by Ellle Parker
“Let’s hope Fido’s a booze hound,” he said.
I leaned down and picked up the box. “You’re the expert here, you wanna do this?”
“No.” Seth eyed me and settled down in his seat.
“Fine.”
I got out of the car, leaving the door ajar and walked across the road, staying well to the far side of the gate. The only motion lights were right above the office door, and I didn’t want to risk setting them off this early. With any luck, they were set to light up if anything came into the parking lot. If they’d been trained on the yard, the dog would set them off every time he moved.
The old chain link gate hung crooked, sagging on worn-out hinges. There was a large gap at the bottom, between the gate and the fence. I crept up to it, hoping not to alarm the dog, and opened the hamburger box. Back in the shadows, I heard a faint jingling and the snuffle of something live. Hello, Fido.
I set the box on the ground and poked it through the gap in the gate, sliding it as far as my arm would reach. I was met with a low, menacing growl, and I yanked my hand out of there before he ate the wrong thing.
“Come here, boy,” I called, barely above a whisper. “Come and see what we brought you. You’re gonna love this.”
The growl became more intense at the sound of my voice, and the dog moved closer. He paced the length of the gate, eyeing me warily. I froze and held my breath. I needed him to notice the burger before he decided to raise the alarm.
“Easy,” I murmured to him as he came closer.
He lifted his snout to the air, sniffing rapidly, and started to cast around, swinging his head from side to side. His attention was still firmly fixed on me, but I hoped the smell of food would start to sink in. I crept a little further to the side, trying to draw him toward it. The movement caused him to snarl at me, and I stopped obediently.
This time when he snuffled around, he found the burger and gobbled it up with large savage bites, three of them at the most. When there was none left, he licked the inside of the box, following it through the dirt as his tongue pushed it along. I took that opportunity to back away and cross the street.
Seth was standing by the car watching. “I thought you were gonna have to hand feed the dumb bastard,” he said.
“So did I. He was not real impressed with me.” I reached into the car to get my notes and tucked them in my shirt pocket with the penlight. “How long until he passes out?”
He held up his hands. “Don’t know. He’s bigger than Ed’s dogs. They usually pass out after about twenty minutes.”
“That sucks. I’d like to get this over with.”
“This is the hard one,” Seth said. “The rest will be a piece of cake.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said. “Pop the trunk, will ya?”
He pulled the key from his pocket, unlocked the trunk, and lifted the lid. I leaned in and unzipped the tool bag, taking out my lock picks, which I slipped into my back pocket, and the stun gun. I grabbed the empty duffle bag and closed the trunk.
“Here, take this,” I said, handing Seth the stun gun. “In case there’s any trouble with the dog, you zap him.”
Seth nodded and clipped it to the front of his jeans.
For the next twenty minutes, we leaned on the car and watched the shadows across the road, trying to see the dog. I’d hoped he’d just stagger around in front of us and fall over, assuring us a bite-free job, but no such luck. When we went back to the gate, the Styrofoam box was in pieces, and there was no sign of the dog.
“You see him?” Seth asked.
“Nope, so keep an eye out,” I said. “Come and hold a light for me.”
I slipped sideways along the gate to the padlocked chain in the middle, trying to avoid setting off the motion lights. They cooperated better than the dog. Seth trained the beam of his penlight on the lock and I set to work on it with the slim picks. The lock was old and worn, so it took me longer than usual, but eventually I got it right and it clicked open. I left the lock and chain hanging on the fence, and we eased open the gate and slipped inside, listening for any sign of Fido. There was nothing.
“All right,” I said. “This one’s the Thunderbird. You remember where it is?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
We stuck close to the side of the main road and walked the same path we had earlier that day. I watched for familiar cars. Seth was just ahead of me and looked like he had it under control. He paused to turn and count rows, so I stopped next to him, and in that moment, I heard a chilling sound.
Seth heard it too, because he froze and looked at me. “Is that was I think it is?”
The sound came again, only closer this time. It was the light jingling of dog tags. Seth reached for the taser. When it came again, closer still, the jingling was accompanied by heavy panting and the sound of claws in the dirt.
“Oh, fuck me,” Seth said through clenched teeth.
Fido was right next to us. I could make out his form in the dim moonlight, but couldn’t see his face. He huffed and whined pitifully, pitching up at the end in a kind of doggie question. I clicked the light on and shined it at him.
He sat down and looked up at us with a dopey expression, tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth. He wagged his tail and reached up at me with one paw, batting the side of my leg. When he did, he tipped to one side and had to scramble to right himself.
Seth snorted with laughter. “He’s totally hammered. He wants you to give him another hamburger.”
“Sorry, pal,” I told him. “That’s all I got.”
Realizing we were in no immediate danger, we picked up counting where we’d left off and crept through the dark. Fido tagged along, occasionally crashing into my legs. Ten minutes later, the three of us were still wandering around blindly.
“Where in the hell is it?” I snapped.
“I don’t know,” Seth said. “Everything looks different in the dark. I could swear it was right down here.”
“I think we’ve been down here twice already.”
Fido gave a whiney grumble. He was going to be deeply sad when he found out we weren’t looking for hamburgers.
Seth shined his light along the row of cars, studying them. “All right, I remember that Pinto at the end. We went around that, and the next row was a bust, but we found it right after that.”
He took off with a sense of purpose and I followed, playing back our earlier visit in my mind. We were on the right track, and when we walked down the path two rows over, the terrain looked familiar to me, even in the dark.
“Here!” he said, trotting down the line to the Thunderbird.
“It’s about time. Let’s do this and get the hell out of here.”
Seth eased open the door and reached under the seat where we’d left the box. I unzipped the duffel and stood next to him, so he could slip it inside. So far, so good.
I turned to start heading back to the front gate, but my foot caught on something large and solid. I pitched forward and landed in the grass with a muffled curse, taking most of my weight on my bruised shoulder.
Seth turned on his light, and there in the middle of the path was Fido, sprawled out and snoring softly. At least we wouldn’t have to explain why we were leaving without giving him any more treats.
Seth snickered and flicked the light at me. “I told you so,” he said.
“You were right.” I got up and brushed myself off, and we made for the center drive.
We slipped out, locked the gate, and drove away quietly without any further incident.
“One down, two to go,” said Seth as he turned onto the main street, and we joined the ranks of regular night owls again.
“Let’s hope the others go a little smoother. We gotta’ be faster about it.”
“Should be. No dogs to deal with, and the other lots are more organized.”
Chapter 29
The next one on the list was Unlimited where our target was in the trunk of the Buick. The game was serious now that we had a quarter mi
llion bucks worth of drugs in our car. Getting caught was completely out of the question. I tossed my cellphone into the ashtray so I didn’t have to worry about it going off at an inopportune moment.
Breaking in was trickier, since the lock proved to be a bitch. I’ve rarely met one I can’t get the better of, and soon we were in. Unfortunately, not soon enough to avoid setting off the motion lights, but there were enough shadows to hide in, and they had a short range.
Seth was carrying the pry bar this time, in case the trunk had latched again. All we had to do was lift it, and he dove in headfirst to dig under the flooring. We stuffed the box in the duffle bag and left, relocking the gate on the way out.
Back at the car, Seth opened the trunk, and I stashed the bag inside. It now held two of the three boxes and Serrano’s notebook. The hairs at the back of my neck prickled. For all our care and precautions, this was still just a crap shoot, and the sooner it was done, the better.
Part of my unease was due to the fact that we were headed deeper into the heart of Miami. The remaining salvage yard was in a much more urban setting. That meant more light, more people, and a strong possibility of more cops. Seth seemed to be feeling it too, because his attention to his driving was faultless and the usual smart-ass comments were at a minimum.
I was watching the side view mirror and noticed a black Mercedes fall into line behind us. At first, I simply kept an eye on it while I gave Seth directions to the last yard, but after a while I got pissed.
“That damned smug son of a bitch,” I muttered as I stared at the reflection.
“What’s up?” Seth shot me a concerned look and peered into the rearview.
“We’re being followed. That prick promised me he’d leave us on our own for this. Asshole.”
I grabbed my cellphone and hit the redial, glaring at the car in the mirror while it rang. When McCann answered, I didn’t let him finish his greeting. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? I thought we had an agreement.”
There was a slight pause. “What, exactly, are you referring to? I’ve stuck to my end of the bargain so far.”
“Yeah? Then why do I have one of your guys crawling up my ass as we speak?”
“What do you mean?”
“What the fuck do you think I mean?” I snapped. “I thought you agreed to pull the tail off us.”
“I did,” he said. There was muffled conversation in the background. “If you’re being followed, it’s not any of my men. They’re all accounted for.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that.”
“I think you’d better,” he said, sounding cool now. “You’ve got trouble there, and it doesn’t have anything to do with me. I warned you I wasn’t the only one who had a stake in finding out where Serrano hid the drugs.”
“Shit.” I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed my forehead, because I knew he was telling the truth. “We might be later than we thought.” I shut the phone and put it back in the ashtray.
“Well?” Seth glanced over at me.
“McCann’s not having us followed. He figures it’s the other guys.”
“From The Shark Pond?” Seth asked. “How in the hell would they know where we are?”
I thought back to En and the unsettling conversation with his boss. “Because they followed us tonight. They’ve probably been with us the whole time.”
“Shit. Now what?”
“Think you can lose them?”
Seth grinned slyly. “I can sure have fun trying.”
He downshifted and stepped on the gas, surging ahead smoothly. Just like on the freeway, he slipped in and out of traffic as if it were a stroll in the park. The only problem was the Mercedes swelled up behind us and stuck to him like glue. Each move Seth made, they followed. If Seth managed to put another car between us, the Mercedes would come charging around the other side.
Seth swerved down side streets and shot through alleys, and every time, the Mercedes would be one step behind. I read the map and shouted directions.
“Son of a bitch,” he snapped, taking another hard left. “This guy is like a fucking magnet, and if we keep this up much longer, we’re gonna start attracting attention.”
The guys in the Mercedes either agreed, or didn’t care, because they started to get more aggressive. They roared right up on our bumper, floating from side to side, looking for a chance to come around and run us off the road. Or shoot us.
“Oh, no, you don’t, asshole,” Seth said, glaring in the mirror. “You’re nuts if you think I’m giving you an opening.”
His hands were tight on the wheel as he cut them off time and time again. It was clear by the way they charged us, they were getting frustrated. We sped along a street in some industrial area, surrounded by warehouses and truck yards. There wasn’t much traffic, which was good for driving, but not so great in terms of being able to blend in.
While Seth concentrated on driving and staying out in front, I tried to keep track of where we were and look for an escape option. I was also watching the guys behind us, hoping to gauge what they had in mind.
“Oh shit.” I watched one of the side windows go down and had just enough time to shout “Gun!” before there was a sharp pop and the tinny sound of a bullet hitting metal. I saw a quick flash of sparks.
Seth swore and said, “They are not shooting holes in this beautiful car!” He sped forward and dodged around a parked minivan.
They shot a couple more times and missed. Seth was muttering a constant string of foul oaths. He turned right, down a road flanked with brick buildings on one side and a chain link fence on the other. Beyond the fence were rows of semi-trailers and trucks. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement at the far side of the lot, nearly a block away. I turned to look and realized we were about to have a very big problem.
“Train,” I snapped, just as the red lights started flashing at the crossing ahead of us.
“Perfect,” Seth said, leaning forward.
“What do you mean ‘perfect’? Take the next left or we’re gonna be trapped.” The fence ran right up to the crossing, and the tracks slipped through a neat gap in the warehouses. Not an inch of space was wasted.
“I mean this is our way out. Hang on.”
“Hang on?” I watched the red and white striped arms fold down across the road. The train was only half a block away and appeared to be closer to the crossing than we were. It moved pretty damn fast for inside the city. I shook my head. “You can’t be serious. Do not try to run that train, do you hear me?”
Seth ignored me and mashed the accelerator to the floor.
“Turn left, Seth, now!”
He shook his head slowly. “No can do, Dino. This is the only way.”
In one single, terrifying blur of red and white, he swerved hard left, then hard right and zipped around the crossing arms, screeching tires the whole way. I grabbed for the dashboard and my seatbelt strap. The lights flashed red, and the headlight of the engine blinded me through my window. Then came the deafening blast of the train’s horn. I shouted a string of Italian curses, while Seth let out a wild cheer like the Dukes of Hazzard.
A fraction of a second later, everything was cool white light and the quiet swish of air along the doors as we sailed down the empty street. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest, it hurt. I whipped around to look and saw only a long chain of boxcars sealing off the street. Through the gaps, the headlights of the Mercedes blinked helplessly, fading in the distance.
I sagged into my seat and let out a sigh of relief. Then I glared at Seth. “You are fucking crazy! Are you trying to get us killed?”
“I had it all under control,” he said, grinning ear to ear. “You’ve just gotta’ trust me, babe. I know what I’m doing. It worked too, you can’t deny that.”
“Yeah, well, I’m still not sure I’m not gonna have a heart attack.” I clutched at my shirt and took a few deep breaths.
“You’re a control freak, that’s your problem.”
“Excus
e me?”
“You do dangerous stuff all the time. You’re just getting bent out of shape because this time you didn’t have any say in it.”
“You’re damn right,” I said. “I fail to see how that makes me a control freak. It’s perfectly rational to not want to get flattened by a train.”
“Hey, a little appreciation would not be amiss here.” He flashed me his hurt face.
“Amiss? Oh, for Christ’s sake.” I rolled my eyes. “All right, yes, you lost the bad guys. Very nice work. Thank you for not killing me in the process.”
“You’re welcome,” he said with a smirk. “Besides, I just finally got you into bed, I’m not about to kill you now.”
Chapter 30
Once we were free of the Mercedes, Seth resumed his more sedate driving practices, and we took stock of our situation. I’d been able to keep us more or less on course during the chase, and we were only a couple blocks off from where we needed to be. We got to M & H Auto within ten minutes. Seth parked the car around the corner from the entrance, hidden in the shadows at the edge of an alley.
While I got the tool bag, Seth was absorbed with checking out the damage from the gunfire, rubbing his fingers over an ugly bullet hole with a stricken expression.
“It’s not like we’re gonna have to put her down,” I said. “Come on.”
He followed me across the street and along the battered wooden fence of the salvage yard. “I seem to recall you being pretty torn up when Matilda got shot.”
“That is not your car,” I reminded him.
“It’s still a crime.”
We reached the gate, and I handed Seth the bag. He held his light while I picked the lock, and like each of the other yards, we slipped inside. One last box and we were done. We could head back to the hotel, give McCann his stuff and get the hell out of town.
This yard was arranged a little differently than the others. It had large steel racks that held cars stacked three high, and a couple forklifts for getting them up there. They stood in short rows, lined up one after the other in a huge grid, like a maze. The car we wanted was on the ground level several rows back, almost in the rear corner. Because the yard was laid out so neatly, we had no trouble finding our target. This was the Geo Metro with the smashed hatchback window. I was able to reach right up in the wheel well and fish out the cashbox, feeling like it was about time things started to go our way.