by Cathy Ace
Dave fiddled with the gun case – it wasn’t easy getting the key into the lock, let alone anything else. ‘Can you manage?’ shouted Mike.
‘I can’t unlock this damned case.’
Mike motioned for Dave to join him at the wheel. ‘Here – just keep her straight and flat out – there’s not much to it; just hang on tight. Give me the case and I’ll open it – I’m more familiar with the lock.’
Dave gratefully accepted Mike’s offer, and they carefully swapped places. Dave felt immediately at home at the helm, and Mike managed to open the lock in an instant. He pulled out the gun, much to Zack’s glee and Becky’s horror, and loaded the weapon. He wedged himself into the seat and made sure the gun wasn’t pointing anywhere dangerous – which only left one direction, straight up.
Behind them, the other boat was gaining; it was touch and go if they’d make it to shore before the Boss caught them. As Mike peered back he could see that the blonde guy was still at the helm, but that the passenger, the bald one, was standing at his side, also with a long-gun pointing into the air.
Dave’s stomach churned and he called to Mike, ‘We’re getting close to shore – I don’t know what to do – you’ll have to take over again.’
The men changed places; Dave remained standing, the gun on his hip, his eyes not leaving the boat that was getting ever closer. He knew they’d have to slow, to get into the pier. He glanced toward the designated landing area; he could see Debbie’s vehicle, then Debbie, but he couldn’t see the RCMP, nor anyone resembling a figure of authority.
Where the hell were the cops? If Debbie had made it there in the minivan, surely they could have got a response vehicle there just as quickly?
It suddenly dawned on Dave that if he could see Debbie, then she could see them. He wondered what she’d make of the sight of her husband holding a gun, her two children hanging onto their seats for dear life, and another boat in hot pursuit of her family, with a man holding a gun in that one too.
His relief at the sight of a cloud of dust signaling the arrival of two RCMP vehicles wiped his worries away; suddenly Dave felt more confident that it would all work out alright – then he spotted the effect that his weapon was having upon the officers, who were already out of their vehicle and peering at the scene on the lake through binoculars.
Dave could see Debbie run toward one of the uniformed men. She was waving her arms in the air. Dave guessed she was explaining that her children were being pursued by armed men, and were being watched over by their father.
At the sight of the RCMP vehicles, the boat being driven by the Boss slowed and turned, then the engines roared and the vessel began to speed across the lake’s shimmering surface away from the boat launch area. Mike’s boat came to a halt, Dave handed him the gun – which Mike unloaded – then, finally, Dave was able to get to his children. The boat was still bobbing on the water as he held them to his chest. They were safe. At last.
‘We’re fine,’ he said quietly, ‘just fine. Your mom’s here – see? You guys’ll be glad to let her get you home safe, eh?’
He studied his children; Becky had her color back and was smiling up at him, Zack’s leg wasn’t bleeding at all and he was glowing.
‘Da-ad,’ said Zack, pushing his father away, ‘I’m fine. Look, there’s Andy from school with his mom and dad, wait till I tell him what’s happened.’
‘Hey, you’ll talk to the cops before you talk to anyone else, Zack, and even then you’ll only tell people what the cops say you can tell them. And we’ve got to get that leg checked out before you can go talking to any of your mates anyway. This isn’t over, Zack; those guys are heading back up the lake – they could get off that boat anywhere and literally get away with murder. We have a civic duty to perform, son.’
‘I guess,’ said Zack. ‘You’ll come to the hospital with me, won’t you?’
‘Sure,’ said Dave, and gave his son another hug.
‘You’ll tell them how I said we should collect the evidence, won’t you, Dad?’ asked Becky, eagerly.
Dave smiled proudly at his daughter, ‘No, I won’t do that – you can tell them yourself. You were grown-up enough to think of it and do it, so you should be the one to tell them that.’
‘Thanks, Dad,’ said Becky, beaming.
Debbie hovered on the shoreline; Dave could see the anxiety on her face. Finally they were all off the boat, and his ex-wife was able to hold her children. Dave explained all that had happened to the most senior officer there, who, in turn, relayed all the information to someone on the radio.
‘My daughter has something for you,’ said Dave proudly, as Becky handed the cooler box to the officer. He looked inside.
‘You’re a very brave girl,’ said the officer, ‘very intelligent too; if the corpse had no face, hands or feet, we might never have identified it, even if we can find it and dig it up. This hand might have fingerprints, so if he’s anywhere in the system, we can at least identify him.’
‘The Boss had a tattoo of a flaming torch on his neck,’ said Zack, not wanting to miss out on the limelight, ‘and the bald guy had one too.’ Dave couldn’t smile any wider. ‘I reckon they’re in a gang and that’s their insignia,’ Zack added, with an air of authority. ‘And I marked the place where they buried the dead guy – I put my red hockey-team cap there.’ He sounded pleased with himself.
‘I wondered why you weren’t wearing a hat,’ said Debbie, glaring at Dave, ‘though I guess that’s the least of my worries, having heard what you guys and your father just said.’ She turned to the officer. ‘Can I get my son away to be checked at the hospital now?’ she asked.
The officer took all their contact details and the cooler box, then allowed them to leave. Debbie said the cops could keep the cooler box when they were done with it, thank you very much.
Dave thanked Mike for his role in their escape. Profusely. And apologized for having dragged him into such a mess. Profusely.
The officer said he thought the suspects would likely dump their boat somewhere further up the shore and flee the area, aware they could be described by everyone in Mike’s boat.
Mike told anyone who’d listen that he and his wife were going to take a couple of nights away at a local hotel – maybe they’d even stay away until he knew the cops had picked up the bad guys, because they now knew the name of his boat and he thought they might be able to locate his home that way.
Dave could understand why Mike was scared; he didn’t like the idea that the killers had seen him and the kids – he was just grateful there was no way they could know who they were, or where to find them.
It was over. Well, it was nearly over; they’d take Zack to the emergency room at Ridge Meadows Hospital, and Dave was sure they’d say he was just fine – then they could all go home, knowing that tomorrow the RCMP would take their formal statements and they could get back to their normal lives. He’d call the foreman at work to tell him he’d need to take at least Monday off.
But first they had to head to the hospital; Dave followed the minivan carrying Debbie and the kids in his old truck, and they got to see a doctor within the hour. A clean bill of health for Zack, with some precautionary antibiotics and a tetanus shot, meant he could spend his time on the trip home in his dad’s pickup calling friends on his cell phone, telling them about his ‘great adventure’.
Debbie said Dave could stay for dinner, and the kids were bubbling over with their gruesome story right through their meal. Dave agreed with Debbie when she said she suspected it would be tough to settle the children for the night, and she wasn’t wrong; once she’d managed to drag them both away from phoning and texting people, the kids made sure she had to listen to the details of their night up a tree, for the tenth time.
Dave was pleased Debbie had given into the kids’ request to let their dad stay for the night; with Zack and Becky upstairs safe in their rooms, and with him fairly comfy on the sofa bed in the den on the main floor, he eventually turned out the bedside light after wh
at had become a very long weekend indeed.
Dave hadn’t thought he’d get off to sleep, but he must have done, because the next thing he knew, he was waking up. Something had disturbed him. For a moment, he didn’t know what was happening; he pushed himself off the sagging bed and peeped through the curtains. What he saw on the street terrified him.
He grabbed his phone and ran into the master bedroom. ‘Get the kids into the basement Debbie. The Boss is outside in a Hummer and I think he’s got a gun.’
Debbie look confused.
‘Don’t turn on any lights!’ he added. ‘I’m on the phone to the cops right now.’
Debbie grabbed a robe and rushed into Becky’s room. Her daughter was as fast asleep as she herself had been just moments earlier, and Dave could hear Debbie was having a tough time rousing their daughter.
‘Becky – wake up, darling. We have to get down to the basement – here, put this on, and let me find your slippers. Don’t panic – everything will be fine – I’m just going to wake Zack. Come on now, get up!’ Debbie was trying to sound calm, but Dave knew she wasn’t.
Finally, Debbie managed to get both children down the stairs and into the basement; the family house sat on a ravine, so it looked like a single-level house from the street. However, the back had an extra floor which allowed for access to the bank of a wide gully that ran right along the street. Dave hoped it might prove to be a possible escape route that might save them from whatever the Boss had planned.
Dave ran down the back stairs to join his family. Debbie looked up at him, searching his face for an explanation. She was holding the children tight.
‘Listen,’ said Dave, knowing he needed to take charge until the cops arrived, ‘I know we’re all frightened, but we have to act quickly. The cops are on their way, but, somehow, the Boss has found out where we live; he’s outside the house, waving a gun around, and threatening us.’
Becky started to cry. ‘How did he find us? Why won’t he leave us alone? I’m tired of this, Dad. I want it all to stop now. Can’t you make him go away?’
Dave’s heart broke a little. ‘I don’t know how he found us, darling, and I don’t think I can make him go away, but I can get us away from him. If he tries to come into the house he’ll set off the alarm. I think we’ll be safe here, because there’s no other way to the back of the house from the street. So let’s just wait for the cops to arrive and they can sort him out, eh?’
‘I don’t get it, Dad – how could he find us?’ was Zack’s plaintive question.
‘I don’t know that either, son, but he’s here and we have to deal with it, right?’
Zack nodded.
Dave was delighted that, for once, Debbie didn’t take the chance to have a go at him. When she spoke she sounded as though she wanted to do some damage to someone, but Dave could tell that person wasn’t him.
She hissed, ‘Given what that creep has already done, there’s no doubt he’s dangerous. Everything inside makes me want to go outside and rip his head off; how dare he threaten my children? But your father’s right; the man outside has a gun, and isn’t afraid to use it. We have to somehow keep ourselves safe until help arrives.’
A loud crash made all four of them jump.
‘Was that glass?’ asked Becky, terrified.
‘I think it was the window beside the front door,’ replied Dave.
Another crash and a popping noise came next. Becky buried her face in her mother’s bosom, crying aloud. Debbie looked as pale as the moonlight streaming through the basement window. Dave hugged his son, his ex-wife, and his daughter.
He looked Debbie straight in the eyes and spoke quietly. ‘If that alarm starts to ring, then he’s opened the door through the side window. He’s already shooting at the house. I’m not going to let him hurt any of us. The instant that alarm starts, we’re out the back door and we’re going to make our way along the bank of the ravine toward the top end of the road, heading toward the Lougheed Highway. Right?’
Debbie nodded. Dave didn’t want to have to drag his family along a dangerous riverbank at night, in their slippers, but he knew that if the Boss got into the house, they’d have to get out of it.
‘Why are the police taking so long?’ asked Debbie, her eyes pleading with Dave for everything to be alright.
‘I don’t know, darling, but they’ll be here soon, I’m sure of that.’ Dave’s quiet, assured reply was overwhelmed by the noise of their alarm. It screamed out into the night. They all froze.
‘Right – let’s go,’ ordered Dave.
He pulled open the back door, and ushered his family out into the night air. They scurried over the narrow deck and stumbled down the bank. Across the ravine he could see lights being turned on in bedroom windows. Soon everyone on the entire street behind the ravine, and their own, would be awake, roused by their wailing alarm. But that wouldn’t help them. They had to fend for themselves until the police arrived, and that meant getting away from the house.
‘Watch your step,’ Dave said to Zack who was still not too steady on his injured leg. ‘We can’t use flashlights; if he gets finds the back door I don’t want him knowing which way we’ve gone. Let’s get up to the Wilson place, then we can hide under their deck, okay?’ Everyone nodded.
The Wilsons lived five doors up and had a large deck that extended out over the ravine. It would be dark and, Dave hoped, safe under there. But they had to get there first.
It was slow going. All around them lights were glowing, blinds were being opened and dogs were barking.
A shot rang out. Dave could tell by her expression that Debbie, who’d never heard a gun before, knew what it was; it chilled him despite the warm, summer-night air. Just a little further – a few more steps and they’d be able to hide under the Wilsons’ deck.
At last they were ‘safe’. Debbie was near to tears, but, Becky seemed to have regained control of her emotions. They were all grubby, their nightclothes wet with dew, and their knees green with the stains of vegetation they’d crushed as they’d made their way along the steep bank of the ravine.
‘Everyone okay?’ asked Dave – breathless and sweating.
Three nodding heads were all he got.
‘Right, now let’s just sit it out. Keep your ears open, we might be able to make out if anyone’s following us.’
Debbie tensed even more; Becky held her brother’s hand, and Zack was clearly holding back tears. Then Dave heard a sound he’d never thought he could love so much – the sirens of police cars.
‘Dad?’ said Zack, pulling at his father’s arm.
‘Yes, son, what is it?’ asked Dave, not feeling at all secure despite the approaching sirens.
‘I’m sorry, Dad – it’s all my fault.’ Zack was finally crying. It hurt Dave’s heart.
‘It’s not your fault, Zack. None of this is our fault; it’s all down to the creeps who killed that poor guy in the first place. It wasn’t your fault that we found the body. Zack, never think that.’ Dave’s voice was full of compassion for his son, who looked much the same as he had done on his first day of Grade One.
‘It’s my fault they found us,’ replied Zack, sobbing.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Dave, still trying to hear if there was anyone crashing along the riverbank toward them, but not wanting his son to be ignored in his time of need.
‘I left my hat where they buried the body – to mark the place. My hat’s got my name in it.’
‘What?’ Dave snapped more than he had meant to.
‘I’m sorry, Dad. Mom wrote my name in my hat because the whole hockey team has them. The killers must have gone back to the grave and found it there. We’re an easy family to find – we’re the only Golightlys in the phone book around here. My hat says “Zack Golightly” on it. That’s how he found us.’
Dave’s heart sank. The Boss knew who they were; anyone connected with the killing knew who they were, and where to find them. What if the Boss was a gang member? He’d certainly looked like o
ne. Though Dave had to admit to himself he didn’t really know much about gangs, he knew there were a lot of them around; they were always being mentioned on the news – not a weekend seemed to pass without ‘a targeted killing’ being mentioned somewhere close by.
Maybe the Boss belonged to a big gang. If so, there’d be loads of them coming after his family. It might never stop. The whole scenario played out in Dave’s head in two seconds flat; if the police got the Boss they’d all have to testify to what they’d seen in court; they’d be open to all sorts of intimidation, threats, and real danger. Dave wondered if Canada had a witness protection program like he’d seen in the movies – or was that only in the States? Would his family ever be safe again?
As he looked across at his cowering children, and at Debbie’s face, he wondered if she was thinking the same as him. Her eyes were wide with terror.
‘Oh, Zack,’ Dave said, gently, stroking his son’s thatch of sandy hair, ‘it’s not your fault. We’ve got caught up in something that’s much bigger than anything we could have imagined. But, we’ll be fine, just fine. Because we have each other. We’ll do the right thing; we’ll follow through with this, and we’ll make sure the authorities do right by us. Now don’t worry about it, let’s just keep our ears open and try to work out what’s going on up there. Listen – it’s gone quiet.’
The police sirens had stopped, their house alarm had stopped, and even the dogs had stopped barking. The silence was eerie. Somewhere close by a slight rustling made all four of the Golightlys draw closer together, but it was just a cat, disturbed by unexpected guests.
Gunshots rang out.
It all sounded so far away that Dave could hardly believe their house was involved. There were a lot more shots, then everything went quiet again. Dave poked his head out from under the deck. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary – not that he knew what was ‘ordinary’, under the circumstances.