Playing with Fire (23 page)

Trent swore again. “Douglas is such an
idiot. So now where are they?”

Marshall shrugged again. “We don’t
know. Once they left lock-up they caught a cab back to the hotel to
get their car. Other than that, who knows where they
went.”

Trent was out of his chair and nearly
out the door before he called over his shoulder. “Sorry Chief, I
gotta run. I need to make sure Delphine is alright and then get to
Noelle.”

Marshall followed him down the hall.
“Take Fitzer with you for crying out loud. You know you gotta do
this by the book, otherwise these morons are gonna get away
again.”

Trent glared at him for a moment
before relenting. “Fine. But I swear if Delphine or Noelle get
hurt, someone is gonna pay.”

Marshall shook his head. “This has to
be business. Stop letting your feelings get involved here. Keep
emotion out of this and you won’t be as likely to slip up. All they
need is one misstep to get off scot-free.”

Trent nodded. “I know, dammit. I gotta
go.”

He hollered over his shoulder for
Fitzer and was out the door and to their patrol car before his
partner appeared. Fitzer was still tucking in his shirt and fumbled
with his seat belt.

“Who the hell lit a fire under your
ass today Torres?”

“Judge Douglas. He let tweedle dee and
tweedle dumb out last night. We have to go make sure Delphine is
alright at the motel.”

Trent turned on the sirens and peeled
out of the parking lot as if the hounds of hell were on his heels.
Within minutes they were at the motel. Everything looked normal,
but he knew looks could be deceiving.

A quick check of the parking lot
showed no vehicles with out-of-state license plates. Trent told
Fitzer to stay outside and keep an eye out while he went into the
office.

Delphine was sitting at her desk and
chain-smoking like there was no tomorrow. At least that’s what it
seemed from the looks of the over flowing ashtray. “Oh, dear God. I
am so glad to see you.”

She got up and threw her arms around
him. Her slight frame was shaking. Trent hugged her back. “Shh.
It’s alright. What happened? Did Lenny and his father show
up?”

Delphine nodded. Trent pulled her away
and escorted her back to her seat. He crouched down in front of her
and asked, “What did they do?”

Delphine wiped at her eyes and rubbed
her hands on her knees. “Lenny showed up just after midnight and
was pounding on Noelle’s door again. So I went out with my shotgun,
again, and told him to leave. That’s when his father grabbed me
from behind and taped my mouth shut. They brought me back here and
then screamed and yelled for the next few hours.”

“Screamed and yelled? About what?
Trying to find out where Noelle was?”

Delphine nodded. “Yeah, and I might
have said a few unladylike things in reply that they didn’t like
much.”

In spite of her tears, Delphine
laughed. “It was pretty comical now that I say it out
loud.”

Trent just shook his head. “Did you
tell them anything?”

“No. I didn’t say a word.”

“Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t
you call the police after they left?”

Delphine looked toward the door and
then back at Trent. “You only missed them by about half an hour.
They left and drove south of here. I haven’t seen them since. And
the older one told me they’d be keeping a look out on the place in
case I called the cops. Lord only knows what they are gonna
do.”

“What were they doing while they were
here besides yelling?”

Delphine motioned toward her laptop.
“Lenny’s dad was on this looking stuff up. He said ‘got it’ and
they took off right after that.”

Got it? Trent gave Delphine a
questioning look, but she just shrugged. He walked over and opened
the laptop. Trent swore at seeing his name and home address on the
monitor.

Trent stood and yelled for Fitzer. “I
want you to call Marshall and tell him they were here and held
Delphine hostage. I need to get to my house. Frank used some
website to find my address. I know that is where they are
headed.”

Fitzer called after him, “Do you want
me to send a car to your house?”

Trent nodded and was out the door. His
mind raced. If they were thirty minutes ahead of him, they could
have already grabbed Noelle and taken off.

The other thought he had was even
worse. If they got there and she fought back, he could be walking
into a blood bath. The knot in his stomach got larger.

Noelle jumped out of bed at the sound
of someone pounding on the door. She looked at the alarm clock and
saw it was just after seven. A quick look to her right confirmed
that Trent wasn’t there.

She waited a moment to see if maybe
she could hear him walking around downstairs, but the knocking
continued and there were no other sounds coming from inside the
house except for the pounding of her heart.

Noelle got out of bed and grabbed a
pair of Trent’s sweatpants from a drawer. She quickly put them on,
along with one of his tank tops, and padded downstairs.

She slowly tiptoed to the front door
and tried to look out of the peephole, but it was black. All the
other curtains were drawn and she knew whomever it was couldn’t see
her, but she still tried not to make a single sound as she moved
toward the front window to look out to see if there was a vehicle
in the drive.

As soon as she pulled the curtain back
half and inch, she jumped back with a scream. A moment later glass
shattered as a deck chair came through the window. Noelle jumped
back and collided with the living room wall.

Before she had a chance to run very
far, Lenny was charging at her. “Leave me alone. Please just go
away.”

Lenny grabbed a handful of her hair
and yanked. She had just stepped on the first stair and fell
backward, landing against his chest hard. The thought of him
touching her again made her skin crawl and she felt bile rise into
her mouth.

“You ain’t getting away from me again
you bitch. We’re leaving. Now you can either do this nice and calm,
walking out on your own two feet, or I’m gonna knock your ass out
and carry you.”

Noelle knew what his preference would
be. She tried to jerk away from him, but his grip was tight and she
could feel the hair being ripped from the follicles. “Fine, I’ll
walk. But you ain’t gonna get away with this Lenny Dunlap. This
ain’t Arkansas and these cops don’t play by your daddy’s
rules.”

His hand was fast and hard across her
face. The taste of blood filled her mouth from the
impact.

“I thought you woulda learned a long
time ago when to shut your mouth. Seems I need to get a little more
hands-on with teaching you that lesson.”

He reared his hand up again, but his
father called from the window. “That’s enough, boy. We gotta get
outta here before her little boyfriend tracks us down.”

Noelle prayed Trent would show up
right that second with a few dozen of his police friends, but other
than the random barking of dogs, the morning was quiet. Not even a
hint of siren broke the air.

Lenny unlocked the front door and
motioned for Noelle to walk out. When she stood still, he lifted
the bottom of his shirt and revealed the handle of the gun tucked
into his waistband.

Noelle’s heart dropped with every step
she took. She knew her survival was in question, she’d always known
it, but now it was in immediate jeopardy.

Lenny opened the back door on the
passenger side and nodded his head. “Be a good girl and get in the
freakin’ car.”

An elderly woman came out of the house
next door. “Is everything okay?”

Frank held up his hands and flashed
his badge. “Everything is fine, ma’am; just some official police
business. Don’t worry, just run along back inside.”

She smiled politely and nodded. For a
brief moment her eyes met Noelle’s and she paused. But Frank
cleared his throat and she hurried back inside.

Lenny leaned down and rested his arm
on the hood of the car. “Now you just get real nice and cozy back
here ‘cause it’s gonna be a long ride.”

Noelle clenched her teeth. “You know
he ain’t gonna rest until he finds me safe. You know that,
right?”

Lenny snorted. “I ain’t scared of your
little friend. And don’t think I don’t know you screwed him. You’ll
pay for that too you little whore.”

He spat at her and slammed the door
shut. Noelle closed her eyes and willed herself not to breakdown,
to not cave in to the fear. She needed to be strong if she was
going to survive.

She wiped the spittle from her hair
and then wiped it onto the headrest in front of her. The smile was
hard to hide when Lenny got in and rested his head right on it
without a clue. It wasn’t much, but it did give her some
satisfaction to demoralize him as he had her.

Frank got into the driver’s seat and
within another moment he was pulling away. Noelle looked out the
back window and prayed to see Trent, but there was
nothing.

“Might as well stop looking Noelle. He
ain’t coming for ya. You already gave him what he wanted, I bet he
could give two shits what happens to you know. Maybe if you were a
better lay, but ya ain’t.”

She closed her eyes again and rested
her head against the window. Lenny could say all he wanted,
whatever he needed to make himself feel big. But she knew the
truth.

Silence filled the car and stayed
there for hours as they traveled east, back toward Batesville.
Noelle rested when she could, but mostly she kept focused on
getting back to Trent and starting a life with him.

Sometime in the early afternoon, they
pulled over to a roadside stop so she could relieve herself. The
thought of running didn’t cross her mind, at least not there where
the land was flat and bare for as far as the eye could
see.

Lenny took over driving duties and
they didn’t stop again until they grabbed dinner a truck stop on
I-40 just east of Albuquerque. Noelle wasn’t allowed to go more
than two feet without one of them by her side.

All through their dinner at some
greasy spoon dinner, she kept her head down and tried to keep from
looking around. Though she wanted to just scream out for help, she
knew they would shoot her right there. At least if she made it back
to Batesville, Trent had a better chance of finding her. Hell, she
didn’t even know where she was at the moment, let alone to expect
him to figure it out.

Lenny and Frank debated pulling over
and resting for the night, but Frank won the debate and took over
driving. By nine in the morning, they were pulling up Lenny’s dirt
driveway.

For some reason, when Noelle looked at
her former home, all she could see was pain and sorrow, and a sense
of the end. Would this be where she took her last breath? Lord, she
hoped not.

Frank walked her into the house and
handcuffed her hands behind her back. He shoved her backward and
she landed with a thud on the laminate floor. The stench of beer
and cigarettes hung in the air, mingled with the pungent smell of
rotting food from where a half-eaten bologna sandwich was left on
the counter.

“Sure is nice to have my maid back.
You got weeks of cleaning waiting for ya. But for now you just stay
right there.”

Frank laughed at Lenny’s joke.
“Alright, boy, I’m going home to rest. And try not to let her run
off again. Next time I ain’t carting your ass all the way to
California.”

Lenny waited until Frank pulled out of
the driveway, then he slammed the door and mocked his father. “Make
sure she don’t run off. What the hell. Does he think I’m a
moron?”

Noelle knew not to answer that
question… or at least not to answer it with the truth.

Lenny kicked off his boots and dropped
down into his chair. He lifted the leg rest and let out a sigh.
“Ain’t it good to be home, babe?”

Noelle stayed silent. Lenny dropped
his leg and nudged her in the head with his foot. “Did ya hear me
down there?”

She nodded and tried to wiggle out of
striking distance. She felt sick at the way she’d let herself be
treated that way for so long. For him to think nothing of tying her
up and leaving her lay on the dirty floor like a dog … she truly
felt nauseous.

Lenny turned on the television and
flipped through the channels incessantly for nearly an hour. Just
as Noelle was drifting to sleep, the telephone rang.

“Get that for me, babe.”

After a moment he chuckled to himself
and waved toward her. “Nevermind, I wouldn’t want you to get up and
run off. You just stay right there.”

He answered it and a moment later was
cussing like a sailor. She could hear Frank on the other end, but
couldn’t make out the words. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. At
least that’s what she gathered when Lenny ripped the phone from the
wall and hurled it across the room.

The handset broke into several pieces
and bits of plastic rained down around her. She ducked her head and
shut her eyes. Lenny’s stomping feet made the floor vibrate as he
got closer.