The Chase (43 page)

“You try anything funny and I’ll choke you. I’ll break your neck. Understand?”

Black dots danced before Kendall’s eyes. “Yes,” she whispered.

He eased up slightly and held the barrel of his gun to her temple. “And if you don’t make the kids do what I say, I’ll blow their fucking brains out.”

Kendall gulped a deep breath. “I know.”

McGraw’s arm and chest muscles twitched against Kendall’s back, and she could almost feel the energy that surged through him.

“Zelda, get the kids and the old man over here,” McGraw shouted.

“Get going,” Zelda said, and Kendall heard a chorus of sneakers padding towards them across the cement floor.

“Stop right there.” McGraw spun Kendall around to face the girls.

“Tell them what to do,” McGraw said.

Kendall’s throat closed up as she looked at the tear-streaked faces, and she drew a shaky breath. “You get to go home to your mommies and daddies in just a minute. You just have to do exactly what I tell you when we go outside, okay?”

The girls nodded. “Okay.” Kendall attempted a smile. “Now, when we go outside, you have to stay right in front of me. Samantha’s daddy is going to be there, and he’ll take us home. But you can’t run up to him when you see him. You have to wait for me to tell you what to do. Just like when you’re in a horse show and you don’t walk or trot until the judge tells you to. Everybody understand?”

The girls nodded again and McGraw turned Kendall back towards the garage door. “Tell them to get in front of you.” He clamped his arm tighter around her neck.

“Come on, girls,” Kendall said, reaching her arm out. “Get right here in front of me.”

McGraw whipped his head towards Zelda. “Make sure you keep the old man in the doorway, where they can see him.”

“I know, Zeb,” Zelda snapped. “I ain’t stupid.”

Earl stood by the door control, a rifle cradled in his arm and a handgun tucked into his belt. “I still think this is a dumb-ass idea. You never should have agreed to open the door.”

McGraw jerked the gun away from Kendall’s head and pointed it at Earl. “You shut the fuck up. I know what I’m doing. I’ll get the money, and Cummings, too.” He snorted. “With the cops watching.”

Earl’s lips twitched, but he just shrugged. “Okay. It’s your ass out there.” He pressed the green button, and as the expansive door began to crank methodically upwards, a blast of late-day August heat wrapped around Kendall.

“Get moving, real slow like,” McGraw said in her ear.

“Come on, girls.” Kendall touched those closest to her on their shoulders. “Start walking forward, really slowly.”

They stepped through the vast opening, and Kendall was blinded for an instant by the setting sun. She squinted and looked away from the blaze of pinks and oranges that layered the western sky.

“Tell them to stop,” McGraw ordered.

“Stop walking,” Kendall said.

The girls stopped and Kendall’s eyes focused on the other side of the drive. Doug stood directly in front of them, not more than forty feet away, and farther behind him, partially hidden by the bushes, was a cluster of men. Sheriff’s deputies, most of them. A couple of men in dark clothing.
And Jake
.

Kendall’s heart leapt as she focused on Jake. He was staring directly at her, and he gave her a grim nod when she made eye contact with him, then folded his arms across his chest.

“Where’s the money?” McGraw yelled.

Doug gestured towards two large duffel bags on the ground by his feet. “It’s right here.”

“Throw it over here.”

Doug shook his head. “That’s not our deal, McGraw. I’ll hand you the money when you release Kendall and the girls.”

“I ain’t taking another step.” McGraw jerked the gun against Kendall’s temple as he spoke. “You want the kids, you come get them.”

Doug hesitated, then stooped and picked up the bags.

Kendall held her breath and looked at Jake, who raised his hand and ran his fingers feverishly through his hair.

“Get moving,” McGraw said.

Doug took a step towards them. “All right, McGraw. Now release Kendall.”

“What do you think I am,
a fucking idiot?
I’ll let go of her when I have the money in my hand.”

Doug’s eyes met Kendall’s and she saw a flicker of a question.
Should he give McGraw the money?
Oh God. She didn’t know. Should he?

McGraw put his mouth to her ear. “
Tell him.”
His breath was moist and a foul smell drifted to her nostrils.

Kendall shuddered and lowered her eyes. “Give him the money.”

McGraw let out a laugh. “See, she’s smarter than you, Cummings. She knows I ain’t letting no one go until I get the money.”

“All right,” Doug said. “When the kids are safely behind me, I’ll hand you the money.”

“Give me the money now,” McGraw screamed, jamming the gun against Kendall’s head.

“Okay, McGraw. Calm down.” Doug held the duffel bags out towards McGraw.

“Throw them over here!”

Doug stepped forward and tossed the bags towards McGraw.

McGraw kept the gun to Kendall’s head, but he released his hold on her neck and bent down, as if reaching towards one of the bags. In a swift motion, he flung his arm around her chest, whipped the gun away from her head, and fired.

Kendall heard herself scream, “
Oh my God.”
The blast knocked Doug to the ground, and as McGraw pinned her to his chest and dragged her back towards the garage, she shouted, “Run, girls.”

“Grab the money and shut the door,” McGraw yelled as he pulled her inside the building.

The door began to clank and grind overhead and Earl leapt forward and grabbed the duffel bags.

Kendall caught a glimpse of Doug lying motionless on the ground as half a dozen deputies encircled the girls. Her eyes darted to the bushes, searching for Jake, but she couldn’t spot him. Then, just as the barrier lowered to cut off her view of the outside, she caught sight of Jake dashing towards the side of the building.

Z
eb leaned against the dashboard of the bus, watching Zelda and Earl paw through the money.

Zelda grinned as she held a handful of bills to her face and took a deep whiff. “I can’t believe we actually pulled it off.”

“We ain’t home free yet,” Zeb said.

“Aw, come on, Zeb. Why are you always such a spoilsport? You’re out of jail, ain’t you? And we’re sitting here looking at a million bucks, ain’t we?”

Zeb’s lip curled in disgust. His sister had a one-track mind. Money. No, make that a two-track mind.
Money and sex
. He snorted. “Ain’t you overlooking the fact that we still need to get out of here?”

Zelda’s smile faded. “We’ll figure out a way. We still got hostages.”

He looked at the camp counselor and the old man, huddled together like scared rabbits in the backseat of the bus. Yeah, they still had hostages. That was their ticket out of there. But first, he needed to know that Cummings was dead.

Zeb dropped into the driver’s seat and pushed the power button on the radio, twirling the dial past snippets of songs until he found a news broadcast. A man’s voice predicted a fifty percent chance of overnight thunderstorms, some possibly severe in nature. Then a woman’s voice announced breaking news in the disappearance of seven young girls who had gone missing while on a camp field trip. Zeb turned up the volume.

“For the latest developments in this tense situation, let’s go to Glenn Garrison, who is on location in Leesburg, Virginia. Glenn.”

A man’s voice played over the radio. “I’m at the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Leesburg, Virginia, where we have just learned that the seven girls have been released from captivity and are on their way here to be reunited with their parents.”

“That’s great news, Glenn. What can you tell us about their release?” the woman said.

“The details are sketchy at this time. We haven’t yet learned whether the kidnappers released the girls voluntarily or if they escaped. But we do know that the girls’ camp counselor is still being held hostage, as is at least one adult male.”

“Do you know where they are being held?” the woman asked.

“The authorities are referring to it as an undisclosed location in rural Loudoun County.”

“Thank you, Glenn,” the woman said. “We’ll come back to you as the story develops.”

Zeb raised his arms and flipped both middle fingers towards the radio. “Why don’t you tell us what happened to Cummings, you dickhead?”

“Calm down, Zeb,” Zelda said. “If Cummings is dead, they can’t say nothing until they notify his next of kin.”

Next of kin
. Zeb spun in his seat and stared at her for a moment. “You know what, sis? You’re fucking brilliant.”

Zelda frowned. “What do you mean?”

Before Zeb could respond, Earl shushed her and put his hand to his ear. “
Listen
. What’s that?”

Zeb punched the power button on the radio and heard a loud flapping of wings from the pigeons, followed by the sound of an engine whirring overhead.

“They’ve got a chopper up there!” Earl said.

Zelda frowned. “Maybe they called one of them medevac helicopters to take Cummings to the hospital.”

Zeb snatched the cell off the dash and pressed the speed-dial button for Cummings’s cell phone.

“Hello.”

It wasn’t Cummings
. It was a man’s voice he didn’t recognize. “Who the fuck is this?” Zeb demanded.

“Lieutenant Mallory.”

Zeb could barely hear him above the sound of the chopper, and he held the cell phone to his ear so hard, his hand began to cramp. “Call off the chopper, Mallory, or I’ll kill the counselor and the old man.”

Mallory hesitated. “It’s not our chopper. It’s the media.”

“I don’t give a shit if it’s the media! You got two minutes to get them the hell out of here.”

Almost immediately, the sound of the engines began to fade away, and Zeb let out a breath and relaxed his grip on the cell. “You’re a fast learner, mister lieutenant. Now, you listen to this. I don’t want no choppers for Cummings. And no ambulance, neither.”

“All right.”

“And don’t think you can fuck with me on that just because I’m inside. I know what’s going on out there.”

“You have my word. I won’t call an ambulance. There’s no need for one.”

“Why not?” Zeb demanded. “Because Cummings is dead?”

There was a long pause. “No.”

Zeb jumped up from the seat. “No? What do you mean, no? I saw Cummings go down with my own two eyes.”

“He was wearing body armor. The blast knocked him out. That’s all. The body armor protected him.” Mallory spoke slowly, like he was talking to a child.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m an idiot,” Zeb shouted. “I know what the fuck body armor does.”

He pulled the cell phone away from his ear and stared at it for a minute.
Goddamned cop
. Fucking talking down to him. He’d show him who the smart one was. Zeb pushed the power button and slammed the cell onto the dash.

“What’s the matter?” Zelda asked.

Zeb threw his hands up and kicked the seat. “Cummings was wearing a fucking bulletproof vest.”

Earl snickered and Zelda glared at him. “But we all saw Cummings go down,” she said.

“The cop said it just knocked him out.”

No one spoke for a moment. Then Zelda said, “Maybe the cop was lying.”

Zeb glared at her. “Why would he do that?”

She raised a shoulder. “I don’t know. Maybe he wants you to think Cummings is alive so they have something to bargain with.”

He gave her a long stare and slowly nodded his head. “You know, sis, you might be right. If Cummings is still alive, why didn’t he answer his phone?”

“Maybe he was still knocked out,” Earl said.

Zeb shook his head. “No. The cop said Cummings didn’t need an ambulance. If he was knocked out, he’d need an ambulance, wouldn’t he?”

Earl shrugged. “Yeah, it sounds like the cop is lying about something.”

“So, what are you going to do?” Zelda asked.

“I don’t know. I ain’t figured it out yet.” Zeb turned towards the bus door. “I need to take a piss.”

A
nne snatched the phone off the hook in the middle of the second ring. “Hello?”