The girls were each carrying a plastic bottle of water. Ellie held hers in her arms like a doll, while Nicole had jammed hers under her armpit so she could also carry the shotgun. I went quickly to the faucet and pumped the arm. The water tasted mildly salty, but it was better than nothing. Some of it dribbled down my chin, and I dashed it away with the wrist of my gun hand. I took another gulp, swilled it round and then spat the remainder into the sink. I was ready.
‘Let’s go, girls,’ I said, as if I was about to take them on an exciting adventure. It was important to keep them motivated, and not have them dwelling on the alternative, that I was possibly leading them to an unmarked grave. ‘Stay close to me at all times. Don’t speak and stay low, OK.’
We made a ragtag group in our mismatched and generally ill-fitting clothing but that didn’t mean a thing as long as it kept them safe. The overlarge clothing would help keep the sun off their bodies, even if I was condemning myself to a serious case of sunburn. I checked the way was clear, then guided the girls over to the lean-to and directed them to crouch in the shadows alongside its north-facing wall. ‘I’ll only be a few seconds,’ I said. ‘If you see or hear anything don’t shout, just knock on the wall. I’ll hear you.’
Checking all around, I backed up to the board covering the front of the shed and pulled it to one side. Jameson Walker’s SUV was coated with trail dust, but otherwise it seemed as good as new. Moving quickly for the driver’s door, I opened it and leaned inside. There were tiny cubes of broken window glass in the footwells. Luck wasn’t with me. There were no keys in the ignition. I checked all the likely hiding places: behind the visor, under the seats, in the glove compartment, but my search didn’t turn them up. Typical, I thought, because that would have been way too simple a get-out.
What I did find outweighed the disappointment that using the SUV for a getaway had proven a dead end. Both Jay and Nicole’s belongings were still on the back seat, holdalls containing clothing. I searched through them, grabbing something more appropriate for the girls, as well as two pairs of sneakers. Since Nicole wasn’t that much bigger than Ellie, I supposed there wouldn’t be much difference in the size of their footwear. There was no time to change now, so I stuffed them into my rucksack, and returned to the girls.
‘We can’t use the car I’m afraid. We’re going to have to walk out of here.’
They exchanged a glance, but neither looked perturbed by the prospect of having to traverse the desert. In fact they looked eager to get going, as if they wished to be anywhere but here, on foot or otherwise.
We used the trail I’d followed coming in, skirting the rubbish tip to the boulders where I held up a hand to stop them. The Logans’ no show was troubling me, and caused me to rethink our options. It was one thing taking Jay in that direction when I’d a vehicle waiting for her, quite another to expect to guide the two girls all the way back to the highway on foot. Instead, I made them head to the west towards the sweeping range of hills. Not that I planned on walking them too far that way; all I was interested in was finding some place where I could hide the girls while I returned to the ranch. The only way I was going to prevent the Logans from pursuing us was to stop them dead in their tracks.
Dead, I decided, was a good choice of word.
22
Fortune shone on Jay in a totally unexpected fashion. The cellphone was proving wholly unpredictable, and when she’d tried to patch through to the local police the line had been so weak that she couldn’t hear what the dispatcher was saying and suspected that her words were equally garbled. Frustrated, she’d pulled in by the side of the road, but when that had failed to make any difference she chanced calling Hunter’s friend instead. She had no luck, but had the idea to write a text message instead. An old hand at SMS messaging, she filled a page with a brief description of what had occurred and a description of the Logan ranch’s location in no time. She pressed the send button and it failed, but then set it to retry. The cell would automatically resend the message and she didn’t have to concern herself with it while she drove nearer to Holbrook. Throwing the Yukon into drive, she was pulling back on to the highway when she saw a vehicle approaching. Her first fear was that it was the old pick-up truck, but in the next instant she yelped in joy as the gumball light rack on the roof of the vehicle became visible. She brought the Yukon to a halt and got out, running towards the police cruiser waving both arms over her head.
The police cruiser coasted to a stop a hundred yards from her position. Jay understood how crazy she must look and couldn’t blame the officers for approaching her cautiously, but it didn’t stop her. Both front doors opened and an officer exited each side of the vehicle, both resting their hands on the butts of their sidearms.
‘Help me!’ Jay yelled. ‘Help me for God’s sake!’
‘Ma’am, stand still and place your hands on top of your head.’
Jay couldn’t believe that they thought her a threat and continued towards them. The taller, younger of the two officers drew his sidearm. The other, a balding man whose gut shadowed his belt buckle, merely dug his thumbs into his gun belt. The two officers shared a measured glance. Then the younger repeated his command. ‘Stand still. Place both hands on your head. I will come to you.’
Jay stumbled to a halt. Fifty yards still separated them. ‘I need your help. My friend has been kidnapped.’
‘Just take it easy, ma’am, and we’ll have things sorted in no time.’
The younger officer continued to approach her, alert for any sudden movement. He also checked the desert on each side, and Jay wondered why the hell he’d do that. What did he think: that she had some friends hiding by the roadside ready to jump out on him? Who in their right mind was going to try to hijack a cop car? ‘My friend and another girl have been kidnapped! You have to do something.’
‘Everything’s under control, ma’am, now take it easy.’ The young cop turned to call back to his colleague, but kept one eye on Jay. ‘You hear what she said, Sarge? Maybe you’d best call it in.’
‘I’ll try but you know how these power lines cause interference.’ The older cop leaned back into the cruiser. Jay expected to hear his voice in stereo, coming from both the cruiser and the radio set clipped to the younger cop’s shirt. She heard neither, and realised that the set in the car must work on a different frequency to that for the radio the cops carried. It didn’t matter, some kind of action was being taken and that was all she cared about.
The young cop was now within ten feet of her and Jay saw a handsome, clean-cut face, a well-developed body. A badge pinned to his uniform shirt identified him as Officer Lewin. Jay opened her mouth to speak but the cop pre-empted her. ‘Tell me your name, ma’am.’
‘Jay,’ she said. ‘My name’s Jay Walker.’
She saw the man’s eyes narrow slightly at her name and again he glanced quickly at his partner. The older cop was still busy at the handset in the cruiser. Officer Lewin appraised her, taking in the bruising on her face, her dishevelled appearance, the dust adhering to her clothing, and believed her words. His gaze slid to the Yukon and it was as if he recognised it, though she couldn’t imagine how. His next words made things clearer to Jay. ‘The man who was driving the GMC, where is he?’
Jay turned to look at the vehicle as if it would help order her mind. ‘He’s called Joe Hunter. He helped me escape but has gone back to get the others out.’
‘Joe Hunter.’ Lewin nodded his head, confirming the name was the same one he had lodged in his memory. ‘He’s a private investigator from Florida?’