by Brad Cooper
Lilly regained his footing and lunged at Adam, the knife still held pointing outward in his right hand. Adam backed away from the first strike and balanced himself, waiting for Lilly’s next attempt. Clark started to back away but circled to his right at the same time.
Lilly lunged again and Adam sidestepped the attempt. Both men were breathing heavily. Lilly’s third wild lunge was his mistake. He jabbed straight forward and Adam latched onto his arm. He immediately pulled back on Lilly’s forearm, nearly hyper-extending the elbow, causing the knife to drop to the floor. Lilly groaned in pain and flailed his left arm in desperation, trying to regain the advantage in leverage. Adam wrestled him to the floor and placed his knee in the middle of his back.
Amick slowly sat up before hurriedly crawling toward the area beside the television. The cassette he was there to retrieve sat on the top of the pile. Ryan saw him out of the corner of his eye and started in his direction. Before he took a step, Adam released his hold on Lilly and started toward Amick. Ryan stepped back across the room toward Lilly, who was now kneeling on all fours and trying to stand.
Amick grabbed the cassette and started to turn around. Adam was two steps away from him. Amick turned and hit Adam cleanly with a right cross outside of his field of vision, knocking him to the ground.
Ryan attempted to kick but his foot was caught by Lilly in midair, causing him to lose his balance. Clark freed his foot from Lilly’s grip and kicked the knife out of Lilly’s reach. Lilly got to his feet quickly, grabbed Clark, and threw him aside. Clark regained his balance and tripped Lilly as he went by. As Lilly fell, Ryan reached out and grabbed the mask covering Lilly’s face. The fall combined with Ryan’s grip pulled the mask from Lilly’s head, exposing the face that had been hidden.
Instinctively, Lilly turned around, allowing Ryan to see his face clearly for the first time.
Amick backed away, the cassette in his hand. Adam started toward him but Amick drew his handgun and pointed it directly at the young man’s chest. “Stop right there!” Amick’s voice boomed. Adam raised his hands and backed away.
Ryan still held Lilly’s mask in his hand. He turned his head to see Amick pointing the revolver at Adam.
“Come on!” Amick said loudly.
Lilly ran out the door without turning back in Ryan’s direction. Amick kept the gun in Ryan and Adam’s direction, alternating back and forth as he backed through the door.
Both Ryan and Adam were perspiring profusely. Sweat was rolling off of Adam’s bare chest. Half of Ryan’s once white t-shirt was now saturated with crimson red. Blood from the knife wound on his arm was out of control and streaming down his arm. The top of the clean side of his shirt was becoming red from the blood trickling down his face, a product of the cut over his eye.
“What the hell was that?” Adam said, still staring out the door. “Oh, my God,” he said, running to Ryan, who was slumping toward the ground slowly with his back flat against the wall.
Adam lifted the sleeve from Ryan’s arm, exposing the fresh wound. Ryan gnashed his teeth in pain before laying on his back in exhaustion. His thin wire-rimmed glasses were bent but not broken. Adam removed them from Ryan’s face and looked for a way to care for the cut.
“Go get towel or something. I’ll stop it for now,” Ryan said through the pain. “Get some alcohol too, if we have any.”
“You sure about that?” Adam asked with a grimace, imagining the pain that the alcohol would produce on the open wound.
“We can’t very well go to a hospital can we? Did you see who that was?”
“No. Did you?”
“Yeah,” Ryan said, nearly out of breath. “Just get it. I’ll tell you in a minute.” A minute later, Adam returned with the belt, a washcloth, and a bottle of isopropyl alcohol. “Do it,” Ryan said, glaring directly into Adam’s eyes.
Adam poured the alcohol into the wound. Ryan screamed in pain, through gritted teeth, before groaning and breathing heavily as he accustomed himself to the sensation. Adam covered the wound with the washcloth and leaned on Ryan’s arm with all of his two hundred and twenty-five pounds.
Clark’s consciousness was fading. Dizziness was setting in from the loss of blood and his strength was virtually drained. His head bobbed side to side involuntarily. Standing was no longer an option. Then came an adrenaline burst as a thought entered his mind. “Kara,” he said, trying to stand but restrained by Adam.
“What about her? What’s going on?” Adam asked. The bleeding had slowed down dramatically.
“They might go over there next. Call her.” Clark persisted in his attempts to stand but Adam remained in control.
“Who might go over there? What are you talking about?”
Ryan held up the black cotton mask he’d torn from Lilly’s head and said, “I ripped this off of him. That was the cop that came by today. Lilly, or whatever.” Then a pause and, “Oh, no. Wait… look over there. I think they grabbed it.”
Adam hurried over to the area beside the television stand. He looked for a moment before sighing and dropping his head in disappointment. “It’s gone,” he said. “He took it.” Adam kicked the wicker basket over in anger, scattering the pile of video cassettes, DVDs, and magazines across the floor.
Kara squinted, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the light, while she listened to Ryan’s voice on the other end of the line. “You what?” she asked. She listened to his response and said, “Yeah, of course, I’ll be right there,” before hanging up the phone.
She was not exactly ready for a commute at 3:30 AM. She wore a giant t-shirt and a pair of men’s boxer shorts to sleep in, a pair she had stolen from Ryan’s dresser several years before simply because she liked them, but was quickly changed into a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and hooded sweatshirt.
She rushed out the door and jumped into her car. The usual three minute travel time was cut in half. Turning into the driveway in front of Ryan’s house, Kara pushed the brake pedal to the floor, slid to a stop on the loose gravel, and ran into the house.
Her first visual image was Ryan slumped on the floor against the wall, his torn t-shirt covered in blood.
Kara ran to him and said, “Oh, my God! Are you alright? What happened?” All three statements ran together without waiting for an answer from Clark.
“It’s fine. We had a little break-in but we ran them off,” Ryan grunted.
“Not, it’s not fine. Look at you! You could have gotten yourself killed! What were you thinking?”
“What were we going to do? Call the police?” he said.
The wound on his arm had almost stopped bleeding but a cut over his eye was still turning out a steady stream. Kara ran to the kitchen and returned with another washcloth, this one dark blue to hide the appearance of dark red. She dabbed the cloth in alcohol and gently pressed it to the cut over Ryan’s eye. He groaned in pain.
“Oh, shut up, you big baby. You get yourself stabbed and you’re telling me that hurt?” She helped him sit up in more of an upright fashion and said, “What were you thinking?” Then to Adam: “Both of you! Were either of you thinking? Please… tell me.” She slapped Adam with an open hand on the arm and waited for an answer.
“I’d tell you but you might not believe it. Even if you did believe it, you’re not going to like it any more than we do,” said Adam.
“What?” she asked.
“See the mask he’s holding?” Adam asked.
“What about it?”
Ryan continued the answer saying, “I yanked this off his head before they ran out. He looked right at me. His last name’s Lilly. I don’t remember his first name but I know who he is.” Clark paused slightly between each sentence.
Not convinced of the severity of the problem surrounding his identity, she said, “So? Who is he?”
“He’s a cop. Specifically, a Spring Creek cop. He’s one of the guys from the tape. Do you remember him? He’s been around for a long time. He was here earlier today asking questions. Then this happens and…” he groane
d in pain again, unable to finish the sentence. Kara reached for his hand, her only means of giving comfort.
“And,” Adam continued, “then these guys show up and the tape’s gone. That’s all that’s gone. The original tape. Nothing else is missing. This is the only room they were in. The lamp’s broke and the room looks like part of the house exploded but the tape is all they took.”
Ryan shifted his position and said to Kara, “That’s why I called you. If they came here, they might have gone over there next. I don’t want you over there alone with all this going on, especially not tonight.” Then to Adam: “Go call Lisa. Get her over here too.”
“Ryan, this needs stitched up. Now,” Adam said.
“It’ll be fine. I’ll just keep it wrapped tight and change the dressing every so often. If it’s not doing too well tomorrow, we’ll go to the hospital. Go call her.”
Adam went to the phone and dialed her number. Ryan was relieved only when he heard Adam begin speaking to her. Kara maintained her grip on Ryan’s hand and sat beside him, her back against the wall just as his was. The fact that most of his shirt was bloody was unimportant to her. She leaned her head onto his shoulder and sat quietly with him, no words necessary.
Five miles away, Darrell Sparks was in bed, awake and unable to sleep for a myriad of reasons. The air conditioning had been broken for weeks but calling a repairman was not a priority at the time. Now he wished he would have taken the financial hit and had it serviced. However it wasn’t the summer heat that was the source of his temperature control problem or his insomnia. His conscience was keeping him awake. He was fully aware of what was supposed to be going on several miles away. He was not an active participant but he was an accessory. He was a police chief. He knew the law like the back of his own hand.
He sat up, dabbed a towel on his forehead, and lay back down on the bed, staring upward at the bare white ceiling. “What have I done?” he whispered to himself.
CHAPTER
20
As he ran, Amick wished he had taken his physical fitness more seriously over the last decade. After less than a half mile he was badly out of breath and falling behind the younger Carl Lilly, who was effortlessly pulling away from him. Their route to where the car was parked for their escape led them across the creek and into a wooded area.
“Wait… wait…” Amick said gasping for air. They were completely hidden among the trees. The rest period wasn’t a risk for the moment.
Lilly stopped just ahead and walked back to where Amick stood with his hands on his knees as he panted. “You okay, Frank?” he asked. He was sweating but his breathing was not nearly as labored as Amick’s.
“I’m fine. I just need a minute,” he said before raising himself up. He pushed Lilly in the shoulder and said, “What the hell were you thinking? Not only did the mask get ripped off but you looked right at him!”
“I know what happened, Frankie, but it ain’t like I meant for it to happen.”
“Don’t call me that again. Got it?”
“What? I always call you that. Done it for years.”
Amick collected enough breath to speak and said, “That’s what Alvin called me when that pop can woke him up the night I planted the gun on him. He had no clue what was going on or what I was there to do. All I hear in my head is him saying my name like that, just like he did for years. Since I was a kid.”
“I didn’t know. And I didn’t mean to let that kid see my face back there.”
“I know that but it may have brought on a bunch more problems for us. If they know who it was, they’ll figure out why and then there’s no telling what they’ll do.” Amick started walking and said, “Come on. Let’s get back to the car.”
Amick’s 1968 Ford Mustang GT California Special sat at the edge of the wooded area, on the side of the back road just where he’d left it. That part of the plan was executed to perfection. Even in the middle of the night, with no artificial light source anywhere nearby, the car’s metallic blue paint reflected the moonlight enough to allow it to be spotted from a distance.
Amick opened the driver’s door and got in while Lilly waited for him to unlock the door on the other side. Power locks were not included in the classic muscle car. After Lilly was inside with the seatbelt fastened, Amick pulled away down the dirt road that would lead them back to the heart of town.
“How far are we from the station anyway? I don’t think I ever been this far back here,” Lilly said.
“It’s three or four miles. Maybe five. This road goes through the middle of the woods and if you keep going the other way it winds up the side of the hill quite a ways. Not too far, I don’t think. Why?” Amick wiped the blood from his mouth.
“I was just wondering really.” Lilly waited to speak until he thought of something positive, then said, “Hey, at least we got the tape, you know? I mean, they can’t prove anything if they don’t have the proof no more. Right?”
“Yeah,” Amick said. “But even without that tape they can cause a lot of problems for us if they go blabbing to someone. One talk with the wrong people will bring a lot more attention to us than we need to deal with. All the media stuff is finally slowing down so we don’t need it starting right back up again.” Amick made a right turn off of the dirt road and onto the two-lane road that would lead them in the direction of the station house. He used his turn signal in spite of the fact that they were the only people on the road for miles. “Gotcha,” Lilly said, nodding. “So what do we do now?’ “You are going back to the station because you’ve got overnight duty tonight. I’m going back to the house and calling Darrell. He wanted to be kept up to speed on what happened tonight so I better tell him. He ain’t gonna be happy though.” Amick pulled into the parking lot in front of the building and put the car in park.
“I’m sorry, brother. I shouldn’t have let that happen tonight,” Lilly said while shaking his head in disappointed disgust.
Amick gave him a reassuring pat on the leg as he drove and said, “Not your fault, boy. We got what we went there for. You get some sleep tonight. I better do the same. We got a long day ahead of us.”
“What? Oh! The slants are comin’ back in tonight. I bet they’re pissed about all this,” said Lilly. “Good thing Chief’s the one who has to explain it all to them.”
Amick chuckled, smiled for the first time in hours, and said, “Night, Carl. See you in the morning.”
Amick was fully disgusted by the time he entered his driveway. The phone call he had to make was one he dreaded mightily. He picked up the phone and dialed Sparks’ home number. He pushed the buttons slowly, dragging the act out as long as possible with only seven numbers.
Frank was ready to hang up after four rings when a drowsy police chief finally answered. “Yeah?” Sparks said in a gravelly voice before clearing his throat.
“It’s me. We got it.”
Several miles away, Sparks sat up in his bed and swung his legs over the side of the bed and onto the floor. “You got it? How’d it go? They even notice?”
“Yeah, I’d say they noticed. I about got my nuts about kicked up into my stomach, and Carl’s bleeding out of his mouth but it ain’t too bad.”
Frank’s description helped Sparks wake up. “What in the world happened? I take it you woke them up, at least.”
“Yeah,” Amick scoffed, “at least. Carl had a few problems tonight. He’s worse off than me.”
“Tell me,” Sparks said in a serious tone.
“First of all, he brought that giant knife with him. He got into it with the Clark kid and ended up slashing the kid’s arm pretty bad.”
The revelation drew the chief’s ire. “He what?”
“The kid was getting the best of him so he just got a little out of sorts. But that’s not the big one.”
Sparks closed his eyes and waited for the big one.
“He got the kid off him and tried to get the knife back and the kid tripped him. On the way down he grabbed Carl’s mask and pulled it off. Carl turn
ed and looked right at him. Stared at him is more like it.”
“I don’t believe this,” Sparks said under his breath. Then to Amick: “He looked right at him? After going over there earlier today and talking to them? He’s got to be one of the dumbest… you got the tape, didn’t you?”
“We got it. Just like the one that you described and there weren’t any other ones like it around there so it’s got to be it. That’s the one plus about all this.”
“Right,” Sparks said. “You guys okay? You ain’t hurt to awful bad, are you?”
“I’m not comfortable but I’ll live. Carl’s just got a busted lip. We got the tape and that’s the point. At least I don’t have to be the one to explain this to the Tochigis and their friends, right?”
Sparks hadn’t thought of that fact until Amick mentioned it. He groaned and said, “Thanks for reminding me. I have a feeling I’ll be speaking to them and their friends tonight. That should be interesting. I’ll see you in the morning, or later this morning.”
Sparks ended the call and attempted to fall back to sleep. It was not to be for the moment. Another delivery was less than fifteen hours away and postponing it was not practical. A cancellation was impossible. The system implemented by Sato and his associates for the importation of their product was complex in design and draconian in function. Hotaka Tochigi had explained it to him just so he understood how important the operation was.
It was another problem that bothered Darrell Sparks.
If he backed out now, he would fear for his life.
Midday brought solitude and silence for the police chief but the lack of action was welcomed. The patrol duties were solely in the hands of his officers and his departure would leave no one at the station. There was only so much mindless paperwork one could endure without losing their sanity.
The monotony of his day would soon be broken. Staring aimlessly out his office window, he came to attention when he saw Hotaka Tochigi crossing Main Street, his angle directing him toward the station. Sparks immediately began arranging the papers on his desk, tossing the remnants of his sandwich into the garbage can, and making sure his hair was presentable. He quickly took out a comb and neatly parted it to the left, as he’d done every day for more than thirty years.