What was different this time was he didn’t walk away. Instead, he stood there staring at Barry, like a true fan. His eyes no longer were black and empty. Now they looked green and clear. He nodded his head at Barry and said, “Long way from Texas.”
Barry hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and said, “Things change.”
“But maybe not the way you play.”
“You here to do me harm?”
The man stood there with a perplexed expression, as if the suggestion was ludicrous on its very merit. Then slowly he shook his head and said, “Nooo, just like the way you play.”
Barry nodded. “Little creepy, don’t you think? I mean, you just show up out of nowhere. Makes a man think, you know?”
He shrugged, “Guess I never thought about it.”
“You’re not gay, are you? If you are, well, you’re just going to have to live with disappointment.”
He chuckled, “No, I’m not gay. But I did hear about you killing a guy down in south Texas.”
“And I saw you gun a man down in cold blood. What of it?”
“Fair enough. I was wondering, did you kill him in self-defense or did you stick him after he was on the ground?”
“Why’s it matter to you?”
“Cos if he died on purpose then I may have something for you to do. But if not… well, then it was nice meeting you.”
“Let’s say I drove that knife to the hilt on purpose. What would this ‘something’ be?”
“Maybe the start of a new career.”
That had been just over fifteen years ago.
Barry’s thoughts were interrupted by a shiny new SUV that turned down the tree-lined street. He turned his head towards the street-side window. He could make out the male driver from before. He could also see someone sitting in the backseat. Barry couldn’t be positive, but he thought the figure behind the tinted window was the blonde woman from before too. He checked his watch and saw it was 3:30 p.m.
He picked up his phone and sent a text to Ronald: ‘They r back.’
He waited for a response while he watched the SUV continue up the block. When they had reached the end of the street, the driver turned around and came back down again. They found a space a few houses up from where Ronald’s wife was staying. His phone beeped at him. He picked it up and looked at the screen so he wouldn’t have to take his eyes off of his target. The text message said, ‘First chance.’
Barry nodded his head and continued to wait. It would be foolish if he tried to take them now, in broad daylight. So he would have to wait. He figured the best way to take them would be to approach them on foot after dark. That is if they waited that long to make a move on the house. The other option was to follow them back to wherever they were staying and then take them as they exited the car.
He thought about taking them at whatever domicile they were staying. But that option had real problems of its own. The longer he contemplated the problem, the more he kept coming back to taking them either in their car after dark or following them to a location of their choosing and then killing them both, gangster style, either in the car or when they were getting out. Barry decided to kill them somewhere else would be best. But that depended on whether they were going to sit tight or not.
On a whim, he sent a text to Ronald and asked him what he would prefer. ‘I can take them in front of the house or later, when they leave. Preference?’
Ronald was in the middle of putting his tools in the back of his truck when his phone buzzed with an incoming text. He laid the nail gun down to read the text. It was from Barry. He read the message and then after thinking about it for a moment, he sent him a response. ‘Later, when they leave. If it can wait. But they don’t get near the house.’ He read it one more time then hit the send button.
Ronald tossed the phone in the front seat and continued to pack the truck with the items he would use later. He had promised Jessica nobody would die at his hand, but he never promised he wouldn’t draw any blood. In his mind, killing someone meant seeing them take their last breath. However, if they were alive when he walked away and then later died, then that was something else altogether.
Whoever was behind this had crossed a line when they went after Jessica and Walt. Neither one of them would probably ever forgive him, which strangely bothered him. He wondered if this is what it felt like if you had a moral center. Shaking his head, he continued to load the truck with what he would need later.
The nail gun was the start. After that, he loaded the portable air compressor which would only be good for three, maybe four nails, but hopefully he wouldn’t need to use it more than once or twice. Next, he loaded the commercial staple gun, some good ole fashioned ten penny nails, and his favorite five-pound sledge. He would need to stop at the store and pick up a few rolls of duct tape and some zip ties. He looked around his garage for some pieces of 2 x 4 and 4 x 4. It took a little bit, but he finally found them out in the backyard, under the porch. As an afterthought, he grabbed an old chair. He’d had it for a while, but it never got used. Besides, Jess was always after him about cleaning out the garage.
He checked his watch and saw it was noon. He had told whoever it was that wanted to kill him that he would be busy between one and five. He figured he had at least a couple of hours before whoever was behind this reached out to him with a time and a place. Ronald also figured there would be a sentry either already in place or would be soon. The advantage he had over them was that he knew all of the roads in and out of his property and by extension, the surrounding area. He didn’t figure on leaving on the main access roads and he felt pretty confident that whoever would be watching for his departure, wouldn’t have a vehicle capable of driving across the adobe desert.
But the other problem he had was his pickup. He had to offload it in his storage shed. There were more than a few drop cars stashed around town but he needed to get to one and swap out of his truck. He leaned against the bed of his truck and thought about which storage shed he would use. The easiest was the one on the way into Fruita, but no way would he use that one. However, at the very end of East North Street, he had a shed with a beat-up dodge power wagon.
Ronald would use the patchwork of backroads across the adobes to make it to Junction unseen. By the time he was that far, he figured he would be hearing from the coward who had assaulted his family. The bonus of taking this route was that it would make it almost impossible for them to follow him without being detected. He went inside and picked up his gloves then grabbed some rubbing alcohol on his way back out to the truck. Ronald grinned at himself in the mirror. He could feel his old self begin to rise from the ashes. It had been a long time since he had hunted another human and he realized two things: first, how much he missed it, and second, the bloodlust he got from the anticipated killing of another human. Today he would let his demons come out and play and when he was through, he was going to paint the walls in blood.
Ronald backed out of the driveway and then turned his truck straight into the heart of the adobe desert. He dropped the truck into first and then, skipping second, he went to third gear. His tires chewed up the ground beneath him and shot the truck forward like a rocket. He fishtailed around the first turn and then caught some air off a small knobby hill. He felt the truck suspension lift up off the frame and watched through the windshield as the hood of the truck lifted towards the heavens before tilting downward toward mother earth. The truck slammed down hard onto the adobe floor. He laughed out loud as he continued moving deeper into the desert.
Two hours later, he drove calmly down Patterson Road until he came to 29 ½ Road. On the corner was a rundown storage facility whose greatest attributes was its lack of security. He had rented two sheds in the back. One was for storage and the other housed his 1977 Chevy Nova. The car was cream colored and was the four-door version of the once popular muscle car.
After pulling out the Nova and putting his truck inside, he decided to grab a quick bite when he got two text messages. One was from Ba
rry and the other was from the man who had called him out.
He read the one from the mystery man first.
‘Time to play, if ur not afraid.’
He typed in: ‘Ready whenever you are, dead man.’
***
Barry watched a Mercedes C-Class sedan drive down the street and then pull into the driveway. He shifted his focus to the SUV with the hit team inside. He detected no movement inside which was good, because a shootout now would be bad for all of them. Barry watched as a blonde woman and two kids got out. Both kids ran toward the house. Barry watched both kids bound up the drive and enter the house. He smiled at their innocence and allowed himself a moment of regret at never having fathered any kids himself. His reverie was broken when he saw the man he had seen earlier, followed by a woman who looked like the picture of the woman Ronald had sent. Barry’s eyes moved toward the SUV down the block. He saw the driver sit up a little straighter; he turned his head and spoke to whoever was in the back seat.
Barry reached over the back seat and picked up his MP5 and a couple of clips, then he scrambled into the front seat. He started the car and threw it into gear. He watched in horror as the hit team began rolling down the street. He took a second to load the clip and rack the slide, then he too was rolling down the street.
Sean and Vicki had been watching the house for a while now. Both of them had talked about how they should approach the house. His idea was to wait until dark and then hose the house down from outside. Vicki, on the other hand, wanted to wait until they knew for sure their target was inside and then walk up to the door and shoot their way inside. They had argued the pros and cons of both ideas. Finally, Vicki had won out when she promised to reward Sean later on, when the job was done. For his part, he had reluctantly given in but only after she had given him a preview of what was in store for him.
Both of their plans had gone out the window when they saw the car pull into the drive and a man and a woman who looked like their target had walked outside to meet the driver of the Mercedes in the driveway.
“Shit, there she is,” Sean said excitedly.
Vicki leaned forward in her seat and watched as two people walked out of the house. One was a man they had never seen before and the other was a woman who looked like their target. She pulled up the photo of the woman on her phone and then compared her to the woman who now stood in the driveway. They looked like the same person. “Sean, pull forward, we’ll take her now. When you get close, I’ll spray the front yard down.”
Sean put the SUV in gear and started to pull out. Vicki rolled her window down and got ready. He knew this was risky in broad daylight but opportunities didn’t come around like this every day. Sean was almost even with the house when he saw another car start to pull out. Vicki had the gun barrel pointed out the window and was about to fire. He started to warn Vicki when she started to fire.
Two things happened at the same time. Sean saw the female driver of the car fall face forward onto the driveway and then his windshield exploded. Glass flew all over the front seat and he felt bullets hit him in the chest. The pain was intense. He tried to steer the car away from the house but his arms and hands would no longer respond to his requests. He tasted his own blood as it began to fill his mouth and his vision started to blur. Sean couldn’t understand what was wrong. The car moved forward until it rolled into a parked car in front of the house.
Vicki had just started to fire when she felt the explosion of glass hit her in the side of her face and her arms. The driver of the car was down and the man who had been standing in front of her went down. But the woman she was supposed to kill just stood there screaming. She tried to line up for another shot when she was driven forward with so much force, she almost fell out of the window. She was struck in the back several times. The bullets hit her in the spine and her shoulder blades. Two rounds pierced her lungs and heart before they continued through her body, striking the door in front of her. Vicki died without knowing what had hit her.
Barry rolled the window down and then accelerated the car. He pointed his gun out the window and began to fire. His first rounds blew the windshield out and killed the driver. As he pulled even with the hit team, he continued his barrage of fire. The bullets blew out the passenger side window. He saw the female hitter slump over. The hitter car rolled into a car just in front of the house.
Throwing the car into park, he bounded out of the car and checked both hitters. Satisfied they were both dead, he turned his attention to the house. Ronald’s wife was screaming at the top of her lungs. He knew he had very little time but he needed to make sure she was alright.
The first thing he saw was what he suspected was the mother of the two kids, lying in a pool of blood. He didn’t need to check her for a pulse. He could see she had taken the brunt of the attack in the back. The man he had seen earlier had taken a round to the head and was lying on his back. His eyes were open and vacant. The surprised expression on his face said it all.
Barry approached Ronald’s wife and tried to calm her. She backed away, screaming, “No. No. No…”
Barry held out his hands in a calming gesture, but it didn’t do any good. She fell to the ground, sobbing and yelling. He crouched down in front of her and in a calming voice said, “You’re safe. I’m not here to hurt you. Ronald sent me. It’s going to be okay.”
But she didn’t hear him. She was hysterical at this point. He could hear the sirens in the distance and knew he had very little time. He shushed her again and said, “You're safe, calm down. Ronald sent me.”
Jessica lashed out at him. “GET AWAY FROM ME!!! I DON’T KNOW YOU! PLEASE DON’T KILL ME! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? THEY’RE DEAD! THEY’RE DEAD!”
Barry backed away from her and calmly walked back to his car. Once he was inside, he put the car into gear and calmly drove away. When he was sure he was clear, he picked up his phone and sent a text message to Ronald.
Ronald’s phone beeped again with another text message. He checked the screen and saw it was from Barry.
‘4 down. Both hitters and two collateral. Ur woman is safe. Cops on the way. Update later.’
Ronald’s blood ran cold and his heart sank. He answered back, ‘Adults or kids?’
Barry answered back right away. ‘Adults, one m and one f. Pretty sure they were the owners of house.’
‘Kids see anything?’
‘No, just ur woman. Made sure she was okay. Told her you sent me and not to worry.’
‘You clean or dirty?’
‘Clean 4 the moment. See what the news brings.’
‘’k, move out. B safe. Will wire rest.’
‘’k, sorry about the fallout. Couldn’t b helped. Stupid shits moved 2 fast. No other options.’
‘Understood. No serious loss.’
‘I’m out 4 now.’
Ronald sat for a minute thinking about what Barry had said. He was pretty sure Lori and Earl were dead, but he would have to check the news services later to be sure. As he sat there thinking about it, he got another text message.
‘Balk, balk, let’s play.’
Ronald’s bloodlust came rushing back. Now he had a new reason to paint the walls. ‘I'm rolling to your death.’
‘Head to Tilman state wildlife area’
‘Will be a while.’
‘Haw liar, liar. A little birdie told me u headed across the desert hours ago. Go there and let’s play.’
‘Looking forward to it dead man.’ Ronald was close to an uncontrollable rage. He thought about calling Walter and telling him about Lori but thought better of it. No, he would find and then capture his prey. Then he would call Walter, invite him to the inquisition, and maybe let him drive a few nails in himself. Ronald fired up the Nova and pulled into traffic. First, he was going to need to stop for duct tape and zip ties. After that, he would head out to the state park and capture his prey.
Chapter 29
I managed to sit still long enough for Nurse Suzie to do an adequate job of getting my hand re
-bandaged. About halfway through, Marcie arrived dressed in her patrol uniform, with a clean set of clothes for me clutched in her right hand. I had expected her to be alone, but Paul came in right behind her dressed in his Class A uniform. His four stars shone brightly on both shoulders. It wasn’t exactly a complete surprise. I had figured after she picked me up we would either go to the police station straight away or shortly thereafter. The fact Paul had decided not to wait for me to arrive signaled to me something had changed.
Marcie smiled brightly at me as she walked over to kiss me on the cheek. “Hey, you,” she said as she stepped back. My clothes were in a large brown grocery sack. Marcie held the bag in front of her expectantly. I reached out with my good hand to take the bag, but she shook her head. Frowning, I turned my attention to Paul.
“Hey, you two,” I said to her. But my eyes were on Paul. I was hoping for some indication of why he was there, but he stood there stone-faced. I tried to push myself up a little straighter on the bed, which only got me rebuked by Suzie.
“Stop moving or I’ll have to start over again,” Nurse Suzie said.
I frowned and then stuck my tongue out at her. She rolled her eyes at me and I conceded defeat.
“Paul, it’s nice to see all of those stars on your shoulders haven’t gone to your head.”
“Knock it off Walt,” Paul said.
“You’re sure surly in the morning.”
“I got a call from the two agents. They sent me to speak to you.”
Nodding my head, I said, “Well, that explains your mood.”
On The Devil's Side of Heaven Page 23
