We stood a few feet from the door. Daniel Crocker was bigger and stronger than me. If he wanted me to go outside, I was going outside. At least if I stayed in the funeral home, I stood a chance.
“I want lots of things, baby, but right now I want the flash drive.” He leaned toward my neck and took a deep breath. “You smell delicious. I bet you taste as good as you look.”
I let out a whimper and he pulled back and laughed. “Like I said, I like you, Rose. Maybe we can work out some sort of compromise that will work in both of our favors.”
“What kind of compromise?” I was surprised I got the words out at all, considering that I could hardly breathe.
He ran his hand up and down my neck, his finger tips trailing down to my cleavage. “Meet me at The Trading Post, tomorrow night. Ten o’clock. You bring the flash drive and I’ll convince my partners this was all a huge misunderstanding. And if you’re lucky, I’ll make you grateful I did.”
“What if I can’t make it?”
Rage replaced his smile, his face exuding pure evil. “You don’t want to find out. Be a smart girl and come see me.” He released me with a shove, then flung open the back door so hard it smacked into the brick wall. The back of my head bounced off the wall just about the same time a vision started coming.
It was night and I lay on my back in the woods, my limbs at odd angles with a vacant expression on my face. The light of the full moon filtered through the trees, casting odd shadow shapes. The moonbeams lit up the small hole centered in my forehead.
“I’m gonna die.”
I wasn’t dead yet, but apparently, I was scared witless because I just stood there, as if I waited for Daniel Crocker to change his mind and come back and take me with him.
Snap out of it, Rose. Move.
I needed to get it together. I had a little over twenty-four hours to come up with a flash drive.
Chapter Nineteen
I went back to the Magnolia Room and sat in a rickety folding chair in the rear. I’m not ashamed to admit I bawled my eyes out. I got a few stares, but I figured I was at a wake, it felt like an appropriate place to cry. An elderly woman brought me a box of tissues and patted my back.
“There, there child. It's the way of life, from ashes to ashes and dust to dust. It was Sloan’s time to go.”
It was Sloan’s time to go.
Was it my time to go? I didn't have a flash drive to give to Daniel Crocker. I had no idea what was supposed to be on the flash drive. Maybe I should go to the police.
“Let me get this straight, Ms. Gardner. Your mother and a bartender were killed all because of a flash drive a customer who showed up at the DMV asked for. And what is supposed to be on this flash drive?”
The police were out.
I was out of my league here. I had no idea what to do or who to turn to. And then I did. Joe. He’d offered to help me before. Maybe he could help me now.
I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and saw I had missed five calls and one message from Joe.
Rose, please call me back. Please. I have to talk to you.
I moved to the lobby and dialed Joe’s number. He picked up on the first ring.
“Oh, thank God. Where are you?”
“I’m at Sloan’s visitation.”
“You’re what?” His voice was cold. “You told me you hardly knew him.”
“I told you we had a dealing. I still hardly knew him.”
“Then what are you doin’ there?”
Getting accosted. “I don’t know Joe. It seemed like the right thing to do.” To my irritation, my tears started flowing again.
“Rose, are you alright?” His voice softened.
It made me cry even harder. “No.”
“Stay there. Let me come get you.”
I wanted to protest, to insist I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but I had been as brave as I could for the moment. I started to sob again.
“I’m comin’. Don’t leave. Just wait for me there.” His words were rushed, like he was already running out the door.
I found a chair in the lobby and wept in fear as I faced the inevitability of my death. Sunday had seemed so far away, but it was right around the corner. Would it hurt when I was shot in the head? I’d been so worried about leaving life, I hadn’t given much thought to the dying part. I cried even harder, slumped over in the chair, my face on my knees making the hem of my dress wet with tears and snot.
I felt hands around my arms, pulling me up and I couldn’t stop the shriek. I jerked away, wild and desperate. Daniel Crocker had changed his mind and came back to get me.