Guilty by Association

by Brad Cooper

  “Going somewhere, big guy?” he asked with a slight smirk that quickly disappeared into a grunt of exertion.

  Frank turned to run in the other direction but Kevin horse-collared him from behind. Amick rolled on top of Kevin, pushing his forearm into his throat and cutting off the air flow. With rain falling from Amick’s head and into his face, Kevin struggled against the pressure and, in desperation, drove his knee into Amick’s groin. He screamed in pain and fell to the side as Kevin regained his breath.

  After subduing Akira and binding his wrists and ankles with the duct tape, Adam ran to Kevin’s side. Amick held his private area and tears streamed from his eyes.

  “Nice shot, Kev,” Adam said.

  Kevin’s face was red and drawing a deep breath was difficult but getting easier. “Where’s Ryan?” he asked with shallow breath, almost wheezing. Adam stood then walked in a crouch several feet to find Clark. He saw Sparks staring at Clark, blocking every move he made. Ryan looked past him and over his shoulder to see Adam and Kevin looking back.

  “We know everything,” Clark said. “We know what you’ve done and we know what you’re doing. You’re not leaving so you may as well go ahead and get comfortable, Chief.”

  “I’m leaving and so are the others. I don’t need this,” Sparks said without breaking eye contact.

  Clark looked around. “Where exactly are the others?”

  Sparks turned and saw Kevin and Adam but none of his cohorts. Frank Amick lay at Kevin’s feet, his mouth taped and his wrists and ankles bound. He looked into the chopper and saw a frantic Yoshiro Sato looking around in every direction, searching for help that wasn’t arriving. Akira was both guard and pilot. With him unconscious, the helicopter was useless.

  “You think you’re keeping us here all by yourselves?” Sparks asked in his deep voice.

  “Everyone’s under control… but you.”

  “Control?” Sparks said. He drew his pistol and pointed it at Clark’s chest.

  Adam started forward but Kevin held him back. Clark’s eyes widened as he took a step back. His heart raced and beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He continued back but started to his right. He found himself nearing the side of the building where they’d begun.

  Sparks spoke loudly so the other two could hear. “It’s simple, boys. I’m walking to that parking lot and getting in my car. You try to interfere and I’ll shoot him.”

  “Not if somebody’s already on the way,” Adam said from behind. His body wanted to run forward, to act, to make an attempt at restraining Sparks, but his brain wouldn’t let him. It was reasoning more than fear.

  The gun shook in Sparks’ hand. “What… what are you talking about?”

  “They’re already coming, Darrell,” Kevin said. “You think we’d do this without having someone coming right behind us?”

  From behind Clark, where his body shielded Sparks’ view, came the distinctive electronic ring of Lisa’s cell phone. Kara fumbled for it and turned it off but her presence was already revealed.

  Sparks grinned and said, “They’re coming, Robbins? Or they’re coming after they get the call? I’ve been around a long time, kid. You better have more than that.”

  He looked past Clark and glared at Kara, a look that Ryan had never seen in the eyes of a judicious individual. Sparks kept the gun aimed at Clark. “She’s not making that call,” Sparks said, looking back at Ryan.

  “How do you know she hasn’t already made it?” Clark asked. His face was void of an expression, his voice emotionless.

  “I’m not buying your bluff, son. You think I don’t know how this game works? She’s not making that call.”

  “You’re going to stop her?”

  “You’re damn right, I am. I’ll stop every one of you if I have to. I got nothing to lose, boy.”

  A large crack of thunder sounded from directly above them. Sparks momentarily shook but Clark didn’t move. In the storm-induced darkness, the immediate area lit up. Lightning flashed through the sky like electric current trapped inside a metal box.

  Clark wiped the sweat and rain from his forehead. His hands shook but he spoke calmly, despite shouting over the sound of the constant rain and occasional thunder. “You’ll have to kill me to get to her. We both know that I mean that. If you’re willing to do that, then I can’t stop you. But if you think you’ll get to her without a fight, you’re wrong. You better be prepared to kill me like you killed Ray Kessler.”

  Clark took a step back and moved his left hand back to where his own gun was stuck in the back of his khaki cargo shorts. He hesitated and brought his hand back to the front. His eyes were locked on Sparks’ eyes.

  Kara slowly reached to the ground to pick up the phone but the movement caught Sparks’ eye.

  “It didn’t have to be this way…” He squeezed the trigger before finishing the sentence and a single shot rang out. The sound reverberated throughout the entire area. Sound waves bounced off of the nearby buildings, ringing for several seconds after the bullet was fired.

  The round struck Clark in the chest below the collarbone, just inside of his left shoulder. He fell backward unable to breathe. The back of his head dropped onto the wet ground like a medicine ball. The pain in his chest was dull at first then increasingly sharp and pulsating with every beat of his heart. His upper body went limp and the feeling seemed to drain from his legs. His breathing became shallow. The sequence of ten seconds seemed to last hours.

  Sparks walked forward, steeped over Clark’s nearly motionless body, and trained the gun at Kara. She gasped and dropped the phone, which cracked upon impact with the concrete. Sparks shouted over his shoulder, “Stay there. If you come at me, she dies, too. You got it?” His voice was shaky. Panic was setting in. He walked toward Kara and kept the gun aimed at her. He knew his only chance was to walk with her to his car and make his way out of the area with no further delay.

  Maybe they weren’t bluffing, he thought. Maybe they actually called. If they did, the feds are on their way.

  He had to move.

  “We’re not moving, Darrell. Just don’t hurt her,” Kevin shouted in return.

  Kara backed away but Sparks said, “Don’t move!” She stopped and backed against the wall of the building. Her eyes leaped open when she looked over Sparks’ right shoulder and then back at him.

  Ryan raised himself to his feet. Blood saturated the front of his dark blue shirt. He pulled the gun from his belt and aimed it at Sparks’ back.

  Sparks saw the look in Kara’s eyes.

  A loud bang broke the silent rain-filled scene. Sparks waited to feel pain, feel blood, feel something, but there was no impact. The shot had been fired into the air.

  “You’re a terrible shot for a cop,” Clark groaned through the pain. Defiant, he smiled and, with his eyes locked on Sparks, said, “I’m still standing.”

  Sparks turned rapidly and swung the gun around in Clark’s direction. As he did, Kara dropped to the ground. The rain clouded the police chief’s field of vision as he tried, in vain, to locate his target.

  Ryan fired three quick but well-placed shots. His marksmanship hadn’t faded. The first shot struck Sparks in the right shoulder causing him to drop his gun. Feeling the power drain from his upper body, his aim drifted downward causing the second and third shots to strike Sparks in the abdomen. The chief of police slumped to the ground and lay motionless.

  Ryan felt the rush of adrenaline fail him. His knees shook with weakness before his body virtually shut down. He fell onto his knees and then rolled over onto his back, his leg bent behind him before he managed to straighten it. He moaned in pain and struggled to breathe, his lungs heavy and laboring. Adam and Kevin raced to Ryan’s side and then over to Sparks in order to neutralize what little threat he still posed. Kara ran to Ryan and knelt beside him. She couldn’t speak at first. Instead she sobbed and lifted the shirt to look at the wound in his chest.

  “You’re okay,” she said, trying to give to him every ounce of strength t
hat she had to offer. She grabbed his hand and repeated, “You’re okay.”

  Sirens filled the evening air seconds later. A nearby van opened its side doors and State Police officers swarmed the area. They stopped upon seeing a bound and gagged Frank Amick lying on the ground and an otherwise restrained Carl Lilly also neutralized nearby. The automatic weapons they raised moments before were now down at their side. Adam and Kevin met them halfway, begging them to rush to Ryan’s aid. Sparks was of no longer of any concern.

  A young black officer dressed in SWAT-like attire was the first to come to Clark’s side. “Are you okay?” he asked. “If you can hear me, say something.” There was no response. He used his radio to call for an ambulance while those who’d come with him rounded up Amick, Lilly, Akira, and Sato.

  Clark heard the officer’s voice but found himself unable summon the strength, or the breath, to respond. His eyes cracked open long enough to look at Kara. Her eyes flickered with hope as their eyes met for a fleeting second.

  The look into Kara’s eyes provided the last sensory input before all five of his senses faded to black.

  EPILOGUE

  Clark woke from his sleep with a jolt. The entry wound in his chest left by Sparks’ gun under his left shoulder had almost completely healed, yet the tightness still lingered early every morning until it was worked out with movement. The tightness seemed to be magnified when it rained. The inconvenience was perfectly equalized by the knife wound on his right arm. Both would leave a scar, and he’d feel the gunshot wound for the rest of his life to some degree, although he was assured that there would be no loss of function. The doctors spoke of how lucky he was, and he believed them, but the scars would forever be a reminder of the most traumatic events of his life.

  His eyes opened before being reduced to a squint, trying to adjust to the morning light gleaming on the white wall opposite the bed. The sleep in his eyes was abrasive but that could be remedied in a seconds with a little rubbing. Clark’s near-sighted eyes finally gained their focus in time for him to look down to his right side and see the sleeping face of the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

  Three months had passed since the arrest and speedy trial of Darrell Sparks, Carl Lilly, Frank Amick, and Ron Aliff. When informed of the incident in Spring Creek, Aliff knew his days were numbered. His attempt to hastily resign his position and begin life on the run was thwarted when he was apprehended at the state’s largest airport in Charleston, standing at the ticket counter with a suitcase containing cash and other items that one wouldn’t need for a short vacation.

  Julie’s package delivery paid off within days. The case was still pending against Yoshiro Sato and his defeated, and subsequently fired, bodyguard, Akira. Federal investigators soon found that they had only scratched the surface of criminal activity around the small Japanese man and were thrown a curveball when they discovered the Yakuza ties that they hoped did not actually exist. Deportation was a certainty but only the tip of the iceberg that was the pending investigation into Japan’s organized criminal works in the United States.

  The trial of the local officers was covered both statewide and nationally. CourtTV provided daily coverage and analysis of the legal proceedings and well-dressed analysts dissected the evidence and testimony to the point of redundancy. What the viewers at home did not pay attention to was the group of people sitting in the front row of the gallery inside the courtroom. Larry and Diana Wyatt attended each day of the trial and celebrated mightily upon the announcement of each individual verdict. Now that those who were responsible, after a fashion, for what had happened to their son were behind bars, closure was within reach and justice was being served.

  With the federal investigation nearly concluded, the small town and its inhabitants were finally regaining a sense of normalcy. Kevin Robbins’ promotion to active police chief came as a shock to no one, mainly due to the fact that there was, in essence, no one else able or willing to fill the void. With the town still recovering from the shock of the past year’s developments, there were no crimes to be stopped aside from the occasional speeder or violator of a No Parking sign. The new officers would come soon enough. The advertisement was already in the Monroeville newspaper and applications were pouring in. Suddenly, the Spring Creek Police Department was a hot item.

  The amateur conspiracy theorists were given food for thought just after the release of Alvin Willis from custody. No one could say, for certain, what started the fire that gutted Tochigi’s Japanese Restaurant, which had been closed for more than a month and would stay that way until the property could be seized and auctioned. One woman reported seeing Alvin in the area on the night in question but the newly-appointed police chief decided that a full investigation was the last thing needed in his still-healing town. The fire chief agreed, and somehow convinced the state fire marshal to concur. The fire department had arrived within minutes and saved the adjoining building from a single cent of damage but, curiously, the Tochigi’s former business and residence couldn’t be saved.

  With the exception of two wounded shoulders and a lifetime’s worth of excitement, adventure, memories, and lessons, Ryan Clark’s rollercoaster world was finally slowing down and pulling back into the station. It was a highly anticipated return to the simple formula of finishing the classes necessary for his bachelor’s degree, applying for graduate school, spending every possible second of time with Kara, thinking about whether or not some personal counseling sessions would be in his best interest, and filling the gaps with entertainment of one form or another, specifically college football’s bowl season and whatever intriguing novels he could get his hands on to pass the quiet time.

  In spite of the trauma, both mental and physical, his top priority was the one lying next to him at the moment. She was still sleeping, her head resting on his chest and, at irregular intervals, pulling him closer during the night as she slept. There was much to do for the day. As the best man, it was his duty to make certain that Adam was at the church on time with every detail in place. That in and of itself, due partly to Adam, would be a serious undertaking but he could still afford himself five more minutes in his current state of Utopia. He’d waited years to be where he was, the circumstances to arrive at this juncture notwithstanding, so another five or ten minutes surely wouldn’t make a difference.

  Clark winced at the feeling of the scar tissue moving in his shoulder, reached over to the nightstand beside his bed, and unfolded the piece of paper that had become one of his most prized possessions since it was first pressed into his hand. Reading the poem that Kara had written for and about him was his first activity of the day, every day, without fail. She’d since written multiple others but the first one still held the most meaning. Each morning, the words made him appreciate the glorious irony that had surrounded his relationship with her from the beginning. They had met by chance but were forever bound together by fate.

  Kara was awake a few minutes later. She raised her head momentarily to look at the clock, which read 9:30 AM, one eye squinting and the other eye closed. She was extraordinarily cute in the morning, Ryan thought. Her hair was slightly mussed and her eyes still glazed and half open from sleep.

  “Shouldn’t you have been up and running a half-hour ago, babe?” Kara asked through a yawn.

  “No, I didn’t want to wake you. It’s alright, though. I’ll have him ready. We’ve still got a few more minutes to lie here and be lazy. Don’t let me forget to go tie all that crap to the back of his car, which he explicitly told me not to do.”

  “How much did Lisa’s dad pay for that car again?”

  “Fifty grand. Not a bad way to say ‘Thank you’, right? He fell in love with that Mustang the first time he saw it and, since Frank won’t be needing it, Mr. Taylor used his connections.” He pulled her close and said, “We’ve got a few minutes. Relax.”

  “Good,” Kara said, laying her head back on Ryan’s chest, her arm draped over him.

  Another ten minutes passed before Adam was hea
rd stirring around, getting ready, and then knocking on Ryan’s door. Clark got the message but the reaction was delayed.

  “Ryan, I think he’s ready,” Kara said as she started to get out of bed, and then paused. “You okay? I can usually read you like a book. You look like you’re half deep in thought and half high.”

  “I’m not high and I wouldn’t call it deep but, yeah, I’m thinking.” He smiled as he spoke.

  “About?”

  “Us.”

  “Well, what about us?” Kara asked curiously.

  “Everything. You don’t have time for the full explanation this morning.”

  Kara saw it in his eyes. “You don’t have to. You just said it all.”

  No other words were needed.

  It was time to begin the final hours of his tenure as Adam’s best man. He dressed and started out of the bedroom, eventually headed for the shower and to make his final preparations, but first he turned to look back through the door at the reason he’d fought so hard throughout the entire ordeal that nearly cost him his life. She caught him looking but said nothing. Only a smile was offered before she went back to getting herself ready for the long day of festivities.

  Ryan Clark knew he was already running late on time but he had to have one last look before heading down the hallway. He leaned against the door, looked at her, and smiled again upon the realization that it was real before offering a momentary look skyward with a silent prayer of thanks. The dream was reality.

  The shooting of Ray Kessler and the insanity that ensued created a chain of unexpected and deadly events that threatened every aspect of Clark’s life. He was glad to see it end. The trial meant the conviction of those who’d killed one person and nearly killed two others, and also meant the unconditional release of an innocent Alvin Willis, who returned to his former lifestyle within weeks. He also watched as Adam grew to understand how special Lisa actually was, and also that making a lasting commitment to a woman should not necessarily result in his commitment to a mental health facility. Time passes, things change, and Clark could bear witness.