No Immunity

of.”
    She jabbed him again, harder.
    “What’s that for?”
    “So you think twice before you cut a woman.” To Adcock she said, “Make a left. Up hill. See that old bucket house at the top of the hill?” She pointed to the spot where she’d won Jesse’s truck. “Head for that. As soon as you turn, hit the gas. That’ll give us an extra half minute before Fox starts tailing. He’ll be after us, but he won’t want to be obvious about it.”
    Larson was behind them, closing the gap. Farther back an old truck meandered up the street and paused in front of the cafe.
    “McGuire, when I’m gone, sit up just high enough so that your hair is visible.”
    “And you figure that’ll fool the sheriff?”
    “Only from a distance. It’s the best we can do.” Kiernan looked down at First Street. The hillside road was more exposed than she had realized. What had protected Connie, Jesse, and the group last night was not the spot itself but the dark. “Slow down at that flat stretch up there. Don’t stop. After I jump, pick up speed slowly.”
    “What about—”
    She opened the door, braced her feet on the sill, jumped, and rolled. The ground wasn’t as flat as it looked, and definitely not soft. Even after bracing for the fall, she hit her head on a rock. Sharp branches scratched her face and snagged her turtleneck. She pushed herself up in time to flag down Louisa Larson.
    “Make a right,” she said as she jumped in the BMW. “Who are you? How did that little thug get you?” Louisa Larson’s hand went to her face. She had straight blond hair and the kind of soft, even features that suggested concern. She would have been pretty had it not been for the ragged wound a fraction of an inch from her eye.
    “He did that? McGuire? The Weasel?”
    “Yeah, the little bastard. Took me by surprise. But go on about you.”
    Louisa Larson, the doctor who had provided the only consistent care for the boys, should be the one person to trust. But she didn’t trust her enough to let on about her own medical background. “I’m Kiernan O’Shaughnessy, private investigator.”
    Louisa shook her head. “What is this? You and the big guy in the Jeep and the Weasel, you guys having a convention out here? Or are you working for him?” She nodded at Adcock’s truck. Her voice was raw, her face lined with anger and exhaustion. She clutched the wheel too tightly and overcompensated on a curve. The woman was in over her head and too far gone to realize it.
    “Tchernak, the Jeep guy, works for me. The Weasel”— mimicking Larson’s tone—“I never heard of before I climbed into the truck. But you and I are both concerned about the boys. If we don’t get to them now, they could disappear forever.” With no trace of irony she added, “Trust me.”
    Between twists in the road Louisa Larson glanced over at her, automatically accompanying the movement with a social smile. “Tchernak I trusted. So I’m trusting you. I’m a doctor. I’ve got to find those boys before they’re beyond help. Where are they?”
    “Cut back to First Street. Make a right at the second corner past the sheriff’s department. I’ve got to keep out of sight.”
    “Where are we going? The Weasel’s still here, right? I’ve got a gun.” No social smile here. “I followed that little thug as far as that miserable motel. I thought Grady and the boys would be there. I thought he might be sick by now but that he’d just be in the beginning stages. I was going to scoop up the three of them and drive like hell back to Las Vegas.” She swallowed, her hands shaking so hard on the wheel, the car shimmied. “I never dreamed Grady would be dead. Or that someone would have kidnapped the boys. I mean, why, for heaven’s sake? I took care of those kids. They’re sweet, sad, wonderful, but let me tell you, they are one ton of work. They’re like having puppies with hands. Whoever took them didn’t know what they were getting into.”
    “They are deaf and mute? No sign language, right?”
    “Backroom kids, that’s what Grady called them. They may have had skills in their tribe, but it’s all useless outside a rain forest, and, you know, we don’t have much in the way of big leaves and humidity here in the Silver State.”
    “So even if they were healthy, instead of being so sick they’re throwing up blood, they’d still be useless, right?”
    “Like I said, puppies with hands.”
    “Could you communicate with them? Get them to lead you