by Donald Wells
“This is bad, isn’t it?”
“Yes, and we’re going to need help to get out of it.”
His phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and smiled.
“Hello Blue, I was just thinking about you.”
***
Blue Steele sat in her pickup truck outside a gas station in Joaquin, Texas. The station had only two pumps and a set of vending machines out front. The station attendant was a seventeen-year-old kid with short blond hair. Near the station’s exit sat a black sedan, inside it were two men in suits, DEA agents, both wore sunglasses.
Blue smiled into her phone.
“It’s nice to know you’re thinking about me, big boy, but what would your wife say?”
“She would say hello,” Jessica said. “You’re on speakerphone, Blue.”
“Hi Jessica, let me guess, you’ve been visited by the DEA?”
“Yes,” he said. “This Mr. Jones needs to be handled, and Blue, watch your back,”
“My back is already being watched, by a couple of DEA agents who couldn’t stick out anymore if they tried. I told them that I didn’t want their protection, but they’re hanging close anyway.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m in east Texas, tracking down a bail skip.”
“Maybe you should come here, Blue. There’s safety in numbers.”
“Thanks for the offer, Jessica; I’ll keep it in mind. By the way, is anyone looking out for that researcher of yours, Carly?”
“You think she could be in danger?” Jessica said. “But no one knows she—oh my God, the helicopter pilot. What if he told Jones about her?”
“We’re going to hang up now, Blue. We have to check on Carly, but keep in touch.”
“I will, handsome, and you two be careful, bye.”
***
After ending the call with Blue, he dialed Carly.
“Hello sir, how may I help you?”
“It’s good to hear your voice, Carly, but now I need you to listen carefully.”
He hung up less than a minute later.
“She’s on her way to the nearest police station. I’ll tell Agent Price that we need her picked-up and brought here.”
“Won’t he think our request strange?”
“Maybe, but it can’t be helped, and she’s safest here,”
“I’m worried about Blue. What if Jones goes after her next?”
He grinned.
“Blue’s tougher than she looks. If Jones confronts her, it may be the last thing he ever does.”
***
Blue got out of her pickup truck and walked over to the kid at the pumps. His eyes widened in interest as he spotted her and he answered her smile with one of his own.
“Hi, do I need a key to get into the ladies' room?”
“No ma’am, we don’t lock ‘em during the day; but the owner doesn’t like people to use them if they ain’t gassin’ up.”
“No problem, I’ll pull over to the pumps when I come out, okay?”
The boy just smiled at her, as his eyes lingered at her breasts.
Blue grinned. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Seconds after Blue entered the bathroom, Jones roared into the lot on his motorcycle. He pulled up even with the car the DEA agents were sitting in and opened fire with a Beretta. Both agents were hit before they could act, and slumped in their seats.
The kid at the pumps stood where he was in a state of shock, and Jones rode over to him and slammed him on the side of the head with his motorcycle helmet. The kid went down and didn’t move.
Blue stuck her head out of the bathroom door with her gun at the ready and Jones sent three shots her way. She ducked back inside, and Jones got off the bike and grabbed a gas can that sat between the pumps.
He reloaded quickly and sent four shots through the bathroom door, before walking over and pouring gas at its base. As the gasoline seeped beneath the door, Jones stepped back, lit a match, and a second later, the bathroom’s only exit was ablaze.
***
The sound of the first shots propelled Blue out of the bathroom stall and she looked outside and saw Jones standing over the unmoving body of the attendant.
Jones' second volley of shots nearly hit Blue as she crouched in the stall. She smelled the gasoline before she saw it, but no sooner had she laid eyes on it than it burst into flames. She searched about for another exit, but the tiny room’s only window was high up in the wall and covered by metal bars.
She was trapped. She was trapped and the room was filling with smoke at an alarming rate, as the temperature rose dramatically and the flames grew ever nearer.
She slammed the door shut on the stall in a bid to buy time as she fought the urge to panic. There was no way out. There was no way out, and so, she would have to make one.
She grabbed the lid off the back of the toilet tank and felt its promising heft. A second later, she slammed the lid into the wall behind the toilet. A crack appeared in the wallboard and she smashed at it repeatedly. Soon, a hole appeared, it was barely big enough to get her arm through, but it was a start. She kept at the wall, enlarging the hole, but it was getting difficult to see and she could no longer breathe without choking on the smoke that filled the room.
When the hole was barely big enough to fit her head through, the porcelain top broke into three pieces and became useless. Blue began kicking at the wall frantically, as the stall door caught fire and the flames licked at her back.
With time running out, she attempted to climb through the hole, but got stuck at the shoulders. Behind her, the flames reached her jeans and her left calf caught on fire. Blue let out a scream of panic and flailed about until the wallboard buckled from the stress and she fell into the adjoining room, which turned out to be the gas station’s small office.
After patting out the flames on her jeans, she headed for the door, gun in hand, determined to make Jones pay for the hell he had just put her through.
***
Jones stared at the burning door of the ladies’ room and frowned.
One scream, just one scream did Blue Steele let out as she died and Jones felt cheated. Once again, he promised himself that he would make the doctor’s husband suffer for hours when he caught up to him.
Jones dropped the gas can and walked past the unconscious kid. He had just straddled his bike when the office door burst open and Blue Steele emerged. He heard the shots before he realized that he’d been hit in the leg, and as he brought his gun out, she shot him again, this time in his side, and the gun tumbled from his hand. He started his engine and skidded off onto the highway, as the pain from his wounds caused him to grit his teeth and a trail of blood dotted the road in his wake.
***
Blue rushed over and hit the emergency shut-off switch at the gas pumps. Next, she bent down and checked on the kid. The left side of his face was reddened and would probably be bruised solid by the following day, but he was okay and beginning to come around. She took out her phone and called for help as she walked over to check on the agents.
One man was dead, the other gravely wounded, and Blue reached into the car and took his hand while telling him to hold on.
As the kid finally made it to his feet, she called over to him.
“Find a hose and start spraying that fire!”
The kid was working his jaw back and forth with a look of pain on his face, but he nodded in understanding and headed for a shed in the back.
Blue looked down at her left calf and saw that it was bright red above her boot, but the pain was manageable and she felt lucky to be alive. She stared off in the direction in which Jones had fled and hoped that she had inflicted enough damage to kill him.
The surviving agent let out a moan.
“Hold on brother, hold on,”
The man nodded at her as the sound of sirens came.
“You’re going to make it, just hold on,” Blue told the agent, while silently vowing to see Jones dead.
***
&
nbsp; Agent Price got the call as they were in the kitchen having coffee, while waiting for Carly to arrive. When the call ended, he gave them the news.
“Jones tried to kill Blue Steele, not only did she escape the fire he set to kill her with, but she wounded him twice. Jones is on the run now; he also killed one agent and wounded another.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your agents, but how is Blue doing?” Jessica said.
“She suffered minor burns on her leg, but she’s fine, and oh, I’ve more news about Jones, it seems he’s gone rogue. Our Canadian cousins in the RCMP tell us that the higher ups forbade Jones to come here and stir up more trouble. Jones not only ignored them, but he also killed his superior. He’s on his own and wounded. It shouldn’t be long before we catch him.”
“Does this change your plans?” the doctor's husband said.
“No, we’re still going to protect you. If Jones’ wounds don’t kill him, well then, he’ll keep coming.”
A beeping sound began as the lights flickered. Agent Price sent them a questioning look.
“That sound is telling us that someone’s entered our property,” Jessica explained.
Price looked over at her husband.
“You do have good security. That’s fine, but hopefully Jones will soon be captured.”
They went outside to greet the new arrival, and found Carly getting out of an agency car with a suitcase and a laptop. Beside her, was a female agent with bright red hair, worn long. The woman was slender, but shapely and moved with the grace of an athlete.
“Hello Doctor, hello sir,” Carly said, as the agent with her walked over to them and offered her hand.
“Hi, I’m Agent Sara Doyle; I’ll be assisting Special Agent Price until Jones is captured.”
They shook her hand and he noted that Doyle let her grip linger in his, as her eyes roamed over his body. He also took note that Price’s eyes were roaming over Agent Doyle, as a look of longing came over the man.
“Richard tells me that you’re a runner, so am I. Perhaps we can run together.”
“Not perhaps,” Price said. “Definitely, one of us will be with you at all times if anyone leaves the property.”
Carly walked up to the doctor’s husband.
“Is this man Jones really that dangerous?”
“Yes, but you’re safe here.”
“It’s still scary,” she said.
He stared down at her.
“Let’s do something about that, hmm?”
***
Twenty minutes later, they were at the rear of their house. At the back of the home ran a stream, and behind that, a rock wall. The stream was high with water, as the heavy rain of the previous night fed into it from higher elevations.
He had laid a plank across two sawhorses and placed empty cans upon it in a row.
Jessica watched along with agents Price and Doyle, as he taught Carly how to shoot a gun.
Carly laughed with delight as she finally managed to graze one of the cans with her last shot and beamed up at him with pride.
“Thank you for teaching me to shoot, sir.”
“You’re welcome, but this is just the beginning. It takes a lot of practice to become proficient at it.”
“How proficient are you?” Doyle said.
He gave her a searching look, as he placed a loaded clip into the small pistol he’d been using to train Carly.
“You’re our guest Agent Doyle; why don’t you go first?”
Doyle smiled at him.
“A gentleman, I like that,” she said, and then she unholstered her weapon and began firing at the cans. She hit thirteen out of fifteen.
Special Agent Price let out a whistle.
“Damn, you’re really good, Sara.”
“Like the man said, it takes practice,”
He placed the gun back into its carrying case.
“That’s enough for today, Carly, but if you’re interested, we’ll do it again soon.”
“I’d like that, sir, and thank you,”
Jessica called over.
“Carly, could you give me a hand with lunch?”
“Yes, Doctor,”
Price followed Jessica and Carly inside as Doyle stayed behind to help clean up the targets. As they were picking up the cans, she asked him a question.
“Have you and the missus been together long?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t talk much, do you?”
“No.”
She walked over and smiled up at him.
“Price tells me that we’ll each have our own room. I’ll keep my door unlocked, just in case you need me for anything.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Doyle laughed.
“I don’t float your boat, do I?”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“But you won’t be making any visits to my room either, will you?”
“My wife is more than enough, and she’s better than I deserve.”
“She’s a lucky woman, but I’ll leave that door unlocked, just in case.” Doyle said, afterwards, she walked back towards the house. When she was halfway there, her phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Sara, Sara it’s me,” Jones said.
“Hold on.”
Doyle looked about to see if she was being watched; she then went behind the garage to talk to Jones.
“Johnny how are you? They told me that bounty hunter shot you.”
“The bitch hit me in the leg, and I also took a through and through on my side, but I’ll be okay; I got help.”
“Good, good, but listen, I’m in. I got assigned to the doctor and her husband.”
“How’d you manage that?”
“Special Agent Price has a thing for me. When I asked for the assignment he nearly drooled.”
“Tell me where you are?”
Doyle gave him the address and one more bit of information.
“The Asian girl is there?” Jones said.
“That’s right, now we’ve got everyone under one convenient roof.”
“I need a day or two to rest, and then I’ll come there.”
“What about the bounty hunter?”
“She’ll have to wait. Right now I want the doctor’s husband, what’s he like?”
“He’s a hardcase; but he has a weakness, his wife. I tried to seduce him but he didn’t bite.”
“Why were you trying to seduce him?”
“To gain his trust, why, does it make you jealous?”
“No.”
“Why won’t you let me in, Johnny? I’m risking everything for you.”
“If you help me with this, there’s no going back, Sara, you know that don’t you?”
“There’s nothing that I won’t do for you. It’s why I’ve been helping you all these years.”
“And here I thought that it was for all the money we paid you.”
“I’m serious, Johnny, I love you.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I’ve always loved you.”
“We’ll discuss this when I see you.”
“I know you don’t love me, but I can make you happy. We can take care of things here and then disappear.”
“I’ll call you soon.”
“Tell me that we’ll be together when this is all done.”
“I’ll call you soon, Sara.”
“Johnny?”
“Goodbye Sara,”
“Goodbye...”
***
Jones ended the call and looked over at the couple he had bound and gagged.
Dr. and Mrs. Calvin Applegate stared back at him with eyes full of fear. The Applegates were both sixty-two and both of them worked at home, he, as a general practitioner, and she, as his receptionist and record keeper. Jones invaded the doctor’s home office after visiting hours and forced him to patch his wounds.
He grabbed a bag of painkillers and first-aid supplies and stuffed them in his side pocket.
“Well fol
ks, it’s time we got on the road.”
Jones limped over on his wounded leg and grabbed a roll of duct tape from atop the coffee table. He walked behind Dr. Applegate and began encircling his head with the tape until he had covered both his mouth and nose. When he finished with him, he started on his wife. They were both dead within minutes.
In his wounded condition, it took him half an hour to lug the bodies out to the attached garage, and as he lifted them into the trunk of their Lexus, he felt the stitches in his side pull tight and had to rest against the car until the spots stopped dancing before his eyes.
That night, he was inside a motel room, lying naked atop the bed as he planned out the torture he intended to inflict on the man he blamed for his loved one's death.
He fell asleep to the fantasized screams of Dr. White’s husband as the painkillers worked their magic, while outside, the bodies of the Applegates sat rotting in the motel’s dumpster.
***
The phone rang and after checking the caller ID, he looked over at Jessica.
“It’s Blue,” he said, as he answered the call and put it on speakerphone. “From what I hear, Jones underestimated you.”
“Yeah, but not by much, that bastard nearly killed me.”
“They say you were burned,” Jessica said. “I hope it’s not serious?”
“I’m alright, but listen, watch your backs, Jones is still out there, and one more thing, a couple went missing, the police here think it was Jones. The missing man was a doctor, and Jones definitely needed a doctor the last time I saw him.”
“We’ll be careful,” he said. “And you do the same; Jones may not be done with you yet.”
“I hope not, I want another crack at him.”
“Keep in touch, Blue,”
“I will, and you two be careful,”
He ended the call and stared at Jessica.
“Jones is coming. I can feel it.”
***
He came the next night, just minutes before sunrise.
After disabling the alarm system, Doyle met Jones at the back door that led to the kitchen. Doyle went to kiss him, but Jones pushed her away.
“There will be time for that later; right now I want you to take me to the man that killed Bob... my brother.”
They moved into the house. As they walked into the kitchen a sound came from the hall, and Doyle motioned Jones into the pantry. When the light came on, Doyle saw Price standing in the doorway with a gun in his hand.