Nothing Is Negotiable (21 page)

The line went dead.

Bonnie stared at the phone in disbelief.

Finally, she knew why she was abducted. She was supposed to impersonate a woman who looked just like her and kidnap the daughter of one of the richest women in America. This was the most bizarre thing she had ever heard in her life.

Question after question began to pop into her head. First, how in the world did the kidnappers find her? Next, would she actually have the courage to kidnap this child? If she did what they wanted would they really let her and Luke go? And if they did, would she be accused of kidnapping and spend the rest of her life in prison after she went to the police?

Unconsciously she shook her head. There was no way she could kidnap a child. Regardless of what they said, she knew she and Luke would most likely be murdered even if she pulled off the kidnapping successfully.

She collapsed on the couch and covered her face with her hands.
Maybe I should call 9-1-1 right now and get it over with.
The police could find her by tracking the cell phone signal. That might be their only real chance of either of them getting out of this alive.

She picked up the cell phone and when she flipped it open she noticed that something was not quite right with the keypad. She moved over to the kitchen where the light was better and noticed there was something very hard covering the buttons. Using her fingernail, she scratched at it, but it was no use. It was hard as plastic. She pressed on the numbers but they wouldn’t move. Then she figured it out. The assholes had poured super-glue all over the buttons, except the one speed dial button she used to call them.

Disgusted, she dropped the phone back on the table and reached for the bulging manila folder beside the television. Inside she saw photos, lists, drawing, pages from magazines and some large folded papers that looked like blueprints.

She pulled out the blueprints and unfolded them. Across the top it said
St. Luke’s Hospital
. Flipping through the pages she saw a drawing for each floor, even a page for the basement and the parking garage.

Setting it aside, she pulled out a stack of photos. About ten were taken outside, showing the hospital from different angles. There were at least a dozen pictures taken from a variety of locations inside. On the bottom of each picture was a note written with a black marker identifying the location of each.

One picture showed an ambulance parked under a portico and behind it she could see a set of plate glass doors. Someone had drawn an arrow pointing to the side and scribbled:
This is the emergency entrance.

She flipped through a few more and came to one that showed a long empty hallway where two men in white lab coats walking away from the photographer. At the bottom of this picture the caption said,
Room B1114 is halfway down on the left.

She came to at least a dozen pictures of people and all of them had names and comments beside them. The first was a heavy black girl in scrubs:
Chondelle–nurse, always calls Olivia–Sugar Baby.

Second, a white guy with a shaved head and earrings in both ears:
James–nurse, gay, very helpful, loves Olivia.

Next, a white female with short blond hair, thin eyebrows
: Rosemary–in charge of Dialysis unit.

Next, a trim, white female:
Leigh Ann–a fitness freak who always asks Dr. Owens about her workout.

Also
, Angie—slow and lazy, but the patients love her.

Next, an older Hispanic with oily hair:
Carlos–custodian, his English is hard to understand.

Another one was a huge, muscular, black man:
DeWayne–bodyguard and driver for Dr. Owens.

There were pictures of at least twenty people. It worried her when she realized she could run into any or all of these people and would need to know each one by name.

Under the photos she found an article torn out of a magazine. It was from the
Journal of American Pediatrics
with a profile of Dr. Owens. Included in the article was a studio portrait of her in a dress covered with a lab coat. An eerie feeling swept over Bonnie as she studied their incredible likeness. In this picture she noticed her beautiful blue eyes. Bonnie’s were emerald green. Anyone who knew Tammy would know the difference in a heartbeat.

She grabbed the red phone and pressed the speed dial button.

“What?”

“Your doctor has blue eyes, light blue. And mine are very dark green. There’s no way I can pull this off.”

“Aw, shit. Hold on.” The line was muted for a minute, and then he was back. “We’ll get you some contacts that change the color of your eyes.”

“But I already wear contacts and I’m blind as a bat without them. It won’t work.”

“You’ll have to make it work.”

“But it won’t. I can’t do this without my contacts.”

She could hear some quiet discussion in the background and after a short pause, he said, “I don’t give a shit if you can see or not. You do it, or you husband dies. Do you understand?”

“But that’s not fair,” she retorted.

“Goddamit! Listen to me!” he screamed. “Fair has nothing to do with it. Are you so fucking stupid I have to draw you a picture to make you understand? This is not a game. If anything goes wrong—if you don’t get that kid to us because your eyes are the wrong color, your husband dies.”

“But—”

“Nothing is negotiable. Do you understand?”

It was no use. She sighed heavily. “I understand.” Knowing something as simple as the color of her eyes slipped past them made her wonder how much more of their plan was flawed.

“Good. Now I’d suggest you get busy learning everything, because tomorrow you only get one chance. If you fuck up and don’t pull this off, you husband is dead. It’s that simple.”

“Okay,” Bonnie said coldly.

“Good, one more thing. If you get hungry there’s some food in the fridge.”

Bonnie snapped the cell phone closed and slammed it against the desk.

She was hungry. Actually, she was starving. The only thing she had eaten in the past four days was granola bars and peanut butter. Inside the refrigerator she found a box with three pieces of cold fried chicken, cold French fries and a cold roll. Her first impulse was to throw it against the wall but she needed to eat. She pulled out the drumstick and took a bite.

While she ate she explored the trailer. In the bedroom closet, she found several sets of clothes on hangers. The first one was a business suit identical to the one Tammy was wearing in the interview. There were two more outfits and a dress. All size six. Her size.

There were also four sets of scrubs, all identical but in various colors. This probably meant they’d tell her what to wear after they saw what Dr. Owens was wearing tomorrow. All were embroidered
Dr. Tammy Owens.

At the bottom of the closet was a dark gray suitcase that looked all too familiar. She pulled it out and saw the name on the leather I.D. tag—Bonnie Wakefield.
How in the world did they get my suitcase?

Inside it was obvious someone had searched through her clothes because they were not neatly arranged as they had been when she packed it.

Just seeing her clean clothes reminded her how grungy she felt. She pulled out a pair of clean panties, a bra, and her makeup bag, and headed for the bathroom.

The water pressure in the shower was not much more than a trickle, but it was enough to rejuvenate her exhausted muscles. She pulled on an old T-shirt and pajamas and returned to the VCR. She pushed in the last tape and pressed the play button.

When it started, the hospital came into focus but the picture was jumpy like someone was walking while filming. Every time someone started to walk toward the camera, the screen went blank like the camera was hidden. Maybe a jacket or lab coat was pulled over it.

This segment of the tape lasted about four minutes. It showed the route she would take to pick up Olivia and get her back to the parking garage. The layout of the hospital was pretty straightforward—into the hospital, down a hallway, up the elevator, and down a hall to the dialysis unit. Then the same route getting out.

The part she worried about was fooling the staff when she tried to get Olivia. They had told her it was a foolproof plan but hadn’t given her any details how it would be done. She didn’t expect it to be as easy as they made it sound.

Bonnie turned off the tape and picked up the pile of pictures. One by one, she went through them, trying to learn everyone’s name. Most of them were pretty easy to remember because the names seemed to go with the person. Half an hour later she needed a break so she set the photos aside and turned on the television. Only three channels came in clearly and she stopped on a local news program from Kalispell. Her mind wandered while they droned on about city council issues and budget cuts, but when they mentioned the name Kim Townsend, Bonnie sat upright.

They played a clip filmed earlier in the day with Kim and Dr. Sheppard posing for the cameras with four men. They all held shiny shovels full of dirt as they broke ground for the new children’s center. Kim’s happiness was apparent and in a short statement she said that Olivia was doing well thanks to the remarkable staff at the hospital.

Bonnie listened with interest, thinking how great it was that Kim was donating her money to help build a medical center where it was truly needed. But her heart sank when she remembered that she had to kidnap Olivia to keep Luke from being murdered. It was too much to bear. She bit her lip and fought back tears, telling herself she had no choice. She pressed a button on the remote and changed the channel, looking for anything to get her mind off the kidnapping. An old episode of
M*A*S*H
was just starting and it was exactly what she needed. Anything to get her mind off Olivia. It didn’t take long before she started to drift off.

Hours later, a noise woke her from a deep sleep. Looking around all she saw was Suzanne Somers talking about the Thigh Master on TV. Was she dreaming or did she hear something? Grabbing the remote, she muted the TV and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

It was dead silence. Maybe it was her imagination.

The luminescent glow of the clock on the microwave said 2:51. That meant she’d been asleep in the recliner for about four hours. Her back ached and she bent forward to stretch it for a few seconds. She needed to move into the bedroom so she pointed the remote control at the television. But, before she pressed the off button she heard a soft knock on the door.

She froze. That was the same noise she had heard earlier.
Who would be knocking at this hour?
It had to be those people who were holding her, checking on her. She waited and listened closely.

Again, she heard the soft knock, but this time someone spoke.

“Luke. Are you in there?”

Bonnie jerked her head back. She could have sworn the person outside asked for Luke.

Again, the voice came. “Luke, it’s Lauren. Are you in there?”

She forced herself to sit still, unsure what to do.

“I found your note and the pictures.”

Who the hell is Lauren? And what note and pictures?

She heard the rattle of the latch on the outside of the door.

The door started to open. Just an inch at first, then two, finally enough for Bonnie to see a woman’s face, her eyes searching, then locking on hers. The woman gasped and she raised a hand to her mouth.

“You’re Bonnie?”

Bonnie was confused, surprised, and a little bit scared. She was expecting it to be the people who locked her in there, but this woman didn’t appear to be one of them. She seemed to be equally as confused.

“Who are you?”

“Where’s Luke?”

Bonnie had never seen this woman before. “Wait a minute... who are you?”

“I’m... Lauren Gray,” she stammered. “You’re Bonnie Wakefield.”

A million questions flooded Bonnie’s mind. “I know who I am, but
who
are you?”

“I’m a friend of Luke’s. He left me a note and the pictures. I knew he would need help so I came to help. Is he here?”

“Just wait a second, okay?” Bonnie backed away and eyed her suspiciously. She was beautiful with long flowing brown hair; she looked like a model in an L. L. Bean catalogue. Cautiously, Bonnie folded her arms across her chest and demanded, “How do you know Luke?”

“He came into my store to get information about a fishing trip. I’m a fishing guide.”

Nothing made sense. This beautiful woman is a fishing guide? The only fishing guides she’d ever known were men with five-day beards and the smell of yesterday’s bait. “Yeah, right. And I’m a brain surgeon.”

“No, I really am. I have an outdoor store in Cardston. I guide fishing trips and rent Jeeps. He came in my store earlier in the week and wanted some information about fly fishing.” The brunette glanced nervously around the RV. “Then later he came by and said you had disappeared. He got the RCMP looking all over Alberta for you and he put flyers up all over town with your picture on them. There’s one in the front window of my shop right now.”

“How did you find me?”

“That black Jeep,” she said, motioning toward the door, “it’s one of mine. It’s got a GPS tracking system on it. I can track its location on my computer twenty-four-seven.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, but get in here before you get us both killed,” Bonnie grabbed Lauren by the wrist and pulled her inside. “Did you see anyone outside?”

“I don’t think so. When I drove through the first time I saw the Jeep. And because of what Luke said in his note, I knew I’d better be careful. So, I parked down the street and came back through the woods so no one would see me.”

“I’m totally confused. Start over and start with the Jeep.”

“Okay, the Jeep sitting right outside. Luke rented it from me.”

“Why would he do that? We rented a car in Calgary.”

“I know, but someone broke a window out of it. So, I rented him the Jeep.”

None of this made sense. They stood six feet apart and eyed each other. Should she trust this strange woman who showed up looking for Luke? She claimed she was a fishing guide and was there to help, But, she was also about as nervous as a woman who just got caught with another woman’s husband.

“Okay, but I still don’t know why you’re here.”

“When you disappeared, Luke left the motel in St. Mary and came to Cardston but couldn’t find any place to stay so I let him stay in the bunkhouse at our ranch. I went over to check on him this evening and he was gone. But he left me these pictures and this note.” She reached into the pocket of her sleeveless vest, pulled out a Polaroid picture and handed it to Bonnie.

With only the glow of the television, the picture was hard to see clearly, but it looked like her lying on a bed. It was starting to come together but Bonnie wanted to know more about this note she was talking about.

Lauren took shallow breaths while fidgeting with her keychain. “So, what’s going on? I thought Luke would be here.”

Bonnie held a finger in front of her lips. “Shh. They said they’d be watching me.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. Whoever’s been holding me prisoner for the past four days?” Bonnie wanted to get a better look at the picture so she went over and opened the refrigerator. Using the light on the inside, she examined the photo. It was her on the bed in the cabin with her arms tied behind her back and she appeared to be asleep.

“Luke left this, too.” She handed Bonnie the piece of paper and she read down the list of instructions. “When I found it I checked the tracking program on my computer to see where the Jeep was and it showed it to be just outside of Whitefish.”

“Whitefish?”

“A little town west of Glacier National Park. But by the time I got there, the Jeep had changed locations.”

“How did you know that?”

“I can access the tracking program on my laptop which is in my car. I have an aircard so I have Internet service all the time,” Lauren said. “The tracking program can pinpoint the location of the vehicle within a five meter area.”

Bonnie was beginning to trust this strange woman. “Okay. I guess I understand how you found me, but I still don’t understand why?”

“When you went missing, Luke came back to my store and told me. He asked me some questions about some people in Cardston. I told him he could trust someone I shouldn’t have. I was wrong. It’s my fault he’s in trouble now.”

Bonnie could tell Lauren was nervous, but her gut told her this woman was telling the truth. Lauren looked toward the bedroom at the end of the RV. “So, where’s Luke?”

“Whoever was holding me prisoner is now holding him. And they’ve told me that if I don’t do what they say, they’ll kill him.”

Lauren stared at her blankly. “What do they want you to do?”

It was then Bonnie decided this woman was their only hope. She had to trust her. “Let me tell you what this is all about.”

For the next few minutes Bonnie spoke without interruption, telling her the entire story. Lauren listened, her face filled with confusion, disbelief, and anxiety. Bonnie pulled out a photo of Tammy Owens and showed it to Lauren. Her jaw dropped.

“That’s unbelievable. You look just like her.”

“I know. Scary isn’t it?”

“So, are you going to do it?”

“I don’t have much choice,” Bonnie said. “If I don’t pull it off, Luke dies.”

“But, even if you do it, do you think they’ll let you go.”

“I know. I’ve thought about that.”

“We have to think of something, because once you turn the little girl over to them, you’ll be a liability to them. They’ll have to get rid of you and Luke.”

“What else I can do.”

“Why don’t we leave now and go to the police?”

“That would save me but then they’d kill Luke.”

Lauren looked around the motor home as if a better idea was hidden on the wall or the shelf or on top of the refrigerator. Finally, she shrugged. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“I hope so,” Bonnie looked at the clock. It was 3:03 a.m. “Right now I’m brain dead. I’m so tired I can’t even think straight.”

“Me too. I’ve been up since five-thirty yesterday morning,” Lauren said, yawning.

“I think right now, you need to get out of here. If they catch you here we’re both dead. Literally.”

“Ok, but how are we going to get back together?” She glanced around and saw the red phone on the table. “Is that a cell phone?”

Bonnie handed it to Lauren. “It is, but all the keys are covered with super glue, except for the one I use to call them.”

“Interesting. This is one of those disposable phones, isn’t it?” Lauren said, pushing on the keys that were frozen in place. “That gives me an idea.” She reached in her back pocket and pulled out her cell phone. “I’ll leave my phone with you and first thing in the morning, I’ll go buy one of those disposable phones. I will call my cell phone and my new number will show up on the caller ID, then we’ll be able to communicate.”

For the first time in four days Bonnie felt she was not alone. She looked at Lauren and smiled as she took her phone. “Two can play their fricking game.”

“In the morning after I get a phone, I’ll run over to the hospital and check it out. Maybe it’ll help us come up with an idea.”

“Okay. They told me I had until midday before I have to do anything.”

“That will give us some time. I’ll call my phone as soon as I get a new one,” Lauren said as she slipped out into the night.

For the first time, Bonnie felt there was hope.