Chapter 11. “HE’LL GET US ALL KILLED”

“HE’LL GET US ALL
KILLED”

“W h-what should I do?” Diane uttered, her eyes wide with fear.

“Pull over,” Pres told her. “We can’t get away. A neighbor must have seen the car this morning. We’re caught. Caught!”

Diane obediently pulled the car to the curb and shoved the gearshift into Park. “In the movies we’d make a run for it,” she muttered.

“This isn’t the movies,” Pres replied bitterly.

The police officer tapped hard on the window with his flashlight. Diane lowered the window. “Yes, officer?” she called out in a tiny voice.

The man bent over, peering in at the two occupants, his face expressionless, his eyes narrowed. “You’ve got a headlight out,” he said finally. “The left one. See?” He pointed with his flashlight.

Diane wanted to laugh out loud. Somehow she remained silent. “I didn’t know,” she said in her meek little voice. “It must have just happened.”

“I could give you a ticket,” the officer said, turning his gaze on Pres. “But I’m kind of busy here. Why don’t you just go get it fixed?”

“Oh, thanks, officer,” Diane replied gratefully. “Thanks a lot.”

She started to roll up the window, but stopped when Pres called out, “What’s going on here? Why all the black-and-whites?”

“Nothing that concerns you,” the man replied sharply. He turned and headed back up to the Dalbys’ front lawn, taking long strides.

Diane made sure the window was closed before she burst out laughing. “Nothing that concerns you,” she repeated, grinning at Pres.

Pres didn’t share her mirth. “Let’s get out of here,” he snapped, his eyes on the police officers combing the front lawn. He slumped low in the seat, a scowl on his face.

Diane eased the car away from the curb, turned at the first corner, and headed back toward Pres’s apartment in Waynesbridge. Pres remained silent for most of the ride, thinking hard, his eyes fixed straight ahead on the dark, winding road.

“There’s no way we can get Reva at her house now,” he said finally. “Not with all those cops around.”

“You mean you’re giving up?” Diane cried, disappointed.

“No way,” Pres murmured. “I have a new plan.”

“All right!” Diane’s expression brightened. She pulled into a McDonald’s. “You hungry?” She had to ask three times. Pres was lost in thought.

A few minutes later, tucked in a booth in the back of the restaurant, Pres leaned over the table and revealed his plan in a low voice. “We’ll take Reva from the department store,” he said.

Diane wiped a smear of ketchup off her cheek with a napkin. “How?”

“She works at a perfume counter, see,” Pres told her, his eyes darting nervously around the brightly lit restaurant, making sure no one could hear. “I checked it out the other morning.”

“She didn’t see you—did she?” Diane interrupted.

“No way. The store was crowded. I watched her from another aisle. Her perfume counter is right across from a side door that opens onto the street.”

Diane swallowed a mouthful of cheeseburger. “So we park on the street, run in, grab her, and pull her out?”

Pres shook his head. “No. We create some kind of distraction. We get Reva to step out from behind the counter. Then she’s only a few feet from the door. If she’s out in the aisle, it’ll be easy to drag her outside without anyone seeing. Especially if we do it first thing in the morning. There aren’t many customers when the store first opens. And Reva has the first shift before that other saleswoman arrives.”

Diane took a long sip of her Coke, her eyes on Pres, thinking hard.

“Why are you staring at me?” he demanded edgily. “It’s a good plan. It’ll work.”

She set down the paper cup. “Yeah. Probably,” she replied. “But we need Danny.”

Pres reacted with surprise. “Huh? My brother?”

Diane nodded. She crinkled the paper cheeseburger wrapper into a ball. “Yeah. We’re going to need Danny.”

“What for?” Pres demanded. “I can pull Reva out the door. I don’t need Danny for that.”

“We need him to drive,” she said. “If you’re going to pull Reva out the door, I have to create the distraction. I have to get her to come out from behind the counter, right? So we need Danny to drive.”

Pres scowled. “I don’t like it. You know Danny. You know how he loses his cool.”

“We need him,” Diane insisted.

“Danny and his headaches,” Pres muttered. “He’s so hot-tempered, Diane. You know my older brother. When he gets excited, he’s totally out of control. If something goes wrong, he could get us all killed!”

“Shhhhh.” Diane spread her hand over Pres’s mouth. “Danny’ll stay in the car. That’s all. We need him to drive once we’ve got Reva. No problem.”

“Well...” Pres shook his head, still scowling.

“Come on, Pres,” Diane pleaded. “Call Danny as soon as we get home, okay?”

Pres climbed to his feet. “Let’s go.” He headed for the door.

“Will you do it?” Diane hurried to catch up.

“Yeah. I guess,” he replied, pushing open the door to the parking lot. “When do you want to grab Reva?”

“It’s almost Christmas. There’s lots of things I want to buy with that ransom money,” Diane said, taking his arm. “Let’s do it tomorrow morning.”

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20