Fatal Intuition

by Makenzi Fisk

  She suddenly felt foolish. She was being hysterical. Maybe this was nothing. Victoria might have snuck out with her mystery boyfriend. She should call the neighbors. Maybe Victoria hadn’t gone anywhere at all. Maybe she was simply riding circles by the McTavish’s again. She might be on her way home right now, wondering why they’d gone out and left her. The cold fist in her gut convinced her that her intuition was on target. Victoria had been taken.

  The crashing of large booted feet made her blood freeze. Someone was coming up behind her full-tilt.

  “Allie! Victoria!” Z-man’s voice sounded marginally less panicked than she felt.

  “Chris!” she called back.

  “Gina phoned me, said Victoria’s missing.” He swatted branches away from his face and forced his size fourteen boots through a dense thicket of northern bayberry to reach her. “I was on my way back to your house and saw your Jeep. Talk to me.”

  “She went to the store and didn’t get there. Something has happened. I think…” She couldn’t say the words but Zimmerman’s face told her she didn’t have to.

  He radioed the station and relayed the information. “You go that way and I’ll follow the fence.” He headed off, sweeping his feet across the grass like a berry picker.

  Allie went the way he’d pointed and was surprised when Doppler bounded through the brambles. He must have escaped through an open window. She scooped him up and pulled a prickle from his ear. “Help me,” she whispered.

  A warm tingle coursed through her body and charged her nerve endings. She turned to an overcrowded thicket she was certain she’d already checked. Poking toward her like an accusing finger was a purple handlebar. Victoria’s bicycle.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  When T got back from the Stop ’N Go, we dove into the food he’d brought. Goddamn, I was happy to see those pizza sandwiches. They were as good as I remembered, and I made him drive so I could give them my full attention. A tourist in my own town, I couldn’t get enough of the Morley Falls experience.

  I was still licking sauce from my fingers, and thinking about lighting up a cigarette, when we saw her, the kid on the bike, riding like she was in a hurry to get somewhere. She looked familiar, but so does everybody in a small town. Dressed in checkered cargo shorts and tank top, she was younger than me, not yet at puberty. Her long hair spun the light into gold.

  T’s head snapped around when we passed her, a wolf who’s caught a scent. “Ahhh. Who’s that pretty young thing?”

  “You gotta get your eyeballs checked. That’s a little kid on a bike.” I glanced sideways at him and back at the kid. Suddenly, I got it. I slid my phone from my pocket, turned on the camera and pointed it at T’s face.

  “She’s the one.” A corner of his baby mustache lifted. “If you won’t let me have you, let me have her.”

  “Sure,” I said, and swiveled to record the girl. “And then we’ll build a bomb.”

  It started as a lazy thought, and I never believed he’d actually do it, but he smoothed his hair and spun the truck around so fast I spilled beer on my shirt. I’ve seen him in action before, sweet-talking the old lady to take us across the border, but not like this. He was all glittery teeth and handsome charm.

  The kid bought it, and I could tell she honestly wanted to help him with whatever urgent problem he was making up. He pointed into the bush but she spotted the camera phone in my hand. That was the moment she backed away. By then, it was too late. T struck like a cobra and grabbed her by the throat.

  You can always count on farm trucks to carry duct tape, a coil of rope or a string of barbed wire. I tossed over the roll of tape I found under the seat, and he got that kid under control in seconds. By the time I’d hidden her bike in the bush, he had her wrapped into a neat little package between his knees.

  I climbed into the driver’s seat and cracked open another beer. “What are we gonna do now?”

  T still had his glittery smile on, and directed it at me. “Find someplace to play with her.” He reached down and stroked the girl’s blonde hair.

  That was twenty minutes and a loud argument ago. He is pissing me off with all his big ideas. “You got her. Why can’t you do what you want and get over it? Stop wasting time.”

  “But honeybun, it’s gotta be done right. Everything has an order, or it’s a waste.” T is still petting the squirming lump on the floor, but his snake charmer smile fades. “We’re gonna party and I want it to be good. We need something for her, and for us. Where can we score around here? ”

  “I dunno.”

  “Weed, hash, hell, I’d do a line of coke right now if we had any.” He sounds like I used to when I wanted candy, or cigarettes. “What about meth? You ever tried meth? It’s mind-blowing. You must know someone who sells.”

  “Maybe.” There was a guy, said he was my mother’s special friend, who used to give her stuff. I might remember where he lived. I can’t believe I’m doing this for T when I have more important shit to do, better shit, but I want to use him for my revenge.

  I drive back and forth on both sides of the railroad tracks, and I still can’t figure out which house it was. My mother used to make me wait by a white fence at the curb while she went inside. There is no fence now. Finally, one place tweaks a memory and I pull over.

  T’s face lights up. “This is it?” He plunks his big feet on top of the squirming package.

  I nod and step out of the truck. My mother always used the back door, so I head around and come face to face with a woman who’s leaving. She’s as surprised to see me as I am her, and her too-tight face stretches when her eyebrows shoot up. Her skin is dry like old paper and she has that look, the look of all the people I remember from this place. Here, but somehow not present.

  “Armand’s not looking for new girls.” She adjusts the oversize bag on her shoulder and looks me up and down with interest. “You’re familiar.”

  “I’m no fucking whore.” I brush past her. “Where is he?”

  “Who’s there?” Armand is in the doorway and he’s exactly as I remember, a skinny loser covered in tattoos. With a flick of his hand, he dismisses the woman and she struts off with a clip clop of shiny heels.

  “I need drugs. What do you have?”

  He laughs and holds the door open. “The narcs are hiring a bit young these days, aren’t they?”

  The revolver sags in the back of my pants under the tail of my shirt, but I’m reminded that there are only a couple of bullets left, one for the cop and one for the witch. Will he give me what I want if I wave the gun at him? Will he call my bluff and make me waste my ammo?

  I reach into my pocket and show him what’s left of the money from the drug store. “What can I get for this?”

  Armand looks at the crumpled bills and leans his bony shoulder against the door frame. “You’re no narc. Who sent you? Boyfriend?”

  “He couldn’t come. He’s… busy. He wants meth.”

  “Meth?” He laughs again, and I remember how much I hate him. “Well, that’s in short supply today, but I can sell you Oxy. One of those will put you in the mood for all sorts of things.”

  My guts still haven’t totally recovered from the last batch of poisoned Oxy. How can I tell if these are the same? “Uh, do you have anything else?”

  “You want a high, or a nice mellow low?”

  “Something for…” It probably wouldn’t bother him, but I decide against telling him about the package T is guarding outside. “We want to party.”

  His jaw muscles flex and release. “Girl I know has a kid with ADD. I’ve got some Adderall from her. Good stuff, straight from the drug store. Take it with a few beers to keep you partying all day.”

  I hand over the wad of cash. “You don’t have to stick a needle in my vein do you?” I’ll be damned if I let Armand do to me what he did to my mother. I saw a helluva lot more than that when I used to peek through his open curtains.

  “Nope, just a pill even a baby can swallow.” He goes inside, comes back with a
prescription bottle, and hands it over. When our eyes meet, he tilts his head and his eyebrows furrow. “Do I know you? You look like… nah, that was a long time ago.” I can feel his eyes bore into my back long after I walk away. Fucker. I should come back and burn his house down.

  “Amphetamines are da bomb,” T says and grabs the bottle out of my hand as soon as I show it to him. He pops the cap right away and downs a pill with a gulp of beer. “Take one. I want you to party with us, love bunny.”

  No way. I’ll wait a few minutes to see what happens to him before I swallow anything that would give him two girls for the price of one. Not gonna happen. I don’t give a shit what else he does, but I’ll cut off his fingers before I let him touch me again.

  Turns out I didn’t need to worry. I’m swerving around a rock in the donkey trail when T slides his ass out onto the window frame. He’s all but forgotten his precious prisoner, and thumps his big hands on the roof in a crazy drumbeat. “This is amazing! Oh, you’re about to run over a crocodile!”

  “You’re a lunatic.” A loud screech tells me the crocodile was another rock, and I’ve trashed the undercarriage. I was watching him and missed it. Before we’re high centered, I hit the gas and manage to skid over.

  “Go faster. Faster!” All I can see are his long legs and smelly shoes on the seat. “Are we there? Are we there?” He giggles. “Mommy, are we there yet?”

  “If I had a kid like you, I’d drown it.” I pull over and reach for the bottle. I want what he took.

  “Hey, why’d we stop?”

  I pop a pill in my mouth and swallow hard.

  He climbs back in, folds himself onto his seat, and seems almost surprised at the package on the floor. “How’s my girl?” With thumb and forefinger, he pries the duct tape from her mouth and waggles his fingers at me in a give-it-here gesture. I drop a pill into his hand. He shoves it between her lips and grins at me. “See? Like candy.”

  When she spits it in his face, I almost pee myself with laughter. She got him good. I instantly like her a little bit. This might be an interesting experience. We kidnapped her. We’re kidnappers. I like the sound of the word, and roll it around in my mind. It’s scary and dangerous.

  T’s ears are red when he takes a second pill from me. This time, he holds her head, shoves the pill in, and pinches her nose until she gulps for air. “Swallow,” he orders and she does. Her mouth is empty when she opens it again. “Good girl.”

  With gentle fingers, he strokes her head. When she pulls away, he holds her still with a rough hand on her throat. I can tell he likes them feisty, by the way he has his other hand on his crotch.

  “My aunt will come for me. She’ll hunt you—”

  He covers her mouth. “Shh.”

  The ADD pill is kicking in for me and what she said is all messed up in my head. Her clear blue eyes and blonde hair are so familiar. “Who’s coming?”

  “Auntie Erin will make you pay for this.” The kid struggles to sit up. “She’s an FBI—” The rest of her threat is muffled by the duct tape T presses back over her lips.

  FBI? Fucking Officer Ericsson isn’t in Morley Falls any more. Not in the squishiest part of my brain did I ever imagine that she wouldn’t be here when I got back. I want to scream.

  “Lily, You hear that? FBI, seriously.” T’s pupils are so huge they’re freaky. His chest pounds like his heart will split his ribcage, and his stare is intense.

  Suddenly, it occurs to me. When my ex-friend Nina found out that her dad did nasty things to her little sister, she completely melted down, so much that she actually helped me kill him. I’m not stupid. That was the day I learned that the worst thing in the world you can do to someone is to give their kid to a skinner.

  Who needs a bomb? Fuck bombs. I have the niece of Officer Erin Ericsson, and T is my perfect weapon. When she finds out, she’ll come. This will be the best revenge ever. I turn on the camera and bare my teeth at the lens. T and me, together, we have never been so fucking powerful.

  “Bitch. You know who I’m talking to. You and your witch girlfriend. Look what I have.” I pan over to the kid, her little stare like an angry hamster, harmless. “Come and get her, if you can. What’s that you say? Oh, too bad. You’re late. And she’s already his.” I move the camera from the kid to the sweaty, dark-haired man-boy who grins back at me.

  “Who are you talking to?” Between T’s high, and his lack of brain cells, he’s utterly confused. He’s having more and more difficulty controlling his captive. Either she’s getting stronger or he’s losing it.

  “Unfinished business.” He had his secrets and this one’s mine.

  “Where are we going?”

  I drive to the end of the dirt road, and T is singing the theme song to a cartoon when we lurch to a stop at the boat launch. Ahead of us, the road simply dips into the river, but I’m not going that way. I turn the wheel and ram the front bumper into the trees, gunning the engine until the tires spin rooster tails.

  T can’t get out his door, so we drag the kid through my side. Like a sack of corn off the back of a farmer’s wagon, he dumps her on the ground and we break off branches to camouflage the truck. It’s impossible to spot from the road, even the ruts from the spinning tires are hidden in the tall grass.

  “Let’s go.” I tuck the gun in my pants, carry the beer, and leave the sobbing kid to T. He hefts her, trussed hand and foot, over his shoulder. Standing at the riverbank, his face pales. “I’m not such a good swimmer, and with her…”

  “No, stupid.” What a moron. I point to the trail along the river. I haven’t been here in so long that only the occasional deer has kept it from becoming completely overgrown. “It’s not far, a few miles.” I can’t wait to get there.

  As soon as I’m in the woods, my panther feet find their way beneath me, and I settle into a trot. The beer bottles jingle in their cardboard case.

  Behind me, crashing noises tell me that T is not having such an easy time. I’ll wait for him but my heart’s racing. The only thing on my mind is how bad I want to get there.

  The pile of snapped twigs I’ve arranged on a fallen log has grown into a horrible mound of broken angles by the time T stumbles into me. Sweat runs down his neck and soaks his shirt.

  “I heard something. Someone’s back there.” He drops his package and looks back down the trail. The kid doesn’t make a sound. She’s tougher than he is. “My leg is killing me. Why didn’t you get more Oxy?” He sits beside me.

  “Did you forget the shits you got last time? Nasty.”

  “Oh, yeah.” He eases his leg up on the log and rubs his knee. “This girl is heavier than she looks.”

  “Is she dead? How many pills did you give her?”

  “Just the one.” He glares at me, but I don’t care enough to laugh at him again. “She spit the first one out, remember?”

  “Uh, huh. Can she even breathe? You might have already killed her.”

  He forgets about his knee and leans down to rip the tape off her mouth. The kid is silent as death. He hurries to untie her. “Shit, no, no, no!”

  “She looks croaked.” She’s not, but this is too much fun to give it away so soon. Her eyelids flickered a moment ago. She’s playing possum, and she’s good at it. I turn the camera back on and wait.

  He checks her wrist for a pulse and looks at me. He checks again. “I can’t feel anything!” He’s in the wrong spot, so of course he missed it, and he’s freaking out. This movie will be so awesome to watch tomorrow. I zoom in on the kid’s face and there it is. One nostril flares and her eyelid twitches again. This kid is making my day.

  On his feet, T spins around. “We gotta get out of here. Which way did we come?”

  “You sure you don’t want to hide the body before the flies find it?” A hand on my gut to hold the laughter in, I clutch my beer to keep from spilling. T is pathetic.

  “She isn’t, really.” He bends to examine her face. “Is she?” Chalky residue dribbles down her chin. Ha, she cheeked the pill.
r />   I kick the kid in the ribs. “Show’s over. Get up.”

  With a move fast enough to make Bruce Willis proud, the kid head butts T in the face and leaps to her feet. He goes down, spider legs thrashing in the brambles. A spray of red bursts from his nose, and I make sure I get a close-up. This will be the best movie ever.

  The girl bounds, not back the way we came, but further into the woods. Willow branches whip into place behind her. It’s as if she knows where she’s going, and she just might. A lot of town people come here to pick blueberries along the power lines. Some of them even follow it back home. She’s already proven she’s not stupid. But she has made one huge mistake.

  T is pissed. I’ve never seen him angrier. With giant leaps, the city boy with the bloody nose stomps through the trees, not bothering to protect his bare skin from sharp branches. The kid squeals like a snared rabbit when he catches her, and he twists her arm.

  “Nice try, kid.” A fat tear rolls down her cheek when I taunt her with the camera.

  He ties her hands together and prods her to walk on her own, in front where he can keep an eye on her. He wipes his nose on his shirt and pops two more ADD pills with a beer. He’s already taken at least three I’ve seen, and maybe another I haven’t.

  “We’re getting close.” Quivers of excitement vibrate up my spine. It’s going to be a good night, and I’ll drink beer while I record T’s little party. Wait until Officer, no, FBI Agent Ericsson sees the video.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “There!” Erin pointed to flashing lights on the desolate stretch of highway, and Gonzales pulled in by the Minnesota State Patrol car parked behind the tow truck. Hooked to the iron jaws of the wrecker was a mud splattered half ton matching the one Lily and Trenton had stolen.

  “Good work, Ericsson,” Lockwood piped up from the back seat. “Exactly where you thought it would be. We’re closing in.”

  When Erin and Agent Gonzales got out, she stayed put, her stony gaze fixed on the screen of her laptop computer. Ever organized, she had a lot of information to sort through before they arrived in Morley Falls in a few hours.