Page 11 of Christmas Ransom

He went upstairs, knowing Willie wouldn’t let anything happen to Carla. He’d drifted off for a while, then he’d spent some time talking to bank employees. Those who’d witnessed the robbery had been given the day off. Lonesome was such a small town it hadn’t been hard to find out who to talk to and where to find them.

They all told the same story. It had looked as if Carla had been targeted by one of the robbers. The wordsunnecessary roughnessandseemed to single her outhad kept coming up.

“He was determined to take her as a hostage,” a bank teller had told him. “I mean, he wasn’t going to leave without her. If one of the other robbers hadn’t hit him to make him let go of her...”

Davy knew there must have been a tie-in between Carla and the robber. What if she knew him? Why beat her up and want to take her hostage? Had she maybe recognized his voice or something about him and he’d realized it? If he’d taken her hostage... Then she would be dead right now.

Davy felt as if the clock were ticking. If the robber, now killer, thought she knew something about him, then he wasn’t finished. He wouldn’t know that she couldn’t remember. Davy cautioned himself that this was all speculation.

Either way, Carla had to remember, he thought, feeling the urgency. She had to help the feds catch him. Until then, Davy couldn’t shake the feeling that Carla was in danger. He quickly reminded himself that Willie was sitting outside her hospital room to make sure she was safe. He’d insisted. As long as she was in the hospital, one of them would be keeping an eye on her, but once she got out...

Davy told himself they’d cross that bridge when they came to it. In the meantime, he’d do whatever he could to help find the robber turned killer.

JUDWASHEADEDhome after lying low until the time he usually came home since quitting his night job. He’d just started to turn down his street when he saw a vehicle he didn’t recognize behind him. He made a quick turn and then another and another. When he looked back, there was no one following him, but his heart was pounding. He couldn’t even imagine how many people were looking for him or what would happen if he were caught.

He took a long way to the house he and Jesse rented. He knew she’d be at work. He parked and realized he couldn’t just carry two huge bags of money into the house. Not in this neighborhood. He covered the bags on his floorboard with an old blanket, then let himself into the house. It was almost dark. He’d wait. The truck was locked, and he figured in this neighborhood no one stole from each other since they were all piss-poor.

After showering, he pulled on a white T-shirt, some faded jeans and an old pair of sneakers. He wadded up his smoky, bloody clothing and picked up his boots and socks. He hated to part with the boots since they had sentimental value, but he knew he had to. Who knew what kind of evidence was on them?

In the backyard he put everything into the burn barrel and set it on fire. He quickly stepped away and went back into the house. The sneakers would have to do until he could buy new boots. He smiled as he remembered that he now had money. He could buy a good pair. Hell, he could buy two pairs.

He tried to call Jesse, but her phone went to voice mail. He checked the time. Her shift would have just started unless she’d been called in early. He decided he’d stop by her work, something he rarely did after she’d asked him not to.

But he had to see her to tell her that he’d gotten all the money and that everything was going to be all right. As he parked at the rear of the building in a spot for employees only, he saw her standing just outside with another employee, who was male. The man was smoking and laughing at something Jesse had said. They both wore scrubs. Jealousy reared its ugly head to see her laughing with another man, but he tamped it back down.

Jesse said something to the man, who stubbed out his cigarette and hurried back inside as Jud got out and sauntered toward her. He checked his expression before he reached her. If he acted jealous, they’d argue about it. He didn’t want to fight with her. They had more important things to discuss.

On the way here, he’d heard on the radio that one of the bank employees had been taken to the hospital. He couldn’t be sure it was Carla. The bank manager was old enough that he could have had a heart attack. But he had a bad feeling the patient upstairs was Carla Richmond. Which meant that she wasn’t dead. Not yet anyway. He had to know her condition.

As he neared the employee entrance of the hospital, he caught a whiff of food coming from the cafeteria and realized the patients would be getting their meal trays soon.

Chapter Nine

Jud walked toward the back steps where Jesse had been laughing with the man. He kept his head down until he got his emotions under control. He didn’t want her to see that he was jealous, or worse, now that they had all this money, that he was uncertain what to do next. He was also scared that he hadn’t covered his tracks well enough.

But the moment he lifted his head and his gaze met hers, he saw that she knew. Her eyes were wide, the words coming out on a breath. “You got it?”

He swallowed and nodded, hating that he was going to have to tell her everything. If he lied, she’d know it. It was like she had a sixth sense when it came to him. He didn’t want to talk about killing Buddy and the others. She would see that it had gutted him. He quickly told her what was important.

When he got to the part about Carla Richmond seeing his tattoo, the one he’d had done on a boys’ trip to Butte, she’d sat down hard on the top step.

By the time he told her about trying to take the executive loan officer hostage and Buddy interfering and then later going for his gun, Jesse dropped her face into her hands.

He sat down beside her, wanting to take her in his arms, but he was half-afraid to touch her. This couldn’t be the end of them. He had all this money. What if she decided to go to the cops? He started to tell her his plan for the two of them to leave the country and make a brand-new life for themselves, when she lifted her head.

Jud was surprised to see that she hadn’t been crying. Instead, she was dry-eyed. Nor did she look angry. He felt confused and almost afraid. Maybe she would rise and march inside and tell someone to call the cops. Or maybe she would—

“Carla Richmond’s on my floor,” she said, so calmly he felt a chill wriggle up his backbone. “I’ll take care of it. From what I’ve heard, she doesn’t remember anything. You need to get the money off the floorboard of your pickup, Jud. Remember that hike we went on just outside of town? That little rock cave?”

He remembered the two of them naked as jaybirds before winter set in next to that cave as he screwed her against one of the rocks.

“Hide the bags in the cave. Then tomorrow you need to go to work.”

He started to argue that neither of them ever had to work again, but she cut him off.

“We need to act as normal as possible. You go to work as if nothing has happened.” She rose to her feet. “I got called in for a double today. They’ll be serving dinner. I need to go. So do you.”

“Jesse—”

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