10:53 a.m.
Highway 75

Andrew kept checking his rearview mirror. All the times this red car had tripped the speed traps and set off the radar, why couldn’t it now? He pushed it over the speed limit, trying to keep it steady with the flow of traffic so Jared wouldn’t notice. Where was the state patrol? Why weren’t there Black Hawks looking for these three?

They’d killed four people, maybe five, in a bank robbery and yet, they didn’t take any money. Unless they’d stashed it somewhere. Maybe they were afraid of marked bills or recorded serial numbers. But wouldn’t they keep enough cash for their getaway? Or did things go so terribly wrong they’d walked away with nothing?

One obvious fact—Jared was pissed that Andrew’s daily ATM withdrawal was limited to four hundred dollars. Maybe he thought cleaning out Andrew’s bank account would make up for his botched bank robbery. Whatever the reason, Andrew had made sure he pulled up close enough to the ATM drive-through that the small camera peeking from the face of the machine could include a shot of the back seat. Or so he hoped. He’d also thought about jamming his card into the wrong slot, rendering it useless and possibly forcing Jared to allow him to access his account by going into the bank. But Andrew didn’t want to risk Jared walking into another bank.

It didn’t matter. It was over. Jared had four hundred dollars. They were back on the road, heading south on Highway 75 after leaving Nebraska City. In the rearview mirror Andrew could see Jared listening to the radio—no new information. Charlie stuffed his face, this time with little chocolate doughnuts.

He glanced at Melanie sitting beside him. Her head leaned against the car window. At first he thought she was sleeping, then realized she was staring out at the landscape. Something about Melanie made Andrew believe that her heart wasn’t in this. All the signs added up, her nervousness, or outbursts regarding what had gone down in the bank, gave Andrew the impression that maybe she might be the weak link in this threesome.

Now if only he could attract a speeding ticket. Back in Nebraska City he had even made an illegal left turn, hoping someone other than Jared would notice, but the pickup driver he cut off simply stopped and politely waited. Just his luck to be taken hostage and need to depend on people too polite to even imagine anyone in their small picturesque town could be taken hostage.

“Turn it up,” Jared yelled, startling both Andrew and Melanie. Without hesitation she grabbed at the radio’s volume button.

“Fuck! Fuck! Off! Shut it the fuck off!”

“What the hell are we gonna do now?” Melanie clicked the radio off, then spun around to face Jared, as if this was the last straw for her.

“Just shut the fuck up, Mel. Shut up and let me think.”

“This is crazy, Jared. Charlie and I didn’t sign on for this crap.”

“I told you I’d handle this, Mel. Now shut the fuck up.”

She turned back around. Andrew could see her hands wringing the hem of her shirt. He thought he could see her lower lip tremble but it disappeared between her teeth.

Andrew kept an eye on Jared in the rearview mirror. The cool-and-calm attitude had quickly dissipated. He jerked around in the back seat, clearly agitated. His entire body shifted to look from one window to the next, and he bent down at one point to get a look at the sky as if expecting to see a police helicopter. Charlie followed Jared’s lead, watching out the window and focusing on the sky.

“How the fuck did they figure this out?”

Andrew thought he was just blowing off steam, not really expecting an answer to his question. Then he felt the slap on the back of his head, hard enough to make him swerve and unexpected enough to make his stomach lurch.

“How?” Jared yelled again. “What did you do to tip them off?”

“Nothing,” Andrew said, and suddenly his heart was pounding in his ears again. Was there any reasoning with a man who didn’t need a reason to do what he was doing? Would he dump the car along with Andrew? “How could I do anything? I’ve been with you the whole time.”

He needed to calm his own panic and not give in to Jared. He needed to think positive. He could use this turn of events to his advantage. He had to try. What did he have to lose? While Jared twisted around to watch out the back window, Andrew slipped his hand down to the bottom of the steering wheel. From there he could reach over and turn on his headlights. He should have thought of that sooner—anything to get someone, anyone to notice his car. Maybe the pickup driver back in Nebraska City had already called it in. Maybe they were tracking them or at least sending a cruiser to investigate. If he could buy some time—yes, that’s what he needed to do. He needed to think.

“This could work to your advantage,” Andrew said, trying with effort to keep his breathing steady. If only he could think. If only he could remember all his research and access it now when he needed it. He knew volumes about criminals and sociopaths. Couldn’t he use his knowledge to his advantage? One thing he knew for certain, he had to sound as if he was on Jared’s side.

“What are you talking about?” Jared was still twisting around in the back seat.

Andrew could see Melanie turn toward him, looking for the first time interested. Up until now she had barely acknowledged his presence.

“They’re looking for this car, right?” Andrew continued. “I could be your decoy. Hell, I could drive all the way down to Kansas, maybe cut across Missouri. In the meantime, you could be headed in the opposite direction.”

Silence.

Jared stopped fidgeting. Melanie shifted in her seat to look back at Jared. It took effort for Andrew to keep quiet, to not oversell his plan. He resisted the urge to glance in the rearview mirror. He couldn’t look overly anxious. Jared had to think about how the plan benefited him. A true sociopath thought only in terms of “me.” Andrew was counting on it.

Finally Jared sat forward, reached across the front seat and pointed. “See that farm up ahead. Pull off and head up there.”