Mind Games - Page 226

“We went around there, too. I said I’d ask you. But I didn’t have to ask. They won’t let you in to see him. I don’t know if they’d let you into the prison at all.”

“Then I’ll wait outside. But I’ll be there. When?”

“I called Detective—no, it’s Captain Musk now. Detective Howard retired last year. I asked him to pave the way. It can take a while to get permission to visit an inmate at a supermax. Applications and background checks and paperwork and so on. I asked him to push this through. I’m waiting to hear back.”

“Okay. When you do, we’ll go. But you haven’t told me what this could cost you. I want to know.”

“I’m afraid if I lose, he’ll get stronger. But I’m more afraid, if I win, using my gift this way, I’ll lose it. It’s part of me, and the price could be taking it back. I know that’s why I kept tucking that folder away, but I’ll risk even that to finally be free of him.”

“Did you ever consider one of the reasons you have this was because of what you’re going to do? You’re not going to lose anything.” He came around the counter, lifted her off the stool and into his arms. “Start by believing that.”

She almost could, standing here where everything was safe and warm and normal.

But better, she thought, to understand the risks, to accept them before entering the field of play.

“It helps me that you’re going, and it’ll go a long way to easing Grammie and Rem’s minds. I want this over before Thanksgiving, when the family’s all here. I don’t know if that’s possible. It could take weeks.”

Even as she spoke, the phone in her jacket pocket signaled.

And she knew.

“It’s Captain Musk.”

“Answer it, Thea,” Ty said when she stared at the pocket of the jacket she’d draped over a chair.

Take the next step, she told herself, and pulled out the phone.

“Captain Musk.” As she spoke, she rubbed a hand at her throat. “No, I haven’t. No, no, I don’t. Captain—all right, Phil—yes, I’m absolutely sure.”

Her gaze shifted to Ty, and she nodded slowly.

“Yes, I can. I will.” As she listened, she reached for Ty’s hand, squeezed it hard before she released it. “I understand,” she began as she opened the door to let Bunk out when he wagged in front of it. “I didn’t expect you to…” Her laugh came even as she rubbed her fingers between her eyebrows. “Well, I didn’t look, did I?”

Closing her eyes, she listened, nodded. “I will. I’m grateful. It’ll be good to see you again. No, not my family, and they’re very well, thanks. But someone’s coming with me, just for the drive there and back. All right, yes. Oh, and tell your daughter to break a leg with her ballet recital Friday night. It’s on your mind, and I always feel I have to prove my bona fides with you, at least a little. Thank you again.”

She ended the call, turned to Ty. “Monday morning at eleven. I should be there by ten-thirty, as there are protocols and procedures.”

“Monday.”

“Visiting hours are Saturdays and Sundays, but they’re not treating this like that. Captain Musk and Detective Howard are going to meet me there, guide me through, and they’ll be in an observation room while I’m with Riggs. It’s so kind of them. Riggs—he’ll be cuffed and shackled the whole time in a kind of room where inmates can talk to their lawyers. But there’ll be a guard in there with us. I’ll have an hour unless either he or I want to break it off.

“I won’t let him. I won’t let him until I’m done.”

“He doesn’t know who you are.”

“No, but he thinks he does. I don’t know what strings Phil pulled, but I’m glad I don’t have to wait. I’d drive myself crazy thinking I’ve waited too long, or haven’t waited long enough. It’s another now, or now comes on Monday.”

Ty took her face in his hands. “You’ll kick his ass.”

For the moment at least, she believed it. “That’s definitely part of the game plan.”

* * *

She used every skill she had to block Riggs out through the rest of the week, over the weekend. She wanted him frustrated, angry, itchy.

On Monday morning, she dressed carefully and deliberately. The Professional Woman look, her mother would have called it. A pretty, clean-lined sheath in deep blue she’d bought in New York and navy pumps that added a couple inches to her height. She dressed her hair in a sleek, sophisticated twist.

It amazed her just how much the image in the mirror looked like her mother.