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.She turned down First Avenue and walked unseeing toward 106th street.It was always safer not to see too much of what went on on these streets.Her eyes stopped at a television in the window of an appliance shop.Even though the shop was closed and a heavy gate was across the windows, she could still see a big color television set that had been left on.She stared at a picture of an anchorman, his lips moving silently.She stopped in front of it.The videotape of Dottie rolled onto the screen.Now she was famous and no one even knew it, Teresa thought.And it seemed odd that she, Teresa, who had always dreamed about fame, should stand here and actually, secretly, know someone who was famous.She watched Dottie hold the gun up to the guard, the way she’d said she was gonna, and for some reason it suddenly seemed like a waste that no one would ever know it was Dottie who pulled the job.No, Dottie was probably a million miles from this lousy city, and all the cops knew was that they had another unsolved crime on their hands.Teresa exhaled loudly and began walking again.And she couldn’t even tell anyone it was Dottie, that was worse.She couldn’t even brag that she knew all the details and she knew all the circumstances and she knew … Teresa stopped short.Oh, God! That was it.It had been staring her right in the face all this time! It was the answer to everything.She let out a loud laugh, set her sights down First Avenue and began walking quickly.She climbed the stairs of her tenement building, gasping by the last flight.She heard people moving around inside her apartment and pushed the door open, which was unlocked, and stood gaping at her children.Cardboard boxes were sitting on all the surfaces, and her things were being packed.No one noticed her for a moment, and then suddenly Tracy yelled out.“Mom!” Where the hell have you been? You had us scared to death—”“Are you all right? We have the cops out looking for you everywhere.”Teresa softened her face, and looked tired.She shuffled over to the chair at the kitchen table and sank down into it.“Honey, get Mom some water! Are you all right?”“I’m fine.I’m fine,” she said in a weak voice.“Now will you listen to us?” Tracy said, and placed the glass of water on the tabletop so forcefully it slopped over the top.Teresa took a long drink of the water.“Now do you see that you’re going to Florida?”Teresa sat still and looked over at them and a big screw-you grin eased itself across her face.CHAPTER SIXARTHUR rolled over and stared at Dottie.Her eyes were open and she was looking at the ceiling.He crossed his hands on top of the blanket and lay there listening to the sound of her breathing.Everything Sid had said kept running through his head, and he guessed it was running through hers as well, the way she was staring up at the ceiling.There was the press problem, and the videotape problem and the jail-term problem—about the only problem Sid didn’t have with the whole thing was his fee.His eyes slid back over to Dottie.This legal nonsense was not going to work.Pleading out.He knew what that meant.The press was already going crazy with this.The minute she gave herself up it was going to be like a feeding frenzy; the pushing and the shoving and the twenty zillion stupid, embarrassing questions, and even after all of that, a quick conviction and then what? He knew what.Sentencing.If there was more than a fifty-fifty chance Sid could get her off on probation, Arthur MacGregor would have gone along with it.But Sid wasn’t saying there was more than a fifty-fifty chance of that.If only she hadn’t grazed the guard.“What?” her voice asked, as though she had been reading his thoughts.“There is another choice,” he said.He could feel her body next to his.She turned sideways, propped her head up on the pillow, and looked at him.“What if we took the money and ran?”“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.”“Why not?”“I’m too old to spend the rest of my life running from the police.Moving every couple of weeks—what an absurd idea.”“You’ve been seeing too many movies.It’s not as complicated as you think.”“Arthur, that’s not even the point.It’s that—”“You don’t have to move all that often—unless, of course, you’re planning on sticking up more banks.”Dottie pursed her lips and gave him a wry smile.“No, I didn’t think so.Anyway, it’s really not complicated.I know guys stayed at the same address for years, and the cops never found them.Look, we get on a plane—”“No.Why should I compound it with more lies?” she asked and he stared up at the ceiling and exhaled loudly.“But what if we leave and you never get caught?”“I’ll get caught.I know me.And besides, what about your business and your son?”“I don’t give a damn about the business, and my son—well, it’s not like he needs me around.He’d probably like the fact I was gone.I know his wife would.”“She doesn’t like you?”“She doesn’t trust me with her children [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]