A Grave Peril

by Wendy Roberts

  I heard voices and Wookie began to growl.

  “Quiet,” I ordered.

  I leaned in and, from between the piles of trash, I could see a dozen yards into the Flash Imports’ lot. Mateo Flores was in front of the office building waving his hands and talking angrily to his thugs. There was no sign of Garrett or Sid and I assumed they were still inside the building.

  The group of men began walking to a different end of the lot with Flores leading the way. I began to follow along my side of the fence, keeping hidden behind the trash. Abruptly I felt movement in my backpack. With an uneasy feeling I brought the pack around my front and looked inside. Just as Tracey was driving into the parking lot, I pulled out my dowsing rods, which tugged immediately to my left.

  There was a body in the Flash Imports’ lot.

  I could only pray the dead person wasn’t Garrett.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “No-o-o,” I sobbed.

  Wookie licked the back of my leg and whined.

  “What’s wrong?” Tracey asked, coming up beside me, dropping her bag of purchases at my feet and placing a hand on my arm.

  I nodded to the dowsing rods in my hands.

  “Someone’s dead. What if it’s him?” My breath hitched. “What if we’re too late?”

  “It’s not him.” Tracey came around front of me and gave my shoulders a hard shake. “It’s definitely not Garrett.”

  “You don’t know that.” I sniffed.

  “Yes. I do. I’m magic.” She hugged me briefly. “And if you don’t believe me, ask the damn ring around your neck.”

  Her matter-of-fact statement gave me a jolt. I sat down on the gritty gravel parking lot and unclasped the necklace from around my neck.

  “I can’t do it.” I clenched the ring in my fist and shook my head. “I can’t ask Faith if Garrett is dead.”

  Wookie licked my face and slumped down next to me.

  “It’s not him,” Tracey said but I heard the fear in her voice. “Maybe it’s Sid or Flores. Start by asking that!”

  “It’s not Flores. I just saw him...” With a deep breath I hung the necklace in front of me and stilled it with my hand. “I’m sorry, Faith. Is it your brother? Is it Sid that’s dead?”

  The necklace immediately moved to indicate a no, and fear gripped me because I knew what I had to ask next.

  “Is it Garrett?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. “Is he dead?”

  Again, the necklace swung wildly in a no. I threw back my head and exhaled loudly.

  “Thank God.”

  “I told you,” Tracey said, her voice giddy with relief.

  The wind was picking up and it was growing chilly. Tracey ran to her car and put on a hoodie. I followed her.

  “Okay...” I got to my feet and clasped the necklace back around my neck. “Garrett and Sid are hidden away somewhere inside this fence along with some dead guy.” I picked up the bolt cutters. “We’re cutting our way in and then setting a distraction.”

  “We are?”

  Tracey sounded anxious, but I had no time to reassure her now. Snipping the wire fencing was slow going but eventually I was able to cut an L-shaped opening of just over three feet high, which would be big enough for me to climb through.

  “Now what?” Tracey asked nervously.

  “I’m going in to start looking for Garrett and Sid,” I told her, my voice low as I placed a hand on her arm. “I’m going to leave Wookie here. You okay with that?”

  She glanced at Wookie, who was sitting with his head cocked at the sound of his name.

  “Sure. No problem.” Tracey gave me a tight smile.

  “Okay. Good.”

  I took out the container of kerosene she’d bought and poured it very carefully into an empty pop bottle I found near the dumpster. Then I stuffed my bandana into the bottle like a wick.

  “Give me a few minutes. When I’m ready, I’ll send you a text saying ‘go.’ When you get that message, light this sucker and toss it over the fence in the corner over there.” I pointed. “Be careful. You don’t want to slosh any on yourself, okay? Just aim to get it right there onto the Ferrari.” I pointed to the covered sports car. “Can you do that?”

  Her eyes grew huge with uncertainty.

  “You’re magic, remember?” I grabbed both her hands in mine and gave them a light squeeze.

  She nodded. “Yeah. I can do it.”

  I took out the handguns and put one in the waistband of my jeans and handed her the other.

  “I’ve never even held a gun before.” She shrank away.

  “This is only in case of an emergency, okay?” I forced her to look while I gave her a quick lesson on the weapon and then I placed it in her hands. I grabbed my dowsing rods and headed toward the fence.

  “Julie? What happens if I don’t hear from you?”

  I licked my lips and considered my answer. “If you haven’t heard from me in ten minutes, light it anyway.”

  She nodded but I could see the fear in her eyes.

  I turned to Wookie. “Stay, boy.”

  He sat obediently but his eyes were worried too.

  I squeezed through the opening I’d cut in the fence and walked as fast as I could toward the first row of shipping crates. Each of the sea can shipping containers was about forty feet long and over eight feet high. Some rows had three stacked on top of each other, so it was like hiding behind a narrow building. I waited behind the first row then looked carefully around the corner and quickly ran toward the next row.

  My dowsing rods moved, wanting to pull me to the right. There was a body in one of these containers, but that would have to wait. According to Faith and my pendulum dowsing, the dead person wasn’t Garrett or Sid so for now I didn’t care. The pull was intense though, and I was beginning to regret bringing the rods with me because I needed my hands free in case I needed to use my gun. When I reached the last row of sea can crates I knew I was close to the building where I’d seen Garrett and Sid taken. Suddenly, I heard a vehicle start up.

  “Shit!” I muttered.

  Certain I’d missed my chance to save Garrett and Sid, I risked being seen by craning my neck around the corner. Mateo Flores had started his Escalade, and with his window rolled down, was talking to La Araña. The rear windows were so darkly tinted I couldn’t see if Flores had Garrett and Sid in the back seat or not.

  I pulled the gun from my waistband, prepared to shoot both Flores and La Araña where they stood if Flores was taking off with Garrett. I prayed my aim was as good as I needed it to be.

  “Keep an eye on those two. Don’t let them out of your sight!” Flores shouted at La Araña and pointed a finger to indicate the building. “I’ll text you once the delivery is made.”

  “If it goes bad, you want me to shoot them?” La Araña asked.

  “Bad, or good. We’re gonna shoot them anyway.” Flores laughed. “But you gotta wait until I give you the go-ahead in case we need more information. Do it in one of the containers.” He leaned out the window and hooked his thumb to show the stack of cargo containers behind him. “Same one as the other guy. Don’t go messing up my office.”

  “Okay, boss,” La Araña replied, then he turned and walked back inside the building and Flores pulled out of the lot.

  I stepped back into the shadows. A flood of relief washed over me as I dropped the hand holding the gun to my side. I had time. Garrett wasn’t being moved. At least not yet. I pinched my lips shut to stop the bubble of panic that threatened to spill out.

  All I had to do now was distract the guard so I could get inside to free Garrett and Sid. That’s where Tracey came in. It had already been five minutes since I left her, and she was probably panicking. I was about to send her the ‘go’ text when I heard another vehicle pull into the driveway.

  I leaned around the corner and saw an Alf
a Romeo Spider. I only knew one person who owned that kind of car. My breath caught in my throat as the driver’s door opened and Preston climbed out. He was dressed the same as always—colorful board shorts and a T-shirt—except there was the unmistakable bulge of a firearm in his waistband.

  “Holy crap,” I murmured as he headed up the stairs and entered the building.

  This was what Garrett meant when he said not to trust anyone! Jesus, why hadn’t he just told me that Preston was the problem?

  I fired off a quick text to the person I’d been wanting to contact all day: Agent Powel. I told her where I was, what was going down and asked that she send help immediately. I hoped she wasn’t in the middle of having her scheduled cesarean. I also dialed 9-1-1 and whispered into the phone the address, reporting that there were gunshots at my location. When the emergency operator asked me to stay on the line, I hung up.

  Before I could contact Tracey, my phone vibrated with a text from Agent Powel.

  I’m close! Don’t do anything until I get there!

  But there was no way I could afford to wait. With steeled determination, I sent a text to Tracey: Go.

  Drawing in a deep breath, I prayed to be brave but only felt a wave of fear and nausea. I was practically deaf from the sound of the blood pounding in my ears. I counted the seconds as I waited for the explosion in the corner of the parking lot that was to be the result of Tracey throwing the Molotov cocktail.

  Two minutes went by and there was no fire and no big KABOOM.

  Something must’ve gone wrong. Maybe Tracey chickened out. Hopefully, she didn’t get caught by some armed guard I didn’t account for.

  “Oh God, I hope she’s okay.” My lips trembled.

  I looked over my shoulder and briefly considered running back to check but, suddenly, there were loud voices inside the building. Shouts followed by the sounds of a scuffle. I couldn’t wait any longer, so I took a step out of hiding and pointed my gun. I mumbled a curse under my breath as I fired a shot into Preston’s car. My aim was true, and the driver side window exploded.

  Immediately, Preston and La Araña burst out of the building with weapons drawn. I tucked myself into hiding but poked my head around the corner to watch. They spun around wildly with their guns at the ready but I stepped back before they spotted me. After a moment, I peered around the corner. Abruptly, they realized they were targets and started to walk backward toward the door to go inside.

  With my lower lip clenched tightly between my teeth, I steadied the handgun in both hands and fired a round that caught La Araña in the thigh. He hit the ground screaming and clutched his leg, while his gun skidded under Preston’s car.

  Preston figured out where the shot had come from and began firing in my direction repeatedly but I’d pressed my body behind the container before he could see me. I could hear his footsteps as he tried to make his way back inside the building. His shots ricocheted off the sea can that provided me protection. He couldn’t see who had shot at them and I hoped to encourage him to get in his car and take off or come closer, so I could kill him, but he was inching back to escape into the building. There was no way I could let him return to Garrett. Keeping my body pressed against the sea can, I stuck my hand around the corner and fired blindly.

  Immediately I heard footsteps crunching on gravel as he came toward me. When the sound of his feet stopped I knew he was close. I felt like a sitting duck. With the expectation that he would shoot me in the head, I crouched down low and flung my ball cap high around the corner. He fired at the cap and, still in a squatted position, I came out from behind the crate and fired two rounds.

  I’d aimed for the heart, but my shaky hands landed only one shot into his right shoulder. He dropped his gun at the impact, and as he reached for it I fired again as I made my way toward him. That shot took off a piece of his ear and he dropped to the ground. I reached his weapon before him.

  “No more neighborly love,” I growled as I snatched up his gun in my other hand. “Move and I’ll blow your face off.”

  “Holy shit, Julie! Get the hell out of here! You don’t know what you’re doing.” Preston writhed in pain, grabbing the right side of his head.

  I had no time to chat. I was already running toward the building as he yelled after me, “You’d better be sure you get the hell out of here before Flores returns or your brains will be all over this lot!”

  La Araña was passed out and bleeding profusely a few feet away from the front of the building. I reached under Preston’s car to grab La Araña’s gun, then hurried inside. When I entered the building, I found Garrett and Sid both tied up and bound to chairs with cloth sacks over their faces.

  An anguished cry burst from my throat as I reached Garrett. “It’s me, baby.”

  I hugged him tight and clawed at the sack until I got it off. His face was battered, caked with dried blood and his swollen eyes tried to open wide with shock. I removed the gag around his mouth.

  “Good God, Julie! What the hell?” he sputtered. He nodded with his chin. “Box cutter’s in the desk. Quick! Cut us loose!”

  I ran to the desk and opened the drawer. I grabbed the blade and took it over to him and sawed through the plastic straps that bound his hands behind him and his feet to the chair. Then Garrett snatched the tool from my hand and began to work on Sid.

  “I’ve got their guns.” I put Preston’s and La Araña’s weapons next to Garrett as he worked to release Sid.

  “Oh my God, is he dead?” I gasped when I saw Sid’s face. He was even more bloodied than Garrett, and his head was slumped forward.

  Garrett felt for a pulse.

  “Unconscious. Took a hard blow to the head.” Garrett grunted as he cut the last of Sid’s ties, and his brother-in-law slumped onto the floor. “We’ll have to drag him out.” Garrett slipped both handguns into his waistband as he talked. “You should get out of here.”

  “I’m staying. I only injured Preston and La Araña but the police are on their way and Agent Karla Powel said that she’s close by and—”

  “Powel?” Garrett ripped one of the guns out of my hand. “You called Powel? Jesus, she’s the problem! I thought it was Preston, but he was just working undercover and he was about to free us when La Araña tackled him from behind and—”

  The door burst open and there stood Agent Powel holding a massive automatic weapon against her swollen belly. She expertly lifted the large gun and leveled it in our direction.

  “Garrett. Julie.” She nodded at us and smiled maniacally. “Drop your guns.”

  When we didn’t immediately comply she added, “Garrett, dear, I will shoot off your legs so you’re a stump but still alive enough to watch me blow off her head.”

  “Just drop it,” Garrett told me gently as he tossed the guns he held and then kicked them a few feet away.

  “B-but you’re an agent... FBI...his partner,” I mumbled as I dropped my gun to the ground and nudged it with my foot to be next to Garrett’s.

  “I was questioning whether Preston was the dirty one.” Garrett shook his head slowly. “But then I figured it out. I thought you were mishandling the information on Flash Imports because you were fatigued from your pregnancy, but you were deliberately leaving names out of the investigation and trying to lead us in another direction.”

  “Preston was too stupid to take the bribe,” Powel said.

  “But you did,” I spat the words out. “How could you do that?”

  “Having babies is expensive.” Agent Powel shrugged. She looked at her phone. “It won’t be long now. Just waiting to hear from Flores that the shipment made it through.” She smiled at me. “Your boy here told the other investigators the arrival date of the shipment had been delayed to next week. That way our incoming Mexican Mud will sail into customs without problems. All I had to do was show him pictures of your blown-up Jeep and next thing you know, he’s cooperating. Just ha
d to allow him back in your house to get a file he needed to alter in order to convince the other agents working the case that the shipment date had changed.”

  “So once the heroin makes it through, you’ll let us go, right?” I asked hopefully. “Flores will be happy, so just as soon as the drugs are in the clear, you can release us and be on your way.”

  “That’s never going to happen,” Garrett told me with a slow shake of his head.

  “Your man is right.”

  Agent Karla Powel tossed back her head in crazy laughter just as a huge explosion rocked the building.

  Powel turned toward the source of the sound, and Garrett leaped forward and tackled her to the ground. She instinctively grabbed her belly and dropped her huge weapon. Garrett spun her onto her side, and I kicked the assault rifle away and snatched up the handguns.

  “Grab the plastic ties off the desk!” he shouted.

  He held Powel down, and I used the ties to bind her hands behind her back. Then I handed Garrett a gun and ran out the door. A massive ball of flames had erupted in the corner of the lot and I could hear a woman’s screams.

  “Tracey!”

  Agent Preston had propped himself up to a sitting position against a cargo container. He’d taken off his shirt and wadded it up to stop the bleeding at his shoulder.

  “Sorry!” I called to him as I ran on by in the direction of the flames.

  I reached the corner of the lot and scrambled through the cut fence to find Tracey flat on her back and Wookie straddling her.

  “Wookie, off!” I shouted, and the dog came running toward me. “Oh my God!” I knelt next to Tracey and took her in my arms. “Are you okay? What happened? Did Wookie attack you?”

  “N-no.” She shook uncontrollably in my arms. “H-he helped me.”

  I held her at arm’s length and realized there were angry blisters appearing on her arm.

  “Oh shit, you’re burned! Help is on its way.” I hugged her close.