“No, my daughter’s with me. She’s sick. I’m taking her to the doctor in the morning.” Stella thrust a wad of small bills across the desk. “Here’s an extra ten for keeping things quiet.”
Stella was given a key to the unit on the far end. She backed the car up to the door and got out to open it. Before unlocking the trunk she took the Smith and Wesson .38, the gun she’d used to kill Clay, out of her purse. Before today, when someone needed killing, she’d always paid or manipulated others to do the job. Until she’d fired at the man and seen him fall dead, she hadn’t known what a powerful rush it could be. She wouldn’t mind feeling that rush again, maybe soon.
The girl was alert but quiet. Stella thrust the pistol toward her face. “Behave yourself and you can come inside. But no tricks, understand?”
She nodded. Stella had parked at an angle to keep the inside of the trunk out the office woman’s line of sight. It took some maneuvering, with the back door open, to make it appear that she was getting someone out of the backseat. She blocked the view with the blanket while Erin got out of the trunk. Then, without freeing the girl’s ankles, Stella wrapped her in the blanket, jump-walked her inside, and shoved her onto the bed. “Stay,” she ordered, taking a moment to step out and close the trunk, then lock the door. “I’ll cut your legs loose so you can use the bathroom, but you’ll have to do it with your arms taped. And the door stays open. I’m not taking my eyes off you, hear? And don’t you make a sound. Right now, I’ve got a phone call to make.”
* * *
It was coming up on midnight when Beau got the call. Will and Tori were on their feet at once, crowding close as they tried to make sense of the half-heard dialogue. Only after he’d ended the call did they get the full story.
“They’ve found where Erin is,” Beau said. “This woman in Eagle Pass, who checked them into a motel, saw the AMBER alert on TV and called it in.”
“They’re sure it’s Erin?” Tori felt faint.
“She said the woman gave a different name, but she had red hair and claimed to have her daughter with her. The girl went inside wrapped in a blanket, so she wasn’t seen. But the license plate on the car is a match to Stella’s. It’s got to be her!”
“Have they got Erin yet?” Will demanded. “What’s happening down there?”
“The local police have the place surrounded, but they’re holding off, waiting for the FBI hostage negotiator to show up before they move in. They’re all hoping the situation won’t turn into a shoot-out.”
“Lord, we can’t just sit here and wait!” Will paced as he talked, his hands clenching into fists. “If we can get there, we might be able to help, or at least let Erin know we’re there!”
“But the border’s hours away,” Tori said. “If we have to drive . . .” She shook her head.
“I know,” Beau said. “That’s why my friends from the FBI are stopping by to pick us up in the chopper. Get your coats on. We’re meeting them at the school athletic field in twenty minutes.”
* * *
Using the toilet with her hands taped behind her back was tricky, but after two hours in the motel room, Erin was getting the knack of it, even in the dark. She sat with the bathroom door open, in full view of Stella, who was sitting in a chair with her back to the door and the pistol resting in her lap. Through the drawn curtains the streetlamp outside cast long shadows into the unlit room.
Erin’s hopes that the woman would fall asleep, so she could carry out her escape plan, were fading. It was a good plan, she thought—lock the bathroom door, break the water glass, and use one sharp edge to cut through the tape, then unlatch the bathroom window and climb out. She’d seen it done in the movies. There was no reason it couldn’t work in real life. But Stella, watching her every move with those cold green eyes, showed no signs of nodding off.
Erin tried not to think about how scared she was. Stella would enjoy seeing her fall apart and cry. But she wouldn’t give the red-haired witch the satisfaction.