Catalyst: A Red Dog Thriller (The Altered Book 1)

by Blou Bryant

  I wonder if someone reported us as kidnapped, Wyatt asked himself as he took a deep breath and tried to figure a way out of their situation. He’d tell the cops, for sure, the only question was how and when.

  He wasn’t surprised when a police officer called out over a megaphone, “Get out of the vehicle with your hands raised in the air.” Perfect, he thought.

  Jessica muttered a curse that sounded more exasperated than frightened. “Fine, whatever,” she said, annoyed at the interruption to her ‘adventure’. “Get out of the car boys, but don’t forget I’ve got a gun in my pocket. Go slow.” She opened her door and he did the same, getting out as instructed. The police car had a spotlight on them, he wasn’t able to see anything beyond the front window.

  He stood still until the officer called out, “Hands on the top of the car, feet spread. Now, do it!” Jessica complied and he followed suit. Ford teetered as he leaned with his one arm against the other side. Wyatt looked to him for an idea of what to do, but his friend shook his head. Wyatt raised an eyebrow, and wondered, what is it that you know and I don’t?

  Jessica laughed, “This is fun, isn’t it boys? I told you that this would be an adventure. How’s the balancing act?” she asked Ford.

  “I’m fine, I only need one hand, I’m that good. You look pretty comfortable yourself, don’t you?”

  “I am. You do seem sorta smart, for a boy. When you lost your arm, did your other senses improve as compensation?” she asked as the officers approached. Ford didn’t answer the question.

  “Don’t move,” one called out. “You move and I’ll blow you away, is that clear?”

  Wyatt stayed still, not wanting to set the cops off. He glanced left to watch them approach, waiting to find a good moment to tell them about Jessica and her gun. She interrupted his thoughts as the officers got close, and asked, “Ronnie, is that you?”

  The one on the far side of the car was tall and lanky, hands on his hips, his gun still holstered. He appeared to be pleased to see her and said, “Ms. Golde, thank God it’s you. I thought it was your car. Everyone’s been worried like mad since we heard about the kidnapping. Are you all right? You know that the entire force is out looking for you, right?”

  Jessica took her hands off the car and walked around to greet the officer. Wyatt started to stand up when the other cop shouted, “Hands back on the roof, you piece of crap. Do it, now, or I’ll end you, right here on the road. I will end you! Do you hear me?” he yelled, and walked forward.

  Wyatt kept still and watched in complete disbelief as Jessica skipped up and hugged the other officer. “But, why is she allowed…” he started to say when the second officer slammed his face into the window of the car.

  “Shut up and don’t move,” the officer yelled, pulled his weapon and pointed it at Wyatt. “Do you hear me, scumbag? I’ll end you, are you listening to me?” Wyatt made sure to not say or do anything.

  Ronnie asked solicitously, “Are they armed, Ms. Golde? Tell me these two pieces of dirt didn’t touch you.”

  She replied, her voice saccharine sweet, “These boys couldn’t hurt a fly, and no, I doubt they have anything more dangerous on them than their driver’s licenses.”

  But she has a weapon, thought Wyatt. She kidnapped us! He opened his mouth to say this when Ford shook his head and mouthed, “No.”

  The second officer saw this and gave him a poke in the back. “Do you have something to say, boy?”

  Wyatt didn’t know why Ford had shaken his head and he didn’t want to alert Jessica to his intentions, worried that she might shoot the officers with the gun they weren’t even aware that she had. She wouldn’t, would she? Someone so gentle, small, sweet, someone who smelled and looked so good, couldn’t shoot people, could she? Just Justin. One shooting didn’t make a killer, he lied to himself.

  He whispered to the officer next to him, “She has a gun, she kidnapped us,” trying not to move his lips and give anything away.

  “I didn’t hear you,” said the closer officer.

  Jessica replied for him, “He might have mentioned that I’ve got a gun. Something like that, am I right, Wyatt?”

  He didn’t reply and Ronnie walked around the front of the car, giving Ford a shove as he passed. He came up close to Wyatt and whispered in his ear, “Is that your story?”

  “Be careful, she does. It’s not her fault, she was attacked,” Wyatt replied, trying to defend her, even now.

  “Well, that’s interesting. I just read a report that has witnesses saying you killed her boyfriend, kidnapped her and stole her car.” He took Wyatt’s ear and twisted, hard, forcing him to cry out as he was forced to the ground. The officer said, “Search him,” to the other, clearly junior policeman. With Wyatt only wearing a t-shirt and tight jeans, this didn’t take long.

  “Just a cell-phone, Sergeant.”

  Ronnie pulled Wyatt back up to his feet, using his ear again as leverage. “So, what did you want to say?”

  Wyatt looked to Jessica, who looked comfortable and confident and then to Ford, who also looked far too relaxed. “Officer,” he started and then stopped, not understanding what was going on.

  “Go on, you said something about a gun.”

  “She has one. She kidnapped us.”

  “You don’t say. I suppose you want me to search her? Arrest her for kidnapping you?”

  Wyatt hesitated, this wasn’t turning out at all like he’d hoped. He replied, “Yes?” and was rewarded with a knee between his spread legs. He would have fallen to the ground again except for the hand that was still gripping his ear and the arm that pushed him up against the car. His cry of pain earned another order to shut up.

  Jessica said, “Ronnie, you’re such a sweetie,” and asked, “Can you take his phone, and while you’re at it, the other guy probably has one too.”

  Ronnie replied, “Absolutely, Ms. Golde,” he said, and let go of Wyatt, who dropped to a knee, both arms wrapped around his aching stomach as the throb in his groin made him want to throw up.

  Ronnie walked around to the other side of the car. “Give me your phone, boy,” he said to Ford, who took his one hand off the car slowly and pulled his phone out the pocket on his jacket. Ronnie took it and looked to Wyatt, who had been pulled back to his feet again, by the other officer, “See, you should learn from your friend. That’s what a good boy does. Kids need to learn to follow authority.” He took both phones and offered them to Jessica.

  “Oh, I don’t want those, you keep them. I suspect Daddy is tracking me using mine. Here, take it,” she said, and handed her phone to the officer. “Keep it safe, won’t you, Ronnie?

  Daddy? wondered Wyatt as the officer pocketed all three cell-phones. He looked across the car roof at his friend, who smiled and nodded.

  One phone rang and Jessica told him to ignore it. The other two started up as well and she shrugged. “We’re popular, what can I say? Don’t answer the phones, Ronnie, understand? In fact, pull the batteries after we’re gone.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” he replied and looked to the other officer. “Jack, you can wait in the car. We’re good here.”

  “But, should we be…” the second officer asked.

  Ronnie put up a hand, and stopped him with a glare, “Just go, call it in and say that everything is 10-106,” he said. The younger officer left Wyatt’s side and returned to the patrol car, its lights still flashing and illuminating the side-street.

  “There are a lot of officers on the way, Ms. Golde. Your father probably, too.”

  Wyatt shuddered as he watched her turn her attention to Ronnie. Her smile, lit by the lights of the car, was stunning. She put a hand on the officer’s arm. “Ronnie, I know Daddy will be angry, but I need to leave before he gets here.”

  “I can’t let you do that, Ms. Golde,” he replied, but even with his face mostly dark, Wyatt saw that he was smiling, perhaps even blushing. “You know I want to help you, but your father would have my badge.”

  Jessica giggled. “Oh, Ronnie.
I wouldn’t let that happen to you. Here is my little secret,” she said, leaned in and whispered into the officer’s ear, “I really do have a gun, Daddy gave it to me. Don’t worry, it’s just a small one.”

  Ronnie’s face squished up like he’d just taken a bite of a lime, “That’s very dangerous, you’ll get in trouble, Ms. Golde.”

  “Stop calling me Ms. Golde, Ronnie, just Jessica will do.”

  “Thank you but I will still need to take that gun from you, Jessica.”

  “Ronnie, you’re so cute when you’re bossy. You won’t take it from me,” she replied.

  “Are you going to use it on me?”

  Jessica poked him in the side. “Oh, don’t be so serious, I couldn’t do that, not after you came to my birthday party and gave me such a nice little gift. But I don’t need to, do I, hon? There’s no way you’ll put your hands on me, Daddy would kill you.”

  Officer Ronnie appeared confused and tried twice to stammer a response. He gave up and finally said, “Yes, Ms. Golde.”

  Jessica stood up on her toes, put her arms around him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “See, I knew we’d figure it out. I need to get back on the road now, before everyone arrives.”

  Ronnie pointed from Wyatt to Ford. “What about them?”

  “Oh, I want to keep them, thank you. Have a good day, Ronnie. Say hi to Daddy, tell him I pointed a gun at you, don’t worry, he’ll believe it,” she said and, returned to the car. “Come on boys, time to go. One-arm, you drive like a little girl, I want the other one to drive now.”

  The two looked at each-other and Ford shrugged and walked around to where Wyatt still had his hands on the roof of the car. “You heard her,” he said, gently pushing his friend to the side so as to be able to open the driver’s side door. “Let’s roll.”

  Chapter 4

  Wyatt took two deep breaths, started the Audi and put it in gear but left his foot heavy on the brake. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine that it was all a dream, a nightmare that couldn’t possibly be happening. Opening them, he stared at the rear-view mirror, and lamented his lost opportunity as Ronnie returned to his car.

  He paused, put the car back into park and turned it off.

  “What the hell are you…” said Jessica, as she leaned forward and stuck her little silver gun in his side.

  “Shut up!” shouted Wyatt, not considering the gun in her hand or the police who were still behind them. “Shut up, shut up, shut up! Just give me a freaking second.” She, for once, stayed silent.

  He put his head on the wheel, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and repeated this three times, holding them and then letting each out for precisely five seconds. He opened his eyes and leaned back in his seat and started the car again. That felt better. The situation wasn’t, but he was no longer in danger of losing control.

  He checked the mirror, put the car into drive, turned back onto the road, and watched unhappily as the police car disappeared in the rear-view mirror. He caught Jessica looking at him from the back-seat, her gaze questioning. Good, she could take her turn being off balance.

  The car was a newer model, not something he’d ever driven before. The calm he’d briefly found disappeared as he drove further away from protection, safety and whatever normalcy had existed in his life. Between driving and, oh ya, being kidnapped, he was not enjoying the day.

  “What the hell happened back there,” he asked.

  Ford replied, “Which part don’t you understand?”

  Wyatt looked to his friend, and wondered where the person he thought he’d known had gone. “You’re an ass sometimes, you know that?”

  Ford shrugged, his expression nonchalant, “You call it being an ass, I call it being honest. Her father is high up in the police force, isn’t he, Jessica?”

  “Actually, Daddy is the owner,” she said. Wyatt’s small remaining confidence evaporated. Her father was that guy, the one from the news?

  “There’s an owner for the police?” asked Ford.

  Wyatt considered her revelation. That wasn’t good. To Ford, he said, “The police force was contracted out over a year ago to a private security agency.”

  As he rounded a curve, the car drifted into the left lane and beeped multiple times as the automatic steering kicked in to direct it back between the lines. Jessica sniffed from behind him, “Oh God, did I really abduct the only two guys in Chicago who can’t drive?”

  “You’re going to complain about how I’m driving, are you kidding me? How about you check driving histories next time you decide to kidnap people? After you shoot people?” He paused and then asked, “You killed him?”

  “What?” she said, “I didn’t shoot anyone.”

  “You admitted that you did.”

  “Oh, you mean Justin?”

  “Are you kidding, you shot a guy and thirty minutes later have forgotten about it?”

  “Well, I suppose I did, shoot him that is. I didn’t forget about it, it’s just that he’s irrelevant now.”

  “Suppose you did? So you did shoot him?”

  Jessica gave a little tsk-tsk sound, “Honey, you’re repeating yourself. One-arm, does he always do this? It’s distracting.”

  Ford replied, “He does, but to be fair, he’s probably trying to figure out if it means you will shoot him.”

  “Do you have the answer?” she asked playfully.

  Ford paused a beat, and turned to look at her. “Is this a test? Do you want to see what I’ve figured out about your little game tonight?”

  “A little,” she said with a giggle. “We have a few hours in the car, we might as well have fun.”

  That raised the question again, Wyatt still didn’t know where they were going. He said, “We’ll be at the Interstate soon. Which direction do I go?”

  Jessica said, “Get on the I-88, and head east. Ok, one-arm, continue explaining what you you’ve figured out.”

  Wyatt flicked the blinker to turn right and shot his friend a look that asked, what are you doing? As they drove up the ramp and onto the highway, he had a moment to consider he’d never driven above forty before and never on a major freeway. As the car sped up to merge, he concentrated on his breath.

  Ford ignored him and said, “I’ve figured out we’re going to Detroit. We are, aren’t we?”

  “Well done, armless wonder. And how’d you guess that?” she asked, the same thing that Wyatt wondered.

  “Well, it’s the biggest city in this direction, and I know you’re not a small town girl,” Ford replied. Wyatt didn’t buy that for a minute.

  Jessica didn’t argue, “My turn for a question, do you get bored with using just the one hand?”

  “There are worse options,” he said, and looked at her pointedly.

  She laughed. “Trust me, I’m not one of them. So, like your friend, do you want to figure out if I will shoot you or shall we continue with our game? What else have you learned?” Wyatt looked at her in the rear-view mirror and she caught his eye and put the gun to her lips, and gave the barrel a little kiss.

  Ford saw this and chuckled, he found the situation funny, “First, you didn’t shoot Justin out of anger or out of any loss of control.”

  “Superb. Why did I shoot him then?”

  “He refused to help you. And once you knew he wouldn’t play along, you couldn’t let him be, because he knew something.” He turned in his seat to look directly at her, “It’s all about you and what you want. I suspect morality doesn’t come into it.”

  “Morality is for the middle class,” she sniffed, “So, what did he know that put me in danger?”

  “You’re on an adventure, you said, one of your own making. And it’s clearly an illegal one now, but I suspect it was from the start.”

  “Clearly. So are you, now,” replied Jessica.

  “Officially, perhaps,” he admitted, “But you did something, you’ve done something, which caused him to back out, something you couldn’t let him share.”

  “I’ve done a lot of t
hings,” she replied with a playful lilt to her voice that made Wyatt want to choke her. He didn’t enjoy the banter, it felt stupid to chat while she had a gun trained on them. He focused instead on counting every second car that passed them. Two, four, six, eight… and so it continued.

  Ford didn’t notice or didn’t care and said, “But this was a bad something, and you couldn’t have him tell.”

  “Perhaps I did it to force you two into the car? Have you considered that maybe I like you better than him?”

  Well aware of the gun in her hand, Wyatt hoped that she liked him more. Abashed at his earlier defense of her, he realized that everything she said and did pointed to a psychopath, not a weak, defenseless girl. He’d judged the book by its cover, not what was inside.

  Ford dismissed her suggestion quickly, “You didn’t expect us, so no, that wasn’t it. I wonder, do you actually like anyone? Do you know what that feeling is?”

  She didn’t reply and Ford continued, “You don’t do you? You had a choice, you could have just shot into the ground but you didn’t. Even with your Daddy being who he is, shooting Justin was quite a risk. You’re protecting a secret of some sort, perhaps you stole something? Am I getting warm?”

  “Maybe.”

  “I thought so. You both were at the back of the car, so I’m guessing it’s in the trunk.”

  It was very brief, but Wyatt saw Jessica’s face twist in the rear-view mirror. “What are you looking at, hunk?” she asked, her voice now cold.

  “He’s right, isn’t he?” Wyatt asked, suddenly sure that the trunk held more than a tire iron and spare wheel. Everything Ford had said made sense. He shook his head, and wondered how he’d been so quick to accept her earlier story. Justin wasn’t the aggressor; it’d been her all along.

  Ford answered, “Oh, I’m right, the only question is what it is.”

  “I’m bored with this. Shut up and drive,” Jessica said. She sounded petulant.

  The three of them fell silent as the miles passed quietly by. The night was clear and the roads mostly quiet. Wyatt retreated into himself, and stole occasional glances in the rear-view mirror at Jessica, who sat quietly, staring out the front window. He wondered at her and at the changes he was seeing in Ford and he tried to reason out what was going on.