by Marcus Sakey
45
Shadows in Dim Light
“Stop there.” Evan’s voice was commanding.
Danny’s limbs shook and burned, but he made himself keep moving. Legs wobbling and head spinning, he forced himself to his feet, scanning for Evan. The top floor lacked a roof, though vertical girders ascended to mark its future location. City light bouncing off the clouds gave the space a soft silver glow. Near the stairwell, he could see the bound figures of Tommy and Karen. Wherever Evan was, his profile should have been clear against the bright sky, but Danny saw nothing.
“Under the light there. Lift your jacket and turn around.” Evan’s voice again, still loud. But also muffled. Then it clicked. Evan wasn’t shouting at him. He was on the lower floor, yelling instructions. Richard must have arrived while Danny was focusing on the climb.
Moving as quickly as he dared, Danny stepped to the edge of the building and looked down. A tingle shivered his calves as he peered cautiously over the edge. The Range Rover sat inside the gate, exhaust steaming white from the tailpipe. Ten feet from it, Richard stood illuminated by a streetlight, one hand holding the duffel bag, the other pulling up his jacket as he spun around.
Danny cursed silently. The climb had taken longer than he’d thought. He’d hoped to rest for a few minutes and let his muscles recover, but now he had to move. He jogged to where Tommy and Karen knelt, their arms stretched up and tied over the stairwell railing. They struggled as he approached.
“Shhhh.” He put one finger to his lips, the other hand digging for the mini-Swiss Army knife on his key ring. He pulled the duct tape off Karen’s mouth and cut the bindings on her hands. She threw her arms around him, body shaking, tears running down her face.
It was the best he’d felt in he couldn’t remember how long. But there wasn’t time. He extricated himself, locking eyes and smiling at her. Then he turned to the boy.
“Tommy, I’m with your father. We’re going to get you out of here. But you have to be quiet. Understand?”
The boy’s eyes were huge in the moonlight. He nodded quickly, and Danny cut his bindings.
Below them, the yell sounded again. “Good boy, Dick.” Evan amused, firmly in control. “Come on up.”
When the building was finished, there would be escape stairs at each end, but right now, only the central set beside the empty elevator shaft was in place. No telling for sure where Evan was. But Danny had seen his lighter flare on the third floor, near the stairs. Was there a different way he could get the others down? He glanced around frantically. Karen spent three mornings a week at the gym, and might be able to return the way he’d come up; heading down would be easier, just a matter of controlling the slide. But Tommy? A rope, or a cable, some way of lowering him… But the site had been cleared for winter, and he knew there was nothing to find.
“Okay,” he whispered, “here’s the plan. We’re going down these stairs. Be as quiet as you can. I’ll go a little bit ahead. Karen, you take Tommy all the way down.” He tried to put in his eyes all the things he couldn’t say in front of the boy. “Get in Richard’s truck and get out of here.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I have to get off on the third floor.”
“Why?”
He kept his gaze steady. “To help Richard.”
She shook her head, alarm in her eyes. “That’s crazy.”
“It’s the only way. It’ll be two on one, and Evan doesn’t know I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Karen.” He smiled at her, made a tiny motion toward Tommy with his eyes. She had to understand. “Please.”
Her lips trembled, and she looked away. Slowly, she nodded. He leaned in and kissed her. Her lips were cold but her tongue was warm and sweet. One for the road.
And in that moment, he realized that he didn’t expect to get out of this.
Did it matter?
Breaking the kiss, he put a hand to her cheek, cupping her face. A bedroom tenderness they’d shared a thousand times.
Did it matter? Not as much as getting them free. As cleaning up his mess. If his life was the cost, so be it.
“I’ve got to go.” He stood. “Count to thirty and then follow me.”
Danny stepped into the stairwell. He wanted to look back but didn’t dare. The cinder-block walls cast the shaft into inky darkness broken by patchy light from the open doorway of each floor. The concrete stairs had no railing, and he hugged the wall, moving carefully, feeling out each step with his feet. His breath seemed loud. Two flights separated each story, and he’d reached the doorway to the fourth floor when he heard the faint scraping of Karen and Tommy above. He took another flight and paused on the intermediate landing, listening, the angle not letting him see much of the third floor.
“I brought the money.” Richard’s voice, not too far. To the left? The echo made it impossible to say.
“Show me.” Evan sounded calm. Good news. If he suspected Richard wasn’t alone, Evan would be keyed up and at his most dangerous; hopefully, facing a man he didn’t consider a threat, he’d lower his guard. Danny eased down the steps, mouth open to improve his hearing. He slid along the wall until he stood beside the open stairwell doorway, his back to the cinder block. From outside, he heard a zipper pulled. Richard opening the bag. Gambling that Evan’s attention would be on the money, he leaned in just enough to see.
Twenty feet away, Richard stood facing him, holding the bag open. Evan had his back turned, the gun in his hand. The two were outlined against the glowing plastic. Half-walls and piles of building materials lived as shadows in dim light.
It was as good an opportunity as he could hope for.
Praying that Richard wouldn’t give him away with a glance, Danny flowed around the corner. His soft-soled shoes moved soundlessly across the floor. The ruffling tarps underscored his motions in a macabre symphony. He couldn’t be more than twenty feet from Evan. So close to ending this.
Then he saw Debbie.
She stood a dozen feet away, her back to a girder, a nervous cigarette dancing in her hand. Her hair was messy, and in the faint light, the dark circles on her cheekbones made her look like a corpse. The prom queen from a zombie movie.
Her eyes were fixed on him.
Her mouth came open, and he tensed. If she made a sound, it was over. There was no way he could make it to Evan. A cough from her would mean death.
“Go ahead, check the bills. It’s all there,” Richard said.
Danny stared at her, trying to put everything into his eyes. All of the wrong choices that had led them both here. Begging her, across twenty feet of darkened nightmare, not make a final mistake. Not to kid herself that this wasn’t the real thing.
She looked back at him, then over at Evan. It could only have been a second or two their eyes had been locked, but it felt like a lifetime. Like a staring contest as a little kid. A beam angels could have walked across.
Finally, Debbie moved. She raised the cigarette to her lips. Took a drag that made her features glow orange.
And very deliberately turned to stare out the plastic sheeting.
Danny let himself breathe. To anyone else, just turning away would hardly seem heroic. But he knew something about wrong choices, and how hard it could be to make the right. He could’ve kissed her.
He looked back at Evan and Richard. His old partner had pulled out a wad of bills and was holding them up in the gray light. No more than fifteen feet away.
Danny began to move again, gentle as a spring breeze. But not directly to Evan. Four steps out of his way took him to a waist-high pile of neatly stacked lumber. Most of the two-by-fours were twelve feet, construction length, but a few scraps rested on top. His hand closed on a piece about the length of a baseball bat. Not daring to take his eyes off Evan, he lifted it slowly, the wood dry and cool against his sweating palm. A splinter popped, and Danny tensed to dive, but Evan didn’t react.
Danny raised the two-by-four and took another careful step. A few more. Jus
t a few more and he’d be in striking distance.
Evan held the money under his nose and breathed it in. “Ahh, Dick. I could kiss you.”
“Where’s my son?” Richard spoke with surprising force.
“Yeah.” Evan popped his head to either side. “About that. Change of plans.”
Fear sang in Danny’s blood. He took a hurried step, then another. So close.
Then Evan raised his right arm, the same balletic grace and speed as before, the snub-nose pointing straight at Richard’s head.
“Dad!” A ragged cry of fear sounded behind them all.
Still six or eight feet away, Danny flung himself forward, the board humming through the air. Evan whirled, the gun tracking with him, his eyes white and wide and suddenly close. He planted one foot and brought his left arm up in a reflexive block. The off-balance lunge had cost Danny power, and Evan’s leather jacket absorbed most of the hit. He stepped forward, tucking a shoulder, and suddenly Danny found himself flipping over Evan’s back, his own velocity used against him. He had an upside-down fun-house view of Tommy sprinting from the stairwell, Karen an arm’s length behind, her mouth open, and then his spine hit the floor and the breath burst from him in a gasping rush. Lightning flashed behind his eyes. The board clattered from his grip.
“Danny Carter.” Evan put his boot on Danny’s throat, the pistol up to cover the others. “I was kind of hoping I’d see you again, partner.”
46
Marker
“Get in here, kitten.” Evan swiveled the gun to Karen. She hesitated, her face a mask of hatred and fear, and then she walked over to stand beside Richard and Tommy.
From the ground, Danny saw Evan smile, and felt a quick push to his throat. His head burst in a kaleidoscope of colors, and then the boot was gone. He heard Evan retreating. Danny rolled on his side, coughing. Through tear-bleary eyes, he could see Karen take a half step toward him, and he quickly shook his head at her. She froze.
“Deborah, that was a really excellent job of keeping watch.” Evan glared over his shoulder at her. “You doze off, or were you just hoping he’d take you away from all this?”
“I was looking outside.” Her voice sounded stronger than Danny expected, like she’d been preparing herself. “Watching for cars.”
Evan grunted. “Come on, Danny. Get up.” His old partner had moved back a dozen feet to stand next to Debbie, at the entrance of a half-built room. The gun held the four of them in a narrow killing arc.
Danny struggled to his feet, every part of his body screaming. His eyes darted for some advantage, a play that could save them. The third floor was half constructed, the exterior walls not enclosed, but open stud walls divided the interior. A few sections, like the one Evan and Debbie stood near, had even been Sheetrocked. To the left, toward the exterior, were four-foot bundles of bricks meant for the “exposed” walls of future apartments. Behind them and to the right was all open space.
“Do me a favor, would you, buddy?” Evan gestured to the duffel bag with the barrel of the gun. “Bring that bad boy over here.”
There was no reason for Evan to keep them alive once he had the money. But it wasn’t like he couldn’t just shoot them and pick it up himself. Better to spin it out a little longer, give the guy time to gloat, while Danny stayed ready. He took a slow step toward the bag, playing up a limp. Let Evan think he could barely stand.
His senses hummed with hyper-real perception. He could make out the leathery texture of his shoes, could smell the piney sawdust of the lumber, and above it, the sweet drugstore perfume Debbie wore. The weight of the duffel bag pulled him to one side as he walked toward Evan, hoping for a tiny lapse of attention. At this point, any chance was worth taking.
“Slowly now.” Evan kept the black eye of the pistol fixed on Danny as he moved, the barrel unwavering. Debbie stood beside him, her lower lip caught in her teeth. “Set it down.”
He did, wondering if he could make the few feet between them, knowing he couldn’t.
“Good boy.” Evan gestured toward the others, and Danny backpedaled slowly to join them. A building under construction would normally offer any variety of makeshift weapons, hammers and saws and nail guns, but here everything had been neatly tucked away for the winter. The bricks were bound with steel bands. The two-by-four he’d dropped lay at Evan’s feet. He stepped beside Karen, laying one hand in the small of her back. He wanted to take her in his arms, but knew that if a chance came he couldn’t risk being tangled up.
Evan stepped forward, bent down, and hoisted the thirty-pound bag like it was tissue. The gun never moved.
“Right.” He smiled, only half his face visible in the gloom. “I know this is the part where I’m supposed to say something cold, but words were always more your side of the action, Danny. So let’s just leave it at good-bye, huh?”
His thumb rocked up to cock the pistol.
Danny could feel the ragged working of his lungs, the twinges of pain in his chest. Stared at the gun. Wondered if this was it, the end of everything he cared about. Failure in a flash of light. He watched Evan’s finger move on the trigger, gentle and firm, his hand strong.
And then he saw another hand.
Debbie threw herself at Evan, scrabbling at his right arm, shoving it upward, the two of them locked like statues in the liquid play of shadows, a frozen image burned in Danny’s brain, and then orange fire spat at the ceiling and the world accelerated, too many things happening at once.
Danny used the hand on Karen’s waist to shove her into Richard and Tommy, their arms and legs tangling in a clumsy fall behind the bundle of bricks.
Evan’s left hand shot up to Debbie’s throat.
And from the stairwell, someone yelled, “Freeze!”
Whirling, Danny saw Sean Nolan charging out of the darkness of the stairway, his gun up and leveled at Evan.
For the first time in his life, Danny could have wept for joy at the sight of a cop. Then he turned back to Evan and saw him already moving. His pistol swinging over with that gunfighter speed as he flung Debbie toward the detective and sprang back. Debbie flying forward, her legs scrambling to keep up, her body between Evan and Nolan.
Two gun blasts split the world. And in the burned-out light of the muzzle flashes, Debbie’s chest exploded.
Her arms spread like an angel beseeching grace.
Her lips framed a moan.
And then she fell.
Danny wasn’t sure if he yelled or not. He stood in place, watching as her body hit the ground. As the blood began to darken the floor. Remembering another body on another floor. Another shooting he hadn’t been able to prevent. Another victim he hadn’t been able to protect.
So many years, and yet here he was again.
And then, from a position behind the lumber pile, Nolan was firing. The blasts broke Danny’s reverie. He whirled to see Evan lunge into the next room, bag in one hand and pistol in the other. Chunks of Sheetrock blew out where the cop’s bullets followed him. Danny took a last look at Debbie, wanting to run to her, knowing it was too late, that it would be a pointless gesture. Maybe a suicidal one, with Evan somewhere in the darkness.
Gritting his teeth, he forced his eyes away from her body.
The others crouched behind the bricks. Karen was frantically gesturing him over. Nolan had settled behind the lumber pile in a target shooter’s stance, his attention entirely on the room where Evan had disappeared.
Behind and to the near side of the detective, the stairwell was clear.
There might not be a better moment. Danny darted over to the bricks. Richard gripped Tommy in a bear hug, the boy’s arms wrapped around his waist. Karen crouched beside them, her pupils wide.
“Can you run?”
She nodded. He grabbed Richard’s shoulder.
“The stairwell. Let’s go.” Without waiting for a reply, he leapt to his feet, sprinting forward. If Evan fired, he wanted to be the target. His feet slapped the ground. A gun blast exploded from somewhere, shatteri
ngly loud. Behind him, he could hear the fumbling sounds of the others. Nolan glanced at him and cursed, started to swing the gun over and thought better of it, turning back to cover them. He fired twice, the flashes painting his face in garish colors, and then Danny reached the open stairwell door and stopped to help the others through. Karen came first, light on her feet, dragging Tommy behind her. Richard took up the rear, vanishing into the darkness. As Danny spun to follow, another blast roared. A patch of cinder block exploded right where he’d been standing, chips and dust showering down, and then he was in the shaft, the others already running down the stairs. Karen turned to see that he had made it, and he gestured her on. “Go!”
The four of them hurtled down the dark steps, Karen and Tommy a flight ahead, holding hands. More gunfire exploded above. He and Richard ran together, taking stairs four at a time.
As they stepped on the landing just above the first floor, he heard three shots in rapid succession, followed by Nolan’s scream.
Danny froze. Richard stopped beside him, his look quizzical and eager. Only silence from above. His heart pumped panic, his lungs sucked fear.
Ahead of them, the stairs were clear. No way Evan could catch them. The Rover was unlocked and running. They could be out the door and safe in seconds.
Upstairs, Nolan was alone. Wounded. And facing the monster Danny had helped create.
“Come on.” Richard shook with impatience.
When Debbie had fallen, Danny had felt for a second like he was back in the pawnshop. Evan gone kill-crazy and a body on the floor. The last time he’d chosen to walk out. Now here he was again, faced with the same options.
Who said fate lacked a sense of poetry?
Danny grimaced. No more wrong choices. “Get them out of here.”
For an instant they locked eyes in the twilight gloom, two men pushed to the naked edge of reason. Something passed between them. Something like understanding. Then Richard nodded, turned, and dashed down the steps. The last Danny saw of him was his bright Nikes as he raced out of the stairwell.
