Liar Liar - James Patterson Page 0,38

I had no choice but to let Kazz guide me, or I’d fall flat on my face. I tried to grab at one of the men in the group by the door as we passed, but my fingers were numb. Looking back for Stan or the bartender sent my head spinning, the gray cloud swallowing my vision.

I tried to scream as they half walked, half carried me toward the door.

Help me. Help me.

I tried to stop walking, fell into someone. But Kazz was stronger than she looked. Her fingers bit into my arm.

“Herrrrr,” I managed, slapping uselessly at a man’s chest. “Herrrr!”

“Is she all right?”

“She’s a real lightweight.” Kazz yanked me away, an arm encircling my waist. “Don’t worry about her. We’ll get her home.”

It had stopped raining, but a harsh wind howled. I knew no one would hear me, even if I finally managed to scream. They walked me around the side of the bar and down a wide, barren roadway. I tried to fall to my knees out of their grip, but Gammy slipped under my other arm, her shoulder jutting into my ribs. My toes dragged in the mud. Ahead, I glimpsed a large shed, its corrugated iron door lit by golden lamps from inside.

Chapter 47

THE FRANTIC SCREAMING in my mind stopped as I was dumped on the hard wooden floor of the shed, my breath leaving my chest in a harsh yelp. I needed to think, assess my situation. I knew about date-rape drugs. I’d studied their various forms and uses. There were clues about what I had been given, and so far those clues were telling me good things.

First, I wasn’t hallucinating. Though my vision was blurred and my body useless, I still had a firm grip on reality and wasn’t spinning off into psychedelic dreams. When my vision cleared, I could make out the benches around me cluttered with greasy tools and machines, the jars of screws and bolts. I was still conscious, and that was good. The fact that I wasn’t out, and that Gammy was taping my wrists in front of me, told me the drug probably started to work fast but wore off quickly. I was probably going to be back in full working order soon. It was a drug designed to stun and incapacitate, rather than have me out for long periods of time. I’d seen men and women slipped this type of drug, then dragged into an alleyway and robbed, the assailant fleeing before the victim could recover. These drugs were low-risk, cheap. The victim wasn’t going to stop breathing on them and die for the contents of their wallet.

Gammy taped my wrists and mouth before emptying my pockets, seizing the cash with a cheer. I lay watching the ceiling ticking slowly around in a circle and listened to them going through my backpack.

“There’s nothing else here but papers,” Kazz was muttering. “What is all this stuff? It’s like criminal records or something.”

“There’s a phone,” Gammy slurred. I heard the phone tumble to the ground. “Cheap.”

“Jesus fuck!” Kazz laughed. I heard her action my gun. “Check this out!”

I rolled onto my front, tried to lift my head. My legs felt like lead. There was a pause while the two women tried to piece the situation together. The cash. The gun. The papers. I heard them get quickly to their feet.

“She’s a…” Gammy whispered.

A cop. I was a cop. Kazz rummaged through the bag and grabbed my wallet. My badge.

“Detective Harriet Blue,” Kazz read.

“Oh, shit.” Gammy laughed. “We sure know how to pick ’em.”

They weren’t worried. Most cops would never report being tricked and robbed in such a basic scam out of sheer pride, and if they were concerned that I’d come back with my colleagues and bust them for their hustle, all they had to do was move their game up the road into another jurisdiction. As long as they didn’t figure out who I was, I would be fine.

I breathed, dragged my legs into a kneeling position. The spinning in my head was slowing, but I wasn’t going to let them know my strength was returning. I knelt, bent double, my hands beneath me on the dirt, my eyes closed. I silently willed them to simply take the cash and run for their miserable, thieving lives. You robbed a cop, I thought. Big deal. Run now and gloat, and don’t think about it any further.

I wasn’t so lucky.

“Harriet Blue,” Gammy said. “Isn’t that…?”

I could feel them staring at