What role is he trapped in now?
We pass a reflective sign extended out over the highway from a large white pole. Christchurch is only forty-five miles away. We’ll be there in well under an hour. I slide the heater control to the little picture of feet. I’ve thawed out slightly. The ice in my veins is melting. The fear isn’t.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing.” I keep on driving.
“You’ve got two days,” he says.
“What?”
“Didn’t I make myself clear? Are you an idiot?”
“Humor me.”
“Two days. Forty grand. I’m sure you can arrange that.”
“Sure.”
“Speed up, I don’t want to be out here all night.”
I speed up and the headlights in my mirror get smaller.
“Faster!” he shouts.
I push my foot down and Jo’s headlights soon disappear. Ahead of us the two eastbound lanes of the highway narrow into one. The road winds around a bit, but the view doesn’t change-just pastures and more pastures. When Cyris tells me to pull over I do the opposite. I speed up and I switch off the headlights. We’re going to crash, but if I’m lucky Jo will drive right on past.
Cyris smashes me in the head with something, and as the world goes darker, he begins tugging at the wheel. He’s leaning over the backseat and I’m too woozy to try and stop him. He puts the gearshift in neutral. My foot is still on the accelerator, but only revving now. He hits me again. The colors flare behind my eyes for maybe the hundredth time this week and I’m left to wonder if those colors will ever go away. He keeps steering the car. It’s slowing down. He reaches around me and pulls out the screwdriver key. When the colors behind my eyes dissolve I start looking for Cyris. He’s already outside, slamming the passenger door closed. I go to open my door and my right arm stops painfully short. Handcuffs hold me to the steering wheel.
Landry’s cuffs.
Christ. I’m living in a world of déjà vu.
Cyris taps on the window with the barrel of his gun. I look out and see him waving my keys at me. His scraggly beard moves as he grins. I swear at the windshield, spraying a fine mist of obscenities across the glass. At the same time I tug on the handcuffs, going through the same motions I went through earlier tonight and getting the same results. My wrist is already swelling.
I unclip the seatbelt and reach for the door handle with my left arm, pulling on it, then push the door with my foot. I turn my body so I can stand. My right arm stays inside the car, the handcuffs stopping me from standing straight. Cyris is moving off the opposite side of the road just as Jo comes around the bend. Past the shoulder is some long grass that he ducks behind. I stand as tall as I can, the handcuffs pulling my skin and hurting the bone, and I wave erratically at her so she knows there’s trouble. But she’s thinking maybe flat-tire trouble, or engine trouble. Just not Cyris trouble. But then Cyris steps out into the road and levels the shotgun at her. There must be a moment where she thinks she might be able to run him down before he can open fire, but then she must dismiss it because she pulls over and stops.
Cyris signals for her to get out of the car. She does.
“Looks like we’re having ourselves a reunion,” he shouts. He moves slowly toward us, then stops between the headlights of the car I’m driving. “Your husband here owes me money,” he says. “Forty grand to be specific. He said I could look after you until he can get it. It’s like layaway.” He takes a few steps toward me. “Isn’t that right?”
I don’t answer him. Jo says nothing. He turns the barrel of Landry’s shotgun so it’s pointing at her face. She doesn’t look scared or intimidated, but I don’t doubt that she is.
“The plan’s simple,” he says. “You give me the money and she gets to live. You take too long with the funds, I teach her about suffering. You get my point?”
I want to kill him so badly that it hurts. I grit my teeth and my eyes are burning and I see a shade of red that can only be blood. I want to take the gun from his hands and use it to club his head into the highway. I want to run over his twitching corpse.
“For forty grand,” Cyris continues, “you can have her back. It’s the money you owe me, partner, for screwing me the other night.”
“I’ll get it, okay? You can let her go and take me instead. We can go to the bank in the morning and I can get you the cash,” I say, knowing how stupid it sounds.
“No can do, partner. She comes with me.”
“You don’t need her.”
“Oh, but I do, I do, yeah. I get lonely during the day.”
“I can get the money first thing! Please! By ten o’clock everything can be settled.”
“Sorry. I’ll be sleeping like a baby.”
“What about in the afternoon? Come on, give me a break here.”
“Don’t sound so desperate, little Charlie, little, little. The day’s no good for me. The night’s no good for me either. I’ve got me some important plans.”
I don’t want him alone with Jo for two whole days. I don’t want that at all. “No deal.”
He reaches out and shoves Jo against the car, then points the gun at her. “Pick a limb, partner.”
I raise my free hand. “I can get you the money. But two days? Jesus, surely you can see my problem with this.”
“And that’s just it. It’s your problem, not mine, yours.” He laughs. “Partner, if you’re unhappy we can cancel the whole transaction. Is that how you want it?”
I shake my head. I’ve seen how he cancels transactions.
“Good. I’ll ring you at home at nine o’clock tonight. Be there.”
“If you touch her. .”
“You’ll what? Huh? Kill me? Don’t worry, partner. I don’t damage my investments.”
He pushes her into the driver’s seat of my car and slams the door. Clutching his stomach, he moves around to the passenger side. I stare through the side window at Jo. She stares back and attempts a smile that says, Don’t worry, things will be fine. I attempt the same smile, but who are we kidding?
I meet Cyris’s eyes. I want them to be dead, reflecting only a vacant mind, but they’re alive and brimming with ideas. Half a minute goes by, then Jo puts the car into gear and slowly pulls away. She goes only ten yards before the brake lights come on. Her arm appears out the window and she tosses out the handcuff key and the modified car key. They land in the middle of the road. Then the red brake lights die and the car rolls forward.
By trying to be a hero on Monday I’ve signed Jo’s life away. I rest my head against the door. The headache is back. I can taste failure in the back of my throat. I could have driven into a tree. I could have fought Cyris while he was behind me in the car. I look down the road. The taillights are two distant red specks riding toward infinity. They look like eyes-demon eyes. They disappear around a distant bend.
They disappear and I am alone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The rain cannot wash away the rage or the fear that leaves me standing motionless next to my car. Hope and despair have both reached out for me, but hope couldn’t get a grip. And why would it? I’m standing in Landry’s shirt, his socks and shoes, and my underwear. My mind has recognized defeat and is slowly shutting down. Jo is dead even though she’s behind the wheel of my car and speeding toward the city.
I lean into the car and release the hand brake. I push against the door frame with my left arm, my right beneath my left armpit because of the handcuffs. My legs try to tangle as I gain more speed, and when my left leg clips the edge of the car I lose my balance. My hand slips from the door frame and I fall, my right knee hitting the asphalt hard. I pull myself into a sitting position and get onto my feet. I look down at my knee and can see it bleeding.
I tighten my grip on the car and start over. The car builds speed once again, and when I can tell momentum will take me to the keys, I limbo into the car and put both hands on the wheel. I can’t steer because the steering wheel has locked, but I pull the hand brake when I reach the keys. I twist my body and lean out. The keys are closer to the other side of the car, out of reach. I look for something to help and find it when I look up and see the antenna. I pull it upward and when it’s at its longest I bend it back and forth until it snaps off. I lean down and start fishing. It only takes a few moments to hook the handcuff key. I undo the cuffs and drop them onto the passenger seat. I lean under the car and grab the screwdriver.