The Way Things Seem

by Mackey Chandler

  David pushed the door open and let his hand linger to hold it for Oran. Courtesy was such a habit he didn’t drop it to make petty points. Even with somebody like Oran he counted an enemy. The sign in his shirt pocket startled him by buzzing. He grabbed for it reflexively, but just managed to pop it right out of the pocket with the edge of his hand. It turned over in the air, falling. He leaned over and snatched at it before it hit the pavement.

  A shock wave slapped the back of his neck and the physical sensation registered even before his brain processed the complex sound. It was a >crack< >BOOOOM< >thud< and the soft sound of something falling behind him.

  He looked back and Oran was on the floor. Her shoulder was a ruin right at the arm joint. Her arm hanging limp but at least it was still attached. The arc of blood on the wall testified she’d spun all the way around as she fell backwards. The rage and anger on her face said this was as big a surprise to her as David.

  He turned back to the outside and looked up, searching for a shooter. It was hopeless with normal vision, all the lights and shapes of buildings in the night could hide a thousand snipers, but looking over the parapet of a building across the street and a couple stories higher was a face, shining brightly with the false colors of intense emotions.

  David reached out with both hands unconsciously, mimicking his mental reach with his physical gesture and grabbed every trace of heat within his view. In his mind he reached to the stars, but that was still beyond his grasp. Every erg he could claim was sucked into a point where that evil face peered down at him. He strained far harder in anger than the first time he pushed a rock at a rabbit.

  A white hot ball of plasma enveloped the corner of the building. The shock wave broke windows for a block in every direction and bricks rained down on the street and sidewalk. Of the gunman his own people would never find a trace. He was vaporized. Even in shock and pain such a spectacle got through to Oran. When David looked back at her she expected to die, but instead he just fixed her with a look of utter contempt and walked away.

  David stumbled like a drunk to the car. He’d drained himself worse than he ever had with Uncle. He opened the door and got in the front. The driver was so freaked out he didn’t object to that small breach of his rules.

  “What the hell was that?” he demanded. “I haven’t seen anything like that since we shot off thermobaric rounds in Afghanistan!”

  “I’m sure you want to be away from it just as much as me. Let’s get out of here before the fire and rescue people have the street all blocked,” David suggested.

  “Which way?” he asked.

  “Take me to New Jersey,” David said. Going to the airport didn’t seem wise.

  “Man, I’m almost done for the night,” the fellow objected.

  “Ten thousand dollars,” David offered. “Hell, twenty thousand,” he said, when the man looked at him open mouthed and didn’t drop it in gear to start moving,

  “Right, right you are captain,” he decided and made a sweeping U-turn from the curb bouncing over several bricks in the road and floored it. David leaned back and closed his eyes.

  Somebody was shaking David and he just wanted to be left alone.

  “Wake up. Wake up, or so help me I’ll dump your butt out at the bus station and let the transit police deal with you!”

  Police got through to him. He’d had quite enough of them lately.

  “Your eyes are open, but are you really tracking? I’m two miles inside New Jersey and I need to know where you want to go. Don’t tell me any crap like Pennsylvania, because it won’t happen.”

  “I’m mostly awake,” David assured him. “Any decent hotel will do and it’s awfully far to drive back tonight. I’ll buy you a room if you want and you can head back in the morning. It’ll be safer.”

  “On top of the twenty grand? A separate room?” he asked.

  “Both,” David promised, “stop somewhere and get some burgers or something and we can take them to our rooms to have a bite before bed,” David said. He was starved.

  The driver found a drive through place and ordered four double burgers, two fries and a couple cokes. David hated colas but he didn’t argue, he just told him to add a couple shakes and gave him his card to swipe past the pay port at the window.

  “Crap, are you going to pay your fare on the card?” he complained. “I’ll get killed on tax.”

  “I’ll make it twenty five to make it up to you,” David promised.

  “It’s really late,” David told the desk clerk, “I’m putting the ‘don’t disturb’ sign out. If I sleep past checkout and have to pay for another day, fine. I need the sleep.” His driver looked at him like a dog begging at the table and shamed David into doing the same for him. The clerk gave him two key cards for adjoining rooms and he handed one to the driver.

  Chapter 19

  There was an email from Crenshaw on David’s phone when he woke up. He hadn’t turned off the ringer but he’d slept right through it.

  To: D. Carpenter

  Subject: Ongoing Events

  “The DA’s office informs me they want to question you again. They weren’t willing to say why, but reading the news I see the Assistant DA was shot and in serious condition facing multiple surgeries and the office building across from the Eighth Precinct lock-up has been ‘bombed’. I suspect they find it convenient that you, already not one of their favorite people, happened to have been in that location at approximately the same time. When they called me, shortly after all this excitement, they also seemed concerned the independent driver you hired there could not be found, and did not respond to his phone. They did not directly accuse you of abducting him, but that’s the impression I formed.

  “I informed them that in honesty I had no idea where you went after leaving the lockup. It might be better to keep it that way. As an attorney I hesitate to advise any client to leave the state. It too easily looks like you are fleeing justice. But if you have left New York I see no advantage in returning. One bright note from personal experience is that they are unlikely to seek Federal involvement to find or return you. They are normally reluctant to share cases they have proprietary feelings about such as ones in which one of their own are involved, Ms. Oran, to wit.

  I’m uncertain if my services are still of value to you if you intend to avoid the State of New York. I am personally only licensed to practice law in Florida beside New York. If you still want to retain me please forward two hundred thousand dollars to our office at your convenience, or ask our office secretary for wire instructions.

  “I want to say that representing you has been one of the most interesting events in my career, just in case we don’t have further dealings. One little factoid they have avoided releasing to the news is that a number of the bricks scattered here and there at the jail site were partially melted. I thought you might find that interesting.”

  Your Servant, W, Crenshaw

  The address seemed to be Crenshaw’s personal e-mail or a throw away, not the firm address. David wondered, if he didn’t send the balance of his retainer, whether Crenshaw would ever mention their dealings to his partners?

  It was past check out time and no reason to rush now, so David took a leisurely shower and dressed casually. His suit looked a mess and would need to be cleaned again before he wore it, but that wasn’t going to happen here. He wanted to move along. The New York police might not reach across the state line to arrest him, but Crenshaw had no idea what an extra-legal force David disturbed. Neither did David in any detail, but the way Sarah Oran spoke of families uncomfortably echoed the language used to describe crime families. If they knew he was so close he didn’t imagine a border would matter a great deal to them.

  The complimentary breakfast was long over and the hotel didn’t have a restaurant. There was however a restaurant in walking distance that had decent reviews online. David strolled down there, rather late for breakfast and still a little early for lunch, so it wasn’t that busy.

  When he ordered the L
umber Jack special with three kinds of meat, pancakes and an extra egg the waitress just nodded. When he added the country omelet smothered in gravy and raisin toast David expected at least a raised eyebrow. Instead she smiled and asked, “You want hot sauce for on that, Honey?” She’d definitely get a big tip.

  He sat watching the activity outside the window and planning. Flying home seemed high risk. Airports were choke-points far too easy to watch, especially if he tried to take a direct flight. The sort of group or organization able to infiltrate or subvert a big city police agency could probably call up all sorts of assets from national data banks, so renting a car locally seemed unwise. A single black man alone in a car was a smaller sub-set to surveille too. He hadn’t ridden a motorcycle in years and the way people drove he wasn’t too keen to do so over a long distance alone.

  The lot had parking for big trucks with lanes to pull in to park and leave without backing up. Nobody would look for him in one of those, but David didn’t have the license to drive a heavy truck or hire on to take a load towards home. Almost all of them were company tracks and probably would risk selling him a ride. They might also mistake his motives in asking.

  Another vehicle pulled in among the big rigs and an older couple got out and walked to the restaurant. David smiled. They were driving a motor home nearly as big as some of the trailers. He couldn’t imagine anyone would look for him in one of those.

  David was so confident he’d buy something he dismissed the car at the motor home and trailer lot. He only had a general idea what he wanted and described it as medium sized and fairly easy to drive. The salesman put him off a bit so he took charge and told the man to show him both the most expensive and the cheapest motor home on the lot in that size class. It was easy to get him to show the David the most expensive, a lovely bronze Mercedes with gold and black trim, for north of a half million, but he delayed and balked at showing anything cheaper saying he couldn’t image how hard some people used them.

  “I got dropped off here determined to buy a vehicle and drive it away and you are talking me out of it by trying to manage me. I don’t manage worth a damn. Now do what I asked or I’ll call another car back to take me to a competitor who isn’t like a stereotypical obnoxious salesman in a stage play. If you want to act like that you’re supposed to get a loud plaid jacket and a toupee.”

  The man sullenly showed him an ugly white aluminum box, twelve years old with a hundred thousand kilometers that smelled funny for far less than a tenth of the price of the Mercedes.

  “You’re right, it’s a junker,” David agreed, “but now I have some idea of the price spread. What do you have that is only two or three years old and either a Mercedes or something else attractive looking?”

  He had a three-year-old silver Mercedes with more options than the new one he’d shown David. It looked to have the same body shape and doors, but the layout inside was a little different. That might matter if you were a family of six, but either would work for David traveling alone.

  David circled around the lot twice, checked to make sure the heater and air conditioner worked, tried all the lights and made sure the spare had pressure.

  “How much?” David asked.

  “Three hundred five thousand plus sales tax, registration, and license,” the fellow offered.

  “Two hundred eighty thousand and road service for breakdown thrown in,” David countered.

  “Oh no, no,” the man said, wincing. “These are very popular. I couldn’t possibly do that. Two hundred ninety five and the ninety day warranty and road service are no problem at all.”

  “Two hundred seventy five thousand and the service package,” David said.

  “That’s not funny,” the salesman said. The colors on his face said it did upset him a little.

  “I’m humor impaired,” David admitted. “Does two eighty sound any better now or are we done?”

  “You’re a hard man but I’ll take the two eighty,” he said, like it was a favor.

  The hard part was David was a Georgia resident. He could get a transit tag but could not personally take title without a New Jersey license and address. It was far easier to buy it to operate in state for his business. He finally called a local mailbox service and got a box in his company name, promising to come in and sign their papers before the close of business. If he got mail to the street address for his name or the company name with no box number on it that was fine, he still got it in his box. Why did everything have to be so difficult?

  The vehicle went in the company name, so he called his secretary in Atlanta and had her email an insurance policy number back. She was frantic when he didn’t want to do any other business or talk to anyone. A lot of people wanted to talk to him. The dealer printed an activation tab he applied to one of the plates he held ready. He had to show David the generator, the tanks of cooking and heating gas, and replace one empty when David noticed the gauge. He got a rundown on the zone heating, waste water and fresh, as well as electrical hookups. It was as bad as learning a new phone.

  There was a tabloid size book of campgrounds and parks in the door pocket the dealer warned him was last year’s edition. He could use his phone to find someplace to stop as easily. David was in the motor home driving away in a bit more than three hours. It just felt like all day. The mail box store was only a couple miles away, but he had to stop for gas. The needle was barely over the empty mark and he hadn’t noticed. That sort of petty cheapness irritated him.

  He paid the mailbox fee for a year and arranged for forwarding to his office in Atlanta. He headed south on the closest expressway, unsure exactly what route he wanted to go, just out of this urban area.

  It was well past his huge breakfast and he was hungry. It was too late for lunch and too early for supper so no place was terrible busy. It was David’s first experience bringing an oversized vehicle on a normal sized lot. He had to go to the extreme back corner and take two places. No wonder the older couple went to truck stops with their huge rig. His was just barely medium sized and unwieldy.

  A couple hours down the road he suddenly realized the vehicle didn’t have any video recorders. He stopped next exit at a big box store and got two car cams to record front and back. While he was there he bought a few groceries, butter, eggs and steaks, good bread and stuff to make sandwiches. A package of plastic plates and mixed silverware would serve for now. He circled back around and got a frying pan and a spatula. The refrigerator was on and cold when he put the stuff away. He’d realized while he was paying for it that he hadn’t checked to see if it needed to be turned on separately.

  He was a little cautious. This vehicle was bigger than he was used to and he was sure it didn’t stop as fast as a car. He hadn’t been anywhere yet safe to try stopping hard to see how it did. Neither was it especially peppy when he gave it the gas. Traffic tended to cut in front of him and he had to firmly remind himself he didn’t have any set destination or time table to follow. It just felt pokey, something he hadn’t anticipated.

  The last thing David wanted to do was have to park this behemoth somewhere in the dark, so he pulled over the next truck stop and bought bottled water, because he didn’t trust what had been in the tank for who knows how long. After buying sandwich makings he bought a hoagie anyway and ate it while looking at the old campground guide to see what would be coming up to the south soon.

  He used his phone to read the reviews. The printed campground guide avoided saying anything negative, which made him suspect they all paid to be included in it. It gushed about two camps off the second exit to the south, but the online reviews pegged one as noisy with dirty showers and the other got better reviews. What really sold him on the second was it said it had easy in – easy out, pull through parking places.

  The place had very good signage which he found encouraging. There was a clearly marked area for registration parking. David parked and went in the office door. It didn’t have a counter like a hotel, there was a white haired older lady sitting at a regular
desk working at a computer. The counter was to her side because she watched a little store too. Besides all the normal things you’d expect to find in an office there were little bird nick-knacks everywhere and a big bird calendar behind her.

  “I’d like a place to park for one night please,” David asked.

  “Full hook-up?” The lady asked.

  “I’ll confess, I just bought the thing this afternoon. I don’t know what to ask for, I’m sure I can fake it, but I’ve never hooked it up to anything. I’m a little nervous about even parking it. The easy-in – easy out mentioned on your site really sold me.”

  “Well, it’s refreshing to get somebody who isn’t too full of themselves to ask. Come on I’ll take you to your spot and you can walk back with me to sign in.” She stuck a sign in the window that said, “Back in ten” when they went out.

  “Do you want to ride?” David invited.

  She laughed. It’s not that far, just follow me.” She took off walking at a surprising clip for her age. David had to hurry to get in and catch up. She pointed out the signs with arrows and held up four fingers. Turning down the lane to the left she pointed out a sign with a 4 and an arrow pointing down to the right so you knew which side for sure.

  Walking through, she turned around and did an arm waving imitation of a line man waving a big jet in to park. David was sure it was exaggerated for comic relief, but he appreciated it.

  “Did the fellow who sold you this give you any instruction at all?” she demanded.

  “Not really, but he gave me an owner’s manual. I didn’t want to sit there to read it.”

  “Bring your keys around and I’ll show you how to hook up the electric and water. Go easy on running the water and I’ll have my husband come show you more later,” she promised.

  David walked back with her and had a sudden case of déjà vu, remembering how he had to move right along to keep up with Uncle.