The Sweetest Summer(24)
“Of course! My gracious. I would never even dream of that, son.”
* * *
Evelyn jolted awake in a panic, her eyes searching her surroundings and her brain spinning, struggling for traction. It took a few seconds before she put it together. They were in the motel on Bayberry Island and Richard Wahlman was hunting them down. Christina was sound asleep against her, one bony little knee poking into Evelyn’s side. She breathed deeply and forced herself to relax, realizing that her niece’s usual nighttime flailing had woken her from a deep sleep.
But just then, she heard it, an odd beeping sound coming from the corner of the room. Her mind began to race through all the worst-case scenarios—was Richard here? Had he found them already? Was the SWAT team at the door, or FBI agents? Evelyn’s heart pounded as the beeping continued.
Then it dawned on her. She rolled her eyes at her own ridiculousness. It was her phone, the disposable phone she’d purchased from the variety store in Augusta. And the only person in the world who had the number was Hal.
She’d completely forgotten to call him.
As carefully as possible, Evelyn pulled away from Christina. Her niece grumbled a bit then turned over on her side, but she remained asleep. Evelyn rose from the bed, tiptoed across the room, and grabbed the duffel from the floor. She rushed into the bathroom and closed the door, then went rummaging around in the bag for the phone. Finally! She found it tucked into a pair of Christina’s socks. As soon as she flipped open the no-frills device, she apologized.
“I’m so sorry, Hal!” she whispered.
“Christ on a cracker! I’ve been worried sick about you guys!”
“Sorry.”
“It’s nearly one a.m. I haven’t seen anything on Justice Department or state police sites, but I hadn’t heard from you, so I didn’t know what to think.”
Evelyn sat on the edge of the bathtub. “It was kinda rocky when we first got here, and then Christina fell asleep.”
She heard Hal sigh with relief. “Good, but why did it take you so long to answer?”
Evelyn rested her forehead in her hand. “I couldn’t figure out what the beeping sound was.”
He laughed.
“Hey, I’ve never heard this phone ring before! But we’re fine. Thank you for making sure we’re okay.”
“Of course. So you followed the plan? You waited for the teenager to check you in?”
“Yes. Everything worked out. I waited for the owner to turn over the front desk to the summer help, just like you said. And God, he snatched up the cash without a second of hesitation.”
“Good.”
“And, from what I could tell, he changed the guest records to the name on my ID, and he knows he’ll get more money when I check out without incident.”
Hal made a humming sound. “Yeah, well, he sort of changed the records. I had to tie up a few loose strings.”
“What? You didn’t—”
“Yeah, I hacked into the Sand Dollar computer system, if you could call it that. Listen, that place is a joke. If anyone wanted to, they could extract the credit card information for every guest who’s stayed there in the last decade.”
“Hal . . . ?”
He chuckled. “I only use my powers for good. You know that.”
Evelyn did. She’d met Hal at a New England wellness convention six years before, where she was slated to give a presentation. At the time, he’d been an overweight type 2 diabetic who’d just learned he was playing Russian roulette with his blood pressure and cholesterol. He was only thirty-nine. Today, Hal was a marathoner, in prime shape, and off all medication.