We followed the track, sprinting between the rails.
Fifteen yards to the edge. Ten.
I glanced over my shoulder. The guards were still gaining on us. Willed my legs faster.
Five yards.
JT stopped dead. I skidded to a halt beside him. Looked down, saw the problem: a sheer drop, at least eight feet on to sloping, uneven ground. In the distance, across maybe ten acres of grassland, was the staff parking lot.
He turned to me. ‘Your call.’
There was a strange humming sound. The rails on either side of us were vibrating. I looked at JT. ‘The rollercoaster. We can use it to—’
‘Stop right there,’ a man’s voice yelled.
I whipped round. The security guards were closing in on us fast. Another few yards and they’d have us in taser range.
The humming grew louder. The rails vibrated faster. We were gonna have to jump. I raised an eyebrow at JT. He nodded.
Frosty Looper rounded the bend, hurtling towards us. For a second I didn’t move, just stared at the front of the rollercoaster, at its brightly painted green-and-blue cars, at the kids screaming in the front seats. Watched the security guards leap off the track, their expressions angry, like dogs when the squirrel they’re chasing darts up a tree. Next moment, they’d disappeared behind the rollercoaster as it shot along the rails in front of them, blocking their path. The rails on either side of me whined and pinged.
I jumped.
A brief moment of flight, then the ground met me. Stony and unforgiving. I bent my knees on impact, rolled to reduce the jarring. Scrambled up. Kept moving.
The rollercoaster looped the loop above us. The screams growing louder.
‘Come on.’ JT set off downhill towards the parking lot.
Before I began to follow, I glanced back at the ledge. No guards. They’d not followed us. Why? That’s when I realised. The drop-off was man-made; a chunk of the hillside had been cut away. Boulders, painted blue, had been used to reinforce the hillside, to stop landslides.
‘Keep moving,’ JT yelled back at me.
But I couldn’t go. We’d missed something. Given his physical limitations Scott never would’ve made the jump. He’d have taken another route; a route that the security guards chasing us most likely knew. ‘Wait. We need to—’
JT grabbed my arm, his fingers dug into my flesh. I tried to pull away. He wouldn’t let go, squeezed my arm tighter, pulling me with him. ‘There’s no time.’
I smacked his hand away. ‘Listen. The guards didn’t try the jump. Scott wouldn’t have either. He’d have used another route, gone around the drop, come out further along.’ I pointed uphill to the spot where the drop-off tapered to merge into the natural incline. ‘He’d have come around there. We need to check if there’s a place he’d have hidden the device along his route.’
JT didn’t reply. He didn’t need to, I could guess what he was thinking: another assumption, his rule broken. Again.
I looked back up the hillside. ‘I wasn’t asking permission.’
‘Lori, the guards will be on us any minute. It’s a hell of a—’
Ignoring him, I set off up the slope at the run. There wasn’t time to argue. He was right, the guards would be around the drop-off and on to us soon enough. I had to find the device before they were.
I stuck close to the drop-off. The buttress holding back the earth was made of hardened plastic laid vertically into the cut-out hillside. The blue boulders were just cladding, window dressing for riders of the rollercoaster who might glimpse them. Wild flowers and creepers had grown over the rocks, their roots wound tight into crevices. I scanned the gaps. None was big enough to fit the device. Kept searching.
I heard a noise, turned. JT was following a little ways behind me, watching for the guards.
We heard the static crackle of a radio at the same moment. I flinched. JT bounded towards me, grabbed my shoulder, forcing me to turn. ‘We gotta go. You’re no use to her caught.’
It was too late. I heard the guards’ voices. Glanced at the end of the drop-off ten yards away. Couldn’t see them, but knew they’d be on us in seconds.
There was no place to hide.
I heard another burst of static. Louder this time.
JT tightened his grip, tried to pull me back down the slope. ‘Lori, come on.’
Out the corner of my eye, I noticed movement. A couple of yards further ahead the creeper trailing over the boulders was moving in the breeze. ‘Wait, look.’
I shook JT’s hand away, hurried towards the creeper. Its growth was thicker here, denser. It hung curtain-like from the top of the drop-off to the ground. Reaching out, I pressed my hand into the plant, then through it, into a gap in the rock cladding, an alcove maybe two feet wide and three feet deep. I yanked the plant aside. ‘Quick, in here.’
JT leapt into the alcove beside me.
‘Do you think this is where Scott came to—’
JT pressed his finger to my lips, and let the creeper drop back into place across the opening, shutting out the light. I flattened my back against the rocks. Froze.
I heard another burst of radio static and a set of footsteps, getting closer.
In the cramped space I could feel the warmth of JT’s body just inches from mine. Heard him breathing, slow and shallow. I stayed real still, my palms pressed tight against the stones behind me. A bug crawled across my hand. I resisted the urge to flick it away.
Outside, the footsteps grew louder. Stopped. Waiting. A long moment later, I heard more footsteps; the second guard. They muttered to each other, comparing notes, getting their breath back.
I felt a trickle of sweat run along my spine and longed to wipe it off. I looked over at JT. He shook his head slowly, glanced towards the creeper.
One of the guards’ radios beeped. He answered, then waited as the person on the other end spoke. I heard him grunt, and say yes. Then the guards muttered again to each other. Moments later I heard footsteps as they moved away.
Still we waited. Was it a ruse to lure us out? Were they searching nearby, so that, as soon as we stepped from the alcove, we’d be spotted? It was a hard call to make. Behind the creeper curtain we were virtually blind to the outside world. Whenever we broke our cover we’d be vulnerable.
And so we waited.
Minutes passed; hot, sweaty minutes. All the while I was acutely aware of how close JT was, of the small space we were in getting hotter, and our breathing getting louder. I hoped to hell the guards really had gone, and that we’d finally caught ourselves some luck.
I thought about Dakota, her image freeze-framed on the video. Her haunting eyes gazing terrified into the lens. I’d had enough of waiting. Had to find the device. Had to know if this was the place Scott had it hidden.
Twisting myself around to face the wall, I ran my hands along the rocks, looking for a big enough gap. The stone was rough beneath my fingers. JT moved a little further towards the entrance, giving me a fraction more space.
Without slowing my search, I whispered to him, ‘What is this place?’
‘A drainage shoot, I guess. Lets the water filter through in a storm. Stops water damage.’
Made sense. ‘You think it’s the place?’
‘Only one way to know for sure.’
I searched as fast and as thoroughly as I could. It was too dark to see properly, and too risky to draw back the creeper that shielded us, so I explored the gaps between each rock by feel.
Low down in the left corner, my fingers touched fabric. ‘I have something.’
Behind me, I felt JT shuffle closer. ‘The device?’
I pulled at the fabric. It had been wedged tight into a crevice between two large rocks. Hooking my fingers into the gap on either side, I eased it out. Beneath the folds lay something solid, rectangular. My heartbeat accelerated.
I unfolded the material and stared at the object in my hand: a silver portable hard drive. ‘I’ve got it.’
JT exhaled. ‘Then we need to get o
ut of here.’
I straightened up, twisted back around to face JT. ‘Wait. Tell me why you broke the terms of the truce with Old Man Bonchese.’
‘Emerson.’
‘Yeah, I got that. But why? What happened that was so damn bad it made you cross the state line to get to him?’
He looked away. ‘Her name is Kat. Katherine. She’s eleven years old.’
Despite the heat, I shivered. Felt the hair on my arms stand on end.
JT’s expression was sad in the dim light. ‘She lives in a place in Martinez run by Child Services – Sunnyview Children’s Home. I help them out every now and then: odd jobs, handyman stuff to keep the place nice.’
‘Why?’
He sighed. ‘That trouble between Merv and me, the fight that got me found guilty? – did six weeks’ community service for it, assigned to Sunnyview. Kinda liked helping out. Those kids don’t have shit, playing ball once a week made a big difference to them.’ He looked down. ‘To me as well.’
I nodded. What he said matched with the details in the police file Quinn had sent. Pops’ words about JT came back to me: He’s changed. Maybe he had. Maybe he didn’t want to be the loner anymore.
‘Kat was nine when she ended up at Sunnyview. Her father had never been around, her mom drank and then some. That last night she’d added oxy to her binge and wound up DOA at the emergency room. The kid found her after getting up in the middle of the night for a glass of water. Smart girl dialled 911 when she realised her momma wasn’t breathing.’
‘Shit.’
‘Didn’t do no good. Her mom was dead, and, without any close relatives, she ended up at Sunnyview. It was five weeks before Kat spoke. She said her first words to me.’ He paused. ‘After that she did real good. Went to school, settled at the home. Every time I went she’d help me with whatever I was fixing. Asked me to go to father-and-daughter day at school.’ He shook his head. ‘Few months ago, Sunnyview Children’s Home came here on a trip organised by some local roundtable. Kat got separated from the other kids. She was gone ninety minutes. They found her sitting in the smoking area off Main Street. She was dazed and crying, and had lost one of her shoes. No one knew how she’d gotten there. Kat wouldn’t say; she stopped talking again.’ He shook his head. ‘The park brushed it off as nothing. We tried reporting it, but the cops didn’t want to help, said it sounded like a lost kid who already got found, not a crime. Course, now I know they’re in Emerson’s pocket anyways.’
‘Jesus.’ What else could I say? Nothing seemed enough.
A muscle pulsed in his cheek. ‘A week later, Kat still wasn’t speaking. I asked her if someone had hurt her and she nodded. Emerson’s people, they’d made a mistake. Kat’s older than the kids they usually took, and tall for her age. They must have calculated the drug dosage wrong. She had memories of being taken. When I asked her to draw me a picture of who hurt her she drew two people. One wore a Felix the Arctic Fox costume, the other wore a suit and wireframed glasses.’
It was starting to make sense. ‘So you came here to find out who they were?’
He nodded. ‘I had to know the truth, and I had to know who was responsible. Whatever it took.’
Shit, so much for violence never as punishment. ‘So why didn’t you?’
‘Emerson’s security guards took me down. I was going to ask him to have his security team search the CCTV recordings for the man Kat had drawn, but I didn’t need to. I’d already found him.’
‘How?’
‘The man with the wireframed glasses was Emerson.’
I stared at him. Didn’t speak.
‘Scott watched what really happened with Emerson and me that day on the CCTV feed. When Emerson told him to scrub the footage from any cameras that had recorded my movements, he saved it on to the device first.’ JT looked at the hard drive in my hand. ‘On there is all the evidence Scott collected. It includes the CCTV footage taken the day Kat visited the park. It also has the footage from the extra cameras Scott rigged in the place Emerson took the kids. It shows exactly what that man is responsible for.’
Despite the heat, I felt chills. I’d been kidding myself this whole time. A man like that, he wasn’t ever going to trade my daughter for the device. He’d take it and Dakota; kill me and JT; then continue with his hateful business like nothing had happened.
I started to shake. I couldn’t, wouldn’t, let Emerson get away with this. The sick bastard had to pay, had to let my daughter go.
Unable to disguise the quivering in my voice, I hissed, ‘We have to stop him.’
40
Guilt. Anger. Disgust. Those emotions can be real good motivators, especially if you need to override fear. Trick is, not to let them blind your focus. At that moment, I was having a little trouble on that count.
I felt conflicted. My priorities scattered.
I knew we couldn’t hand over the device without copying the data. After everything, we could not allow the evidence to be lost. There must be justice, for all the victims: Dakota, Kat and the others. Emerson had to face his crimes, of that I was real determined. JT was, too. Thing was, I reckoned we might have different views on how that justice would get served.
But I’d have to worry about that dilemma later. First we needed to get ourselves to a place we could download the data. Sitting in the alcove, we figured out our closest option was one of the resort hotels that were located around the inner perimeter of the park. There was one less than a quarter mile from us, and from the map it seemed we could get there without having to go through the public area. In the hotel there’d be guest computers where we could copy the files and save them someplace safe, before handing over the device to Emerson’s men.
We pulled back the creeper and emerged from the alcove, scanning the hillside for signs of the security guards. They’d gone. We decided to move.
I couldn’t shake the guilt, though. Every moment we spent trying to copy the data, I was doing nothing to find Dakota. I’d always sworn to keep her safe. I’d failed her in that, and now I was failing again by choosing to delay her rescue.
JT frowned at me. ‘We’ll get her back. This won’t take long. A quick diversion, is all.’
I said nothing. No words could help. This was on me. I jogged across the hillside in the direction of the hotel.
Trouble found us sixty yards later. Five security guards and three men in plain clothes, who must have been Emerson’s goons, were heading up the hillside towards us. Fanned out, searching.
‘Double back,’ JT said. ‘Keep low.’
We hung a sharp left, sprinted to the park. A few moments later I heard shouting behind us. We’d been spotted. Shit. I looked over my shoulder. All eight were coming after us.
I kept running. ‘They’re forcing us back to the park,’ I said, my words coming in gasps.
JT didn’t slow his pace. ‘Head for the tunnels,’ he said. ‘Only way we’ll make the hotel now.’
We reached the crest of the hill. The white perimeter fence stood thirty feet away. We hotfooted to it. Turned left, skirting the fence past the Ice Wars ride until we were almost level with the start of Popsicle Drive. It was a busy area, and there’d be plenty of folks for us to blend in with. From there it wasn’t far to the access hatch in the ice caves.
Behind us, the men had reached the crest of the hill. They were shouting, yelling for us to surrender.
Never.
‘You ready?’ JT yelled.
I nodded.
Without breaking stride, we leapt for the fence, scrambled over and landed in the main walkway. We attracted some confused glances but we didn’t stop. Just merged into the crowd and ran to Main Street.
We had to get to the tunnels.
Something was different. The ‘Happy Holidays’ song wasn’t playing on Main Street anymore; instead thumping dance music pounded from the overhead speakers. We pushed through the mass of people, aiming for the ice caves. As we moved, I removed the maintenance ball-cap, unbraided my hair and handed the ban
dana to JT. He swapped his cap for the bandana, peeled off his shirt, revealing a grey tee underneath. We dumped the shirt and caps in the next trashcan we passed.
An athletic-looking woman, her tan chest squeezed into a pink neon waistcoat, brandished a handheld tannoy as she strode towards us. ‘Stand back, please. Stay behind the blue line. Parade’s coming.’
Around us, people moved on to the sidewalks. More neon waistcoated crew were roping off the parade route, keeping visitors behind the blue lines running along both sides of the street. Young, buff crew members with unfeasibly white smiles were stationed every fifteen feet, watching for people who might jaywalk. Any person stepping out of line was going to attract attention.
Shit. We’d not reckoned on there being a parade. I peered down the street towards the SparkleDust Castle. Glimpsed a troupe of penguin-costumed dancers waddling and wiggling to the music.
‘Ideas?’ I said over the approaching din.
‘Best find ourselves another way.’
I shook my head. ‘There’s no time. The closest access to the tunnels is that hatch in the ice cave I saw earlier. We need to get across the street.’
‘We’ll need a security pass, too.’
True. At the top of Main Street the first floats were passing the SparkleDust Castle. The crowd clapped and whooped. If we were going to move, we needed to do it now.
On the opposite side of the street was an older, more spindly-looking crowd controller in a green neon vest. Attached to his belt I spied a plastic security keycard.
I leant closer to JT. ‘Follow me.’
‘What are—?’
Jumping over the rope barrier, I dashed across the street towards the willowy guy. He registered a brief moment of surprise, moved right, trying to block my path. Advantage me. I pretended to stumble, fell into him and, as he tried to help me up, unclipped the keycard from his belt and slipped it into my pocket.
Straightening up, I gave the guy an apologetic smile. ‘Why, I am so sorry.’
He looked at me like I was some kind of whack-job. Spoke slow and clear. ‘Off the street, ma’am. The floats are coming.’
Deep Down Dead Page 24
