The Chase (39 page)

He nodded.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to get out of here before they start shooting at one of us.” She kept her voice low so the children couldn’t hear her.

“The only way out of this room is through that door.” Albert pointed towards the locked door at the front of the small room.

Kendall nodded. “I figured that. But what if we talk them into letting you or me out of this room again, like you did earlier when you asked to get the food. Is there a way we could escape and run for help?”

“I don’t know how we’d get out without them seeing us. The only way out of here is through the garage door or the people doors in front and in the back. All of those are in the wide open.”

“Are there any windows?”

Albert shook his head. “Nope. Just the glass in the doors.”

Kendall thought for a moment. “I saw a staircase at the back of the garage. Where does that lead?”

“It just goes up to the clean-out for the pigeon roost.”

“Can you get through it to the outside?”

“You’d have to crawl through the pigeon roost on your belly.”

Kendall’s pulse quickened. “But there’s an opening to the outside?”

“Yeah, but it’s a good twenty-foot drop to the ground. There’s a wooden ladder on the outside wall that runs to the clean-out, but the top rung is a good ways below the opening. It’s not meant to be used to climb into the roost, just so someone can stand on the top rung and reach into the opening. There’s no way either of us could safely lower ourselves from the opening to the ladder, especially you with your arm banged up like it is. And sure not the kids.”

Kendall massaged one temple as she considered other options. “Is there an alarm we could set off?”

Albert thought for a moment. “There’s a fire alarm.”

Kendall felt her chest tighten with a glimmer of hope. “Is there an alarm panel?”

He shook his head. “No. The alarm systems for all the outbuildings are monitored from the alarm panel in the stable.”

She sat forward and stretched her neck to get a good look at the ceiling. “Is there a smoke detector in this room we could set off?”

“No, the fire detectors are only in the garage area. Besides, they’re not smoke detectors. There’s too much dust out here; smoke detectors would be sending off false alarms all the time.”

“What kind of fire detectors are they?”

“Heat detectors. And I don’t know of a way to make one of them go off, other than holding a match up to it.”

Kendall slumped back against the wall. “What else could we do?”

Albert’s face wrinkled into a frown and he stared thoughtfully at her.

“There’s the drainage pipe.”

“Tell me.”

“The Worthingtons are having a drainage system put in that goes from all the barns to a big culvert that flows into a collection pond in the back pasture. You see, the way these buildings sit down in the hollow like this, when we get a real gully-washer, all the water comes down the hill and washes away the drive and just makes a hell of a mess. Then I have to grade the drive and rake all the gravel out of the grass—”

Kendall gave his arm a small shake. “Just tell me about the drainage pipe.”

“The drainage pipe running to the pond has been put in, but they’re waiting until the winter to do the digging around the stable area, so it won’t look all tore up this summer and all. Right now the opening to the culvert is still exposed. If you could get to it, you could go all the way to the pond. Hell, we could all go. Once we were inside the pipe, they’d have no idea where we were.”

“How far away is the pond?”

“A good half mile. And it’s close to where the power line runs behind the farm. So, if we could make it that far, we’d have pretty easy going following the power line to the main road.”

Kendall frowned. “A half mile’s pretty long. I don’t think the kids could make it that far crawling through a pipe.”

“It’s a three-foot drainage pipe. The kids could probably stand in it, as tiny as they are. I’d be more worried about you making it through.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll go through anything to get out of here.” She thought it over for a minute. “What about where the pipe ends at the pond? If we all go, is there a way to get out of the pipe without having to take the kids through the water?”

“The pond’s so low, as dry as it’s been, we could probably crawl right out of the pipe onto the dry bank.”

Kendall’s heart quickened. “How would we get to the pipe?”

“It’s right across the drive from the back door.”

“Wouldn’t that be the first place they’d look?”

He shook his head. “The Worthingtons landscaped in front of the opening, so you can’t see it. If you weren’t looking real hard, you’d never know it was there.”

Kendall felt almost giddy.
It just might work
. “Okay. Now we just have to figure out a way to talk them into letting one of us, or all of us, go outside.”

E
arl hunched forward in the front seat of the bus, his arms draped over the metal divider, and Zelda stood in front of him on the bus steps. Their attention was focused on Zeb, who sat in the driver’s seat, twirling the radio dial.

“This is a special report from Prime News Network. Glenn Garrison reporting live from Middleburg, Virginia.” Zeb let go of the tuning dial and turned up the volume. “The investigation in the case of the missing busload of campers has escalated in recent hours with the discovery of the body of a woman identified by police as Louise Parker. Authorities tell us that Ms. Parker was the driver of the bus in which the children went missing.”

Zelda turned and scowled at Earl. “Goddamn it, Earl. I said I didn’t want no killing.”

“I didn’t have a choice, babe. I had to send them a message, or they would have tried to screw around with us.”

“But now we’re wanted for murder. They’re never going to stop looking for us.”

Earl gave a dismissive shrug. “Zeb’s already wanted for murder. Now shut up and let me listen. Turn up the volume, Zeb.”

“To recap, an Amber Alert has been issued for seven young girls who went missing this morning while on a field trip from their horseback-riding camp. The children were last seen in a white Ford F-450 bus with
Greenfield Academy
written on the side in green lettering. The vehicle has Virginia tags, JLK-4395, and was last seen at nine o’clock this morning, heading east on John Mosby Highway, near Middleburg, Virginia. The Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that they have received a call from someone claiming to be holding the children in captivity, but they did not release any details of the call, or reveal whether a ransom demand had been made.”

Zeb reached his hand out and flicked the power button. “They didn’t say nothing about the other girl.”

Earl shrugged. “They must not have found her yet.”

“What other girl?” Zelda asked.

“The assistant to the camp counselor,” Earl replied, shooting Zeb a look of irritation.

“What about her?”

Earl hesitated. “Zach took care of her.”

Zelda’s eyes widened. “Did he kill her?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Answer me! Did you get my boy mixed up in murder?”

“Don’t get so hot about it, babe. Did you think we was just going to walk in and ask for a million bucks? Zach knew what he had to do to get their attention.”

She glared at him. “What’s going on with Zach, anyway? It’s been five hours since you ditched him at the accident.”

Earl looked away.

“Answer me!”

L
ieutenant Mallory allowed the uproar to take over the room for a few moments, then held his hand up. “May I have your attention, please.”

The buzz of conversation slowly faded. “Thank you. I know you have a great number of questions, but we won’t get anywhere with everyone talking all at once. First of all, let’s address the ransom demand.”

Bob Horton, Emma’s dad, leaned forward in his chair. “There’s no question we’ll pay the ransom.”

The lieutenant hesitated. “Let’s talk about that for a minute.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Ed Dunning said. “You can’t put a price tag on our children’s lives. I’ll sacrifice everything I own to get Caitlin home safely.”

“Of course. We all will,” Deb Horton said, her voice rising to a shrill pitch. “But how will we get that kind of money by tomorrow?”

Her husband reached for her hand. “Don’t worry, honey. It’s just a question of logistics—”

“Not for us, it isn’t.” A tall, thin man on the far side of the room stood. “We don’t have anywhere near the kind of money to pay our share. I guess we don’t come from the same means as some of the rest of you do. My wife has taken to baby-sitting for the neighborhood kids this summer, just to scrape together enough money for our Brittany to go to riding camp.”

The man’s voice cracked, and he closed his eyes and pinched his thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose. The petite blond woman next to him rose and wrapped her arms around him. After a moment he lowered his hand and drew a ragged breath. “We’ll pay as much as we have now. And we’re good for the rest of our share. If I have to work two jobs for the rest of my life to pay it back, I will.”

Anne choked back a sob and gripped Doug’s knee. He cleared his throat. “We’ll take care of the ransom.”

The man stared at him. “But your daughter’s not even involved.”

“Only because she stayed home sick today.” Doug covered Anne’s hand with his. “We’re all in this together.”

“All right,” Lieutenant Mallory said. “Let’s talk logistics.”

Anne squeezed Doug’s hand and whispered, “I’m going upstairs to check on Samantha. I’ll be right back.”

As she left the room, a young man followed her into the hallway.

“Mrs. Cummings, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Anne stopped and turned back towards him. “Yes?”

“Hi. I’m Steve. I drive the horse ambulance for the Equine Medical Center. I’m a good friend of Doc Carey and Elizabeth.”

“Nice to meet you, Steve.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“It’s about something Lieutenant Mallory said earlier. About the bus driver who was killed.” He hesitated. “He said that she had a note stuck to her chest with a knife.”

Anne shuddered. “That’s right.”

“Well, the lieutenant mentioned that the knife was a Buck knife, and I couldn’t help thinking that I’d seen someone use a Buck knife. Just about a week ago. When we were rescuing Mr. Cummings’s horse after the accident.” He shifted uneasily.

“Go on.” She felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck.

“It was the cowboy who stopped and offered his help. Jake was his name. He had a real nice Buck knife that I was admiring.” Steve squinted at her. “Do you think I should mention something about it to Lieutenant Mallory?”

I
t was almost an hour later when Anne finally made her way up to Samantha’s room. She found Samantha sitting up in bed, playing cards with Ben.

“What are the two of you up to?” Anne asked as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

“I taught Ben how to play Go Fish.”

Ben held up his handful of cards and frowned. “Yeah, and she keeps beating me.”