Deadly Trust

by J J Cooper

  ‘You’re not getting away again, Ryan.’

  Jay stifled the urge to respond. No need to give away his position. He was thankful Toni hadn’t put her foot on the brake pedal either. He moved around the corner of the vehicle in case she changed her mind.

  He needed to use his advantage and move fast, and counted off the time in his head as he rounded the front of the Chevy. The dark silhouette stalked the back of the vehicle. The outline of the shotgun was visible as it turned with Sergeant’s adjusting sight. Jay started counting.

  Then it came.

  A set of boots hitting the concrete fast near the roller door, and a set of hands touching the aluminium door quickly as the person dragged their way along. Sergeant would expect the sound to belong to Jay, clawing for escape. Jay imagined Sergeant’s grin as he turned the shotgun towards the roller door. The distinct pause would have been to calculate how far along the roller door Jay was before the shotgun blasted away.

  Jay hoped his outside helper had hit the ground and rolled away fast, as instructed. While the echo of the shotgun blast played out in the shed, he moved to the rear driver’s side of the Chevy, propped his arms on top of the boot and extended the pistol towards Sergeant.

  No doubt the flame of the blast had affected Sergeant’s night vision again. He took far too long to reload the weapon. The shells finally went in before the shotgun slammed and locked shut.

  ‘You still alive, Ryan?’

  Patience.

  Sergeant moved closer to the roller door. Jay kept his sights locked onto Sergeant.

  ‘Think you’re smarter than everyone else, don’t you, Ryan?’

  Stay with the plan.

  ‘Come on. Must have at least winged you.’ Sergeant continued to move forward. ‘Biting down hard on something. I know I got you. Scream out if you must. No escape this time.’

  Don’t bite. Almost there.

  Sergeant’s head moved slowly to one side, then the other, like he was sensing something was wrong.

  Jay controlled his breathing and kept his pistol steady. Shit, where was his helper?

  Red filled Jay’s sights as Toni hit the brake pedal. He didn’t see Sergeant swing towards the Chevy, yet sensed it.

  After a slight drop of the aim, two 9mm bullets left his pistol in quick succession. He didn’t maintain the position to watch for a reaction, instead crouched behind the Chevy, expecting shotgun pellets to riddle the back of his pride and joy. But it didn’t happen.

  The groaning came as the lights flickered on.

  Jay lowered himself so he lay beside the Chevy with a view of his fallen target. Sergeant clutched his left thigh with one hand and his hip with the other. The shotgun had fallen out of reach.

  With his pistol held in front, Jay approached the writhing Sergeant. It became more evident that Jay’s shots had winged his target quite nicely. He removed the danger first by kicking the shotgun further away, then gave Sergeant a gentle boot and added, ‘Roll over. Flat on your face. Don’t care how much it hurts. Do it now.’

  Sergeant didn’t move. Just shook his head.

  The gentle boot to the ribs became a more persuasive one.

  A howl, but at least it worked. Sergeant rolled over, extending his right arm above his head, but kept his left hand over the thigh wound. Jay put the pistol in his pocket, landed a knee in Sergeant’s back, and conducted a frisk search. A wallet and a flick-knife. Satisfied he’d removed the danger, Jay picked up the shotgun and moved back to the Chevy. He placed the weapon on the trunk and went for the medical kit.

  Toni looked scared.

  ‘What the hell was that all about with the brake lights? Almost got me killed.’

  Toni was quite animated behind the gag. Jay shrugged, got the medical kit and returned to Sergeant.

  In less than five minutes, practised hands had Sergeant bound, gagged and patched up. The wounds didn’t appear life-threatening. The one to the hip was more of a graze, and the thigh wound, while there was plenty of blood, didn’t have an exit point; the bullet was probably just buried deep in tissue.

  Jay dragged Sergeant into the back seat of the Chevy and buckled him in. He removed Toni from the driver’s seat, rebound her and also placed her in the back seat and buckled her in. He then unloaded the shotgun and placed it into the boot of the Chevy.

  After doing a final round of the shed, he’d noted no sign of Bill’s helper. Confident he had escaped unharmed, he fired the Chevy up.

  He had some interrogating to do.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  Jay negotiated the backstreets around Coomera and, fifteen minutes later, pulled off the main road to a place he knew well. He was back in the Gold Coast hinterland, a place in which he’d spent many years training and instructing his favoured skill: interrogation. The particular spot he’d pulled into was deserted, as expected. The firing range wasn’t used that much. When he left the military, he hadn’t handed back the security key that unlocked all of the dozens of training area gates in the district. It had remained fastened to his key ring. Handy now.

  He positioned the Chevy close to an old range shed, killed the motor and searched his glove box for a packet of cigarettes. Bingo. He used the Chevy’s lighter and took a few drags to fill his lungs. In the moonlight, the smoke played across the windscreen and quickly filled the interior as Jay exhaled. No need to look in the rear-view mirror. The coughing behind the gags alerted him to his passengers’ disgust. He left the smoke to linger in the interior as he exited.

  The range was a couple of hundred metres long and looked like a small airstrip under the moonlight. Except for the couple of firing mounds at the one hundred-and two hundred-metre marks. A few brass shell casings, missed in the habitual clean-up after a firing practice, glistened in the moonlight. The area was eerily silent and the trees at either side of the range swayed under a light breeze, their branches extended like fingers inviting one into their dark depths. Soldiers were always attracted to them, towards the dark. For the dark is a soldier’s friend. Jay remembered those days fondly. As a young soldier, he had embraced nature’s dark side. As an interrogator, he had embraced humanity’s dark side. Both kept him in good stead. Made him more aware of the capabilities of nature and man. He’d witnessed firsthand the dark side of both.

  After extinguishing the cigarette, Jay called Bill, who picked up on the second ring.

  ‘That you, Jay?’

  ‘It is. How’d you go?’

  ‘No Rachael Sharman born twenty-sixth of February eighty-three in Emerald.’

  ‘No real surprise there. So who is she?’

  ‘Like she’s made out all along, Mark Simpson’s cousin, Toni Griffin. Confirmed by her commanding officer.’

  ‘Let me guess. Captain Toni Griffin was supposed to deploy to the Middle East and didn’t make the plane.’

  ‘Not exactly. She went to the Middle East, but was flown back for a family emergency two weeks ago. Hasn’t been heard of since. Wait ... how did you know she was in the Middle East?’

  ‘Lucky guess. What was the emergency she came back for?’

  ‘Her father was killed in a hit-and-run.’

  The pieces were starting to fit together. ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Yeah. Call your dad. He’s been trying to call you on your home phone and has asked me to send someone around to check on you.’

  ‘So tell him you checked and all’s good. Took some painkillers and went to sleep. Or something like that.’

  ‘Why don’t you want to call him?’

  Jay thought about the response. He didn’t really know why. He still didn’t have an accurate read on Toni. He didn’t know if the CIA were involved. Better to delay and wait for the truth. Shouldn’t be long. ‘As soon as I call, he’ll send in the troops. I’m fine. Just sorting out a few details then I’ll let him know.’ He changed the subject. ‘Did you get hold of the New South Wales Police Commissioner?’

  ‘I did. What kind of reaction were you looking for?’

  �
��Surprise that Peterson was with me, and relieved he was dead.’

  ‘More like methodical. I really couldn’t get a read, Jay. What’s going on?’

  Jay told Bill about the information relayed by Toni and Peterson in the ambulance. He concluded by asking if Bill could follow up on the patents and let him know who owned them.

  Bill whistled. ‘No problem. So you think the New South Wales Police Commissioner owns one of the patents?’

  ‘I doubt it. But I really don’t know anymore.’

  ‘How about the other two?’

  ‘I’m thinking the Chief of Army’s brother, head of ASAP, may have his name on one.’

  ‘Makes sense. And?’

  ‘And I suspect I just ran into another possible owner. An old friend of mine.’

  ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘Remember the military police Major you helped me escape custody from?’

  ‘Yeah, he had a funny name.’

  ‘Major Sergeant.’

  ‘That’s it. You telling me he was at the warehouse? What happened?’

  ‘I’ll fill you in later. Can you confirm the patents and let me know as soon as you do?’

  ‘Will do.’

  Bill offered to take the hour drive down the coast to meet up with him and lend a hand, which Jay declined, for the time being.

  He hung up and spent a few minutes going over in his mind how to approach the questioning of Sergeant and Toni. Normally Jay would never consider physical threats. Just didn’t fit with his previous interrogator training and moral standings. He’d never considered it necessary, until now. He justified the plan through necessity and the fact he was no longer a military interrogator. No Geneva Conventions to abide by. Time to revisit his own darker side. Just an actor playing a part in a play; or was it stepping out of his acting part of life in the ‘real world’ and visiting his actual self? Something he’d always contemplated and never figured out. It scared him to think what he may be capable of deep down in his soul. Maybe that’s why he’d been a successful interrogator – the ability to reach down and let his soul run free.

  A moment later, he found himself breaking from a trance and behind the wheel of the Chevy as it crept towards the bottom of the range. The powerful headlights lit up a huge cliff that acted as a backdrop and convenient backstop for catching bullets. The cliff monstered over the range. With the trees on either side with the branches acting as fingers, the cliff seemed like a torso leaning forward to scoop up those choosing to fire at her belly.

  Jay shuddered involuntarily at the thought as he moved the vehicle through a pack of mesmerised kangaroos caught in the Chevy’s headlights. They scattered at the last moment and bounced off majestically into the dark, enveloped by the trees. He watched the last kangaroo bounce into the abyss and pulled up around twenty metres from a set of targets.

  Rope from the boot of the Chevy sliced easily under the razor-sharp blade of Sergeant’s knife. Two even lengths – perfect for binding Jay’s captives to a target each. Sergeant was easy enough to drag to a target due to his injuries; however, keeping him standing at the target was a pain in the arse and took Jay a little longer and a little more energy than expected. Toni, on the other hand, kicked up a storm, as expected. Both of the captives squinted against the bright lights and tried hard to break free of the ropes.

  Jay leaned against the Chevy while they expended their energy, at the same time gearing himself like a fighter before a big bout. He let his mind clear thoughts of everything except the task at hand – he had a part to play. With a shake of the head and a deep breath, he walked forward, standing dead centre about five metres from his targets. He made a show of checking his pistol. Methodical. He wanted them to think they would be executed by a professional. The amount of panic shown confirmed the ruse was working.

  ‘Listen up. This range was selected by the military for a reason. Small arms fire from pistols and rifles won’t carry to the main populated areas of the hinterland. The couple of farms within hearing distance won’t bother reporting anything unusual. They hear firing from here all the time. Means that if I shoot you, nobody will bother reporting it. Also means that if I remove your gag you can scream and carry on all you like; nobody will hear you. Nobody to care.’

  Jay rubbed the pistol barrel against the side of his head and said, ‘Logistically, it’s gonna be difficult dragging you both around with me. I could probably only manage one of you. One of you will have to stay here. Dead or alive is up to you. Depends what is said and if I’m satisfied you’re telling the truth.’ He spread his legs and adopted a firing position, moving the pistol from one target to the next. ‘So who wants to speak first?’

  Both nodded with vigour.

  Jay sighed, brought his legs together and tapped the pistol against the side of his leg. He said, ‘Only one way to settle this.’ He pointed the pistol at Toni, ready to move it back and forth between the two. ‘Eeny, meeny, miney, moe. Catch a killer by the toe. If he squeals, let him go. Eeny, meeny, miney, moe.’ His pistol pointed at Sergeant. Toni shook her head and roared behind her gag. The noise stopped as soon as Jay continued. ‘My father says that you are it.’ The pistol now pointed to Toni. The transformation amazed Jay. He could have sworn she was grinning behind her gag.

  ‘Interesting, Toni. You seemed to assume if the pistol landed on you that I’d be letting you talk first. What if it meant you were the first to be shot?’

  Like a kangaroo caught in the Chevy’s headlights, Toni’s eyes bulged as Jay resumed the firing position, aimed and pulled the trigger.

  THIRTY-NINE

  The bullet cut the air between the two targets. A deliberate shot to let his captives know Jay meant business. The round sparked off the cliff face and whizzed off into thick scrub to one side. There was no real power behind the pistol shot. Effective at close range, but lacked the crack-thump of a rifle. Seemed more like a toy gun popping. Still, it had obviously made an impression. Sergeant was limp against his ropes and Toni was shaking.

  Jay strode towards Toni, placed his weapon on the ground and used Sergeant’s knife to cut off her gag. At first sight of the knife, she’d moved her head as far back as it would go against the frame of the target until she realised what Jay would be using it for. She would have realised a lot earlier had Jay not held it menacingly near her face for a few moments.

  Free to speak, Toni took a few moments to catch her breath before saying, ‘You’re fucking crazy.’

  Jay placed the knife back in a pocket and retrieved the pistol. He stood directly in front of her, well within her comfort zone. ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘You’d be best not to waste words psychoanalysing me, though. Every one counts.’ The pistol swung against the side of his leg again. ‘What’s your story? The real one this time.’

  Toni took a deep breath, looked Jay directly in the eye and said, ‘I am Toni Griffin. Mark is my cousin.’ She nodded towards Sergeant. ‘That murderer killed my father and kidnapped Mark. I’ve been doing everything he’s told me to do to get Mark back alive.’

  ‘That’s it?’

  ‘Yes, that’s fucking it! Why else would I have done what I have?’

  ‘I have my doubts. Why not go to the police?’

  ‘You’re kidding, aren’t you? He killed my father and has Mark. Not only that but he would come after me as well. I had no choice.’

  ‘Life is all about choice. Not choosing is choosing.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘From the start. What happened?’

  ‘Untie me. It’s him you want, not me.’

  ‘Not yet. Story first.’

  She shook her head and gritted her teeth, took another deep breath and said, ‘When I returned from the Middle East to attend my father’s funeral ... I assume you are now aware of that?’

  ‘I am. Go on.’

  ‘The nutter here fessed up to killing Dad and told me he had Mark locked up. I was to do what he told me to do. First was to ring the papers and inform them of the deaths of the other tw
o on a date he set. Then I was to track you down, which proved harder than I initially thought it would. After I found you, I thought that would be it. But he had other plans. He obviously knew about the scientist and the Major and wanted me to use you as bait to get to them. His hired assassin would then take out the scientist. I had no idea that they would try to kill you as well. I just figured, like me, you were the bait to get to them.’

  ‘So, the sniper was hired by Sergeant here and not the CIA?’

  ‘I obviously made up the stuff about the secret group of businessmen I was working for. The CIA stuff I was told to say by that dick.’ She nodded towards Sergeant.

  ‘What about the stuff in the hospital and ambulance?’

  ‘That was my last task. Bring both you and the assassin to the warehouse and then Mark would be freed.’

  ‘Very thin. You knew my capabilities and my contacts. Why not tell me the truth and let me help you?’

  ‘I just couldn’t.’ Tears started to flow.

  Caught between a rock and a hard place again. Jay kicked himself for not being able to satisfactorily identify if she was being truthful or not. The story seemed plausible. She would probably say that the information from the meeting at the farm was provided by Sergeant. He’d try anyway.

  ‘Who was the source at the meeting?’

  She sobbed and took her time responding, finally saying, ‘I don’t know. He gave me the information.’

  Thought as much. ‘Only one way to settle this. One word out of you while I’m questioning him and I’ll reapply the gag. Understand?’

  She nodded as the tears continued to flow.

  Sergeant started to come to as Jay was cutting his gag.

  After the gag was removed, in a groggy voice, Sergeant said, ‘I’m going to kill you.’

  ‘See there. That statement doesn’t hold true.’ Jay used the blade of the knife to point at Sergeant and make his point. ‘You say you’re going to kill me, yet you’ve never tried. Just hired some bozo who couldn’t finish the job a number of times. Tells me a couple of things. One, you’re weak. Don’t have the balls to do it yourself. Doubt if you could grow some to follow through on your threat. And two, you can’t even hire a competent person to kill me. Your brain is all mushed. So I doubt you would be able to find someone good enough to kill me. Plenty have tried, and I’m still here. Enough of the worthless threats. Time to talk, because I’m playing for keeps.’