The Premise

by Andy Crossfield

  Chapter 26 The More Things Change…

  The Private Cab knifed though Chicago’s first snowfall of the season with ease. It had been a long night. Jack no longer trusted rental cars to keep them safe, and this was a perfect way to move about the city without detection. Besides, they were freed from the obligation of making small talk with a driver on the hands-down worst day of their lives. Colleen hadn’t stopped crying since they left the police station.

  After ten hours of questioning, the trio had been instructed to remain in Chicago pending the investigation. Ramy was still being held at police headquarters as the Bomb and Arson unit tried to unravel the complex series of events that had led to Tom’s grisly death. Jack couldn’t be sure what the police believed at this point, only that he told them as much as he knew for sure, and even some of what he only suspected. The list of casualties was piling up and Jack was no closer to figuring out why.

  It was Jack that alerted the police to check Ramy’s car for another bomb. He thought sure that would clear him when indeed, they discovered an explosive device of the same type that had killed his lifelong friend. But the police continued to hold Ramy– reasoning that he could have installed the bomb to throw suspicion away from himself. Evidently, the police would have been more inclined to rule Ramy out as a suspect if he had actually been blown up. Jack chuckled to himself at the lengths one needed to go to be ruled out as a suspect by Chicago PD.

  Worse yet, Jack’s hunch about the bomb now had the police postulating Jack could somehow be working with Ramy. Just how or why they were working together, the detective did not know. So with no evidence to hold them, they let Jack, Colleen, and Kyle go, but without the police protection Jack wanted.

  Kyle and Jack told their questioners about the hit issued in Vegas on Kyle and Ramy and even about their own brushes with kidnapping and death, but neither could offer any explanation as to how the bomb could be planted while Tom sat waiting in the car. It was soon after this line of questioning that one of the detectives recognized Jack Colder’s name, and started speculating about this whole story being somehow related to book research. Jack couldn’t believe the detective would think Jack could kill anyone in an effort to flesh out a plot, but Jack had seen repeatedly how fast the public persona tarnishes when a celebrity runs afoul of the law.

  "That bomb was meant for all of us Jack!" Colleen sobbed as she stared out the limo window, bringing Jack back to reality. "We could have walked to the car and that would have been the end of us! For Christ’s sake, if I knew what they wanted, I’d give it to them!" Colleen said, then she stopped, searching for words expressive of the anger she felt growing in her again. She repeatedly pounded her fist into the seat back, like a boxer hitting a bag. Colleen struck out again and again at the seat and at their unseen enemy.

  Since the explosion, she found it impossible to form a coherent thought. Her mind had turned on her, conjuring images that darted from one frightening conclusion to the next without her ability to control them. Colleen had never been one to succumb to fear, but suddenly her mind seized on the full horror of the day before. The danger posed by an unknown assailant descended upon her, and without warning she wanted to run, to escape whatever was intent on killing her and whoever was with her. Subconsciously, she grabbed the door handle and lunged against the door in a desperate attempt to exit the vehicle. The door did not budge, allowing Jack to catch her by the shoulder and pull her back into the seat beside him.

  "I’m scared too, Colleen" Jack whispered, trying to calm her. "But we can’t drop our guard. We have to be strong now. We have to start playing offense. Do you understand?"

  Colleen didn’t have any idea what he meant, but his voice was reassuring, and it sounded like he was formulating a plan. She needed a plan… something to hold on to that had a chance of success.

  Once Colleen settled down, the cab was again quiet and Jack’s mind started racing. He was feeling numb and filled with rage at the same time. His mind replayed the phone call he made to Tom’s wife. Jack still wasn’t sure if he had helped or hurt. He had tried desperately to think of a more comforting way to break the news, but in the end he just had to blurt it out and cry with her. He was getting so very tired of feeling helpless. He knew Delores needed to hear such terrible news from a friend, even if that friend was a suspect in Tom’s death.

  Kyle sat quietly in the seat across from Jack and Colleen, hoping his stillness would also quiet his thoughts. But he couldn’t stop rethinking the events of Mark’s death. The frightful memory was reborn by the powerful explosion that had just taken one of their own. He could still smell the smoke, still hear the pops of the fire, as vividly as if it were yesterday.

  "Yesterday." Kyle said half under his breath.

  The word rolled off his lips and into the consciousness of the cab. Jack and Colleen looked at Kyle with a knowing understanding. Such a simple word. A single word that conjured so many meanings. One word shouldn’t have such weight and power, Jack thought as he sat frozen by the permanence and irreversibility of time’s march. One word should not be able to be so close and at the same time so out of reach…

  With that thought Jack shuddered, then forced himself to cast off the debilitating spiral of their situation. He reached over and shook Kyle from his fog, and then asked in as much of an upbeat, positive voice as he could muster, "Kyle, who can you trust at Crimson Desert?"

  Kyle continued to sit motionless. Jack waited for an answer but couldn’t tell if Kyle was ignoring him or if he was running through a list of names and reevaluating them.

  "Do you still think Bill Cooley is on our side?" Jack prompted.

  Kyle turned, and looked at Jack with reddened eyes.

  "If he isn’t, I don’t have a friend in the world." Kyle said. Tears began to slowly well again in his eyes as that truth sunk in. He had always prided himself on being a loner; self sufficient, dependent on no one… and yet, when it came down to it, that wasn’t what he really wanted at all. Kyle filled with sadness at the thought of how his life had turned out. Being faced with the near ending of his life presented him a glimpse of its entirety. He wasn’t ready for this, he thought. He recoiled from the prospect that this was all he got, all he’d done, all that mattered.

  Colleen took one look at Kyle’s face and started crying again. She slid in next to him and put her head on his shoulder, crying, silently reassuring him that she and Jack would think of something.

  Kyle stiffened, not wanting Colleen to see him cry, but Colleen misinterpreted his action as a snub to her attempt to comfort him and moved again to the seat next to Jack.

  "Why do you ask?" Kyle said, answering Jack’s and trying to compose himself.

  "We need information we can rely on. It’s obvious the police will only react, and we need to do much more than that or we’ll end up like…" Jack stopped before completing his thought but Colleen and Kyle each knew where he was heading. "Do you think the warden could help with that?" Jack asked.

  Kyle sighed and sat up straight, forcing himself to concentrate on his answer. "Bill’s hard, but he’s fair. I’ve never known him to lie to me, if that’s what you mean…"

  Jack pulled out his burner phone, "Okay, we have to risk it." He said as he handed the phone to Kyle. "Call him. Just start out by saying you’re checking in, but don’t tell him where we are."

  Kyle's mood seemed to brighten as soon as Bill answered.

  "Hi Bill, its Kyle," he said, clearing his throat. "Is now a good time to talk?"

  "Kyle? I’ve been trying to reach you for two days! Where are you?"

  "I can’t say Bill. I shouldn’t even be calling you now, but I wanted to check in. Bill, Hank’s contract is real. Somebody just killed a friend of ours, blew him up in broad daylight. They could have killed us all! God Bill, somebody has to stop him!"

  "Somebody did son. Hank’s dead. Died night before last in the hospital. They’re waiting for cause of death now. It would have been ruled a routine heart attack, but the guard
assigned to his room was found dead too. Real suspicious, so I hear."

  "Say what?" Kyle’s voice cracked with emotion as he processed the news.

  "I think you need to go underground until this whole thing is figured out, son. Wherever you are isn’t safe… but I guess you’ve figured that out by now. The sheriff is investigating the murders Hank is accused of, but now that his chief suspect is dead… well, there's not a lot to go on around here."

  Jack gave Kyle a quizzical look and Kyle held his hand over the phone while he filled him in.

  Jack reached for the phone.

  "Warden Cooley? Jack Colder here. I don’t mind saying we’re a bit shaken by all this. I was wondering if you could do us a favor,"

  "I guess it depends on what it is," said Bill.

  "We need to figure out who just tried to kill us, and our only lead at this point is Big T. Do you think you can get him to talk?"

  "Probably not, I’m not sure he even knows anything… he’s in prison, remember? Besides, I’ve already sweated him. Finding out Hank was dead brought him to Jesus. He realized his cushy lifestyle was over. Hell, all the stuff he’s done to other inmates in here, he probably realized his life was over. He would have taken that opportunity to offer up information on the hit if he knew anything."

  "Well somebody hired this guy… maybe if you let him communicate with the outside, he could put the word out Hank is dead, and maybe word would get around that they wouldn’t get paid."

  Colleen’s phone started ringing and Jack tried to end his call and listen to her at the same time.

  "I’ll try him again, but asking him outright is just like asking him to make shit up… you understand? Bill said.

  "Yes, Warden, I understand," Jack said gloomily.

  "Say, I almost forgot." Bill said. "There is another lead you may want to check out. Hank was plotting with some guy named William Downs. He sounded like the guy calling the shots too. We found a phone recording talking about the murders in the desert. Sounded like Hank was involved all right, but this Downs guy was not pleased at how it went down at all."

  Jack gave up trying to listen in on Colleen’s call. "Really? Any idea where we find this William Downs?" said Jack in a voice growing more excited.

  "That’s just it, there’s only about 27 million results in Google. We don’t have a number for him either, all call histories were purged by Hank.

  "There are several recorded calls to this guy however, and one Brenda found that was made about six months ago mentions the 'Rebuild America' program. Big push around here to participate in that one I remember. Its funny Brenda doesn’t know this guy."

  "Rebuild America?" Jack asked.

  "Yeah, ReformCo is trying to supply the labor to build out all the crumbling infrastructure around the country. Has to be done on the cheap. The country’s broke, remember? The program is worth billions, but even hitting breakeven is tough, even using inmate labor… we were performing manpower and time and motion studies for a while, but I’m not sure anything came of it."

  "Okay. Anything else?" Jack asked.

  "No, but I’ll let you know if there is. Stay safe, and take care of my buddy Kyle, will you?"

  "Okay we will, thanks for the information, Warden."

  Colleen was studying the Private Cab instrument screen when Jack ended his call.

  "What’s up?" Jack asked as Colleen started typing on the screen.

  "There’s a change of plan… we need to make another stop on the way back to your place."

  "Oh?" Jack asked.

  "I got a call from Sam, he’s staying at my apartment. He said two men were casing my house! He took off and gave them the slip, but he’s scared. One of them had a gun! I told him we’d pick him up at the grocery three blocks away, but now I can’t figure out how to override this damn car!"

  "Recalculate trip, change immediate destination" Jack said in a loud voice. The car responded with a pinging tone and in a soothing female voice, said, "Please state address of interim destination"

  Colleen held out her phone’s map and Jack read off the new address. When the car responded by changing lanes to exit the freeway, Colleen gave a sigh of relief.

  "He sounded scared. He’s been through a lot. I don’t think he knows who to trust." Colleen said as she stared out the window at the snow beginning to fall harder.

  Jack waited for Colleen to react to the news that her apartment was being watched, but she seemed oblivious to the fact that she would now be unable to return to her home for some time.

  He put his arm around her and squeezed, then took a deep breath, and said, "Colleen, I’m not sure how to tell you this, but if someone is watching your house, they’ll be at your lab too."

  Colleen turned toward Jack with a frightened look.

  "Karen" they both said in unison.

  "I think we should go get Karen and bring her with us too… will she be at work?"

  "I’ll see." Colleen said as she dialed her phone anxiously. Karen answered and was relieved to hear they were coming for her.

  "Want some good news?" Jack said in a soft voice when her call ended.

  She looked into his eyes and for the first time in days, he saw her eyes dance.

  She hesitated a moment, searching his face for clues… calculating whether or not he really did have good news or it was some trick to cheer her up.

  "You’ve been holding out on me?" she said smiling.

  Jack nodded. "Bill Cooley gave me a lead on the guy giving orders to Hank!"

  Colleen’s eyes darkened and her brow tightened. "You mean there’s another level to this mayhem? I was hoping this would end with Hank!"

  Jack could see her anxiety level was rising again and he wanted to change the subject but didn’t think bringing up her home situation was any more comforting than his "good news" had been, so he just shrugged and held her hand. "It’ll be good to see Sam again" he said weakly, then turned and looked out the window at the snowfall.

  When they arrived at the grocery the snow was coming down fiercely. They had difficulty finding Sam, who had taken cover inside a Laundromat next to the food store. When he got in the car, Colleen made the introductions to Kyle.

  "This is one of my favorite patients!" Colleen said beaming as she hugged him so tight he pulled away.

  "Nice to meet you, Sam, I’m Kyle."

  "Hi Sam, we’ve already met back at the lab, I’m Jack. Did you get a good look at the guys at Colleen’s apartment?"

  Colleen gave Jack a harsh glance then tried to comfort Sam. "Let’s not talk about that right now, okay? Sam, have you had anything to eat? We’re starving!"

  Sam shook his head meekly as Jack voiced instructions to the car to drive to the lab. It wasn’t until that moment that Sam noticed there wasn’t a driver, and instantly became fascinated with every aspect of the car.

  "No way!" Sam exclaimed coming to life. "A remote control car? Way cool!"

  As the Private Cab navigated Chicago’s congested street traffic, Sam became completely engrossed. The poor visibility caused by the growing snowstorm didn’t seem to have any effect at all on the cars’ ability to interact with the other cars around them.

  When they arrived at the lab, Colleen said, "It might take a while to pull the records together. How about showing Sam how to park?"

  Jack guided Sam in how to pull up the screen labeled Free Parking and hit 'search'. Soon, the screen displayed a map of their surroundings with highlighted areas nearby that allowed Private Cabs to park for free.

  "This is one of the best features of the Private Cab!" said Jack. "It drops you off at your destination, then goes to a free parking site to recharge while it waits for you!"

  Sam stood on the sidewalk in amazement as he watched the car pull off without occupants into the raging storm and disappear around a corner.

  Karen was waiting for them at the elevator and let them in the newly installed security door. Sam ordered pizza while Jack and Colleen looked over the data Karen had been abl
e to compile. By late afternoon, they had pulled together enough research to begin reconstruction and were back in the cab headed for Jack’s condo. Sam proudly showed Karen all the features of the Private Cab on the way.

  As they approached Jack’s building, the cab started to slow, then made an announcement:

  "Arrival at destination in ten seconds."

  The black limo pulled to the curb in front of The Parkston, an upscale high-rise apartment building complete with a doorman, who rushed out into the snow to open their door. Jack lowered the window and waved him off. "The weather is so bad, we’ll go on and park it, Conner" Jack said to the uniformed attendant. "Sorry to get you out in this for nothing!"

  Jack pulled a card from his pocket and voiced the garage address and the car responded, pulling into traffic once a space opened. The car circled the block, and then turned down a wide alley. The Private Cab pulled up to the garage entrance and Jack keyed the code into an app on his phone, which opened the door.