Sudden Prey

telling where LaChaise and Martin would try to crack the place—if they tried at all—but from the lobby, they could move quickly to either end of the building.
    “Unless they come in by parachute,” McKinney said.
    “That’d be good,” Del said. “You see that movie?”
    “Yeah . . . actually, there’ve been a couple of them. There was that one where the guy jumps out of the plane without a ’chute, you see that one? Grabs the guy in midair?”
    “What’s-his-name was in it, the kid, you know, the Excellent Adventure guy,” Lucas said.
    “Yeah, I saw that,” said McKinney. “That’s what got me jumpin’.”
    “Hey, you jump? Far out . . .”
    They talked about skydiving until they wore it out, then Lucas went back down the hall and crawled into an empty bed. Del sat up with McKinney; when first light came, he put his gun away and went to sit with Cheryl until she woke.
     
     
     
    “YOU WANT ME to drive?” Martin asked Sandy.
    “No, I’m okay,” she said.
    “Watch your speed. We don’t want to attract no cops,” Martin said.
    “Maybe we should of stopped in Des Moines,” LaChaise said. “This is a long fuckin’ way.”
    LaChaise had spent the trip in the backseat. Whenever they passed a highway patrolman—they’d seen three—he sprawled out of sight.
    “Yeah, well, we’re almost there,” Martin said. “See that glow out there? Way off, straight ahead? That’s Kansas City.”
    They’d made the decision late in the afternoon, LaChaise and Martin, and just after dark, LaChaise had walked back to the bedroom and said, “Get your stuff ready.”
    Sandy sat up. “Where’re we going?”
    “Mexico.”
    “Mexico? Dick, are you serious?” She felt a quick beat of hope. If they made it out of town, they’d have some room. And someplace along the road, they’d forget about her for a while, and she’d walk away. A dusty little restaurant someplace, a small town out on the desert . . . she’d wait until they started eating, then she’d tell them she had to go to the ladies’ room and then she’d walk out, leave a note on the car seat, hide until they were gone.
    It was all there, in her mind’s eye: and when they were gone—long gone—she’d turn herself in. Work it out.
    A possibility.
    But now Dick was complaining that they’d come too far? What was all that about?
    She thought about it, a sinking feeling, and finally asked, “Why is Kansas City too far, Dick?” He didn’t answer immediately. “Dick?”
    “Because we don’t want to drive in the daytime,” Martin said. He looked at his watch. “It’ll be light in another hour. We’ve got to find a motel.”
    Martin spotted an all-night supermarket on the outskirts of the city, and told Sandy to take the off ramp. LaChaise waited in the car with Sandy until Martin returned: he’d bought two loaves of bread, a couple of pounds of sandwich meat, and two big bars of dark green auto mechanic’s soap.
    “What’s the soap for?” Sandy asked, peering into the bag.
    “Whittlin’,” Martin said, grinning at her.
    LaChaise rented a room in a chain motel called the Red Roof Inn. LaChaise went in because he’d shaved just before they left the Cities, and Sandy had given him a neat trim. Wearing one of Harp’s suits with a silk tie, he looked like a Republican. He paid cash for the room, two days, said he was alone, and asked that the maid be told not to wake him up.
    “Been traveling all night,” he said.
    “No problem,” said the woman behind the desk.
    The room was on the back side of the motel, with two double beds and a TV. They slept, restlessly, until two o’clock, when Martin got up and ordered a pizza, Coke and coffee from a local pizza place. The stuff was delivered, no questions, and they ate silently. At four, with the sun slipping down in the west, they went back out to the car.
    Martin said, “I’ll drive.”
    “That’s all right, I . . .”
    “Get in the back and shut up,” LaChaise said.
    “What’s going on?” Sandy asked. LaChaise grabbed her by the jacket and jerked her forward, until his face was only an inch from hers: she could smell the cheese and onions from the pizza.
    “Change of plans. Now get in the fuckin’ car.”
    She got in the car. “Dick, what’re you going to do? Dick . . . ?”
    “We’re gonna rob another goddamned credit union, is what we’re gonna do,” LaChaise said.
     
     
     
    LUCAS WAS AT the hospital because he couldn’t think of any better place to