by Brad Cooper
His father laughed and said, “I’m looking forward to it, too. Same seats as last year. The first home game’s not far away so get ready.” The excitement was apparent in his voice.
“I know, Dad. I’m counting down too.”
Ryan ended the call and started around the corner to get Kara but she entered the living room before he reached the hallway, startling him in the process.
“Up for Tochigi’s?” he asked her.
She thought for a moment but Ryan knew she rarely declined. “Sure.”
“Get Blondie up off the couch and we’ll go. I’m starved and I know you two are, too.”
Amick laid the headphones on his desk. “I don’t know why we’re so worried about their phone,” he said to himself before a yawn. “None of ‘em talk to a soul.”
Returning from his hour-long lunch that mysteriously extended to an hour and a half, Sparks walked through the front of the building and motioned for Amick to follow him into his office. “Anything of interest” he asked.
“Not really, Chief. We haven’t got anything from that tap and the Morgan girl hasn’t even been back to her house.”
“Just stick with it,” Sparks said. “Any calls at all?”
“Just one,” Amick said. Kevin Robbins walked through the front door and started toward the chief’s office. Amick, however, didn’t see him and continued talking about the call. “Clark called his dad up north to check on his grandma. She’d been in the hospital or something.”
“Clark? You talking about Ryan Clark?” Robbins asked from the doorway.
Stunned, Amick remained silent for a moment then answered. “Uh, yeah. Ryan Clark. We knew his old man.”
Satisfied, Robbins nodded and looked to the chief. “Just wanted to let you know I’m back. You need me until five today?”
“Yeah about that. If you need to knock off a little early you can but I’d like for you to stay on. Maybe go run some radar for a while if you get bored.”
“You got it. Right after I eat.”
“That’s fine.”
Kevin walked away leaving Amick and Sparks alone in his office.
“How long do you think we can keep the kid in the dark?” Amick asked. “I’m surprised he ain’t been asking questions yet. He’s a young’un but he’s pretty perceptive, y’know.”
“Yeah, he is that. As long as he’s not around on Thursdays, we’re fine. We don’t have much of an answer for why that thing shows up every week but unless something happens, we don’t need one.”
“What if we do need one?” Amick asked somberly.
Sparks sighed but did not give an answer.
He needed time to create one.
CHAPTER
27
“Where’d you run off to?” Amick asked.
“Had a little chat with Carl’s cousin about something. I wanted to know if there’s a way to see what was going on when that line was using the internet. He said there ain’t,” Sparks said. He reclined in his chair, leaning his head back against the wall, his right foot on the edge of his desk for support. “Unless we feel like getting some ‘hacking’ program that’s God knows how much and none of us know how to use anyway.”
“What do we care? He’s probably playing some stupid computer game or reading the news or…”
“Or talking to people,” Sparks said, finishing Amick’s sentence. “We don’t have a clue who he’s talking to and it’d all be completely anonymous, too. FBI, DEA, whoever. They could be talking to anyone and we’re totally out of the loop. All that email and instant message junk.”
Not sharing the chief’s concern, Amick said, “Are you really that worried, Darrell? I’d be shocked if they talked to anybody right now after what Carl did to shake them up.”
“It could be a problem and I…” Sparks cut himself off mid-sentence when he saw a person, actually three people, of interest drive down Main Street. “Speak of the devil.” He sat up and gazed out the window.
Amick stood and walked toward the window. “What?” he asked.
The silver Tiburon pulled into the row of parking spaces lining the sidewalk in front of the Main Street buildings. For Amick, the dark tinted windows momentarily kept secret the identity of those inside. Clark stepped out of the car first. Kara got out on the other side and pulled the seat forward to allow Adam to get out of the back.
Still watching them through the window, Amick said, “Wonder where they’re headed.”
The group of three walked into Tochigi’s. Clark opened the door and held it for Kara and Adam before he walked in. They were seated almost immediately, and the two policemen watched their every move from their window.
It was then that Sparks realized something important, something for which he hadn’t yet accounted. “They don’t know,” he said, looking at Amick.
Confused, Amick replied, “They don’t know what? That eating at home is better than suffering through that cat meat buffet for six bucks and change?”
“If they knew what all was going on, they wouldn’t be within a hundred feet of that place.” He smiled a smile of enlightened contentment.
On every trip to Tochigi’s, Clark seemed to fill his plate with the exact same items. Most of the time he went to exclusively to appease Kara, or to get to spend as much time with her as he could, but today’s visit had a purpose. To be certain, part of his intentions were based on luck but some chance was better than none.
He sat on the outside of one side of the booth, with Kara beside him next to the window, and Adam sat on the side opposite him. Adam finished two full plates before either Ryan or Kara were able to finish one. He was famished even though he was too preoccupied to notice earlier. Clark slid out of the booth to let Kara make her second trip then sat back down to finish the remnants of his first plate, which hadn’t been full in the first place.
“You weren’t even that hungry,” Adam said with Kara away, watching Ryan push the food around on his plate. “This isn’t even one of your favorite places. What are we doing here?”
Clark quickly looked outside, then back to his plate. “I’m hoping somebody passes by here.”
“Who?”
Ryan started to answer but Kara arrived back at the table before he could. He took a sip from his straw, which emptied the glass aside from the ice, and said, “Nothing says authentic Japanese cuisine quite like an ice cold Coca-Cola, huh?” He held up his hand to get Mrs. Tochigi’s attention and pointed at his glass with a smile. She nodded and he looked back to the two people at the table.
“Japanese,” Kara scoffed. “Half this stuff is Chinese anyway. I don’t know how they get away with it.”
“Maybe because we’re the only ones who know any better,” Clark said.
A black police cruiser slowly rolled down the road, its direction away from their position, and immediately drew Clark’s attention. The driver pulled into a space two down from Clark’s car and got out. Ryan smiled when Kevin Robbins opened the door.
“Be right back,” Ryan said, already sliding out of his chair.
Robbins noticed Clark’s silver Tiburon but didn’t see him anywhere nearby. He started up the sidewalk when the door to Tochigi’s swung open and Ryan walked out.
Clark walked several steps in the direction of his car, his eyes not looking directly at Robbins. Kevin grinned and started to greet him but Clark spoke first. Without stopping, Clark slowed down and said, “Come by the house in an hour or so. Don’t tell your boss where you are. Don’t ask why. Just be there.” He continued on to his car and opened the door. He faked a search through the mess in the rear floorboard then pulled out a pair of sunglasses, backed away, and closed the door.
Confused, Kevin was still standing on the sidewalk. Clark walked past him in a rush and did not look at him. “One hour, Kev,” Ryan said succinctly before opening the door and reentering Tochigi’s. Kevin continued down the sidewalk and eventually entered the post office.
“Was that Kevin?” Kara asked when Ryan arrived back
at the table. She looked outside but didn’t see him.
“Yeah, that’s him. He’s stopping by a little later.”
Uneasy, Adam said, “He’s coming to the house. Any reason?”
“I think he can give us a hand. You know, be our eyes and ears in a place where we can’t see or hear.” He smirked, knowing that he knew something the others did not.
Ryan had found his ace in the hole.
Kevin stood on the porch of Clark’s house and wondered why he was mysteriously summoned from outside a cheap Asian buffet. Why had he been asked to come in the middle of the day? Clark made it sound urgent but there was not anything important going on of which he was aware. With that fact firmly entrenched in his mind, it didn’t have the feeling of a social call.
After the bell sounded once, Ryan opened the door. Kevin entered to see nothing out of the ordinary. Adam sat on the floor in front of the couch with a video game controller in his hand and a sandwich on the floor beside him. Kara was lying on the couch behind him reading a magazine. Clark showed him in and asked him to sit.
“What’s so important?” Kevin asked as he sat in the wooden rocking chair.
“First of all, this is serious. More serious than you could imagine so sitting down is probably a good idea. In fact, I’m going to do so myself.” Ryan sat in the recliner opposite him and continued. “How much do you know about what happened the night Ray Kessler got shot?”
“I know all there is to know, don’t I?” Kevin asked. He crossed his legs and began slowly rocking in the chair. “I was off-duty and at home asleep. They found a gun in Alvin’s stuff, matched it to the one that shot Ray, found out it was a stolen police issue, and grabbed him. I found out the next morning about an hour before it hit the news. Open and shut. Why?”
“It’s too simple, Kevin. Alvin didn’t shoot him.”
Kevin’s rocking stopped and he leaned forward. “What are you talking about?”
“Stumbling onto a gun, supposedly stolen, on a homeless guy is a little too convenient, isn’t it? I mean, they didn’t even investigate anything. The guys you work with are involved in something, Kevin. It looks like Ray figured it out, or he wanted out of it, or something, and something happened. They shot him.”
Kevin laughed diffidently and said, “Right.” He stood and the smile disappeared. “Come on, guys. You’re kidding, aren’t you? Are you some kind of amateur detectives or what?”
Ryan’s face remained expressionless. “There’s a lot more to it.”
“Come on, Ryan, you can’t be serious.”
“Sit back down.” Adam turned off the television and Kara laid down the magazine. Ryan told them before Kevin’s arrival that their participation would likely be needed. “You know Lisa, Adam’s girlfriend, don’t you?”
Kevin leaned back on the couch with his arms folded. “I’ve seen her around, know who she is.”
“She saw what happened. She shot a video of it, too. Every last detail was on it. There’s no doubt about what happened. Alvin is nowhere on that tape but the three guys you work with are.”
Kevin took a moment to process the startling revelation. “Keep going.”
For the next ten minutes, Ryan laid out every detail for the only member of local law enforcement without blood on his hands. Every event was relived for Kevin’s benefit, starting with Lisa’s video. He told Kevin about the break-in, showed him the still-healing wound from Carl Lilly’s Ka-Bar knife, and told him about being followed on every trip he took. Adam told him about the accident on Ruby Mountain Road that was not an accident at all and Kara simply affirmed all of what was being said.
“Tell me something, Kevin. What kind of car do the other guys drive?” Ryan asked.
Kevin thought about it and said, “Let’s see, the chief just drives a cruiser most of the time but he’s got a little pickup he drives around a little when he’s hunting. A white Toyota, I think. Frank’s got a classic, man. A ’68 Mustang GT California Special. Beautiful car. Carl’s got some old pickup. Big gas guzzler that looks like crap but still runs pretty good. You guys have seen that old beat up Blazer that I ride in for now.”
“The Lilly guy, is his truck kind of squared off on the front end?” Adam asked.
“Oh yeah, that’s his.”
Adam’s eyes filled with rage. He looked at Ryan and said calmly, “That was him. That was the prick that ran us off the road!”
“Kevin, whatever’s going on around here involves that helicopter. This thing lands behind the station every Thursday night and you just happen to be off-duty every Thursday night. You’re being kept out of the loop for a reason. If we can find out what’s going on with that, we can finally get some answers.”
“I’ll see what I can find out but I can’t make any promises. Besides, what do you want to do with what I find out? You said that trooper is involved, too, so he’ll find out if I go to the state police with anything and he’ll know who it came from.”
“We’ll figure all that out later. We’ll get it to somebody, somehow, but we have to figure all of it out first. Just be careful. Whatever’s going on must be pretty important for them. They framed someone for a murder that they committed so another accident isn’t out of the question. They’re desperate, so watch your back.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll keep it simple.” Kevin relaxed for the first time in almost a half-hour and said, “How’s your grandma doing? I heard she was sick or something.”
“Oh, yeah she’s, uh, doing okay now. They thought it may turn into pneumonia or something but she fought it off. Eighty-four and still going strong. She’s an amazing woman. The Lord has His hand on her.” He paused and asked, “Where’d you hear about that anyway?”
“Frank and Darrell were talking about it when I went in the office today. They said they knew your dad but didn’t say where they heard it or anything.”
“Oh, okay. By the way, they’ve been watching us pretty close so if they ask you why you came by, tell them you loaned me this and came to get it back.” Clark picked up a David Morrell hardback novel he’d already read and handed it to Robbins. “They’ll buy it.”
“Will do. Anything else you need to tell me?” Kevin asked.
“That’s all we got for now. Look, just keep your eyes open when you’re around them. Whatever they’re doing probably isn’t good and you don’t want to be in the middle of it.”
“How sweet of you to worry,” Kevin said with a sheepish grin and faux gratitude. “Should I call you if I find something out or what?”
“No, I’ll get in touch with you somehow. Calling may not be a good idea. Call it a gut feeling. Now get out of here before they get worried.”
Ryan closed and locked the door. The pained look on his face caught Kara’s eye. “What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Nobody knows about my grandma. Not even you two, just me and my dad.”
“So? Maybe your dad’s been talking to someone down here and word got around,” said Adam.
“He hasn’t told anyone. He said so himself. In fact he told me not to say much about it down here because so many people know her and she likes to keep things private.”
“Why does that have you so worried? What’s the big deal?” Kara asked.
“I’m worried because I’ve only talked about it to my dad and vice versa. We’ve only talked about it on the phone.”
“Your point is?” Adam said.
“I don’t know for sure because I don’t know how to check, but I bet you that phone line is tapped. That’s the only way they could’ve known about my grandma being in the hospital. They’re watching and they’re listening.”
“Shouldn’t they be out there, I don’t know, stopping crime?” Adam threw the remote control into the now vacant recliner and said, “Well, if it’s tapped, what’re we supposed to do?”
“Stop it? They’re too busy committing it,” Kara said.
“We don’t give them anything to hear. We can still use it and everything. Just
don’t say anything that might perk their ears up.”
“No phone calls, no trips without getting followed, a dead cop, and a girl in the hospital. My my, what our little town has become,” Adam said.
Clark shook his head and groaned but said nothing. He walked to the back door and out onto the wooden deck. He rested his elbows on the railing and looked into the distant sky. It was overcast and grey, a striking metaphor considering Clark’s state of mind. The door opened and Kara walked out. She stood beside him and said, “You okay?”
“I’m fine. Lisa’s not, Ray Kessler’s not, and I don’t think Adam is, but I am. It looks like that could change at any moment though.” He looked down at her and said, “How does this happen? People mind their own business, try to live their lives and not bother anyone, and this is what happens? Every time I go to sleep I wonder if the next day will be my last.”
“What’s left for them to do?” Kara asked. “They’ve done about everything they can.”
“That’s not something I feel like thinking about at the moment. Nothing’s out of bounds anymore. They’re basically invincible and they have every reason to feel that way.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Oh really? They’re bigger, they’re stronger, they have nothing holding them back, they’re better equipped, and they have their occupation on their side by default.” He blew his breath out and said, “There’s only one way to do anything about this but I don’t know where to start.” Clark made a point to look at her as he spoke. “We just have to outsmart them.”
“That’s a dangerous game to play and you know it. Don’t try to do too much.”
“I’ll be fine. They can do whatever they want to me. I don’t care. I’m tired of living like this.”
“Don’t talk like that,” Kara said.