by Mike Faricy
“Just stay there for a minute,” Carlos said then reached back into the trunk, pulled the vodka bottle out and topped up his glass. He slammed the trunk closed then said, “Why don’t you just walk up past the front of the car and stand there so you can’t do anything stupid.”
I walked up to the front of the car and stood in the gravel road. I continued to roll my shoulders and move my neck back and forth.
“Move forward a couple more paces,” he said.
Once I moved forward I heard the car door open and then the dinging alarm sounded signaling the key was in the ignition. I heard another door open and then Carlos called, “Okay, let’s get going, just walk backwards to the driver’s door and climb in.”
I did as instructed, walking backwards and almost tripping as I reached the driver’s door. Carlos was seated directly behind the driver’s seat with little Ava on his lap, she was holding his glass of vodka with both hands. Her eyes were wide and her lower lip was trembling, but she wasn’t crying. He sat smirking with the Sig Sauer pressed against her side.
“You just make damned sure you stay at the speed limit he said, nothing fancy. Anything happens or you try anything to draw attention to us and there’ll be trouble back here, got it?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I got it,” I said as I slid behind the wheel. I adjusted the side and rear view mirrors then started the car and put it in gear. I made a slow ‘U’ turn until we were headed in the opposite direction.
“Good, now just follow this until you hit pavement, take a left and it’ll take you right back to the freeway in a minute or two. Just remember, we’re all watching, so nothing fancy.”
We were heading south again on I-35 just a few minutes later. Traffic was light and the roads were clear. A few miles down the Interstate I spotted a Minnesota Highway Patrol car parked in the medium. They’re impossible to miss, a deep burgundy with white doors and a logo in the shape of the state on the door. Flashing lights are mounted on the top of the vehicle and just in case you have any doubts gold letters, all capitals, spell out STATE PATROL on all sides of the vehicle.
All the drivers reacted the same way, even if they were driving below the posted limit every car on the road hit their brakes just to be sure, flashing the brake lights for a moment. The truth of the matter is he was probably just sitting there filling out paper work.
I thought about flashing the headlights or maybe even speeding up to try and signal him in some way. I gave a quick glance in the rear view mirror and caught Carlos staring back at me. He smiled, winked and continued to stare. I stayed in the right hand lane and we just drove past not attracting any attention.
“Good boy, very good boy,” Carlos said then sipped.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Heading south, the traffic seemed to noticeably pick up once we passed the town of Hinckley. The town seemed to serve as the very outer edge for folks who were long distance commuters going into the twin cities. I continued to check on Carlos in the rear view mirror and unfortunately he continued to meet my gaze. Sometimes he smiled, once in a while he even winked, but no matter when I looked he always seemed to be staring back at me.
We were coming into the northern ring of suburbs. From here on in one community flowed into the next. We were just passing the town of Forest Lake when Carlos said, “The road splits up here in a couple of miles I want you to take 35E into St. Paul. I’ll give you more directions as we get closer to town.”
I watched him in the rear view mirror draining his glass, he gave another one of his satisfied gasps then dropped the empty glass onto the floor of the backseat. He checked me out in the mirror for a long moment then looked over at the girls. They had scooted over to the far side of the backseat, as far away from him as possible and were still holding each others hand.
“I know what we should do. How ‘bout we all sing a little song. You got one you like?”
Little Ava just stared at the floor and pretended not to hear him. Emma glanced over quickly, shook her head and then stared straight ahead.
“Okay, suit yourself, but let me just say you two aren’t very much fun. Fine with me if you’re gonna be that way, I’ll just pick something that I like.” With that he hummed a note, pretending to gain a perfect pitch or something before he burst into an off key rendition of Frosty the Snowman.
It was a gorgeous fall day, bright and sunny. The temperature was set at sixty-nine degrees in the car as we sailed down the road doing our best not to listen to idiot Carlos as he forever destroyed any positive thoughts we may have had regarding Frosty the Snowman.
There’s something about drunks singing, actually a number of things, that in very short order become unpleasant. It’s why I’d given up going to concerts. Pay a hundred and twenty bucks for a ticket and I always end up next to the drunk who plans on singing along with every song. At least at a concert you could tell the idiot to shut up, call security, or just leave and go to a bar.
None of those options existed driving down the interstate in a stolen Mercedes with a gun pointed at us. I lost count of how many times Carlos sang the only verse he sort of knew. One was too many. He even had the lyrics wrong, singing “stocking cap” instead of “old silk hat.” Not that I intended to correct him. When he got to the “Thumpity, thump, thump” part he drummed his hands on the back of my seat, supposedly in time. I would have given anything to grab him and hurl him out the door and still he continued on.
I noticed a vehicle in the side mirror coming up behind us. It was swinging out into the passing lane then back into the right lane for a bit, then out again, ducking back and forth. At first I thought it was an SUV, but the silhouette quickly became all too familiar. A Humvee, black, with lots of chrome and lights mounted on the roof. I watched for a good ten minutes as it continued to swerve in and out of traffic, slowly, but surely gaining on us.
My initial hope was that it was some sort of police vehicle, but the more I watched it in the mirrors the less that seemed to be a possibility. The zooming in and out of lanes was not the sort of driving an official vehicle would be doing on the interstate. And the lights mounted on the top were for illuminating things, not flashing.
I slowed ever so slightly, hoping Carlos wouldn’t notice. He didn’t, unfortunately only because he was on about his thousandth rendition of Frosty. Little Ava had put her hands over her ears in an effort to block out the sound which only served to encourage Carlos. By now the lyrics were hopelessly mangled and in an effort to restart, Carlos was pounding out, literally, the “thumpity, thump, thump” part twice as often. We all had head aches.
A red car behind us gradually picked up the slack and put its left blinker on getting ready to pass, but the Humvee seemed to hang in the passing lane just off its bumper forcing it to stay behind us. Then the Humvee quickly sped up and pulled alongside the Mercedes.
I glanced over and then saw the logo of the Grey Wolf Casino on the passenger door, small world. I thought the figure in the front passenger seat with the laptop computer looked vaguely familiar. He had a long ponytail pulled tightly behind his head and I suddenly recognized the tattoo on his softball sized bicep, the shield with eagle feathers hanging from it. At the same time he casually glanced over at me and a look of recognition seemed to spread across his face. His eyes widened then his face turned into an evil glare as he focused on the singer in the backseat.
Carlos was in the process of drumming again, singing, “Thumpity, thump, thump. Thumpity, thump, thump. Look at Frosty go.”
I mouthed the word, “Help” a couple of times then inclined my head and indicated with my thumb back toward Carlos. For his part, Carlos was still horribly out of tune and pounding away on the back of my seat in full concert mode. I could only hope the guy took note of the gun Carlos was holding on us.
He turned and seemed to say something to whomever was driving and the Humvee suddenly dropped back and then pulled over into the right hand lane. As soon as they pulled in, the red car behind us zoomed out into the passing lane, ga
ve me a quick glance then sailed past and kept on going.
Carlos continued destroying Frosty for another twelve miles then suddenly stopped in mid-verse and sounded almost rational for a brief moment as he gave me directions. “Okay, you want to take the next exit, that’s Maryland Ave. When you get to the top you can make a left and go over the bridge then just keep going, I’ll tell you what to do after that.”
Mercifully he didn’t start singing Frosty again, instead he just hummed the thing half to himself, at least up until the thumping part when he suddenly broke out into the chorus again and started pounding once more against the back of my seat. Both the girls pressed their hands back over their ears.
I took the Maryland exit and then watched in the mirror as the Humvee did the same thing two cars behind me. I pulled up to the light and waited with my left hand blinker on. Just before the red light changed to a green arrow the doors on the Humvee flew open and four large guys in black T-shirts with white letters that said SECURITY piled out, at least two of them were carrying what looked like sawed off shotguns. I waited for a long moment hoping they’d get up to our car, but they seemed to pause briefly questioning the traffic light.
The car behind us leaned on the horn and Carlos said, “Hey, come on man, this is a quick light, get your ass in gear.” Then he looked over his shoulder at the car honking behind us.
I pulled ahead just as the light went yellow, the car behind us made the turn then whipped past us and a middle aged woman gave me the finger. The guys in the Humvee jumped back in, then screeched through the intersection, running the red light as they followed.
The windows in the Humvee were heavily tinted and I couldn’t see how many people were in the thing. I could only hope it was crammed full and they were all heavily armed.
I drove up the hill on Maryland and across Payne Ave then, after a few more blocks, Carlos leaned forward in the backseat and said, “Take the next right and keep going.” No sooner had we turned onto the side street then he leaned forward again and asked, “Are they still back there?”
“What?”
“Don’t be stupid. Those guys from the Grey Wolf Casino, are they still back there.”
“What are you talking about?”
From behind me I heard the audible click of the hammer on the Sig Sauer. “You’re not thinking of getting cute, are you? That Humvee, the one that’s been following us for the last forty miles. God only knows how they found us. It’s filled with security guys from the Grey Wolf, but you most likely already knew that. So let me ask you again, are they still behind us?”
“Yeah, yes they are, but they seem to be hanging back by maybe a good block or more.”
“Are we going to see mommy soon?” Emma asked.
“I want my mommy,” Ava cried.
“Shut up, kid,” Carlos growled.
“What do you want me to do? You got any ideas? Want me to try and lose them?” I asked.
“Tell you what, just keep going down this street for a few more blocks, there’ll be a building on the right hand side, on the corner. It’s brick, four stories. Take your time getting there and hopefully they’ll keep their distance. I got something to do back here,” he said.
I heard him rustle around in the backseat for a moment and then there was a metallic click just before Emma shouted, “Don’t, you’re wrecking it. Dev, he’s wrecking the seat, he’s wrecking it.”
She sounded frightened and when I glanced in the rear view mirror I saw both the girls staring at Carlos as he shoved his knife into the upper left corner of the backseat and slit the thing, sawing down to the lower right corner. Then he shoved the blade into the upper right hand corner and sawed across the seat again to the lower left corner. Yellow foam padding puffed out of the ruined seat in the shape of an “X” and Carlos frantically pulled handfuls of foam padding out and cast it aside then reached into the seat for more.
“He’s wrecking the car, Dev, he’s wrecking the car,” Emma shouted. Ava just sat wide eyed and stared. She’d moved as far away from Carlos as possible and was almost on top of her sister.
Carlos reached in and felt around, pulling more foam out. I could hear him ripping fabric from the inside of the seat and I wondered if he had suddenly gotten wise to the GPS transponder attached in the trunk.
“I think I see that brick building on the right coming up. We’re about a block away.”
“Let me just get hold of this damned thing and, okay, here we go, here we go, come on,” he said then seemed to wrestle something out through the sliced open backseat. He suddenly turned around with a large smile across his face and set the pink suitcase on his lap.
“Keep your foot off the brake pedal until you pull in front of that building,” he said pulling a key ring out of his pocket. “I’m grabbing this little cry baby,” he said dragging Ava across the backseat. “You and bossy better hurry up before they have a chance to get much closer.”
With that I crossed the intersection and Carlos was suddenly out the door with the suitcase and Ava under his arm before the car had come to a stop. He left the door open as they stumbled into the street.
“No, no, no, Emma, Emma,” Ava screamed and kicked as Carlos dashed around the back of the car and then up the front steps of the building.
“God damn it, quit kicking, kid, I’m warning you,” he screamed. He stood at the entrance, holding the security door open waiting for us as Ava squirmed in an effort to try and get out from underneath his arm. “Come on, come on, you’re taking all day,” Carlos screamed.
I slammed the car in park and jumped out from behind the wheel just as the Humvee began to roar down the street toward us. I could hear it accelerating as I grabbed Emma from the backseat and we charged up the front steps two at a time.
We ran into the building and Carlos pulled the security door closed. The lock made an audible sound and Ava squirmed loose from his side and wrapped her arms around my thigh. I heard a screech from out on the street as the Humvee screeched across the intersection then popped into view a half second before it slammed into the rear of the Mercedes and skidded to a stop.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Come on, hopefully they’ll check out my place up on the third floor,” Carlos shouted as he directed us down the hallway with the Sig Sauer. Halfway down the hall he opened the door labeled Laundry Room. The girls and I hurried down some stairs into the basement ahead of him. He pulled the door closed and slid a small dead bolt lock in place. “Keep moving,” he shouted just as we heard heavy pounding on the security door up in the hallway behind us.
A moment later the unmistakable sound of breaking glass and an alarm going off was followed by a lot of shouting and some awfully heavy footsteps that charged down the hallway past the laundry room door and then up the flight of stairs at the far end of the hall.
“I knew it would work, bastards’ll head up to the third floor thinking that’s where we went, the dumb shits. Come on, that way,” Carlos yelled then patted the little pink suitcase tucked under his arm.
We hurried down a dimly lit hallway. Carlos was in the rear still waving the Sig Sauer and looking over his shoulder. “Come on, keep moving, keep moving, all the way down to the end.”
I held Emma by the hand and carried Ava as we hurried down the hallway. Ava’s arms were wrapped tightly around my neck and her head was buried against my shoulder, I could feel her little body shaking.
“Its okay, Ava, its okay,” Emma kept saying to her all the while grasping my hand tightly.
For her part, Ava seemed to be taking none of the encouragement to heart and she clung even tighter to my neck as we made our way down the hallway toward the distant open door.
“You know, Carlos, I’m thinking you could make a lot better time if you just went on ahead and left the three of us here. You know, made tracks to get out of here all by yourself,” I said.
“You just keep moving, wiseass and I’ll be the one doing all of the thinking around here.”
I felt like asking him just how well that plan was working, but decided to keep my mouth shut.
The open door at the end of the long hallway led into the laundry room. Three washers and three dryers, all coin operated stood side by side in the middle of the room. Next to the washers was an old-fashioned laundry tub. It featured two sinks made of concrete sitting on a steel stand. It must have been original to the building, predating World War II by a generation.
The basement walls looked to be almost eight feet high and constructed out of some sort of concrete block. They had been painted a glossy white some time ago. The laundry room floors were a dull battleship grey and could have used a good cleaning.
A couple of bare light bulbs with pull chains served to light the room although at this time of day more than enough sunlight was streaming through the basement windows and the bulbs weren’t needed. The only piece of furniture in the room was a picnic table pushed up against the wall opposite the clothes dryers.
Next to the picnic table was a wastebasket filled to overflowing with empty plastic containers of laundry detergent, fabric softener and the occasional handful of dryer lint. It looked like it hadn’t been emptied in at least a year.
Four bicycles hung upright from a rack attached with long brackets to the laundry room ceiling. Carlos paused and examined them for a moment then shook his head, disgustedly.
“Son of a bitch, this pisses me off. I guess they don’t trust anyone so they went ahead and locked the things up. Now, just when I could really use a break, you know hop on one of these things and just pedal away, guess what? I’m screwed. Thanks a lot for nothing,” he said then kicked one of the bikes. That started a sort of chain reaction and they swung back and forth looking like they just might fall off the rack if it weren’t for the locks holding them in place.
We suddenly heard two dull reports, one right after the other that sounded an awful lot like shotgun blasts coming from somewhere above us in the building. Emma moved in closer to me.
