”
She sat straight up in the seat.
“What?”
“I can access the message again from Jason’s mailbox.” Sidney slumped
back down again. “No, I’d need a computer to do that.”
A smile slid across her father’s face. “We’ve got one.”
She jerked her head in his direction. “What?”
“I brought my laptop up with me. You know how Jason got me hooked on
computers. I’ve got my Rolodex, investment portfolio, games, recipes,
even medical information on there. I also have an AOL account, software
all loaded on. My laptop’s equipped with a phone modern.”
“Dad, you’re beautiful.” She kissed him on the cheek.
“There’s only one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s back at the beach house with all our other stuff.”
Sidney slapped her forehead. “Dammit!”
“Well, let’s go get it.”
She shook her head violently. “Uh-uh, Dad. That’s way too risky.”
“Why? We’re armed to the teeth. We lost whoever was following you.
They probably think we’re long gone from the area. It’ll take me one
minute to get it and then we can drive back to the motel, plug it in and
get the password.”
Sidney was wavering. “I don’t know, Dad.”
“Look, I don’t know about you, but I want to see what’s on this sucker.”
He held up the package. “Don’t you?”
Sidney looked over at the package, bit her lip. Finally she clicked on
her turn signal and headed back to the beach house.
The jet broke through the low cloud cover and skidded to a stop on the
private airstrip. The sprawling resort on the Maine shoreline had once
been a robber baron’s summer retreat. It was currently a popular
destination for the well-heeled. Now, in December, it was deserted
except for weekly maintenance checks by a local firm. Because there was
nothing within several miles, its seclusion was one of its chief
attributes.
Barely three hundred yards from the runway the Atlantic pitched and
bellowed. A group of very grim-looking people alighted from the plane,
were met by a waiting car and driven over to the resort located about a
minute away. The jet turned around and taxied to the opposite end of
the runway, where its door reopened and another man climbed off and
walked quickly toward the resort building.
Sidney, struggling with the Cadillac, burrowed down the snowy road. The
plows had made several passes over the hard surface but Mother Nature
clearly had the upper hand. Even the big Cadillac pitched and swayed
over the uneven surface. Sidney turned to her father.