Then he stopped. “Mr. Williams. You seem to have won again, but mark my words, this is not over!”
And with that, the three of them were out the back door.
I got Mary to her feet and cut her lose, then turned to Gus. “My car is out back too. Tell Mark I’ll follow them and let him know where they’re going.”
I ran out the back door just in time to see them jump into their car and speed away.
They were just a block ahead of me when I pulled into the street.
I dialed Mark’s number. “Mark, they’re headed west on 31st Street. Now they’ve crossed Southwest Trafficway. It looks like they’re headed to Southwest Boulevard.”
“I’ve got cars headed that way,” he replied. “Maybe we can box them in.”
Sure enough, they turned onto Southwest Boulevard and headed north. In the distance, I saw flashing lights. Mark’s men had gotten there ahead of them.
I saw them stop, back up and head for Adams Street, the only intersection that was not blocked.
But just beyond Southwest Boulevard, Adams crossed a railroad track, and a train was coming. The traffic gate dropped, blocking the street.
“Okay,” Mark said, triumphantly, “we’ve got them!”
Yasir’s car only paused a moment, then in a cloud of dust and gravel, the car leaped forward.
“Oh, crap!” Mark shouted. “They’re going to crash the gate! If they get by that train, we’ve lost them again.”
I held my breath as the car breeched the barrier, but just a moment too late.
The train struck the car broadside, carrying the twisted wreckage along the track.
EPILOGUE
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."
Yasir Patel, Mostafa Jafari and Ahmad Shirazi had come into our country to attack our railway system by placing explosives on trains carrying oil, ammonia, and nuclear waste.
In a way, it was poetic justice that their lives ended on the very tracks they had come to destroy.
Lady Justice has been known to work in mysterious ways.
And yet, as I thought about the events of the past weeks, it made me realize just how vulnerable we really are.
According to David Fox, every day between 200 and 250 trains rumble through Kansas City, some carrying harmless household items ordered from Amazon, others carrying anhydrous ammonia or nuclear waste.
These trains pass through the heart of our city, just blocks from Union Station, the World War I Memorial, Crown Center, and downtown Kansas City.
Thankfully, no bombs ruptured tanker cars, laying waste to the city we love --- this time.
I thought about what Yasir had said in Mary’s apartment: that we are complacent about the abundant blessings we have. Every morning we wake up, expecting the sun to shine, the lights to come on, and the water to flow --- but what if they didn’t?
None of us want to believe that there are men like Yasir Patel who have committed their lives to destroying everything we hold dear --- but we can’t live in denial --- they are certainly out there --- waiting for their chance to strike.
Our country is the strongest, most prosperous nation in the history of the world. For 244 years, it has been a beacon of hope and freedom, but we must stay vigilant to make sure that what our forefathers fought for endures.
And yet, it almost seems as if our country is as divided as anytime in our history. Abraham Lincoln said that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Historian and philosopher Will Durant said, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within."
If our way of life is to continue, we must put our differences aside and stand united against the Yasir Patel’s of this world.
My name is Walt Williams and I love my country and what it stands for. It may not be perfect, but there’s no place else I’d rather be!
Author’s Note
My son, Rob Thornhill, is a dispatcher for the Kansas City Terminal Railway.
He has worked for the railroad fourteen years.
You can certainly see why Walt and his dad thought he looked like Grizzly Adams.
AUTHOR’s NOTE
Denver Sutton, my wife, Peg’s, grandfather, went to work on the Rock Island Railroad right after the Great Depression.
He was an engineer on Engine #630 which was built in 1941, and worked for the railroad until his retirement.
Photo of Grandpa Denver in front of Engine #630 which he drove for the Rock Island Railroad.
The statue of the garden gnome that was featured in the book was painted by Peg in 1974 and given as a gift to her grandfather.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning author, Robert Thornhill, began writing at the age of sixty-six and in ten short years has penned forty-one novels in the Lady Justice mystery/comedy series, the seven volume Rainbow Road series of chapter books for children, a cookbook and a mini-autobiography.
Lady Justice and the Sting, Lady Justice and Dr. Death, Lady Justice and the Vigilante, Lady Justice and the Candidate, Lady Justice and the Book Club Murders, Lady Justice and the Cruise Ship Murders and Lady Justice and the Vet won the Pinnacle Award for the best new mystery novels of Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Summer 2012, Fall 2012, Spring of 2013 and Summer 2014 from the National Association of Book Entrepreneurs.
Many of Walt’s adventures in the Lady Justice series are anecdotal and based on Robert’s real life.
Although Robert holds a master’s in psychology, he has never taken a course in writing and has never learned to type. All 51 of his published books were typed with one finger and a thumb!
His wit and insight come from his varied occupations, including thirty-three years as a real estate broker. He lives with his wife, Peg, in Independence, Missouri.
Visit him on the Web at: http://BooksByBob.com
The Lady Justice Series
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[Lady Justice 41] - Lady Justice and Terror on the Tracks Page 10