by Nate Johnson
Sighing again, he continued, “I’d run away from a pretty bad place and been on the street for about a month. I was doing okay, but the weather turned, and one thing led to another. Anyway, store security got me, and Detective Washington responded to the call. I guess he’s been promoted if he’s handling homicide now. I hope my case was career building for him.”
“The judge was going to let me go, but I needed a place to crash, and the system was booked up, so I got three months for trying to steal a package of ham from the Safeway deli. Needless to say, my fierce reputation stood me well in the hall. I mean those guys quaked in their boots when they heard I was coming.”
Marla relaxed her arms and reached out to give him a hug. She didn’t say anything, nor did he scan her, but he knew she had accepted and dismissed the whole event. She was not going to hold his wicked criminal history against him.
.o0o.
Nodding his head to the other police officers, Detective Washington stepped back towards the two teenagers leaning against the car. “Nolan, so how you doing?” he asked.
“Fine sir,” Nolan answered. He had always respected the police officer. He had been honest with him and never two faced.
“And you are,” the detective asked Marla.
“This is Marla Jackson, Marla, Detective Washington,” Nolan said.
“Hello,” Marla said with a shy smile.
The detective looked her up and down then out at the field and the picnic blanket. His eyebrow rose slightly before he pulled out a small notebook and a pen from his shirt pocket.
“I know where you live Nolan. How about you Miss Jackson? What is your address? Do your parents know you are here,” the detective said as he glanced at Nolan, indicating that he really wanted to know if her parents knew she was with Nolan.
She slipped her arm into Nolan’s. “Yes, my mom knows where I am at,” she said, then gave the detective her address and her mom’s phone number, as if daring him to call her to check up on her.
The detective smiled as he copied down her pertinent information. “So what are you guys doing here?” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“We were having a picnic,” Nolan said, nodding towards the blanket in the middle of the field. “We were taking a walk along the lake and found... It.”
The detective finished with his questions then told them they could leave. He would contact them if he had any additional questions.
They hurried up and gathered their stuff and were headed back to the truck. Neither of them spoke. But silently, they both went through the actions necessary to get out of there as fast as possible. Before they could get away, Detective Washington waved them down.
“I’m going to follow you home. I want to talk to your parents and guardians, let them know what’s going on.”
Marla blanched, then looked at Nolan, pleading with her eyes for him to fix this. He shrugged his shoulders and put the truck in gear. There were some things that couldn’t be fixed.
He pulled up outside her front door and the Detective pulled in behind them. Before they could even get out of the truck, the front door of the house opened. Mrs. Jackson stepped outside and hurried across the lawn to them.
She halted halfway when Detective Washington got out of his car. Her eyes followed him as he stood up to his full height. She seemed to hesitate. The detectives hand stopped in midair as he reached for his badge. Both of them stood there for a moment.
Marla looked at Nolan and raised an eyebrow. “Is this weird or what?”
Nolan laughed.
“Mrs. Jackson?” the detective asked. Marla’s mother nodded her head looking at Marla then back at the tall man. She looked back at her daughter then walked over and gave her a hug.
“It was all over the news. They said that two young lovers had found a body. Was it you two?”
“It wasn’t what you thought. We … uh … just found it,” Marla said.
“I assure you Mrs. Jackson, these two didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, they handled it perfectly. Reported it immediately. You have nothing to worry about.”
“And you are?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. Marla cringed and leaned away from her mother.
“Detective Jake Washington, ma’am. Like I said there is nothing to worry about.”
Mrs. Jackson slowly appraised the man before her and said. “Detective, you are not a mother. There is always something to worry about.”
The detective just grinned.
.o0o.
Detective Washington scratched behind his ear while continuing to look at the front door that contained the departed women. Some woman, he thought, as he shook his head. It took a lot to make him interested. She’d done it with only a few words.
Leaning up against his police car, he glanced over at the boy next to him. This Nolan Reed was an interesting case. He had watched the security camera when the kid got jumped. He was either the fastest person alive, or the kid knew what was going to happen. Sometimes it seemed as if he knew what they were going to do before they knew.
He had a hunch the kid wasn’t telling him everything. His hunches weren’t always right, but they were almost never wrong.
“If you were looking for the person who did this, what would you be looking for,” he asked.
Nolan seemed to hesitate.
“I’d be looking for a gray skinned man. A guy with a big head and hollow cheeks. But then I don’t know anything, of course, it’s only a hunch. My hunches aren’t always right, but they are almost never wrong.”
The Detective froze and stared at the boy, had he spoken out loud earlier. Shaking off the chill that ran up his back he pushed off the car and walked to the driver side and opened the door then looked back to the house.
“You know Nolan, girls like her break real easy, and it’s a tear in your soul that you’ll never fix.”
“She’s stronger than she looks,” Nolan said, sticking out his chin and clenching his fists a little.
“I’m sure she is, but no one is strong when they give their heart away. You be careful and don’t stomp all over her.”
“Yes sir.”
“Talk to you later.” The detective said over his shoulder as he got into his car and pulled away, leaving Nolan to stare after him.
.o0o.
Nolan watched the detective leave, then jumped into the truck and took off. He didn’t know why he’d told Detective Washington about the gray man. The words had tumbled out without his thinking about it. The comment about hunches had been asinine, he was going to get caught one of these days.
When he got home, he went straight to his room. Folding his hands behind his head. He opened himself up, sure that he could pick up the gray man’s thoughts regardless how far away they were. As he lay there, he had to fight his mind drifting into thoughts about Marla.
Chapter Six
Nolan held the door open to let Marla through. The movie had been great. But he wouldn’t remember much of it tomorrow. The feeling of having his arm around Marla and her leaning her head on his shoulder would last with him for the rest of his life.
He held her hand as they walked across the lot towards his truck. He kept looking down at her, unbelieving how lucky he was. She wore jeans and a really cute blouse and kept looking back at him from under her eyebrows. Throwing him that delicious secret smile of hers. He was so enamored that he didn’t see the men approaching.
As he was reaching for her door handle, a tall man, blonde hair, in a gray pin striped suit stepped out from behind his truck. Nolan jumped back, blocking Marla, he was completely surprised. He hadn’t been scanning. He didn’t like doing it when Marla was nearby.
At first, he thought the man was from the police department, maybe someone subbing for Detective Washington. But a quick scan proved that totally wrong. The guy had been sent to pick him up, in fact, there were three more guys. Nolan spun around as the other three penned them in between two cars. They were all dressed in suits, another scan told Nolan that they weren’t
agents working for the government.
They were here to take him in, they didn’t know why just that they were supposed to pick him up. They weren’t allowed to hurt him. But they also weren’t allowed to let him go. Then a dark thought from the lead guy scared him to the core, they were going to take Marla too.
Nolan jumped towards the first man, Blondie, and tried to throw a punch but the guy was too fast and threw his own punch. Marla screamed distracting Nolan enough that the punch landed a glancing blow off his cheekbone. By now Nolan was inside the guy’s head, he saw him lay out his plan. Nolan was shocked at how calm and unexcited he seemed to be.
The man thought about it, then quickly swept his leg trying to trip the perp without getting too close. Once they had him down, they’d handcuff him and throw them into the back of the van.
Nolan could see it all and reacted before the guy even started his move. He jumped into the air, timing the jump so that he came down just as the foot swept under him, landing square on the agent’s ankle. A loud snap echoed off the car fenders as the agent let out a muffled squeal of pain. Nolan felt a slight sense of sickness deep in his stomach but couldn’t ponder it.
Turning he parried a punch and landed his own in the second agents solar plexus. It felt like he had hit a brick wall. The man grunted but reached and grabbed Nolan’s arm as he fell. Nolan didn’t have time to see it, the man was reacting without thinking things through. A scream behind him went straight to his inner core and sent a sharp pang of desperate anxiety straight through him.
He turned to find the other two agents had Marla by each of her arms. Her face grimaced in desperation as she twisted, trying to pull her arms free.
Nolan started towards them when a picture of a gun barrel being held next to her head flashed into his minds.
“NOOOOO!” he yelled as the bigger of the thugs pulled a gun from inside his coat.
Nolan immediately slid to a stop, his tennis shoes swishing on the gritty asphalt. Marla’s face drained of color to a chalky white, and her eyes grew to the size of donuts as she looked at him to rescue her.
“That’s enough kid,” The man holding the gun said.
A white panel van pulled up behind them, and the door slid open. The gunman waived with his pistol for Nolan to get in. Nolan lowered all of his barriers and let the thoughts pour over him. They weren’t government agents but hired thugs who had no idea why they were doing what they were doing.
Marla’s thoughts were mixed in with the noise. He tried to ignore them, but the fear she was feeling was overwhelming. Focusing on the attackers Nolan saw that they were taking them to be handed off to another group of men. Someone had put a cut out in place so nothing could be traced.
A man pushed him from behind, and he climbed into the van where he was shoved into the far wall. He collapsed next to Marla. He reached over to put his arm around her shoulders, but they had him hold his arms out and put a white twist tie around his wrists, then repeated the same on Marla.
She looked at him with terror filled eyes. His gut dropped a thousand miles as he realized what this was all about. Someone had discovered his secret. A scared shiver settled into his bones as he realized that Marla might discover everything about him. Then he was mad at himself, how could he be worried about that? He should be worried about her safety. Nothing else mattered.
“It’ll be okay,” Nolan whispered to Marla.
“Yeah honey, everything is going to be just fine,” the lead attacker said with a sneer.
“To hell with that,” the second man said as he rubbed his ankle where Nolan had landed on it. Raising his head, he looked into Nolan’s eyes.
Nolan could feel the anger in the man’s thoughts. The ankle was shooting sharp stabbing pain directly to the guy’s brain, covering everything in a dark blue haze. He was embarrassed at being taken by a kid, but most of all he was worried about his reputation with the other guys. They were going to give him such a ration of crap about getting hurt by a high school kid. The anger continued to build as they stared at each other. Then, without ever thinking about it, the guy brought his fist back and launched it directly at Nolan’s nose.
Nolan was surprised, he wasn’t used to people acting without thinking about something first, at least momentarily. The square knuckles connected with the center of his face making his nose erupt into a shower of pain. A loud crunch echoed around the van, and a shower of blood exploded from his nose.
Marla squealed and dove across his lap, her hands shaped like falcon claws as she tried to scratch the thug’s eyes out. The puncher had to favor his injured leg as he tried to shift out of the way, his eyes wide in startled surprise. Nolan almost laughed as a thrill of pride ran through his entire body.
“Hold on Simba,” Nolan said as he gently held her back from killing the guy. She looked into his eyes and shifted from hate and anger to love and concern all in the blink of an eye.
Reaching up, she touched the side of his head. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Everything’s going to be fine. Settle down and don’t give them a reason to get upset,” Nolan said.
“That’s right honey, listen to your boyfriend,” the lead attacker said. Then turning to his comrade said, “If you do that again, I’ll toss you out of this van on your ass, now settle down.” The tension between the two criminals rose to a white hot heat as they stared at each other.
Nolan smiled to himself, if the leader knew what the other guy was thinking he’d kill him right now. It was so tempting to tell him, ‘Hey, your friend wants to shove his gun down your throat and empty the clip.’ If he could figure out some way of doing it without exposing his secret, he would do it in a heartbeat, just to watch the entertainment.
.o0o.
Marla brushed her hair out of her eyes, looked Nolan, her heart stopped. His nose had been broken again and was covered in blood. As she watched, a lone drop of blood fall into his lap. He had fought so hard. They had used her to get to him. A deep guilt settled down into her bones and stomach making her feel like a disappointment to him.
That jerk had punched him while his hands were tied, it wasn’t right. She was surprised at the anger that coursed through her whenever she thought about it.
Settling down next to him, she leaned her head on his shoulder and remembered the movie. It had been so wonderful to have him put his arm around her shoulder. A warm sense that all was right with the world had settled over her, she wished he could do it now. She was scared, what was her mother going to do when she found out?
Taking a deep breath, she tried to prepare herself for what would come. Maybe they would have a chance to escape. She had to be sure to keep her eyes open and look for an opportunity. They hadn’t tied her feet. Obviously, they weren’t worried about her. Well, let them keep thinking like that. She’d show them.
Reaching over she squeezed Nolan’s knee, trying to let him know that she was all right and that everything would work out.
The van continued on through the night. Everyone was quiet, lost in their own thoughts. Nolan stared off into space as if he was processing information.
Marla had been with him enough to know that when he got like that to let him alone. It was like he was in another world and if she interrupted him he would pay attention to her, but wasn’t all there.
Better to let him finish and then he would make her the center of his universe once again. Besides, she had discovered that she wasn’t one of those needy type girls that had to have their boyfriend always thinking about them.
Sighing she smiled to herself, who would have thought that two weeks ago she would have a boyfriend like Nolan. While they hadn’t expressed their ever dying love for each other - in fact, they hadn’t even broached the whole girlfriend/boyfriend subject. But she knew she thought of him that way and was pretty sure he thought the same. Some things didn’t have to be said out loud to make them true. All though it would be nice to hear him say “I love you.”
Maybe she should say it first,
but something held her back.
.o0o.
The van suddenly pulled onto a dirt road, slipping and sliding around curves. Marla had to hold onto Nolan with both hands. The van came to a sliding stop, and the door flew open. Another man, this one dressed in a rent-a-cop security uniform stood there with a flashlight.
He shined it on the two captives making them wince back out of the way as their eyes adjusted to the bright light.
“You got them,” he said in surprise. Then motioned for them to get out of the van as he stepped back out of the way.
Nolan scanned the man but didn’t learn anything more. The guy was dumber than a box of rocks. The kind of rocks that couldn’t even graduate from High school. He let himself relax. They weren’t planning on taking them into the woods and making them dig their own graves. He smiled at Marla trying to reassure her.
The new guy waved a gun towards a waiting Lincoln Town car and told them to get in the back. Nolan used his bound hands and opened the door for Marla and waited for her to slide over. Another uniformed guard was behind the wheel and smiled a hello as if he was picking up a fare in a New York taxi.
Nolan grunted as he slammed the door behind him. Another idiot who didn’t know anything. They were to take them to the center and hand them over to another set of guards.
Twenty minutes later the car pulled up to a chain link fence. The passenger guard jumped out. Pulling a set of keys, he opened a huge padlock and unwound a chain, then swung the gate open and waved the car through.
They took off again winding their way on a rutted gravel road. The silvery moonlight and high beams showed them the way through the tunnel of tall pine trees. Nolan slouched down in the seat. Marla was staring out her window. They traveled for another ten minutes until they pulled up in front of a large concrete building.
It looked like a bunker of some type, all angled sloping walls and thick, heavy glass. Set low to the ground it blended in with the environment.