The 9th Judgment

THE POLICE CAR circled the parking lot at Crissy Field like a buzzard. Sarah stiffened as she watched the cruiser in her rearview mirror, seeing it loop slowly around the lot while she wondered if her former student Mark Ogrodnick had told the police that she'd been in Whole Foods, barefoot, scraped up, and looking scared.

Sarah held her breath and moved only her eyes, and then the black-and-white eased out of the exit and continued onto the boulevard.

God, Sarah, chill.

There's no way those cops could be looking for you here. No way!

Putting on her sunglasses, Sarah got out of the car. She crossed over the trail to the beach side of the walk and sat on an empty bench facing the water.

Weather was coming in, clouds obscuring the afternoon sun but not stopping the windsurfers, who were shouting to one another as they changed their clothes out there on the asphalt.

Zipping up her jacket, Sarah felt chilled inside and out. How do you tell someone you love that you've been leading a double life-and, in her case, a criminal double life? She had to get Heidi to understand that she knew stealing was wrong and dangerous, but if she could provide the means for all of them to escape Terror and Beastly, then she could live with what she'd done.

Sarah imagined Heidi looking at her as if she were an alien, gathering up the kids, getting back into her car, and driving off. Sarah crossed her arms over her chest and doubled over. It killed her to think of losing Heidi. If that happened, everything she'd done would be for nothing.

Sarah's cell phone rang. She answered it.

"Where are you, Sarah? We're in the parking lot."

Sarah stood up and waved. Sherry screamed, "Sarah, Sarah," and ran to her mom's friend. Sarah lifted the little girl into her arms.

Heidi broke into a grin. She held on to her floppy hat and balanced Stevie on her hip, the wind blowing her skirt tight against her body. Heidi was so beautiful. And that was the least of why Sarah loved her.

Heidi came to her and hugged her with the kids in the middle, Sherry scrutinizing Sarah's face, asking her, "What's wrong, Sarah? Did someone hurt you?"

Sarah put Sherry down and started to cry.

Chapter 84

HEIDI AND SARAH crossed the picturesque bridge, over an inlet that ran from the bay into the pretty little nature park. Sherry took Stevie ahead toward the wooden dock and, grown-ups forgotten, gathered stones to throw into the water.

The two women sat together on a bench, and Heidi asked, "What's going on, sweetie?"

Sarah looked into Heidi's face and said, "There's no good way to tell you. I wanted to keep you out of it. I didn't want to involve you in any way."

"Wow," Heidi said. "You're really scaring me."

Sarah nodded and, looking down at her feet, said, "You know about the cat burglar they call Hello Kitty?"

"That's the one who killed Marcus Dowling's wife, right?"

"Yeah, well, I didn't do it."

Heidi laughed. "Duh-uh. Of course not. What are you talking about?"

"Heidi, I'm Hello Kitty."

"Shut up! You are not!"

"Would I make this up? Heidi, believe me, I'm the cat burglar. Let me get this all out, and then I'll tell you anything you want to know."

"Okay. But-okay."

"I told you, my granddad was a jeweler," Sarah said. "But I didn't tell you he had a friend who was a fence. I heard a lot of stories when I was Sherry's age, just playing with stuff in my granddad's shop.

"So when I was thinking how to get us all out of here, I realized I could actually get rich quick. I started climbing the wall at the gym, getting strong, and I started researching potential targets, picking only people who could recover from the loss of their stuff. At first I wasn't sure I could do it.

"And then Trevor raped me."

Sarah swallowed hard, forcing her mind to skip past the memory.

"My first few burglaries were-easy," Sarah said. "I had a knack for it, and I could count on Terror to pass out in front of the TV long enough for me to do the job, come home, and get into bed before he woke up.

"Then there was the Dowling job."

Heidi looked stricken, as though she were trying to say something but couldn't find the right words. Instead she just stared. Sarah kept going. She told Heidi about Marcus Dowling's outrageous lies and about the next job-the one where Jim Morley came into the room when her hands were wrist-deep in his wife's jewelry. And then she went on to the robbery of Diana King, the last job she was ever going to do.

"It had to happen," Sarah said. "I thought I was home free. And then a cop car came out of the dark, shining lights on me, following me. So I ditched everything: the jewelry, most of my clothes, and-in a perfectly brilliant move-my tool bag with my car keys inside. When you couldn't come get me, I had to call Terror."

"I'm sorry, Sarah."