The Evening News (17 page)

"It's a Mrs. Crawford Sloane
.”

Jessica was startled
.”
I'm Mrs. Sloane
.”

"Oh ma'am, I have some bad news for you
.”

The facial expression of Carlos
was serious; he was playing his part well
.”
Your husband has been in an
accident. He's badly injured. The ambulance took him to Doctors Hospital
.
I was sent to find you and take you there. The maid at your house told me
you would be here
.”

Jessica gasped and turned deathly pale. Instinctively her hand went to her
throat. Nicky, who had returned in time to hear the last few words, looked
stunned
.
Angus, though equally shocked, was the first to recover and take charge
.
He gestured to the shopping cart
.”
Jessie, leave all this. Just let's go
.”

"It's Dad, isn't it
?
”

Nicky said
.
Carlos answered gravely, "I'm afraid so
.”

Jessica put her arm around Nicky
.”
Yes, dear. We're going to him now
.”

"Please come with me, Mrs. Sloane
,”
Carlos said. Jessica and Nicky, still
dazed by the sudden shattering news, went quickly with the brown-suited
young man toward the store's main door. Angus followed. Something was
bothering him, though he wasn't quite sure what
.
Outside in the parking lot, Carlos preceded the others. He moved toward the
Nissan van. Both doors on the side next to the Volvo were open. Carlos
could see that the Nissan's engine was running and Luis was in the driver's
seat. A shadowy form in the back had to be Baudelio. Rafael and Miguel were
out of sight.
Alongside the Nissan, Carlos said, "We'll go in this vehicle, ma'am. It
will be . -
.”

"No, no
!”

Jessica, tense and anxious, was groping in her purse for car
keys
.”
I'll take my car. I know where Doctors Hospital-
”
Carlos interposed himself between the Volvo and Jessica. Grasping her
arm, he said, "Ma'am, we'd rather you-
”
Jessica attempted to withdraw her arm; as she did, Carlos held her more
firmly and pushed her forward. She said indignantly, "Stop that! What is
this
?
”

For the first time Jessica began to think beyond the impact of the
awful news she had been given
.
A few feet behind, Angus now realized what had been troubling him. Inside
the store the strange young man had said, "He's badly injured. The
ambulance took him to Doctors Hospital
.”

But Doctors Hospital didn't take emergencies. Angus happened to know
because over several months the year before he had visited an old Army
Air Forces comrade who was a patient there and got to know the hospital
well. Doctors Hospital was big and famous; it was close to Gracie
Mansion, the mayor's residence, and alongside the route Crawford used on
the way to work. But emergencies were sent to New York Hospital, a few
blocks south . . . Every ambulance driver knew it
.
So the young man was lying! The setup in the store had been afakel What
was happening out here wasn't right either. Two men-Angus didn't like
their looks at all-had just appeared from around the back of the
passenger van. One of them, a huge bruiser, had joined the first man;
they were forcing Jessica inside! Nicholas, a little way behind, was not
yet involved
.
Angus shouted, "Jessica, don't go! Nicky, run! Get-
”
The sentence was never finished. A pistol butt crashed down on Angus's
head. There was a fierce, searing pain, everything around him spun, then
he fell to the ground unconscious. It was Luis who had jumped out of the
driver's seat, rushed around, and attacked him from behind. In almost the
same motion, Luis grabbed Nicholas.
Jessica began screaming and crying out
.”
Helpl Someoneanyone-please
help
!”

The burly Rafael, who had joined Carlos in seizing Jessica, now clamped
a massive hand across her mouth, set another in her back and flung her
inside the van. Then, jumping in himself, he continued to hold her while
she screamed and struggled. Jessica's eyes were wild. Rafael snarled at
Baudelio, "IApi~rate
!”

The ex-doctor, with a medical bag open on the seat beside him, produced
a gauze pad which moments earlier he had soaked in ethyl chloride. He
slapped the pad over Jessica's nose and mouth and held it there
.
Instantly Jessica's eyes closed, her body sagged and she became
unconscious. Baudelio gave a grunt of satisfaction, though he knew the
effect of ethyl chloride would last only five minutes
.
By now, Nicholas, struggling too, had been hauled inside. Carlos held him
while he received the same treatment
.
Baudelio, still working quickly, used scissors to cut the sleeve of
Jessica's dress, then injected the contents of a hypodermic syringe
intramuscularly into her upper arm. The drug was midazolam, a strong
sedative that would ensure continued unconsciousness for at least an
hour. He gave the boy a similar injection
.
Miguel, meanwhile, had dragged the unconscious Angus over to the van
.
Rafael, now freed of Jessica, jumped down and pulled out a pistol, a
Browning automatic. Clicking the safety off, he urged Miguel, "Let me
finish him
!”

"No, not here
!”

The entire operation of seizing the woman and boy had
gone with incredible speed, occupying barely a minute. To Miguel's
amazement, no one else appeared to have witnessed what had happened. One
reason: They had been shielded by the two vehicles; also, fortuitously
,
there had been no passersby. Miguel, Carlos, Rafael and Luis had all come
armed and there was a Beretta submachine gun in the van for use if they
had to fight their way out of the parking lot. Now a fighting exit wasn't
necessary and they would have a head start on any pursuit. But if they
left the old man behind-his head was bleeding profusely, with blood
dripping to the ground-animmediate alarm would be raised. Making a decision, Miguel ordered, "Help me get him in
.”

It was accomplished in seconds. Then, as he entered the van himself and
closed the side door, Miguel saw he had been wrong about no witnesses. An
elderly woman, white-haired and leaning on a cane, was watching from
between two cars some twenty yards away. She appeared uncertain and
puzzled
.
As Luis moved the Nissan van forward, Rafael caught sight of the old woman
too. In a single swift movement he grabbed the Beretta, raised it, and
through a rear window was taking aim. Miguel shouted to him, "No
!”

He
didn't care about the woman, but the chances looked good that they could
still get away without raising an alarm. Pushing Rafael aside and making
his voice cheerful, Miguel called out, "Don't be alarmed. It's just part
of a film we're making
.”

He saw relief and the beginning of a smile on the woman's face. Then they
left the parking lot and, soon after, Larchmont. Luis was driving
skillfully, wasting no time. Within five minutes they were on Interstate
95, the New England Thruway, heading south and moving fast.

There had been a time when Priscilla Rhea possessed one of the sharpest minds in Larchmont. She had been a schoolteacher who pounded into several generations of area youngsters the fundamentals of square roots, quadratic equations, and how to discover-she always made it sound like the search for a holy grail-the algebraic values of x or y. Priscilla also urged them to have a sense of civic responsibility and never to shirk their obvious duty
.
But all of that was prior to Priscilla's retirement fifteen years earlier
,
and before the toll of age and illness slowed her body, then her mind
.
Nowadays, white-haired and frail, she
walked slowly, using a cane, and had recently described her thought processes, disgustedly, as "having the speed of a threelegged donkey going uphill
.”

Nevertheless Priscilla was exercising her thought processes now, moving
them along as best she could
.
She had watched two people-a woman and a boy-being taken into what looked
like a small bus, apparently against their will. They were certainly
struggling and Priscilla thought she'd heard the woman cry out, though
about that she wasn't sure, her hearing having deteriorated along with
everything else. Then another person, a man who seemed unconscious and
hurt, was lifted into the same small bus before it drove away
.
Her natural anxiety at seeing this was immediately relieved by the
shouted information that it was all part of a film show. That made sense
.
Film and television crews seemed to be everywhere nowadays, photographing
their stories against real backgrounds and even interviewing people for
TV news, right on the street
.
But then, the moment the little bus had gone Priscilla looked around for
the cameras and film crew which should have been recording the action she
had watched, and for the life of her she couldn't find any. She reasoned
that if there had been a film crew, it couldn't possibly have disappeared
that fast
.
The whole thing was a worry Priscilla wished she didn't have, in part
because she knew that perhaps she was all mixed up in her mind, the way
she had been some other times. The sensible thing to do, she told
herself, was go into the Grand Union store, do her bit of shopping and
mind her own business. Just the same, there was her lifelong credo of not
shirking responsibility, and perhaps she shouldn't, even now. She only
wished there were someone handy whom she could ask for advice, and just
at that moment she saw Erica McLean, one of her old pupils, also on her
way into the supermarket
.
Erica, now a mother with children of her own, was in a hurry but stopped
to ask courteously, "How are you, Miss Rhea
?
”

(No one who had ever been
a pupil of Miss Rhea ever presumed to address her by her first name.)
"Slightly bewildered, my dear
,”
Priscilla said.

"Why, Miss Rhea
?
”

"Something I just saw ... But I'm not sure what I saw. I'd like to know
what you think
.”

Priscilla then described the scene, which was still
remarkably clear in her mind
.”
And you're sure there was no film crew
?
”

"I couldn't see one. Did you, as you came in
?
”

"No
.”

Within herself, silently, Erica McLean sighed. She had not the
least doubt that dear old Priscilla had been subject to some kind of
hallucination and it was Erica's bad luck to have come along just then
and be roped in. Well, she couldn't walk away from the old duck, for whom
she had a genuine fondness, so she had better forget being in a hurry and
do what she could to help
.”
Just where did all this happen
?
”

Erica asked
.”
Over there
.”

Priscilla pointed to the still-empty parking slot next to
Jessica's Volvo station wagon. They walked to it together
.”
Here
!”

Priscilla said
.”
It happened right here
.”

Eriea looked around her. She had not expected to see anything
significant, and didn't. Then, about to turn away, her attention was
caught by a series of small pools of liquid on the ground. Against the
blacktop surface of the parking lot the liquid seemed dark brown. It was
probably oil. Or was it? Curiously, Erica leaned down to touch it
.
Seconds later she looked with horror at her fingers. They were covered
in what was unmistakably blood, still warm.