I saw stars. I wanted to faint, I really did, because then the pain would go away. Unfortunately, all I did was slump off the bucket. Strong hands grabbed at my shirt and dragged me onto the ground outside the car.
I tried to stand up, but the thing knocked me upside the head again, and I slid down to rest on the concrete. I could hear Stump barking furiously and Viv stuttering something between indignation and terror. Then I was being dragged by one arm around to the front of the car.
“Pull it around to the back,” a voice said. It was Sylvia, I realized. Sylvia, with a voice like steel, giving orders to some unseen person who did as they were told.
I got my feet under me enough to crab walk instead of being completely dragged. Ahead of me Viv had her hands on the back of her head, her own gun shoved into her back by the paunchy guy. He led her to the back door, which stood open now, and pushed her inside. Sylvia and I followed.
Sylvia shoved me hard enough to knock me down, then went back to the doorway. “Shut that damn thing up,” she barked. “It’ll wake up the whole town.”
Whoever was in the car was as powerless against Stump’s fury as I was, I noted with a totally-inappropriate-for-the-mess-I-was-in sense of smugness. Finally he came in carrying Stump in her box.
Rey. Rey the jerk, Rey the scumbag, Rey the murderer.
“Give me my dog,” I said from my position on the floor.
He dropped the box and Stump landed with a yelp of pain. “Shut her up,” he said.
“Hey!” Viv shouted. Rey shoved her into the same chair she’d sat in the other day when we “interviewed” Sylvia.
I looked up at the paunchy guy. “I know you’re the one who broke into my house.”
“Congratulations, Sherlock,” Rey said. He squatted in front of me, his face nonchalant. “What are you going to do about it?”
“We’re going to alert the authorities and they’re going to put him in jail,” Viv said.
Rey and the guy laughed. Sylvia didn’t seem to see the humor in it any more than I did.
“You two quit kidding around and get this taken care of. I told you it wasn’t a good idea to send him, mijo.”
Rey shrugged. “What difference does it make now? Thomas gave her a warning, she didn’t heed the warning, so now we’ll go back to the original plan.” He gave me a cold smile that made my blood chill. I didn’t want to know what the original plan was.
I remembered Thomas now, one of the many cousins who lived in Oklahoma City who came to visit occasionally. He might have been at Tony’s and my wedding, I didn’t remember. He was a few years younger than Tony and Rey, the little shadow who idolized Rey and did everything Rey told him to do. Even now he was looking to Rey for his next move.
Sylvia, on the other hand, looked completely POed. “This is completely out of hand, Rey. Things weren’t supposed to go this way. If you had listened to me from the beginning this would never have happened. I told you that girl was bad news, and now look at me. About to have two more murders on my head.”
“Don’t, Mama.” Rey rose and hugged his mother. “Don’t do this to yourself. Think about your blood pressure. I’ll take care of it this time.”
“This time?” I blurted. I looked at Sylvia, shocked. “You killed Lucinda?”
“It’s none of your business!” Sylvia lunged toward me, her hand raised to slap me. I scooted back as quick as I could. “This was a family matter. If you’d kept your fat ass out of it everything would have worked out fine. You had to barge in and mess up everything.”
“I was just trying to help Tony. He doesn’t deserve to go to prison for something he didn’t do.”
“You idiot. He wouldn’t have gone to prison. Don’t you know anything? Tony is squeaky clean. His record is spotless and the evidence against him is completely circumstantial. He has a great lawyer. He would have gotten off.” She laughed, a cold laugh that chilled my blood. “St. Anthony the Perfect would never have served a day of prison time.”
I shook my head. “You mean you didn’t try to frame him?”
“We didn’t do anything except divert suspicion away from Rey. Tony would have had his day in court, he would have been acquitted, and everything would have gone back to normal.”
The fog was beginning to clear somewhat. “So, you killed Lucinda and framed Tony, and left just enough evidence for him to be charged but not convicted.” I hugged Stump to me. “That’s a risky game, Sylvia. There are a million things that could have gone wrong with that.”
“Yeah, like a nosy fat bitch sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong.” Rey kicked my thigh and Stump growled.
“That’s enough!” Viv said sharply. “The next person who calls her fat is going to regret it. She happens to be big-boned.”
I looked at Viv. “Thanks, but right now we have bigger issues to deal with. We can tackle fat discrimination another day.”
“There’s not going to be another day for you,” Rey said cheerfully. He looked at Thomas. “What do you think? Cut them? Or take them out and shoot them?”
“You can’t make it look like a murder, mijo,” Sylvia said. “It has to be an accident.” She pursed her lips and studied us for a second. Then she reached for the door going into the shop, turning to Thomas. “You keep an eye on them. Keep them quiet, whatever you have to do. But don’t shoot them.”
She went into the hallway and Rey followed, closing the door behind them.
The fact that he had strict orders not to shoot us should have made me feel somewhat secure. But it didn’t. It was, after all, a very big gun and although he didn’t look like he wanted to shoot us, he looked like he could panic at the first hint of trouble and apologize for it later.
I chewed my lip and looked at Viv. Maybe she had an idea of how to get us out of this. But there weren’t any light bulbs going off over her head. In the movies this was always where the bad guy started monologuing, explaining how the crime had happened. I had a lot of questions, but mostly they were about me and how I could stay alive. Lucinda was pretty much knocked off the top of my priority list at the moment. But since I didn’t know how to manage that, I settled for the next question on my list.
“What does Ricky Barlow have to do with all this?” I asked quietly.
“Shut up,” Thomas said.
“I’m sorry, I’m just curious. I know he’s connected because I followed you from his house. But I don’t know how. What did he do?”
Thomas ignored me.
“He seems pretty clean. I mean, he used to party a lot when we were younger, but I can’t figure out what he has to do with all this.”
Silence.
“Did Lucinda know him?”
“You need to shut up. I can’t shoot you, but I can knock the hell out of you.” He raised an eyebrow. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
My stomach did a somersault. “Don’t get ugly,” I said. “I’m just curious. This doesn’t add up. He’s not connected in any way except he’s a friend of Rey’s…” I stopped and chewed my lip. “Is he Rey’s alibi?”
It was a shot in the dark, but I could see on Thomas’s face that it was on target.
“But how is that even possible? He was here, and Rey’s alibi is in Oklahoma City. That makes no sense.”
“Maybe he went to Oklahoma City and posed as someone else to be Rey’s alibi,” Viv said.
Thomas rolled his eyes. “How stupid is that? He would have had to know in advance that Rey was going to be here and going to need an alibi for that to work, and nobody knew Rey was going to be here. Sylvia didn’t even know until Rey called her from the church.”
Viv and I looked at each other. So we were the stupid ones, huh?
“So, Rey went to the church to talk to Lucinda? But then things went south? And he had to call in his mommy for help?”
Thomas glared. Looked kind of pouty to me. Like he’d just lost the Monopoly game.
“And then words were said,” Viv said.
“Lucinda probably insulted Sylvia’s cooking.” I looked at Viv and nodded.
“So Sylvia killed her,” she said.
“Rey was right. You are a smart-mouthed bitch. I should have done what he suggested to you that night, instead of holding back like Sylvia wanted.” He gave me an up-and-down lecherous look that made it perfectly clear what Rey had suggested he do to me.
I should have been scared. Actually, I was scared, but the fear was making me sick and if I kept smarting off and concentrating on keeping one up on Thomas, I could keep my mind off the fact that I was probably about to die. If I thought about that I’d start to cry and the last thing I wanted was to have Rey come back in and see me crying.
“You always do what you’re told, don’t you, little Tommy boy? Always Rey’s little shadow, following whatever orders Rey gives you.”
“Shut up.”
“See, Viv, we’re wasting our breath with this guy. He doesn’t know what happened that night. He only knows what Rey tells him to do, and he’s so busy keeping his head up Rey’s butt he can’t even see that they’re using him.”
Thomas stood and leveled the gun at me. “You’d better keep in mind that you want me to follow orders right now.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. At last my big mouth was showing some intelligence.
I looked up at Viv. Her face drooped like an old hound dog’s. “You know, everybody was right. We’re no good at this detective thing. We never did figure it out. And now we’re going to die.”
“No, we’re not. They wouldn’t kill us.”
“Sure they would. They killed Lucinda. They framed Tony to take the fall for it. Why wouldn’t they kill us, too?”
Viv was scaring me even more than Thomas and the gun were. “Lucinda was an accident. And you heard Sylvia, they never intended for Tony to go to jail. They just used him to take the heat off Rey.”
Viv turned to Thomas, her hands shaky and her voice pleading. “If it was an accident, then it’s not too late for this all to be straightened out. Maybe Rey or Sylvia would do a little bit of jail time, but they’d get off light. Not like the prison time he’s going to get for murdering her and us. Was it an accident? Was it?”
Thomas swallowed and lowered the gun. He shook his head. “I don’t really know. All I know is Lucinda and Rey had a fight, then Sylvia said she had to step in and take care of things.”
“But why did Lucinda call Tony that night?” I asked. “Did Rey break that floor buffer just to get him up there?”
“You’re totally over-thinking it, Salem. Lucinda never called anybody, the buffer was never broken.” Rey came into the room holding two glasses. Ricky Barlow followed him, looking sick and terrified. You’d think from the look on his face he was the one about to be murdered.
“Why?” Viv asked at the same time I said, “What are you doing here?”
Sylvia came in behind them, carrying a length of fabric and looking grim.
“Rey went to see her because he wanted to talk to Lucinda. Just talk. About the baby and about what they were going to do. But Lucinda never would listen.” She said something in Spanish that didn’t sound like a compliment. “She never knew how to keep her mouth shut. She’s the one who’s the troublemaker and always has been. I warned Rey about her, but he all he saw were those big innocent eyes and that body she flashed around.”
She stepped behind me and pulled my arms behind my back. “Don’t you judge me, Salem. You have no idea how hard it is to raise a family, and you never will. You don’t know what a mother would do for her son.”
As she talked she wrapped the fabric around my wrists, tying them tight enough I couldn’t get out.
“Would she kill for him?” I asked.
“If she had to!” She tugged the fabric and pulled my shoulders painfully. “Don’t you dare judge me! If it meant saving her son from a prison sentence he didn’t deserve, then yes, she would. If she was any kind of mother at all, she damn sure would.” Sylvia straightened and pushed her hair out of her face. “You weren’t there, Salem. You have no idea what happened or what you would have done if you’d been there. All Rey wanted to do was talk to her, and she goaded him and teased him with threats of going to Tony. No one in their right mind would be able to withstand that kind of torture from the woman he loved, from the woman carrying his child. Of course he snapped.”
“He snapped?” Viv asked. “How did he snap?”
“None of your business,” Sylvia said.
“I did what I should have done a long time ago,” Rey said. “I shut her up. I gave her a taste of what happens when you don’t treat people right. She never treated me right. She used me and then threw me away.”
“Stephanie said you refused to marry Lucinda.”
“That’s a lie!” Sylvia shoved Viv until she was perched on the edge of the chair, then snatched at her arms and began to wind the fabric tight around her wrists, too. “That lying little tramp had better keep her mouth shut if she knows what’s good for her. She doesn’t know the first thing about anything. All she knows is what Lucinda told her and you can’t believe one single word of that. Rey wanted to marry her, tried to marry her, but all he did was insist she take a test to make sure the baby was really his. He was going to marry her even if it wasn’t his. He just wanted to know the truth so they could start out the marriage in truth, in honesty.”
I snuck a look at Rey. Somehow I didn’t think the paternity test was completely his idea.
“So you hit her?” I asked quietly.
He stared at me. He didn’t have to say the word yes. He didn’t have to say that he’d do it again in a heartbeat, that he wasn’t a bit sorry. His eyes said it all.
“But it didn’t kill her. You hurt her enough for it to be serious, maybe even knocked her unconscious. You panicked, didn’t know what to do. So you did what you always do. You called your mommy.”
I lifted my chin and waited for Rey to hit me again. So I was a little startled when the knock to my head came from Sylvia, straight into my right temple.
This time I almost did pass out. I kept talking, because I thought if I didn’t, I would pass out. Irrationally, I thought that if I could just stay conscious, I could stay alive. “Sylvia showed up and knew you were about to go to prison for beating up a pregnant woman and her unborn child. Maybe you even killed the baby. That’s at least a manslaughter charge right there.”
“A manslaughter charge he did not deserve!” Sylvia barked. She jerked the fabric at Viv’s wrists.
“Ow, bitch!” Viv shouted. She pulled forward. “The tunnels! Under the church! Remember, Salem? We saw them the other day when we were up in the tower. They snuck through the tunnels.” Viv looked very proud of herself. “That’s how they got in and nobody saw them.”
“But how did you get into the tunnels?” I asked. Then I remembered the last time Viv and I had been to the laundromat to speak to Sylvia. That seemed like months ago, but it was just a couple of days. Sylvia had pointed out the door that led to the basement. There was probably access to the tunnels in her basement. Viv had said they went all over downtown.
Ricky stood in the corner, looking like he wanted to blend into the paint, and Rey walked by and hissed something at him. He looked at Viv and me and nodded grimly.
Sylvia ignored my question and answered one no one had asked. “He was goaded into it, Lucinda egged him on.” She groaned as she straightened and stood. “She knew just which buttons to push to get him to lose his temper, and then she went running to the police when he did. She liked playing with him like that, liked the power she had over him. She played with him like a cat with a mouse. She was the one who deserved prison, not my son. Not my son who was working so hard to turn his life around, who wanted nothing more than to raise his child and live in peace. Not my son who’d just gotten the call to serve God, who’d just developed a passion for helping people.”
I was real careful not to let my face show what I thought about that statement. Rey serving God. Rey helping people. Puh-leeze. I believed, of course, that people could change. I had to believe it, since I’d been trying so hard to be one of those people. But looking at Rey’s eyes right then, I didn’t think he was one of those people.
I felt sorry for Sylvia. She was right; I had no idea what it was like, raising a son. A son who disappointed you, broke your heart, manipulated you repeatedly to clean up his messes and fix what he’d broken. I had no idea. Shoot, I’d probably do the same for Stump and she was my dog, not my flesh and blood. I still didn’t want Sylvia to kill me, but I did feel sorry for her.
Sylvia picked up one of the glasses Rey had brought in. What was in those glasses? Rat poison? Something that would eat my insides out?
I looked at Viv. She was coasting on her tunnel epiphany, which I had to admit, was satisfying to know. Kind of like when you finally figured out where you’d seen that bit actor before. It wasn’t as if that discovery was what we needed to get us out of this mess, but it did seem to put some pep back in her.
“There is no way you’re going to get away with this,” she said. “You’ll be charged with capital murder.” She looked from Sylvia, to Rey, to Thomas and then to Ricky. Of all of them, only Ricky looked like he might be wavering a little. He also looked the least capable of helping us off this runaway train.
“We won’t be charged with a thing, since you’re going to both die in a tragic, fiery accident which will be entirely the fault of your alcoholic friend here. Too bad Salem, a known drunk, had to drink and drive off a cliff. Too bad gas is going to leak out and catch the whole car on fire.” She brought the glass over to me and took hold of my chin. “Open up, sweetie. You’re going to like this. It’s your favorite.”
It could have been all my favorites mixed together and dipped in chocolate and I still was having none of it. I clamped my lips together, feeling foolish but also determined to keep my wits about me. I just thought over the past few days that I wanted a drink. Turned out what I really wanted was to live.
“Come pry her mouth open,” she ordered Thomas and Rick.
They did as they were told. Thomas twisted my nose with one hand and grabbed my jaw with the other. I did my best to writhe out of his grip, but with Thomas in front of me and Rick behind me putting a choke hold on my skull, I was pretty much outmatched. I tried to close my throat but choked and swallowed a fiery mouthful.
“Keep on it,” Sylvia ordered, more in charge of her emotions now. I guess she was one of those people who, when the ball got rolling, found her stride and carried through. Goodie for her. “She’ll need enough in her to make it look legitimate. How many Jack and Cokes can you handle, Salem?” She looked blandly at me, her eyebrows raised. “A drunk like you? Six or eight?”
I fought to come up for air. They were going to suffocate me before they got me drunk. Thomas was about to break my nose in his death grip. And despite everything, the alcohol was already taking effect. It was hot and liquid down my throat, filling my belly. Adrenalin shooting through me kept the relaxation from transferring to the rest of my body.
I heard a shuffle and looked up just in time to see Viv launch herself into Sylvia. They both fell across me and the glass flew out of Sylvia’s hand.
“You old bitch!” Rey yelled.
Sylvia rolled on the floor, squawking about how her knee hurt. She’d hit the concrete floor with all her weight on it, poor baby.
Rey kicked Viv in the ribs and I screamed at him. Stump went berserk. She came out of the box and stumbled, growling, toward Rey’s leg.
Thomas kicked her. The son of a bitch kicked her for the second time and sent her skidding across the room. Filled with that superhuman strength that happens when people are put in desperate situations, I launched myself off the floor and threw myself, bound hands and all, at him.
It was pure pandemonium for a second. It didn’t stop until Sylvia took the gun from Thomas and slammed it into my head. That was the third damn time she’d hit me in the head and I had just about had enough of it. I decided if I was going to die I’d at least leave some marks on them to give the police a clue. I head butted her as hard as I could in the chin. I heard her teeth clonk together and saw her eyes roll up in her head. She didn’t faint, though. She blinked a few times, then sank to the chair Viv had been in.
“Get them out of here.” Her voice was thin and tired. “Take them out to the canyon and put Salem in the driver’s seat. Make sure neither one of them has a seat belt on. Get a big rock and knock a hole in the gas tank.” She took a deep breath, let it out, and rubbed a hand over her face. “Make sure you do it someplace they won’t be discovered for a while. I don’t want anyone to see the fire and come running.”
“Should we kill them before they go over, just in case someone comes by, or in case they don’t die in the crash?” Thomas asked.
“No, you idiot. They have to have some smoke in their lungs or the police will get suspicious. They have to be alive when the car catches fire.” She stood and rubbed the small of her back. “You’ll have to stick around long enough to know they’re dead. If they get out alive, we’ll all go to prison.” She looked from one to the other. “You do all understand that, don’t you? We’re all equally involved now. Some of us are in even more trouble and don’t need for this to get out.” She looked at Rick.
He looked, if possible, worse than I felt. Guilty and horrified and panicked.
“What does she have on you?” I asked.
Sylvia slapped me. At that point I guessed she was too tired to put any heart into it, so it didn’t hurt too bad. Besides, at that point what was a slap to me, someone who’d been knocked in the head and was about to die a gruesome, fiery death? But that slap told me enough.
I decided the best thing Viv and I could do was get away from Sylvia. As long as she was running the show, I didn’t have much chance of talking my way out of this.
I looked at Viv. Her lip was bleeding from the scuffle when she’d thrown herself at me. Her thin hair was sticking out. Her mouth was set in a grim line. I was glad to see she didn’t look scared, just mad as hell. I hoped that would help us out.
I nodded at her, hoping to convey to her that I had a plan. I didn’t, but I was doing my best to put one together. I also prayed for everything I was worth. God, tell me what to do. Tell me what to do. Get me out of this. I don’t want to die now.
I stood when Rey put his hand under my arm. I nodded again at Viv to show her it was okay, we were going to be okay. She stood but jerked her arm away from Thomas.
“I can walk, thank you very much.” She stuck her nose in the air and walked out the door like he was a slow maitre’d.
Rey frowned when he got the door open to the pickle-mobile. “It figures you’d drive this piece of shit car, Salem.”
I smiled at him. “Haven’t you ever driven on a pickle bucket? You’re in for a treat.” I climbed in the backseat and slid around on the junk back there. Rick climbed in after me, having to fold his body in half to fit, and Thomas pushed Viv in after him.
Rey and Thomas mumbled to themselves as Rey drove out of the parking lot. “Dude, I hope we don’t all die in this car,” Thomas said, serious concern on his face as he watched Rey try to stay up.
“You’ll get the hang of it,” I told him. “Just don’t make any sudden moves.”
I, on the other had, had to make my move soon; I didn’t want to be out of town before I took action. Besides, having my shoulders pinched back like that hurt like the dickens and my head swam from the liquor.
I turned to Ricky, keeping my voice low. “I don’t know what they have on you, but I guarantee it’s not as bad as helping them commit murder.”
He stared straight ahead, looking sick.
“Sylvia probably has you convinced you have no options, but that’s not true. Viv and I will both testify that they made you do this. I’ll swear on my life that you were forced to be here. I know in my heart you don’t want to do this. I know you wouldn’t be here if you thought you had any other choice.”
His jaw worked and from the streetlights that flashed by I thought I saw a shiny spot in the corner of his eye.
“It’s not too late. We can stop this now before you get in too deep and Sylvia gets you into prison. Viv and I will testify that you were blackmailed and that you helped us escape. We’ll do everything we can to make sure you get off as lightly as possible. What does she have on you, Rick? What is she using to force you to do this?”
He clenched his teeth together and, barely turning his head, he looked from the back of Rey’s head to me. He looked like someone caught in a trap.
“What is it, Rick? Maybe I can help you. Don’t forget that you have something on Sylvia now, too. You know she committed murder. You can use that. You can plea bargain your testimony against her in exchange for a light deal in whatever she’s using against you. You can do that, I know the D.A. would go for that.”
“You don’t know jack!” Rick whispered. “You have no idea what’s going on or what to do about it.”
“I know that helping them commit two more murders isn’t going to help you!” I hissed back. Man, my arms were screaming and the alcohol had me fighting to keep on task. I leaned up and looked at Viv. Her face was white and her chin sagged against her chest. She gave me a look that chilled me. She looked like she’d already given up.
Rey threw a look over his shoulder. “They behaving back there, dude? Not giving you any trouble, are they?”
“Salem’s about passed out and the old lady looks like she died already.” Rick shot a look at me that said I’d better keep my mouth shut.
I did, for a few seconds. We were going over the flyover to the interstate now. A few more miles and we’d be exiting to head out to the canyon. Nobody would be on that road this time of night. If we were going to do something, it had to be now.
“Just think about it,” I said, trying not to sound desperate. “You know more about this crime than anyone except the guilty parties, I’ll bet. You can hand the D.A. a case all wrapped up in a shiny package. You can make their jobs so much easier. Of course they’ll go for that. Ricky, don’t you want to go home to that pretty wife and daughter? Don’t you want all this to be over?”
He whipped his head toward me. “Of course that’s what I want! That’s all I want. That’s all I’ve wanted for the past three years was just to have a normal life, to keep out of trouble and be a good husband and a good father. Sylvia promised me that if I helped Rey out this time she’d make sure nothing ever came back to haunt me and mess that up.”
Three years. Three years Sylvia had been holding something over Rick’s head.
Rick’s brother John died three years ago. But he’d been drunk, the crash was his own fault.
I took a stab in the dark. “You were with John when he died?”
He shook his head. “No, I wasn’t with him then. I was with him before.”
I got it then. Rick and John had been drinking together before John had his accident. Possibly Rick could have been charged with involuntary manslaughter if he’d contributed to John drinking and then driving. I knew all about that kind of thing. Way more than I wanted to know.
“You know, don’t you, that the deal with John isn’t anything like this?”
He stared at the back of Thomas’s seat and didn’t answer.
“You know that a charge like that can be reduced to probation, to house arrest. It’s nothing like murder, Rick. This is going to be murder, first degree –”
“I can’t let my wife know!” he said suddenly. “I can’t let her know about John, I can’t let her know about this. She’d never understand, she thinks I’m a saint, she thinks I’m the best thing that ever happened to her. If I lose her and Kaylee I couldn’t go on, Salem. I have to make this work somehow, I can’t –”
A shriek pierced the air and like a gray blur Viv shot out of her seat. She thudded into Rey’s back, her arms still tight behind her.
The car swerved sharply to the left, toward the median. Rey yelled a curse and wrenched the wheel back to the right. The tires squealed and we were sideways in the middle of the interstate, leaning hard toward the driver’s side.
Rick and I were thrown against Viv. I heard a lot of screaming and realized most of it was coming from me, but I couldn’t stop. I thought that if all our weight was on that one side of the car, surely it would have to tip all the way over and flip. I didn’t know if any of us would live through that.
With strength born of desperation, I threw my body up and back, hitting the passenger side of the car as hard as I could. The car bounced back with all four tires on the ground. For once I was glad I was packing all that extra weight.
Rey was in the back seat now, tangled up wi