“Okay, they’re not brats. Those kids belong to your sister, and that’s why we’re here today.”
“So?”
“We want money, and your sister has plenty. We have her kids, and their mommy will want them back. Pretty easy to figure out.”
“So, this is a kidnapping?”
“Not at all. Those little dickens can walk out of the house any time they want. So can you for that matter.”
“And get bullets in our heads?” June shook her head. She had to approach everything she said very carefully. But patience had never been her strong suit. “What do you expect me to do all tied up like this, go to an ATM for some cash?”
Reagan took a seat in an easy chair and slouched down into the soft cushions. The other two chuckled. “We ain’t doin’ this for no five hundred bucks. We know she has a whole lot more’n that tucked away at home.”
“Are you guys idiots? If you want more than that, she’ll have to go to a bank, and this is a weekend. You really expect to keep us here until Monday morning?”
“Why not?” Clinton asked, his smile full of yellow teeth.
She kept looking at Reagan as though answering him. “Well, because people need to be fed, go to the bathroom, sleep, those sorts of things. And the way things sit right now, you’ve made it pretty damn difficult for me to cooperate.”
Reagan sighed and pulled a pack of smokes out of his shirt pocket.
“No smoking in the house,” June said to him.
He snorted a laugh. “I’m supposed to go out in the back and smoke?” he asked with a note of incredulity to his voice.
“No smoking out there either.”
She tried staring him down again but lost the battle when he lit a cigarette. He exhaled a long stream of gray smoke in her direction, smoke seeping out the eye, ear, and nose holes of the mask, a devilish appearance. “Anyway, we know where she lives and we know she has a wall safe there. We know an armored truck made a delivery of cash. And a wealthy woman like her is gonna have plenty of cash on hand, just for times like this.”
“Really? How did you find out she has a wall safe? Because she’s never said a thing about it to me. Seems odd that strangers would know that but not her own sister.”
“Cause we’ve been figuring out a way of gettin’ money from her, you haven’t. You and me, we pay attention to different things, and learn different stuff. You know what the brats like to eat, and I know she has money in the house.”
“And you think I have the combination to the safe?”
“No. You just made it sound like you don’t. Which means we need to get it from her.” He grinned at her. “And we ain’t waitin’ till she gets back here. We want the combination to the safe, and the code that will get us past the alarm system at the house. Plus, we want the pass from your car that will get us past the guard at the front gate to the neighborhood.”
“You don’t want much, do you?” June fidgeted uncomfortably in her tight plastic restraints. “Anything else? A helicopter to take you to a yacht out at sea for your get-away?”
“Not a bad idea. But we already have that all worked out.”
June watched the twins watching the television, a colorful and busy children’s show she had never seen before. They had settled down and were more interested in the show than what was going on around them. Both had at least one finger in their mouth. Satisfied there was a measure of control in the house, at least over emotions, she looked back at the man in the easy chair.
“How do you know I’m going to cooperate?”
Silently, Reagan left his chair and went to the couch where the girls were sitting. Holding the cigarette with his front teeth, he pushed the girls’ shoulders together, and then their heads. They looked startled to be touched from behind and began whimpering again.
“Hey! Leave them alone!” June struggled against the plastic ties.
He pulled the gun from his jacket pocket and shoved the muzzle up against the side of a girl’s head. He slid the gun around in her hair until it settled onto a point just over her ear.
Reagan looked back at June. “This is how we get you to cooperate.”
Hot tears welled up in June’s eyes hearing the girls whimpering start up again.
“Sit still, girls, and be quiet,” June warned them. “Sit still or auntie will be very angry with you.” She looked again at the gun in the man’s hand, and then back at his face. “Do that and you have no leverage at all. It would be a one way trip to the gas chamber.”
“Want to try out your theory?” the man asked, smoke curling up from the cigarette locked between his teeth. “So far we’ve left no evidence, no prints or fibers anywhere in the house. Two bullets would silence the three of you forever. Then we’d simply walk out the front door happier than a gang of missionaries.”