The light blinded her. He appeared to be waiting for her to say something.
She forced an inhalation and spoke in a croaky voice that sounded nothing like hers. “What?”
“Now listen to me, girl. There’s only one thing you got to tell me, or you’ll find yourself in a world of hurt, just like your brother.” He paused and she could hear the eerie sound of his breath whooshing in and out of the mask. “Where in the hell can I find Ramona Cobb?”
THIRTY
Mattie couldn’t believe what she’d heard. This guy was asking about her mother. “Ramona Cobb?” she echoed.
“You know who I’m talking about.”
Still pulling for air, she curled around her belly to shield it. He shone the flashlight in her face, blinding her.
His knees popped as he knelt, and the scent of wood smoke clung to his clothing. Her mind frantically sorted through what she knew about her mother, but she couldn’t come up with anything that would help her determine who she was dealing with—just the void from her past that she’d been trying to fill for months.
“Are you ready to talk?” he asked.
Act like you want to cooperate, she told herself. “Of course. I wish I knew how to find her, too.”
“Don’t act dumb.”
“I’m not. I’ve been looking for her.”
“I think you know where she is.”
She needed to avoid getting into a “no, I don’t” and “yes, you do” argument that would get her nowhere. “Let me tell you what I do know.”
“That’s why we’re here.”
“I haven’t seen Ramona Cobb since I was six years old.”
Striking as fast as a rattlesnake, he slapped her cheek. “Don’t mess with me. You’re a cop. You know where she is.”
Her cheek stung. “I’ve looked for her. She’s not in our database.”
“Is she in prison?”
“I searched to see if she has a criminal record. She’s not listed.”
Gravel crunched as he rocked back on his heels away from her. He remained silent for a moment, as if thinking.
She ventured a question. “Why do you think she’s in prison?”
“Ramona’s not as innocent as she looks. She helped Harold with his business.”
Was this about her father? “I can’t remember much of anything from my childhood. I remember the night the cops came to arrest my dad, but memories before that are sketchy.”
“Your dad, huh?”
Odd response. “He tried to kill my mom. The cops came to break up the fight, and they arrested him.”
“And Ramona pressed charges?”
“The prosecutor did. From what I know, Ramona disappeared as soon as she was released from the hospital.”
“Sure she did. She didn’t want the law to catch up with her.”
“I was raised in foster care. I have very few memories of my mother.”
“It sounds like she dropped you when the going got rough. So there’s no reason to protect her now, is there?”
“I’m not trying to protect her. I’m telling you what I know.”
Without warning, he grabbed her shoulder and flipped her onto her stomach, trapping her arms beneath her. Sharp edges of stone cut into her bound hands as he straddled her back and sat on her hips. Grasping her hair, he slipped something that felt like a noose around her neck.
“You must need a little taste of how it went for your brother.”
Her weak efforts to buck and kick resulted in nothing. She felt the rope tighten until it clamped off her breath. Her body went into survival mode, but her ability to fight seemed useless.
She searched for a way to save herself, but stars exploded in her vision, making it impossible to think.
Mattie coughed and sputtered as she came to, heaving for breath. Still on her belly with her arms pinned beneath her, she turned her face to the side. Sharp rock grazed her cheek, cutting into it.
“You want more of that?”
Unable to catch her breath, she shook her head no.
When he moved off her back to crouch beside her, she could draw fuller breaths. His rough hand gripped her shoulder, lifting to turn her. Without thinking, she palmed a sharp-edged piece of shale in her right hand before turning to her side.
“I’ll talk,” she gasped.
“What do you have to say?” For some reason, he still wore that mask, obscuring his face. Perhaps he planned to let her go if she gave him the information he wanted, but then she decided that was only false hope. She didn’t have what he wanted anyway.
She had to keep her wits about her—it was the only thing she could control right now. She narrowed her eyes against the flashlight’s beam.
“Where is Ramona?” he asked.
While he trained the light on her face, she wiggled the rock shard from her palm into her fingers. Grasping it so that it remained hidden, she tested the sharp edge against the rope that bound her wrists. She could barely reach it, but when she felt the piece of shale connect with the rope, she could have whooped with joy.
She couldn’t recall abuse from her mother, but playing along suited her needs. “I wish I could tell you where she is. Ramona did us a favor when she abandoned us. She was always so mean.”
“She’s a lying bitch. And a thief.”
“What did she steal?”
“Money.”
“What money?”
“Back in the day, we were in business, see? The business of transportation of a certain type of goods from Mexico all the way to Canada. Fire power.”
The cop in her knew he was talking about gunrunning. “But we were poor. Dirt poor.”
“That’s just it, girlie. There was more cash there than we could put in a bank. Harry and Ramona hid it. Buried it in the forest for safekeeping. Only it wasn’t there when I went to dig it up.”
Can I believe any of this? “Ramona took it?”
“Hell yeah, sweetheart.”
“Almost twenty-five years ago?”
“Yep. She’s probably blown through it by now, but I can’t let a thief go unpunished. You know me. I’m the kind of guy that wants to get even.”
She reached for something to keep the conversation going. “I remember that Ramona was Hispanic. Did she have family in Mexico? Or someplace here in the US? Could she have headed back to her home to live with her relatives?”
“I checked. Nada.”
“What was she doing before she hooked up with Harold? I’m trying to think of different ways I could search a database. Could she have a criminal record under a different name?”
His feet scraped against stone as he moved away, a sign of detaching from the conversation.
Afraid that he was no longer focused only on her face, she kept her hands still. “I’m willing to try to find her again if I can get to my computer.”
“I’m disappointed in you.”
“Let me call one of my colleagues, a detective. I’ll see if she can get you more information.”
“That ain’t gonna happen.”
“What do you have to lose? Maybe a little time? You already have me as a hostage. That should motivate my colleagues to work faster.”
No reply.
“If they have more information to search with than I did—where she was from, maybe a maiden name or a possible alias—they might be able to get something more out of our system.”
He paused and she hoped he was thinking it over.
“Maybe a little fire would motivate you to talk.”
He stood and walked away, lighting his path with his flashlight and leaving her alone in the darkness. She rolled to her back to watch him go, taking advantage of the light’s beam to see what she could of her surroundings. The cave looked to be about twenty feet deep with ambient light at the opening. Once he went beyond the cave’s mouth, he turned right and the slice of light disappeared with him.