Seven
The alternate plan took them to an old drive-in movie theater, surrounded by thick woods, about half a mile off the interstate. The place hadn’t seen a customer in years — maybe decades — and weeds had begun breaking through the concrete parking lot, or at least the parts that she could see as their car’s headlights swept across them. It was dark when they pulled up next to a lone, abandoned building in the middle of the place and stopped in front of a sign that was missing all of its letters.
They climbed out of the Ford, leftover debris crunching under Allie’s shoes. She looked over at the semitrailer as it rumbled loudly through the driveway that connected the clearing to the road. She couldn’t make out the interstate beyond the thick trees, but the staccato blinking of headlights on the other side was hard to miss. They were, for all intents and purposes, hidden from the world back here, which was the reason Reese had chosen it as his backup location. It was a perfect spot to regroup.
“How long are we staying here?” she asked as they watched the semitrailer’s headlights splashing across them as it neared.
“We need new transportation, along with a new Vanguard,” Reese said.
“He’s being his usual paranoid self,” Dwight said. “We don’t need new transportation. They’re looking for a white van. Full stop. There’s nothing that ties us to the shooting.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Reese said. “There’s no point in risking it.”
“This job’s already taking too long…”
“Something that’s worth doing is worth doing right, my friend. Didn’t your mother ever tell you that?”
“Among other things,” Dwight grunted, but didn’t continue the argument.
Reese walked forward and waved at the approaching semi, then directed it to a spot nearby. As she watched the big rig come to a lurching stop, she couldn’t help but think about Sara and the other girls crammed inside the vehicle’s narrow metal walls.
Not yet, not yet…
Reese jogged over to the semi, climbed up the step outside the passenger-side door, and leaned in through the window. He said something to the driver, who shut off the engine and turned off the bright headlights.
“What about the girls?” she asked Dwight, who had remained behind at the Ford with her. Was that on purpose, she wondered, to keep an eye on her?
“They’ve been riding around back there for four days now,” Dwight said. “A few more extra hours won’t make any difference.”
You think so? I’d like to shove your ass in there and see how you like it after four days.
Reese had walked back to them. “I need to call in, let them know we’re going to be delayed.”
“You gonna tell them about the shooting?” Dwight asked.
“I have to. Start lying now, and we won’t be able to stop.”
“They won’t like it.”
“I don’t like it, but it is what it is.”
“I know exactly what they’re going to tell you: ‘Push on through; don’t wait for replacements.’”
“And I’ll tell them what I’m telling you: It’s all under control, as long as everyone stays calm.”
Dwight smirked and said to her, “If you haven’t grasped it yet, ol’ Reese here’s a stickler for caution. You would think the guy used to be a CPA or something in a previous life.”
Reese ignored his partner and put some space between them before taking out a cell phone from his pocket. Allie didn’t move and was hoping to hear something — maybe some details about who they were — but Dwight ruined that, too.
“Need you inside the trailer, Alice in Wonderland,” the man said, holding out a Maglite he had retrieved from the Ford’s glove compartment.
“Why?” she asked.
“To do your job and make sure the girls are okay.”
“I thought you didn’t care.”
He shrugged. “I don’t, but they pay us by the head. And a busted one just doesn’t pay nearly as much.”
Asshole, she thought, but took the flashlight and headed for the trailer.
The two men in the semi had climbed out of the cab and were milling around. They both wore jackets, and despite the semidarkness, with only small pools of light emanating from the Ford and semi’s ceiling lights, she could just make out the shapes of pistols in holsters behind their backs.
“I need to open the trailer,” Allie told them.
They met her halfway, one of them fishing out a key ring from his pocket. Allie flicked the flashlight on and off to check it, then stood back and waited as the two men unlocked the twin doors—
“Hey!” a male voice shouted, coming from behind them.
The two men froze and looked back at her, but Allie was too busy turning around just as a lone figure emerged out of the shadows from across the parking lot. A flashlight bounced up and down in front of the man, and Allie quickly turned hers off and pocketed it, then let her right hand drop to her side.
“What are you guys doing here?” the figure shouted as he picked up his pace toward them.
Allie glanced back at the two men. They were still clinging to the door handles, as if unsure what to do. “Leave it,” she said.
They let go of the doors and stepped away, but she noticed they had left the lock unlatched. All it would take was for someone on the other side to give a push and the doors would swing open. Sara was a small girl and weak from the “four days on the road,” but all it would take was one or two more of the other girls to lend a hand…
No, she thought, looking back across the parking lot. Not yet.
Besides, there was just one man, and he could have been anyone from a cop to an unarmed civilian. Either way, he wasn’t going to be very much help to her against Dwight and Reese and the two behind her.
Not yet. Not yet…
“You’re not supposed to be here!” the figure shouted.
Neither Dwight nor Reese had answered the man. Reese had casually put away the phone he had been talking into and walked around the Ford while Dwight remained standing next to the driver-side door. They were just twenty yards from her, but she thought she could make out Dwight’s body stiffening noticeably at the sight of the lone approaching figure.
Reese was the exact opposite. The man remained calm and she thought, Jesus Christ, he must have ice water in his veins. Either that, or he’s some kind of goddamn tin man robot.
“Hello!” Reese shouted back, though he probably didn’t have to because the stranger was less than thirty yards from them now. A beam of light hit Reese in the face and he flinched a bit, but he managed to smile through it anyway. “What are you doing here?”
“You’re the one trespassing on private property; you tell me,” the man said.
She could make out a shock of white hair on a long, lanky body. The man was wearing black (or was that blue?) slacks and an equally dark windbreaker. There was some kind of embroidery on his shoulder, but it didn’t look like any law-enforcement shield she’d ever seen. As he stepped into the Ford’s ring of lights, she could just make out the word Security stenciled across his jacket’s left breast pocket.
“We’re just parking for a while, to rest a little,” Reese said. The security guard walked right up to him, no doubt drawn to Reese because he was the only one speaking (probably just as Reese had planned, too). “It’s been a long trip, and everyone was tired.”
The guard shined his flashlight on the Ford, then at Dwight, who squinted and looked away. Dwight’s right hand, Allie saw, didn’t drift away from his hip. Like the rest of them, including her, Dwight had a gun holstered behind his waist. It was the most effective way to hide a weapon from a curious pair of undiscerning eyeballs, like now.