Lisa nodded. She looked out the windshield. "And what if the woman isn't Alicia?"
"We'll drive around," Tim said. "We'll drive down that street you mentioned, then we'll hit the YWCA. If we don't find them at either place, it's over." He smiled at her. "The game ends!
Lisa heard what he was saying but didn't feel the implications. She understood them-they would take her back to that lonely mountain cabin by force and kill her slowly in front of the camera-but she didn't let their threats affect her. She had gone beyond that. She had gone beyond feeling scared.
"I'll be right here," Tim said. "And remember what I said before: If you scream or cause a scene or make a break for it, we'll find you and we'll kill you later. Only we'll kill you slowly. And we'll get hubby and baby, too. You got me?"
Lisa nodded. The threat echoed in her mind; it didn't seem real anymore. Nothing did. "Let's do it."
Animal opened the side door of the van and stepped out. Lisa followed him and began to lead the way to the front of the restaurant where, just three days before, she and her husband had stopped to help a woman in despair.
Sixteen
Lisa was cursing herself the entire time for being too chickenshit to do anything. The only thing she could think of was that line of thought part of her conscious mind kept whispering to her a few hours before: You were only thinking about saving your skin. You weren't even thinking about your unborn baby, were you? You just wanted to save yourself
It was that thought that kept running through her mind, as well as her general fright, that kept her from doing anything. It wasn't until they were back at the van and Tim emerged to make the capture that Lisa sprang into some kind of action. And what triggered it was Animal-who had been walking behind her as the three of them walked to the van (while Alicia carried Mandy, who was strapped into her carrier)-as he damped his hand over her mouth and attempted to shove her in the van.
No! her mind screamed, and then she fought. Something deep and primal awoke within her and she struggled hard, more ferociously than she'd struggled when Tim had abducted her back at that motel a thousand years ago. Animal's left hand found her left wrist and attempted to bring it behind her back in a choke hold, but Lisa moved with it, thwarting him. Animal panted. "Thought we were just gonna let you go after this, huh? Think again, cunt!"
She screamed but nothing came out of her mouth, and then she saw the glint of steel and her eyes grew wide. He pulled her toward him, hand pressed down over her mouth, and he brought the knife up, and she could dimly hear movement in the van as Tim tended to Alicia and Mandy and she tried to forget the look Alicia gave her when it all happened. She pushed all that out of her mind and burst through it, fueled by a sudden explosion of adrenaline that seemed to give her extra strength. The knife came up toward her throat, and then she bit down hard on Animal's palm.
She felt her teeth pierce through his skin, and sud denly the hand was gone and she heard a yelp of pain. His grip on her loosened, and she took this small window of opportunity to drive her elbow into him. She felt it connect solidly with his solar plexus and she felt something hit her shoulder, then heard the link of metal as it hit the ground at her feet. Animal's grip on her loosened to the point of letting go as he doubled over, the breath knocked out of him, and now she did scream. She let loose with one motherfucking wail of a scream, and then she was running. She screamed and ran toward the front of the restaurant, ignoring the surprised looks of entering restaurant patrons as they froze to look at her, and then she was in the restaurant, screaming at the twentysome- thing hostess to call the fucking police, and then she collapsed on the floor in a shaking fit of sobbing, not even aware of the commotion around her and the excited voices that accompanied it, not even aware of the van as it peeled out of the parking lot and set off down Burbank Boulevard heading for the freeway.
Brad Miller sat in the Lexus as the garage door opened to his and Lisa's home, feeling a numbed sense of detachment.
The day had gone by in a blur the brief arraignment and dismissal of his case; filing a missing persons report with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department; then a late breakfast at some restaurant with his parents and William Grecko as they all tried to console him. Well find her, don't worry. SheW be all right. Well get to the bottom of this.
Brad had told William Grecko that if they wanted to find Lisa they needed to do one thing: find Caleb Smith. He had something to do with this. Brad knew it. But Grecko told him it was going to be tough. As far as any body knows, Caleb Smith doesn't exist. ft's probably an alias of some sort and the guy's long gone by now. For all we know, he might not have had anything to do with Lisa disappearing.
Brad had wanted to leap over the table and throttle the smug sonofabitch, but his parents were there, and then they were joined by one of the detectives Grecko had called. They had talked some more, and Brad had mostly listened to the conversation, simmering in his anger at the lawyer and the detective, silently screaming at them to get the fuck out there and find her! Then they had driven back to Orange County with Brad's father driving the Lexus. They had gone to his folks' house first, and that was when Brad knew he had to get some kind of plan going. If the police weren't going to do anything about finding Lisa, then he would. He would hire a private detective if he had to. But he would find her.
He felt a little better after coming to this realization, and he had told his folks he was going to go home. His mother had been against it-she seemed to think he was on the brink of a nervous breakdown and might harm himself. Brad dismissed it. "I'm tired, Mom. 1 haven't showered in three days and I'm tired. I want to go home and take a shower and go to sleep. Maybe if I get some rest, I'll feel better."
His father had felt that was for the best too, so both parents had escorted him back to the car and helped him with his things. They watched as he drove away.
Now as he pulled the car into the garage he realized that for the first time since this whole nightmare started he was actually starting to think in a positive manner. First things first: Get a shower and a good night's sleep. Take aValium if you have to, but get a good eight or more hours of sleep. Then tomorrow we'll tackle this thing from all ends. Maybe he would do some calling around and find a good private detective. He would spare no expense. 'Thank God he and Lisa had been made partners in their respective firms this year, because the extra income they'd been throwing into savings was going to be dearly needed.
The garage door whirred dosed behind him. Brad sighed and got out of the car. He retrieved both bags from the trunk and trundled them through the laundry room and the kitchen. He'd get them both upstairs and then he'd-
He was just crossing the living room with the suitcases when the telephone rang.
He rushed to the phone after dropping the bags in the entry hall. "Hello?"
"Brad?" It was Lisa. She burst out sobbing.
"L.rsa!" Brad's voice broke. "Oh my God, Lisa, what happened-where are you?"
"Oh Brad, thank God you're home." Lisa was crying hard, and Brad could hear voices in the background over the line. It sounded like she was calling from an office or something.
"Lisa, where are you?" Brad's own nerves were on edge at the sound of her voice, and he thought, Thank God she's all right.
"I'm in Burbank," Lisa said. "At the police station… I don't know… near… I don't know where this fucking police station is! It's in the valley-"