The list was almost useless. There were people who sounded old and young. There were men and women. Almost all of them had one question the moment they picked up: “What do you want?”

Once, he tried to trick one of them by asking where they are and the caller answered, “Why? Going to kidnap me as well?”

He asked one with a weird question like, “Can we meet?” The answer he got was, “Fuck you. Don’t call me again.”

But there was one who answered in a raspy voice. Maybe it was just that or the person was trying to keep a low profile. “Did you do it?” was the question.

He answered with a, “Yes.”

“You are not Carl,” the raspy voice said and the line went dead.

For a moment, Devin feared that the door would burst open and someone with a gun would shoot him dead. But nothing happened. He turned off the cellphone just in case.

*****

She eyed him suspiciously.

Devin blew out a breath of frustration.

“Do you know that if I am among the bad guys, I wouldn’t have risked getting shot yesterday?”

“Then why did you call the numbers on your own?” Her eyes were full of accusation.

“I already explained, didn’t I? What happened yesterday must have caught some attention from the neighbors. And the house smelled awful. How long do you think it would take before someone calls the police? And how long do you think it would take for the media to smell the news? You think that Carl’s contacts would pick up their phones after seeing him on the news, hanging by a rope?”

“Then why didn’t you wake me up?”

“You were wounded. You are wounded. Don’t be stupid now,” he snapped the last sentence. He was at the brink of bursting out of the room. He could leave her here. “And I didn’t find anything worthy from that list. They were all people who were not pleased to be in Carl’s contact list. I guess it is now safe to assume that he was just a sick bastard who knew how to cover his tracks by getting the services of others.”

There was not a sign on her face that she believed everything he said. Her brows were knitted in a frown. “It’s just seems simple.”

“You want complicated? Try living my life. I would gladly switch places with you. Look,” he stood up to walk toward her on the bed, hands deep inside his pockets. “I think it is time for you to go home. I believe you’re finally safe, Hope.”

She just looked at him without saying anything.

Then it struck him.

“I think you don’t want to go home,” he said in a low voice.

“Of course, I want to go home!”

“I am not stupid, Hope. Or maybe I am wrong. Maybe you are afraid to go home.”

“Shut up.”

“You think there are others like Carl out there. You think you will never be safe. Or maybe you take comfort to the fact that you are on the run and that no one knows you.”

She shot to her feet. “You don’t know anything,” she said in a surprisingly calm tone. “I can’t go home to a bunch of people who would see me as a charity case. Don’t follow me. I have to buy some slippers.”

Devin did not open his mouth and let her leave the room.

She had been on her own for too long. For ten years, she had taken care of her self—comforted herself. What Hope needed at the moment was herself.

*****

When she came back almost an hour later, she did not say a word. She had on a pair of cheap slippers she bought downstairs using his money.

“What did those people on the list say?”

Devin looked up at her from the bed. He pointed the remote he was holding in his hand at the TV and lowered the volume.

“Nothing much. As I have said, most of them snapped at the call, asking what I wanted—or what Carl wanted. It was like calling for Chinese take-outs. They were people who may have worked for Carl or people he threatened to do something for himself.”

“Where’s the box?”

He nodded his head toward the table and she went for it. She would not find anything useful there as well.

“I want to call them again,” she uttered.

“One of them found out I was not Carl. Let’s not risk it,” he said as he turned back to the TV. He straightened to a sitting position when he saw what was being flashed on the news. “Don’t bother calling. It’s out.”

As he turned the volume up, Hope walked toward him and watched the news.

“What can you tell us about what really happened out there?” the anchor was asking the reporter on the scene. Hope saw Carl’s familiar house with yellow tapes surrounding it and onlookers at the side. Police were everywhere taking photos, talking to each other and interviewing people with their notepads.

“The police are not saying anything as of the moment,” the reporter said. “But according to what we have gathered so far, a neighbor heard shots being fired yesterday and called the police. We have talked to the witness and it he claims that he saw two people running out of the house right after he called the police. It was a man and a blond woman.”

“Are they are perpetrators?”

“We are not certain of that fact yet, but it is safe to assume that they are on top of the list of suspects.”

“So, Grace, are there anyone who got injured or killed? We heard that the house is owned by one Carl Briggs. Was he in the house?”

Grace, the reporter, shook her head. “We cannot confirm anything yet. The police won’t say anything since yesterday, but we saw one body in a bag wheeled outside the garage last night.” The monitored showed a shot of two men wheeling a stretcher with a black body bag onboard.

Hope frowned. “Just one body? How about the man you killed?”

Devin did not answer. He continued to watch the news.

“It may be Briggs, it may be not. We are not sure of that yet, but we will be right back for more news on that matter,” Grace the reporter continued.

“What are the police doing right now?” the anchor asked.

“They are interviewing all neighbors as of the moment.”

“How about the ones right next to Briggs’?”

“The one to the right and the one across the street claim they were at work when the shooting happened. There was no one home on the house on the left ever since yesterday.”

“We also know that a neighbor was starting to complain of a foul smell even before the shooting happened. Is that right?”

Grace nodded. “Yes. A neighbor said that she was planning to call someone about it but the shooting happened.”

“Let’s go back to our two suspects. Were there any camera or traffic shots of them?”

“The police won’t say anything. But they were driving a car that the neighbor had a good look at and the police are most probably searching for it now through traffic cams.”

“Thank you, Grace. We will be back for more updates later tonight…”

Devin stood up and brushed his fingers through his hair. “We have to dispose the car. And we have to leave soon. Wait here while I take the car somewhere. Don’t leave the room.”

Hope just nodded without a word and Devin left her alone.

She was not sure if he would be coming back. It was highly possible that he wouldn’t. She was just heavy baggage for him, she thought. And he was right. Maybe it was really safe for her to come home now. Carl was dead. He didn’t have anyone after her, really. Sick bastards like Carl wouldn’t be a part of some conspiracy that everyone would want to kill whoever he was with, right? Carl was just one of the many pedophiles out there who cared nothing about but their own desires.

Whoever were after them were after Devin, not her. He was a bigger catch to those people. Her? She was just some used toy who happened to have asked help from someone who was being hunted.

Hope’s eyes flickered to the motel phone at the corner of the room.

She stood up and went toward it. Taking the receiver, she started to dial.

“Hello?” her mother’s voice answered. “Who is this?”

Hope opened her mouth to speak but no sound came.

“Who is this?” Gina Madden’s voice asked.

“Mom,” Hope croaked and tears started falling.

The gasp she heard from her mother made her want to get out the door and run toward home.

“This is not a good joke,” Gina Madden’s shaking voice said. “I’ve had prank calls like this before. Don’t bother me again!”

“Mom!” Hope cried again, this time desperately. “It’s really me. It’s Hope.”

A long silence followed and she feared her mother would put down the phone any moment. “Hope?” was her mother’s next word. “Oh my god, Hope?! Honey, where are you? Where have you been? Do you know how worried—oh my god this is real, isn’t it? Hope, honey, mommy’s been waiting for you! I never gave up. They all think—Hope, where are you?”

“Mom…” she croaked, her words trapped in her throat. “He’s dead. He’s dead.”

“Who is dead, Hope? Hope? Where are you? I will come get you. I will call the police—”

“No!” she said in panic. “Don’t call the police. Mom…” she said with sobs. “I want to go home.” She didn’t care anymore. She wanted to be with her mother. She wanted to see if she could find a home again—if home would feel the same again.

“Of course, honey. Oh god, Hope, where are you?”

Then she hesitated. She looked around the room, expecting Devin to arrive any moment. Whether he came back or not, he would be free of her. He would have a bigger chance of saving himself.

“Hope, honey, where are you?” her mother’s voice was getting desperate now. Gina Madden was crying at the other line. “Are you being held? Are you hurt? Honey, please talk to me. Where are you?”

Hope composed herself and squared her shoulders. “I’m at a motel. Mom, please come take me home, please.”

*****

She tried not to pace around the room. Devin was not back yet. What should she tell him if he came back? It would be easy. He would gladly accept her decision.

A knock came on the door. It could be her mother. Or it could be Devin.

When the door opened, Hope sprang to her feet in fear. It was not Devin. And it was not her mother.

*****

He left the car outside of town, beside the road. It was the farthest he could go.

It took almost half an hour for a bus to pass by and he was already weary when he arrived at the motel. They had to find a different mode of transportation, he thought as he walked into the lobby.

A woman was making a scene at the modest reception area manned by a guy who looked like he had been living a boring life. But his life was getting exciting at the moment because the hysterical woman was crying and asking him questions.

Devin was ready to ignore the commotion, eager to leave the place as soon as possible, when he realized the woman was familiar. As a matter of fact, he had seen her before.

He stopped slowed down to listen to her words.

“My daughter is here. She called me to pick her up. Her name is Hope Madden and she had been missing for ten years! You don’t tell me to calm the fuck down! Where’s your superior?”

“I am the superior here, lady. Now, calm down. I am sure I watched the news weeks ago and they said that Hope Madden is dead. It is either you are one crazy fan who cannot get over that fact or an obsessed—”

“I am her mother!” Gina Madden shouted. “And I am telling you my daughter called me to pick her up! I came and she was not in her room! I want to know if you saw her come out or—”

“Hey, look. This is a freaking motel, okay? I don’t care who walks in or out of here as long as they pay.”

“I am calling the police—”

“Fine! Go ahead!”

Devin did not take more time and dashed to the stairs. His heart started to hammer.

He ran to their room and saw what he had expected.

He scanned the room and found nothing.

Hope was gone.