“Rachel-!”
But she was shoving me back from the door, and to my horror, I heard her locking it.
“No!” I whispered, but I could hear her moving away from the door.
Do what she asked you to do, I told myself. Concentrate on that. I narrowed the beam of the flashlight, tried to work my way back from the door to find a hiding place. I heard a car door slam. I managed to get to the double doors facing the street; I turned the flashlight off and looked through the crack between the doors.
It didn’t afford much of a view, but enough to see Travis being held at gunpoint by Gerald Spanning. As I watched, Spanning took hold of Travis’s injured hand and jerked it hard behind Travis’s back. Travis made a sharp cry of pain, stumbled slightly. The gun was pressed ruthlessly beneath his jaw. It was then I noticed that his face was bleeding.
It was all I could do not to launch myself against the doors in rage.
Spanning forced him across the street, toward me. Behind them I could see the Volvo, the driver’s side window smashed out. Spanning stopped at the foot of the drive and said, “Come on out, all of you. I won’t hesitate to shoot this bastard.”
Rachel didn’t answer. I had a frantic impulse to shout back at Spanning, to do something, anything. Given the distance and the darkness and the fact that she had nothing more than a handgun, I knew Rachel was waiting for a better opportunity to act-but would she wait too long?
Spanning jerked at Travis’s hand; Travis’s face contorted and he made a soft sound, but he did not cry out. Spanning, not satisfied with this, changed his grip slightly and made another motion, and this time Travis gave out a sharp bark of pain.
I couldn’t see or hear Rachel.
A second voice called out from the direction of the alley. “Drop it, lady, slow and easy. I’m a good shot.”
Deeny.
Spanning laughed. “She’s a damned good shot.”
“Put your hands on your head and walk away from the building, slowly,” Deeny said.
I saw Rachel come into view.
“Careful, Deeny!” Spanning said. “There’s another one of ‘em around here somewhere.”
“Irene?” Rachel said with scorn. “You think she’d come along with us after that whipping you gave her?”
Spanning didn’t look convinced.
“Yeah, that’s what she told you,” Travis said bitterly-perfectly. “But she wouldn’t have anything to do with a Spanning if she could help it. They’ve always snubbed us. If she wasn’t hoping to get her hands on my money, she wouldn’t give me the time of day. My dad told me the Kellys always thought they were better than the Spannings.” He smiled a little. “You should have seen her face when I asked her to come with me to a trailer park to help me find my uncle.”
“Yeah? I’m sorry, kid,” Rachel said, moving a little closer to them. “Some people are just born snobs. You should have heard what she had to say when she got back from that trip. And when I told her she had probably just visited the guy who kicked her ass, she was shitting herself.”
“I know,” Travis said. “I thought she’d never shut up.”
“Yeah?” Gerald said. “Well, I’ll tell you whose gonna shut up right now-and that’s the two of you. And you,” he said to Rachel, “stay back.”
He moved Travis a little farther away from her.
“Deeny,” he called out, “come on over here.”
So, I thought, it worked; they were convinced Rachel and Travis came alone. But unarmed and locked in the garage, I might as well have been at home.
My narrow view did not allow me to see Deeny, but apparently she covered Rachel as Gerald roughly bound Travis’s wrists behind his back. Next he gagged his mouth, saying, as he tightened the strip of cloth, “This is just until we get a few things settled, then you and me are going to have us a nice, long talk.” He took the injured hand and squeezed it hard, pressing his thumb into Travis’s palm; Travis made a horrible sound behind the gag, fell to his knees. Gerald kicked him over, onto his face in the dirt.
I saw Rachel make the slightest shift of position, the only sign she gave of being affected by what was being done to Travis. I don’t think either Gerald or Deeny saw it. Gerald was now taking Rachel’s gun and tucking it into his belt. He handed a piece of rope and a gag to Deeny and told her to tie Rachel’s hands. I began to wonder if she would submit to being tied up. She was perfectly capable, even unarmed, of taking at least one of them out of action, if not both. But could she do it before one of them killed Travis?
Apparently, she decided to wait for a better opportunity, because when Deeny-having given her shotgun into Gerald’s care-began tying Rachel’s hands, Rachel stood silently and put up with it.
They were now standing so that I could see only Rachel’s back, and Deeny as she worked on removing Rachel’s equipment belt and then binding her wrists together. The two women were fairly close to me, only a few feet away. I moved back slightly from the door, and still it seemed that if Deeny turned suddenly, she might catch me staring out. But all of Deeny’s concentration was spent on tying a thin rope around Rachel’s wrists, a task that seemed somewhat daunting to her.
Rachel was taller than Deeny, and when Deeny tried to reach up to gag her, I heard Spanning say, “No, that will ruin that lovely mouth, and I might have a use for that mouth a little later on.”
Deeny dropped her hands and tucked the strip of cloth into one of her back pockets, but I wondered if Spanning would have thought her such a tame conspirator if he had seen her face at that moment.
I heard a scuffling sound, a grunt of pain and then Gerald’s laughter. “What do you know? Arthur’s pup has some fight in ‘im. That your girlfriend there, little bastard? That your girlfriend?” Another grunt of pain. I felt my nails digging into my palms, even through the latex gloves. “Well, being as we’re family, you won’t mind sharing her with me, will you?
There was no mistaking the look of anger on Deeny’s face as she stood behind Rachel’s back. I began to wonder if she was purposely hiding behind the taller woman, not wanting Gerald to see her reactions.
“Shit,” Gerald was saying. “Little fucker passed out on me. Goddamn it, I don’t want to carry his ass into the house. You people are making more damned work for me. Search those pockets, Deeny. Oh-and by the way-this your cell phone?”
Rachel didn’t answer. I heard the sound of something being smashed, probably my hope of sneaking out to the car and phoning for help.
Rachel had still not said a word to him, and she stayed silent as Deeny started emptying the pockets of her trousers.
“Goddamn, woman,” Gerald said, “you’re a damned pack mule.”
“No,” said Deeny, opening the case of lock picks. “She’s a thief.”
35
“A thief?” Rachel laughed. “A thief has to take something. That’s not why I’m here.”
“Shut up!” Gerald barked. “Deeny, check the locks on the garage.”
Deeny dutifully turned and rattled the padlock just in front of me, then moved to the back of the garage and rattled at the lock on the alley side.
I heard Travis groan. Rachel, just in front of me, made a circle of her thumb and forefinger at her back. An “okay” sign.
There was another groan. It didn’t sound as if he was okay to me. “Just stay still now, boy,” I heard Gerald say.
Deeny had moved to the side door, the one we had entered by, and pulled at that lock. “It’s still locked up,” Deeny said. “It hasn’t been opened.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Gerald said. “Could have already been in and out again. Of course, that depends on how long they been here, right?”
“Oh, not long,” Rachel answered easily. “I’m kind of curious about how you managed to know we were here at all.” Deeny had come back now, and moved toward Gerald. Rachel moved slightly, and now I could see both Deeny and Gerald, too. Travis was still out of my line of vision. There was a mess of broken plastic near Gerald’s feet-the cell phone.