One Grave Less (34 page)

She made the call, praying he would be there. The phone was answered even before the first ring completed.

“Lindsay,” he said. She heard the hope and fear in his voice.

“John,” she said. “It’s me, Maria Ravinel. I know you didn’t want me to come on this excursion and bring our daughter, and you were right. I’m sorry. Could you come meet us here? If you could bring
Betty Boop
, Rose and I would really love it. She misses it. Her toys were lost. Everything was lost when we were attacked, everything. We are in Benjamin Constant, Brazil, right now, but we could meet you in Tabatinga.”

Maria stopped for a breath. Throughout the whole conversation John hadn’t said anything. She couldn’t even hear him breathing, or sighing, or cringing. She wondered if he even recognized her voice, as scratchy as it was. He would recognize her middle name, Ravinel. And he would probably recognize the drama surrounding her. She couldn’t seem to ever get away from it.

“Rabbit,” he said, using his personal affectionate name for her. “Are you in trouble?”

His voice had its usual calm, but she could hear the edge in it, the confusion. Still, it felt so good to hear him. She wished he could reach through the phone and grab them both and pull them away from here.

“Most I’ve ever been in,” she said. And that was saying something.

“Can the authorities help you until I get there?” he said.

“No. I’m sorry about this. Please trust me again. Rose of Sharon and I really miss you. She’s afraid she is going to miss her eighth birthday party next week.” Maria dropped Rosetta’s age a year, hoping to further disguise her.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“At the moment. We’re at the Sao Judas Hotel. I used my real name—Maria Ravinel West. Maybe I shouldn’t have.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’ve been worried. I just discovered . . . Never mind, we’ll talk when I see you,” he said. She heard him tapping on keys. He was in front of the computer. Probably looking up a map and distances.

“It will probably be tomorrow afternoon,” he said. “I’ll have to look for the Betty Boop doll. I’ll be there as soon as I can get there.”

“Thank you for understanding,” she said.

“I believe I do. What’s the number you are calling from, just in case?” he said.

She gave him the number.

“Rabbit, keep yourself safe. And Rose too,” he added. “I’m sure you have an interesting story to tell. I love you.”

“I love you too,” she said. “Please hurry.”

“I will, baby,” he said.

Maria felt resentment at straw fedora man. She would be feeling total relief if it weren’t for him standing outside the door, waiting. She felt sick and trapped. Damn him. She thought for a minute. She hadn’t hung up the phone yet, but kept it to her ear.

Rosetta said that after the massacre she had to be pointed out to him by the other kids at the mission. That meant he didn’t really know what she looked like, even though he had seen her several times before. He was probably the kind of person who thought all indigenous people looked alike. She was now a little more than three years older than last time he saw her. He probably didn’t know what she looked like now, just that he was looking for either a Hispanic or indigenous kid.

She put the phone back on the hook and bent down and whispered to Rosetta. Explaining her reasoning, and what she wanted to do.

“Are you up for it?” she asked.

“I can do it. Can we call Mother first?”

“Of course.” Diane started to pick up the phone, then stopped. “Rosetta,” she said next to her ear, “if he hears me say your mother’s name, he will know who we are for sure. And I can’t find her and talk with her without saying her name. Help is on the way, but we will have to be very careful until it gets here. This man is a danger to us.”

Rosetta looked disappointed, but she nodded. She understood danger and she understood careful. They were so close to getting home. They couldn’t stop being careful now.

“Okay, ready?” whispered Maria. “Showtime. Brave heart, kid.”

Maria held Rosetta’s hand and opened the door.

“Can I go myself?” she said.

“All right, but I’ll watch you part of the way.”

Maria handed her the keys to the room and Rosetta turned toward the stairs.

The man touched Maria on the shoulder.

“May I speak with you?” he said.

Rosetta pulled on her hand. “Mamaaaa,” she said in a long exaggerated syllable, “come on.”

“Sure.” Maria smiled at the man. “Just a minute.”

She turned to Rosetta, who had the bill of her cap pulled low. Maria let go of Rosetta’s hand and watched her dance and skip kidlike toward the stairway door.

“Hey,
você parece uma sereia pequena
, Ariel,” said the man.

Rosetta didn’t pause, or hesitate, or skip a beat.

Maria followed along behind her.

The man began whistling “Hall of the Mountain King.”

Still no response from Rosetta. She went along like a happy kid, not looking back, not hesitating. Maria opened the stairwell door for her.

“I’ll be watching as you go up,” she said.

“Okay. Don’t worry,” Rosetta said.

Maria watched her until she was out of sight, wondering what the man said and why he was whistling the Peer Gynt Suite.

“Now, what can I do for you?” said Maria, smiling.

The man took his straw hat off. He didn’t look like some homicidal maniac. He looked quite presentable, with his blond-brown hair, light blue eyes, and fair complexion. Maria still assessed him to be in his early forties.

“Can we sit at one of the tables and talk?” he said.

Diane gripped the seat of the black Ford Taurus so tightly, her hands hurt. She was desperately trying to come up with a plan. Any plan, even a bad plan. There was no way she was going to overpower this guy.

It hit her suddenly like a blast of hope—Simone had. Simone had hurt one of them bad, maybe mortally. Maybe she got lucky, maybe the guy she was fighting was the C team. Still, Simone had vanquished one and got away long enough to at least say a few words to Diane. Oddly, Diane felt encouraged.

“You try anything and the men I left back there will slaughter your friends. You understand that, don’t you?”

Diane was sitting in the front seat with the man who had abducted her. He didn’t consider her much of a threat—he hadn’t bound her. The man looked to be in his early thirties. He was well muscled, thick necked, and had a buzz cut. He was decked out in Kevlar and weapons.

“Yes,” she said, “I do understand. Tell me, just where did you search in the museum?”

“Just why do you want to know?”

“If you had searched the entire museum you would have found what you were looking for and I wouldn’t be here. I’m just trying to understand my fate,” she said.

She thought she saw the edges of his mouth twitch in a smile. It didn’t last long.

“We had someone on the inside who was supposed to know what they were doing. Now shut up and don’t ask
who
. Got that? You know I like hurting you.”

Jesus
, thought Diane,
Madge was looking through the mail in the mailroom. Not Madge Stewart, surely. How in the hell could she get mixed up with these creatures? Not hoping for romance. These guys would have scared poor Madge to death. But, still, what a coincidence. And they could certainly drown her and make it look like an accident.

Diane didn’t have to give him directions to the museum. He knew the way. He kept the speed limit. That was good. Gave her more time to think.

Frank probably had already discovered her missing. But he wouldn’t know where they had taken her.

The problem was the others back at the house. Anything she did would be relayed back to his cronies and they would lay siege yet again to Frank’s house.

The only thing she could think of was arranging it so she could lock herself in the vault and call Frank to warn him, then call for more troops. Real troops.

There were lots of weapons at the museum—hammers, nail guns . . . She could trip an alarm, or the fire alarm. And there was her security staff. They could bring down one guy, couldn’t they?

Okay, she had some options. She could play it by ear and see what opportunity presented itself. Maybe she would get lucky and the ubiquitous museum snake that no one seemed to be able to catch would drop on him and it would turn out that he was deathly afraid of snakes.

As they drove to the museum, Diane wondered why the night wasn’t lighter. There was a full moon. That’s when she noticed the trees moving in the wind. A storm was coming, she remembered now. There was supposed to be a storm every day this coming week. Great.

He turned onto the road that led to the museum. It was a nice drive usually, but she dreaded every minute of it now. She wasn’t satisfied with her plans. Mainly because they weren’t plans. They were possible ideas . . . if she got a chance . . . and if everything went right.

He parked in her spot and they got out of the car, but not before he warned her again that he loved collateral damage. On the way up the steps they met Andie and Liam coming down.

“Hey,” said Andie.

“What are you doing here so late?” said Diane.

“You didn’t tell me being director is so time-consuming. Kendel isn’t back yet and it’s just me and the support staff.” Andie seemed happy. “What are you doing back this late?” She looked at the guy and smiled.

“I’m interviewing for a new security position,” said Diane. “We need to beef it up after what happened in the Mayan Room.”

As she spoke she made eye contact with Liam. Everyone told her she had no poker face whatsoever; perhaps she could telegraph her peril. If she had, Liam gave no indication that he understood. Then again, he was probably a better poker player than she. He could also come up with a plan. Liam, she suspected, was a match for this guy.
Please, Liam, understand. Read my mind.

“Sounds to me like a good idea,” said Liam, smiling at the guy. “You need some stronger guards, from what Andie tells me. We’re going to get some ice cream. Would you like us to bring you some?”

“No. I won’t be here long. I’m just going to talk to Chanell about a new position,” said Diane.

“See you tomorrow,” said Andie.

Diane hoped that was true. She watched a moment while Andie and Liam went to his car and got in. Damn. She didn’t think he got the message. But then, if he did, he couldn’t let her know. Still . . . Diane felt depressed. She walked up the steps with mega guy.

“Good story,” he said. “Logical. You do need better security.”

“Thank you,” she said, and really did try to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

They entered the building. She waved to the security staff on duty and passed them, going through the Primate section to the bank of elevators midway between the east and west wings.

“You didn’t tell that security guard why I’m here,” he said. “I don’t want them to get suspicious.”

Diane stopped and looked at him. Mainly because she wanted to have any delay she could.

“Andie is my assistant. I put her in charge until I could straighten this mess out. I share things like that with her. I rarely tell the staff why I come in the door, and they don’t expect me to.”

He raised his eyebrows. Diane got the odd sensation that he respected that. Geez, what a relationship they had.

Okay, what vault was she going to take him to? Geology. Mike Seeger was gone on one of his extremeophile trips and the people who worked for him wouldn’t be working late. She just hoped she didn’t run across anyone while she was here. This guy would kill them without a thought.

“Why is it so dark in here?” he asked.

“It’s the night lighting,” she said. “Many of the exhibits are harmed by constant exposure to light. We give them a break at night.”

At the bank of elevators she pressed the up button and waited. Diane’s heart pounded against her ribs.
Think, think, think
.

“What’s taking so long with the elevator?” he said.

“It’s not taking long,” said Diane. “This is the way they work. Please be patient. I’m eager to give you the package you want. Surely you can see that no one here is a threat to you.”

Diane punched the button again. The elevator was taking longer than usual.

“Stairs,” he said. “This is taking too damn long.”

“This way,” said Diane, and she led him through a door to the stairs located by the first-aid station.

“It’s on the second floor,” she said.

“The second floor? Why were we taking the fucking elevator anyway? No wonder you people are so out of shape.”

They walked up the stairs to the second floor, coming out at the archaeology office. She hoped Jonas Briggs was home in bed and the custodial staff had finished with this part of the building.

“The vault is in the geology lab,” she said.

“This is the place where we retrieved our guy,” he said.

“Yes, the Special Exhibit Room is on this floor,” she said. She looked at the hall door to Mike’s office. He always put a notice up when he was gone. She was glad he wasn’t there. He usually worked late, often very late. She didn’t want any more people hurt by this man. She walked around through the Geology Room to the door of the lab where the vault was housed.

“Why did you put the package in the geology vault?” he said.

“It has valuable gemstones in it. It’s one of our more secure vaults.” Not completely the truth. They did keep a fortune in gemstones in it, but all the vaults were secure.

“What kind of gemstones?” he said.

Going to do a little larceny while he collects the package
, she thought. “Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, gold, silver, platinum . . . the usual. It’s the geology vault,” she said.