Page 165 of Pieces of Her (Andrea Oliver 1)

Laura shook her head once, but Andy didn’t know why.

Don’t do anything?

This is the end?

Paula jammed the gun in Laura’s face. “Move it. Hurry.”

Laura leaned heavily on an aluminum cane as she walked into the room. Her coat was wrapped around her shoulders. Her face was drawn. She looked frail, like a woman twice her age. She asked Andy, “Are you okay?”

Andy nodded, alarmed by her mother’s fragile appearance. She’d had almost a week to recover from her injuries. Was she sick again? Did she get an infection from the wound in her leg, the knife cut in her hand?

“Where are they?” Paula pressed the muzzle of the gun to the back of Laura’s head. “The files. Where are they?”

Laura kept her gaze locked with Andy’s. It was like a laser beam between them. Andy could remember the same look passing between them when the nurses were wheeling Laura into surgery, off to radiation therapy, into the chemo ward.

This was her mother. This woman, this stranger, had always been Andy’s mother.

“Come on,” Paula said. “Where—”

Laura shrugged her right shoulder, letting the coat slip to the floor. Her left arm was in a sling instead of strapped to her waist. A packet of file folders was tucked inside. The splint from the hospital was gone. She was wearing an Ace bandage that ballooned around her hand. Her swollen fingers curled from the opening like a cat’s tongue.

Paula snatched away the files and opened them on the desk under the TV. The gun stayed trained on Laura while she thumbed through the pages. Paula’s head swiveled back and forth like she was afraid Laura would pounce. “Is this all of them?”

“It’s enough.” Laura still would not look away from Andy.

What was she trying to say?

“Spread your legs.” Paula roughly patted down Laura with her hands, clapping up and down her body. “Take off the sling.”

Laura didn’t move.

“Now,” Paula said, an edge to her voice that Andy had never heard before.

Was Paula afraid? Was the fearless bitch really scared of Laura?

“Take it off,” Paula repeated. Her body was tense. She was shifting her weight back and forth between her feet. “Now, Dumb Bitch.”

Laura sighed as she rested the cane against the bed. She reached up to her neck. She found the Velcro closure and carefully pulled away the sling. She held her wrapped hand away from her body. “I’m not wearing a wire.”

Paula lifted Laura’s shirt, ran her finger around the waistband.

Laura’s eyes found Andy. She shook her head again, just once.

Why?

Paula said, “Sit on the bed.”

“You have what you asked for.” Laura’s voice was calm, almost cold. “Let us go and no one else will get hurt.”

Paula jammed the gun into Laura’s face. “You’re the only one who’s going to get hurt.”

Laura nodded at Andy, as if this was exactly what she had expected. She finally looked at Paula. “I’ll stay. Let her go.”

No! The word got caught in Andy’s throat. She worked furiously to spit out the scarf. No!

“Sit down.” Paula shoved her mother back onto the bed. There was no way for Laura to catch herself with one arm. She fell on her side. Andy watched her mother’s expression contort in pain.

Anger seized Andy like a fever. She started groaning, snorting, making every noise she could manage.