Earth's Survivors: box set

by Wendell Sweet

  "Lott road. I don't know about him. She said she saw him a few times. She thought he was cute, but she couldn't get him to notice her," Alice said. She blew her nose once more. The tears seemed to be dried up, Don thought. At least for now. “We... We had a fight about him just the other night... Two nights ago... Mornings, Thursday morning, I guess,” Alice finished.

  "Anything else about him... Anything at all?" Don asked. He filed the fight. He would have to come back to it.

  "She said he worked nights... Drove a truck back and forth to work... That's all I know, honest," she looked over at Sammy who nodded. Done with his bad cop routine.

  "Did you know Billy Jingo at all... I can't remember if I asked you that before," Don said. He knew he had he simply wanted her to answer again.

  "No," Alice said.

  "Didn't know he lived at the end of Lott road... All the way at the end?" Don asked.

  She looked surprised. "No. I didn't know that. I guess that means it was him she thought was cute... Did he do something to her...? Is that it? Did he?" her voice rose slightly and panic crept into it.

  "I don't know... I certainly hope not, Alice, but I don't know," Don said. “He's a bad guy though... I can tell you that. Did time... If there's any other thing you remember I could use the help. He may have done something to her... We just don't know yet,” Don finished. Actually he was pretty sure that Billy Jingo had killed April Evans in the back bedroom of the trailer at the end of Lott road that he called home. All but positive. She saw the accident, gave a statement. She must have seen Jingo take some items from the car, who knew what all. She comes back, maybe just wants to talk it over, let him know she saw it, maybe wants a cut. Jingo panics and kills her. It was coming together in his head.

  Alice looked at him and her eyes began to spill over again. "I couldn't stand that," Alice whispered. "I couldn't."

  He nodded. “Alice... Was the fight just about the cute boy? Jingo?”

  Her eyes filled and then spilled over. “I...” She looked up and held Don's eyes. “I... She.” She sighed, lowered he head and spoke from there. “I thought she was confused... I thought she and I could work it out... I accused her of seeing him.” She looked up and shrugged her shoulders. “That was it... My own stupidity... Maybe it's my fault... Maybe...”

  Don stopped her.” Alice... No one can make decisions for someone else. You thought maybe you had a shot, you took it and she shot you down. Hurts, but it isn't a reason for her to do something stupid or you to take blame on yourself that doesn't belong to you.” He paused as she got herself back together. She bobbed her head after a few seconds.

  "You want me to talk to your boss, get you the rest of the day off, Alice?" Don asked.

  "No, no," she said. "I think I'll go have a cigarette... Then I'll be fine."

  "You know, I was thinking of having one too," Don said. He reached out and took her hand and she came to her feet, "Come on." He made his way to the front door taking her with him. Everyone in the store watched them walk out. The manager raised his hands slightly and looked at Sammy.

  Sammy made a calm down gesture with both hands. "It's fine," he said. "It's fine."

  Billy Jingo

  "Its 3:00 AM, we should probably get going," Billy said. April stirred beside him, circled one arm around him, and pulled him to her.

  "I don't think we really need to go right now," she said in a sleepy voice. Her face was against his chest and she took one nipple into her mouth and nibbled softly, holding it between her teeth.

  It turned out she was right.

  State Street

  Watertown New York

  Jimmy West

  Jimmy looked at his watch, 3:15 AM. He had been in the sleeping city of Watertown for two hours. He had spoken personally with Murphy's man in the Sheriff's department, and another he had in the city police department. Then he had taken a call on his other cell phone from Weston's girl Friday, Alice. He had often wondered about Alice. A woman who served one man only and could order death like a chicken sandwich in a restaurant. What did she look like. What kind of woman was she in the sack. Maybe someday he would know.

  That phone call set everything in perspective for him. It didn't tell him what the item or items were, but it told him that somehow Tommy Murphy and Jefferson Prescott had managed to steal something damn important from the military base. How in hell they had worked that out was beyond him. How Weston thought he could keep it on the down low and get his missing items back was also beyond him. If he was looking for someone to take his money Jimmy could do that. As for returning the missing items, which thanks to Tommy he knew were hidden in the bales of pot, he would have to decide what to do when he came to that bridge. As for earning his money from Weston, he already had news for him. He wondered what he would do when Jimmy told his girl Friday that it was Jefferson Prescott and Tommy Murphy who were involved and that because of that the price just went up. Maybe he could squeeze a little more information out of him, via her, about what it was he was after. As for the rest of it, he was putting it together in his head.

  It was no mystery to him what had happened now. He had driven out to Billy Jingo's trailer. The cops were all over it. The kid was missing. And a young girl from down the road that had supposedly witnessed the crash was also missing. The money, the drugs, all gone. Blood, brain tissue and bone, found in Jingo's bedroom. The head and hands and the rest that was in the duffel bag that had been found in the woods behind the kid's trailer, he knew about that. He knew who Carlos Sanchez was, and he knew how he ended up in the duffel bag and why. It didn't concern him.

  What did concern him was that he had turned up behind the kid's trailer. The duffel bag should have been down the road at the Toyota crash site, or still in Neo's car. That meant someone had moved it, taken it. And that said to him that someone had taken everything they could grab from the Toyota before it caught fire and took it down the road to the kid's trailer, as well as the stuff from the Ford. That was the only thing that made sense.

  He had pushed his thinking a little further: The girl had told the cops she had witnessed the wreck, but she had said nothing at all about seeing anyone take anything from either car. The kid, Jingo, had also said he had seen part of the chase, and heard the wreck. They were both lying, had to be, because neither one of them had mentioned seeing anybody taking the drugs and money from the two cars, yet they were missing. And the head and hands had turned up right behind the kid's trailer. That was not coincidence.

  The cops had found the duffel bag behind the trailer, but they did not find the girl's body or Jingo's body. They thought he had killed her in the trailer, but Jimmy knew that the blood and the brain matter that had been found with it had more than likely come from the bags, not Jingo killing the girl, or the girl killing him, for that matter. Thus, the two of them were working together. Had to be.

  There had been a girl's body found in the woods nearby, and that had thrown him for a bit, but that, he had found when he asked, had been two days prior. That girl and this girl had nothing to do with each other at all. No, the girl and Jingo had to be in it together. He had wondered how that might have happened. Had they both come upon it and hooked up? Had they known beforehand? He doubted the later. Most likely they had both come running at the sound and made some sort of alliance right there on the spot.

  Jimmy smiled. He knew he had it figured out right and the cops had it all wrong. It was pretty hard to slip something by him. Let the cops sniff down their dead end road. He was already well on the way to getting some real information about where they might have gotten to.

  Jimmy sipped at his coffee. He was sitting in front of an all night doughnut shop on State Street, drinking his coffee and eating a pastry. It was where the cops hung out. His window was partially down. The air was cold, crisp, and it helped to keep him alert. It had been awhile since he had slept and would probably be awhile more. He dug two more small pills from his pocket, and popped them into his mouth. That would help. In abou
t ten minutes he would be back on his game.

  It only stood to reason, in his mind, that if the two of them had cleaned out the Toyota, then they had cleaned out the Ford that Neo had been driving too. After they had realized what they had stumbled into, it was only a matter of seconds, most likely, before they had figured out the rest. And they had to know that someone would be on their tail and soon. It was too much money. Too much heroin. Too much coke. And they had to have taken all of it with them too, the cops had found nothing at all. And cops would maybe take a little here or there, but this was a lot more than a little. No cop had taken it: If they had they would have kicked a little into evidence, as in 'Found at the scene' evidence just to make it all legit. Nothing at all, the drugs, money, or even the other items had turned up in evidence. No mention at all. No, the cops didn't have any of it, the kid, Jingo and the girl had it.

  They would be searching the girl's trailer soon, but Jimmy was convinced that they would find nothing there either. They were gone. They were gone together. And wherever they had gone to they had everything with them.

  The money couldn't be traced. It was all clean. The cocaine and heroin could be traced. That would be a lot to turn up in one place. The pot, so-so, it was a lot, but any small city could easily absorb that much without a blip coming up on radar. The cocaine and heroin would make a splash no matter where it came down, if it came down altogether. He wondered if the kids would know that, or be smart enough to think about that. The other was a mystery. He would have to press Alice hard. He had to at least have an idea of what he was looking for. How else could he look for it?

  He finished the pastry, stuck the napkins and waste back into the bag, crumpled it up, rolled down the window and tossed it toward the steel can that sat on the sidewalk. It missed. Jimmy sighed.

  He sat his coffee on the dashboard, got out, picked up the bag and tossed it into the container. He lit a cigarette and pulled the smoke deep into his lungs.

  New York, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo. One of those four places. If he had to narrow it down even further, he'd choose Syracuse or Rochester. They were the closest. If you were here and needed to hide, those would be the two places to choose from. Narrow it further and you'd come up with Rochester, Syracuse would seem too close. He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and punched in a number.

  Lyell Avenue

  Rochester New York

  Vinny Westley answered the phone behind his bar and listened. He dragged a pad over and wrote as he listened. "Yeah... Yeah," he said at last. "I'll make some calls in a few hours... Maybe... I'll call you back, Jimmy. I'll see." He hung up the phone and looked down at the pad. Tommy Murphy was looking for a couple of young kids on the run with cash and drugs. There would be of good reward for finding them in any condition. Tommy only cared about the merchandise. Not the kids. If they tried to unload any of it here, he'd know. He looked at his watch, 3:45 AM. Fuck it, he thought. He picked up the phone and began to make his phone calls: After all it was Tommy Murphy, best to get on it fast. Not fuck it up. Tommy had a long memory, and that could be a good thing, or it could be a very bad thing.

  Billy Jingo

  "We really should get going, Billy," April said.

  "Oh, like I didn't say that myself?" Billy asked.

  "You may have," April said. She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked up at him.

  "Okay," Billy agreed. April sat up and then stood from the bed. She padded to a large suitcase she had bought yesterday. She stood naked and pondered what to wear. She looked back over her shoulder at Billy, catching him watching. "Put your eyes back in your head, Billy. We have to go," she told him.

  Billy sighed deeply. "But you're so beautiful." The sheet was tented around his waist. She smiled and then walked back to the bed. One hand slid under the sheet and circled him.

  "How are we ever gonna get anything done?" she asked in a husky voice as her lips settled on his own.

  He pulled her onto the bed.

  Bob's Easy Auto

  Lexington Avenue

  Rochester New York

  The phone rang.

  "No... Nothing at all," Robert Robello said as he picked it up. "Well... Hey, I know that name... That... April Evans... That was..." He dragged forward some paperwork on his desk from the day before, nearly spilling his coffee as he did.

  "Yeah... Sold her car yesterday... Cash... Her and her husband, Billy... Billy and April Evans... And... They coughed up about six grand altogether... Cash... From the bank they said... All hundred dollar bills. Hey, there's nothing wrong with that money is there?" he asked. "... Oh? ... Who! ... Jesus, who wants to piss him off... No... No... I don't wanna know. Got a pen?” He rattled off the vehicle description and the plate number into the phone. “Just tell him it was me who passed it along... Fucking-A I will! … I see them again I'll snatch them right up... Yeah... Yeah... You got it, Vinny."

  He hung up the phone and picked up the coffee cup. How did a couple of young kids like that rip off Tommy Murphy, he wondered? Best not to think about it, he told himself. He only wished he had known yesterday. He could have snatched them both up right then... Would have been a good pay off too, probably. Fuck... Well, he told himself, at least Tommy Murphy would know the lead had come from him. That could pay off in the future, he told himself.

  He took a sip from his coffee and then snagged an 'eclair from the box on the desk. He glanced at his watch. 4:30 AM. "Fuck the clogged arteries," he muttered. He took a huge bite from the 'eclair.

  Watertown Center

  Shop and Stock

  Jimmy West

  Jimmy had called people in Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and in Manhattan to be safe. Someone, somewhere, had to have seen the two of them. He pulled into the Shop and Stock, noticing the unmarked cruiser sitting near the front of the store as he did. A dark haired cop stood outside smoking a cigarette. A thin punk-looking girl standing next to him was smoking her own cigarette. The cop was easy to spot, the clothes. It was always cheap suits. Off the rack: Ill fitting. Cheap cotton shirts. Frayed cuffs. Shiny plastic looking shoes with the thick rubber soles. The cop eyed him as he walked by.

  "I wish I had known about the boy at the end of the road," the girl said to the cop in a low voice as Jimmy walked by. A random, barely overheard conversation. It shouldn't have meant something to him, but it did. He knew exactly who she was talking about. He looked up and the cop's eyes were staring back at him. They knew each other. It had been as easy for the cop to spot his kind, as it had been for Jimmy to spot him. Jimmy slid his eyes away and entered the store, leaving the two of them alone out in the cold. He looked around. The other one, they always traveled in pairs, was over by the office nursing a cardboard cup of coffee.

  Jimmy headed down the aisles and picked up a few items. Road stuff. He'd be on the road again soon. He had hoped to talk to a few other people here. His source told him that the girl had worked here, but with the two cops here it wasn't going to happen. Maybe he'd hang around until the cops left, ask a few of his own questions. The skinny girl outside obviously knew something. She was kind of interesting herself. The kind of girl that drew him.

  He was heading for the checkout when his cell phone rang. He opened it, said hello, and then tucked it between his shoulder and chin and listened. He stopped in the aisle and took the phone back into his hand so he could hear better.

  "Right... You did good... I'm on my way there," he told the caller. Someone had dealt directly with the kid and the girl and that information had now made its way to him. He set the few items he had for purchase down on a shelf, and pulled out a small notebook and pen. "Uh huh... Hold on a sec... Go ahead, got it now..." He wrote down the make and model of the truck the two were driving, and the address in Rochester they had used when they bought it.

  He recognized the address immediately. He had even been there himself. It was Neo's place, or one of them. He penned a check next to the address to remind himself to check it out. Pretty ballsy of them to go there
at all. He glanced up and saw the cops backing out of the parking lot, picked up his items and walked to the checkout.

  "Okay... Okay, thanks. I'll be in touch in," he looked at his watch, "About seven or so... Yeah... Okay." He closed the phone, slipped it into his pocket, paid for his items and walked back out. The girl was finishing up her cigarette as he came out.

  She looked up at him.

  "Hey, the detective told me you wouldn't mind answering a few questions?" Jimmy said.

  "But I just talked to him... Who are you?" Alice asked.

  "I know, but he works for the city, I work for the county. We may end up with the case because of what happened now with the girl," Jimmy said.

  He continued past her on his way to his car, unlocked it, and placed his bags on the back seat. "C'mon, you must be freezing. I'll turn on the heater." He got into the car without waiting for her to reply. He started the car as she walked around the front of it and turned the heater up to high. She got in and rubbed her hands over the vents.

  "I am a little cold," Alice said and smiled.

  "Nice to meet you, Alice," Jimmy said. He slipped his gun out of his jacket pocket and pushed it into her chest. Fear leapt onto her face and her mouth began to quiver.

  "Keep smiling, Alice. I'd hate to have to kill you right here," Jimmy said.

  Alice quickly pushed a smile back up onto her face.

  "We're going for a little ride, Alice. If you tell me everything you know, no problem. If you don't," he ground the barrel of the gun into her ribs hard until she cried out in pain. "Yes, I see we understand each other. Put your seat belt on, Alice." Jimmy shifted into reverse and backed out of the lot. He headed for the other side of the city where he could pick up route three for Rochester. There were more than a few isolated areas along the way that he knew about. He could have his conversation with Alice at any of them.

  Billy Jingo

  "Its 5:30," April said. They were on the road heading for the Pennsylvania border. From there they would have to work their way down to the coast: Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. Once there they would stick to the coastline and cut across to Texas and then into Mexico.