The door was unlocked and then it opened. She saw in the darkness a hand move to the light switch as the person entered the room. No light came on, obviously. Then the feet reached the batteries underfoot, and the person fell heavily.
That was the only opportunity Pine needed. She could see his outline on the floor from the scant illumination coming from the next room. She smashed her foot right into his diaphragm to keep him from crying out. Her next shot was an elbow strike to the head, which bounced his cranium off the concrete with the same level of whiplash a rear-end car accident might inflict. The impact knocked him cold.
She searched him and pulled out his pistol. Fortunately, in his other pocket was her shield. She used the rope from the chair to secure his hands and feet, and then she slid him over to a corner of the room.
Pine looked closely at his face. This was one of the men who had kidnapped her from the hotel. She doubted this was the guy who had been talking to her. That man was clearly the boss, and head honchos seldom did the dirty work. She clocked him one more time in the face just for the hell of it.
She moved out into the next room after shutting the door behind her and locking it. Then she quietly made her way across the room and up the stairs, and reached the top landing. The door was partially open. She did a turkey peek that revealed nothing. She did a second look and saw a man sitting at a table looking at his phone with his earbuds in. He was the other guy who had snatched her. She stuck her head out and surveyed the rest of the room.
Empty. But that was not good enough. There was no room for error here; she only had one shot to do this right.
She took out the battery with her left hand and hurled it at the window behind the guy. As soon as it struck the glass, the man jumped up from the table, dropping his phone on the floor, and cried out, “What the hell!”
Pine waited three seconds to see if the tossed battery drew anyone else out into the open. When it was clear the man was alone, she stepped through the doorway and pointed the gun at him.
“On your knees, hands behind your head, then lie down face-first, legs spread. Do it now or I will shoot you.”
The man saw the gun, fell to the floor, and put his hands behind his head.
Pine quickly moved forward and used the butt of the gun to inflict two hard taps on his skull, knocking him out. He got the same trussed-up treatment as his partner downstairs, with a cord of thick twine she found in a cabinet.
She snagged his phone and called 911, told the dispatcher who she was and what had happened, and asked her to notify Tate Callum of her circumstances.
“Do you know where you are?” the dispatcher asked.
“Give me a sec.”
She ran outside and looked around at the thick woods surrounding the house in which she’d been held captive. “In the middle of nowhere. Seems to be a lot of that around here.”
“Okay, we can trace you by your phone. Just leave it on.”
She looked down at the phone. “The battery is really low. It might die on me, and I’m not hanging around here, because some other people might show up. I’m going to walk out to the main road. That might give me a better idea where I am. Hold on.”
Pine ran down the long, twisty drive, finally reached the main street, and found a mailbox with a number address on it and then a street sign farther down. She gave this information to the dispatcher.
The dispatcher said, “I’ll have officers there as fast as possible. Be careful, Agent Pine.”
Next, Pine was about to call Blum when—
“Shit.” She looked down at the screen as the iPhone’s juice ran out and it went dark.
The last thing she wanted to do was go back to the house and search for a phone charger. A moment later, an ancient, rattling Ford pickup truck with a license plate designating it as an antique appeared around a curve and headed her way. Pine stood in the middle of the street with her shield held up high. When the driver slowed and stopped, Pine rushed forward. Behind the wheel was a white-haired woman in her eighties, wearing faded bib overalls, a straw hat, and a wry smile.
“I’m an FBI agent,” Pine said, showing her the shield. The woman squinted at it and then pulled up her glasses, which dangled on a chain, to see it better.
“My, my, that’s very impressive, young lady.”
“I need you to drive me to a hotel in downtown Asheville.” She told the woman the address, then added, “It’s an emergency.”
“Sure, honey. I know where that is. Get in.”
Pine jumped into the passenger seat and the woman said, “Do I get to break the speed limit since it’s an emergency?”
Pine said, “Do whatever you need to do to get me there as fast as possible. Any cops stop us, I’ll deal with it. Do you have a cell phone I can use?”
The woman shook her head. “Had one of them flip phones once, but I never got the hang of it. Every time that thing rang in my pocket, nearly scared me to death.”
“Great,” said Pine under her breath.
“Now, let’s get going,” the old woman said as she sat up straighter, took off her glasses, and rammed down the gas pedal.
The truck leapt forward but then settled into a sedate forty miles per hour pace.
The woman looked over at her and smiled. “This truck belonged to my father. Got it wound all the way up, missy. All hundred and forty horsepower. Can you feel it? We’ll be there lickety-split. This is so exciting.”
“Yes, ma’am” was all Pine could manage.
CHAPTER
52
THERE HE IS,” SAID BLUM.
Stephen Marbury had just walked out of the detention facility. He had a pleased expression on his face as he climbed into the back of the Escalade. As soon as the door closed, the vehicle drove off.
Blum put the Porsche in gear and followed at a discreet distance.
Mercy said, “You really think this is connected to Lee’s disappearance?”
“I would be shocked if it weren’t. But I’ve been to Desiree’s house. If she was working with a drug ring that has this kind of legal muscle, I would have thought she’d be more affluent.”
“She might be socking it away and living light to avoid suspicion,” opined Mercy.
Blum glanced at her. “You’d make a good detective.”
“I’ve lived life and learned my lessons,” replied Mercy tersely.
The Escalade turned onto the main road and sped up. Both vehicles traveled several blocks in moderate traffic before stopping at a red light.
“Do you remember anything of your life before you went to the Atkinses?” asked Blum. “Except what you’ve already told me?”
“I sort of remember my mother. She was tall, too. I remember Lee being up in a tree. And I went back to the Atkinses’ place in Crawfordville, to my little prison. Found my doll, Sally, and took it. She’s in my duffel.”
“It must have been painful reliving all that.”
“It was, at first. And then I remembered that I survived all that.”
The light changed and they started up again.
“I wonder where he’s going,” said Mercy.
“Hopefully to a place that will lead us to Agent Pine.”
“Do you like working with her?”
“It’s the best job I’ve ever had.”