I heard sirens in the distance. Vegas was a busy place, so it was no surprise. I just hoped that the receptionist at the motel wasn’t too quick to call the cops. I should have paid for the damages, to keep his mouth shut. There could be hundreds of other reasons for sirens to be going off at this hour. Some poor sucker had too much to drink and needed his stomach pumped, or a bar fight, or outside of a casino two old friends got into a financial disagreement.
But I guess my luck had actually just run out. I spotted the flashing red and blue lights in my rear-view mirror. They followed us for half a minute before using the speakerphone to tell me to pull over.
I got off the center of the road and went as far as I could to the side. When I got close enough to the next intersection, I turned right down a tiny one way street, instead of the brakes like they had wanted me to. I had no intention of stopping. Not when I was so close to my goal. This was not fair.
I proceeded to take sudden turns and speeding up, trying to lose the cruiser that was behind me. Suddenly out of nowhere, a black Chevy rolled up beside us. It was too fast and had too many antennas to be a normal car.
“For fuck’s sake!” I yelled.
I yanked the wheel to the left to go down the street where the Chevy came from. I took in the turn sharp enough that Gary’s head smashed against the door, as did Talisha’s. If I didn’t have the steering wheel to hang on to, I would have fallen into Gary’s lap. As I cut across in front of them, I made eye contact with the driver. He had a thick, dark, mustache, and an icy glare. On the seat next to his, there was a female agent. We had gone too far past before I was able to make any other notable observations about her though. They had to have been special agents. Only they have those vehicles. Great. So the fucking FBI was on my trail now too.
“Lose them!” shouted Talisha.
“The fuck you think I’m trynna do?” I shouted back.
I turned around, when I had a chance. I partially wanted to remind Talisha who was the boss around here, and I also wanted to check to see who else was behind us. The sedan did a U-turn and followed us right back down the street it just came through. It really stepped on it, the front of the car lifted in the air a little, like a Boeing-747 taking off. I could see a thick dark smoke coming from its wheels.
“The FBI wants to talk to us.” I tried to say as nonchalantly as I could command myself to.
“Step on it man!” Gary yelled at me.
“You shut your face.” Talisha took the words right out of my mouth. “Besides, what the fuck are you even doing here?”
“What on earth do you mean? ‘What are you doing here?’” Gary reminded her. “Half of the money is mine.” Gary turned in his seat to look her in the eyes. I heard Talisha scoff.
“Nothing belongs to you. That money is mine. The will has mine name on it.” I could imagine her face and her rolling her eyes.
“Belonged.” I corrected “This addict probably spent your half in the first two days.” I could feel the tension rising in the car.
“One thing, Gary!” Screamed Talisha. “I asked for one thing. Get me some shit-bag we can pin this on. You messed that up too. And then you lead him right to me! I don’t know why I ever trusted you. You’re the biggest screw up I know.”
“How was I to know that he’s so persistent?” Gary replied defensively.
Although this argument was getting interesting, and I was even earning a few compliments, I had to return my focus to the road and our pursuers. The sirens had changed, and I just noticed why. Two more cruisers had joined the chase.
Vegas is filled with traffic, even at night. Luckily the lights change often enough that you almost never had to wait too long at an intersection. There were however enough cars on the road that I had to swerve frequently. I could avoid them with ease though, most of the time. I did have to go into the oncoming lane from time to time to get around the traffic on our side when it got too heavy, but I could manage. The car felt close to tipping every time I made a sharp turn. The sirens had been further accented by the horns of the traffic.
Suddenly, many things happened all at once. We were greeted by a very bright light that enveloped everything around us. It was like someone turned the headlights on us and they were following our every move. Except these were head lights per se, they were helicopter searchlights. There were also two police cars coming straight at us, head on, side by side. Just over quarter mile between us, and that was quickly closing. They showed no signs of slowing down, as neither did we. It was the riskiest game of chicken I had ever been challenged to. The police behind us also changed formation to line up, forming a wall behind us.
Things, as cliché as it sounds, were looking pretty bleak. I didn’t feel as if we were about to lose though. Even though I knew that we had seven cop cars on our trail and a chopper.
There was a deafening bang. It was a familiar sound, but I didn’t want to believe that it had really happened. It was the sound of a hand gun going off right by my ear. Time seemed to stop. I lost all sense of reality. I looked to my right, and saw what I had feared. There was Gary, slumping forward, but caught in time. There was a large chunk missing from his head. Blood covered most of everything to my right. Gary was slumped over the glove box in the middle the car. I could even see the exit wound on his face, and it wasn’t something I wanted to. I turned my head further to look at Talisha. She had the Colt I took back in Williamsburg in her hands. She had specks of blood all over her face, it was rather gruesome. Her eyes were filled with fear, and hatred. The gun must have fallen from my pocket with all the hard turns and she had picked it up without me noticing it. I had lost contact with anything human while driving, and trying to keep us alive. They had continued fighting and it escalated, until it was physical. That’s when she must have gotten fed up and pulled the trigger.
I returned my focus to the road. Just in time too. Another millisecond and we would have had one of the worst head on collisions Vegas had ever seen. Instead we were rewarded with grazing along the side of one of the oncoming cars. At the speed we were going, this sudden upset of motion caused us to drift out of control, and I needed all the luck in the world the regain any control of the vehicle. This caused Talisha to be through against the door again, and I heard the gun fall to the floor of the Mercedes again. I felt safe knowing that I couldn’t be shot for about five seconds at least.
The police seemed to really want us caught. There were more and more of them. There were four cruisers parked across the street in front of us, causing a roadblock. Two officers stood behind each and every car, guns at the ready.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Four rapid bangs, right after each other. The wheels were blown. I hadn’t seen it stretched across the road and had driven right over it. I lost whatever little control I had over the vehicle immediately. The wheel was torn from my grip, and I slammed on the brakes for what little it counted for. I skidded to a slow halt.
In front of us, there were four cruisers, eight officers, all armed. Behind us, there had to be just as much, if not more, plus the FBI agents. The sirens screamed on, and the chopper above us was getting louder. The red little Mercedes sat in the middle of the road, in everyone’s crosshairs, like a deer in the headlights. We had no way out.
I opened the door, and stuck one leg out. I stepped onto the pavement with my hands in the air. I took a few steps away from the car. Officers ran at me from all directions, guns aimed at my chest. They were all yelling something, but unless someone as to turn the sirens off, they weren’t getting through to me. They stopped a short distance me, not lowering their weapons for a second.
“Put your hands on your head, and kneel down on the ground nice and slowly.”
I lowered to my knees, and placed my empty hands on my head. I was shoved forward onto my face. I felt a knee on my back and felt my hands get handcuffed. That was the second time this week.
One Week Later
I was sitting in my office, with my
feet up on my chair, leaning back. No one was after me, no one was looking for me. They got the whole story sorted out. Talisha confessed after her capture, hoping that it would get her out sooner. She told them about the murder, about her partner. She was going to jail for two counts of murder in the first degree and wasn’t getting a chance for a hearing for at least five years. I admit, she is in a better place now, hopefully she can seek some rehab for her addiction and get that problem sorted out too. She gave me a call before they took her in, saying that if I waited for her, we could spend the rest of our lives together happily. I told her I’m not a huge fan of long term commitment or old cunts, and that’s the last I heard from her.
It was relaxing, just lazing around like I hadn’t done for a bit over three weeks now. I almost missed having nothing to do. The phone rang, but I didn’t have the willpower to sit up and pick up. The events from the past few weeks sure made work interesting once again. I got some media coverage; I made it onto TV to tell my story about how I was framed and I cleared my name, I had some newspaper articles written about me that appeared all over Brooklyn so the job offers kept on coming in. This was my seven seconds of fame. Eventually it will be all over, and everything will get back to how it was before, but I’ll do my best to enjoy it while it lasts. The new thing will pop up soon enough and I’ll be forgotten about, but that was the greatest part of it. I stood up, opened my cigarette case and picked one out. I could probably use a vacation soon. I stood on my feet for a minute and star at my name backwards on the door leading to my office. I put the cigarette back in the case and chuck the whole thing. It’s time I kick the habit. I don’t need a vacation, but a whole revision of my life. There were lots of things I felt I could change for the better. Maybe I’ll start training again.
I took a piece of paper from my pocket. It had Corinne scribbled on it, and her number. She was the “bad girl” from Williamsburg. She said she wants to get her life back on track too, so we had been talking. I slipped the paper back in my pocket, and grabbed my jacket.
I headed down to the parking lot and got in my car. I had a meeting with a new client, and with him came a new job. Life is never a dull moment in Brooklyn.
Blind Luck Page 10