Annie.
Limp and still. Unconscious or dead. Propped in a seated position, her legs stretched out on the hardwood floorboards, her back resting against the stove’s round belly.
Oliver hadn’t simply deposited her there. He’d arranged her in that pose, as carefully as he would have arranged a bouquet in the flower shop. He’d made a display of her.
Erin saw all that, and abruptly she understood what he was about to do.
Not the arroyo.
Here.
He would burn them here, in the house of his childhood.
“ No!” she screamed, fear finding a human voice at last.
Oliver flung her down.
She hit the floor hard. A groan racked her.
He crouched by her side. She wanted to scratch his face, gouge and claw, but still her body would not respond to her will. She could only thrash weakly, gasping in inarticulate protest, as he shoved her up against the stove opposite her sister.
Snap, and the padlock securing the chain to her ankle was released, the chain pulled free.
The ribbon of heavy welded links was drawn across her waist, her arms, then wound around the stove, encircling Annie also, before its two ends met, a snake swallowing itself.
With a jerk of his wrists Oliver yanked the chain tight, chokingly tight across her midsection, crushing her arms to her sides, pinning her to the stove.
Snap. The padlock was again engaged, joining the two ends of the chain.
Erin moaned, struggling for speech and failing.
Oliver moved away, his back to her, and then he was out the door, lost in the darkness of the night.
She stared blankly after him for a long moment. Then with a spasm of violent energy she shook her head, twisted her body, clenched her fists, reviving dulled nerves and spent muscles.
She could not afford numbness and lethargy, not now. She had to fight. Fight for survival-her own and Annie’s, too.
Blinking rapidly to clear her vision, she gazed down at the padlock nestled in her lap, its steel shackle glinting at her like a smiling mouth. The chain extended on either side of it, binding her and Annie to the stove.
If she could raise the chain a few inches, to the point where the stove’s belly narrowed in diameter, she might be able to slip free.
Breathing hard, she contracted the muscles of her lower back, pressed her palms to the floor, and struggled to push herself up.
The chain wouldn’t budge.
But why not? Why the hell not?
Craning her neck, peering at the front of the stove out of the corner of her eye, she saw the reason.
Oliver had carefully looped the chain under the handle of the loading door and snagged it on one of the pin hinges. It could be neither raised nor lowered.
All right, then, how about the stove itself? Could it be moved?
A downward glance gave her the answer. The stove’s legs were bolted to the floor.
There had to be something she could do. Free her arms, at least.
But she couldn’t. The chain was wound too tight, jamming her elbows hard against her ribs.
No hope, then. No chance for her. For either of them.
Licking her lips, dispelling the last of the numbness that had frozen her mouth, she called her sister’s name.
“Annie?”
She heard no answer. She had expected none.
Maybe Annie was dead already. It might be best that way.
Her gaze moved to the front door, hanging ajar, letting in the warm night breeze.
Oliver still had not returned.
But he would, of course.
Soon.
With gasoline.
57
Walker picked up two T.P.D. patrol cars at the interstate’s Miracle Mile entrance. As he passed the Valencia Road on-ramp, he collected a sheriff’s department cruiser also.
The patrol cars activated neither sirens nor light bars on the freeway, a standard safety precaution. Walker, still in the lead, used his horn to scare slower traffic out of the fast lane.
On a tactical frequency the other units were asking questions, and he was doing his best to fill them in. But his best, he had to admit, wasn’t very good.
All he really knew was that a suspect in a possible kidnapping might be at a ranch on Ravine Road, with a hostage.
Or two hostages.
Driving with one hand, he put down his walkie-talkie, switched on his car phone, and punched in Annie’s number.
A recorded voice came on, as it had the last time he’d called. “Hi, this is Annie. I’m not home right now, so if you’re a burglar, I’m in trouble-”
He turned off the phone. Swallowed hard.
I’m in trouble, the message had said.
A joke, of course. Recorded days or weeks ago, irrelevant to this situation.
I’m in trouble.
Ridiculous to dwell on those words, the mock plaintive tone of voice.
I’m in trouble.
Leaning forward, Walker pushed the Mustang to eighty-five.
“Annie?”
Still no response from the other side of the stove.
Though it was futile, Erin struggled against the chain, as if believing that by sheer force of will she could crack open the welded links.
“Dammit, Annie, answer me.”
“Sorry, Doc. She can’t.”
Erin jerked her head toward the doorway, where Oliver stood motionless, watching her across yards of darkness.
His arms hung straight at his sides, his hands wrapped around the handles of two bulky metal canisters.
Gas cans.
“Did you… shoot her?” Erin whispered. “Is she dead?”
“Unconscious.” He spoke in a monotone, all emotion drained from his voice.
“Let her go. Please. If you want one of us”-she sucked in a sharp, shallow breath-“take me.”
“I’m taking you both.”
He set down the gasoline cans near the door, knelt, and calmly unscrewed the lids, his actions controlled, deliberate, robotic.
Nothing she said could move him. Even so, she had to try.
“Oliver.” She held her voice steady, fear channeled into her madly shaking hands. “You can’t do this. Can’t keep on killing.”
“I won’t. You two will be the last. Once you’re gone, I’ll be free.”
