Smoke Stack

by Andrew Gruse

  Zack’s pulse raced; he had been in plenty of gunfights. But usually, he was fighting back. He couldn’t pull out his Sig and shoot this guy. He slowly crept backward beneath the tree in hopes of being concealed safely behind the thick tree trunk.

  The man lifted the shotgun and pointed it. “THREE!” He fired.

  Zack dodged behind the trunk. Pieces of the tree blew to bits around him. The man shot high. A few birds squawked and flew out of the trees, the man pumped the gun again and moved closer to the trees.

  “You can’t get away! Come out now!” The man didn’t hesitate. He pumped the shotgun and blasted again. He aimed lower and fired again. And again and until the gun was empty.

  * * * *

  Julie sat on the couch with Molly and pretended to watch television, but she didn’t. She held her arms across her chest tight and thought of one thing: Zack. He promised her he wouldn’t disappear and go solo. He promised her.

  And Zack had his phone turned off. I understand why he is so driven to find Derek, but doesn’t he know what is going on with me? Of course, he doesn’t because I didn’t tell him. I have to tell him. But what if he doesn’t respond the way I want him to? Where is he? Maybe after he gets back and I chew him a new one I’ll tell him why he can’t do that stuff anymore. He can’t be reckless anymore.

  “There is nothing on TV tonight,” Molly said. “Is there anything you want to see?”

  “Just Zack come through that door.” Jules looked at the clock on the wall. Ten o’clock.

  “Does he often disappear like this?”

  “No,” Julie said, but she knew that was a lie. “But, he isn’t acting himself because of Derek. He had a case last fall with kids Derek’s age.”

  “Oh, really? Was it big?”

  Julie frowned. “Big enough.”

  A knock on the door startled them. Molly got up, turned on the porch light, and saw it was Sheriff Orbison. She opened the door. “Sheriff, what are you doing here this late?”

  “I was looking for Stack. He isn’t answering his phone. Thought he might be here.”

  Molly let him inside, and Orb said the same thing to Jules. Jules had nothing to say.

  “You sure you don’t know where Stack is?” Orb’s radio buzzed. “Sheriff, we have a report of gunshots over at the Perks’ residence,” came the call.

  “Oh shit. I bet I know where Zack is,” Julie said.

  * * * *

  The man entered the garage and shut the door.

  “Did you get him? Who was it? Did you see him?”

  The questions came loud and fast. The men in the room, seven total, all talked at once. This was potentially a disaster. The main man with the shotgun raised his hands after he set down the gun. “Calm down,” he shouted.

  They looked at him.

  “It was probably that Goddamn private investigator,” said Marvin. “He’s had his nose in everyone’s business since he came to town.”

  “That woman with him has been asking a lot of questions, too,” another man said.

  “They’re staying with that teacher, Lockett,” Marvin informed the group.

  The main man shook his head. “Just calm down. Orb probably is on his way. Someone had to hear those shots. Get the TV’s on. Make sure there’s plenty of games on. He’ll have questions.”

  The other men inside the plush garage looked at each other, looking for reassurance or objection but for sure a reason for solidarity. The plan would work, they knew it. Each looked at another in wonder if that man would break. The allegiance of trust was sure to be tested. Each one knew it.

  “Now more than ever, we have to stay strong, be careful what we say, who we say it to, and make sure we say nothing that could incriminate any of us,” the main man said. “We’re all in this together, and that’s the only way this will succeed.”

  The other men considered what they heard and nodded. Reassurance. It seemed to quiet the murmurs.

  “So, have a drink, and let’s finish this meeting and wait until Orb gets here.”

  Complete with a wet bar and full bathroom, the open area in the garage had four large screen televisions on the walls, a pool table, dartboard, two pinball games, a large leather couch, and several reclining seats. The bar was well stocked and had six bar stools on one side and a wine fridge and beer kegerator beside a full-size fridge/freezer. The owner was very proud of it and spent every game day inside it.

  The other men helped themselves to a drink as they arrived, as was custom. There were prescribed times for the men to enter and places for them to park and/or walk. They took pains to make sure no one knew they met outside game-day and for the casual observer to know who all was at the meeting.

  “Our biggest concern is the disappearance of that damn Willows kid,” the main man said to re-start the meeting again.

  The other men looked around the room but were silent. “Word on the street is that he ran away since nobody was found at the school.”

  “The fact that he parked his car behind the school the same day it burns down has brought too much damn attention to this whole damned affair.”

  “The PI is insisting the Miller woods be searched. He keeps threatening Orb,” one of the men said.

  “Then search the damn woods,” the main man said.

  Weber nodded. “Ok. Those woods aren’t safe, though. We’ll have to handpick who does it.”

  The main man sighed. “You used to hunt those woods. What do you think?”

  Weber thought for a moment. “Marvin, Gary, and I will search there. I’ll get Sam Bilford too. He’s familiar with those woods. That should shut the damn PI up.”

  The main man seemed appeased. “Call Orb and tell him. Get on that right away tomorrow. Rain or shine.” The man stared at Weber. No one could tell if he was satisfied with the answer or not. “What about that damn insurance investigator?” He looked at the men. “Gary, what do you know about that?”

  Gary crossed his arms. “He’s a pain in the ass.” Gary shrugged and held up his hands. “He’s harmless. The rain took care of any chemical traces. We made sure to disrupt any physical traces when we faked the search for the kid. We’re clear. I just have to fill out my report and hand it to him.”

  “You’re absolutely certain that kid isn’t buried in there?”

  “I’m sure of it,” Gary said. “He’s not there.”

  “What about the Johnston property?”

  “We made her an offer.”

  “So, the wife is selling then?” They looked at a different older man.

  “I can’t find her,” he said. “But she’ll sell. No reason to keep it, and she can’t farm it. She’ll get paid well enough, and she should have had life insurance on Bertram. It’s too bad the crotchety old prick didn’t just agree to sell in the first place.”

  The leader exhaled loudly. “Time is wasting. Find her and get her to sign the papers. We need that property.” He looked at everyone there. “Is there any other pressing business we need to discuss before Orb gets here?”

  Gary snorted. “Orb is not a threat. He couldn’t catch a cold if you rubbed the virus right in his face.”

  The men laughed. “I’ll try to get him to see things our way, but if not, we may have to find ourselves a new sheriff.”

  A knock on the door quieted the laughter. The men moved to chairs to watch the televisions. The owner opened the door. “Orb, what a surprise. What brings you here?”

  Orb smiled. “Bruce, you shooting your shotgun for any reason?”

  Bruce Perks nodded. “Goddamn intruder snooping around my property. I think I got him, too.”

  CHAPTER 30

  The shotgun blasts disintegrated the spruce branches around him. Tree parts flew in every direction. Zack felt bark, needles, and pieces of branches hit him. Dirt exploded from the ground with another blast. Zack rolled and dodged from tree to tree as the shooter concentrated his aim on one area.

  Zack retreated from the area as the shooting stopped. No one chased him.
Zack, now warm thanks to an adrenaline rush, decided the night wasn’t over.

  Zack stopped on the path, squatted to catch his breath, and assess any damage. No way could he explain his way out of more gunshot wounds but was sure he avoided any damage. He could see the door of the garage open and was plenty far away to bolt if he needed to. Zack crouched and waited.

  First, Orb arrived. He went inside for ten minutes. Reports of gunfire. That has to be why Orb showed up. Who is inside, Orb?

  Next, a few minutes after Orb left another man exited. It looked like the man with the shotgun. Zack watched the man walk up the drive and enter the main house. Time passed. The wind increased. Distant thunder rumbled. Nearly dry, the thought of another soaking didn’t lift Zack’s spirits. Still, he waited.

  The side door opened again, and a large man stepped outside. It looked like Tim Weber. He walked fifteen paces from the door up the driveway and stopped. Moments later, the door opened again. The next man to exit was Marvin. He looked around after the door shut behind him, spotted the broad shape of Weber, and walked to him. He stopped very close, the two men spoke, then split. Weber disappeared up the driveway while Marvin reversed direction and headed for Zack in the rear of the house.

  Marvin retraced his steps through the yard. Zack remained motionless. In the black of the night, against a thick trunk, Zack knew Marvin would literally have to stumble upon Zack to see him. Zack was right.

  Marvin hustled through the trees, onto the trail, and turned west. Zack hesitated but followed with his eyes trained on the outline of the small man. Zack knew that by not looking directly at Marvin, Zack’s eyes would see him better. Zack didn’t care about the science behind why. It just worked.

  Marvin stopped, and turned, Zack already motionless and barely above the height of the tall grass along the path. Marvin stepped into the hedgerow, but it wasn’t where he entered before. Something was different.

  Zack moved forward cautiously, he remembered being hit in the head a couple of nights earlier and vowed that wasn’t happening again. Moments later, Zack reached where Marvin entered the hedgerow and saw the small man dash across Main Street under a streetlight. If he knew he was being tailed, Marvin was either leading Zack into a trap or bad at getting away. Zack followed and quickly passed through the shrubbery and private lawn. He dashed between two houses and reached Main Street.

  Marvin turned the corner on the next block. Zack crossed the street and dodged in and out of shadows rapidly, not wanting to lose his prey. Seconds later, Zack realized where they were.

  And it scared him.

  * * * *

  The streetlamp on the corner didn’t work. It worked the night before. Handy work of a determined electrician or just bad luck? There were no shadows to be seen, and even with his eyes adjusted to the black night, it was difficult to see far. And after Marvin crossed the street and stepped onto the lawn of the house in front of him, Zack lost sight of him.

  But Zack knew Marvin was there. The house belonged to Molly Lockett, and Julie was inside.

  Zack crept closer to the house on the corner across the street and snuck behind a row of yews lining the house. On his knees, he crossed the sidewalk to the front door, dodged across the grass, and crawled between two junipers that bordered the lawn. Zack could see the front and north side of Molly’s house, and he could see inside the living room of the house and saw Molly talking with Julie. The wind increased. The thunder rumbled closer. Lightning flashed, brightened the area and returned to black in fractions of a second.

  Zack waited; the man had to be there. Come on, dude, show yourself. Why are you there, anyway? Peeping Tom getting your kicks or on a mission? Where are you, you little psychopath?

  He saw a figure move from behind a tree to a tree closer to the house. Zack wanted to charge and give up his position, but that would give up his gig. Marvin would know Zack was following him. Zack knew he had to wait it out.

  Lightning flashed, and Zack saw Marvin. Great timing! Zack crawled from under the shrub out into the yard. He moved slow and on his belly. Zack kept his eye on the tree Marvin hid behind.

  Marvin moved from the tree to the side of the house just out of Zack’s line of sight. That forced Zack’s hand, and he had to move into the open. Fifteen feet onto the open grass, he spotted Marvin across the street, under a lit window, crouched beside the central air unit on the south side of the house.

  Zack couldn’t see what Marvin was up to. Marvin didn’t peek into the window.

  Zack readied himself. He moved to his knees, still crouched in the dark when headlights suddenly turned off Main Street and headed towards him. Zack flattened on the ground as a spotlight flicked on from the side of the Tahoe. It was Orb.

  Orb turned into Molly Lockett’s driveway, and Zack saw Marvin run. He sprinted towards the back of the house, across the yard and out of sight. Zack hesitated as Sheriff Orbison got out of the truck and ran to the porch of the Lockett house. Zack had other plans: he was after Marvin.

  * * * *

  Zack slowed when he reached Main Street and stayed in the shadows by a street pole. In the distance, fifty yards down the street, a diminutive man ran across the street. Zack followed.

  Where the hell are you going? Your house is the other direction. Marvin stopped running and walked into a small neighborhood on a cul-de-sac. It was newer construction, Zack guessed built within the last ten years. On the northwest part of the cul-de-sac, Marvin snuck into a dark yard of a ranch and went right to the front door. The street sign was clear: Jefferson Court. Zack ducked behind a set of garbage cans at the end of a driveway as he neared.

  The light didn’t turn on at the house, but the door opened. Inside the door stood a large man wearing a baseball cap. Zack recognized him quickly: Coach Tim Weber. Zack dodged from the garbage cans to behind a car in the driveway closer to Weber’s house but across the street.

  Zack watched as Weber put his hand on Marvin’s shoulder and ushered him inside. The two men moved closer together as the door shut. Zack looked around for lights, movement, people peeking out their windows, anything. But it was quiet. He raced across the street into Weber’s lawn and got close to the house.

  Why would you come here this late? A light turned on in the rear of the house. Zack snuck beside the house towards the window. The yard sloped in the back, which allowed for the lower level to be exposed to a huge patio and backyard that bordered more trees and fields.

  Zack rounded to the backyard. Lights turned off in the upper level, and a window lit up in the lower level. Zack fled from beside the house and vanished in the darkness of the back yard just out of the light’s reach into the yard. He couldn’t be seen, but he could see clearly inside. The skies suddenly opened, and rain poured, but it didn’t block out what Zack saw next.

  Oh my! My, my, my! This thickens the plot. The light turned off, and Zack knew it was time to get out of there. It was time to report what he just witnessed.

  CHAPTER 31

  Julie paced the living room floor; one arm crossed her stomach while she held her right hand near her mouth and pinched her lips with her fingers. Sheriff Orbison told her and Molly about the report of several shotgun blasts at the Bruce Perks’ residence, the mayor of the town. Molly sat on the chair and watched the nervous Julie pace.

  The tall grandfather clock in the corner of the living room chimed midnight. Still no Zack. No one knew of his whereabouts. The nervousness as thick in the room as the rain outside.

  They heard the door handle move. It cranked open and in stepped a dripping wet Zack, soaked through to the bone. He shut the door behind him. Water dripped to the floor. Molly left to get a towel for Zack.

  Julie exhaled, ran to him and jumped onto him. She wrapped her arms tight around his shoulders and kissed him. Tears streamed down her face. She stepped back, looked at him, and slapped him hard across his face.

  “WHERE IN THE HELL WERE YOU?”

  Zack rubbed the sting on his cheek. “Ok, I deserved that,” h
e said.

  She slapped him again. It didn’t seem to faze him, so she reared back to hit him again, but he caught her wrist in his hand a foot away from his face.

  “I got it the first two times,” Zack said. “Oww.”

  “Oww? That’s all I get? Jesus Christ, Zack! I’ve been worried sick. You can’t just disappear without telling anyone what you were up to? How can you do that to me?” She cried.

  “Hey,” he said softly and extended his arms to her.

  Julie slapped his hands away from her and stepped back, but Zack moved closer.

  “Don’t try that!” She said. “Don’t you dare come in here and try to comfort me after the night I’ve had!”

  “Jules, come here, honey, please,” Zack said. She slapped his hands away again, but he stepped forward and held her. It took one moment before Julie clutched to him tight. She cried into his shoulder, and he held her tight. Zack closed his eyes as he held Jules and felt her tremble and shake in his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into her ear.

  Julie eventually pulled away from him. He wiped her face with his thumbs. Julie’s eyes moved slowly from the floor to his as Molly returned with two large bath towels and handed them to Zack. He gave one to the now wet Julie.

  “Why? I mean, just why? WHY? Do you know what I’ve been going through all night?”

  Zack took his phone out of his pocket. “I had to turn it off.”

  “Why?”

  Zack exhaled. The warm inside of the house slowly beat the chill out of his bones, but a hot shower and bottle of red wine sounded the best. “I was following a guy,” he said as he stared into Julie’s bloodshot eyes.

  “Who?”

  “Marvin,” Zack said. “I’ve been following him all night.” Zack looked at Molly. “It was the guy who has been hanging outside your window the last couple of nights. I’m sorry,” he said. “He was out there tonight.”

  Molly nearly panicked.

  “What? Are you serious?” Orb asked. “What was he doing?”