“Those are the same ingredients here, too,” Seth said. He wasn’t liking the S-dog nickname Wooly kept trying to apply to him. He poked a shrimp with his spoon. “Those are the basic ingredients of any boil, aren’t they?”
“Man, there’s ingredients, and then there’s fucking ingredients, you know what I’m saying?” Wooly said.
Darcy’s cell phone rang inside the big canvas purse. Ashleigh pulled it out. It was Tommy, using a prepaid cell phone he’d bought with cash at a convenience store, if he’d followed instructions correctly.
“Oh, criminy,” Ashleigh said. She was getting sick of playing Darcy all the time. Being that girl was almost as annoying as hanging out with her. “That’s my parents. ‘Scuse.”
She heaved herself up, and Seth jumped up to help her stand. Ashleigh squeezed his hand, charming him with her love. “Thank you, Seth.”
“Anytime.” He beamed at her as she walked away. Sucker.
She found a narrow, relatively uncrowded alley where the buildings tamped down the noise from the band. The phone had gone to voicemail by this point, so Ashleigh called Tommy back.
“She took him to the hospital,” Tommy said. “She just now got him inside. He’s all fucked up.”
“Good,” Ashleigh said. “And she saw the note?”
“Definitely.”
“Perfect. Her next move will be to get in her car and drive to Charleston to save her poor little boyfriend. She’s going to be wary, though. She’s not too stupid. Where are you now?”
“Palmetto Bug gas station. It’s across from the hospital parking lot.”
“Get out of there! You don’t want her to see you, or she’ll come after you instead of down here.”
“She already left the hospital. She didn’t see me.” Tommy said.
“She already left?” Ashleigh snapped. “That means she’s on her way here, Tommy. And she’ll drive crazy fast to get to Seth. So get moving, because I need you here first.”
“I’m on my way.”
Ashleigh hung up. Now it was time for the risky part.
She’d planted the seed first thing Monday, sending Neesha’s pictures of Jenny over to that CDC doctor. She’d worried that the government would react too quickly, but they hadn’t. She wanted the information to flow around to prime the pump, but she didn’t want them acting just yet. Now, she just hoped they didn’t move too slowly.
Heather heard the landline ring, but she didn’t move to answer it. That was what husbands and voicemail were for, on a Saturday night when she was watching Top Chef on TiVo.
Then it stopped ringing abruptly, and she heard Tricia in the kitchen, screaming, “Hi! Hi! Hi!”
Heather sighed and hurried into the kitchen, where Liam had apparently left the toddler alone with a plate of fish sticks. Fish sticks were scattered on the floor, and Tricia clutched several in one hand. Tricia held the cordless phone next to one ketchup-smeared cheek.
“My mommy’s name is Heather!” Tricia shouted to whoever was on the phone. They must have been asking for her, then. “I have fish sticks!”
“Tricia.” Heather took the phone from her, and Tricia scowled with indignation. “If you answer the phone, you have to give it to Daddy or me. Preferably Daddy.” Then she spoke directly the phone. “Sorry about that. Hello?”
“Are you talking to me now?” a girl’s voice asked.
“Yes, sorry, I was—”
“Fish sticks, fish sticks!” Tricia attempted to place fish sticks into Heather’s mouth. Heather knelt beside her, wiping away the ketchup smear on her cheek with a Wet One.
“I don’t want the fish stick, honey,” Heather said. “Especially not up my nose.”
“Fish stick!”
“Everything okay?” the girl on the phone asked.
“Yes, sorry, who is this?” Heather asked.
“It’s Darcy Metcalf. From Fallen Oak.”
“Oh…did I give you this number?” Heather definitely hadn’t. Her cell phone, but not her home phone. Which meant Darcy had done at least some light Internet stalking.
“I’m so sorry,” Darcy said. “But it’s a total super-huge emergency. You know how Jenny killed all those people?”
“Don’t worry, we’re looking into that,” Heather said. In fact, the order had come down that a contingent of Homeland Security officers would go to Fallen Oak on Monday to take Jenny into custody for extensive testing. Heather was supposed to go along. She thought it was a little heavy-handed—it might be best just to reach out to the girl quietly, and only escalate to force if necessary—but that wasn’t Heather’s call to make.