They divided everything between two cars. Dorothy took the cardboard box with Lydia’s money and laid it on the passenger-seat floor. Burnes’s man had ruined the lock on the trunk, so she tied the lid down with twine. Ilka drove the hearse with the girls hidden in the coffin.
She couldn’t get Lydia out of her head, the sight of her lying on the gravel. Also, Jane-Maya, hiding her face in her hands. More than anything she wanted to scream, but she had to hold back for the girls’ sake; she couldn’t show any sign of how bad things really were.
Earlier she had called Stan Thomas. Her first thought had been to call her father, but she simply couldn’t tell him what had happened to Lydia. She couldn’t even handle it herself.
“They took Lydia,” she’d said through her sobbing. She’d struggled to get hold of herself, so she could give the officer a description of the three black vehicles.
At first, he seemed most interested in knowing if what had happened at Dorothy’s place had any connection to Calvin Jennings. When he told her that Jennings in all likelihood had been dead when he was hung, the dam broke for Ilka. The words streamed out of her, and she told him about the cult and Lydia’s escape, as well as the whole story of God’s Will and the Rodriguez family murdering Lydia’s brother and his family.
He listened in silence.
“She’s facing the death penalty,” she repeated, explaining what Jennings had wanted to save Lydia from. “He had proof that she wasn’t the one behind it all, and he believed she’d acted in self-defense at her brother’s house. He wanted to help her, and now they’ve killed him.”
Again, she started sobbing; she couldn’t help it, but Thomas waited patiently until she could tell him about Ethan and Fernanda’s murder.
“Is the boy still in danger?” he said.
“I don’t know.”
Her fear of what would happen to Lydia took over, it crept into her bones, and she walked around in small circles to keep herself from going crazy.
Thomas sensed the state she was in, and he told her he would send a patrol out to escort them away.
“We can’t wait,” Ilka said. “We have to leave, now.”
Dorothy had placed the girls’ small bags behind the front seat. She was helping them into the coffin.
“Lydia is in one of the four-wheel drives,” Ilka explained. “Jane-Maya is in the limousine with Isiah Burnes. Find them, and we’ll be okay.”
“No,” he said, “it’s too dangerous!”
Ilka heard activity in the background, and she realized he was still at the hotel. “We’re leaving now, for the ranch.” She promised to call when they got there.
“I’ll send a patrol out to meet you on the way.”
Ilka dried her tears with the back of her hand.
“Lydia,” she whispered. “Just find Lydia.”