Downfall

by V. B. Tenery

  “You might as well learn to like it. You ain’t gonna change his mind, whatever his plans are for her.”

  “Look, I need some space. I’ll get one of the guys to watch her.”

  “Just be sure you do. And be back before Hank returns. I don’t want to have to explain your absence.” Her brother reached into his pocket and slapped the keys into her hand, but held on to them. “These are for the white Land Rover outside. Take it.”

  He started to walk away then turned back. “How long you gonna be gone?”

  “As long as it takes. I’m gonna take some things back to Walmart and do some shopping. Don’t worry; I’ll be back before Hank gets here. He’ll be gone at least a day, maybe more.”

  She had to concentrate to keep her hand from trembling as she started the car. She pulled around to the mobile home and parked in front.

  *****

  Lucy met Abby at the door. “You did it! I’m proud of you.”

  “Yeah, well I almost peed my pants. If Hank catches me...”

  “Don’t worry about that. With my hands free, I can handle Hank, unless of course, he has a gun aimed at me.”

  Abby scoffed. “You? Handle Hank?”

  “You’d be surprised what a woman can do with the right training. I’ve been preparing to face him for a long time. Do you have any guns?”

  “No, Hank would never trust me with a weapon. So, if you’re so good, how did you wind up here?”

  “I got stupid and let him catch me off-guard. That’s history. It won’t happen again. Now we have to leave this viper’s nest without getting killed.”

  “I’m supposed to get one of the men to watch you.” There was cautious humor in her eyes.

  “You’ll get to use your superwoman skills on him.” She smiled for the first time since Lucy met her. “I’ll try to find somebody smaller than you.”

  Abby was gone only twenty minutes when she returned with a skinhead. True to her word, he was only about five-six.

  “Where is she?” the man asked.

  “Locked in the bedroom. You want a beer first?”

  “Sure,” he said. “She shouldn’t give me any trouble if she’s hog-tied.”

  Abby led him into the kitchen. When the man passed through the door, Lucy stepped from behind the door in front of him and brought her elbow back into his sternum. He bent forward, and a strangled sound rushed from his throat as breath left his body. She twisted around to face him and pounded her fist into his nose.

  Behind the man, Abby picked up a wooden cutting board and slammed it into his skull. “Impressive, but this works, too,” she said as his legs folded, and he fell face-first into the wall, blood streaming from his nose. She grinned. “I didn’t want you to get too winded. We may need all your talents and then some before we get through those gates.”

  Lucy relieved the man of his pistol and secured his hands and feet with plastic cuffs from a bowl on the counter. She taped his mouth, and then they dragged him into the bedroom and locked him in. Hank would be surprised when he found his pal instead of Lucy. Too bad.

  She closed the door and gave Abby an urgent glance. “Let’s get out of here. And if you’re a praying woman, I suggest you start now.”

  Abby tossed her purse and backpack into the back and stood lookout while Lucy slipped into the back, crouched between the seats, and pulled a blanket over her so the sentry wouldn’t get wise to their prison break.

  The Land Rover started, and then crept to the compound entrance. The vehicle stopped and Lucy heard the creak of the hinges as the gate swung open. Noise from another car passed them, apparently entering the compound.

  Abby screamed and pounded the steering wheel.

  “What is it? What’s happening?”

  She screamed again and gunned the motor. The wheels spun before the car shot forward. “It’s Hank. He’s back!”

  CHAPTER 15

  Wednesdat, Private Road

  Near Big Bend National Park

  Lucy tossed the blanket aside and scrambled over the seat into the passenger side. Abby’s hands trembled, her face bloodless from stark terror. The Land Rover spit gravel as she jammed the gas pedal hard against the floorboard.

  “Stay calm. This road is stirring up so much dust behind us Hank can’t see well enough to shoot.” There were two problems with that hypothesis that Lucy didn’t want her friend to know. They didn’t need to see them. Their automatic weapons could spray the road ahead with bullets, disable the car, and kill the occupants. And once the chase hit the paved highway, they would lose the dust cover.

  They were outnumbered, and their pursuers had all the firepower they would ever need. Lucy only had the one full clip in the gun she’d taken from the skinhead.

  Almost incoherent with panic, Abby mumbled, “I knew this was a bad idea...I just knew it. Nothing ever works out for me. Do you see them, are they gaining on us?”

  Needing to keep Abby from going over the edge, Lucy spoke in a cool, steady voice. “The dust is too heavy for me to see the car, or even if there’s a car behind us, but I’m sure they’re back there.” She said they because she knew Hank would pick up some of his cronies before he continued the chase. He was in no hurry. The women had forty-five miles of desolate country before they reached anything resembling civilization, and the Land Rover was by no means a race car. The odds were in his favor, and the scumbag knew it.

  “If he catches us . . .”

  “Don’t think about that now. We’ve got a head start; maybe we can outrun them. Did you see what he was driving?”

  “A new Mercedes,” Abby said. “His latest acquisition.”

  “Sports model?”

  “Didn’t look like it. It’s a four-door. He could have souped it up. He doesn’t tell me things like that.”

  “Let’s hope not. Our best chance is to stay out of gun range.

  “Where did you meet Hank, Abby?” Keeping her mind off what lay behind them might help relax her jangled nerves.

  She licked her cracked lips and glanced in the rearview mirror. “I was waiting tables at a truck stop near Austin. He came in, wore a hat so the swastika wasn’t visible. It must have been right after you put a restraining order on him. Gave me a line about how his mean ex-wife had lied about him and wouldn’t let him see his kids. I bought it.”

  “Were you into drugs then?”

  She shook her head. “That came later, when I realized what I’d gotten into. It helped ease the pain. The drugs added another problem to my existing one. I’m so hooked, I could never afford to feed my habit on my own.”

  How much of what Abby was going through now was due to the drugs working out of her system? That made an additional difficulty to worry about. “Slow down as much as you can without stopping,” Lucy said. “I’m going to try to take over the driving. I’ll hold the wheel and slip under you into the driver’s seat while you move to the passenger side.”

  The move was dangerous, and it wasn’t pretty. They swerved to the wrong side of the road more than once, but it worked. Secure in the driver’s seat, with the seatbelt fastened, Lucy jammed the gas pedal and the car shot forward. “Did you bring drugs with you?”

  Abby snorted as she removed pill bottles and paraphernalia from her purse, a glass pipe, and a bottle of capsules. The pipe was probably her preferred method because the high came faster, but not easy to do in a moving car. “If you know anything about drug addicts, you know I did.”

  “I’m a cop, Abby, and meth is an illegal substance.” She heaved a breath of resignation. “But this is an emergency, and I can’t expect you to be any help if you’re in withdrawal. When we get somewhere and find help, the drugs have to go. Period.”

  Abby swallowed two caps dry. “I’ll deal with that when I have to.”

  The drug would take a half-hour to work, and she would have to keep popping pills to remain high.

  The gravel road ended fifty feet ahead, and, with it, their cover.

  Twin Falls Police Station
<
br />   Twin Falls, Texas

  Matt left the detective bureau and made his way back towards his office. Davis and Stein were glued to their phones, pacing and wearing holes in the tile, waiting for something to break on Lucy’s whereabouts. He met Chris and Cole in the corridor as he was leaving.

  “Hey, Chief,” Chris said. “The desk sarge told me you were up here. We may have a break on the Davenport murder weapon.”

  Matt stopped. “I can use some good news about now. Follow me back to my office.” He nodded toward the room he’d just left. “Stress in there is thick as fog.”

  He opened his office door and pointed the two men to chairs in front of his desk. “So, what’s the good news?”

  “Cole and I have been checking Bauer’s phone records, and we hit something today. Bauer made frequent calls to a gun dealer, not a licensed store-front operation, sort of a private broker. You have a gun you want to trade or you’re looking for a particular model, this guy brokers the deal and gets a commission.”

  Matt sat up straight in his chair. “You think he knows who has the murder weapon?”

  “Not a sure thing, but it looks like it. I asked the dealer if Bauer had recently traded a Beretta .92. He said Bauer brings guns in all the time, all in A-1 condition. The Beretta was in a group of five other weapons he wanted to trade. Want to guess when Bauer brought the guns in?”

  It was a rhetorical question and Matt didn’t bother to answer.

  “The Tuesday following the Davenport murders,” Chris said.

  “Tell me the man knows who has the weapon,” Matt said.

  Chris replied, “I wish. Apparently Bauer’s guns are in great demand, and the dealer’s record- keeping is manual and sloppy. He said he could run it down, but it might take a week or more. I told him I needed it yesterday, and all we want is the name of the person who has it. We’d take it from there. I also informed him if he told anyone we were asking questions, I’d arrest him for obstruction of justice.”

  “Good work, guys. This could be a big step in bringing Bauer down.”

  “Any news on Lucy?” Cole asked.

  “Just some unofficial Hank Turner sightings, worth about as much as the paper they’re written on.”

  Cole glanced out the window, and then brought his gaze back to Matt. “I want to participate in the search for Lucy, Chief. She was my partner for over a year. I owe her.”

  “You’re helping by doing her job, Cole. We have an army of foot soldiers beating the bushes to find her. One more wouldn’t help. I’ll keep you in the loop as leads come in.”

  County Road

  Near Big Bend National Park, Texas

  The Land Rover bumped onto the smooth pavement and picked up speed, leaving the dust behind. “You okay?” Lucy asked.

  “I’m good,” Abby said.

  Of course she was. She was high as a kite.

  Five miles down the road, there was still no sign of Hank. Maybe they had outrun him. God help them if he knew a short cut and managed to get in front of them. The Mercedes was too close to the ground to risk an off-road trail. In the Land Rover, yes. But not in the German luxury vehicle.

  Lucy’s anxiety level lowered, her breathing returning to normal. Until two sets of head beams jumped into the rearview mirror. Two cars, not just one, moving fast.

  She stomped the gas pedal, but it was already smashed against the floorboard.

  “What?” Abby asked.

  “Hank is behind us. Can you shoot?”

  “Are you kidding me? I’ve never even fired a gun, but it doesn’t look hard.” That was the meth talking. Addicts could feel invincible or paranoid when they were high. Abby was in the former stage.

  Lucy couldn’t shoot and drive at the same time. And, as an untrained marksman, Abby might shoot herself or Lucy. Too bad, because a well-placed bullet through the tires or radiator would stop their pursuers dead cold.

  Playing the if only game in her head wouldn’t change their predicament. It was what it was. And they were in a world of trouble. Abby could drive now, after her hit, but they didn’t have time to switch places again.

  Bullets from automatic weapons shattered the back window and pinged the auto’s metal shell. The next one might get their tires. Or them.

  “Abby, Are you hurt?”

  Abby scrunched down in the seat, her voice unnaturally calm. “No...I’m good. Whoever is shooting must be a bad shot.”

  Lucy took the only option they had. “Make sure your seatbelt is fastened tight. We’re taking an off-road detour.”

  If they stayed on the highway, eventually the cue balls chasing them would blast the tires and they’d be stationary targets.

  She slowed and jerked the wheel right, leaving the paved road, and hit the soft shoulder, bounced into an arroyo, up the bank, and onto the desert floor. “The Mercedes can’t follow us, but I’m not sure if the other car can.”

  The answer soon became clear when the second vehicle pulled around the Mercedes and became visible after it dipped into the arroyo. A Jeep Cherokee.

  And Hank Turner was at the wheel.

  On the positive side, they’d just reduced the hunters’ force by half. Small comfort that.

  No time to pat herself on the back. Two gunmen leaned out the Jeep’s windows and bullets rained around them, but the shots were wild. The rough desert floor played havoc with their aim.

  “The Land Rover’s wheels are kicking up a dust storm behind us. Can you jump from the car if I slow down, and hide behind a bush?”

  Panic widened Abby’s gaze. “Are you crazy? They’ll catch us on foot.”

  “They have automatic weapons, Abby. If they blow out our tires, we’re done. Can you jump without killing yourself?”

  “Sure, no problem.” She emitted a chuckle, “I’ve never done anything like that. But I’m more afraid of Hank than I am of jumping. Maybe it’ll kill me, and I won’t have to deal with him.”

  In spite of the danger they were in, Lucy laughed. “That’s right, think positive. Hand me your backpack from the back seat.”

  “Why?”

  “Must you question everything? I’m going to put it on the gas pedal to keep the car moving after I jump. I’m hoping it will take them a while to realize we’ve bailed. We need all the time we can get. When I see some vegetation we can hide in, I’ll slow, and you go for it. Stay hidden until they pass us.”

  “Yeah, right. No need to worry, the way those guys shoot,” Abby mumbled under her breath.

  Lucy spotted another ditch ahead on the right, with squat little bushes on one side. She whispered a short prayer for Abby. “This looks like the place. Get ready.”

  When the vehicle slowed, Abby thrust the door wide, threw her purse out, and bailed.

  Lucy mentally shook her head in amazement. No way would the woman leave her drug cache behind. She shoved the driver’s side open, dragged the backpack onto the driver’s seat and dropped it onto the gas pedal, then leaped before the car accelerated.

  Air left her lungs when she collided with the hard-packed dirt. She hit the ground with a roll, and the gun slipped from her waistband. She sucked oxygen into her chest and scrabbled around in the sand, patting the ground, looking for the gun. Nothing. She gave up. It was lost in the gathering darkness. She’d worry about the gun later. Right now, finding cover was priority one. No way to judge how far Hank was behind them. At the moment, what she needed most was the dust cloud to provide cover until she reached shelter. The alternative was something she didn’t even want to consider.

  Lucy glanced at her watch as Hank’s Jeep whizzed by. He’d been almost three minutes behind them.

  This was turning into a suicide mission. She didn’t know the country, and she didn’t have a compass or water. Not to mention she had a hard-core drug addict for a traveling companion. It was after six in the evening, and the sun had slid behind the western hills, and with it, temperatures would drop rapidly.

  No use fretting about things she couldn’t change. She br
ushed the dust from her clothes and turned towards the spot where Abby landed.

  Twin Falls Police Station

  Twin Falls, Texas

  Miles Davis tried to ignore the ringing phone on his desk. He’d asked the station operator to field the calls unless it was an emergency. Finding Lucy had become an obsession, and any information on his partner would come to his cell phone, not the office line.

  He blamed himself for letting her ex just walk in and take her without any resistance. Letting a partner come to harm was the worst mistake a law enforcement office could make. He pictured Lucy, crumpled and bloody, life leaving her eyes. It was his fault. It was his job to watch her back.

  They’d started their partnership as antagonists. She’d had a gigantic hate-on for the world in general but, with time and patience, she had morphed from a bitter, whiny feminist into a caring and warm friend. She still had her sass, she would never lose that. He wondered if he would ever see her alive again. Hold on, Turner. Help is coming. Just hold on. You’re tough, you can do this.

  The phone kept ringing and he huffed a deep breath, snatched the phone from its cradle, and said gruffly, “Davis.”

  “I think you’re going to want to take this one, Miles,” the operator said. “It’s a Mrs. Earl Locke. She says it’s important.”

  Davis waited for the receptionist to disconnect. The name was familiar but, with his brain scrambled the last two days, it didn’t register. “Hello, Mrs. Locke. How may I help you?”

  “I don’t know if you remember me, but we met at my husband’s bail bond office.”

  The name clicked into place. “Of course; what can I do for you?”

  “I’m not making any accusations, Detective Davis, but I have some information that might be useful to you. My husband told you the truth when he said he went with James Bauer to the Oklahoma casino the weekend the Davenports died. But he left out one important item. Earl took his secretary with him. And, knowing my husband as I do, I’m sure he didn’t spend any time with Mr. Bauer.”