Page 12 of Wrong Turn

The table caught fire with a whump.

Kerosene didn’t have the explosive quality of gasoline, so they had plenty of time to retrieve Kelly’s purse and Lei’s backpack from the corner where the men had thrown them and shut the door of the building. Harry fiddled with the lock on the front door and jammed it. Inside, the fire crackled merrily, flames growing to reach up and touch the tinder-dry ceiling beams.

They were still unfastening the Mustang’s bumper from the winch on the back of the truck when the whole building caught fire.

Grunting with effort, wriggling through the dust, Lei disconnected the steel hook from the undercarriage of the car. She backed out on her belly and stood up. She dusted herself off, but dirt clung to the blood soaking her garments in a sticky paste.

Harry had hauled the dog Kona had killed into the doorway of the burning building, and the animal’s body caught fire with a burnt hair smell. The three women watched the leaping flames consume the remains of the violent scene.

“Do you want to take the truck, too?” Lei brushed vainly at the filth coating her. Kelly, meanwhile, got into the Mustang and turned it on. The powerful engine caught with a roar.

“No. Let’s leave the truck and its keys here. With any luck at all, this looks like these guys were partying and passed out when their kerosene lamp fell over, causing a tragic accident. You two can drop me by the quad and go on your way,” Harry said.

“I don’t know how you’re going to carry a baby on the quad,” Lei said.

“I have the carrying rack on the back. Her box will fit there just fine.” Harry seemed to have taken full control of the infant and didn’t want to let it out of her sight; and that was fine with Lei.

Lei went to the truck’s cab. She wiped Fernando’s keys off with a bit of greasy rag she found in the truck. She wiped down the seats and window jambs too, removing Kelly’s prints. She checked carefully for any evidence, retrieving one of Kelly’s flowered sandals from the truck’s floor. Their crude doctoring of the scene wouldn’t fool any good investigator, but one could hope the cops wouldn’t look too closely at the convenient death of these undesirables.

Lei dropped the keys on the floor of the truck, searching the ground for Kelly’s other sandal. She found it on the way to the burning building.

“We better get going,” Harry called. “This fire’s going to attract some attention, even out here.”

“Coming.” Lei jogged back to the Mustang. Harry sat in the back seat, on one side of the baby’s box; Kona sat on the other side. Lei jumped into the passenger seat in front and buckled her seatbelt. She waggled the sandals. “I found your shoes, Kelly.”

“Good. I don’t like going barefoot.” Kelly hit the gas, spinning the convertible into a tight turn to drive away from the pyre they’d ignited.

Lei hadn’t expected that her first time at a crime scene would be on the wrong side of the law—and it didn’t feel good. She didn’t want to have to carry any more secrets than she already did. She wanted to fight crime legitimately, in the clear light of day, not in darkness with weapons with their serial numbers filed off.

This kind of crime fighting wasn’t her thing—but she couldn’t deny that Harry’s idea had worked. They’d done what they had to do; Kelly was safe now, and so was a tiny, innocent baby.

Kona put his head between the seat and the doorjamb and nuzzled Lei’s hair. He licked blood off her shoulder as the Mustang accelerated on the long, dusty road back to civilization.

Chapter Nine

Lei stretchedout on a lounge chair beside the pool, fighting a sense of unreality as Kelly handed her the tanning lotion. “I wish you’d buy a better suit. You have a great figure, but you look like my grandma in that.” Her friend gestured to Lei’s no-nonsense, high-cut tank.

“You’re showing enough for both of us,” Lei said, gesturing to the skimpy white bikini that made the most of Kelly’s curves. Kelly blinked at the sharp comment and dropped the tanning oil onto Lei’s stomach.

Harry, face down on her lounger, looked up. The string of her top was untied, baring her sleek brown back. Her amber-brown eyes were tired. “Be nice, girls.”

Last night they’d reached the boulder where Harry had stashed the quad, and after a discussion involving the filth coating Lei, the money they’d spent on the resort, and the importance of pretending everything was normal, the trio, including dog and baby, had returned to Harry’s RV together and everyone cleaned up as best they could.

“Please come with us to the resort,” Kelly begged Harry. “I know it won’t be a problem to add a room for you. Let me pay. It’s the least I can do to thank you for rescuing me.”

Harry, looking down at her grubby jeans, nodded. “I’ll come for a couple of days, if they’ll take Kona. Would be nice to have a long hot shower and a real bed, and we can figure out what to do about the baby.”

Bringing Kona into the resort had cost a small fortune, but Kelly’s parents, relieved she’d “escaped,” as Kelly put it, were happy to put the whole thing on their gold Mastercard when Kelly got done explaining, leaving out the dead bodies in a burnt building. They’d insisted Lei and Kelly stay in Mexico and drive back to the Bay Area after a few days of relaxation in the hotel. “We came for a vacation and we need one now, more than ever,” Kelly had told her parents, and she got her way as she always did.

The girls had checked into the hotel in Cabo San Lucas the night before. Now, Lei glanced over at Harry. The baby girl was napping in the shade in a respectable portable bassinet they’d picked up, but judging by the circles under her eyes, Harry had lost sleep last night caring for the infant.

“I need a drink.” Lei waved for a waiter. They ordered a round of mojitos. Kelly pulled the brim of her large white sombrero down firmly, blocking Lei from her view.

Lei poured some of the oil into her hand, massaging it onto her legs. It was only twenty-four hours since their raid, but it felt like it had happened a lifetime ago. Still, intrusive images from the night kept flashing in front of her eyes, making this idyllic setting feel like a dream, and she hadn’t slept well either. “I’m sorry, Kelly. I’m . . . having trouble just brushing everything off. Moving on.”

“It’s okay. Me, too,” Kelly said, plucking at the knot of her skimpy bikini. “I feel so weird, like any minute the cops are going to charge in and bust us.”

The drinks arrived just then, and there was a flurry of distraction. Finally, the three sat forward and clinked brightly colored, umbrella-decorated glasses filled with frosty drinks.

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