The Chase (31 page)

“It’s McGraw,” he said, not waiting for her answer.

Kendall’s stomach tightened. “As in Zeb McGraw?” Her mouth was so dry, she could barely get the words out.

Zach shoved her into the seat in front of the girls and sat down next to her. “Bingo.”

K
endall wiped the vomit off Emma with napkins from the picnic basket. “There, that will have to do for now,” she said, cleaning Emma’s mouth with a wet wipe she found in her purse.

“Are you cold, Miss Waters?” Emma asked.

“No.”

“Then why are your hands shaking?”

Kendall attempted a smile. “I don’t know, Emma. I guess maybe I am a little cold.”

Zach let out a laugh.

“What’s so funny, Todd?” Emma asked.

He lifted the gun as if to show it to Emma.

“Don’t,” Kendall pleaded softly, shaking her head at him.

Zach narrowed his eyes. “Are you telling me what to do?”

“No. I’m sorry. Just
please
don’t frighten the kids.”

He shot a glance at the girls but kept his hand down.

The bus slowed and Kendall looked out the window. A light blue car was parked by the side of the road with its hood raised, and she could see the figure of a man wearing blue jeans bent over, looking under the hood. Connie turned on the emergency flashers and pulled behind the parked car.

Connie stood and motioned towards Kendall. “You watch her,” she said to Zach, opening the bus door and disappearing down the steps.

Kendall watched her walk to the front of the car and saw the man straighten as she approached. The man was partially hidden behind the raised hood, and Kendall couldn’t see his face. Connie stood close to him, talking animatedly and using lots of hand gestures.

“Are we there?” Emma asked.

Kendall shook her head. “No, sweetie.”

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Caitlin said.

“There’s no place to go here, Caitlin.” Kendall turned to face her. “You’ll have to wait a little longer.”

“But I
really
have to go.”

Kendall looked imploringly at Zach, who shrugged and said, “She’ll just have to hold it.”

“Where are we going?” Kendall asked, keeping her voice low.

Zach looked towards the front of the bus. “You’ll recognize it when we get there.”

Kendall followed his gaze and saw Connie climb back aboard the bus and take the driver’s seat, her eyes narrowed into a dark scowl. She closed the door and shoved the gearshift into drive, punching down the accelerator and causing the bus to skid on the gravel as she pulled onto the road.

“What’s the matter?” Zach asked.

Zelda looked at him in the mirror. “Earl’s pissed about the Cummings kid, as if that was my fault.”

Kendall drew a sharp breath.
Is that what this was about? Had they been trying to kidnap Samantha?
She glanced out the window as they passed the blue car and saw that the hood was down and the man was in the driver’s seat. She caught a glimpse of his arm and shoulder as they passed, but she still couldn’t see his face.

“He’ll get over it,” Zach said. “Hey, Ma, you left the emergency flashers on.”

Ma?
Kendall turned back to Zach. “Is Connie your mother?”

“Yeah, but she ain’t Connie.”

“What’s her name?”

“Zelda.”

Kendall closed her eyes and shook her head. “Let me guess. Her last name’s McGraw.”

“You got it.”

“Is Zeb McGraw your father?”

Zach stared at her for a minute. “You know what? You ask too many questions.”

“Miss Waters, I can’t hold it much longer,” Caitlin said.

Kendall looked at Zach. “You heard her, Todd. What are we going to do?”

“My name ain’t Todd.”

“Sorry.
Zach.”

“We ain’t stopping for her to pee.”

Kendall stared tight-lipped at him. “I have plastic bowls in the picnic basket. At least let me get one so she can go to the bathroom in that.”

“Fine. Get it and let her pee. But no funny business.” He waved the gun. “I’ll have this aimed at you and the kid the whole time.”

Kendall reached over the seat in front of her and opened the lid to the picnic basket.

“Hey, what’s she doing back there?” Zelda shouted.

“One of the kids has to pee; she’s getting a bowl for her to go in,” Zach said.

Zelda moaned. “Jesus Christ.”

Kendall expected Zelda to tell her to forget it, but Zelda turned her concentration back to the road, so Kendall took the potato chip bowl out of the picnic basket. “Come on, Caitlin. Let’s go up to another row of seats. You can go to the bathroom in this bowl.”

Kendall didn’t want to get any closer to Zelda McGraw than she had to, so she led Caitlin to the second row, right in front of the picnic basket, and placed the bowl on the seat.

“Okay, Caitlin,” she said, standing her on the seat and helping her pull her shorts down. “You get to be the first one to use our special bus potty.”

The bus lurched around a corner and Kendall grabbed the seat back and held on to Caitlin. She caught a smirk on Zelda’s face and figured she must have made the sudden movement on purpose. Kendall gritted her teeth and braced herself against the seat back in front of her, in case the bus took another unexpected turn. She placed Caitlin on the bowl and held her securely while the little girl emptied her bladder.

“Thank you, Miss Waters,” Caitlin said when she had finished.

“No problem, sweetie.” Kendall zipped her shorts for her and helped her step down off the seat.

“Does anyone else have to go?” Kendall asked, looking at the rest of the girls.

Zach shook his head. “That wasn’t part of the deal. I said one kid could pee. That’s it.”

“You heard him. Get on back there and sit down,” Zelda ordered.

“What would you like me to do with this?” Kendall asked, holding up the bowl.

Zelda scowled at her. “Dump it out the window.”

“Okay,” Kendall replied. “Would you mind slowing down, so I can empty it without it blowing back in the bus?”

“Yes, I would mind,” Zelda said. “Just do it.”

Kendall struggled with the window locks and slid the window down. She was barely able to fit the large bowl through the opening, but finally she managed to do so without spilling the urine. She held her breath and leaned away from the window as she dumped the contents, watching the urine spray along the side of the bus.

Zach turned in his seat and looked out the rear window. “It sprayed all over Earl’s windshield,” he said with a snort.

Kendall followed Zach’s gaze towards the back of the bus and saw that the blue car was following them.

“Hey! Shut that window, now, and get back to your seat,” Zelda shouted.

Kendall closed the window and placed the bowl on the floor. As she walked towards the back of the bus, she ducked her head and looked through the rear window towards the blue car, trying to get a look at the driver’s face.

Z
elda pulled to a stop in front of a set of black iron gates with redbrick pillars on both sides and a sign that read H
IGH
M
EADOW
.

“Pull up to that box with the buttons on it,” Zach said.

Zelda eased up on the brake and let the bus roll forward until she was even with the box.

“All right, what do I do now?” She looked at Zach in the mirror as she lowered the driver’s side window.

“Tell her the code to open the gate,” Zach said to Kendall.

Kendall stared openmouthed at him. “What’s going on here, Zach?”

“Just tell her the code.”

“It’s one, two, three, four, plus the pound sign,” Kendall said.

Zelda snorted as she reached out to punch the buttons. “As if we couldn’t have figured that out for ourselves.”

The gates opened and Zelda drove the bus through, watching in the exterior mirror to make sure Earl got through before the gates closed.

“Okay, now where do I go?” she asked Zach.

“Just keep on going down this road, past the humongous mansion.”

Ring-ring
. Zelda jerked her head towards Kendall’s cell phone, which she’d put back in the cup holder.

“Shit! Who’s that calling you?”

Kendall shook her head. “I don’t know. It might be Margaret at the farm, checking to see if the field trip is going all right.”

“Get up here and answer it,” Zelda snapped, holding the phone out towards her. “But don’t you say nothing to tip nobody off. You tell them that everything’s going just fine.”

Zach stood up and shoved Kendall towards the front of the bus. “Hurry, before they hang up.”

Kendall stumbled to the front and took the phone. Zelda could see her hand shaking as she flipped the phone open and held it to her ear. “Hello?”

She listened for a minute. “We’re fine.”

“Make sure you talk normal,” Zelda said in a loud whisper.

Kendall frowned. “No, nothing’s wrong. Emma just got carsick, that’s all, but she’s fine now.”

She listened again. “Yes, we’re making good time.”

Another pause. “Okay, I’ll call you when we get there. Bye.”

Kendall flipped the phone shut and Zelda grabbed it out of her hand. “You did real good there. You keep cooperating like that and you won’t have no problem.”

Zelda put the bus in gear and followed the drive as it wound past a huge redbrick house. She pulled to a stop in front of a large aluminum-sided building with a garage door in the center.

“This is it,” Zach said. “Let me out and I’ll open the door so you can drive in. The control button is right by the door.”

Zelda put her arm out to stop him. “Hold on. Get Earl on the bus first. I don’t trust her not to try something.” She cocked her head at Kendall, who still stood in the aisle.

Zach nodded. “I’ll go get him.”

Zelda pushed the button to open the bus door and tapped her fingers impatiently on the dash while she waited for Zach to get Earl. She’d feel a whole lot better once they had the bus out of sight.

Earl appeared in the door and Zach gave her a thumbs-up as he ran past the bus towards the garage.

“Hey, babe, ain’t this some kind of place?” Earl said as he climbed the steps.

Zelda heard a gasp. She turned and saw Kendall, white as a sheet, gawking at Earl.

K
endall watched Stephen Lloyd move briskly up the stairs onto the bus.
He no longer had a cast on his leg
. Stephen barely glanced at Kendall as he grabbed her by the arm, shoved her onto the front seat, and sat down beside her.

She slid as far away from him as she could. “Stephen, what’s going on?”

He snorted. “Come on, Kendall. You’re a smart girl. You must have figured it out by now. Does the word
kidnapping
mean anything to you?”

“But why?”

Stephen rubbed his fingers together in front of her face. “Dough, babe. Why else?”

“But why you? Why are you involved in this?”

Stephen cocked his head to the side and flashed a smug smile. “Why not? Because you thought I was one of your rich polo friends?”

Kendall took a deep breath and turned away as the bus began to move forward towards the garage.
Margaret had been right about Stephen being a phony. Too bad she hadn’t figured it out earlier
.