Silent Night 2 Read online

  Reva had seen the movies. She’d seen the news stories on TV about kidnappings.

  Sometimes they let you go home. Sometimes they took the money and let you go.

  But sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they . . . killed you.

  Killed you and hid your body where the police wouldn’t find it until it was rotted.

  Took the money and killed you anyway. And dropped your body in a river or in some filthy trash dump. And then when they showed you on TV, you were zipped into one of those long plastic body bags. Wrapped up like garbage. And—and—

  Stop! Reva ordered herself. Stop thinking such horrible things!

  You’ll be okay. Daddy will pay. They’ll let you go.

  Think positive.

  They already let Pam go once—right?

  The car squealed as it made a hard turn around a corner. Then it shot forward with a roar.

  Reva realized she’d been holding her breath. She let it out slowly, trying to stop her body from trembling, trying to keep the frightening thoughts, the ugly pictures, from invading her mind.

  “Merry Christmas to us!” the boy in the front seat exclaimed suddenly. He let out a high-pitched, gleeful cheer.

  “Whoa. Don’t start celebrating now,” the girl replied from the driver’s seat. “We don’t have the money yet, remember?”

  The boy let out another cheer. “Merry Christmas, one and all!”

  The car turned another corner. Reva felt Pam thrown against her.

  “Hey, you’re being awful quiet,” the boy called back to the man squeezed on the other side of Pam.

  “I got hit in the mouth,” the man muttered glumly.

  “Who hit you?” the boy asked.

  “The redhead. You know. Reva,” the man rasped angrily. “She got me with her elbow when I was taking her to the car.”

  Reva heard the boy snicker.

  “It isn’t funny, Pres,” the man snapped furiously, forgetting about not using names. “She split my lip. It’s bleeding like crazy.”

  Good, Reva thought.

  “It brought my headache back,” the man grumbled. “Real bad.”

  “You’ll be okay,” the girl said without any sympathy. “You won’t have your headaches when you’re rich. I’ll make you a bet.”

  “I just want to kill her,” the man fumed, ignoring the girl’s words.

  “Hey, come on, man. Sit back and relax,” Pres said. “We’re almost there.”

  “I want to kill her. I really do,” the man insisted calmly. His words were slightly slurred. Reva guessed it was because of the split lip she had given him.

  “Well . . . maybe you’ll get your chance,” the boy replied casually.

  Chapter 27

  QUIET AS DEATH

  “I want to break her arm in thirty places,” the man in the backseat said, breathing noisily, excitedly. “Then maybe my headache will go away.”

  “Hey, we have a lot to do. We have to keep control, remember?” the girl called back to him, sounding very impatient.

  The man grumbled a reply.

  The car slowed to a stop.

  “Where are you taking us?” Reva blurted out. “What are you going to do?”

  “Hey, it speaks,” the girl said sarcastically.

  “We told you to shut up!” the man growled at Reva.

  “This cord is cutting my wrist,” Reva complained.

  “Boo-hoo,” the girl replied coldly. “You’d better shut your trap, Reva.”

  “I just want to know what you’re planning to do,” Reva insisted.

  “Say one more word and it’s all over,” the girl told her flatly.

  Pam bumped Reva hard, signaling for her not to say any more. Reva choked back her questions and sank into the seat.

  “Pull the car back there,” she heard Pres instruct the girl.

  “You checked this all out?” the girl asked him skeptically.

  “Yeah. As soon as I got back,” Pres told her. “There’s no guard back here. You’ll see. Park it over there. Away from the lights.”

  The car lurched forward.

  Pam leaned hard against Reva. She had stopped trembling, but Reva could hear her frightened, shallow breaths.

  “No mess-ups this time,” the man beside Pam muttered.

  “Hey, no way. I’m back now,” Pres said lightly. “What could go wrong?”

  The car slowed to a halt. Reva heard the girl shift into Park, then turn the engine off. “Less talk, more action,” she muttered.

  “Aye, aye, captain,” the man replied sarcastically.

  “Pull them out,” the girl instructed.

  Car doors opened. Reva heard the kidnappers climb out.

  “Where are we?” Reva whispered to Pam.

  “I don’t know,” Pam whispered back. “It seems like we’ve been driving for a long time. But I think it’s just because I’m so scared.”

  “Shut up! Both of you!” the man snarled. “You’re giving me a headache.”

  He yanked Reva out of the car. She stumbled, then caught her balance. Her shoes scraped against hard pavement.

  A driveway? she wondered. Some kind of parking lot?

  So this is what it’s like to be blind, she suddenly realized.

  The air felt cold and refreshing on her face. She took a deep breath, then another.

  If only her heart would stop racing, thudding so hard in her chest.

  She could hear Pam being pulled from the car. Then car doors slammed.

  Reva listened hard.

  Where are we? Where?

  It was so quiet. Quiet as death.

  She shivered.

  Someone shoved her hands up roughly against her back. She cried out as the tight cords dug into her skin.

  The man shoved her arms up again. The pain shot through her entire body. Then he pushed her forward. “Which door?” he called to the others.

  “That one,” Reva heard Pres reply. “With the light burned out.”

  Reva could hear Pam close beside her. They were both being pushed up steps.

  Where are we? Where are we? Where are we? The question repeated in Reva’s mind.

  She could hear traffic muffled in the distance. The sound of a car honking, far away. The only other sound was the scraping of their shoes on the hard pavement.

  “Oh!” Reva suddenly stumbled and fell. With her hands tied behind her, she couldn’t break her fall. She landed hard on her side. Pain shot up her back. “Ohh.”

  “Don’t pull any funny business,” the man growled angrily.

  “I can’t see!” Reva wailed.

  He grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her to her feet. “There’s nothing to see,” he said. “Just walk.”

  Reva’s knee ached. She uttered a low sob. “Help me!”

  The man laughed scornfully.

  “Hurry up. Someone will see us,” the girl cried sharply.

  The man shoved Reva forward. “You heard the lady. Move it.”

  A second later they had gone through a door and were walking across a silent room. From the way their footsteps echoed, Reva could tell it was a large room.

  She coughed loudly. The cough echoed all around.

  A very large room.

  The floor was hard. She scraped her sneakers as she walked. Not smooth. Not linoleum or tile. Concrete, maybe.

  Into another room.

  “Stay to your right against the wall,” Reva heard the girl urge.

  Reva took a deep breath. They were walking quickly. The man had her arm, squeezing it painfully, pushing her forward.

  Reva took another deep breath, trying to remain in control, trying not to fall apart.

  She realized what she was smelling.

  I know where we are, she thought.

  I know where we are. And I don’t believe it!

  Chapter 28

  REVA GETS A BREAK

  Reva recognized the heavy warmth of the air, the tangy sweet aroma of the perfume and cosmetics.

  Someone had l
eft the sound system on, very low. She could hear a chorus, very soft, singing “Silent Night.”

  We’re in Daddy’s store, Reva realized, astonished.

  They’ve brought Pam and me to the department store.

  But why?

  “Pres, where’d you go?” the man asked suddenly.

  “Hey—no names, remember?” Pres snapped. “I had to knock out the security guard. Let’s hurry upstairs.”

  “See if they left the elevators running,” the man said. “I really don’t feel like walking up five floors.”

  “Hey, she gave you a nasty cut on your lip,” Pres exclaimed. “You should put some ice on that.”

  “Good idea. Let’s send out for ice,” the girl said sarcastically. “Maybe we’ll order some sandwiches while we’re at it.”

  “Okay, okay. Lighten up,” Pres told her. “Everything’s going great—for once. We’re going to be rich. Millionaires. Just like in the movies.”

  “You and your brother are both alike,” the girl muttered. “Counting your chickens before they’re hatched.”

  “Cluck-cluck,” Pres replied.

  “Hey, the elevator!” the man cried. “Good deal.” He pulled Reva’s arm. “Get in.”

  Reva was shoved up against the back of the elevator. She could feel Pam right beside her. The elevator emitted a low hum as it began to rise.

  Why are they taking us to the fifth floor? Reva asked herself. What’s on the fifth floor?

  Children’s clothes. And toys, she remembered. Yes. Santa’s World is up there this year. And a children’s hair salon. An inexpensive shoe boutique . . .

  Why the fifth floor?

  “This way,” the man said, jerking her roughly out of the elevator.

  “I know where we are,” Reva blurted out. “My father’s store.”

  “Well, you win the prize,” the girl replied sarcastically. “Pull off their blindfolds. Otherwise we’ll never get them to the room.”

  Reva had to shut her eyes against the invasion of bright light. Blinking, she waited for them to adjust. She saw Pam squinting against the sudden light too.

  As they continued to walk through a narrow back hallway, the three kidnappers came into clear focus. The woman was young, Reva saw, probably not even twenty. She had a bad bleach job, her dark roots showing. She’d be nice looking if it weren’t for the buck teeth, Reva observed.

  And then she remembered them.

  From the store a few mornings before. The dropped contact lens. The younger guy, Pres, the one with the soulful black eyes and thin, wasted look—he had tried to pull her away from the counter.

  Yes, Reva remembered them both. The third one, the pudgy one with the beer belly and the red face, she’d never seen before. His eyes were darting wildly around. His lip was swollen on one side, dried blood clinging to the spot that was cut.

  Pres was kind of good-looking in a cheap, trashy way, Reva thought. He sneered at Reva, sizing her up as if seeing her for the first time.

  She turned her glance to Pam. Pam’s blond hair was disheveled. Her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. She tried to flash Reva an encouraging smile, but her quivering chin gave her away, revealing her fear.

  “Move it. Hurry!” the girl urged with a scowl. “There’s a security guard somewhere on this floor.”

  Reva and Pam were forced along the narrow passageway behind the selling floor. Doorways led to supply closets and storage rooms.

  “In there,” the man barked, shoving Reva’s shoulder.

  A glint of light caught Reva’s eye. She gasped as she realized for the first time that he was carrying a small silver pistol in one hand.

  “Yeah. It’s real,” he growled, narrowing his eyes at her. “Just give me a reason to use it. Go ahead, Reva.”

  The way he pronounced her name made it sound like a curse word.

  Where are the cleaning people? Where are the night guards? Reva wondered. She knew the TV surveillance system was broken and being repaired. She realized that the kidnappers must have scoped out the store and known this, must have known also that the cleaners were finished on the fifth floor by this time every night.

  She and Pam were shoved into a small square storage room. Metal shelves against the back wall were empty. A short aluminum ladder stood in front of the shelves. Two gray folding chairs had been placed in the center of the room.

  The floor and chairs were covered with dust. Empty soda cans were strewn on the floor around the two chairs.

  Some workers probably eat their lunch in here, Reva observed. But it’s pretty obvious this storage room hasn’t been used in some time.

  The girl motioned for Pam and Reva to go to the two folding chairs.

  “Can’t you untie my hands?” Reva demanded shrilly. “The cord—it’s cutting my skin.”

  The girl tsk-tsks sarcastically.

  “Can’t you just loosen them a little?” Reva pleaded. “Can’t you give me a break? You’re going to take money from my father, right? So can’t you treat me with a little respect, a little dignity, maybe?”

  “Enough! That’s enough!” the man cried angrily. He had been fingering his cut lip. Now his eyes widened in anger. His face reddened as he strode toward Reva.

  “Danny—” the girl called warily, accidentally revealing the man’s name to Reva and Pam.

  “Whoa, man,” Pres urged.

  Ignoring his two partners, Danny grabbed Reva’s arm.

  “Let go of me!” she screamed.

  He pulled the arm up behind her.

  “Danny—let go,” the girl ordered.

  “Please—let go! You’re really hurting me!” Reva pleaded in a shrill, frightened voice she’d never heard before. “Please!”

  “Danny—don’t!” the girl shouted.

  But with an angry grunt Danny jerked Reva’s arm up hard.

  The loud crack sounded like a pencil snapping.

  The pain flared up Reva’s arm, up her back, her neck. Everything turned white. The floor tilted up toward her.

  The pain sizzled like an electric current, surging over her, surrounding her, pulling her down.

  Breathing hard, Danny let go and stepped back.

  Silently Reva dropped to her knees on the glaring white floor, the white walls shimmering in front of her.

  Were those low moans coming from her?

  She couldn’t hear herself over the deafening roar of pain.

  The white pain. The white, sizzling pain.

  With another low moan Reva shut her eyes.

  It was white inside her eyelids. Blinding white.

  The roar grew louder.

  And over the roar she heard Danny say, “I really want to kill her.”

  Chapter 29

  ONE MORE SURPRISE

  FOR REVA

  Reva realized she must have blacked out.

  Blinking her eyes, she glanced around. She was sitting now. Beside Pam. In one of the two folding chairs. A steady throb of pain shot up her arm.

  She tried to stand up. Then realized she was tied at the waist. Tied to the chair. Her hands still tied behind her.

  The angry white glare had disappeared. Everything seemed in soft focus now, slightly blurred.

  Tied up beside her, Pam mouthed the words, Are you okay?

  Reva furrowed her forehead. She tried to shrug, but the pain was too great.

  Okay? Am I okay?

  The question didn’t make any sense to her. No sense at all.

  How could I be okay?

  Struggling to focus, she gazed around the room.

  Danny hovered by the door, glancing out nervously.

  The girl and Pres stood against the wall, staring back at Reva. “She’s coming to,” Pres murmured.

  “I’ve got eyes,” the girl replied sharply.

  “I told you we shouldn’t get Danny involved,” Pres said, eyeing his brother. “He’s out of control. He could do anything.”

  Reva shuddered.

  He could do anything?

 
He’s already broken my arm, she thought, feeling the heavy dread form like a rock in her stomach. What else is he going to do to me?

  Are they really going to let him kill me?

  “I said I was sorry,” Danny told Pres, his eyes still trained on the door. “How many times do I have to apologize? I just lost it for a moment, that’s all. I feel better now. I really do. So give me a break, Diane.”

  The girl rolled her eyes. “Thanks for telling them my name,” she said. “Can we stick to our plan now? Now that you’ve had your fun?”

  “Yeah. Fine,” Danny muttered.

  Diane stepped over to Reva. “You okay?”

  Reva glared at her and didn’t reply.

  Diane pulled up a strand of Reva’s hair. She lowered her gaze to examine it. Then she let it drop with a sneer on her face.

  “Go find a phone,” Pres said. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

  “I don’t get it. Why did you bring us here, to Daddy’s store?” Reva demanded, wincing from the pain in her broken arm.

  “It’s the last place anyone would look,” Diane told her, walking to the door.

  “No one uses these storage rooms,” Pres confided. “No one ever comes back here. I checked it all out.” He seemed really pleased with himself.

  “So go call Dalby,” Danny urged Diane. “Tell him where to drop the money.”

  “Yeah. Then we can get out of here,” Pres agreed.

  “But what about us?” Reva asked. She glanced beside her at Pam. Pam was staring intently at Pres, as if memorizing every pore of his face. “What are you going to do with us?” Reva repeated.

  “Leave you tied up here,” Diane replied without any expression. “And gagged.”

  “But—but—” Reva stammered.

  “Don’t sweat it,” Diane said, frowning. “Someone will find you in a day or two.”

  Pres snickered. He motioned for Diane to go make her call.

  “I still think we should kill them,” Danny said, waving the small pistol.

  “Danny, we’ve been over and over that,” Diane sighed. “You’ve had your fun, okay? You broke her arm. Now listen to me. We just want to make some Christmas money, remember? We don’t want to kill them.” She uttered an exasperated sigh.