"Good," said Redden, as he massaged away the imprint of Moses' barrel under his chin. "But there's actually something I'd like you to take care of before that."
"What?"
"Lance Gilford," said Redden.
"Who's Lance Gilford?"
"He's a pain in the ass," said Redden. "And it's time he was gone.
THEO RODE IN THE backseat of Gilford's car all the way to HAPP-Y Stables. Gilford drove well for a man with a loaded 9-millimeter Glock pressed against the base of his skull. Redden's instructions were to meet him at the end of the long driveway that led to the barn. The emphasis was on long. The final half-mile of winding dirt road seemed to last forever. But Theo knew it wasn't just about distance. The adrenaline was pumping, the anticipation building, like a D-day landing.
The car stopped, and the dust settled all around it. Theo crouched low behind the driver's seat so he couldn't be seen by anyone who might be watching. At Theo's direction, Gilford lowered all the windows and shut off the engine.
Theo said, "Leave the keys in the ignition, get out of the car, and take ten steps away from the driver's door. You stop right there and wait. You move even one more step away from me, I drop you in your tracks. Got it?"
"Yes."
"And you talk nice and loud, so I can hear. Go," said Theo.
Gilford reached for the door handle, but Theo stopped him. "Don't forget the videotape."
"Oh, right," said Gilford. It was a blank, the pretense for the whole meeting with Redden, so it was understandable that he would forget it. Gilford grabbed it from the console, got out of the car, and did as he was told, stopping at the end of the driveway, exactly ten steps away from the driver's side door. Theo watched from his hiding spot in the backseat, careful not to show too much of the top of his head in the open window. A light breeze carried the dusty odor of straw and horse droppings from the barn. Smoke from the distant Everglades fires was less noticeable this far south, but it created a haze in the atmosphere that made for an unusually dark night.
Gilford waited, shifting nervously from one foot to the other. Finally, the barn door slid open, and a shadow appeared in the doorway.
"Fernando?" said Gilford.
There was no reply. The barn door closed. Through the open car windows, Theo could hear the plodding of footsteps in the dust, but it was too dark to make out the man's features.
"Is that you, Fernando?" Gilford said.
The man kept coming in silence, stopping five yards away from Gilford. From his hiding spot in the car, Theo still didn't recognize him. The darkness was that complete.
Gilford said, "Who are you?"
The man raised one arm and pointed at Gilford. He had a gun. "Give me the videotape," he said.
Theo did a double take. He knew the voice, and before Theo's brain could convince his eyes that he was indeed seeing his uncle, a shot cut through the night. Gilford fell in a heap.
"Get down!" Theo shouted.
Cy dove to the ground. Theo jumped over the front seat, got behind the wheel, and started the engine. As he put the car in gear, another shot rang out from somewhere inside the barn, and the windshield exploded into thousands of glass pellets. It was now obvious that his uncle hadn't fired the shot that had dropped Gilford, but Theo had no time to process that thought. Spinning tires churned up a cloud of dust as the squealing car cut a big arch across the driveway. It skidded to a quick halt, in perfect position to shield Cy on the ground from the shooter inside the barn.
More bullets whistled overhead. Theo jumped out of the car, grabbed his uncle, and pushed him into the rear seat.
"Stay on the floor!" said Theo.
The night crackled with gunfire as bullets peppered the passenger side of the car. Theo drew his Glock and returned fire over the hood, then scrambled on hands and knees to check on Gilford. No pulse. He left him where he lay, hurried back behind the wheel, and punched the accelerator. The tires screamed again, and Theo lowered his head in response to more gunfire. The car finished its sweeping arch into a full one-eighty facing away from the barn. As it pulled away, the rear tire blew out, possibly from Theo's driving, possibly from gunfire. A second tire exploded, and Theo knew he was dealing with a crack shot. He kept going, but with two flats the car limped away like a gimpy racehorse. And with no windshield, Theo was eating plenty of dust.
Cy shouted, "I heard them talking. They're using me as bait to get you."
"Stay down," he said.
Theo's uncle wasn't telling him anything he hadn't already figured out, and the set of headlights coming toward him only confirmed the fix they were in. A car was fast approaching from the driveway's entrance. Theo was getting boxed in. The bait was doing its job.
"Hold on," said Theo.
Theo threw a hard right and steered the car at full speed off the road. They crashed through a white-painted horse fence and sped into the pasture. The ride was even rougher than expected, and two blown tires didn't help. Theo raced down a grassy slope and hit the brakes in the nick of time to avoid a hood-first dive into the lake.
"Come on!" Theo shouted, as he flew out of the car. His uncle followed, but the old man wasn't moving fast enough. Theo took him by the arm and practically dragged him along as they ran toward a patch of scrub and thick bushes by the lake. They didn't stop until they found taller trees, and they were a good twenty-five yards into a forest. It was ample cover in the darkness.
Cy was wheezing as they rolled onto the blanket of pine needles on the ground. Making a run for it on foot was not a viable option.
"How many are there at the barn?" asked Theo, as he checked his ammunition.
"Two, that I seen," said Cy. "Hispanic guy is in charge. Don't know his name. And a black guy named Moses."
"Moses?" said Theo. "That's the guy I was in jail with."
"He's the one who scares me."
"With good reason," said Theo. His ammunition clip was not yet empty, but he shoved a new one into his Glock anyway, giving himself a full set of rounds. He'd need it with Moses. "I want you to stay here," said Theo.
"Where you going?"
"I got something to take care of"
"What if they see me here?"
"Just lay still. They won't."
"But what if they Jo?"
"You still got that gun they gave you, right?"
"I left it in the car." Damn.
"It's got no bullets anyway. It was just a setup, the way they sent me out there and told me to aim the gun at that guy. I think they somehow knew or guessed he was gonna bring either you or the cops with him."
Theo thought for a second. "Okay, here's the plan. I'm gonna run two hundred yards that way and fire a shot or two into the air. That'll get 'em coming in my direction, away from you."
"And then what?"
"Then… I don't know. Just stay here, and don't move."
Cy grabbed him by the arm, his voice strained with urgency. "Ain't nothin' you gotta prove here tonight."
Theo didn't answer.
"You hear what I'm sayin', boy? You don't owe your momma nothin'"
The two men locked eyes in the darkness. Finally, Theo shook off his uncle's grasp. "Says you," he said.
He pushed up from the ground and sprinted across the pasture – back toward the barn.
Chapter 48
You need to go after him!" said Redden.
Moses didn't budge. The two men were still inside the barn, standing in one of the empty stalls. The top half of the dutch door was open just enough for Moses to see out into the pasture.
"He'll be back," said Moses.
"I think you're wrong. He's got his uncle, he's got Lance's car. 'e's gone. Redden was pacing now, his nerves fraying. Moses was a picture of calm. "Shut up," said Moses.
Redden stopped dead in his tracks. "But you're letting him get away."
Moses glanced out through the opening, then back at Redden. "Have you ever met Theo Knight?"
"No."
"Well, I have. Not for a l
ong time, but I can read people pretty quick. Trust me. Right this minute, he's on his way back here to take care of us."
Redden started pacing again. "I don't see how you can be so sure."
"I was right so far, wasn't I? Didn't I tell you that Gilford's phone call was a setup? Didn't I warn you that if you or me stepped one foot outside this barn to meet Gilford, Knight would shoot us dead?"
"You also said that when Knight saw his uncle he'd do something stupid. You were supposed to take him out."
Moses looked toward the pasture again. "Give him a little time. I can feel it. He's gonna do something real stupid."
A shot rang out from somewhere by the lake. Then another. Redden froze.
Moses smiled to himself. "Told you."
THEO KEPT RUNNING TOWARD the barn. Darkness was his friend, but for maximum cover he moved from tree to tree across the pasture. Much of the forest had been cleared with the development of the farm, but the biggest oaks remained. Theo stopped about fifty yards from the stable entrance, crouched beneath century-old limbs.
Theo didn't know much about Redden, other than that he'd raped his mother. Studying the enemy before the attack was always a good idea, but somehow a fifty-something frat boy didn't seem that scary.
Moses was another story.
The fit between Redden and Moses didn't strike Theo as natural. Throw Isaac Reems into the mix, and that was one odd-shaped triangle. Crime, as the saying goes, makes for strange bedfellows. Theo supposed that was especially true when the rape of a black teenager in an all-white fraternity was caught on film.
Theo peered out from around the tree trunk and looked toward the barn. He couldn't be certain that Redden and Moses were still there, but two cars had been parked outside the stable earlier. Both were still there. Gilford's body was still lying in the driveway, too. Theo took those as good signs.
He plotted out his next several moves – tree to fence to stable – and began his final approach.
He was halfway to the fence when a gunshot pierced the silence. A tiny volcano of dirt exploded at his feet, and then another. He dove for cover behind a watering trough and took a moment to make sure he hadn't been hit. He hadn't. But one thing was certain.
Someone was still in that barn.
"IDIOT" SAID MOSES.
Redden was standing at the dutch door in the empty stall, his gun shaking in his hand. "I thought I could hit him."
"You panicked, moron. Another two minutes and I'd have had a shot I couldn't miss. Now he knows we're waiting for him."
"Then let's get out of here."
"We're not going anywhere," said Moses.
"You were supposed to take care of Knight, not me. I want out of here."
"It's too late," said Moses. "So here's the deal. Find yourself a stall and stay put. Do not move. If Knight sticks his nose inside, you blow his head off."
Redden started that nervous, frenetic pacing again. "No. Absolutely not."
"Who you tellin’ ‘no'?"
"I need to get out of here."
Moses considered it, then said, "All right. Go."
Redden stopped cold, his face alight. "You mean it?"
"Yeah. You can go. Take the car. I'll cover for you."
He breathed out something between a sigh of relief and giddy laughter. "Okay," he said, giving Moses what most white men thought was the black man's handshake. "You're cool, dude."
"I know. Now get outta here."
Redden opened the interior gate, turned to give Moses a mock salute, and then started running up the stable's center aisle.
He was fifteen feet away when Moses shot him in the back of the head.
Redden fell facedown to the concrete.
Some people would call it cowardice to shoot a man from behind. Others might regard it as cruel. But Redden had disintegrated into a liability that was bound to get them both killed. So Moses saw it not only as a smart move, but as an act of kindness.
Fernando Redden died a happy man. In the HAPP-Y Stable.
One down, Moses told himself, one to go.
Chapter 49
Theo heard the gunshot and flattened himself to the ground. This time there was no explosion of dirt around him, and it sounded as if the round had been fired deep within the stable, not out toward the pasture.
Theo took that as yet another good sign – possible dissension, or at least confusion.
He waited a full minute before making another move. Utter silence from the stable made for an eerie darkness, but the cover of night was perhaps his sole advantage. He couldn't count on the element of surprise. The only safe approach was to assume that his enemy knew he was coming back for them. Why else would they have stayed put? They wanted the showdown as much as he did. The thought made his heart pound.
Left: or right? Theo had to choose a path to the stable. There were more trees and cover to the right. He rose up on one knee and took off like a sprinter exploding from the blocks. He made it to the corner of the barn and stopped.
Side or main entrance? Gilford had emerged through the large sliding door just before getting shot, and it was still open. But that seemed like a risky point of entry. If this barn was like others that Theo had seen, the main entrance would lead to a wide center aisle that offered little cover. Much better to try one of the smaller side entrances – the dutch doors that allowed riders to take a horse directly from the stall to the outdoors. Theo counted twelve such access doors on this side of the barn. He steadied his nerves, crouched low, and went to the nearest door. Slowly, as quietly as he could move, he tried the handle. It turned.
For a moment he didn't so much as breathe, expecting even this slight disturbance to draw gunfire. There was none. He turned the handle all the way, and again he waited. Then he pulled the door open about six inches. He stopped and looked inside.
It was a typical square stall with a straw-covered floor. The horse, a beautiful bay-colored thoroughbred, was standing to the side on three legs, the right hind hoof relaxing. The animal appeared to be asleep. Theo was no horse expert, but he knew better than to sneak up behind a sleeping thoroughbred. He pushed the door another six inches, trying to give himself a large enough opening to see if the next stall was empty. It was hard to tell in the darkness. A few more inches of open doorway might have afforded a better view, but this last nudge made the rusty hinges creak like nails on a chalkboard. A shot rang out, the door panel splintered just inches above his head, and the sleeping thoroughbred was suddenly wide awake and kicking.
Theo slammed the door shut and rolled to his left. Another shot rang out from somewhere inside the barn, and the bullet popped through the door behind him. Theo kept rolling, working his way along the side of the barn, but it was as if the shooter knew where he was headed. Rapid gunfire – at least a dozen quick shots – sent shattered pieces of the barn flying at his heels, and he had to roll as fast as he could to stay ahead of the trail of bullets. The shooting suddenly stopped, but Theo wasn't about to wait for it to start again. He opened a door at the barn's midpoint and ducked into a stall. This one was empty, but Theo could hear the neighing and clamor of startled horses all over the barn. He immediately drew his weapon, ready to return fire, but the shooter's gun had gone silent, which was even more confusing. He dove through the gap in fencing between stalls and kept crawling in the darkness, past horses, through piles of straw and horse droppings, until he was four stalls away from where he'd entered.
Theo stopped and listened. Excited horses in neighboring stalls were settling down, and he became aware of the sound of his own breathing. Then, peering out between the wood struts of the stall, he noticed something just beyond the gate. On the concrete floor of the stable's center aisle, a man lay twisted, a pool of blood surrounding his head. Theo started, but the body was utterly motionless, the eyes fixed open. Dead. He went to the gate for a closer look and saw that the corpse was Hispanic. Wearing Ferragamo shoes, an Armani jacket, and a Rolex wristwatch. A Hispanic with serious money. Theo couldn't
be totally certain, but somehow he understood, for the very first time, that he was laying eyes upon the man who had nearly gotten away with the rape of Portia Knight.
And Theo felt only one thing: the deep desire to get the man who'd killed her.
"Just you and me, Knight."
The voice was booming, and Theo recognized it as Moses. Theo was tempted to say something back – to ask if the dead man was indeed Fernando Redden – but it was to no advantage. He kept silent.
Stay or move? It was time for another decision, perhaps Theo's last. He listened. A horse exhaled and fluttered its lips. Another thumped a hoof. The tin roof rattled lightly in the breeze. Every stable had a chorus of normal sounds. Theo drew on his every power of concentration, and he detected the slow and steady click of leather heels on concrete.
It had to be Moses coming up the center aisle.
Then the clicking ceased. Theo strained to pick up the noise again but couldn't. Either Moses had stopped in his tracks, or he had managed to silence his step and was still advancing. Theo couldn't risk the latter.
He had to move.
"Truce?" said Moses, again in a booming voice. It came from the other side of the barn, nowhere near the place that Theo had calculated as Moses' present position. Moses had seen the stable in the light of day and was more familiar with the layout than Theo was. One more disadvantage.
Moses said, "Just throw your gun out into the aisle. I let your uncle go. I'll let you go, too."
Theo didn't believe him for a second. He dug beneath the bed of straw, pulled up a nice-sized rock, and tossed it across the center aisle. The instant it hit the other stall, a shot rang out and shattered the same piece of wood fencing that Theo's rock had struck.
The horses stirred again, and Theo took advantage of the burst of commotion. He crawled through the fence to the adjacent stall, opened the gate, and sent a startled thoroughbred charging into the dark center aisle. He crawled to the next stall and turned another skittish horse loose, and then another. He continued at breakneck speed until ten powerful and magnificent animals were running scared in every direction. Some of them trounced Redden's body – their dead owner – which didn't upset Theo in the least. Moses fired another shot that missed its mark by a good five feet, but the crack of the pistol raised the horses' hysteria to a fever pitch.
Last Call Page 26