Somewhere in His Arms (76 page)

             
Gavin crawled over and slumped against the wall beside her. “This is all my fault.”

             
“How can this be
your
fault?”

             
“Alec told me to take care of you and I fell asleep!”

             
“Don’t blame yourself,” she said consolingly and patted his arm. “I should have slept with the gun under my pillow.” Lucy drew up her knees and willed Alec to see her thoughts and race to their rescue but she knew she was being silly.

             
If anyone were going to save their bacon, it would have to be them. She sighed and leaned her head back against the damp wall. It was cold, and she shivered despite wearing Alec’s sweatshirt. Gavin wrapped an arm around her and she leaned her head against his shoulder. The warmth he offered was more than welcome, but he was a poor substitute for her husband. When she thought of never seeing Alec’s beautiful eyes gleaming with laughter or never feeling his arms around her again, Lucy gave in to self-pity and began to weep. Gavin tried to comfort her, but he was no Alec.

             
Alec, where are you?
Gavin’s mind screamed helplessly.
Where
are
you?

* * *

              Alec was trying to make heads or tails of a map when he was suddenly overcome by a horrible feeling of dread. Suddenly his skin felt too tight. He told himself it was nothing and tried to concentrate on navigating, but it was no use. Something awful had happened, he just didn’t know what.

             
“Turn around,” he muttered through a dry mouth.

             
“What?” Pat said, focusing all his energy on not colliding with the SUV in front of him. “What’s that you said, laddie?’

             
“I said turn around,” Alec said loudly and reached for the steering wheel. “Something’s happened.”

             
Pat was run off the road by Alec’s erratic steering and he turned to his stepson in anger. “What’re you trying to do, laddie? Make yer mum a widow?”

             
Alec unbuckled his seatbelt. “Get out!”

             
“What?”

             
“I’m driving! Something’s happened to them.”

             
“You’re imagining things. They’re fine!”

             
“They’re
not
fine!” Alec growled as Pat reluctantly exchanged seats. “Lucy and Gavin
are
not all right!”

             
“You’re sure?” Pat queried uncertainly, feeling a sudden creep of the willies himself. “She would have called.”

             
“What if she can’t?” Alec retorted and made an illegal U-turn. He floored it as soon as he cleared the highway. “She’s
my
wife and
my
brother and I’m going to sit on
my
ass wondering whether she’s fine or not!” Then he sped down the road, hoping to reach them before it was too late.

             
Pat sat back, watching the desert whiz by and could see the fear in Alec’s eyes. He was starting to feel a bit worried himself. When they came to a small town, Alec handed him his phone and told him to try to get Lucy on the phone. There was no answer.

              Gavin had nodded off and his head jerked up at the sound of the cell door creaking open. He nudged Lucy awake and he could feel her body tensing as the tall man entered, waving his flashlight into their eyes. They both cried out and shielded their eyes from the glare. “Get up!”’ the man commanded roughly. “It’s time.”

             
Time for what?
Lucy thought fearfully, and had no choice but to obey his order as he had a gun leveled at their heads. He led them out of the cell and into a darkened passageway. Lucy felt sick and dizzy and clutched Gavin’s arm to balance herself. They followed the man up numerous flights of stairs and through gloomy corridors until finally he flung open a door and a cold blast of air nearly sent them both tumbling down the staircase. He led them outside and ordered them to sit.

             
Lucy and Gavin sank down and huddled together, not knowing what was going to happen and fearing the worst. They glanced around in the dark and winced when a bright light was shone in their faces. Lucy figured they were on the helipad judging from how high up they were and how the wind seemed determined to blow them off into the bay. She could see a tall, lanky man talking with someone and then she
heard
him as the man started yelling at his companion. The woman screamed back and it looked like they were struggling with each other from the way their arms flailed about. It seemed she had the upper hand as the man hung his head in defeat and nodded. He slunk off somewhere and the woman began fiddling with a large duffel bag. Lucy couldn’t see what she had pulled out, but it didn’t look pleasant.

             
“What’s she doing?” Gavin whispered, leaning forward to get a closer look.

             
“I don’t know. It looks like she’s putting something together.”

             
It soon became apparent what the woman had been assembling. It was a video camera on a tripod. She set it a few feet away from them and began peering through the lens. “Say cheese,” she smirked and giggled to herself. When her prisoners didn’t obey, the hospitable mask she wore slithered off to reveal her true self. The woman’s face was etched with so many lines Lucy thought she was looking at a road map. She might have been a beauty at one time or another, but that time had passed and something nasty and horrible had replaced the once beauteous visage. The harsh, angular lines of her face looked like the result of too many cigarettes and one drink too many. Her eyes were a nondescript shade of mud and her thin lips were curled up in a defiant sneer. Her thinning hair had long since gone gray and blew about her razor-like cheekbones like a mad witch.

             
Lucy was certain she’d seen her before, but
where
and
when?
She was staring so intently that the woman’s eyes narrowed and before anyone could react, she rushed up to Lucy and backhanded her. “What are you staring at, missy?” she hissed. She pushed back her stringy hair and smiled evilly. “Recognize me, my dear? You should.”

             
Gavin stared, horrified as Lucy spat out a mouthful of blood and glared defiantly at the bitch. “I think I do,” Lucy muttered and knew exactly where she’d seen this harpy. That day at the library she’d seen the old newsprint with a grieving woman flinging her son’s ashes at Rudy. The face may have aged, but Lucy would never forget the hatred in the woman’s eyes. The same eyes she was staring into right this minute.

             
“What’s that, dear?” Corinne smiled. “Either you know me or you don’t.”

             
“Forgive me if I don’t recall the name, but I never forget a face, especially one as ugly as yours.”

             
Corinne’s eyes narrowed in rage. She’d had all this planned out. If it weren’t for that imbecile Reese, she might not have had to kidnap the little bitch a second time. But that’s what happened when you dealt with amateurs. She let out an enraged shriek and smacked Lucy again. This time so hard, Lucy fell backwards. The young man caught her and rushed to stem the flow of fresh blood. She didn’t know what she was going to do with him. But she figured it was better to kill two birds with one stone. “If I’m ugly then you should blame Mr. Bartlett. It’s
his
fault I look like this! Don’t you think it’s a shame he couldn’t be here to join us for our little tete-a-tete?” When Lucy’s eyes widened in horror, she went on savoring her triumph. “He was always a little too nosy for his own good. Too bad he didn’t use that gift in the first trial.” They both looked confused, so Corinne decided to elaborate. It was just like Rudy to keep his crimes to himself. “You mean he
didn’t
tell you?”

             
“Why don’t you fill us in?” Gavin muttered glancing at Lucy’s mouth, which was inflating like an inner tube. He yanked out a bandana and gave it to her. The old hag had a gun pointed at them, but as just soon as he was able, he was going to kill her. “By all means, do tell.”

             
She grinned, revealing an uneven row of yellow teeth and sat down cross-legged in front of them and began the tragic tale, which had brought her full circle to this defining moment. The moment she had been planning for nigh twenty years. Corinne leaned forward eagerly and began to speak.

             
“Rudy never told you about Millie did he?” Corinne cackled in glee. She was going to enjoy ripping off the girl’s rose-colored glasses. Rudy was no saint and the sooner people started realizing that, the better. “Rudy and Millie go way back. They went to school together if you can believe that! Childhood chums they were until Millie started carving up the neighborhood cats. Oh, he’d go and snatch strays or pets that had gotten out of someone’s house. Rudy of course, the little angel that he was, told on his best friend and so many people gathered pitchforks and torches that Millie’s parents had to leave town. And Millie being only 6-years-old!”

             
Corinne clucked her tongue in disapproval. “Well, Millie went on to a life of crime, while saint Rudy went on to law school and became district attorney.” She stopped to see if any of this was sinking in. But they just stared at her with wide eyes and pale faces. She wanted to smack some sense into them! Before she was through, they would know the truth. “Millie was a frightful child, aside from carving up cats, he tortured his schoolmates, raped his cousins, nearly burned down an apartment complex, and all by the time he was eight! He got bored one day and stabbed his mother to death. A couple of years later at the tender age of fifteen, his father had just gotten home after toiling in the office, and guess who was waiting there with a shotgun?”

             
“Who?” Lucy and Gavin said numbly, already knowing the answer.

             
“Silly children!” Corinne laughed. “Millie, of course! His father had just decided to have him committed and Millie couldn’t have that. He was having too much fun. So he shot the poor man as he stepped through the door. He left him there bleeding to death. I think it was nearly a week before someone finally figured out what happened. But that was Bill’s fault. No one told him to buy that house out in the middle of nowhere.” Corinne stopped and examined her nails. She needed a manicure.

             
“Now, for the meat of the story,” she began again and wondering what was taking Phil so long. He should have been back by now. But no matter, this was her show and she loved being in the spotlight. “Well, ole Millie was serving time in Indiana for kidnapping and raping a four-year-old boy, but some asshole in a cubicle didn’t pay attention to what he was doing and they let him out! Millie was free as a little bird and decided he wanted to feel the sand under his feet. So he hitchhiked to California, slicing and dicing a few drivers along the way, and turned up in sunny Los Angeles. No one told anyone what had happened or what he’d done. But Rudy knew what he was capable of. They all did!”               Corinne’s voice took on a hard, bitter quality as she related the story about how her whole world was destroyed in a matter of days. “I had a beautiful little boy. Most of us did. Some were girls, but Millie didn’t discriminate. Oh no, he helped himself to a wide variety. No one told us he’d taken a job at the school as a janitor. No one told us a fucking thing!” Her breath caught and she saw they were looking at her as if
she
were the one who’d gone mad. Especially Rudy’s little pet, she was looking at her with pity in those big, soft eyes. “Don’t you
feel
sorry for me!” she spat and continued, waving the gun at them. “I was late one day picking up Timothy. You see I had so many things to do that day. There was Ryan’s dry cleaning; Stacie had to go to the dentist and then I had to drive her to softball practice; Rhea kept hounding me to pick up her prom dress. Timmy should
have
known to wait for me! Why didn’t he wait for me? It was
only
four o’clock!” Corinne started weeping as she remembered that day. All of it came flooding back in a perpetual torrent of agony. “When I got there, the school was deserted. So I went through every classroom, every locker, and every bathroom. He wasn’t there! I drove around for hours looking for him. I called his friends. I called his teachers. No one had seen him since lunch. And no one called me! He was missing all that time and no one said a goddamned thing!”

             
She brought a trembling hand up to her lips and squinted up at the sky, wishing
she’d
died that day. “Everyone thought I was overreacting! Even his own father! But
I
knew! I was
his
mother, of course I knew! Ryan finally called the police six hours later and they made it seem like I had something to do with it and everyone blamed
me!
Everyone kept asking how does a seven-year-old disappear in broad daylight and in a crowded school? NO ONE thought to ask Millie, who was busy mopping the floors like he always did with that smirk on his face! It took those assholes two days before they even asked him what he’d had for dinner that night! All the while my Timmy was lying broken in some junkyard. Do you know what that bastard
did
to my baby?”