"I know you know the routine. Slide the box back in when you are done and then let Rusty know you are ready and he'll allow you out."
"Thank you."
She waited until she heard the door shut before she pulled the box the rest of the way out of the wall. She stood looking at the closed box for a minute, taking slow deep breaths. She wondered why she felt even more nervous now than when she had injected Jason the day before. Certainly yesterday had been the riskier part of the plan. She reached out and flipped up the lid.
For a moment she thought the box was empty. Cameron had somehow found out and had taken everything. But that wasn't true. She blinked and saw everything was still there. Still she worried that somehow Cameron actually had found out.
"Too late to be worried about that," she said aloud to the empty room.
She began to transfer the stacks of cash and rolls of gold and silver coins from the box to her purse. She grabbed the two envelopes of documents and finally the handgun. The weight of it in her hand was unnerving. She didn't think there was a chance in hell she could ever bring herself to use it, but knew it was best to be prepared for anything.
She held the gun for a moment longer. She considered putting it back in the box, but in the end she buried it at the bottom of her purse.
She walked to the door, knocked and then said, "Okay, I think I am ready, Rusty."
Chapter Fifty-Five
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Paige had to try twice to get the key in the ignition. She did not turn the key but gripped the wheel hard and took slow breaths, trying to calm herself.
"Are you sure you don't want me to drive?"
"I can do this," she insisted. She wished she felt as confident as she sounded.
She turned the engine over and moments later they merged into traffic. As they twisted and turned down the streets, Nathan was glad that Paige was driving. He had no clue where they were going. After a few minutes they were driving down a long residential road. He knew the school was close, but something didn't seem right. He recalled the stories his wife had told him about the school, the magnificent grounds and lavish buildings. This did not look a thing like she had described.
Two minutes and a few turns later he took it all back. Paige turned onto Ochre Point Avenue and slowed as they entered the campus. Nathan did not know if she was slowing out of a sense of nervousness, if she was reliving her past or just to give him a chance to look around.
On the sidewalks on both sides of the streets, college students were milling about, some coming and others going to class. Nathan's jaw dropped as he looked out the window to his left. Beyond an iron gate was a massive white limestone mansion that looked to him like it belonged in the English countryside. It rose three stories and spread out wide along the meticulously manicured lawn. There was a subtle, but elegant garden area on either side of the main entrance.
"Holy crap. That's not part of the school is it?"
Paige smiled.
"Yeah, that is Ochre Court. I think that was the entire college when the school was first established. It is now the administration building."
"It was the entire college?"
"Yeah."
"She wasn't kidding."
"Your Paige? Did you think she was lying to you?"
"Well no, but being told that mansions were part of her campus and actually seeing it. Wow."
"On the other side, behind the building, is part of Cliff Walk."
"Cliff Walk?"
"Think of it as a self guided tour of the area. It is a three or four mile trail along the cliffs of Newport that allows you to see some of the most impressive mansions in the area. In fact, if we went to the end of this road we'd come to what most people consider the grandest of all the mansions of Newport, The Breakers."
A horn behind them beeped and Paige realized she had stopped the car in the middle of the road. She waved at the driver behind her and took her foot off the brake. They continued on slowly. They passed several more buildings, smaller than Ochre Court. She slowed again pointing to another massive building, this one red stone, set further back. Nathan watched her, she was practically beaming, everything was obviously as it should be, as she remembered.
"That's McAuley Hall. I had many classes in that building and it was horrible."
Nathan stared at the building, still unable to contemplate how such an amazing building could hold college classrooms.
"Horrible?"
"Yeah, the view out of those windows on the back side is absolutely hypnotic. The ocean just stretches on and on. So hard to concentrate on school work."
Nathan laughed and nodded. "I can definitely see how that might be a problem."
A moment later they were passed the building and Paige turned right into a small gravel parking area. She pulled into one of the few spaces still available. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened.