by Samson Weld
“Let me guess, he went to prison for…”
“Armed robbery and home invasions.”
Her cell started ringing. She stared at the screen a second. Ash was calling her?
“Hello? Bellucci speaking.”
“I found a lead,” he said, sounding breathless. “Three men. Caucasians. In the old Texas Instruments factory on Forest, east of Central Expressway. Hold a second.”
What the hell was he talking about? She glanced at her monitor. Was he looking into her case? Then she remembered Ash had his own problems, which included a home invasion of sorts.
“Does it tie into my case?”
“No. I don’t think so,” he said. “Sorry, I’m driving, heading for Tarpley Family Storage to check for something in my stuff.”
None of it made sense. What did his property in storage have anything to do with home invaders? And what had happened to him? Ash wasn’t easily rattled.
“Talk to me,” she demanded. “What happened, Ash?”
She heard nothing but traffic sounds for a moment.
“It’s complicated. Short answer is, I found a small microchip-computer thingy in my apartment.”
“Right…”
“I figured the people who broke in trailed it inside. Anyway, I traced it back to an abandoned factory on Forest. I went over just to check it out, to see if I was right, and found my attackers inside.”
She practically gasped in surprise. “You did?”
“There may have been a few shots exchanged, so I suspect the police are already on the way. You might want to warn your colleagues heading there that those men are armed to the teeth, including automatic weapons.”
“Holy crap. You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you?”
“I didn’t start this,” he said.
In Bellucci’s mind, she heard, But I’ll end it. She glanced at Boone, who hovered over her looking too curious.
“Okay, I’m dispatching someone. Don’t move.”
“Too late. I have to check something out. It could be the key to everything.”
He hung up. Bellucci stared at her phone, before grabbing her sports coat and heading for the door.
Chapter 17
Tarpley Family Storage sprawled before Ash. Stopping at the gate, he leaned out the window and punched in his access code. He tapped on the steering wheel while waiting on the slow moving gate to slide out of the way.
Ash noticed the 10 MPH sign as he pulled in, heading for the back of the vast, maze-like self-storage facility. To his right were the drive-up storage units. There were two-story environmentally controlled buildings, one stretching from front to back to his left, and the other stretching all the way across the back of the facility. He had two ten by ten units on the ground floor of the back building.
The climate-controlled buildings were huge affairs. Two stories, with two lines of storage units, front and back. There were internal stairs and pass-through corridors to the back units. Ash rented a unit up front.
Since it was a Wednesday, middle of the afternoon, Ash was the only one there. He parked in front of the closest entrance to his unit. He double-checked to ensure no one was around watching him, noting the security cameras, before entering.
The interior was well-lit, with concrete floors and white walls. The unit doors were all painted a dark blue. The smaller units had regular swinging doors, while larger units like his had roll-up bay doors.
His units were just a few down from the door. The combination lock on the first unit looked fine, no signs anyone had tried to cut or break it open. It only took a moment of back and forth spinning of the dial to open it. The bay door allowed plenty of light in. Good thing, because the lightbulb in his unit was burnt out.
Everything looked in order. He’d carefully arranged and stacked the furniture in back, with boxes filling up the front half. It still amazed him that all of their possessions fit so perfectly in two ten by ten units. The other unit held all of the kids’ bedroom furnishings, toys, and clothes, as well as Milly’s clothes.
Opening up the other unit, he looked upon memories. The boys’ stuffed toys sat on top. Their bright colors filled his mind, conjuring up their little faces when they received each. Then he spotted their tricycles, and bicycles.
I can’t believe we saved the trikes.
Actually, he knew it was weird he’d kept any of it. Ash had no intention of ever using any of those things again. There were just too many memories. Every single item summoned up wonderful memories, but they also haunted him.
If I hadn’t insisted on taking that shortcut over Milly’s objections…
He opened up a box, just to see what was inside. Shoes. Milly had an obsession with shoes, especially high heels. As he recalled, her collection filled four large boxes. But, God, she’d loved those shoes, so he did as well. How could he throw them away?
Then he opened up another box and his breath caught. Baseball paraphernalia. Gloves. Bats. Several signed baseballs. All of it belonged to the twins. They’d shared his love of baseball, both playing and watching.
Eyes burning, throat painfully tight, he sifted through the contents. Was it his love of baseball that had gotten them killed? It had happened on the way to a game.
He carefully closed and locked up that unit. It was too much and he had a task to perform. His very life might depend on what he found.
Ash had stacked the boxes against the side walls, leaving a narrow path down the middle. None of the boxes were labeled. He stood there staring, not sure where to begin.
What was I thinking? he thought. It would’ve been so easy to jot down on top what’s in each box.
Hindsight was a bitch.
None of the boxes were taped shut. He’d just quickly folded them closed, so it was easy enough to get a peek inside them. Ash began pulling boxes out, looking inside, and then stacking them out in the corridor. He was halfway through the left side when he found the box containing work stuff.
Most of the contents had been in and atop his office desk. Framed pictures of Milly and the twins. A fancy pen set his parents had given him when he graduated college. Even a pair of wire In and Out trays with folders inside them.
A computer hard drive sat on the bottom of that box.
He’d taken it because they held a lot of personal files and family pictures. His bosses had probably been pretty pissed about that, but all of his work files had been backed up on the company server. They didn’t lose anything more than the drive.
The way he understood the situation, from what he’d been able to gather, this was what the intruders had been looking for.
I wonder what’s on this drive that’s bad enough to kill me over?
He was an insurance adjuster, specializing in commercial property. He handled lots of fires, accidents, the usual, even if some involved substantial insurance money. Still, nothing to warrant murder. As far as he remembered, no one had ever gone to prison due to his reports, so it probably wasn’t about revenge.
Putting the drive into his back pocket, he closed up the box and started searching for his old home computer. He’d need the desktop to access the hard drive. Ash knew enough about computers to connect a second hard drive on a desktop computer. He wasn’t sure how to open up a laptop without breaking it, so bringing the old PC was safer.
The actual desktop computer and monitor were easy to find. He took them out to the car, placing them in the trunk. Then he had to go through another seven boxes before he found the keyboard and mouse.
I should’ve brought a pen and labeled the boxes as I checked them.
There were a few kitchen items he could’ve used. He’d have to come back later to retrieve them, but he didn’t have time at the moment. So he headed out to his car while trying to untangle the keyboard and mouse. Ash already dreaded moving everything back inside.
How do cables ever get tangled just sitting in a box? I’m sure somebody could write a PhD thesis on this. Hell, I’m sure they have already…
Ash tossed the keyboard into the trunk, before fetching the mouse. As he leaned over, hand wrapping around the mouse, a red flashing light in his peripheral vision pulled his eyes to the wheel well.
“What the hell?”
Ash dropped to a knee to get a better look. He found a small black box stuck to the inside. It pulled off, but he had to break it free. A powerful magnet had held it in place. The device fit nicely in the palm of his hand.
Tracking device? Who would want to track… he thought, and then his eyes widened.
A second later, he heard a loud crash out front, followed by squealing tires. “Shit!”
Jumping to his feet, he turned just in time to see the silver Nissan Maxima speeding around the corner. Three men inside. The car came to a screeching stop before him.
Chapter 18
Three men came out of that Nissan sedan, all holding pistols on him. Ash looked them over in the light of day, not liking his chances against such fit and competent looking assailants. It didn’t help that his pistol was holstered.
“Hello, Wexler,” the man that had ridden shotgun said. “My associates and I are quite pleased to finally meet you face to face.”
None of them looked pleased. Indeed, all three wore black trousers and white button down shirts, and hid their eyes behind dark sunglasses. Men in black?
“What the hell do you want?” he asked. “I’ve never seen a UFO and I don’t believe in aliens from space.”
They hesitated, frowning. Ash’s hand dropped to his front right pocket. No key? Then he remembered leaving the key in the ignition. Even better, since that would allow him to start the car quicker. The path he’d have to drive to the front gate came to mind, and from the crash sound and the smashed-in front of their car, he suspected the gate wouldn’t be an obstacle. Hell, their car was so banged up they might not be able to pursue.
“Give us the computer, Wexler.”
Ash glanced at the open trunk. The car faced away from them so they could see the computer. There wasn’t anything on it worth dying over. All of the personal information was over five years old. He doubted they were interested in stealing his identity.
“Why? What is it you want from me? What’s on the computer that’s so important?”
“Doesn’t really matter,” the man said. “You put your computer in storage for years so it’s clearly not important to you. But it’s important to me.”
“Again, why?”
He tried to smile, to reassure Ash, but it betrayed his true intentions in Ash’s mind. They had come to kill him. “Give us the computer and walk away, Wexler. Simple as that. It’s a good deal.”
Ash fought the urge to look at the door, just a few feet away. The question was, duck into the building or try to escape in the car? They were too close, and one of them had a submachine gun. He could never escape in the car since only the engine was thick enough to stop a bullet.
“The trunk’s open. Help yourself.”
The three men looked that way.
Ash saw his chance and hurled the tracking device at the submachine gunman. All three dropped into defensive stances, giving Ash that split second he needed to draw his weapon.
Ash squeezed off three rounds. They scrambled for cover. Ash made sure to shoot out their car’s front tires, but then he ran out of ammo. They opened up on him.
Son of a bitch!
He darted back into the climate-controlled storage building. They couldn’t shoot him if they couldn’t see him.
Gunfire followed him all the way to the door, bullets slamming into the wall all around him. He was inside and racing down the corridor in a flash, reached the pass-through corridor and stairs, and dropped to one knee to listen before they entered the building. The pass-through went to the back, with another corridor and units.
“Guard the door, Eddie. Kurt, you go right, I’ll go left.”
Well, fuck me. They’re not going to take the computer and run. Assholes.
Ash listened for a moment, mind working at a mile a minute. He couldn’t hear anything after they split up so he hurried to the back corridor and slammed open an exit. There was an empty driveway outside the door, and the ten-foot chain-link fence along the property line.
His would-be killers cried out. He heard their running footsteps. He rushed up the closest stairs to the second floor. A moment later, he heard them race out the door.
Ash started checking for an unlocked unit to hide inside. He didn’t know if the owner locked the unleased units, or all of them were in use, but he was at the end of the line before he found an unsecure door.
Ash opened the door into a unit full of stuff. Most of the items were kid’s toys. He rifled through boxes, looking for anything he could use as a weapon. He found an arrow. It was for a child’s bow and arrow set, but if he thrust it hard enough it would penetrate a human body. And then a moment later he found four more arrows, and the orange fiberglass bow.
Quickly stringing the bow, Ash felt better with a weapon. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it might kill if he was close enough. It would damn sure make them duck behind cover.
The distinct sound of a bay door being hastily opened echoed through the corridors. His ruse had failed and they were back on the hunt.
The hunter kills, he thought. The hunted gets killed.
No more hiding. Ash nocked an arrow and tested the draw. Not as much draw weight as he’d like, but it was what it was. Without a quiver, he had to thrust the four spare arrows under his belt. He moved out in a crouch, returning to the front corridor, and then slowly, stealthily down the stairs.
Peeking out into the corridor, Ash didn’t see either of the two men inside looking for him. He eased back to the door closest to his car. All he had to do was take out one man, get in his car, and escape. They no longer had the ability to track his movements, or even drive their car.
He checked his back pocket to ensure the hard drive was still there. Once he escaped, he could hook it up and figure out why they were after him. Ash still wasn’t sure what to look for. This was about work files, right? Had to be. Except that he couldn’t think of a single case he’d handled that could inspire someone to hunt him down like that.
The door remained open. He didn’t see the man left behind. Eddie, I think he called him?
Ash moved as fast as he could without making any sound. He rushed up to the door, before flattening himself back against the wall to listen. The stench of cigarettes came in through the door. He drew back on the bow and spun around into the door.
Dropping low, he swung the bow around as his eyes searched out a target. He found Eddie taking a drag off his cigarette, a look of surprise on his face. Eddie spit the cigarette out as he swung the submachine gun around. Ash smiled, aimed for center mass, and released the arrow.
Eddie grunted, but the arrow bounded off his chest.
In any case, it was enough to make the other man’s aim go wild. He fired off half the magazine into the side of the building before regaining control and emptying it at Ash.
Charging out at the sound of a magazine being ejected, Ash was on him in a flash. He beat the other man about the face and shoulders with the bow, which proved too light to finish him off. A blow to the back of Eddie’s hand sent his weapon clattering away.
Pulling a long knife, Eddie went on the offensive. Ash cursed under his breath. The other two men could turn up at any second. The longer the fight lasted, the greater the chance was that he’d lose. So he swung the bow like a bat, with all his strength, at Eddie’s face.
“Ha!” Eddie barked, his face a mask of evil glee after ducking under the blow. “Missed. Now I’m gonna gut you like a pig.”
Eddie lunged at Ash, leading with the blade. Ash fell back and the bow came back over Eddie’s head. The str
ing caught behind his head so Ash jerked down and got it down to the back of his neck. The man stopped and frowned.
“Can you say,” Ash asked viciously, “garrote?”
Ash thrust kicked Eddie in the chest, which forced him back a step. That drew the bowstring way back, taut. Seeing his chance, Ash spun the bow in hand to wrap the string completely around his foe’s neck. Eddie dropped his knife to pull a pistol. Ash jerked the bow to the side with all of his strength.
Eddie made the most pathetic sound, eyes huge. The string had sawed a good inch all the way around his neck. Blood flooded out. Desperate to get it over with, Ash gave the bow another hard jerk in the other direction. Blood began spurting out on both sides.
“Damn, son, I think I cut your jugular.” His eyes bore into Eddie’s with cold fury. “Live by sword, motherfucker.”
Ash jerked the bow back and forth several times and Eddie dropped to his knees, the pistol falling out of a limp hand. Releasing the bow, he watched Eddie topple forward and lay still.
Ash picked up his pistol, checking the magazine. It was full.
“Glock 17. I approve of this firearm,” Ash said to the twitching man lying face down in his own blood. “And this is what I call justice.”
He found himself halfway between his Mazda and their Nissan. Before he could take a step toward his car, two angry men came charging out of the door. Their eyes locked on their dead comrade first and then rose up to Ash. He saw burning fury in both of them.
All three opened fire.
Ash fell back to hide behind the Nissan’s engine.
Sirens filled the air. He smiled. As much as he wanted to avoid the police, it was his foes that had to worry the most. For him, it was self-defense.
A Dallas police patrol car came around the corner and skidded to a stop. Two cops piled out when they came under fire. Then another patrol SUV arrived, followed by an unmarked car.
Bellucci was driving the latter, with a uniform riding shotgun. Ash put his pistol on the ground, but remained squatting behind the Nissan. He let the cops and would-be assassins fight it out.
