Page 43 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

“No, I’ve never heard of it. Is it in Arlington? That’s where you’re from, isn’t it?”

“You looked me up?” Her voice cracked. “When you left, I thought you’d gone for good. I can’t believe you came back.”

“That man shouldn’t get away with what he did.”

“Are you gonna…you know? The whole Electi thing? Some spirit guide told me about it when I died, and honestly, I know I could get reincarnated in, like, Alaska or something, but I really don’t want to be stuck in this car for all eternity. Some guy picked up a hooker and had sex right next to me a few months back. Totally weird.”

“You mean am I going to kill the man? Sorry, but I don’t do that. This is the twenty-first century, and we’ve moved on. It’s jail or nothing.”

“Normal jail? Or is there a special supernatural jail for their nasty souls?”

“Just normal jail, I’m afraid. And to do that, I still need to find the guy. Where did he take Jacqueline?”

“I’m not exactly sure. Somewhere in the countryside, but it was dark, and these windows are tinted so I didn’t get a real good look. Studio Nine’s in Falls Church, and we drove for maybe half an hour after that.”

“Okay, the countryside. To a forest?”

“No, a house. A big house. I saw the outline, and one of the windows had a light on.”

Outside, Reed was watching me as Tyrone turned the hose on our SUV.HisSUV. I leaned forward and opened the glove compartment in the Mercedes. Empty except for the owner’s manual, a single condom, and an empty Reese’s Pieces packet.

“Did you see a name? A number? What was it near?”

“I don’t know! I wasn’t thinking straight, okay? Jacqueline kept groaning in the front seat, and I shouted at her just in case she could hear somehow, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do. Have you ever felt utterly helpless like that?”

More times than I cared to count.

“I understand how difficult it was. But you’ve got to give me something. Anything. At the moment, all we know is that the man has dark-brown hair, a British accent, and he’s around thirty.”

“I’m not certain about the hair. When he picked up Jacqueline, he was blond. Oh, and he wore a cast on his arm, but I think that was fake because he only slid it on in the parking lot before he went into the club.”

“He had a bandage on his wrist when I met him.”

“Yeah, he took that off after you jumped out. Guess he was looking for sympathy or something.”

“Seriously? So now we’re actually farther back than when we started.”

“The car’s from the British embassy. Sometimes other people take it home, but mostly it stays in the parking lot there. The owner’s an old guy—Robert something—but he doesn’t use it much. Mostly because he drinks. One of the times he did try driving, he ran a red light then got stopped by the cops, and even though he was so drunk he couldn’t walk straight, he claimed diplomatic immunity, and they had to let him go. I watched the whole thing. Oh! The person he called to pick him up that night was the guy! The guy who kidnapped us. Does that help?”

“I don’t know. Did they say anything to each other?”

“Barely a word. The younger guy seemed furious.”

“Can you remember where he picked Robert up?”

“I’m, like, really bad with directions. Even with satnav, I always used to get lost. One time, it told me to turn left, so I did, only I was towing my horse trailer and we went down this narrow lane and got stuck. Did you know I had a horse?” She gave a quiet sniffle. “I miss him.”

No, I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to know either, because that would make Georgette all the more human, and I found this hard enough already without emotions getting involved.

“Which state? Do you recall that much? DC? Maryland? Virginia?”

Georgette fell silent for a minute, thinking. “Virginia, I’m almost sure. Near the Potomac. We drove over a bridge not long before.”

“Do you remember anything else from the night I was in the car?” I needed something to give to Reed. A little snippet of information. Anything. “He called himself Tim. Have you heard that name before? Maybe from the other people who drive the car?”

A few seconds passed as Georgette thought. “No, I don’t remember ever hearing it.”

“Did he go anywhere else that day? Or straight to the hotel where he met me?”

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