The Dog Who Ate The Flintlock

by Edward Coburn

  She didn’t want her neighbors involved and the only way she could think to avoid it was to open the door. She thought the security chain on the door would protect her. The man she saw through the gap was about six foot tall, tremendously muscled and handsome in a frightening sort of way. To her eyes, he looked like one of the monsters she used to see when her father watched professional wrestling on TV. Before she had a chance to do anything he slammed into the door causing the track for the security chain to be jerked out of the wall. Jenny fell back from the force he exerted on the door. Fortunately, he didn’t knock her down because without a second thought she leaned into him as he came through the door, pressed the stun gun to his chest, and fired. Just like Ronald had done, the intruder twitched violently and sank to the ground. The stun gun was no longer in contact with his body, so she pressed the gun to his chest again and fired it again. He had to stay stunned long enough for her to escape. She wasn’t sure where she would go this time, but she knew she had to start by telling Amy not to come home and that she had to leave the city. She didn’t know how Ronald’s man had found her, but she didn’t intend to let it happen again. She had to leave so Amy would be safe.

  Jenny knew where Amy worked because Amy had taken her there hoping to get Jenny a job. That hadn’t worked out, but Jenny was glad they had tried because now she knew where Jenny worked. It was basically a straight shot across town though she remembered she would have to negotiate a few turns.

  Jenny packed her bag, grabbed some snacks for the road, gathered up the nursing magazines she and Amy had purchased and left the intruder lying on the floor as she exited Amy’s apartment. Jenny examined the green car she had seen the intruder get out of. She had thought ahead enough to grab a small notepad and pen on her way out of the apartment. She used it to jot down the intruder’s license number and make and model of the car in case that information might come in handy. The green car had a modestly damaged front fender which Jenny thought would make the car easier to notice if it came to that. She was reasonably confident the intruder wouldn’t give up easily.

  She drove to Amy’s workplace, making a few wrong turns as she was unfamiliar with Colorado Springs and had only gone there once. Eventually, she found the building and had the receptionist call Amy to the front.

  “Jenny! What are you doing here?” Amy said in surprise as she came through the door to the back where she worked.

  “Is there someplace we can talk,” Jenny glanced at the receptionist, “in private.”

  “Sure. Follow me.” Amy led the way to a conference room near the front entrance area. “Now, what’s up?” Amy asked after she closed the door and they were both seated.

  “You remember I told you about Javier?”

  “Your pimp? God, I hate that word. I hate it even more what you had to do, if that’s possible.”

  “We’ve been all through this,” Jenny said shaking her head. “It wasn’t my choice, but sometimes you don’t have a choice. Life can be cruel. Anyway, Javier somehow found out I came to the Springs and sent someone to take me back.” Jenny lied, but she still didn’t want to tell her friend why she actually ran away from LA. And she definitely wouldn’t tell Amy the intruder probably hadn’t come to take her back but to kill her. She had come to the realization that was the most likely case.

  “What…”

  Jenny held up her hand to stop Amy from saying more. “A guy that I didn’t know knocked on your door. He didn’t look too bad, so I thought he might be a friend of yours. He was actually sort of good looking. But when I opened the door with the security chain attached he slammed his way in breaking the security chain from the door frame. Apparently, Javier sent him to take me back to LA. Fortunately, I had been messing around with the stun gun, so I had it with me. I stunned him and left him lying on the floor.” Jenny could tell from Amy’s expression she wasn’t buying the entire song and dance.

  “Okay, enough of the half-truths. What aren’t you telling me? First of all, how could a pimp track you down and why would he go to all the trouble to try and get you to come back. Do you really expect me to believe you’re that good?” Amy smiled slightly at her small bit of gallows humor.

  “That’s not funny.” Jenny frowned although she actually thought it was funny too and had to choke back the laugh that bubbled to the surface. “And I don’t know how he tracked me…” She swallowed hard when she realized her mistake. “Yes, I do.” She pulled out her cell phone. “Javier gave me this cell phone, so he could reach me anytime, day or night.” Actually, Ronald had given it to her.

  “So he…” Amy picked up on the thread.

  “Yes,” Jenny interrupted. “He must have tracked me through this.” She threw the phone against the wall in anger. It didn’t break but the back came off, and the battery fell out. “I feel so stupid. I should have known…”

  “Don’t beat yourself up over it. Anyone could have missed that. And who would suspect that a pimp would have the resources to…”

  “But what am I going to do? I didn’t want to involve you, and now I guess I have. I can’t continue to stay with you.”

  Amy shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I’m sure you didn’t know Javier would go to such lengths. As for what to do, my folks have a cabin way out in the woods, and I’ll be happy to let you stay there for a while until we think of something else. Since it’s Saturday, we can leave for the cabin right after work. I already have some clothes there so we won’t have to go back to my apartment in case the guy’s still there…” Amy thoughtfully paused. “Speaking of my apartment, don’t you think we should call the police? After all, the guy did break into my apartment.”

  Jenny’s minimal smile immediately morphed into a frown. “No,” she said breathlessly. “I don’t want the police involved. I…”

  “Why not?” Amy interrupted.

  “I’ve seen enough cops over the last few months. They hassled us all the time on the street. I was even arrested once, but Javier bailed me out.” She didn’t want anything to do with the police because the ones in California knew all about her tattoo and there’s no reason to believe the ones in Colorado didn’t know about it as well. She had been given explicit instructions to keep as far away from the police as she could. She had jeans on, and whoever that was at the apartment probably wouldn’t tell them why he was after her and definitely not that he was there to kill her. But those facts didn’t stop her from wondering if they would ask to see her leg to check for the tattoo. She doubted they would, but she couldn’t afford to take the chance. They might not even have to talk to her if Amy reported the break-in and didn’t mention that Jenny was living there at the time. But they might ask about possible roommates, and she didn’t want Amy to have to lie to the cops. That would hardly be fair. Besides, she would rather just forget the whole ugly episode.

  Now she had to wonder if she should take Amy up on her offer of sanctuary in her cabin in the woods. If Ronald could track her to Colorado Springs even to the extent of locating her in Amy’s apartment, what were the chances he could find her at a remote cabin as well? He might be able to track her somehow even without the cell phone. She didn’t know how, but she knew nothing about the depths of Ronald’s resources or his resolve to find her. She was sure stunning him didn’t do anything to ingratiate her to him. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any better idea than the cabin, or any ideas at all if she were to be totally honest with herself. She didn’t know what her next move would or should be. The only thing she did know was she couldn’t return to LA nor should she call the special number she had been given. That was to be used only in the direst of emergencies, and she couldn’t be sure if hiding in a cabin in the woods constituted such an instance. According to Amy, they should be safe there.

  “Well I, for one, am glad you’re not doing that anymore.”

  Jenny smiled. “I am too. It was good money, but the clients can sometimes be a bit, shall I say, aggressive.”

  “I know. I remember you telling me ho
w you nursed your friends after they had a bad episode with a client.” Amy didn’t want to talk about Jenny’s time on the street anymore, so she went back to her question. “So you think the cabin will be okay?”

  Jenny frowned again. “I don’t know. I still think I should just get away from you altogether.”

  “So we’re not friends anymore?” Amy grinned.

  “Now cut that out. You know I love you. As a matter of fact, I love you too much to keep visiting my troubles on you.”

  “Are we getting biblical now?”

  “Okay enough of the wisecracks. I think I’d better leave before things get too schmaltzy.”

  “Right. But will you please hang around town so I can take you to the cabin?” Amy pleaded with her friend.

  “If you insist. I still think I ought to just go away and cut you out of this mess. But the honest truth is I don’t know where to go. As you know, I have some money, but it won’t last long paying rent and buying food. And I don’t want to go back to what I was doing.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t,” Amy said with a tinge of sadness in her voice. She brightened when she realized that Jenny had agreed to her plan. “So you’ll be back here at five, so I can take you to the cabin?”

  “I’ll be back,” Jenny said in a deep voice that was meant to imitate Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of the Terminator movies. She stood, walked over to where she’d thrown the cell phone against the wall and picked up the pieces. “I’ll smash this up some more and throw the pieces away separately somewhere where nobody will be able to find the pieces and put them back together. I wouldn’t want them to get a visit from my friend.”

  “That’s a good idea.”

  Jenny nodded, turned, and walked out the door.

  Amy shook her head and smiled. She still thought she should call the cops about the guy who broke into her apartment, but Jenny was a good enough friend for Amy to give her that one. She knew it would mean paying for the repair to her door herself, but that was a small price to pay to keep Jenny safe and happy. Though she didn’t know if going to the cabin would keep Jenny safe, or it would make her happy, she had to hope it would. If Jenny’s pimp wanted her back so badly he sent someone to fetch Jenny, Amy knew Jenny couldn’t be telling her the whole story. From what little she knew about such things she couldn’t imagine her pimp had those kinds of resources. She tried to think of some other reason someone would be so desperate to find Jenny. She suspected it might have something to do with the money, but according to Jenny, she’d saved it up from her time plying her trade. Amy didn’t know if that was possible, but she did know Jenny had been trying to get enough money to return to school. She resolved to question Jenny about the money, but that would have to come later. Right now she and Jenny had to get out of town as soon as she could get away from work. It bothered her that Javier’s henchman found Jenny and might very well be waiting for one or both of them to return to the apartment. They definitely wouldn’t be going back to the apartment to get clothes for the weekend. But other than calling the cops she didn’t know what they could do about the guy who broke into her apartment, and Jenny seemed quite adamant that they not call in the police. Perhaps if they didn’t go back to the apartment, maybe the guy would get tired of waiting and just go back to LA. She wasn’t sure she totally believed that but what else could they do short of calling the cops. After all, it wasn’t as if Amy had experience with guys breaking into her apartment. The life Jenny had been living was entirely outside her frame of reference. She had absolutely no experience upon which she could draw. She shook her head, got up, and went back to her desk. She had to try to work to get her mind off Jenny’s, and now her, problems.

  Chapter – 30

  When Carl Dillard woke up, he immediately knew what Jenny had done to him. He had been stunned before and knew what the aftermath felt like. It took a few seconds to clear his head, and most of his muscles ached as if he had spent a long afternoon lifting weights. Ronald had warned him she had a stun gun, but he hadn’t expected her to have it on her. It caught him completely by surprise when he broke through the door. But no matter, he’d get his revenge. All he had to do is figure out where she’d gone. He knew she was gone because he heard no sounds in the apartment. She’d have been a fool to hang around anyway after what she’d done to him. She had to know he’d be furious. But that didn’t completely cover it. He was angry and embarrassed because she’d caught him so unprepared after he’d been warned. The dirty little tramp.

  “Is she dead?” Ronald asked when Carl called him to report what had happened.

  “No. She hit me with the stun gun and got away. And before you yell at me, she had the stun gun with her when she answered the door. I know you told me she had one, but who would expect her to have it on her and be ready to use it.”

  “Anyone with half a brain, that’s who.”

  “Okay, so I’m an idiot. What should I do now?”

  “You should do what you were paid to do. You should kill the broad. ”

  “I mean how do I find her? I don’t have any way to track her cell phone like you did. She was gone when I woke up.”

  “Give me a few minutes. I’ll call my guy and have him track her again. I’ll call you back.”

  When she left Amy Jenny drove back to Amy’s apartment and saw that the intruder’s car was still in the parking lot. The color and the slightly crumpled front end made it easy to pick out in the mostly empty parking lot. She had no way of knowing if he was still lying on the apartment floor or maybe hiding to observe if she or Amy came back to the apartment, but she was not about to take the chance of going in to see. So she drove on past, bought herself a new cell phone, and then found the library she had visited several times since she had been with Amy. She passed the time reading a nursing magazine she found on the racks. When she was finished with that, she found a copy of the LA Times newspaper and checked to see if there was anything on the kidnapping she’d perpetrated. She found a small article on page four that said the police were no closer now than they had been when it happened. The article did say they were still looking for a prostitute with a rose tattoo on her right leg, but they didn’t know any more than she was a prostitute who was called either Heather or Jenny. She started to get up to look for an earlier copy of the paper when she realized it was four-thirty.

  While he waited Carl searched through the papers he found on Amy’s desk and in the desk drawers. He found a couple of pay stubs with the name and address of the company where she worked and also ran across an old car registration she’d saved. So now he knew where she worked and what car she drove. He was deciding what to do with this information when Ronald called back.

  “She must have turned the phone off. My guy couldn’t find the signal. Maybe she figured out that’s how we found her,” Ronald said.

  “That’s possible I suppose.” Carl explained what he‘d been doing while he waited for Ronald to call him back.

  “Well, why don’t you go to her workplace and see if Jenny shows up there. You know what her car looks like.”

  “I can do that. I can also put a tracker on Amy’s car and follow her. Maybe she’ll go to where Jenny is hiding.”

  “Good idea. Then you can get rid of both of them at the same time.”

  “That’s what I had in mind.”

  “Of course you realize I’m not going to pay you any more for killing the friend since you let Jenny get away in the first place.”

  Carl held the phone at arm’s length and whispered a few uncomplimentary words he would not dare say to Ronald. “Did I ask for any more?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Just find Jenny and her friend and eliminate the problem.”

  “I’ll call you when it’s done.”

  “I don’t want to hear from you again until it is done.”

  “As you say.” Carl hung up and glanced at the address of Amy’s workplace again. He had a map of Colorado Springs in his car—the same map that had helped him find Amy’s apartment. He
went out to his car and quickly found where Amy worked.

  Jenny left the library and drove directly to Amy’s work without any wrong turns this time. She started to pull into the parking lot when she saw the green car with the crumpled fender. She could see someone who she assumed to be the intruder sitting in the driver’s seat. She immediately took out her new cell phone she’d purchased before she went to the library and called Amy who picked up on the first ring.

  “Amy. Where are you parked?”

  “I always park at the side of the building as I did when you were with me. Why?”

  “Because the guy who broke into your apartment is sitting in his car in the parking lot in front of the building. If you get in your car and exit out the back of the parking lot, maybe he won’t see you.”

  Why are you worried about that? He doesn’t know me and doesn’t know my car.

  “Can we really be sure of that? Remember he tracked me all the way from LA. Maybe he found out what kind of car you drive and will follow you. Besides, he must know something since he’s at your building.”

  “Okay I see your point,” Amy said with a sigh. “I’ll go out the back of the parking lot. He shouldn’t be able to see my car from the front. Where are you?”

  “I‘m parked just beyond the entrance to the parking lot. Why don’t we meet in the strip center where we bought the ice cream when you showed me your company.”

  “That’s okay with me. Do you know where it is?”

  “Yes. I passed it when I was coming here.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you there. I should be there in about ten or fifteen minutes.” Amy thought again about how she should have called the cops when Jenny mentioned how the guy broke into her apartment. Who knew if he would be able to find Jenny again? After all, he found out where she worked. How, she didn’t know, but he obviously did. She thought Jenny was probably right that Javier tracked her through her cell phone. But what if that wasn’t how he found her? He might have a way to follow Jenny that neither of them knew anything about. If that were the case going to the cabin wouldn’t help. But, at this point, she didn’t know what else to do. She had a life here, and she couldn’t simply abandon everything and run away with Jenny. She would do anything for Jenny short of that. She really should have called the cops. That would definitely have made her feel more secure. But there was nothing she could do about that now. Jenny had said the intruder was no longer in the apartment so calling the cops would do no good. Thus, she would take Jenny to the cabin, and they would see what happened from that point forward.