by Brad Cooper
“I know. It was mean… but funny,” Ryan said, also laughing. “He’ll be extremely cordial when we get in.”
“Oh, I bet.”
Ryan opened the passenger door for Kara, something she’d constantly told him was unnecessary but he did it anyway, and hustled around to open his own door. “Sorry about that,” he said. He tried not to laugh. “I hit the wrong button.”
“Sure. Just so you know, I spit water all over your backseat. Jerk,” Adam said.
“Everything taken care of? Any sign of our other friends?”
“I went right over there and dropped the stuff in the window. I didn’t see a single person that we should be looking for, not even the state cop. We’re cool.”
“Good.”
“What are you waiting on?”
“There’s Julie,” he said, watching her walk past his car and in the direction of hers. Then to Adam: “I just want to make sure she gets to the car and out of here ahead of us. We can’t be too careful. Everything’s in her hands now.”
“That makes sense.” He groaned as he shifted positions. Try as he might, he couldn’t get comfortable.
Clark heard the groan. “Two minutes, then we’re leaving and you can sit up.”
“I think I should be sitting in the front. It’s way too uncomfortable back here for a man of my size,” Adam said.
“Oh, stop whining. You’re fine,” Kara said.
“Why can’t you sit back here? You’ve got those short little legs and everything.”
“Hey!”
“Children!” Clark said loudly, breaking through the confusion. He turned and said to Adam, “Look, I love you, brother, but when it’s between sitting up here with her or you… advantage Kara. She wins that battle every time.”
“Oh, thanks a lot! So much for this lifelong friendship thing,” Adam said.
“Look at her. How could I not side with her?”
“Thank you,” Kara said. She smiled defiantly and looked back at Adam. She was victorious.
Ryan reached for the key to the ignition but stopped. “Who were you talking to anyway?” he asked Kara.
She shrugged and said, “Nobody. I called time and temperature.”
“Well done,” he replied with a smile. Clark started the engine and drove toward the exit onto the four-lane highway that would lead them home. He pulled out into traffic and looked into the rearview mirror. “There he is,” he said. “There’s only one of those cars around here that I know of. Lay back down for a minute. He’s pulling out behind us.”
“I want that car,” Adam said, lying in the backseat again. “A contemptible prick like that shouldn’t be allowed to have it.”
“Hopefully it’ll be on the market soon. Maybe your girlfriend’s dad will buy it for you.”
“You think we’re set?” Kara asked Ryan.
Ryan looked at her and smiled. “Checkmate.”
CHAPTER
34
Clark was awake but still trying to shake out the cobwebs despite ten hours of sleep. The previous day of playing secret agent required more energy than he’d thought it would, which was fine by him. It meant a guaranteed good night’s sleep. He sat up on the couch and rubbed the back of his neck. Kara better appreciate the use of his bed, he thought. At least Adam got to sleep in his own bed.
Adam was already up and running for the day. It was noon, after all. “Good morning, slacker,” he said.
Ryan got up and walked into the kitchen and saw the used skillet still sitting on the stove. The smell of sausage and eggs lingered. “I see you fixed breakfast. I don’t know how you did it without waking me up,” he said, rubbing his eyes.
“I’m a quiet cooker,” Adam said, flipping through the newspaper. He saw Ryan peek around the corner toward his bedroom and said, “She’s in the shower.”
Ryan walked back into the living room and sat on the same couch he’d spent the last several hours sleeping on. Sitting on it was much more comfortable. He reached for the front section of the paper since Adam was busy reading the sports. He perused the front page but looked up when he heard her speak.
“Morning,” said Kara. She walked out of the bathroom, her dark hair still wet. She was wearing only a towel that almost reached her knees.
It took Ryan several seconds to regain his faculties. At first he only smiled, his eyes glazed over as if he were either seeing a vision from above or was in a drug-induced haze. He believed it to be the former for the moment. “Good morning,” he finally said. She smiled and walked into his bedroom to get dressed.
“You’re drooling,” Adam said, half-singing the words, without looking in Clark’s direction. “Think we’ll hear from anybody today?”
“I doubt it. We told them everything we knew, including that the phones were tapped until they were cut off. They’re still not back on, by the way. How’re they supposed to contact us?”
“I don’t know. A carrier pigeon? They’ll figure it out if it’s important enough.”
“I don’t think it is important. We told them every last thing we knew in minute detail. We told them what’s going on, who’s involved, who’s helping us, and even what time the chopper gets here every Thursday. They know it’s serious, so come Thursday they’ll probably be waiting with an assault team or something.”
“Whoever they bring, I hope one of those idiots that broke in here gets shot at least once,” Adam said, bringing the paper up to his face. He dropped it again, looked at Clark and said, “No, I hope it’s the idiot hillbilly that wrecked us and about killed Lisa.” He imitated a gun with his hand, mimicked a single shot, and said, “I hope he gets one right between the eyes. Blow his head off his shoulders for all I care.”
“That works for me. I just want them off our backs. When they came after you two, they showed us that they have no limits on what they’ll do. Apparently they were born without souls, much less a conscience. They can screw with me all they want but if something happens to Kara, I’ll steal some C4 and, when I’m done, pieces of brick will land in Nebraska. If I have any left, their houses are next. Maybe I should call down there and tell them as much. If anything happens to Kara, someone’s getting their birth certificate voided.”
“How sweet,” Kara said, walking out of the bedroom and into the living room. She fell into the recliner and pulled the handle for the footrest. Her hair was drying but still wet. Her light brown skin glistened from her twenty minutes in the shower. Clark couldn’t help but notice. He’d told her several times before that she couldn’t possibly be cuter than she was when she wasn’t trying. Relaxing in her thick white cotton terry bathrobe, which may or may not have been permanently borrowed from a luxury hotel in Jamaica, provided such an instance.
“If you’ve got a few minutes, we need to run out to the hotel,” Clark said.
Adam dropped the paper again. “I’m driving,” he said enthusiastically.
Ryan sighed as he got up. “Yeah, you’re driving,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Only three other cars were in the lot when Adam parked Ryan’s Tiburon in front of the building full of guest rooms. Two of the vehicles belonged to housekeeping employees, one belonged to a guest. Finding a spot wasn’t a problem. As Adam shifted into park, Ryan booted up his laptop and picked up the wireless signal within seconds. Upon connecting, he checked his email inbox and found one new message.
The message was short and to the point but provided Ryan with the good news he was seeking. Julie’s email told him that she’d gotten the package home, sent two of them out to the federal authorities overnight, and handed the third one to the head of her local State Police detachment a half-hour before she sent the email.
“She did it,” Clark said. “The Troopers have one and the feds have the other two, at least they will by tomorrow.”
“Ready?” Adam asked. His hand was already on the shifter.
Clark was typing a new message. “Just a minute. I need to shoot Kevin an email.”
“What for?”
Kara asked.
“To tell him to stay away from his job on Thursday. If they have him scheduled for some reason, then call in sick, quit, whatever, just stay away. There’re going to be some fireworks and he doesn’t need to be around for them.” He stopped typing and said to Adam, “You want to cookout Thursday?”
“Sure.”
“Okay, I’ll have him come over for that or something. We’ll hit up the store while we’re out.” Clark finished typing the message, clicked send, and disconnected from the unauthorized wireless network access. “Go.”
As Clark shut the computer down, Adam pulled out of the parking lot with no sign of their Mustang or pickup-driving shadow anywhere near them.
“Got four today. Three out-of-staters,” Amick said. He tossed four pink carbon copies of speeding tickets onto Sparks’ desk. The chief held up his hand then pointed at the phone receiver he was holding to his ear. “Sorry,” Amick whispered.
“Sure thing,” Sparks said to whoever was on the other end of the call. “We’ll be there. Right. See you then. Bye-bye.”
“Good news?” Amick asked.
“The tickets? Yes. The call? I don’t know yet. It probably doesn’t matter.” Sparks rolled his desk chair back and propped his feet up on the file cabinet. “That was Hotaka. That friend of his, Sato, is bringing the chopper in early this Thursday. Something about a scheduling conflict or a pattern or something. I can’t half understand those people. Anyway, it’s gonna be 6:30 instead of 7:30. Tell Carl when he gets in. Plus…”
“When’s his shift start? Does Kevin work tonight?” Amick interrupted.
“He comes in at four and, yes, Kevin’s working with him. Listen, Hotaka said that this’ll be the last shipment through here.”
Disappointed, Amick asked, “The last one? Why?”
“Sato doesn’t like all the attention from the shooting and all that. I can’t blame him but still. At least we’re getting paid for what we did. He said he appreciates all we done for him.”
“Yeah, yeah, just make sure you spell my name right on the check.”
“Better yet, make it cash,” Sparks said. “No paper trail.”
CHAPTER
35
The typical late-August thunderstorm of the mid-afternoon subsided as evening approached but the grey, overcast skies remained at dusk. The smell of burning charcoal filled the air in Clark’s backyard and the sound of sizzling steaks on the grill prompted growling in his stomach. Adam was on grill duty, as he always insisted, leaving Clark available to sit at the nearby table, talking to Kevin and Kara and whispering jokes behind Adam’s back every few minutes. It was purely for laughs. Adam would occasionally turn around, suspicious that the laughter was stifled until he looked back to the grill. He knew but didn’t care.
“We’re lucky this came off at all after the way it poured earlier today,” Kevin said, sipping on a Coke and staring into the dull sky above him.
“No kidding,” Clark said. He lowered his voice and said, in a more serious tone, “So has anyone been calling the last couple of days? Anyone hanging around?”
“No one,” Robbins responded. “I can’t believe you went all James Bond the other day either. What was that you called what you did?”
“A ‘dead drop’. Well, sort of a dead drop. In a real dead drop it could stay there for a few minutes or a few days and the person who left it never stays around. We couldn’t take that chance because it’s not like Julie was trained for this or something.”
“Other than reading novels, neither are you.” Robbins pointed his finger at Clark. “That’s clever though. You think they’ll really get busted tonight?”
“It’s not up to us anymore. Our hands are washed of this mess. We sent them everything we had, told them what time our visitors always come and go, and filled them in on who all was involved and who weren’t.” Robbins started to speak but Clark showed his hand in protest. “Don’t worry. We made it perfectly clear that not only were you not involved but you were also watching out for us. You’re fine.”
Kara got up from the table and joined Adam at the grill, looking around his side and talking about something that neither Clark nor Robbins could hear. Kevin nodded his head toward Kara and said softly, “So, what’s up with you and her?”
“Same crap as always. Just friends or whatever.”
“You said she’s been staying over here every night since the break-in. You’re telling me there’s nothing going on?”
“Nothing,” Clark said. He stared into space when he answered. “In the context you’re speaking in, it’s an amazing level of nothing. Black holes in outer space have more going on.”
“You can’t even look at me when you say that. I’m guessing you’d like that to change?”
Clark chuckled and looked over his shoulder to make sure she wasn’t approaching. “I wouldn’t mind, that’s for sure. I think she’s the only person on the planet that actually understands me.”
Confused, Kevin asked, “You’re saying you’re misunderstood?”
“Most geniuses are.” Ryan laughed and continued, “Seriously though, she may be the only one. You can know someone extremely well, knowing their patterns, their tendencies, their preferences and dislikes, without truly understanding them. Understanding someone is on a different level of knowledge altogether. It’s a different kind of relationship.” He took a long drink from his water bottle. “Fine, I’ll say it. I’d do just about anything to make it happen. Happy?” He looked over his shoulder again. “Look, I’m lucky to have that girl in my life in any capacity. Yeah, I’d like it to be more but, realistically, I have no shot. I mean look at her… and look at me. Different leagues.”
“She cares about you, man. A lot. You never know.”
“I’ll just hold on to that and be grateful for now.”
“Have you ever talked to her about it?”
“See, that’s just crazy talk.”
“Why don’t you just cut the crap and profess your undying love for her.”
“First of all, because that sounds like something from a movie. Secondly, because it’s really not like that. Have you ever known something and you’re not really sure how or why you know it but you’re absolutely certain? You just know it would work?”
“Sure,” Kevin said, waiting for Clark to continue. “I think we all have.”
“It’s like that, in a way. Let me explain something to you. Call it the Clark Theory. I don’t care who he is, who he’s with, or who he’s been with. Every guy in this world has one girl that is just out of his reach. She may be perfect for him and he may be perfect for her but she’s out of reach. Too perfect, too smart, different socio-economic status, bad timing, mistakes from the past haunting the present, whatever the circumstances are, she’s just out of his reach. It feels like being handcuffed to a radiator and your fingers can almost touch the keys that are lying on the ground. Maybe one guy in a million actually ends up with that woman in his life. She understands me and I understand her. She loves me and I love her. I love her more than she knows, I think. But I’m not arrogant enough or lucky enough to think I’m that one guy in a million. Like I said, I’m just lucky enough to have her in my life at all.”
Kara approached from the side and sat down. “What’re you guys talking about?” she asked.
“Football,” Clark said.
“That figures.”
By 6:40 the steaks were fully-cooked and half-consumed, along with the rest of the meal. All four sat at the circular table, the umbrella removed from the center, in white plastic outdoor chairs that made an intolerable noise when dragged across the wooden deck. That was to be expected with pieces of outdoor furniture purchased for five dollars each at a yard sale.
Clark was on his third bottle of water. The heat and humidity were taking their toll, even though the temperature had dropped almost ten degrees since they’d been outside. “Nice work on the steaks,” Clark said to Adam. “A perfect medium, not overdone.”
�
�Yeah, absolutely. They’re perfect,” Kevin said. His mouth was full of the food he was complimenting.
“Nice job, Blondie,” Kara said. She looked at Clark and smirked with anticipation of Adam’s reaction.
“Do you always have to call me that?” he asked.
She giggled and said, “Not always, just when I feel like getting a rise out of you. You’re such an easy mark.”
Adam scoffed. Clark looked at Kevin and said, “I live with these people.”
“That explains a lot,” Kevin said. “Check out the sky.”
In the distance, beyond the blue and orange-tinted sky above them, dark masses of gray and black were slowly moving in their direction.
Ryan heard it first but Adam and Kevin heard it no more than a second later. He looked at Adam, then at Kevin, and looked down at his watch. “They’re early.”
“Who?” Kara asked. Clark pointed upward. She heard the distinctive sound growing louder and said, “Oh no.”
“They get here early, they’ll leave early,” Kevin said.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Adam said.
“He’s right. At least he’s probably right. They get here and then they’re gone a half-hour or an hour later, sometimes not even that much. It’s the same thing just about every time. Tonight won’t be any different. Even if they’ve got something set up, they’re going to be too late; whoever they are. With bad weather on the way, these guys’ll be gone before the cops even show up, if they show up. This is a disaster.” Ryan walked around the deck visibly disgusted. He stopped, turned to Kevin, and said, “You got your cell on you?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Get on it. Call the State’s office but don’t talk to Ron Aliff or whoever that guy was. Talk to the head guy and tell them to talk to the guys up where Julie lives. We went over all that the other night. If you tell them you’re a cop and it’s an emergency, you better get right through.”