NorthWest (John Hazard - Book II)

by Glaze, JH

  Candy was moving with the grace of a ballerina as she crossed the floor, each foot methodically placed in her dance of destruction, the crowd seeming to part like the Red Sea before her. She wore a bright red silk top and a glittering silver miniskirt that shimmered in the shafts of light reflecting off of the disco ball that hung from the ceiling. Her full breasts bounced as she came towards him and the crowd was fixated on her as the music suddenly stopped. You could have heard a pin drop except for a few people gasping and muttering their outrage. They were quietly urging Candy to kick his ass.

  That was when his mind finally comprehended the style of her movements. She was swaying from side to side as she walked toward him, her arms making definite patterns, her eyes focused like lasers on him as she covered the distance between the table and him in a flash. Mark had just enough time to say three words before she made her move at him. “Fucking Kung Fu?”

  As she leapt into the air, her leg flashed out and her foot caught Mark on the side of the head. He heard his jaw crack as the kick dropped him to the floor. He was really hurting now, the world was spinning and he regretted the choice he had made in attacking the two girly-boys. Helpless to move, he laid on his back, trying to get up. Hell, trying just to breathe.

  He looked up from his position on the floor and the gorgeous, badass bitch was straddling him, intentionally showing him her panty-less crotch. This one was definitely a she, and was waiting for a sign that he got that message. As soon as she saw the look of surprise on his face, and she knew that he knew a woman was about to kick his ass, she proceeded to stomp his lights out.

  Eleven

  Emily burst through the gate at the station, rushed onto the train, and headed straight for home. She was out of breath and sweating profusely as she took a seat so upset that she almost sat on the little old lady who was sitting there.

  “I’m so sorry.” She said, but the woman just looked at her with tired eyes. Embarrassed and blushing, she moved to a different seat. Once she was seated, she tried to plan her next move. She knew that it would take two or three times as long to drive across town than it took by train. She tried to calculate the distance of the walk from the station to her apartment and how long it would take to get home. She figured she might have about thirty minutes from the time she got to her apartment, to get some clothes and things together. The thugs would be driving and dealing with traffic. It would take them longer to get there.

  She wondered if they would actually come after her. It would be easy since they had her address from the résumé, but was it really worth it to them to follow through? Kill her? Probably, since she was the only real witness to the murder. The only thing she could do now was run. Run and try somehow to get someone to help.

  Leaving the station, she briskly walked down the street toward home. She looked in every direction for parked cars that might look unfamiliar, suspicious, or had people sitting in them, but all was clear.

  Arriving home, she crossed the street and walked up the front steps of the old apartment building sliding her key into the lock of the lower entry door. Before going in, she looked around again to verify that all was clear. She checked her mailbox and found a few late bill notices as usual. Tucking them under her arm, she climbed the stairs to her apartment.

  When she got to the landing on the second floor, she stood outside the door and carefully pressed her ear to it to see if she could hear anything inside the apartment. It was quiet. She inserted her key into the lock, turned the doorknob carefully and slowly opened the door.

  Ralph leapt at her from behind the door and she screamed, scaring him. The large orange tabby ran for the bedroom. “Ralphie, I’m sorry baby. You scared mommy.” She closed the door and followed him to the bedroom and reached under the bed to get him. He always hid under the bed when he was nervous or when she was angry with him for scratching the furniture or eating the houseplants.

  She picked him up and sat down on the bed. “Mommy has to go away for a while, but we’re going to get someone to take care of you...” She stroked his short fur and he purred loudly pushing himself into her hand. “But who are we going to get right now? Shit!” and Ralph cringed again in her arms.

  She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, scrolling through her directory until she came to Diane, her neighbor. She pushed the call button and waited. After two rings, Diane answered. “Hello?”

  “Hey Diane, it’s Em. Thank God you’re home! I have a big, big favor to ask.”

  “Yeah, honey? What’s that? You sound upset.” Diane was from the South, born and raised. Along with her slight drawl, she called everyone ‘honey’, a real giveaway.

  “Well, I’m going to be out of town for a couple of weeks and I was wondering if you could take care of Ralph while I’m gone.”

  “Ralph? Oh, you mean your kitty cat. Sure thing, honey. He’s no trouble at all, but if you’re gonna to be gone for a couple a weeks, I should probably bring his supplies on over here, instead of leavin him up in there all by his little self. He’s gonna miss his mama, bless his heart.”

  “Thanks, Diane. That’s perfect. Can you come and get him?’

  “Sure, honey. When’d you want me to stop on by?”

  “Well, now would be a good time.”

  “Ya mean, right now?”

  “Yeah, right now, I don’t have much time.” She looked at the clock. She had already wasted ten minutes. “I hope you can come and get him now. I promise I’ll make this up to you when I get back, Diane.”

  “Are you sure you’re alright, Emily? You sound mighty upset.”

  “I’ll be just fine when I know Ralphie is in good hands.” She carried the phone under her chin and pulled a small suitcase out of the closet. She lifted it up on the bed and opened it.

  “Well, okay then, dear. I’ll be right on over. Have his things ready, and I’ll see ya in a minute.” The phone disconnected just before the words passed through Emily’s lips, “Bye…”

  She looked utterly confused as she rifled through her dresser drawers trying to decide what to take. Jeans. Shorts. Sweatshirt. Thong? No! She kept grabbing onto something else as she dug in the drawer only to grab hold of it, then leave it lying there.

  Since this trip was going to the northern woods, it would be warm during the day, but it could be cool or even cold at night. It might even rain for two weeks straight. What the hell! How do you pack for that in one suitcase?

  She took the jeans, a couple of sweaters, underwear, a couple of concert t-shirts, a pair of sneakers, and stuffed all of it into the suitcase. Next she needed her deodorant, so he headed for the bathroom with a small plastic carry bag.

  The bathroom was a mess, towels draped over everything. Dirty clothes, q-tips, powders, creams, and used tissues with traces of makeup were strewn everywhere. “Mental note to self… clean the fuckin’ bathroom if you live through this,” she muttered to herself.

  She was staring into the open door of the medicine cabinet when a knock came at the door. She ran out of the bathroom to the kitchen area of her apartment. She was looking for some kind of a weapon. She opened the drawers frantically until she found it.

  She grabbed the largest knife she owned out of the drawer, and went to the door. She boosted herself up on her toes and carefully looked through the peephole. It was Diane, and she was looking up at something above the door as she waited for Emily to answer it.

  Opening the door, Emily said, “Hurry in so I can close the door!” She took Diane by the wrist, pulling her into the room.

  “Okay now, Em. Now I know something is goin’ on here.” She nodded at the knife in Emily’s hand. “Please, honey, what is it?”

  Shutting the door and double locking it, Emily set the knife on the table and spoke nervously, “I’ll tell you if you help me get Ralph’s things together while I finish packing.” She was already walking into the bathroom.

  “Hon, now I guess his litter box and food are still in the same place as always?” Diane waited for
an answer. “Emily?”

  Emily stuck her head out through the doorway, “Yeah, please hurry, Diane! I don’t think I have much more time!”

  “Now, you promised to tell me…” she said, walking toward the bathroom where Emily was rifling through the medicine cabinet. “Wow, honey, your place is trashed. Did someone break in here?”

  Emily looked at her, as if to say, you really wanna go there? She tilted her head and took a deep breath. “Okay, Diane. This is going to sound crazy, and forgive me for continuing to pack while I tell you this, but I have about fifteen,” she looked at her watch, “…oh shit, maybe ten minutes before some really bad guys get here, and I’m afraid that if I’m here when they arrive they are going to kill me. Maybe you and Ralph, too, if you’re still here.”

  “What?? We gotta call the police right now!”

  “You know how long it takes the police to respond in this city, Diane! They’ll get here just in time to find our bullet riddled bodies! I don’t think we have that kind of time.” She threw a couple more items into the carry bag along with a toothbrush and some pink soap that was resting on the top of the sink by the faucet.

  The phone was ringing. “Diane, just get Ralph and go! Buy him some supplies, and I’ll pay you when I get back. Please? Hurry!”

  “I hate leavin ya this way. It just doesn’t seem right.” She scooped Ralph up in her arms and called over her shoulder, “You call me when you get where you’re goin and let me know you’re okay. Promise now, honey?” She turned toward Emily and crossed her heart, “Cross your heart?”

  “Promise! Now go!” She rushed over to answer the phone and the voice on the other end said, “Hello, is this Emily?”

  “Yes, who’s…” Then she realized how foolish she was to answer the phone.

  “It’s John, John Hazard. I was just calling to see if you had decided to join us on the…”

  “Yes!”

  “Great, will you need someone to pick you up in the morning?”

  “I need someone to pick me up right fuckin’ now!” she screamed at the cell phone she had dropped on the bed while she tried to zip the over-stuffed suitcase.

  “Give me your address. I think I might be in your area right now. Are you okay? You don’t sound so good.” He started to pull over to look for the address on her résumé. He remembered the street name, but not the number.

  She had to think. “225 Rockland… Apartment 2C, but you better hurry cuz I gotta get out of here in the next five minutes or I’m dead!”

  “Seriously?”

  “Fuck, John! Some seriously bad people are on their way here to kill me.” She picked the phone up from the bed and put it to her ear.

  John knew better than to ask what was going on. His cop reflexes were kicking in. “Is there a back exit out of the building?”

  “No, just a fire escape,” she said looking out the window across the room.

  “Look, if someone is coming to kill you they will probably come in hard. You need to watch out your window for them, wait until they get inside the building, and then get your ass down that fire escape. I should be there any minute and I’ll meet you at the bottom. You got it? If you are not there waiting, I’ll blow the horn to let you know I’m out there.” He felt the rush of adrenalin now. John began scanning all the people he could see along the way. Maybe he could spot something suspicious.

  Emily picked up the suitcase and walked toward the window that opened to the fire escape. “Right, fire escape... Shit!”

  Shoving the phone in her pocket, she bent over and unlocked the window, grabbing the top latch and tried to pull it open. It was stuck! She tried several times, until finally it broke loose nearly throwing her to the floor.

  She was just sticking her head out the window when she heard the slamming of car doors outside on the street. She leaned out and peeked over the rusted cast iron railing and caught a glimpse of two very large men dressed in black walking from the SUV to her apartment entrance.

  “Fuck!” she whispered and began to feel more panicked as she grabbed the stuffed suitcase and hoisted it through the window onto the landing of the fire escape. She was certain that she had triple-locked her door, but unsure if it would hold up if someone was determined to break in. As she stepped through the window she prayed.

  “You better be there, John. Please, God. Hurry!”

  On the street below, the two thugs broke the glass on the security door and reached in to unlock it.

  “Yo, what apartment was that?” one asked the other.

  “2C, second floor.”

  “Yeah, I know, I know! Second floor! You think I’m some kinda mook?” He turned his back to the open door and faced his alleged heckler.

  “Nah, I didn’t mean…”

  “Fuck you! I should pop one in ya like they did to Bobby.” He started to raise his gun.

  “Come on, man. Let’s do this and get out of here. I’ll buy you a beer on the way back.” The guy held his hands out defensively.

  “Beer sounds good, but I should still kick yo’ ass,” he said, turning to step through the door. They hurried up the steps and looked down the hall to find apartment 2C.

  Meanwhile, John was beginning to be concerned that he might not make it to Emily in time, so he started running the red traffic lights as much as he dared, without putting anyone in danger. Even so, he hoped he wasn’t being played for a fool.

  How could he know what she might be involved in? Did he really want to get mixed up in something that could make him an accomplice? Emily Sparks is an attractive woman, but attractive enough to risk doing time?

  He made up his mind to chance it. If it was really bad shit, he could always throw her out of the car, right? His thoughts wandered to a previous case he’d been assigned.

  A very attractive woman had killed two people with a nasty kitchen knife. The female victim’s head was completely severed, and the male was viciously stabbed through his lower jaw. After witnessing such a crime scene, he had decided that people were capable of most anything. The perpetrator in that case was a gorgeous redhead.

  It only made sense to get his gun out of the glove box and put it on the seat under his leg where he could get to it quickly if necessary. This way, if he had to stop suddenly it wouldn’t slide to the floor. Now he was ready for anything.

  Out in the open air of the landing, Emily struggled with the ladder and could not figure out why it wouldn’t move. She even tried standing on it. Suddenly she heard a sound from inside the apartment. Someone was trying to open the door!

  Out in the hall, one of the men was on his knees staring at the lock on the door. The other pushed him, said, “Come on, man! Let’s just kick it in, for fuck’s sake!”

  “Man, just give me a second!”

  He stuck the shaft of the pick into the lock just as John rounded the corner onto Rockland.

  As he pulled into the alley next to the building, the stark black hulk of the SUV caught his eye immediately. He could see the bottom of the old fire escape system but there was no one standing there when he arrived. He parked close to where he thought the ladder might drop, pulled the lever to pop the trunk lid and blew his horn. Then he rolled down the window, leaned out as the warm air rushed in, and looked up.

  Emily was frantically trying to drop the ladder for the fire escape. He got out of the car and called up to her, just loud enough for her to hear, “There’s a latch right by your feet. Pull it!”

  The ladder broke loose and dropped straight down. He cringed as it clanged to a stop about six inches from the concrete and right in front of him. Flakes of rust rained down on him. He shielded his eyes from it as he watched.

  “Throw me your bags!” he hissed up at her. She was trying to manage them while climbing down the ladder.

  She dropped the bag over the side of the railing and he caught it as a smaller plastic one fell out of the pocket it had been stuffed into and hit the street with a thud. As she scrambled down, he opened the trunk and threw in the ba
g.

  Upstairs, the would-be lock picker was having no luck. “Fuck this fancy shit!” yelled the gruffer, more impatient one and kicked at the door. Bang! Again, bang! The third kick finally pulled the inner doorframe off and the thugs ran through the doorway into the apartment. Guns drawn, they checked the bedroom and the bathroom, then stood in the living room area and looked at each other, shaking their heads silently.

  Finally, they noticed the breeze blowing in through the curtains and realized the window was open to the fire escape. The door kicker ran over, pushed a small table off to the side to make more room for his hulking body, and stepped through the window. He looked up through the rusted stairs, no movement. Then he leaned over the railing. The girl was in the car!

  John had just put it in gear as the thug opened fire. Now, he stomped down hard on the gas and the tires screeched in response. Bullets whirred as they bounced off the pavement, ricocheting into walls and trashcans lining the alleyway.

  “Shit, they’re shooting at us!” John looked down the alley as the bullets rained down around his accelerating car. “What kind of trouble are you in?” He heard a crunching sort of a sound as a slug smashed his taillight and penetrated the trunk. He reached the next street and turned sharply onto it.

  A car swerved away from them as John took the corner wide, cutting into the other lane. They could hear the driver yelling as he mowed down a line of trashcans sitting on the curb awaiting pickup.

  “Why is that guy trying to kill you?” John asked her after he had regained control of the car. He was focused on her and ran the red traffic light at the next intersection. He could feel his heart thumping in his chest.

  “Get us out of here, and I’ll tell you every detail!” she plead with him.

  “I don’t think this is over yet.” He looked in the rearview mirror as the thug’s SUV shot out of the alley a block behind them, and slammed into a wall on the opposite side of the street. “Wait a sec… yeah, it’s over for now.”