Eyes Of Danger

by M. Garnet

  I found what I was looking for, so I drove the truck around and into a pile of old tires and got out. I pulled my backpack out and carried it towards the road about fifty feet. I wandered around until I found two plastic containers, one half-full on something I just dumped out on the ground. The other was empty and discolored. I pulled a clear plastic hose from behind the seat of the truck. I started siphoning gas from the tank into the two containers. I had on my gloves, so I twisted the nuts off the license plate and stuffed it into my shirt to take it with me. I then doused the interior of the truck with one container of gas, leaving both door open. I poured a trail of gas from all four wheels to the pile of old tires I had pulled into. I retrieved a box of matches that I threw, with one lit, onto the seat. There was a small whoosh as the flame spread. Following the trail back to the truck tires, it also moved forward to the pile of old tires around the front of the truck.

  I turned, not looking back. I picked up my backpack and walked to the road. I started walking and every time I heard a vehicle on this two-lane curvy road, I stepped into the high weeds on the side. I would hide until they passed. At last, after about twenty minutes, I heard the first siren. It actually was coming from the other direction. I turned and I could see the ugly black smoke that comes from rubber burning. Fire departments don’t put out fires that are rubber tires burning. They are almost impossible to douse. In this back area, I was pretty sure the local fire department would be an all-volunteer unit. Not that there was anything wrong with them, but it would give them one more reason not to waste time or any effort on a rubber tire burning, just let it run its course.

  I came out on one of the main highways that circled around and crossed the Ohio River. I finally stuck out my thumb. Within a couple of minutes, an old Chevy pulled over. A young kid, probably just got his licenseand had been driving tractors since he was ten, waited for me to catch up and get in.

  “Where ya’ headin’?” He smiled and asked with the southern drawl.

  “Cincinnati.” I returned the smile as I settled my backpack between my feet.

  “Well, I’m goin’ across the river, but I’m not goin’ east so I will drop ya’ off on the main route an’ ya’ can get a ride into town.”

  We chatted a little about nothing until he did pull over to let me out so that I could approach the turn on to the main east-west highway going to Cincinnati. It didn’t take me long to get a ride with a salesman. He was talkative, so I got to hear all about his wife, the three kids, and the house. He had crab grass, all of this information before he hit on me. Yep, life is wonderful. I was able to put up with him. I put him off until we got to the outskirts of town, then I got out. I thanked him for the ride.

  I walked a block before I found a taxi. I showed the driver I had the fare as he insisted, then he took me across town to the parking lot where my jeep had been. I had him drop me off on the corner. I walked on the outside sidewalk looking in at the busy parking lot. I knew where the jeep had been parked, but it was no longer in the spot. I didn’t bother to search for it, since it wouldn’t have been moved to another spot. If it wasn’t where I had left it, it had either been hauled away by the supermarket as left too long, or more likely the spooks had it. I was not going to ask either group for it right now.

  I decided to check out my house. It was only a few blocks away. I knew a shortcut through some back yards. When I was in the yard next door, the neighbor’s Rottweiler growled, but, then recognized me. I might not have known my neighbors very well, but I did know their pets and I liked Gunther. I knelt and scratched his ears, watching the back of his house. His owner must be at work by this time.

  I took my backpack off. I went over to hide it inside of Gunther’s doghouse. Gunther nosed it a little, then decided to ignore it. He tried to follow me to the length of his chain. I followed the fence to the sidewalk, carefully looking around, but didn’t see anyone. I came out on the sidewalk and turned to go in the opposite direction, away from my house. I walked around the block and came back down on the other side. I didn’t see anyone. No one was looking out of neighbor’s windows, no one lurking in the bushes, no black clad warriors in dark wraparound sunglasses with dangerous weapons.

  I took my house key out of my little purse I had hanging across my chest. I took a deep breath went to the side door, then on inside. Other than smelling a little musty, everything looked the same. I walked through, turning the AC down. I opened the back door for a moment. I took a big garbage bag, so my first job was to go to the refrigerator. I started throwing out almost everything. I gathered up the small garbage bag in the little can in the kitchen. I took these out to the garage to put in the big cans. I did a big stop when I opened the utility door as my jeep was tucked neatly in the garage.

  I pushed the button on the wall of the garage to open the outside door. As it swung up, I put my bags in the big can that had some really smelly stuff in it already. I went over to look at my jeep. The vehicle seemed to be intact with nothing missing and no new items that I could see. Of course, if the Government guys had stuck a tracking device on it, I’m not sure I would have recognized it or even been able to remove it.

  I walked out to the mailbox. I found it full to overflowing. I went back in to stand by the garbage can and dropped all the junk mail right in. This cut down eighty percent and left me with the usual bills with only a few items I needed to look at before I pitched them. I finally went in, closing the back door.

  I decided to call Steve to tell him I was back from my vacation and wanted to come back to work right away. He seemed pleased to hear from me. He told me that I could start tomorrow. One of the other researchers was off for a few days so he said he was really shorthanded.

  I decided to take the jeep to go out. I would get a salad from a local restaurant and bring it back home. I drove with one eye on the rear view mirror, but didn’t see any obvious followers. I did not have any Michelle Alarms going off. I thought this was all very strange, as I thought they should all be contacting me pretty soon.

  It could only mean two things, I thought as I sat at a red light. One, they didn’t have Tim so they were watching me, but staying back to catch him when he contacted me or, two, and this brought the first tears to my eyes with a tightness to my chest, Tim had died in the crash. They had no more interest in me. I tried to push the tightness away so that I could breathe. The guy behind me beeped and I stepped on the gas as I wiped the tears off my cheeks.

  I ran into the restaurant and paid for a build yourself salad from their salad bar and was back home, sitting at the table before it dawned on me I had no idea what I had put in my salad. I had not even bought anything to drink.

  I pushed the salad away and went over to my Mac. I logged onto my bank account. It was still there with my money. I looked at the bills I had brought in with me. I went ahead and paid a couple of them, but after I put in the wrong amounts and redid them a couple of times, I gave up. I shut everything off.

  I went into the bathroom to take a long shower, then got into a loose fitting PJ outfit. At last, I sat in the middle of my bed with my remote and a box of Kleenex. I just let the tears flow as much as they wanted to. Eventually, I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, I rolled over to see it was dark outside.

  I got up, went into the bathroom and turned on the light. I washed my face, then returned back to bed. I turned on the TV, watching reruns of something that I didn’t know what I was seeing because the tears started up again. By the time my alarm went off, I had fallen back asleep, but my head hurt so that the sound of the alarm felt like it was inside my brain. I got dressed in comfortable clothes and drove to work, stopping at a bagel shop for coffee. I picked up some breakfast that I could eat at my desk. Steve was glad to see me, but concerned about the dark circles under my eyes.

  “Hey, I thought when someone went on vacation they came back all suntanned and rested. You look like you worked in a coal mine the whole time you were gone, but I’m gla
d you are back. Sorry, we are a mess and I have to run.” He patted my shoulder as he dropped a bundle of folders on my desk, then he was gone.

  The morning went fast. I was surprised that I could bury myself in the work and forget everything for a while. Our receptionist buzzed me to tell me I had an outside call. It was Connie.

  “Hey, you can’t call? Where the hell have you been? I mean if we didn’t go back so far, I would never speak to you again.”

  “Hey, Connie.”

  “Don’t Hey me. What the hell happened? Your boss said you went on vacation. You never let me know about any vacation. Was it with a guy? The one with the sexy eyes?”

  “Connie, I have been through a very rough time. I need to sit down and tell you all about it one of these times. But right now, what I need from a friend is just a broad shoulder.”

  “Gosh, Michelle, did someone die or something?”

  And that did it for me. I gasped as the tears tried to come, but I fought them back. At this point, I wasn’t going to sit and cry until I knew for sure he had died in that crash.

  “Connie, I can’t talk now. I will call you later.” I hung up before she could say anything else. I went to the bathroom, washed my face, and stared at myself in the mirror. I looked different. Not sure how, just different. At lunch time, one of the girls brought me back a coke with a sandwich. The rest of the day, everything went pretty fast. It was almost closing time when the receptionist buzzed to say I had an outside call on line three. I hoped it wasn’t Connie wanting to meet for a drink. I picked up the portable phone, but before I said anything, I heard his voice.

  “Michelle.”

  I couldn’t say anything. I was glad I was sitting down because I knew my legs wouldn’t hold me. I finally found my voice. “You’re alive.”

  “Of course. I told you to go home and that I would find you.”

  I soaked in his voice. I know I was shaking all over. I was having a hard time holding it all together. I picked up my little purse starting to walk towards the front of the building.

  “Where are you…how should we meet? Is there any danger?” As I got to the front of the offices, I could see the parking lot. I could see him leaning against my jeep with his cell phone in one hand.

  “The danger is past. There is some people I want you to talk to, but that won’t take long, then we can go away somewhere together.”

  I stopped. My warning signal was going off with all vibes. What was wrong?

  “If you say it is safe, I believe you.” I stepped closer to the front window. Now, I saw the black SUV with the dark windows and then another. I stepped out the door, looking at Tim. He was dressed all in black. I realized all he needed was black wraparound sunglasses. This wasn’t right. All my alarms were going off. I walked to the edge of the walk looking both ways before stepping down, remembering the car accident here that had hurt one of my co-workers. No cars were even coming. Tim hadn’t moved, still leaning against my jeep.

  “Come on, Michelle, we don’t have much time.” He called to me in the voice I remembered, but I also remembered two other important items. Although there were all kinds of alarms going off in my head and gut, there was no warm feeling in my stomach. He also had not said Ma belle.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Michelle to live?

  At that moment, several of the office workers came out in a group behind me. There was a car coming slowly by, the driver obviously looking for someone. I stepped back into the group and saw Tim move forward. I also saw men come out from the two cars, dressed like him in black, plus a couple in suits.

  The car stopped by us. The driver rolled the window down as the woman asked us for the location of a sales office. By this time, I was back in the office. I nodded at the last guy going out showing him my key. I locked the front door, then dropped the office phone and in full speed I made it to the back. I didn’t bother to lock it, just ran out across the alley. I turned to go through the back entrance of the restaurant on the corner.

  I ducked in, grabbing a box. I moved with it to the front of the kitchen. I got a couple of strange looks, but no one stopped me. I took a second to look around for a hiding place. I went with the box into a storage room. In here, I was trapped, but I had been in this situation before. I carefully climbed up on the shelves, trying not to disturb anything. I moved a ceiling tile and boosted myself up into the metal roof braces. I put the tile back into place as I carefully moved through the braces until I was two thirds down the length of the building. I was trying to remember what was in this section of the building. I waited, but I didn’t hear anything. I needed to get out of the ceiling area in case one of the men with Tim stuck his head up above.

  I loosened a tile and looked down in what I recognized as an empty office. I needed to move over a few more feet in order to be able to drop onto a deserted desk, the only item of furniture that I could see. This room did not have a view of the front parking area. I replaced the tile, then moved over the desk. I held on the full length by my hands until I dropped to the desk.

  I looked up and was unhappy to see the tile out of place, but I had no way to reach it. I got down to the floor. Even though I felt I was in a hurry, I took the time to look around the wall to get a view out the front window. At the angle I was at, I couldn’t see Tim or any of the Government men. Then, I caught site of a couple of men coming out of one of the offices. They were doing an office-by-office search.

  I went back into the middle office. I sat on the floor leaning up against the desk. I took my phone out and put it on vibrate. I didn’t know if I had given Tim the number to this throw away cell, but I didn’t want the ring tone to give my location away at the wrong time. The floor was hard and cold. It only took a short time for the tears to start. So, there I sat, quietly crying, hugging my knees, waiting for dark.

  I froze when I heard a noise at the front door. I heard a couple of voices. Then, I heard a woman’s voice.

  “Do you need in? This place hasn’t been occupied for a couple of months.” The woman’s helpful voice was near.

  “Do you have a key?” A deep male voice that was not Tim’s asked the question.

  “No, but I can call the Real Estate Manager if you need to get inside.”

  “That won’t be necessary. Thanks. Let’s talk to the people next door.” I heard the voices begin to fade as they moved on.

  I began to breathe. Then, I had to bang my head against my hand, because I didn’t know how I was going to get out of a locked building. I got up and stretched out on the desk, and let the tears start up again.

  The next three hours were some of the longest I had endured through this entire episode of my life. Finally, the light began to fade. I got up to begin to check out the other offices to see if I could find items to stack on the desk so that I could get back into the ceiling and roof area. No luck.

  I carefully worked my way to the front, aware that the lights from the parking lot were coming on. They were illuminating into the front of the building since it was all glass. I didn’t see any of the Government men. The parking lot was filling up with people going to the restaurants and the movies. I went back to sit with my back against the wall separating this office from the beauty shop next door.

  Suddenly, I was aware that I could hear the girls talking through the wall. They were talking about it being close to closing time. Someone yelled at them to put something into the storage room in back right away. I heard a couple of ladies grumbling, then it faded as they moved to the back. I got up to hurry to the back where I leaned up against the wall. Sure enough, I heard them talking and moving something around right next to the wall.

  As soon as it got quiet, I sat back. I placed a foot against the drywall and pushed with all my leg strength. The wall moved in around my foot. I pushed harder and there was an indention about the size of my foot. I leaned against the wall. I used my elbow to punch as quietly as I could until the drywall gave in, a bulge inward in the center
.

  I pushed on one side until it gave. I could insert my hand to pull a piece of drywall loose. I could then pull a lot of the drywall on my side loose between the two by four studs. After I had a good size hole on my wall, I waited to see if anyone had heard the noise in the other room.

  I was hoping that the storage room door had been closed. I was also lucky that there were no wires running between the studs on the piece of drywall I was working on. Now, I worked at breaking the drywall on the other side. It was not as easy as I was trying to be quiet, but eventually I had a hole. Once I had the hole, I could pull the dry wall through into my side. I just keep breaking away pieces. I found that there was a large cardboard box right in front of my hole. Good. I worked until I thought I could get through. I carefully started to move the box. It was heavy, but it was on the floor so I just pushed it forward until it slowly moved away enough for me to see the dark room. It was full of shelves and hanging smocks, but there was enough room for me to push through to stand up.

  I pushed the box back into place. With a little luck, it might be quite a while before someone discovered the hole. White powder covered me, so I took some time to try to clean up. I brushed as best as possible. I washed my hands and face in a small sink. I dug a comb out of my little purse. I even put on some lipstick, guessing since there was no mirror.

  I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. I looked towards the front and saw that everyone was busy cleaning or talking so I just turned to the back. I saw the door and walked out the back exit. I didn’t hesitate as I walked over to the nearest dumpster. I lifted the lid, pretending to check something. I then moved around it, looking over it, and checked out the alley. I saw two men at one end walking slowly down as they looked at all of the back doors.