And click. That’s it. Amy is handcuffed. She’s on an island. She has a highly trained ex–Navy SEAL pointing a gun at her, and soon she will be either dead or on a one-way plane ride to God knows where. She also has a client shut up in a panic room.
The door opens.
“Well, I never,” says Rosie D’Antonio, looking at the kneeling, handcuffed Amy. “I have to say, my money was on Amy overpowering you. You clever thing, Kevin, all this, and you can also knock up a decent soufflé.”
“I have to request that you return to the panic room, ma’am,” says Kevin. He turns back to Amy. “Get on your feet.”
“Yes, I decided I wouldn’t go into the panic room until I knew Amy was okay,” says Rosie. “You see the sort of person I am, Amy? Even after everything you’ve done?”
“I’ve done nothing,” says Amy, getting up.
“I believed you at first,” says Rosie. “But no smoke without fire. You can take the girl out of Watford, but can you ever take Watford out of the girl?”
Kevin nods. “I’m taking Amy into the panic room.”
Kevin forces Amy forward, his gun in the small of her back. Amy is struggling to come up with a plan.
The door to the panic room is open. It is at least ten inches thick and framed with a vacuum seal.
He won’t kill her, surely? Who on earth would want her dead? The room itself looks like a perfectly pleasant place to spend her next few hours. A big sofa, a TV, a drinks cabinet, another door leading to a bedroom. She’ll be comfortable while she awaits her fate. Kevin forces her inside.
“At least tell me where you’re taking me,” says Amy.
“I’m not taking you anywhere, Amy,” says Kevin. “I really am sorry, but it was a lot of money.”
So this is it? In her line of work, she often thinks about where it’s going to end. A military checkpoint in Syria? An opium den in San Salvador? That she made it through childhood was miracle enough, so she can’t really complain. She thinks about Adam, and she thinks about Steve. Will they cry, she wonders.
Kevin digs his gun deeper into Amy’s back and forces her onto the floor.
Of course they’ll cry, Amy. They love you. They love you. You found love against all the odds.
The scene is playing out for Amy in the mirror above the bar. She looks so beaten. Arms behind her back. Big Navy SEAL with a gun directly behind her. Who is doing this, who needs her dead? Why?
And then, and then.
Amy can see a golden trophy held by a small hand come crashing down on Kevin’s head. She spins as Kevin falls to the floor, and kicks his gun across the panic room. Kevin is stunned but quickly back on his knees, scrambling toward the gun. Amy drags herself to her feet and runs out of the panic room, heading back into the house as Kevin aims and fires. She falls in a heap on the hallway carpet just as Kevin’s first bullet thuds into the door of the panic room, which Rosie has swung shut. Closely followed by the almost inaudible thuds of five more bullets ricocheting off that impregnable closed door.
“Quick,” shouts Amy. “Before he gets the door open.”
“He can’t open it without the code,” says Rosie. “He’s in there for the long run.”
As if to prove the point, very faint banging can now be heard from behind the door.
“That’s good work, Rosie,” says Amy.
“And without the upper-body strength I used to have,” says Rosie, as Amy gets to her feet. “I sensed you doubted me?”
“Well, I sensed you doubted me,” says Amy.
“Let’s promise neither of us will do that again,” says Rosie. “I hit him with an Oscar, you know, and not a scratch on it.”
“When did you win an Oscar?”
“Best Cinematography 1974,” says Rosie, showing Amy the Oscar. “Poker game.”
“I need to get off the island,” says Amy.
“I’d say that I do too,” says Rosie. “I just attacked a hitman with an Academy Award. We’d better get you out of those handcuffs.”
“I get the feeling you’ve said that a few times in your life,” says Amy. “I can’t take you with me, Rosie. It’s too dangerous.”
“You have no choice,” says Rosie. “Come on, it’ll be an adventure. Who else have you got on your side right now?”
Another text from Steve. A heart. Actually not bad timing, Steve.
“What’s the plan?” Rosie asks.
“I could visit the sheriff who found the body?” says Amy. “You really should stay here until I can send help. Kevin can’t get out.”
“Someone is trying to have you killed,” says Rosie.
“Yes, and Vasiliy Karpin is still trying to have you killed,” says Amy.
“Listen,” says Rosie, “sometimes a bit of attention is nice. But who’s after you?”
“Fairbanks was found with a bag of money,” says Amy.
“Almost a million dollars,” says Rosie.
