Hothouse Orchid

60

Lauren took a deep breath to calm herself, then opened the back door of the police station and stepped into the hallway. Light from Jimmy’s office spilled into the hallway.

She walked down the hall, turned and then leaned against the doorjamb, alluringly, she hoped. “Hi, there,” she said.

Jimmy looked up and grinned. He had already changed out of his uniform and was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and khaki trousers. “Hi, you ready?”

“Whenever you are,” she replied.

Jimmy locked his desk, got up and escorted her down the hall to the rear door and opened it for her. “Your car or mine?”

“Mine’s a mess. Anyway, yours has more room, so let’s take that.” To her relief, Jimmy steered her toward his car, opened the door and let her inside.

She sat in the middle of the wide bench seat, so that when he got in they would be close together.

He entered the car and started it. She knew that the cameras would come on when the engine started and remain on for thirty minutes after the engine stopped.

“Where to?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “How about Jungle Trail? Nobody goes out there since the murders.”

“Perfect,” Jimmy said. He pulled out of the parking lot and drove away.

Teddy watched them get into the car, watched Lauren slide across the seat toward Jimmy, and he didn’t like it. She was making herself bait. He looked around for the two police cars and the van, but they were nowhere in sight. He started his car and followed Jimmy at a distance.

Holly sat in the passenger seat while a state trooper, Charlie Towns, drove. She watched the blip on the GPS. “Got him on the screen,” she said. “Let’s go, but don’t close on him. Stay out of sight.”

They drove across the bridge, and Jimmy turned north, toward the southern terminus of Jungle Trail. As he did, he put a hand on her thinly clad thigh, and she put her hand on top of his. It was dark out; the moon had not yet risen.

Teddy alternated between watching Jimmy’s taillights and looking for the police cars. Where the hell were they? How were they going to help Lauren if they couldn’t see her?

Jimmy made a left turn off A-1A, and as he did, Lauren saw him take a long look in the rearview mirror. She knew that he wouldn’t see anything and that they would be picked up by the GPS in all three pursuing vehicles, so she felt safe. Nervous but safe.

Teddy watched Jimmy make the left turn. He had an idea of where the lead car was going; he and Lauren had driven Jungle Trail once. He fell back a little, switched off his headlights and, without using his turn signal, followed the lead. He saw no other cars turn behind him. He watched as Jimmy turned right on the trail proper, then he slowed to let him gain more distance before he turned, too.

If it had been dark before, it was pitch black now, what with the canopy of trees shielding them from even the starlight. Lauren nearly panicked when, for a moment, she couldn’t remember the code word. Then it came to her: bastard. Jimmy’s hand slid higher up her leg to her crotch, but she didn’t stop him.

They drove up the trail for another five minutes, then Jimmy stopped the car.

“Here okay?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said.

Teddy saw Jimmy’s brake lights come on, then go dark. They had stopped, and he had turned off his lights.

Hurd Wallace, riding in the surveillance van, watched the GPS screen. “He’s stopped,” Hurd said. He looked at the series of video screens. “She looks calm,” he said. Then the screens went dark. “What happened?” Hurd asked.

“He’s on Jungle Trail, so the tree canopy is blocking any light,” Mike Green replied. “He’s turned off his lights, so his dashboard lights have gone off, too, so we just can’t see. But don’t worry; we’ve still got audio.”

“You didn’t anticipate this?” Hurd asked.

“What, anticipate total darkness? Did you want me to install lights in his car?”

“You okay?” they heard Jimmy say.

“I’m just…” Lauren was saying, then stopped talking.

“What’s going on?” Hurd asked.

Mike pointed at a dial on his control panel. “They’re not transmitting audio,” he said. “The system must have powered down when he switched off the engine.”

“But it’s supposed to continue running for thirty minutes,” Hurd protested.

“What can I tell you?” Mike replied. “It didn’t happen.”

Hurd picked up his handheld radio. “Cars one and two: we’ve lost both video and audio, and oh, shit, the GPS isn’t transmitting, either; it’s blocked by the trees. They’re somewhere on Jungle Trail. Close on them fast!”

Teddy saw the white sand of a road to his left and pulled a few yards into it. He got out of the car and peered into the darkness up the road but couldn’t see a thing. He got back in, unlocked the glove compartment and took out a small but powerful Surefire flashlight and the 9-mm pistol he kept there.

“Step on it, Charlie,” Holly said. “God, I hope we’re not going to be too late!”

Jimmy reached down between his legs and released the seat adjuster, allowing the bench seat to move backward a good foot. Lauren suddenly realized that now she couldn’t reach the gun under the dash, and she tried to calm herself. There was still the one under the front seat, though.

Jimmy put an arm around Lauren and moved his left hand to her crotch.

“Is this how you did it with the others, Jimmy?” Lauren asked. “Did they like it?”

“Sure,” Jimmy said. “They loved it. They loved every minute of it.” He stuck his hand inside the elastic band of her pants and reached downward.

Lauren still didn’t stop him “They were unconscious, though, weren’t they?”

“A little,” Jimmy said, “but they could still feel my dick inside them. I got the dosage just right.”

“You bastard,” Lauren said. She didn’t know if what Jimmy had said was enough of a confession, but she was beginning to panic. “Not so hard,” she said, pushing his hand away. “You bastard.”

“Bitch!” Jimmy shouted. “You want it just like they got it, don’t you?”

Lauren moved across the seat and was about to go for the gun underneath it, when Jimmy’s fist smashed into the side of her face. In the darkness, she hadn’t seen it coming. She fell onto the floor of the car, between the seat and the dash, but she couldn’t seem to think clearly. She wanted something, but she couldn’t think what. She fought to stay conscious.

Jimmy reached down, grabbed the waistband of her pants and hauled her back onto the seat face down. There was a loud ripping sound as he tore her clothes from her body, then he got an arm under her and pulled her to her knees.

Her face pressed against the plastic seat, Lauren began to come to. Then she felt something cold and wet in her crotch. Jimmy had produced a lubricant from somewhere and was slathering it onto her vagina and anus. She reached under the seat and felt for the little Colt Mustang clipped there. She got a hand on it and pulled it free, but she was pinned face down and couldn’t turn over, and her elbow couldn’t rotate enough to point the gun at him.

Switch on the goddamned siren and the lights!” Hurd shouted at the driver. “I want him to hear and see us coming!”

“There’s no siren on the van,” the man called back.

Hurd pressed the switch on his radio. “Sirens and lights on!” he yelled into the instrument.

Lauren could hear Jimmy unzip his trousers and pull them down. She tried again to turn over, but he had her pinned with one hand. God, she thought, he’s going to rape me, and there’s nothing I can do about it. She had a flash of the scene with Bruno in his car years ago, and she felt the helplessness she had felt them.

Suddenly, the car was filled with an amazingly white, bright light. There was a loud noise, and then she was showered with glass, but Jimmy’s hand was no longer on her back. She twisted around and, momentarily blinded by the light, pointed the Mustang in his direction. She fired three times and heard glass break again. Then Jimmy was on top of her.

Teddy heard the sirens and, looking back down Jungle Trail, saw flashing lights coming. He dove into the underbrush and began making his way back down the trail through the palmettos as fast as he could. He had gone perhaps fifty yards when the two police cars and the van blew noisily past him. As soon as they had passed, he moved back into the road and began running down the trail. A moment later, using the red setting on the flashlight, he found his car, got it started and was driving back up Jungle Trail. He avoided using the brakes and didn’t switch the lights on until he thought he was near the turn back to A-1A. Above him, he saw the spotlight of a helicopter come on, but it was pointing behind him.

He slowed down when he reached A-1A, and drove toward home, keeping to the speed limit. A police car and an ambulance drove past him fast, in the opposite direction.

Lauren might be hurt, he thought, but she was in safe hands now.