The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) (29 page)

Ronnie was mesmerized
by his conversation. He wouldn't notice when she decamped. She
would have to call him later and tell him what had happened, that was
if she could get through on his cellphone. She was amazed that his
battery juice hadn't run out!

Bianca clutched the
door handle. Rick Roscoe slowed down to almost nothing when he
reached the next bump. She tried to unlatch the door. Nothing
happened. She leaned against the door and pushed. Still nothing
happened. The door felt as solid and firm as a block of concrete. It
had opened back at the rest stop along the interstate. Now it didn't
move an inch.

Rick Roscoe smirked
at Bianca in the rear-view mirror. She realized with a sinking
feeling that he had locked the doors using the automatic door lock on
the driver's control panel.

Wherever he was
taking her, she would have to escape once she got there. She would be
alert and wait for her first opportunity.

Maybe she could
contact the Shipleys on her cellphone. She fumbled in her purse for
it. It should be tucked away safe and sound in its usual compartment.

Bianca almost had her
fingers on it. It kept on slipping away. She got her fingers on it
again. She waited a minute while she figured out what to do next.

Bianca wouldn't be
able to tell them what was going on over the phone. Yet she could say
something out of context that didn't make sense. Or she could sit
there silently and let them listen to the car sounds. That might
alert the Shipleys that something was wrong. Maybe they could have
the call traced. The police would be able to find them before any
harm had come to Little Katie.

Bianca tried to find
the Shipleys' cellphone number, which was in her phone book.

There was no lighted
display. She looked down at the thing, wondering what was wrong. She
shook it. Then she noticed.

The battery pack was
gone!

Chapter 9

In the rear-view
mirror Bianca spotted a dark blue quad coupe, a Saturn Ion, following
them. The car's windows were tinted but not as darkly tinted as in
the black car. She could barely begin to make out the driver. Bianca
did a double take! Why, it looked like. . .

Bianca would
recognize anywhere the driver's fiery, violet eyes and the
coal-dark, curly hair cascading down over her shoulders. The plucked
eyebrows also looked familiar, as did the fat cheeks and the
eyelashes lengthened with black mascara.

What didn't look
familiar was her uniform. Marianna Haynes had once worked at the
Island Theater behind the concessions counter. She had worn a thin
cotton, pinstriped uniform complete with a red-and-white striped cap
then. Yet this uniform looked very different!

Marianna was wearing
a white blouse with a kind of blue vest over it. She had a blue cap
pinned to her hair. It reminded Bianca of a uniform that she had seen
before someplace. Right now it was escaping her exactly where.

Rick did not speed up
his limousine or start a chase. He acted as if he had expected that
Marianna would be there all along.

Bianca squeezed
Ronnie's arm. He waved her off and kept on talking as if nothing
else in the world mattered except his cellphone conversation.

"I just saw
Marianna Haynes," she hissed. "She was Rick Roscoe's
girlfriend. She was after me this past May in the cemetery, too,
and—"

"Really, Bianca,
you're making it very difficult for me to hear what's being
said," Ronnie objected. "It's very important I get all the
details straight."

Bianca was cornered,
surrounded on all sides. Rick Roscoe, no doubt, had teamed up with
Marianna Haynes to kidnap Little Katie. It didn't matter if
Marianna had become Harry Fellini's new girlfriend. Old friends,
old ties, old habits died hard.

They kept on driving
down the long, bumpy dirt road, seemingly to the end of the world.
Bianca kept on looking around for signs of where they might be. She
noticed an old wooden billboard that advertised SMITH'S AIRFIELD.
The words were written in faded paint that was flaking away.

Smith's Airfield?
That was certainly not the name of the Savannah International
Airport! They emerged from the shaded forest and the dirt road into
the sunlight. They were riding across an open field. She gasped when
she saw what was parked in the middle of it. A huge jet aircraft! It
must be a Boeing 737. It was parked at the end of a long, paved
runway.

She tugged on
Ronnie's sleeve furiously. For all she knew, Rick Roscoe was going
to drive the car aboard some sort of lift, and it was going to end up
in the cargo hold of the aircraft! They were going to be taken as
contraband goods to God knew where.

"Ronnie, there's
an airplane parked out there in the middle of the field! Look! It's
a 737. I can't be imagining it this time. Rick's headed straight
for it."

Finally Ronnie
glanced out his window and looked back at Bianca. "Right. Right."
He dismissed her objections. "We're at the airport. We're right
on time." Then he kept on talking Portuguese.

"Ronnie, we're
not in Savannah. We're not anywhere near it. We're out in the
middle of nowhere!" she whispered in the capacious back seat of the
limousine.

Rick Roscoe brought
the limo to a stop. Marianna leaped out of her car and waltzed past
the limousine. She knocked on Bianca and Katie's window. Then she
blew a kiss at them and winked. Next she proceeded to board the
aircraft.

The boarding stairs
were pushed into place. The hatch stood wide open. Marianna stopped
at the top of the stairs and waved at Bianca, still sitting in the
limousine. Only then did Bianca realize what that uniform was. Why,
it was a flight attendant's outfit!

Marianna disappeared
inside the aircraft.

Rick Roscoe jumped
out of the front seat.

He went around to the
trunk. He got out what looked like his own personal flight bag. He
also unloaded Bianca's and Doc's suitcases. He reached back into
the front seat and stuffed several magazines into his bag. Then he
pushed up a baggage cart, which appeared to be sitting nearby under a
tree. He loaded the luggage on to it and wheeled it toward the
aircraft, following Marianna Haynes.

None of this made any
sense. If Rick and Marianna were kidnapping Katie and abducting Byron
Kingsley and Bianca, you would think that they would pull a gun right
about now. They would threaten them and march them toward the
aircraft at gunpoint.

The engines of the
aircraft started up. The pilot must be aboard. Were they going to
take off and leave Ronnie and Bianca sitting there in the limousine
in the middle of the field? Was this abduction a big joke? Was this
Rick and Marianna's perverse idea of having fun?

Bianca shook herself.
Where would Marianna and Rick get the money to pull off such an
elaborate hoax? They couldn't afford to rent an aircraft! Marianna
couldn't afford the car she had been driving, which looked rather
new and flashy, like a current-model-year vehicle. Even the flight
attendant and chauffeur uniforms had to be bought or rented
somewhere. Bianca doubted if they could afford them either.

As Bianca sat there
in complete bewilderment, looking from side to side and all around,
wondering if she was dreaming, Ronnie at long last said, "Goodbye.
See you when we get there!" in English. He pushed the end button to
conclude his epic cellphone conversation.

Ronnie stuffed his
cellphone into his suit pocket. He opened the limousine door and came
around to Bianca's side.

"Everyone's
aboard and ready for our flight!" He held out his hand to help her
out of the limousine.

Bianca sat there and
gaped up at him. She did not give him her hand. She did not move.

"What — what did
you say?"

"Here's our
flight!" he announced with a sweeping gesture of his arm.
"Everything's ready — except we're not aboard."

She blinked and
blinked.

When Bianca continued
to sit there, Ronnie reached for her hand and forced her out of the
car.

"We don't have
time for one of your nervous attacks right now. I've got plenty of
pills with me. I'll give you one as soon as you're aboard."

She swallowed hard.
"Is — is this the plane that's taking us to London?"

"Our very own
private jet. I discussed it with the Shipleys yesterday. They're
paying for it. They think it's a smart idea — to take a plane to
London from a private airfield out in the country and to charter the
aircraft. There won't be any other passengers aboard except us and
the crew. Much safer for Little Katie."

By the crew did he
mean Marianna and Rick? What kind of crew was that? She didn't know
that they'd gotten jobs with the airlines!

"I — I don't
remember your talking to the Shipleys about it," Bianca ventured.

Ronnie waved his hand
in dismissal. "You don't remember much of anything that really
happens, do you, sweet?"

"But — but why
didn't you tell me? I was scared to death the whole time. I — I
was afraid that we were being abducted by Rick Roscoe and Marianna
Haynes and—"

He patted her hand.
"Now, now, now, my poor little Bianca! You are scared to death most
of the time, aren't you? We'll have to see to that as soon as we
climb aboard and get seated for our long flight across the Atlantic.
I promise you'll feel much better very soon."

She let Ronnie take
her free arm and slip it through his own. They walked toward the
aircraft. She was clutching Little Katie in her other arm. She
stopped halfway toward the boarding stairs and glanced back at the
limousine.

"Who — who is
going to drive the limousine back to St. Simons Island?" She
couldn't see anybody else around.

"Smith's Airfield
provides that service."

Bianca didn't see a
terminal building. She didn't see a building of any kind. All she
saw was a cow some yards off grazing on some high grass.

Ronnie nudged her
forward. She hesitated at the base of the stairs.

"I — I think I
may have left my comb in the car."

"I'm sure there's
one aboard the jet. As you will see, I've had it well stocked ahead
of time with essential supplies."

Ronnie pushed her
ahead of him and followed behind her up the boarding stairs. At the
top stood Marianna in her uniform. She was grinning down at Bianca.

Bianca paused four
stairs shy of the top. She turned and gaped at Ronnie. "Is she
going with us?"

"We have to have a
crew, don't we? It's customary to have a flight attendant to
serve you even aboard a chartered aircraft."

"But—"

"Don't tell me
you're starting to have paranoid delusions about the stewardess! On
top of hearing voices and all your phobias, this represents a decline
in your mental state. I guess the excitement of travel can bring that
on, too."

Ronnie escorted
Bianca inside the cabin. Marianna slammed the hatch behind them and
fastened the lock firmly in place. Bianca swallowed hard.

Chapter 10

Ronnie seated Bianca
in the first row in first class. She occupied the window seat. He
took his place beside her. She craned her neck to gawk over her
shoulder. There appeared to be other passengers behind them in the
first-class seats. She and Ronnie were not alone.

"Ronnie. . . I —
I thought you said this was a chartered aircraft for us only."

"Just a few friends
of mine that we'll have need of during the flight. I want to
consult with them before we reach our final destination."

What could Ronnie
want with a man dressed in a conservative black suit carrying a
Bible? She could make out that the man had a minister's rounded
collar. Beside him sat another man in a three-piece suit that looked
expensive. He had a swarthy complexion and looked Latin American. He
was carrying a leather briefcase that was open on his lap. Shuffling
through reams of papers and making notes, he was assembling, stapling
together and stamping some sort of important-looking, official
documents.

Why did Ronnie need
these men on their trip to London? Why couldn't he wait until after
they had landed and arrived at their hotel?

"Are we ready?"
Marianna asked Ronnie.

"We're waiting
for one more passenger, if I'm not mistaken." Ronnie replied.

Marianna wheeled up a
cart with soft drinks and snacks. Little Katie reached for a candy
bar and gobbled it up. She offered a bite to TR and Lou. The only
bright spot was that the child was feeling much better than she had
in days.

Ronnie turned up his
nose at the snacks. "Bring on the wine instead," he ordered
Marianna.

"I thought that was
being saved for later," she answered cryptically.

"No, no! You mean
the champagne. The wine's for now," Ronnie replied.

Marianna returned
with several wine bottles along with frosted glasses.

"That's better!"
Ronnie smiled. "Much more appropriate for a day like today."

He poured Bianca a
glass of wine. He took the other glass and tapped it against hers as
if toasting.

Marianna opened the
hatch one last time and locked it. This must be the other passenger
that they had been waiting for. Bianca's mouth fell open.

"Harry!" she
exclaimed. He was the last person she expected to see here today.

A dark-haired young
man shuffled into the first-class section and took a seat across from
them.

"Surely not another
delusion, dear! This is getting to be a nasty habit." Ronnie eyed
Bianca as he sipped his wine.

Bianca studied the
young man who acted as if he didn't know her. He wasn't waving at
her or making any attempt to talk to her. It was odd indeed. He
boasted Harry's flyaway black hair that was thin, fine and
straight. His eyes were big and dark. He was slim like Harry. If it
wasn't him, Bianca had never seen anybody else who reminded her of
him more!