Chapter 15 #2
The suite’s second bedroom seemed the safest place.
He was clearly using the main one, so the secondary was probably the last place he’d head upon returning.
She ran across the living room, pausing as she passed a slender fire extinguisher mounted to the wall beside the standard hotel In case of fire placard.
She yanked it from its bracket, thinking if all hell broke loose, she could spray him in the face and make a run for it.
Diane continued her dash to the second bedroom and ducked inside, even as the main door to the suite was swinging open. Turning fast, she closed the bedroom door softly behind her and leaned back against it, closing her eyes, catching her breath, trying to calm her racing heart.
“Who the hell are you?”
The voice was soft and female.
Diane opened her eyes wide. A bone-thin girl, maybe fourteen at the most, was sitting upright on a bed, hugging a blanket around her. Her bony shoulders were bare and a long blonde braid hung down one side, across her chest.
Footsteps came down the hallway outside the room and the girl’s blue eyes widened.
Diane whispered, “Don’t give me away. I’ll get you out of here, promise.”
“Please don’t let him hurt me anymore.” But she was already shaking as his footsteps neared.
“I won’t, honey. I won’t.”
The girl lowered her head. “You can’t stop him. Hide in the closet. When he’s done, he’ll leave and you can help me get away.”
“No. No, I’m not hiding from that—” Out of time. The bedroom door was opening. Diane sidestepped to stand behind it, so it concealed her as it opened inward.
He walked inside, Dangerous Dan himself, trademark orange curls and all.
He closed the door with a backward sweep of his arm, not even turning around.
Diane stood a mere two feet behind him, closing her hands tighter around the little red fire extinguisher.
It was the perfect size for a woman to manage. Thoughtful of First Alert.
Dan said, “Sorry I had to leave you alone so long, sweetie. Bet you missed me.”
The girl said nothing, and to her credit, she kept her eyes downcast on her hands. If she looked up at Diane even once, she’d give her away.
“There’s a party tonight,” Dan said. “And you’re the guest of honor, babe. But uh, there’s no reason we can’t have a little dress rehearsal now, is there?”
His hands moved around in front of him, and Diane heard the sound of a zipper. Rage rose up in her, and she gripped the smooth, heavy, red fire extinguisher tighter and took a long stride toward him, swinging it like a baseball bat.
Bonnie answered the door, surprised to see Coy standing there in a yellow and black striped T-shirt like Charlie Brown’s.
“Hey, Miz Tucker. How you doin’?”
“Doing great. Did I call a Lyft and forget?”
“Nah, I just…” He looked past her, around the house. Sally and Sadie were on the sofa buried in their video game. “Can I talk to you?” he asked.
Frowning, Bonnie stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind her, because she heard what he hadn’t said. “In private.”
Coy shuffled from foot to foot, head down, then said, “Look, I drove past that place the other day. You know the one you wanted to visit that turned out to be the wrong house? And there was police tape.”
“Was there?” she asked. “Well, I wouldn’t know what that’s about. It wasn’t even the place I was looking for. My son’s friend lives on Oak Lane, not Oak Street. No harm done, though.”
“Oh. I heard the guy there like…vanished. They’re looking for him.”
“Have you been questioned about it?” Bonnie asked.
“Nah, I mean. Not yet. They wouldn’t know to question me. The diner address was the one on the books, cause that’s where I dropped you off.”
“Ah, well that’s for the best. No point confusing the situation. It would only distract the authorities from legitimate clues.”
“So that wasn’t the guy you were looking for, then?”
“Nope.”
“And that whole thing with the phone the other day, that was—”
“Completely unrelated.”
The oven timer went off, followed by Sadie. “Gram, oven timer.”
“Want a cookie? Chocolate chip today. Come on in, meet my grandkids, and have a snack.”
Coy tried to say no thanks, but Bonnie was already ushering him in the door and then hustling away to pull a large sheet of masterful peanut butter chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.
She used the parchment paper to pull them right off the hot cookie sheet and onto the cooling rack in one motion.
“Sally, Sadie, that’s Coy. He’s my Lyft driver. Say hello.”
“Hey Coy,” Sally said. “You play COD?”
“Who doesn’t?”
Bonnie poured three small glasses of milk and slid three hot, gooey cookies onto three white dessert plates with blue trim.
Then she put it all onto a wooden tray with tall sides and cut-out handles and sailed back into the living room to see Sally passing a game controller to Coy, who had already heeled off his sneakers—good manners on that one—and was sliding into an overstuffed chair.
“Pause for cookies if you can do so without losing World War Three,” Bonnie said. “They’re best when they’re hot.”
She returned to the kitchen, but heard Sally say, “So Coy, why you talking to Grams all secretively like that?”
“Aw, no man, it was nothing. I drove her someplace the other day, and now there’s some kind of investiga—”
“Second cookie anyone?” Bonnie burst in on the conversation as fast as she could, smiling brightly but sending Coy a look with her eyes that should’ve welded his mouth shut.
Sadie kicked her sister in the shin, frowning and tipping her head Bonnie’s way very slightly when she looked up.
The two teens didn’t miss a trick. Bad idea inviting Coy in.
What had she been thinking? She ducked back into the kitchen, grabbed her burner phone and accessed the Lyft app she’d added, just in case.
She typed in an address three blocks away.
Then she put three cookies into a Tupperware without paper in between, even though they were still hot and would stick together like a son-of-a-gun, and rushed back into the living room.
Coy’s phone pinged.
“Aw, man I gotta go. Got a fare up the road.” He finished his cookie, shaking his head in appreciation of it, then took a swig of the milk as he got up.
Sally switched the game console off, so the TV came on, its volume way too loud.
“Here you go, dear.” Bonnie handed Coy the cookies.
“Thanks, Miz Tucker. You sure do know your way around a cookie.”
“Well, practice makes perfect. You’d better go get your fare.”
Only there wasn’t one. But he left. And now, instead of easing the suspicion from Coy’s mind, she was afraid she’d planted its seeds in the twins’.
The TV blasted an obnoxious ad. Dangerous Dan’s voice boomed from the speakers, promising the best used cars the state of New York had to offer.
“Hey, that guy!” Sally said. “I know him.”
Bonnie went very still. An icy chill went down her spine. “How do you um…know him?”
“He spoke at school today to the sophomore Driver’s Ed students about safety crap. He was so funny.”
“Cool for an old guy,” Sally said.
“Wait, wait,” said Sadie. She was scrolling her phone, then suddenly turned it Bonnie’s way. And there, smiling back at her, was Dangerous Dan Fitzpatrick, with his arms around the shoulders of her granddaughters.
Bonnie had heard the term before, but she didn’t think she had ever actually experienced her blood running cold until that very moment.
Dangerous Dan went down hard. Diane wanted to hit him again, just to make sure he was dead, but not in front of the girl.