Maybe that hadn’t struck Jay before, but the realisation was plain to see on her face now. ‘Yes, she does look like Nicole. My God, I hadn’t given that any thought. Is that why those monsters have taken them? What do they want with them?’
My best guess was for sexual gratification. Yet there had to be something deeper than that involved. Jay Walker was a beautiful woman, and if the Logans only wanted to rape their captives then she’d have been used like the others. I pictured Helena Blackstock and how much she looked like Nicole and Ellie. It was pretty obvious now that the Logans had been responsible for her abduction, and that they’d targeted her and their subsequent hostages due to a specific look. And that led me to the other woman who’d disappeared off the face of the earth: Samuel’s sister, Carla. I wondered what she looked like, and if her sudden disappearance had anything to do with the subsequent snatching of the other women. Men directed by an unhealthy sex drive were bad enough, but I didn’t like to think of where my mind was leading me: along a dirty path heading directly to a deep cesspit.
‘I don’t know,’ I said.
Jay placed a hand on my knee. ‘What did you say your name was?’
‘Joe Hunter.’
‘Are you a policeman?’
‘No. I’m just someone your dad hired to find you.’
‘A private detective?’
‘Sort of. It’s not important. Now come on, I have to get you out of here.’ I knew from her questions she was trying to work on my sense of duty. I’d no shortcomings in that department, but I wasn’t about to be swayed. ‘Don’t worry, Jay. I’m going to get Nicole and Ellie free. But I can’t do that while you’re out here. I can’t leave you alone in case I don’t make it.’
‘I can help you—’
‘You can barely see straight from dehydration. I’m taking you out of here and getting you something to drink.’ I raised a hand to allay any further argument. Then, to add validity to mine, I cupped her face between my palms and stared into her eyes. ‘Listen, Jay! Every second we waste here is a second closer to those bastards discovering your escape. Do you know what they’ll do to the others if they think you’ve got away? Now, here’s what we’ll do. We’re going to where I have water waiting for us. Then I’m taking you back to my car. Can you drive? Yes, of course you can, you were using your father’s SUV. You will drive to the nearest place to call the police and get them here as soon as possible. I’ll come back here. I promise I won’t leave the girls to those monsters.’
Finally sense soaked into her parched synapses and she nodded gently in my hands. ‘OK, OK, you’re right, Joe.’
‘Right. Let’s go then, and stay low and only move when I tell you.’
Helping her to stand, I could detect her weakness, but, giving her her due, she steeled herself and moved quickly at my side to the far end of the junk pile. There we could stand a little straighter and I took hold of her hands and looked at her. ‘Everything’s going to work out fine, Jay. I know what I’m doing so you can trust me, OK.’
I’ve heard it said that pride comes before a fall. The fact that I was only offering reassurance to a traumatised young woman didn’t matter, because the proverb rang true.
There was the metallic bang of tin sheets being thrown aside at much the same time as a shout of anger rang clear through the desert air.
15
Carson Logan was approximately midway between the house and the hole in which Jay had been held. He scanned back and forth, his gaze on the house, then on his cousin who still threw aside tin sheets even though it had to be obvious that the woman was no longer inside. From the cover of the junk pile I watched them both. The older man tilted his hat back on his head with a sweep of his thumb, as he hollered something akin to an animal’s howl. The third member of the family appeared on the stoop, his hair sticking out in wild tufts, and I guessed he’d just been roused from a nap.
I glanced at Jay crouching beside me, her arms wrapped round her body, and saw that she was full of fear and loathing for the men, or rather for what they might now do. I regretted my earlier warning that the Logans would kill her friends if they discovered she’d escaped, and saw that she was now considering sacrificing herself to keep Nicole and Ellie alive.
‘Don’t move,’ I said, more a command than a caution.
‘If I go back they’ll punish me, but at least they’ll spare Nicole.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘I won’t let you do that.’
‘I have to. You said it yourself, they’d kill them if they thought I’d escaped and could bring back the police.’
The revolver was in my hand and I thumbed back the hammer. ‘Things were different then. If it looks like they’re thinking along those lines I’ll take the chance of killing them first.’
Jay’s eyes widened as they fixed on the gun. ‘Shoot them! Shoot them now!’
I was tempted. Maybe I’d even get Samuel and Carson, but the younger man, Brent, was out of my line of fire, not to mention too far away. If I ran out, started killing his kin, he’d barricade himself inside the shack and use his hostages as human shields.
‘No, they only think that you’ve given them the slip. They don’t know I’m here. I want to keep things that way for the time being. They’re not going to kill Nicole and Ellie immediately; they’ll try tracking you first. They think you’ve escaped on foot, so they’ll expect to run you down in no time. Now come on, my first plan still stands… we just have to get back to the ravines over there without them seeing us.’
‘I don’t want to leave. If anything happens to Nicole…’
‘The longer we wait here, the less time they have, now come on.’
Before she could argue further, I grabbed her elbow and led her quickly towards a stand of weirdly shaped rocks that reminded me of a huddle of gamblers over a roulette wheel. Pushing Jay before me, I glanced back to make sure we’d gone unseen.
‘Brent, goddamnit boy, get yoursel’ back in there and make sure them others don’t get ideas about runnin’ away!’
Carson, having yelled the command, strode towards his cousin. Samuel, a stocky man with shoulders that looked too wide for his height, had his hands bunched in his greasy black hair. His face was livid, and he was ranting about something but his accent was so thick that I barely caught a word. I took it that he was describing what he was going to do to Jay when he caught up with her. Well, he’d be disappointed if I had anything to do with it.
Carson grabbed Samuel by his shoulders, and it looked like he shook some sense into his volatile cousin. Again their slurred vernacular escaped me, but I didn’t need to understand their speech when their body language spoke volumes. They were gearing up to give chase. Both men rushed towards the battered old pick-up and clambered inside. My greatest hope was that they’d head directly towards the pass near to the mushroom-shaped mountain. If they did that then I would have chanced returning for their other captives. I didn’t doubt that I could take Brent without him being aware of my presence until it was too late. Sadly, that eventuality didn’t offer itself, because the men swung the truck towards the watering hole, expecting to find Jay there. I could have still made it to the house without them seeing me, but I doubted I could get the girls free and lead them back here before we were spotted. I grabbed Jay and headed in the opposite direction, moving from boulder to boulder, and, where there wasn’t enough highline cover, I made her get down on her knees and crawl. All the while I kept one eye on the circling truck.
Samuel had climbed out of the cab and on to the flat-bed. He clung to the truck while leaning out over the sand, and there was no mistaking what he was doing: he was looking for tracks in the softer ground. Time was still on our side, because their search radius hadn’t expanded as far as the junk pile yet, but it was only a matter of time. They’d see the tracks we’d made as I propelled Jay towards the huddle of rocks and would easily pick up our trail from there. I studied the topography ahead. There was an ancient gully, through which water had once snaked, and I directed Jay towards it. Once inside, we could stand upright. I urged her into a jog, aiming for the nearby hills. Sweat spilled from the two of us, dotting the ground, but I was less worried about leaving a trail than how long Jay could maintain her speed before collapsing under the strain. I could have traversed the gully to the cover of the high ground in a few minutes, but Jay was already staggering and almost sinking to her knees with every other step. Enough was enough, I thought, as I pulled her to a halt.