City of the Dead (Alex Delaware, #37)(66)

His brother saw it and imitated but with scant conviction.

“She said come here and when I tell you, surprise him.”

Milo said, “Surprise Tyler Hoffgarden.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How?”

Both twins raised their arms and clawed their hands.

Milo said, “Grab him?”

Rodney said, “Grab him and control him.”

“Here,” said Renny, touching a spot on his own shoulder.

“You pinch it,” said Rodney, “then you control.”

“He tried to fight us,” said Renny.

“We controlled him. We don’t like rapers.”

“We know girls who got raped. If they wanted us to control a dude we’d control.”

“He was big,” said Rodney. “No way she could’ve controlled.”

“Didn’t take long,” said Renny. “Then she tied him up and put a towel in his mouth.”

“No, a washcloth,” said Rodney.

Renny palmed his own brow. “Right. No way a towel could fit even with his big mouth.”

His brother laughed.

Renny said, “It is funny. But not…” Looking down again.

Milo said, “Not what?”

“What happened,” said Renny.

Rodney said, “She said put him in the Explorer, we’re taking a ride. We didn’t even see it.”

“See what?” said Milo.

“The gun,” said Renny. “It’s in there.” Pointing.

Milo said, “In her bedroom?”

“Right on her bed.”

“She just showed it to us,” said Rodney.

“To scare us, sir.”

“Then she said she’d pay us even more if we didn’t snitch.”

Milo said, “More than…”

“What she first said, sir,” said Renny.

“A hundred.”

“Dollars?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Each? Or between you?”

“Each,” said Rodney. “We didn’t do it for the money.”

“She said he was a raper.”

“We wanted to help.”

Milo said, “Then she offered you more to shut up.”

“Two hundred,” said Renny.

“We went home and were scared,” said Rodney. “Because of what happened. So we came here to tell her we were really scared.”

“She showed us the gun and said ‘nothing to be scared of.’ Then she said I’ll give you five hundred.”

“Five hundred, you can stock up on protein shakes.”

“We were still scared.”

“Then you showed up, sir. Thank goodness.”

Milo said, “You guys were scared because of what happened.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What exactly happened?”

“We put him in the Explorer. In the back part. She tied him up more. More rope and bungee cords that she hooked over the seat.”

“She put the washcloth deeper. He made noises.”

“I sat in back,” said Renny.

“I sat in front,” said Rodney. “She drove.”

“Where?”

“It was dark, sir,” said Rodney. “We didn’t know.”

Milo said, “But she drove straight to where it happened.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And then?”

The twins looked at each other.

Rodney said, “It got bad.”

“But not at first,” said Renny. “We believed her. We really did.”

Milo said, “Believed what?”

“It was to scare him, sir.”

Rodney said, “Just to scare him.”

“To take a little walk and scare him. That’s what she said, a little walk.”

“She held the flashlight,” said Rodney. “Otherwise I’d fall.”

Milo said, “You guys were carrying him.”

Hesitation.

Milo waited.

Rodney said, “He was pretty light. She said it was just a little walk.”

“To scare him,” said Milo.

“In the dark, no one there,” said Renny. “It was scary.”

“I’ll bet. So then what happened?”

“We carried him.”

“Until she said, ‘Here.’?”

“She said put him down. We laid him on his tummy,” said Rodney.

Renny said, “She said put him on his knees.”

“Then she said, ‘Wait by the Explorer.’?”

“Before we got there, we heard it.”

Milo said, “Heard what?”

“You know,” said Rodney.

“I’m pretty sure I do but I still need to hear it.”

“Gunshot,” said Renny, barely getting the word out.

“Then another.”

“We ran to the Explorer.”

“We were thinking get away somewhere.”

“But we had nowhere to go.”

Milo said, “So you waited.”

“Yes, sir.”