The Reserve

by Matt Shaner

“Okay.” The phone clicked off, and the dial tone sounded. It only took five minutes to realize what needed to be done. I needed to call Shawn. It seemed that the dominos were finally finding their way into place. There was only one way to end this thing. I drove home from work charged up with nerves and scenarios floating through my head.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The Set Up

  After dinner that night, I decided to go back to grade school for information. I wrote a note, planning to go and destroy it later, and dropped it into the space at the bottom of Shawn’s door. I knew when he came home, and he would not miss anything as obvious as the paper. His wife had stopped leaving the house and was not any worry to the plan. The note stated that we needed to talk. He called, let the phone ring once as we planned so long ago when the surveillance started, and we met outside ten minutes later.

  “She wants to see Bryan before she makes an appearance,” I said. I didn’t feel like wasting any time. Shawn laughed.

  “We’re screwed.”

  “I have an idea.” I was already working out how I could get him out of the way. “I’ll show up first.”

  “I thought you said she needed to see proof.”

  “True. We’ll just seat you in the back or something like that. Once she gets into the car, she’s ours.” I tried to sound serious enough.

  “Man, I look nothing like Bryan.”

  “We’ll keep it dark. Just do this. One last time. One more night. We can get rid of her like we did the last time.”

  “What about our lawyer friend? He already threatened us.” Shawn lowered his voice as we both noticed the women going into the kitchen to refresh their wine glasses.

  “He came into work.” I didn’t want to pull it out, but if it provided any confidence, then it would be worth it. Shawn just shot me a look. “He said he wanted our, my, help.”

  “Which one was it?”

  “Our help. He said they are going after Julia, and he needed all of our help.”

  “Sounds like a lie to me.” He dropped his head again.

  “He gave me his card. He said we have time but not much. I called him later.” This was a lie, and I hoped he wouldn’t see through it.

  “So wait, whose side are we on?” He looked flustered.

  “Our own, this is the only way we get free. We need to play them against each other. Just trust me.” I looked him in the eye. He met my gaze and then looked down. I didn’t know it then, but something broke inside him at that moment.

  “I’ll do it.” He turned and walked back to his house. I looked around at the yard and the night sky. Things seemed peaceful. It would be my last peaceful night for a long time.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  D Day

  It was hot, oddly hot in the morning. I remember waking and feeling the sweat on my pillow and not knowing if it was from fear or heat, then standing and having the latter option verified. The shower didn’t help. The air in the house had stopped moving. I dressed and loosened my collar hoping that it would give me some room to breathe.

  Val left the coffee pot on in the kitchen, and reflexively, I poured a cup. As a child, I always felt that certain days on the calendar, like holidays and birthdays, never really meant anything. This morning felt exactly the same. The time passed, but nothing stepped through reality to hit me in the face. The fun was waiting for the evening to begin. My nerves were shot. I needed more sleep. I stepped into the car and drove my way to work.

  The office did not make anything better. I had seventeen waiting emails with the majority of them from a single unhappy client. It was one of those mornings with everything going wrong. I went to the café to get a coffee, and the machine was broken. I returned to the desk with my voice mail light flashing.

  Our phone systems connected to the computers so we could access voice mails from our email. I clicked on the message and plugged in my headset. It was Julia. She said to meet at the same spot as before and to get there an hour earlier. I wondered why she called and left a message. It seemed way too easy and careless. The company saved every email and voicemail message for compliance issues and surely she knew it. She knew everything else so far, so there was no reason for doubt.

  Before my mind could return to the day, the client called in person and pulled me into three hours of a conference call and group meeting. I was ready to kill myself when the meeting ended.

  Over lunch, I stood on the terrace by the cafeteria, the same place where Julia made her surprise appearance, and called Shawn. We only spoke for a minute in the code we established, and I returned to lunch. The sky clouded over and dropped the temperature.

  The rest of the day passed without incident, and night fell on The Reserve. The lights still shone like every other night. Cars drove past now and then. You already know what happened and want to see how it came about, I’m sure. It started when I snuck out, as before, and Shawn met me behind the house. We entered my car, him in the back, and started driving.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  The Showdown

  This is my spin on things. This is not what was mentioned in court. This is not the official version of events. This is not the way the movie people wanted it to play out. I can only say what I witnessed. This is how it went.

  I put Shawn in the back seat to make sure he stayed in darkness. The simplest part of the plan was to get Julia in range of the car, have Shawn throw her into it and take her away and get her out of the picture. We talked about everything and realized that she would be watching from somewhere, so he needed to stay in shadow.

  I pulled up the car in the same spot as the other night. This time the lights in the buildings were off. The security lights were the only things on, and after I examined the perimeter, I realized we were truly alone. This did nothing to improve my nerves. If the plan in my head played out correctly, within the next five minutes this would all be over.

  I called Julia and called the police before we left.

  Some points in life required concern for the most important person involved, you. I realized that if any of the scenarios played out, I would end up in a bad place, so I decided to move the board on my own.

  We were five minutes early. I knew Julia was watching and attempted to keep things as still as possible. I told Shawn she would walk by his side, and he could start the action. We didn’t want to give her a chance to do anything. After she was thrown in the car, I would drive away. Shawn had a crowbar in his lap. He was dressed in all black. I hoped the shadows would distract Julia from the height difference.

  I told the police the opposite story. We set up a sting. They would arrive a few minutes after Julia. I was wearing a wire. The only way to win was to play for myself. A minute after we arrived, the show started.

  Julia pulled up in another black car, this time across from us rather than next to us. She opened the door, stepped out and started walking in our direction. She was facing the car, and over her shoulder, I noticed the glare of binoculars catching my headlights from the lobby of the closest building. I shut them off, hoping she or anyone else in her car, didn’t catch it.

  The wire felt like it was pulsing next to my chest, and beads of sweat started on my forehead. Shawn shifted in the back seat. It felt like her walk was taking forever. Before she went to the door, she shifted direction and went to my window. We prepared for this by having Shawn as covered as possible and in the shadows. I rolled down the window.

  “Why am I not surprised?” She asked. I did not like the way this was starting. She looked straight in my eyes. She wasn’t trying to look in the back and that worried me. She wore a trench coat and still came across as professional as ever.

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I’m paying you to kill him, and you bring me an imposter. Why?” She was making no move to get in the car. Shawn was frozen. I caught him looking int
o my eyes in the mirror. “Do you think this is funny?” The windows in her car were tinted. I didn’t catch it at the time, but the later investigation brought it out.

  The rest seemed like an eternity but only lasted a minute. Julia turned her head back to her car and stood up. She raised her hand, and I recognized what was coming and barely ducked in time. Our front windshield shattered at the impact of a bullet. The lights and sounds from the police filled the inside of the car, and I watched them dance on the ceiling. I heard something like a whisper coming from the back seat. I didn’t notice it at the time, but Shawn had slid behind me. I ducked, and he took the bullet in the throat.

  The car pulled away without Julia. She tried to run. The police outnumbered her, and she was arrested. They took me to a hospital on a precaution.

  Before I went home, an officer took a statement and told me they would be in touch. I called out of work, lay down and left Val a note saying I would talk when I woke up. Then, the next day, all hell broke loose.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Aftermath

  The phone started to ring at six in the morning. I didn’t know until later, that Val disconnected both when she left for work. It was almost noon when I stumbled out of bed. Noises were drifting in from the lawn, and despite having the fan on to drown things out, they were slamming into my head. I looked out the window, and it was a replay of the morning Drew was shot.

  News vehicles were parked all over, and police had blocked off the road and the entrance. I stopped counting at ten cameras. The camera flashes trying to catch a glimpse of me through the window were blinding, and I whipped the curtain shut. I thought of calling Val and then realized she had to have seen it all on her way out and would not be very happy to say the least. I sat on the floor and pondered the next move when I heard a knock on the door. Answering the knock did not seem like a good idea, but hearing the familiar voice of the detective, I went down and paused before the door to ready myself for another blast of blinding light.

  I opened the door, and Detective Williams slipped inside and slammed it shut behind him over the yelling of reporters and glare of flash bulbs. He was alone, and that surprised me.

  “How are you holding up?” he asked. He looked much warmer than the other times we talked.

  “Considering I was within a few inches of life last night, not that bad.” I rubbed my head as it was starting to throb. He handed me a Styrofoam cup of coffee.

  “It’s strong, but I figured you could use it.”

  “Yes sir.” I took a sip, and it tasted horrible. He must have seen the reaction on my face.

  “Cop’s specialty. Now let’s talk.” He was sitting at the kitchen island. I made my way over, but everything seemed too fake and artificial. Reality flipped and stopped.

  “What would you like to know?” The coffee started to take effect, and my vision focused. The events of the night played in my head in a grueling slow motion.

  “I’ll ask you the same question.”

  “How are they?”

  “Okay. I’ll give you the run down. Your friend is in the hospital but in good health. Julia and her driver are in holding cells. Your wife has been briefed already.”

  “She probably wanted to talk to me.” Before I finished the sentence, another knock sounded at the door.

  “That would be your counsel,” he said, and he went to answer the knock. Another flash of lights and sound, another door shutting, and I looked up to see our friend the lawyer. He shook my hand and put his briefcase onto the island.

  “Are the tapes usable?”

  “We have her on everything. She’s not talking, but your tape and the testimony of your friend should give us what we need. We have evidence to back everything up,” he said. He was smiling, too much for my comfort. I decided it was common practice for lawyers.

  “How is Shawn?”

  “He’s awake. We have people at the hospital, and we will talk to him when he’s ready. His wife and family are there.” I never thought about a family. I didn’t know why then and I still don’t, but it seemed like we were the only ones involved.

  “So what do I need to do?” The last word was choked out. I couldn’t think about all the things I needed to do, and everything that would happen to me and us. I needed someone to tell me what the next step was. I looked at the detective, and he read my mind.

  “Come down to the station. We will not make you leave here in cuffs. As of now, you are a witness.” That word stuck in my head and provided me with some measure of comfort. I managed to get dressed and ready, and we paused before the door. The detective took position in the lead, and the lawyer stood next to me. It played out like they had scripted the entire thing.

  We opened the door, and the crowd had not diminished. The police made a line to fight back the people, and I assumed the detective radioed them to be prepared. The flash bulbs popped and questions flowed in our direction. Both men leaned over to me and said not to talk, and we started walking to a waiting car that faced the exit.

  The questions came fast and furious. I remember the blur of the sound wave combining into one large moan that filled the atmosphere. The walk must have taken a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Before I could react, we were in the car and moving towards the city and the courthouse. The landscape that I valued so much and stopped noticing flowed around the car. My mind replayed the accident that started everything.

  Chapter Forty

  The Courthouse

  The security guard laughed. He stood and watched us with a loosely tucked uniform and badge hanging at a diagonal angle. We walked around the metal detector.

  “Louie has stood by that door every day for the last twenty-two years,” the lawyer said. We walked up a large flight of stone stairs flanked with two gold lion statues. After four turns, we stopped in front of a glass door. The window read, Thomas Evans Esq. Public Defender.

  The office looked exactly as a lawyer’s should look. A desk fit across the entire back wall. The chairs were modern, and his desk furniture reflected someone with good taste but just an ounce too proud.

  “Have a seat.” He gestured to his chair in a move that he had repeated numerous times over the last few years. I sat.

  “Can I get you anything?”

  “No. I’m fine.” My voice didn’t sound real.

  “Another coffee?”

  I was starting to hate this guy. “No, really, I’m fine.” I noticed he had files on his desk. My name was on a tab under one.

  “Shall we get started?” He unfolded his laptop.

  “On what?”

  “Testimony.”

  Two hours later, he invited me to lunch. Over a poor sandwich from the truck outside, I asked about Shawn’s condition. He mentioned that Shawn was his appointment tomorrow. He was building a large case against Julia. He uncovered some dark connections, criminal activities, so on and so on. It felt like fluff to smooth things over and make me comfortable in court.

  “By the way,” he said between bites, “we start in a week.” The next swallow of my drink didn’t go that well.

  After the meeting, I drove back to the house thinking things over. I had not called work and did not care at that point. Over my time in his office, he explained the buildup of the case. I went over everything and left out the whole fact of killing Bryan. As far as he knew, Bryan was gone somewhere hidden away, and the fire that he saw us at was Julia’s attempt to cover up any evidence of her crime. He expected Shawn and I to testify to these things. Things were out of hand before, and now they reached the tipping point. I thought back to the closing day where everything seemed to be possible and looking up. Now we were in a hole that could get no deeper.

  The route home was familiar as my office stood five minutes down the road from the courthouse. People were outside walking around and enjoying the day, and I
watched families on the sidewalk. That should have been us, Val and I. Normal wasn’t part of our destiny.

  During the meeting, he briefed us that the District Attorney would be handling the prosecution himself. We would testify and only be questioned by him. The defense attorney was flown in from New York and was considered to be the one of the best in the country, and that was no surprise. I decided to visit Shawn since the hospital was on the way home, and Val still was not off work. After stopping to grab a coffee, the place was only five more minutes down the road.

  Chapter Forty-One

  The Visit

  Hospitals always have and always will weird me out. Some family members were employed in them, and I never passed that feeling of not being meant to be there. From what the elderly receptionist said, Shawn was now out of intensive care and recovering in his own room on the fifth floor. I walked past the desk to the row of elevators and punched the button. The doors swung open, and a pair of doctors looked out at me. I hoped they would exit, but they did not, and I stepped in.

  The ride was fast. The doctors exited on the third floor. My stop was the fifth floor, and after stepping out for the first time, it hit me as white and sterile. I had a choice in the hall of left or right, and I went right, screwed up, turned around and found him in the last room on the corner. No one was there, and that took a small weight off my shoulders. I walked in, and he was watching television. He turned his head and looked at me.

  “I’ve seen better,” I said, trying to break the ice.

  “Not in this place,” he laughed and coughed. His neck was scarred from the respirator and wound.

  “How is everyone?”

  “Erica is fine, mad but fine. The rest of them are okay.”