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“Okay. We’re going to want to talk to you too, then. Do us a favor and don’t leave, okay, miss? Okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed. “When you’re through with him, we can talk. ” But even as I said it, I was feeling around in the crowd for Benny and Dana.
I found Benny first, and then Dana behind him. “The Tower,” I said to them both, as if it explained everything.
“We can get there around back, like before,” Benny said, putting a hand on my shoulder and steering me towards my car.
I nodded. “You’re right. They’ve shut off the front way; we’ll never get past the crews. ”
“Everybody back in,” Dana said, but I pushed her away.
“No, no, you two stay here. Distract them, or something. I’ll go. ”
“Don’t be batty. I’m coming too. ”
“We are coming too. ”
Neither of them looked prepared to take no for an answer, so I shrugged and grabbed the driver’s side door handle. Everything was still unlocked, so Dana and Benny got in as well.
But our window of opportunity was smaller than I thought.
Another police cruiser pulled up behind and beside my car, effectively blocking us into our improvised parking spot. He exited the cruiser and left the door hanging open behind him.
“Hey!” I cried out after him, but if he noticed, he didn’t care. He stomped off in the direction of the reporters and left us pinned.
“Motherfucker,” Dana said. “You think we can back around him?”
I almost told her, “Sure,” but another ambulance came wailing around the turn to park beside the cruiser. “I guess not. ”
“Guys,” Benny said, staring off into the park. “This place isn’t fenced in or anything, is it?”
I shook my head. “No, of course not. ”
He pointed at the trees, and at the big stretch of field beyond the clot of emergency vehicles. Red, yellow, orange, and blue lights swiveled, beamed, and bounced off every surface. But beyond the knotted crowd of cars and officials, the way was open and more or less clear—except for the filmy
white mist that was settling between the old stone markers.
“Benny, this car wasn’t made for off-roading. ”
“Then we can hoof it. ”
I thought hard about running with Dana, from Dyer’s cabin to the visitors’ center. It had seemed like forever; it had felt like miles and years. But it couldn’t have been that far, really. Nick had said it was only a couple of miles. Assuming we could get past the police, and the reporters, and the medical personnel…assuming we could make it to the trees, or deep enough into the gathering fog, or far enough into the thigh-deep grass in the middle of the first big field…assuming all this, we could maybe do it.
“Wait. ” I crawled into my car. My tiny but mighty purple flashlight had wound up on the floor at Dana’s feet. I picked it up with one hand and popped the trunk with the other.
“Benny? You still got that army flashlight?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said, diving into the trunk and excavating the ugly green torch from his bag.
“Put the red lens on it. ”
“I’m way ahead of you. ”
While he worked on that, I wiggled my way back through the crowd to Nick Alders, who looked a little afraid to see me. The cop who’d been talking to him was now working on one of the EMTs, leaving Nick to sit on the back bumper of the ambulance.
I sat down beside him and talked low, into his ear. “It goes like this,” I began. “You distract these people for about thirty seconds, and I promise not to kill you later on. ”
“Dis—distract them?”
