by Dave Conifer
As he doubled back toward Atlantic Towers after reaching the boardwalk, Rockingham prepared himself for any number of scenarios once he entered the building. What he feared most was a reception desk, or even more, an armed guard. After stepping inside, however, he saw immediately that he had nothing to worry about. Except for two young women who seemed as anxious to avoid contact as he did, the lobby was empty. Careful to keep the ocean at his back in order to retain his sense of direction, he walked past three elevators and through an unmarked door.
Except for a faint orange glow in the distance there was no light behind the door, which had jerked closed so quickly that it almost hit him. After his eyes adjusted he could make out a long, cluttered corridor. The orange light ahead could only mean one thing – he was on the right track. Inching slowly forward, stepping carefully around everything his toes made contact with, he could see that the glow was coming from a clear pane that was about a foot square. As he closed in he saw two figures in the darkness on the other side of the glass. He’d found the door.
“That was fast,” Eddie said as Rockingham pushed it open. “Was anybody around?”
“Who cares?” Steve said as he pushed his way inside. “Come on, let’s go!”
“Grab the stuff,” Rockingham told Eddie, who passed the bag and light inside before entering with the ram in his hands. He and Steve followed Rockingham back up the way he’d just come, an easier trek than it had been coming the other way after he flicked a light switch and lit up the hallway. Before they emerged into the lobby the sergeant told them to leave the equipment. “We need to find the stairs. No use getting spotted carrying those things around while we’re looking. But keep the guns with us. We’ll come back for the rest.”
They entered the lobby and wandered quickly past the elevators. A man in a knit ski cap burst out of a door a few yards ahead, startling the three men. Rockingham nodded silently at his partners when he saw the stairway behind the closing door. Eddie went back for the ram and light without being told, and they began ascending.
“Fifth floor, right?” Steve asked.
“It’s number 535,” Rockingham said. “Must be the fifth.” The effort of speaking took away his breath. When he stopped on the landing between the second and third floors Eddie stopped with him, but not Steve. Seconds later he was out of sight, although they could hear his feet pounding their way upwards. “Step lightly,” Rockingham called up to him.
“I wish we could find a door to practice on,” Eddie said. “I hope I don’t screw this up.”
“What’s to screw up?” Rockingham said between breaths. “Swing it hard. It’s almost impossible not to knock it in. I’ll show you the sweet spot.”
“Right on the knob or the lock, right?”
“Hell no. Right above it. You’re not trying to break the lock. You’re trying to break everything else that’s around the lock,” Rockingham explained. “The lock is your friend. It holds everything in place real firm so the door and the jamb will shatter. Then the door flies open. Just make sure you swing that thing hard and hit where I tell you to hit.”
“Are you guys coming?” Steve whispered from above. “What are we waiting for?”
“Shhh,” Rockingham hissed. Nobody spoke again until they met up on the fifth floor. Eddie, saddled with the forty pound battering ram, was huffing and puffing as much as Rockingham when they finally stopped. Before anybody had a chance to talk Rockingham put his finger to his lips, and then began whispering. “I’ll lead the way. If anybody’s in the hall just walk right past them. It’ll be too late to abort. When we find the door,” he said, looking at Eddie, “I’ll point to the sweet spot and then stand back. You break it open, drop the ram, and point the light into the room. Make sure you give us room. We’re going in hard as soon as the door’s open, so hustle with that light.”
Eddie grabbed the ram and practiced the swinging motion a few times. “It’s not so bad,” he whispered. “I can do this.” While he was examining the spotlight Rockingham opened the duffel bag and pulled out a sleek black pistol.
“Did you catch that?” he asked Steve. “Once the door’s open it’s speed that matters most. We want to move fast before he knows what hit him. You cover any rooms on the left and I’ll take the right.” Steve nodded without speaking.
“Meet your Glock,” he told Steve as he handed it to him. “It’s been locked and cocked this whole time. Bad habit. Guess I was in too much of a hurry.” He went down on one knee and pulled an identical one from the bag. As he pushed a button on the side of the gun he swung the other hand below the hand grip in time to catch the shiny black magazine as it flew out. He dropped the magazine into the bag and picked up an identical one. “That one was empty,” he explained to Steve. “Not this one.” Even before his eyes had returned to the weapon he’d jammed the magazine firmly up into the hollow hand grip, driving it with the heel of his hand until he heard a click. Then he pulled the sliding column back along the top of the gun before releasing it with a snap. “Good to go,” he said. “Everybody ready?”
Steve and Eddie nodded. Eddie held the ram in one hand and the light in the other, while Steve held his Glock with both hands, one finger on the trigger, aiming it at the floor between his feet.
~~~
Whatever the thump was that Jane heard, Creedmoor obviously heard it as well. The bed jostled as his body went rigid. Without a word he sat up and disappeared into the darkness. She heard the metallic scrabble of locks being undone followed by the squeak of a door. Moments later the sounds repeated themselves in reverse order. She wasn’t sure what she’d been hoping for, but she couldn’t help feeling disappointed when he returned and crawled back onto the bed without a word.
~~~
“Once we’re in the hallway,” Rockingham whispered, “We don’t stop for nobody. Got it?” He didn’t wait for an answer, instead pulling the hallway door open and stepping through. He held his weapon discreetly in a firing position, rapidly checking both directions. Eddie was next, followed by Steve, who held his gun the same way Rockingham had.
Nobody else was in the well-lit corridor. They padded along the worn, grimy carpet as Rockingham checked door numbers. Only a few seconds had elapsed when he stopped and nodded at a door without making a sound. When Eddie was closer Rockingham pointed to a spot a few inches above the keyhole. “Door looks like it’s made of balsa wood,” he whispered in Eddie’s ear. “You’ll just have to give it a good tap. Go, boy!”
Eddie positioned the floodlight carefully on the floor before grasping the handles of the ram. He looked at Rockingham and then Steve, who both nodded impatiently with their guns at the ready. After setting his feet the same way he did before a tee shot on the golf course he pulled the ram back and swung.
The door didn’t break open so much as it splintered along a line running from the deadbolt toward the ceiling. In an instant the door jack-knifed along this fault line as slices of decades-old wood fell away. Rockingham ran at the shattered door before lifting his leg awkwardly and kicking it the rest of the way open. Chunks of wood sprayed from the point of contact. The door, still attached firmly on its hinges, flew into the room and slammed into the darkness. Without being prodded Eddie dropped the ram and scooped up the light in one deft motion. Its blinding light filled the space beyond the door instantly after he worked the button with his thumb. Rockingham was already in the apartment, having stepped across the threshold even before Eddie lighted the way. Steve, holding the pistol out in front of his body, was on his heels.
They stormed though a narrow passageway into a living room and found nobody. Rockingham directed Steve and Eddie into the kitchen before darting into a bathroom, leading the way with his gun. His mind was racing as he moved. At his age and with two novices watching his back, he knew they were in over their heads, but he had no regrets. After determining that the bathroom was empty he returned to the living room where Steve and Eddie joined him almost immediately.
“In there!” Steve yelle
d as he waved at a closed door across the room. Without waiting for them he ran across the room and threw his shoulder at the door, which gave way easily. He stumbled and fell into the room. By the time he was back on his feet Rockingham was there with him, as was Eddie with the light. The armed men swept the room with their pistols but there was nothing in there but a stripped, water-stained mattress on a metal frame. Steve charged at a closet and yanked the door open savagely, firing several shots into the darkness before Eddie caught up and filled the small space with a gazillion watts worth of light. Except for some empty clothes hangers the closet was as empty as the bedroom itself.
“Shit!” Steve yelled, his gun hand flopping to his thigh. “Shit! They fucking got away!” He turned helplessly to Eddie and Rockingham, who were staring into the closet. Each man collapsed into a sitting position against the walls. Eddie wiped sweat from his forehead after putting the light between his feet. Steve inspected the back of his hand, which was rubbed raw.
“I forgot to tell you to keep your hands away from the top of the gun,” Rockingham said as he dragged three empty shell casings toward himself with a foot. “That top piece flies back every time it fires, to kick out the empties. Looks like it caught you on the thumb. Next time you’ll know. What were you shooting at anyway?”
“I don’t know,” Steve said. “I didn’t mean to. It just went off. You think there’ll be a next time? I fucking hope so. Where’d they go? How’d they get out of here?”
“Yeah, there’ll be a next time,” Rockingham said. He slipped the casings into a pocket after pulling himself to his feet.. “It’ll be soon, too. I have this feeling that he wants us to find him. It’ll be in a place of his choosing. He’s got something planned. He won’t be ready, though. Even if he knows you’re here he doesn’t know about me.”
“So what do we do now to find them?” Eddie asked. He and Steve looked at Rockingham.
“First thing we have to do is get out of here,” Rockingham said after walking to the window and pushing aside the slats of the blinds for a look. “You can bet somebody heard those shots. This place is going to get hot real quick. Let’s go. There’s nothing here for us anyway.”
~~~
“Must be close to sunup,” Creedmoor said after returning from the door. “That was our complimentary copy of USA Today. It’s almost time. We’ll be on the move soon. It’s starting to happen.”
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Jane said.
“We’ll take care of that just before we leave,” Creedmoor told her. “I need to keep it simple.”
“My period’s starting,” she explained, expecting that like most men, he’d make whatever accommodations were needed after hearing those words. “I really need to get in there right now.”
He groaned, but she could feel him sitting up and wrestling himself off the bed. The ropes slackened. “Okay. You’re loose. She slid toward the foot of the bed. “Listen, Jane. No games.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “If you don’t make things difficult I might leave Allie out of this. She’s just a bystander, same as Sara.”
Jane’s heart leaped but she didn’t want to give her captor the satisfaction of seeing her joy, just in case he didn’t mean it. “I need some things from my pocketbook,” she said without changing her expression. There was enough dawn light filtering in around the drapes that she could see it on a chest of drawers.
“I’ll get it,” Creedmoor said before Jane’s feet had reached the floor. He brought it to the bed but poked through it with his fingers before handing it over. Without another word she shuffled through the darkness into the bathroom. It probably won’t matter but I have to try something, she thought as she fought to settle her trembling hands.
Chapter 22
We need to go,” Rockingham said again while moving toward the door. “We made a lot of noise. You can bet that at least one of our neighbors here called the cops.” When nobody followed him he turned back. “Look, I’m as disappointed as you are. We struck out. But sitting up here moping ain’t gonna’ do us any good except get us arrested. Let’s go! Snap out of it! This ain’t over yet!”
Steve picked up the light on the way out, leaving the battering ram for Eddie. The hallway was as quiet as it had been a few minutes earlier. The three men hurried silently to the stairwell and began the trip down without speaking. Their escape path was clear until they reached the lobby and saw four uniformed officers about to enter from the boardwalk. “We’ll go out the same way we came in. Keep moving, men,” Rockingham ordered. He gently pushed his partners through the unmarked door before falling in behind them. Hopefully there’s nobody waiting for us out back, he thought. “Be sure to take a look around before you open that door,” he called ahead.
“It looks clear to me,” Eddie answered, but he waited for Rockingham to come forward for a second look. They all breathed easier when they were sitting safely in the minivan a minute later with no law in sight.
~~~
Before they left the hotel room Creedmoor reminded Jane that he was thinking of allowing Allie to escape. “You remember what’s in my pocket, right?” he asked. Jane remembered. “Don’t make me use it.”
Allie, now completely free of adoration for Uncle Rob, hadn’t uttered a word since being roused and untied a few minutes earlier. Jane had spent the last half hour hugging her as often as she thought she could without irritating Creedmoor. Now, as Creedmoor led them to the elevators after pulling the room door closed behind them, Jane held her daughter’s hand tight. She knew the time for goodbyes might be coming but maybe Allie could be saved. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered, wishing it was even remotely true.
“Where are we going?” she asked Creedmoor as they waited for the elevator.
“Time to get on the road,” he explained. “That’s where it’s all going to happen. Same as in Maine. Well, except for the weather. Nothing I can do about that.”
The elevator doors slid open, exposing the fantastic main lobby of Caesars Hotel and Casino that Jane had seen so many times before. The ceiling was a simulated purple dusk sky complete with faint shimmering stars. A marble statue of the hotel’s namesake stood in a fountain directly across from the elevator. Allie had always enjoyed that statue but Jane knew she wouldn’t notice it this time.
There weren’t many people in the lobby at that time of the morning. Whenever anybody approached as they strolled through the lobby, Jane worked to establish eye contact, but nobody was having any of it. When they rounded the corner and headed toward the front desk Jane was astounded. He’s going to check out? He’s crazier than I thought.
A bronze-skinned security guard sporting a manicured chin strap beard nodded politely at the three hotel guests as they moved past him. Jane read his name tag, which identified him only as Hector, before looking directly into his eyes. The vacant smile disappeared but nothing else registered on his face. This is my best shot. After a quick glance at Creedmoor she pulled the carefully prepared bundle from inside the waistband of her scrubs and nonchalantly dropped it after they’d passed. She fought to keep from looking back. With gritted teeth she hoped and prayed that he wouldn’t pick it up and return it to her without looking at it. That could be fatal.
~~~
“We have to call the police now,” Steve said. “We’re running out of time. You had me convinced you knew where they were, but you didn’t. We wasted the whole night.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Rockingham said. “I got it wrong. But bringing in the AC police could be a mistake. There’s no way they can know what they’re dealing with. By the time they figure it out it’ll be too late.”
“Why do you keep saying that? He’s just a dumb fuck who overdosed on steroids!”
“There’s more to it than that. We’re dealing with a crazy man. Who knows what he’ll do if a mob of cops shows up out of nowhere.”
“I’m going to drive up the strip while we talk,” Eddie said. “Maybe we’ll see something.” When nobody answered he started
the engine. Before long they were tooling along in the light early morning traffic of a city that likes to sleep late. All three men shielded their eyes when the van emerged from the wall of hotels and into the glare of the sun, which seemed to rest on the horizon over the ocean.
“Why are you so fired up about doing this all by ourselves?” Steve challenged Rockingham. “He’s got my wife and daughter. Why can’t you swallow your damn pride and get us some help?”
“I have my reasons.”
“Well, your reasons suck. You’re no better than the local police. You act like they’re a bunch of dopes! I got news for you. This is Atlantic City. They’ve seen it all. A lot more than you have to deal with in bumfuck Hammonton! And we need some fucking help from them. I don’t care what you think. You had your chance.” He fumbled between pockets until he found his cell phone. Rockingham opened his mouth but no words came as he watched Steve push buttons.
~~~
Considering that there was nobody else in line, checking out took longer than expected. Creedmoor had gently pulled Allie forward with him and took her hand as he spoke calmly with the hotel clerk. Jane hung back by the velvet ropes that delineated the queue area and carefully turned her head in both directions. Hector the security guard was nowhere to be seen. She managed to check the entire lobby again when Creedmoor and Allie returned from the counter. Again, no Hector.
It had only been a few weeks earlier that she had told Kristie about Steve’s affair, just a few feet from where she was standing. She could see the electric sign hanging outside of the karaoke club, although it was closed at that time of day. It turned out that the affair had never happened, but overall things were much worse than they’d been that night.
