Pedal to the Metal

by Jesse J. Thoma

  “I promise I’ll answer any questions you have, but it might be best if we start from the beginning. It might help our relationship continue to develop if we have all the background context.”

  “Okay. You’re the boss. Did Max tell you about Levi?”

  Holt nodded.

  “Of course she did. Did she also tell you about the challenge that was presented to, first him, then me?”

  “She told me you were getting pressure from some old acquaintances. She thought it had to do with Levi and maybe avenging his death or clearing his name. She wasn’t sure of the specifics.”

  Dubs thought it was interesting that Max had shielded her personal failings from Holt. She appreciated it greatly, but it surprised her. She didn’t think Max would keep anything from Holt. She hoped it was a sign of how much Max cared about her. Maybe enough to work past this betrayal. She had seen the hurt in Max’s eyes. That was going to be hard to overcome.

  “That’s more or less it. Levi died attempting the challenge on my behalf, because I was in prison. Since he failed, it was the same as if I had failed too. It was also as if his good name was ruined by that failure. It might not make any sense, but it was the code of the street at the time. Things seemed to have changed since I’ve been gone.”

  “And since you’ve been out, there has been pressure to take up the challenge he died trying to complete?”

  “That’s what I thought,” Dubs said. “It would have cleared his name, and mine. But today when I got there, that wasn’t a challenge. It was a suicide mission. And that’s before those other dudes showed up.”

  “Too bad they didn’t stick around once our people showed up for the party,” Holt said. “Guess they prefer three to one odds.”

  “I don’t think we’d be here talking if everyone hadn’t shown up when they did,” Dubs said. “They rolled me and were lining up for the kill shot when the cavalry arrived.”

  “Max has always had good timing,” Holt said.

  “Max sent all those guys?”

  “She was worried about you. She mobilized every crew member working and sent them to your location.”

  “I’ll be damned,” Dubs said.

  “Why did you wait to call me until after you were in trouble?” Holt asked.

  “This doesn’t have anything to do with the case.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “Max asked me the other day what I planned on doing when this case is over. I couldn’t answer her,” Dubs said. “When I got out of prison it was with the goal of either helping you bring down this new crew so that I could reestablish myself, or if you couldn’t bring them down, at least I could get back in the game, get my name back out there, and set up my contacts again. But now, I don’t know. Things are different. I’m different. I don’t know what I’ll do. I guess I thought I needed to handle that on my own, see if I still could. Maybe I hoped the world I remembered was still the one I was walking out into.”

  “That’s the problem, Dubs. You’re thinking like an individual. You’re part of a team here. You’re part of my team. A valuable, and until this morning, a trusted one. If you were worried about what you were going to do after, you should have come to talk to me. You should still come talk to me. There are more options than your old life, going back to prison, or wandering the streets with nothing to do.”

  “I think I completely blew it for the opportunity I really want,” Dubs said. It wasn’t until the words came out of her mouth that she realized it was true.

  “Which is?”

  “I guess it doesn’t matter now,” Dubs said. “But I really like the work I’ve been doing with you and everyone who works for you. I couldn’t have imagined that when I stepped out of the prison yard. That’s for sure.”

  “Dubs,” Holt said. “Your ability to work for me is not hindered by the stunt you pulled this morning. Well, at least not for the reason you think. Everyone came to your rescue today because Max asked them to. They trusted her and they knew a team member was in trouble. That’s important. We lean on each other, depend on each other, trust each other. That’s the thing you don’t get yet. I understand why you did what you did for your friend. I told you I lost a friend. If someone was sullying his reputation, I would do anything to defend it.”

  “Can I ask you something?” Dubs asked.

  “Sure,” Holt said.

  “Why did you tell the state police my jaunt this morning was part of our investigation? You could have sent me back to prison.”

  “I’ve told you this a number of times. I take care of my own. You are one of my own. You screwed up. That’s not enough for me to abandon you. Did you listen to anything I just said? You’re not an island anymore.”

  “I didn’t think you liked me much.”

  “I wasn’t sure if I could trust you,” Holt said. “That’s not the same thing. That’s why I made sure Max was close by. From the look of things, that kind of backfired on me.”

  “It backfired on me. That’s for sure,” Dubs said. “She’s just like you. Strong, capable, principled, team player. I don’t know if she’s as willing to forgive and forget though.”

  “I’m not forgetting, Dubs. All I said was I understand your reasoning. As for Max, if I’m reading the looks you two were giving each other correctly, she’s not thinking with the same rational detachment I am. That’s a pain in the ass for me, but it’s something else entirely for you.”

  “Think you could help me out? Max would listen to you if you said I didn’t mean to completely betray her trust,” Dubs said. She didn’t get her hopes up, but it would go a long way if Holt could help her out. She wanted to make things right with Max.

  “Oh no,” Holt said. “You two paddled yourselves out into the middle of a fast moving stream and then took a machine gun to the bottom of your row boat. I’m not getting involved.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  “Look,” Holt said. “I’m the last one to talk about not falling in love with someone you’re working with intimately on a case, but be careful. Especially with Max. If you’re just fucking around because you’re bored.”

  “Holt—” Dubs couldn’t believe Holt would think that after how much she had been floundering around since Holt had come to her rescue this morning.

  “Hey,” Holt said. “I am in no way saying that’s what’s happening. I can tell you’re hurting here, but Max is too, so be careful. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”

  “I’m not sure I have to worry about that anymore,” Dubs said.

  “Jesus,” Holt said. “I do not want to be doing this. Listen. If Max is anything like me, and if she feels about you like you seem to feel about her, then she’ll come around. She was scared. You were in danger, and there wasn’t anything she could do. And you shut her out of something really important. And you handcuffed her to the bed. Not cool.”

  “Well—” Dubs said.

  “Stop right there,” Holt said.

  Dubs smiled, but didn’t dare actually laugh, smirk, or giggle.

  “Now, do you have any other outstanding challenges I need to know about?”

  “Nothing at all. My life moving forward is conflict free. Assuming we figure out who tried to kill me tonight, obviously.”

  “No arm wrestling contests? Poker tournaments? Pissing contests you’re forgetting about?”

  Dubs shook her head. Even if someone came forward and called her every nasty name she could think of, told her she was fat, and ugly, and her dress was hideous, she wasn’t going to engage. At least not for a week or two.

  “And the concept of teamwork is something you’ll let sink in?” Holt asked.

  “It’s a steep learning curve,” Dubs said. “But I’m highly motivated. I like you all. You’re a good group. For a bunch of government agents.”

  “Government agents?” Holt asked, looking incredulous. “Get out of here, Dubs. Are you in any danger of scampering again?”

  “No,” D
ubs said seriously. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll swear on anything you like.”

  “Your word is fine with me.”

  “Then you have it.”

  Holt nodded and Dubs left her office. She saw Max across the room and her stomach knotted up. There was no use putting off the inevitable. She headed for her.

  “Hi,” Dubs said as she came alongside Max’s desk.

  “Hello,” Max said. The reception wasn’t a warm one. “You going back to prison?”

  “Remarkably, no.”

  “That’s good,” Max said. She still hadn’t looked up, but she did at least sound a bit relieved that Dubs wasn’t getting locked up again. “Is Holt insisting we be cuffed together again?”

  “She didn’t say anything about it,” Dubs said. “She made me give her my word I wasn’t going anywhere. I’m not. I promise you that.”

  “Well, you know, I would have assumed that last night too,” Max said. “And that didn’t do me a lot of good. So I don’t care what Holt thinks. The cuffs go back on.” Max grabbed the handcuffs, which Dubs hadn’t noticed next to her computer, and fastened them around first Dubs’s wrist, then her own. “My one job is to keep you with me and out of trouble. Since I failed so completely at that this morning, we’re back to this.”

  “You didn’t fail.” Dubs felt like a little part of her was dying. “I let you down.”

  “Yes,” Max said. She still hadn’t looked at Dubs, not in the eye. “But I thought I could trust you, and I was wrong, so I failed.”

  Dubs sat in the chair next to Max and leaned in close to her, trying to force eye contact. “Look, can we talk about this?” Dubs asked. She knew she sounded like she was begging.

  Max finally looked her in the eye. Her eyes were pain filled and watery. “We can talk about the case,” she said. “You told Holt you saw one of the men from the auto shop we visited driving one of the three SUVs that were trying to run you off the road. Is that right?”

  “Max,” Dubs tried again. “Please, I’m sorry. What can I do to get you to talk to me?”

  “You can tell me about Mr. Malevolent,” Max said.

  Dubs sat back in her chair with a sad sigh. Her arm jerked as the handcuffs came taut. Max shot her a look as her hand was pulled off the keyboard. This was a far cry from the awesome evening they had enjoyed last night.

  “Yes, the really grumpy guy we saw skulking at the auto shop, shooting venomous looks our way, was one of the drivers,” Dubs said.

  “That’s weird,” Max said. “Why would he be part of the challenge, and then try to kill you?”

  She wasn’t sure, but it sounded like “kill you” caught in Max’s throat. Dubs was grasping for any sign that Max wasn’t completely emotionally detaching. That was one she was going to hold on to.

  “I think the challenge was a setup,” Dubs said. “I think the point was the ‘kill me,’ or at least get me out of the picture. I don’t really know why. Threat, message, warning, who knows? I don’t think I’m such a menace to them that they needed to specifically take me out. They were determined. I’ll give them that.”

  “Was it the same challenge Levi did?” Max asked.

  “No. It wasn’t even a challenge, really. I think the point was to get me in an easily identified car and force me to drive. The SUV had the keys in the ignition and was running. It wasn’t even a challenge.”

  “Do you think it’s possible the people we’re looking for were the ones you played bumper cars with?”

  “Seems the most likely idea. I think I’m generally a pretty likable person. Not too many people hate me enough to hold a grudge long enough to wait for me to get out of prison and set all that up.”

  “That does make me feel better, seeing as I’m handcuffed to you currently,” Max said.

  “Your choice, Pretty Girl.”

  “Don’t call me that,” Max said.

  “You can’t ask me to stop,” Dubs said. “You’re beautiful, and it just comes out. Please don’t say there’s no chance to go back to what we had. To what we were starting to create. I really care about you, and I feel like my heart is breaking.”

  “Why didn’t you think of that when you snuck out on me this morning?” Max asked. “Do you know how horrible I felt when I woke up and you were gone? You think your heart is breaking now? I had to deal with the fact that you had walked out, and I had to go and tell Holt that you were gone and I had no idea where you were. My one job was to know where you were, all the time. And I had no idea. We work as a team around here. You went lone wolf on me. I don’t know how to trust that. And after—” She looked away, swallowing hard.

  “I just got this chat from Holt,” Dubs said. “I’m not used to working as part of a team. It never occurred to me that you, or she, or anyone else here, could help me, or would even want to. Well, I knew you wanted to, but I thought you would get in trouble with Holt. I’m willing to learn. For you, I think I’m willing to do just about anything.”

  “And what happens the next time something comes up that needs your attention?” Max asked. “I can’t take that chance. I was stupid to get swept up in you the first time around. It’s a wonderful place, but it’s not reality.”

  “Wait a minute.” Dubs felt cold panic sweep up her spine. “It totally can be reality. I take a couple steps your way, and you take a step my way, and then we’re right there together. And we’re already handcuffed together, so we have to meet in the middle or our arms are going to start hurting. We’re practically destined to meet in the middle. It’s fate. We were meant to be.”

  Max tried to hide it, but Dubs saw the smile hinting at the corners of her mouth. Dubs shook her handcuffed wrist, rattling the cuffs all the way to Max’s wrist. “Just one little step my way?” Dubs asked, sliding her foot toward Max’s foot. When their feet made contact, Max pushed back against Dubs’s foot.

  “Too many steps, Dubs. You’re incorrigible.”

  “And now you’re using Scrabble words too, Pretty Girl.”

  “Let’s solve this case,” Max said. “There’s plenty of time for talking after.”

  Hope replaced panic, at least for the moment. Max was engaging with her again, bantering back and forth, and she hadn’t repeated her request that she not call her Pretty Girl. Maybe they could work this out after all. She leaned forward in her chair and thought about the SUV driver.

  “Auto shops,” she said.

  “Huh?” Max asked.

  “You asked me a while ago what a car thief would need to steal so many cars in such a short time. I said easy access to a lot of cars. The two guys we are reasonably sure are connected to this theft ring work at auto shops. Easy, unimpeded access. They could make a copy of the key, disable the alarm, install an alarm kill or remove a GPS tracker, and the owner wouldn’t even know. Plus, they have home addresses for all their clients.”

  “But these two guys don’t work at the same shop.”

  “No, they would need more than one. Probably three or four,” Dubs said. “You would need a high volume of cars so you could pick the ones you want to target. Plus, you have to make sure not every car that comes through the shop gets stolen. Otherwise it’s easy to trace back.”

  “If your theory is correct, we can call all the owners of the stolen cars you think were hit by the ring we’re tracking and find out where they took their cars for service, and when their last repair was.”

  “Exactly,” Dubs said. “How are we going to call all those people?”

  “Teamwork, remember?” Max said. She leaned back in her chair and called over to Moose. “Moose, I need whoever’s free to make some phone calls. Dubs and I may be on to something.”

  Holt overheard and came over with Moose. “The Wonder Twins are hard at work, H. We should keep them in bracelets all the time. It seems to activate their powers,” Moose said.

  “You’re just hilarious,” Max said. “You got time to bust my ass, or do you want to hear what we found?”

  “Spit it out,” Holt said
.

  Max looked so excited. Dubs thought she was adorable.

  “We know where our bad guys are getting their cars,” Max said. “We also know where at least two of the group members work.”

  “And?” Moose said.

  “This is like pulling teeth,” Holt said. “You’re quite proud of yourselves.”

  “Max worked really hard figuring this out,” Dubs said.

  “Auto shops,” Max said. “They’re scouting the cars at auto shops and stealing them later. We know at least two that are being used. It seems like the two guys we’ve tracked down probably work at these shops.”

  “And you want people to make phone calls to all the stolen cars we have on our list?” Moose said.

  “Exactly,” Max said. “See if they were serviced recently, and if so, where.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Holt said. “It makes sense they would be using a place like auto shops for access. Make sense to you, Dubs?”

  “Perfect sense.” She appreciated Holt allowing her to be part of this conversation. She wanted to learn the flow of working as part of the team. “I was telling Max, when a car was in the shop for service, a key could be made, an alarm system disabled, or a kill switch installed. If there was a GPS tracker on board, that could be removed. It’s the perfect time to be all over a car without raising suspicion. Also, what better way to know exactly what you’re getting when you go back for the car later? I mean, they could already have buyers for all the parts and accessories prior to stealing and chopping the car. It’s brilliant, really.”

  “Get anyone who’s not working a priority case,” Holt said. “Let’s call everyone on that list. Max, you and Dubs put together the phone numbers and car makes and models. You two will be in charge of a master list of what our callers find out. Report back to me as soon as you have something worth talking about. But, Wonder Twins, if it’s after seven, call Moose. I’m busy this evening.”

  “We’re on it, boss,” Dubs said.

  Dubs saw Max give her a funny look. She couldn’t tell if it was amusement, annoyance, or amazement. Perhaps it was a combination of all three.