“Darren is dead, guys.”
Taylor’s eyes flew open and he jerked his head toward the other sofa, where Stepp’s body lay. Darren Stepp had died while Wicks had been chasing after Jen.
Taylor pounded the floor with a fist. “Shit!”
“That bitch killed him, that damn doctor,” Wicks said. “If she had been here, she might have saved Darren.”
Hendricks pointed at the pile of furniture stacked in front of the powder room.
“She got away and you caught her again?”
“Yeah, but not without getting in a shitload of trouble. She also called the cops. That’s why we have to get the hell out of here, now.”
Taylor and Hendricks made it to their feet, then wobbled about as if they were standing on the deck of a ship in a storm.
“You guys gather up our shit and load it in the Jeep while I take care of something.”
“Whoa, Jeep, what Jeep?” Hendricks said. “What happened to our truck?”
Wicks took a pull from the whisky bottle before saying, “It’s a long story.”
“And what about your voice, Roy? It’s all raspy, and your left eye is reddened.”
“That’s part of the story, now get moving.”
Taylor and Hendricks stumbled around the house as they collected their belongings and those of Wicks. Before heading out the door, both men stood over Stepp and gazed down at him solemnly. When they did leave the house, they saw that Wicks had set fire to the nearby brush.
“What the hell are you doing?” Hendricks asked.
“The fire will act as a diversion while we get out of here. The smoke will also help against any choppers they might put up to track us through the woods.”
Taylor pointed back at the home they’d just left. “What about the doctor? The flames might reach the house.”
“Fuck her! She didn’t save Darren. Anyway, she hit her head and is unconscious. The smoke will kill her while she’s still out.”
“Another murder?” Taylor said.
Wicks laughed without a trace of humor in the sound. “You don’t know the half of it, Carl.”
The men climbed inside the Jeep. Taylor wanted to drive but feared he might fall asleep at the wheel. Although it seemed insane, out of the three of them, the drunken Wicks was the best choice as driver.
Wicks headed the Jeep into the forest as he began weaving between the trees. Behind them, the blaze intensified, sending embers onto the house where Dr. Jen Mao lay unconscious.
28
In The Nick Of Time
Tanner and Caleb saw the smoke from the fire when they were still a mile from Borough Lane. Thanks to the police scanner, they had learned that Wicks had Jen again. The chatter on the radio also mentioned that the FBI was en route.
Much of what was said was unintelligible to Tanner, but Caleb understood the jargon of the cops and what the different codes they used meant. Tanner made a mental note to add the memorizing of police codes and lingo to the list of skills he could gain with his studies. As a Tanner, he was constantly acquiring new skills or enhancing the proficiency of old ones.
After rounding a curve and driving a short distance, Tanner had to stand on the brakes as Wicks barreled out onto the road from between two trees. Wicks, Taylor, and Hendricks glanced over at the Land Rover before speeding off in the opposite direction. The jeep had suffered multiple scrapes and dents to its body from hitting trees as the drunken Wicks piloted it over rough terrain.
“That’s them!” Caleb said. “But I didn’t see the doctor.”
“Me either, and there were only three of them,” Tanner said. He was about to execute a U-turn to give pursuit when Caleb grabbed his arm. “Cody, the fire, what if they set it and left the doctor there?”
“She could be dead already.”
“We have to check. I want those bastards too, but we have to look for the doctor first.”
Tanner was gazing at the Jeep in his rear-view mirror as it rounded the curve behind him. After releasing a grunt of frustration, he drove his vehicle between the same two trees Wicks had emerged from, as he headed toward the fire.
Jen regained consciousness again and was able to cling to it. When she realized where she was, and that she was once again locked inside the house, tears sprang to her eyes.
Despair morphed into worry when she realized she was smelling smoke.
“Hello! Wicks? Taylor? Anyone? Hey, I smell smoke. What’s going on?”
There was no answer, although Jen could make out the sounds of wood burning nearby. Panic gripped her then and she began shoving at the door. It opened a fraction of an inch before refusing to budge any farther.
“No! No! Oh God, no.”
Jen threw her body against the door repeatedly. It did no good and the sound of the fire increased, as the first wisps of smoke drifted into the powder room through the gap.
“Oh God, I’m going to die,” Jen moaned. An instant later, hope arrived, as she heard the sound of a car horn blowing from outside.
Caleb was staring at the house with trepidation lighting his eyes. The front of the home was ablaze along with a portion of the roof. Tanner drove around the structure while blowing the horn and ended up at the rear door, which sat off the kitchen.
The fire hadn’t reached the area yet, leaving a way into the home. Despite that, the flames on the roof had encircled the structure fast. Dead leaves overflowing from neglected rain gutters had fed the fire while helping to spread it. Because of that, the home would soon be engulfed.
Caleb shouted Jen’s name after he kicked in the back door. “Dr. Mao!” He laughed when he heard her shout back.
“I’m in here!”
Tanner had joined Caleb, and had his gun drawn, just in case. They saw Stepp’s body lying on the sofa. Flames had made their way inside the home and Stepp’s pants were ablaze.
Caleb and Tanner made quick work of getting the furniture out of the way and Jen left the powder room and fell into Caleb’s arms.
Jen heard the sound of the furniture being shoved away and then two men appeared in the doorway. One of them was ten years older than she was and looked intense. The other man was about her age, had brilliant green eyes, and he smiled at Jen with relief visible on his handsome face. Before she knew what she was doing, Jen found herself in the younger man’s arms as she hugged him in gratitude.
“Thank you, oh thank you.”
The other man spoke to his friend. “Hurry, Stark! The roof is about to give way.”
Jen felt Stark ease away from her embrace, only to clasp her hand in his as he turned to head out of the room. Jen looked over at the sofa and saw that flames were devouring Stepp, who had obviously died.
She coughed as the smoke grew thicker, then only seconds later realized she could no longer see more than a few inches in front of her. As she covered her mouth and held her breath, Jen hoped that Stark knew where he was headed. The home was filled with smoke and they would die from inhaling it if they didn’t get out soon; that is, if the flames didn’t reach them first.
Tanner brought up the rear as Caleb led the way toward the back door. He was coughing as the smoke inside the house grew thicker. One moment they had visibility and the next it was gone. If not for the faint glowing rectangle of the open doorway, Caleb might have strayed into a wall.
They were nearly outside when a section of the roof collapsed. Caleb pulled Jen closer to shield her. A piece of burning timber had pierced the ceiling above them and sent plaster raining down; it also jammed itself against Caleb’s left arm. The searing pain of the flames made him cry out, but he kept moving and soon they were outside and headed toward their vehicle.
“Let me look at that,” Jen said, as she studied Caleb’s injury. He had sustained a burn on his triceps. It would have been worse had he not been wearing a long-sleeve shirt.
Tanner removed a well-stocked first-aid kit from a duffel bag and handed it to Jen, before getting in the driver’s seat. All three of them were coughing an
d gasping for air as he drove the vehicle toward the trees, which had also caught fire.
“We could have taken the road,” Jen said, once they were free of the smoke.
Tanner knew that was true. He also assumed that the road would soon be cluttered with emergency responders, including the police.
“We’ll drop you off where you can get help, Doctor, but we won’t be sticking around,” Caleb said.
“Why not?”
“Let’s just say that the police would ask us questions we’d rather not answer.”
Twelve minutes later, Tanner parked down the street from the local hospital. He would have gotten closer if he didn’t want to risk being captured on a camera.
Jen climbed out of the vehicle, then stared in at them.
“I don’t know why you’re avoiding the police, but I won’t tell them anything about you.”
Caleb grinned at her as he placed his fedora on his head. “Thanks, Doc.”
Jen smiled back at him and pointed at his arm, where she had applied ointment and a bandage.
“You should have that looked at by a doctor later.”
“I already had a doctor look at it, you.”
Jen and Caleb continued to stare at each other, then Jen leaned in and kissed him on the lips. As the kiss ended, Jen gave his hand a squeeze. “You’re my hero, Stark.”
As Jen walked toward the entrance to the emergency room, Tanner made an observation.
“I helped to save her too.”
“I know that.”
“So why did she only kiss you?”
“What do you care? You’re getting married.”
Tanner smiled, made a U-turn, and headed away from the hospital.
29
Laugh Or Cry
Tanner’s decision to leave the burning house by avoiding the road was wise. Not only were there several police vehicles on Borough Lane but FBI agent Amanda Eriksen had been hovering over it in a helicopter.
Eriksen had arrived in the area moments earlier. After a quick look down at the scene where Wicks had killed Maddie Ramsey, Eriksen instructed the pilot to check out the fire that was sending smoke into the air.
Tanner had driven among the trees only a short time before Eriksen circled above the house, and the branches provided cover for his exit.
“That’s a total loss down there,” Greene said. “I hope to God the doctor isn’t in that house.”
As a fire engine turned onto the property from Borough Lane, Eriksen asked the pilot to take them back to where Wicks had stolen the Jeep. The town’s chief of police was there waiting for their arrival.
At the scene, Maddie Ramsey’s body was leaving inside an ambulance as her grandnephew stood by with several of his officers. In the twenty-one years Abel Ramsey had been on the force, not one murder had taken place in the town. Now, in the space of one morning, a man had been shot and seriously injured while his Aunt Maddie had been strangled to death. Meanwhile, the animal who committed the atrocities was still on the loose and had a hostage. It made the chief sick to think about it, and he found it unbelievable that Wicks had not only once been a cop, but a chief of police such as himself.
What damn demons are riding that man? Ramsey thought.
The sound of the helicopter returning made everyone lift their eyes. The Feds were coming back from having checked out the house fire. That blaze was likely something else that could be laid at the feet of the home invasion team the FBI was hunting.
Among those present was a flatbed tow truck driver named Morris Loomis. He was there to tow Maddie’s Cadillac and the red pickup truck to the police impound lot, where they would be checked for evidence.
Loomis was a smoker, and as he looked up at the helicopter that was almost directly overhead, he flicked away the stub of his cigarette. The hot butt fell into the back of the pickup truck where Wicks had set the box of unstable dynamite. Tossing that cigarette away was to be the last act of Morris Loomis’s life.
The helicopter pilot was circling around before landing when the explosion occurred on the ground. Eighteen sticks of dynamite combined with thirty-one gallons of gasoline in the pickup truck’s tank.
The blast wave was massive and sent the helicopter careening sideways, as if it were about to fly upside down while performing an aerobatic roll. Unfortunately for those aboard the chopper, it wasn’t designed to fly upside down.
Both Eriksen and Greene screamed as the pilot lost control. To his credit, the man saved himself and his passengers’ lives by maneuvering the craft right-side up a second before it crashed landed. The impact was brutal but not the catastrophe it would have been had they hit the ground in an inverted position.
Eriksen never felt the two fingers on her left hand break and wouldn’t be aware of her injuries until she was later assessed by a paramedic. Her focus was on the broken rib protruding from Greene’s side.
“Oh no, Larry.”
Greene was unaware of his condition. His broken ribs weren’t his only injury. He had also sustained head trauma and was bleeding from his scalp. A look at the pilot revealed that he was conscious, while his left arm was canted at an unusual angle from his shoulder. Meanwhile, gray smoke was drifting from the cockpit controls.
On the nearby road, the bodies of Chief Ramsey and the eight men and women who had been with him burned along with the vehicles.
“Pilot! We have to get out of here. Help me with my partner.”
“What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know, an explosion of some sort.”
Eriksen and the injured pilot struggled to remove Greene from the wreckage only minutes before the interior of the helicopter was in flames. Greene’s injury looked nasty, but the broken ribs hadn’t pierced any organs and his breathing and heart rate were both strong and steady.
Eriksen looked around, it seemed to her as if everything in the world had decided to burn. First the house, then the vehicles and victims at the scene, followed by the chopper.
She sat in a field watching the smoke billow into the sky as the pilot called it in. When he was off the phone, Eriksen asked the man a question.
“What was the name of this town again?”
“Tranquility, Tranquility, Texas.”
“Are you serious?”
The pilot nodded. “Believe it or not.”
Eriksen broke out in manic laughter. It was either that or cry.
Caleb pointed up at the sky as he and Tanner stood in the parking lot of a motel in an adjacent town. A second plume of smoke was darkening the sky, as a black cloud formed west of the house that was on fire.
“What the hell happened now?”
Tanner shook his head. “Whatever that was can’t be good.”
Caleb began walking toward the entrance to the motel office, then noticed that Tanner stayed behind.
“You’re not coming in?”
“I’ll park our vehicle across the street at that strip mall and walk back while you get us rooms.”
“Why leave it across the street?”
“Just in case the cops are searching for our ride.”
“Jen said she wouldn’t tell anyone about us.”
Tanner smiled. “Jen? Not Dr. Mao?”
“You’re just jealous because she didn’t kiss you.”
“I don’t think she’ll talk, but I don’t count on it either.”
Caleb sent his brother a sharp nod of agreement and headed into the motel office. They both stank of smoke and needed to get clean and change into fresh clothes. As he drove across the highway, Tanner thought about Wicks and the others. He still believed they would seek to score some cash before going into hiding. If he was right, he and Caleb would have another chance at tracking them down.
The home invaders were a dozen miles away, where they were sitting in the parking lot of a shopping center.
“The Cubano Forty-niners?” Hendricks said. “You think the three of us can take on that gang?”
“Not the whole damn gang, just
one of their money drops. If we go in hard and fast, we can take them by surprise,” Wicks said.
Hendricks was sitting on the Jeep’s fold-down rear seat with their belongings scattered about him. His eyes still looked droopy. Taylor was slumped in the passenger seat and yawning. The drug Jen had slipped into their beer was seeking to drag him back under. They had gone through the drive-thru of a donut shop and bought strong coffee. The one who needed the caffeinated brew most was Wicks, who declined to get any.
Taylor turned his head as he spoke to Hendricks.
“I have to go with Roy on this one, Stephen. We need money, man, enough to last us for months, otherwise, we won’t make it a week out here with everyone looking for us.”
Hendricks smothered a yawn before saying, “Money or not, it will be hard to hide.”
“Darren had the right idea,” Wicks said. “We get a boat and live on it. If we take it far enough, we’ll never be caught.”
Taylor grinned. “I always wanted to see South America.”
“We could do it. Buy a boat, pay for some primo fake I.D.’s and start over somewhere,” Wicks told them, “but it will take a lot of cash.”
“They’ve got the cash, but the Cubano Forty-niners are no damn joke,” Hendricks said. “Even if we took them by surprise somehow there’s a chance one of us could wind up like Darren.”
“I’d rather be dead than rot in prison,” Wicks said.
Taylor bobbed his head in agreement. “I can’t argue with that.”
Hendricks released a deep sigh. “I guess I’m screwed either way, so I’ll take a chance on getting the money; the question is, how?”
A Man Of Respect Page 14