Jeffery Deaver - The Bodies Left Behind

Brynn muttered, “There are troopers on the way-”

“Shut up,” Gandy said, though lethargically, as if it would take too much effort to hit her again.

The skinny one, obsessed with her face, picked at the speed bumps on his forearm. Gandy, the woman and Rudy didn’t seem to have been slamming their own product. Which didn’t put her at ease; it meant they’d make rational decisions about protecting their operation. And that meant killing her and finding Michelle and doing the same. She remembered how casually Gandy had offered his ID; because the man had known she’d be dead soon.

“Mommy…”

The woman slapped her own thigh twice. Apparently a command meaning: Be quiet. Amy instantly stopped speaking. This infuriated Brynn-and broke her heart.

The woman’s fingers were stained yellow. Though she probably wasn’t a tweaker herself, she clearly wanted a cigarette. But lighting up in a meth lab would be like using a match to find a gas pocket in a coal mine.

Rudy asked, “Was she alone?”

“No. Somebody was with her. She got away. They claim a couple of guys’re after them. I saw ’em. But I don’t know what’s going on. Something about a break-in in Lake Mondac. It’s about five miles-”

“I know where it is.” Rudy walked close. Examined Brynn’s wound. He announced, “’S’a setup. Fletcher called them, had that ho of his do it, I’ll bet. The skanky redhead. Said we were here. Didn’t have the balls to come up against us himself.”

Gandy said, “I don’t know. How the hell could he find us here? We covered all the tracks.”

Rudy’s eyes went mad for a moment and he leaned into Brynn’s face, raging, “Talk to me, bitch. Talk to me! What’s going on? Who the fuck are you?”

Brynn had dealt with the emotionally disturbed. Rudy was out of control, running on pure anger. Her heart beat fast, from both present fear and past memory of Keith’s fist strafing her jaw.

When she said nothing he screamed, “Who are you?” He pulled a pistol from his taut waistband and pushed it against her neck.

“No,” Brynn whispered and turned away, as if avoiding the challenging eyes of a mad dog. She managed to say evenly, “There’ll be state troopers and county deputies and tactical backup in the area anytime now.”

The woman dropped the club on the counter. “Oh, no…”

But Gandy was laughing. “No way. She had a fucking spear. She was on the run from some assholes broke into a house around here. What she told me ’s the truth. No police, no troopers. Oh, and no choppers in the county. She told me they don’t use them around here for tactical work. Only medical. That answers one of our questions.” He smiled at Brynn. “Thanks for the info, by the way.”

“That’s true,” she said, speaking evenly, though still struggling to breathe after the blow to her belly. The pain was making her jaw quiver. “We weren’t part of a drug operation. But the protocol is if a deputy doesn’t report in a certain amount of time they’ll send backup.” She glared at Gandy. “Tactical backup.”

Rudy considered this, chewing his wet bottom lip. He put the gun away.

She continued, “If they’re not on their way by now, they will be soon. Don’t make this worse on yourselves. I’m way overdue.”

“This is a state park,” the woman said. “They won’t search here.”

Rudy sneered. “Well, Susan, why wouldn’t they search? Can you give me a reason? Of course not. Jesus. Don’t be stupid… We had a good deal going and now it’s fucked up. You understand that? You understand how fucked we are?”

“Sure, Rudy. I understand.” Susan looked away from him. And angrily gestured to the child to fill the bags faster.

Gandy said, “That leaves those other two. The men after them. At least one had a gun, I could see. They could be with Fletcher.”

Rudy asked Brynn, “These men…either of them Hispanic? One of ’em black?”

She didn’t answer. Rudy looked at Gandy, who said, “Was night. They were a couple hundred yards away. I couldn’t tell.”

Brynn said, “You’re in enough trouble. We can-”

“Shut up. Do you believe her, these guys just broke in?”

Gandy replied, “I don’t know. If she was lying she was really good at it.”

“You see anybody actually shooting at her?”

“No. She tried to shoot them, with the Savage…” Then Gandy frowned. “But she didn’t take the shot. She could’ve. That seemed off to me. Maybe she was trying to trick me. I don’t know.”

“You gave her your gun?”

“What was I going to do? Say no because my family’s back in the camper cooking crystal? I could’ve taken it away from her anytime I wanted.”

“But she didn’t shoot?”

“Nope. Balked.”

“Why?” Rudy asked, moving close to Brynn.

I don’t know, she thought, and stared into the fat man’s watery eyes.

In the corner, little blond Amy was sealing bags of meth. She was working real hard for a kid who was up at this hour.

Rudy grabbed the duct tape the little girl was using, taped Brynn’s wrists behind her back and shoved her toward Gandy. “I can’t worry about her now. We’ll bring her with us. Get her out of here.” He glanced at the kettles. “Cool it down. Everything. Pack it up to travel. Fuck, what a waste.”

The woman and the skinny young man were shutting down the cooker and filling bags with the finished product. “Amy,” the mother whined. “Faster. What’s your problem?”

“I’m sleepy.”

“You can sleep when we’re on the road. No excuses.”

“Where’s Chester?” the child asked.

“He’s your doll. You should take better care of him.”

Rudy took the deer rifle and handed it to the scabby young guy. “Henry, get outside, up the path. Don’t shoot unless you can take everybody out. We don’t want any calls for backup. If fact, don’t shoot at all unless you have to. You see anybody, get your ass back here.”

“Sure, Rudy. You’re not…you’re not going to leave with me out there, are you?”

Rudy gave a guttural sound, registering his disgust. “Move.”

Gandy roughly took Brynn’s arm. Limping, he pulled her outside and dragged her to the van, pushed her inside. It was filled with clothes, suitcases, junk, magazines, toys, bottles of chemicals. He looped a rope through her bound arms, knotted it to a tie-down.

Brynn said, “There’ll be roadblocks. And the State Police does have choppers. You’re not going to get through. And don’t think about using me as a hostage. That never works. They’ll shoot you before you shoot me, or after. They’d prefer the first but they’ll do the second. It’s the way we train.”

He laughed. “Even now you’re balls out.”

“But I will cut a deal with you. You personally. Call my office. We’ll get it worked out.”

“Me personally?”

“You.”

“Why me? Because I’m the one who washes his hands? Who doesn’t say ‘him and me are going to do this’? Because I have green bumper stickers on the camper so I may actually care about the environment? Which means I’ll be reasonable?”

Yep. Exactly.

“You’ve got that little girl in there. Do it for her, at least.”

“I just fuck her momma. The kid’s not mine.” He slid the door closed with a hollow bang.

JAMES JASONS WAS still some distance from Lake Mondac but figured he’d better cut off the GPS (not as easy as you’d think but he’d had a special switch installed). Those satellites and those servers…who knew what incriminating information they retained?

Good for security but bad to find restaurants. Still, he’d spotted a golden arches and went for it. He did the drive-through, going for two plain hamburgers, sliced apples and a diet cola.