Night Sun

by Tom Barber

  But the cruiser didn’t; instead, it pulled a U turn and moments later he saw it join their side of the road, lights flashing, now only about half a mile behind.

  ‘How’d he…know?’ Kat asked, hearing the sirens of the pursuing car. ‘Someone reported us… leaving the fair?’

  ‘Or Barry was found already and they’re looking for his white Audi,’ Nicky said, checking the rearview mirror. ‘Shit.’

  The powerful car surged forward as Nicky followed a bend in the road, briefly losing sight of the police cruiser, but he knew the officer behind the wheel would be calling for assistance. Nicky didn’t know the area either which put him at a severe disadvantage but then he caught sight of a sign for a local park coming up and slowing slightly, he pulled a sharp right turn towards the open gates.

  He followed the road past a baseball field on the left and parking lot opposite. The park was almost entirely empty, the State Fair likely to be attracting most of the visitors to the area tonight, but that meant the car would immediately stand out. Nowhere to blend in.

  Nicky kept going, then peeled left off the track and heading over some rough ground, he swung the Audi into the relative shelter of a more heavily wooded area before switching off the engine.

  They sat there in the darkness, everything quiet, looking through the trees and bushes towards what he could see of the front gate in the distance, and waited, no sign of the police vehicle.

  Perhaps they’d lost it.

  Then, just as he was about to start the engine and risk getting back on the road, he saw the flashing lights of the Sheriff’s Department cruiser as it entered the park grounds too.

  Back at the fairground, Brooks and Billy had started to run as soon as the firecrackers went off attracting all the unwanted attention Nicky had intended, but they’d only taken a few steps when they were intercepted by two members of security with another following close behind.

  The guards had no opportunity to register who the pair were before Billy opened fire with the sawn-off twelve gauge, his brother doing the same with his handgun; he emptied half the magazine at them, putting down the three guards and two members of the public who were unfortunate enough to be in the line of fire as people nearby screamed and started to scatter.

  The brothers ran on and had almost made it to their van, Cusick joining them nursing a bleeding hand, when the bottom of the holdall suddenly gave way. ‘NO!’ Brooks yelled, as the money and jewelry cases started to spill everywhere. He and Billy frantically started scooping them back up, but the bills had been cut loose from their bricks and were already spinning away in the stiff breeze, the place suddenly resembling a ticker tape parade. Brooks hugged the bag to his chest to stop the rest of the money and jewelry tumbling out and jumped into the back of their van, Cusick climbing up front behind the wheel.

  Once Billy had leapt in beside him, Brooks dragged the door closed and Cusick pulled away. Brooks put the bag on the floor and turned it over to look at the base. He saw the fabric had been cut then sewn loosely back together with thread that was bound to snap from the weight.

  He remembered how Reyes had been holding the bag when he’d approached, not with the strap over his shoulder but tucked under his arm as if to keep it close.

  It hadn’t occurred to him at the time the real reason was to stop the bag falling apart.

  Nicky had pushed the bag across the smooth path towards them, not throwing it like Billy had done with the other; it would have burst open if he had. Reyes would have known the threads would give way almost immediately as soon as the brothers picked it up.

  The son of a bitch had deliberately sabotaged it.

  ‘White Audi SQ8 stolen by male and female fugitives from Ohio located, back up requested,’ the deputy from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department said, having followed the tracks down the road into Long Branch Park. He could see the white German-manufactured car with the hot plates illuminated by his headlights, parked among some trees ahead.

  The deputy drew closer then stepped out and pulled his sidearm as he saw a figure lying on the back seat. A woman, her head of red hair resting against the window.

  ‘HANDS!’ he ordered, his gun held in both hands, using his open door as cover. ‘LET ME SEE YOUR HANDS!’

  She didn’t move so he stepped out from behind the door and edged forward. As he got closer, he found himself looking at Kat O’Mara’s pale face, a bag resting on her lap, her eyes squinting in the headlights of his cruiser.

  But there was no sign of her accomplice.

  Low on choices and fast running out of the few that remained, Nicky emerged from behind the tree beside the car as the deputy focused on Kat and cracked him over the head with a thick lump of wood, similar to how Craig had hit the Virginia fisherman two nights before but only with enough force to stun the man, not kill him. The deputy went down hard, dropping his gun. Nicky kicked it away immediately and was just reaching for the man’s cuffs to restrain him before driving back out of here when he saw the lights of another police car appear through the trees at the entrance.

  Not wasting any time, Nicky immediately opened the nearside rear passenger door to the Audi then pulled Kat and the bag out, and ten seconds later, with more blue and red lights arriving, he started carrying her away down one of the trails into the darkness.

  Cars, trucks, bikes and people on foot were flooding out of the State fairground, the panic started by the sound of gunshots and screams proving contagious and causing a stampede; Cusick’s Econoline van was just ahead of the exodus with his two cousins sitting in the back, Brooks furiously counting the remaining money left in their swapped holdall while Billy reloaded their weapons, their cousin up front driving with one hand as he nursed the other.

  Ironically, their ability to escape without being challenged came at Nicky’s cost. Local police authorities from various townships had just been responding to calls of shots fired at the Fair when the report came over the radio that not only had Barry Marsh’s stolen car just being sighted but a local deputy in Long Branch Park had been found by his colleagues lying semi-conscious beside the abandoned Audi.

  ‘He’s saying he recognized O’Mara!’ the cop who’d reached him first told units pouring into the scene. ‘Must’ve been Reyes who hit him.’

  More squad cars pulled up, Onondaga County deputies and State troopers getting out and pulling weapons. With their cars’ headlights and using their flashlights, it didn’t take them long to find footprints in the dirt of one of the park’s trails.

  ‘Split up and search,’ a lead deputy ordered. ‘The woman’s injured, so he can’t move with her as fast as us. Make sure they don’t make it to the water.’

  With weapons drawn and ready, the team of local law-enforcement separated and started to sweep the park.

  Deeper in the woodland, now off the trails, Kat resting at his feet with the bag’s strap across his torso, Nicky was looking around in steadily-rising panic, praying these cops didn’t have dogs with them. He had his revolver but unlike the Loughlins, had no intention of firing on law-enforcement.

  Then he remembered he had something else that could help.

  The sound of rapid cracks and what appeared to be gunshots suddenly echoed in the air and the cops from the various departments and agencies dropped where they were standing, trying to locate where the noise was coming from.

  ‘IF YOU SHOOT, WE WILL FIRE ON YOU!’ a State trooper shouted, as birds flew up into the air from where they’d been roosting for the night. ‘PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!’

  ‘We know what he’s carrying?’ a cop asked the others near him.

  ‘Hostage found at the barn said he only saw a handgun,’ a local deputy answered. ‘Six shooter.’

  ‘How much is left?’ Cusick called over his shoulder from the front seat, his wounded hand jammed in the armpit of his other arm as he steered, careful not to speed and blending in with traffic heading down 690.

  ‘I count forty thousand in cash,’ Brooks said. ‘Two neckl
aces and one ring.’

  ‘That’s it?’ Billy shouted in disgust. ‘That’s all we got?’

  ‘We lost most of it out there in the goddamn field!’ Brooks screamed back.

  ‘We gotta get you two out of the area,’ Cusick replied, passing Long Branch Park. He was too focused on the road, his conversation with his cousins and the throbbing pain in his hand to pay any attention to the mass of flashing lights far off to the right of them.

  ‘Keep driving to Wayne County,’ Brooks told him.

  ‘I told you, they’re looking for you up there. Been cops and cruisers crawling everywhere since you two broke out.’

  ‘Better pray they don’t find us,’ Billy said, as his big brother threw the split bag away before punching the wall of the van in fury.

  Barry Marsh’s abandoned Audi was now surrounded by empty police vehicles; deeper in the park, the collective of cops and troopers had got back to their feet and were now edging their way cautiously through the trails, shotguns and rifles tracing through the quietly swaying branches and bushes.

  Then another wave of cracking blasts sounded again, and they all dropped apart from the lead trooper, who just stared into the darkness in the direction the sound had come from. Reyes was said to be carrying a revolver but that noise didn’t match the report such a weapon would make in any way. After the bangs died away, he waved to the two troopers closest to him to follow.

  Almost a minute later, they found a strip of burned out firecrackers lying on the grass in a small clearing.

  Back where the law-enforcement had left their cars, the Onondaga County deputy who’d been hit over the head had recovered enough to insist on joining the search with the others, still dazed, but determined to help out. But if he’d stayed where he was, he may have seen a shadow slip out of the trail thirty yards away, carrying a woman in his arms with a bag over his shoulder.

  There were eight cars parked there, some from the Onondaga Sheriffs’ Office, others police vehicles from the local towns of Lakeside and Geddes, their PD insignias on the doors. Nicky quickly checked the first three and was about to give up and keep running when he found what he’d hoped for in the ignition of a State police cruiser. The driver had been one of the last to arrive and had been in too much of a hurry to join the hunt and collar the fugitives to pocket the keys.

  Once Kat was rapidly loaded into the back, Nicky slid into the driver’s seat then turned the key in the engine. He quietly reversed back out, keeping the headlights off until he joined 690 again. The flashing lights of two cop cars appeared in the distance, cars speeding in the direction of the park and fairground and coming up fast as Nicky re-joined the mass departure. The trooper whose car this was had also left his hat on the passenger seat. The Gatlin escapee pulled it on and stared straight ahead as the two cars swept past in the opposite direction.

  He held his breath until he saw them turning into the park.

  ‘We don’t have long,’ Kat said. ‘They’ll realize…this is…missing.’

  ‘We’ve got long enough,’ he said, glancing back at her.

  He was correct. It was almost thirty minutes later before the trooper who’d left his campaign hat in his car and key in the ignition returned to find his vehicle gone. The car’s plates went out as the unfortunate man received a furious tirade from his corporal who’d immediately realized the only way it could have been stolen was if the trooper had left his keys in it.

  ‘Anything?’ a US Marshal asked a local police sergeant, having arrived at the scene with members of his squad.

  ‘No,’ he replied, beside his car with the radio receiver in his hand. ‘Stop the search in the park. They’re gone.’

  The stolen trooper cruiser wouldn’t be found until morning, and by the time it was located, Reyes and O’Mara had managed to slip out of their clutches once again.

  But only just.

  FORTY THREE

  ‘So that message was a code for a meet up between our boys,’ Archer said, as he and Marquez got out of their car and walked towards the entrance to the New York State Fairground that same night, Archer taking care to match his pace with Marquez who was moving slower than usual. The pair had been on their way to meet with the Sheriff’s department in Wayne County, one of the local seats around the lakes and where the Loughlin boys had grown up, when the call about this latest development had reached them. ‘We were right.’

  ‘Shame we weren’t on it faster,’ she commented, seeing a couple of Coroners’ transports and ambulances parked in the lot. Most of the site was empty now, save for a few trucks and an array of police and US Marshals’ vehicles. Just before they entered, Archer slowed even further, causing Marquez to glance at him; she noticed the way he was taking in the fairground ahead. ‘You good?’

  He nodded, thinking back the previous year to another case which had taken him to an abandoned theme park way south of here outside New Orleans. He reassured her with a quick smile. ‘Just some déjà vu.’

  The two NYPD detectives showed their badges to gain access and once inside walked through the grounds, heading to where they could see most of the law-enforcement on site was clustered. But as they approached, their attention was drawn to several youngsters accompanied by two cops having their pockets turned out.

  ‘What’d they do?’ Marquez asked a passing deputy, showing her badge while nodding at the kids.

  ‘Caught them being real helpful gathering evidence for us.’ Archer and Marquez looked around and realized that what they’d assumed was litter were in fact loose dollar bills in $50 and $100 denominations scattered everywhere, some flattened against rides, others lying in the dirt or caught against the walls of stalls and attractions. Members of law-enforcement from various departments were collecting the notes and putting them into transparent evidence bags, a time-consuming task by the look of it.

  ‘People have reported they heard what sounded like firecrackers or gunshots going off just over there,’ the deputy explained, nodding to his right. ‘Fair security reacted to check out the noise and came across the two brothers we’ve been seeing on the news. Tried to intercept but the fugitives started blasting. Three guards shot, two civilians hit too.’

  ‘Dead?’ Archer asked.

  ‘Two of the guards are. Other one and the two bystanders are still alive. The brothers were running for where the trucks and vans were parked inside the ground, but witnesses told us the bag one of them was carrying split. Money and jewelry boxes started dropping out and the bills began flying everywhere in the breeze. Guess they decided not to stick around to try to gather it all up with more security coming after them. Just got out with whatever they could hold onto. But those boys’ll be real pissed, wherever they are now. Look at how much they lost.’

  About fifty feet away, Archer saw two deputies wearing US Marshal badges counting the bills already retrieved, then securing them with elastic bands to prevent the notes from blowing away again in the breeze. He could also see items of jewelry in open boxes laid out on a sheet, all of it being photographed. He remembered the woman at the scene of the robbery on East Superior who’d been ranting at detectives and Marshals. Once it made it out of evidence holding, she was going to get some of her money and valuables back, just not all of it. He pitied the guy assigned to tell her.

  ‘How much has been collected?’ he asked.

  ‘Two hundred thousand in cash so far, on top of the bling. Some of the money we won’t ever get back. People were running but some would’ve stuck around to pick up what they could and not with the idea of handing it in. We’ll have more luck with the jewelry if any’s missing though. We got an itemized list from Cleveland the owner supplied to police.’

  ‘We heard Nicky Reyes was here too,’ Marquez said.

  ‘He was.’ The deputy turned and indicated to his right. ‘Got cornered a few miles up the road that way in Long Branch Park, but no word yet that he or the injured girl with him have been apprehended. We’re hearing one of the trooper’s cruisers from the park
is missing too.’

  ‘He escaped again?’ Archer said. ‘Guy’s like Houdini.’

  ‘Looks that way. Difference is, he didn’t shoot anyone.’ The deputy motioned towards one of the teenage boys who’d been held by local police, now being talked to by a US Marshal. ‘That kid might be your best eyewitness. I’d ask him what he saw. I gotta go help out with the searches. Gonna be a long night.’

  ‘Good luck,’ Archer told him. As the man left, the two NYPD detectives approached the Marshal with the teenager.

  ‘…gave you this?’ they caught the Marshal asking the boy, holding a laser pointer. He clicked it, directing the red beam onto the wall of a stall nearby.

  The adolescent nodded. ‘And a hundred bucks. Told me to point that thing at the chest of one of the two men he said he was gonna talk to. Said he’d give me another hundred when he was done.’

  ‘You got the first hundred bucks?’

  The boy nodded slowly.

  ‘Hand it over.’

  ‘I can’t keep it?’

  ‘It’s evidence, kid.’

  The boy looked at the Marshal glumly, then reluctantly peeled off his sneaker and took out the bill, which he’d folded and hidden under his sole. The Marshal took the bill carefully and whistled to one of his colleagues. ‘Ronnie, bag and keep this one separate, it’ll have Reyes’ prints on it.’

  ‘Can you tell us what you saw?’ Archer asked the boy, after showing his badge to the deputy.

  ‘Man who gave me the hundred was holding a bag under his arm. He met two other guys over there.’ The teenager pointed at the clearing where Reyes had let off the firecrackers. ‘They had a bag too but it didn’t look as heavy.’

  ‘They swapped them over?’ Marquez asked. He nodded. ‘Where were you?’

  ‘Hiding behind the toilets over there like he said,’ he explained. ‘Pointing the laser onto one of the big guys’ chests.’