Holding Smoke

by Steph Post

  “Remember, three sheets to the wind.”

  Ramey looped her arm through his and faked a stumble. If anyone did happen to look out and spot them, they would appear as just another drunk couple from the party, wandering away for a private moment. Ramey forced herself to slow her pace and lean into Judah as they made their way, weaving every now and then, across the lawn to the guesthouse. Fortunately, the front entrance was on the far side, facing a private drive, and as soon as they were no longer visible from the house, Ramey snatched the key Judah pulled from his jacket pocket and climbed the veranda steps. With Judah standing guard at the railing, she tried the key Katerina had given them. The door sprang open. Thankfully, Trent hadn’t changed the locks since the pair had broken up. Ramey darted inside the entryway, found the control panel for the security system, and tapped in the access code on the touchpad. The screen blinked green, the shrill beeping stopped, and Ramey crept back to the open front door. Judah was still at the lattice railing, his neck craned, looking up the meandering circular driveway and then down the path cutting through the trees to the pond. He slunk down to her.

  “I think we’re clear. Katerina told Dinah that the control panel for the stable’s system is upstairs in the master bedroom. Trent wanted to be able to keep an eye on the horse at all hours of the night or something creepy like that. You remember the code for the south stable? It’s a remote system, separate from the guesthouse.”

  Ramey nodded. It was almost as unoriginal as the code she’d just entered.

  “Not easy to forget.”

  Judah turned away, watching the drive again, and Ramey slipped back inside. She kicked off her heels in the entryway, not wanting to leave stab marks across the plush living room carpet, and crept behind the couch and up the stairs, feeling her way in the dark. The hallway at the top was lit only by a sliver of light escaping the cracked bathroom door, but it was enough. From underneath one of the two closed bedroom doors seeped a faint blue glow. Ramey edged down the hallway toward it and silently turned the knob. She pushed into what was clearly Trent’s bedroom and almost tripped over the rumpled comforter, half slung off the end of the king-sized bed. The glow was coming from a computer on the desk, fish bobbing along on a screensaver. Her eyes scanned the room until she found the control panel she was looking for—a flat rectangular box on the wall between a curtained window and the bed’s headboard.

  Ramey picked her way through the mess of strewn dirty socks and underwear to the panel and tapped the screen. It immediately brightened, displaying an array of multicolored icons and, in the corner, a tiny box with the grainy image of a horse’s head inside it. Ramey touched one of the icons and typed in the code Dinah had passed along from Katerina. 7-7-7-7. Bingo. The keypad disappeared, the screen changed, and Ramey found what she was looking for. Disarm. The icon flashed from red to green and a list of the deactivated sensors popped up. Two motion detectors, the camera, and the alarms on the stable’s front and back doors. Ramey waited a moment longer, just in case, but the screen only began to dim. The security system was offline. Now, for the hard part.

  *

  Judah could hear Ramey behind him in the guesthouse, stumbling down the stairs, but he kept his eyes on the driveway. From his vantage point at the railing, he could also just make out the lights on the far side of the main house’s terrace. Aside from the music wafting down from the party, accompanied by occasional whoops and shrieks of laughter, the night was quiet. Not a dog barking, not even a breeze cresting the tops of the Italian Cypresses lining both sides of the drive. Ramey came up beside him, leaning awkwardly as she tugged on her heels. Judah tried not to look at her, keeping his mind only on their next move. He had to.

  “Done?”

  “Done. I raised the blinds and flashed the lights in the upstairs bathroom. Hopefully Dinah saw the signal. If not, well…”

  Ramey snapped the strap of her shoe and bounded down the steps. Judah pulled the door shut behind them, locked it, and followed her down the cobblestone driveway. It didn’t appear that anyone else was out on this part of the estate, but the last thing they needed to encounter was a wandering groundskeeper or Good Samaritan pool boy directing them back to the party. Judah tailed Ramey, still glancing behind him every few steps, until they slipped through the trees and emerged onto a wide, sandy lane lined with crepe myrtles and boxy hedges rearing up out of stone planters. A few yards more, and they squeezed underneath the umbrella of a magnolia tree and down a footpath trampled through mounds of sprawling ivy. Judah was just beginning to think they were lost—one damn topiary looked the same as another—when Ramey peeled off to the right down another winding path that dead-ended in front of the south stable. Shelia was standing beside the closed barn doors, smoking a cigarette. Judah shot her a thumbs-up from across the brick courtyard and Shelia dropped her Capri and ran for the chain-link paddock fence. Judah and Ramey were right behind her.

  “Are we good to go?”

  Judah thumped onto the ground behind Shelia and turned back to help Ramey, but she was already over the fence and hitching her tight dress back down over her thighs. The three of them sprinted around the side of the stable, but when Judah saw the door rolled back to reveal the row of stalls, he hesitated.

  “Just one more thing.”

  He warily stepped one foot through the open doorway, heel first. Nothing happened.

  “We’re good to go.”

  Shelia yanked her lighter out of her apron pocket, sparked it and waved it in a high arc above her head.

  “Hope the boys see it.”

  “They should, it’s dark enough out here.”

  In response, there was a quick flash of headlights from across the paddock and the field beyond. Shelia tucked both her hands into her apron and rocked back on her heels.

  “I hate this shit. What are we, spies from some ’70s B-movie? What happened to cellphones? Texting?”

  “Dinah said we couldn’t trust the reception out here.”

  Shelia glanced around, as if they’d somehow misplaced her.

  “Where is Dinah anyway?”

  Judah shrugged, still watching the field.

  “Ramey signaled her after she disarmed the security system. Hopefully she makes it.”

  Judah stayed with Shelia, waiting for the second flash of headlights. Behind them in the barn, Judah heard Calypso neigh and Ramey curse. He gave up and turned to Shelia.

  “Damnit. Benji probably forgot he needed to signal twice. Elrod should be coming across the field now with the bolt cutters to cut the chain on the cattle gate. Go ahead and meet up with him. We’ll be right behind you with the horse.”

  “Got it.”

  Shelia took off across the paddock and Judah ducked inside the stable. He glanced up at the security camera, mounted high up on the wall across the aisle from the three stalls. It was trained directly on the one occupied stall—Calypso’s, in the middle—and even though Judah knew it was off, it still made him nervous. He peered around the stable, lit only by the carriage lights mounted outside the barn door, looking for Ramey. She stepped out of the tack room at the far end, holding a leather halter in one hand. She hissed at him as she stalked down the aisle.

  “Is this what Dinah said we needed? Shit, I don’t know anything about horses.”

  Judah stared at the complicated mass of straps and buckles in her hand before turning to face Calypso’s Bane. The horse’s head hung over the top of the stall’s open Dutch door and Calypso was eyeing Judah intently. Judah eyed him back, suddenly cognizant of the fact that the horse had a bigger eyeball than him. Had a bigger everything than him. Other than a jagged white stripe beneath his forelock, the horse was a solid jet black, which was at least one point in their favor. He would be slightly less likely to be seen as they dragged his ass all the way across the field to the road. Ramey elbowed Judah and jingled the halter. Neither one of them had yet tried to touch Calypso.

  “You know more than me.”

>   Judah looked at the halter, then back up at Ramey, then back down to her hand. He had no idea what to do.

  “Why don’t you just ask the horse to put the halter on and lead himself out?”

  Judah whipped around. Dinah was standing backlit in the doorway with her hands on her hips. She arched an eyebrow, but Judah only snatched the halter from Ramey and held it out to her, shaking it.

  “Trucks, not horses. Trucks. Remember?”

  Dinah jerked the halter away from him and shouldered him out of her path. She leveled him with a disgusted look while reaching for one of the many nylon lead lines hanging from a hook on the door. Dinah clipped the lead to a ring at the bottom of the halter’s noseband, but the scowl didn’t leave her face.

  “Next time I want to split a half-mil with a crew, I’m going to make sure the idiots actually know something about what they’re stealing.”

  “Hey, you brought us on. You wanted the Cannons. Next time, check your sources better.”

  Dinah ignored him and approached the horse from the left. She held her free hand up to Calypso’s massive head and let him smell her palm. Judah almost told Dinah to hurry it up, but caught himself and bit his tongue. He hated being part of an operation where, it was true, he didn’t know anything about what he was working with. It was a very disconcerting feeling to know he had to rely on Dinah.

  He watched as she rubbed her hand down the horse’s nose and then back between his ears. Calypso tossed his head restlessly, pranced backward, and then rammed his nose into her open palm. Judah almost jumped, but Dinah calmly stroked the horse’s head again. Calypso was so tall that Dinah had to stand on her tiptoes to comb her fingers through his forelock. She went through the motions again with the horse before holding the halter up for him to see. His ears went back and he snorted, but in one smooth motion, Dinah flipped the lead line over Calypso’s head and pulled it down around the right side of his neck. She then guided the horse’s nose through the straps of the halter and buckled it behind his ears. Calypso tossed his head again and bolted against the front of his stall. Judah sprang back as the horse bucked, ramming his chest into the door.

  “Jesus, Dinah. They could hear that racket all the way up at the house. And what about the guy upstairs?”

  Dinah was trying to calm Calypso and she gestured for Judah to come around her and open the bottom half of the stall’s door.

  “The guy upstairs ain’t waking up anytime soon and the house is farther away than you think. Besides, when I left, Robert Orean was hitting on all the debutants in the lounge and Sophia was having a fit about it. If anything, she’ll be pulling the security guards to help wrangle him in.”

  Judah slid the latch open, but quickly got out of the horse’s way as he pushed through the door. Calypso seemed even more enormous now that Judah could see him fully and he half expected him to start bucking like a bronco, trying to tear the place down in a rage now that he was free. Instead, he had become docile, bobbing his head and walking placidly beside Dinah as if they were just going out for a midnight stroll. Judah thought back to what Dinah had told him about Calypso when they’d driven down to Katerina’s together. He’s a stud horse. All he does is eat, get pampered, and get laid. He even has folks helping him out and cheering him on. A stallion doesn’t want for much.

  Dinah and Calypso were already out of the stable and Judah glimpsed Ramey ahead of them, striding across the paddock toward the cattle gate. Judah shoved the stall door closed and followed. Just as he was stepping across the threshold, though, it happened. The motion sensor on the barn’s open doorway squealed as he triggered it passing through. Judah didn’t know how, or why, but the security system was back online. He bolted.

  “Shit, shit, shit!”

  Calypso, spooked by the shrill alarm, was thrashing his head and Dinah was trying to calm the horse, even as she yanked on the lead, urging him to move faster. When Judah caught up with her, Dinah stuffed the end of the lead in his fist and smacked the horse’s side, spurring him into a trot.

  “What the hell, Dinah? What happened?”

  She shook her head, her eyes filled with fear as they jogged alongside Calypso.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “I don’t know! I guess, maybe, it’s one of those new security systems. Trent might’ve gotten a message on his phone alerting him that the system was disarmed. He might just now have rebooted it.”

  Judah jammed the lead back into Dinah’s hand. The horse was her problem.

  “You guess? He might?”

  “I don’t know!”

  Judah needed her to keep it together, so he let it go. He left her behind, sprinting the last few yards to the open gate, but skidded to a halt. He’d expected everyone to be halfway across the field by now, especially once they’d heard the alarm, but Ramey, Shelia, and Elrod were standing as if frozen. Judah waved at them to run.

  “Go! What are you doing? Go!”

  When he reached them, Judah realized that they weren’t moving not because they were afraid—although everyone, even Elrod, had panic scrawled across their faces—but because they were waiting for him.

  “They can’t get the perimeter gate open.”

  “What?”

  Judah turned from Ramey to Elrod, pacing with the bolt cutters swinging at his side. Elrod almost charged Dinah as she came up beside them, still struggling with Calypso.

  “The code you gave us for the automatic gate won’t work. I had to climb over the damn thing to get here. We can’t get it open.”

  Everyone turned to Dinah; she was stricken and couldn’t do much more than mumble.

  “That’s the code Kat gave me. Are you sure—”

  “I’m sure. Benji’s up there pounding away at the keypad, hoping to get lucky, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Me and Levi tried to rip the gate off its track, but that sucker ain’t budging.”

  Shelia’s eyes danced from Dinah to the stable and back.

  “And the alarm?”

  Judah groaned.

  “She doesn’t know.”

  He took off across the field. It was so dark in this corner of the estate, the field lit only by star and moonlight, and by the time he could see the gate, he almost ran up on it. It was tall, six feet at least, made of closely spaced black steel bars. It was climbable, barely, but there was no way they were getting a horse over it. Judah peered up and down the length of the white privacy fence on either side. It was equally as tall, equally as impenetrable. From behind the bars of the gate, Levi growled at him.

  “This ain’t the plan.”

  Judah’s eyes were roving across the gate, searching for a weakness.

  “No shit, Sherlock.”

  At the keypad on the other side, Benji was still frantically entering random numbers. He stuck his head around the gate so Judah could see him.

  “Man, it ain’t working. I tried everything. It won’t open.”

  Ramey, shoes dangling in one hand, came up beside Judah, breathless. Over her shoulder, he could see Elrod and Shelia, not far behind, and though he couldn’t yet make out Dinah, he could hear Calypso snorting. In the distance, a dog howled, followed by several barks, more howls, and then, faintly, shouting. Levi pushed his face up against the bars.

  “What the hell’s that?”

  Judah shut his eyes. He couldn’t focus, he couldn’t think. It couldn’t be happening, this many things going wrong. Shelia, clutching her side, stumbled up to the gate.

  “That would be the sound of someone discovering Calypso’s missing.”

  With eyes still closed, Judah heard Levi snarl.

  “Discovering? What?”

  From behind him, Elrod chimed in as he wheezed.

  “They tripped the alarm. Or the security system didn’t get shut off. Or it come back on, or something.”

  Judah could hear Levi slamming into the bars of the gate, rattling them furiously like a c
aged bear. Shelia started screeching at Levi to be quiet, then there was more clanging, Elrod beating on the gate from this side, everyone yelling at Dinah, Calypso kicking and braying, and, through it all, Ramey at his side.

  “Judah, we need to bail.”

  His eyes snapped open. They were not giving up, not yet. Katerina’s horse trailer was already backed up to the gate, only a few feet away, the ramp down, ready for Calypso. Ready to change their lives, to give the Cannons a future. Half a million dollars. Half a million dollars. The number kept running through Judah’s head, even as more dogs began to bay in the distance.

  “Just one more second. If we can get the gate open, if we can just get Calypso out—”

  “We don’t have a second! We need to run!”

  Now even Ramey was yelling. There was no point in staying quiet; the security guards had to know where they were. They had to already be on their way. Judah launched himself at the bars beside Elrod and leaned, trying to force the gate to slide open along its locked track. Even Shelia was pulling with them, and Benji on the other side, his cane in the grass at his feet. They were all panting and groaning and gasping, but then Ramey shouted over them all.

  “Elrod, the bolt cutters!”

  “Are you nuts? You know how long it would take to cut a horse-sized hole in this—”

  “The chain! It’s an automatic gate. It’s got a chain to pull it open.”

  Judah jumped back to look where Ramey was pointing. On the ground to the right of the gate was a large white box, blending in with the vinyl fence and almost invisible with only the moon above for light. Extending out of the bottom of it was a chain running beside the track of the gate. In their panic, no one but Ramey had spotted it.

  “Jesus, Elrod—”

  But Elrod was already on his knees, scrambling for the bolt cutters he’d flung aside. Judah and Levi gripped the bars, waiting. As soon as he heard a snap of metal and the clink of the fallen chain, Judah heaved, Levi straining across from him. Nothing. The gate still refused to move. Judah risked a glance over his shoulder, suddenly aware of the pinpoints of light bouncing their way. Flashlights, and whoever was carrying them was running. Judah let go of the bars.