Broken Promise

by Simon Toyne

  ‘The third reason you won’t shoot is that I told Earl, that truck driver you saw me leaving with, that I was coming back to check on these caves. And he saw your nice, shiny, electric truck with those personalized plates following us out of the diner parking lot and noted your unhealthy interest in me. I told him I’d call him in the morning and tell him what the rest of these symbols said, so if I don’t he might get to wondering why not, and when he finds out it was you bought the land and that Rita has disappeared too and you were seen talking to her in the diner, he might start putting it all together and call the local police to tell them what he knows. He might not of course, but it’s a risk, and he doesn’t trust you much. So there’s that.

  ‘But the fourth reason you won’t shoot is the biggest of them all, because the fourth reason is you, Daryl Meeks, because whatever image you’re trying to project here with your shotgun swagger, you are not a natural killer. Killers don’t talk about shooting people, they just go ahead and do it, and yet here we are – talking. You’re a talker, a deal maker, not a killer – so why don’t we cut all the window dressing and make a deal.’

  Meeks stared at Solomon for a moment with an expression that shifted between confusion and surprise, then a large grin spread across his face.

  ‘Man, you sure are cool for a guy with a gun in his face. All right, I’ll play along, what kind of deal you got in mind?’

  Solomon turned to Rita. ‘Name a price.’

  Rita blinked and shifted her gaze between Solomon to Meeks. ‘I don’t … I’m not sure …’

  ‘It’s OK,’ Solomon said, drawing her full attention with his eyes, ‘I know this is an odd situation but in order for us all to negotiate it safely I need you to try and focus on what you really want to happen. Forget about the petroglyphs and the potential value of this land, just think about what’s important to you, right now. What do you want to get out of this?’

  ‘I … I want Asha to be safe.’

  ‘Of course, but what else? Think about your future. Think about Asha’s future. Say, for argument’s sake, you could walk away from here tonight and keep your property, with everything you now know about it, and start the process of getting it recognized as ancestral land, how much money do you think you’d need up front to make all that happen? How long do you think it will take?’

  Rita shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Years,’ Solomon said. ‘It will take years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars you haven’t got. I saw your car parked outside the diner earlier, all packed and ready to roll. You’re already gone from this place in your head; you just need a little money to set you up wherever you end up, correct?’ Rita nodded. ‘So what’s your price? You must have thought about it. How much do you want right now, tonight, to walk away from this place and never look back? How much do you think you’ll need?’

  Rita looked across at Meeks. ‘I figured … a hundred thousand maybe.’

  ‘A hundred grand!’ Meeks spat on the ground and shook his head. ‘That ain’t gonna happen.’

  Solomon turned to Meeks, fixing him with his dark eyes. ‘I would say that was a reasonable figure.’

  ‘Well you ain’t the one being asked to pay it.’

  ‘In the grander scheme of things a hundred thousand dollars is nothing. It buys Rita a fresh start and you get the land you want with no strings, no killing required and no dark cloud hanging over it. You also get the added bonus of keeping your hearing – what price can you put on that?’

  Meeks smiled and shook his head. ‘You think you’re real smart, don’t you?’ He began to lower himself down but kept his eyes on Solomon. ‘You think you got this situation all figured out, telling me all the reasons why I ain’t gonna shoot you.’ He placed his flashlight on the ground so it was still pointing at them then stood up again and reached behind his back with his free hand. ‘Thing is, Mr Smart Guy, you don’t know everything. And this shotgun here ain’t the only gun I brung to the party.’

  His hand reappeared holding a pistol. ‘Now this here’s a Glock-9 automatic. Much more precise weapon, lot quieter too. If I shoot you with this it won’t make nearly so much mess, but you’ll be just as dead. Now what do you think about that?’

  Solomon studied the gun for a moment then looked back up at Meeks. ‘I think that only solves one of your four problems. But, fine, if you genuinely fancy your chances as they stand, go ahead. Shoot.’

  Meeks pointed the pistol at Solomon’s face and shuffled his feet like he was sighting in on a target in a shooting range.

  Solomon saw the skin on Meeks’s finger go white as it tightened on the trigger. He was aware of Rita pushing Asha further behind her. He turned his head to her. ‘Do you have a will?’

  ‘What?’ Her eyes were white and wide and fixed on the gun.

  ‘A will. Do you have one?’

  Rita blinked as she tried to process the question. ‘No.’

  Solomon turned back to Meeks. ‘That’s the fifth reason you’re not going to shoot us.’

  Meeks frowned. ‘What’s Rita’s will got to do with anything?’

  ‘If you shoot us then Rita won’t be around tomorrow to sign over legal ownership of the land so they’ll have to postpone any sale until she does show up, which she won’t. So the land will be trapped in legal limbo until she can officially be declared dead, which in the state of Texas takes seven years. Then, with no will in place, they’ll have to do their due diligence and look for any next of kin, which will take at least another year, by which time the University of Colorado will have had ample time to go through their archives, find the photographs they took of this cave the last time they were here and let the whole world know what it says. So, when the state eventually takes ownership they might not even sell it, they might just develop it themselves, or if they do put it to auction there’ll be a bidding war that will push the price up so high you will look back at the time you could have bought it for a hundred thousand dollars as the best deal you ever let slide.’

  Solomon paused to let the truth of what he was saying register. ‘Or, you can give Rita a hundred thousand dollars right now, she signs over the deeds, no one is any the wiser about what took place here and we all go our separate ways.’

  Meeks adjusted his grip on the Glock. ‘What’s in it for you?’

  Solomon smiled. ‘I get to not die in this cave.’

  Meeks looked across at Rita then back at Solomon. ‘How do I know you won’t go running to the police the moment I set you loose?’

  ‘And tell them what? That you held us at gunpoint and forced us to take a hundred thousand dollars? I bet you’re quite the public figure around here, aren’t you? A man of means and influence. A provider of jobs. Who’s going to believe the word of a stranger and a diner waitress over someone like that?’

  Meeks’s eyes dropped down to where Asha was peering out from behind Rita’s legs then looked away again. ‘I don’t have a hundred grand,’ he said. ‘Not that I can lay my hands on tonight.’

  Solomon smiled and dropped his hands down to his side. ‘How much can you get?’

  Chapter 15

  Rita drove. Solomon sat next to her, his usual nausea from being inside a moving car making him wish they would hurry up and get to wherever it was they were going. They were in Meeks’s silver pick-up, its electric engine whining in the night like some great mosquito on the hunt for blood.

  ‘Take the next right,’ Meeks said. Solomon could feel the pressure of the Glock sticking into the back of his seat and the barrel of the shotgun moved in and out of his peripheral vision along with the movement of the car, pointing vaguely at Rita. Asha was in the back with Meeks, her eyes wide and shining in the dark. She hadn’t said a single word since Meeks had stepped into the cave. She was in shock most likely, another reason Solomon wanted to get this done quickly.

  ‘Are the guns still necessary?’ he asked.

  Meeks snorted. ‘So says the man who ain’t got none. I’ll put away the fire
power soon as the deal’s done. Now take that right.’

  Rita made the turn onto a graded track that made the shotgun barrel bump around a little more and headed away from the main road towards a faint glow of light ahead. It grew steadily brighter until it took the form of a large house built like an old, adobe-style hacienda. It was surrounded by empty horse corrals, like it was trying to look like a ranch without actually being one. There was a large, covered garage area over to one side with a selection of shiny vehicles parked beneath it: two Harleys, a Range Rover, an Audi Spyder, and a fully tricked-out Ford F150 pick-up with blacked-out glass and extra-large wheels.

  ‘Not a particularly eco-friendly fleet,’ Solomon observed as his head filled with information and technical specifications.

  Daryl smiled and seemed to puff up a little. ‘Every boy gotta have his toys. I drive this electric number for show mostly. Wouldn’t sell many renewables if I went to every meeting in a gas guzzler. Them there’s my private passions. You can’t beat the sound of a V8 to get the heart pumping.’

  The silver pick-up slid to a silent halt in front of the main entrance and Daryl got out, slipping the Glock into his waistband but keeping his shotgun pointed inside the car.

  ‘Come on out,’ he said, ‘nice and slow. This Remington’s got a hair trigger so don’t be doing nuthin’ stupid.’

  Solomon got out first and stepped away from the car to draw Meeks’s aim. Rita got out of the driver’s side and opened the door for Asha who immediately clung to her mother’s legs.

  ‘Toss me the keys over, nice and slow,’ Meeks said.

  Rita threw them underarm and he caught them one-handed then backed up to the front door, unlocked it and deactivated the alarm with an electronic button on the key ring.

  He nodded at the open door. ‘You first. I’ll tell you where to go. Stay nice and tight and don’t even think about trying anything,’ he held up the button. ‘This here’s a panic button for the alarm. If I press it the cops’ll be down on this house in less than five minutes. Now you might be thinking “Great! Bring it on.” Only you should know I go drinking with most of those fellas, so they ain’t gonna believe a damn word you tell ’em, and you ain’t gonna tell ’em a thing ’cause all they’re gonna find here is some intruders I shot dead while defending my property.’

  He looked at Asha and smiled. ‘I won’t shoot you though. Not even my cop buddies are gonna believe a little kid like you was creepin’ around at night fixin’ to rob me. But I do know some folks’ll take care of you for me.’ He looked up at Rita. ‘You would not believe some of the people I do business with, specially on the Mexican side of the border. Pretty little thing like her should fetch me an even prettier price.’ He let the meaning sink in for a moment then flashed her a broad smile. ‘But if y’all just play nice and do exactly what I say then none of that’s gonna happen, we can all stay friends and be on our separate ways before morning.’

  Solomon could feel Rita vibrating next to him, the anger within her like a contained explosion. Daryl was close enough that he could take the shotgun from him if he wanted. Grab the barrel and angle it up so it would discharge in the air when he pulled the trigger then twist it out of his grip and have it pointing back at him before he knew what had happened. But then what would he do? Shoot him? Call the local cops, who also happened to be Meeks’s drinking buddies?

  No.

  He had another idea, one that would work out better for everyone, or almost everyone. All he had to do was keep things moving in the right direction.

  He turned to Rita and whispered, ‘It’s just talk. None of what he said will happen because we’re going to do what he wants, right?’

  Rita looked at him and he could see fire burning behind her green eyes.

  ‘Right!?’ he repeated, holding her gaze and forcing her to focus on him instead of Meeks.

  Her eyes continued to blaze for a second before she blinked, like a spell had been broken, then moved towards the house, pushing Asha ahead to keep her as far away from Meeks as possible. Solomon followed and passed through the front door into a large, double-height hallway with twin, curving staircases rising up either side of a mechanical bull.

  ‘Another of my little toys,’ Daryl explained. ‘Sometimes I get the fellas round for an evening and we drink tequila and ride that bitch all night long. Go straight on past on the right and head down the first set of stairs you come across.’

  They moved forward, their footsteps echoing in the vast hallway. The decor was a weird mix of mock classical and frontier brutalism, all white marble and heavy wooden furniture as if a Roman senator had hung up his toga and decided to become a Texas rancher. It felt unlived-in and sterile in a way that made the house seem both full and empty at the same time. Large pictures decorated white walls, big, garish oil paintings of rodeo riders and desert sunsets in heavy gold frames, like a kid’s idea of what a grown-up might hang in a house. There were a couple of portraits of Meeks too. In one he was astride a rearing stallion; the other had him straddling a Harley and staring into the middle distance.

  They reached the staircase and headed down it. Asha first, Rita and Solomon next, Meeks bringing up the rear, shotgun in hand and pointing down at them. The air cooled as they dropped into the bedrock beneath the house. Another portrait greeted them at the bottom of the stairs showing a thin, stern-looking man in monochrome work clothes. He stared out at the world above their heads while a geyser of oil blew out from a drilling tower behind him. The artist who’d painted it possessed more talent than whoever had done the ones of Meeks and the likeness was clear. Dear old dad. Standing in front of the stroke of pure, dumb luck that had made this house and everything in it possible.

  ‘Stop there,’ Meeks said, and moved past them to a door at the end of the hallway. There was an electronic keypad set into it and he masked it with his body as he entered the code, like a nervous old lady at a cashpoint. A deep clunking sound echoed down the hallway then Meeks leaned against the door and it swung open slowly. ‘Welcome to my inner sanctum,’ he said, stepping into the room and causing lights to blink on from some hidden sensor. ‘Come on in. Nice and slow.’

  They followed him inside, Solomon taking the lead now, and he noted the thickness of the doorframe as he passed through it. The room beyond was a vault made to look like a study. A large desk dominated the space with a fancy leather chair behind it and various cabinets lining the walls. Some held files but most displayed guns – rifles, shotguns, handguns – all carefully lit so their pearl handles and metal blue surfaces shone like beetles in a museum exhibit. Meeks moved past the desk, ran his hand down the side of a rifle cabinet and it slid aside to reveal a safe in the wall behind it. He stared into a small peephole set into the door and another deep thunk sounded then the door sprang open.

  ‘Retina recognition,’ Meeks said, like he was trying to sell it to them. ‘State of the art. More accurate than a fingerprint.’

  There were only two items in the safe, a leather briefcase and a wooden box. He took both out and carried them over to the desk.

  He opened the wooden box first and lifted out an antique-looking revolver from its cushion of velvet.

  ‘This here was my daddy’s gun and his daddy’s afore his,’ he said, holding it up to the light and turning it in his hand. ‘My granddaddy told me one time how he’d shot a man dead with it. Said he was a scout for an oil outfit who’d heard about the tar sands we had on our land and came poking around where he wasn’t invited. Granddaddy told him to get lost but found him snooping around the next day, trespassing on our land, so he dealt him out a little Texas justice.’

  He spun the cylinder and looked at Solomon until it stopped clicking. ‘That is to say we take property pretty seriously down here.’ He reached into his jacket, pulled out an envelope and pushed it across the desk towards Rita. ‘That’s why I need you to sign this letter I showed you earlier. To make everything all legal and proper.’

  Rita stared at the envelope then flicked
her eyes up to the antique revolver. ‘Texas justice,’ she said. ‘Is that where your people get to steal my people’s land at gunpoint?’

  Meeks smiled. ‘I ain’t stealing nothing, sweetheart. I’m giving you a fair price, more’n fair, and everyone has their price.’ He opened the briefcase. ‘Way I see it, I came to see you earlier and made you an offer. You turned it down and I have a witness to that. Several in fact, and one who is a legal representative of the court.’

  ‘Your lawyer,’ Rita said. ‘He ain’t exactly impartial.’

  ‘You’re missing the point. What I’m saying is I have witnesses that will say I made you a fair, pre-emptive offer. Now I could make you take that offer, I am holding a gun on you after all. But to sweeten the deal and ensure there are no hard feelings going forward I’m going to give you all the money in this case, all the cash I can put my hand to right now.’ He pushed it across the table towards her. ‘Almost eighty thousand dollars. Now please understand that, not only am I doing you a favour here by upping my offer when I don’t really have to, I’m also buying your silence. You take this money and you leave. I don’t ever want to see you or your kid around here again, you hear?’

  ‘And what’s in it for me?’ Solomon asked.

  ‘What’s in it for you?’ Meeks laughed and shook his head. ‘What’s in it for you is that I don’t put a bullet in your face then go bury you out in the desert like they did with her baby daddy.’

  Rita tensed. ‘What’s that you say?’

  Meeks stared at her like he wasn’t sure what she meant. Then he whooped and slapped his leg and shook his head, laughing.

  ‘You didn’t know? Well shit, you people don’t know nuthin’, do ya. I thought everybody knew what happened to … what was his name now?’