Part 33 (1/2)
Sandra finally slowed the car as they neared the town; if she hadn't, Jessy thought dryly, they would have shot right through it.
Sandra brought the car to a halt in the middle of Main Street and leaped out, screaming her daughter's name.
Jessy was stunned when a woman came out of the building whose peeling sign identified it as a bank.
”You made it!” she cried cheerfully.
”Where's my daughter?” Sandra demanded. ”Jessy is here. Now where's my daughter?”
Sandra started to rush the woman in a frenzy, but Jessy dragged her back when she saw that the woman was holding a small gun. Despite everything, she wasn't going to let Sandra get herself killed.
”Slow down,” the woman said to Sandra, all the while looking Jessy up and down. ”So you're Jessy Sparhawk.”
”Yes-who are you?” Jessy asked.
”Sarah Clay,” the woman told her.
The name meant nothing to her.
”Who the h.e.l.l is behind this?” Jessy demanded. ”Emil Landon?”
Sarah started to laugh. ”Emil Landon? The son of a b.i.t.c.h who won't accept me as his child? Who claims my mother fooled around with so many people that half of Las Vegas could be my father? The guy who won't take a paternity test?”
”Emil Landon is your father?” Jessy said in shock.
”Where's my daughter?” Sandra demanded.
”Mom!” The cry came from the bank. Reggie came out then. She would have run, except that she was being held.
By Hugo Blythe.
He was followed out of the bank by Darrell Frye.
”Hiya, Jessy,” he said.
She was too dumbfounded to say anything, and she felt like throwing up.
”Won't you let my daughter go now-please?” Sandra begged.
”Go to Mommy, kid,” Blythe said, letting go of Reggie.
Reggie seemed to fly off the raised sidewalk and down to her mother. Sobbing, Sandra wrapped her into her arms.
”Now, if you will kindly move this way...” Sarah Clay said to Jessy.
”Who the h.e.l.l are are you?” Jessy demanded. you?” Jessy demanded.
”I told you, I'm Sarah Clay,” the woman said, frowning. ”Hasn't Dillon ever mentioned me?”
”No, he hasn't,” Jessy said, surprised that the fact seemed to upset the other woman.
”Well, then, he's just being a man,” Sarah said. ”I mean, if he's got a thing going with you, he wouldn't mention the fact that he's got a thing for me, too.”
It had to be a lie, Jessy thought, but she felt her temper soaring nonetheless. She forced herself to rein it in and looked at the woman with as much contempt as she could summon. ”Frankly, I just think he's never thought of you as anyone important-or s.e.xy, for that matter.”
She might have pushed it too far, she thought. It was one thing to aggravate the woman, another entirely to rile her to violence.
Too late.
Sarah Clay strode over to Jessy and slapped her so hard that her vision blurred, on top of the splitting headache she already had from being shoved into the car.
”Okay,” Jessy said. ”You have me, so now let her go. Let Reggie and Sandra get out of here.”
”You need to give Dillon a ring first. And tell him to lose that old man and his friends before he comes. I want to know where the gold is,” Sarah said.
”You're crazy. There isn't any gold,” Jessy told her.
”There is. And it's here somewhere,” Sarah insisted.
”She's right,” Darrell said. ”She found a letter that John Wolf wrote to some woman named Mariah saying he'd found it.”
”Shut up, Frye. Get the phone down here so she can call Dillon, and tell him to get out here or I'll shoot her,” Sarah ordered.
Darrell handed her a cell phone, and Jessy found herself wondering what service even worked out here.
Sarah punched in a number, then swore, and Jessy tried not to smile. Apparently the call had gone straight to voice mail.
Where was was Dillon? Jessy wondered. Nikki would have awakened by now and raised the alarm. Jimmy knew she had left with Sandra. That wouldn't normally raise anyone's suspicions, but these hadn't been normal days. Dillon? Jessy wondered. Nikki would have awakened by now and raised the alarm. Jimmy knew she had left with Sandra. That wouldn't normally raise anyone's suspicions, but these hadn't been normal days.
Suddenly the sound of an old piano playing an even older tune came from the saloon, and they all jumped.
”Bring them and follow me,” Sarah commanded, already hurrying toward the saloon. Blythe took charge of Sandra and Reggie, while Darrell grabbed Jessy by the arm and started dragging her with him. She bit down hard on her lower lip, forcing herself not to show any emotion.
So Emil Landon wasn't involved after all. Had his own daughter been trying to kill him?
They entered the saloon via swinging doors that didn't actually swing anymore. In fact, they seemed in danger of falling completely off their hinges at any second.
It took Jessy a minute to adjust to the dim light, and then she gasped aloud, unable to help herself.
Timothy was sitting at the old piano, his fingers resting on the keys.
”Milly, you made it,” he said to Sandra. ”Come on over here and sing us a tune.”
”Who the h.e.l.l is the old b.a.s.t.a.r.d and how did he get here?” Sarah demanded.