Race to the Finish

by Craig Martelle

  “I made a finely-crafted joke!”

  “Hilarious.”

  Thad went for the stairs leading to the brothel proper.

  “You can’t go up there. It is against Dixie’s rules.”

  “Noise complaint,” Thad said.

  Mast turned his head, twisting his long neck to see more of the chaotic scene. “Here or up there?”

  Thad stabbed a finger toward the top of the stairs and yelled over the noise of the saloon patrons. “Up there!”

  Thad reached the top of the stairs and took off his hat. He saw dust vibrating on the floor planks of the hallway. Every room was full of revelers. One of Dixie’s girls—Jasmine, he thought her name was—streaked from one room to another. Another girl and one of the off-world patrons followed a second later. He stood where he was and waited for the traffic to clear.

  “LeCerc’s father must be very rich to pay for the VIP Suite,” Mast said. “Why are all the girls standing outside his door? They seem very angry.”

  “All of the girls except Tia.”

  Thad yanked his hat on and marched toward the brass-rimmed double-doors at the end of the hallway.

  Tia, the youngest of Dixie’s girls, burst from the double-doors without regard for her nakedness. She screamed, eyes wide with terror as she held one arm across her breasts and the other over a bleeding wound on her forehead. Her frizzy black hair went every direction like an electrical storm had hit the VIP suite.

  Thad grabbed her as she rushed between the other girls toward Dixie’s safe room. He saw blood dripping from her top lip, coating her perfect teeth. Slap marks decorated her body, thigh to face, and there was something like a belt mark across her arm.

  “Let her go!” Leslie and Chelsie shouted in unison. “To the safe room!”

  Thad moved aside and let Dixie’s girls crowd into the legendary safe room. Dixie wouldn’t be in there. She was downstairs monitoring the crowd.

  “Stand guard on this door,” Thad said.

  “I should stay with you as a witness.”

  “Nope,” Thad said. “Guard the door. That’s an order.”

  Thad knocked on the massive double-door.

  No one answered.

  He swiped his arm over the security panel, not really expecting it to open as almost any other door in Darklanding would. Nothing happened. He stepped back, braced himself, and kicked it open.

  The doors that appeared massive and immovable swung open like stage props. He stepped into a chaotic scene of drunken debauchery. The grand suite was littered with clothing, alcohol bottles, and tipped-over furniture. There was food scattered through the small kitchenette and across coffee tables between white leather couches. If Thaddeus knew Dixie's girls at all, they hadn’t missed an opportunity to enjoy the plentiful treats. Food was expensive on Darklanding, just like everything else.

  They had probably also been through all of LeClerc’s luggage to lighten it of valuables. That was a cost of patronizing a brothel. Most of the regulars had little to lose. From a business standpoint, the superstar LAR pilot’s visit was too good of a looting opportunity to miss—not to mention fees, tips, and up-charges.

  The man had his back to the door when Thaddeus entered. Naked to the waist, LeClerc had been admiring himself in the two-meter picture window. Night had turned the glass into a mirror, and LeCerc could not help but touch himself after his recent conquests.

  “You’re under arrest, LeClerc,” Thaddeus said as he stepped into the room and moved laterally. Never knew when a perp might spin around and shoot at him. It was best to be someplace unexpected.

  “Arrest? You’ve got to be kidding. For what?” the LAR pilot faced him with one of the couches and other detritus between them. He had his pants on but they were riding low. His body was covered with hickies and belt marks like Thad had seen across Tia’s face.

  “Assault. Rape. Destruction of SagCon property.”

  “Rape! You are joking. Not funny, lawman. These girls will be back for another round tomorrow night, and the next, and the next. I could kill one of them and they’d still come back for what I’m paying them,” LeClerc said. “Get the hell out of my face. Send one of the blondes back in. That last girl cried too much.”

  Thad strode forward, gripping the edge of the couch with one hand and flinging it sideways. LeClerc’s eyes sprang wide as he retreated. “Do I look like I’m joking, jackass!”

  The LAR pilot cursed and bared his teeth, gathering his courage and outrage at the same time. “I’ll have your job, lawman! Get the hell out of my room, or I’ll call the real law.”

  Thad twisted his shoulder under the man’s armpit, stood, and turned to Judo throw him hard. To his surprise, the hotshot pilot bounced to his feet. He floundered backward, stunned, but he shouldn’t have been able to stand for several seconds.

  “Stop resisting,” Thad said levelly.

  “You’re a crazy son of a…”

  Thad caught him with a left jab that sent him staggering almost to the wall, then lunged forward to catch him with a vicious right hook.

  LeClerc went down hard.

  Thaddeus dragged him to his feet and handcuffed him with quick-ties.

  “What the hell are you doing!” Dixie screamed.

  “My job.”

  “Not you, him.” She stood face to face with Raymond LeClerc, galactic LAR champion and billionaire. She held up a thin computer tablet about the size of her hand. “All of this damage has been added to your bill. Tia’s compensation has doubled and she will get a stipend from your father’s corporation for two years.”

  LeClerc laughed. “You see, Sheriff? It’s all about money.”

  Dixie punched him in the stomach. “And no more girls for you. You can have sex with yourself for the rest of your trip.”

  LeClerc shrugged at about the same time Thad yanked him backward, turned him around, and started marching him toward the door.

  Shaunte, Mast, Pierre, and Sledge stood in the doorway. A squad of Dixie’s girls watched from down the hall.

  “We have to let him go,” Shaunte said.

  “He raped Tia!”

  Shaunte snorted. “I doubt that. This happens every night, Sheriff. You don’t like it because he’s a famous LAR pilot instead of a dirty miner. What do you think these girls get paid for?”

  “You didn’t see her running down the hall.”

  “I saw her. She said she was okay,” Shaunte said. She stepped closer to LeClerc. “I am disappointed in you, Raymond. This isn’t the clean-cut valedictorian I remember from school.”

  LeClerc dropped his head and started to cry. “I know. I need help. It’s the pain meds.”

  “What?” Thad snorted.

  “He broke his back on Ithaca,” Shaunte, Dixie, and Pierre said at the same time.

  “I’ve got a problem. I know. Shouldn’t have accepted the whiskey the girls brought. But they were so sweet. I just didn’t know it would mix with the medications like this,” LeClerc said. “Ouch, these quick-ties are cutting into my wrists.”

  “I think that’s enough, Sheriff,” Shaunte said.

  Thaddeus stared at the Company Man for several seconds. Words failed him.

  “The quick-ties?” LeClerc said with a distinct lack of pain in his voice.

  “What do you think, Sledge?” Thad asked.

  “I think he’s a douchebag. He hurts one of my girls again and no one will ever find the body.”

  “They’re not your girls,” Dixie said. “But that’s accurate. This isn’t a freak parlor, LeClerc. You’d best remember the rules of your visitor’s contract.”

  Thad listened to them talk but couldn’t take his eyes off Shaunte. He couldn’t believe she was buying this guy’s story. Angrier than he’d ever been, he removed the quick-ties.

  LeClerc rubbed his wrists, which also caused his pectoral muscles to flex. “What, no threats from you, Sheriff?”

  Thad punched him in the gut so hard it lifted the pilot off his feet, then Thad walked out
of the room before the man hit the floor.

  “Sheriff,” LeClerc groaned.

  Thad looked over his shoulder.

  LeClerc aimed his middle finger at the ceiling as he started a profane diatribe. Thad could still hear him halfway to the stairs despite the blood pounding in his ears.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Barn Burner

  Thad beat the biggest tractor tire on his exercise field with his heaviest hammer until his arms seemed to melt with fatigue. He slid to the ground, roared defiance, and staggered back to his feet. Maximus, head pressed between his forefeet as he watched intently, whined.

  “This place doesn’t deserve law and order!” Thad shouted. He pointed at Shaunte’s window on the top floor of the Mother Lode. “I’m talking to you, Shaunte! Company Man, my ass!”

  Mast crossed the street and stood a safe distance from Thaddeus.

  “What?” Thad snapped.

  “I muchly spoke with Miss Tia. She is feeling better. Dixie is not making her work for the rest of the week, which is bigly upsetting to the other girls since she is still getting paid.”

  “I’m done with this place. SagCon can hire someone else to do their dirty work,” Thad said, hefting the hammer in both hands. “She was running for her life!”

  “They will probably not be wanting you beating their SagCon tire if you are muchly quitting,” Mast pointed out.

  Thad struck the tire again and again. Maximus lumbered to his feet and moved farther away. A cool breeze wafted between the buildings. SagCon freighters taxied toward landing pads at the spaceport.

  Thad tossed the hammer aside and pulled on his shirt. He pulled up the top half of his SagCon jumpsuit and strapped on his badge and blaster.

  “Where will you be going now?” Mast asked.

  Thad pointed at Shaunte’s office window. “To talk to her.”

  He blew through the saloon without looking at the men and women passed out across tables, against walls, or by the now silent auto-piano. His boots punished the floor planks, then the stairs to Shaunte’s office. This hallway seemed narrower than it had the hundreds of other times he’d come this way. All he could think about were the huge double-doors to the VIP suite in the Mother Lode brothel.

  To his surprise, the memory of Tia fleeing was less vivid the angrier he became. Why was he the only person in Darklanding upset by the criminal conduct of Raymond LeClerc? His step never faltered despite his inward struggle. Tia had chosen this type of life, but Thad couldn’t believe she’d ever had a choice, not really.

  Shaunte’s door was closed, a red light glowing near the security panel. He knocked, then swiped his arm across the panel to enter. Nothing happened.

  “Am I locked out of every place now?” he said.

  The cheap frontier quality door speaker crackled. “You should be. What do you want?”

  Thad crossed his arms, staring into the camera and daring her to not let him in.

  The door remained closed and the speaker silent. He pushed the button once it seemed obvious she’d moved on to other business and would have him standing in the hallway indefinitely. “Shaunte, I need to talk to you about LeClerc.”

  “Then talk,” the speaker said in a tiny projection of Shaunte’s voice.

  “Let me in so we can talk face to face.”

  “I don’t like you right now.”

  “What?” Thad looked up and down the hallway in disbelief. “Are we in kindergarten? Let me talk to the real Shaunte, the one who’s tougher than any Company Man ever to run this planet.”

  “Fine,” she said. The door lock clicked.

  He shoved his way inside to find Shaunte standing behind her desk with her arms crossed. They faced each other across the full length of the room, which seemed larger than it ever had.

  “Let’s talk about this rationally,” Thad said, pushing his palms forward as though to calm her.

  Shaunte seemed to grow an inch as she pulled back her head, eyes wide, her body language broadcasting surprise at his insulting tone. She took a step back and kept her arms crossed like they were armor. “Rationally? You want me to be rational?”

  “He raped her and tried to kill her!”

  “Did he?” she asked. “You have proof?”

  “She was running scared!”

  “What does that prove, exactly? Tia’s known for being melodramatic to drive up the price. Half her tricks want to marry her out of guilt,” Shaunte said.

  “Who told you that? Dixie?”

  “Tia told me. The other girls confirmed it.”

  “She was bloody and bruised.”

  “So was he. And so were some of the other girls, if you’d taken time to look at them. That’s his kink. I don’t particularly like it or understand it, but who am I to judge? Who are you to judge?”

  “I’m the Sheriff of Darklanding.”

  “But not the judge, jury, and executioner.”

  “Except when you tell me to be all those things for SagCon’s interests.”

  Shaunte put her hands on her hips, but didn’t answer the too-true prod.

  “You know she was raped.”

  “She told me she wasn’t,” Shaunte said. “What did she tell you?”

  Thad ground his teeth together as he looked at his boots. He forced his eyes to stare her down. “I haven’t interviewed her.”

  “Then maybe you should do that before you barge into my office making demands and accusations,” Shaunte said, turning toward her picture window. “Get out.”

  “If I come back with evidence and witness statements, will you at least listen to me?” Thad asked.

  “Of course. Until then, you need to stay away from Raymond LeClerc. Stop harassing the man. Stop making accusations you can’t back up. And stop being a jealous jerk.” She hesitated. “He promised me he wouldn’t mix alcohol with his medication again. Believe it or not, he’s never even been to a brothel before last night.”

  Speechless, Thad stared at her silky blonde hair flowing down her back. He let out a long sigh. Several moments passed before he retreated the way he had come.

  “Thaddeus,” Shaunte said just before the door shut between them.

  He stopped it with his foot.

  “Dixie can handle it. That’s her job. She cares about her girls. That’s why she’s so hard on them. Let her do her thing.”

  He pulled his foot away from the door and let it shut as he walked into the hallway leading to the stairs.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Day Trip

  “Don’t think we are going to run about like this all the time,” Dixie said as she watched the brute crawl under the antique airplane. “Why does it have double wings? If whoever designed it wasn’t confident the first pair of wings would work, why should we trust it?”

  Sledge’s voice was muffled from his position under the massive combustion engine. “This old girl is a classic. I haven’t worked on one like it since I was a kid.”

  “Not a comforting thought.”

  Sledge slid into view. “I just needed to check a few things. Carter Hayes really knows his classic planes. I’d like to buy this one from him if he’d let me.”

  Dixie sat on a work pallet, crossing one leg over the other and hugging herself as she watched Sledge work. “Since when did SagCon Special Investigators become airship mechanics?”

  “Technically, this isn’t an airship. It’s an airplane. Different aerodynamics and power plant. I’ve been working on both types since my father’s ranch back on Melborn. If it can fly or drive on a planet, I can build it from a detailed schematic or fix it if it’s broken.”

  “You shouldn’t brag. And for the record, that type of thing doesn’t impress girls,” Dixie said, bobbing her foot and fanning her face.

  “Sure.” Sledge stood and wiped his hands on a shop towel. “I’m still surprised you agreed to come with me.” He pulled the wood blocks from the wheels and pushed the biplane out of the hangar.

  “I just want to get away from Thaddeus and his
temper tantrums.”

  “Fine by me. His loss is my gain.”

  “Don’t presume,” Dixie said. “I’m not that kind of girl.”

  Sledge smiled broadly. It was the expression all of her girls liked so much. He was a bull of a man, big and strong and as pretty as a tree stump. “Never said you were a girl, Dixie. You’re all woman to me.”

  She blushed, then blushed again when she realized she’d blushed. How long has it been since I did that? “Well, I just think he’s too old to be jealous because Shaunte is mooning over her high school crush. They went to private school together is what I heard. She was a freshman when LeClerc was the big senior jock on campus.”

  Sledge positioned the plane on the simple runway and wheeled a ladder to one side. Returning to Dixie, he offered her his hand then led her forward. “Your chariot awaits.”

  “Hmmpf.” Gathering her skirts with practiced efficiency, she sashayed up the ladder and lowered herself into the front seat. Birds sang to her and the sun warmed her skin as though they’d been longtime friends. “It is a beautiful day.”

  Sledge grabbed the propeller and spun it. The engine fired up. All hell broke loose. Dixie covered her ears and squinted against the flood of exhaust fumes and dust. “What the hell have you gotten me into, Michael Sledge Hammer!”

  He laughed his way to the pilot’s seat, handed her a pair of goggles, then taxied the plane across the tarmac. The rubber wheels found every bump on the runway as the biplane lurched side to side.

  “Is it supposed to do that?” she screamed as she held her hair with one hand and her harness with the other.

  “Scared?” Sledge shouted back. The engine roared as he accelerated.

  “Humpf. Of course not. So long as you know what you’re doing.”

  Sledge kept the plane heading down the center of the runway. When it picked up enough speed, he pulled back on the yoke. The plane climbed into the air. Thoughts of Thaddeus, Shaunte, LeClerc, and Tia fled as Dixie concentrated on staying alive. There wasn’t much she could do. Holding the safety harness demanded all her attention.

  Sledge climbed higher. The ride smoothed out. Dixie peered out of the cockpit to watch the Ungwilook landscape in way she’d never imagined. Two hours later, he landed in a highland meadow. Getting back on the ground proved ten times as terrifying as taking off.