They bumped along what seemed like a very rough back road. Ashley listened carefully to try to pick up clues as to where they were going, but it wasn’t like home, where she was in familiar surroundings. She was in a totally strange place and couldn’t decipher anything.
A half hour later, they screeched to a halt on what sounded like a gravel road. The men hustled Ashley and Sean out and had them walk up a ramp. They were shoved into two small seats and strapped in. Ashley listened as hard as she could.
A different kind of engine started up, this one clearly belonging to a plane. Shortly, the plane picked up speed as they barreled down a small runaway then lifted into the air.
The noise of the plane engine drowned out the men as they shouted at each other. Soon they were climbing in the air, and everything got quiet. Where were they being flown to?
“I hope you like to fly,” one of the men said as he leaned in close to her.
He laughed, and his breath smelled like lavender. Sean recognized the voice again. It was Edward.
Ashley’s skin went cold. She had to remain calm. Her thoughts were with Sean and how to communicate with him if she could. She knew their kidnappers would try to prevent that.
***
They seemed to be in the air for a long time. There was no air turbulence, just the sound of the engines and the occasional coughing from one of the men. Edward leaned in again and whispered.
“This will be the most memorable vacation you’ve ever had.” He laughed softly and then coughed again.
Soon, Ashley could feel the plane descending.
Within ten minutes, they touched down and bumped violently on whatever runaway they had landed on.
The plane then came to a stop.
Someone opened the door and yanked both her and Sean out. They were hurried along into a building and ordered to sit down. Neither of them struggled. Despite what was happening, Ashley had a strange sense of comfort knowing that Sean was close by but also guilt that he was involved in all of this.
A few seconds passed, then someone slid a large door shut. She heard the clang of it as it closed and what sounded like locks being shut.
Then there was total quiet.
Outside the door, she could hear the muffled conversations of the men.
Ashley couldn’t talk with the gag in her mouth, but she was desperate to be close to Sean. She tried inching in what she believed was his direction.
Shortly, she touched his feet. He poked her feet, but since they were both bound and gagged, it was of little use. Still, it felt good to be closer to him.
Just then, it sounded like another door behind them opened into the room.
“Oh, how touching. The lovebirds are trying to cuddle.” It was the heavily accented voice again.
Ashley then heard him laugh.
The man continued. “Here, take a look at each other. You might as well since you don’t have much time left.”
The man reached over and pulled the hood off of Sean first then took off Ashley’s blindfold.
Ashley blinked as she took in the room. It looked like a vast storage space with a big metal door in front. There was a bare lightbulb hanging in the middle of the room.
She looked at Sean. His eyes were wide open in shock. He stared at her and looked as if he was trying to communicate something. She stared back and blinked a few times.
Edward stood over them and laughed. “How sweet. Trying to give each other messages. You look like fools.”
Ashley took in the man’s appearance. He was very tall, maybe six-foot-five, with dark blond hair that was slicked back, chiseled features, and with a distinct scar running down the left side of his neck. He was dressed well, and if he wasn’t a criminal, he could have been someone’s aristocratic uncle.
Sean blinked. Their captor was the same man who had stared at him at the bottom of the staircase in their hotel earlier tonight.
Edward sneered at Sean. “Yes, you recognize me. Good. And perhaps you will recognize this person too.”
The door opened and in walked the receptionist, Sara, from John’s office. She had her hair in the same braids as she did then, but they were coiled on top of her head. Instead of the Southwest clothing she had on while working, she was now dressed in a business suit and heels. Her mouth was a slash of dark red lipstick. She glared at Ashley and Sean.
“Why are you so stupid?” she asked. Her voice had the same thick accent as the man.
Ashley was trying to figure out how this seemingly shy woman who couldn’t even make eye contact with them back at John’s office was here now power-dressed, looking like a completely different person altogether. And her accent was different now too.
She remembered Sara running out to the field where the skull was on a pole and thought about her blood-curdling screams. She remembered how John had to hold her and comfort her.
All an act, Ashley thought. But why?
“You people are so gullible. You think John Locklear is going to help his crazy brother-in-law? To stop the mining? To help his people? If you believe all that fairy tale stuff about save the Native American habitat, you’re crazy. It’s not the eighteenth century anymore. Mining is a fact of life. Our company will bring in jobs to the poor people who need them. And profitability to the industry. Progress has come to change things. Our company will be the leader in that progress,” Sara said.
Ashley and Sean kept staring at her.
“Take off their gags,” the woman barked at the tall man. The man bent over and removed them, but kept their arms bound.
Ashley took in a big gulp of air. Her mouth hurt from the gag. Sean coughed a few times and then groaned.
“Are you all right, Sean?” Ashley asked.
The woman sneered at her. “What do you think? Are you all right sitting on this floor as a hostage? Another stupid question.”
Ashley gave her a cold look. The woman had a slight build and only appeared taller than she seemed back at the office because of her heels. If Ashley hadn’t been tied up, she knew she could take Sara down.
Ashley pushed herself to a sitting position, as straight as she could against the wall, and addressed the woman.
“Progress is not the right word for your company,” Ashley said. “It’s greed. There are plenty of ways to be responsible with the land and still bring profit and jobs to the people living there. I saw the plans for the mining in the lawsuit. It calls for quick stripping, so you can maximize your profits for the shareholders. Yes, there will be labor needed, but I’m sure your company will pay the minimum to the workers, so you walk away with the maximum riches. And the safety concerns that the residents had were brushed off by your company. You have no solid structure for safety built in, nor do you have a comprehensive plan for the future that sets aside the issues of pollution and environmental damage with the chemicals you plan to use. It’s all a smokescreen, and that’s why there’s a lawsuit.”
The woman leaned in and slapped Ashley across her face. Sean yelled for her to stop and struggled to stand.
“Oh shut up, cowboy. You and your stupid bravado. You can’t help her, and you know it,” Sara said.
“It’s okay, Sean. She’s only brave because we’re tied up. And she has a big goon standing next to her,” Ashley said.
“Ashley, please don’t say anything else—” Sean began to say. He looked at her pleadingly.
Edward laughed. “That’s okay, let her speak. I will show her what a big goon can do to her.”
Ashley laughed back at him. “Do you always do what she tells you to?”
“I help her. That’s a better way to put it,” he answered.
“Yes, he helps me,” Sara said. “Because I will make him rich.”
Edward glared at Sara and shot back. “We both will make ourselves rich.”
“Yes and no. This was my idea. I’m the teacher. You are a good learner,” the woman replied.
Edward continued to glare at her. His eyes were full of hate. He fiddled with the
lapel on his jacket and circled everyone in the room.
Ashley noticed Sara’s eyes dart around, following his movements with a clenched jaw and her right fist doubled up.
She’s afraid of him, Ashley thought.
“You hate me, don’t you?” Edward asked.
Sara stood up tall in her high heels and smoothed her skirt. “Not at all, darling. And let’s not put on a show for our friends here.”
Edward continued to pace around the room slowly, pausing every now and then to look at Sara. Her eyes kept following his movements like a cat.
Suddenly, he broke into a big grin. “Of course not. We are a team. And we will share all the money—equally, of course.”
She gave him a twisted smile back. “Of course,” she said coolly.
He stopped in front of Sean. “Now, what shall we do for our good friends here?”
“I’d like a beer,” Sean said.
Edward broke into laughter and pointed at him. “You are a funny man,” he said.
Ashley took Sean’s cue and tried to lighten the mood to stall for time.
“And I’m a cook, so if you get some good ingredients, I can whip up a great dinner for all of us,” Ashley said.
“How cute you both are. Well, being cute won’t help. Sorry, but we can’t keep you around,” Sara said.
“Well, at least tell us your real names. We’ve all shared so much, we might as well be on a first-name basis.” Ashley said.
“I’m Zola,” the man said. He gestured to the woman. She smiled, but her mouth twisted up in a grotesque position while she did it.
“I’m Olga.”
“I thought you were Sara. And he said he was Edward.”
“Part of the act, darling,” Olga said.
Ashley smiled at Olga. She had to play a game now too.
“How did you convince John that you were a humble Southwestern woman, Olga?”
“It was easy. He is another idealist, wanting to believe. And I’m a master of accents and disguises. I knew how to play the part and get all the information I needed. Right under his nose.” Olga proceeded to imitate herself as they first saw her as “Sara” at the office. She put her head down shyly and changed her body movements. Then she spoke in a flat accent native to the Southwest. “Oh Mr. John, what do you need filed today? Who shall I call? I can take these papers to the post office for you, Mr. John.” She looked at Ashley and Sean for approval.
“Pretty good,” Ashley said. “Great, in fact. I’m sure you had poor John totally fooled.”
“Of course she did,” Zola said.
“What an act, running through the field and crying when you saw the skulls on the poles,” Ashley said. “And who put them there?” She turned her head to look at Zola. “Why it was you. How clever.”
“Glad you approve of my work,” Zola said.
The little door flew open, and two of the low-level men from the plane ride ran in.
“I just got a call from our man back at the mine site. He wants Zola there immediately. There is a big demonstration forming, and reporters are starting to come. And word is that John Locklear will be there to rally the protestors.”
Olga’s face turned white as a sheet. “Why that —”
“Olga! No time for anger. We have to go immediately and diffuse this,” Zola said.
“And what about them?” Olga said.
“Leave them here. No one can hear them. We can take care of them later.”
The guy’s phone rang again. Zola grabbed it and barked into the receiver.
“What?” he answered. He listened for a moment. His face looked shocked. He turned to Olga.
“Tons of protesters have gathered there. John has attorneys there as well. People are everywhere. Sitting down and waiting for the morning to come and the rally to begin. They are saying that they won’t leave until everything stops. But no one can see Sani. He says we have to come immediately.”
Zola cursed as he ran out the door. “Sani must be coming with John tomorrow morning. Let’s go!”
The men turned to follow him.
Olga stood rooted to the spot.
Zola looked back in. “What are you doing? Come now!”
“John can’t see me like this,” she said. “He can’t know I was the one who worked for him. I have to hide.”
“We will hide you there. Come now!”
Zola reached in and grabbed her arm.
They turned off the light and slammed the door.
Ashley could hear them quarreling in the distance. She turned to Sean and whispered, “What do we do now?”
Sean lowered his voice. “Shh. I don’t know. Let me think.”
They sat in silence for a few moments, and then Ashley whispered again, “Let’s get the bindings off.”
“Easy to say. This isn’t the movies. I don’t know how we’re going to do it, especially in the dark,” Sean replied.
Ashley got up and walked over to Sean. His bindings were on as tightly as hers. It was too dark to see if there was anything on the floor to use to cut them off. She tried to reach over to his hands and chewed on the bindings. It was no use.
“Ash, save your energy. Let’s try to get to the door and see if we can open it,” Sean said.
They both struggled to get up, balance themselves, and work their way to the door. Ashley leaned in and tried to open the handle on the door with her elbow, but she had no luck.
“Move aside a moment,” Sean said.
He raised his leg and tried to kick at the handle as hard as he could, but he only succeeded in falling backward.
“Are you okay?” Ashley said.
“Yeah. Just my pride is hurt. I’m going to try again.”
He got up and raised his leg again and kicked at the door handle as hard as he could.
No luck.
“Wait a minute, Sean. Save your energy this time,” Ashley said.
She went up to the door handle and turned around, catching her bindings on it. Then she pulled as hard as she could. The binding didn’t come off, but she did feel them loosen. She paused a moment and tried again.
They loosened up a little more.
“Let me try,” Sean said.
He tried putting his bindings over the handle, too, but they were too tight, and he couldn’t slip the handle under them.
“Let me go again,” Ashley said.
She managed to slip the handle under her bindings and pulled hard several times. Her bindings loosened even more, and she turned around and began to slither them off of her wrists. The last tug was the hardest, but she wriggled one hand out and then pulled the binding off the other arm.
“Thank God,” she said.
Sean let out a big gasp. “Hurry!”
Ashley turned to try and untie the bindings off of Sean’s arms and hands. They were knotted so tightly that it took her several minutes, but she loosened them enough that he was able to slip one hand out and assist in getting the binding off the other one. With the ties off, Sean grabbed the door handle and pulled.
It was locked tight.
“We have to jimmy the lock,” Ashley said.
Sean cursed under his breath. “With what? It’s a heavy metal door too.”
Ashley felt along the wall for the light switch. “Oh wait, it’s just that lightbulb with a string pull to turn it on.”
She walked back and forth across the dark space waving her arms in the air to feel for the string.
“Here it is.”
She pulled on it, and the single lightbulb threw a dim light across the room.
“Now, is there anything here we can use to break the lock?” she said.
They looked everywhere, but it was just a big open warehouse space with nothing in it. No poles, no big pieces of wood, not even a chair.
Sean groaned in exasperation, and Ashley hung her head in frustration. As she was looking down, she spied a metal triangle plate lying on the floor against the corner of the room. It looked to be about twelve inches b
y nine inches. She reached down and grabbed it.
“Look, it’s only about a half inch thick, and it is sharp on the side. Maybe if you jam it down right behind where the handle sits in the lock, you can dislodge it.”
Sean grabbed it and started jabbing the metal plate behind the lock, coming down on it with full strength. He kept hacking away, and the handle jumped each time.
Finally, it broke.
“Oh no! Now we have nothing to grab onto,” Ashley cried.
Sean reached inside the lock barrel and hacked away at the insides with the sharp end of the metal triangle and heard a loud click.
The door popped open.
“Great job!” Ashley exclaimed.
They slowly cracked the door open and peeked out. There was a long hallway in front of them leading out.
“Oh no. What if it’s locked like this on that end?” she said.
“We have to take our chances. Be quiet in case someone else is still here,” Sean said.
They crept out quietly down the hallway toward a door at the end.
It was locked solid too.
But off to the side was another room that looked like a walk-in office. And there was a small window in there.
“Let’s break the glass,” Ashley said.
She still had the metal triangle in her hand and handed it to Sean.
“Wait! Take off your sweatshirt and shield your eyes,” she said.
After Sean wrapped the shirt around his neck and partially over his face, he swung the metal plate at the window, and it cracked.
One more swing and it broke.
“Stand back,” he said.
He swung his leg against the broken pane, and it shattered.
“Let’s go!” he said.
He reached over and carefully pulled Ashley through the window.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
They looked around them. It was desolate as far as the eye could see in the dark. No lights anywhere. They were literally in the middle of nowhere.
“We have to get away from here because they’ll be back,” Ashley said.
“Right,” Sean said. “Which direction should we head?”
“Let’s go that way.” Ashley pointed to the right. There appeared to be large shapes in the distance. If those are hills, then at least we will have shade and cover when day breaks.”
Ashley Crane Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 57