Guilty by Association

by Brad Cooper

  Adam tilted his head and said, “Where do you think?”

  “To be entirely honest, I don’t know. I can only think of one place you’d want to go to with a gun right now though and that’d be absolutely brainless, not to mention insane.”

  “You know what’s insane? All these people getting hurt because our local law wants to run drugs through here. That is insane!” Adam said with a derisive laugh. His voice grew louder with each sentence. “We can’t win, Ryan. They can but we can’t. You know why? Because every time we do something, they hit us back even harder and we can’t stop it. They’re eventually coming after all of us, not just Lisa. We’re all neck deep in this because we’re guilty by association. We’re about to drown.”

  “What do you think you’re going to do with a pump action shotgun that hasn’t been cleaned, much less fired, in ten years? They’ve got three cops with weapons training and an overgrown kung fu bodyguard. You’ve got a gun that came over on the Mayflower. What do you think you’re going to accomplish?”

  “I don’t know but I’m not sitting here waiting to be the victim of the next accident. If I put one down for the count, it’ll be a win,” Adam said, turning to walk away a second time.

  Again Ryan grabbed Adam’s shoulder and stopped him. Adam faced him, glaring and waiting for his retort. “That’s your answer? Going in there by yourself, in the middle of the night, gun blazing, to commit suicide-by-cop? That’s the best you can do? What are you trying to prove, Adam?”

  “I’m not trying to prove anything!”

  “Don’t do that. Don’t try to play me. I don’t know what it is that’s driving you right now but you seem to think you have to sacrifice yourself because you feel responsible for what happened to Lisa. I hate to break it to you, pal, but you didn’t do that to her. They did. You were a victim in all of this, too. You just didn’t get the brunt of it like she did.”

  “Don’t go all psychologist on me, Ryan. I know you’ve almost got your degree but I’m not your case study. You’re not my shrink.”

  “I didn’t say you were but I’m not letting you walk out of here with that thing so you can get yourself killed for no reason. You do that and you’ll be written off as another whack job that went nuts on a cop and got his ticket punched. Your family won’t know why, Lisa won’t understand, and I’m out a best friend that’s a brother to me.” He stepped closer to Adam and grabbed his forearm. “If you think you’re leaving here tonight to do what you’ve already got in your head, you better plan on shooting me, too. That’s the only way you’re leaving here.” Ryan stared at Adam in a way he never had, and in a way Adam could understand without any more being said.

  Adam looked to Kara, sitting on the stairs who smiled a smile of reassurance.

  “Come upstairs a minute. Both of you,” Ryan said in a calm voice.

  “I don’t feel like…”

  “Just do it,” Clark said abruptly. “You’ll be glad you did. I’ve got something to show you.”

  Adam walked by the computer tower and saw the tray of the DVD recorder open, an unlabeled disc inside. “You’re burning a game?” he asked. “I’ve seen you do that before.”

  “Not exactly. Grab a chair.”

  Ryan stood up to allow Kara to sit. He clicked the icon for the strangely labeled video and the media player appeared. The single image of the chess game flickered to life, bringing a smile to all three faces in the room.

  “I can’t believe it!” Kara said smiling with her hands over her mouth.

  “I told you you’d want to see it. We both forgot that I encoded this the day after everything happened. That was the tape that I tested this thing with. Remember?”

  “They have no clue that we’ve got this do they?” Adam asked with a confident grin.

  “Until ten minutes ago I didn’t have a clue. We have this, we have the pictures, and we have Kevin. Overall, we may have one up on them for a change. They think they’ve got us because they have both copies of that video and that means they might get lazy enough to give us a chance to do something.”

  “How’re we supposed to get this to anyone?” Kara asked.

  “What do you mean?” Adam asked. The disappointment temporarily ruined the happy moment.

  “I mean they follow us everywhere we go. They go through our mail. Ryan, you said the phone’s tapped. They may even be watching what you do online. You think they’re going to let us drive to a state police station or something and let us drop off some package? We have it but I don’t know how we’ll use it.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Ryan said, already thinking.

  “She’s right, Ryno. I don’t see how we’re going to use this stuff right now.”

  “We’ll figure something out.”

  “You’re the secret agent. I’m leaving it up to you,” Adam said.

  Confused by his choice of words, Ryan looked at him, furled his eyebrows and said, “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re always watching those CIA documentaries about hiding stuff and passing secrets and covert operations and all that. You read the spy novels and all that stuff. Let’s see what you come up with Mr. CIA Agent.”

  “That sounds like a challenge,” Ryan said.

  “It is,” Adam replied.

  “I accept.”

  CHAPTER

  31

  He had only been on the clock for half the day but Sparks already felt the need for a smoke. Stress was part of the job but it was the extracurricular activities of late that brought on the latest batch of pressure. The previous night’s delivery was executed perfectly according to plan. Not a single complication arose and it seemed that Sato’s confidence in them was finally renewed. In spite of the regained safety, his worry persisted and his nerves needed calming. With alcohol out of question for an on-the-clock government employee, his cigarettes would have to do. He was up to three packs a day.

  I’m gonna have lung cancer by the end of the year, he thought. Beats a bullet in the brain.

  Another Friday meant another eight or nine hours of boredom, which would seem like eighty or ninety, before a weekend of relaxation and seclusion would arrive. He had an extended weekend of nothing planned but a different brand of nothing than what stared him in the face for the rest of the day. He took a long draw, held it for a moment, and exhaled. Standing outside of the building, he leaned against the wall on his right shoulder and held his cigarette in his left hand. It was the most comfortable he’d been all day. The new kid was out patrolling for speeders and Amick was at his desk barely earning his salary. Lilly was taking lost time and Sparks didn’t know nor care where he was. If he was at a local clothing removal entertainment shop, disguised in street clothes, tucking singles into g-strings, Sparks wouldn’t be surprised. It wouldn’t be the first time.

  He drew on the stick of carcinogenic tobacco until it nearly burned his fingers before tossing it to the ground and smothering it with his foot. He walked into the building and over to Amick’s desk. Frank was reading a fishing magazine to which he’d been a subscriber since the seventies and sucking on a lollipop he swiped from the bowlful of complimentary ones just inside the front door.

  “You plan on doing something unusual today, like earning your paycheck?” Sparks said.

  Amick looked up from his magazine and said, “It’s Friday. What am I supposed to do? At least I’m here and not on lost time like Carl. We both know he’s probably got a naked chick grinding on his lap right now.” The words were jumbled because of the candy stick in his mouth.

  “You could always get off your fat ass and make some money for the city like the kid is.”

  Amick scoffed and said, “Fat ass? I’m in better shape than you are.”

  “Not by much. Anything from our young friends today?”

  “Nothing. One of them’s been on the internet all morning but, like you said, we don’t know what they’re doing on there. Line’s been tied up since nine with it. How’s the girl doing?”

 
; Sparks scratched his head and said, “She’s banged up pretty good but she woke up a day or two ago. Dumbass Carl going overboard just about fried us. I went over there the other night to see how she was and her boy was over there with her. He looked at me like he’s ready to turn my lights out and be done with it. They know what’s going on, they just don’t know who did it or why. We’re going to end up having to keep a tighter leash on them ‘cause if they find out that it’s Carl’s truck that bumped them, we’re cooked.”

  “No reason to think they’d put it all together. Just worry about us for now.”

  Sparks shook his head but didn’t say anything.

  “You still coming over to watch the race Sunday?” Amick asked, reaching for his magazine.

  “Yeah, I’ll be there. You’re covering the food this weekend,” Sparks said before leaving Amick’s cubicle and walking back to his office.

  He checked his watch for the third time in fifteen minutes.

  Four-and-a-half more hours.

  He had spent all day pondering the logistical dilemma without a single positive result. The road for every idea eventually reached a dead end. Escaping their pursuers for a period of time sufficient enough to send their materials to the right people simply wasn’t feasible. An attempt to do so was tantamount to a direct threat on those who wished to prevent it, thus inviting another incident like the one that landed Lisa in a hospital bed, and lucky to be there, at that.

  Ryan paced through the house for two hours in the morning, expounding on ideas and later tossing them aside in favor of new ones, which would later be disposed of in like manner. Walking circuits through the living room and down the hall was sufficient exercise to break a sweat, a combination of exertion and tension. The same question ran through his mind minute after minute, hour after hour. The same problem presented itself around every turn. As long as their pursuers kept them within sight, every move was a risk. There was no way to be certain that their actions were adequately concealed.

  He was walking back through the living room and toward the front door when the obvious solution, one that would come with complicated conditions, struck him like a bolt of lightning. Getting away from them was not necessarily necessary because attempting to do so would be suspicious. No, Adam had struck a chord with his sarcastic remark calling him “Mr. CIA Agent”. Something he’d learned from documentary was both available and applicable. He just had to coordinate each action in perfect detail, accounting for every foreseeable option and eventuality in the process; a real-life chess match with the ultimate stakes.

  It was simple. His mind drifted back to his trip to Meyer’s with Kara and their subsequent short visit to the gas station. Sparks had followed Kara into the station, leaving Clark out of sight and out of mind.

  Ryan slowly opened the door to his bedroom and saw Kara sleeping comfortably in his bed, something he hadn’t done in more than a week. He knocked on the door, rousing Kara from her sleep but not abruptly enough to make her angry. “I’m sorry to wake you up. I know you’re tired but it’s important,” he said.

  “I needed to get up anyway,” she said, throwing the covers away. “What’s up?”

  “You’ve got a wireless network hooked up in your house, don’t you?”

  “Yeah but I don’t know why. It worked a lot better, and faster, with all the cords. Why?”

  He took his time, careful to phrase his question carefully. Kara’s computer knowledge was not quite as extensive as his. “Okay, does it have the wireless card built-in or did you get one of those USB adapters to plug in the back?”

  “I’ve got one of those blue things plugged into the back,” she said. “Why?”

  “Good, we’re going to your house real quick,” he said with a smile before rushing out of the room.

  “Why? What are you doing?” she called out. She didn’t get a response. Clark was already in the basement. He reached the top of the steps where Kara was waiting for him, now wearing the short jean skirt that usually stopped him from getting anything done mentally for the rest of the day. “What do you need the wireless thing for?”

  He walked past her and set his laptop case on his desk. “I think I have an idea,” he said, going through drawers and taking out the items he’d need.

  “You think you have an idea. Should I go ahead and tell you what all is wrong with that sentence? Where’s Adam anyway?”

  “He’s probably downstairs running or lifting or something. Would you run down there and see what he’s doing for me? We’re going to need him, too.”

  “We?” she asked.

  He grinned and answered, “Yeah. If we are going to do this the right way, it’s going to take an effort from all three of us.”

  “Do what the right way?”

  “Just wait, you’ll see.”

  Kara rolled her eyes.

  Ryan sat at the computer and dialed up to his internet provider. As the modem dialed, he silently hoped she was online. She was at the center of the plan he’d devised. The connection was made and his instant messaging program appeared. Julie was online. Within seconds, a message box popped up.

  JPark407: hey you

  RClarkWV9: I need a favor. I’d love you forever.

  JPark407: ok…what

  RClarkWV9: I need you to come down here on Monday. Don’t ask why but it might be life and death.

  JPark407: ummm…ok. Is everything ok?

  RClarkWV9: kind of. I’ll let you know the details later. Just tell me for sure if you can be here on Monday afternoon.

  JPark407: yeah that’s no big deal.

  Clark told her that he had to go but would send her the specifics once he had them figured out and they were ready to proceed. She reassured them that she could be there but was clearly worried as to why, from three hours away, her presence was so vital.

  “Would you mind telling me what you’re doing? When you start asking for all these gadgets and get that half-dreaming grin on your face, I know you’re turning into secret agent man again,” Kara said.

  “I know that look,” Adam said when he entered the room. “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” said Ryan.

  “Then what are you going to do?” Adam asked.

  “You’re the one who issued the challenge.”

  “What?”

  “You told Mr. CIA Agent to come up with something. Well, he did and now you two get to help him. We said we couldn’t get everything to whoever needs to have it because our friendly local cops would be watching the whole time. Right?”

  “Right,” Kara said, waiting for the rest.

  “Let’s use their tactics against them. We can leave it somewhere and have someone else get it at that predetermined spot and take it to whoever needs to have it.” He smiled as he spoke, knowing that his plan was the most viable option considering the circumstances.

  “Who? They know everyone around here,” Kara said.

  “They don’t know Julie. We leave it, she takes it, and makes sure it gets to the states or the feds or whoever. We leave it fast and hide it where she can get it, she picks it up and takes off, and it’s all done right in front of them.” He smiled and spoke with confidence. “They won’t have a clue. It’s called a ‘dead drop’.”

  “Well, well, well, Mr. CIA’s got a plan. Where are we going to do this?” Adam asked.

  “I don’t know yet. It has to be somewhere public and crowded. Wherever it is, it’ll be safe. Safety in numbers and all that. Plus, it has to be somewhere that I can spot Julie and keep an eye on her without a problem. She’s putting herself on the line here.”

  “Have you even seen her in person before?” Kara asked uncertainly.

  “Once but I could spot her anywhere. Don’t worry about that. Listen, we have to get her two or three copies, just so she can get them to several different people. I’ll get it all together and we’re doing it Monday.”

  “Why Monday?” Kara asked.

  Clark thought about it and said, “Why not
?”

  CHAPTER

  32

  “It’s the mayor!” Amick shouted from his desk, holding the receiver against his shoulder.

  “That’s just ducky,” Sparks said under his breath. He grumbled as he sat up in his chair. Dealing with the leader of the town, one that spent more time on the golf course than he did his office, was not something Sparks felt like doing at the moment. The risk-reward scale was not tipped in his favor. He reached over, pushed the button for line one, and picked up the receiver. “This is Sparks. What can I do for ya, sir?”

  The mayor let out a relaxed moan and said, “What’s the latest on the whole Kessler mess? I asked you to keep me updated.”

  “Kessler mess?” Sparks asked. He was mildly offended by the mayor’s wording. The feeling came across in his voice but the questioning facial expression was not visible to the man on the other end of the line. “I don’t know if that’s the best way to put it, sir.”

  “You know what I mean. What’s the deal? They gonna fry the bastard that did it?”

  “We don’t have the death penalty in this state. You should know that. Why do I get the feeling that’s not why you called? I thought you were out of the office on weekends. It’s an awful nice day for golf.”

  “We should,” Mayor DeShong mumbled and cleared his throat. Then, in a clearer voice, he said, “You’re right. I called for different reason. I need to get some clarification on something.”

  “Shoot,” Sparks said, placing a toothpick in his mouth.

  “I came into my office yesterday and had seven notes on my desk wanting to know why a helicopter was landing in my town, over and over again. I said I didn’t know about any such thing but if seven people have called here about it, it must be true. You know anything about this, Darrell?”

  Sparks nearly choked on the toothpick, then spit it out with a cough.

  “Are you okay, Darrell?” DeShong asked.