The Sleeping Doll

total high it was to practice his art once again in the real world!
    Pell found the turnoff. It led through a dense grove of trees, toward the ocean. Jennie had spent the Saturday before the escape doing some reconnaissance for him and had discovered this deserted place. He continued along the sand-swept road, passing a sign that declared the property private. He beached Susan’s car in sand at the end of the road, well out of sight of the highway. Climbing out, he heard the surf crash over an old pier not far away. The sun was low and spectacular.
    He didn’t have to wait long. Jennie was early. He was happy to see that; people who arrive early are in your control. Always be wary of those who make you wait.
    She parked, climbed out and walked to him. “Honey, I hope you didn’t have to wait long.” She hungrily closed her mouth around his, gripping his face in both her hands. Desperate.
    Pell came up for air.
    She laughed. “It’s hard to get used to you like this. I mean, I knew it was you, but still, I did a double take, you know. But it’s like me and my short hair—it’ll grow back and you’ll be white again.”
    “Come here.” He took her hand and sat on a low sand dune, pulled her down next to him.
    “Aren’t we leaving?” she asked.
    “Not quite yet.”
    A nod at the Lexus. “Whose car is that? I thought your friend was going to drop you off.”
    He said nothing. They looked west at the Pacific Ocean. The sun was a pale disk just approaching the horizon, growing more fiery by the minute.
    She’d be thinking: Does he want to talk, does he want to fuck me? What’s going on?
    Uncertainty . . . Pell let it run up. She’d be noticing that he wasn’t smiling.
    Concern flowed in like high tide. He felt the tension in her hand and arm.
    Finally he asked, “How much do you love me?”
    She didn’t hesitate, though Pell noted something cautious in her response. “As big as that sun.”
    “Looks small from here.”
    “I mean as big as the sun really is. No, as big as the universe ,” she added quickly, as if trying to correct a wrong answer in class.
    Pell was quiet.
    “What’s the matter, Daniel?”
    “I have a problem. And I don’t know what to do about it.”
    She tensed. “A problem, sweetheart?”
    So it’s “sweetie” when she’s happy, “sweetheart” when she’s troubled. Good to know. He filed that away.
    “That meeting I had?” He’d told her only that he was going to meet someone about a “business thing.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Something went wrong. I had all the plans made. This woman was going to pay me back a lot of money I’d loaned her. But she lied to me.”
    “What happened?”
    Pell was looking Jennie right in the eye. He reflected quickly that the only person who’d ever caught him lying was Kathryn Dance. But thinking of her was a distraction so he put her out of his mind. “She had her own plans, it turned out. She was going to use me. And you too.”
    “Me? She knows me?”
    “Not your name. But from the news she knows we’re together. She wanted me to leave you.”
    “Why?”
    “So she and I could be together. She wanted to go away with me.”
    “This was somebody you used to know?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Oh.” Jennie fell silent.
    Jealousy  . . .
    “I told her no, of course. There’s no way I’d even think about that.”
    An attempted purr. It didn’t work.
    Sweetheart  . . .
    “And Susan got mad. She said she was going to the police. She’d turn us both in.” Pell’s face contorted with pain. “I tried to talk her out of it. But she wouldn’t listen.”
    “What happened?”
    He glanced at the car. “I brought her here. I didn’t have any choice. She was trying to call the police.”
    Alarmed, Jennie looked up and didn’t see anybody in the car.
    “In the trunk.”
    “Oh, God. Is she—”
    “No,” Pell answered slowly, “she’s okay. She’s tied up. That’s the problem. I don’t know what to do now.”
    “She still wants to turn you in?”
    “Can you believe it?” he asked breathlessly. “I begged her. But she’s not right in the head. Like your husband, remember? He kept hurting you even though he knew he’d get arrested. Susan’s the same. She can’t control herself.” He sighed angrily. “I was fair to her. And she cheated me. She spent all the money. I was going to pay you back with it. For the car. For everything you’ve done.”
    “You don’t have to worry about the money, sweetheart. I