A String of Beads by Thomas Perry Read Free Book Online Page B

wall,
     and erased Jimmy’s message. She checked it from several angles to be sure it couldn’t
     be read or brought back, then wrote in the same tiny space, “J., I’m going to the
     oldest place to find you. If I miss you come see me. J.,” put the pencil away, turned
     off the lights, and went into the cleanest stall to use the toilet, then headed to
     the door, pushed it open, and looked in both directions. It was at that moment that
     she realized she wasn’t alone.
    She saw the man on the north side of the divided expressway. He was tall and thin,
     with blond hair, a reddish face, and big hands. She watched him emerge from the trees
     beyond the expressway. He began to trot toward the highway. He ran at about half speed
     and looked comfortable loping along, even though he was in the high weeds and uneven
     ground of the margin. As he neared the chain link fence, he sped up slightly, ran
     up the fence high enough to get his toes into some links at midpoint and his hands
     at the top at a vertical post, and hoisted himself up and over. As his feet hit the
     ground, his knees bent to absorb the shock. He popped up and resumed his trot.
    Jane noticed a mechanical, trained quality to his movements, like a soldier on an
     obstacle course. He ran to the road and crossed without pausing to look, timing the
     cars without effort and stepping out of the way of one into the slipstream of the
     next and on to the grass stripe in the middle. “Cop,” Jane thought. He ran the way
     cops did when they wanted to reach a car that had stalled in the left lane.
    Jane stepped back inside the restroom, closed the door, and climbed on one of the
     toilets to look out the window. She heard the men’s room door open and close, so she
     knew he had made the stop. She waited a few minutes, and then heard it again. Through
     the window she watched him stride across the parking lot. He was in a hurry and she
     knew he was in that moment of heightened alertness when he was rushing to catch up
     with her, hoping that she had not just turned off on another path or stopped to sleep
     for an hour so he would run on ahead and lose her.
    The man gradually worked his way up from a long stride to a jog. She could see he
     was a habitual runner, a man who was comfortable going long distances on foot. As
     she slipped out the door and started after him, his strength and steadiness worried
     her.
    The man crossed the narrow road that ran parallel to the expressway. The road still
     had a string of decrepit businesses left behind when the highway had bypassed them.
     She sensed that he was about to look behind him to see if he had overrun her position,
     so she altered her course and ducked into a small convenience store and bought some
     bottles of water, apples, nuts, and protein bars. Then she came out and looked southeast
     to southwest to spot the tallest hill along the path. That was where he would ultimately
     have to go to spot her. As Jane moved south she sped up, testing herself against the
     man.
    It was already late in the day and he would be getting around to admitting that he
     had lost her and would have to climb to higher ground. He would be reduced to looking
     down from the top of the high hill and see if he could spot her on one of the trails
     beneath the trees. That was the most effective thing he had left to do. Ten or fifteen
     thousand years ago, when the ice age glaciers still covered the land a few miles north
     of here, Paleo-Indians used to live on the heights and watch for the migrating herds
     of caribou they hunted and for approaching enemies.
    Jane couldn’t yet allow herself to be sure what this man was. He looked like a policeman,
     but he still could be almost anything—the real killer of the man Jimmy had fought
     in the bar, a private detective hired by the victim’s family, or a friend of the victim.
     Or he could be a long-distance hiker who had simply come along behind her on the trail,
     but had nothing to