---
Tommy had no choice now. The game had to end once and for all. He watched Taylor climb down from his forklift and look toward him. Tommy knew that Zack wanted to sneak out of the factory when he wasn’t looking, but Tommy wouldn’t let that happen.
---
Kate arrived at the sheriff’s office at eleven thirty-nine, according to the wall clock. She hoped that twenty-one minutes would be enough time to convince the sheriff to go out to Max’s and hide the car before Zack and Tommy arrived. She doubted that it would be enough.
Inside, the office stood empty. No one sat at the sheriff’s desk; no one waited behind the bars of the three cells along the wall. Then she heard a soft voice coming from the radio room. Of course, Mrs. Pollard was manning the radio. She answered telephone calls and radioed patrolling officers. She would be able to call the sheriff.
Kate hurried over and stepped through the open door leading into the small room.
“Sure, Fred. I’ll let him know when he gets back,” she said into the phone.
Kate cleared her throat to announce her presence as the older woman hung up the receiver. Her gray-haired head turned at the sound, and she tipped her glasses down on her nose, looking over them. “Well, hello there, Kate. I haven’t seen you in ages. You’re still as pretty as ever.”
Yeah, sure, Kate thought.
“How’s that new boyfriend of yours the town’s been buzzing about? Have you set a date yet? You know, I was glad to hear you broke up with Tommy. Too wild, that one.”
Kate ignored the questions. She had no time to be polite. “I’m looking for the sheriff. It’s important.”
The woman’s smile faded. “He’s out on patrol right now, but if it’s an emergency, I could call him on the radio.”
“Will you please?”
She reached down and pressed the transmit button. “Sheriff, come in. Kate Jenkins is here, and she says it’s an emergency. Come in, please.”
She called three times, but received only static in reply. “He must not be in his car right now.”
Kate glanced at the clock. Eleven forty-six. “Do you think he would stay away from his car for long?”
“It’s a little early for lunch, so there’s no telling where he is. He has a handheld, but he sometimes forgets to turn it on or to let me know when he’s taking a break. I could keep trying.”
“Yes, yes, please.” She glanced at the clock, as the second swept past twelve. Time had run out to make it to Max’s before Zack. “Look, would you write this down?” Mrs. Pollard readied a pencil. “Tell the sheriff to get out to Max’s place as fast as he can, you know, in the woods near the factory.”
“Yes, that was a terrible thing,” she said. “Him getting beaten to death like that.”
“This is important,” continued Kate. “Someone else could get killed if he doesn’t hurry. Got that?” Mrs. Pollard nodded, and Kate ran out.
A block down, she darted into her father’s store. He stood behind the counter, waiting on a customer.
Kate ran up. “Daddy,” she called, ignoring the woman who was paying her bill. “I need the car.”
Her father stopped what he was doing and looked at her, his eyes narrowed and the corners of his mouth turned down in a frown. “Kate, can’t you see --”
“I know, Daddy.” She turned to the woman, “I’m sorry,” then back to her father, “but this is very important. The keys. Please?” She held out her hand.
He shook his head and reached into his pocket. Lifting out a ring containing six keys, he handed them to Kate.
She snatched the keys away, and without a word, ran toward the back door and the alley where her father parked his car.
Chapter 39
As usual, the workers began preparing for lunch a few minutes early, in anticipation of the horn. They stopped feeding corrugated sheets into their machines, and started straightening up their work areas, just waiting for the horn to power down.
By the time the horn had died down, the last machines were winding to a halt, and the whining and chopping sounds were replaced by the hum of twenty different conversations, as workers made off to their favorite lunch spots. Most of the crowd headed toward the lunchroom, while the rest went toward the parking lot to sit in their cars or vans and down six-pack liquid lunches before returning to work. If Frank ever caught them, they’d be out on street looking for new jobs.
Zack joined the stampede moving toward the lot. He tried to blend in to make his act more convincing for Tommy. Glancing back, he could see Tommy at the rear of the group.
When the tight bunching of men had squeezed out the door, the group thinned out, with the men branching in different directions. Zack wondered if Tommy would bring reinforcements or come alone this time. As he climbed into his car, he spotted Tommy talking with one of his gang members.
What was that one’s name? Jesse? Yeah, that was it. Would Jesse be coming, too? He started his car and slipped it into gear. While pulling out of his spot, he looked over at the two men again. Tommy said a few more words, looked toward Zack, and then turned and trotted off in the direction of his truck.
Had they been arguing? He thought he’d seen anger in their faces as they spoke. The fewer people who came, the easier it would be.
So, Tommy was coming. His plan was going according to schedulethat is, if Kate was doing her part.
---
As Kate pulled her father’s car to the end of the alley that opened onto Main Street, the sheriff’s police cruiser passed by on its way to the station.
Kate laid on her horn.
The sheriff pulled to the side a half-block down and swung his head out the window, looking back in Kate’s direction.
Putting the gearshift into park, Kate shut off the engine, got out, and ran down the street toward the sheriff, her arms waving.
---
Max’s road was only one curve out of view of the factory parking lot, so when Zack turned off the main road, he couldn’t see for sure if Tommy was tailing him. He decided quickly that it wouldn’t look good for him to wait at the entrance to the woods until Tommy came around the curve. He just had to assume that he knew exactly where he was headed.
Scanning the woods along the edge of the dirt road, Zack didn’t see any signs of the sheriff’s hidden car. He had probably stashed it along the edge of the clearing.
God, he hoped they would be waiting inside of the shack for him as planned.
Pulling up to the wooden structure, Zack got out. No birds sang, the trees stood still, and no breeze was in the air. It was nature’s way of holding its breatha warning that something bad was about to happen. He thought of how crickets would suddenly fall silent at night when man approached.
He opened the door and peered inside, frantically searching for signs of life. No one. But they had to be here somewhere. Maybe the sheriff had suggested they hide in the woods instead of inside the house. Desperately hoping that this was the case, he went outside and searched along the woods for signs of flattened grass, where a car would have entered. He saw none.
Hoping for the best -- he had no choice -- he reentered the house. Kate and the sheriff were not waiting for him. He looked for something to carry out when Tommy arrived. “Come on Kate, where are you?” He found a grocery sack and filled it with anything that would fit. He then sat back and waited. He thought about running out, jumping in his car, and hightailing it out of there. But it was too late for that.
When he heard an engine approaching, he lifted the bag and stepped out the door.
Tommy saw him with the sack and swung a shotgun out of the window.
Zack jumped back inside and closed the door.
Chapter 40
“Sheriff!” called Kate in an out-of-breath yell, as she approached his car.
“What’s wrong, girl?”
She came alongside and leaned on straightened arms, her hands against his door. Her lungs gasped for air. She wasn’t sure what had taken so much of her breath away, the short run,
or fear of what might be happening to Zack at that very moment.
“IZack” She paused, took a deep breath, let it out, and began again. “Right now,” she looked down at the sheriff’s wristwatch and it read twelve, “Zack is out at Max’s place, and I think Tommy’s going after him. I don’t have time to explain everything now, but we have to get out there. Who knows what Tommy will do to him? Mrs. Pollard tried to call you --”
“This damn radio’s died on me,” he said, looking back inside the car. When he turned back out, he looked at Kate but didn’t speak for a few seconds, thinking.
“Well? Come on,” he said, finally, and motioned with his head. “Get in.”
Kate ran around to the passenger side and got in. “Sheriff --”
He raised his hand, cutting her off. “Kate, I’m doing this for you. I don’t really like that friend of yours, but for you, we’ll go check this out.”
As the sheriff made a U-turn, Kate glanced down at the clock on the dashboard. Zack had been at lunch for more than five minutes.
---
How could Zack defend against a gun, let alone a shotgun! His only chance now was for the sheriff and Kate to show up and rescue him. “Please,” he murmured.
“Come on out, Taylor,” yelled Tommy, now standing next to his truck.
Zack knew he had no choice, just like last time, rescue or no rescue. He opened the door slowly and stepped out into the bright sunlight of midday.
“So where’s this evidence?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The evidence you told the state police about over the phone.”
Zack shrugged. “Still don’t know what --”
“Just shut the hell up.” Tommy wasn’t wasting time. “It doesn’t matter anyway.” He looked around. “It’s too late.”
“Too late? What does that mean? Are you going to kill me like you killed Max?” Then, after asking, Zack wished he could withdraw the question. No use putting any ideas into Tommy’s head, especially since no one seemed to be there to rescue him. But Tommy probably didn’t need any help with ideas; the shotgun pretty much told the story.
Tommy looked to the left and to the right. What was he searching for? Had he heard Kate and the sheriff nearby? Then he pointed. “See the shovel over there?”
Zack nodded. “Tommy, why don’t you stop all this while you’ve still got a chance to help yourself? We could go into town and you could give yourself up. You could give back the money. If you cooperated, you could avoid the death penalty. You probably didn’t mean to kill Max; you just meant to beat him up.”
“What money? One thing I’m not is a thief. It wasn’t my fault that retard died. If he hadn’t fought back, we wouldn’t have had to be so rough on him. Just wanted to teach him a lesson.”
He must have taken the money. Who else? Forget the money, he told himself. Right now, he had to talk his way out of this before it ended badly for him. “You’re saying it was an accident that Max died? See, that will be taken into consideration.”
“Nobody’s ever going to find out.” Tommy motioned with his gun barrel. “Now pick up that shovel.”
Zack walked over and grabbed it. Now was the time. Tommy had confessed and the sheriff would be jumping out of the woods and arresting him. Zack glanced toward the trees. Nothing.
“Go that way,” said Tommy, pointing toward the woods.
He hesitated.
“Come on. Move it!” This time Zack obeyed and Tommy followed. When they reached the edge of the trees, he stopped. “Keep going,” said Tommy as he jabbed the end of the barrel between Zack’s shoulder blades.
“What is this?”
“Just move.”
Chapter 41
Kate and the sheriff had driven several miles out of town and now searched along the wood’s edge for Max’s road. Kate couldn’t remember exactly where it was, but the sheriff would know, she hoped.
Five minutes later, they approached the box factory. “Sheriff, we missed it!”
Without a word, he swung the car into the factory parking lot, made a U-turn and headed back onto the road in the other direction.
---
They moved through the thick underbrush, climbing over fallen tree trunks and around thorn bushes. Drops of sweat fell from Zack’s chin and stung his eyes. Finally, after about five minutes, they stepped into an open, grassy area about twenty feet across.
“Here,” said Tommy. “Stop here.”
Zack stopped and faced his captor.
“Start digging.”
He looked down and then back up at Tommy. “If you think I’m going to dig my own grave, you’re full --”
“Dig! Or I’ll blow your damn head off right now.”
Zack shook his head. This was it. He was about to die. This couldn’t be real. It had to be another dream. He desperately wished that he would wake up and find himself in his room at the hotel.
Tommy’s words shook him back from his thoughts. “Lay the first layer of grass over there, and then pile the rest here.”
Zack started to dig. His hands shook as he held the shovel. This wasn’t happening, he told himself. The hole grew bigger until the grassy layer was cut away. Zack looked down at what would be his grave.
What had stopped Kate? Was Tommy actually going to kill him? Of course he was. “Tommy, you’re not going to get away with this. Kate knew I was coming out here today. They’ll find my body, and you’ll get the chair, for sure.”
“Keep digging and shut the hell up.” Tommy scanned the forest around them.
As Zack dug the shovel blade into the black dirt, a twig cracked nearby and Tommy jerked in that direction. A deer trotted away.
“Look at you,” said Zack. “You’ll never be able to shake that feeling. You’ll always be looking over your shoulder. Someday they’ll come for you.” Then Zack had a thought. “What about my car? When they find it, they’ll search these woods.”
“They ain’t going to find your car because it’ll be at the bottom of the lake.” He lifted the gun and pointed it at Zack’s face. “This is the last time I’m going to tell you. Dig!”
---
The sheriff rounded the first curve, and Kate saw the opening that led into the forest.
“There it is,” she said, pointing. “Hurry, please,” cried Kate. Her breath came too quickly and made her almost dizzy. “Please be alright, Zack.”
They bounced along the road, around a few curves, and then they saw Tommy’s truck and Zack’s car up ahead.
The sheriff squeezed past Tommy’s truck and pulled alongside of the Camaro.
“I’d better call for backup.” He lifted the microphone and called the other patrolling officers to get out there as soon as possible. They quickly, but carefully, slipped out of the car.
Chapter 42
The sound of an engine filtered through the trees from the direction of the clearing, and Tommy’s head turned toward the sound.
Zack, using his only chance, flung a shovelful of dirt toward Tommy’s face.
He must have seen the dirt coming and tried to duck. Too late, he actually moved right into the clump and caught the full load squarely in the eyes. At the same time that the dirt hit his face, he pulled the trigger, firing in Zack’s direction.
The blast of pellets slammed into Zack’s shoulder and spun him around. His shoulder went numb, as he looked down at his torn, blood-soaked shirt. Warm blood flowed down his arm.
Turning back, he picked up the shovel with his right hand and jabbed the blade at Tommy, who rubbed his eyes with his shirtsleeve and pumped another shell into the chamber. Zack swung the shovel and caught Tommy’s right forearm. He thrust the shovel blade into Tommy’s chest as hard as he could, knocking Tommy back a step. The gun fired again, this time harmlessly into the air, causing a shower of leaves and twigs to rain down.
But still, Tommy managed to pump in another shell. His blue denim shirt was now turning dark red as blood flowed from the woun
ds Zack had inflicted on him. Now able to see slightly, Tommy formed a sickening grin as he lowered the muzzle toward Zack.
Zack darted from the hole and threw his good shoulder into Tommy’s chest. Zack clasped the gun barrel with both hands, pushing it toward the sky, causing the butt to sharply recoil into Tommy’s chest as the gun went off for a third time. Zack released his grip, his hands stinging.
The air had been forced from Tommy’s lungs, causing him to drop the shotgun onto the grass.
After kicking the gun aside, Zack stood, and shook his numb hands. His shoulder suddenly ignited with pain.
Tommy hunched over and fell to his knees, gasping for air. He clutched his wounded chest and arm.
Zack squatted and grabbed the shotgun, sliding the butt under his right armpit.
“Zack! Are you out there?” It was Kate’s voice, yelling from the clearing.
Then the sheriff’s voice followed: “The shots came from this direction.”
“Over here,” yelled Zack.
Tommy looked up, his eyes showing defeat. He looked down at his blood-soaked shirt and bleeding arm.
Seconds later Kate and the sheriff broke through the underbrush. Kate made toward Zack, and the sheriff ran toward Tommy.
Zack could feel the blood oozing from his wounded shoulder. He dropped the gun.
He felt dizzy, and he felt something else, too. It wasn’t physical, and it wasn’t pain. He realized that the feeling was redemption -- redemption from the shame of running out on his mother when she had needed him the most. Years of guilt melted away. It was too late to save her or to save Max, but at least he hadn’t given up this time. A vision of his mother came to him, and she was smiling.
Kate called out, “My God, Zack. You’ve been shot.”
Chapter 43
The sheriff handcuffed Tommy and led him back to the clearing. Zack put his good arm over Kate’s shoulder, and they followed.
Kentucky Murders: A Small Town Murder Mystery Page 14
