“Heart attack, got it.”
I looked around again and saw something mildly concerning: a police car. It slowed as it passed by on the main road, then disappeared behind a veil of trees. Moments later, it returned. The officer in the passenger seat pointed at the truck. It pulled into the driveway. The only reason I didn’t completely panic was it was an OPP cruiser, not local police.
“Uh, Joey? Now might be a good time to have a license to drive this thing.”
Joey turned and saw the cruiser. He seemed more eager than daunted.
“Watch me talk my way out of this,” he said. “They don’t know who I am yet.”
He strode forward, switching off the pump from the back of the truck. The two officers emerged.
“What seems to be the problem?” Joey asked. “Are you here for me or the home-owner?”
“We’re actually here for you, sir,” one officer said. “We had a report of a bomb being planted in the back of one of your tank trucks.”
Okay. Even I wasn’t expecting that.
“What?” he scoffed.
“I know. It’s a bit absurd, but we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t check it out. Do you mind if we have a look?” He gestured them forward. “We’re just going to give it a quick once over. If we see anything suspicious, we’ll call the bomb squad, but I don’t think it’ll come to that. This is likely just a prank by an unhappy customer.”
“Well, we have pissed off a few people by being unavailable lately,” my boss said, glancing over at me.
“Do you mind moving this pick-up truck, just to be safe?”
That was just the cue I was hoping for. “I’ll head back to the office, Joey.”
Joey barely registered my departure. He was too busy trying to impress the police officers.
“Hey, are you the Joey?” one of the men asked.
Oh god. I had to leave before his ego consumed us all.
I got into the driver’s seat.
“We have to leave town,” I said.
“I know,” Jack replied.
“No, I mean we really need to leave town. They lied. Big surprise. They tried to kill Walter. He’s in the back. Let’s get out of here.”
I pulled out of the driveway, calmly to avoid any suspicion, but once we were away I began to speed up.
“Is he okay?” Jack asked.
“He’s fine. You can talk to him later.” I looked down at the gas gauge. “We have enough to get an hour out of town. Where can you get this money you said you have?”
“It’s in my office downtown.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, I have some bad news about that. Mike trashed the place.”
“My Mike?”
“Yeah. Long story.”
“I’m going to have to talk to that kid. I thought I could trust him.”
“Again, long story. You may not have to worry about that.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him yet, nor the attention span to break it to him gently. I came up with a basic plan: stop at a local gas station near the shop, fill up on the corporate account, drive a few hours until we were clear of town, then have Jack call the main branch of the bank and work his magic to get our accounts active again. Then we would hit the nearest casino down south and have Walter fill our coffers again so we could devise a more long-term plan. I figured once we were well enough away from the Valley I’d pull over and pull Walter into the truck, but in the meantime, he’d have to hold on for dear life. Then we’d get through the city, out the other end, and on to our freedom.
“I don’t mean to alarm you,” said Jack. “But that red truck looks like it’s following us.”
Oh shit, not again.
“Hold on Walter,” I called out.
Though I doubted he could hear me. I pushed the truck as fast as it could, but the red truck behind us matched our speed. Yeah, it was definitely following us.
“What are we going to do?” Jack asked.
“I have an idea,” I replied. “We just need to make it to the city.”
***
I slowed when we hit the main highway, avoiding police attention as we fell in with the herd of normal traffic. The red truck did the same.
“What time is it?” I asked.
Jack looked at his watch. “It’s nearly one o’clock.”
“Perfect, nearly prayer time.”
“What? Where?”
“At the mosque?”
“What? How do you know that?”
“I’ve had to learn a few things since you’ve been gone.”
We continued into the city and made our way to the Donovan area. I retraced the path Walter showed me, this time the parking lot of the mosque was more crowded. I pulled into it, and parked close to the building.
The red truck wasn’t so hesitant this time. They pulled up right behind us.
Damn it. This wasn’t going to work the way I hoped.
I desperately tried to think of a Plan B.
A few men exited the mosque, apparently drawn by the sound of two heavy vehicles kicking up gravel. I made eye contact with the imam who’d had the disagreement with Walter regarding his daughter. He seemed to recognize me. I hoped that would reduce our troubles, rather than add to them. The imam eyed the red truck, then me again. Noting my panicked look, he rallied a few of his friends together.
“Are we in trouble?” Jack asked.
“I’m…not sure.”
The imam’s men approached, but passed us by and gathered around the red truck instead. There was an exchange, which turned to heated threats.
In the end, the red truck slowly backed away. Counter-threats were issued, but ultimately our pursuers turned around and left the parking lot. I jumped out of the truck, against Jack’s better judgement.
“Are you okay?” the imam asked.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to bring this to your doorstep.” Jack rushed to my side and put his arm around me. “We had no choice.”
The imam shook his head and waved away our apologies. He looked us over without any expression whatsoever.
“Trouble finds those who are troubled,” he said.
With that, he ushered his men back inside.
“Thank you,” I called out as they left.
“Uh…Billie?” said Jack, looking into the back of the truck. “Where’s Walter?”
I looked around, but I couldn’t see him. There was just the old sheet which somehow managed to avoid flying away in our haste. He either fled the moment the truck stopped or he left before we even started.
“Shit.” Another thought hit me. “How did they know?”
“Who? Know what?”
“Someone called a bomb scare on that truck,” I said. “That particular truck.”
Jack nodded. “How would they know Walter was in there?”
My heart sank.
“Pat!” I gasped.
TEN
“Look,” insisted Jack. “I know you don’t like it, but we should just leave. We’re only going to make it worse.”
“I have to see if Pat’s okay,” I insisted. “He’s just a kid!”
“This doesn’t have to be our problem. This is our chance to get the hell out of here.”
I know he’d had a bad week as well, but this side of him wasn’t very becoming. I ignored his protests. I focused on the road, and the rear-view mirror, in case the red truck emerged again. Eventually he stopped protesting.
When we arrived in the industrial park, it was quiet. When we reached the shop, I was disappointed to see most of the trucks gone. It wasn’t unusual for this time of day, especially this time of year, but I would have preferred having a lot of those big, burly drivers around for a change. I parked as close to the office as I could, and ran for the door. Jack was protesting caution, but I was too eager to ensure Pat didn’t get caught up in our mess.
I threw open the door and saw Frankie standing in front of my desk. Off to the left was Shay, standing diligently behind P
at, who sat quietly at his desk. The phone was ringing, but he wasn’t answering it. Between Frankie and Shay, were the two crooked cops.
“Well, the gang’s all here, isn’t it?” Frankie said. “Well, almost all. Where’s Walter?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“I don’t believe you.”
“I had him but he took off,” I insisted.
“I fucking hate loose ends,” he spat. “This is a major inconvenience.” He looked to Shay. “Right, kill them then, like we talked about.”
Shay raised his gun and pointed it at us.
“Wait, no!” I gasped.
He fired two shots.
Both Jack and I clenched our eyes shut.
When I didn’t feel anything, I opened them.
Pat was still alive.
Jack was still alive.
The two officers, however, were heaped upon the ground.
“Make it look like an accident, will you?” Frankie asked.
Shay took the gun he held and put it into the hand of the officer with the mustache.
“Fucking useless,” Frankie muttered. “Starting to get too demanding.” He paused as Shay used one dead officer’s hand to fire a bullet into the other corpse. “Anyway, not my problem anymore.”
Frankie drank in the stunned silence as he scanned the room.
“He’s being uncharacteristically quiet, isn’t he?” Frankie asked, pointing at Jack. “Care to say why?”
Jack said nothing.
“You realize this was all his idea, don’t you?”
“…what?”
“Don’t listen to him,” Jack insisted.
“Aw…shall I tell her then?” Frankie focused his attention on me. “He knows I like having Walter around, but ol’ Jack here didn’t like the way I kept drawing him back in. The more Walter refused, the angrier I got. So Jacky-boy here comes up with a plan. A side business. A way to get Walter to do a little ‘data mining’ without realizing it. Disguised it as research for potential clients and what-not. That way, he got to feel like his old friend had some honest work, and I stayed off his back.”
I turned to Jack. My eyes pleaded him to contradict this story.
“It wasn’t all like that,” he insisted. “There were honest jobs as well. Like yours. I really had the business idea. I just…had to find a way to make things easier for Walter.”
I had no idea what to say. I didn’t want to give Frankie the satisfaction, but I couldn’t help my reaction.
“So why do all this then?” I asked. “Why kidnap Jack?”
“Walter wasn’t playing ball. Didn’t even want to work for Jack anymore, the ungrateful bastard. Such a lazy little shit. I needed to get my money’s worth, so we came up with this to motivate him. Right down to Jack’s kidnapping.”
I turned to Jack. “You…knew?”
“It was only supposed to be for one job, Billie.”
“You knew??”
“Look,” said Frankie. “I don’t have time for a domestic. I need to finish this and get out of here. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to…”
“Why did you try to have Walter killed?”
Frankie didn’t have a smug answer for that one.
“What do you mean?”
“Walter said these two tried to kill him when he finished the job,” I said, gesturing to the two dead cops.
“What are you talking about?” he asked. He then turned to Shay. “What’s she talking about?”
In response, Shay pulled out his own pistol and shot Frankie.
It was quick. Within the blink of an eye. One moment Frank was standing, and the next he was falling backwards onto my desk with a bullet hole right between his eyes.
“You’re not even worth the explanation,” Shay spat, watching his employer roll off the desk and onto the floor.
“I…I don’t know what’s happening…” I said.
“It was getting to be too much…” Jack said.
I turned slowly to him. “What?”
“Walter,” he insisted. “Always looking out for him. It was getting to be too much. You said the same. He’s a friend, sure. But I couldn’t spend my whole life being responsible for him. Looking over his shoulder, working with Frankie…it was too much...”
“What are you saying?”
“He’s saying we cut a deal,” Shay growled. “You’re not the only one who was fed up with Walter. I watched this idiot,” he said, gesturing to his former boss, “waste too much time using that loser as the key to all his plans. It was like an obsession. Now he’s dead. The local rabble will be in discord. I can wrestle control, and Jack can leave town and pretend this never happened. A deal’s a deal.”
It was too much to even consider.
“It was starting to become too dangerous,” Jack insisted. “I did it for us…”
“I can’t believe you…”
“We’re free now, right?” Jack asked. “We can go?”
Shay shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Walter being dead was part of the agreement.”
“Does it even matter now?” I asked. “He’s dead!” I cried, gesturing to Frankie’s body.
“It’s not about him,” Shay said. “You should know that more than anyone else.”
What did he mean by that? Was this a competition? Did he really have the same ability as Walter? Was that what this all came down to?
“Look, we need to get out of here,” Jack said. “Can we talk about this somewhere else?”
“Hold on,” Shay said. He then raised the gun and pointed it at Pat. He had been so quiet I almost forgot about him. The poor kid threw his hands up and cowered as he saw his fate draw near so quickly and flippantly.
“No!” I cried.
Then, suddenly, there was a blaring horn blast. It was enough to distract everyone. We turned to look.
A Mack truck headed straight for the building. Fortunately, it veered to the left and plowed into one of the garage doors. The entire building shook.
I threw myself at Shay, to save Pat.
Pat scampered away in the ruckus.
Shay swore and threw me aside. Rather than chase down the kid, he instead burst through the door, into the triple bay garage.
The garage door had crumpled around the cab of the truck. The engine was billowing smoke. Which triggered the sprinkler system.
Walter and Joey stumbled out of the cab of the truck, shaken but alive.
“I said the brakes were fine!” Joey insisted.
“Just fucking hide!” Walter shouted.
“You!” Shay spat.
Shay lunged at Walter.
I grabbed one of the guns from the fallen officers. Jack didn’t do a thing, too bewildered to act. I was too distraught to care.
Shay fired several shots at Walter.
Walter managed to duck behind several pieces of equipment – tool boxes, generators and barrels.
I raised the gun and pointed it at the back of Shay’s head, but before I could even pull the trigger he swiveled around and pointed his gun back at me.
Jack finally acted, and threw himself at Shay. They both toppled to the ground. His gun went scattering, but unfortunately, so did Jack. He was never the most physical person. Shay tossed him away effortlessly. He looked for his gun, but when he saw Walter make a break for it, he went after him.
“Stay here,” Jack insisted.
“I have to help him!”
“What the hell can we do?”
I didn’t even want to talk to him at that point.
I followed Walter and Shay out into the parking lot, where the back-end of the tank truck protruded from the building.
Shay tackled Walter. There was a brief struggle until both managed to get back to their feet. Both attempted to punch each other, but each of them evaded the other’s strikes. It was as though both were able to anticipate and counter the other’s attacks. Were they really both using the same ability? How many timelines were rerouted in this fight? If I had the time
to reckon the temporal repercussions, I’d have had a field day.
Eventually, each managed to land a few punches.
Finally, in one quick move Shay ducked down, reached into his boot, pulled out a smaller pistol, and shot Walter.
Walter’s body snapped back as he toppled to the ground.
“No!” I cried.
I ran to Walter, blind to the danger I was putting myself in. I threw myself down beside him, dropped the gun, and turned him over. He was still breathing.
“Why didn’t you stop that from happening?” I asked.
“…I couldn’t…” he said with a deep cough.
Shay took a few steps closer, holding his gun at Walter and me. He turned to Jack. “You’re free to go,” he said. “Your part of the deal is done.” He then looked to me. “You too.”
“No!” I spat. “I won’t leave him.”
“Billie, come on!” Jack pleaded.
“…just go…” Walter insisted.
“I won’t.”
“Step aside.”
“No,” I said defiantly.
I glaring up at Shay. I didn’t care about the gun. I didn’t care about the threat. I wanted him to know I wasn’t afraid of him. Even if it meant dying.
“You’re pathetic,” he spat.
Shay reared his arm back and stuck me.
I felt my body roll across the ground several times. Rather than take the opportunity to shoot Walter, he instead walked over to me. With his gun-hand, he once again reared back and struck me with it.
“What’s the matter with you, you freak?” he spat.
The venom was unlike anything I had ever heard or felt.
“Do you think you’re fooling anyone?” He hit me again.
I looked to Jack, but he didn’t move, too afraid to interfere.
“You’re a goddamn abomination!” Shay shouted.
“…leave her alone…” Walter protested.
“ ‘Her?’ ”
Shay laughed, looking over his shoulder at him before looking back down at me.
“That’s a sick joke. You’re a faggot,” he spat, striking me again.
I barely felt it by that point. My head was numb, my vision was blurring. But I still heard every word.
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