by R. B. Schow
They jumped the fence into a backyard full of potted plants, rose bushes, and a small herb garden. They made their way around the side yard, went out to the street, and turned right. They walked past the suspicious ladies Yergha had seen when he was coming in. To them, he had to look like a bloody nightmare. He nodded politely all the same. They nodded back looking at the mess known as Estella Baccarin, a.k.a. the woman of his dreams, a.k.a. hellhound on the heel/toe express back to the Easter egg on wheels.
They climbed into the Spark, Esty sitting in broken glass, and then they took off. When they were far enough away, Esty started to laugh. Yergha looked over at her, worried. She was laughing, though—full belly laughs—and then the laughter turned to a sob and she completely broke down in tears.
He didn’t know what to say so he let her go through it. Fortunately, by the time she’d regained her composure, they had found a way out of the neighborhood and hopefully to safety.
A few miles down the road, Yergha pulled into a large parking lot at some grocery store, found a place to park, then took a breath and tried to unwind. After that, he checked Google Maps on his phone while Esty brushed bits of safety glass off the seat. She then examined her face in the mirror, letting out an emotionally pained groan.
“Okay, I think I have a place we can stay,” Yergha announced.
“You mean a home base?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“It can’t be anything nice.”
“It’s a two-star hotel with outdoor access, crappy WiFi, and rundown everything.”
“How much?” she asked.
“Thirty bucks.”
“Perfect.”
Before heading for the Hotel Montecarlo on Av. Paseo Triunfo de la República, Yergha reached out to Leopold through a texting service Codrin had recommended. It had end-to-end encryption but Yergha didn’t trust much of anything, so he texted Leopold letting him know that he had retrieved the package, that it was bruised badly but not spoiled, and that he was delivering said package to the Hotel Montecarlo in about half an hour.
He hit send then got on the road. Looking at her, he said, “The coffee there is supposed to be good, but I’m hearing the room service is questionable.”
“I just want a shower and a comfortable bed.”
“Apparently some of the bathroom doors don’t really have functioning locks.”
“Just don’t come in while I’m showering,” she said, her emotions settled for the moment.
“This is the only time I won’t try. It’s going to hurt my soul to hear you in there alone but I will do as you ask this one time.”
She reached out and rested her hand on his arm. Then she turned, looked at him, and said, “Thank you for saving me.”
He gave her a warm nod. “You did the same for me last time.”
“You were in much worse shape.”
“So you’re saying I still owe you one?” he asked with a grin.
Smiling, she said, “Maybe one and a half.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
SCOTTY CHASE
Leopold’s text came in early that morning with a snapshot of the transfer of the twenty-five thousand dollars. He made himself a cup of black coffee, went out to the front porch, took in the start of the day. Taking a breath of morning air, looking out over the desert landscape, he realized that unless things changed, he might not be living there anymore. Without further delay, he decided it was time to slay the day. The first call he made was to a buddy at Phoenix Towing Service. The BMW desperately needed a tow from Rum Runner.
“Some guys gang-raped the beamer,” Scotty admitted. “Really did a number on it.”
“What do you mean?” his friend asked.
“They cut a bunch of wires and beat this thing like it was a bad ex-girlfriend. You know those types of guys—kill first, ask questions later. What they killed was my car and then they had this funny way of asking questions with their fists.”
“You aren’t putting me in the middle of it are you?” he asked.
“No, man. I wouldn’t do that. That’s why I didn’t call for a tow earlier this morning. I wanted to give those goat humpers a chance to regain consciousness and leave.”
His friend gave a hearty laugh. “You still living in the same place?”
“Until Carly says I’m not, which will probably be when she sees the car,” Scotty said. She was still asleep in the bedroom, but she was a late sleeper and it was still early.
“I’ll get it done,” he said. “Do you want me to use the credit card on file?”
“Yeah, that should be fine. Thanks, brother.”
“Anytime, Scotty. Be safe.”
“Being safe is for pansies.” Scotty said this as his neighbor jogged by in the most incredible pair of yoga pants. He waved at her, she waved back, and then he said, “Living dangerously is for guys with balls.”
“Tell that to your car,” his friend said.
“You tell it,” Scotty replied, “you’re going to see it first.”
He threw on some clothes and tried to kiss his wife goodbye. She pushed his face away and rolled over, so he just refilled his coffee then called an Uber to take him to the bank. The teller was a rotund woman with the prettiest face ever and the kind of pleasant attitude that always seemed to lift his spirits.
“Good morning, Lexi,” he said. “I need to check my balance.” She gave him the balance in his business account, which was less than he thought but enough for what he was planning. “I need to get a cashier’s check for four thousand made payable to Jackson Burke. And I need two hundred in cash if that’s possible.”
“Of course it is, Mr. Chase,” she said with a warm smile. “For you, everything is possible.”
This left him with a few hundred in the account until Leopold’s transfer came through. He’d need other available funds, though…just in case.
“I’ll need to check the available balance on my credit card as well,” he said, handing Lexi his credit card.
She handed him the cashier’s check after it was signed, counted out two hundred in twenties for him, and then she checked the card’s balance. “Two-thousand-nine-hundred-and-twenty-two dollars and some change,” she said, handing him back his card.
Realizing it would be sufficient he smiled, collected the cash then left Lexi with his warmest smile, a smile that had no chance of matching hers.
Outside the bank, he sat on a sidewalk bench and called Jackson Burke. He took a deep breath as the line rang through to Jackson. This was the conversation he dreaded having for weeks now. Things had changed, though, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. After all, the guy did give him a ride home last night.
“I sure hope you’re calling to tell me you have my money,” Jackson said in a tone so shitty it practically stunk up the phone.
“As a matter of fact, I am,” Scotty said. He scratched his face where too much scruff was coming in. “I’ve got your four grand in a cashier’s check with your name on it and an opportunity for a lot more if you’re up for it.”
“With you?” he asked. “I don’t think so. I just want what you owe me.”
Shaking his head, Scotty said, “Look man, I know I’ve been a touch dodgy on the callbacks, and you did me a solid earlier this morning, so why don’t you let me make it good. It’s time to pick up where we left off. Besides, my account is thriving once more.”
“As of when?” he asked.
“This morning.”
“If you say you want me for any job other than the Alabama Hargrove job, you can pretty much suck your own ass dry for all I care.”
“It’s Alabama Hargrove,” Scotty said with a smile. “Leopold wired the money to the business account. Not to mention, we now have a performance bonus in place.”
“Performance bonus?” Jackson asked, intrigued.
He told Jackson they were on the clock but that the clock could stop at any minute. Scotty knew Atlas Hargrove was working as part of Leopold’s crew and that there was some kind of
a deal between them but he’d only loosely told Jackson of their arrangement. He was trying not to give too much away after having made Jackson wait a few months for payment. He was also hoping to get Jackson back on the job now that he’d emptied out the rest of his account. It was a little sketchy for sure, and it cast a black cloud over his reputation, but it was a necessary evil. And, as with everything else that went to hell in a hand basket, he felt just fine blaming it all on COVID.
“If we find Alabama by the time Leopold’s crew ties off their op, Leopold has offered us a bonus.”
“How much?”
“It’s substantial, Jackson.”
“How much?” he asked again.
“One hundred large.”
“What’s the split?” Jackson asked.
“We’ll both be on the job, so we’ll split it fifty/fifty.”
He could almost hear the gears in Jackson’s mind at work. Scotty had a background in law enforcement, but Jackson had a military background. The man had killed people in Afghanistan and didn’t have a problem with it. Scotty had a big problem with it. He said he had the stomach, but truthfully, he didn’t want the nightmares. To this, Jackson said, “You get used to them. Sort of.” Well, he didn’t want to get used to them, so he made sure he always had Jackson around for the messy stuff. Also, it was the only partnership that had ever worked and he valued it immensely. He couldn’t say that right now because Jackson wouldn’t believe him, but that was the God’s-honest truth.
“If you promise not to screw me over again,” Jackson said, “and if you give me your word that you’ll pay me what you’ve promised and on time, then I have something for you, a bit of good news.”
“Oh, for sure, man,” he said, thinking of how those idiots destroyed his car, how the cops might want to talk to him, and how Carly was treating him when she was the one having relations outside of their marriage. “I could definitely use some good news.”
“Those hippies we saw in the photos with Alabama?”
“Yeah?”
“I had a friend of mine really clean up the resolution. She used an AI pixilation program to basically fill in the blanks still left in the photo we managed to get.”
“That’s awesome,” he said. “What a great start.”
“There’s more,” he said.
“Really?”
“That job we did a few years back,” Jackson said, “the kidnapping in Scottsdale with the Marty’s—”
“I remember,” Scotty said while crossing his legs at the ankle and watching traffic go by.
“Well the Fed that was a bit lazy on the case; it turns out he’s into some extrajudicial shenanigans. I realized it then so I’ve been watching him online.”
“What?” he asked, quickly sitting upright on the bench.
“The dude’s not on the level,” Jackson said.
“How so?”
“It’s really bad,” Jackson replied. “Anyway, I have screen grabs of some of the things he’s been looking at but also conversations he’s had with some interesting people online, the kind of conversations you don’t want anyone knowing about, ever.”
“So…”
“I’m getting there. Now that I’ve got the resolution in Alabama’s hippies’ faces all cleaned up, I’m going to squeeze this sack of shit until he bursts. He doesn’t know it yet, but after I get off the phone with you, he’s going to run the photo through their database. And the best part?”
“It gets better?” Scotty asked with a hopeful laugh.
“He’s going to do it all for free,” Jackson said. “All I need for him to get started is for you to send me a picture of my cash.”
“I told you I got you a cashier’s check.”
“Even better.”
When they hung up, Scotty took a picture of the check and sent it to Jackson, suddenly feeling a lot better about the day. Then a thought occurred to him, one that had him dialing Jackson back as quickly as he could.
“Yeah?” Jackson asked.
“When you squeeze this guy, see if you can get a package deal. Last known address, cell phones, drivers’ licenses, cars, the whole shebang.”
“Now that I’ve seen the check,” Jackson said, “I have another confession.”
This should be interesting, he thought. What kind of bomb is he about to drop? “Is it a confession I’m going to like?”
“Hell, yes you’re going to like it,” Jackson laughed. “I wasn’t sure if I could trust you.”
“That’s fair, I suppose. It sucks, but I guess that’s fair.”
“I already squeezed my guy. I’ve been working on Alabama’s case from my house as best as I can. But like you, I ran too low on funds to continue.”
“Man, haven’t we become a sad couple of clichés?”
“Just you,” Jackson said.
Scotty ignored the dig. “So, what did you find?”
“I have names, an address, a phone number—but it’s been disconnected—and plates on a crappy little Hyundai I haven’t been able to verify.”
“Where are they?”
“Baltimore, Maryland.”
Scotty’s wheels were really turning now. They had a lead. Leads! “I’ve got a buddy in Ellicott City, Maryland. He’s the Sheriff there. Let me see if I can have him run the plate, maybe see what he can dig up.”
“Will he do that for you?” Jackson asked.
“If my bad reputation hasn’t spread that far, then yes. We went to the academy together, so I like to think that maybe that helps.”
“Use every advantage you have,” Jackson said.
“Yeah, no kidding.”
“I’m texting you the details now.”
“I’ll call you and let you know what I find.”
“All right,” Jackson said. “I want that check the second we meet.”
“For sure,” he said before hanging up.
A rather unattractive woman slow-walked past him, her clothes a little too tight and a little too short, a provocative question looming in her eyes. Scotty looked away, uninterested. He hadn’t realized that prostitution was so out in the open these days. Of course, if asked, she would likely say the same thing he would: COVID drove her to it.
He ignored her as he dialed his friend in Ellicot City. “Howard County PD,” the woman answered.
“I need to speak to Sheriff Davis if he’s available.”
“Who’s calling, please?”
“Scotty Chase.”
“Hold one moment,” she said.
“Scotty, is that really you?” Colton Davis asked the minute he picked up the phone.
“It is,” Scotty replied with a grin. “Can I call you back in a second? I seem to have a bad connection.” He didn’t have a bad connection; he just needed a more private line.
“Yeah,” Davis said, “no problem.”
Scotty called his friend’s private number a moment later. The man answered promptly. “It’s one of those calls, isn’t it?”
“Kinda sorta,” Scotty said, nonchalantly. “I’m working a case that might take me out to your neck of the woods.”
“Howard County?”
“Baltimore proper,” Scotty said.
“What are you working on?” he asked.
“Possible kidnapping. I’m on a shoestring budget, so I can’t just catch a flight out there to check on a last known address.”
“How can I help?”
“I need you to see if a cell phone is active for me. The landline was canceled, but the person might have priors, a probation officer, something like that.”
“Text me the name, the number of the terminated landline, and the last known address. I’ll see what I can find.”
“What do I owe you?”
“A beer and a burger next time I see you.”
“That’s a deal,” Scotty said.
“When do you need this by?” Sheriff Davis asked.
“Yesterday.”
“Okay, I’ll call you back.”
Sheri
ff Davis called him just over an hour later. By then Scotty’s ass was fully numb, he’d been propositioned by three streetwalkers, spat on by a couple of punks who drove by, then whistled at by two gay guys which—for some unknown reason—boosted his confidence a little.
“I have one active cell,” Davis said. “It’s registered in Keegan White’s name, but his wife, Gabrielle White, is a ghost. Neither have priors, but Gabrielle was a witness to the murder of a hooker in Baltimore. She might be hooking now, which could be why she ghosted out.”
“Is the address the same?”
“As far as I can tell, so long as they didn’t just move, then yes. It’s the same one you gave me. The one in Queens.”
“I’m gonna make sure you get Applewood bacon and two fat patties on the burger, plus a pint of beer to boot,” he said, already dreaming about what he’d do with his share of the one-hundred-thousand dollars.
The man laughed and said, “Always happy to help.”
He phoned Jackson and said, “How do you feel about Baltimore?”
“I’d feel better if you set aside most of what you think you’re going to pay me so you can budget better.”
“Don’t be an asshole,” he said.
“Not being an asshole doesn’t put food on the table, Scotty. I almost didn’t come to pick you up last night.”
“Fine,” he conceded. “I’ll advance you three grand before we leave, that way you’ll at least know you’ve got something.”
“You’re buying the plane tickets,” Jackson said. “I insist.”
“That was already the plan. You’ll need to pick me up though. I’ll text you the address.”
Scotty accessed the internet, messed around for about ten minutes trying to get flight information, and then he almost lost his mind trying to pay. He dropped exactly thirteen f-bombs and nearly threw his phone, but then he breathed a sigh of relief when he got the confirmation number. He called Jackson back and said, “Okay, we have two tickets to Baltimore. But we need to head to the airport ASAP.”
“I’m on my way,” Jackson said. “Just make sure you have my three grand and the check.”
“Sounds good; hurry up already.”
When he hung up, Scotty walked back inside, waited for Lexi then asked her to check his account balance again. “I’m expecting a wire transfer today,” he told her. “The money has already been sent.”
