You Can't Run

by Hope E. Davis

  Kevin rubbed his forehead. “He gave me the address when he first started working for me of course, I would have to call the office to get the exact address now, but I believe it was somewhere on Blake Street.”

  Kevin watched as Atlas froze. “What did you say?”

  “It was an apartment on Blake Street, he was subletting from someone. I never went there. We always just hung out at Vance’s place because it seemed to be easier.”

  He put down his pen and pinched the bridge of his nose.

  Kevin was really confused now, but he didn’t want to make himself look like an idiot, so he just stayed quiet.

  Atlas pulled out his phone and dialed while Kevin looked on.

  “Get all the units you can headed out east. Yeah, I think it’s our guy. Black Chevy Silverado. I’ve got guys looking for the plates now. Yes, keep the units at Blake Street in case he comes back there.”

  He hung up the phone. “You’re welcome to stay here if you want, or you can leave. But do me a favor, can you contact Vance’s parents? We can do it if you don’t want to, but I think it will sound better coming from you than me.”

  Kevin nodded as Atlas left the room in a hurry. He pulled his phone out from his pocket, pausing when he unlocked it and the background picture was a photo from a hiking trip him and Vance had taken a few years before.

  On Sunday, when Vance had pulled him aside to say goodbye, it had sounded so much like he was giving up. And Kevin had said so. They hadn’t exactly argued, but now Kevin understood why he had wanted to say goodbye so soon. He had known something bad was coming.

  Why hadn’t he gone to check on Vance last night instead of sending Trevor?

  He knew there was no use in thinking about the past now, but he just hoped Naya was okay wherever she was. And that Atlas would find her, and quick.

  He found Vance and Naya’s mothers’ number in his phone and pressed dial, closing his eyes and leaning back in the chair while he waited for her to answer.

  “Hey Kevin! How’s Vance?” She answered in such a cheerful voice Kevin found himself tongue tied for the second time that day.

  “Uh.” He choked as he tried to formulate the words.

  “Kevin?” Vance’s mother could immediately tell this was not a social call.

  “You better come back. He… uh… this morning.” He managed to get out eventually, trying to hold himself together by avoiding the actual words.

  “No!” Vance’s mom started sobbing into the phone. “Naya, let me talk to Naya.”

  Kevin’s chest seized as he realized that he had not once piece of bad news, but two to deliver.

  “Uh, oh God, Mrs. Largusa I-I-I...” He paused and took a breath; he could do this. “Naya is missing.”

  “WHAT?!” She screamed into the phone then she heard her call for Naya’s father who must have been in another room. He heard her babble incoherently away from the phone for a second before Mr. Largusa answered.

  “Wait, tell me from the beginning. Just what is going on over there?” Kevin could see where Naya got her police officer tendencies from, her dad was all business. He let no emotion into his voice.

  Kevin took a deep breath. He could do this. “Naya’s partner called me this morning because Naya didn’t show up to the office. I went to their house to look for her, and instead I found Vance and he was uh…” He trailed off and the phone line was silent for a moment.

  When he spoke again, his voice was much more somber.

  “So, are you out looking for Naya, do you think she was depressed enough to hurt herself?”

  Kevin thought back to the night when Naya and Vance had said their goodbyes. This was not what this was about, and he knew it. She had been at peace that night. Sad, but at peace. “No sir. I’m at the police station right now, you see, Naya’s car was at the house, and the rug was messed up. They think she may have been taken.”

  “Jesus.” Kevin could tell Mr. Largusa was having trouble dealing with the double blow that he may just be losing both his children at once. “I’m going to have someone drive us up there at once. We will meet you at the police station.”

  “Yes. See you soon.” Kevin hung up the phone, the sound of Mrs. Largusa’s sobs still echoing in his ears. He laid his head back down on the table.

  Atlas came back in at that moment, his face grim. “We have a problem.”

  “What?” Kevin sat back up.

  “There is no Trevor Carlson who owns a truck like you described in the entire state. Not only that, but when we ran the numbers from the driver’s license your office had on file for him, they came back as fake. Trevor probably printed that license himself.”

  Kevin’s jaw dropped. “You mean his name isn’t Trevor?”

  Atlas shook his head and took a seat once again, his notepad and pen ready to go. “I need you to tell me everything you know about this man, right now. Where he came from whatever you can think of.”

  Kevin thought for a moment, and the more he thought the more he realized he didn’t know all that much about Trevor. The guy really hadn’t talked much when they hung out. And at work they had talked about trivial things.

  “Wait, he mentioned once that he was divorced.” That was how they had connected. Kevin had mentioned the end of his recent relationship and Trevor had said his divorce had been finalized recently as well. Now where had he said that it had happened? “I think he moved here from Chicago; he had insinuated his divorce was recent when I met him.”

  “Okay good. Anything else? Did he mention what he did before? Anything about his family?”

  Kevin shook his head. “As weird as it is, I’m suddenly realizing just how, well, little, I know about the guy. We connected over our recently failed relationships when we met, but I think I mostly talked about mine and he would say things like ‘the same thing happened when my divorce was final’ and so on.”

  “Hm.” Atlas stood from the table. “I’m going to go to my computer and do a few searches. If you think of anything else, can you come tell me right away?”

  “Sure.” Kevin put his head in his hands, trying to think of all the conversations he had with Trevor over the past six months. They had all just been so one-sided. And then recently he had begun asking about Naya.

  The guilt came crashing down on him at that. Maybe he had made Naya his target.

  Why had he ignored her the last few days? This was such a mess.

  Wait! He remembered something. He rose from his chair and walked towards Atlas’ desk. “Atlas, I remembered something, his wife, he said her name was Katie.”

  Atlas didn’t look up from his computer. “Of course, the most generic name ever. But thanks Kevin.”

  “No problem.” Kevin turned and went to grab his coffee from the table where it had long gone cold. He took a long sip from the paper cup. He had never felt so ineffective in his life.

  CHAPTER 31

  NAYA

  She walked quietly alongside Trevor for a few yards. He kept her arm twisted behind her back in a painful position which she was sure had dislocated her shoulder, or elbow, or both.

  She saw a dot come into her field view and she quickly realized that it was Trevor’s truck. Time was up. It was fight now or die.

  Before he could tell what was coming, she lifted her leg and kicked him as hard as she could in the groin. She was pretty sure she had missed her mark, but it was enough for him to release the powerful grip on her arm. While he staggered in place, she quickly used a trick she had learned in college to relocate her elbow. It fell back into place with a painful pop. She rolled her shoulder, it seemed to be in place. Good enough.

  Trevor stood up straight, clearly baffled by why she hadn’t run again.

  Using his confusion as a distraction, she quickly rammed the heel of her hand into his nose, hearing a sickening crack as the bone broke. She still had her edge.

  As he grabbed his nose she used her knee to hit him in the groin again, and this time, she hit her target and he doubled over in pain
. Naya could tell immediately that he wasn’t used to dealing with women that could fight back.

  She stepped closer to try a move to get him on his stomach so she could try and get the car keys from his pocket, but he was too quick. He knocked her off her legs the minute she was in range of his long arms.

  She caught herself this time though, as she hadn’t exhausted all her energy running and her will to live keeping her going The minute she propelled herself into a standing position she kicked his stomach as hard as she could, a little bummed he had taken her shoes when he drugged her the night before as it didn’t quite have the impact she wanted.

  He aimed another punch towards Naya’s head, but she was able to dodge and grab his arm, twisting it behind his back in the same way he had done to her. She kicked his feet out from under him, landing with one knee on his back and the other on his neck.

  Naya was under no illusions, although she was a good fighter, she knew she was smaller and she could feel herself tiring, Trevor was definitely going to gain the upper hand and quick if she didn’t make a move. She frisked his pockets, trying to find the car keys.

  “Ha, enjoy your last few moments being a cop.” Naya crushed her knee tighter into his neck. She had about three seconds to come up with a new plan. Trevor’s pockets were empty, the keys were probably in the truck.

  She glanced out of the corner of her eye. The truck was a bit too far to make it on how tired her muscles already were, but she could go for it. Or she could try to make it to the street.

  She made her decision. She quickly pressed her knee into the back of Trevor’s neck, feeling satisfied as he gasped for air. His arms started flailing but she didn’t let up. He was trying to roll over and Naya found her grip loosening, it was okay though. Her plan wasn’t to kill him. She Just needed to hopefully knock him unconscious or tire him enough to get a running start.

  She couldn’t tell if he realized it or not, but at some point, he stopped struggling for just a moment and Naya used the opening to jump up and began running in the direction of the road.

  Her feet immediately protested, not happy about being put to work again. This time she was almost certain she was headed in the direction of the road, and as she looked over her shoulder, she didn’t see Trevor pursuing, which made her feel like she had made the right choice.

  For someone she had been chasing for weeks, Trevor was never someone she would have suspected, which made her think her and Atlas’ profile of the guy had been somewhat incorrect. But there was one thing she knew about this guy, and it was that running would never best him. She would have to outsmart him.

  Please Atlas, she thought to herself, please send cops out east. She hoped that he was already on it and had made the connection that this was their perp. But she wasn’t holding her breath, it was quite the leap to make.

  She noticed something peeking out from the grass up ahead. It was asphalt! Yes! She had made it. She quickly moved to the centerline and began running west. Please, someone be driving this way, she pleaded with the universe.

  After what seemed like forever, she began to slow, her energy stores exhausted at the same time she heard the sound of an engine from behind her. She peeked over her shoulder to see a black truck coming straight for her.

  Fuck!

  She quickly jumped off the road. When she had made her run for the road, she hadn’t thought he would get to his truck that fast. And she had hoped she would see a car before he did. Dammit!

  She pleaded with her feet and legs to keep going as she ran in the grass still west, but also heading slightly north to try and get away from the road a little, to make her harder to follow. She cursed this area of the state of Colorado for having nowhere to hide.

  Suddenly, she heard something in the distance. Was that police sirens? Was she dreaming? Just the thought that she had heard police sirens spurned her legs to move faster. Then she heard an engine rev…

  She looked behind her as he maneuvered the truck off the road. She needed to stay near enough to the road that if those were sirens, that they would see her. But getting him off the pavement had slowed him down considerably, and she needed any help she could get.

  But not enough. He was still gaining on her. And her body was giving out.

  She pushed herself harder than she ever had before, her legs moving almost mechanically. Off of what energy, she wasn’t sure.

  It wasn’t enough. She heard the car squeal to a stop and soon enough he was behind her on foot again. And not far.

  This time when he knocked her off her feet, she felt the cool metal of her own gun pressed to her temple.

  “Get up. And no funny business this time. Or I will shoot you.”

  She stood. “What do you want from me anyway?” Naya decided if she couldn’t fight, it was time to use the last tactic she knew of: conversation. “You know maybe we can help each other out if you tell me just what you plan to do with me.”

  Trevor laughed maniacally. “Ha! You help me? I don’t think so.”

  It was time to prove the theory which had been formulating in her head. Hopefully, it would be enough.

  “Come on, I know those other girls weren’t what you wanted. Julia, Shanice, Alia. But I’m different.”

  “That you are.” She could almost hear the cruel smile which must have spread across his face from where he stood behind her.

  “So why don’t you see if I can help you?”

  “The only way you can help me is by dying.”

  Naya gulped. This had been what she was afraid of. Whatever he needed these women for, death was involved. “Are you going to perform science experiments on me?” She asked bravely.

  “Just your blood.”

  Naya felt her throat go dry, she really was just an unnecessary accessory to him. And that’s why they never found any of the drained blood. Not because he was afraid of getting caught. In fact, now that she thought of it, he wasn’t even wearing gloves now as he held her arm. She wasn’t sure if he usually wore gloves or did away with his prints another way, but whatever this meant, it wasn’t good.

  “Can I ask why?” She mentally crossed her fingers hoping he was the type of killer who liked to brag about the superiority of his reasons for murdering.

  “Nope. And that’s enough questions.” He jabbed the gun further into her temple and Naya felt her luck waning. “I’m going to enjoy killing you.” He said, just as they got to his truck.

  Suddenly, the glass of the cab door shattered, a bullet had whizzed by their heads. Naya instinctively ducked.

  “Freeze!” Came the order, just as he was about to shove her in the back seat. He slowly spun, keeping Naya as a human shield although the cab door was already protecting him.

  There were two officers standing in the middle of the road. Naya could see their squad car parked not too far away. They must’ve turned off the sirens as they had gotten closer.

  Naya didn’t recognize either of the officers, and she guessed this might be their first situation like this. They couldn’t shoot Trevor without shooting her, but she couldn’t move with the gun to her temple. And if he removed the gun from her temple for even one second, she would react to get her weapon back.

  “Put down the gun Mr. Carlson.” One of the officers called out. “Let Ms. Largusa go, and then we can work this out.”

  “My name isn’t Carlson. And I’m not stupid. I know she’s a detective and I’m not interested in going to jail for life.” He tightened his hold on her arm and Naya felt her recently dislocated elbow protesting.

  “We can make a deal. But you need to let Ms. Largusa go, now.”

  Trevor clearly didn’t like this situation at all.

  “Back up or I shoot.” He threatened as he cocked the pistol. Naya made eye contact with the cop who hadn’t spoken and raised her eyebrows hoping he noticed the signal. He raised his eyebrows back. Okay, he understood.

  She blinked three times to indicate that he had three blinks before she acted. She wasn’t sure this wa
s going to work, but she knew she was out of time and that Trevor had no mental attachment to her whatsoever. He was merely trying to save himself right now.

  She blinked once. She blinked twice. She blinked a third time.

  Then with all her might, she pulled herself downwards, her arm howling at her in pain. Almost simultaneously, she heard the gun fire. From where she wasn’t sure. Then her world went black.

  CHAPTER 32

  KEVIN

  One minute he was just sitting there thinking about how much his life had changed the past twenty-four hours. The next thing he knew, Atlas was screaming on the phone as the office broke into a flurry of activity.

  He sat back and watched, trying not to get into anyone’s way, but at the same time, he wanted to know what Atlas was saying and what was happening.

  “Black truck? That’s him. Turn your sirens off. NOW!” Atlas screamed. “Do NOT let him know you’re coming. Naya may become expendable.”

  He hung up the phone and grabbed his keys, noticing Kevin looking at him with a stricken look on his face.

  “They’ve spotted her. I’ve got to go as backup. Don’t leave. Once the scene is safe, I’ll have an officer bring you.” He stormed out of the office before Kevin even had a chance to agree or disagree.

  He could feel the panic seizing his chest as he thought about what Naya was possibly facing at that moment. But deep inside he knew she could handle it. She was stronger than him emotionally, she had shown that this past weekend. She would keep her head clear under pressure.

  Suddenly, Atlas was back in front of him.

  “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Kevin stood and followed Atlas towards the door without hesitation. “Wait, what happened? I thought you were going to go help?”

  Atlas shook his head. “There was a standoff. But it didn’t go well. We’re going to meet them at the hospital.”

  He felt as if someone had punched him in the gut for the second time that day. “And Naya?”