by Payne, T. L.
Will lowered his pen and crossed the room. Flanking the opposite side of the window, Will spotted Gus in the parking lot below.
“Hey, Gus. Did you find Rudy?” someone yelled.
Will couldn’t hear his reply.
Jaz greeted Gus in the parking lot. He opened his arms out to greet her but Jaz flew at him and beat her hands against his chest, screaming in his face before throwing her arms around him. He held her tight and allowed her to sob into his neck then looked up and gestured for Will to join him downstairs. Will held up one finger to indicate he’d be down in a moment.
Will walked down the hall to the guest room where Cayden was seated on the floor, going through their bags. He had things in piles and was organizing them into groups.
“Gus just returned. He wants me downstairs. I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t forget to ask him about the bike. We’re going to need a lot of stuff to make it to Aunt Savanah’s.”
“I’ll ask,” Will said as he backed out of the room. He was shutting the door when he heard Isabella behind him.
“Gus is back?” Her eyes were red and swollen from crying. She had changed clothes and looked like she was going for a hike with her running tights, long-sleeve shirt, and hiking boots.
“He’s downstairs. He asked me to go down.”
“I’m coming with you,” she said, pulling her hair into a ponytail.
What could he say to that? It was a free country. At least it had been.
The bandmates all gathered around her as she attempted to walk through the living room. She politely stepped around them and continued out the door. Gus met them on the stairs and stopped, but Jaz rushed past, entered their apartment, and slammed the door behind her. Isabella turned to watch her go but quickly spun to look away. Will was unsure if Kevin’s body was still inside the apartment across from Gus and Jaz’s. Isabella hadn’t asked. It wasn’t like you could call the morgue and have his body transported to the funeral home. It sounded callous, but right then, they had to take care of the living.
“Jaz told me. I’m so very sorry, Izzy.”
“We have to find their asses before they do this to someone else,” Isabella said.
Will blinked several times, her words taking him by surprise. He’d never thought of her as a vigilante but he could understand her reaction. When someone you love is taken, you want to blame someone. You want them to pay. When it had happened to him, he’d had no one to blame but himself. It was hard to go on.
“I don’t know. Jaz wants to take off for her mother’s. If I go off again, she’ll kill me,” Gus said.
“But no one is safe with them still out there,” Isabella said, tears filling her eyes.
“I know, Izzy. That’s what I told Jaz, but we got a kid coming. I have to think about Jaz and the baby,” Gus said.
Isabella turned to Will. “I guess you’re going to use Cayden as an excuse.”
Will understood that it was the pain talking, but he still didn’t like it.
“It’s too dangerous. We should just pack up and go too,” Will said.
Isabella turned and stomped back up the stairs. She flung open the door and yelled back, “If you’re not going to go find them, I will.”
“Shit,” Gus said. “I can’t.”
“I understand,” Will said.
Hey, do you know if anyone around here has a bike with one of the kid’s trailers attached to it? Will asked as they climbed the steps.
Gus stopped at the landing then looked out across the parking lot, his eyes scanning apartment buildings. “Two forty-two used to have one.”
“Thanks,” Will said. “Good luck out there.”
“You too. I hope you make it to Louisiana okay,” Gus said before disappearing inside his apartment.
Will descended the stairs and took in the buildings across the parking lot. He had to talk Isabella out of searching for the couple. It would serve no useful purpose at the moment except to exact revenge. It wasn’t as if they could call the cops and have them arrested. The only thing they could do was shoot them. What if they were innocent? He had enough on his conscience. Could he live with that too?
Isabella’s door opened, and she stomped down the stairs with the bandmates trailing behind her. Over her shoulder hung the AR-15 Betley had given her. This was not good. She was in no emotional state to confront anyone. She wasn’t thinking clearly. Isabella wanted revenge, but she could get herself killed by seeking it.
Isabella was going, and there was nothing he could say to stop her. He could see that all over her face.
“Isabella!” Cayden yelled from the top of the stairs. “Please!”
Cayden too was aware of what that type of grief could do to a person. He’d been only eleven at the time, but he was old enough to remember.
She stopped and turned then stared at him for a long moment. “I have to, Cayden. I have to.”
“Then I’m coming too,” Cayden said. He held a pistol in his hand as he descended the stairs.
“Oh hell no,” Will said, jabbing his finger toward the door. “You get your ass back up those stairs. You’re not going anywhere.” Will grabbed Isabella’s arm as she passed him on the stairs. “We should just leave here. This won’t make you feel better.”
“I’m going, Will.”
“Shit, Isabella. Don’t do this,” Will pleaded.
“Just go. Take Cayden and go.”
She was taking her anger out on him. He could handle it. But could Cayden?
“Don’t go, Izzy,” Jaz called down. She was hanging over the railing at the top of the second-floor landing.
Her face was contorted with fear. Isabella was lucky to have such caring friends and Will wondered if she realized it at that moment. He hadn’t back then. He’d pushed everyone away, and soon they’d all stopped calling, stopped dropping off food, and stopped taking Cayden out for ice cream to get him out of the house. Gus and Jaz were leaving. If Isabella chose to stay, would she be alone? Will’s gaze scanned the bandmates. Would they stay and support her? From what he’d seen, she didn’t respect them. It was a bad situation. Isabella would likely not survive if she didn’t leave with Will and Cayden. But in her current frame of mind, would she prove to be unsafe out there on the road?
Isabella stared up at Jaz. “I have to do this. Just go to your mom’s. Take care of the baby.”
“Okay. Okay. Gus will help find them. One condition, though, you have to come to help me pack.”
Isabella stepped down one step of the stairs, not backing down.
“We’ll bring them here—if we find them,” the pudgy bandmate said.
“Yeah. We’ll let you decide what to do with them. Just help Jaz,” another bandmate said.
Isabella turned slightly.
Will didn’t think that was a good idea. What purpose would that serve? Feeding Isabella’s thirst for revenge would only make things worse in the long run and lead her down a path from which there was no return. Justice, on the other hand, might serve a purpose. In Will’s mind, it should be swift and intended to prevent future violence. The idea of a mock trial came to mind. If Isabella could hear the accusations against the couple, be presented with the evidence, and then have a say in the punishment, maybe, just maybe, she might not forever regret her actions. Justice would honor the memory of her boyfriend. Revenge might forever taint it.
Will stepped down next to Isabella and took her free hand. “I know why you want to see them pay, I do.” Isabella’s face contorted. Her mouth opened and closed as if she wanted to say something and then thought better of it. “If they’re still in this area, we’ll find them,” Will said, gesturing to Gus and the bandmates. “And we’ll bring them back here to stand trial. They should have the right to defend themselves. If we all agree that they did this horrific thing, we’ll vote on a sentence.” Will scanned the group. Some nodded in agreement. “All right?” he said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.
Isabella was silent a long moment bef
ore nodding. “Find them, Will.”
“We’ll do our best. Will you look after Cayden?”
She lowered her head. The tears began to flow again, and she wiped them away with the back of her hand. “Go find those assholes,” she said.
“Cayden, stay with Isabella and Jaz. I’m going to go find that bike we talked about,” Will said.
“Okay, Dad. Be careful.”
“I will.” As Gus joined them at the bottom of the stairs, Will waved goodbye to Cayden. “I love you, son.”
Cayden nodded.
Will watched as Cayden greeted Isabella at the top of the stairs. He took her hand and led her to Jaz’s apartment, and closed the door. A moment later, he appeared at the window.
“I locked the door,” he called down.
“Don’t open it for anyone but one of us.”
“I won’t,” Cayden said.
Twelve
Will
Day Six
“I think we should post guards at each of these four buildings in case they spot us and run out,” Gus said.
“Should we split up like that?” Lloyd asked.
“We’re going from door to door. They’re going to hear us and take off. If we’re all over at building two hundred and they are at building four hundred, they could slip out, and we’d never see them. I don't want to be at this all day and still not find those psychos.”
“Okay.”
“Lloyd, you and Paul take building three hundred, Stuart and Marcus, you take four hundred while Will and I go door to door in two hundred. If you see anything, call out,” Gus said.
As the bandmates went off to their posts, Gus and Will crossed the parking lot toward building two hundred. Gus unlocked the doors without knocking, hoping to surprise the couple. He did surprise a couple, just not the one they were looking for.
“You two should get back to your families. Psycho killers are roaming the complex. They butchered Kevin.”
“What the hell. Was it that couple from Mr. Hernandez’s apartment?” the middle-aged man asked.
The twenty-something woman threw back the covers and began pulling on clothes. She ran from the room without a word, only taking a fleeting glance back over her shoulder as she went through the doorway.
“We believe it was that couple. Have you seen them today?” Will asked.
The man threw his legs over the bed and pulled on his pants. “I saw the guy. He was headed across the parking lot toward building three hundred. Jerrod Blake found oxy and Xanax in a house a couple of blocks over that he was trading for food.”
“You haven’t seen the girl?” Gus asked.
“No. The last I saw of her, she and Kevin were heading up the stairs to your building.”
“What time was that?”
“Shit, I don’t know, man. I don’t got no watch or nothing. I don’t really pay attention to the time of day anymore. I’d say an hour or so after sunrise. We’d all been partying all night, and I was just heading back to my place to go to bed.”
“You partied with the couple and Kevin?” Will asked.
“Yeah. We all hung out here. Someone found one of those old school MP3 players with some retro music on it.”
“Were Kevin’s bandmates with you guys?” Will asked.
“Not all night. They hooked up with those chicks that live across from Izzy and Kevin.”
“We should check with them,” Will said.
“You’re not suspecting the band, are you? They were tight, bro. They wouldn’t have anything to do with hurting Kevin,” the man said.
Will turned to Gus. “We should still ask the women if they saw or heard anything.”
Gus tilted his head slightly. “Why? You really looking to do a trial for those scumbags? I ain’t got time for that. Jaz is going to want to get to her mom’s as soon as I get back.”
“I would just like to know where the band was when Kevin was killed, is all.”
“Whatever. I agreed to find Kevin’s killers and bring them back. You do what you want after,” Gus said. He headed for the door. “Let’s head on over to building three hundred. I have a feeling we’ll find them there.”
“You should plan on getting you and your family out of here. It’s going to get very bad, very quickly,” Will told the man as he followed Gus from the room.
Gus stopped at the landing of the second floor and leaned over the railing. Will joined him, taking in the green belt separating the complex from the houses next door. The killer couple could have gone anywhere. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Will imagined that if they could have called the police, they too would have had to go door to door questioning each resident on what they might have seen or heard. They might also search outbuildings and cars looking for the couple. They could be hiding inside an RV, or even a boat like the Boston Bomber had. He just hoped this wasn’t a total waste of energy because time was running out to get away from the city.
“Hey, Gus, what happened with Rudy? Did you find him?” Will asked.
“Nah, but I ran into one of his homies. He told me that Rudy took off to his baby momma’s house to hide out. She lives twenty miles north of here.” He shook his head. “It’s rough out there. I sure hope he makes it.”
“Me too,” Will said. “
“I saw something out there. Something troubling.”
“What now?”
“I saw some military dudes pulling this Asian guy out of a house full of Mexicans. The Mexicans came out, guns blasting. The military opened up on them with automatic weapons and mowed them all down. It was a bloodbath. We got the hell out of there quick like.”
“You were close enough to see that the guy they took was Asian and not Mexican? Could you be mistaken?” Will asked.
“Nah. I was close enough. I saw the dude around here before. He and a few other Asians came and went from there. Never thought much of it. They run drugs together sometimes. No biggie.”
Will stopped at the bottom of the stairs to building three hundred. “And the military got this Asian dude and took him?”
“Yeah.”
The military must be rounding up the people from Kim’s list, he thought. That means there is a list, and insurgents really have infiltrated Houston.
It was concerning that it was occurring so close to where he and his son were staying. Will hoped that they would be able to get away before any of it spilled over into their area.
“That is a worry,” Will said. “Are there any other places these Asians hang out around here?”
“Why are you so concerned about the Asians? I’m more concerned that the military is operating as law enforcement in the streets of the United States. Doesn’t that violate some law? The Posse Comitatus or some shit like that?”
Will wondered if the law still applied considering that they’d been attacked by foreign powers. Posse Comitatus was a federal law that limited the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies on US soil. They were going after foreign fighters.
“The law doesn’t stop the National Guard,” Will said.
“Really? So they can just roll on up on a house and drag someone off, and that’s legal?” Gus asked.
“I don’t know, man. It’s hard to judge with all the crazy shit going on. Someone has to do it. I haven’t seen a single police officer since I was carjacked on the first day,” Will said.
“Damn, you were carjacked?”
“The cops were chasing some dude, and he yanked me out of my ride and took off with one of the officers hanging onto the steering wheel.”
“Crazy!” Gus said.
Will couldn’t tell him everything that happened that day. He wasn’t sure why? It wasn’t like he could get into trouble for giving out classified secrets or anything. He just didn’t think Gus would believe him.
Starting with the ground-level apartments, Gus unlocked the first door and eased it open. Will burst through, trying to mimic how he’d seen Betley clear a room back at the law office. Hi
s heart pounded in his chest as he scanned the room from corner to corner. The living room was clear. Will repeated the maneuver throughout the one-bedroom apartment, and they moved to the next three units. There was no sign of the couple.
“What apartment was it that you said might have that bike with a trailer I’m looking for?” Will asked.
“Three fifty,” Gus said.
“Great. I hope it’s there.”
“You planning on riding bikes all the way to Louisiana?” Gus asked.
“As much as possible. I’m thinking with the trailer, I can haul enough water to at least make it halfway. That’s my biggest concern really. Uncontaminated water will be hard to come by, and in this heat, we’d die without it.”
“I hadn’t really thought about how much water me and Jaz would need. I was going to try to pay Miquel’s brother to take us over to Jaz’s mom’s. I just wasn’t thinking about what it would take to go on foot. After you saying you were carjacked, now I’m kinda concerned. We ain’t prepared to be on foot,” Gus said.
“It might be difficult for Jaz—being pregnant and all,” Will said.
“I need to rethink some things before we head out, that’s for sure.”
Gus inserted the key into the lock of apartment three hundred fifty. He turned the knob and shoved open the door. Will ran through and scanned the corner to the left of the door. A sofa lined one wall. On it sat a man and woman. The man and woman for whom they were looking. The man shot to his feet. He raised his hand as if to shield himself from an incoming bullet. Will’s rage threatened to overwhelm him and his finger twitched inside the trigger guard. It would have been so easy to just squeeze and end it all right there.
The woman slowly rose from the sofa, brushing crumbs or something from her short skirt as she stood. She didn’t show the same fear the man did. Her dark brown eyes bored through Will. She was deviant to the point of almost daring Will to shoot her. Will looked her up and down. She wasn’t covered in Kevin’s blood as he’d expected. He knew it wouldn’t be that easy to prove their guilt.