On the video feed on his phone, Rou was now standing on the ground in her little red shoes. Creed had a view of two sets of legs.
“Yeah,” Auralia said, “I don’t think you understand what happened. There’s a pile-up at the exit of the dell parking area. That’s what, three-quarters of a mile on the south side of the pile up? People are severely injured. Life-threatening injuries, possible deaths. My fiancé pulled three babies out of the back seat of a car where the mom and dad weren’t conscious. You’re military. You know what happens to people with traumatic brain injuries. These are life-long disabilities that the pile-up caused. Possible deaths. Cars have been damaged. People who get out of this might not have a way to get to work without a car. How many people in that pileup don’t have medical insurance? And ifthey do, how many insurers will cover people who need to take time off for extended periods of healing? Do you want to add Shane’s death to this terrible day?”
“I was stopping a kidnapping. No law is going to hold me responsible.”
“You figure?” Auralia asked. “If Shane’s dead, it’s Brandy’s word against yours. If she dies, then no one can stand up for you. People might say it’s you who’s the kidnapper, and Shane stood in your way. If you’re trying to steal the money back, you aren’t Robin Hood. You aren’t returning money taken by the rich to give to the poor. You’re not the hero. You are the criminal who has created a catastrophe for scores of your neighbors by making them so frightened that they couldn’t think right to drive.”
“Ma’am, you have no idea what you’re talking about.” Kendal’s tone was icy. “None. I wasn’t the one who shot the bullet today. That was Brandy’s asswipe husband, Shane. No one knows about me. No one but you.”
“Me and the satellites.”
“Cloud cover,” Kendal said.
Gator bumped Creed’s arm and showed him the text message.
Jeff:Iniquus Command has reached out directly to the park's director of services. The director has agreed to shut off the lights. He can’t isolate the shut-off to the parking lot. The lights throughout the park will go out. He’ll do it as quickly as possible. If I’m given information about timing, I’ll text.
“When you’re in a car accident,” Auralia explained, “your phone texts everyone on your in case of emergency list. They send the exact GPS coordinate to your loved ones.”
“Everyone?”
“Yes.”
“And tells them what?”
“I think that depends on your carrier,” Auralia said. “Typically, it calls 911 and reports your location, stating that there has been an accident. And then texts go out to the people you listed.”
“All carriers?”
“I don’t know. I assume so.”
“And it’s automatic?” Kendal asked.
“He’s really fine-tuning this answer for some reason,” Gator said. “He sounds spooked, but if he’s telling the truth about being a combat vet, and he’s got a gun on her, we need to take this slow.”
Creed watched the video feed of feet while scanning the area for ideas.
“Too exposed. Too risky,” Gator said.
Auralia picked up Rou again and was holding her in her arms. Gator and Creed could see that Kendal wore a camo hunting jacket, and every once in a while, they could see the gun. It was a no-joke forty-five. But the guy had his finger running along the trigger guard, not curled into position.
“What you just said about the GPS, lady, that’s not true.” Kendal brought the gun back around toward Auralia. “Last week, they found a woman who drove over the edge of an embankment when she had a seizure, and her husband went out and walked the highway looking for her. Took him days, but he found her.”
“Did she have her phone?”
Kendal was silent.
“Was the phone charged?”
Auralia wasn’t being helpful now, Creed thought. She was reminding him of every relationship in his life where the woman could snatch details out of the air and leave him feeling inadequate. Now that Rou had shifted and they could see Kendal’s face, he had that look. Creed had seen it far too many times not to recognize it. It was a man’s face when he felt small next to a woman. And that was damned dangerous.
“Hey, just to stay up with the plot,” Auralia said. “What was Shane’s scheme? Why would he kidnap his wife?’
“The Morrisons put the charity money into an LLC so the courts couldn’t find it. They was all going off to some property somewhere in West Virginia. Brandy sent me a text and asked me to save her. She didn’t want to go.”
“So your plan was to hold them at gunpoint?” Auralia asked
“No. I was going to block their path on the bridge, and she was going to get out and leave with me.”
