“Thank you for this gift,” Cherie told me.
“Yes, you have no idea how much we appreciate the freedom you’re about to give us,” Coolidge confirmed.
“Every animal should be free,” I replied. “You deserve this as much as any other bird. All right, ready?”
The three birds said they were, and I opened the chicken wire fence door. I was going to have to try and sneak out past the main house and back onto the road without being seen, since I couldn’t use any magic.
I opened the main door to the barn and immediately the three birds flew out into the sky. I watched for a second with tears threatening my eyes as they flew through the skies for the first time in I didn’t know how long.
Still, I knew that I had to get out of here, and I quickly started to make my way across the overgrown lawn. I figured if I could reach the main road I could walk the five minutes or so it would take to get back to the car, if Sophie hadn’t already driven it to the front of the property. Either way, the front gate was my exit strategy; if I went straight back to where the car was parked I’d have to trespass on two other properties first.
I crouched down in the overgrown grass as I looked at the house. Pericot, the tiger, was still lazing in the sun. Gemma had disappeared from the window, and I didn’t notice any other movement anywhere else. If I was really lucky, Richard Steele would be sleeping, or even out somewhere in town, not even on the property.
As I inched my way slowly toward the house, I began to feel optimistic about my chances of getting out of here undetected. After all, I’d made it past the back deck without Pericot waking up, and was now inching my way underneath the windows at the side of the house; I’d decided that pressing myself against the side of the house was the way to minimize my odds of being seen; if anyone looked out the windows they wouldn’t have a chance of seeing me this way.
I was just about past the front porch when I suddenly heard a voice behind me that made me jump about three feet.
“Whadaya think yer doin’ here, girl?” a man’s voice asked. I turned around and saw myself facing a tall man with scraggly grey-brown hair, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. He looked to be in his fifties, but I imagined he actually looked a lot older than he really was.
I wasn’t going to lie though; I was focused a lot more on the shotgun he was holding than his appearance.
“Ummm, sorry, I think I’m lost,” I stammered. “I’m just trying to find the road.”
“Can’t get on this property without passing all the no tresspassin’ signs I got up. So why’d you come here in the first place?” he asked. At least the shotgun wasn’t leveled at me. Yet.
“I was in the woods back there,” I said. “I got lost. I hurt my hand, and I climbed over a fence to try and find the road. I swear, I don’t mean any harm. I’ll be going now,” I said.
“Nah, I bet you’re the one who stole my Lucy!” he exclaimed suddenly, leveling the shotgun toward me.
“No! I didn’t! Who’s Lucy?” I stammered.
“I bet you came back for Pericot, didn’t you?” he asked. I didn’t have time to scream before he pulled the trigger. I dove to the ground and felt the bullet whizzing above me. Turning, I began to run for the road as fast as I possibly could. I could hear footsteps behind me, and what was worse was they were getting louder. He was catching up to me.
For what felt like the millionth time I swore that if I made it out of here alive I was going to go to the gym more often than once every three years. Or at least maybe I’d go for a jog every once in a while.
I heard the sound of the gun cocking once more and I knew Richard Steele was going to shoot at me again. But before he got the chance, I heard a squawk from up above. A flash of dark green and orange passed above me.
“What the hell?” I heard Richard Steele cry as Hehu swooped down toward him.
“Go, go, we’ll take care of him,” I heard Coolidge say as he and Cherie flew toward Steele as well.
“Thank you,” I managed to gasp out as I stumbled toward the road. The cacophony of sound behind me didn’t give me any indication as to who was winning the fight, but I occasionally saw one of the birds flying above me. The sound of Steele’s footsteps began to fade; evidently the birds’ attack was working.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and Hehu fell at my feet.
“No!” I cried, scooping up the gorgeous parrot and taking him into my arms. To my immense relief, he was still breathing. I passed through the entrance gate and stumbled onto the road, looking around. Thankfully, Sophie was behind the driver’s seat of my car, engine running, just a few feet away. She pulled up in front of me, tires screeching, as I jumped into the car.
“Come on, get in here!” I called to the two cockatoos. They immediately stopped attacking Richard Steele, who I noticed with a decent amount of satisfaction was bleeding significantly from his head, and swooped into the car. I jumped in, and before I’d even managed to close the door Sophie had her foot down on the gas and we took off down the dirt road, leaving only a patch of dust behind us.
“So much for a reconnaissance mission, hey?” Sophie asked, never taking her eyes off the road.
“I’ll explain later,” I said as I looked at Hehu, who was still in my arms. The front seat of a car going almost ninety miles an hour on a bumpy country road wasn’t exactly an ideal place for a physical exam, but it was going to have to do. A quick check made it obvious Hehu had been shot in the wing. It wasn’t fatal, but he was going to have to stay with me for a while to recover.
“Is it just the wing?” I asked Hehu.
“You say that as though it isn’t one of the most important parts of my body,” the kea whined.
“I’m sorry,” I replied. “I know it’s important, but luckily, a shot to the wing won’t be fatal. You will, however, have to be rehabilitated before you can fly again. It will take a while. Thank you. To all three of you,” I continued, looking into the back seat where Coolidge and Cherie were calmly sitting.
“It is us who should be thanking you,” Cherie said. “We could not sit idly by and watch a man attempt to hurt the woman who gave us our freedom.”
“I really appreciate it,” I told them. And I absolutely meant it. My heart was moved by the bravery of these three birds who had only known me for an hour. They had risked their own lives for mine.
“Shall we disperse with the sappy monologues and consider the pain I am in?” Hehu asked, and I had to smile. He was a cheeky little guy.
“Give me a second,” I said, opening the glove compartment. Being a vet, I had a decent amount of veterinary equipment in my car; I could never be sure when an emergency would come up. I found a tiny syringe of buprenex–because it was an opioid I never kept much of it in the car, even in the locked glove compartment–and checked the dosage. Birds were incredibly sensitive to dosages.
“Ok, I’m just going to give you a quick painkiller injection,” I told Hehu. Giving him as much of the opoid as I thought he needed, Hehu relaxed almost instantly.
“Ohhhh, that feels good,” he said, and I smiled at him. “We’re going to get you back home soon, ok?” I told him.
“It’s going to have to be soon,” Sophie said, glancing through the rear-view mirror. “I’m pretty sure Richard Steele is trying to catch up to us.”
I looked back just as a bullet blew off one of my car’s side mirrors. I let out a quick squeal, then turned to the two birds in the back. “Get down on the floor, as low as you can. That will be safest,” I told them, while holding Hehu close to me.
“Here goes nothing,” Sophie said, pressing her foot to the floor. We were on US Highway 20 now, which was thankfully, paved, but was still a two-lane rural road. I held on to Hehu tight as we overtook a Cadillac that was doing 10 under the limit before sliding back into our lane just seconds before hitting an oncoming truck.
“That was close,” I muttered, but Sophie didn’t reply. Her focus was entirely on the road.
“Did we lose him?” s
he asked. Since I couldn’t use my side mirror I looked behind me cautiously.
“No, he’s still there. He’s driving some sort of sports car.”
“Damn it,” Sophie said. “I told you to shell out some extra money for a real car,” she complained.
“I never really thought my car’s performance in high-speed car chases was something I needed to consider,” I replied.
“That’s always something you should consider,” Sophie said as the engine whirred. She was doing well over ninety now, and my heart leapt into my throat every time we took a corner. The next shotgun blast burst through the rear window, sending shards of glass everywhere. I instinctively bent down.
“How are we going to get away?” I asked.
“By trickery,” Sophie said. We were approaching the intersection to turn onto state highway 126; it was a left hand turn, with its own turning lane. However, Sophie stayed in the lane we were in. Seeing as there was a giant semi-trailer coming the other way, I figured that was a good thing. She slowed down a little bit, enough to let the crazy exotic pet owner with the gun catch up to us; I wasn’t sure that was a good idea.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked as I dared to peek through the broken rear window of the car. Richard Steele was now only about ten feet behind us, if even that.
“Everyone hang on,” Sophie practically shouted a split second before she wrenched the steering wheel to the left. My body was forced into the side door panel, and I heard the squawks of surprised birds behind me as Sophie cut across two lanes, missing the semi by what I was pretty sure was under a foot. I could have sworn I saw my life flash before my eyes, but it might have simply been the truck’s headlights passing inches from my face.
The truck’s horn blasted behind us as we burst through across the lanes and onto state highway 126. However, instead of continuing west, Sophie quickly cut across to the far lane and headed back east toward Sisters.
“Everyone ok?” she asked.
“My word, that was quite exciting, but I do think I’m all right. How about you, Cherie?” Coolidge said.
“Yes, I am fine, although I may have a small cut from some of the glass. The excitement is very welcome, I cannot remember the last time my heart raced so fast.”
“And I’m as free as a bird,” Hehu said. He was completely stoned.
“The birds are fine and so am I,” I told Sophie. “How do you know he’s not going to come back to find us?”
“I don’t, that’s why we’re still doing just under 100,” she replied, and I noticed her checking the rear-view mirror every couple of seconds. “We’re going to go back to Sisters, where I can lose him more easily, since there are a lot more roads and turnoffs there. Can you open your phone and find me a different route to get home?”
I nodded and checked my phone; by the time we got to Sisters there was still no sign of Richard Steele. We went back along US Highway 20 until we got to Bend, and then got onto US Highway 97 heading south for a while before finally cutting back west until we found the Interstate.
I don’t think I relaxed for even a second until we finally got onto the freeway, my heart still racing at a million miles an hour.
“We’re going to have a lot of explaining to do when we get back to Willow Bay,” Sophie said, glancing at the shattered rear window and the missing side mirror of my car. “Your insurance company is never going to believe this.”
It was probably the adrenaline talking, but I absolutely burst out laughing.
Chapter 13
When we got back to Willow Bay the sun was setting. I put the car in the garage to avoid anyone seeing the damage and asking too many questions, then brought Hehu into the house with me, along with the other two birds.
“Do you mind coming inside with me for a little while?” I asked them. “I just want to make sure you’re safe, plus there are a few other things I wouldn’t mind asking you to see if I can help find the people who brought you here.”
“Of course, we are happy to help,” Cherie replied as she flew around Sophie and me.
“Thank you,” I told them, opening the front door. The first thing I did when I got in was find Bee and her kittens and I put them in my room; I didn’t want there to be any excitement about the birds being in the house. I set Hehu down on the couch carefully; he was still sleeping. I figured I could take him into the vet clinic tomorrow and do what I could for his wing there, where the equipment was better, and the environment more sterile.
Sprinkles came over, wagging his tail, and carefully sniffed Hehu, then lay down at his feet.
“Good boy Sprinkles, this is a very special bird. He saved my life today, as did these other two.”
“I will guard him then,” Sprinkles said, and I knew he wouldn’t move from that spot.
When I walked back toward the kitchen I found that Coolidge and Cherie had perched themselves on the backs of two of the dining room chairs and were curiously watching Charlotte, who was sitting at the dining room table doing some kind of chemistry work.
“How did you run into two cockatoos and a kea?” she asked me without looking up.
“Uh, it’s a long story that involves a collector of exotic animals, me losing track of time and a car chase with a redneck.”
Charlotte raised her eyebrows. “It sounds like the kind of thing I absolutely would have advised against.”
“To be fair, it was only supposed to be a reconnaissance mission. But the birds were so talkative, and knew so much, that I just lost track of time. Also, when I fell, I hurt my wrist. Can you look at it?”
I held out my arm and saw Charlotte inhale sharply. My wrist was now nice and swollen; it looked like someone had shoved a kiwi fruit under my skin. It was bruised as well, and the skin was now a nice deep blue color, with green and yellow spots toward the outer bits.
“You need to get this X-rayed,” Charlotte told me, getting up and going to the kitchen. She came back with an ice pack, which she handed to me. “And for now, you absolutely need to get ice on it, and take a couple Advil to help reduce the swelling.”
“It’s probably just a sprain, though, right?”
“There’s no way to tell for sure without an X-ray. If your wrist was obviously bent to the side I’d say it was a break, but since it looks straight, there’s no way to know for sure if it’s strained or broken.”
“Great,” I sighed. “I’ll go down to the clinic in a few hours, then.” But for now, I had some more important things to do; I had to take care of these birds who had saved my life.
“So I wanted to ask in the barn but never got the opportunity to; how do the three of you know so much about what was happening on the Steele property if you were stuck in the barn all the time?”
“Well, we could always fly up to the hole you came through, though we were too large to fit through it. That way we could get a little bit of a glimpse as to what was going on outside,” Coolidge said, and my heart broke for the life they’d been living, where they could get a glimpse of the outside world but never partake in it.
“And Gemma would come and visit us quite a bit. She seems like a lonely girl, but she was very kind. Even though we couldn’t speak back to her, she would tell us what was happening on the farm, and in her life in general.”
“Ah, ok, that makes sense,” I replied, nodding. “Now, I want to find the people who smuggled Lucy. Do you know anything about them?”
“Well of course we do,” Coolidge said. “We were already there when they brought Lucy into the barn. They came in with The Bad Man, and they explained to him what she needed to eat, that sort of thing.”
This was better than I could have possibly hoped for. “Excellent! What can you tell me about them? Please, I’m trying to find out where Lucy was from so that I can get her back to her mother.”
“Of course, dear,” Cherie said. “For one thing, there were three of them. Two men and one woman. One of the men looked older, perhaps around fifty years old, whereas the other man, and the wom
an, were both definitely around thirty-five, perhaps forty. The woman was a brunette, with wavy hair and bored-looking eyes. The younger man was overweight, with a decent beer belly, but the older one was of medium build. Both were perhaps one meter and eighty centimeters tall.”
“They came from a place called Las Vegas,” Coolidge added. “I heard one of the men mention to the woman that they were finally going to go home there after the transaction was completed.”
“And the woman’s first name was Kelsey. The older man’s first name was Tim. I don’t believe they mentioned the younger man’s name.”
“Finally, I noticed that the woman had a picture on her lower back. It was an image of a heart, with an arrow through it.”
I grinned at the two birds. Between the first name, the place where they lived and the tattoo, this was so much more information than I could have possibly hoped for. I knew parrots were among the most intelligent birds in the world, but I would have never imagined that they had such good memories of people they had seen once, or that they would have noticed so much about them.
“Thank you so much,” I told Cherie and Coolidge. “That’s so much information, hopefully with that I’ll be able to find out who they are.”
I really hoped those were their real names, but I imagined they had to be. After all, Richard Steele was obviously a good customer. I made a mental note to visit Chief Gary and ask him if he could look up information on people living in Nevada. I didn’t have a huge amount to go off, but hopefully it was enough. After all, Vegas was huge thanks to all the tourism, but I was pretty sure its permanent population was relatively small. Maybe I’d get lucky.
Sleeping with the Fishes (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Willow Bay Witches Book 6) Page 8
