Chapter 24
Nick thanked Troy profusely for taking over behind the bar. As luck would have it, Troy’s blind date ended abruptly when he rolled up his shirtsleeves after leaving the movie theater. Apparently his date, with her demure, private school upbringing, did not approve of the tattoos that covered every inch of his skin from wrists to shoulders. A brief, albeit, heated discussion ensued during the subsequent car ride, which ended at her apartment and with Troy looking for a place to assuage his hostility toward the privileged few. The Slippery Beaver fit the bill, with its rustic charm and down home feel, filled with people who knew each other by name and seldom judged outside of drink choices and chicken wing dipping sauces.
“No sweat, bro,” Troy said. “This will end better with me working behind the bar than working on tomorrow’s hangover. A little extra cheese won’t hurt either. Good luck with your old man, dude.”
“Thanks. I’m not sure this night could get any weirder. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Please do. My experience is, the longer you go into the night, the stranger things tend to get. It’s why I never go to bed before 4am. Well, at least not alone before 4am.” Troy shot a look Shauna’s way and smiled at Nick. As much as Nick liked Shauna, that might be the farthest thing from his mind.
“I’m ready when you are, Cochise,” Shauna said to Nick. “I’ve only got one helmet, but don’t worry. I’m an excellent driver.”
“The night of firsts continues,” Nick said. “I’ve never ridden in a sidecar.”
“I’ll be gentle,” Shauna teased him. Nick responded with a distracted smile. Shauna studied his eyes and knew he was truly concerned about his parents, especially his father. She empathized with him. Her strong relationship with her single parent dad made her understand to a greater degree how Nick felt.
“Everything will work out,” she reassured him.
“You’re probably right. I just have this weird feeling it won’t turn out anything like we think. Does that sound stupid?” He purposely omitted the part about Bernie speaking telepathically to him. That went beyond weird and entered into the realm of bizarre. The last couple of days were beginning to feel like an episode from the Twilight Zone.
“No, it doesn’t sound weird, but definitely different,” Shauna replied as they headed toward the Slippery Beaver’s front door. “The brief time we’ve spent together, Nicholas O’Fallon, I’d have to say have been anything but normal.”
“Sorry about that. I’m really not trying to complicate things.” Nick actually felt a little guilty about dragging Shauna into this freaky melodrama.
“Oh, I’m not complaining,” Shauna replied as she opened the door that led into the parking lot where her motorcycle sat, well illuminated by half a dozen lights. “You know how to show a girl a unique time.”
“I was shooting for a good time. Unique wasn’t exactly where I was aiming.” Nick stepped over to the motorcycle and navigated his long legs into the sidecar. Once situated, he looked over at Shauna sitting atop the Road King, well above him. Just before she slipped on her helmet and fired the Harley up, she turned her head down his direction.
“Yeah, but unique is memorable. Good times come and go, but we always remember the original moments in our life. You can’t make this shit up.” Shauna dropped the helmet over her head and started the bike. The Road King roared to life, making any verbal communication between them now impossible without screaming.
“You have no idea how true that is,” Nick’s replied, his voice lost in the thunderous rumble.
They pulled out of the parking lot and jumped on the main artery through town. There were other more circuitous routes to Nick’s house with fewer traffic lights, but at this hour, the lighter traffic alleviated the need to avoid the signals. Nick closed his eyes as the cool night air blew through his hair and over his shoulders. With his eyes still closed, he fixated on the motorcycle’s vibrations rolling through his body, which put him in a near catatonic trance as they cruised over the small town roads.
As if in a dream, Nick heard the gentle wail of a siren, somewhere off in the distance. There was not a tremendous amount of police action in Pine Valley. Sirens usually indicated a fire and rescue response or one of the local ambulance services. Nick continued to blank his mind, but the siren’s noise increased as they rode, interrupting his self-induced relaxation therapy.
He opened his eyes and took a quick assessment of their surroundings. They were still on the main road, about a mile due east of the interstate. A few recently built strip malls dotted the roadsides, but the neighborhood became increasingly residential. They were about two miles from Nick’s house, and the siren’s wail became more pronounced.
Nick turned his attention to Shauna and noticed her head turning, trying to locate the source and direction of the sound. Nick began searching, too. As they rounded a wide curve, Nick saw the sedan tearing through one of the neighborhood side streets that sat down hill, half a mile away, giving them a good perspective of the chase. A sedan with red and blue grill lights tailed a dark car that Nick could not make out at this distance. Nick had never seen an unmarked car in Pine Valley with its lights and sirens chasing somebody, so this was an unusual sight, to say the least.
Shauna made a right turn into the neighborhood as they headed toward Nick’s house, traveling perpendicular to the chase. As they got closer, Nick realized that the police car looked familiar. He couldn’t swear to it, but the sedan looked liked the one driven by the U.S. Marshals when they left the Slippery Beaver headed to his house in search of the illusive Andy O’Fallon. The pursued vehicle was clearly not his father’s Cadillac, which gave Nick a great deal of relief. As the chase moved away from their path of travel, Nick decided the police car probably was just a local cop. He did find it strange that he only heard one siren and no other police cars were responding to the chase.
The Bernie Factor Page 25