“He’ll kill her anyway,” Riggs said hotly.
LuAnn looked over at him. “Not if I get him first.” She thought back to her last encounter with Jackson, at the cottage. She was stronger than he was. Not by much, but she had the clear advantage there. However, he knew that too. She had seen that in his eyes. That meant he would not go toe-to-toe with her again, at least not physically. She would have to remember that. If he could adapt, so could she.
“LuAnn, I have a lot of confidence in you,” Riggs said, “but this guy is something else again.”
“He’s right, LuAnn,” Charlie added.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys.” She didn’t wait for them to answer. She pulled the portable phone out of the bag and punched in the number. Before it started ringing, she looked at both of them. “But remember, I’ve got two good arms.”
Riggs slid his hand down into his coat until it touched the reassuring metal of his pistol. His aim would have to be a lot better this time around. He hoped to not have the painful distraction of a knife sticking out of his arm.
He and Charlie watched as LuAnn spoke into the receiver, leaving the number of the cell phone. She hung up and waited, still not looking at them. Barely three minutes had passed before the phone rang.
Before LuAnn could say anything, Jackson said, “Please know that I have a device attached to my phone that will indicate whether this call is being traced, just in case you happen to be sitting at police headquarters. It will tell me in about five seconds if that is occurring. If you are, I will immediately hang up and slit your daughter’s throat.”
“I’m not at the police and I’m not tracing your call.”
He didn’t say anything for five seconds. She could envision him eyeing his device, perhaps hoping she was lying to him. “I applaud you for avoiding the obvious,” he finally said quite pleasantly.
“When and where?” LuAnn said.
“No greeting? No small talk? Where are your manners? Has the expensively constructed princess deteriorated that suddenly? Like a flower without water? Without sunshine?”
“I want to talk to Lisa. Right now.”
“Sorry about Uncle Charlie,” Jackson said. He was sitting on the floor almost in total darkness. He held the phone close to his mouth, speaking slowly and in as casual a tone as he could muster. He wanted her panic level to rise steadily, he wanted her to feel his absolute control of the situation. When the time came he wanted her to come obediently forward to receive her punishment. He wanted her to come meekly to confront her executioner.
She wasn’t about to tell Jackson that Charlie was sitting right behind her wanting nothing more than to wring the life out of him. “I want to talk to Lisa!”
“How can you be sure I haven’t killed her already?”
“What?” she gasped.
“You can talk to her, but how will you know it’s not me mimicking her voice? ‘Mommy, Mommy,’ I could say. ‘Come help me.’ I could say all those things. So if you want to talk to her, you can, but it will prove nothing.”
“You son of a bitch!”
“Would you still like to talk to her?”
“Yes,” LuAnn said pleadingly.
“Manners now. Yes, what?”
She hesitated for an instant, taking a deep breath, trying to keep her wits and her nerves together. “Yes, please,” she said.
“Just a minute. Now where have I put that child?”
Riggs was doing his best to listen in. Exasperated, LuAnn finally opened the door and got out of the car.
She strained to hear any sound in the background.
“Mom, Mom, is that you?”
“Honey, baby, it’s Mom. Oh, God, sweetie, I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, excuse me, LuAnn, that’s still me,” Jackson said. “Oh, Mom, Mommy, are you there?” he said again, mimicking Lisa’s voice precisely.
LuAnn was too stunned to say anything.
The next voice she heard was Jackson’s real one. His tone almost bit into her ear it was said with such forcefulness. “I’ll let you talk to her, really talk to her. You can have your mother–daughter emotional exchange. But when you’re done I will tell you exactly what you will do. If you deviate in any way from my instructions . . .”