The Edge of Alone - 07
Page 23
A shot from behind Ty. Muzzle flash and a deafening bang. Jacob stumbled back. Lock’s bullet catching him in the middle of his chest, an inch below his rib cage.
Another shot from Lock’s gun. This one an inch above the first. Jacob’s expression was one of shock, like he couldn’t believe what had just happened to him. He sat down with a bump then fell onto his back.
Ty rushed to the corner. The third shooter was standing there, dumbfounded. Ty punched out his SIG, aiming at him.
“Put it down,” he screamed.
The kid’s hand went limp. The rifle he’d been holding dropped. Ty watched Rachel break from where she was sitting, and grab the stock. Two of the older boys rushed the shooter, taking him to the ground.
Ty turned back to where Lock was crouched over Jacob. Lock had taken Jacob’s gun. He ejected the clip with a tap of his palm, and finished making it safe.
Lock’s chin dropped to his chest. He swallowed hard. he reached out a hand to brush a stray strand of hair away from the boy’s eye. Lock’s hand passed over Jacob’s face twice more, closing his eyes, giving him a little dignity in death.
Adam was lying on his side. Ty walked back to retrieve his weapon. He walked back over to Lock who was still crouching over Jacob. Lock was crying without making any noise. His chest rose and fell.
Ty put a hand down to his friend’s shoulder. “It was him or me, Ryan.”
“Doesn’t make it right,” said Lock.
73
Don Price sped up the driveway towards the black Minivan. He exited the Explorer at speed, running towards the front door. The porch light was on. He stopped in his tracks as he saw three people sitting on the porch. One was a middle-aged woman. The other a slightly older looking man with a long bushy beard. The third person was his daughter, Ruth.
When he saw her, he stopped dead in his tracks. She looked at him, but didn’t move. Don couldn’t see a gun, and Ruth didn’t seem distressed. She looked exhausted, and tearful, but fine.
The woman got up and started down steps towards him. Don met her halfway.
“It’s okay,” said the woman. “She’s fine.”
Don wasn’t sure where to start. “Who are you? What the hell is going on?
The woman smiled. “You’ll have to lower your voice. My husband is easily upset.”
“No kidding,” said Don. “Now do you mind telling me why you have my daughter?”
“Don’t you want to talk her first? I know it’s been a while since you’ve seen each other.”
Caught off-guard, Don managed a mumbled, “Sure.”
He walked past the woman and up the stairs. The man with the beard got up. His eyes darted to Don then to Ruth and back again.
“Jenny? Who is this?” he asked Ruth.
Ruth reached out and patted the man’s hand. “It’s okay. Don’t worry.”
She got up and walked towards Don. Her eyes were filled with tears. So were Don’s. He opened his arms. She took a step towards him.
He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight. Never wanting to let go.
They stayed like that. Both crying and holding onto each other.
The woman walked up the steps and onto the porch. She gently coaxed the bearded man up from where he was seating. “Come on, bed time.”
“But who’s that man with Jenny?” he asked.
“If you come with me, I’ll tell you.”
Hesitantly, the man got up and followed her inside. She kept her hand resting gently on his elbow as she guided him through the front door.
Eventually Don let go of Ruth. He took a step back.
“You’re okay?” he asked.
“I’m tougher than I look.”
74
Three days later
Ryan Lock knocked at the hospital room door and waited for a reply.
From the other side, Ty shouted, “Come on in.”
Lock pushed the door open and walked in. Ty was reclining in bed, his feet jutting out over the edge. His bedside locker was covered in cards and flowers. Head propped up by three pillows, he was watching TV. Pinched between Ty’s fingers was what looked suspiciously like a joint.
“Oh, it’s you.” Ty sounded deflated.
“Sorry, who were hoping for?”
“That cute little brunette nurse promised me a sponge bath.”
Unlike Lock, who had an aversion to hospitals, Ty had seemed to embrace the entire experience. Especially when it came to interactions with the female medical staff. And, from what Lock had seen, the feeling appeared to be mutual. On every other visit, he had walked in to find Ty surrounded by a coterie of admiring medical professionals.
“You know smoking isn’t allowed in here, Tyrone.”
Ty looked from the hand rolled cigarette to Lock. “I ain’t smoking. This here’s medicinal.”
“Medicinal?”
“You heard me. Pain management. Hey, you couldn’t order me up a pizza from that Italian place down the street, could you?”
Lock laughed. Perhaps the first time he’d laughed since the shootings at Broken Ridge. “I take it you’re feeling better then.”
Ty swiveled his neck, and glanced at his bandaged shoulder. “This ain’t shit. Done worse to myself shaving.”
Ty was playing it off, but Lock knew different. Even if the bullet had only clipped his shoulder, it had still done some damage. Thankfully it had missed the subclavian artery, and the collar bone, but it had still blown out a small chunk of his trapezius muscle, which meant he’d need physical therapy.
Much of what had allowed Ty to deal with being shot, particularly in the hours immediately after it had happened, was his psychological toughness. Lock had seen people survive and fight after being shot if they could deal with the shock. He’d also seen people die because they’d not been able to cope with the psychological impact.
It had helped that Ty had been focused on salvaging what he could from the mess he’d found at Broken Ridge. Ty had been handed a mission. With no time to dwell on himself he’d powered through because that was who he was, and what he’d been trained to do. Not that Lock was about to tell him any of that.
“You feel well enough to have some visitors?” Lock asked his friend.
“Sure. Send ‘em on in.”
“You might want to get rid of that joint before I get rid of it for you,” said Lock.
“Oh, yeah,” said Ty, taking one final hit before stubbing it out in a small ashtray and stowing the ashtray underneath his bed.
Lock opened the door. “Come on in.”
He held the door open for Ruth and her friend, Mary. They had both insisted on seeing Ty before they went home.
The girls walked in, both a little nervous. Ruth sniffed the air.
“What’s that smell?”
“It’s medicine,” said Lock, leaving Ty to explain that one.
Lock edged back out of the door and into the corridor. Both of Mary’s parents, and Don Price and his ex-wife Sandra, were out in the corridor. Lock counted Don being able to occupy the same physical space as his ex-wife without either of them screaming at each other as some kind of progress.
If their daughter’s narrow escape hadn’t exactly brought reconciliation, it seemed to have at least returned a measure of sanity, not to mention perspective. Part of that was no doubt down to the amount of damage Sandra had to undo if she ever wanted to have any kind of relationship with her daughter.
Between them they had agreed to share custody of Ruth. Sandra was going to move to D.C., so that Ruth could be enrolled in a school there and be closer to her Dad. A regular school that didn’t rely upon psychological manipulation and electro-shock therapy to deal with its students when they stepped out of line.
Mary’s parents came over to Lock. They thanked him again for what he and Ty had done. While someone outside the situation might have blamed them, Lock didn’t. They had been desperate and looking for help. Gretchen had exploited that need, as she had with so many other parents, an
d she’d paid the ultimate price.
There was the sound of laughter from Ty’s room. It spilled out into the corridor. After everything that had happened, it was good to hear something that reminded Lock of the good in people.
75
Six weeks later
The UPS truck rolled down the quiet suburban street and came to a stop outside a picture perfect two story Cape Cod style house. Inside, Brice Walker put the truck into Park, switched off the engine and glanced over at his partner, Mike.
“You forget your glasses again?”
Mike reached into his shirt pocket, and with a flourish pulled out a pair of black framed reading glasses.
“New pair!”
“Good. So who we got?”
Mike grabbed the clipboard and flicked past the cover page. “Gabriel Mansur. Fourteen. Going to Coral Bay in Florida. We have an eight thirty six flight out of LAX.”
“Not LAX.” Brice hated taking kids through LAX. The place was a zoo, and if the kid made a fuss it got even worse.
“Sorry, man.”
“Okay, let’s go through the check.”
Mike flicked back to the front page. Brice reached behind him and grabbed the equipment bag.
“Okay,” said Mike. “Let’s see here,” he said, squinting at the list. “Pepper spray? Two canisters.”
Brice rummaged around in the bag, found the pepper spray, and handed one off to Mike. Mike struck a line through pepper spray on the equipment list. His finger moved down the list.
“Handcuffs. Two pairs.”
“Here. Let’s just hope this one ain’t a fighter.”
Since the 1970s, at least 157 American teenagers have died in behaviour modification programs, often because of lack of medical attention and inadequate medical and safety procedures.
According to Forbes Magazine the ‘troubled teen’ industry is said to be worth over $2 billion a year.
Behavior Modification Programs for teenagers are not subject to federal regulation. Most have no oversight by any government agency.
Acknowledgments
Special mention to Naomi Gargano, Mike Davies, Anthony Downes, Joe Dugan, Frances Mojica and all the readers who have bought, borrowed, stolen, read and reviewed the Ryan Lock series over the years. I appreciate each and every one of you.
Thanks also to friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic who have kept me going during the writing of what was, at times, an emotionally draining story.
Most of all, love and thanks to M & C.
Also by Sean Black
Lockdown: The First Ryan Lock Novel
Deadlock: The Second Ryan Lock Novel
Gridlock: The Third Ryan Lock Novel
The Devil’s Bounty: The Fourth Ryan Lock Novel
The Innocent: The Fifth Ryan Lock Novel
Fire Point: The Sixth Ryan Lock Novel
Lock & Load: A Ryan Lock Story
Budapest/48: A Ryan Lock Story
Post: The First Byron Tibor Novel
Blood Country: The Second Byron Tibor Novel
Also available to readers in the USA and Canada:
Ryan Lock Bundle 1 : Lockdown; Deadlock; Gridlock
Ryan Lock Bundle 2: The Devil’s Bounty; The Innocent; Fire Point
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