Part 26 (2/2)
Maybe he was thinking about standing in the downpour and struggling with the stiff lock on the back door; it was that or the necessity of having to leave me alone for a few minutes. He opened his mouth again, but the sound died as his attention focused rigidly on something in the mirror. His head whipped around.
”Oh, good G.o.d,” he whispered.
I stared out the back window. A pale shape lurched toward the car. Rain streamed past, blurring the view. The shape stumbled and fell against gla.s.s, and the face, anxious and white, looked inside. Our eyes locked with mutual incredulity.
Numbed only for a second, I tore out of the car, afraid she'd disappear, but she came into my arms, solid and real, moving, laughing, crying.
Alive.
Some joys are too much for the heart to hold and can even supersede grief for intensity. The tears that had not come before now burned my eyes and finally spilled out onto Bobbi's upturned face.
We clung to each other in the car while Escott watched with a mixture of happy indulgence and indecision. He looked ready to leave us alone, but Bobbi saw his intent, hooked an arm around his neck, and held him in place with a hug.
”Good heavens,” he mumbled, embarra.s.sed and pleased, and unsuccessfully tried to suppress his smile.
She finally released him and turned back to me. Her face was swollen and red from crying, and her chopped-oft' hair was limp and dripping, but honest to G.o.d, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Escott offered her a handkerchief and she gratefully accepted and blew her nose.
”I thought they'd killed you,” she told me with a hiccup.
”We had drawn the same conclusion about you,” said Escott.
”What do you mean?”
”We traced down Malcolm's house. There's a woman's body there, wearing your red dress.”
”Jesus, no wonder Jack looked so strange.”
”Who was it? What happened?”
”That was Norma. We had a fight and she lost.””Could you be a little less succinct?”
”Easy, Charles, she's all in,” I said, annoyed.
”No,” she gulped, ”it's okay. The other two left, the man and old woman.”
”She's still old?” I asked.
”I don't know. I only heard her voice. I'd heard what they wanted you for, what they wanted you to do... Did you?”
”Yes.”
She paused, her thoughts on her face.
”I had to, Bobbi.”
Her fingers brushed my temple, and I caught her hand and kissed it.
”I heard you,” she said. ”I think it was you. It was after she pulled me from the water, that's when they said you were dead.”
”They were wrong. Charles found me in time to save my a.s.s. Just tell me what happened to you.”
”It's hazy; I was drugged a lot of the time. They kept me tied up in that bedroom all day, and once in a while the man would come in and check on me. The woman, Norma, sometimes shoved some cotton wadding over my nose and I'd hold my breath.”
”Chloroform?”
She nodded. ”I didn't think it was perfume, so I faked sleeping, and they left me alone most of the day. I spent the time getting untied. When it got dark I heard them again, the other woman, Gaylen-”
”What was her voice like? Old or young?”
She thought a moment. ”Young, I think. I was still pretty woozy, but it was strong, at least. She and the man left, and then it was just me and Norma. When she came in to check on me she had the shotgun, but I hardly saw it because she was prancing around in my new red silk. It was a stupid thing to get mad about after thinking you were dead, but it just set me off. I jumped her, the gun came up, I pushed it away, and it-just-”
I held her tight. ”It's okay, we know.”
”G.o.d, I was sick and I had to get out. I grabbed one of her dresses and started walking. I didn't know where I was and the rain-”
”How did you get here?” asked Escott.”Some couple in a car saw me, stopped, and offered a lift.” She began to laugh- with relief, not hysteria. ”I told 'em I had to walk home from a bad date and they believed it. They took me here, because I had to see Charles about you.”
”Do you know where Gaylen went?”
”No.”
”Probably the Stockyards,” said Escott.
I agreed with him and looked at Bobbi. ”Come on, let's get you inside before you freeze.”
”Could we go to my place?”
”Anywhere you want.”
”And Marza, she looked so awful when they grabbed me. Could you call her?
Please, I know she's worried sick.”
Escott fingered his waistcoat pocket. ”My key-”
”Won't need it.” I grinned and left the car, dashed up the hack steps, and sieved through, re-forming again inside the kitchen. I opened the door and waved at them through the screen, showing off. They couldn't see me very well, what with the darkness and rain- ”Hey... Escott.” A man's voice. Behind me.
Again, no warning.
They must have been expecting him to come in the front way and been waiting there, then heard the back door open and quietly come up from behind. It might have been avoidable with no rain or with the lights on, but then the right man would have been killed. I might have even stepped out of it, but my thoughts were elsewhere, and all the emotional shocks had made me sluggish. There was no time to react before something like a sledgehammer slammed into my back at kidney level.
The breath was pushed right out of me. I staggered sideways against a wall and slid down, my back on fire.
Legs gave out and crumbled with no strength, right arm hanging loose and useless, left one twitching-my nervous system was shot all to h.e.l.l. What was it, what was wrong with my back? My hand flailed around the source of the pain and my fingers brushed against hard metal. It was sticking out of my back at a firm right angle and I didn't realize what it was at first. When I did, I moaned and felt a sudden sympathy with Escott's squeamishness.
Two other people were with me, but only one was breathing. I kept my head down and went very still.
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