He exhaled and followed Aroostine into the cave. He stood just inside the entrance and blinked several times, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim light.
The space was cavernous, at least twenty-five feet across and twice as deep. The walls were rough and gray, much rockier than the sides of the outcropping where they’d slept the night before.
Aroostine was just a dark, shadowy shape, barely visible in the gloom. She was standing over beside the far right wall, about three yards into the space.
She turned and called over her shoulder, “You have to see this.”
He crossed the uneven floor of the cave, taking care with each step. He proceeded in an exaggeratedly slow tiptoe, which he was sure looked ridiculous. But that was fine with him; he imagined tripping and getting a chin full of the jagged ground would hurt like hell. And whatever she wanted him to see probably wasn’t going anywhere—assuming it wasn’t alive, of course.
Oh, dear Lord, please don’t let it be a snake.
At last, he reached the spot where she stood. He stared at the shape in front of her, and his breath caught in his throat.
“Is that a drone?”
A sleek, brushed-silver-looking, bullet-shaped thing sat on a pallet. The nose of whatever it was faced them. And the tail extended another twenty feet back into the recesses of the cave. He reached out a hand and touched it gingerly, as if it might be hot to the touch. The metal was cool under his fingers. A chill ran down his back. If anyone would’ve ever told him that one day he’d look at an inanimate machine and feel the presence of evil, he would have said that person read too much Stephen King.
And yet, confronted by the silent, motionless drone, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a bringer of death.
“Has to be,” Aroostine whispered. She moved around to the side of the machine, giving it a wide berth as if she too sensed destruction. She bent and peered at the tail and then walked back to the front to stand beside him, her shoulder brushing his. “It doesn’t look armed.”
Thank God for small mercies, he thought.
Then her eyes met his, gleaming in the near-dark. “There’s another one behind it, nose to tail.”
“Did Ruby say how many were missing?” He choked the words out despite the rising nausea in his throat.
Aroostine shook her head. “No. We never got any details out of her. When she showed up with that note, I went into crisis management mode. I was so focused on the threat to Lily and getting Sid to do something, I didn’t press her on the specifics.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t do that thing where you start beating yourself up for some perceived failure. For one thing, you did the right thing—of course Lily’s safety takes priority. For another thing, we don’t have time for you to self-flagellate.”
She gave him a sheepish smile. “Self-flagellate, huh? You been brushing up on your fifty-cent words?”
He smiled back. “Something like that.” He’d read a history of the Roman Catholic Church, mainly to pass the long evening hours during her last jury trial. Some of it apparently had stuck.
“We need to do something. Fast. Before the person who stashed these here comes back for them.”
He swallowed around the lump in his throat. He’d pay good money for a bottle of water right about now.
“Any ideas?”
She set her mouth in that determined line he knew so well. “Yes. You stay here. I’m going to run to the highway and flag down the first car that comes this way.”
“What if it’s Buckmount or one of his lackeys?”
“We don’t have time to worry about that. I’ll take care of myself.”
“Why don’t you stay here? I’ll go.”
“No. I’m faster than you are. Besides, you have a watch. If I’m not back in two hours, go for help.”
She turned to go. He grabbed her elbow and pulled her close.
“Hurry. And remember, Roo. I love you.”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she covered his mouth with hers and laced her hands together behind his neck in a long kiss.
He stared at her face, memorizing the curve of her cheek, just in case he never saw her again. Her eyes were fierce, like a warrior’s. He could almost see the ancient heritage running through her.
She locked eyes with him for an eternal moment. Then she smiled sadly, dropped her arms, and jogged out of the cave without a word.
He listened to his heartbeat pound in his ears while he set the timer on his watch. Then he crossed to the opposite side of the cave—as far away from the drone as he could get—and slid down the wall to the ground to wait for his wife to return with the cavalry.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Boom parked Isaac’s red car in the first empty spot in the elementary school’s small parking lot. He felt vaguely guilty about using the car without seeking permission from Isaac’s mother, but he reasoned that Cathy Palmer had enough on her plate trying to get a handle on her son’s affairs and—not to be cruel—Isaac had no use for the vehicle anymore.
He killed the engine and slipped the key into his pocket. As he locked the door, he noticed that he was parked askew—the back end of the Tercel was over the line, encroaching into the next spot. He considered trying to straighten it out, but he was enough of a realist to know he was unlikely to improve the situation. It had been well over a decade since he’d had occasion to get behind the wheel of a car. He was a cautious and reluctant driver but a terrible parker. That had been true even when he used to drive regularly; he thought it unlikely his parking skills would have improved with disuse.
He put the car out of mind and focused on what he was about to say and do. Walk into the school building and tell Kelly in the office that he needed to fetch Lily Smith. Everyone at the school knew and trusted him; they all loved his storytelling sessions with the kids. Once they’d called Lily out of class, he’d get her to the car and off the reservation before Lee or anyone else knew what had happened. He hoped Ruby had told the school that he was authorized to pick up the girl, but he didn’t think it really mattered one way or the other.
He mounted the wide, cracked steps slowly, holding firmly to the metal railing splitting them down the middle. Inside, he paused for a moment in the silent hallway and thought of all the trusting, young souls sitting in quiet circles and uneven rows in the rooms that lined the hall. Then he smiled and pushed open the door to the office to greet Kelly.
Four minutes later, he walked back out of Mary Proudfoot Elementary School with Lily by his side.
“I don’t understand. Why does my mom want me to leave early?” Lily asked as she adjusted the wide, padded straps of her backpack, stooping a little under the weight of her school books. “And why didn’t she come get me herself? She doesn’t work until tonight.”
Boom waited until they reached the parking lot to answer. He turned and faced the girl squarely.
“Lily, I’m going to treat you like an adult, okay?”
“Okay.” Her small voice quavered.
“I was reading a book by my living room window when I heard a car door slam. I looked up and saw Lee Buckmount getting out of a car in front of your house. He knocked on your front door. A moment later, he and your mom got in the car, and he drove off.”
Lily scrunched up her face in confusion. “Mr. Buckmount picked up my mom? Where did they go?”
Boom spread his hands wide. “I don’t know, little one. But it seemed to me that I should come and get you now. That is what my heart told me to do.”
Lily shook her head, still puzzled. Then her eyes fell on the red car.
“You’re driving Isaac’s car?”
Boom unlocked the passenger side door and held it open for the girl.
“Just borrowing it.”
He shut the door and walked around to the driver’s side, scanning the road in front of the school as he did so. He saw no signs of casino security, tribal police, or anyone for that matter. So f
ar, so good.
He lowered himself into the seat and contemplated the steering wheel like it was a wild horse. Then he inserted the key and exhaled a long, slow breath before starting the car.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Aroostine ran.
She ticked off all the tips on form that Rosie had drummed into her head during their grueling lunchtime runs when she’d been working at Main Justice. Rosie had been training for a marathon. Aroostine had been running to forget her failing marriage, so she hadn’t really cared if she was breathing efficiently or putting too much strain on her shins. But listening to Rosie’s enthusiastic advice had helped pass the long, excruciating minutes. If she’d known she’d be putting the wisdom to the test under such dire circumstances, she might have paid closer attention.
She dug in and increased her speed as she crested the hill. Whenever her energy flagged, she flashed back to the ominous metal beasts crouched in the cave and found a new burst of power.
Finally, the asphalt ribbon of gray highway appeared in the distance. She poured it on and sprinted flat out toward the road. She reached the berm and bent, hands on knees, panting.
Keep moving when you cross the finish line; stay loose.
She groaned a curse at the little voice of Rosie Montoya that had taken up residence in her brain, but did as it said. She walked, taking big strides, with her arms raised overhead and gulped down the clean air as if it were cold water.
She walked on, following the curve of the road. All that running seemed to have depleted the oxygen from her brain nearly as much as it had taxed her muscles. Her ears were popping as if she were in an airplane, and the only way to describe her thinking was fuzzy.
She didn’t recall Rosie mentioning a decrease in IQ points with each completed race. She laughed aloud at the thought then stumbled, tripping over her shoelace. She caught herself at the last second and bent to tie the loose lace.
As she was crouched near the ground, a black Lincoln Navigator blew past her so fast the wind ruffled her loose hair.
“No, no. No!” she staggered to her feet and raised her arms overhead, waving them as if she were flagging down a rescue helicopter.
Hot salty tears spilled from her eyes as the SUV grew smaller.
Failure. Blown opportunity. Disaster.
She was glad Joe wasn’t around to comment on her self-talk. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and piled her thick, long hair on top of her head, twisting it into a loose bun, to cool her hot neck.
The Navigator screeched to a halt. Her pulse skyrocketed.
Thank you, Universe. She raised her face to the sky, joy pulsing through her veins. She began to jog toward the vehicle, a smile of gratitude on her face.
And then the driver’s door opened. A man in a business suit emerged from the car and stormed around to the passenger side. He reached inside and dragged out a person—a woman. She was screaming at him. Aroostine couldn’t make out the words from a distance but the way the woman struggled against the man’s grasp was unmistakable: she was afraid.
Aroostine’s heart sank and landed somewhere in the vicinity of her knees.
She did not have time for this Good Samaritan business. And yet she couldn’t pretend not to see—even if it ended up that she’d stumbled onto a garden-variety lovers’ quarrel, she couldn’t ignore the woman’s plight. She slowed to a cautious walk as she approached the couple.
Meanwhile the man half pulled, half dragged the woman across the shoulder of the road and down a small hill. Out of sight of anyone who might drive by.
Aroostine’s adrenaline rose another notch. She began to scan the side of the road for something, anything that might be a serviceable weapon. Orgeon’s geological formations came to her rescue once again. She bent and hefted a large gray rock—more of a small boulder, really. She conservatively estimated its weight as twelve pounds or so. The woman’s shouting carried to her on the wind. She recognized that raw voice—a mixture of fear and anger. Ruby.
She sped up and reached the top of the hill, hoping she was wrong. No, she was right. Ruby twisted, screaming and trying to wrench herself free of Lee Buckmount. Buckmount stood with his back to Aroostine and the road. He had both hands clamped on Ruby’s shoulders and was shaking her violently.
“Damn you, tell me what else he told you and who you told!” Lee raged at her.
“I told you, Lee! I swear, I told you everything.” Tears streamed down Ruby’s face.
Aroostine took another step closer. The movement must have caught Ruby’s eye because her gaze traveled over Lee’s shoulder. Her eyes widened when she spotted Aroostine, but she managed to keep her expression smooth. Aroostine put one finger to her lips and raised the boulder, pantomiming bringing it down on someone’s head.
Ruby blinked once. An instant later, she did something that probably saved her life. Lee dropped his hands from her shoulders and pulled a handgun from inside his jacket. Ruby swooned and pretended to faint. She let her legs buckle under her and crumpled to the ground.
Aroostine crept behind Buckmount as he bent over Ruby, holding the gun down by his side. She inhaled deeply as she raised the rock, two-handed, over her head. Then she exhaled and smashed it into the back of his skull with a sickening crunch. The impact of rock meeting bone jarred her arms, but she clenched tighter.
The force carried her forward, and she fell on his back as he rocketed toward the ground. Ruby rolled to her left and managed to dodge them. Lee collapsed in a pool of blood, moaning. Aroostine pushed herself off him, faintly nauseous at the sight and coppery smell of so much blood. She scrabbled for his gun, but Ruby already had it. She held it with shaking hands, her foot pressed firmly against Lee’s wrist, pinning him to the ground.
“I don’t think he’s going anywhere any time soon,” Aroostine told her.
She gently pried the gun from Ruby’s hands, peeling her fingers back one by one. Once the weapon was out of her hand, Ruby began to sob wildly.
“You saved my life. I thought you were never coming back,” she muttered.
Aroostine figured the other woman was either in shock or about to go into a shock state.
“Listen, Ruby, this is important. Call Boom and tell him to meet us here.”
“Shouldn’t I call the police?”
“Yes. But, Boom first, okay? I want him to be here when the tribal police get here. I don’t want to try to navigate the politics without his help.”
It was true, as far as it went. But it was also true that Aroostine just wanted Boom there for comfort and support. The way a young girl might want her grandfather, she realized. The realization startled her, and she told herself she’d give it due consideration sometime when she wasn’t quite so busy apprehending a criminal.
At the mention of the authorities, Buckmount began to writhe and groan. She pushed aside the emotions that threatened to overtake her and crouched beside him. She intended to whisper in his ear, but the drying blood that covered the side of his head turned her stomach, so she averted her head and said, “Don’t even think about trying to get up. I’ll hit you like I mean it if I have to hit you again. Or maybe I’ll just shoot you with your own gun. Wonder if this’ll be a ballistics match for the gun used to kill Isaac?”
He went limp and silent.
She turned back to Ruby, but Ruby already had the phone to her ear. Excellent. She mentally ticked off the phone calls they would make.
First Boom. Then Sid. Then the tribal police.
Hang tight, Joe. I’m coming.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The red car that had been parked outside Isaac Palmer’s house screeched to a halt at an angle behind Buckmount’s Navigator. Aroostine waved from the top of the hill and then pointed down to the far side. Once Boom exited the car and waved to indicate he understood, she jogged back to join Ruby.
She was no longer afraid that Ruby would slip into shock, but she did have some concerns about leaving her alone with Buckmount for too long—Ruby was mad enough to kill
the man. And Buckmount wasn’t doing himself any favors. Once he regained his power of speech, he’d indulged in a running diatribe directed primarily at Ruby.
Aroostine was tempted to whack him on the head with the rock again to knock him out and spare them all. Instead she settled for removing the bullets from the gun and telling Ruby to hit him with it if necessary.
She skidded to a stop at the bottom of the hill.
“Boom’s here.”
“Good.” Ruby answered without taking her eyes off Buckmount.
Aroostine was reasonably confident he wouldn’t try anything. His eyes were glazed, and he seemed to be having trouble focusing. He also had to have one heckuva headache. All the same, she was glad Boom had arrived—more than glad, to be honest.
She heard loose rocks tumbling down the hill and turned to see Boom sliding down the embankment sideways, as if he were snowboarding. Lily ran behind him, a pink-and-green backpack banging against her shoulders as she bounded toward her mother.
“Mom!” she shouted, racing past Boom.
Ruby shoved the gun into Aroostine’s hands. Lily jumped into her mother’s arms and wrapped her legs around her waist. Ruby hugged her daughter close, stroking her hair.
“What were you thinking, bringing her here?” Ruby asked over the top of the girl’s head.
“It’s after two o’clock, Ruby. We’re unlikely to be back home before school lets out.” Boom seemed chastened by the scolding, shuffling his feet in the dirt.
“Oh. Right. Of course.” Ruby dropped the subject.
Lily lifted her cheek from her mother’s shoulder. “Boom said he saw Mr. Buckmount taking you away from the house, Mom.”
“You did?” Ruby asked.
“I wasn’t sure what was going on. But something felt wrong to me. So I borrowed Isaac’s car and headed toward school to pick up Lily. I’m glad I did. We got here a lot faster than we would have otherwise.”
At the mention of Buckmount, Boom turned and looked at the man. As instructed, he was lying flat on his stomach with his hands crossed behind his back. He strained his neck, forcing his head up to meet Boom’s gaze with a defiant expression.
Chilling Effect (An Aroostine Higgins Novel Book 2) Page 12
