“Likewise,” she said. “I need paper, pencil and an envelope. Please and thank you.”
87
The man pushed the barrel harder into January’s forehead, turned his cold steely eyes to River and said, “You got two seconds asshole.” The tone was unmistakable. The man was serious. He’d pull the trigger and that would be that.
“Okay.”
“Okay what?”
“Okay, I’ll take you to her.”
The man twisted his face, almost as if upset that River gave in before he got to splatter January’s brains all over the inside of the trunk. He froze for a heartbeat before pulling the gun away from January’s face and letting it fall to the side.
“Where is she?”
“Not far. Five or six miles up the road.” A beat then, “January’s not part of any of this. Let her go.”
The man tilted his head.
Then he looked around, saw no cars coming from either direction and said, “Get on the ground, facedown.”
River’s instinct was to resist but he saw no rage in the man’s eyes. The man’s plan wasn’t to shoot him in the back.
He complied.
“Don’t move a muscle.”
“I won’t.”
The man tucked the gun in his belt, snatched January out of the trunk and flung her over his shoulder. “Get up and start walking. Stay in front of me.” They headed into the brush and didn’t stop for two hundred yards. Then the man set January’s hogtied body on the ground behind a rabbit bush and checked the ropes.
They were tight.
They were inescapable.
He patted her head.
Then he said to River, “You can come back and get her later. If you screw up, you die and she rots to death. Do we have an understanding?”
River nodded.
“Good. Let’s go.”
River took a last look at January and said, “I’ll be back. I promise.” Then he turned and headed for the car with the man three steps behind. Halfway there he stopped and stared into the man’s eyes.
“What’s your name?”
The man smiled.
“Now there’s a question I didn’t expect,” he said. “Keep walking.”
River complied.
Twenty steps later the man said, “Spencer.”
“Spencer?”
“Right, Spencer.”
“Is that your first name or last name?”
“Last.”
“What’s your first name?”
“Vaughn.”
“Vaughn Spencer.”
“Right.”
“Nice to meet you, Vaughn Spencer. I’m Dayton River.”
“I know. Keep walking.”
At the car, River got in the back and said, “Just drive straight. I’ll tell you where to pull over.”
“No tricks.”
“No, no tricks. Do me a favor, though. If you kill me, come back and let January go. She doesn’t have anything to do with any of this.”
The man tilted the rearview mirror down until he got River’s face in the glass.
“What’s your obsession with that girl? She’s dirt.”
“We’re all dirt,” River said.
The man chuckled.
“Can’t argue with that.”
“She won’t rat you out if you let her go,” River said. “She’ll just disappear. Give her that.”
“Just do what you’re supposed to and you can let her go yourself.”
The vehicle sped forward.
A thought sprang into River’s head.
“You killed Charley-Anna Blackridge,” he said. “You put her in a red dress and dropped her off a roof.”
The man turned from the road long enough to look into River’s face.
“Someone got dropped off a roof?”
“Don’t play dumb.”
“Not by me.”
“Sure by you.”
“Nice try but you’re wrong.”
“Friday night,” River said.
“Friday night I was in San Francisco. Whatever you think happened, it didn’t happen by me.”
River stared at the back of the man’s head.
He could twist his foot up and kick him hard, right in the back of the skull. If he got a good enough contact, he might knock him out. Even if he only got a glancing blow, he might get enough contact to make the guy lose control of the wheel. The car would roll and eventually come to a stop. River might get a chance to kick the guy to death. The key to the cuffs was probably in one of his pockets. He’d get loose then go back and get January.
His heart raced.
Try it or not?
“How much farther?”
River looked out the windshield.
“Just around that bend.”
“There’s nothing out here.”
“Trust me.”
The man raised his hand over the edge of the seat. In it was the gun, held in a tight grip. The barrel pointed into River’s face. “If she’s not there you had your last chance.”
“She’s there.”
“We’ll see.”
“Keep your feet flat on the floor and don’t even breathe.”
