The Chemist

Even as she was admiring the vehicle’s ordinary exterior – perfect for blending in – a slow creeping sensation started to inch up her back, raising bumps on her skin as it moved. She froze, wide eyes darting around like a startled rabbit trying to suss out the direction danger was coming from. What had her subconscious noticed that she had not?

She zeroed in on the paper bag cradled in Daniel’s left arm. As she watched, he pulled the front seat forward and grabbed another bag. Einstein danced happily around his legs. Khan and the Rottweiler ran down the porch steps to join in.

She felt the blood drain out of her face, leaving a dizzy sensation behind.

And then the second of shock passed, and she was in motion. She charged after the dogs, feeling the blood pulse back into her bruised cheeks.

“Hey, Alex,” Daniel called cheerfully. “There are a few more bags in the back, if you’re feeling —” He stopped abruptly when he processed her expression. “What’s happened? Kevin —”

“Where did you go?” She spit the words through her teeth.

He blinked once. “I just ran out to that town we passed on our way in. Childress.”

Her hands balled into fists.

“I took the dog,” he offered. “Nothing happened.”

She pressed one fist to her mouth, winced, and tried to calm herself. It wasn’t his fault. He just didn’t understand. She and Kevin should have advised him better. It was her own misstep for assuming some of that guidance had happened while she’d been asleep in the car. But if Kevin hadn’t been prepping Daniel for his new life, then what had they been talking about for all those hours?

“Did anyone see y—of course they did. You bought things. How many people saw you?”

He blinked again. “Did I do something wrong?”

“You went into town?” A deep voice rumbled behind her.

Daniel shifted his gaze to a point over her head. “Yeah – I mean, you guys were pretty short on groceries. I just wanted to get some nonfrozen stuff, you know? You seemed busy…”

She turned to look at Arnie. His face was impassive, but she knew it well enough now to see little breaks in the façade – stress marks around his eyes, one slightly more prominent vein in his forehead.

“Do you have a way to contact Kevin?” she asked him.

“You mean Joe?”

“Probably. Daniel’s brother.”

“Nope.”

“What did I do?” Daniel asked pleadingly.

She sighed as she turned back to him. “Do you remember when Kevin said that no one around here had ever seen his face? Well… now they have.”

Daniel’s color started to ebb as he processed that. “But… I used a fake name. I – I said I was just passing through.”

“How many people did you talk to?”

“Just the cashier at the grocery store and the one at the —”

“How many places did you go into?”

“Three…”

She and Arnie exchanged a glance – horrified on her part, more inscrutable on his.

“Kevin left me money for things I might need – I assumed he meant stuff like eggs and milk,” Daniel offered.

“He meant fake IDs,” Alex snapped.

The rest of Daniel’s color vanished, and his mouth fell open.

They stared at him for a long moment.

Daniel took a deep breath, visibly centering himself.

“Okay,” he said. “I screwed up. Can we take the groceries in before you tell me how bad? It only adds waste to my mistake if the perishables spoil in the truck.”

Lips pressed into a tight line – ignoring the irritating glob of superglue – Alex nodded once and went around to the back of the truck to help unload. She saw all the bags inside the camper and felt the blood behind her bruises again.

Of course, on top of going into the closest town, he would have bought enough food to feed an army. And if there was any other thing that would make him more memorable, he’d probably done that, too.

In ominous silence, Alex and Arnie brought all the bags in and put them on the counter. Daniel worked back and forth between the cupboards and the fridge, sorting each item into the right spot. Alex might have thought that he wasn’t taking this seriously enough except for the fact that his color kept changing; though his expression was steady, his cheeks and neck would suddenly flush, and then he’d go white again.

The cooling-off period was probably a good idea. It gave Alex a chance to think everything through and be realistic about the danger posed. She’d been about ready to steal Arnie’s truck and disappear, but she knew that would be overreacting. Sometimes overreactions saved your life; sometimes they just put you in more danger. She had to remember her face; running now would only cause her more problems.

Daniel placed the last item – some kind of leafy green vegetable – in the fridge and shut the door. He didn’t turn, just stood there with his head slightly bowed toward the stainless steel.

“How bad?” he asked quietly.

She looked at Arnie. He didn’t seem inclined to speak.

“Tell me you paid cash,” she began.

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s something, at least.”

“But not everything,” Daniel guessed.

“No. Childress is a very small town.”

“Just over six thousand people,” Arnie rumbled.

It was worse than she’d thought; she knew of high schools with bigger student bodies.