Infinity + One (43 page)

704 had been the number for the day. He usually discovered there was one—a number that kept reappearing everywhere he looked. It had carried over into the next day too, and the next. He’d spent seventy dollars and four cents filling up Bear’s car and buying two sub sandwiches and several bottles of water at the convenience store in Pacific. William’s initials, G.O.D, were also 704—G is the seventh letter of the alphabet, D is the fourth. And finally, 704 was their room number at the Bordeaux Hotel, which he’d considered a good omen.

“I checked. 704 is a North Carolina area code.” The detective threw this irrelevant piece of information out like he was really onto something.

“Okay.”

“But you say Shayna Harris lives in Portsmouth, Ohio.”

“She does. You’ll have to ask Shayna about her phone number, but her husband’s parents live in North Carolina.”

The detective harrumphed and turned back to the beginning.

“The old man who pulled your car out of the ditch in Ohio . . .”

“His license was CAD 159,” Finn said, not waiting for the detective to finish the question. “Change the letters to numbers and you have 3.14159—the first six digits of pi.”

“The deputy who saw you running in Freedom and asked for your name?”

“His badge number was 112—three consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci Sequence. The clock on his dash said 11:23—four consecutive numbers in the sequence.”

One by one, they went through the numbers on Finn’s statement, exit numbers and mile markers and license plates and road signs—numbers that Finn hadn’t consciously tried to remember, but numbers that might save him. Again. The detective grew more and more astonished and less and less skeptical as they talked, until all at once, he stood from the table and walked out of the room without a word, Finn’s twenty page statement in his hands. A few minutes later, Finn was escorted back to his cell where he waited once more, trying not to contemplate the number of times he’d thought about Bonnie and the infinite ways that he missed her.

BONNIE WASN’T AT his arraignment hearing. But her gran was. Raena Shelby was fine-boned like Bonnie, with the same high cheek bones and square jaw—that square Shelby chin Bonnie had mournfully told him about when she’d cried about her resemblance to Hank.

When he saw her, Finn had known immediately who she was, even though her hair was a store-bought red, her eyes a pale blue, and her skin several shades lighter than Bonnie’s. Bonnie had those dark eyes and that golden skin that made her look perpetually warm and sun-kissed. This woman wasn’t sun-kissed. She was unsmiling and stern, and kept glancing over at Finn like he was filth and they were on an episode of
Law and Order
.

She sat in the back with a man Finn assumed was her lawyer, and they whispered back and forth. He wanted to catch her eye and spit, letting her know exactly what he thought of her, but instead, he kept his face blank and his stare hard and continually twisted his wedding ring until she was the one who looked away and didn’t look back.

It was a small victory and provided little comfort. The fact remained that Bonnie wasn’t there. And he wasn’t the only one who took note of her absence. The room was thick with reporters, although cameras were not allowed in. The media frenzy hadn’t lost any of its fervor.

The arraignment hearing wasn’t much more than a swift procedural stamp. Finn waited for his turn longer than he stood before the judge. No defense was offered during arraignment. It was all business. Charges were read, Finn pled not guilty, and an attorney was appointed to him. He would not be talking to the police from there on out, and his new, albeit temporary until he was extradited, attorney promised to meet with him later in the day. He would be brought to Missouri within the week unless he waived extradition. He wouldn’t be waiving it. What was the point?

“YOU HAVE A visitor.”

Finn wasn’t surprised. He’d been expecting his new lawyer. But he wasn’t led to an interview room. He was led down a long line of stools, sparsely populated by inmates who faced a glass partition and talked to their visitors through phones on the other side. His heart leaped in his throat, and he tamped down the urge to surge forward, expecting Bonnie to be waiting across the glass. Instead, her grandmother sat there, her elegant hand wrapped around the receiver of the phone, her mouth set in a thin line, waiting for him to pick up the receiver on his side and speak with her.

He considered refusing to see her. But his curiosity won out, and he slid onto the stool and grasped the phone in his manacled hands, holding it to his ear as he waited for her to speak. He didn’t ask for Bonnie, he didn’t ask her what she wanted. He just waited.

She considered him briefly and then said, “Aren’t you wondering why you’re still being charged, while Bonnie has been released?”

He didn’t respond.

“I mean, if you two were together . . . wouldn’t she be guilty too?”

Finn wasn’t sure what the purpose of this visit was, but Raena Shelby—Gran—obviously was. Gran didn’t fit her at all. Gran sounded like a woman with gray permed hair and little bifocals.

“Police believe you drew Bear in with promises to turn Bonnie over to him. And maybe you really did plan to exchange Bonnie for the cash. But Bonnie had pulled a fast one on you and escaped in your Blazer. Which is why you had to rent the car, which is why, when Bear showed up without the money, you shot him.”

“What money?” Finn broke his silence, incredulous.

“The $500,000 you demanded.”

Finn just stared, dumfounded once more.

“I withdrew the money two days before you shot Bear.” Raena Shelby was studying him as she spoke, as if gauging the effectiveness of her story.

“Why are you here?” Finn asked, his head spinning, his heart in his throat. He’d never asked for a damn dime.

She ignored him, continuing on like an attorney in cross examination.

“The reason you’re being charged, and Bonnie isn’t, is because the police have a very clear picture of what really happened. It’s not hard to figure out.” She paused, waiting to make sure he was hanging on her words. Her blue eyes were icy, and her hand tightened on the phone.

“You found Bonnie wandering around Boston. Suicidal and lost. And instead of taking her to a hospital or calling the police, you took her across the country.”

For the first time, Finn felt a twinge of guilt.

“You recognized her. You saw dollar signs. And you took her.” Raena Shelby’s eyes narrowed, and she sneered disdainfully. “There’s evidence that she tried to get away from you. She took your Blazer to escape, which is why you had to rent a car. And all of this was right around the time Bear was shot.”

Finn didn’t allow himself to respond. He gritted his teeth and waited her out, knowing it didn’t matter what he said to defend himself. She had written the narrative, and she was delivering her lines like a seasoned actress.

“There is also evidence that she is not mentally stable. Bonnie Rae isn’t well. She was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. She’s supposed to be taking medicine. Did you know that Finn?” She asked the question curiously and said his first name like she was suddenly his friend.

Finn wanted to hang up the phone. He wanted to signal to the guard that he was done. He wanted to break the glass and strangle the self-satisfied woman who sat across from him, attempting to reduce the last week of his life—the best week of his life—to rubble.

“I thought for sure she was dead when I saw her hair strewn around the dressing room. She had a nervous breakdown. That’s what these last two weeks have been—one big nervous breakdown. She’s not well, Finn. You don’t really want a girl like that, do you? Oh, I can see how you might get distracted by her beauty. And her talent. And her money, most of all. She’s rich. That’s got to be irresistible to a man like you.”

A man like you. Irresistible. Finn fought the urge to throw up. Bonnie Rae
was
irresistible. What had he told her?
You make me feel. And feeling that much is irresistible sometimes. You are irresistible sometimes.”

She shot a glance down at the ring he wore on his finger and met his eyes once more.

“She doesn’t want to see you. Now that she’s been released and has had some time to think, she just wants to put it all behind her. The marriage will be annulled, obviously. It’s being taken care of.”

She waited for him to respond, and when he didn’t, a flash of frustration tightened her lips.

“You thought you were being so smart, didn’t you? You thought marriage would save you.” Raena laughed, and Finn caught a brief hint of Bonnie’s wide, curving grin in her grandmother’s expression. But there was no sunshine or joy in the smile—making the resemblance shallow and false.

“None of it was real, Finn. You married a girl who is hungry for attention and totally incapable of taking care of herself at this point. It was an imaginary love affair that was never going to survive the week. It wasn’t real,” she repeated, adamant.

“You never got the money you asked for. But we’ll give it to you—all of it. You’re going to need it to defend yourself. And who knows? I just got word that Bear’s regained consciousness. So maybe you’ll get off. And maybe you’ll have some money left to start over. And in exchange for $500,000, you will never speak to Bonnie again. You won’t give interviews, you won’t write a tell-all book, and you’ll take off that wedding ring.”

Finn laid the phone down abruptly and stood from his chair. He signaled to the guard, who motioned him forward, and without another look at Raena Shelby, he walked away.

WE HAVE BREAKING news that Hank Shelby, the brother of singing sensation Bonnie Rae Shelby, has just been arrested in Nashville for the attempted murder of Malcolm “Bear” Johnson. Hank Shelby has been in and out of rehab, and has most recently been living in his grandmother’s home in Nashville.

It is believed that Shelby followed Bear Johnson from Nashville to St. Louis on February 28 and reportedly shot Malcolm Johnson at a St. Louis gas station. Police have issued a statement that Hank Shelby was behind a $500,000 ransom demand, and that all charges against Infinity James Clyde have been dropped, and he will be released from the LA County Jail within the hour.