“She’s still here. Crawled into the john. The effects of that stuff you sent me must have worn off. I’ll redose her and get her back in bed as soon as we stop gabbing.” He waited patiently, could hear her talking to someone else. Huddy, probably.

Then she was speaking into the pickup again. “We don’t know where the old man is. He can’t know where the girl is, of course. She hasn’t had access to a phone or anything?”

“What’re you, nuts? You know there’s no line in the bedroom and I’ve been sitting on this one ever since she was brought in. Besides, she’s been in dreamland until just now. You think she crawled out a window and got to a phone in another room?”

“No. No, of course not,” said Somerset, feeling a little better about the situation. Probably Pickett was just out for a morning stroll. They’d return to his niece’s house later in the afternoon to pick him up. She was a little mad at herself for reacting so anxiously.

Drew was another problem, however. She’d felt an instinctive antipathy toward him ever since Huddy had brought him into this business. His efficiency and discretion were not to be denied, however, so she supposed she’d have to tolerate his insolence a while longer.

“There’s still an outside chance the old man might have discovered where the girl’s being held.”

“I don’t see how,” Drew said blithely, “unless someone slipped up at your end.”

Somerset bristled at the implication but held her temper. By tomorrow they’d have no further need of the man’s services.

“We’ll assign blame later, if there’s any to assign. Right now we have to get our people out looking for Pickett. I’m sure he’ll return to the niece’s house sooner or later. He’s got no place else to go. Maybe he’s sitting somewhere and meditating, who knows? We’ll probably locate him in town.”

“Sure, he’s probably having a cup of coffee somewhere,” Drew agreed. “No reason to get upset, ma’m.”

“I’m not upset,” Somerset replied unconvincingly. Damn, but she despised this arrogant thug! “You just keep your eye on the girl. If by some chance the old man should show up there, you put a gun on her and hold him until we arrive. Understand? Don’t hurt him, don’t try to take him yourself. Just pin him down until we can get there. Keep in mind that he’s dangerous.”

“So everyone keeps telling me,” sighed Drew, sounding bored.

“You should have been in Abilene.”

“Yeah, I heard about that. Everyone blew their cool and let him get away … again. If he pops up here, I’ll have him all packaged and ready for you, ma’m.”

“Just remember, you’ll control him best by posing a threat to the girl.”

“Whatever you say. Miss Somerset,” said Drew, always willing to please.

“We’ll be there soon. You do your job.” She hung up.

Drew felt like spitting into the phone, but wasn’t much for futile gestures. So he contented himself with thinking what he’d do to that high and mighty bitch if given half the chance. He put down the phone and considered what to do next.

The girl shouldn’t be in the bathroom. She was supposed to be under constant sedation. Drew didn’t imagine any harm had been done. It saved him from changing the bedsheets. That was another part of his job. Not that he minded. He was paid plenty, and there were much dirtier tasks than changing linen.

But he had to put her down again. People trapped in her situation were sometimes inclined to go a little crackers and do something crazy, like pushing themselves out a window. Or through one. If the girl turned herself into a bloody mess on the pavement outside it wouldn’t go down well with his employers, wouldn’t do his considerable reputation any good at all.

Easier just to put her back to sleep. Easier on him, easier on her, too. Not that he cared anything about the latter. He reentered the bedroom and locked the door behind him. She was still sitting on the side of the tub, staring out the window down at the bay.

“Alright, little lady. You’ve had your exercise for the day. Time to go beddy-by again.”

“Stay away from me.”

Her protest was so pitiful he couldn’t even laugh, just moved forward and scooped her up in his massive arms. She beat vainly at him with her fists, but he simply turned his head away and ignored them. The journey from bathroom to bedroom, though brief, was not unenjoyable. His hands moved over her casually, freely, as though he were exploring a piece of furniture. He was actually reluctant to set her back down on the big bed.

Leaving her there, he returned to the sitting room and pulled a small black vinyl case from a desk drawer. It contained several gleaming hypodermic needles, two glass syringes and several little bottles with thin membranous lids. He put a clean needle on one syringe, then stuck it through the membrane of a bottle and slowly topped off the hypo. He closed the case and returned it to its drawer, then headed back into the bedroom.

When Amanda saw the needle she stopped yelling and cursing at him. She just lay back against the bed and whimpered. Drew was enjoying himself thoroughly. He pointed the needle upward, squirted a little of the clear fluid into the air.

“You’ve been a bad girl, Amanda. That’s what they told me your name was: Amanda. You’re supposed to be resting.”

“No, please.” She dragged herself to the far end of the bed. “You don’t have to sedate me again. I’ll go to sleep if that’s what you want. I’ll stay on the bed.”

“Will you now?” It was pleasant to toy with her. Any divertissement was welcome in what had become an especially boring job. His hands still tingled from the warm feel of her as he’d carried her back to the bed.

But his instructions were explicit. The girl was not to be harmed. Drew had always prided himself on following his instructions, no matter how onerous, to the letter. As he stood there studying her, however, he considered that there were any number of ways of defining harm. He could always put it down to misinterpretation. Yes, it was the sort of thing he could rationalize. Physical harm, now; as long as the girl didn’t suffer any obvious damage….

Oh, Somerset and Huddy would make noise about it if they found him out, but he could handle mere noise. It wasn’t as if he’d bluntly disregarded his orders. He’d simply misinterpreted a portion of them. And if the girl was heavily sedated afterwards, Somerset and Huddy would like as not never find out.

Besides, he was damn sick and tired of squatting in that tiny sitting room, turning away the occasional employee who might appear on the floor and juggling questions from the refinery manager. Barker was an officious, unhappy little man who took out his frustration on Drew. Drew listened to him instead of breaking his neck because it was incumbent on him to do so. Yes, he was entitled to a little non-financial recompense.

As his mind debated the ramifications of his intentions, his eyes remained hypnotized by the limp body of the girl on the bed. Her lower legs were thin to the point of emaciation from non-use, but from the thighs up she was downright voluptuous. No, he wouldn’t injure her. Not physically, not visibly. Carefully he put the hypo aside.

“You know what I think, little girl? I think the middle of that bed’s just the right place for you. Since you’re being good about staying there, I guess I won’t sedate you right now.”

This was going to be fun, he thought. A lot of fun. Not only was the VIP suite off-limits and soundproofed, but for once he’d have someone to play with who couldn’t kick back.

He started toward the bed. Amanda watched him approach. Grudgingly, he admired the courage of her silence as he neared her. Surely his intentions were obvious. He gave a mental shrug. She’d be screaming soon enough.

What he didn’t realize was that she was already screaming violently, frantically, at the only person in the world who could hear her anyway.

Jake tried to make himself move faster as he steered the inboard into the small-boat dock below the refinery. He saw the words Consolidated Chemical and Mining on the warehouse by the big dock where the cargo ship was berthed. There was no feeling of surprise at the sight of the name. He expected it. He wondered what they refined at the complex. It was a lot bigger than he’d expected.

Since he’d never docked a boat before he had to settle for cutting the engine and letting it run up on the narrow sand and gravel beach. Stepping out into shallow water he took the rope from the bottom of the boat and wrapped it sloppily but securely around one of the cleats bolted to the end of the dock.

As he worked, Amanda’s desperate screams reverberated inside his brain: primal, wordless screams. They were akin to the screams he sometimes overheard when a violent nightmare would awaken her. She would apologize from her bed in far-off Texas and both uncle and grandniece would go back to sleep.

But she wasn’t far away now, and she was living the nightmare with an urgency that terrified him.

Mounting a series of concrete steps, he found himself on a paved walkway leading into a maze of pipes and buildings. Sensing his bafflement and uncertainty, Amanda quelled her panic just enough to guide him onward. While she struggled to direct her uncle with her mind, she used her voice to try and delay the guard.

He was sitting on the side of the bed now. His calloused right hand was running back and forth, back and forth along her right thigh. With each loveless caress his fingers explored a little higher. The worst part of it was that she couldn’t feel them. When she could begin to feel them, there would be additional reason for screaming.

He was grinning at her, a thin, antarctic grin.

“Please,” she whispered, “if you’re going to do this, why don’t you go ahead and sedate me now?”

“Now why would I want to do that?” Drew said softly. “I think I’ll enjoy it more if you’re conscious.”

“I’ll scream as loud as I can.”

“Go ahead and scream. We’ve above and beyond the working section of the plant. This room is soundproofed anyway. The soundproofing’s to keep the noise of the refinery from disturbing important guests, but it’ll serve just as well to keep your screams from disturbing anyone else.” The grin widened. “They won’t bother me.

“But why be nasty about it? I’d rather be nice to you. Doesn’t that sound like a better idea?”

She forced herself to smile back at him. It was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do. “Maybe … but you have to slow down, sir. You’re … you’re doing all this too fast for me. If you’ll slow down I’ll… I’ll try and be nice to you.”