Exposed (Rosato & DiNunzio #5)(83)
Bennie prayed that Mary was still alive. That last horrifying cry echoed in Bennie’s brain. Mary must’ve been struck hard on the head, with what Bennie didn’t know. If they had taken Mary where Bennie was, they were in the middle of nowhere. She doubted Mary was getting medical help. It would take time to reach a hospital once this was all over. And it had to be over. They would survive. Bennie would make certain. She just didn’t know how. Yet.
Bennie returned to her mental inventory. It was useful to review what she knew so she could figure out her next step. She estimated that the car trip here took about three hours. She had even managed to hear the directions coming through the car’s interior, even though she’d been in the trunk. The driver had used GPS, which told her that he was unsure of the route. So it must not have been his place.
They had taken the expressway out of the city, then the northeast extension, but after that left the highway. The terrain had turned from smooth asphalt to bumpy back roads. The ambient traffic noise had lessened. She’d heard a horse neighing at one point. The elevation had gone from flat to hilly. The air in the trunk was close, but grew cooler.
She drew a mental circle in her mind that intersected towns three hours away from Simon’s. It would’ve encompassed farmlands, and even parts of the Poconos or the forest. She tried to remember the street names that she heard as they got closer to their destination. It was easy because they were all bird names. Bluebird Lane. Mockingbird Road. The destination had been Eagles Drive.
Bennie tried to estimate what time it was. She was going to say about eleven o’clock at night. It wasn’t late enough for anyone to start worrying yet. Detective Lindenhurst might be surprised, but he wouldn’t be alarmed. Nobody from the office would know. Declan would have no idea. Anthony might start to wonder, but he was at the hospital with Feet. There would be no cavalry coming. She and Mary were on their own. And it was all up to her. Which, oddly, felt familiar.
She reminded herself that she’d been in dire straits before. She had been buried underground, for God’s sake. Left for dead. She had gotten out of that alive. She had stayed calm and cool and found a way out. She would have to do the same today. Tonight. Whenever. Now.
She rocked back and forth, trying to get enough momentum to start rolling. She wanted to see what the walls were made of and where the door was. She’d never been in a smokehouse but she knew it was a small building, usually of wood or stone. It smelled old and dusty. So there had to be a loose board she could break with her foot or a stone she could dislodge somehow. Something. Some way. She had to get out. She rolled over once and was about to roll over again, but froze.
She heard the jingle jangle of keys. Someone was coming. The sound came from over her shoulder, so she must’ve been facing away from the door. She didn’t want them to know she was awake and alert. She had played possum in the car. Until she figured out what to do, she was going to take that tack. She rolled back to where they had left her.
She heard the ca-chunk of the key in a lock, then the drawing aside of some sort of bolt, and made it back just in time to hear the door open. It scraped along the dirt floor. It sounded like wood. She made herself focus on the details not to be afraid.
The door must have been ajar because the air stirred the ashes and the dirt, but it felt cooler, blowing her hair from behind. The man’s shoes scuffed in the dirt. He must have a flashlight or phone light because she saw a sudden brightness through her blindfold, so he was shining it in her face.
“You and me have to have a little talk,” a man said. His voice came from up above. He was standing above her, near her feet. He sounded tall.
“Where’s my partner?”
“None of your business.”
“Is she here? Is she alive? You better get her a doctor if she needs one. Who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter who I am.”
Bennie took a flyer. “Well, you’re not Ray because I know his voice. So you’re either Ernie or Mo. Which one are you?”
“None of your business.”
“I say Ernie.” Bennie kept her tone strong, though she felt anything but. She’d been a lawyer for a long time, so she knew a thing or two about criminals and the way their conspiracies worked. She would have to use all of her legal superpowers to manipulate these guys.
“Whatever. I’m not here to answer your questions.”
“Please take my blindfold off, Ernie. Let’s be real. I know who you are, and you’re going to kill me anyway. But you’re in a bigger jam than you know. And I can help you get out of it.”
“Ha!” Ernie burst into derisive laughter. “They said you were somethin’ and they weren’t kiddin’.”
“No, they weren’t. I’m not something, I’m somebody. My name is Bennie Rosato, and I’m one of the best criminal lawyers in the entire country. If you’re smart, you’ll hear me out. Most times I charge a fortune for what I’m about to tell you. You want some free legal advice?”
“Shut up and—”
“If you watch TV, you know the shows talk about somebody being guilty or innocent. But that’s not true in real-life criminal law. The way it works in real life is that guilt is proportionate. In other words, there are degrees of guilt.” Bennie kept going because he didn’t stop her. “The person who killed Todd is the most guilty. He’s going to jail for a long time. He might even get the death penalty. But the two guys who didn’t kill Todd, they’re not as culpable as the man who stabbed Todd—unless one of them solicited the killer to kill Todd. So you’re either the actual killer or you got manipulated into killing Todd.”