by Dylan Keefer
“And you think that a little girl like Mya could do this?”
“Yes,” Raine said. “If she knew what she was doing, and she was being trained to fight. And I don’t mean the training that we saw on the video.”
“Here,” Eric said scrolling down the page of videos. “This one is a good fight. The guy James fights is a tough guy. He’s not a skilled, but he takes a beating well.”
“Why do people like this sport?” Dani said shuddering at the thought. Ailani leaned closer to the camera.
“Wait. I know that guy. The fighter. That’s Becca’s dad. He came to pick her up yesterday from the station.”
“You sure,” Raine said, suddenly a little more interested. Ailani nodded.
“That’s definitely him.” Ailani snapped his fingers. “He was nursing a sore rib. That’s why.”
Raine stared at the fight. Eric was right. Becca’s dad was good, but he was no match for the Boar. In fact, the match ended with Becca’s dad really beaten up. It was almost unbearable to watch, and the girls turned their heads.
“Can we stop now?” Malanie said. “I agree with Dani. That’s pretty barbaric.”
“When was this fight?” Raine asked.
“About six weeks ago,” Eric said. “Why?”
“We need to visit him,” she pointed to the phone. “Now.”
Chapter Four
Cooper Bateman hated when things went wrong. He didn’t tolerate anyone that worked for him to be anything less than perfect when it came to the distribution of his drugs. Then he hired a little punk name Brock. The kid did fine at first. He sold all his stash when it was given to him and managed to stay off the radar. Cooper rarely took any of his men under his wings as a protégé. Never let them get too close, and always made sure they fear you enough to respect you and never want to challenge you. That was the motto, and the way of life he tried to live. Brock had been the only one who could weasel his way into that position. Cooper tried to teach him tricks and tips. Taught him about the product, and how to tell quality product from the fake stuff. He even allowed the kid to have a girlfriend that after she was vetted could come around every once and awhile. Then it all changed. The idiot had to go and get caught. Cooper blamed it on himself. He didn’t teach the kid how to spot the fake buyers well enough. Brock ended up dealing to a cop. That got him throw in juvie. No problem. When Brock got out, his old job was waiting for him. The only problem was that now he was living with his sister who was a tight ass. Cooper had given up on the kid and had written him off until he found out that his stash house had been broke into one night. The cameras clearly showed Brock and two other punks raiding the drugs. Cooper was a lot of things, but he was not forgiving when it came to someone stealing from him.
“We haven’t heard from the others at in a long time,” Raven said. “You think that something went wrong?”
“They’re fine.” He said. She looked at him with concern in her eyes.
“Listen, if they get a way, I’m an accessory to murder with a drug dealer. I’m not cut out for jail.”
“If you don’t quick nagging, there are going to be three dead instead of two.”
“Four,” she said. Cooper followed to where she was pointing at. One of his men lay against the tree with his neck snapped.
“They got him. Damn!” Cooper pulled out his gun. He looked on the ground. There had to be footprints or something.
“I can’t do this,” Raven said backing away. “That cop is too dangerous. I want to leave. Cooper, do you hear me?”
Cooper sighed. Raven grabbed his arm, and he pushed her away.
“I betrayed my boyfriend because you said you just wanted to get the drugs back. I didn’t think we would be dealing with people dying.”
“The only one who is going to die next is that cop,” Cooper said through clenched teeth.
“I’m not going,” Raven said. Cooped turned to her. She narrowed her eyes and spat on the ground.
“Do whatever you want, but I’m leaving. You’re going to get yourself…” Cooper pulled the trigger. Raven stared down at the growing red dot on her chest. She fell to her knees and looked up at Cooper, but he was already walking away leaving the young girl to bleed out on the ground.
It was time for him to find that cop.
***
The sound of animals welcomed them into the Veterinarian clinic. Several dogs and cats were already in the waiting room, and a few hamsters and random rodents waited, too. Raine didn’t know that a vet could be so busy. She walked up to the receptionist who greeted her with a smile. The girls had come with her while Eric and Ailani went to search something else.
“Can I help you with something?”
Raine nodded. “I need to see Joseph Loyola. He’s the head vet here?”
“Dr. Loyola is pretty busy,” the receptionist said sweetly. Raine pulled out her credentials.
“It’s a police matter, and it’s important. So, please tell him that Dr. Raine Michelson from HPD is here to see him.” The receptionist looked like she was going to refuse again, but Raine added. “Regarding his daughter.”
The woman nodded slowly and stepped into the back. Raine turned around. Dani and Malanie were looking at some of the animals. She poked Malanie.
“By the way, I meant to say something when we were at the station, but something seemed different about you.”
Malanie laughed. “What are you talking about? What was different?”
Raine shrugged. “Something different between you and Eric, I think. Maybe I’m just reading into…” Malanie’s face turned red, and Raine’s eyes widened. “I’m right! Malanie, I’m right.”
Dani leaned into the conversation. “Eric told Malanie that he liked her, and she made out with him. It’s was intense.”
“Dani, shut up!” Malanie hit her friend’s arm. “You were in bed. You don’t know.”
Dani smirked. “Right. I was in bed.” Malanie’s jaw dropped. The receptionist returned and motioned for them to follow her back.
Joseph Loyola was standing in a small office. He had surgical attire on. Raine offered to shake his hand, but he shook his head.
“I’m about to go into surgery on a cat. I’m hoping that this isn’t a serious visit. My daughter and I told the police chief that we would help already.”
“Just need to clear up some things, Dr. Loyola.”
“Please, call me Joe.”
“Joe,” Raine said. “You never told us that you knew Mr. Borland outside of him being Becca’s teacher.”
“I didn’t really. I knew who he was, but…”
“You fought him,” Raine said. “You do MMA.”
“It’s a hobby,” Joe said. “It’s a good sport. I’ve fought a lot of guys.”
“But no one beat you nearly as bad as the Boar. I’ve watched video of that fight,” Raine said. “It was pretty brutal.”
Joe looked down. “It was embarrassing. I should have tapped out the first round, but I didn’t.”
“Because you wanted to hurt the man that you believed was going after the girls at your daughter’s school,” Raine said. “I talked to some of the guys who train at the gym where Borland did. You weren’t scheduled to fight him that night. You asked for the fight. Borland’s original opponent came down sick. Did you know about the fight club?”
“No, I didn’t,” Joe said. He sat down in the chair at his desk and sighed. “I had heard rumors from some of the other parents. We all knew that Borland was a favorite teacher; probably the favorite teacher, but we only assumed that it was because he was just good at his job. Then one of the mothers came forward with some suspicions that he was texting her daughter and maybe even meeting up with her after school. A lot of the parents stayed observant after that. I point-blank asked Becca if he had ever done anything to her, and she said no. She said that he flirted with a lot of the girls, but she didn’t feel comfortable around him. It made me angry that a teacher was doing stuff like that, and then I found out that he
was also a fighter.”
“And you thought you would take matters into your own hands,” Raine said. He nodded.
“It was stupid. I should have gone to the principal and the authorities, but—I was stupid.”
Raine’s phone vibrated, and she swiped the screen to check the text messages. It was Ailani, and he was confirming what she had finally concluded.
“Do you own a boat, Joe?” The vet narrowed his eyes.
“I do. Why?”
“And as a vet, you use anesthesia for a lot of your procedures?”
“Especially, as a vet. The animals don’t understand what still mean like patients do.” He frowned. “Okay, why are you asking me all of these questions? Don’t tell me that you think I did this. I have an alibi the night he was killed.”
“I’m sure you do,” Raine said. “But does Becca?”
***
Heather heard the gunshot echo in the woods not far from where she lay. Her mind raced wondering exactly what it meant? Was that Cooper? Did he find Brock? She groaned. Micah said that he was going to be very close but camouflaged. Once they had taken out the second guy, they knew that Cooper would be pissed. Micah hadn’t meant to killed him though. He was on top of her, trying to choke her, and Micah reacted. For the record, she never panicked. Heather was the epitome of calm unless she had to act like something else. When she had helped Raine capture Eli Samuels, it had been thrilling. She had loved being able to put herself in danger hoping to help people. Now, she was doing it again, except this was her brother’s life she was fighting for.
Heather heard footsteps not too far away. She leaned away from the tree she was against and looked. It was Cooper. He was alone. Or was he? That dumb little ass, Raven, was still there unless—that was the last gunshot. In any matter, she hoped that Micah was as close by as he eluded, too.
She groaned loud enough that Cooper could hear, but not too loud to sound fake. The footsteps stopped. Her breath started to pick up as she heard them start to come in her direction. Cooper’s face appeared with the gun trained on her. He laughed.
“No. No way. Your brother left you? I don’t believe you.”
“That’s right. He didn’t.” She spat on the ground defiantly. “He went to get help and call the authorities. That means that you won’t get out of here. You’ve lost.”
“So, why shouldn’t I kill you,” Cooper said.
“Because you won’t get the shot of in time,” Micah’s voice sounded from behind him. Heather gasped. She hadn’t seen him approach at all. Cooper turned his head slightly and saw Micah holding the gun to his back. He nodded.
“I was wondering where you had gone off to cop. Saw your handy work back there. Killed all of my men.”
“No.” Micah said. “Not all of them. One is just knocked out, but I don’t think that he’ll be getting up anytime soon.”
“And your think that you can kill me before I put a bullet in her head?”
“I’m sure of it.”
Heather didn’t dare close her eyes. Cooper’s gun was aimed straight at her. “You took advantage of my brother,” she said softly. “He’s a good kid.”
Cooper laughed. “Your brother is a criminal. He’s good at it, too. Trust me. When he worked for me, he was one of the best dealers out there. He was young, but there was so much potential.”
“He was too young to know what he was getting into with the likes of you,” Heather growled.
“He was the one that sought me out. See, this is what I don’t get. You see the proof right in front of your face. You want to save your brother, but he doesn’t want to be saved. He’s not going to change, princess. Your brother is not one of the guys.”
“Drop the gun,” Micah said sternly. “I won’t ask twice.”
“Cop, you won’t stop my bullet from hitting her. You put your gun down, and we can make a deal. You get me my money, and all is forgiven.”
“That’s not happening, Cooper. You are going to go to jail for a very long time.”
Heather looked the glare in Cooper’s eyes. She could see him debating on what to do. Suddenly, she saw his gun lower. She breathed a sigh of relief. Micah started to walk forward.
“Drop the gun on the ground,” Micah said. With a quick movement, Cooper swung his arm and up. Heather screamed as the sound of gunshots echoed in the air around them.
***
She wasn’t answering her phone. Joe texted his daughter, called his daughter, and tried to reach out to any friends that he knew of hers. No one knew where she was. Raine knew what to do. It was Friday night.
Jake sat in the station and shook his head. “We get the texts right after school from Mr. Borland if it’s just our school fight club. He uses an anonymous number though.”
“We can do that,” Ailani said. “What does the text usually say?”
“It says ‘meet at such and such place for fight club. Bring your gloves and bring you warrior pride’. Fight club always starts at seven and it lasts until nine. That way parents aren’t suspicious.”
“So, if Borland and Cummings are out, who would take the lead on this?” Raine asked. Jake sighed and shook his head.
“We never got that far, but I guess I can send out a mass text and tell students that we should still have the fights tonight. They’ll come.”
“I just need you to make sure that Becca gets a text. She’s the one we need there.”
The text had been sent from Jake’s phone informing all the club members that fight night was still on at one of the usual places that they went.
Becca Loyola parked her car in the parking lot of an old junk yard. There was a field not too far away that they had some of the fights at. She looked at her clock on the car dashboard. It was six forty-five. People were usually here. Fight night never started late. The place was empty though. She picked up her phone and texted Jake. There were several missed texts from her dad saying that he needed to talk to her. Wasn’t he supposed to be working? He was probably still freaking out about the death of Mr. Borland. She wished she could tell him that he didn’t need to freak out. She had taken care of everything. The headlights of a few cars appeared as they pulled in beside and behind Becca’s car. She frowned. Why were they blocking her in? She unhooked her seat belt and then climbed out of her car.
“Hey! What the hell!”
Then she froze. Raine stepped out of the car parked behind her. “Hey, Becca. Can we talk?”
Becca looked at the other two cars. They were unmarked, but they were cop cars. She closed her eyes and sighed.
“That’s why my dad was blowing up my phone. I knew you would figure it out sooner or later. I was hoping on later.”
“You did pretty good. I was fooled for most of it,” Raine said. “What threw me off was your wonderful acting job. You gave us just enough truth and just enough lie. You knew that once we found out James Borland wasn’t so squeaky clean that we would be ready to close this case. So, let me recap and tell me if I’m right. Borland comes to the school. He is loved by all. He is really loved by the girls; including you. When he starts the fight club, he flirts with a lot of the girls. It’s pretty simple, but there are two girls that he seems to really have the hots for. One of them is Mya. She’s popular, pretty, vulnerable, and she was easy to win over. The other girl was you. You are popular and pretty, but you are not vulnerable. He liked that about you. See you made it seem like you were weak. You told us that you got beaten in your fights, but the truth is, because you grew up around fighting, you knew more about it than anyone in the fight club. Mr. Borland liked to play rough, and someone he knew wouldn’t break was just his speed. But something happened that made him ditch you and go to Mya. How far along are you?”
Becca sighed. “Six weeks.”
“Right.You told James because he made the same promises to you that he made to Mya. He would be getting divorced from his wife. He would wait for you to turn eighteen, and you two could be together. But he told you that you needed to get an ab
ortion. When you didn’t, he said he was through with you. You said that you’re going to try for medical school. You want to be a doctor. You have a lot of talent and skill. You know how to make people sick. Like a fighter who is supposed to go against Borland. He can’t fight, and you plant it in your dad’s head to fight Borland. You just didn’t predict that Borland would be that much better. So, you decided to take it in your own hands.” Raine sighed as well. “You knew when Mya would go to his boat. You knew they would have sex, and how long they would be out. You had been doing that yourself. But your dad owns a boat. It’s not as nice, but it’s still not bad. You knew that the police wouldn’t be looking for another boat. When Mya left, you texted James to meet you on your dad’s boat. We never saw you on camera because we stopped after we saw Mya. You had an anesthetic from your dad’s job. You took the boat out, drugged him, and you beat him for what you knew he was going to do—leave you with a baby.”
“He didn’t get Mya pregnant. He got me pregnant,” Becca said. “Mya’s greatest accomplishment was getting a good scorpion on top of a cheer pyramid. I was going to be something, and he was throwing me away? Everyone worshiped him, but I actually loved him despite how much of a saint he wasn’t. It doesn’t matter. I’m still seventeen. I was underage, and I was raped. I’m pregnant. Nothing is going to happen to me. His wife won’t be able to live this down. The school won’t. People are going to want to bury this story.”
Raine lowered her head. The officers in the car by Becca stepped out of the vehicle. Becca laughed.
“You know I’m right! I did the world a favor.
***
Heather limped into the hospital room, and Micah turned to her with a disapproving look.
“You’re supposed to be resting,” he said. “Your husband is going to kill me when he gets back.”
“My husband?” Heather laughed. “Raine is going to kill me before that happens. You’re the one that had the bullet actually inside your leg.”