The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) Page 21

  Ronnie continued talking in a language that sounded like the Portuguese that he had been speaking at the Cloister party. He leaned toward Bianca.

  "What do you want?"

  "It's the driver. Don't you see? It's Rick Roscoe."

  "You know him?"

  "He's one of the kids who tried to do me in this past May. He was arrested and is out on probation. He—"

  "How nice that he's now found a job! That'll keep him out of trouble." Ronnie returned to his cellphone conversation.

  She tugged at Ronnie's suit coat. She pointed out the window. "Rick's headed north along the highway, not south. Jacksonville's to the south, isn't it?"

  In a big hurry Ronnie hissed, "There's been a change of plans. We're flying out of a different airport, not Jacksonville. It has to do with maximum security and protection for Little Katie."

  He returned to his conversation in Portuguese. She repeatedly tugged on his coat sleeve.

  "Ronnie, you didn't tell me. I—"

  "I hardly thought you'd notice," Ronnie hissed at Bianca. "That's why I didn't mention it. You do seem to be jumpy this morning, my dear."

  He looked her up and down. "The pill hasn't had its usual effect. I should have increased the dose before we began your travels. Traveling can have a nasty effect on people. That was stupid of me not to anticipate it. I guess I was too caught up in Little Katie's unusual skin problem."

  Ronnie returned to his cellphone.

  She kept her eyes fixed on Rick Roscoe as Katie sat on her lap and played with her favorite bears. The child didn't seem to be as fussy this morning.

  Bianca wanted to see if Rick would try anything else funny. She wasn't certain that he was on the level, that he hadn't gotten this job by stealth for his own sneaky purposes.

  Bianca watched the mileage signs to Savannah carefully as they shot past on the interstate. Savannah, Georgia, was getting closer. There was an airport in Savannah. That must be where they were headed.

  She couldn't help but notice, though, that Rick rarely took his eyes off her. He glanced at the side-view mirror. He glanced at the odometer and the car controls. He concentrated on the traffic when he passed another car. His gaze always returned to her image in the rear-view mirror.

  "Ronnie!" Bianca whispered into Byron Kingsley's ear. "I — I think the driver is staring at me every chance he gets."

  Ronnie looked annoyed as he interrupted his call. "You're imagining things, Bianca. Why would he stare at you? When we get to London, I'll give you stronger pills."

  "I — I think he might be trying to kidnap Little Katie. He threatened to—"

  "Nonsense! How could he accomplish something like that with me in the car?" Ronnie waved away her objections. "I've got a cellphone. I could call the police. Now try not to interrupt me until I finish this call. It's important."

  True, Bianca did have Ronnie to protect her. The other times when Rick Roscoe had threatened Bianca and the child, Ronnie had not been around. She moved closer to Ronnie and never took her eyes off the child, who continued to play as if the rash didn't bother her.

  Bianca didn't leave Little Katie in the car when they stopped for gas. She asked Ronnie to wait outside the door while she went to the ladies' restroom so Rick couldn't sneak up on her. Ronnie humored her, though he continued to talk nonstop on his cellphone.

  As soon as they got back on to the highway, Bianca noticed Rick Roscoe staring into the rear-view mirror with unusual intensity. He wasn't looking directly at her. His eyes were focused on something behind them. Whatever it was, it caused Rick to forget about Bianca and Little Katie.

  Nothing could seem to make Ronnie stop talking on the phone a mile a minute. He did not notice a thing as Bianca turned around and peered over her shoulder.

  A bunch of vehicles were all headed north. There were trucks, cars, vans, RVs and trailers hauling boats. The road was crowded. Rick was focusing on something in particular. Bianca didn't think it could be the tall southern pines lining either side of the road, or the clouds.

  Rick speeded up. He passed the car in front of him. He passed the car in front of that. He wove in and out of traffic in a crazy fashion.

  Behind them a big, black car sped up and wove crazily in and out of traffic also. The faster Rick drove, the faster that black car drove.

  When the black car got closer, she could see that the window glass was darkened. Even the front windshield appeared tinted. It was impossible to tell who occupied the driver's seat. Was the person male or female, old or young, someone she knew, perhaps a total stranger?

  Rick swerved to the right. In a few seconds he crossed three solid lanes of traffic and disappeared down the exit ramp. He was doing eighty-five in a zone where most drivers were doing fifty-five. The big black car did not make it off the highway in time. No doubt this was what Rick had intended. He had been trying to lose it.

  Incredibly, Ronnie did not glance up from his newspaper and his telephone conversation that went on past the crack of doom.

  "Ronnie —" she pulled at his suit jacket — "we're on a different road now."

  "Sh-h-h-h-h! This is very important."

  Bianca was not familiar with the geography in this area. She couldn't tell if Rick was still going in the same direction, the opposite direction, or another direction all together. The other car chasing him could have been a fake, or a "plant". Rick could have arranged for somebody like Marianna to be driving the car to give him an excuse to head to the place where he intended to hold them up and kidnap Katie.

  It reinforced Bianca's doubts when Rick resumed his habit of eyeballing her in the rear-view mirror. They were going more slowly, too, proceeding up what looked like a crowded, suburban street full of shopping malls, fast-food restaurants, hotels, banks, convenience stores, gas stations and grocery markets. He was crawling when he stopped at a red light. Rick turned around. Leaning on the front seat with his uniformed elbow, he gave Bianca a naked stare.

  In desperation Bianca glanced toward Ronnie. Amazingly he was still on the phone. He acted as if he had no idea where they were. Had Rick drugged him or put him under some kind of spell? Bianca was beginning to wonder who was in charge.

  "Ronnie. . ."

  Ronnie waved her off and kept on talking.

  Rick smiled at her.

  The light changed. They started back up. Rapidly matters became even more suspicious.

  Though the traffic was more heavy on this major suburban street than it had been on the highway, Rick floored it. He passed cars, even cars stopped in traffic jams at lights. When he couldn't get around them, he turned into shopping centers and wove his way through traffic to get back to the road. He defied the painted yellow-and-white markers on the pavement that directed traffic to proceed one way only. Cars honked at him. He kept on going.

  At last Rick turned down a dirt road. It was shady, with trees lining both sides of the street. The trees leaned into each other, forming an umbrella over the roof of the car. The car bumped along. Little Katie began to wail for the first time that day.

  "Ronnie, Rick turned down a dirt road. We're not headed toward Savannah. Just look outside!"

  "Later, Bianca, later! Whatever you think you see, we'll deal with it once we board the plane." He waved her away as if he were telling her it was all in her mind.

  Bianca didn't know how to make him believe what was happening. She was positive now that Rick Roscoe must be kidnapping them and taking them to a secure, pre planned location in the woods. Should she try to open the door and make a run for it? Rick was going about twenty miles an hour because the road was so bumpy. Sometimes he slowed down to ten.

  Bianca's free hand crept along the car seat toward the door handle. She inched her way toward the door. She positioned herself to bolt the next time that Rick slowed down, which should be any second. The road was so narrow that tree branches smacked against the roof. They were engulfed in a cloud of dust. She wouldn't be surprised if he was forced to stop.

  It was her o
bligation to Little Katie to make sure that she did not get kidnapped. Mr. and Mrs. Shipley had entrusted the child's welfare to her. If Bianca had to trek across miles of open country with a child in her arms, if she had to bunk down under the trees, if she had to hitchhike a ride back to St. Simons Island, so be it!

  Ronnie was mesmerized by his conversation. He wouldn't notice when she decamped. She would have to call him later and tell him what had happened, that was if she could get through on his cellphone. She was amazed that his battery juice hadn't run out!

  Bianca clutched the door handle. Rick Roscoe slowed down to almost nothing when he reached the next bump. She tried to unlatch the door. Nothing happened. She leaned against the door and pushed. Still nothing happened. The door felt as solid and firm as a block of concrete. It had opened back at the rest stop along the interstate. Now it didn't move an inch.

  Rick Roscoe smirked at Bianca in the rear-view mirror. She realized with a sinking feeling that he had locked the doors using the automatic door lock on the driver's control panel.

  Wherever he was taking her, she would have to escape once she got there. She would be alert and wait for her first opportunity.

  Maybe she could contact the Shipleys on her cellphone. She fumbled in her purse for it. It should be tucked away safe and sound in its usual compartment.

  Bianca almost had her fingers on it. It kept on slipping away. She got her fingers on it again. She waited a minute while she figured out what to do next.

  Bianca wouldn't be able to tell them what was going on over the phone. Yet she could say something out of context that didn't make sense. Or she could sit there silently and let them listen to the car sounds. That might alert the Shipleys that something was wrong. Maybe they could have the call traced. The police would be able to find them before any harm had come to Little Katie.

  Bianca tried to find the Shipleys' cellphone number, which was in her phone book.

  There was no lighted display. She looked down at the thing, wondering what was wrong. She shook it. Then she noticed.

  The battery pack was gone!

  Chapter 9

  In the rear-view mirror Bianca spotted a dark blue quad coupe, a Saturn Ion, following them. The car's windows were tinted but not as darkly tinted as in the black car. She could barely begin to make out the driver. Bianca did a double take! Why, it looked like. . .

  Bianca would recognize anywhere the driver's fiery, violet eyes and the coal-dark, curly hair cascading down over her shoulders. The plucked eyebrows also looked familiar, as did the fat cheeks and the eyelashes lengthened with black mascara.

  What didn't look familiar was her uniform. Marianna Haynes had once worked at the Island Theater behind the concessions counter. She had worn a thin cotton, pinstriped uniform complete with a red-and-white striped cap then. Yet this uniform looked very different!

  Marianna was wearing a white blouse with a kind of blue vest over it. She had a blue cap pinned to her hair. It reminded Bianca of a uniform that she had seen before someplace. Right now it was escaping her exactly where.

  Rick did not speed up his limousine or start a chase. He acted as if he had expected that Marianna would be there all along.

  Bianca squeezed Ronnie's arm. He waved her off and kept on talking as if nothing else in the world mattered except his cellphone conversation.

  "I just saw Marianna Haynes," she hissed. "She was Rick Roscoe's girlfriend. She was after me this past May in the cemetery, too, and—"

  "Really, Bianca, you're making it very difficult for me to hear what's being said," Ronnie objected. "It's very important I get all the details straight."

  Bianca was cornered, surrounded on all sides. Rick Roscoe, no doubt, had teamed up with Marianna Haynes to kidnap Little Katie. It didn't matter if Marianna had become Harry Fellini's new girlfriend. Old friends, old ties, old habits died hard.

  They kept on driving down the long, bumpy dirt road, seemingly to the end of the world. Bianca kept on looking around for signs of where they might be. She noticed an old wooden billboard that advertised SMITH'S AIRFIELD. The words were written in faded paint that was flaking away.

  Smith's Airfield? That was certainly not the name of the Savannah International Airport! They emerged from the shaded forest and the dirt road into the sunlight. They were riding across an open field. She gasped when she saw what was parked in the middle of it. A huge jet aircraft! It must be a Boeing 737. It was parked at the end of a long, paved runway.

  She tugged on Ronnie's sleeve furiously. For all she knew, Rick Roscoe was going to drive the car aboard some sort of lift, and it was going to end up in the cargo hold of the aircraft! They were going to be taken as contraband goods to God knew where.

  "Ronnie, there's an airplane parked out there in the middle of the field! Look! It's a 737. I can't be imagining it this time. Rick's headed straight for it."

  Finally Ronnie glanced out his window and looked back at Bianca. "Right. Right." He dismissed her objections. "We're at the airport. We're right on time." Then he kept on talking Portuguese.

  "Ronnie, we're not in Savannah. We're not anywhere near it. We're out in the middle of nowhere!" she whispered in the capacious back seat of the limousine.

  Rick Roscoe brought the limo to a stop. Marianna leaped out of her car and waltzed past the limousine. She knocked on Bianca and Katie's window. Then she blew a kiss at them and winked. Next she proceeded to board the aircraft.

  The boarding stairs were pushed into place. The hatch stood wide open. Marianna stopped at the top of the stairs and waved at Bianca, still sitting in the limousine. Only then did Bianca realize what that uniform was. Why, it was a flight attendant's outfit!

  Marianna disappeared inside the aircraft.

  Rick Roscoe jumped out of the front seat.

  He went around to the trunk. He got out what looked like his own personal flight bag. He also unloaded Bianca's and Doc's suitcases. He reached back into the front seat and stuffed several magazines into his bag. Then he pushed up a baggage cart, which appeared to be sitting nearby under a tree. He loaded the luggage on to it and wheeled it toward the aircraft, following Marianna Haynes.

  None of this made any sense. If Rick and Marianna were kidnapping Katie and abducting Byron Kingsley and Bianca, you would think that they would pull a gun right about now. They would threaten them and march them toward the aircraft at gunpoint.

  The engines of the aircraft started up. The pilot must be aboard. Were they going to take off and leave Ronnie and Bianca sitting there in the limousine in the middle of the field? Was this abduction a big joke? Was this Rick and Marianna's perverse idea of having fun?

  Bianca shook herself. Where would Marianna and Rick get the money to pull off such an elaborate hoax? They couldn't afford to rent an aircraft! Marianna couldn't afford the car she had been driving, which looked rather new and flashy, like a current-model-year vehicle. Even the flight attendant and chauffeur uniforms had to be bought or rented somewhere. Bianca doubted if they could afford them either.

  As Bianca sat there in complete bewilderment, looking from side to side and all around, wondering if she was dreaming, Ronnie at long last said, "Goodbye. See you when we get there!" in English. He pushed the end button to conclude his epic cellphone conversation.

  Ronnie stuffed his cellphone into his suit pocket. He opened the limousine door and came around to Bianca's side.

  "Everyone's aboard and ready for our flight!" He held out his hand to help her out of the limousine.

  Bianca sat there and gaped up at him. She did not give him her hand. She did not move.

  "What — what did you say?"

  "Here's our flight!" he announced with a sweeping gesture of his arm. "Everything's ready — except we're not aboard."

  She blinked and blinked.

  When Bianca continued to sit there, Ronnie reached for her hand and forced her out of the car.

  "We don't have time for one of your nervous attacks right now. I've got plenty of pills w
ith me. I'll give you one as soon as you're aboard."

  She swallowed hard. "Is — is this the plane that's taking us to London?"

  "Our very own private jet. I discussed it with the Shipleys yesterday. They're paying for it. They think it's a smart idea — to take a plane to London from a private airfield out in the country and to charter the aircraft. There won't be any other passengers aboard except us and the crew. Much safer for Little Katie."

  By the crew did he mean Marianna and Rick? What kind of crew was that? She didn't know that they'd gotten jobs with the airlines!

  "I — I don't remember your talking to the Shipleys about it," Bianca ventured.

  Ronnie waved his hand in dismissal. "You don't remember much of anything that really happens, do you, sweet?"

  "But — but why didn't you tell me? I was scared to death the whole time. I — I was afraid that we were being abducted by Rick Roscoe and Marianna Haynes and—"

  He patted her hand. "Now, now, now, my poor little Bianca! You are scared to death most of the time, aren't you? We'll have to see to that as soon as we climb aboard and get seated for our long flight across the Atlantic. I promise you'll feel much better very soon."

  She let Ronnie take her free arm and slip it through his own. They walked toward the aircraft. She was clutching Little Katie in her other arm. She stopped halfway toward the boarding stairs and glanced back at the limousine.

  "Who — who is going to drive the limousine back to St. Simons Island?" She couldn't see anybody else around.

  "Smith's Airfield provides that service."

  Bianca didn't see a terminal building. She didn't see a building of any kind. All she saw was a cow some yards off grazing on some high grass.

  Ronnie nudged her forward. She hesitated at the base of the stairs.

  "I — I think I may have left my comb in the car."

  "I'm sure there's one aboard the jet. As you will see, I've had it well stocked ahead of time with essential supplies."

  Ronnie pushed her ahead of him and followed behind her up the boarding stairs. At the top stood Marianna in her uniform. She was grinning down at Bianca.