Save Me - Lisa Scottoline [132]
“Hold on.” Rose turned the knob and pushed the door open. The bay was empty. The white security sedan was gone. Sirens sounded louder, closer. Fresh air whooshed in the office, making a whirlwind of the smoke that set Eileen coughing harder, and Rose went back to her side, kneeling. “You okay?” she asked, touching her back.
“Get your hands off me!” Eileen coughed. “Don’t think we’re friends now. You should have saved Amanda, instead of me.”
Rose didn’t have time to discuss it. She grabbed a scissors from the desk and wedged the blade between the rope around Eileen’s hands. They had turned bright red, her circulation cut off.
“You left my daughter.” Eileen kept coughing. “I’d give my life for hers any day.”
Rose sawed through the rope, thinning it. She yanked, and it broke, then she started to cut and unravel the rest.
“Bastards.” Eileen squirmed and shimmied, struggling to free herself. “They killed Bill. They were gonna kill me when Mojo got back. I bet he took off.”
“No, he didn’t.” Rose snipped the last rope, flashing on that awful sight. “He’s dead.”
“How?” Eileen bent over and undid the tape on her left ankle. “In the fire?”
“More or less.” Rose bent down and ripped the tape off of her right ankle.
“Sorry I hit you, but you deserved it.” Eileen jumped up and shook off the pieces of rope.
“I’ve had better apologies, but let’s get out of here. I’ll show you the way, once we get outside.”
“Gimme a break. I know this plant like the back of my hand.” Eileen scooted out the door, with Rose on her heels.
Chapter Eighty
Rose and Eileen raced around the corner of the plant toward the lights and activity in front. The campus was in a state of emergency, abuzz with motion, shouting, and sirens. The air reeked of burned rubber, plastic, and oil. Black smoke leaked from the exhaust vents and stacks on the plant’s roof, sending sparks and cinders into the night sky. Thirty-some firetrucks were already fighting the fire, raging at the opposite side of the plant. Firefighters in heavy coats with reflective stripes ran this way and that, hauling thick hoses that lay on the asphalt like a snakes’ nest.
Rose and Eileen ran toward the access road, parked up with state police cruisers, ambulances, black sedans, and boxy white newsvans, forming an improvised cordon between the burning plant and the Homestead corporate offices. A massive crowd filled the corporate parking lot, and Rose and Eileen hurried toward it, out of harm’s way.
Tears filled Rose’s eyes when she realized that they were finally safe, and all she could think about was Leo and the kids. She felt a surge of deep emotion, a profound and unreasoning yearning to see them all, to be together again, whole and happy. She didn’t know if Leo had gotten her message before the battery died, or if he could make it here in time. She looked for him in the crowd, but they were shapeless silhouettes, backlit by the emergency vehicles and illuminated windows of the offices.
Someone started shouting, and Assistant District Attorney Howard Kermisez, his young assistant Rick Artiss, and a cadre of state policemen, FBI agents in navy blue windbreakers, and black-uniformed EMTs came running toward Rose and Eileen.
“Help!” Eileen shouted, with Rose behind, and the first to reach them were the EMTs.
“We need to get you away from this building.” An EMT eyed Eileen’s forehead on the fly. “Is that bruise impairing your vision? Can you see?”
“I’m fine.” Eileen hurried toward Howard, Rick, the state policemen, and the FBI agents, as a second EMT hustled to Rose.
“Let’s get you to the hospital,” the second EMT said, taking Rose’s arm and hustling her forward. “We need to get you treated.”
“Thanks.” Rose kept looking for Leo, but the crowd was still too far away.
“Thank God you’re here!” Eileen met the state police, the Assistant District Attorney, and the FBI on asphalt wet from the firehoses. “I’m Eileen Gigot and I was almost murdered tonight. Three men, security guards at Homestead, tried to kill me. I have their names and descriptions. They killed my