Trust Me

by Jeff Abbott

  ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ the officer said, real sympathy in his voice. But still, he began to write the ticket.

  Luke watched the pen move across the paper; the cop’s hands busy and not near his gun. The chance had passed. Luke squeezed the steering wheel with frustration. If he called for help now Eric would shoot Officer Moncrief before he could react. He glanced at Eric and the barest smile of triumph flickered on Eric’s face.

  Officer Moncrief handed Luke his ticket and Luke signed. He wanted to write HELP ME on the signature line but he could feel Eric watching him. He paused halfway through his scrawl and he could hear Eric’s very quiet intake of breath, readying the gun.

  He wrote his last name, handed the pad back to the officer.

  ‘Slow it down, gentlemen. If you’re dealing with one tragedy, you don’t want another.’

  ‘Words to live by, officer, thank you,’ Eric said.

  ‘Yes,’ Luke said. It was true. As soon as the officer turned away and started back to his cruiser, the gun moved to Luke’s hip.

  ‘Back on the road. Now. Speed limit.’

  Luke obeyed, his hands shaking on the wheel, raging at himself for his lost nerve.

  ‘I’ll make you a deal,’ Eric said, breaking the silence as they left Mirabeau behind them.

  ‘You and your deals. Your deals only benefit you.’

  ‘Another stunt and I shoot off your big toe. I don’t have to deliver you in perfect condition. We don’t have much time.’

  Deliver, Luke thought. He was now a delivery. Who wanted him?

  4

  Houston.

  The city spread out across the vast coastal plain, a seemingly endless quilt of shopping centers, office buildings, housing developments, all connected by a stitching of highways. Haze moped above the horizon. It was a city of drivers, a constant thrumming jolt of energy and movement. As the afternoon rush hours approached, I-10 traffic headed east into the city slowed in fits and starts.

  The creeping pace of traffic gave Luke a fresh hope. He kept cussing himself, inside his brain, for his fear in not trying to escape when the Mirabeau police officer was there to help him. But he believed it would have gotten them both dead. The desperation in Eric’s eyes was a fierce, awful fire.

  They’d hit their first real traffic now. If the car came to a full stop maybe he could bolt. Eric might not be eager to shoot him in front of dozens of other people. Or he could mouth a plea for help, if anyone would look at him. The drivers kept their eyes on the road. Strangers did not exchange glances in cars in Houston.

  ‘The knife likes you to have your eyes forward,’ Eric said.

  ‘The knife likes to not stab me when I’m driving because we’ll crash. But God knows we want to keep the knife happy.’

  ‘Stay calm. Tonight you’ll be safe.’ Eric sounded hollow. He had shushed Luke the few times in the past hour when Luke had tried to speak again. ‘Stay in the middle lane until we get to the downtown exits.’

  Traffic slowed again. And, for the first time, Eric clutched Luke’s shirt, grabbing the seat belt in his fist as well.

  ‘You’re considering making a run. I’m telling you I will kill you.’

  ‘You don’t need the threats. I’m done fighting you.’ He was gripped by a panic that someone would see Eric threatening him and try to help him, making it worse. Luke glanced at the car on his left. He saw a woman driving a minivan, a bored teenage girl in the passenger seat, texting on a phone. To his right, an older man in a pickup truck drummed a beat on the steering wheel. None of them looked over at Luke’s car, lost in the world of what was directly ahead of their wind-shields.

  ‘Strange to be so alone, each of us, when surrounded by thousands of others. We don’t even know who we can reach out to, who will understand us.’ Eric gave a ragged laugh. ‘That’s why the world’s going to hell.’

  ‘Then let’s not take one further step into hell. Please. You’re not a bad guy.’

  ‘You need to be afraid of me, Luke.’

  ‘I am. But… you don’t want to hurt me. I can tell. You’re not a criminal, you don’t want to do this. Let me help you get out of whatever mess you’re in.’ He had to convince Eric it wasn’t too late to stop, to let him go.

  ‘You are helping me. You just don’t know it yet.’ Eric’s jaw clenched.

  ‘But…’

  ‘It changes you, breaking the law,’ Eric said quietly. ‘I can’t go back. I made my choice. And I want you to shut up now.’

  They had to work past a traffic jam caused by a chain reaction of fender benders, and by the time they reached the heart of the city evening had begun its slide over the sky. Eric got more agitated, checking his watch every half-minute. Sweat was bright on his face. Downtown Houston rose in light-bejeweled towers. Downtown had undergone a renaissance in recent years; old abandoned hotels and buildings reborn into new establishments, lodgings and office space. Luke steered the BMW through the weaving pedestrians – office workers heading to the light rail and bus stops and parking garages, or to trendy new bars and restaurants. Luke had always thought Houston a place of unbounded energy and bustle, but right now he just wished someone would slow down long enough to notice he was in trouble.

  ‘This is about to get dangerous,’ Eric said. He leaned forward, as though scanning the pedestrians for a face, for a threat.

  ‘Like it wasn’t already.’

  ‘Turn here.’

  They drove past Minute Maid Park where the Astros played, then deep into a neighborhood that had not yet benefited from the economic renaissance of downtown. The buildings were older, the businesses humbler. Unrepaired potholes, the by-product of Houston humidity, pocked the pavement.

  Luke reached a small parking lot and Eric said, ‘Pull in here.’

  Luke did, parking in a slot closest to the street at Eric’s order. They had a view down the street. The sidewalks were less crowded; fewer pedestrians strolled to their evening’s entertainment. Luke saw an old couple ambling slowly, carrying grocery bags; a young woman hurrying past, chattering on a cell phone and gesturing wildly; an older woman dressed too young, venturing into the twilight with her painted, pained smile. Down the street Luke could see a small bar, a homeless shelter operated by an Episcopal charity, a liquor store, a clothing resale shop, a neon-signed Tex-Mex eatery. The storefronts were weathered and worn.

  ‘Now what?’ Luke asked.

  ‘We wait.’

  ‘For what?’ Was someone coming here to meet them? To collect Luke? This might be his one remaining chance to escape. But no way he could get clear of the car without Eric shooting or knifing him. ‘What are you going to do?’

  Eric glanced again at his watch, tugged nervously at his lip. ‘Everything will be okay. Trust me.’

  Twenty minutes passed; sundown completed its glory. The night threw its stars across the dark-purpled sky. Eric’s gun rested back in its second home, Luke’s ribs. Luke’s legs ached from sitting so long. Hunger rumbled his stomach, but he kept fighting off a fear-induced nausea. He’d already decided that if he puked he was aiming at Eric’s rotten face. Puke and run for his life. A mark of real heroics. He thought he was starting to lose his grip.

  He closed his eyes. He wondered if this sinking acceptance in his chest that the end was close was what his father felt like in the moments before he died, if Dad had realized the plane he was on was doomed.

  Luke’s hand found the medal under his shirt and clutched at it. He thought of the conversation he’d had with his father, his mom asleep in the sleeping bag, he and his dad sitting by the soft flicker of the campfire.

  ‘I want you to have this, son, keep it close to you always,’ his father had said. ‘Always. It will shield you from danger.’

  ‘Dad. Seriously? You’re not religious.’ His father had been raised Episcopalian but he wasn’t a churchgoer, except maybe at Easter and Christmas, when Luke’s mom insisted.

  ‘No atheists in foxholes, Luke,’ Warren Dantry had said.

>   ‘We’re camping, this isn’t a foxhole,’ Luke said. He raised the medal to the firelight’s glow: a faceless angel, muscular wings, holding a sword and shield.

  ‘Saint Michael the archangel is an emblem of strength and determination, of order and reason overcoming chaos and violence. He’s special in that he figures in Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions. He’s a hero for the world, good overcoming enormous evil.’

  ‘Evil. Like Darth Vader?’ He didn’t remember the story of what Saint Michael had done, what evil he had defeated.

  ‘Worse than Darth Vader,’ his father had said. ‘Saint Michael will keep you safe, Luke. If not now, then someday.’

  ‘Safe from what?’

  ‘From whatever darkness comes into your life. You might be called to fight one day, Luke. Think of Michael. Think of strength and know you can win.’

  ‘Brains are better than strength, Dad.’

  His dad smiled at him. ‘Yes. But together, they’re unbeatable.’

  ‘Thanks, Dad.’ Luke didn’t like jewelry of any sort, he thought this a goofy gift and most unlike his dad and he put the medal in his pocket. His father had said nothing more, poking at the fire with a stick.

  And a month later his father was dead, and Luke had worn the medal every day.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Eric’s voice rose.

  Luke opened his eyes. ‘Nothing.’

  Eric jabbed the gun hard into Luke’s side, pried his fingers from the medal, pulled it from Luke’s shirt. A flat circular medal, with an angel armed with a fiery sword. The angel’s wings were wide, strong, like an eagle’s.

  ‘What’s this?’ An edge came to Eric’s voice.

  ‘Saint Michael. The archangel. My dad gave it to me.’

  ‘You… you don’t need to be praying. Everything’s cool if you do what I say.’ Eric let go of the medal as though it burned him; Luke tucked the silver back into his shirt.

  Eric put his gaze back to the street. ‘Saint Michael. He’s the one who casts Satan out of Heaven, right, sends him plummeting to Hell?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Luke said. ‘Who sent you to this hell, Eric?’ This might be his only chance to reason with him. They were waiting, for God knew what, and Eric was scared. He swallowed past the broken-glass ache in his throat. ‘The woman on the phone? Who is she?’

  ‘Shut up.’

  ‘She’s giving you orders.’

  ‘Shut up.’

  ‘She ordered you to kidnap me. Why?’

  Eric kept his eyes locked on the street. ‘Hello,’ Eric said. Luke followed Eric’s stare and saw a flicker of light as the homeless shelter’s door closed. A tall older man approached their car, his weathered face lit by the juxtaposition of passing headlights and the pool of a street-lamp. He was dressed in the uniform of the homeless, a shabby coat, a bandanna secured over greasy hair.

  They waited in silence as the man approached.

  ‘Start the car,’ Eric’s voice crackled energy, as though the exhaustion of the past several hours was forgotten. ‘Pull out into the street.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Just do it.’

  Luke started the engine and pulled out onto the street. The homeless man was forty feet ahead of them, walking on the left.

  ‘I have to be sure,’ Eric said to himself. ‘Stay close. But not too close.’

  Luke stopped the BMW at a light. The homeless man kept walking, stare fixed ahead on the buckling sidewalk.

  The light flashed green.

  ‘Go,’ Eric ordered.

  Luke drove the car, closed the gap on the homeless man. They drove past him and the man glanced up.

  ‘Drive another block then go back,’ Eric ordered.

  Luke U-turned at the next light and now the passenger side window was closer to the homeless man. Eric studied his quarry.

  ‘It’s him,’ Eric said. ‘Okay. Be cool, be cool.’

  Luke wasn’t sure if Eric was talking to him, or to himself.

  The homeless man raised his head as he walked on in his broken shuffle. He wiped at his nose with the back of his hand. Another man waited at the street corner, leaning against the traffic light, turning to watch as both the first man and the BMW approached. The second man – dressed in a leather jacket with a colorful bald eagle stitched on the back, jeans and heavy dark sunglasses unnecessary at night – seemed to sense trouble rising; he turned and ran into the shadows of an alley at top speed, glancing once over his shoulder. Luke saw naked fear on his broad, scarred face.

  ‘That guy in the eagle jacket was going to talk to the homeless man,’ Luke said. He was not sure why he said this thought aloud, but he had seen a smile of expectation rise and then fade in the second man’s face. Luke had the sense they were interrupting something – a rendezvous or an appointment. The homeless man stopped as the leather-jacketed man rushed away from the scene.

  They drew level with the homeless man and he paused as the BMW crawled to a stop, Eric lowering the window.

  The homeless man took an awkward step forward into the pool of light.

  Then he turned and began to hurry away. Walking with purpose, digging into his pocket.

  ‘Follow him,’ Eric ordered with a hard jab of the gun into Luke’s tender ribs.

  The homeless man broke into a run. He cut across the street toward the parking lot of a bank. The building looked new, the foothold into the neighborhood for the revitalized edge of downtown.

  ‘Catch up with him. I have to talk to him,’ Eric said.

  The homeless man ran toward the narrow, empty drive-through lanes, toward the soft glow of the ATM machine.

  ‘Cut him off, don’t let him get away,’ Eric said.

  Luke cut the BMW between the homeless man and the building. He glided into the ATM lane and slammed to a stop; the driver’s side was close to the ATM, the passenger side fronting the running man. The homeless guy rocked on his heels, and then lurched to retreat the other way.

  The gun left Luke’s ribs.

  ‘No!’ he yelled but Eric leaned out the window and fired. Three loud pops. The homeless man jerked, fell, collapsed in a huddle. The back of his head welled bone and blood.

  Luke lunged at Eric’s arm, at the gun; he stepped off the brake and the BMW lurched past the ATM. Eric socked his elbow back hard and Luke’s head snapped into the driver’s window. Pain lashed his nose, his face. The gun, warm from duty, pressed against the side of his throat.

  Eric turned, held up his phone with the other hand, and snapped a photo of the dead man. He closed the phone and jabbed the gun harder against Luke’s throat.

  ‘Oh, God, you shot him,’ Luke whispered.

  ‘Drive fast. Now.’

  Luke drove, his hands shivering, his whole body numb with shock. He steered back onto the road. The gun was warm against his skin. Holy Jesus. He had just witnessed a murder. Fear pounded an ache in his chest. He wasn’t sure what he felt except that he did not want to die.

  ‘Get us onto the highway.’ Eric’s voice broke. ‘Go, go.’

  ‘Which… which one?’ As if it mattered, Luke thought. Eric had just killed a man and Luke knew he was next.

  ‘Just get us on a highway, get us out of here.’ Eric flipped open his phone. Worked the keypad with his thumb. Then he punched in another number, shaking. He emitted a hard, nervous laugh – an awful mockery of a laugh – and put the cell phone up to his ear.

  ‘It’s done. He’s dead. I just emailed you the proof. So you tell me where she is.’

  Luke felt Eric’s stare come onto his skin. He drove like a robot; he tried to focus on the driving. Where she is.

  Eric closed the phone. ‘Get us to Highway 59 and head northeast.’

  ‘What, so I can drive you to kill someone else?’

  ‘No. Now we go save a life.’ And, like an old friend, the gun went back against Luke’s ribs.

  5

  They were well past the city now, past the sprawl of lights and the scattering of outer suburbs and smaller towns, into t
he denseness of the piney woods. Luke kept a hard grip on the wheel. He badly needed to go to the bathroom and hunger clenched its fist around his stomach. The gas needle hovered toward the red zone of empty.

  ‘We need to make a gas stop,’ he said.

  ‘You’ll pull over when I say.’

  Two minutes later they came upon a farm to market road, empty of traffic. Beyond its edges, heavy growths of loblolly pines stood like guardians.

  ‘Drive a ways down the road,’ Eric ordered.

  He’s going to kill me now. Whatever strange reason I was useful to him is over and he’s going to kill me. Terror rose in his throat.

  ‘Stop.’

  Luke stopped.

  Eric removed the keys from the ignition. ‘Get out of the car. Slowly.’

  The last movements his muscles would ever know. Luke obeyed. He’d been stuck behind the wheel, body locked in fear for hours. The night was silent, the stars mute witnesses.

  ‘You need to pee?’

  ‘Yes.’ Was this a final kindness? What did it matter?

  ‘Go on the other side of the car.’ He stuck the gun between Luke’s shoulder blades.

  Luke relieved himself. When he was done, Eric steered him toward the trunk. He popped it open with the remote.

  ‘I’m going to give you a break from driving. But if I hear one peep out of that trunk, you’re dead. As much fun as we’ve had together, I’ll just pretend you’re the guy I killed and it’s boom, you’re done.’ The shakiness was gone from Eric’s voice. He’d said earlier that breaking the law changed you, and now he had broken the greatest law of man. He had taken a life.

  ‘I know.’ Shivering, Luke climbed into the trunk. The lid slammed down. Darkness. The engine revved. The tires hissed softly on the gravel, and the car backed and pulled into a U-turn.

  Luke, alone, stretched his legs out as far as he could. You may be called upon to fight, Dad had said. The time was now. He had to think of something.