Tahoe Silence

by Todd Borg

  A house appeared off to the side. It sat on the steep mountain slope. “I think that’s the one,” I said.

  Marky slowed.

  “Turn in the drive,” I said.

  He turned and our headlights washed over a large one-story house that was like two ramblers stuck together at an angle. There was one light on over the door, illuminating the house number. Everything else was dark.

  The drive split, one part winding up and across the front of the house. The other went around to the side.

  “Go that way,” I pointed.

  We went around the dark house. The drive climbed up in a big curve, behind the house and up the lot. Our headlights arced through the woods. They washed over a red barn and an old Dodge van. There was a crack of light showing at the edge of the barn door.

  “Stop,” I said to Marky. Then, into the phone, I told Tony Go the address.

  “We’ll be there,” he said, and hung up.

  The barn door slid to the side and Dr. Power stepped out, silhouetted by the light behind him and illuminated by our headlights. He held a pitchfork. His eyes caught the light and glistened in the dark and his hair stuck up in the breeze.

  I opened my door. “Let her go, Power,” I shouted.

  He set the pitchfork down and reached inside the barn door. In one smooth motion he pulled out a rifle and swung it up to his shoulder and fired. There was a crack and the windshield shattered and Marky’s head snapped back, a single dark hole between his eyebrows.

  I rolled out onto the dirt, over and over across a steep slope. There was a large icy slab of rock. It was steep and slippery. I wanted to get to the cover of the trees on the other side. I reached for a small tree that grew from a crack in the rock. My hand caught it, but I dropped the Glock. It skittered down the rock into an area that was in full view of Power. I considered sliding down after the automatic, but a shot rang out, and Power’s round sparked on the rock at my feet and ricocheted off into the dark with a metallic whine. I found better footing at the edge of the rock slab, and I ran into the dark of the forest, aware that I was still clutching my phone and it was ringing. I stopped behind a large Ponderosa trunk and answered.

  “McKenna, it’s Mallory. What you got?”

  “Dr. Raymond Power has the girl in the barn behind his house. Tony Go’s men are on their way to set up a perimeter. Diamond and Street will be here in a minute.” I gave Mallory the address as I leaned around the tree trunk to take a look. Power was advancing toward me, rifle up at his shoulder, still lit by the headlights of the Jeep.

  “Power’s coming toward me through the woods. He has a rifle. He’s just killed Marky, one of the bikers who did the kidnapping on Power’s order. Power caused the murder of Charlie and I think he personally killed Michael Warner, Silence’s biological father. Power is trying to kill me next. It would be good if you could come and arrest his ass. Watch for an old Dodge van. If he tries to escape, I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses it as a battering ram. And tell your men that the Tony Go’s bikers are on our side.” I hung up and turned off the phone so it couldn’t ring again and give me away.

  FIFTY-THREE

  Although Marky was dead, he hadn’t turned off the Jeep, so the headlights still shined on the van and the barn and spilled light through the woods. I saw a big Jeffrey pinecone near me. I grabbed it and gave it a soft lob toward the barn. When it hit with a loud thump, I ran the other direction, staying low and making a serpentine path through the trees, away from the light and into the darkness. I stopped behind another tree and peered out.

  The forest appeared silent and empty except for the idling Jeep. Then Power appeared, racing toward me like a soldier from one tree to another. He was bent, rifle held at an angle in front of him. He looked as experienced and competent and deadly as his shot at Marky demonstrated. I studied the ground, looking for another pinecone, but I was under the tree canopy where the moon couldn’t penetrate and it was too dark. Squatting down on one knee, I swept the ground with my hands. There was nothing but pine needles, slick with frost. I shifted forward and tried again. Nothing. Again, I moved. My hands hit a cobble, too big to throw any distance. I reached left and right, groping in the dark. There, a small group of cobbles. I picked out two in the three-inch range and stuffed one in each front pocket, big awkward lumps, but the only weapon I had. A third cobble, a little smaller, was better for throwing a distance. I looked again, but Power was not visible. At the speed he’d run between the trees, he could be anywhere. I wanted him to talk, to reveal his location. But if I called out, he might not respond and I would be compromised.

  Twenty feet away was a huge boulder projecting out of the earth like an egg balanced on one end. I darted behind it. If Power hadn’t moved far from his earlier position the boulder would give me some coverage.

  I stood up straight, took careful aim at the Jeep and threw the smaller rock. It struck a branch that I hadn’t seen as it arced through the air. I thought it would be deflected too much, but it hit the corner of the rear fender and made a very loud bang that resonated for a precious second. Before the sound had stopped echoing off the barn and nearby trees I was running through the forest. I was able to gain some distance without making any loud noise. I slowed to a fast walk, stepping carefully, trying to avoid the branches that littered the forest floor.

  I moved in a curve, up and back toward the barn. Light still spilled out the open barn door. There was a large open area in front of the barn. It would take several seconds to sprint across it. Power was probably still in the trees below. If he saw me he would have a good chance of making another well-placed shot.

  In the distance came the roar of a motorcycle, then another. As they grew louder I got ready. I waited, watching for the first headlight. Out on the road came a glow, then a bright single headlight appeared around a distant corner. In a second, another appeared. It was my chance.

  I sprinted for the barn. If Power glanced in my direction I was out of luck. But I hoped he would be turned toward the bikers.

  I got to the side of the barn and ran softly across the front, trying for quiet, and slipped through the open door. I stepped sideways, back to the barn wall so that I’d be out of view from the outside.

  The barn was illuminated by two bright bare bulbs that hung down from the roof. To the side of the door was a stairway that went down to a lower level. There was an open area on the left with a wide sliding door on the far wall. Above was a hayloft, open to the center of the barn. Although it looked like the barn hadn’t been used for horses in a long time, there were still bales of hay visible in the loft, and the main floor of the barn was covered with a thin layer of scattered hay.

  On the right side of the barn were two horse stalls. Padlocked inside the far stall, lit by stripes of light coming through the boards, was Silence. She sat in the corner, bent with fatigue and hopelessness. Her right arm was tied to a post, lashed with a painfully thin cord. Her hair was limp and stringy and hung down over a stained pale pink shirt that had a diagonal scar of wide masking tape running across the front.

  I held my finger to my lips as I approached. I spoke in a whisper. “Silence, I’m Owen McKenna. Your mom sent me. I’m going to get you out of here as soon as possible.”

  She didn’t look at me, but looked to the side. There was no sign that she’d heard me. In the distance I heard more motorcycles.

  “Glad you are so optimistic about getting her out of here, McKenna,” Power said. He stood inside the door, rifle in his hands. “But you know she isn’t leaving here unless you convince her to talk. I’ve spent some money on this project, but once I have the new storage paradigm, our little outfit in Mountain View will be the next Intel. No more worrying about my practice dwindling away to nothing. No more debts and no more working for a living.” Power closed the big door and pointed the rifle at me.

  “She doesn’t talk,” I said. “You know that.”

  “She will talk. And she knows what the storage paradigm is. I got that much
out of her daddy before he shut up. I tried some medical techniques on him, but they didn’t work. But I should have more success on the girl.”

  He continued, “Of course, you have made things more difficult, making us move out of that vacation home. It was a perfect place. The owner is only there in the summer. Never comes up after October first. She pays me lots of money every summer to listen to her drone on about what meanies her parents were while she was growing up. We could have kept using that house until Silence talked. But you got in the way.”

  “You’re not thinking, Power. Every indication is that Silence will never talk. She’s smart, we know that. But not verbal.”

  “I think she will. After I’d convinced Marky and Tiptoe that I was Tony Go, I thought, why not borrow from Tony Go’s plan? So I explained to her that she will burn at the rise of the full moon tomorrow night. From her agitation, I’d say the plan is working.”

  Power looked past me toward Silence and spoke in a sing-song voice. “Tell me daddy’s little secret, quiet girl, and you don’t burn. You don’t want to burn up in a big hot nasty fire, do you?”

  He turned back to me. “Although, now that you’re here, McKenna, I may decide to move our big bonfire up to tonight. Of course, if you want to live, you can save me the trouble and spare her death by coaxing the secret out of her.”

  “She’s never met me or even heard of me. How would I get her to talk? Think of it from her point of view. I could just be another of your accomplices. Brought in to fake her out.”

  “That’s easy to prove otherwise,” Power said. “If you were in with me, I wouldn’t shoot you, would I?” He raised the rifle and took aim.

  The roar of motorcycles outside was suddenly like a jet on take-off. Power turned and stared at the closed barn door. His forehead was knotted in cords, and the whites of his eyes glowed. He glanced back at me, no doubt figuring that I was far enough away, then leaned the rifle against the wall and picked up a piece of 2x6 bracing.

  He had obviously planned for the possibility that he’d end up using the barn as a bunker. Screwed to both the door and the wall on either side were brackets to fit the brace. The door was made of heavy stock. With the brace it would be extremely difficult to kick in. Power slammed the 2x6 down into the brackets. He pulled his hands away fast and looked down at his hand where a large sliver of wood had drawn blood. I saw my chance.

  I hurled a cobble at him and hit him in the knee. He yelled. I took three running steps toward him, lowered my shoulder and hit him in the gut, powering him up and backward. His back slammed against the wooden wall hard enough that the air went out of him in a gust and he stared at me, wide-eyed, unable to breathe, unable to move. The rifle fell and clattered down the stairway to the lower level. Power slumped to the floor. His eyes rolled up.

  Near Power were several tools hanging on the wall. I pulled a wood-splitting maul off the wall and rushed over to the horse stall where Silence cowered.

  “Don’t worry, Silence. I’ll have you out of there in a bit. I need to break the lock on the stall. It’s going to make a loud noise, so you should cover your ears.”

  I swung the maul, blunt end forward, and struck the hasp and padlock. Wood broke and the lock flew. I pulled the door open.

  I bent to where Silence was tied. Her palms were over her ears, the cord from her wrist to the post pulled taut with tension. She shook with fear. “I’ll have you free in a minute,” I said, then quickly realized that the cord that tied her to the post was knotted in several knots, pulled tight enough that she couldn’t untie them. I’d need a knife. I looked at the tool wall, but there was no knife.

  I could do it with the maul.

  I stood up. “Give me some slack in the cord, Silence, so I can cut it with the maul.” She was turned away from me, but she held her arm out. It shook violently. I held the cord to the floor with my foot and aimed the maul at the cord. The maul made a hard thunk into the wood floor and a chip of wood flew past my face. The maul was stuck in the floor, but just barely caught the cord and nicked it. I heard a noise behind me and turned to see that Power had come back from the dead.

  He lunged toward us.

  I pushed Silence sideways.

  Power missed us, hitting the floor to my side, knocking the maul out of the wood and across the floor. I pulled up on the cord, but it wouldn’t budge. Silence was balled up, knees to chest, paralyzed with fear.

  While Power pushed himself up, I dropped to the floor in a sitting position next to Silence, my feet against the post where the cord was attached. I braced one shoe against the post and jerked on the cord. The little rope was tough and I couldn’t break it. I shifted to a better position and jerked again and again.

  The cord frayed a little at the nick, held fast, then came free.

  In my peripheral vision I saw Power swinging the maul at me. I rolled, throwing Silence to the side.

  Power slammed the maul into the wood where I had just been. I yelled, “Run, Silence! Run!”

  She bolted up and out of the horse stall, trailing a piece of cord from her right wrist. She ran to the back door of the barn, and grabbed at the latch as Power, newly energized, kicked me in the side. I felt a sharp crack in a rib, but my focus was on the sound of the back door sliding sideways and Silence’s footsteps running into the night.

  Power launched another kick at my side, but I bent and took his foot the way a wide receiver picks the pigskin out of the air. I twisted and his momentum carried him over my body. As he fell, he kicked out with his other foot, grazing my head.

  Power scrambled to his feet and I pushed up, a sharp pain ripping through my side. Power took three big steps and grabbed the pitchfork as Spot charged in through the door Silence had run out.

  Spot raced over to me and jumped, happy as hell to find me. Then he turned, sensing the danger from Power. He growled. Power raised the pitchfork as if to throw it. I grabbed Spot’s collar and held him back. Power glanced again at the braced door as the motorcycles got even louder. Then he turned and ran out the back door into the night.

  “Spot, c’mere,” I stepped into the horse stall where Silence had been tied. I looked for something of hers to scent him on, hoping for a lost hat or mitten, but there was nothing.

  Nothing but the cord she’d been tied with. It wasn’t much. I grabbed the cord and balled it up. “Smell this, Spot!” He was confused by the commotion, but he obeyed. I stuck the balled cord on his nose, rubbed it back and forth. “Do you have the scent, Spot? Do you?”

  I pulled him over to where Silence had been sitting. I put his nose to the floor. “Do you have the scent? Find Silence! Find her and guard her!”

  I directed him toward the open back door. He stuck his nose on the floor, then lifted it high into the air, searching for an air scent. He waved his head up and down and to the side, nostrils flexing. Then he alerted on a scent coming in the door and he ran out, nose held high, and disappeared into the dark forest.

  I ran out after him into a forest lit up and throbbing with a bass rumble. An arc of spotlights illuminated the forest. Motorcycle headlights. They were scattered through the woods so that their headlights shined all directions through the trees. The bikes were all up on their center stands, engines running, no riders.

  The bikers, twelve or fourteen in all, had come out of the woods around Power and drew together in a closing circle as he dashed this way and that, threatening them with his pitchfork but realizing he couldn’t escape.

  They pulled the circle in tighter until it was twenty feet across with Power in the center.

  Power stabbed his pitchfork toward the bikers. I thought he’d claim another victim before he was subdued, but one of the bikers swung a chain and it wrapped around Power’s legs. The biker gave it a jerk and Power went down.

  The bikers rushed in around Power. A vicious pack mentality permeated the night.

  I shouted at the top of my voice. “Hold him, but don’t hurt him!”

  I turned to see an SUV cruiser
pull into the drive, red lights flashing. Another followed closely behind. I ran toward them, trying to keep my face in the headlight beams, my hands up so they could see I was unarmed.

  Mallory jumped out of one SUV and trotted toward me just as Diamond materialized out of the darkness.

  Diamond said, “Find the girl?”

  A half second later Mallory called, “Where are we at?” He came rushing up the drive, breathing hard.

  “Lost the girl to the forest. I sent Spot after her. We need a search and rescue team. Preferably a chopper. There’s a canyon up there with steep cliffs. Best to search from the air.”

  “What about Dr. Power?!” Mallory demanded.

  I pointed toward the circle of bikers. “Tony Go’s men have him. With luck they haven’t done much more than scare him to death.”

  Mallory glanced at Diamond as if irritated at seeing a cop from another county and even another state in his jurisdiction.

  “Your territory,” Diamond said. “Your collar.”

  Mallory hustled up to the circle of bikers.

  Diamond said to me, “I’ll see what I can do about a search. I know some of those boys on the El Dorado search and rescue team.” He vanished into the night.

  “Street!” I called out. “Can you hear me?”

  “Right here.” She appeared at my side and gave me a quick hug. She’d brought a flashlight and it shined at the ground. “I heard you say that Silence is in the forest.”

  “Yeah. Brave kid. She saw her chance and ran past Power even though he was armed with a splitting maul. She ran into the woods. Maybe Spot will find her. Maybe not. I had nothing to scent him on but a tiny bit of cord. I’m hoping he picked up a general scent from the horse stall where she’d been tied.”

  “How can I help?” Her eyes were large and earnest and worried, and they reminded me of the other times when my work had put her up against that darkness that no civilian should ever have to face. I knew the best thing for all of us was to focus on the task at hand.