Dark Visions

by Jonas Saul

  "Well it doesn't look as bad as I thought," she said.

  Gert pulled out his weapon. No time to waste.

  "Step away from the vehicle."

  The woman turned around and saw the gun. She tried to step back, but Gert was grabbing her lapel. He dragged her close to him, the gun now pressed into her abdomen.

  "We're going to play a little game," he said. "I'll take your BMW and you drive my van. I'll give you a two minute head start and then the chase begins."

  "What...what chase?"

  Her voice cracked. Gert knew he'd never get sick of how people reacted to him. He loved her quivering weakness.

  "I chase you. If I catch you, you die. It's that simple. Don't stop for anyone. Don't slow down. Whatever you do, don't let me catch you."

  "Why are you doing this?"

  "Because I can. Now get in the van. I left it running."

  Gert pushed her away from him. She stumbled to the door of the van.

  "Go that way," Gert said, pointing the way he'd just come. "Don't let me catch you. I'll give you a two minute head start, so drive fast."

  He kept the gun pointed at her as she got in the van. He heard the transmission go into drive. When she looked at him through the windshield, he made a display of looking at his wrist to remind her of the time limit. She turned the van around and started away from him. He knew she'd be watching him in the mirrors so he raised the gun and fired a warning shot into the back window of the van on the passenger side.

  The vehicle skidded back and forth a little and then shot forward.

  She'd dropped the pedal all the way down.

  Gert hopped into the BMW and did a three point turn to aim after her. When the van was lost to sight and the train had cleared the tracks, he turned the BMW back around and floored it heading west in the opposite direction.

  Chapter 54

  It took Sarah a moment to realize she was alone in the front seat of a car and not with her kidnapper.

  She must've blacked out.

  She'd pulled into a gas station parking area after a cop car passed her with its lights and siren on. She had wanted to stick around to see Gert get arrested. What she saw was the black van drive away unnoticed by the police.

  She looked at her right arm while rubbing it. The familiar numbness was there. Did she write something? She looked around for anything she would've been able to write on. A newspaper sat folded beside her. Sketched in her handwriting on the side white area was a note;

  ...drive after van...twenty minutes left to stop another kill...only you can stop Gert's boss...

  Sarah started the car and got back on the highway.

  She headed out of town as fast as she could without speeding. She looked down and saw a small stash of coins in the ashtray. She found a pack of gum in the glove box, which she unwrapped and tossed in her mouth. The taste was incredible. She chewed with fervor, savoring every swallow of gum juice.

  The note said twenty minutes was left to stop another kill.

  Just turn the car around and call home. She finally won her freedom. She examined why she choose to head back into the fray and realized she had no other choice.

  Did Vivian have a choice? She asked herself.

  Her mother would be worried sick. Who knew what her father was doing to find her.

  She's the one who gets the messages. She'll never forget the first few notes she found after coming out of an episode almost seven months ago. Her arm had been numb, which is something she's gotten used to.

  She'd bumped her head on her dresser when her first blackout hit her. A note that someone had written, which she later figured out was her own doing, sat on the floor beside her. It said something about a teenager a block away needed help. Call police on her father.

  She couldn't remember the exact words because after reading the note she crumpled it up and threw it away.

  The next day she heard a fifteen year old girl got beat up by her father on their front lawn. Sarah asked around the neighborhood to learn more of what had happened. Apparently the teenage girl was dating a guy much older and since she wouldn't stop seeing him, her dad thought he'd mess her up a little. The father is known to police, she learned later, and a raving alcoholic.

  They live a block away. Sarah could've intervened with a phone call.

  After that incident Sarah stopped throwing the notes away. She started carrying paper with her everywhere and eventually used a notebook.

  She swore to herself that she would act on any message as best as she could after Mary Bennett wasn't kidnapped because of her intervention. If it was in her power to help someone, she would at least try. She toyed with the idea that she'd been chosen for this.

  That made her feel powerful. It also gave her purpose like she had never felt before. It was like she an arrangement with God. He'd protect her. He'd take care of her. This was His deal.

  If she was the only one who could stop Gert then she had to try. The messages had never been wrong before.

  At this moment she was wide awake, still breathing and feeling strong after the burst of sugar and caffeine.

  The gas station passed on her right and then it was gone. She was doing over sixty five miles an hour. Multiple police vehicles, ambulances and dark colored sedans littered the parking lot. She checked her mirror, but no one was coming after her. No one paid enough attention to stop what they were doing so they could give out a speeding ticket.

  The black van popped up about a mile ahead, coming towards her. Sarah let off the accelerator a little. From this distance she could see the van was moving fast.

  She eased up a little more. Why would Gert be driving like that? It would attract too much attention. Why would he be coming back to the gas station area where countless people could identify him and the vehicle he was driving?

  Unless it wasn't Gert.

  Half a mile away and closing fast. Sarah slowed down and steered the car as far right as she could go without driving on the shoulder.

  When the van got close enough, she saw long hair. The driver was female. Maybe it's just another black van, she thought.

  She saw a small hole surrounded by concentric lines in the windshield as the driver raced by her.

  A bullet hole.

  Sarah could see the woman was doing at least eighty miles an hour. That might catch someone's attention at the gas station.

  But then what vehicle was Gert in now? How would she ever know with around ten minutes left in her recent prophecy?

  She hit the gas and pushed the car as fast as she dared without losing control.

  Chapter 55

  Sam signaled and pulled over onto the shoulder. When the car came to a complete stop he opened his door and got out.

  "What're you doing?" Dolan asked.

  "Get out."

  Dolan hesitated, then opened his door and stepped from the car. They looked at each other over the roof. It was too hot to lean on as the sun beat down relentlessly.

  The last thing Sam wanted for his career was to show up at the gas station crime scene and have the psychic with him. The way FBI Agent Jill Hanover talked about Dolan, it could harm Sam's ability to be taken seriously, even though Dolan had proven to be a big help in the past.

  "Dolan, you're not leveling with me. There's something you're not telling me. I don't have to be psychic to know you're acting different on this case. I know we've gone over this, but I have to be up front with you. I'm not showing up at the gas station crime scene with you. Call Alex and get him to pick you up."

  Dolan rested his forearms on the open car door and lowered his head. He adjusted his sunglasses and looked back up. "I don't know what it is either. Maybe it's because I don't want to do this anymore. Perhaps I'm psychically not as available as I used to be." A soft breeze moved his hair. "Sam, I can't handle the naggers. Those people who read about my successes with the police department and then swamp the Psychic Fair." He raised his hands, palms out. "I know, I know, isn't that what I want; the more visit
ors at the fair the better. The problem is, everyone wants me to do their reading."

  Sam waited for a small sports car to pass behind him. His jacket rustled in its wake. "So let me get this straight. You agree with Sarah's father to help, but you don't want to do it. Then while you're supposedly helping to find a kidnapped teenager, you're allowing your personal wants and needs to get in the way."

  "Saying it that way makes me look like a letch. Sam, you're interpreting it wrong. It's true; I don't want to do this anymore. I didn't want to help when Sarah's father came and asked me. But after thinking it over and talking to Esmerelda, I decided I would help you guys one more time."

  Sam looked over his shoulder as a rig passed by. Dolan walked around the back of the car and stepped closer to Sam. "But you know as well as I do, when I agree to take on something, I give it my best. My inability to help this time has nothing to do with personal feelings." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. "Here, look at this."

  Sam took the note and flipped it over. It was from Sarah. "What's this? How long have you had it?"

  "Since I first got to the Roberts' house. Sarah has a gift too. She knew I'd search her room. In my opinion, she may be the one blocking me, but not intentionally. This is her gig. That's how she saved Mary Bennett and others over the last six months."

  Sam stepped back from him. "Are you trying to tell me that an eighteen year old girl is talking to someone on the Other Side and then going out and saving strangers from trouble? All the while putting herself in very risky situations where she could be killed? This is the version you believe?"

  "I don't know what Sarah is yet. Not until I talk to her."

  Sam looked at the note in his hand. People were dead. A cop was killed and another assaulted. Sam refused to believe that Sarah somehow would have prior knowledge of some events and not others. If she was in fact helping to stop kidnappings, then how did she get taken? He believed it went deeper than what her notebook revealed.

  He jolted and ducked his head out of reflex as Dolan screamed the word 'gun'. Sam jumped onto the hood of the cruiser without thinking, trying for the safety of the other side. He saw Dolan making his way around the trunk.

  Sam looked at the road as he slid off the other side of the hood. A BMW SUV was aimed at where they were standing, driver's side window down. A lone hand stuck out about a foot, a gun cradled in it. As it was about to pass them, a four door Impala bumped the BMW from behind.

  The gun went off. The bump knocked the shooter's arm. The bullet meant for Sam lodged in the windshield an inch above the wiper.

  The driver of the BMW took another wild shot but hit nothing as he passed them. Sam saw the gun hand withdraw into the driver's side window. The BMW raced away from them while the Impala slowed down and stopped on the opposite shoulder.

  The intensity of the moment, his heart beating to a soldier's stomp; Sam drew his gun and stepped toward the Impala.

  "Get out of the vehicle, hands where I can see them," he shouted.

  The door opened. A thin, frail looking girl turned in the driver's seat and tried to stand. Sam approached with caution, his internal radar afire.

  "I'm Sarah Roberts. The man who tried to shoot you was my kidnapper. I would've called after I got away from him, but I received a message that you would be killed. I guess I got here just in time."

  Chapter 56

  Special Agent Jill Hanover pulled into one of the last Texaco gas stations in America. She parked her Crown Victoria under the old weathered sign that had seen more summer sun than a beach.

  Fergus Mant jumped out of the passenger seat and asked who was in charge. Jill overheard him promptly tell someone that the FBI had arrived and was taking over the crime scene.

  A moment later Jill's Forensics van pulled in behind her and parked up by the restaurant doors.

  She hustled over and told Angus Tran to make sure nothing got missed.

  "I want every shell casing, every finger print. I especially want everyone who's still here to give a statement before they leave. Nothing gets missed."

  "Understood," Angus nodded and skirted away.

  Two ambulances and five marked police cars littered the Texaco parking lot. The immediate area was filled with people contaminating evidence.

  She headed for the entrance of the restaurant where she saw Fergus arguing with a uniformed officer.

  "Fergus, make sure nothing is missed. Find out who showed up on the scene first and get everything you can from them. If the guy bought gas, I want to know about it. Get prints from the counter where he would have paid. If they have any kind of cameras in this joint I want the footage."

  Angus interrupted her. "Agent Hanover, we just got a call that a black van was pulled over a couple miles from here. It matches the description of the one reported stolen yesterday and the one people here said they saw. State troopers spotted it easily because of the van's speed."

  "Did they nab the guy? Is Sarah with him?"

  "The perp has switched vehicles. The woman said he was chasing her in her BMW. It was some kind of game he set up to chase her."

  "Did this woman get a good look at the perp?"

  "Up close," Angus was nodding. "But here's the good part. The car-jacker was alone. He didn't have a girl with him. That jives with what a few of the witnesses are saying here. The girl ran onto the highway and was picked up by a guy driving an Impala. Sarah may have gotten away."

  Jill turned to Fergus. "I need you to radio our Hostage Rescue Team and the negotiator. Bring them up to speed on what's happening. We're going to have to keep them mobile until we get a lock on the victim and the perp.

  She looked back at Angus. "Is the helicopter up yet?"

  "Yes. Last I heard, it would be in the area in fifteen minutes."

  "Okay, put out a call to every law enforcement agency in the State to be on the lookout for this woman's BMW. Inform the helicopter pilot to maintain air support at fifteen hundred feet and wait for our call about the location of the perp."

  Angus looked down at the paper in his hand he'd been reading from. "There's one more thing. One of the officer's who pulled the van over found a piece of paper by a bench in the back. It was addressed to Amelia Roberts. It appears to be from her daughter."

  "What'd it say?"

  "Usual endearment stuff."

  Angus turned and went back to the gas pump area. Jill wanted to get in her car and go look for this BMW herself but the amount of work here kept her from it.

  She spun around and started after her partner when Angus came running up behind her.

  "You're not going to like what just came through the radio."

  "Hit me with it."

  "Sam Johnson is in pursuit of the perp as we speak."

  "You don't mean the same Sam Johnson who ran the kidnapping task force, do you? The one I told was off this case? Tell me you don't mean him."

  "The same one, but listen, it gets better. Dolan has Sarah Roberts. They're meeting with his assistant and then coming here." Angus looked at his watch. "They should be here in fifteen minutes."

  "Okay, that's good news. Well, this is wrapping up quick. We have to go. We leave in one minute. You come with me to navigate. I'll leave Fergus in charge here. Get someone to call Tracy at the Holiday Inn and tell her to get Sarah's parents out here. They're gonna want to meet up with their daughter. Find out where Sam is so we can help him stop this lunatic. Update the helicopter pilot too. Let's move, let's move."

  "On it," Angus said as he turned and ran.

  Chapter 57

  Gert pushed power on the car phone built into the dash of the BMW. Little lights illuminated as he dialed his boss. The phone was answered on the first ring.

  "How do I get out of this? You tell me what to do." Gert yelled into the phone.

  "Where're you?" his boss asked. "Why did you let this get so out of hand? Do you know how many law enforcement agencies are looking for you?"

  "Look, I would've never shot
those guys behind the motel if you hadn't told me to go back and secure my hostage. It's your fault that I'm in this. It would've been one dead cop on the side of the highway and me long gone. But no, I gotta take care of Sarah."

  Gert gunned the BMW to pass a rig doing the speed limit.

  "You don't have Sarah anymore. She gave you power, a position of bargaining. Now they've got her and she knows about us. Sarah still has to be removed and it looks like you will too, but without my help. Every cop in a hundred miles wants to put a bullet in you."

  Gert pressed the phone into his ear. His suspicion was right. He could hear a slight engine sound of a car. The boss was driving. "Where're you? Is anyone in the car with you?"

  "I'm alone and I'm in your vicinity."

  "What are you doing out here?"

  "You've got a tail. A helicopter should be on your ass within a couple minutes. I came to help but I don't know how just yet. Tell me where you are so I can come and get you. The police are looking for the BMW you're in. They are not looking for my car. Your only way out of this is to get into my car."

  Gert pulled the phone away from his ear. He smacked it on the dash three times. "You hear that? That's what it'll sound like when I'm smacking your head. You have no idea how frustrated I am right now."

  "Okay, listen to me and listen carefully. I will be with Sarah shortly. The famed psychic has her and he called in his location for pick up. Tell me where you are and I'll bring them to you. We can do this right."

  Gert relayed the highway number he was on and the name of an exit ramp. He took the ramp and told his boss to look for a building of some kind with a BMW SUV parked out front. He would try to find something within a couple of miles from the ramp on the right side to hold up in.

  "Take care of yourself and don't get caught. I'll handle the girl and the psychic. See you soon."

  Gert clicked off the cell.

  With the phone at his ear he hadn't noticed the distant sound of a helicopter approaching from behind him.