‘I have done it before. I’m a detective remember?’
‘Whatever, just concentrate and watch the side streets up front. We’ll have your back covered.’
Nancy clambered into her car, donned her Gucci shades and tossed her purse and the radio on the passenger seat. She could be forgiven for not noticing the battery cover on the radio loosened, dislodging the battery connection. Nancy was too busy thinking ahead.
Chapter 68
Turning right at the traffic lights out of Meredith Avenue and onto Colorado Boulevard, Nancy sucked on her bottom lip. Dad’s instructions to keep her eyes to the front were ignored. She scanned her rear-view mirror to see the lights change. Jim’s beaten-up Mustang caught up behind Dad’s van and Uncle Dave’s Ford-four-by four.
The lights changing had cleared the traffic ahead and she could just about make out Ben’s Jeep, maybe two-hundred yards up front and parked at the sidewalk. Approaching fifty yards, and Ben pulled out in front. By the time she glanced in her rear-view mirror, she could only see Uncle Dave’s car, two cars behind her.
Nancy checked her wing mirror. It was clear. A blur in her peripheral vision and her insides jumped as if she had hit a humpback bridge. She snapped her neck to get a look at the driver overtaking from her mirror’s blind spot, but it was too late. Internal organs crash landed as the car passed and a child waved to her from the back seat of the passing car. Eyelids twitched and her neck stiffened as she gripped the steering wheel with clammy palms. Her eyes darted from the side streets ahead, to the road up front and then to the rear-view mirror and back ahead. Nancy let out a laugh as the little girl’s face disappeared into the distance.
Just like climbing back on a horse after a fall, she knew the only thing to do was to carry on and overcome her fear after what had happened. Having an armed escort did nothing to allay her fear of driving on the open roads, and she turned on the radio as a distraction, only to be confronted by the sounds of Stand by Your Man. Nancy scoffed. She knew it was difficult being a woman given her circumstances, but she didn’t need reminding. Channel hopping, she found the traffic news. Uncle Dave passed by and shortly after Ben dropped back for her to overtake him.
Once she hit the freeway and the side streets were no longer an issue, she leaned her head on the headrest and the pain in her neck washed away. The manoeuvring of her convoy wasn’t noticeable until they came off at the exit road and headed for Mary’s at Magnolia Park, with Ben taking the lead.
Ben signalled left, catching Nancy by surprise. Left wasn’t part of the planned route. A glance in her rear-view mirror and she saw Uncle Dave’s headlights flashing. Turning left and hitting a straight, she breathed rapidly. Nancy reached out for the two-way radio. The back fell off the radio and the battery dislodged falling between and under the passenger seat. Her fingers strained to reach the battery, but she gave up trying. Damn.
Dad’s instructions burned between her ears. If anything happens behind, don’t stop. Carry on with the car up front. Nancy could hear her heart pounding over the sound of the travel news commentator and a surge of adrenalin sent her temperature up a notch.
A glance in the rear-view mirror showed Uncle Dave’s vehicle had stopped and he jumped out, blocking the car behind. At the same time, her dad’s van stopped alongside. Nancy jumped on the brake pedal and brought her car to a screeching halt. Ben’s jeep raced toward her in reverse.
Ben and Nancy both scrambled out of their cars together. In one action, she drew her gun and set off running, only to be pulled back in mid-flight by the vice like grip of Ben’s hand grasping at her shoulder and his arm around her waist. The connections in her brain were telling her to keep running, but Ben’s six-foot frame and his grip left her legs flailing.
‘Wait for the all clear,’ Ben said.
‘Let go, you, Ape. Put me down. That’s my dad.’
For all her wriggling, she couldn’t escape his grip. She squeezed her eyes, hoping not to hear gunshots. The two-way radio in Ben’s hand around her waist cracked into life and she heard her dad’s metallic voice.
‘All clear.’
She stopped struggling, opened her eyes and watched Uncle Dave get back in his car. He pulled forward and the car Uncle Dave had stopped did a U-turn, and drove away from them.
Ben released his grip and her feet hit the sidewalk.
‘Give me the radio.’ She almost dropped the radio from her trembling hands and shouted at the mouthpiece. ‘What the hell just happened?’
‘Get off the damned radio, and next time, do as we planned,’ her dad’s voice reverberated down the earpiece.
Her face flushed and she thrust the radio back at Ben.
‘Sorry for calling you an ape.’
‘No problem. You can call me anything you like, but you weren’t going anywhere. Let’s get moving.’
Nancy looked at the bushes set back on the sidewalk. She hadn’t noticed before, but an old guy was trying to act like a chameleon, standing frozen, his back to the hedge.
Nancy reached in her jacket pocket and thrust her badge at him.
‘Undercover. Move along, there’s nothing to see.’
To her relief, he asked no questions and hobbled off down the road.
This whole convoy idea bugged her. Her face went numb as if frosted over. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate their concern, but thoughts of events turning into a shoot-out by accident made her want to turn around and forget the whole idea.
Ben must have detected her misgivings.
‘Come on, you have to trust us. Let’s get this over with and then we can all have a good night’s sleep. We can laugh after. I bet the guy they stopped crapped himself.’
Nancy managed a smile and holstered her gun. Kneeling on the driver’s seat, she recovered the battery for the two-way and re-fitted it, turning on the power to make sure it was working.
Sitting behind the wheel, Nancy took a deep breath, and fired up the engine with a turn of the ignition key; determined this time to keep her eyes on the road ahead.
Fifteen minutes later she arrived at her destination, parking at her pre-determined surveillance spot. There was no way out of Mary’s estate without one of them seeing her, but first, they needed to know if she was at home, her car type and registration number. Jim walked past her position and onto the estate. Dad followed, driving past Jim in his van. Nancy looked at her watch. It was 7:30 a.m. She prayed that she had not already left the house. Ten minutes later and Jim returned, walking over to her car.
‘Blue Toyota in drive.’ He recited the plate number, looking straight ahead. ‘I could see her in the living room.’
There was nothing to do but wait. Surveillance drove her to distraction. It was the one duty she dreaded and tried to avoid at all costs. It was fine if you had nothing to worry about, or if you had a partner to pass the time of day with idle chat. But, on your own, even small worries would transform into gigantic life changing problems by the end of the shift if nothing transpired. Given the stress she was already under, she breathed a huge sigh of relief as her watch hit 8:05 a.m., and Mary’s Toyota pulled off the estate. It was game on.
It came as a surprise when the direction she took was to the outskirts of LA and she picked up the Little Tujunga Road through the mountains. Nancy dropped back and followed Uncle Dave. His brake lights glowed and she slowed in time to see Mary’s blue Toyota off to her left passing through a security barrier, with a sign set back that read, “ACI” in gold letters.
She put a hand over her mouth and whispered. ‘Astral Chemical Inc?’
She continued to follow Uncle Dave, glancing over to her left. Behind the tree line, a twelve-foot-tall-security-meshed fence topped with razor wire followed the road. Danger signs on the fence flashed by her vision in the form of lightning symbols together with ominous skull and cross bones.
Nancy could hardly contain her excitement, but at the same time wondered how she would gain access to find what was going on behind the fence. Her shoulder
s sagged
‘Smartass. What now, girl?’
Uncle Dave turned right along a rest area road to a vantage point behind the tree line and stopped. He climbed out of his car and headed her way, his cell phone pressed to his ear. Nancy pressed the electronic window button.
‘What now?’ Nancy asked.
‘Wait for the others.’
This was as far as the plan went. Jim, Dad and Ben arrived. Nancy stayed in her car. She watched them get out of the vehicles and all four converged. After a brief conversation, Uncle Dave and Dad walked through the tree line and across the road in the direction of ACI.
She hurried out of her car and across to Jim and Ben.
‘What’s going on?’
‘Just wait in your car. We need to keep an eye on the road to make sure we’re not followed,’ Jim said. ‘You’ll never guess who was following us back there until we sent him packing?’ He spat, aiming for the floor, but hit his boot, followed by him doing a stork impression wiping his boot on the back of his pants.
‘Well, I’m waiting?’ Nancy’s arms dropped to her side her, her jaw slack mouthed and her eyes wide open in anticipation.
Chapter 69
A man of few words, Uncle Jim acted to type. His eyes rolled and he glanced up to the heavens. A knurled hand wiped across his brow. His exuberance at asking to guess whom they had turned back was out of character, and then he acted as though he had betrayed some sworn-state secret.
‘Need to cover the flank. Your dad’ll fill you in.’
Despite his years, he moved quickly to the cover of bushes to watch the road. Nancy followed him like a shadow and tucked in behind in a crouch.
‘Never mind Dad, who was it?’
‘Damn, Nancy, get in the car.’
‘I ain’t going anywhere until you tell me who it was back there!’
His radio crackled and he answered. ‘All clear.’
His eyes fixed on the road and with his back to her, he waved her away. Nancy drilled holes in the back of his head with a churlish glare and wanted to slap him. Knowing him of old, she knew there was no point in hanging around for an answer and moved to her car. With the car door still open, she parked her backside on the seat, her lips pouting in a sulk. She got the idea the boys still thought of her as that little girl, best seen, but kept in the dark with least said.
Twisting her body and hauling her legs inside the car, she glanced across through the foliage to catch a glimpse of the mesh fence surrounding ACI. Somewhere behind that perimeter lay the answer to the mystery surrounding the professor’s death and everything else that had transpired to turn her life on a backward slide. Mary had to be complicit in all that had happened. In Nancy’s mind, the coincidence of her turning up at the station to give her well-timed statement to throw the investigation into disarray made her an accomplice in the professor’s death.
Just where she went from here, without the backup of LAPD, to get at the answers made her head ache with a vengeance. A thought sprang to the fore that maybe she should contact Brogan at Internal Affairs and tell him what she thought was going on down at headquarters. There again, since she didn’t have a clue what was going on, she shouldn’t start throwing around accusations. Maybe Uncle Dave was right and the professor’s, the janitor’s and Craig’s deaths were unconnected with anyone being on the take at the station. None of what rolled around in her thoughts took away from the knowing that at first someone wanted her out of the way and now wanted her dead.
‘Incoming,’ She heard her dad call on the two-way radio and sprang out of the car ready to ask questions on his return.
First Dad appeared through the tree line, followed by Uncle Dave.
‘Back to the apartment. Three minute intervals, let’s go,’ Dad ordered.
Nancy grabbed his shoulder as he entered his van and he spun around.
‘Who did you stop back there?’
‘We ain’t got time for this. Debrief back at the apartment.’
Nancy stamped her foot.
‘Tell me now, God damn it. I’m not a child anymore.’
‘Off the shoulder.’ He gripped her wrist and wrenched it from his jacket. His eyes narrowed and his face flushed. ‘There’s a security patrol heading for the fence.’
To the sound of car doors closing, engines starting and grit spitting on the undersides of the vehicles, she rushed to her car to join them exiting the rest area. Banging the steering wheel, she twisted the ignition key, spun the wheel and joined in line.
Feeling out of the loop followed her all the way back to the apartment and made her face burn. She couldn’t work out whom she despised the most, Dad, or Logan. Working with either was close to a nightmare. Both of them bitter and twisted, she had it in mind to go it alone and trust to her own instincts, without them deciding what was best for her.
Leaden legs carried her to the apartment door. Once inside, she took off her jacket and threw it onto her bed as she passed the bedroom and trudged into the living room. Dad went to the kitchen and returned with a six-pack. He shared them out, with two cans for Uncle Dave.
‘Gather around,’ Dad said, and taking his lap top from a shelf, set it down on the table.
At the pull of rings, cans hissed in unison and everyone gulped at their beer. Nancy rolled her can on her forehead, looked down at the floor, and shuffled her feet. Dad put down his can and spoke.
‘Okay, listen up. What we got is a high security facility. There are signs inside the perimeter saying it’s government property. We got ground movement sensors, security cameras on poles at regular intervals. It looks like they have different frequency cameras and they’re motorized. They got dog patrols and the security guards are armed.’
‘All for a chemical company?’ Nancy asked, her eyebrows rising.
‘Some weird chemical complex if ya asks me,’ said Uncle Dave. ‘More like a mosque with those couple of White House type domes.’
‘Yeah, weird,’ Dad said. ‘Like two telescope-domes for watching stars. Let’s see what’s showing on Google maps.’
Nancy sucked on her teeth. The information didn’t enthuse. There was no point knowing the layout as far as she could see. If it were down to her, she’d be driving through the front gate with a partner and backup to start asking questions.
‘What’s the point?’ Nancy banged her beer can on the table.
All eyes gave her a disdainful look.
‘Okay, out with it. What’s eating you?’ Dad asked.
‘I just can’t see the point. We’ve found the connection between Mary and ACI, now we need the authorities to follow it up. What the hell can we do?’
‘Grab her, put a bag over her head, get her to the bunker like I said before and interrogate her,’ Uncle Dave said, followed by a toothless grin.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Nancy said and then took a swig of beer.
Dad leaned forward on his chair. ‘She’s right.’
Nancy spluttered, spitting out drink onto her blouse.
‘Huh, I’m right? Now you listen to me. Hallelujah. Maybe you’ll tell me who you stopped back there?’
Dad wiped his hand across his mouth as if to mask his words.
‘Bill.’ A cough followed the revelation. He unfastened the Velcro on his jacket pocket, took out a high calibre magazine and placed it on the table. ‘Took this from his rifle. I found it poking out under his coat on the back seat.’
‘Bill! What was he doing following and with a high powered rifle?’
‘Didn’t ask.’
‘You didn’t ask?’
Nancy rose from her chair.
‘What did he have to say?’
‘Nothing. He just turned around and left.’
It wasn’t even an attempt to disguise that he was lying. A picture of his arms flailing with Bill’s car door open as if he were talking animatedly ran through her mind.
‘That’s it, I’m out of here. Play your war games if you want but leave me out of it. Contact the guy you know at FBI
and get him down here. The game stops now.’
Nancy turned, stormed out of the room, down the hall into her bedroom, slammed the door and threw herself onto the bed. Her head ached and her vision began to spin. Heat that started with warm pins and needles rose in the left side of her brain and built in intensity until she started to writhe on the bed. Clutching and pulling her hair, she started to hear a voice reverberating in her inner mind.
‘You’re like me. Don’t let them take me. Save me.’
Chapter 70
Nancy’s fuddled mind couldn’t work out the next move. Hands on the bedroom wall clock were twitching at five-to-the hour and going nowhere; held by the lack of a battery charge. Time may have appeared to stand still, but the stream of conscious thoughts swirling in her mind poured out in ever-increasing pulses, until none of them was distinguishable as sensible notions. Burying her face in her tear-moist pillow and drawing her knees to her chest, she prayed for release from her tortured mind.
‘Mom, please help,’ she kept repeating, while engaged in institutional rocking and wishing she could turn back the clock to the time when her mother was around. The memories were too faint to grasp, disappearing as though they were popping soap bubbles. In frustration, she launched the pillow across the room.
It was hard to work out how long she had been holed up in her bedroom. In addition to seeing the reflections from the streetlights pouring through an open curtained window, her rumbling stomach told her that she needed to end her exile from Dad and the boys.
A tap on the door and it creaked ajar, casting a sharp light from the hallway. Her eyes creased as her dad peeked around the door.
‘Phone call. It’s that Kyle.’
‘Kyle?’
‘Yeah, I’ve spoken to him. He’s got news from Bill’s interview with internal affairs.’
Missing: The Body of Evidence Page 29
