Chris pushed a hand through his hair. “What about Ely’s girl?”
“I sneaked down the mountain on foot and took a look at his cabin through the binoculars. The house has crime scene tape across the door.” Bobby-Joe sighed. “The cops have her as well.”
“Shit! She could identify us. I’m sure of it.” He took a long drink then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “The news never mentioned her.”
“They took her to the hospital.” Bobby-Joe sank into a chair at the kitchen table. “Ely didn’t feed her much and as she was chained up the cops will order all sorts of tests. I doubt she could identify us. Think about it: We’ve been careful and covered our faces since the little bitch escaped.” He shrugged. “We haven’t touched Ely’s girl in ages. We’re home free with her, no evidence. The cops will blame Ely and he’s dead.” He smiled. “We’re fine. Stop worryin’.”
Panic closed Chris’s throat and he gaped at his friend. “I know you went to his place recently and you work at the hospital. What if she recognizes you?”
“Nah, the chances of me running into her would be slim.” Bobby-Joe sipped his beer. “The doctors will keep her in the hospital for ages. The cops get to interview her after the psychiatrist clears her. I’ve seen the process before and it will be days before they release her.” He sighed. “I never went near her without the mask, it’s cool.”
“She’ll sure as hell recognize the tattoo on your hand, and your green eyes are distinctive. Once she tells the cops, they’ll be on you like flies on shit.”
“My eyes maybe.” Bobby-Joe sighed. “The tattoo, I always keep covered and have done since the girl escaped from here. The hospital beli
eves I have an old wrist injury and I need to wear a brace. So my hand is covered and usually I have surgical gloves on as well when I’m working.” He shrugged. “I don’t take chances.”
Why the hell was he taking it so calmly? Any minute the cops could break down the door and haul their asses off to jail. “It’s too much of a risk to bring any new girls here. We’ll have to find another place.”
“No way. The cops can’t come on my land without a warrant and they can’t connect us to Amos or Ely.”
“What happens if Ely’s bitch gives the cops your description? It will be all over the news. How many people do you know at the hospital? One of them will call the cops for sure. The cops will stick a clown mask on you and she will identify you. Shit, anyone who knows you could.”
“Yeah, maybe, but she wouldn’t have given a statement yet. Like I said, the doctors have to clear her before they allow the sheriff to talk to her. My guess is the sheriff will show up sometime tomorrow.” Bobby-Joe leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful expression on his face. “The cops always make sure people of interest are on the seventh floor, and they only have a deputy on duty during the day. At night, they lock down the wards but I have access to all areas. I can fix our problem easy enough.”
Terrified, Chris stared at him. “What are you going to do?”
“I know the movements of the night shift at the hospital. By midnight there is only one nurse on each ward. I can easily put her out of action. I’ll get there just before the nurses on that floor are due to take a break and slip something into the coffee pot and the hot water urn just to be sure.” He sniggered. “The CCTV cameras are on the main entrance. I’ll go in via the back door—I have a swipe card.”
“Which the cops will be able to trace.”
“Nope.” Bobby-Joe chuckled. “You remember the old cleaner who had a heart attack about three months ago? I have his card. I took it from him when he collapsed.”
Chris eyed his friend’s relaxed demeanor. “Yeah, then what?”
His mouth curled into a sadistic grin. “I’m gonna pay the stinking bitch a visit and kill her.”
30
Curled in the damp soil under a bush growing beneath Bobby-Joe’s kitchen window, she flicked away a spider determined to crawl into her mouth. By the tremble in Chris’s voice, he recognized a threat was on the loose and he was in the line of fire. They should be frightened of me. Very frightened.
If the sheriff had found two girls and taken them to the hospital, she needed to discover which one Bobby-Joe planned to murder. She heard voices again and very carefully eased out from under the bush. Straightening, she pressed her back against the wall beside the open window. The wooden slatted shutters on each side of the window would hide her from view.
The voices drifted out to her and she listened, too nervous to breathe.
“I can’t remember the name of Ely’s girl. He used to call her ‘bitch’ every time I went to visit.” Chris cleared his throat. “How are you going to find her?”
“I know her name.” Bobby-Joe sniggered. “I heard Ely call her Jane the last time I went to see him. I don’t know how much she remembers about her old life; she must be seventeen or so by now.”
“Yeah, I remember she called him ‘Daddy’.” Chris swore under his breath. “He was a sick son of a bitch. With us it was different.”
“Yeah, that’s right, you ‘love’ kids, don’t you?” Bobby-Joe’s sudden harsh voice made her skin crawl.
Yes, I bet you do. With her pulse thumping in her ears, she crept away from the house. Rage welled inside her. Dammit, if she had thought to bring her gun she could have stormed into the cottage and shot both of them. No, a quick death would be too good for them. She must stick to the plan. I’ll make them pay.
Once well away from Bobby-Joe’s cabin, she jogged up the footpath, heading toward the falls. At the top of the mountain, she clambered over a pile of rocks to the small parking lot cut out of the mountainside the tourists used before the rock fall blocked the road. She hesitated and scanned the area but the place was deserted. She rested for some time, mulling over what the men had said then made her way back over the mass of fallen boulders to a cleared area half a mile down the mountain where she had parked her car.
Sitting in her car, she sipped from a bottle of water and gazed out at the expanse of blue sky. To her right, the falls crashed down the mountainside, creating a dozen rainbows. A soft breeze moved the tops of the pine trees, and the masses of wildflowers sat in patches of brilliance against the boulders. The scene was a photographer’s dream. She turned her head to look at the mountain’s many peaks. In all directions, pine trees marched up the sides of the rock face in green splendor. How she wished her memories of Black Rock Falls could be different. What secrets this forest held. She slipped from the car and went to run her palm over the rough bark of a massive pine. The trees at the edge of the road stood in a row like sentries guarding the way to the falls.