Nothing Is Negotiable (29 page)

“Could be the fuel pump?” Ryan said to Lance.

He shrugged and they looked back at the engine. But Lauren could tell they didn’t know the fuel pump from the voltage regulator.

“Do you know a lot about cars?”

“Well, sure,” Lance said.

“What do you think is wrong?” She moved up beside Lance and leaned in to look at the engine, mashed her breast against his arm.

“Could be the alternator,” Lance said to Ryan, not wanting to move.

She gave them a minute to look around but they didn’t seem to know where to start.

“You think one of those wires came loose or something?” Lauren said, pointing to the spark plug wires.

“That might be it.” Tentatively, they reached in and started wiggling wires.

Lauren grabbed the hood with one hand and raised a finger, giving a signal to Bonnie.

Bonnie and Luke slipped out of the backseat and ran back to the boat and climb inside.

The guys were still pulling off wires and pushing them back on a minute later when Lauren felt the cell phone in her back pocket vibrate. That told her that Bonnie and Luke were safely hidden in the storage compartments of the boat.

Ryan pushed on a few more wires and said, “Why don’t you try it now?”

Lance nodded, and she walked around and sat in the driver’s seat. The engine started on the first crank and purred like a kitten.

Lauren got out as Ryan was pushing the hood closed.

“I thought one of those wires I pushed on was kind of loose,” Lance said.

“I don’t know what I would have done if you guys hadn’t stopped.” Lauren gave him a full body hug and kissed him on the cheek. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

With her arms still around Lance’s waist, she said, “I’ve got an idea. There’s a little bar about fifteen kilometers across the border just before you get to Elko, The Silver Dollar. Know where it is?”

“Sure. It’s got the coldest beer in the Rockies.”

“Let’s meet there. Drinks are on me,” she said and flashed him a devilish grin.

“I thought you were in a hurry.”

“Not anymore,” she said.

They looked at each other and nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Great. Follow me there, okay?”

“We’ll be right behind you.”

***

At the border crossing, Lauren fell in line behind a dozen cars, campers and several other pickups pulling boats. When she got to the front of the line, she showed her passport and driver’s license to the agent and after a cursory glance in the backseat waved her through. Lance came through after her and the guard passed him and barely noticed the boat he had in tow.

They stayed on Lauren’s back bumper until they pulled into the parking lot of The Silver Dollar Bar and Grill twenty minutes later. The parking lot was full so Lauren pulled around to the side and motioned for them to follow. When she got out she left the Suburban unlocked and ran over to where Lance and Ryan were getting out of their truck. She snuggled up between them, locked her arms in theirs, and they walked inside.

“We’ll take a pitcher and three glasses,” Lauren told the waitress as they settled at a table.

They were halfway through their first beer, when her cell phone rang.

“Hello,” she said. She lowered her head and put a finger in the other ear to block the loud music coming from the jukebox.

“We’re out and in the Suburban,” Bonnie said.

“Oh... hi,” Lauren said. She glanced at Ryan, to see him listening close to what she was saying. She hesitated a few seconds, then rolled her eyes and said, “I’m at The Silver Dollar in Elko, why?”

Another pause, then “I was just going to have a beer or two, then I was coming home.”

Ryan looked at Lance and sucked down about half of his beer.

“No, I’m not with a guy,” she said, emphatically, speaking a little too loud. “I’ve had a long day and just wanted to stop and have a beer. Is that okay?”

At that comment, everybody at the surrounding tables was listening.

“Don’t be a jerk, okay? I watch the kids all the time. You can do it for once, okay?” Lauren snapped. She turned away from Lance and continued, “Okay... there’s no reason to come over here. I’ll leave after this beer.”

Without another word, she ended the call and put the phone back in her pocket, shaking her head in disgust.

“What’s up?” Lance asked.

“Oh, that was my husband,” Lauren said as she leaned back and guzzled the beer.

“Husband?”

“Sometimes he can be a real asshole. He’s a cop over in Cranbrook and thinks that just because he wears a gun, I should bow down to his every wish.”

“You didn’t mention—” Lance said in a concerned tone.

“We’ve got four kids and I take care of them all the time. He never does. Don’t you think he should take care of them once in a while and let me have some fun?”

“Sounds only fair to me,” Ryan said, smiling at Lance. He was obviously enjoying the predicament Lance was in.

“And something else; he’s the jealous type—always thinks I’m running around on him,” she added.

Lance gave Ryan a look that said
I should have known this was too good to be true.

“I guess I’d better go. If I’m not home pretty quick, he’ll come looking for me... and he’s not the kind of guy you want to meet when he’s mad.”

“We still have half a pitcher left,” Ryan said holding it up.

“Thanks, but I’d better go. But, I do want to go wakeboarding sometime. Would it be okay if I bring the kids?” she asked.

“Maybe it’s not such a good idea... you being married and all,” Lance said.

“Oh, come on, Lance,” Ryan said. “You love kids.”

Lance gave him a,
Go to hell look
, and reiterated, “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“I guess I understand,” she said, standing up. “But I really do want to thank you. You helped me more than you know.”

As Lauren hurried across the parking lot, a pang of guilt tugged at her. They were really nice guys. She planned to keep their card. And maybe after this was all over, she’d contact them and tell them the truth.

When she pulled open the door of the Suburban she saw Luke and Bonnie inside. As she started the car and pulled out, she said, “Welcome to Canada.”

It was past nine by the time they went through Elko. They followed the Jeep’s trail on Car-Trecker north into the forested mountains of British Columbia, through the small town of Fernie and on to Sparwood. There, they turned back to the east. After Crowsnest Pass, darkness fell as they descended onto rolling terrain and plowed into farm land, passing few other vehicles on the two-lane road. They traveled in silence, uneasy about what they would find at their next destination.

It was two hours later when Luke reached over the seat and gently squeezed Bonnie on the knee to wake her.

“I think we’re getting close to our turn,” he said. “Could you check the computer and make sure.”

From where she sat in the backseat Bonnie stretched and looked out the front windshield to see a desolate stretch of straight highway with open pastures on both sides of the road. She pulled the laptop off the floorboard and powered it up. Blue light filled the backseat.

A minute later, she said, “It looks like the Jeep hasn’t moved. We’ll come to our turn in about twenty kilometers. When the highway veers hard to the left, we’ll continue straight onto a smaller road. It looks like it might be gravel. The road will take lots of turns going up the mountain, probably about ten or fifteen kilometers. Just before the road end it looks like there’s a private road off to the left, and the Jeep is down there about two kilometers.”

When they turned off the highway the gravel road passed through open pastures until crossing a cattle guard. There the forest reappeared and the road began to ascend back into the mountains. For half an hour they followed the winding road until it came to a dead end. They backed up until they found an old wooden gate held closed with a chain around a fence post. An old weathered sign said
Private Property
and beyond it a narrow one-lane road disappeared into the darkness.

“Is this it?” Lauren asked Bonnie while the truck sat idling in the middle of the road.

“It has to be. It’s the only other road I’ve noticed. The computer’s no help because we lost the Internet connection shortly after we left the pavement.”

They looked at the hidden trail with apprehension; it was dark and appeared barely wide enough for a Mini Cooper.

Luke said, “This has to be it. Find somewhere to hide this truck.”

Lauren drove to the end of the road and pulled in behind a thicket of tall bushes. As soon as the engine died and the lights went off, everything became deathly quiet, except for an occasional creak from the hot engine.

They sat in silence for almost a minute then Bonnie asked, “So, what are we going to do now? Just go down that road and see if the Jeep’s there?”

“That’s our only choice. If we can find out, for sure, that Olivia’s there, I think it’s best we contact the RCMP and let them handle it,” Luke said.

To Lauren he said, “But we need to be ready for anything. Where’d you put the pistol?”

She reached up under the dashboard and pulled it out and handed it to him. He retrieved a box of bullets out of the console and stuffed some into the pockets of his cargo shorts.

Quietly they made their way back to the old gate and climbed over, one by one. A foreboding feeling came over Bonnie as they stood staring at the narrow road that disappeared in the blackness of the forest. Luke led the way as they started down the dark, narrow road. After a few minutes occasional patches of light broke through the tree tops giving them enough light to see their surroundings.

After about twenty minutes they came to a fork in the road and they went left, which appeared to be the more traveled route. Half a minute later they came to a clearing that was lit by a full moon and a star-filled sky.

The football-field sized meadow was covered in what looked like dry, knee-high grass. Across it, at the crest of a hillock, a small cabin sat silhouetted on the horizon. Lights glowed from two windows. As they stood staring at the structure, Bonnie’s blood ran cold.

“This is it,” Bonnie said, hugging herself. “This is where they held me.”

“Are you sure?” Luke whispered.

“Positive,” she assured him. “That cabin is perched on the edge of a cliff.”

“This must be Sonny’s famous Cliff House,” Lauren said. “Over the last few years, there have been stories about the drugs, gambling, and wild parties that took place out here. I never knew where it was.”

“We need to get closer,” Luke said. He turned to Bonnie and asked, “What’s the layout?”

Bonnie spelled it out. “The window on the left is the bathroom. Two bedrooms run down the left side. The window on the right is the kitchen. There’s a dining and living area beyond it. A deck runs across the back and most of it is suspended over the cliff, but it comes back onto solid ground on the right side,” she said. “There are three doors to get inside. The front door, another one on the right side and one on the back wall that goes onto the deck. That building off to the right is the garage.”

“How big a cliff are we talking about?” Luke asked.

“At least a hundred foot drop.”

“How are we going to get up to the cabin? We can’t just walk up the road. With the full moon, if someone looks out the front door, we’ll stand out like a nun at a pool party in the middle of that dry grass.”

“Maybe that other road back where the road forked would be better,” Lauren said.

They doubled back and Lauren’s hunch was right. The other road took them through the woods and they came out on the side of the cabin by the garage. For the next few minutes they watched from the edge of the forest. When they were sure no one was outside, they ran to the garage and started to make their way down the side. Off to the side they saw a smaller metal building, a prefab structure that looked like a storage shed and beyond it, illuminated by moonlight, sat a motor home.

When they got to the corner of the garage, they stopped and took in their surrounds.

“Does that look like the motor home they had me locked in?” Bonnie asked Lauren.

“I think so. And look.” She pointed. “There’s the Jeep.”

They were still about forty yards away and because of trees, bushes and the angle where they were, the cabin was hard to see.

“We need to get closer,” Luke said.

Single file, they crept closer until they got to a waist-high stack of firewood wedged between two trees. They ducked down behind it and looked over the wood and could see the cabin more clearly. The front was visible as well as the right side. In addition to the two windows in front, there were two more windows on the side that were brightly lit. They could hear voices coming from an open kitchen window.

“Get down,” Luke said in an urgent, hushed voice as he lowered himself to the ground.

A pair of headlights burst out of the forest and lit up the cabin. The vehicle, which appeared to be a minivan, came up the gravel drive and stopped in front of the garage. Bonnie could hear a low whine coming from the garage and realized it was a garage door opener. The van pulled forward and disappeared inside. Seconds later, they heard a different, much more powerful engine rev up and saw a pickup back out and stop near the front door. The garage door started to close as the driver got out of the truck and hurried inside the cabin.

“Who’s that?” Luke asked.

“Too dark, I couldn’t see him,” Lauren whispered.

From the open window they could hear voices but were too far away to make out what they were saying.

“We need to get closer to hear what they are saying,” Luke said.

“My hearing’s a lot better than yours and I’m quieter,” Bonnie said. “Stay here. I’ll creep up by that window.”

She dropped to her hands and knees and crawled closer until she was behind the trunk of a tall pine tree ten yards from the cabin. Through an open kitchen window she could see a woman with short blonde hair. It was Rosemary, the nurse at the hospital. It looked like she was washing dishes.

Bonnie could hear the low pitch of a man’s voice, but it wasn’t loud enough to understand him. A few seconds later Rosemary stepped away from the window and Bonnie ran up to the cabin and positioned herself to the side of the open window.

From there she heard a different woman speak and it was loud and clear.

“Have you found out anything about the trust Kim says her money is in? Is she telling the truth?” It sounded like Rita.

“I can’t get any information,” a man said.

“What happened to your buddy on the Kalispell police force? You said you could find out what was going on from him?” Bonnie recognized Sonny’s voice.

“I called him, but he said when it became a kidnapping the FBI took over. And they won’t tell the local cops anything,” the unknown man said.

“But, even if it is part of the Townsends’ will, you don’t think they’ll let the kid die, do you?” Sonny said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t pay. Remember, I worked with these types of people in the security business for thirteen ass-sucking years. In Calgary we didn’t have any clients who were billionaires, but the millionaires were just as bad. In the media they come across as real do-gooders, but the only thing they care about is their damn money. If she doesn’t come up with the ransom, I say we don’t back down. Let the kid die before we give in.”

“You said you wouldn’t do that!” exclaimed Rosemary.

“That’s not really what we said,” the new guy told her. “We said we would take care of her the best we could. But Kim knows if she doesn’t pay, Olivia won’t get her treatment. So, it will be Kim’s fault if she dies, not ours.”

“You’re such an asshole.” The contempt in Rosemary’s voice was clear. “All you can talk about is how much you hate rich people, but you’re as bad as they are. You don’t have to take it out on Olivia. I was promised nothing would happen to her.”

“I’m sure we won’t have to worry about that,” Rita interjected. “I’m sure she’ll pay. I think the FBI is making her hold out as long as possible. I bet we get a wire from the bank early tomorrow telling us she’s made the transfer.”

“Okay. Let’s say she pays, then what?” asked Rosemary.

“We drop off Olivia and catch our charter to the Caymans,” said Sonny.

“But where do we drop her off? We can’t just leave her at a bus stop. I want to know how it all works and where we are going to leave Olivia.”

“Why does it matter?” asked the new guy.

“I know you don’t care if Olivia lives or dies. But, I do. No one’s told me anything. I’ve risked as much as everyone else and have a right to know.” Rosemary tearfully demanded.

“We weren’t hiding anything from you,” Sonny assured her. “The only reason we didn’t tell you is because you had enough to worry about just getting her out of the hospital. Here’s how it works: as soon as the bank notifies us that the money’s been transferred, I’ll tell you to sedate Olivia. We know where there’s a church that we can get in and out of, without being noticed. We’ll leave her in a baby crib in the nursery. As soon as we leave we’ll contact Kim and let her know where she is. All she has to do is tell the FBI or the police and someone will be there to get her within ten minutes.”

“Okay. That sounds good. I just wanted to know because I don’t want anything to happen to Olivia,” Rosemary said.

“Good, so how’s she doing?” Sonny asked.

“She’s okay. Right now, she asleep in the back bedroom, but it’s been very hard on her. She’s running a fever and she needs more rest. It’s not good for her to be on the move all the time.”

“We know that Rosemary, but we didn’t have any choice,” said Sonny as if he had heard her say that a dozen times.

“I need to get back,” the unknown man said. “I brought you a minivan like you wanted. It’s blue, complete with a car seat and diaper bag. I stole it from the parking lot at the mall.”

Bonnie heard chairs scoot across the wood floor and she strained to hear what they were saying as they walked toward the front door.

“Did you get an extra set of license plates like I told you?”

“Yeah, I put them on the workbench in the garage. Have you figured out what we are going to do about Bonnie and Luke?” the man asked.

“I’m working on it,” Sonny said.

“When are you coming in?” the man asked.

But, Bonnie was unable to hear anything else and a few seconds later the front door opened. She quietly slithered back to the woodpile where they waited for the man to leave. After the pickup drove off, Bonnie signaled for them to follow her and they all ran back to the forest, where Bonnie filled them in on what she heard.

“We have to assume that they are leaving in the minivan soon. When they do we won’t be able to track them anymore since the tracking device is on the Jeep,” Lauren said. “Should we try to get back to the Suburban so we can follow them?”

“We might not have time and we didn’t see any other vehicles on the mountain coming up here. I’m afraid it’ll be too hard to tail them. I think we have two choices. Either get Olivia now, or keep them from leaving. And we don’t have a lot of time, so we need to make a decision and do it now.”

They came up with a simple and straightforward plan. The odds of pulling it off without a hitch weren’t good, but it was all they could do. They were out of time.

“How long will it take you to go get the Suburban and come back?” Luke asked Lauren.

“Fifteen minutes, twenty at the most,” she said.

“Good. We’ll wait fifteen minutes before we start.”