Page 45 of Whispers at Dusk
She looked into his eyes. “I am so sorry. I swear, I’m not drunk or anything. I guess jet lag is catching up to me.”
“Then it’s a good thing we have a car, if only for a few blocks.”
She nodded and they headed to the street.
“Hi!” Tom Romero called to the blonde driver. He held onto Della as they approached the driver’s seat and he introduced her to the blonde. “This is Mandy. Mandy, meet Serena! She’s just a few blocks from here, but if you want to drive us, that’s great.”
“Sure,” the blonde—Mandy, it was today—said. “Hop on in. Serena, you look so tired!”
“Just all of a sudden,” Della said. “Jet lag. So, thank you!”
“Crawl on in,” the woman offered.
“I’ll get her in the back,” Tom said.
He opened the door to the back seat, ushering Della in, and then crawling in beside her.
“Oh, thank you,” she murmured, and then she pretended to rest drowsily against his shoulder.
He had consumed his own drug. He should be going soon.
The blonde drove. Della weakly protested she was going the wrong way.
“Oh, I just have to make a quick stop first!” the blonde explained.
Della glanced at the man calling himself Tom Romano. His eyes were closing. It was time to see where they were going.
Mason had seen the blonde driving the car, and he saw Della was being helped in by their suspect.
They hadn’t driven, but he couldn’t let the car out of his sight. It would be a long shot for the speed he needed, but he called François Bisset.
“I need a car, about two seconds ago,” he said. “There’s probably a cop car somewhere, but I can’t let them realize we’re on to them. I’m on the street, about four shops down from Bruger’s—”
“I will run right out,” Bisset promised.
Mason kept his eye on Della, her would-be abductors, and the car. She was making a great play of being drowsy, but he knew she hadn’t allowed herself to be drugged.
Thankfully, their suspect hadn’t seen her switch the glasses. But he had.
Fear almost caused him to step up to the car, but they would have nothing if he had done so. There was nothing illegal about a man stopping a friend on the street for a ride. And he knew Della was playing at being woozy, and her abductor would pass out soon. But hopefully, the blonde would drive to somewhere that would give them what they needed to bring the pair in.
And Della was armed, he knew.
Still, he had to follow the car. The blonde was probably as lethal as the man.
But as the suspect and Della crawled into the car, and the blonde started into the street, Mason heard Bisset calling out to him.
Mason was impressed with Bisset’s quickness.
He drove up next to Mason and hopped out of the car, allowing Mason the driver’s seat.
“Go!”
Mason didn’t argue, didn’t ask if Bisset wanted to join in the mission, he just headed after the blonde woman’s car.
As he had suspected, they were going toward the mountains and the forest away from civilization.
He had to be careful he wasn’t seen. As they traveled away from the center of Lillehammer, traffic grew sparse. He allowed several car lengths between.
