“No. I have to wake my son. Just please, hurry.”
She placed the receiver back in the cradle, her hand still shaking badly. She got up to go to Dash, but heard a faint buzz through the FaceTime feed, different from the sound of the pick gun. She glanced, and saw the UPS man reach into his uniform and pull out a cellphone. He held it to his ear and listened. “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “Maybe she heard me. Doesn’t matter. I’ll meet you there.”
She shook her head, confused. Meet who, where?
The library.
She felt a fresh wave of terror. They’d spoofed the phone line. Probably had a dirt box simulator set up outside to intercept cellphone transmissions, too.
She’d meant to call 911 . . . and had told them exactly where she and Dash were hiding.
That feeling of waking up in the van, nauseous, confused, Delgado telling her the horrible things he would do if she didn’t cooperate . . . It all came back in a dizzying rush.
Get it together, Evie, get it together—
A weapon. She needed a weapon. But what could she use? It was a library—was she going to throw books at them?
She pulled open one of the desk drawers. The computer screen’s glow was too dim to see inside the drawer, and she couldn’t very well turn on the lights. And of course she didn’t have her cellphone to use as a flashlight—
Come on, come on . . .
She squinted and reached into the drawer, groping for something, anything. A letter opener. Something heavy like a paperweight. Or—
Scissors. The kids in here were always making posters about books. They had to have scissors.
She yanked open another drawer and groped inside. Pencils. A ruler. Nothing useful.
A third drawer. A stapler. A hole punch. A container of glue.
God what kind of library doesn’t have a fucking pair of scissors—
It was taking too long. She ran from behind the desk and over to Dash. The main library entrance was on this floor. The second-floor entrance was always locked and wasn’t even marked. So they’d come in here, right? If she and Dash took the internal staircase to the second floor, maybe they could slip out before anyone saw them. They could find a different place to hide. She didn’t know where—all the doors were locked at night. She only had keys to the library, the faculty lounge, and her office. They might think of the lounge. Marvin had been concerned about that. There were stenciled metal signs alongside each door. Could she remove the one for the faculty lounge? But then that would be the only one missing . . .
She was thinking too much. They’d find something. A bathroom, maybe. A closet. Or they could get to an exit and run out of the building. Get to the street and pound on someone’s door. But first they had to move.
She leaned over Dash and shook him briskly by the shoulder. He flinched and opened his eyes.
We have to go, she signed. Right now.
He looked around, obviously confused and still half-asleep. Is Marvin here?
No. Not yet. Come on. And quiet, all right? Like a ninja.
Where are we going?
Up the stairs.
I have to go to the bathroom.
Later. Come on.
She pulled him to his feet and they walked quickly to the stairs. They were almost at the top when she heard the vibration again, in the library door.
The lock-pick gun. They were out of time.
chapter
forty-five
RAIN
Rain scanned as Delilah drove, the weight of the Glock reassuring in his hand. The neighborhood around the school was residential, and unlike the highway, where they had passed a few cars, these streets were still empty, the streetlights revealing nothing but early-morning mist. They circled twice and saw nothing, not even a jogger or suburbanite walking a dog.