I was feeling a little smug. Things were going my way now and I was even getting to drive the boat, which was kind of cool. But it had been slow going, taking five days so far. We had stopped at the East end of Jamaica for fuel and minor repairs to the engine. Now my VISA card was smoking almost as much as the boat’s diesel engine.
My cell phone rang, snapping me out of my day dream. Unknown number, uh oh. I made a correction with the wheel to get to needle on the gauge back to the correct heading.
“Yeah.”
“This is Partee. I’ve got the girl,” he growled.
I could not immediately reply. My bowels turned to water and I think I peed a little.
“This will be an easy trade or the girl dies. Where are you?”
“South of Miami. Don’t you hurt a hair on her head!” I screamed, waking the Captain who sat bolt upright, eyes rolling wildly and looking for a fight. Yelling only made my strength fly away faster. The thought of Tammy’s little angel Hannah in the hands of a goon like Partee - I couldn’t bear it.
“She’s fine. We got her watching ‘Saved by the Bell’ reruns on TVland.”
Hardly age appropriate, I thought. What should I expect from these lowlifes, though? “Listen, I know some people in Miami. Call me when you get there and will make arrangements or the girl dies.”
My mind raced; spinning. I called Mom’s number, she would be sick with worry. I hoped she and Ruby had not been hurt during the kidnapping. Ruby answered.
“Honey, Hannah is taking a nap. Tammy just went to work.”
I zoned out, as I heard myself tell Ruby not to worry, false alarm.
Partee had just said the girl, I immediately thought Hannah. I dialed Tammy’s cell number.
“I just pulled into Orby’s. Rust, Ruby is really great, I love staying at your Mom’s house. Have you got a line on my other Truck?”
“Yeah, it’s in Oakridge. Listen, be careful. If you see any suspicious characters, call me and I will have Fred Smithey come by.”
“I am going to Orby’s, everybody who comes through the door is suspicious. Besides, Fred Smithey wouldn’t be worth a darn at stopping these guys, they’re pros.”
I was about to hang up, but that stopped me.
“How do you know Fred Smithey?” I asked.
“He’s been sniffing around here drinking after work and he has been hitting on my friend Kim.”
“Pregnant Kim?” Oh God.
“Yeah, she sees him as the old fatherly type that she can snare to help raise this kid. He sees her as someone with awesome baby boobs. Remember she ain’t married.”
“Fred is married!”
“Not for long. I think she has been spending the last couple nights at his place,” she said.
“He’s staying at my place!”
“Look’s like you got a lil’ love nest.”
My stomach was turning again. I was definitely going to buy new sheets.
“I gotta go,” I hung up.
My mind thought in circles and then reached around and began eating itself. Partee was bluffing? I was about to arrive at a conclusion when my phone rang. The caller ID: Wendy Forsythe.
I hit the green button. I tried to say hello, but the sound that came through the phone pushed that away. An almost inhuman wail started and eventually got so loud it distorted the tiny speaker, but I never pulled the phone back. Guilt, washed over me like salt water over a slug. Somehow I had been followed to Wendy’s house. I cared about Wendy, Partee was not blind to that fact. A whole new rage flared through me.
I listened to Wendy, between gasps she explained that her daughter, Briana, had gotten off the bus according to the school bus driver, but had never made it home. She was sobbing hysterically, trying to talk but little of what came out made sense.
“I know what to do now. Don’t worry, I’ll get Briana back.” Wheels were turning. I hung up.
I called Jacobo’s parents and left him a message for him.
My phone rang again: Willie Crandle.
“Willie, this is a terrible time. Can I call right back.”
“Oh, so you’ve heard?”
“Heard, what do you mean?”
“You know, from the bank.”
“I don’t know. What happened?” My face was hot with frustration.
“Rust, you are about $15,000 overdrawn. The bank called me because they couldn’t reach you.”
“You must be joking.”
“Hardly. Somebody was holding a bunch of your checks and ran them through all at once. Listen, they say that they can give you a line of credit as a second mortgage on your house. Is that okay?” Willie asked.
“Do it then!” I was screaming. “I gotta go, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
What else could happen? No, wait, don’t even think that.
Chapter 46
I had Fred Smithey on the line.
“Bell Buoy Sea Food Market, it’s in Edisto, South Carolina. We’re headed there now,” I barked. “You can find it. Just drive to Edisto and ask anybody, they’ll tell you how to get to the Bell Buoy.”
“I am overworked already and I want to be home at night with Kim,” he hissed.
“Bring her with you. Expense it, and I’ll pay you back. I need you to do this. I can’t be in two places at once.”
I could get close though with these switching trucks.
Maybe Smithey sensed the panic behind my pleading. He finally agreed to meet me in Edisto. I could hear Kim in the background complaining that her feet would swell during the drive, but she didn’t say she wouldn’t go. Ah, young love. Well, crusty old dude and young pregnant chick love. Just weird.
I called Partee and lied to him, telling him that my chartered boat was going to arrive at Coconut Grove, north of Miami, in about two hours and that I would bring the truck to the Cheesecake Factory there. Kind of a cheesy (get it?) meeting place but it was all I could come up with right then.
Jacobo called me back. I had him explain to the Captain that he should wait in Edisto until Fred Smithey got there and then turn the truck over to him. I had Jacobo promise the Captain my last thousand in cash to make sure nothing went wrong.
The timing was perfect. We got to Edisto at about four in the morning on Sunday night. There was no security light on the docks behind Bell Buoy Sea Food. Edisto rolls up the streets at about nine o’clock except for a couple bars on the other side of the peninsula. As quietly as I could, I used the Bell Buoy’s boom and winch to lift the truck in its fishing net and move it to shore. It was like playing a high stakes version of the carnival grab game, where you use the tiny crane to pick up a stuffed animal.
The truck cranked and I was able to hide it in a stand of pines and shrub that was between the seafood house and the nearest condo complex. The Captain took the boat out and tied off on a piling in the inter-coastal. We came back to shore in a small dingy.
On shore, I scanned my English/Spanish dictionary for the right words to explain to the Captain what was going to happen. There was no word for teleportation.
I finally boiled down to, ‘two trucks will switch. I will be gone’.
“Dos camiones agrado conmutar. Yo agrado ser ido. Fred aqui cinqo hora,” I said.
It had taken me ten minutes with my dictionary to write down this sentence on a napkin. My hideous Spanish grated on his ears. He listened with a kidney-stone-passing look on his face. His expression changed when I handed him the thousand greenbacks. I had him step back a little. I reminded him the trucks would switch and said Adios. He said Adios and more Spanish, which I took as a thank you. We shook hands.
I called Fred’s cell.
“Fred, where are you?”
“Just hitting the edge of town.”
“You’re kidding me! I just got the truck ashore. You made great time.”
“Woulda got here faster but Kim has to pee every third exit. I kept the car running and waited for her. We did okay.”
“Listen, Fred. I gotta go. The Captain is waiting
for you here and will help you get the truck on the car carrier.”
“Can’t you wait fifteen minutes? I’ll be right there.”
“Nope, a little girl is in danger. I’m leaving now. Just get this truck back to Knoxville, okay? I’ll see you.”
I hung up.
I got in the truck, closed the window and set the cheap digital clock to 3:17 for my third trip through the wormhole. Everything faded as my eyes disintegrated and my mind melted away.
I came to in Tennessee, still in the driver’s seat in the same school gymnasium I had seen before. The halogen lights were off. The soft light of dawn was beginning to creep through the high windows of the gym, making an opaque glare on the varnished wood floor and strange shadows were all around. My mind was stumbling drunkenly, trying to find stable footing. I wasn’t sure if I was me or a shadow of me, thrice removed. These thoughts brought me to the conclusion that all must be well with my brain and soul. At least as well as could be expected.
I would give myself ten minutes to find Briana. I set the timer on my watch for ten minutes and then set the truck’s clock to 3:07. This would save me fumbling with the digital clock to get out of there, when and if I found Briana. I quietly opened the truck door and wobbled out. Just then Slink rounded the corner and ran up to me.
“You are gonna stop me?” I snarled. Slink turned white.
“Parteeeee!” He screamed, and then retched.
“Where’s the girl?” I said this quietly.
“Parteeee!” Slick yelled again. The look on his face said he was about to vomit. I looked at each of the two entrance doors, waiting. Finally I decided to go look for Briana myself. To punish Slink, I threatened him.
“I’m gonna punch your teeth in and kick your nuts up into your stomach!” I screamed at him.
Slink doubled over and vomited what looked like barbeque and fried okra.
I ran out a door next to the stage. I was in a darkened hallway of what looked like an elementary school. I ran down the hall, my steps echoing loudly on the dusty tiled floor. I figured a delinquent like Partee would take over the power center of the abandoned school, the principal’s office. I hustled down the hall toward what I hoped was the front of the school. Making a right at a dead end, I ran down another long hall. I was sweating and huffing as I ran.
Lockers flew past in a blur broken periodically by classroom doors. Between gasps, I yelled Briana’s name and tried to listen for an answer. In the pale light from the classroom windows, I could see dusty footprints up and down the hall. I slowed and just followed the footsteps; none of them went into any of the classrooms. I was going more slowly as the halls darkened between the doors and it was hard to see the tracks. One more left and right and I past the front entrance. I started yelling more and I heard some noise coming from the school office.
I burst in and there, chained to a desk in the corner of the office, was Wendy’s Briana. She had runny eye makeup from crying and was looking a little raccoon-ish. I could have hugged her but it was obvious she did not want to be hugged.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Russell Stover, they call me Rust.”
“You! Oh, you have got to be kidding. You’re the reason I’m here. They told me if they held me you would show up. And I was already pissed at you about Mom. She was perfectly happy until you showed up. You show up at our house wasted and she said you’re messing around with a young girl half your age. I prayed for help but I can’t believe you are the one who showed up. And what’s with the priest outfit? Are you here to rescue me or molest me? God has a sense humor now?”
“I……..”
“Look out!” She screamed.
It was too late. A hard shot to my kidney was followed by a kick to my gut. I dropped to the floor in pain before I even realized what was happening.
I rolled and looked up. Partee closed in; his face dark, a glare from the high windows on his chrome dome.
“You just don’t quit do you? You’re like dog shit stuck in the tread of my hiking boots.”
“You stepped in poop and now you are kicking me with those boots?” I said between gasps of shallow breath.
Two more kicks to the stomach and one to the head followed. I guess sarcasm doesn’t pay.
My head rolled back as Partee’s cinder block fists lifted me up by my shirt.
“You’d be dead, but I need my other truck. I used up five years worth of favors with my south Florida connections. It isn’t in Miami, is it?” He kneed me in the groin. My knees buckled, but Partee held me up. I saw stars and planets. The pain owned me. I tried to speak, nothing.
“I can’t hear you, tell it!” He head butted my nose, which exploded with blood.
“South Carolina,” I gasped, head still rolling back and side to side.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
My vision was fading but I heard an unmistakable and loud thwack. Partee threw me down and when he turned, there was Randall Kendrick holding a gun on him.
“That hurt!” Partee screamed grabbing the back of has head, feeling the blood oozing from the back of his lumpy, shaved scalp. He staggered toward Kendrick.
“That always works in the movies, pistol whip to the back of the head and the bad guy drops. You should be unconscious.”
Kendrick sounded nonchalant. He gestured with the gun as he spoke, but finally pointed it at Partee’s forehead.
“This ain’t a movie and I’m not the bad guy, you are!” said Partee.
“Technically, you are both bad gu..”
“Shut up!” They shouted at me simultaneously.
“I’m gonna need to tie you up now so I can take back my intellectual property,” He said to Partee.
“I am gonna have fun killing you,” Partee spat as he took a step forward.
“I can see you won’t go without a fight.”
Kendrick’s shot to Partee’s right knee deafened everyone in the room. I was flattened as Partee’s two hundred fifty pounds landed on me. He writhed, screaming and grabbing his knee. He bled on me, thrashing this way and that, crushing my spleen and possibly other vital organs.
“Get him off me!” I’m not sure if anyone heard me. Partee quieted as he bled some more. Kendrick pushed him off me with his foot.
“Tie him up.”
I got up, shaking as I rose. Briana pulled down an ancient window blind and cut the string from it using the sharp edge of a metal desk drawer.
She gave me the string and I tied Partee to a chair.
We walked by the puddle of Partee’s knee blood. Briana looked up at the dirty ceiling to avoid looking at Partee and the blood pooling under his chair.
“Bye Partee,” I said as Briana and I walked out of the dusty office. Kendrick followed with his gun at our backs.
Chapter 47
I looked back at Randall Kendrick as we walked down the dim, dusty halls toward the gym.
“What are you looking at? Surprised to see me here?” I quickly looked away. Randall was obviously not taking his meds. “You know, Rust, you’re not the only one who can triangulate the location of an object using satellite phone records.”
I had needed Joel at LISA to locate the trucks. I did not have an in at the phone company. I did not know how these trucks did what they did. Science? Nope. To me it was magic. With Kendrick’s pistol pointed at my back, it was hitting home that I was in way over my head. I closed my eyes and prayed that Briana would get back to Wendy safely. That was my prayer. My one wish. Maybe dying in a priest’s outfit would help me get to heaven, although I was dubious. Impersonating a police officer in this life could land you in jail. What would impersonating a priest get you in the afterlife? I shook my head to scatter these thoughts. My stopwatch was showing less than two minutes until the truck teleported. If I timed it right, could I jam Briana and I into the truck before the reaction started? I hoped we would be teleported before being shot.
“If we get out of this I am telling Mom to drop your ass,” Briana hissed
. We were approaching the gym. A minute and a half left.
Slink was standing next to the truck when we entered the gym. Something was wrong. The driver’s side wheels had been removed and the little truck listed to one side, sitting with its brakes and hubs on the gym floor. Tired cogs cranked in my head. I had closed the driver and passenger side windows which would contain the teleporting reaction, as William Madison had instructed. The special rubberized paint coated the rest of the vehicle and the tires insulated the reaction from the ground. Without two of the four tires, would the system fail to activate or would it ground out? Would it continue into the ground? Would it ever stop? The questions were out of control again.
“Partee isn’t here to stop you and I can’t fight you. But I can stop you driving out of here.”
Removing his hat, Slink wiped his sweaty forehead with a rag. Then his hands shot up at the sight of Kendrick with his gun. “Who are you?”
“The name’s Kendrick,” Randal said, pointing the gun first at Slink, then back at us. Briana loathed me, but right now she was glued to me as the only adult there who wasn’t an obvious criminal. Less than a minute left on my watch’s timer.
“Kendrick, Madison told me that this process has to be isolated. The metal brakes touching the…” Bang, the entry door to the school flew open and there was Partee rolling in on a cafeteria cart.
“Here’s Johnny!” He screamed, pushing himself across the gym floor with surprising speed using his good leg.
“You couldn’t tie him any better than that?” Kendrick annoyed, casually waving the gun at me. He was way too relaxed to be armed. Then he braced the pistol with both hands and pointed at Partee’s rolling form. Partee noticed this too and shielded his head with a metal lunch tray from the middle shelf of the cart. Kendrick fired.
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