The Grim Reaper's Dance (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-two

Casey was cold by the time Westing drove into the lot. She hadn’t been able to move, for fear Dixon would hear, and dew had settled on her, chilling her to the bone. She hoped the guys were just as uncomfortable as she. At least they could huddle with their arms around themselves.

Headlights swung across the space, and the SUV stopped in the middle of the pavement. Westing got out of the Explorer and looked around. Casey watched from the darkness at the top of the trailer, confident she was invisible.

“She’s not here,” Dixon said from his hiding place, making Casey jump. “We’ve been here an hour, and there’s no sign of her.”

Westing crossed his arms and leaned against the hood of his car. “Good. Now shut up or she’ll hear you.”

So they all sat back and waited for Casey to show up.

Death giggled. “This would be funny if it weren’t so stupid.”

Casey glared at her companion. She wasn’t laughing as her muscles cramped and she shivered against the metal.

Time ticked by. Nothing happened. Casey heard Dixon shifting now and then in the back, and could see three of the hiding men as they changed positions, trying to keep their feet from going to sleep as they squatted. Westing pushed off from the Explorer and marched forward, scanning both directions. He looked at his watch so many times it made Casey think of a little kid on a long car trip: Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Dixon finally jumped down from his perch and walked into Casey’s sightlines. “She ain’t coming.”

Westing spun around. “Get back there! She’ll see you!”

“It’s been almost an hour, man. She stood us up.”

Westing turned in a circle, his arms rising, then falling. He let out a growl of frustration, slamming his hand onto the Explorer’s hood. “
Damn
it!”

Dixon crossed his arms. “Yonkers is gonna be pissed.”

“Don’t…”—Westing held up a hand, pointing at Dixon—“…make it sound like this is my fault. We planned this out together. Yonk okayed it.”

Yonkers
? Casey knew that name. Why?

“Wasn’t blaming you,” Dixon said. “Just stating a fact.”

Westing rubbed his forehead. “Why didn’t she come?”

“Think one of the kids tipped her off?”

Casey tried not to react to the mention of the teenagers—assuming that is who Dixon meant. But who else would he mean? She wasn’t in touch with any other children.

“The
kids
don’t know. Just the one.”

Casey closed her eyes. One was enough to screw them all. But
which
one?

“She got the phone last night,” Westing said. “Where did she go?”

“Hey, Ballard!” Dixon barked the name toward the Dumpster. “Where did the woman go today?”

The man got up and walked out to Dixon. He was big, but not all of it was muscle. “Kid didn’t tell us about the phone until this morning, so we don’t got much. We found her up in McPherson—”

“Parnell,” Dixon explained to Westing. “He’s gone.”

Oh, no. Poor Pat.

“Then she went out toward Hutchinson,” Ballard said. “Figured she was paying a visit to Deerfield Trucking, but I don’t know what she would’ve found there. By the time we got there she was long gone, and the girl at the desk didn’t have any idea who we were talking about.”

“And after that?” Westing was practically foaming at the mouth.

“We lost her for a while. She must’ve turned the phone off. But we caught the signal later and traced it to the middle of a cornfield. Don’t know what she was doing out there, but we couldn’t find any sign of her or the phone.”

“And now?”

“She’s nowhere.”

Thank
God
she’d resisted the temptation to check the time. She didn’t know how tightly they could pinpoint the signal, but she’d been that close to ruining everything.

“So what do we do?” Westing said. “Now that you’ve
lost
her?”

Ballard stepped back, gesturing to Dixon. “It’s you guys’ call. Whatever you want.”

Westing turned on Dixon. “Well, Dix?”

Dixon shrugged. “Maybe she’ll get back in touch with Bruce. We’ll need to give him a message to pass on to her.”

“And the kid?”

“Said she meets with them every night—maybe she’s with them right now in the shed where she’s been staying.”

Casey breathed a quiet sigh of relief that the harvester had come to the field and she’d been forced to hide her bag elsewhere. But alongside the relief she fought a wave of sadness. Somebody in the little group of teens had given them all up. So much for solidarity.

“God, I hope we find her,” Ballard said. “My wife’s been seeing those ads for jewelry and won’t let me forget our twentieth is coming up.”

“Why do we care about your anniversary?” Dixon snapped.

“Yonk said we get this woman off our tail, payday will be coming soon.”

Dixon snorted. “He’s been saying that for the past six months.”

“Shut it,” Westing said. “Yonk’s good for the money. He told us it would take a while. That we need to be patient.”

“I’m
patient
,” Dixon said. “I’ve been
patient
for a year and a half.”

“So let’s go,” Westing said. “Catch this bitch before she has a chance to move again.”

“And if she’s not at the shed?”

Westing’s face was grim. “Then she’ll show up somewhere else. We’ll get her.”

The men climbed into Westing’s Explorer—it had to be a tight fit, even with it being an SUV—and drove away, their lights disappearing into the darkness.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Death said.

“You think? We just found out these guys are expecting a boatload of money.”

“Big deal. Isn’t everything about money? I mean,
yawn
.”

“We also found out one of our kids is a rat.”

“I bet I know who it is.”

“With your Spidey-sense?”

“No, with my smart sense. You know Sheryl’s hated you from the second she saw you.”

“But she’s annoyed with
all
grown-ups. Would she help these guys, rather than me?”

“They’re badasses. She might like sticking it to you.”

Sheryl was the one Casey
hoped
it was. Otherwise she’d done a crappy job reading them. Not that she’d tried all that hard. She’d let her exhaustion, lack of resources, and…let’s face it…
loneliness
push her closer to the kids than she ever should’ve been. Besides, she liked all the others. Terry didn’t care much for her, but he would do what was best for Sheryl—which was getting Casey out of town fast without involving their little group. Johnny was too dumb, and he hadn’t been there when Casey had gotten the phone. Martin? Bailey? It hurt to think either of them would turn her over to the men. But whoever had done it, she couldn’t let the rest get caught.

“Think the guys have a tracer on the phone now?”

“Probably.”

“I’m going to have to risk it. There’s no way I’ll get out to the shed before the men.”

Death considered, and nodded. “You don’t really have a choice, if you want the kids out of there.”

But
who
to call? She turned on the phone, muted the sound, and texted Bailey.

Dont tel thm its me Get out of shed now Wil b in tuch l8er

She sent the message. “Think she’ll listen?”

“You know…” Death peered over her shoulder. “You’re getting the hang of the texting thing. Better spelling.”

Casey’s phone buzzed.

Why? Whr r u?

Casey’s fingers flew.

Just get out!!

“Speaking of getting out…” Death stood over her. “We should probably move on, now that you’ve turned on the phone.

Casey turned it off. “I wanted to make sure the men were gone before leaving.”

Death disappeared, and was back in seconds. “They’ve split. Nowhere within a three-mile radius.”

“You could look that fast?”

Death peered down at her disdainfully. “Are you forgetting who I am?”

Casey closed her eyes, and felt the weight of everything upon her. “No. I will never forget who you are.”

“Come on,” Death said. “Let’s go. Do one of those flips where you arch your back and end up on your feet.”

“How ’bout I get up slowly and painfully, like an old woman?”

“I guess that’ll work.”

She eased up, knees cracking, shoulder stinging. “Okay.” She sighed. “Let’s go find a traitor.”

Chapter Twenty-three

Casey walked out to Bailey’s house, arriving in a little over an hour. The night was dark and damp, and she shivered as she hid in the pine trees at the edge of the property. The men were nowhere in sight. Neither were any teenagers. Death had taken off a few miles ago, and Casey didn’t miss the added chill.

Which window was Bailey’s? She couldn’t tell. It was practically impossible to see which window had black curtains, since they all were dark. She studied the house, trying to remember the lay-out, and finally decided on the second window on the east side. If she was wrong, well, she’d run like hell.

She gathered a handful of pinecones and situated herself under the window. She tossed one. Then another. The curtains swept aside, and Bailey’s white face shone in the window. She glanced behind her, into the house, then turned back to Casey, a finger up. Her face disappeared and the curtains fell. Casey stepped back into the shadows, wondering how many kids were there.

Just one.

“Where were you?” Bailey demanded. “And what was the deal with the shed?”

Casey pulled her further from the house. “Somebody told.”

The girl’s face screwed up. “Told what?” She seemed genuinely confused.

Casey felt a tiny bit of weight ease from her shoulders at Bailey’s apparent innocence. “One of your friends told…” How to explain? “…told the bad guys how to find me. They were coming to the shed. They’re probably there right now.”

“No. Nobody would give away the shed. That’s crazy.”

Casey held up the phone. “Someone also told them I had this. They’ve been tracking me all day.”

Bailey’s mouth dropped open. “So they know you’re here? Right now?”

“No, the phone’s off. But any time I had it on today they traced it, found out where I’d been, and went there.”

And now Pat Parnell was
gone
, whatever Dixon meant by that. Had Casey gotten him in trouble by visiting? Gotten him
killed
? No, Death would have told her that.

“But why would someone tell?” Bailey said. “And
who
did?”

“I don’t know. What do you think? Who would betray you all like that?”

Bailey was distressed. “
None
of them! They wouldn’t…” She jabbed her finger at Casey. “You’re just saying that. It didn’t really happen. Why would you say that?”

“If you don’t believe me, go out to the shed right now and look. The men might still be there.”

Bailey jerked away, crossing her arms over her stomach. “I don’t…” She shuddered. “What should we do?”

“Where are the others?”

“Home.”

Casey really wanted to know which kid had told, but getting them back together tonight would be tricky. “We should sleep. I’ll be in touch tomorrow. Okay? And listen…can we keep this just between you and me? Not tell the others until we figure out how to stop the leak?”

Bailey was silent for a few moments before shrugging. “All right.”

“I need to see you all. Where would it work?”

Bailey hesitated, then swung around. “After school tomorrow, Johnny has a JV football game. We’re all going.”

Casey couldn’t show up there. Too many people. “How about afterward?”

“Sometimes we get pizza in town. Sometimes we go to Newton, to the Denny’s.”

“And how would you get there?”

“One of us would drive everybody. It’s about six miles.”

Casey couldn’t go that distance. “Can you make sure you go to the pizza place?”

“Yeah. They usually listen to me.”

Casey had noticed. “Will you walk from the stadium?”

“It’s right down the street, so yeah.”

“What route will you take?”

Bailey’s face scrunched up as she thought and she rubbed her face hard, smearing her eyeliner. “Up Adams to Main. It’s simple.”

“Any way you can go a different path, where there won’t be many people?”

“I guess. I’d have to come up with an excuse.”

“I have confidence in you. They’ll do what you suggest.”

Bailey paled even more in the illumination from the house’s outside lights. “Okay. So I guess we’ll go back behind the library, you know how you can see the stadium from there? There’s a road that’s more like an alley, and we can take that up toward the pizza place.”

“What time?”

“Six?”

That should work. “Thanks, Bailey. I’ll be keeping the phone off until then. No sense in leading them to us. Goodnight.” She turned to go.

“Casey?”

She stopped.

“Why did you come to me? Why didn’t you think I was the one who’d talked?”

“Because you’re the real deal, Bailey. You care about the others, and about your group. You would never give away your hiding place.”

Bailey frowned. “I care about you, too.”

“Which only proves you’re crazy. But thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow. And remember…” She put a finger to her lips.

Bailey smiled brightly, her teeth shining. “You know me. I can keep a secret. Goodnight, Casey.”

Casey smiled back, and slipped away into the night.