Chapter 15

The three had rendezvoused half a mile from the house, walked along the tree line to a spot on the ridge where they could look down on the property. Megan watched through binoculars. Colby paced the road behind her, being unhappy into his cell phone. David stood between them, arms crossed, watching Colby. He wasn't really surprised when Colby yelled, "Dammit!" and tossed the cell phone at least 300 feet down the road. David heard it shatter, looked at Colby.

"I guess it's a good thing Megan and I still have ours. But you're doing the paperwork on that."

Megan turned at the sound of his voice and saw the frustration on Colby's face. "What happened?"

"Can't get a warrant," Colby growled. "Not enough to go on."

Megan almost dropped the binoculars. "What?"

"Rosa Marimot was officially cleared as a suspect in the Reynolds case — the missing carpenter."

"But Alan's car is on the property," Megan protested.

"Marimot is an officer in the same book club. His car, his person, being there is not considered suspect. Lying about her brother is not legal cause for a warrant."

David ran a hand over his bald head. "Maybe we should just drive up there," he suggested. "Ask to speak with Alan."

"We might be able to get him out of there," agreed Megan, "by saying we need him at the office to show him something about the case…" She brightened. "We could even say that he's a suspect." She was really getting into the idea, now. She grabbed Colby's arm. "We could arrest Alan, just to get him out of there. I doubt he'd sue for false arrest!"

Colby started to grin, then faltered when David joined in. "But if she has Don and Charlie," he said, "how can we tell what she will do to them after we get Alan?"

"How can we tell she hasn't done something already?", countered Colby. He looked at Megan. "What's going on down there, besides Alan's car being on the property?"

"It's pretty quiet," she answered. "Looks like your basic ranch, greenhouse in the back. I saw the door open once, but I think she just let the cat out."

"We don't even know Don and Charlie are there," pointed out David.

Colby looked at the sky, then the ground. "Couple of hours of daylight left," he said. "If they are there, they're not spending another night."

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Rosa unlocked the door, looked at Alan. "Is everything all right?"

All right? He and his sons — three grown men, one of them an FBI agent — were being held by a woman who hadn't seen sanity in years, and she wanted to know if everything was all right? Alan considered just lunging from the chair at her, maybe she couldn't get the rifle in firing position before he hit her.

But if she did, if he was wounded…there would be no one to keep her standing on the edge of that cliff; her toes were hanging off, already.

He looked again at the monitors, saw that Charlie was awake and leaning against the wall, again. Don was standing under the source of light in the room — a skylight? — looking up. Alan turned back to his hostess.

"Rosa," he said quietly. "Sit down with me. Tell me about David."

The change in her was electrifying, and Alan feared he had made a horrible mistake. She lifted the rifle to firing position. "I will not," she hissed. "He was mine. You don't know, you can't know…" Her face changed again. "But you will. It's only fair."

Now Alan knew he had made a horrible mistake. "No, Rosa, please, I'm sorry", he pleaded frantically, "you're right. I was wrong to ask, please…"

She circled around behind him, never lowering the rifle. "It's all right," she said, in a tone meant to sooth, a tone that nearly killed Alan all by itself. "It will make us closer. It will give us something to share….Stand up, now."

"Rosa, please, darling…"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Go, now, you know the way."

Alan stood, tried to stall for time. "We're going to see the boys again?"

She poked the gun into his ribs, hard, and he flinched. "Walk." While Alan turned and started for the room he had visited earlier, she kept talking. "It's because I love you. It's all because I love you." He heard her voice behind him change, she was almost pleading herself now, as if he were making her do this. "I'll prove it, Alan. I'll give you something I never had. A choice. You can decide who."

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Don wished there was a way to communicate with Charlie that didn't involve their voices, which was basically all they had. Too bad they didn't both know sign language. He sighed, looking up at the skylight. That would show up on the video. And it's not like he had any secret plan to convey, anyway.

"Come and sit down," he heard Charlie say. "I'll teach you the Fibonacci sequence."

Don crossed the few feet to the mattress and lowered himself to the edge. "If you try," he said, "I will wait until your nose heals and then break it again."

Charlie snorted, a sound that ended in a strangled yelp. His hand flew to his face. "I think you just did," he said from behind it.

"Sorry," Don smiled. He shifted his feet restlessly. "We have got to do something," he said. "She's just one woman."

Charlie lowered his hand and looked at Don. "With the strength of a thousand demons in her head…and our father at the end of her rifle."

Don leaped up again. "This is insane," he said, glaring at Charlie. But his brother just looked at him, a little sadly, he thought, and spoke to him gently.

"You're right Don. Insanity is a fairly accurate description."