Pine said, “I probably look like a lot of people who you think are trouble.”
Atkins nodded but her suspicious look was still present on her features. “I have a surveillance camera set up at the end of my driveway. I got an alert and saw on my phone when you drove in. Joe taught me all about surveillance. But the stuff they have nowadays? All wireless with a phone app. It’s how I disarmed my alarm system before coming in just now.”
Pine just stared at the gun.
“Wanda told me you were snooping around.”
Pine said nothing. She just kept her eyes on the pistol held against Blum’s head.
“Wanda said you were looking for Becky.”
Now Pine spoke. “Her name is Mercy. Not Becky. That was the name you gave her.”
“Well, whatever, she was Becky to me.” She glanced at Pine’s waist. “You’re FBI, so you got a gun. Take it out and put it on the floor. Real, real slow. I know how to use this gun real good.”
Pine took out her Glock and, holding it by the muzzle, knelt, and set it on the floor. Pine had a Beretta Nano in an ankle holster as her backup weapon, but it was useless so long as Atkins had the gun against Blum’s head.
Atkins smiled in triumph as Pine stood. “Now, that’s real good. No trouble from you I can see. Becky was a badass. A real troublemaker. You, not so much.”
Pine just stood there looking at Atkins.
The woman said, “Now, you two are going to get in Gail’s little hidey-hole.”
“And then what?” asked Pine.
“And then I’m leaving. I’m all packed to go, suitcase in the car. I was as soon as Wanda called me.”
“And Gail?”
“She’ll be coming with me. She needs me to take care of her, don’t you, Gail?”
Gail looked up at Pine with baleful eyes.
“You don’t have to go with her, Gail,” said Pine.
“Hey, hey!” cried out Atkins. “You don’t tell her shit like that. You do that again, your friend here gets it good.” She shoved the muzzle so hard into Blum’s face that the woman moaned.
“Okay,” said Pine. “Okay.”
“That’s better,” said Atkins, clearly enjoying this. “Now move.”
Pine led the way with Atkins bringing up the rear, her gun still pointed at Blum’s head.
They entered the HVAC room where the underground space was.
“Okay, you can hold up right there,” said Atkins. She shoved Blum toward Pine. The woman staggered and nearly fell, but Pine was quick enough to catch her.
Now Atkins pointed her gun at Pine as her finger slid to the trigger.
“I take it we’re going down into that space feet first,” said Pine.
“Well, I can’t very well let you live to tell people things. I guess somebody will find you eventually. By then, I’ll be in another country.”
“It’ll be tough to get out of the country with Gail.”
“Who said she was coming?” Atkins said brusquely.
“So you’re going to kill her, too?” said Pine.
“Gail is a little scared mouse. She’ll do what I tell her to do and—”
The next instant Atkins cried out because Gail had jumped forward and bitten down on the hand holding the gun. She scratched and clawed at the woman’s eyes. They struggled until Atkins brought the gun down on Gail’s head, and the girl gasped and fell away.
Then a far stronger hand gripped Atkins’s gun. She looked up into the face of Pine.
Pine couldn’t help but smile as she cocked her arm back and then slammed her bony fist into the woman’s face. The massive blow flung the much smaller woman against the wall, where Atkins slumped to the floor, unconscious.
When Atkins woke up about ten minutes later, she moaned and slowly sat up. Her eye was blackened and swollen shut, and her right cheek was heavily bruised. She looked up with her good eye at Pine, who towered over her.
“Get up,” said Pine.
“I . . . I don’t think I can. I’m—”
Pine gripped her under the arm and jerked Atkins to her feet.
She pulled the woman over to the box on the hand truck, and pushed her down on it.
Gail cowered in a corner, holding a washcloth filled with ice against her injured head. Blum stood next to Pine.
Pine said, “Your little mouse turned into a lioness, Desiree. I saw a little girl do that after being kidnapped by a creep in Colorado. He never thought she would do what she did, because she was young and a girl. He’s currently in a state pen for the rest of his life.”
Atkins glared at Gail and rubbed her swollen cheek. “I need a doctor.”
“You’re going to need a lot of things, including a lawyer. But even that won’t be good enough to save your ass.”
“You broke into my home and I was defending myself.”
“And Gail?”
“I have no idea who she is. Was she hiding in here? I never come into this room.”
Pine gave Atkins a condescending look. “Three witnesses against you, Desiree. And the fact that you have a hidey hole where Gail was forced to live. And then there’s the little matter of what happened back in Georgia.”
“What happened back in Georgia was that bitch Becky killed my husband,” Atkins barked furiously. Spit flew out of her mouth along with the words.
“Now there’s the real Desiree Atkins. I knew you were just hiding the psychopath in there somewhere.” Pine leaned against the wall. “Why don’t you tell me what happened that night?”
“Why don’t you go to hell?”
Blum stepped forward. “You’re going to prison. The only question is for how long. If you cooperate, it won’t be as long as it otherwise would be.”
When Atkins didn’t answer Pine pulled out her phone. “Okay, let’s just get the cops in here. They’ll charge you with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and attempted murder, among other felonies, and then we’ll call the Georgia police. They’ve been looking for you for a long time, Desiree. You fled a murder scene. There’s no statute of limitations on murder. And you imprisoned Mercy. We have video proof, and Wanda will testify as well. You’ve got no chance.”
Pine started to punch in the number.
“Wait!” exclaimed Atkins.
Pine looked at the woman while her finger hovered over the phone. “I’m listening.”
“What do you want to know?”
“We know Mercy broke out of her prison. Then what?”
“She attacked us. She knifed Joe and went after me. But I got away.”
“Where’d she get the knife?”
“She had it with her.”
Pine held up her phone. “If you keep lying I will call the police and it’s all over.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Mercy had no knife. We saw the tape.”
Atkins knitted her brows. “She . . . she must’ve found one on the way to the house.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you leave butcher knives lying all over the ground. Who fired the shot?”
“What shot?”
Pine held up her phone again but said nothing.
“That . . . that was Joe. He . . . Becky jumped him and he shot at her, but missed.”
“You don’t miss with a shotgun, not at close range.”