Fatal Intuition

by Makenzi Fisk

  “Oh, lighten up Ericsson. I’m makin’ a funny.” Lockwood handed her cell phone to Erin. “I know the gas station pictures are on there, but I can’t for the life of me figure out where they went. Why does the Bureau keep making us do so many dang upgrades? I just got the last phone figured out and now I have to learn a whole new one. I’m putting you in charge of organizing the data our agents at the scene are sending over.”

  Erin took the phone and forced a smile, as if she knew Agent Lockwood was kidding the whole time. She thumbed through the images, and made a new folder to store the files from this case. Living with a tech savvy girlfriend had taught her a thing or two about digital organization.

  “How much time have we got left, sir?” Lockwood shouted to the trooper, and nodded when he held up five fingers. She turned back to Erin and Agent Gonzales. “His boys are going to come in from the north, in case the kids spot us and double back. Let’s go over the route to see if we can figure out where they’re headed.” She circled an entry on her notepad and drew a rudimentary map of the northern U.S.

  “We got an illegal border crossing here, a string of vehicle thefts across these three states, and the carjacking here. That’s when they accelerated and stabbed the elderly female. The male victim suffered a heart attack two miles down the road when he went for help. That’s our first casualty. Then they graduated from a knife to a gun when they pulled the truck stop robbery near Billings.”

  Gonzales nodded. “We’re working on a probable connection to a residential break-in and subsequent arson in the general vicinity of that same truck stop, so it might be where they holed up. Those two idiots actually held up the same truck stop twice.”

  “I guess they liked the food,” Lockwood snorted, “or they’re stupid.”

  “Stupid and high on drugs,” he agreed. “Witnesses say they were irrational, out of control. Video from the most recent crime backs that up. It sure seems like they’re on something.”

  Lockwood nodded. “The residential break-in and fire. That’s probably why they dropped off the radar for a couple of days. They lie low to recharge their batteries, and torch it when they’re done. The next time they rob a gas station, they’re bolder. They try their hand at murder, but don’t quite succeed. You can bet your next paycheck that they’ll do it again. Am I missing anything?”

  Erin clenched her fist until her fingernails bit into her skin. “Lily is like a ghost. One second she’s there, but if you blink, she’s gone. She’s been driving since she could reach the pedals and stealing cars almost as long. She likes fire. It’s probable that she’s the one who instigated the arson. She’s impulsive and doesn’t care who she hurts, as long as she gets what she wants.” The memory of Lily’s cool green eyes boring into hers sent a shiver up her spine. “And the boy’s injured. It didn’t look like he could walk far on that leg.”

  “Noted.” Agent Lockwood turned and peered down the road at a set of oncoming headlights. “If there’s going to be a foot chase, I call dibs on the gimpy one.”

  Erin’s heart sped up. She retrieved a standard issue shotgun from the FBI vehicle, and hunkered behind the engine block of a marked car beside the young trooper who’d deployed the stop stick. He edged over to allow her room to chamber a cartridge. She sighted down the barrel and waited, her breath steady and even. Wind howled across the road and treetops scraped jagged fingers against the sky. Fine hairs on the back of her neck pulled taut.

  The approaching headlights were nearly upon them when the trooper in charge called out. “It’s Kyle!”

  Erin raised her barrel to the sky while the incoming squad car eased behind the highway patrol vehicles lining the pavement. When he was safely out of the way, she sighted down the road again. And waited. And waited.

  “Where in tarnation did they go?” Agent Lockwood shouted.

  The trooper was already on his radio, calling back to the chase vehicles positioned to the north. “They didn’t turn around. No one’s come back the way they came. They’ve vanished. Boys, let’s get out there and search every inch of this highway. We’ll have our men come down from the north to squeeze them in the middle. Those rabbits have gone to ground and we need to flush them out.” He motioned to Agent Lockwood who snatched up her notepad and leapt into the passenger seat of his car. “I want check-ins every five minutes. Nobody approaches that car on his own,” he hollered out the window as they drove off, followed by a trail of highway patrol cars.

  Gonzales shrugged at Erin. “I guess it’s you and me, kid. I’m driving.”

  Erin looked at the 870 Remington in her hands. “Then I guess I’ll, uh, I’ll call shotgun.”

  He cackled and got behind the wheel of their unmarked car.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Shut up! I should have left you back there with the dead guy.” My head will explode if T whines one more time.

  “But it hurts a lot. Look how swollen it is.” He pulls up his pant leg to show me his knee. It’s purple and twice the size it used to be. “Come on, Lily. Gimme another Oxy.”

  That’s it, he needs to shut up. I dig into my pocket for another pill and toss it on the floor where he scrabbles for it like a starving dog. The beer ran out long ago, so he’s got to dry swallow it, but he manages to choke it down. Soon, he sighs and leans his head against the seat, his long legs twisted sideways. With his blood-crusted hair and sweaty face, he looks like shit.

  I guess today might not have been one of his better days. He almost pissed his pants when he thought that cop was pulling us over. I, on the other hand, was kind of looking forward to it. It was such a huge disappointment when he suddenly turned off his lights and blasted past. As soon as he was gone, T threatened to take a leak on the floor unless I pulled over right then and there.

  I was so angry about losing my chance to shoot the cop that I cranked the wheel and bumped a half mile across a farmer’s field before I let him out. Good thing too. We’d never have seen this truck behind the Quonset otherwise. How often do you find keys in the ignition and a full tank of gas? Sometimes I’m lucky.

  I crank down the window and hang out my elbow, trying every damn back road in the state to figure out which one will link up with the highway. Finally, there’s a paved road with an actual yellow line painted down the middle. This one will do. The sun is coming up in my eyes and my stomach is rumbling again, but it feels damn good to be headed east. Home is east. The sign for Rock Springs flashes past. We’re in Wyoming.

  “Tell me about Minnesota, sugar.” T’s eyes are closed and his words tumble out all fuzzy, like he’s got a mouth full of cotton. “Can we surf?” He pulls his hat down to shield his face from the morning light.

  “It’s perfect. There’s a house, and a shed, and a dock to the river. I can take the boat all the way downstream to my secret place. It used to be my grandfather’s, but it’s mine now.”

  “Sorry to hear your grandpa died.”

  “He’s not dead. Last I heard he’s still breathing, but he’s messed up.”

  “So, how is the place yours?” The bastard tilts the brim of his hat up to squint at me.

  “Shut up, T. I said it’s mine.” I could punch him in the sore knee right now if I could reach that far.

  “You’ve been gone a while. What if your grandpa sold his place?”

  That possibility had never crossed my mind. Why does T have to continually piss me off? I slam my fist into the steering wheel until my knuckles sting. If someone new is at my bog, they’ll be sorry.

  “Are you even welcome at home? What aren’t you telling me?” He’s wide awake now and straightens up in his seat.

  Scheisse! Shut up. I fish around in my pocket until I find a pill and flash him my happy smile. “Here, you need one of these.”

  He raises an eyebrow when he takes it. “Somebody’s keeping secrets.”

  “We need beer.” I really do need a Budweiser. I like the little white pills too, but I hate waking up with T’s sweaty hands all over me. Beer is better. />
  “Why won’t you tell me?” He pokes me in the shoulder with his finger. “Don’t keep secrets.”

  “Secrets?” If the gun wasn’t tucked in the back of his pants right now, I’d be tempted to shoot him in his lying face. “Who’s keeping secrets? You’re the guy who won’t even say why he was in juvy! I don’t believe the bullshit you made up.”

  He narrows his eyes, black with anger, good ol’ boy grin fading. “I’ll tell you if you tell me.”

  “You first.”

  He bites his bottom lip for a moment, and I wonder if he too wants to shoot me in the face. “I was in for using credit cards that weren’t mine, a lot of credit cards, and a school fundraiser I took cash from.”

  “What else?” There is no way that is the secret he was protecting. There’s more.

  “I wrote checks on an account that wasn’t mine. It was my neighbor’s. That old lady practically gave them to me, leaving them lying around like that.”

  “That’s not everything. I won’t tell you shit if you don't tell me.”

  He takes the time to bend the brim on his hat until it’s the right curve. “A kid said I, uh, messed with her.” His eyes are on his shoes when he says it.

  I cover my mouth so I don’t laugh. T’s a skinner. In juvy, child molesters like him were fair game for anyone who wanted to pound on somebody. Even the staff, who were supposed to protect everyone, turned a blind eye when it happened. T was the guy at the very bottom of the juvy ladder. “Holy shit. No wonder you were hiding out in the library. Did you kill her?”

  “No! I never hurt her. Never, never. I loved her. Besides, she was eight, going on eighteen, and she was asking for it. You should have seen the outfits she wore. She came on to me .”

  “You and I both know that’s bullshit. She probably hated you the whole time.”

  “No.” The hamster wheel turns in his brain. “Maybe. See this?” He touches the bridge of his crooked nose. “My sister broke it when she found out. She hates me for sure. Wasn’t no family loyalty there. She turned me over to the pigs faster than I could pack my shit and get out. Said I can never see her or her kid again.” He looked up from his shoes. “Now you hate me too, don’t you?”

  “Why? I don’t give a shit who you screw. Do whatever you want, but not to me. I don’t like to be touched.” At first the pills were fun, but I hated the way they made me feel afterward. I was weak, and I despised waking up with his hands on me.

  “Aw, come on,” he pleads. “I knew, I fuckin’ knew this was gonna happen.” He hammers his fist onto his swollen knee and yelps in pain.

  Why do people hurt themselves when what they really want to do is hurt someone else? I wish, someday, someone would explain that to me.

  “Come on, sugar. I’ll be so gentle.” His eyebrows tilt, begging me to trust him.

  I shake my head. My own tricks are not gonna work for you, loser. “No way. You know what’ll happen if you try it.”

  “You gotta understand, a man’s got needs .” Is that a tear rolling down his cheek? Unbelievable.

  “I don’t care. Find someone else.” Oh my God, he’s being such a dramatic pussy, I can’t believe it.

  “Lily, please.”

  “Fuck, I’ll help you find someone else, if you keep your paws off me.” I can’t believe those words came out of my mouth. When the hell have I ever offered to help anyone? Well, maybe once. I remember the freckled girl who had a crush on me in Winnipeg. Innocent, smart Nina, who was almost perfect. Then she wasn’t. I got easy time in juvy, and she got sent to Lakewood.

  “Really? You’d do that for me?” He couldn’t be grinning any wider. “How did you know it’s my birthday?”

  “Bullshit.”

  “It’s true. Today I turned eighteen.”

  “Really? You’re an adult?” I kind of believe him. He looks twenty-four. “You better get to work on that mustache. You’ve got a long way to go until you’re a man.” I punch him in the ribs.

  He takes it without flinching and looks me square in the eye. “What are you giving me for my birthday? Will you help me find someone we can party with?

  “Yeah, sure. Why not?” This is a new twist for me. Maybe it would be fun. T is more exciting than Nina ever was. She was such a stick in the mud, but he’s a rush to be around when he has a gun in his hand. That dead guy we left at the gas station is proof. If T gets this one thing he wants, will he help me do what I want?

  “Tell me your secret.” T leans forward. He doesn’t want to miss a single word I say.

  “Let me hold the gun first.”

  He doesn’t hesitate to hand it over, and I grip it tight. It feels like a living thing against my palm. Not a friend like my knife. Something else. An ally?

  “Now tell me.” T squeezes his hand into his pocket and closes his eyes.

  “No.” Not for one second did I intend to tell him a damn thing. I’ll never tell him about the witch in Morley Falls who saw inside my head the first time we met. Even with my knife in her guts, she wouldn’t die. If I kill her and her cop girlfriend, my mother will stay in her grave and I’ll finally be free. Free in my bog. My bog.

  My stomach growls like it’s eating itself from the inside out. “I’m starving. I want a cheeseburger, and we’re outta beer again.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Perched on the desk, Wrong-Way Rachel grumbled when Allie pushed her chair away. The cat swished her tail and stretched out across the keyboard, the glow of the computer monitor backlighting her gray fur like a halo.

  At some point, when she was configuring a client’s network connection, the sky had grown dark. Allie hadn’t thought to turn the lights on until now. She got up and hit the wall switch, blinking in the sudden glare.

  Shadows retreated, but she could still feel them, like insects crawling on her skin, like tar bubbling on the surface of a road patch in blistering heat. Lily was coming. She knew it as surely as she knew the sun would rise tomorrow. Cells vibrated in her body and she could not sit still. A veritable tidal wave of darkness was headed straight for Morley Falls. It threatened to drown her, and those to whom she was closest. Could Erin find Lily and stop the wave before it arrived?

  Was the alarm set? She’d checked it an hour ago, but had she turned it on, or off? Doppler got up from his bed and paced her to the front porch. The security system was so old, she didn’t even know if it worked any more. What if she was setting it every night and it was useless?

  She unlocked the knob, pulled the door open and counted the warning beeps. It usually reached ten or eleven by the time she punched in her code, even with an armload of groceries. Sixteen, seventeen… The beeps were closer together now. Would it go off or mock her with its silence?

  Doppler’s tail stuck straight out behind him, and his hair raised on end, when the siren abruptly wailed. Like an old police car from the movies, it was much louder than she’d ever guessed. She jabbed at the numbers, got it wrong in her haste, and tried again. The red light turned to green and the horn silenced. Her ears rang like they had after her first rock concert.

  “I’m so sorry! That must have hurt your ears.” Doppler put his paws on her knee, wanting to be picked up. She scooped him into her arms and snuggled him to her chest. Wait until Erin saw what she’d been letting him get away with.

  With two fingers, she opened the blinds and peeked out the window at porch lights turning on halfway down the street. Inquisitive neighbors wanted to know what the ruckus was about. She hoped no one called it in. It would be embarrassing to have the police swarm the house with guns drawn. Officer Chris Zimmerman might be the only one who would understand, and forgive her for testing the alarm so late at night.

  Suddenly she was starving. It was as if her stomach was eating itself from the inside out. She desperately wanted a cheeseburger. She snatched her bag and car keys, and headed out to the Jeep. Nothing was open this time of night. Nothing but Gina’s Stop ’N Go. She loaded the dog onto the passenger seat and backed out the driveway.r />
  As if she’d been waiting, Gina opened the door when Allie arrived. “I was about to lock up. What are you doing here so late?” She looked over Allie’s shoulder to the dog standing on the driver’s seat, paws on the wheel to watch them. “You run out of dog food?” She glanced at her watch. “Come on in, girl.”

  Allie hesitated in the doorway.

  “There’s no closing time for you.” Gina ushered her in and shut the door. “We can catch up on gossip. Chris is home with Li’l Z tonight. Omigosh, I can’t believe I called my son that! Those guys at the station are incorrigible. They even bought Mikey a little police vest that says Li’l Z across the back. I didn’t name him after my father so everyone could call him some rapper name.”

  She stopped and reached out for Allie’s hand. “Are you okay? You’re so pale, you almost look Caucasian.” Her smile faded. “Seriously, are you coming down with something? Would you like to sit down?”

  “Do you have any cheeseburgers? I really need a cheeseburger.” Allie could think of nothing else. The desire was so great, it was all consuming. “And a Budweiser.”

  “A cheeseburger? You, Alyssa Brody, want a hunk of fried cow? You are sick. When did you start eating beef? Not that there’s anything wrong with beef, but—”

  “And a beer. I need a beer.” Allie stared past Gina at the rows of shiny cans glittering in the fridge.

  One hand on her hip, Gina positioned herself between Allie and the coolers. “You don’t drink, remember? Bad things happen, you lose your freaking mind and stuff. We’ve talked about it over chamomile tea, like a million times. What’s going on? Do I need to call an exorcist or something?”

  “What?” Oily black shadows swirled in her mind, and then vaporized. “I don’t… I don’t know why that came out of my mouth. Burgers are disgusting. And if I was ever stupid enough to drink alcohol again, it wouldn’t be beer.”

  “It would be that blueberry wine Erin’s mom makes,” Gina finished. “That stuff’s yummy.” Her mouth smiled, but her eyes were still worried. “Seriously, do you want me to call someone? Your mom? Erin?”