She didn’t stop, didn’t look up to determine its source. She knew it had to be the same police car that had been trailing her for miles. It would come to a stop every quarter of a mile or so, wait for her to pass, then continue to move. It was a message from Maguire. She was being watched, and the whole damned world was on his side. This time the car didn’t rev up its engine and speed past. It pulled up alongside her instead. “You ain’t thinkin’ ’bout leavin’, now are you, Auntie,” a voice called out. She glanced up at the deputy who’d spoken to her, but she couldn’t risk doing or saying anything that would give them the excuse to put her in the back of that patrol car. Maybe that was Maguire’s intent by having them follow her. No doubt, he delighted in the thought of her stewing behind bars, helpless in the knowledge there was nothing she could do to save the girls from the monster he kept in his jar. “We gonna keep an eye out on you.” The officers in the car laughed, then hit the gas, showering her with a cloud of dirt and tiny stones.
