J. Jance - Kiss the Bees

"If Lani's already dead, what difference will being thorough make?" Diana asked despairingly.

"Don't say that," Brandon returned. "Don't even think it."

"You heard the tape," Diana said. "What else is there to think? And why would Quentin do such a thing? What did Lani ever do to him? Is it jealousy? Is that what this is all about? We would have done exactly the same things for Tommy and Quentin that we did for Davy and Lani if they had ever shown the slightest interest. And every time we tried to do something, Janie was right there saying it wasn't good enough for them. No matter what we did, it wasn't enough."

"Shhhh," Brandon said, laying a finger on Diana's lips. They were as parched and dry as if she had been running a fever. "It isn't Janie's fault that Quentin's gone off his rocker," Brandon said. "Don't waste your time blaming her, and don't blame us either."

"That's what you're saying then? Quentin's gone crazy and what's happened has no connection to the book? Nothing tonight has anything to do with the danger Fat Crack warned us about?"

Brandon slumped wearily against the headboard on his side of the bed. "I can't see what the connection would be," he said. "Insanity is the only thing that makes sense."

Just then there was a tap on the door. A young deputy poked his head inside the room. "Brock Kendall was trying to use your phone a few minutes ago. He said there's evidently a message on your answering machine. He said you should probably listen to it just in case it happens to be a ransom demand. We're in the process of setting a trap on your line. This call must have come in before that."

Brandon played back the message. Using the speaker phone, they both listened to Wanda Ortiz's voice.

"Gabe and Baby just left for Rattlesnake Skull Charco," Wanda said. "He wants you to meet him there. He says that's where you'll find Lani."

By the time the message ended, Brandon had already slipped his shoes back on and was bent over tying them. "What are you going to do?" Diana asked.

"You heard Wanda. Fat Crack wants me to meet him at Rattlesnake Skull Charco, and that's where I'm going."

Diana started to slide off the bed. "If that's where she is, I'm going too."

"No, you're not."

"Why not?" Diana demanded, slipping on her own shoes. "Why the hell shouldn't I? Lani's my daughter, too."

Brandon didn't want to say the real reason, that he was afraid of what they would find at Rattlesnake Skull Charco-afraid of what they would see. He couldn't seem to do much, but at least he could spare Diana that.

"One of us needs to be here to answer the phone," he said. "What if a ransom call does come in?"

Diana's voice rose, verging on hysteria. "There's not going to be any ransom call. You know that. You just-"

"Please, Diana," Brandon said huskily. He reached out and touched her, letting his fingers graze gently down the curving line of her cheek. "Please stay here. I can't order you to stay, but do it because I need you to, Di. Because I'm asking."

Diana sank back down on the bed. "All right," she said. "I'll stay."

"Thank you," Brandon said. He started toward the door.

"You'll take the cell phone?"

"It's already in my pocket."

"Call the moment you hear anything," Diana added. "The moment you find her. Promise me you'll call, no matter how bad it is."

Brandon stopped at the door and looked back at his wife. "I promise," he said. "No matter how bad."

Leaving Diana alone, he hurried out into the living room. "What's up?" Brock Kendall asked.

"Hitch up the wagons. We need to go out to the place where they found those bones yesterday afternoon. According to Gabe Ortiz, that's where we'll find Lani-at Rattlesnake Skull Charco."

Brian Fellows leaped to his feet. "I can take you there," he offered. "It's not easy to find but-"

"I've been there before," Brandon Walker said. "It's the same place where we found Gina Antone all those years ago. Besides, Brian, I want you to stay here."

Disappointment washed over the young deputy's face. He started to argue. "But I-"

"Most of the other officers here are strangers, Brian," Brandon Walker said. "You're family. I'd like you to be here to be with Diana just in case. To give her some emotional backup. I only pray she won't need it."

"All right, Mr. Walker," Brian said. "If that's what you want me to do, I'll be glad to stay."

Brandon had left the Suburban parked out in front of the house. "Gabe Ortiz," Brock Kendall was saying as they climbed in. "That name sounds familiar. Who is he again?"

"A friend of the family," Brandon answered. "He's also the Tohono O'othham tribal chairman."

"But what does he have to do with all this, and how would he know that's where Lani might be?"

"He's a medicine man," Brandon answered, heading for the door. "He knows stuff. Don't ask me how, but he does."

Sitting in the mouth of the cave, watching the flashing red lights in the desert below, Mitch Johnson fought his way through an initial attack of panic. He was convinced that the lights had nothing to do with him. What he couldn't understand was why the hell they didn't finish up whatever it was they were doing and go away. The little Indian slut was still missing, but he was beginning to think that maybe she hadn't made it out of the cave after all.

He couldn't believe he had screwed up that badly, but there was no one to blame but himself. He had counted too heavily on the drugs to control Quentin. He had kept the Bronco's ignition key in his pocket, but Quentin must have had a spare. He had raced out of the cave in a rage when he heard the Bronco start up without taking the precaution of securing the girl first. When he first discovered that Lani was missing, he had figured she had simply followed his own path up and over the landslide debris in the smaller cavern and out to the steep surface of the mountain.

Now, though, he wondered if that was true. Had she gone that way, she, too, would have seen the lights. If she had gone straight there, hoping to be rescued, wouldn't her appearance have provoked an almost instantaneous reaction? By now the mountainside would have been crawling with cops ready to use Mitch Johnson for some high-tech nighttime target practice. No doubt a bunch of eager-beaver searchers would have combed every inch of the surrounding terrain. One of them was bound to have stumbled across the crumpled hulk of Quentin Walker's Bronco.

No, as the still night slid into early morning, as the sky brightened in the east, and as the flashing red lights stayed right where they were, Mitch grew more and more convinced that Lani Walker was still somewhere inside the cave and probably freezing her cute little tush off as well.

He had already decided on a backup plan of action. All he had to do was make it to the Bounder. Even with his knee acting up again, he could walk that far. Then, if he drove into town, hooked on to the Subaru, he could drive off into the sunset and no one would be the wiser. He understood, however, that a plan like that would work only so long as Lani Walker wasn't alive to point an accusing finger in his direction.

Which meant that, inside the cave or out of it, Mitch Johnson had to find her first.

Had time not been an issue, he could simply have settled into the passage and waited. Eventually Lani would be faced with two simple courses of action: she would either have to come out or starve to death.

Mitch's real difficulty lay in the fact that time was an issue. By now the Walkers knew something was up and had probably called for reinforcements. And so, after checking the flashing lights one last time, Mitch Johnson turned back into the first passageway. He did so with only one purpose in mind-to find Lani Walker and kill her.

Somewhere over southeastern Colorado, Davy Ladd finally did fall asleep. The next panic attack hit while the Boeing 737 was cruising over central New Mexico. An observant flight attendant realized something was wrong and quickly moved the little old lady out of the way to an empty seat several rows forward.