by David Archer
“Yes, if that’s what you want.”
Sam was quiet for a moment as he maneuvered the car around a corner. “Okay, here it is,” he said. “If we have a boy, I’ll love him as much as any man has ever loved his son, but this bum hip of mine makes it very difficult to do a lot of things. I couldn’t teach him to play football, or baseball, not properly. I can’t run. The stupid thing hurts if I’m on it for too long, so I couldn’t take him hiking. There’s just a lot of things that a man should be able to do with his son that I wouldn’t be able to do.”
It was Indie’s turn to be quiet, but she got over it quickly. “Sam, there may be a few things you can’t do, that there are a million more that you can. You could teach him about cars, you could teach him to ride a bike, you could take him fishing and hunting and lots of other things. Men teach their sons to play chess, and to play guitar and so many other things.”
“I know all that, but… Let’s just let it go for now, okay? Besides, it’s going to be a girl.”
“Oh, you are so stubborn.”
“Yes, and I’m also getting close to the park. You said it was close to the rec center?”
“Yeah, like on that curved road where people park in front of it. Let me know when you get there, and I’ll tell you how close you are to it.”
“Okay,” Sam said. “Give me about two minutes and I’ll be there.” He made the turn onto Humboldt Street from Kentucky Avenue, rolled past the park maintenance shops and then eased his way into the parking area for the recreation center. “Okay, I’m there. About three dozen cars along the roadway, here. I’m stopping, tell me which way to go.”
“Okay, her phone is about a hundred feet ahead of you, looks like it’s on the outer side of the road, almost in front of the entrance to the building.”
Sam eased the clutch out and let the car roll forward slowly. “Am I moving toward it?”
“Yes, about fifty feet more. Looks like it should be on your right when you get there.”
“Oh, crap,” Sam said. “There’s one car sitting by itself right about there, an older SUV. I’m pulling up to it now, am I close?”
“Sam, you should be almost on top of it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed you don’t find anything bad.”
Sam stopped the Corvette and shut it off, then got out and walked around it to the red Dodge Durango. A quick glance through the windows showed nobody inside, but the back end was piled with what looked like blankets and clothing. He leaned close to the back window and looked inside, but couldn’t tell if there was someone under all that stuff or not.
“Sam,” Indie’s voice said from his pocket, causing him to jump. “Your GPS signal is right smack on top of hers, right now.”
Sam grasped the handle on the tailgate hatch and pulled, and the tailgate opened smoothly. Very carefully, he pushed some of the clothes and blankets aside so that he could look underneath. He had only just begun when he uncovered a hand.
“Looks like I’ve got a body,” he said.
“Oh, God, Sam,” Indie said. “Is it…”
“All I can see at the moment is a man’s hand,” he replied. “I don’t think there’s another body here, though. I’m going to call the police now. I’ll talk to you in a bit, babe.”
“Okay, Sam. Let me know.” She hung up on him and Sam took out his phone to call the police department.
It only took a couple of minutes for the first two squad cars to arrive, with an ambulance and paramedics right behind them. Sam recognized the same paramedics he had seen earlier dealing with Freddie Pilsner, and they recognized him, as well.
“Mr. Prichard,” one of them said, and Sam saw that his name tag read “T. Garrett.” “Seeing an awful lot of you today.”
“Way too much.” Sam stood aside to let them get to the back of the Durango, and they began throwing the blankets and clothing over the back of the middle seat. A moment later, they uncovered a man who appeared to be in his very early twenties. They carefully checked for a pulse, and then Garrett started yelling.
“This guy’s alive,” he called out, and his partner ran for the ambulance. He was back a moment later with a large box, and the two of them began working on the man. “I’ve got a weak pulse,” Garrett said, “and BP is ninety over fifty. Let’s get him out of there.” The two of them lifted the man out and laid him on the gurney they had already brought out of the ambulance, then elevated his legs. The second EMT took his blood pressure again.
“No change, blood pressure still too low. I’m gonna start an IV drip, saline with norepinephrine.”
“Yeah,” Garrett said, “his heart rate is fast, but weak and fluttery. I think the guy’s been poisoned.”
The two of them worked steadily for a couple of minutes, setting up an IV and then putting an oxygen mask on to the man. Garrett had a machine sitting on the edge of the gurney, and hurriedly stuck electrical leads onto the victim’s chest before turning it on. Sam could see the little line of light jumping up and down, showing an extremely rapid heartbeat.
Garrett motioned to one of the policeman, who came forward and started checking the man’s pockets. He pulled out a wallet and turned to Sam. “Guy’s name is Tom Davis,” he said. “That mean anything to you?”
Sam’s heart sank. “Yeah,” he said. “I was trying to track down this guy and his wife, to make sure they were safe. The wife’s father is wanted for multiple murders, and she is unfortunately the state’s star witness.”
The officer looked back at Tom Davis, then turned his eyes to Sam again. “Well, this don’t look good, then. You think her father is the one that got to them?”
Sam nodded. “Nobody else would have a reason,” he said.
He explained to the officers about Samara and the murders while the paramedics finished whatever they were doing, then they loaded Davis into the ambulance and were gone. The officer who had spoken to Sam, and whose name was Jarvis, came back to him after it left.
“You need to look in the vehicle?” Jarvis asked.
Sam nodded. “Yeah, I’d like to. Stay with me, right?”
The two of them walked up to the Durango and Sam poked around in the back until he found Melinda’s phone. Another phone, presumably Tom’s, was right beside it. Jarvis held out a pair of rubber gloves and Sam put them on, then picked up the phones and glanced at their recent call list.
Tom’s phone had a couple of missed calls, but Melinda’s had several, including the calls from Sam. Both of them appeared to have started missing calls around eleven o’clock that morning. Sam handed the phones to Jarvis, who dropped them into an evidence bag, and then he went around the driver’s door.
He opened it up and leaned inside, but didn’t see anything that would indicate what might’ve happened to Melinda. There was no blood, no signs of struggle. Sam remembered Garrett saying he thought Tom had been poisoned, and suspected the same thing had happened to Melinda.
Sam closed the door and turned to Jarvis, just as his partner, Officer Wexler, returned from speaking to people in and around the recreation center. “I found a couple people who said they saw somebody drive up in this car, then get out and get into another one with someone else driving. Nobody got a plate number, but a couple of the girls noticed the driver of the second car. They said he’s probably in his late teens or early twenties, got short brown hair, a neatly trimmed beard and a tattoo of some Chinese symbol on the left side of his neck. Oh, and he’s really hot and buff, whatever that means.”
“Means he’s good-looking with a lot of muscles,” Sam said. “You guys need me for anything else?”
Jarvis shook his head. “No, you’re good. We know where to reach you if we need to.”
Sam nodded, shook both of their hands, and then got back into the Corvette. He started up and eased the clutch out, rolling slowly since the speed limit was only fifteen miles per hour, anyway, and took out his phone. He called Indie first, let her know that the man in the car turned out to be Melinda’s husband, and then called Snake.
“Someone else to look for,” Sam said. “A guy, maybe twenty years old, good-looking, well-built, with short brown hair, a beard, and a tattoo of some kind of Chinese symbol on the left side of his neck.”
Snake hesitated. “Why you looking for him? Can you tell me?”
“Remember I told you about Samara’s daughter? I just found her husband at Washington Park, alive, but it looks like he’s been poisoned. No sign of her, but a witness saw the guy I described pull up and pick up whoever dropped their car here with the husband in it.”
“Well, shit,” Snake said. “Ain’t but one guy around here fits that description, and that’s my buddy Panther. That thing on his neck isn’t Chinese, it’s Japanese. It’s supposed to mean Panther is some kind of ninja bad ass, but it’s bull. He’s tough, but he ain’t no ninja.”
“Ninja or not, he’s apparently working with Samara. Think you can find him?”
“I’m pretty sure, yeah,” Snake said. “He’s up in Nikki’s apartment right now.”
“Good,” Sam said. “Keep him there, I’m on the way. Don’t let him know that we’re onto him, I want that to be a shock when I get there.”
“You got it, Dick.” The phone went dead and Sam shifted gears as he accelerated.
13
Sam didn’t waste any time getting to the apartment building, and he found Snake waiting on the front steps once again. He hobbled up the walkway, and Snake simply got to his feet and led the way inside. When they got to the second floor, the outlaw tapped on Nikki’s door.
“Hey, Nikki,” he called out. “How about some coffee, you got any?” He winked at Sam.
There were footsteps inside, and the door was opened by a man who could only be Panther. Snake smiled at him. “Hey, buddy,” he said. “Have you met my friend, Dick?”
Panther glanced at Sam, and his face went rigid. He looked like he was about to bolt and run, but Snake laid a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back inside. Sam followed and shut the door behind them.
Nikki was sitting on the small couch in the next room, and Sam grinned when he saw a bassinet and a pile of baby clothes that probably came from a thrift store. The girl looked up at him and smiled, holding up a onesie for him to see. “I’m getting ready,” she called out, but then she saw the look on Snake’s face, and her own eyes grew wary.
“Why don’t we have a seat, so we can chat a little bit?” Snake asked. Panther looked at Sam and swallowed nervously, but he apparently didn’t feel quite ninja enough to try to get past Snake. He slowly sat down at the table, and Sam took the chair right across from him while Snake pulled his up beside Panther’s own. “This is my friend Dick,” Snake said. “Dick ain’t really his name, is just what I call him, because he’s a private dick. You know what a private dick is?”
Panther swallowed again. “Private detective?”
Snake looked at Sam with a big grin. “See? He ain’t as stupid as he looks.” He turned back to the nervous young man. “You remember when you got that tattoo on your neck, and I said it would cause you trouble someday? I said it was too easy to remember, you remember that? I said people would see you do something bad, and when they tell the police about that tattoo on your neck, the cops are gonna know it was you, right?”
Panther shrugged. “Yeah, I-I remember that.”
“Well, today’s the day. Some people just told my friend Dick that they saw you driving a car for the Digger a little while ago. You want to tell us all about that?”
Panther tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace. “Somebody got their wires crossed, I guess,” he said. “I ain’t seen Digger in a couple days.”
Snake smiled at him. “Really? Well, that’s good, because right now it looks like Digger is about to go down for at least two murders and maybe three, and probably one kidnapping and an attempted murder, and there’s always the possibility this is going to end up being four or five murders altogether. Now, I’m glad you haven’t seen him because I wouldn’t want you to be going up on murder charges with him, now would I?”
Panther swallowed again. “No, I wouldn’t want that either.”
Snake leaned forward so quickly that Sam barely saw him move, his hand flashing out to wrap around Panther’s throat. Nikki gave a loud gasp, and was suddenly staring at the two men.
“I want you to listen to me,” Snake said. “I want you to listen real close, because I do not like to repeat myself. These people who saw you, they already told the police. You and me, we both know a lot of the cops around here know who you are, and they’ll know it’s you because of that tattoo. Now, you help out my friend Dick, and may be he can put in a good word for you, so maybe you don’t go down for murder. Maybe you only go down for accessory, but you’re young, so maybe one day you can get out of prison and have your life back. You got one chance, Panther, one chance to come clean right now and tell us the truth. You gonna be smart enough to take that chance?”
Panther suddenly whipped his hand up and around, knocking Snake’s hand away from him. He was on his feet in an instant, and trying to get around Snake to the door, but the big gang leader was up just as quickly. He swung a roundhouse fist that caught Panther square on the nose, took him right off his feet and laid him on his back. Nikki screamed, and Sam snatched out his gun and aimed it down at where the young man lay.
As quickly as it began, it was over. Panther lay on the floor holding his bleeding nose, one hand up in the air to try to ward off anything else that might be coming. “Okay, okay,” he said, sounding as if he had a bad cold. “I’ll tell you, but I didn’t have nothing to do with no murders! He just called me and told me he needed a ride, he said he was in trouble and needed a ride.”
“Where did you take him?” Snake asked, kneeling down beside him.
“He called and told me to meet him at this gas station, and I did, and then he said to follow him out to the park. He dropped off that car he was driving and got in my car, and had me take him out to the mall. He had another car there, and he got in it and I don’t know where he went after that.”
Snake looked up at Sam and raised an eyebrow, but Sam only shrugged. He looked back at Panther. “Now, Panther, you and me, we go way back. How long you been a Devil? Two years? Three years? You think I don’t know when you’re lying to me?”
“I ain’t lying, Snake,” Panther said. “I swear I ain’t lying!”
“Yes, you’re lying. You know how I know that? I know because after I told you there was a ten thousand dollar reward, you went and told everybody else and they went out looking for Digger, but you didn’t go. If you were telling me the truth, you would have gone and done anything to get hold of him and find out where he is, so you could get that money. You like to get money, I know you do. So that tells me you got something else going on, something with him that you think is going to get you a lot more money than that. So, yeah, I know you’re lying to me. Now, I’m going to tell you one more time. This is your last chance. I want to know the truth, because that Digger, he’s got his daughter and he’s probably planning to kill her. If we find him and she’s alive, then I will ask my friend Dick to say something good for you, so you don’t do so much time. If we find him and she’s dead, you ain’t got to worry about the police. You ain’t got to worry about the police, because I will drag what’s left of your stinking, bloody corpse right straight up to the courthouse and leave you on the steps, you understand me?”
Panther stared into his eyes, still holding his nose and trying not to swallow the blood that was running back through his sinuses. He opened his mouth a couple of times, and finally he rolled to his side and managed to sit up, leaning back against the kitchen stove.
“She’s not dead,” he said. “Digger gave her something to knock her out, but she’s not dead. She—she’s gonna have a baby, and he wants it.”
Sam shivered as a chill ran down his spine. The thought of Samara getting his hands on his grandchild was unb
earable.
“Then you know where he is,” Snake said. “Don’t you?”
“No, no, I swear I don’t,” Panther said. “I was telling you the truth, I just dropped him off at the mall. That’s all I know, I swear.”
“So he just told you all about his daughter, and how he wants to keep the baby? Digger, he don’t talk that much. The only way he woulda told you all that is if you saw her, and asked him questions. You know what? You’re probably lucky. You’re lucky he didn’t just decide to kill you for asking those questions, you know that?”
Panther’s eyes went wide. “Kill me? Why would he kill me?”
“For the same reason he tried to kill Freddie today,” Snake said. “Freddie knows too much, and I’m surprised he didn’t decide you know too much, too. Digger, he don’t like having people out there who know what he’s doing. He don’t like loose ends like that.” He turned and looked at Sam. “You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking maybe we should just let Panther go, so Digger won’t be coming after us.”
Sam nodded. “I think you’re right,” he said. “Digger isn’t going to want this guy running around knowing he’s got his daughter, maybe talking about how he wants the baby. He could show up anytime, just to shut him up forever.” He looked down at Panther. “Snake’s right,” he said. “I think you need to leave.”
Panther stared at Sam for a moment, then looked back at Snake. “Man, oh, man, you don’t really think…”
“I don’t think nothing,” Snake said. “I know how that man works. He don’t like to leave witnesses, you know that. You know too much, so sooner or later he’s going to come after you. I think I don’t want to be around you when that time comes, and I don’t want you around Nikki, either.”
Sam glanced up at the girl at the mention of her name, and saw that her eyes were still wide as she stared at Snake. It wasn’t just fear in her face, though; Sam was sure that what he was looking at was probably affection and admiration.
Panther had tears running from his eyes. “Okay, okay, okay, I’ll tell you everything. Just don’t put me out there, don’t throw me out, okay?”