Smoke Stack

by Andrew Gruse

  Julie was about to say no when she saw two large hands grab the man’s shoulders and rip him off of her. Marvin flew across the room into a dresser, hit the floor and scowled.

  “Knock, knock,” Zack said, his anger clearly on the man on the floor. “You wanted to see how tough I am, here’s your chance.” A left uppercut from Zack hit Marvin’s jaw and knocked him back. Zack saw the knife still in Marvin’s hand. Before Marvin could react, Zack broke Marvin’s eye orbital with a right cross. Marvin crashed against the wall, still on his feet. He slumped. Zack stepped forward and kicked him in his exposed genitals. Marvin crumbled to the ground.

  Zack looked at Julie and shook his head with a frown. “Sorry I’m late. I got tied up.”

  Zack turned around as Marvin tried to scramble from the floor. He stood up.

  Zack pointed at him. “I told all of you if any of you touch her, I’ll kill all of you,” Zack said.

  “You two are gonna…” Marvin began, but two shots rang out. Marvin hit the floor, two bullets in his chest. He fell to the floor in disbelief. His mouth opened, but he said nothing as his hands clutched his wounds. Blood seeped through his fingers. The realization of the end in his eyes.

  Marvin, the Weasel, fell to the ground dead.

  Zack looked at Julie. She stood by the bed, torn panties, no shirt, her hands in front of her held Zack’s Sig as smoke seeped from the barrel. She lowered the gun, looked at Zack, and cried.

  Zack ran to her and held her as she collapsed on the bed. She cried into his shoulder, dropped the gun, and just cried. Zack didn’t say anything. He held her tight, sad for her and for him. One thought crossed his mind like a banner on the television screen during a weather warning: This is all my fault. This is all my fault. This is all my fault.

  “What about Molly?” Julie finally said.

  “Get dressed, quickly,” Zack said. “We have to get out of this house.”

  “What? What about Molly?”

  “She’s fine. She’s downstairs with Derek. We have to go now, honey,” he urged her, but she didn’t respond. The confusion and shock froze her. “Jules, honey, I’m sorry. I am so sorry. I escaped as quickly as I could. When I snuck into the house, I saw String Bean first and put his head through the wall. Derek is holding him at bay with my other gun. I’m sorry, honey,” Zack said. A tear hit his eye as a surge of emotion welled up in him. “I’m so sorry. But this house is rigged to explode. We have to get you dressed and get out of here.”

  Julie cried into Zack’s shoulder, tight in his embrace before she registered what Zack said. She nodded, and he wiped away tears from her cheeks. “I am so sorry. Turks and Caicos as soon as we get out of this town. And trust me, this will be the last time you ever hear this out of my mouth, but you need to put clothes on.”

  She nodded, he helped her off the bed, and she dug in her bag for clothes. Police sirens wailed in the distance and drew nearer.

  “Zack, there’s something you should know about Orb. You have to know,” Julie said as she slid out of the torn garments and dressed.

  “What?”

  “He killed Dick Miller,” she said. “Or he didn’t. He killed somebody he thought was Dick Miller. There was no suicide.”

  “I know. I think I know who Orb killed and what happened after that, but now we have to get out of here.”

  * * * *

  Molly rushed to the front door and unlocked it for the police. Sheriff Orbison brought two of his deputies with him, Sam and Frank. Orb rushed in first with his service pistol withdrawn.

  “Molly, are you all right?”

  Molly put a robe on over her sleeping attire, which was nothing. The man who attacked her didn’t get far before Zack came in the door. Zack grabbed the man by the back of the head and ran his head through a wall. Zack left the man there so Molly couldn’t see the man’s face. Derek Willows showed up behind Zack. Zack gave him his loaded and cocked gun and told Derek to shoot the man if he got his head out of the wall and tried to escape.

  There was no explanation. Call Orb direct, Zack ordered quietly and disappeared upstairs. Molly heard the raucous and hoped Zack was Ok. Moments later, Orb arrived. Molly clutched her arms across her body to keep the robe tight.

  “I’m fine, in there,” she pointed to her bedroom and lead them inside. “Derek, it’s ok,” she said before the cops saw him. Derek hid the weapon at his side.

  “Holy shit! It’s the kid! Has he been here?” Orb asked.

  “No, I don’t know where he came from,” Molly said.

  Orb stepped inside the bedroom and saw the man with his head rammed through the wall. “What the hell is this?”

  Zack and Julie came downstairs, Julie held tightly by Zack. Zack saw Deputies Sam and Frank first. Both looked surprised at them.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Frank asked.

  Sam kept his hand atop his holstered service weapon. “You look like hell, Stack.”

  Orb stepped out of the bedroom. “Stack? Where the hell did you go? Goddamn you, you know how many man-hours it cost me looking for you? Now, what is going on?”

  “We don’t have time to discuss. We have to get out of,” Zack started but was interrupted.

  “Where’s the other intruder, Stack?” Orb demanded.

  “Upstairs, but we don’t have time to,”

  “Stack, I’m in charge here!” Orb barked. “I’ll do the talking. Now how did he get stuck in the wall?”

  Derek saw Zack and let out a breath of relief. He walked closer to Zack with the gun hid. Zack, the view from everyone else blocked, slyly took his Sig back from Derek and walked to the other side of the man in the wall. He stuck the gun in his beltline behind his back. No one saw, not even Julie.

  Zack grabbed the man’s shoulder and yanked him out of the wall. The man fell to the floor. “I put him there after I stopped his attempted rape of Molly,” Zack said. “I named him String Bean.”

  They looked at him, and Orb’s mouth dropped open.

  “Why String Bean?” Deputy Frank asked.

  “Because he was one of the six men that had me tied up in a tunnel beneath the haunted forest of Clyde,” Zack said. “I think we can put the ghost stories to rest. I found the cause of the supposed hauntings. This piece of trash is one of them. You know him as Gary Pritchett. I named him String Bean because they wore masks.”

  “Six men? What? What tunnels? Where did Derek come from?”

  “Where do you think?” Zack said. “Didn’t you take a sex-ed class?”

  Molly smiled, Julie shook her head, and Orb and his deputies looked confused. Zack realized though sarcasm was a coping mechanism for him, others might not have appreciated it.

  “I meant, why is he here?” Orb snapped, perturbed.

  “He was in the tunnels. One of the six guys, Weasel, who is upstairs, snatched him after he met with Coach Weber Saturday morning before the fire was started,” Zack explained. “Look, this is all fine and dandy, but we really need to get out of this house.”

  Pritchett moaned and moved a little. Zack kicked him.

  “I think someone should cuff him, Orb,” Zack said. “And drag him outside. I’m not kidding about getting out of,”

  “Calm down, Stack,” Orb said. “I don’t understand,” Orb said. “Just tell me what in the name of Colonel Sanders’ butthole is going on?”

  Zack stepped over Pritchett and returned to Julie. Derek stayed close to Zack. “I think you know a lot already. Some of it you’ll have to fill in the blanks for me. But I have an idea, and you won’t like it.” Zack looked at everyone in the room. “There’s a couple players I don’t know who they are and two are on the loose. If I were you, Orb, I’d call in the state police.”

  “Why?” Deputy Sam asked. “We can handle this. This is Clyde's business.”

  Zack looked at Sam. He walked the five steps to get closer to Deputy Sam and nodded. “You sound like one of the guys that told me they don’t like outsiders here in Clyde,” Zack said.

 
“All I’m saying is that it looks like we have the situation taken care of pretty much,” Sam said.

  Zack smelled peppermint. He heard Frank munching on hard candy. Maybe it was the popular flavor in Clyde. “Pretty much we do, Sam,” Zack said. He looked Sam up and down and then the same with Frank. “But you can’t do this all yourself,” Zack said. “There might be bodies buried in those tunnels. Those missing kids from years back. If not, from what I heard, there’s a transport arriving in the morning that was going to take Derek, myself, and the two ladies here at the very least somewhere south. If I didn’t know better, I’d say there might be some trafficking going on here. If you don’t call in the state police, the feds will be here by noon and take over anyway.”

  “Frank,” Orb said, “call the state boys. Let them know we have a situation. Do it now,” Orb ordered, and Frank disappeared outside. He looked back at Stack. “So, who is upstairs?”

  “Marvin. He’s dead.”

  “You said six, two are on the loose. Two are here. Where are the other two?”

  “I left them in the tunnel. Beaten to a pulp,” Zack said. “Weber was one. Pigface, the fat slob pedophile who I think lived in the tunnels, hit him upside the head with a baseball bat after I broke Weber’s nose. I doubt he’s going anywhere anytime soon. As for Pigface, well, he can’t walk, and he’ll thankfully never breed, so I did the world a favor there.”

  “Pigface? Is that his name?”

  “They called him Ogre, that’s all I know. I had to keep my mind active, so I named the guys I saw: Pigface, Coward, that’s Weber, String Bean,” Zack pointed at Pritchett, “Weasel is upstairs, and the other guy is Bigshot. He was the one in charge and some short, fat one I named Junior, as that’s what they called him,” Zack said. “He’s good with a bow and arrow and wore camouflage. That’s all I know about him.”

  “That sounds like Perks’ kid,” Orb said.

  “Did you get anything from the other? Any distinguishing features?” Sam asked.

  Zack looked as if he were remembering but was keeping that to himself. “Like I said, they wore masks.”

  “We need to notify Derek’s grandmother,” Orb said. “And get to those tunnels.”

  “I’d wait if I were you,” Zack said.

  “Why?”

  “Like I said, there’s a transport arriving tomorrow morning. It’s all right beneath the forest and starts at the Dick Miller place,” Zack said. “If I were in charge, I would set up a sting and wait until that transport arrives. Bust them, get the feds in on it and figure out what the hell was going on beyond the obvious fraud here in Clyde. But we have to get out of this house!”

  “What obvious fraud?” Sam asked. “This ain’t no big city, Stack. This is Clyde. We can handle this.”

  “Apparently you can’t,” Zack shot back. “A group of men conspired to burn down and destroy the high school to get insurance money to rebuild so they can land a big deal from Ag Cen. Another separate group conspired to work around that group to steal the land out at the Johnston property from under their noses while I’m guessing hoping to sell the Miller land to Ag Cen right from under Clyde and make a fortune. Meanwhile, somewhere in the middle of that was kidnapping kids to keep a pedophile happily underground while the group likely were using the pedophile piece of shit to get the value of that land into their pockets before probably killing him and leaving him buried in those tunnels. Is that what you were handling?”

  Sam’s face turned red.

  “Pipe down, Sam,” Orb ordered. “Stack is right. We need help with this.”

  Angrily, Sam wiped his mouth with his left hand. Zack and Sam stared at each other.

  “Stack show me the body upstairs. I want to know as much as possible before the state boys get here,” Orb said, and he walked up the stairs.

  “Jules,” Zack looked at her, “why don’t you come with me.”

  “She’s fine right there, Stack,” Orb said. “I want to talk to you, not her.”

  Zack hesitated. He stared into Julie’s cerulean eyes and saw the pleading in them. “Stay with me,” her eyes told Zack.

  “That’s fine, Orb,” Zack said, “but Jules has information. I want her with me.”

  “I’ll get it later,” Orb said. “Come on.”

  “Don’t worry, Stack,” Deputy Sam said, his hand still rested atop his service pistol. “I’ll take care of her.”

  Zack hated the decision he had to make, but he had to make it. “I’ll be right back,” he told Jules. “Stay right there.” He looked at Derek and Molly. Both stood close to Julie and watched Zack slowly head towards the stairs.

  “Sam, cuff Pritchett. Call the hospital. Send an ambulance,” Orb said from atop the stairs. He disappeared from Zack’s sight as Zack climbed the steps.

  Zack entered the bedroom and saw Orb stare down at the dead man inside the room. “Marvin Solder.” He looked at Zack. “Did you have to kill him?”

  “I just beat his ass. Jules killed him.”

  “Why?”

  “He deserved it,” Zack said. “Orb, tell me you aren’t a part of this.” Zack slowly moved his hand behind him and grabbed his weapon.

  “What?” Orb shook his head. “Of course, I’m not, Stack.” He turned around and saw the gun on the bed. “Is that the gun?”

  Zack nodded. He watched Orb closely as Orb picked up the gun and looked it over.

  Orb put the gun on a chair in the corner behind him. “Bloom confessed to me earlier about the fire. He gave me a few names. But not all, I’m afraid. In the tunnel, you said there were six. We know three. Who are the other two? Who is this Pigface?”

  Zack kept his hand on his Sig. “If I were to take a guess, I’d say it’s Dick Miller.”

  “That’s impossible. He committed suicide,” Orb said.

  “Actually, Orb, no, he didn’t. You killed him. At least you thought you did. You killed someone else. My guess is that you killed Keith Overton. You knew it, didn’t you?”

  CHAPTER 54

  A gun fired, Molly screamed, a body hit the floor. Zack heard shuffling of feet. Orb snapped to attention, withdrew his service Glock, and ran past Zack out of the room and to the stairs.

  Zack grabbed the backup Sig and followed. Zack turned the corner, heard Orb yell something, and another shot fired.

  Zack reached the top of the stairs and saw Orb tumble down the last several steps. He hit the floor, sprawled out, and blood leaked from his shoulder. Either dead or unconscious from the fall, Orb was useless and no longer a threat.

  I guess he’s not a part of it, after all. Hard way to prove it.

  “Come on down, Stack, slow! Real slow,” Deputy Sam yelled out. “Don’t even think of doing anything stupid. I’ll kill your girl so fast she’ll hit the floor before you see her pretty little face again.”

  Zack came down the stairs slowly and saw Deputy Frank on the floor by the front door with a bullet in his chest as well. Frank moved his arms, but he was fast becoming a statistic. Zack reached the bottom and stepped over Orb. Orb’s head landed turned away from Sam, who moved closer to Molly’s bedroom to the left of the staircase coming down the stairs. Orb saw Zack and blinked. Alive.

  “What gave me away, Stack?” Sam asked.

  Sam held Julie in front of him and handcuffed Molly and Derek together. He held a gun at Julie, and another pointed at Zack. Pritchett moaned and groaned behind them on the floor, still severely dazed after his head collision with the wall.

  “The peppermint smell of your breath, the bruise on your thumbnail, and the way you hold your hand atop your holster,” Zack said. “And your dickhead pedophile friend Weber said your last name in the tunnels. I wasn’t sure if Frank was in on it, but you shooting Frank pretty much solved that. So you’re Bigshot. How the hell did you get involved with all of this?”

  “You mean, how could I give up being a lowly deputy police officer in the dying town of Clyde?” Sam laughed. “Does it matter?”

  “No, I guess it doesn’t,”
Zack said. “Money, greed, revenge, whatever. It’s all the same in the end: criminal.”

  “Drop the piece,” Sam ordered.

  “You going to tie us all up and transport us across the country?”

  “Not you, just these three,” Sam said. “They’ll be worth a fortune. But for you, I have better plans.”

  Zack stood motionless and listened. His right hand behind his back. One thing Zack knew was the time Sam wasted by explaining his plan gave Zack time to save Julie. No one else mattered inside that room to Zack other than Julie. “Yeah? What’s that? Your own version of a perverted nightmare?”

  Sam shook his head and raised his service Glock. “I said, drop the piece! NOW!”

  Zack let the gun spin on his finger, so it pointed at the ground. He saw the hope vanish from Julie’s eyes. “Your plan now?”

  “These three are leaving on a van tomorrow morning. They’ll spend the rest of their lives high on drugs, not knowing what the hell is going on until they’ll do anything to anyone for just a little hit of anything that can make them high. But for you, Stack, I need an alibi. And that’s where you fit in.”

  “How nice. I like to fit in.”

  “Someone killed Frank and Orb and Marvin upstairs. That’s going to be you. I’m going to shoot you here, leave you for dead, utilize Marvin’s little explosive device on this house,” Sam said.

  Molly’s eyes opened wide, and her mouth dropped open. Derek didn’t seem to be fazed. Once handcuffed, Zack sensed he accepted his fate and gave up.

  “And walk away. I’ll stay here, clean up the mess, make sure you are framed for everything, and then disappear.” Sam pointed at Pritchett, who slowly woke on the floor. “Sounds like it’s just Gary and I. Fine by me. Splitting all that money two ways is better than six.”

  “What about Junior?”

  “I’ll take care of that idiot.”

  “What about the fire?”

  “Not my deal. I wasn’t special enough to be part of that group,” Sam said.