Ruckersville
“Shut up!” Jess demanded. She had to think.
She wasn’t sure Marie could walk out of here. Maybe Potter could carry Bonita and Jess could carry Marie.
The flames whooshed, the sound roaring down the stairs. The house grumbled.
“Hear that,” Potter said. “It’ll all come down any second now.”
Jess grabbed the bolt cutters and snapped the lock on Potter’s cage. “Let’s go,” she ordered. Crazy bitch or not, she couldn’t leave her here to die. No matter how much she wanted to. “You can help me.”
Potter shook her head. “I think I’ll just stay.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“If you help me,” Jess said, trying another tactic, “your actions could help your case. Could make things easier on you.”
“I’m not spending the rest of my life in prison. I’d rather stay put and hear you scream when the flames devour you.”
To hell with her. “You can come or not. Makes no difference to me.”
Jess knelt at the door to the sisters’ cage once more. “Marie, we have to go now. I need you to let go of your sister and climb out.”
“Please.” She shook her head. “I can’t leave her. She’s all I have in the world.”
Jess battled back the emotions ramming at her. “Maybe we can do this together.”
Marie helped Jess get her sister through the small opening, then she crawled out. She tried to stand. Couldn’t. Her legs were too weak.
Jess started to place Bonita’s body on the floor.
“No!” Marie shook her head. “Carry her. I’ll crawl.”
They made it as far as the stairs, Potter’s taunts playing like a bad musical score to low-budget horror flick.
Marie couldn’t manage the stairs. Jess squatted next to her. “Put your arms around my neck and hang on.”
As the frail woman wrapped her arms around her, Jess did something she hadn’t done in a very long time. She prayed. She prayed for the strength to make it up the stairs with Marie hanging onto her back and a dead woman in her arms.
The first step was the most difficult. The rest were a blur.
When they reached the kitchen the smoke was so thick Jess could hardly breathe. Her throat and eyes burned. How the hell was she going to do this? The room was engulfed in flames. Holding Bonita close to her chest, she dropped to the floor.
“Marie, I want you to crawl now. Stay right behind me. Don’t let go of my coat.”
Throat and lungs burning, they made it to the backdoor. Thank God she’d left it open otherwise she might never have found it, confusion was already wreaking havoc with her judgment.
No sooner than she was knee deep in snow, something inside the house collapsed.
With Marie hanging onto her neck once more, Jess trudged through the snow until they were almost to her car. Exhausted, she dropped to her knees. Couldn’t carry both women any farther. She coughed until she lost her breath.
When she could breathe again, she stared up at the moon. Every part of her was drained and aching. The sound of the flames and the crackling of the wood resonated in the night.
“See I told you,” Marie whispered as she reached out to her sister, “we’re free and we’re going home.”
Somehow Jess got up. Her eyes were stinging. Had to be the smoke. Rather than argue with Marie again, she carried Bonita to her car first. Then she helped Marie into the back seat next to her. Thankfully her keys were still in the ignition. Jess opened the trunk and got her blanket to cover the two women.
She collapsed behind the wheel and started the engine. Her feet were numb. Behind her, Marie was singing softly to her sister. Jess understood she was operating on adrenaline. She hoped it held out until she could get her to a hospital. Marie was in far worse condition than she realized.
The digital clock on the radio showed ten minutes before midnight. Almost Christmas Eve.
Eyes and throat burning like hell, Jess turned her car around and drove away. In her rearview mirror she saw the sparks fly as the house started to collapse in onto itself. They’d barely made it. She had no idea if Potter had run out or if she’d died in that basement. Something for local law enforcement to figure out.
At the main road, two SUVs skidded to a stop in front of Jess’s car.
Even in the moonlight she recognized Gant and Taylor as they emerged from one of the vehicles and rushed toward her. Jess put her car into park and collapsed against the seat. Thank God.
Gant jerked her door open. “What the hell happened? You okay?”
“Marie and Bonita Duncan are in the backseat,” Jess reported. “Marie’s alive. The others are dead.” She closed her eyes against the images.
She could hear Taylor calling for backup. Someone was in the backseat checking on Marie. Like the devoted sister she was, Marie insisted Bonita needed attention first.
“You hurt, Harris?” Gant demanded.
Jess nodded. “I’m okay.”
“We’ve got one deceased and one alive. She needs a hospital now,” a male voice said from the backseat.
Before Jess could tell him Marie had a name, another man she didn’t recognize was suddenly helping to lift Marie from the backseat. The woman cried for them to take her sister first. They ignored her.
“Tell them to take the sister too.” Jess closed her eyes and fought the tears as images of Lily played through her thoughts. Life was too short. No one had the promise of tomorrow. Not going home for so long was wrong.
“The sister’s dead,” Gant said as if she didn’t know that already.
“Please.” Jess opened her eyes, swiped at the tears. “Marie needs her sister with her.”
Gant pulled back from the door and shouted the order to the men loading Marie into one of the SUVs. Whatever they thought about his order, they obeyed.
With the Duncan sisters secured inside, the SUV tore out into the night, headed for the nearest hospital.
Jess said another swift prayer for Marie. Funny how she was suddenly doing all this praying.
“Come on, Harris,” Gant said, tugging at her arm. “I’m taking you to the hospital just to be sure.” He glanced at the SUV roaring away, then at the old farmhouse now totally engulfed in flames. “Jesus Christ. I think it’s time you took that vacation you keep putting off.”
Jess stared up at him. For about three seconds she couldn’t speak. The emotions expanded so fast inside her she thought she might die right there in her almost new car with her new boss staring at her. “I don’t need medical attention. I just want to go home.”
To Birmingham.