by Philip Cox
The figure with the chain started to slowly swing it in a pendulum fashion; not wild and over his head, but threatening nonetheless. The figure with the base ball bat started to do the same. It was then that they noticed that the third figure was holding what seemed to be an iron bar, as he was scraping it along the ground.
The fourth seemed unarmed; with the light behind him Ben could make out that his hair was tied back in a ponytail. He had an idea.
‘Billy Loomis?’ he asked, loudly.
Making a noise that sounded a cross between a snarl and a cry, the figure ran towards him. His head was lowered as he ran towards Ben, still yelling. Ben realized what the intention was: to knock him to the ground so that the others could set upon him with their weapons.
Ben let him get about six feet away and quickly moved to one side. Billy Loomis – and Ben could quite easily recognize him now – tried to correct his direction but it was too late. Instead of running into Ben, he crashed into the Fusion. With a cry, he stumbled and landed half on his knees, half standing up, his open hands hitting the car windows. Ben quickly moved and drove his right fist into Billy’s side. Crying out again and clutching his side in pain, Billy crashed to the ground. Ben was about to kick him in the side again just for good measure when Baseball Bat charged at him, holding the bat high above his head.
The poor light worked to Ben’s advantage this time: Baseball Bat could not see very well either. He did not run at Ben as Billy had done, but was virtually staggering, making an animal-like bellow. Ben kicked out, catching Baseball Bat on his left knee. Bellowing even louder, he dropped the bat and collapsed to the ground.
‘My knee! You broke my fucking knee!’ he cried out, in anger as well as pain.
By this time, Billy had staggered to his feet and lurched towards Ben. Ben turned and head butted Billy in the face. Billy went straight down. Ben put his hand to his forehead and could feel something wet. He looked at his hand: there was blood on it. In the shadows, he could see Billy crawling on the floor, clutching his nose. Obviously the blood Ben could feel was Billy’s.
Feeling that Billy and Baseball Bat were out of it for a minute or two, Ben turned to help Craig.
Craig did not seem to have needed Ben’s help so far. While Ben was tackling Billy, Iron Bar had cockily sauntered up to him tapping his hand with the bar. As he got closer, Craig saw him grin and raise the bar. Craig ducked and the bar crashed down on the Fusion hood. Being closer to the ground than Craig’s head, the momentum of the blow caught Iron Bar off balance, and he stumbled. Craig shoulder charged him, knocking him to the ground. Craig ran over to where Iron Bar lay and stamped on his groin. Iron Bar gave a high pitched scream, dropped the bar and rolled around clutching himself.
However, as Craig lifted his foot from Iron Bar’s groin, he felt the cold metal of a chain being put around his neck and squeezed. A hoarse voice whispered in his ear, ‘Play time again, faggot,’ as the chain was pulled tighter. Choking, Craig tried hitting out, but Chain was out of reach of his fists. Kicking at Chain’s ankles had no effect either. He looked around for Ben, but could see that his friend was occupied with the other two. He could feel himself start to lose consciousness; desperately he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He felt the keyboard and pressed the key activating the camera function. Choking, he held the phone up to get it as close as he could to Chain’s face. Hoping it was pointing in the right direction, he pressed to take a picture.
‘Uh?’ Chain exclaimed, as he saw the phone, then cried out as the camera flash went off in his eyes. Immediately he let go of the chain, releasing Craig and staggered around, clutching his eyes. Taking immediate advantage of the situation, Craig kicked Chain in the groin; Chain bent double, clutching himself, allowing Craig to give a right hook hitting him on the side of his face and knocking him to the ground.
This seemed to be enough for the three others as well, as one by one they staggered to their feet and ran unsteadily back to the car.
‘Go on, run!’ Ben called out, tossing the iron bar at them. One of them briefly turned round and gave a fist gesture to them, and then limped after the others to the second car. With a roar and a screech of brakes, the car reversed back up to the main street and sped away.
The street was silent again. ‘Well,’ said Craig as he wandered over to where Ben was brushing himself down. ‘We didn’t do so bad, did we? Two against four?’ They gave each other a high five.
Ben nodded. ‘No, not bad at all.’ He paused. ‘Listen, we have to call Sanchez now. This could have been quite serious for us. And there’s the car.’ He pointed down to the abandoned Windstar.
‘No, guess you’re right.’ Craig bent down and picked up his phone which he had dropped on the ground in the mêlée.
‘That was a good call with the phone,’ said Ben. ‘What made you think of that?’
Craig shrugged. ‘Don’t know. It just came to me. The bastard wasn’t expecting it. And I might have got a picture of him as well. Have you got Sanchez’s number?’
‘No, I don’t. Why not just call 911, and say you want Sanchez?’
‘Okay.’ Craig made the call while Ben looked around, seeing if there was anything he had dropped. Once he had made the call, Craig walked over. ‘Be about ten minutes. I told them that Lieutenant Sanchez would want to deal with it personally. Let’s wait in the car.’
Giving the damage to the hood a cursory check, they got into the Fusion to wait for the police.
They had been sitting for almost three minutes when a police car turned into the side street, blue lights flashing, but no siren. ‘That was fast,’ Ben remarked.
The car pulled up next to theirs. It was an unmarked car: they were expecting Sanchez or maybe the Lieutenant and Detective McGee, but to their surprise, only McGee got out.
Craig wound down the window. ‘That was fast. They said ten minutes.’
McGee shuffled around. ‘I was in the vicinity already.’
‘Is the Lieutenant coming?’ Craig asked.
‘She’ll be along presently,’ McGee called out as he wandered down to the Windstar. ‘Is this the other vehicle?’
‘Yeah, that’s the one,’ Craig called back as he and Ben got out of the car. ‘Like I said on the phone, we think that’s the one that ran over the guy at Ponce Inlet.’
McGee paused and stared at Craig for a moment, then walked around the Windstar. He was about to say something when they heard the whoop of a siren and two cars with blue lights turn into the street. One was a standard black and white, the other another unmarked car. Two uniformed officers climbed out of the black and white: Lieutenant Sanchez was in the other. Sanchez walked over to Ben and Craig, first giving McGee a quizzical look.
‘I was in the vicinity already,’ McGee said to the Lieutenant. ‘I heard the call.’
Sanchez looked as if she was about to say something, but changed her mind at the last minute. Instead, she spoke to Ben and Craig. ‘Well, well: now look what we have here. Batman and Robin again.’
They both gave her a sheepish grin.
She gestured over to the uniformed officers to check out the Windstar, then turned to Ben. ‘So, this is where four unidentified assailants attacked you. Right?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ replied Ben. ‘One of them was in the black car there, and the other three were in another vehicle.’
‘And why do you think they attacked you?’
‘Just after we saw Detective McGee at the police station,’ said Ben, ‘we were on our way back to our apartment, when we saw that car at a junction. So we followed it.’
‘Why would you do that?’ she asked, folding her arms.
‘We thought it might be the car that hit Luis, the waiter up at the lighthouse.’
‘Go on. I’m very interested. Particularly as to why you didn’t call 911.’
‘We were going to. But we just thought that it would help if we knew where the car was, you know where it got garaged.’
‘You th
ought it would help?’ she said sarcastically.
‘Yes. So we followed it. We didn’t think the driver noticed, but obviously did. He led us here, to this dead end. Then another car drew up and three others got out.’
‘And attacked you?’
‘And attacked us. One had a baseball bat, another an iron bar, and the third had a length of chain.’
‘You said were four.’
‘The fourth was unarmed.’
She looked around the ground. ‘Well, I can see the chain, and there’s maybe the iron bar. Can’t see a baseball bat.’
‘He must have taken it back with him,’ said Ben. ‘I didn’t notice. Did you?’
Craig shook his head. ‘No, neither did I.’
‘I don’t suppose you recognized any of them?’ said McGee.
‘One of them,’ replied Ben, ‘We think it was Billy Loomis. From the garage on Main Street.’
Sanchez and McGee glanced at each other. ‘We can speak to him. You can take care of that, can’t you?’ Sanchez said to McGee.
‘I’ll go see Billy,’ he replied. ‘But not the others?’
‘No, sorry.’
‘We can check the chain and the bar for fingerprints,’ the Lieutenant said. ‘And the car’ll be checked also.’
‘You’ll probably find our fingerprints on them,’ said Ben. ‘As they ran off, I threw the iron bar at them.’
‘And I grabbed the chain while he was trying to throttle me with it,’ added Craig.
‘Swell,’ sighed Sanchez. ‘Well, we’ll see what come up. Anyhow, before you go I want you two to give the uniformed officers a statement. They will also take your fingerprints. For elimination purposes. Then you can go. I’ll be in touch.’
She and McGee got into their respective cars and pulled away. Before she drove off, Sanchez wound down her window. Before she had a chance to speak, Craig said, ‘I was wondering if you had made any progress. With finding my brother, I mean.’
She spoke slowly and precisely, as if talking to a child. ‘We’ve been here before, haven’t we? As I have told you before, our investigation is ongoing. I was going to say make sure you two stay out of trouble. One more question: you said that the two of you fought off four armed attackers. Or rather, three armed and one unarmed? Well, is there anything else I should know about the assailants? Am I going to get a call from the local hospital?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Ben. ‘We just scared them off.’
She nodded, wound up her window and drove off, leaving Ben and Craig with the two uniformed officers. They gave the officers their statements, had their fingerprints taken, and were allowed to leave.
*****
It was almost midnight when they got back to the apartment. ‘Well,’ yawned Craig as he flopped down on a sofa, ‘we didn’t do so bad, did we? Not bad for two Brit desk jockeys up against bats and chains.’
‘No, we got off very lightly, although the damage to the car might take some explaining to the rental company,’ said Ben as he studied himself in the mirror. ‘A little bruising and cuts here and there, but nothing else.’ He laughed. ‘I guess this is the time you say you should have seen the other fella.’
He checked his reflection again. He could feel some bruising on his shoulder, and his knuckles had cuts. ‘Well, my friend, what’s the plan for tomorrow? I think we should pay a visit to Billy Loomis ourselves. After tonight, he might not be so quick to bullshit us. What do you think?’
He turned round to Craig, but Craig didn’t think anything. Craig was lying face up on the sofa, mouth wide open, snoring loudly.
Chapter Thirty
GIVING UP ON any conversation with Craig, Ben went to bed. The following morning he awoke at seven forty-five. Getting out of bed, he wandered into the kitchen to fix himself some coffee. He expected to find Craig either still on the sofa, or having gone to bed. Instead he was surprised to find him up, showered and dressed, sitting drinking coffee and working on his laptop.
‘Morning,’ Craig called out cheerfully. ‘Coffee’s on.’
Ben shuffled over and poured himself a cup. ‘Why are you so damn cheerful? How long have you been up for?’
‘Oh, since seven. Couldn’t sleep any more. Was going to wake you, but you seemed so fast asleep.’
Ben sat down and took a mouthful of coffee. ‘What are you doing on there?’
‘Just gone into Adam’s accounts and stuff. Just checking if there had been any activity on his email account.’
‘And has there?’
Craig spoke without looking up. ‘Nothing really. His bank accounts are as they were when we last looked. The only activity on his email is a couple of automated ones. One from Amazon with more download recommendations, and another from his bank about a new savings account they’re bringing out.’
‘So, where to now?’
Craig looked up this time. ‘I want to go back to that bank.’
‘Yeah, sure. Why?’
‘I want to see if we can have another look at that CCTV footage the manager – what was his name?’
‘Rose?’
‘Yes, Mister Rose - showed us.’
‘What are you looking for?’
‘After you went to bed, I kept thinking about those guys last night. There was something about one of them.’
‘Did you get a photo of him?’
‘No, not really, I checked this morning. I just got an out of focus, close up of his eyes. Have a look.’ Craig slid his phone over to Ben.
‘No, you’re right. It doesn’t really identify anybody. Don’t delete it though - it might come in useful, you never know.’
‘No, I won’t delete it.’ Craig took the phone back. ‘It was something else: the way one of them walked. I want to have another look at that guy who was impersonating Adam.’
‘Okay, let’s go back to the bank,’ said Ben as he finished his coffee and walked to the bathroom. ‘Then I think we ought to go see Billy Loomis ourselves.’
‘Unless the police have taken him in.’
‘Unless they have, yes. But it would be good to speak with him.’
‘He may not think so,’ laughed Craig. ‘But what we have to do is find that girl – Stacey. I’m convinced she’s key to all this.’
‘Right. Shower, the bank, Billy Loomis, then Stacey,’ said Ben.
*****
Exactly two hours later, Ben and Craig were walking up Main Street Orlando headed for the Bank of South Florida. Today the sky which had been a constant blue since their arrival the previous week was cloudy; mainly white, but in the north the clouds were darker. There was a faint rumble of thunder in the distance. Ben shivered as they approached the bank.
‘I still don’t know how this bank makes any money,’ Craig said as they walked into the air conditioned banking hall. ‘Hardly full of customers, is it?’
Sure enough, the bank was very quiet again. One employee, a redheaded girl, was sitting at the enquiry desk, reading a computer screen. There were two cashiers on duty: one had her head down also reading something; the second was serving a couple who were clearly tourists, the man dressed in a brightly orange coloured shirt and lime Bermuda shorts, and the woman in a short white dress. A man in a beige suit carrying an attaché case waited in line. There were no other customers waiting. Of the two interview rooms the other side of the banking hall, one was empty. Out of the corner of his eye Ben saw a male employee quickly get up from the desk and walk over to shut the door. Through the frosted glass wall they could see he was alone in the room. He went back and sat at the desk.
They walked over to the enquiry position, where the redhead looked up. ‘Can I help you?’ she smiled.
‘Yes, we need to speak to Mr Rose again,’ Ben said courteously.
She appeared a little flustered. ‘Yes, er – I’ll just go check if he’s free. He has been in a lot of meetings today. Who shall I say wants him?’
‘Just tell him it’s Craig Williams and Ben Rook,’ said Craig.
‘A
bout the card fraud,’ added Ben.
She swallowed, and went through the door leading to the back office. Within seconds, she reappeared. ‘Mr Rose is free now. Would you like to come this way?’
They followed her through the doorway and were ushered into the Manager’s office. Mr Rose stood up, shook their hands, and indicated for them to sit down.
‘How can I help you today, gentlemen?’ he asked, not without a note of irony in his voice.
‘We’d like to take another look at that CCTV footage,’ said Craig. ‘Just to double check something.’
Mr Rose sat back and scratched the back of his head. ‘Ah, well, I’m not sure if –’
‘We’ve seen it once already, so surely there can’t be a problem,’ said Ben.
Mr Rose thought for a moment. ‘All right.’ Then he leaned over to an intercom and pressed a switch. ‘Janice, can you ask Jared to bring in the CCTV DVD for the twenty-second?’ He looked at Craig as if to confirm the date. Craig nodded in confirmation. He turned back to them. ‘Have there been any further developments then?’
Craig shook his head. ‘Minor ones. We just need to double check something on the footage.’
‘I have been keeping an eye on the account,’ Mr Rose said. ‘And I am pleased to say that there has been no other activity.’
‘I know,’ said Craig. ‘I checked this morning.’
The uncomfortable round of small talk was broken by a light knock on the door and a male employee came in and passed Mr Rose a DVD case. Craig continued to stare at Mr Rose while Ben craned his neck slightly at the employee, then sniffed. The Manager muttered some thanks and put the DVD into his computer.
‘Who was that?’ asked Craig.