Val takes a long breath.
"I do not know yet. I have not finished asking her. I will finish asking her when I have you out of this house and in a place where she cannot find you and you are safe, and I will finish asking her, and when I have an answer I will turn her in or I will not, and that is not your concern, and it is not your problem, and you are going to get up off that sofa and you are going to put on your shoes and you are going to get in a cab."
She looks at me.
"You will go upstairs and you will put on whatever clothes are in the closet and you will come back down and you will put your shoes on and you will get in the cab."
"Where will the cab take me."
"To a hotel in Boise. The hotel is paid for. There is an envelope in the cab. Inside the envelope is cash and a phone and a name and instructions. You will use the cash. You will use the phone. You will use the name. You will not call her. You will not write to her. You will not come back to this cabin or this county or this state, you will not come back at all."
“I won’t do it. I won’t leave.” I think of Max. I can’t leave her. I won’t.
“Oh, you will.” The Chief doesn’t seem to doubt this for a second.
"You love her?” I say. “You love Max.”
She does not answer.
"You came yourself."
"I came myself."
"Why?”
"Because she is mine. Because she has been mine since she was nineteen years old. Because I am not going to send a stranger to do this in my place. Because if I am going to break her heart tonight, Mrs. Clark, I am going to do it with my own hands, and not on a phone, and not through a deputy."
I close my eyes.
I open them.
"I want to see her."
"No."
"For five minutes."
"No."
"To say goodbye."
"You will not say goodbye to her tonight, Mrs. Clark, because if you say goodbye to her tonight she will put you in her truck and she will drive you to Mexico, and then I will be the woman who has to put a federal warrant on the firefighter I love, and I am not going to do that. So you are going to go upstairs, and you are going to put on clothes, and you are going to get in a cab, and you are going to leave a woman who set a fire that nearly killed you, and you are going to do it because that is the right thing to do, and because you disappearing saves Max.”
The lamp is on at low.
The chicken is in the oven.
The bread is on the board.
The brass key is on the counter.
The note is on the table.
Back tonight. Lock the door behind me. M.
I stand up.
I go up the stairs.
