After much reflection, this seemed the logical answer to his dilemma: He would use one of the houses that she had shown him as a safe house. There simply wasn’t time to go through the effort of starting the renting process all over again—especially with the boy in the backseat, especially given the FBI had a pretty good sketch of him, especially given his timetable. Having raided the bed-and-breakfast, the FBI would be expecting him to seek a roof over his head. They could be watching, or would have already alerted, hotels, motels, rooming houses, perhaps even property management firms like Caroline’s. There wasn’t a lot of choice: he had to leave the boy off somewhere and get to the business at hand. He would have to improvise. Early, early morning, just at sunrise, seemed to him the best time to try it. Any earlier and the darkness itself might raise a person’s curiosity. But right at sunrise is when people experience some of their deepest sleep, and with the air gray and grainy in the limited light, the boy in his arms might appear no more than an awkward bundle from a distance.
