Ratio(97)
June thought about the situation. Amy had mentioned she was spending the weekend at home, and there was no way she would send these men to her house if Amy was home. The situation was bad enough already; she wasn’t going to let it get worse.
“But I don’t know the combination to her safe. I didn’t even know she had a safe until you told me!”
“Look, idiot. There’s this new technology called cell phones. You’re going to call her and get the combination. Right now.”
“But…”
She watched as he flicked the safety off his pistol, making the gun ready to be fired.
“Fine.”
He left the gun aimed where it was. “This is how it works. We’ll use your phone. Clinton will dial the number and hold the phone up to your ear. You talk nice and calm. No chitchat, no girl talk. No clever little messages. Got it?”
June nodded her head.
“You’ll calmly explain the situation to her, about how there is a gun held to the heads of her precious little miracles, but all we want is the money from the safe. Once we get that, we go away and none of you ever sees us again.”
“But what if…”
“No what ifs.” He smiled. “If she hears a gunshot, she’ll know we’re for real.”
June stared back. Her soul wanted to cry, but her mind won that fight. Crying could be done later. Right then she needed to keep a clear mind.
“If she hears a gunshot, she’ll have no reason to give you the combination.”
“We’ll still have you to negotiate with.”
“All you want is the combination to the safe?”
“It’s a complex safe. There’s an electronic password that needs to be put in, plus a dial combination, to get the safe open. You’ll get both, repeat them out loud so I can hear. Any questions?”
She nodded. “How’d you learn all that?”
“Not your problem, is it, Auntie?”
“Where’s your phone?” Georgie asked after he stood up from the dinner table.
“My purse, on the desk.”
George dumped the contents of June’s purse on the desk and grabbed her smart phone out of the mess. He began scrolling through numbers looking for the right one.
“How do you have her listed?” he asked when he got to her side.
June kept her eyes on Reagan, and on the pistol held against Koemi’s head. He gave June a look as though she shouldn’t stall.
“Sis.”
George kept scrolling.
“Just make sure she understands exactly what we want. No fuss, no long explanations. She needs to know we’re serious.”
Reagan nodded his head at Clinton, who then went to June’s side. She was still in the middle of the living room, wrists and ankles restrained. Clinton pulled out his pistol and set the muzzle against her head, in the exact same point Reagan’s gun was aimed at Koemi’s head, just above her ear.
CHAPTER FOUR
Georgie found the number labeled ‘sis’ and pressed call. He held the phone out in front of June, where they could hear it ringing. For the first time since being tied up, she broke eye contact with Reagan and stared down at the phone.
“Don’t answer, Sis…just don’t answer,” June begged quietly, staring down at it.
She listened to it ring, then another ring, and then again. June listened as it rang a seventh, an eighth, a tenth time. No answer, not even voice mail.
“She’s not answering,” June said, looking at Reagan again. “She’s too busy.”
“Georgie, did you dial the right number?” Reagan asked impatiently.
He looked at the screen. “It’s says sis on it.”
June could see sweat forming on Reagan’s neck below the edge of the mask, running down into his shirt. Part of it was the rubber mask over his head, and maybe part was his nerves. She needed to apply more pressure to force him into a mistake.
“If you take off the masks, you won’t be so hot,” she told them. “It would be easier for you to smoke your cigarettes too.”
“And risk going back to prison, because you could identify us? Forget that,” Clinton said.
“Shut your hole!” shouted Reagan.
He answered what June had been thinking, that they knew each other before, and in prison. She needed to tread lightly, but still apply pressure.
“Who helped you with all this?” she asked. “There is no way you could’ve got that much information about her without help, especially about the safe. Or how you knew the kids would be here today.”
“Shut up.” Reagan glanced down at the phone. “Georgie, you sure you dialed the right number?”
“Yeah, but…”