by Tony Masero
“Oh, those. Those are just my car keys.”
“Mmm,” said the man, obviously enjoying himself. “Maybe I´ll just take your car then. Though they do look a might big for a car. What you driving, boy? A Sherman tank?”
The radio hissed. “Leroy. Come in, Leroy.” It was Stoeffel, his voice thick and blurry.
Leroy´s hand automatically went to the radio.
“Uh, uh,” came the soft warning growl. “Just leave it be. Now, son, tell me, anybody else here?”
Leroy knew it was no use. He thought of shouting out a warning to Stoeffel as a last heroic act. Of snatching the shotgun away and punching the guy out like in a movie stunt. But none of it rang true with the cold barrel pressing under his ear.
“No,” he confessed, defeated. “There´s just me.”
“Then, I guess that’s all she wrote.”
The boom of the shotgun going off was deafening in the room but Leroy never heard it.
Chapter Sixteen
Ayleen was sobbing quietly in the corner.
It was a grey dawn, the rising sun thinly cracking the clouds with a lightening strip of pale yellow that shone eerily through the glass doors. It gave the station room a bleak aspect with the strip lighting flickering coldly inside.
Stoeffel sat at the front desk and looked across at Ayleen vaguely, his eyes clear now but his head throbbing, still partially concussed by the explosion. Legrand, Jimmy Luke and Summersby were the busy ones. Leroy´s body had been carried off to the mortuary and Jimmy Luke was clearing up the spray of blood and brains decorating the station walls.
Brian Link´s cell door hung open. The cell empty when Ayleen had arrived to relieve Leroy. Stoeffel had limped in not long after, having called up Legrand and the others to come to the station double quick.
“So, Chief,” said Legrand, bringing Stoeffel back into the present. “We have one prisoner absconded. Two deputies down. A little girl murdered and an unidentified corpse in the woods. That leaves a little matter of a possible drug operation going on.”
“Sounds about right,” Stoeffel smiled up at him tiredly. “You want any more?”
“Enough for today, I reckon. You okay?”
Stoeffel shook his head and then wished he had not. “Not at my best.”
“Need me to call the doctor?”
“Not for me,” but Stoeffel indicated Ayleen with a jerk of his chin. “Maybe...?”
Ayleen looked up sensing they were talking about her. The mascara had run down her face and her false eyelashes were becoming unglued but a look of determination was set in the line of her mouth.
“No way, Chief,” she said. “You need me here and I want my wits about me so we can catch the sons-a-bitches who did this. And we will.”
Tough lady. Stoeffel was pleased to see she could cut it when necessary.
“Okay, now listen. Before he went down Leroy came up with an address that gave us a link on those toy sheep things. Jason, I want you to get up there and check it out. Loville is the owner’s name, out at Boden Place Farm. Keep your eyes peeled for George´s car too, be helpful if we knew where he went last night.”
He turned to Summersby. “Alex, I know this isn´t your fight but if you are up to it I´d appreciate your help.”
Summersby nodded. “Don´t worry, Chief. I´m with you.”
“Okay, then you are now a temporary deputy with the right to carry arms.” Stoeffel slid Leroy´s badge and holstered gun across the desktop. “That okay?”
“Fine,” agreed Summersby.
“Goes for you too, Jimmy Luke. You ready?”
Daintily Jimmy Luke lifted the edge of his Bird of Paradise shirt and silently exposed the butt of a silver Magnum stuck in his waistband.
“Listen up everyone.” Stoeffel unpacked his Glock and checked the load, laying the weapon before him on the desk. “We are now in a difficult situation. A potential war situation, what I saw up in the woods convinced me we are up against some military trained personnel. I want you all to take extreme care in where and how you go about your business. We already lost two too many, I don´t want any more people to die.”
They stood in a silent circle while Stoeffel opened his desk drawer and laid out spare magazines on the desktop.
“Alex, will you hit the road? Take Leroy´s vehicle. Run up to the Links place; see if you can find anything out. The boy might just have run home. But it’s pretty obvious he had some help so go in cautiously. Take care with the father, you never know, it just may have been him.”
“What about you Chief?”
“I´m heading up to Bubba Rose´s. That crew he hired look like a mean bunch from the sheets Jason had faxed in. Might just be they are ex-military, Ayleen´ll run a cross-reference with the Pentagon. But first I have to get in touch with Charleston; they need to know about all this. I don´t like it but it has to be. It´ll mean we´ll be overrun when they get themselves together, that and the press and TV running all over the place. When the Feds get here it will be the end of it as far as we are concerned. So, it would be real nice if we could settle it before they all start sticking their fingers in.”
Jimmy Luke peeled of his stained surgical gloves and threw them in a waste bin. “What do you want me to do, Chief?”
Stoeffel pondered a moment. “Go check on Iris, that waitress at the Low Down. She was George´s girl and he was off to see her last night when he finished up here. She might know something.”
Jimmy Luke nodded acquiescence.
“Ayleen,” Stoeffel went on. “Can you hold it all together here? We´ll need good communication. I know it’s hard, but can you hold off on the nail polish for a while?”
“Don´t worry,” said Ayleen grimly. “I´ll be here for you.”
Stoeffel snapped his pistol back in its holster. “Good work. Okay, people, let´s get to it.”
There was a roll like distant thunder and all the lights went out.
Chapter Seventeen
Cut off. The town was cut off. Stoeffel tapped the steering wheel of his cruiser as he threw the useless cell phone aside. The cell net was down and he guessed that local boosters had been blown as well as electricity supply, telephone and cable. The station had a backup generator as standard procedure but someone had seen to it that it would never work again. Probably the same person who had let Brian Links out of his cell. They had satellite as well but none of it worked without the juice.
Ayleen had been pissed but Stoeffel had put her in a car immediately and sent her over to Minerstown to get help pronto.
That left the rail track as a means of communication but with all the signals out the trains were not going to be running. It was an efficient job and convinced Stoeffel again that he was up against a trained and determined team; just what their purpose was though he could only guess at.
He put the car in drive and headed up Main Street to Bubba Rose´s storage warehouse. The town was quiet it still being early yet. Most folks had not gotten out of their beds and did not realize that the electricity was down. When it came to it there would be one hell of a hullabaloo, what with freezers defrosting and life support devices malfunctioning. He would need to call the doc and make sure he was ready for it. Then there was the bank. Stoeffel was pretty sure that the Lodrun bank hardly held enough to make it worthwhile closing a whole town down for. But you never knew.
Bubba Rose looked like he had been making a night of it. Baggy eyed he sat at his paper strewn desk and had obviously not slept.
“How´re you doing?” asked Stoeffel as he entered.
Bubba stretched his large frame and leaned back in the big red chair.
“Not a hell of a lot good, Chief. What’s happened to the power?”
“Net´s down all around. We have a serious problem on our hands, Bubba. And right now I need to see those boys you hired.”
“Uhuh,” Bubba rubbed his eyes with finger and thumb. “Me too. They lit out and left me holding things together here. Hell of a note. We have a really big shipment i
n progress an´ I´ve been at it all night.”
“That so, well me too. Where´d you get those people anyway?”
Bubba swiveled his chair and reached out behind himself for the whisky decanter. He proffered it to Stoeffel who shook a negative, then poured himself a glass.
“Recommendation, Chief. Business partners I got down Chicago way said they was the best and I took that as a go. They certainly do their work well enough, an´ that’s a fact. Why, you have a problem with them?”
“Sure do. They have sheets as long as your arm.”
Bubba frowned. “You don´t say. Well, I ain´t seen `em since yesterday morning. Might be, of course, they´s just on a bender. I know they´re kinda rough, didn´t think they was that bad though.”
“Bubba, can you get some sort of support thing going here in the town? Someone, and it might be these boys of yours, has cut the power and communications. I´ve got a car heading out for Minerstown but as of this moment we´re on our own. Townsfolk are going to need help when they get on up and realize what’s happening.”
Bubba took a slug of his drink and leaned forward on his desk, tiredness slipping from his face.
“Of course, Chief. I´ll talk to the Town Council. We have emergency plans in place. Do you know what these guys are up to?”
“We think....” he was interrupted by Joline passing by along the corridor outside the office, a bundle of envelopes in her hand.
“Hey, honey,” called Bubba. “Where you off to?”
She looked a little dark eyed and distraught to Stoeffel but he reckoned she had probably been working late into the night as well.
“Jist taking these hyah invoice letters to the post, Bubba.”
“Let me see those will you, sweet thing?”
She eased past Stoeffel. “Mornin´ Chief.”
Stoeffel nodded a greeting as she handed the letters to Bubba, who leafed through them quickly.
“Okay, honey,” he said, handing them back to her. “But you hurry right back, you hear. We got an awful lot to do an´ now the Chief tells me the town is cut off so we have a might of organizing to arrange.”
“Be right back.” She flashed a quick little grim smile in Stoeffel´s direction and hurried off.
Bubba turned back to Stoeffel.
“I´ll call up the Town Council, Chief. We´ll start the ball rolling.” He reached for the phone then remembered. “Shit! No line, this will have to be legwork then. You get on, Chief. I´ll handle it somehow.”
Stoeffel nodded. “Thanks, Bubba. I´ll talk with you later, see how things are going.”
Chapter Eighteen
Ayleen fluffed her unkempt hair impatiently with one hand as she steered along Dead Fall Back.
At this hour of the morning a dense chilly mist still hung low across the valley road and despite the necessity for speed it slowed her down a great deal. She felt bad about the two deputies, they had seemed like sons to her and she suffered their loss deeply. Childless herself, the two young men had become her own surrogate children and their passing had been for her like losing two of her own. Tears still leaked from the corners her eyes and dampened her cheek as she drove cautiously along.
Slowly she headed on northwest up the empty road, and as she passed by the Links girl’s murder site she wondered if the BeeBar gas station still had power. If it worked she could call from there and save the drive on up to Minerstown. Glancing to her right she could see the police cordon tape still in place. A lonely strip of bright color in the hazy forest gloom. Not a place for anybody to die, she reckoned, let alone a little child.
The mist closed in even more solidly as Ayleen neared the gas station, so she turned on the wipers and slowed accordingly. She had never liked this lonely stretch of road. She knew all the stories and avoided the route whenever possible.
Creeping forward and peering into the whiteness in front of her, Ayleen finally made out the bright signage of the station. She pulled off the road with a sigh of relief. There was something about seeing bright indications of civilization that eased her fears and she felt the tension that had formed in her shoulders relax.
The station was dark though and it promised the worst. No power. It meant a drive on for another forty miles or so. She knew that Ben Gomez stayed out here throughout the night and guessed it was wise to let him know how things stood in Lodrun.
Parking in the visitor’s zone she went over and pushed open the station door, calling out tentatively.
“Mr. Gomez, you there?” Ayleen had never taken to the horny little Mexican, she also knew the history of robberies at the place and was a little concerned at being out here without any backup. “Anybody here?” She just hoped she would not find the little rascal buck naked in the company of some lusty young hussy.
Silence. Not even the hum of overhead lighting or chill boxes to fill the quiet. Ayleen placed a hand on her pistol and moved around the desk to the office door. She rapped on the door and called more loudly.
“Mr. Gomez?” The door swung open at her touch and in the weak dawn light Ayleen saw the leg and shoeless foot laying on the floor. It looked sad, the trouser leg rucked up exposing a strip of pale skin and twisted sock. She pushed the door wide.
Heart pounding and breath rasping in her throat, Ayleen ran in panic from the station. They were here. Whoever had killed George and Leroy and then shut down the town could reach out even as far as the gas station. Her car was just visible in the mist and Ayleen thought if she could just make it she would be safe.
She was no longer a fit person and she felt the weight of her heavy bosom heave beneath her uniform shirt as she tried to run faster.
With relief her hand grasped the dew damp handle of the car door and she pulled it open. Breathless and rushing to get inside, Ayleen banged her head on the overhang of the door and gave a little cry of pain.
She slammed the car door shut, locking it and quickly turning on the ignition. With a scream of tires she pulled out onto the road again. Misty road or no she was not slowing for anything and her foot hit down hard on the accelerator. She would make Minerstown in twenty minutes or less if she pushed it.
Her hand rubbed at the bump rising on her forehead and she cursed silently, thinking how she would have to bring her fringe down to cover the unsightly thing. It would mean a whole new trip to the hairdresser. Still, she thought with a little smile, that’s not such a bad thing.
That was when she hit the pressure mine.
They had been laid in a zigzag pattern across the road guaranteeing that nobody survived getting in or out of Lodrun. Ayleen rolled over one of the devices, invisible in the low mist, at full speed. For a brief surprising moment she felt the car levitate off the ground then knew no more as the explosion ripped through the car interior and hurtled the vehicle end over end in a plume of fire.
Chapter Nineteen
Jimmy Luke knocked rapidly on the apartment door. He took off his fishing hat and scraped his hair into some kind of order whilst he waited for an answer. It took a while but eventually a sleepy Iris cracked open the door.
“Mmm,” she mumbled. “Jimmy Luke. What’s happening?”
“You got a moment Iris, I need to talk?”
Iris clutched her skimpy nightgown around her tiny frame. Shivering, she frowned.
“Right now! It´s kinda early, isn´t it?”
“I know but it’s important.”
“Okay,” she said, widening the door. “You better come in.”
Jimmy Luke followed her thin pale legs down the corridor to the lounge.
“You want anything. Coffee or something?” she asked sleepily.
“No, no. Look, I got some bad news for you, hon. You´d better sit down.”
Iris looked at him in wary silence as she seated herself, hunching over and trying self-consciously to cover her knees with the short garment.
“It´s about George, Iris. I´m afraid there was an accident last night.”
Iris put a hand to her mouth. “Oh my!�
� she breathed. “I wondered why he didn´t come round after his shift. Is it bad? What’s happened?”
“There´s no easy way to say this. I´m afraid George is no longer with us. He passed on, Iris.”
She whimpered then, hands fisting on her cheeks as she stared up at Jimmy Luke.
“No,” she squeaked, shaking her head. “Not my George. Oh no!”
“The Chief found him. We don´t know everything yet. Chief hoped you might have something you could tell us.”
“Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!” She started rocking to and fro on the settee, her slender arms wrapped around herself.
Jimmy Luke moved over and sat down beside her. He was well used to comforting the bereaved and it was with a practiced ease that he put his arm lightly around her heaving shoulders.
“I know it’s bad, Iris. But we really need to know if you can tell us anything right now.”
She sniffled and turned a tear stained cheek into his shoulder.
“My George, oh not my George” she muttered vaguely.
Jimmy Luke could smell the sleep on her and the scent of shampoo in her hair. Her nightgown was forgotten and as he looked down he could see the swell of her breasts rising from the loose opening. Uncomfortably and with surprise Jimmy Luke felt himself becoming aroused. He was not usually a one for the ladies, normally seeing all they had to offer in a more naked and final way, that was when he laid them out or performed an autopsy as coroner for the police department. This was a new departure for him. The closeness of a warm and vulnerable female with very little on.
“What will I do?” murmured Iris. “Oh, Jimmy Luke, what will I do?”
“There´s nothing I can say that will make it any easier, Iris. It´s life, it happens. Let’s just pray that George has gone on to a better place.” It was his standard line and even as he said it, he felt the shallowness.
Full of disdain for himself he pulled her closer in an effort to nullify his crassness.