Now You See Her Page 0,110

in a high-backed chair in the middle of an otherwise empty room. The second thing she saw was a flash of strawberry-blond hair falling into small, terrified eyes. The third thing was the gag in her mouth, followed almost immediately by the gnarled rope that was wound tightly around her torso, securing her to the chair.

“Oh, my God. Shannon!”

“Shut up,” Jax said, silencing Marcy with another push.

Which was when she saw the baby lying in a cardboard box between Shannon’s tethered feet and the fireplace. The baby’s face was awash with tears, glistening like a shiny red balloon in the indifferent flicker of a fire that was now more ashes than flame. It supplied little light, even less heat.

“God, that’s one noisy little fucker,” Jax exclaimed, shaking his head in dismay and scratching his curly brown hair.

“Took you long enough,” a voice announced from the shadows.

Marcy’s eyes shot toward the sound, her heart pounding, her legs threatening to buckle under her. She saw nothing. “Devon?” she whispered, the word trampled beneath the baby’s piercing cries.

“I was expecting you an hour ago.”

“Yeah, well, have you seen what’s doin’ out there? Besides, your ma had to make a pit stop,” Jax said with a sneer, and Marcy had to grip the floor with her toes to keep from falling over.

“Devon,” Marcy said, louder this time.

“She prefers Audrey,” Jax said.

“What’s the matter, Mommy?” the voice asked provocatively. “You don’t look very happy to be here.”

Marcy spun around in a helpless circle. “Where are you?” she pleaded, her eyes skirting the bare gray walls. “Please, baby, let me see you.”

“I’m not your baby.” The voice was flat, full of all-too-familiar disdain.

Marcy’s eyes grew slowly accustomed to the dim light, like a camera lens subtly adjusting its focus. She could see Shannon more clearly now, the frightened girl securely fastened to her high-backed chair. She noted the almost imperceptible movement of Shannon’s feet as they struggled to loosen the rope at her ankles and saw her shoulders straining against the ties that bound her torso to the chair. She read the plea in the girl’s terror-filled eyes as Shannon glanced toward the large iron poker leaning against the jagged, irregular stones of the fireplace, then followed those eyes to a back door at the opposite end of the room.

“Please, won’t you let me see you?” Marcy begged softly, her whole body aching to take her daughter in her arms. Even now, she thought. Despite the almost surreal tableau in front of her. Despite Devon’s part in it. Despite everything.

“You’ll see me when I’m ready to be seen.”

“I just want to hold you.”

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

“Why not? What’s going on? What are you mixed up in?”

“Oh, I think you already know the answer to that one. Don’t you, Mommy? Understand you gave the gardai quite an earful. Understand they think you’re as mad as the proverbial hatter.” She laughed. “Which fits into our plans rather nicely, actually.”

“What plans?” Marcy saw a shadow flicker on the wall, a shake of long dark hair.

“You want details? You’re not going to like them.”

“I think you owe me at least that much.”

“I don’t owe you a damn thing.”

“Look,” Jax said impatiently. “We’re wastin’ time, Audrey. We’ve got the money. Let’s just shoot ’em and get out of here.”

A muffled scream escaped the gag at Shannon’s mouth. Her struggles became more obvious and desperate. She began furiously rocking her chair back and forth, back and forth.

A distant memory echoed through Marcy’s brain—a closet door being opened, then closed, opened, then closed, opened, then closed—as Audrey suddenly emerged from the shadows and walked purposefully into the center of the room, her long dark hair obscuring most of her face, although a gun was clearly visible in her right hand.

“Relax,” she said to Shannon, laying her free hand forcefully on Shannon’s shoulder, bringing the girl’s wild rocking to an abrupt halt. “We’re not going to shoot you.” She glanced toward Marcy, an unexpected spark from the fireplace dancing across her face, illuminating her cruel smile. “My mother is.”

Marcy gasped and fell back, as if she’d been struck. Shannon resumed her frantic struggles with her restraints. The baby continued howling at her feet.

“It’s really very simple, Mommy. You had most of it figured out already. Except your part in it, of course.” Audrey’s smile widened as she warmed to her subject, clearly pleased for this opportunity to show off. “You see, the original plan was to kidnap cranky little Caitlin