Page 60 of Almost Dead (The Cahills 2)

“These things take time.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re not stuck in this hellhole. It’s a miracle I haven’t gone flippin’ insane down here!” she said, then continued to whine and feel sorry for herself again. After all Elyse had done for the bitch. All the risks she’d taken. While Princess Marla was fighting boredom. Well, who the hell cared?

The trouble was, it appeared that Marla was getting weirder by the day, more paranoid about being caught. Not once had she gone up the stairs. She usually just sat in her damned chair in front of the boob tube. This was getting bad.

Yes, Marla wanted to hear every last detail of the funeral and the gathering afterward, asking about people Elyse didn’t know, but Marla was pouting as well. They had talked about her attending the funeral with Elyse in disguise, but had decided against it. The cops would be looking for her, and no matter how good the makeup, padding, wigs, contacts, and clothing, there had been the chance

that someone might have recognized her.

Elyse said now, “I’m certain the police are thinking you’re behind Eugenia’s and Rory’s deaths. Even though I gave your prison wear to the guy who’s going to leave it in Oregon, the authorities won’t buy that you’ve left the state unless we stop now.”

“We can’t,” Marla said fervently. For once, she seemed to understand. “Not yet.” She seemed upset now, fretting. “You just have to work faster. That’s it. Take care of everyone who’s in our way. Then send your man to Oregon. No, wait a minute. I’m going crazy here anyway. I’ll help.”

“How?” Elyse asked, not liking the turn of the conversation.

“I’ll leave here…go to a local hotel. I can take a taxi from there. Disguise myself, have the taxi put me near BART and I could take a bus or—”

“No!”

“Then I’ll drive the car,” she said with more animation than she’d shown in a long while. “I need to get out of here.”

“Not yet,” Elyse said, panicking. “You can’t leave yet.”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Just show a little patience. Everything’s going according to plan.”

Marla glared at her.

“First go upstairs. See if you can handle being out of this damned basement. If you can, then we’ll see.”

“You’re like a damned warden!”

“I’m just making sense,” Elyse told her. She didn’t want to upset Marla, because there was nothing to prevent her from leaving if she so chose. Even if Elyse decided to lock her inside, Marla had keys, and she was a master at escape. No, Marla had to be convinced that she needed to stay inside for a while longer. Till they were both safe and the job was done. “Really, everything’s going perfectly.”

So don’t blow it!

Marla let out a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

That was more like it.

“I can stay hidden for a few more weeks. It’s god-awful, but it won’t be forever,” she said as if she were convincing herself. “I just have to keep telling myself that. This place is worse than prison. At least there I had people I could talk with.”

“You mean cons and guards?”

“I saw sunlight.”

“I know, I know, I’ll take care of it.” Secretly Elyse was glad to ratchet up the schedule. The highs of the killings didn’t last long, and she was anxious for everything to fall into place.

She picked up some of the garbage Marla let lie around…. Jesus, couldn’t she smell the rotting apple cores and bits of sandwiches? Maybe it was because she was trapped down here with it. She also, nonchalantly, cleaned the brush Marla used on her hair.

“Look,” she suggested, pocketing the snarl of hair when Marla wasn’t looking. “At least walk into the other room of the basement and stretch your legs. Go up and down the stairs and walk around on the other floor. I’ll go up there now and make certain the blinds are drawn. No one will see you.”

“I do need to get out.” Longingly, she eyed her coat draped upon a hook and the boots on the floor below.

“Absolutely. Go upstairs,” Elyse agreed, trying another tack to mollify the older woman. “I’d go stir crazy if I just sat down here all day and night.”

“But you’re not me, are you?” Marla asked, a sense of new-found pride in her voice. “You’ve never been penned up like an animal.” She smiled almost wickedly, her green eyes sparkling in the half-light of the little room. “You don’t have the same backbone I do, the same sense of purpose. That’s the difference between us.”

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