One Grave Less

first?”
    “Of course.” Diane started to pick up the phone, then stopped. “Rosetta,” she said next to her ear, “if he hears me say your mother’s name, he will know who we are for sure. And I can’t find her and talk with her without saying her name. Help is on the way, but we will have to be very careful until it gets here. This man is a danger to us.”
    Rosetta looked disappointed, but she nodded. She understood danger and she understood careful. They were so close to getting home. They couldn’t stop being careful now.
    “Okay, ready?” whispered Maria. “Showtime. Brave heart, kid.”
    Maria held Rosetta’s hand and opened the door.
    “Can I go myself?” she said.
    “All right, but I’ll watch you part of the way.”
    Maria handed her the keys to the room and Rosetta turned toward the stairs.
    The man touched Maria on the shoulder.
    “May I speak with you?” he said.
    Rosetta pulled on her hand. “Mamaaaa,” she said in a long exaggerated syllable, “come on.”
    “Sure.” Maria smiled at the man. “Just a minute.”
    She turned to Rosetta, who had the bill of her cap pulled low. Maria let go of Rosetta’s hand and watched her dance and skip kidlike toward the stairway door.
    “Hey, você parece uma sereia pequena , Ariel,” said the man.
    Rosetta didn’t pause, or hesitate, or skip a beat.
    Maria followed along behind her.
    The man began whistling “Hall of the Mountain King.”
    Still no response from Rosetta. She went along like a happy kid, not looking back, not hesitating. Maria opened the stairwell door for her.
    “I’ll be watching as you go up,” she said.
    “Okay. Don’t worry,” Rosetta said.
    Maria watched her until she was out of sight, wondering what the man said and why he was whistling the Peer Gynt Suite.
    “Now, what can I do for you?” said Maria, smiling.
    The man took his straw hat off. He didn’t look like some homicidal maniac. He looked quite presentable, with his blond-brown hair, light blue eyes, and fair complexion. Maria still assessed him to be in his early forties.
    “Can we sit at one of the tables and talk?” he said.

Chapter 50
    Diane gripped the seat of the black Ford Taurus so tightly, her hands hurt. She was desperately trying to come up with a plan. Any plan, even a bad plan. There was no way she was going to overpower this guy.
    It hit her suddenly like a blast of hope—Simone had. Simone had hurt one of them bad, maybe mortally. Maybe she got lucky, maybe the guy she was fighting was the C team. Still, Simone had vanquished one and got away long enough to at least say a few words to Diane. Oddly, Diane felt encouraged.
    “You try anything and the men I left back there will slaughter your friends. You understand that, don’t you?”
    Diane was sitting in the front seat with the man who had abducted her. He didn’t consider her much of a threat—he hadn’t bound her. The man looked to be in his early thirties. He was well muscled, thick necked, and had a buzz cut. He was decked out in Kevlar and weapons.
    “Yes,” she said, “I do understand. Tell me, just where did you search in the museum?”
    “Just why do you want to know?”
    “If you had searched the entire museum you would have found what you were looking for and I wouldn’t be here. I’m just trying to understand my fate,” she said.
    She thought she saw the edges of his mouth twitch in a smile. It didn’t last long.
    “We had someone on the inside who was supposed to know what they were doing. Now shut up and don’t ask who . Got that? You know I like hurting you.”
    Jesus , thought Diane, Madge was looking through the mail in the mailroom. Not Madge Stewart, surely. How in the hell could she get mixed up with these creatures? Not hoping for romance. These guys would have scared poor Madge to death. But, still, what a coincidence. And they could certainly drown her and make it look like an accident.
    Diane didn’t have to give him directions to the museum. He knew the way. He kept the speed limit. That was good. Gave her more time to think.
    Frank probably had already discovered her missing. But he wouldn’t know where they had taken her.
    Plan, damn it. Don’t waste time hoping for a rescue.
    The problem was the others back at the house. Anything she did would be relayed back to his cronies and they would lay siege yet again to Frank’s house.
    The only thing she could think of was arranging it so she could lock herself in the vault and call Frank to