Chapter 21
"Jill! Jill!"
Kris's voice cracked, already hoarse from shrieking her sister's name. Panicked tears streamed down both her cheeks, though she didn't have either the time or cause to worry about them. She kicked and slammed her fists uselessly into the sturdy metal of the Thunderbird's trunk, but succeeded only in wearing herself out. Her heart pounded and her chest felt like it would burst with the exertion her wild flailing was causing her.
Jill's screams were still echoing in her ears, bouncing off of the sloped walls of her prison until she felt her skull would shatter. Her only sister screaming for help before abruptly cutting off into silence. And she had been trapped inside here, powerless to do anything about it.
Had they hurt her? Killed her?
Trapped and blinded by the steel walls of the car's trunk, Kris had no idea and not knowing drove her mad. She had to get the hell out of here. How long had she been in here?
Five minutes? Ten? An hour?
Now. She had to get out right now.
Kris continued screaming, sobbing and cursing shrilly inside the car until the top of the trunk that she was beating so furiously began to pound back at her. She paused in confusion, distracted from her struggle only the briefest of moments before she realized that someone was outside.
"Jill? Kris?" a frightened female voice called out.
Kris's breath caught in her throat at the familiar voice.
Sabrina.
The sound of her friend's voice sent a jolt of desperation through her. Her fists instinctively began to once again hammer away at the top of the trunk, ignoring the stinging pain it was causing her. "Sabrina, help me!" she wailed frantically.
"Kris!" Kelly's voice shouted. "Are you two alright?"
"Jill's gone! They took Jill!" Kris shouted back.
Kelly and Sabrina had a brief, terse exchange before raising their voices so that Kris could hear them.
"We're gonna get you out of here!" Kelly yelled. "Everything will be alright, just calm down!"
Though being calm was impossible, Kris stopped her pounding and forced herself to lay as quiet as she could, save for her frantic, ragged breathing. She could hear Kelly and Sabrina scurrying around the car, snapping random instructions to each other as they tried to find a way to get her out.
Two thumps on either side of the roof above her made Kris flinch in her place.
"We're just looking for something to pry open the trunk, just hang on, ok?" Sabrina's voice, pressed as close to the surface of the car as she could, called out. Kris could hear the gravel beneath Sabrina's feet as her friend rushed off, hollering something she couldn't understand to Kelly.
Anxious and wishing they would hurry, Kris rolled over onto her side and buried her sweaty face in the crook of her arm. It was stuffy in the trunk and she had spent the last ten minutes kicking and flailing. She needed to calm down, relax, or it would only make it worse. A sudden sharp jab in her hip made her gasp out loud.
The keys.
The memory of Jill shoving the car keys into her pocket before knocking the wind out of her flashed across her mind.
"Sabrina!" she shouted, slamming her palms against the trunk. "I have the key! I have the key!"
A few seconds later, Kelly and Sabrina were thumping urgently against the trunk.
"You have the keys?" Kelly yelled.
"Yes!" Kris answered. "How can I get them to you?"
Kelly pushed her face toward the thin gap between the trunk and the rear of the car. "Ok, Kris. Listen to me." she said calmly. "You need to push out the taillight."
Kris moaned her frustration. "How do I do that?" she cried.
"Right here!" Kelly answered. There was a light tapping close to Kris's face to show her. "Right there, Kris. Push on it until it pops out and then give us the keys."
Kris swallowed the lump in her throat and pushed on the smooth piece of red plastic. When it wouldn't give right away, her frazzled mind panicked at the thought that it never would. She let out a few frustrated curses and then took a deep, calming breath.
"C'mon, Kris. You can do it." Sabrina encouraged, with a light pat to the top of the trunk. "It's alright, just relax."
After taking a second to compose herself, Kris jammed her palm into the back of the taillight until finally, it began to give. With a bit more effort, the piece of plastic popped out of it's place with a light snapping sound and light flooded her previously dark prison. One of Sabrina's brown eyes immediately blocked the opening.
"The key, Kris. You're almost out." she said calmly. "Just give me the key."
Kris stuffed the keys through the little hole into Sabrina's waiting hand. Her friend's long fingers snatched them away, and after a few seconds, the lock audibly clicked free, and the lid of the trunk swung open. The rush of fresh air was almost as welcome a sight as her two friends. She bolted upright immediately, letting the two girls take her arm and help her scramble out of the trunk.
"Jill!" Kris blurted out frantically, the moment her feet touched the pavement. "Jill, they took Jill!"
"Gary did?' Sabrina asked. "What happened, Kris?"
Kris began gesturing wildly to the spot where the black Buick Regal had been minutes earlier. "He came in a black car!" she sputtered. "She hit me and locked me in the trunk, I didn't see anything, I was in the trunk, but she was screaming and I think they hurt her! You have to find her, please, please find her!" She was almost hysterical now, flailing, pointing randomly, rambling through her tears, and her choked voice was difficult to understand.
Kelly stepped forward, firmly took Kris's face in both hands and forced her still. "Kris." she said sternly. "You have to calm down. We don't understand what you're saying, honey. Calm down."
Tears still streaming down her face, Kris swallowed hard, took a deep breath and forced down the fluttery, suffocating feelings of hysteria. Every second spent blubbering like an idiot could be a second taken away from the window of time they had to find Jill. Get it together, she told herself sternly. "Me and Jill were standing outside." she started in a shaky but even voice. "Gary came up in a black car. Jill hit me and locked me in the trunk and- and I couldn't see anything, but she was screaming and they- they took her, she's gone."
Kelly and Sabrina exchanged a worried look.
"If he just wanted to kill her, he would have done it right here." Sabrina said quickly, running a nervous hand through her hair. "He's taken her somewhere. Probably to lure us in."
Kelly clenched her jaw in anger. Her green eyes darted to Kris before settling on Sabrina's worried face. She took her friend's elbow and led her a few steps away from Kris. "What if he's trying to make her tell him where we are, Bri." she asked, lowering her voice so Kris wouldn't hear.
"She wouldn't give us away." Sabrina answered immediately.
"I know. Then he wouldn't need her."
The hidden meaning behind Kelly's words wasn't lost on Sabrina. She nodded her head in grim understanding and began to anxiously pace back and forth. A pressing sense of urgency was filling all three of them. They had to find Jill before it was too late.
Sabrina suddenly paused. She really had no idea where to begin looking, but it would have to start with leaving the motel parking lot. "Ok, Kris." she said tersely. "Get in the car. We'll- we'll drive around."
Without another word, the three girls hurriedly piled into Kelly's car, peeled out of their parking spot and bounced over the uneven pavement towards the exit.
"Look at the skid marks, Bri." Kelly pointed out, slowing slightly to observe her find. "He took a left out of here."
She didn't wait for confirmation. Sabrina steadied herself against the door as Kelly took a sharp left turn and screeched out of the parking lot and onto the highway, cutting off an oncoming truck as she did. The girls were oblivious to both his horn and dirty look as he passed.
"They might be headed out of town then." Sabrina whispered to turned in her seat. "Kris, did they know you were in the trunk?"
Her question jerked Kris out of her trance. "No, I don't think so. They would have gotten me too." she said quietly, wiping her eyes. "Jill - stupid Jill- I think she did it to protect me."
Sabrina nodded mutely. That certainly sounded like Jill. She dropped her voice to a whisper again. "Kell, if he's going out of the city, we're not too far behind."
Kelly didn't respond verbally, but pressed down on the gas, surging her mustang up and over the speed limit. The scenery blurred past them faster and faster, until it became nervewracking to look out the window. Sabrina leaned back in her seat and tried to calm the sick feeling knotting her stomach. No matter what was happening, they had to stay focused, they couldn't lose it now. Jill was depending on them, and as violent a man as Gary Moore was, they couldn't afford to make any mistakes. Jill needed them.
And so did Kris. She looked up at the rearview mirror to check on her. Her younger friend was doing her best to stay calm, but it was more than obvious that she was very upset and only a few distractions stood between composure and breaking down altogether.
Sabrina reached in the backseat and took one of her hands. "Don't worry, Kris."she said solemnly. "We'll find her."
Kris forced a faint smile on her face and nodded weakly. She trusted Kelly and Sabrina.
And right now that was the only thing she could do.
Laura paced back and forth in front of her curtained motel room window. She had to do this, she couldn't just pretend she hadn't seen anything. Part of her cursed the curiosity that had led her to pull back the shades from her window and peek out into the parking lot. If only she had waited another few seconds. The commotion wasn't very long and Gary would have been gone had she stalled only a little longer.
Could she just pretend she hadn't seen anything? Who would know?
No. Because she had, and now, despite the fear and dread churning in her stomach, she had to do something about it.
A yellow mustang she didn't recognize pulled up and two young women that she very much did got out. Laura swallowed hard, silently willing them to open the trunk and let Kris out. It took some scrambling around and yelling, but they finally did. Kris appeared unhurt and Laura felt a twinge of relief for that.
Now all she had to do was face them and lead them to where she already knew Gary would be.
"They only have a five minute jump on us." Sabrina said quietly. "We might still catch them."
"Bri, they could have gone anywhere!" Kelly snapped back in frustration. "They could have taken any exit!"
Sabrina let out a shaky breath and nervously rubbed her face. "I know, Kell, I know." she sighed. "Just- just we need to hope they didn't."
Kelly swerved angrily around a slow moving truck and surged the yellow mustang forward. Now free of any traffic, the girls flew down the freeway, easily exceeding the speed limit by at least thirty miles.
The three girls sat in worried, somber silence, minds racing for a way to save their friend from her fate. This could easily end in tragedy. Gary was a sick man. A sick, violent, man with a vendetta against them. Kelly gritted her teeth and chanced a brief glance in the rearview mirror at Kris. Out of all of them, Gary wanted her the most. Jill's sisterly resemblance to Kris had already confused him once, and even if he did realize that he had the wrong blonde, he could always hurt Jill to indirectly hurt Kris. And with the way her best friend's fierce protective nature was, even if Gary did mistake her for Kris, she wouldn't say otherwise
Jill was not in a good position.
"Guys, that car is following us." Kris whispered from the back seat, distracting Kelly from her dark thoughts.
Kelly started and again glanced up at her rearview mirror. A newish looking tan Ford Fiesta was a few car lengths behind them. A feat that would have been largely unremarkable had she not been going nearly ninety miles an hour.
"Undercover cop?" Sabrina guessed, turning in her seat to watch. She answered her own question a second later. "No, I doubt it." she whispered. "Could it be Gary?"
Kris shook her head. "He had a black car."
"Yeah. You saw a black car." Sabrina muttered absently. She reached out an arm and batted at Kelly's shoulder. "Kell, slow down a little, I want to see who this is."
Though the thought of getting sidetracked with this sudden newcomer frustrated Kelly to no end, she reluctantly eased her foot off of the accelerator. If this tail was just a coincidental distraction, she was going to be very angry.
"Who is it?" Kelly demanded.
Sabrina had climbed into the backseat with Kris and both girls were on their knees, staring out the rear window like a couple of curious squirrels.
"It's a woman-" Sabrina started, straining her eyes to see. "Hey, she's slowing down too. Is she-?"
"She's waving to us." Kris picked up.
Kelly shook her head and began to speed up again, unconvinced by the running commentary she was hearing, that the new car was of any importance. Two abrupt gasps of shock made her eyes flick to the rearview mirror again.
"Wait!" Kris cried. "That's Laura!"
Both girls in the backseat suddenly topped backwards as Kelly slammed on the brakes and swerved into the next lane. The Ford blew past them, and Kelly immediately picked up her speed again, just as Kris and Sabrina untangled themselves and began to sit up. For the second time, the abrupt change of speed sent them tumbling back into their seats with outraged protests and a few curses.
Kelly didn't have time to apologize. She anxiously tightened her grip on the steering wheel. Her maneuver had effectively reversed their roles so that they were tailing the tan Ford. The ball was in Laura's court now and she had better act soon.
For her sake.
Fortunately, Laura delivered almost immediately. As the girls followed, the little Ford Fiesta signaled and began to slow. Kelly did the same and in less than a minute, both cars had come to a halt on the shoulder of the highway. The girls watched suspiciously as Laura got out of her car and stood nervously by its side, the door still open as if she had considered the option of having to jump back in and speed away.
"What the hell is she doing?" Kris asked weakly.
Kelly and Sabrina answered by simultaneously throwing open their doors and jumping out of the car. Laura had not left them on a very happy note and both girls were eager to show her how they felt about it. Kris sat frozen in the backseat, watching in horror as Sabrina and Kelly stormed over to her, clearly in the mood for some violence.
Sabrina reached her first.
"Where is she?" she snarled, grabbing both of Laura's shoulders and shoving her backwards. Laura's hands instinctively flew in front of her face at the unexpected aggression. She stumbled back into the open car door, toppling over into front seat. Kelly and Sabrina both mistook her off balance tumble as a sign of retreat, and shouting infuriated protests, they reached inside the car and dragged her out.
Laura panicked at the rough treament, believing herself about to be beaten to death, and began to flail her arms. Though she didn't expect it too, one of her fists made connect with a loud smack and an all too familiar yelp of pain. Sabrina released her and stepped back with a loud curse, both hands to her injured nose.
Laura didn't have a chance to be horrified at just punching the very person she who's trust she was trying to regain. A strong grip closed around her throat and her back collided painfully with the side of her car, slamming the breath she had planned to use to shout out an apology out of her lungs in a strangled gasp.
She stared with wide, frightened eyes into Kelly's furious and extremely intimidating face.
This was not going how she planned.
"You better start explaining." Kelly threatened in a smooth, silky voice. "Right now."
Sabrina returned to Kelly's side, rubbing her face and looking every bit as dangerous and threatening as her companion. The explanation Laura had carefully prepared in the car immediately fled the scene. She couldn't do the same, however. Instead, she again shielded her face and defensively twisted her body away, cowering from the anger of the two young women in front of her.
"What's going on Laura? Planning to sell us out again?" Sabrina sneered.
"No!" Laura squeaked. "It's not what you think!"
Kelly roughly spun her around to face them. "Then what is it, Laura?" she demanded angrily. "Start talking!"
"I- I saw what-" Laura began to stammer.
Frustrated and disgusted with the girl in front of her, Sabrina yanked her hands away from her face. "What did you see, Laura!" she yelled. Laura flinched and tried to raise her hands to her face again, but Sabrina's strong grip on her wrists wouldn't allow it.
"I saw- I saw them take her." Laura whimpered. "I was at the motel, I saw Gary take Jill from my window. Please, let me go."
Kelly and Sabrina ignored her request.
"How did you see?" Kelly pressed. "Why were you at the motel? Did you follow us there?"
Laura shook her head as much as she could with the girls' firm hold on her. "I-I was staying there. The night Gary came to your apartment, I ran away from the cop and my friend was already there waiting for me and-"
"Your friend?" Sabrina interrupted heatedly. "You mean Gary?"
"No!" Laura shouted, a trace of anger and frustration in her voice. She immediately remembered her situation and checked herself. "No, I don't have anything to do with Gary, I swear to God."
The look on both girls face registered contempt and disbelief at her statement. Before they could voice their opinion, she wisely decided to change tactics.
"Listen, I know how it looks." she stammered quickly. "But please believe me, I didn't call him that night. I got scared so I-I called a friend. She was the one waiting there for me. I jumped in her car and told her to go and she- and she did."
Sabrina gave a sarcastic derisive little laugh. "You outran a cop and got in your friend's car who just conveniently happened to be there?"
She and Kelly shared a dark look and Laura sensed the opportunity to get them to trust her rapidly slipping away.
"Please! Please, listen to me! She was there because she was the one I called when you caught me on the phone!" she wailed desperately. "When I told her what happened, she- my friend didn't want me with her because I was in trouble, so she drove me to the motel, signed me in under her name, and left me the car and some money. That's what I was doing there, you have to believe me!"
Kelly and Sabrina shared another almost unreadable look.
"That's all very coincidental, Laura." Kelly whispered.
Laura moaned helplessly. "And that's all it is, I swear to God!" she insisted. "I saw them take Jill. And- and I think I know where they're taking her."
Those appeared to be the magic words to make Kelly and Sabrina let go of her. They released her and took a step back, both girls staring hard into her eyes. Laura could only stand before them, shaking and fighting the urge to both cry or throw up from sheer stress.
"It's a trap." Sabrina said flatly, glaring at her through narrowed eyes.
Laura shook her head. "It's not, I swear. I can take you there."
"How do you know she's there." Kelly asked quickly.
"I-I don't know exactly." Laura admitted. She waited for both girls to tear into her the second the words came out of her mouth, but to her relief, they continued standing in front of her, arms crossed and eyes glittering with anger. Their patience and her time was running out. She needed to be direct and very, very quick. "But he used to go there with his friends to hide out. They would drink, play cards, smoke pot, whatever." she continued. "I've only been once before, but I know where it is."
Kelly and Sabrina again glanced at each other, and for the few moments it took, Laura desperately wished she knew what they were thinking. A hand on her shoulder brought her out of her trance with a startled shriek. She jerked back and whipped her head around. A third girl had joined her friends, undetected by her due to Kelly and Sabrina's extremely distracting presence. How long had she been standing there?
"You think you know where my sister is?" Kris asked quietly. Like her two friends, her expression and tone were vague, unreadable, and just like her two friends Laura found herself intimidated by her presence. The three girls now had her cornered against her car, on the side of an empty backstreet highway.
Laura could only give her head a slight nod.
Kris looked at Sabrina and Kelly, determination and fire in her eyes. "We don't have a choice." she whispered. "Trap or not, she's our only lead."
Kelly and Sabrina nodded reluctantly. Trust or no trust, Kris was right. The girls stood in contemplative silence for an agonizingly slow few seconds before reaching forward and grabbing both of Laura's arms. Laura wisely decided not to protest as they dragged her away from her vehicle and towards the yellow mustang parked behind it.
"Then you're taking us to Jill." Sabrina ordered menacingly.
Laura swallowed hard and climbed into the backseat of Kelly's car. This wasn't how she thought it would go about, but that's exactly what she had planned to do.