Lisa Scottoline - Save Me

She cruised down the access road, passing the exits signed for VISITORS, BUSES, and MAIN PLANT. The main plant had no windows to show the lights inside, but she could hear the faint noise of the production machinery. Clouds of steam spewed from the smokestacks, hissing when they hit the cool night air. The employee parking lot was only partly full, and Rose remembered from the tour that a third of the employees worked the night shift.

She kept an eye out for Eileen’s van but it wasn’t anywhere in sight. She hadn’t seen it in the rearview mirror on the way over, but she hadn’t gone slow enough to let Eileen catch up with her. She had a different plan in mind.

She took a left at the Conference Center sign, peeling off onto a long road that wound through the trees and fed into its large parking lot, almost full to capacity. Lamps illuminated the lot at regular intervals, casting cool light on the still cars. She parked at the back near the entrance, as far away from a lamp as possible, then cut the ignition, scanning the scene.

The lot was quiet, because everybody was already at the huge party at the Conference Center. The building had floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and inside, hundreds of dressed-up couples danced on the wooden floor or ate at round banquet tables, lit with candles. A large band played, and the thumpa-thumpa of bad seventies rock carried on the night air, then the horn section segued into some sort of fanfare. Men in tuxes ascended a decorated dais, presumably the Homestead CEO and other corporate officers. The last tuxedoed man in line was Senator Martin, who climbed the steps waving his hands, and the crowd broke into applause loud enough to be heard in the parking lot.

Rose checked the building entrance, on the side of the building facing the corporate offices. Smokers stood outside the main doors, the red tips of their cigarettes glowing, and two security guards were talking, visible only because of their bright white shirts and caps. Parked off to the side was a white sedan that read PLANT SECURITY, and she guessed that Senator Martin would have his own security detail inside.

Rose cracked her driver’s side door, slipped outside, and stole across the access road to the other side, then ducked behind the shrubs. The ground was cool and the shrubs scratchy, but she stayed low, and waited. It didn’t take long.

Eileen’s blue van cruised slowly down the access road to the conference center, approaching the parking lot.

Rose got up into a crouching position, but stayed behind the bush.

Eileen glided into the lot and parked in a space far from the entrance to the conference center, near Rose’s car. The window on the driver’s side was closed, but Rose could see Eileen because of her light hair.

Eileen had faced the van so that she’d be away from the conference center, just as Rose had thought she would.

It was time to go.

Rose counted.

One, two, three.

“Eileen, let me in, quick!” Rose whispered, trying the van door, which was locked. She showed her face, plastering her hands to the window. “It’s me, Rose!”

Eileen turned in shock, her eyes wild with fear. She scrambled away from the window, toward the passenger seat.

“Let me in! It’s okay, it’s me, Rose.”

Eileen’s expression relaxed, then she leaned over and unlocked the door. “What are you doing here? You’re a redhead now?”

“Shh, they’ll hear us.” Rose jumped into the driver’s seat and closed the door behind her. “They’ll come running. Is that what you want? Shhh.”

“What do you want? What’s the matter with you?”

“Eileen, we have to get out of here and go to the FBI-”

“Are you crazy?” Eileen’s face was an anguished mask in the light from the streetlamps. “Didn’t you do enough to my family? You’re haunting me?”

“Eileen, it must have been awful to hear, about Bill, but-”

“Don’t say his first name, like you know him. You didn’t know him. You don’t know me. Leave me alone.”

“I’m on your side.”

“No, you’re not. You left Amanda in that fire.”

“No, I didn’t, but this isn’t the time or the place to talk about that. You can hate me all you want, but let’s leave now and convict these guys. One is Senator Martin!”

“This is none of your business. This is my business. Why are you in it at all?”

“I was looking into the cause of the fire and it led to Homestead, that’s all. I’m sorry if you think I meddled, but this isn’t the way to do-”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Eileen interrupted, her eyes wild. “This is my husband we’re talking about. You still have yours!”

“Eileen, listen. They could be watching us right now. I saw you get pulled over on the turnpike. What if they did it to stop you?”

“How do you know I got pulled over? Are you following me? Are you a stalker?”

“They’ll kill you, Eileen. They don’t want to go to prison and they’ll have to, if the truth comes out.” Rose gestured at the conference center. “Look at the entrance. They have security guards. What are you going to do? They won’t let you in-”

“I know those guys. I’ve had them over for barbeques. They can’t do a thing to me, not in front of the whole company.” Eileen turned away, yanked on the door handle, and started to get out of the van, but Rose grabbed her arm.

“Please, don’t go-”

“Get off!”

The last thing Rose saw was a manicured fist.

Heading for her face.

Rose regained consciousness, groggy. She opened her eyes. She lay slumped in the driver’s seat of the van. Her left cheek was killing her. She was alone. She came alive with one thought.

Eileen.

She boosted herself up in the seat and spotted a commotion at the entrance of the conference center. Two Homestead security guards were struggling to put Eileen into the security sedan. One clapped a hand over Eileen’s mouth, and the other held her flailing arms, and they succeeded in getting her into the backseat and slamming the door closed.

Oh my God.

Rose looked to the right. Inside the conference center, the party continued as if nothing had happened. Oblivious, the guests filled the banquet tables, all of their attention on the dais, where Senator Martin was talking at the podium in front of the Homestead executives.

Rose looked back, aghast, as one security guard bolted to the driver’s seat and the other hustled back to the entrance. The sedan emitted a plume of exhaust and steered smoothly to the left, then turned around and drove toward the access road.

Rose ducked down in the seat as it slid past, her heart hammering. If she got out of the van and screamed, they’d come and take her away, like Eileen. She didn’t have a phone to call anybody. Her only advantage was that the security guards didn’t know she was here, though they’d come looking for Eileen’s van, later. If they killed Eileen, they wouldn’t leave her van behind. They wouldn’t leave any evidence. They hadn’t, before.

Rose checked the ignition, and the keys were still there, hanging. She’d be ready to follow the sedan if it left the campus; but it drove up the access road, took the exit to the main plant, and vanished inside. It was as if the building had swallowed the sedan whole, with Eileen inside.

Rose cracked the door, crept out of the van, left the door open, and walked to the bumper in a crouch. She reached the end of the van and checked the entrance. The security guard remained out front, and a smoker had returned, lighting up. Neither was looking her way.

She took a deep breath and darted across the aisle to the next block of parked cars, still in a crouch. Then waited, catching her breath. The main plant was on the hill, and behind it, on the left side, where the sedan had gone in, was a loading dock, a paved area with huge tractor-trailers parked all around. One of the bays was open, making a rectangle of bright light, but there didn’t appear to be any activity there.