by Annie Berdel
Elsie turned and quickly got in the car, locking the doors behind her. The men approached the car now, yelling racial slurs and kicking the sides of the car, scaring the children. Elsie quickly started the car and drove off, looking behind her and flipping the men off.
“Fucking assholes,” she yelled out loud before she realized it.
Pulling off the road about 20 minutes later, Elsie quickly buckled the kids in their seats. Stopping before she got back into the car, she pulled out a map and scanned quickly so she could get back on a main road. “No more stupid mistakes,” she muttered to herself.
She heard the truck throttle down before she saw it come over the rise in the road. Quickly getting back into the car, she pushed the gas down as far as it would go. A little too late though, the truck was upon her before she had the chance to get to full speed.
“Play it cool girl, you got this,” she said, trying to convince herself.
“Hey, pull your la-tee-no ass over,” the man yelled from the window of the truck
Elsie kept her eyes ahead and kept driving, increasing speed
“Fucking bitch won’t pull over! Maybe we need to persuade her,” one man said
The front end of the truck swerved and caught her in the front quarter panel of the car. Elsie hit the brakes before it could do any real damage and came up behind them on the other side. Speed increasing, the men were now pissed to be shown up by a girl driver. “Bitch, pull that car over now, this is the law,” the driver said as he flashed a badge out of the window at her.
Elsie knew she was in trouble if this was the local law enforcement. No calling 911, she was on her own. The truck had circled back to her driver’s side and Elsie gave it a quick glance. The flash caught her eye first and then the sound. The bullet ripped into her side and sliced deep into her flesh.
The shot surprised her as much as the men, as they veered off and disappeared, leaving her to drive off alone. Elsie reached down and felt the blood dripping from her side. Her vision started to drift in and out and she knew she needed to get her foot off of the gas. “Oh God, the kids!” she thought. She had to get them somewhere safe. Looking for a spot to pull the car off the road, she saw the perfect opportunity to lose the car. A creek was visible alongside the road with lots of trees. She could hide in there until she could get help. Pulling the car over, Elsie got the kids out along with their packs. Shoving the car into neutral, she let it roll down the embankment and into the water. She watched it sink.
Grabbing the kids, she set off into the woods. Following the creek for a while, she walked the kids over a bridge that the railway used to get the train cars across the small flow of water. Looking around, she decided to follow the creek for a bit more to see what was off in the distance, if anything at all. The kids were tired, scared and probably hungry. She was exhausted and wanted desperately to check where she had gotten shot. As she peered through the woods towards the top of the hill, she blinked her eyes to try and get clearer vision. The dark outline of a cabin taunted her tired eyes.
45
Sliding her hand gently under the back end of the hen, Emma felt the warm hard shell of the eggs. Not much longer, she thought, and I will have peeps. Feeling sorry for the hen still sitting on the nest, Emma moved some food and water within distance of her just reaching her beak out and taking some of each. Raising kids was such a hard business; Emma thought as her mind went back to the two small visitors. Something was tugging at her gut. Something wasn’t right with this whole picture and she needed to find out what that something was.
Picking up the eggs from the nests that had been abandoned, Emma pulled up the end of her makeshift apron and gently placed them inside. Stepping back out into the sunshine, she watched as the two kids followed Dixon around the yard. He truly was a remarkable animal, his coat gleaming white in the sun. He had helped so many people, whether they realized it or not, get through some pretty traumatic events in their lives. Emma adopted Dixon as a pup. Heading out to pick up a couple goats at a neighboring farm, he happened to have been born on the same farm at roughly the same time. He had bounded his fluffy white pudgy puppy self over to her and stolen her heart within the twinkling of an eye. They had been inseparable since.
Dixon turned his head to look at Emma as she came out of the coop. Rescue me was written all over it. Emma knew it all too well. He wasn’t as young as he used to be. In his young adult life, he would have been giving those kids a ride around the yard. Now, he enjoyed curling up for a nap instead.
Emma took all of them inside and laid the eggs on the counter. She would get to these later. Nap time didn’t sound like a half-bad idea, she thought as she winked at Dixon. Shoes off, hands and faces washed, both kids curled up on opposite sides of the couch. Stretching a quilt over the both of them, she tucked the edges in gave them each a kiss on the forehead. In no time at all, both kids and the dog were fast asleep.
Emma clicked on her computer. It was time to check in with the girls and catch up on some news. Things were still in a steady slide to hell, but each additional day gave them a little more time to be more prepared than the last.
Hitting the news sources, it looked like rolling blackouts were being planned for several cities across the nation. “That’s not going to go over well” Emma thought. How anyone would want to live downtown of a city was beyond her. Whenever they visited Tommy’s family in New York, she was good for about three days and she was ready to leave. It was suffocating. And heaven forbid any type of shit-hit-the-fan scenario happened while they were there. Cities, especially the larger ones like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, were just ticking time bombs. Any city with a by-pass was easy pickings to be turned into an internment camp, or Disaster Recovery Center as FEMA liked to call them now. Her biggest concern was once you entered, would you be able to leave? Would it be for your own good to stay there and would they use force to make that happen? About a year ago, the news was picking up on how even the clergy was getting involved in herding their congregations into these places, but as long and as loud as Emma and her friends were yelling for people to WAKE UP… some still chose to ignore the truth until sometimes it was too late.
Deep in thought, Emma was startled by the back door slamming shut.
“Emma! Emma!” Tom came into the house in a huff along with Kevin.
“Shhhh”! She spat back “The kids are napping…don’t be waking them up!”
“Get Jess over here right away, you need to come see this”
Emma picked up on the tone in her husband’s voice and knew it had to be important.
“She’s on her way,” Kevin replied “Mom, get your coat and boots on”
Quickly gathering what she needed, Emma headed to the back door as Jess was walking through.
“Mom, Dad and Kevin are already in the truck waiting for you,” Jess said planting a quick kiss on her cheek.
“Kids are asleep in the living room. No idea what is going on so not sure when I’ll get back,” Emma said to her as Jess just shook her head.
Kevin was waiting outside the passenger side door of the truck as Emma made her way over and crawled in Tommy’s truck to the middle. Kevin piled in behind her and before he could get the door closed, Tom was in reverse.
“What is going on?” Emma asked.
“Was down in the lower field this morning checking on the winter crops. You’re not gonna like what I found,” Tom said.
Tom pulled off the driveway onto a secondary road which ran between the tree line and the railroad tracks that ran across the bottom of the property. Edging into the field planted with winter rye, he turned onto a rail line access road right before the field ended. He was now dead on facing the creek.
Getting out of the truck, he turned to help Emma out but she had already maneuvered out the other side and past Kevin.
Tom walked them both over to the edge of the river bank and pointed. There, just barely sticking up above the water’s edge, was what looked like the bumper of a car sn
agged in some driftwood.
“Is that…” Emma began not being able to pull her eyes away from the object.
“Yep,” Tommy replied cutting her off before she could finish the sentence.
“Shit.”
“Think anyone is in there?”
“Too late now if they are. Judging from the tracks off the road, it’s been a while since that car went in.”
“Think you can get a make on it?” Emma asked
Tom looked at Kevin. “That’s the plan,” Kevin replied and turned to grab his gear out of the back of the truck
Kevin and Tom were both volunteers for the local fire department. Kevin had attended special training for underwater rescue, which they all thought was necessary considering the number of ponds and lakes on the farms in the area, so he had grabbed his scuba gear when Tom had picked him up.
While Kevin suited up, Tom fastened a safety line to the front bumper of his truck. Walking to the corner of the field, he hopped on the rail line that ran across the creek and hopped down on the opposite side of the river bank.
“Throw me that end,” he said as he pointed at the line.
Emma picked it up and approached the side of the bank, swinging the end of the rope with the weight attached, she swirled it like a Ferris wheel and lobbed it towards Tom on the opposite bank.
As long as she had known the man, he had never been able to catch anything, which was odd considering the number of awesome Latino baseball players out there. He just wasn’t ever going to be one of them, she thought.
Tom tied off the other end of the rope around a tree, making sure it was taut; he then headed back over the railroad bridge to where Emma and Kevin were.
“You ready Moke?” he asked his son, using a family name for Kevin.
“As ready as I’ll ever be!”
“Be careful Mokey” Emma said, using a nickname she had given him growing up
Kevin descended the edge of the bank, holding on the safety line that Tom had installed earlier upstream from the vehicle. Riding with the current, he reached the car in no time. Making sure he was a safe distance in case the car shifted, he dove underwater.
Minutes seemed to turn into hours as Emma paced the river bank.
Emma heard a vehicle driving down the main road and she looked in that direction. Luckily they were well protected from prying eyes with the row of trees and brush along the road. No one would ever guess someone was diving into a car in the creek not more than 100 feet away.
Kevin emerged and signaled for Tom to help him out of the water.
Once his gear was off and he was drying off, Emma started with the rapid fire questions.
“Mom, geesh! Give me a second here.”
“Alright, alright… Just put a wiggle in it.”
The debriefing was easy enough. No bodies found in the vehicle. “Doesn’t mean they hadn’t washed downstream, just meant that they weren’t in the car,” Kevin added. Nothing was in the car, actually. Which Kevin found odd. Car was a rental from the sticker on the bumper and he did get a plate number.
“Think we should all Sheriff Olan?” Kevin asked
“No. Not yet.” Emma replied, her mind spinning “If there were bodies, then I would say yes but since it’s empty, let’s sit on it for a day or two. I’ve got some digging I want to do first.”
Kevin and Tom both looked at her wondering what was going through her mind, both knowing better than to ask.
46
Sheriff Olan and his boys hadn’t had a good night out in quite a while. “All work and no play makes for very grouchy law enforcement,” Ben Olan thought with a smile on his face. He needed to get his self-imposed deputies out of the office and kick back a bit and see what fun was out there. Let them chill and burn off some of that young buck energy they seemed to have.
Calling Deputy Crites into his office, Olan made sure the door was shut behind him and motioned for the man to sit down. “I’m thinking we need to get out, have some fun tonight. What do you sa,y Mike, you game?”
“Sure thing boss, what do you need me to do?” replied the deputy with a grin.
Ben laid out the plan and sent Deputy Crites on his way. They would meet later that night at The Pump, a local convenience store owned by a friend of Ben’s. “After all, the more the merrier, right?” Ben thought as he chuckled to himself.
47
Tom dropped Emma off at the house. The kids were still asleep when they returned so Tom took Kevin and Jessica to their home so Kevin could get a shower. They would drive their own vehicle back over later so they could discuss further what they found in the creek.
“You know your mom isn’t going to let this go ‘til she finds out how that car got in there,” Tom said to Kevin on the drive back.
“Ya, been thinking about that. Not saying there was foul play involved but it’s not every day someone drops a car into the creek,” replied Kevin
“Good, looks like we are on the same page. Let’s beef up some security around the farm until we figure out what is going on.”
Kevin nodded as he got out of the truck. Turning back with a grin on his face, he looked at Tom and said “Think I’ll finally get to take down a drone?”
“I’ll see you later tonight,” Tom said, just shaking his head.
48
Emma checked on the kids, making sure they were still napping. Grabbing some juice, she sat down at her computer and turned it on.
Pulling down a journal from the nearby shelf, she added today’s date and notations on their discovery.
The bright hue of the blinking icon on the computer screen cut through the darkness of the room and caught Emma’s attention. Brian had sent her a message on Facebook to contact him for lunch.
“In due time,” she muttered.
Her fingers were now flying across the keyboard, opening windows… closing….searching. Trail after trail her eyes darting back and forth keeping pace with the tapping of words being entered.
She knew the rental company…. Now to find their database for stolen vehicles. BINGO
Quickly scanning the page, she found a make and model that matched the description.
Missing Rental Cars
Miami - Enterprise Rental Car has reported a 2014 Gray Nissan Murano as not being returned. Anyone knowing the whereabouts, please contact Ted Miles at (305) 534-9037 at the South Beach Branch
Now. To confirm the license plate. That was going to be the tricky part. Calling the police station to run a license check would definitely send up red flags, so that was out of the question.
Digging around on the website, she searched for an office in Minnesota. Gathering the info she needed, she dialed the Miami office and practiced the fine art of bluffing.
“Yes, this is Amy from the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport location. I am calling to get the plate and VIN number on a possible stolen gray Nissan Murano,” Emma spoke into the phone. Holding her breath, she waited.
“Please hold for the manager,” and she was clicked over to the on hold music.
Shit. Now what? Breathe through it and keep calm, she said as she tried desperately to convince herself.
“Sorry for your hold, my name is Neil and I am the general manager, how can I help you?”
Emma repeated herself and thanked Neil for his time. And then waited. It could go one of two ways. Either she will need more information of identification or the dude will just tell her no. Listening intently, she heard what she assumed to be Neil, clicking a keyboard.
“Yes, the numbers are as follows...” the voice said finally coming back across the line
Oh Sweet Baby Moses… it actually worked! Emma’s was so overjoyed that she got the information that it took her a minute to realize Neil was still speaking in the phone.
“Ma’am! Ma’am, are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. Could you tell me to whom it was last rented?”
“Um…yes. An Elsie Baretto. Do you have the vehicle there?”
Elsie
Baretto….Elsie Baretto, Emma was rolling the name over her tongue, absorbing the familiarity of it.
“Ma’am! Do you have the vehicle?”
“Oh! Um no. No. They don’t match. I’m sorry I bothered you.” And she hung up the phone.
Emma took a deep breath and stared down at the name she had she had scribbled on her notepad. Elsie Baretto.
“Oh dear God.”
Her stomach lurched into her throat. Swallowing hard, she stood up and walked into the room where the kids were napping.
What sweet babies, she thought as she stared down at them. What fresh hell have they been through? Turning, she walked into the kitchen to begin cooking dinner.
49
Dirty, worn jeans and wife beaters looked like the standard attire for the group gathered at the small store. Pickup trucks with 4” body lifts, chrome side-step bars running the length of the cab under the doors and big shiny, black tires filled the small parking lot. Music blared from every window, a cross selection from Megadeth to Skynyrd and some Hank thrown in for good measure. RPMs were being teased and tested as neighbors peered out from behind closed curtains at all the commotion.
Sheriff Ben Olan pulled onto the already crowded pavement and slammed the gears of his Ford F-350 into neutral and teased the crowd before slamming the clutch to the floorboards. Maneuvering the beast into first gear, he slowly pressed the accelerator until thick black smoke rolled from his back tires into the crowd. Cheering was heard as these fine, upstanding citizens raised their beer bottles in appreciation of the true sign of selective breeding. “Boys, we have a skid mark on the asphalt,” came the voice over the loud speaker.
Olan stepped down out of his truck onto the pavement amidst his onslaught of worshippers. He wasn’t sheriff tonight…. Tonight he was one of the boys. Looking around, he quickly did a head count of all of his deputies. Not one was missing. Makes it easier to cover his tracks that way, he thought with a slight upturn of the corner of his mouth.