She stood, breathing heavily at the railing. She’d killed two men in the past twenty-four hours. Far from guilt, she felt only a sense of exhilaration. She was rescuing herself, goddamn it.
She went back to the door into the corridor, opened it a crack, and listened. Nothing. She eased into the corridor, one hand firmly on the gun in her pocket. She walked quietly along the carpeted hall until she reached the door to the room where she’d been held. It had been smashed and broken open. The body of DeMaio’s man was gone, a large smear of blood still on the floor.
She froze. There was a strange sound. She moved slowly down the hall and stood in front of another door. The noise was coming from the other side, a sort of scratching sound. She put her ear up to the door and could hear someone breathing heavily on the other side, someone trying to force the lock.
She hesitated only a moment. Who else could it be? In a harsh whisper she said, “Sarah, are you in there?”
The noise stopped. Then a voice said, “Who’s that?”
“It’s Kitty, Sarah. I saw them bring you here.”
There was a moment of silence. Then, “Kitty? Are you okay?”
“More or less. Listen, can you get this door open?”
“I’ve been trying to pick the lock, something my husband taught me how to do. Hold on.”
Kitty listened again as Sarah stuck something into the lock and twisted and turned. After what seemed like an eternity, the door suddenly snapped open.
Sarah hugged Kitty tightly. “Thank God you’re alive. We were all sick worrying about you, trying to figure out what to do to help you.”
“Let’s bring each other up to date another time,” said Kitty. “We’ve got to get out of here before they come for you. Did they say anything about what they were going to do with you?”
“I got the picture all right. They told me to take a shower and clean myself up, that I’d have visitors soon and I’d better treat them right.”
Kitty stared at her grimly. “All right, come on.”
“Where can we go?”
“I’ve got a hiding place. Don’t know for how long. Once they find you’re gone or that another of their men is missing, they’ll probably turn the rig upside down. But there aren’t too many men on board. It will take them a long time. And …” she reached into her pocket. “I’ve got this.” She showed Sarah the gun.
Sarah’s eyes went wide. “How … ?”
“Later,” said Kitty. “Come on.” She went down the corridor and opened a door she’d looked in on once before. It was some sort of storage room filled with food.
“Quick, grab a bag or something to hold stuff.”
Sarah found a canvas bag and they stuffed it with whatever edibles they could find. Kitty also grabbed a gallon of water.
A minute later they were climbing up to Kitty’s hideaway.
Sarah looked around the tiny space and said, “What’s to keep them from finding us here?”
“Nothing, except I watched them search it once already. No reason for them to repeat it unless they decide to search from scratch all over again. All we can do is try to hold out. Look how this place is situated. There’s no way for anyone to get above us. They can only find us by coming up the ladder. If they do that, I’ll shoot them. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that for a long time. With the food and water we can stay here a week if we have to. Maybe Garrett will think of something by then.”
Sarah slumped down onto the grating. “When they came and took me, I could hardly believe it was happening. But they didn’t take the girls, so Garrett will know what happened. Trouble is, he couldn’t figure out how to rescue you either. I gather he’s been talking to the government and to his own boss. But he was afraid if he moved on the rig, DeMaio would just fly you away somewhere, maybe even to another country. Or maybe kill you outright.” She hesitated. “What sort of man is he?”
“DeMaio?” Kitty leaned back against the electrical grid box. “Like a lot of men, I guess. Sex-obsessed. But unlike most men, he has the power to actually pull something like this off.”
“Did he …” Sarah started, then stopped. “No. I have no right to ask you that.”
Kitty shrugged. “Did he rape me? Yes. There was no force used, but I had no alternative. I suppose I was fortunate that he took me for several days instead of just handing me over to a bunch of foreign oil executives. Before he left, he was already tiring of me and told me that I’d be turned over to others. That’s when I escaped.”
Sarah stared at her. “I want to apologize to you, Kitty.”
She looked surprised. “What for?”
“For underestimating you and … for being jealous, I guess, of Garrett. I suppose most women would be jealous of you. I mean look at you. It’s probably not an easy thing … to have that expectation from every woman you meet. I did the same thing when I first met you. Took your looks for everything there was to know about you. But you are one tough cookie. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I’d had to go through what you did.”
Kitty squeezed her arm. “We’re not out of the woods yet. But if we do get away, would you do something for me?”
“What?”
“Be my friend?”
A tear rolled down Sarah’s cheek. She leaned over and hugged Kitty tight. “For life,” she said.
51
G
ARRETT DROVE LLOYD BACK TO
Sheet Harbor and turned him over to Alvin.
“What do you want me to do with him?” Alvin asked, after locking Lloyd in the rear of his patrol car.
“Take him to Halifax and give him to Tuttle. We’ve got enough on him to put him away for a long time, starting with raping a minor. Once we get Kitty back, I bet we’ll have kidnapping and sexual trafficking to go with it.” He headed back to his car.
“Where are you going?”
“DeMaio has raised the stakes. I’ve got no more time to waste. I’m going out to the oil rig, just as fast as I can. I want you to call Tuttle and also Tom at the Coast Guard and tell them what I’m doing.”
“All right, Garrett. Be careful.”
He drove through the black night as quickly as his back-roads-rattled Subaru would take him. He knew where he was going. The time for kayaks and sneaking up on the rig was past.
He pulled into Roland’s driveway at four a.m. There was still a single light on in the back of the house, in the fisherman’s private space. Garrett banged on the door and yelled until more lights came on. Finally, Roland appeared at the door, wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants. His torso was lean and almost concave, with a sort of hollow in his chest. He had widespread acne scars on his back.
“Garrett?” he said, peering onto the dark porch. “What’s goin’ on?”
“I need your boat, Roland. And I need you to pilot it. Police business. Let’s go.”
Roland rubbed his eyes. “Are you crazy?”
Garrett nodded. “And getting crazier by the minute. Sarah’s been kidnapped, taken out to Lighthouse Point oil rig. We’re going after her.”
Roland was struggling into a T-shirt and looking for his shoes. “Sure, sure, Garrett. Glad ta help. Why would anyone want ta take ya girlfriend?”
“Long story,” Garrett said. “I’ll tell you once we’re on the boat.”
Ten minutes later, they were motoring past the inner islands. Roland stood in the wheelhouse, talking to Garrett through the open window. “Ya say they’re holdin’ two women out there? What for?”
“To service Global Resources’ international customers. They’re running a sex ring off the rig. Conveniently in international waters.”
Roland stared at him in disbelief and maybe a little envy at the perks held by the high and mighty. A world he would never have entree to. He also looked worried. “How many men ya think they have out there, Gar? Ya goin’ ta get me killed?”
“You just drive the boat, Roland. When we get close, throttle down while we’re still out of earshot. Then turn the engine off and we’ll use the oars to get close to the dock. I’ll jump off and you can drift off a ways and wait for me to signal you.”
They motored for another hour without talking, moving across the black sea as if suspended in outer space, until the lights of the rig loomed in the distance. It was still dark enough to provide cover if anyone was up and about on the platform. There was the faintest hint of early morning light on the horizon and something else, a strange, pale bank of clouds looking like swirls out of a Van Gogh painting. The lights from the rig reflected off small whitecaps beginning to form on the surface. There was more weather in their future.
Roland said, “Somethin’ else I found out t’other day, Garrett.”
“What?”
“I followed Grace after she went out in her kayak.”
“Be better if you left them alone, Roland. It’s only going to get you in trouble. Remember you said you would?”
“It was before Ma died. Ya want ta know where she went or not?”
Garrett stared at the rig. It was still a mile off. Their engine wouldn’t be heard over the wind and waves until they were less than a hundred yards from it. “Okay. I’ll bite. Where did she go?”
Roland smiled. “I tol’ ya they was all a bunch of druggies, but ya wouldn’t believe me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Grace met up with a boat on one of the outer islands. She bought drugs from three men. Couldn’t get close enough ta see what, but it was some kinda white powder. Cocaine, mebbe.”
Garrett just stared at him. “Now’s not the time to start this, Roland. I’ve had a bellyful of your little neighborhood war.”
“I’m tellin’ ya the truth, Gar. Hell, I hardly believed it myself. And I’ll tell ya somethin’ else. One of the men she bought the stuff from was a Mountie.”
Garrett’s head snapped up at this. “How do you know he was a Mountie?”
“You kiddin’? I know one when I see one, even if he was only in partial uniform.”
It was something Garrett didn’t want to have to think about right now. His mind was on Sarah and Kitty. They deserved his full concentration. Still, the fact that there was a bad cop somewhere in all of this had come up before. Lila said some of the young girls brought into the escort services spoke about it. And it was probably a cop who set up Sarah’s husband by planting heroin in their house.
“All right, Roland. We’ll talk about it after.” He turned toward the rig. “Time to turn your engine off.”
52
T
HE RIG WAS EERILY QUIET
as evening set in. A fogbank, nestled on the horizon all day, finally disappeared, only to be replaced by ominous-looking clouds. Still, they appeared far off, and it showed signs of being a calm night. That was a good thing, since neither of them was warmly dressed. Nothing had happened since the helicopter had landed and Kitty had secured Sarah from her room.
“They’ve got to check on you soon,” said Kitty. “Maybe give you something to eat prior to the busy evening they have planned for you.”
“I agree,” said Sarah. “It’s not going to be quiet much longer.” She struggled to get comfortable on the steel deck. “You really think you can use that thing?” She gestured at the gun, which lay at Kitty’s side.
Kitty picked the weapon up and juggled it in one hand. “So far I’ve killed two men,” she said. “Bashed in the skull of one and threw the other into the ocean unconscious. Believe me, point and shoot will be lots easier.”
Sarah stared at her with wide eyes. “I never asked,” she said. “Was it really Lloyd who got you into all of this?”
“Yeah, he was the one. Garrett was right about him. I took a big risk playing him for information. Instead, he played me. I was a fool to go with him. It was ambition, plain and simple. I wanted that big story, and I just never saw it coming, couldn’t believe they would risk taking a well-known public figure. Boy, was I wrong.”
Sarah squeezed her shoulder.
Suddenly, the chopper pad lit up, flooding the rig with bright light. Men poured out into the open. For the first time, Kitty got a sense of how many were on the rig. It was more than she’d thought. At least fifteen. And there was no doubt about their purpose. They knew Sarah was gone and probably that one of their own was also missing.
Kitty gripped the pistol tightly. She had only six shots. If their hiding place was discovered, they were going to be caught once she ran out of ammunition. No question about it.
As if reading her thoughts, Sarah said, “Better conserve your shots. Might make sense to just use a couple if they find us, then save the rest. They won’t know for sure how many bullets we have. It may make them think twice about climbing up here.”
Kitty nodded grimly and watched as the men fanned out beneath them. For a time, no one seemed interested in the ladder that led to their hiding place.
“What are they waiting for?” Sarah asked, on edge watching the search. “This platform has to be an obvious place to look.”
“I don’t know. Maybe whoever’s in charge was one of the men who checked this place early on. But when they don’t find us anywhere else, they’re bound to come round to it again.”
Kitty was right. After an hour of searching, the men gathered below them to discuss what to do next. A few minutes later, two men began to climb the ladder, as others went below to continue the search inside.
“I guess this is it,” said Kitty. She crouched at the edge of the platform, the pistol firmly in her hand.
“Maybe we could just kick them when they look over the edge,” said Sarah.
“No way. All it would take would be one of them getting a hand on my leg or arm. I wouldn’t be able to break free.” Her voice got lower as they listened to the men nearing the top. Kitty pulled back the trigger and waited.
When the first man looked over the rim, his eyes went wide as he stared down Kitty’s barrel. His surprise lasted only a moment. Kitty put a bullet squarely between his eyes. His body cartwheeled backward, knocking the other man off the ladder. They both fell sixty feet, landing with a sickening crunch on the rig floor.
“Two for the price of one,” said Kitty. “Saved a bullet.”
Sarah could only stare down at the sight of the two mangled bodies, blood pooling beneath them. A cry went out, and the men who had disappeared inside came back out in a rush. Then they stopped and stared at their mates. One man pointed up to the platform.