Guilty by Association

by Brad Cooper

  Quietly, Adam said, “He’s here.”

  “Where?” Lisa asked, turning her head to look around, having forgotten their earlier discussion in the car.

  “Don’t look!” Adam admonished. He pointed to an area ahead and to the left of them, as if showing her their next destination or another point of interest, and said, “Right behind us. He’s been on us since we walked in. We’ll go into the music store together, browse real quick, and walk back out.” He kept his voice low.

  “Then what?” she asked. The worry was apparent in her voice.

  “Then we get the hell out of here. I guess he was right.” Adam’s eyes roamed from left to right and back again repeatedly, taking in every sight possible.

  “I guess so,” said Lisa. She clung tightly to his arm. To outside observers it was nothing more than a sign of affection, which it was in part, but in reality the gesture was driven by another emotion: fear.

  They entered the music store, feigned interest in several CDs, and made an exit all within two minutes. Amick never entered the store. Instead, he paced in front of the entrance, drawing looks from the other mall patrons that passed. He pretended not to look as Adam and Lisa left the store.

  Lisa walked toward the mall’s exit with Adam’s hand in the small of her back, guiding her. Adam opened the door for her and they rushed into the parking lot toward the car. They did not look back, knowing the deputy was following. It was time to create distance.

  Adam had intentionally left the doors unlocked in case the need for a speedy getaway would arise. Before Amick reached his car, Adam had his truck in reverse and was backing out of his space. Seeing Adam driving through the parking lot and toward the exit onto the main road, Amick broke into a jog in order to reach his car before the distance grew too large for him to follow.

  Pulling onto the four-lane, Amick was three cars behind Adam’s truck and in the lane to his left. The traffic light switched from green to yellow. Adam pushed the accelerator closer to the floor. The RPM gauge leaped past four thousand and the truck sped forward, crossing through intersection just before the light turned red.

  Two slots back in the line and stopped at the light, Frank Amick pounded his open palms onto the steering wheel in frustration. By the time the light turned green again, they’d be far out of sight.

  At least they didn’t talk to anyone, he thought. That’ll make Darrell happy.

  Adam pulled into the driveway, quickly jumped out of the truck and trotted into the house. Lisa did not show such urgency.

  “Back so soon?” Clark asked from his horizontal position on the couch.

  Adam dropped his keys on the table beside the door and said, “He was there. Not the chief but the other guy. The big guy, Amick or whatever.” Lisa walked through the door and closed it behind her. “I’ll tell you this, too. I think he was the other guy that was here. Just his size, the way he moved, it looked really familiar. This is a mess.”

  “No kidding.” Clark sat upright then slouched back down. “So we know they’re watching. They’re scared that we’re going to go somewhere with this, which we already did but it didn’t really help.”

  “Then what now?” asked Lisa. “And where’s Kara? She here?”

  “Yeah, she’s here. She’s downstairs on the treadmill I think. What now? Who knows? No more calls to the state cops for one thing. It’s not worth the risk of causing more problems with those guys either. We’ll figure something out.” Lisa walked across the room and to the stairs that lead to the basement.

  Adam looked at Clark and said, “Got any ideas?”

  “Not a one but we’ll figure it out. We can’t just sit on what we know but if we flaunt it they’ll get desperate, and there’s nothing more dangerous than someone that has nothing to lose. Just lay low. We’ll get out of this.”

  “I’m still not sure how we got in this,” said Adam.

  “Me either,” Ryan said. His eyes were pointed downward at the floor. He was already deep in thought, in search of an answer.

  CHAPTER

  23

  Rarely was the motivation sufficient for Ryan to get out of bed at an early hour without an important, pressing event on the weekend schedule. Sleep was far too precious. Habitual and involuntary early rises came to an end on the last day of high school. However, the one thing that merited an early start to the day was the Sunday morning worship service at one of Spring Creek’s three churches. Clark was practically a lifetime member of Victory Baptist Church, the only establishment of that particular denomination for several miles. Its relatively short distance from Clark’s house, less than five minutes away, provided slightly more incentive. Less travel time meant just a few more minutes of sleep.

  He stood in front of the bathroom mirror, carefully placing the contact lenses into his eyes. The buzz cut he always insisted on from the barber meant limited maintenance in the mornings. He bobbed his head slowly from side to side, trying to work the kink out of his neck. Sleeping on the couch was highly uncomfortable when used to sleeping in a king size bed but it was the right thing to do. He’d already decided that if Kara was going to be staying with them during this ordeal, or whatever it could be called, she would be afforded every luxury possible, including comfort. She’d offered to sleep on the couch and he declined. She then offered for him to share the bed with him and again he declined out of courtesy. For no other reason, sleeping on the couch meant being closest to the front of the house and being alerted to the presence of another intruder before anyone else.

  The polo shirt and pressed khaki pants were proper and traditional apparel for a church service but not comfortable in the August heat, even in the early morning. Kara decided to sleep late, as did Adam, but Lisa previously mentioned an interest in attending with him, provided it was not an inconvenience.

  He started the car and turned on the air conditioning to cool it down before Lisa was ready to go. After two minutes, Lisa was out the door and in the car.

  “Your car is so much more comfortable than that truck. Thanks for letting me ride out with you,” said Lisa. She checked her hair and makeup in the mirror over the visor one last time.

  “No problem. It’s always nice to have somebody to ride with.” Ryan pulled out of the driveway and onto the main road. The speed limit was forty but he chose not to observe it for the short trip. Fifty would suffice. Ryan looked over to Lisa and said, “You holding up, okay?”

  Lisa looked straight ahead out the front windshield and said, “I am for the most part. I keep seeing what happened in my head but even that’s going away now. Now it just feels like a bad dream, y’know?” Then she turned to him and said, “I’m sorry I got you guys into this.”

  Ryan saw her head beginning to point down, the guilt apparent. He reached over and gently took her hand. He looked at her briefly, then back to the road and back to her again. “You didn’t get us into anything. They did. It’s not like you meant for this to happen. You saw what happened, got scared, and did the first thing you thought to do. Anyone would have done that and there’s nothing to apologize for. I’m glad you came to us with it.” He pulled into the small, unlined parking lot of the church. Still lightly holding her hand he said, “We’ll be fine. All of us. Adam and I won’t let anything happen. We’ll get these guys somehow, they’ll be in prison, and things will get back to normal.”

  A single tear streamed down her cheek, which she promptly wiped away. “You sure sound confident.”

  “Maybe I do, but words are easy.” He leaned closer to her and whispered, “You know what? I’m a little scared myself. I can admit it. Adam’s a little scared but he’d never tell you and I know Kara is, too. Fear isn’t necessarily bad though. It can make good things happen if you know how to harness it. Just hang in there. Okay?”

  She smiled, clasped his hand a little tighter, and said, “Okay,” before opening the door.

  As they talked, neither Ryan nor Lisa noticed the metallic blue Ford Mustang roll into the parking lot.


  The church building was small, rectangular, and all on one floor if the basement full of small classrooms didn’t count. The interior of the church, both in design and décor, was a flashback to an earlier time. There were two sections of pews and a wide aisle in the center. The wooden pews were lined with red padding, which had only come about in the last ten years following an array of special offerings and bake sales. Fluorescent lights lined the top of each wall, producing a bright environment that meshed perfectly with the small but lively congregation.

  The congregation was an eclectic grouping despite an average attendance of just over one hundred parishioners. Nearly half of the members were senior citizens. The old men wore suits and the old women wore ankle length dresses. Wearing your Sunday best was a foreign concept to most of those born after the bicentennial. Most of the young crowd was dressed in a similar fashion to Ryan and Lisa, depending on gender. Those in the middle were split; some dressed to the nines, some dressed casually, and some in worn-out jeans and a faded flannel shirt, a questionable choice considering the time of year.

  They sidestepped their way to an empty space on a pew three from the back on the right side and sat down just as the pastor opened the service by greeting everyone. The music leader stepped to the podium and motioned for everyone to stand as the pianist began playing the opening bars of “How Great Thou Art”. Ryan held an open hymnal but didn’t sing. One of his irrational self-conscious perceptions lied at the root of the behavior.

  After three verses, the pastor asked everyone to bow their heads for prayer. As the pastor prayed, Ryan felt an elbow nudge him in the ribs. He turned to look at Lisa just as the pastor’s prayer concluded and the congregation was told that they could be seated. She pointed to the left section of pews, to an area just ahead of them.

  “Look who’s here,” she whispered. The song leader was now making announcements from the pulpit.

  “Who? Where am I supposed to be looking?” Ryan whispered in reply. He craned his neck to peer over those in front of him.

  “Other side, about three or four rows up. Maroon shirt.”

  Ryan looked for a moment and then caught a glimpse of the person in question. Sitting on the end of the pew in question was Frank Amick. Ryan took a deep breath and looked back at Lisa. “Are you serious?” he asked rhetorically. “I haven’t seen that guy at a service in years and he shows up today. Of course, he does. This is getting a little old.”

  “What do we do?” Lisa asked.

  “Just forget he’s here. He’s probably just here to keep an eye on us… again… and he’s not going to try anything at a church. Even these people wouldn’t cross that line. Just don’t give him a reason to pay more attention to us than he intended.”

  An elderly woman shushed the two loquacious young people in front of her. Ryan didn’t turn around but instead threw up his hand as a non-verbal apology. After several hymns, a performance from the choir, and a twenty-five minute message from the pastor, the service was dismissed and the congregation began filing out. Clark stayed behind Lisa as they started walking toward the exit. As they walked behind the last pew toward the bottle neck that was forming at the exit, Ryan heard Lisa gasp. He looked to her right and saw Frank Amick standing five feet away.

  The line began to move and they found themselves standing directly beside the local cop. Amick turned to Clark, held out his hand, and said, “How-do? Your last name’s Clark, isn’t it?”

  “Right,” Ryan said, shaking Amick’s hand. “Ryan Clark. You’re one of the local policemen, aren’t you?”

  The smile disappeared from Amick’s face for a moment, and then reappeared when he caught his own reaction. “That’s right.”

  “I try to stay under the speed limit so I don’t know you guys particularly well. I was sorry to hear about Officer Kessler. What a senseless tragedy.”

  Amick was caught off guard. “Uh, thanks. I appreciate that. It’s been a rough time for all of us.”

  The line began moving again and the conversation broke. Ryan and Lisa both shook hands with the pastor, who stood just outside the door, and made their way to the car. Before Amick reached the bottom of the concrete steps, Ryan and Lisa were both in the Tiburon with the engine running.

  Amick rushed to his vehicle only to see Clark speed off into the distance ahead of him.

  Ryan walked through the front door and walked directly into the kitchen. Adam was lying on the couch and Kara was already in the basement on the treadmill for her daily run. “Not going to say hello?” said Adam.

  Clark dropped several ice cubes into a tall glass and filled it with water. “You’re not going to believe it. I’m not sure I do,” he said following a scoff. “Amick showed up today at the church. The man probably hasn’t seen the inside of a church since Reagan’s first term and he shows up today.”

  Adam sat up and said, “So did anything happen?”

  “No, but I talked to him. I think he was surprised to have a conversation with someone whose house he’d broken into. He had no idea what to say.” He laughed and continued, “Get this, I told him I was sorry to hear about what happened to Kessler. You should have seen his face. Life isn’t so easy when you don’t have your gun drawn.”

  Adam laughed and said, “That’s it? He didn’t do anything else?”

  “Nope. By the time he was out of the building, we were in the car and gone. I made certain he didn’t follow us back.”

  Lisa, who had been changing clothes in Adam’s bedroom, walked into the room. “Did you tell him about this morning?” she asked Ryan.

  “Yeah, I told him.”

  She hesitated and said, “They’re not going to leave us alone, are they? I mean they show up everywhere.”

  “No, they’re not going to stop, at least not for the next little while.” Then to Adam: “I’m getting bored. We need something to do. Got any ideas?”

  “I’d just like to hang out tonight or something. We’ll go out and do something tomorrow night. We’ll get followed but that shouldn’t stop us. Catch a movie, have dinner, or whatever,” said Adam.

  “You’re right,” Ryan said.

  “What?”

  “We’ll get followed.”

  “Get in here for a minute, guys,” Sparks said. Frank and Carl entered his office and Sparks closed the door behind them. “Hotaka’s boss got in touch with him today. They’re threatening to back out of this whole deal.” Amick and Lilly sat silently, waiting on Sparks to continue. “Hotaka called me right after and he’s not only pissed, he’s scared. He explained to me who these people are that he’s got us working with.”

  Lilly spoke up first. “We know who they are, Darrell. He’s the electronics guy and he’s doing this on the side. It’s pretty simple.”

  “Simple?” Sparks sneered and said, “No it’s not simple, Carl. He’s an electronics guy or whatever, but he’s a lot more than that. You ever heard of the Yakuza, Carl?”

  “The Yah-what?” Lilly said while looking at Amick, who shook his head in disbelief.

  “Ya-ku-za,” Sparks said, glaring and emphasizing each syllable. “We’ve got the Mafia, they got the Yakuza. They control big business and the government. They run drugs, whores, weapons, you name it, through Japan and lately they’ve been bringing all that over here. We got into their deal here. You understand that? This isn’t just a little protection deal now. These guys are hardcore. They’ll kill someone as soon as look at them and not give much thought as to who or why.”

  “And now they’re threatening us?” Amick asked the chief. “What are you telling us exactly?”

  “I’m telling you that they don’t need to threaten us. Look, they’re crapping their britches over all the media stuff down here and now they’re worried. Hotaka said when they get worried they start acting rash, so we better take care of this now.”

  “You got an idea? If you do, you better tell us.”

  “This girl’s got to go. Scare her half to death, rough her up a little, I don’t care. Just keep
her from talking because if you don’t, they’re screwed and so are we. Got it?”

  “How are we supposed to keep her quiet?” Lilly asked.

  “Did I not just cover that? I swear you don’t pay me any mind sometimes. Listen! You can sew her damn lips shut for all I care, just make sure she don’t talk. She is the key to the whole mess.”

  “Care to be more specific? What about the others?” Amick asked flatly.

  “They didn’t see a thing. All they know is hearsay. If they get in the way, then I’m sure you can handle it. The girl is the main concern. When the time is right, handle it. You’ll be tailing them anyway. Find an opening and take it. Rattle her cage so she knows to stay quiet. Now get out of here.”

  The two men walked out of his office and Sparks leaned forward over the desk, placing his head in his hands. The stress was slowly overtaking him and the pattern had to be stopped. It could only be stopped if the threat was neutralized.

  CHAPTER

  24

  Ryan slowly opened the door to his bedroom and looked in at the figure on his bed. Kara rolled over to face the door and shielded her eyes.

  “Feeling any better?” he asked softly.

  “Not really,” she moaned as she rolled away from the light shining through the cracked door.

  Ryan walked into the room and closed the door behind him to keep the light from entering in. He eased himself onto the edge of the bed and said, “If you don’t feel like going, we’ll stay here tonight. They’re probably wanting some alone time anyway. We’ll catch the movie later this week or something. It just came out so we’ve got time.” He spoke just above a whisper, careful not to exacerbate the problem.

  “That sounds good,” Kara said quietly. She rolled onto her back and rested the palm of her hand on her forehead.

  “I’ll tell them we’re staying here tonight. I’ll check on you a little later. Just tell me if you need something.” He kissed her on her forehead and left the room.