Dead of Summer
Page 23
Jack tensed when she mentioned Kenya. He glanced over his shoulder toward the man who still had his back turned then wrenched his attention back to Alexa. He flashed a tight smile, straightening the cuffs of his perfectly-tailored shirt.
She plowed ahead. “It’s funny, Jack. When I was in the Nairobi airport, I thought I saw you from a distance. Were you in Africa, too?”
“Africa?” Vivienne looked like she’d eaten something sour. “How ridiculous. Jack was in Brussels to accept the Queen’s International Children’s Advocacy award.”
Alexa wanted to swat this skinny, violet-eyed fly away as she kept all her attention focused on the husband.
After a long pause, Jack broke his silence. “Perhaps I have a doppelganger out there, my dear. I haven’t been to Africa for years. As Vivienne says, I also missed the board meeting due to the conference in Brussels. I was so honored to receive the queen’s award. Was this your first safari?” He directed the question at Susan.
“No. Norris and I have been on several trips to Africa, but this was the first for Alexa.”
“Oh, I don’t believe in doppelgangers. I could swear that it was you, Jack.” Alexa’s attempt to press further was interrupted when the tall, silver-haired man next to Chadwick Young turned to join the conversation. Alexa did a double take. This man looked exactly like an older, heavier Quinn. Even his eyes were that same shade of blue—the one that reminded Alexa of glacial lakes.
Jack laughed and clapped the newcomer on the back. “Quinn, look who we’ve got here. You remember Susan from Woodstock? And this is her daughter, Alexa Williams.”
The tall man spoke with a pronounced upper-crust New England accent. “Susan, I’m sorry . . .” He appeared to be at a loss. After a moment his expression cleared, and he flashed an enigmatic smile. “Of course! Sukie, isn’t it? Ahhhh.” His plummy voice became nostalgic. “Peace and love. Those were the days, weren’t they?”
Her face frozen in shock, Susan stood there as if rooted to the ground, pressing her clutch to her chest. Finally, in a strangled voice, she croaked, “Eskimo?”
While intrigued to finally meet someone from her mom’s Woodstock days, Alexa was concerned that Susan looked so terribly pale and distraught.
Jack and this older Quinn exchanged a delighted glance. Jack cried in a jovial tone, “You got it, Sukie. Quinn, the mighty Eskimo. It’s been ages since anyone called him that.”
“So,” Alexa interjected. “I take it you are my friend Quinn’s father?” She edged closer to her mother, who seemed close to collapse.
“He probably never mentioned that he’s Quinn the fourth. I’m Quinn the third. Although, when your mother knew me, I went by Eskimo. That nickname absolutely appalled my parents, which was probably part of the motivation.”
Vivienne, who had paid little attention to the conversation, put a petulant hand on Jack’s arm. “I hate to interrupt this reunion, but we have other guests waiting.”
“Of course, dear.” He turned to Alexa and Susan. “Perhaps we can talk more later. Nice to see you both.”
Jostled aside by another group of guests, Alexa gritted her teeth at the abrupt end to any chance to further quiz Jack on Africa. But she had to attend to her mother, who looked on the verge of fainting. Alexa grabbed her mother by the elbow and steered her toward the house. “Mom, are you OK?”
Behind them, Quinn’s father called, “Peace out, Sukie. That’s a lovely daughter you’ve got there. She’s yar.”
“Did he just say yar, like Katherine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story? Who says that?” Alexa snorted.
Her mother asked in a choked voice, “Where is the ladies’ room?”
Alexa glanced over her shoulder before they entered the villa. A few yards away from the reception line, Jack and Quinn the Eskimo were deep in conversation with a stocky man in a gray suit and a uniformed security guard.
Chapter Forty
WHEN SUSAN STUMBLED INTO the empty powder room, Alexa yanked a chair from the vanity in the anteroom and eased her mother into the seat.
“Mom, I’m seriously worried here. Are you sick? What’s wrong?” She fished through her purse for a cell phone to call 911.
Susan closed her eyes and whispered. “I remembered. They killed her.”
Alexa abandoned the search for her cell and strained to hear. “Killed who? Cecily?”
Her mother opened her eyes and raised her voice in anguish. “No, I have no idea who killed Cecily. I’m talking about Willow, the girl who died at Woodstock. The shock of seeing Eskimo so completely out of the blue—I remembered what happened.”
“Shhh. I don’t think this is the place to talk about this.” Alexa looked again to make sure they were alone. “Let’s use the facilities and get out of here.”
Without saying their farewells, Alexa and Susan rushed out of the house. As they waited for the Land Rover, Alexa shifted her weight from foot to foot uneasy about the scene they’d just fled. She kept glancing toward the front door expecting Jack Nash or the stocky man to appear. Susan leaned against a balustrade, taking deep gulps of air, her normal color returning.
Heading down the lane, Alexa was glad to leave the villa behind even though she had unfinished business with Jack Nash.
“You’re looking much better, Mom.” Twilight waned, and the tall trees on both sides of the winding lane blotted out the remaining glimmer of light. Alexa drove slowly, watching for deer on the road. “There’s a bottle of water in the center console.”
Her mother rolled down the passenger window a few inches and took a drink. “Oh, that air feels good. I’m fine, dear. It was the shock of seeing Jack and that vile man, Eskimo, all grown up. In an instant, that night at Woodstock came flooding back.”
“You remembered something?” Alexa cracked her window open, too. Cool, pine-scented air streamed through the Land Rover.
“Yes, about my friend’s death. I left the concert because I was feeling terrible—a migraine on top of being high. When I got back to our campsite, Jack and Quinn were in their tent . . . with Willow, a young girl we’d taken under our wing.
“I thought the boys were acting odd, but my head hurt so much. I just wanted to go to sleep. They were stoned out of their minds. I think Willow was high, too. She was curled in a pile of sleeping bags. Jack sat next to her with a leg flung over her in a disturbing way. Eskimo lounged on her other side with a joint in his mouth. I was a little worried when I saw her there with those two. She was so young . . . only fourteen. I asked her where Levi and her friends were. She told me that they had all gone to hear the Airplane. When she woke from a nap, she’d come to Eskimo and JJ looking for food.”
Susan’s words continued to spill out as if she couldn’t stop them. “Willow asked me. ‘Do you want to hang out with us?’ She sounded like she wanted me to stay. I tried to get her to leave. I said, ‘I’ll walk you back over to camp.’ My head was pounding so hard I felt like I was going to throw up.
“But Eskimo jumped up and said, ‘You don’t look so good. We’ll take care of Willow.’ He pulled a pill out of his pocket and told me, ‘Take this. It will help you sleep.’ He handed me his canteen and told me they were pain pills. So I swallowed a pill and left the three of them there. I remember I turned back at the tent door. I think I was going to offer again to walk Willow back to her tent. But whatever Eskimo gave me had started to kick in. I was getting dizzy. I barely made it to my tent before I passed out. I found out later that he’d given me a Quaalude, a powerful tranquilizer.”
Susan’s voice choked with emotion. “They found Willow when a truck ran over her body. The police questioned me. I got the impression from what they asked that Willow had been raped and beaten before she died.
“A lot of what happened that night has always been hazy. My walk back to our campsite . . . how I got to bed. I had a vague recollection of seeing Willow with Jack and Eskimo. I had a bad feeling about those two guys, but that’s all. Hell, they were such jerks that no one much liked them.
“That’s a pretty heavy accusation, Mom. You didn’t actually see them hurt Willow, did you?”
“No, but they left Woodstock early. They probably wanted to get out of there before someone discovered her body. It all adds up.” Susan’s voice became strident with certainty.
While appalled at what Jack and Quinn’s father had done, Alexa was pleased to see her mother begin to regain her equilibrium. In unlocking the suppressed memory that had haunted her since Woodstock, her mother’s demeanor had evolved from shock to melancholy relief.
Alexa took a quick glance toward Susan. “And forty years later, I see Jack with a group of young refugees in Africa, and he flat out lies about it.”
“I told you, Lexie. Jack Nash is bad news.”
An icy tremor skittered down Alexa’s spine and she pressed down harder on the gas pedal. “And I think he knows that we’re on to him.”
They had descended the mountain and were onto the final flat stretch of the lane. “What’s this? Is there an accident?” Alexa slowed the car. The Land Rover’s headlights revealed a vehicle parked across the lane.
Soon, she could read the words Children of Light Security on the side of the SUV blocking the road. Alexa came to a complete stop well back from the vehicle. There were two security guards standing on the road.
“I don’t like this,” Susan said just as several strong spotlights hit the Land Rover.
Alexa used an arm to shield her eyes from the bright light. “I agree. This doesn’t feel right. It’s not an accident.”
A disembodied voice came over a loudspeaker. “Ladies, please step out of the car.”
“No way.” Alexa protested to her mother.
“Alexa, I think they know I remembered about Willow.”
“Or I could have hit a nerve. Maybe Jack was up to something terrible in Africa.”
The loudspeaker blared again. “Alexa and Susan Williams. We must insist that you step out of the car. This is a security matter.”
Alexa shoved her cell phone toward her mother. “Call 911, now.” But, before Susan could dial, one of the security guards fired a gun in the air.
“What the hell?” Goosebumps blossomed down Alexa’s arms as her mother exclaimed.
“They have no legal grounds for this.”
“We mean business here, ladies. Step out of the car now.”
Alexa and Susan exchanged a dubious glance just as both guards opened fire. A thunderous racket filled the air as the guards unleashed a round of warning gunshots. Shredded pine branches peppered the windshield.
The minute the shooting stopped, Alexa yelled, “Hold on and keep low,” and engaged the Land Rover’s four-wheel drive system. Heart pounding, she drove forward hoping to find a way to edge by the security vehicle. Frantically scanning the area, she spied two evergreen trees on the left that were much shorter than the rest, probably replacements for trees that had died. Alexa jerked the steering wheel and aimed for those trees. If she was right, there was just enough space for the Land Rover to break through—although she had no idea what was on the other side.
“Hold tight. Maybe I can get around these guys through the field.”
When the guards realized what was happening, they began firing again—but the shots were no longer just a warning. As Alexa gunned the Land Rover, shots thudded into the heavy metal of the SUV.
Susan ducked her head and grabbed the dashboard. “Oh my God. Drive, Lexie. Drive!” she screamed.
The passenger window shattered with a loud crack as the car swerved. Alexa ignored the slivers of glass that pierced her right arm, and she plowed right over the trees, just like their guide had done on safari. She breathed a sigh of relief when they landed in a field. Shots pinged off the back of the Land Rover as she drove haphazardly across the field, angling downward toward the fence and the road. But getting back onto the lane safely looked like a long shot.
Tentacles spiraled out in multiple directions from three bullet holes in the right half of the windshield. Air whipped through the opening where the passenger side window had completely shattered. At least the tires seemed unscathed.
“Mom, I don’t know how far I can take the car. We might have to get out and run.” Although Alexa’s actions had initially caught the security team off guard, the lights in the rearview mirror indicated that they had recovered quickly. At least two security vehicles pursued the Land Rover.
Alexa registered that her mother had not answered. “Mom?”
“Drive, Lexie. Don’t worry about me. Something hit me . . . either a bullet or a shard of glass. My side is bleeding, and it hurts like hell.”
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Alexa pounded the steering wheel. “We’ve got to get you to a doctor.”
“First things, first. We need to get out of this place, but it’s surrounded by fences, right?” Susan gasped.
“There’s got to be more than one exit.” Alexa’s tone was grim as she tried to steer the Land Rover over the rough fields.
She spied a grove of trees to the left. Even though it was uphill, she drove toward the wooded area, hoping to use the trees to shield them from her pursuers. Out here in the open fields, dusk had not completely given way to dark. Alexa took a chance and doused the Land Rover’s lights. It was a gamble. Become less visible to the security guys, but risk driving over unknown terrain in near darkness.
Alexa drove behind the grove of trees and downshifted until she coasted to a stop to avoid flashing telltale red brake lights. She smiled when the headlights of the security vehicle veered to the right, toward the fence. Her expression quickly sobered at the sight of her mother holding a cloth, dark with blood, against her lower abdomen.
“I think we lost them for a few minutes. How are you doing?”
“I’m doing, but we need to get out of here. Is that a dirt road over there?” Her mother motioned weakly toward a faint track on the left.
“I think you’re right. I don’t know where it goes, but maybe we could make better time. And it’s headed away from the security guards. There’s got to be some sort of exit near that farmhouse the tour kid talked about.”
Alexa disengaged four-wheel drive and ramped up the speed the minute her wheels hit the dirt lane. Soon, she calculated that they had a five-to ten-minute lead on their pursuers. Of course, they were still trapped inside the fence.
Alexa noticed her mom fiddling with the cell phone. “Did you get through to 911?”
“I don’t think so. When they stared shooting, I dropped the phone. Now I can’t get it to work. And I didn’t bring mine because that damned clutch purse was too small. It’s in my car at the cabin.”
Alexa could see her mother fading. She worried about loss of blood and onset of shock. Her mind raced frantically, trying to figure out a plan. She knew it was only a matter of time before the security vehicles would be joined by reinforcements.
Peering ahead, Alexa spied a large shadow on the horizon. Bales of hay. About thirty big round bales were stacked two high and two deep. As they drove closer, Alexa could see that these bales had been around a while, perhaps since last year’s harvest. She pulled up near the middle of the row.
“Mom, I’m going to get help. But, pretty soon, this car is going to become a liability. I need to be able to travel on foot. Do you have enough strength to climb up there and burrow between the bales?”
“I’ll find the strength.” Susan spoke through obvious pain.
Alexa took off her sweater and tied it around her mother’s side, happy to note that the bleeding had slowed. Then Alexa jumped into the midst of the bales from the hood of the Land Rover. As she suspected, the old bale
s had deteriorated enough for her to dig a shallow tunnel in the straw between two of the upper-level bales. She dug frantically, ignoring the stalks of hay that stabbed her hands. When she had hollowed out a hiding place, Alexa returned to the SUV for her mother.
Susan’s knees buckled when she slid from the car, but she gritted her teeth and hobbled forward. Alexa helped her mother make her way from the front bumper to the hood. “Come on, Mom. You can do it.”
Kneeling on the hood, Susan moaned and swayed. Alexa caught her mother and leaned her against the wall of hay. Straining with effort, she pushed from beneath as her mother crawled into the bales. Groaning in pain, Susan kept going until she reached the trough that Alexa had carved in the hay. Alexa covered her mother with more hay and handed her a bottle of water.
“Try to stay away from the edge. I’ll be back soon. I love you, Mom.” Alexa kissed her mother’s forehead.
“I love you, Lexie. Go now and get help, but please be careful.” Susan closed her eyes and sank back into the hay.
As Alexa slipped off the bales, the dusty smell of freshly turned hay mingled with the metallic smell of her mother’s blood. Her brimming eyes overflowed, and tears trailed down her cheeks. Was she abandoning her mother to the security guards and Jack Nash? Even worse, what if her mom died out here in this godforsaken field?
Alexa wiped her eyes and jumped back into the Land Rover. Although she was frantic about her mother, the best way to help was to find a way to escape this cage. Continuing down the lane, Alexa passed through fields planted with low-growing crops, probably wheat. But it was so dark she could barely see the road anymore. It was either turn on her vehicle’s lights or risk crashing into something.
She grimaced and switched on the headlights. With the illumination, she increased her speed. However, a few minutes later, she knew her pursuers had honed in on the beams like a homing beacon. She could see the glow of a car’s headlights in the distance, turning away from the fence. Her heart sank at a second pair of headlights coming toward her far ahead on the lane.