Free Lifeguard by James Patterson Page B

door latch.
You’re being handed a gift,
said a voice inside her.
Take it!
She’d been to the house in Lake Worth. She’d seen the blood and the slaughtered bodies. This guy was connected to the victims. He’d fled.
    But something held her back. The guy had this scared, fatalistic smile.
    “I wasn’t lying, what I said back there. I’m no killer. I had nothing to do with whatever went on down in Florida.”
    “Taking a federal agent hostage doesn’t exactly strengthen your case,” Ellie said.
    “They were my friends, my family. I’ve known all of them my whole life. I didn’t steal any paintings and I didn’t kill anyone. All I did was set off some alarms.
Look
”—he waved the gun—“I don’t even know how to use this fucking thing.”
    It did look that way, Ellie thought. And she did recall a series of house alarms being triggered at mansions around town just prior to the theft. They assumed it was a diversion.
    “Go on, get out.” Kelly took a look back. “I’m expecting company.”
    But Ellie didn’t get out. She just sort of held there, looking at him. He didn’t seem so crazy all of a sudden. Just confused, scared. In way, way over his head. And somehow she didn’t feel so threatened. Cops were on their way. Maybe she could talk him in.
Jesus, Ellie… This is a long way from the Rare Prints Department at Sotheby’s!
    “Two,” Ellie looked at him, slowly releasing the door handle. “You’ve got about
two
minutes. Before every cop car south of Boston is here.”
    Ned Kelly’s face seemed to brighten. “Okay,” he said.
    “You tell me everything that happened down there,” Ellie said. “
Maybe
I can do something. Names, contacts. Everything you know about the robbery. You want to get out of this mess? That’s the only way.”
    A halting smile crossed Ned Kelly’s face. In it, Ellie didn’t see some cold-blooded killer, just a guy who was as nervous as she was, who had dug himself a very deep hole he might never pull himself out of. She thought maybe she could gain his trust. Talk the guy in, with no one getting hurt. If the cops caught up to him now, she wasn’t sure what would happen.
    “Okay,” he said.
    “And if I were you, I’d keep that gun pointed at me every once in a while,” Ellie said. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. “They do teach us ways to disarm someone, you know.”
    “Right.” Ned Kelly grinned nervously. He gunned the 4Runner up the ramp. “First thing we’d better do is ditch my mom’s car.”

Chapter 31
    WE SWITCHED THE 4RUNNER for a Voyager minivan left running in a supermarket parking lot.
    An old maneuver. Growing up, I’d watched Bobby pull it off a dozen times. The owner was just wheeling her shopping cart back to the market. With everything that was going on, I figured I had at least an hour before anyone would respond to the call.
    “I can’t believe I just did that.” Ellie Shurtleff blinked, amazed, as a minute later we were cruising back on Route 24. The look on her face read,
It’s one thing to stay with this guy, another thing entirely to be part of stealing someone’s car.
    An evergreen car freshener was dangling from the rearview mirror. A yellow notepad fastened to the dash. On it was scribbled,
Groceries. Manicure. Pick up the kids at 3:00.
A bag of groceries bounced up in the back. Pizza puffs. And Count Chocula.
    We looked at each other and almost laughed as the thought hit us at the same time: a wanted killer driving a minivan.
    “Some getaway car,” she said, shaking her head. “A real Steve McQueen!”
    I had no idea where to go next. But I figured the safest place was my little motel room back in Stoughton. Fortunately, it was a motor lodge, so I could get around to the room without going through the lobby.
    I locked the door to the room behind us and shrugged. “Look, I have to pat you down.”
    She rolled her eyes at me, like,
What, are you kidding? Now?
    “Don’t worry,” I said. “I never take