No Regrets

had thought that would take them into the historic Old Town section of the California state capital, but once again, she was lost. Mike was getting antsy. He wanted to dump her car before 7:00 A.M . when an alarm might go out from theday crew at Sancho Panza. He was trying to find a deserted area along the Sacramento River where her car wouldn’t be noticeable, but they couldn’t even find the river itself.
    “I’m goin’ back on the freeway,” Mike muttered.
    Now they were headed south toward Los Angeles. But Mike jumped from freeway to freeway, and ended up on the one that led back to San Francisco.
    “Mike seemed to know where he was going,” Kari remembered, “and I saw a sign that said, ‘Airport Boating Recreation,’ and he got off there. Both of them were really nervous because it was almost seven. They were frantic to find a deserted phone booth where I could call Sancho Panza and tell the day shift people not to call the police...”
    They came to a small café on a narrow road that ran parallel to the Sacramento River, and John pulled Kari out of the car, warning her, “You better pray that nobody at San-cho Panza has called the sheriff. Your life depends on that.”
    He kept the knife pressed into her flesh as he walked her to the phone booth.
    “I placed a collect phone call,” Kari said, “and Gracie answered the phone in the office.”
    Kari’s voice sounded odd even to her as she said, “Gracie—please tell me that you have not called the sheriff, the police, or anyone—otherwise I’m dead.” She had to be very careful what she said, because John had his head pressed to hers so he could listen to the other end of the conversation.
    “I haven’t called anyone, Kari,” Gracie lied. “And I won’t call anyone. I promise.”
    John grabbed the phone from Kari’s hand, and said, “Shelly, your friend’s life depends on this. If we see a sheriff,we
will
kill her. We have nothing to lose—we’re going to the pen. If nobody comes after us, she can phone after two. If everything goes right, we will leave her in a designated area, locked in her car.” It wasn’t Shelly on the end of the line; it was Gracie, but he had forgotten that. “And Shelly,” he said, using the wrong name again, “we’re going to party awhile before we let her go.”
    Kari wondered how Shelly was doing and if they had untied her yet, but she didn’t dare ask. “Gracie,” Kari said, cutting her off before she could blurt out something that might trigger John into another spate of paranoia. “I
will
call you at two o’clock—”
    John placed his finger on the phone lever, and the phone went dead.
    Unfortunately, the phone call had been too short for the investigators to trace the location Kari had called from. Her coworkers prayed that the “partying” John Martin had referred to didn’t mean that Kari was headed for a hellish experience.
    And then they were in Kari’s car again, hurtling along back roads until Mike turned at a sign that pointed toward the airport. The kidnappers decided it would be best to get a rental car, one that wouldn’t be so easy to spot by police—just in case the people back at Sancho Panza were lying and had already reported Kari’s abduction.
    Kari herself didn’t know if they had or not. Gracie had been amazingly cool, and she wondered if that meant there was already a dragnet out looking for her car.
    She devoutly hoped so.
    Her kidnappers told her they would need the three hundred dollars in cash just as soon as they had the rental car. She had a leaden feeling that she was not going to survive this crazy crisscrossing of the city of Sacramento; somethingwould surely go wrong again. John continually reminded her that she was going to be killed, but then he would reverse himself and say he might let her live if she did everything they told her to do. He was far too volatile to read.
    They parked at the airport and John led Kari toward the Hertz rental counter. He warned her again not to “pull anything” because he still had the knife. “It’s right here under my sweater,” he repeated. “You stay cool, and you pretend you’re my wife, and tell them we need the car for two days because we’re going to Reno.”
    It wasn’t 8:00 A.M . yet and Kari’s heart sank as she saw the Hertz desk wasn’t technically open for business. But the woman behind the glass spotted them, smiled, and opened the window.
    The clerk noted that the couple appeared quite