by Gregg Stutts
He accelerated slightly to pull even with the cab of the truck and watched as his tail kept pace with him. With just one-tenth of a mile to the exit, he pressed on the accelerator to pull slightly ahead of the truck while remaining in the middle lane.
Lord, please don’t let me startle this truck driver too badly.
With only a couple hundred feet to the exit, a distance he would close in just a second or two, Willy stomped on the accelerator and veered quickly back into the right lane, missing the front bumper of the truck by inches, then continued onto the exit ramp at over seventy-five miles per hour. The pursuing car never had time to react and was stuck in the middle lane with no chance of making it onto the ramp.
Willy hit the brakes hard. The wheels locked up and his truck veered hard toward the embankment. His right front tire hit a patch of loose gravel on the shoulder. He pumped the brake pedal while easing his truck back onto the pavement. A second later, he came to a full stop at a red light at the end of the ramp where he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. His heart felt like it was going to come out of his chest.
The light turned green and he turned right and drove a mile before turning into the car rental lot. He checked behind him before pulling around the side of the building away from the road where no one would see his truck. He shut off the motor and went inside where he was greeted by a pretty young woman behind the counter.
“Do you have a reservation?” she asked.
“I don’t,” he said, “but if you’ve got a mid-size, I’d like it for a couple days.”
“I have a Nissan Altima or…let me see, a Dodge Avenger.”
“The Avenger is tempting, but I don’t need to be attracting the ladies. My wife might get jealous.”
“I quite understand, sir. The Altima it is,” she said. “I’ll just need a driver’s license and credit card.”
Willy pulled them from his wallet and handed them to her. While she clicked away on the keyboard getting all of his information entered, he walked to the window and looked outside. He wasn’t surprised there was no sign of the car that had been following him, but now wasn’t the time to get cocky.
“Alright, I think we’re all set,” the woman said after a couple minutes. “I just need you to initial in the places I’ve circled, then sign by the X.” After he finished, she handed him his license and credit card. “Here you go, Mr. Barwell.”
“Please, call me Harry,” Willy said.
“Okay, Harry, just follow me outside and we’ll take a look at your car.”
Willy slid the license and credit card back into his wallet and followed her outside. He’d have to get used to being called Harry Barwell again.
Chapter 73
Before he left the hotel, Max prayed with Michelle for God to lead and protect them. The butterflies in his stomach were in full flight as he pulled into the mall parking lot outside the food court entrance. It was 11:50. He didn’t plan to go inside until a couple minutes after noon. He scanned the parking lot for Blair Morgan or anyone else who looked suspicious, but saw no one. Surely by now, Leon McQueen had let her know what had happened.
He kept an eye on the mall entrance and felt his phone buzz. “Josh!” he said. “Are you okay?”
“Oh yeah, hey coach. Yeah, I’m good.”
“Good, good,” Max said. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. Where are you now?”
“Maybe I shouldn’t say, if you know what I mean,” Josh said.
“Yeah, I understand. Good idea.”
“Well, listen coach, the reason I’m calling is that I thought I should tell you something.”
“What is it?”
“Well, that…item…you had me look at and…all the stuff…was off of it?”
Max was impressed with Josh’s caution. “Yeah, what about it?” Max said.
“The thing is…I just thought you should know…”
“What is it, Josh? What did you do?”
“I made a copy.”
“A copy?”
“Yeah, before I met you the other night, I downloaded everything on it. Contacts. Notes. Call history. Emails. All of it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me when we met?”
“I didn’t have a chance to confirm it actually worked, but when I popped the flash drive into my laptop, I was able to access some of the files.”
“Okay, let me think,” Max said. “So, you’ve got everything that was on…the item…and it’s all on a flash drive.”
“Now I don’t know if I’ve got everything, but there’s some stuff,” Josh said. “If you want it, you can have it.”
“Where is it?”
“It’s with me. Do you want to meet at the coffee shop again?”
Max watched as Blair Morgan entered the mall. “No, not at the coffee shop. I’ll call you back.”
“Sure thing, coach.”
“Josh, don’t tell anyone else about what you have or where you got it. And be very careful. Watch your back.”
“Will do,” Josh said.
At four minutes after noon, Max got out of the van and walked to the mall entrance. As he approached the food court, he failed to notice the man thirty feet behind him…or the second man fifty feet behind him.
Chapter 74
Max walked past the phone store and the pizza place. A large cheese pizza was just coming out of the oven and smelled delicious. He was tempted to get a slice, but instead he reached into his pocket and popped two antacids into his mouth while looking over the food court for Blair. Then he saw her sitting at a table by herself.
He approached her from behind, looked around him in all directions and sat down in the chair across the table from her.
“Well, Max Henry, it’s so nice to meet you,” she said.
“I guess your boy recovered enough to call you.” Max continued watching in all directions, especially behind him.
“No, he’s not here,” she said. “No need to worry.”
“You’ll excuse me if I don’t believe you.” He studied her as she took a sip of whatever she was drinking. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, seemed very sure of herself and was very easy to look at. Her blue eyes were hypnotic and her red lips looked like they belonged on a magazine cover.
“Well, that’s no way to begin our relationship,” she said.
He caught himself staring at her. She grinned as if she was used to the attention. He ignored her comment and said, “Relationship? I don’t think so. I know you’re a liar.”
She set her cup down, placed her forearms on the table and leaned closer to him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you do,” he said looking over his shoulder then quickly back to her.
“Calling someone a liar is a serious allegation, Max, but I still don’t know what it is you think I’m lying about.”
She was playing dumb, probably afraid he was wearing a wire. “Let’s just say I know what happened at the marina and you know what happened at the marina. And you lied about it on television.”
“Of course, we both know what happened at the marina,” she said. “Dan Jenkins killed four cops before turning the gun on himself proving to everyone exactly why we need a law meant to protect the children of Lakeside.”
“Wow, lady, you’re good. You almost sound like you actually believe it yourself. No wonder you’re able to sell it to everyone else.”
“The only way you could possibly have any reason to accuse me of lying is if…you were there yourself, Max. Were you there that night? At the marina?”
He said nothing, but couldn’t help staring at her mouth as she talked. Then it occurred to him that she might be the one wearing the wire. He needed to watch what he said.
“Because if you were there…and left the scene…then I believe that would be a crime,” she said. “You didn’t commit a crime, did you, Max?” She took a sip of her drink and leaned back in her chair. “I mean, in addition to assault and battery against my associate last night. And oh, I be
lieve Mr. McQueen mentioned you were in possession of a gun.” She grinned. “Don’t forget to turn that into the police once our new law is in effect.”
He looked around again, then leaned across the table to get closer to her. Unfortunately, she smelled as good as she looked. “I don’t know who you are or what you’re up to, but I know you’re lying and I’ll prove it. You had something to do with Dan Jenkins and four cops being killed.”
She stared back at him. Her eyes glanced quickly around the food court. “You can make all the accusations you want, Max. None of them will stick. But may I make a suggestion?”
“Go ahead,” he said. “Make all the suggestions you want.”
Her eyes narrowed as she leaned close again. “I suggest you watch your back…”
He laughed. “The last guy who said that to me is dead.”
“Go ahead and laugh now,” she said. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Yeah, well thanks for the warning. It means so much to know you care.”
She stood up to leave. Max didn’t move. She leaned down and whispered in his ear, “This is so much bigger than you realize. You’ll do yourself, and your little family, a favor by staying out of this.”
He shot from his chair, which tumbled to the floor, and stood face-to-face with her. Everyone at the nearby tables turned to look. Through gritted teeth, he said quietly, “If you ever do anything to my family…I promise I will…”
“Please finish,” she said. “You’ll do what?”
He looked over her right shoulder and saw a familiar face smiling at him.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She turned and walked away.
Max watched her walk away. “We’ll see how confident you are when I release the contents of Dan Jenkins’ cell phone.”
She stopped and turned around. She hadn’t expected to hear him say that. There must be something she wouldn’t want made public. Hopefully, Josh had found something he could use against her.
“You’re bluffing,” she said and walked away.
“We’ll see about that,” he said.
Chapter 75
“Good afternoon, Max.”
“Willy, what are you doing here? How did you know I’d be at the mall?”
“I had no idea you’d be here. You said you were in Fayetteville, but I didn’t know you were coming here.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“Following someone.”
“Following someone? I thought you were the one being followed.”
“I was.”
“But now you’re following someone?” Max said. “Who?”
“The guy who was following me yesterday,” Willy said. “That’s him right behind Ms. Morgan.”
Max looked to the exit and saw a muscular man with dark hair following Blair outside. “You were following him?”
“I lost him this morning, then as Rose and I were driving down to Fayetteville to meet you and Michelle, he passed me on the interstate. I could hardly believe it myself. Anyway, I hate being followed, so I pulled the ‘ole switch-a-roo,” Willy said.
“The ‘ole switch-a-roo?”
“Well, I guess it’s technically a counterintelligence operation,” Willy said. “But you get the point.”
“Counterintelligence? What are you talking about?”
Willy smiled, put his hand on Max’s shoulder and said, “We have a lot to talk about, Max. But first, we need to get out of here. I believe Mr. Muscles there is going to come back looking for you.”
Chapter 76
Blair turned to the man following her and said, “Are you really as stupid as I think you are?”
“What now?”
“Do I have to spell it out?” she said. “Max Henry. Follow him. And try not to lose him like you did the old man. Do you think you can handle that?”
“I can handle it,” he said as he turned to go back inside the mall.
Blair got into her Mercedes, locked the doors and took a deep breath before placing the call. It rang several times before he picked up.
“It’s me,” she said.
“I know who it is,” the man said. “What does he know?”
“He doesn’t know anything,” she lied.
“So, he wanted to meet with you to tell you he doesn’t know anything?”
“He’s a high school football coach,” she said. “He’s not a threat.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
She hated being interrogated by him like her father had. “I had Leon watching him. He must have noticed and confronted him in his car last night. Took him by surprise. Got his wallet and phone. He found my number and called me.”
“Leon’s an idiot,” the man said. “And you’re no better for hiring him. Why would you have him tailing the coach?”
“After you said a couple of your men questioned the old man, I...”
“And my men said the old man is harmless.” He was getting louder.
“I just thought I should keep an eye on him. And then he kept spending time with the coach. So I had them both followed.”
The man didn’t respond. She looked at her phone thinking the call had been dropped. And then he spoke. “You thought...you thought...” Silence again. “You’re not hired to think! You’re hired to do what we tell you!” He was yelling now.
She shut her eyes and silently counted to five. She heard him sigh and could picture him shaking his head. She didn’t like being on his bad side, but hated even more being patronized by him.
“I’m getting tired of cleaning up your mistakes,” he said. “By the way, it took us twenty minutes to get the phone erased from the moment it went live.”
“And?” she said.
“I’m saying twenty minutes is a long time. Whoever had it could have seen a lot,” the man said. “Is there anything on his phone that could incriminate any of us?”
“How am I supposed to know what Dan had on his phone?” She didn’t tell him that Max claimed to know what was on the phone, which if true, could mean he was at the marina or at least knew someone who was.
“But isn’t that your job?” he said. “Were you not given responsibility for Lakeside?”
She could feel her face flushing. “Look, I completed my assignment. The law passed. As soon as this election is over, it’ll go into effect and the people of Lakeside will have hardly made a peep about it. If I’m also expected to keep tabs…”
“Enough!”
She had pushed him too far. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’ve made some mistakes. I trusted some incompetent people. Like Leon.”
“Yes, well, you’ll have to answer for that when the time comes. Right now, you better hope there was nothing on that phone. In the meantime, I’ve got my guys trying to track down who had it. All we’ve got to go on are the GPS coordinates of where it went active.”
She was about to say something else, but he’d hung up. She put the phone in her purse and started the car. She needed to find out what Max Henry actually knew. She suspected he was just bluffing after finding her number on Leon, but if he did know something, he needed to be stopped.
Chapter 77
Over lunch, Max brought Willy up to speed on taking Leon out with just one punch, taking his wallet and calling Blair Morgan. Willy listened attentively and nodded a lot. To Max, it looked like Willy was taking in all the new information and analyzing it before responding. It was hard to tell if he approved. After recounting the entire story, he took a bite of his cheeseburger and waited for Willy to say something.
Willy finished the last of his onion rings, wiped his mouth and said, “Max, I do wish you’d told me about having Dan’s phone.”
“I should have,” he said. “I forgot I even had it that first night. Then I put it in some rice and…”
“You don’t have to explain,” Willy said. “No more secrets though, okay?”
Max nodded in agreement. “I’ll be right back. I need to use the restroom.”
&n
bsp; As Max was heading back to the table, their server was dropping off the credit card receipt for Willy to sign. What caught his ear was her calling him “Mr. Barwell” and Willy telling her to just call him “Harry.”
