White Ginger

by Thatcher Robinson

  She glanced at him. “I have a strange feeling today is just going to be one of those days.”

  He looked at her and grinned as he crossed his arms. “Think of this as an adventure. And look on the bright side. We’re getting closer to finding out who wants you dead.”

  She frowned in response. “I’m having a hard time finding solace in that.”

  He looked out across the valley and took a deep breath. When he spoke again, his tone was more sober. “Is the loss on this property going to hurt you?”

  She turned her head to look at his profile. “Not as much as the loss of a friend. I’m not really worried about the money. Grandfather always said, ‘Fortune and flowers do not last forever.’ But if Benny’s come to harm, it will be up to me to make things right.”

  He reached out to find her hand. “It’s up to us to make things right.”

  She was grateful for his offer—and for his friendship. Still, she worried about the danger they would face. Whoever was behind the land swindle had already shown they wouldn’t stop at murder.

  “It might be better if you stayed clear of this,” she said.

  He assumed an injured air. “Aw . . . do you doubt my abilities, Grasshopper?”

  She shook her head. “I just think maybe it’s my fate to take responsibility for Benny. If only he’d come to me before buying this property, we might have avoided all this.”

  He let out a long sigh and stared at her until she turned to meet his gaze. “I imagine Benny wanted to surprise you. He’s always been more than a little smitten by you. It’s easy to understand his motives.”

  She considered her long association with Benny. “He’s had a crush on me since the first grade,” she admitted, kicking at the ground. “The guy’s a putz—but a sweet putz. I just want him to be all right.”

  She looked over the treetops below and wondered if Benny was down there, maybe held hostage or injured. She didn’t want to think he might be dead.

  “It’s time,” Lee advised her. “Race has had more than an hour to work his way around the valley. Do you want me to drive?”

  The question didn’t require much thought. “I’ll drive. You’re better with a gun. You ride shotgun and keep a sharp lookout.”

  He started to turn away then hesitated. “What am I looking for?”

  “Anything that can shoot back,” she replied, walking around the car to the driver’s side.

  Before getting in, she again pulled the Beretta out of its holster in the small of her back to place it within easy reach on the center console. Lee plopped down in the seat next to her then held his gun up in a two-handed grip in front of his face.

  “Fast or slow?” she asked.

  He smiled nervously. “Slow, I think, unless somebody shoots at us . . . then fast—very, very fast.”

  She put the car into gear to pull forward at a hesitant five miles an hour. The car thumped off the paved road and onto the dirt track. She steered with both hands gripped tightly on the steering wheel as the car slowly rolled down the steep dirt incline toward the valley below.

  Raindrops plopped intermittently onto the windshield. More rain quickly fell: big drops, plunking against the car like pellets against a tin can. The wind subsided as the rain became a deluge. The road turned to mud, and the shallow grooves in the track became puddles.

  She kept the car creeping forward, slowly but steadily. Windshield wipers slapped back and forth on high. The whipping blades allowed only brief glimpses of the surrounding woods.

  “If we can’t see them,” Lee noted, “it’s likely they can’t see us, which may be to our advantage.”

  “Like blind mice,” she acknowledged. “When I imagined racing down here to rescue Benny, this wasn’t how I pictured it. It’s hard to be dashing at five miles an hour.”

  “‘Man has a thousand plans, heaven but one.’”

  “I’m pretty sure heaven has nothing to do with this mess,” she assured him.

  About a mile into the valley, the road leveled out. Oak trees and manzanita scrub bordered the road on both sides. The dirt track widened to the width of a fire lane.

  The storm slowed to a heavy downpour as large raindrops fell from a gunmetal sky. Bai slowed the car as she spied something blocking the road in the distance. After a few seconds, she braked to bring the car to a complete stop.

  “Didn’t Benny drive an old Mercedes-Benz?” asked Lee.

  “Yeah, a gray one.”

  “I think that’s it up ahead.” His voice sounded subdued.

  She looked aside at him. “What are you thinking?”

  He stared at the surrounding woods with a penetrating gaze. “Do you see how close to the road those trees are, the ones up ahead on the approach to his car?”

  She looked to where he pointed. The dense copse of trees bordered both sides of the road.

  “What about them?”

  “If I had to pick a spot for an ambush, that’s the place I’d pick. Driving past those trees we’d be an easy target.”

  She looked again at the copse of trees next to the road. A ditch, some kind of drainage canal, ran alongside the road on the driver’s side. The channel cut through the trees next to the road to disappear from sight in tangled brush. She suggested, “I could walk down that ditch and cover you while you bring the car up slowly.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” he said, opening his door. “I’ll walk down the ditch, and you drive the car. I’m better at skulking than you. Wait here until I get in place.”

  He jumped out of the car before she could nix his plan. He ran behind the car and slid into the ditch feet first. Waving to her with his gun, he hunkered down and slogged forward to disappear from sight. She waited with the car idling while she watched for his signal. When she saw a hand in the distance waving above the ditch, she knew he was in position. Her foot came off the brake pedal to let the car slowly roll forward.

  She didn’t hear the shot that put a hole in the windshield, but she felt the wind as the glass spider-webbed. As she turned her head away, she saw the passenger-side headrest explode. Bits of foam flew in all directions, while cracked glass obscured her view ahead. She reflexively hit the gas. The car swerved to the side then careened wildly on the muddy road as another volley of bullets punched through the roof of the car.

  There was no way to tell where the shots were coming from. She yanked the steering wheel to swerve the car in the opposite direction to correct the slide and pushed the gas pedal to the floor. The engine roared in response. Race stepped out from behind a tree on the right side of the road. His rifle was aimed in her direction. She ducked and heard a small explosion. The car pulled to the left, spinning around in a half circle, completely out of control as it drifted, back end first, toward the ditch, where it slid into the trench sideways.

  For Bai, everything shifted into slow motion. Adrenaline surged through her body. Loud, wrenching groans erupted from the car as the passenger side plunged into the muck of the ditch. The seat belt cut into her shoulder when the car lurched onto its side then rocked back to cant at a forty-five-degree angle. The engine screamed, wheels spinning in the mud.

  Her foot slipped off the pedal. The engine quieted. She lifted her head from where her cheek lay pressed against the passenger seat cushion and tried to get her bearings. A concussive blast from behind threw her violently forward against the seat belt. Sounds of screaming shrapnel and rending metal filled the air. The car shuddered and the engine died.

  She thought the gas tank on the Beamer had exploded. Her first instinct was to bail out of the car. The seat belt refused to release; she was trapped. Her second instinct was to scream mindlessly with fright. She managed that admirably.

  She stopped screaming abruptly when she realized she was still alive and there weren’t any flames. The car was pointed in the direction from which she’d come. She poked her head up hesitantly to look through a hole in the windshield and saw Lee wading frantically though the ditch toward her. He stumbled, one
arm dangling limply at his side, his gun gripped tightly in his other hand. Rage and fear contorted his features.

  He yelled, “Bai! Bai, are you all right?”

  He leaned against the hood of the car to peer through the fractured windshield. She met his eyes and grinned foolishly while objects other than water rained down from above—bits of tree and debris.

  Something larger landed with a thump on the hood of the car. She stared through the windshield at the burnt fingers of a hand and saw a school ring. It was Benny’s ring.

  Lee stared at the hand, obviously mesmerized by its sudden appearance. He shook himself and shoved the hand off the hood of the car with the barrel of his gun. Then he looked through the window to meet her shell-shocked gaze.

  “Can you move?” he yelled. The sound of his voice seemed to echo inside the car. “We need to get out of here!”

  He looked around frantically, his gun held at the ready.

  “I don’t think I’m hurt,” she muttered as she swung around in her seat and used the palm of her hand to hammer at the release on the safety belt. It snapped open to drop her across the console, head first, up against the passenger door. As she lay there, she could see her gun on the floor below the passenger seat. She grabbed it before squirming upright to wiggle around and stare through the splintered windshield.

  Lee stared back across the hood of the car with a concerned look on his face. He yelled, “Kick out the windshield! It’s your only way out!”

  Bai wasn’t sure why he felt the need to yell. She put the soles of her shoes against the glass and gave a trial push with her legs. The window surprised her and popped out effortlessly to screech across the hood of the car. She scrambled after it as fast as she could and joined Lee in the ditch. They stood in water past their ankles.

  “What happened?” she gasped.

  He stared at her. Rain dripped off the end of his nose “Bang, bang . . . bang, bang . . . BOOM!” He cocked his head and seemed to gather his thoughts. “I couldn’t see anything in this ditch. Bullets were flying, and shit was blowing up. The explosion knocked me on my ass. Something plowed into my arm.”

  She looked at his arm, which hung at his side.

  “The last thing I saw was Race stepping out from behind a tree to shoot at me.” Her words felt disembodied, as if she were observing someone else speak.

  He looked startled and turned to lean against the hood of the car. “Well, I guess that answers the question as to whether or not we can trust him.” He raised the gun in his hand. “I hate killing pretty men. It seems such a waste.”

  Bai’s hand reached out toward Lee. “How bad is the arm?”

  He shifted around to put the injury out of her reach. “It’s broken.” He caught himself and turned back to her. “Sorry. I’m a little out of sorts. Intense pain does that to me.”

  “Maybe I can help,” she offered. “Do you want me to strap it to your side?”

  He took a step back to look at her warily. “I’d rather you found some other small animal to torture. I’ll have it set when we get out of here. Speaking of which, now seems like a good time to leave—before somebody figures out we’re still alive and finishes the job.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t leave yet. I need to find Race. I need to find out what’s going on.” She pointed at the driver’s side tire that rested against the side of the ditch. “That looks like a bullet hole. I don’t think Race was trying to kill me.”

  Annoyed by her stubborn refusal, he glared at her. “‘Of all the stratagems, to know when to quit is the best.’”

  “Yeah, well, you know me. I never know when to quit.”

  She turned away to look for a way out of the ditch.

  “I think sticking around here is a really, really bad idea,” he argued. “We have a pretty good idea that Benny’s dead. That was his hand, wasn’t it?”

  She turned around to look at him. “The hand was wearing his class ring. I think we can safely assume Benny is dead.”

  She realized he was making sense. They were obviously out-gunned and out-maneuvered. Lee was wounded, and Elizabeth’s car was history.

  “Don’t you think maybe we should quit while we’re behind?” he said.

  “Your objection is noted, but I have to find out if Race is still alive. And I have to find out what the hell happened here. I can’t leave without answers. It isn’t in my nature.”

  She regarded the tightness of his jaw and decided to temper her answer. “As soon as I get some answers we’ll scurry back down this ditch like the scared, drowned rats we are. I promise. In the meantime, let’s find a way out of this slimy hole.”

  The car was slippery with water and mud. The chassis tilted into the ditch. She managed to scramble up the hood of the car and use the side of the sedan as a platform while hanging on to some scrubby plants that grew along the gully. Using the plants as a screen, she inched up to survey the road. Lee climbed gingerly up beside her to see for himself what the terrain looked like.

  The area outside the ditch looked like a war zone. Small fires burned here and there on the wet ground. Rain helped dampen flames that sputtered and sizzled. Tree sap popped like firecrackers. Branches burned brightly in a twenty-foot radius around the spot where Benny’s car had been sitting.

  The old Mercedes was a charred mass of crumpled metal, a twisted pretzel. Nearby oaks had been stripped naked. Pale trunks stood stark against the backdrop of a gray sky.

  The area of devastation extended well past where Bai leaned against the side of the trench. The ditch had protected her from the brunt of the blast. Even so, the back windshield of the Beamer had been blown into the backseat, while the trunk looked as if it had been peppered with shotgun blasts from debris thrown against the thin metal panels.

  Her eyes tracked to the last place she’d seen Race. She couldn’t find him. Then she saw something stirring. A mound of dirt with branches and leaves shifted to reveal a person.

  She pointed to where he was lying next to a large oak. “It’s Race, and he’s hurt.”

  Lee turned to stare at her. “What do you want to do?”

  They were soaked to the skin and splattered with mud. Lee had only one good arm. She looked back at Race lying on the wet ground and came to a decision. “I’m not leaving him like that.”

  The look on Lee’s face was incredulous. “Are you sure he wasn’t trying to kill you?”

  “Look around,” she insisted, gesturing with her arm. “Where would I be if I’d been caught by the blast when Benny’s car exploded?”

  He looked around with a conflicted expression on his face.

  “He shot my tire out, Lee. If he’d wanted to kill me he would have shot me in the head. But he didn’t. He shot my tire. He wanted me in the ditch. He saved my life.”

  Lee looked at the devastation on the road and the relative safety of the trench. “Shit!” he swore. “I was just getting used to hating the guy.”

  She nodded her head toward the other side of the road. “Cover me while I see how badly he’s hurt.”

  Lee didn’t look happy with her plan but nodded in agreement. “All right, but if somebody starts shooting, you find a tree to hide behind and forget about him. You can’t help him if you’re dead.”

  She shoved her gun back into its holster and scrambled up the side of the muddy ditch by grabbing hold of burnt manzanita bushes. Using the blackened scrub for cover, she crawled toward the road on all fours before crouching to sprint across the dirt track and into the trees on the other side.

  Nobody shot at her—a good sign. Playing it safe, she scrambled from tree to tree to maintain cover as she worked her way toward Race. When she finally got to him, she slid down into the mud next to him. She stayed low as she brushed branches, dirt, and leaves away.

  He lay face-down. His cap was missing, and there was a cut on his temple where something had sliced him. The gash looked deep. Blood ran from the wound. She rolled him over slowly to look for other injuries. He moaned. His eyes
blinked open to look at her.

  “Shooter . . . on the ridge,” he said haltingly. “Think I got him . . . not sure.” He blinked some more. His eyes were dilated. She feared he had a concussion or possibly something worse.

  She got on her knees to unsnap his vest. She pulled open his shirt to examine his chest and felt his back for injuries. There wasn’t any blood. When she checked his legs she found more reason for concern. He had a laceration on his inner thigh that bled profusely.

  “You’re bleeding,” she said to him as she pulled off her belt to use as a tourniquet. A snapping branch startled her. She jerked around reflexively. Lee stood over her with his gun in his good hand as he watched the surrounding woods.

  “I got tired of waiting for you,” he said, as if she were somehow to blame. “How bad is he?”

  “I can’t tell.” She pulled the belt tight around Race’s thigh. “Do you have any signal here with that super phone you carry?”

  He put his gun in his waistband and pulled the phone out of his pocket to look at it. “We’ll never know.” His voice was dismal. “It seems this particular model isn’t waterproof. It must have drowned in the ditch when the explosion flattened me.”

  Race raised a hand, and then seemed to forget what he was going to say. Bai looked down at him. He smiled.

  “You’re so pretty,” he said, his eyes closing.

  “Head wound must have caused brain damage,” Lee observed dryly.

  “Men pick the strangest times to get romantic,” she observed as she fished her phone out of her pocket.

  The phone was dry but had no signal. She started looking through Race’s vest, hoping he had a phone that worked. She found pain medication in a first-aid kit—codeine and an ampule of morphine.

  She handed the codeine to Lee. “For the arm.”

  He looked at the drugs, nodded in appreciation, and downed the pills without water.

  “I like him better already,” he said grudgingly.

  She finally found a phone tucked into a pocket on the inside of Race’s vest. It was an odd-looking phone—old-fashioned and bigger than the one she carried. She opened it up to look at it.