Forget to Remember

face to face.”
    “I’m scared, Michael. You’ve tried to kill me four times.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The motel—that was a misunderstanding. I just wanted to explain everything to you. I wasn’t going to hurt you. You ran off before I had a chance.”
    “So you admit that was you at the motel.”
    “What? Are you trying to trap me?”
    She had to calm him down. If Ivan heard anything incriminating, he said he was going to call the police and have Michael arrested. He might be calling the police now. Carol had to keep Michael from getting too suspicious and bolting.
    “Maybe you’re right. I want to believe you were just trying to explain everything to me. You’re also right that we need to talk face to face. What if I come to your room?”
    “Room one twenty-five.” A pause. “What did Grandma tell you about me? Did she tell you I was still alive? Did she tell you I was trying to take over the estate?”
    “No, of course not. Grandma would never do a thing like that.”
    “That lying old bitch. I knew she’d turn against me. First you, then Dad and Mom, and now Grandma. I’ll take care of her.”
    The connection was broken. Carol didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t leave the room and risk running into Michael. She couldn’t call Ivan. He had heard everything and would be trying to stop Michael from escaping. She would have to wait for a call from Ivan.

    CHAPTER 38
    Minutes went by as she paced the floor. Carol had to do something. She couldn’t stand it any longer. She decided to go outside and look for Ivan. First, she’d call his cell phone. Her cell phone rang before she could punch in his number.
    “Hello.”
    “He got away. He must have gone out a different door. I used the other card key to get into his room. Empty.”
    “I think he’s on his way to North Carolina to kill Grandma—Mrs. Horton.”
    “You think so? It’ll be well after midnight when he gets there.”
    “He’s impulsive. You said, yourself, he’s not acting logically.”
    “All right, we’ll go after him.”
    ***
    Going after him involved filling the gas tank. Otherwise, as Ivan pointed out, they’d never make it to Chapel Hill in the Jeep. While Ivan pumped gas and then negotiated the road system until he was on I-95 southbound, Carol made phone calls. She called the security service that was watching Mrs. Horton’s farm and told the supervisor to be on the alert. He said he would double the patrol.
    Next Carol called Paul. He didn’t answer his cell phone, so she left an urgent message. While waiting for what she hoped would be a callback from Paul, Carol worried about how she would get Mrs. Horton away from the farmhouse to where she would be safe. Calling her would only scare her, but Carol knew she couldn’t convince the old woman to leave her house with a phone call. Carol hoped Paul would go over to the farm and physically remove her.
    Carol thought about calling the Chapel Hill police, but she had no credibility with them. It would be too complicated to explain the situation. Ivan doubted they would do more than drive by the road to the farm, periodically, which wouldn’t do any good in stopping the cagey Michael.
    Meanwhile, Ivan was rolling along I-95 well in excess of the speed limit, passing semis as if they were standing still. If Michael was doing the same thing, they probably wouldn’t catch him, and even if they did, they didn’t have a description of his car. At the motel, he’d parked out of Ivan’s sight. At night it would be hard to tell who was driving a car. Their best hope was to beat him to the farm and be ready for him when he showed up.
    Carol’s phone rang. It was Paul. “Paul, where are you?”
    “I’m…out of town. What’s happening?”
    “We’re on the way to Chapel Hill. We think Michael’s going to the farm to kill Mrs. Horton. I was hoping you’d get her out of the house.”
    “I’m not in a position to do that. Have you called Wrightguard?”
    That was the name of the security service. “Yes, they’re doubling the patrol.”
    “Good. I’ll try to activate the Chapel Hill Police. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
    Fear gripped Carol. What if Michael beat them there and got past the guards?
    ***
    Carol suspected they’d set some sort of a record for driving between Fairfax, Virginia, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She was glad Ivan was a good driver, but even so, at times she hadn’t dared to watch as he maneuvered