Prince of Thieves Read Online Free PDF Page B

with these scars drawn all over them. Black stitches."
     
     
"Stitches?" said Frawley.
     
     
"Like hash marks. Sutures." There was fear in her distant gaze. "Why do that? Why scars ?"
     
     
Frawley shook his head. It was a strange detail and his investigation welcomed strange details. "So they didn't speak much in the van."
     
     
She was reluctant to return there. "No."
     
     
"Did they seem to know where they were going?"
     
     
"Maybe, yes."
     
     
"Did they tell you where you were going?"
     
     
"No."
     
     
"Did they tell you you were going to be released?"
     
     
"No."
     
     
"Did you think you were going to be released?"
     
     
"I..." She stared into the middle distance, almost in a trance. "No."
     
     
"Did the van make stops?"
     
     
"It did."
     
     
"What for?"
     
     
"Traffic, I guess."
     
     
"Okay. No doors opened, no one in or out?"
     
     
"No."
     
     
"And you never tried to escape?"
     
     
A blink. "No."
     
     
"Were you ever on a highway?"
     
     
"Yes. For a while."
     
     
"Were you wearing a seat belt?"
     
     
She touched her lap, aiding her memory. "Yes." Then, green eyes focusing on him: "I didn't try to escape because they had guns."
     
     
"Okay." Wanting not to break the spell. "You asked them no questions?"
     
     
She shook her head.
     
     
"And they never addressed you?"
     
     
"No."
     
     
"Nothing was said. Basically they left you alone in the backseat."
     
     
"The middle seat."
     
     
"Right."
     
     
"Yes. Except..."
     
     
"Go ahead."
     
     
She was far away again. "The one who was sitting next to me. Not next to me... but in the same seat, the same bench, the two of us. The one who blindfolded me. I could tell somehow... he was looking at me."
     
     
"Looking at you."
     
     
"Not like that. I mean... I don't know. Maybe it was just a feeling."
     
     
"Not like what?"
     
     
"Not like, you know, looking. Just, I don't know. Just there. "
     
     
"You had his full attention. And then what?"
     
     
Her eyes swelled in the recalling. "They just drove and drove. Seemed like hours. I guess I have a sort of... it seemed like it went on forever, but now it's like there were whole blocks of time... I'm just blank. I know that at some point I realized we were off the highway, making lots of turns. I was praying they would stop, praying it would be over-- and then all of a sudden they did stop, and all I wanted to do was keep on driving. The engine was still running but I could tell the ride was over. That's when they shook my Coach bag." She found Frawley's face. "My credit cards, my car keys...?"
     
     
"If they turn up, you'll get them back. The one in the seat next to you, he made the threat?"
     
     
"No. No, the voice came from in front of me, the angry one. The one who took me to the vault." She pulled at her stained fingers. "I had trouble with the combination."
     
     
"Was he the driver?"
     
     
"I don't... no, I don't think he was. He wasn't-- because I was on the left, and his voice came from the right front."
     
     
"Would you say he was in charge?"
     
     
"I don't know. I know he did the talking then."
     
     
"What about the one next to you?"
     
     
She lifted the lap of her skirt to cross her legs, and Frawley noticed that her shoes were gone, just dirty stockinged feet. "I think there might have been tension."
     
     
"Between them? How so?"
     
     
"The angry one, he was the one who wanted to take me."
     
     
"From the bank. And the others?"
     
     
"One of them questioned him-- I'm not sure, it happened so fast. I think it was the one who sat next to me."
     
     
"So the angry one, as you call him, he takes your license."
     
     
"And then the side door opened. The one next to me helped me out."
     
     
"Door slid open or opened out?"
     
     
"I... I don't remember."
     
     
"And the one next to you-- you say he 'helped you out'?"
     
     
"Just that-- I was afraid of falling. I was afraid of everything . But he didn't let me