David Morrell - Burnt Sienna

“But -”

“It’s strictly a formality. I’ll return it as soon as possible. You weren’t planning to drive out of the area, were you?”

“No.”

“Then you won’t be needing it.”

“He wants me,” Sienna said.

“Yes.”

Numb, they watched Ramirez drive along the shore toward Santa Clara.

“He’ll run Dale Perry’s name through the computer to see if there’s anything he can use against me.” Sienna found it impossible to take her gaze from the receding Jeep. “To demand sex from me.”

“Yes.”

“By now, whoever Perry worked for knows his wallet is missing. Either my husband or Laster will have computer specialists checking for anybody who tries to use Perry’s credit cards or his Social Security number.”

“Yes.”

“We’ll soon have company.” As Ramirez’s Jeep disappeared into the heat haze, Sienna was finally released from staring at it. Her mouth was dry. “So what in God’s name are we going to do?”

“You said it earlier – leave.”

“But how? There’s only one road to the border. There’s a roadblock. Ramirez will have his men watching for us.”

Chase turned to the south toward the rocky bluff where the beach ended. “I wasn’t thinking of the road.”

“You want to go around that and walk to the next town?” She referred to Puerto Peñasco, a hundred miles to the south. “That would take days. In this heat, we might not make it. Besides, by then Ramirez would have figured out what we were doing. He’d have soldiers waiting when we got there.”

“I wasn’t thinking of walking.”

“Then…”

Chase stared toward the gulf.

With a tingle, she understood.

“When Fernando comes back from fishing, I’ll pay him to take us down to Puerto Peñasco,” Chase said. “We’ll be there in a couple of hours. Ramirez won’t have time to get back here by then and realize what we’re doing. We’ll find an American. A hard-luck story and a couple of hundred dollars ought to get us a ride to the States.”

“But what about Fernando? Ramirez will suspect he helped us. We’ll be putting Fernando in danger.”

“Not if Fernando claims I made him do it. In fact, I’ve got a better idea. We’ll pay him to let us have the boat. He’ll tell Ramirez we stole it and ask a friend to take him down to Puerto Peñasco to get it back.”

They studied each other.

“We don’t have a choice.” Sienna’s voice was unsteady.

“It’s going to be okay.” Chase held her. “By tonight, we’ll be back in the States. We’ll take a bus to Yuma, get our money out of the storage locker, and find another place as good as this.”

She held him tighter, wanting to believe him.

“There are other places at the edge of the earth,” Chase said. “By tonight, this will have been just another nightmare we put behind us.”

“Sure.”

“Don’t sound so low. I promise we’ll get out of this.” He kissed her, his affection flowing into her. “Come on, let’s hurry and pack so we’re ready when Fernando returns. We don’t want to waste time.”

Time, she thought.

They left most of their things, putting only essential toiletries and a change of clothes in their knapsacks. Sienna set them against the kitchen door. She couldn’t repress her wistful feelings as she peered back at the trailer. It had been their home.

They split the pesos they had remaining – sixteen thousand dollars’ worth. Sienna shoved some into the jeans she had put on in place of her shorts. She stuffed most of it into her knapsack. Chase stuffed his half into the front pockets of a khaki fisherman’s jacket that he had worn on the days he had gone out with Fernando on his boat.

“Any sign of him?” Sienna asked.

“Not yet.”

“It’s three o’clock. Isn’t he usually back by now?”

“Fernando says the early hours are best for fishing.”

“Then where is he?”

“Having a better day than we are. Relax. It won’t be long.”

But three o’clock became four, then five. As the sun began its descent, Sienna fidgeted. “Ramirez will be back here soon. Or someone from my husband, or -”

“Maybe Fernando had an accident.”

“If he doesn’t hurry, we’re going to have an accident.”

She kept staring toward the northern shore, expecting a military Jeep to appear.

Six o’clock. Seven. The sun hung lower.

Smoke made her glance toward Fernando’s trailer, where his wife prepared a meal in the charcoal pit. Afraid of the military, she had remained inside for a long time after Ramirez had left. When she finally came out, she had stopped her children from approaching the trailer and had cast suspicious glances toward it.

“She thinks we brought trouble,” Chase said.

“We’re about to bring more.”

“I hear an engine.”

A motorboat appeared, getting larger, Fernando working the rudder.

“Thank God,” Sienna said.

They ran to the beach as Fernando steered into shore. Chase waded in to help him, dragging the boat onto the sand. By now, Sienna had learned enough Spanish that she understood when Chase told him, “We were worried about you.”

But Fernando’s reply was too rapid, and she needed Chase to explain that Fernando had been delayed because of a meeting in Santa Clara with the company to which he sold his fish.

As Fernando set an anchor to keep the boat from floating away during high tide, he frowned toward his somber wife, who approached from the shelter. “What’s wrong?” he asked in Spanish.

Fernando frowned harder when his wife described the visit from the military. Fernando’s confusion became dismay when Chase explained that he and Sienna wanted to rent his boat, take it down to Puerto Peñasco, and leave it there for him to retrieve.

“No.” Fernando’s wife held up her hands.

“I’ll give you five hundred dollars,” Chase said.

“No!”

“Seven hundred.”

“No!”

The woman tugged Fernando toward their trailer.

“A thousand.”

It was probably more money than Fernando had ever seen at one time. He blurted something before his wife hustled him inside.

“He says he’ll try to talk to her,” Chase told Sienna.

“He’d better do more than try.” Sienna stared again toward the northern shore. Although the sunset was less brilliant, there was still enough light to see if any vehicles were coming. “If he doesn’t want to rent it to us, we’ll take the damned thing. I won’t spend the night here.”

“I’ll tempt them with more cash,” Malone said.

“Give it all to them. Just so we get out of here.”

They crossed the sand to the trailer. From outside, they heard Fernando and his wife arguing. When Chase knocked on the door, the wife shouted, “Go away!”

But Chase opened the door anyhow and stepped in, noticing the frightened looks of the children.

“Translate for me,” Sienna said.

She tried to explain how afraid she was that her husband would find her.

The wife put her hands over her ears.

“To hell with her,” Sienna said. “Distract them while I get the knapsacks and put them in the boat.”

She hurried outside. Clouds obscured the sunset as she ran to their trailer, yanked open the screen door, and reached for the knapsacks.

A hand shot from the shadows, grabbing her arm.

“Good evening, Mrs. Perry.”

Ramirez dragged her into the gloom of the trailer. As tight as his hand was on her arm, she felt a greater tightness in her throat, a sensation of being strangled.

“Or should I call you Mrs. Bellasar?”