“I’ll get right on that.” Harlow tried cracking her knuckles but no sound emerged. Everyone laughed when she shook her hands. “I never could do that.”
“It’s gross anyway,” Zahra said. “The sound gives me the creeps.” She gave a little shudder just to prove her point.
“I’ll go with you,” Shabina volunteered as Vienna set off toward the truck Zale had left behind. Raine accompanied them, leaving the others to finishing packing the gear in Stella’s 4Runner.
The truck was a Ford Ranger XLT SuperCrew. Vienna wasn’t as into cars and trucks as Raine was so she wasn’t surprised when Raine whistled her approval. “They knew what they were looking for when they rented this baby. Has speed if they need it, can hit the desert with four-wheel drive, and is rugged as hell. Handles well. They were ready if anyone came after them.”
“Apparently, someone did come after them again,” Vienna said. “This was the third time. Maybe more than that. I wish they’d just gotten out.”
“Third time?” Shabina asked.
Vienna nodded. “The first time I knew about, they’d been attacked by three men with knives in the parking lot outside of the hotel. They nearly got Rainier in the heart, came out of the bushes. He was stabbed, but not deep. Zale deflected the knife. Both of them had cuts. They came to my room and I fixed them up.”
Shabina shook her head. “That wasn’t enough for them to know their cover was blown?”
Raine sighed. “These men don’t just walk away. Once they start down a path, they keep going until the job is done.”
“Or until they’re dead,” Shabina pointed out. “When were they attacked again, Vienna?”
“On the floor when they went gambling in their disguises. Rainier played the part of an elderly gentleman and Zale was his personal protector. A waitress brought him a drink. The drink was poisoned. Before Rainier could drink it, a woman took it out of his hand and drank it. She went down fast and hard. Security got to the glass before Zale could.”
“And they still didn’t leave,” Raine said.
“Nope. They kept up their roles.” Vienna walked around the truck, inspecting the outside of it, checking for any bullet holes, dents or scrapes that would indicate the vehicle had been involved in an altercation.
“And they think women are in need of keepers,” Shabina said. “Men don’t have brains to tell them enough is enough.”
“It looks as if the outside of the truck is just fine,” Vienna said. “Did either of you see anything? The windows look good. No cracks. The paint is fine. No scrapes. No dents. No one has even keyed it.”
Vienna took a deep breath and unlocked the driver’s door and then reached in to unlock all the doors. Sinking her teeth into her lower lip, she looked on the driver’s seat and backrest for signs of blood. Sure enough, there were small drops in several places, smears where Zale or Rainier had hastily wiped the leather down before they got out of the truck.
Shabina inspected the passenger seat. She looked stricken. “There’s quite a bit of blood on the floor mat and side of the door, Vienna. Some on the backrest, but not nearly as much.”
“None back here,” Raine reported. “It’s clean back here. We need to wipe the entire truck down to make certain there are no prints in it. We have to remove all traces of their blood. All of it. It isn’t easy to get rid of blood. Bleach doesn’t cut it like you think it would. I brought a small spray bottle with me that should do the trick, depending on how much they left behind.”
Shabina’s brows drew together. “Raine, really? You brought a small spray bottle of something that would remove blood? Who thinks of that? Why would you even consider we might need it?”
Raine shrugged. “We’re renting an Airbnb and we want our deposit back, right? I believe in being prepared. Someone is always getting hurt. Bloodstains are difficult to get out of anything, so I just mix up the miracle bottle and put it in my pack.”
“I would never have thought of that in a million years.” Shabina clearly admired her ingenuity. “There is a lot of blood on this side, Raine. I think Rainier might have been really injured.”
“Let me take a look,” Raine said.
Vienna rounded the truck to inspect the open door with Raine. Night was falling fast, and with it the light was waning. Diminishing light meant they would have to work fast. They didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that they were cleaning the truck right there in the overnight parking lot.
“Do you need help?” Harlow asked as she, Stella and Zahra walked over.
“You could start wiping down the inside of the back windows. You’ll need to wear gloves and do a very thorough job,” Vienna said. “The inside of the doors and door handles have to be wiped down, as well as the top liner. Once that’s done, finish the seats.”
“I can help too,” Zahra said, pulling on gloves.
“Once we do inside, shouldn’t we do the outside at a car wash?” Stella asked. “We could scrub the outside of the truck and the windows.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Raine said. “As long as we’re certain we remove all prints. They will have worn gloves and probably different prints, but still, we can’t take chances.”
“Does anyone have rags?” Shabina asked. “I didn’t think to bring anything like that.”
“I always travel light when we go climbing,” Stella admitted. “So, not in my backpack, but I always carry rags and towels in the 4Runner. After Bailey was attacked, I never want to be without a medical kit for the dog or extra blankets, towels or rags.”
Vienna couldn’t help but remember the terrible night Stella’s Airedale, Bailey, had been stabbed repeatedly by the serial killer and Stella and one of the sheriff’s deputies had made the hour-long run down the mountain to Knightly to the vet’s office. It had been a very long night with all of their friends gathered together, keeping a vigil as the vet performed emergency surgery on Stella’s dog.
Stella jogged over to her 4Runner and pulled open the front passenger door. Between the seats was a cargo hold where she’d stored a bundle of rags. Vienna could see, although she was good about bringing medical equipment, she needed to step up her game when it came to other practical items, especially if she was going to be in a committed relationship with Zale.
Stella handed out the rags, and Raine carefully saturated part of a cloth with the contents from her spray bottle and handed it to Vienna. She did the same with another cloth and gave it to Shabina for the backrest of the passenger side. Raine began to work on the passenger door.
Vienna went around to the driver’s side and meticulously went over the seat and backrest, careful to get every smear and drop of blood. She got down in the creases and wiped the sides of the seat as well. She didn’t see anything on the floor mat, but she wiped it clean and then went around to get more of the cleaning product before she started on the inside of the door.
It took some time with all of the women working to wipe the entire truck clean. It wasn’t easy to pronounce it finished. Each of them kept going back over and over to make certain they had gotten every spot. No one wanted to mess up and be responsible for leaving Zale and Rainier in a possible compromising situation. In the end, Raine was the one to call it.
“I’ll follow you to the rental agency,” Stella said. “It’s actually on the way to the Airbnb. We won’t have to backtrack at all. I think it will be faster to just follow behind you.”
“I’ll ride with you, Vienna,” Raine said. “That will give them more room in the 4Runner.”