by Michael Kerr
Gail and Debbie were in bed but wide awake. They’d spent hours talking themselves out, passing time that was going by as slowly as it did if you had ever had the misfortune to be sat next to the hospital bed of a loved one that was very ill or near to death. Or if you were waiting for a bus that was already overdue. Good things zipped by, but bad shit had a way of making every second seem like an hour.
When Gail’s phone trilled she actually yelped in surprise, then shot out her hand and knocked the cell off the night table. She leapt out of bed and picked it up and accepted the call.
“Gail?”
“Yes, Tom. Are you okay?”
“Fine. This mess should be cleaned up in a few hours. When it’s over with I’ll call again and with any luck we can get back to running the store.”
“Is Logan with you?”
“He’s in the room. We’re staying the night at a motel. I just stepped outside to get some fresh air and give you a call.”
“Be more careful than you’ve ever been before,” Gail said. “Be as wily as you are when you’re out hunting. More so, because critters don’t shoot back at you.”
“I’ll tread carefully, Honey. You take care.”
“Okay. I love you, Tom.”
“Love you back,” Tom said and ended the call.
It was five in the morning when Logan called Cady again. “Time to roll,” he said to him. “Leave in five minutes, join 41 and head south, and keep to the speed limit. Any questions?”
“No, Logan,” Nick said. “I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LOGAN and Tom had everything that they thought they might need in the Pathfinder. Karen went to the bathroom and put her crumpled suit back on, and when she came out Logan handed her a fleece that was massive on her, even over her jacket. She rolled the sleeves up six inches.
They drank fresh coffee, and after what Logan thought was about the right length of time, working out distance and speed, he called Cady again. Told him to head for Alligator Alley, and to then make a right on State Road 29. At the moment they had the gangster on a line and were reeling him in.
“Let’s go and get in place to finish this,” Logan said, picking his rucksack up and opening the door.
Logan drove. Karen sat next to him, and Tom was in the back double checking weapons.
They were soon on the track that led to the fenced off area that the observation tower stood in.
Logan saw several breaks in the bushes and trees that lined the track. He slowed to walking pace, picked a gap and drove in, zigzagging to avoid hitting the trunks of trees. The ground was uneven, covered in raised roots, but the SUV was up to it. Forty feet in he stopped and switched off the engine.
“Come with me,” Logan said to Karen. And to Tom, “You know what to do.”
“I won’t know what to do until I see what they do,” Tom said.
Logan led Karen back out onto the track and they walked side by side to the gates. There was no need to climb over them this time. Logan had taken a pair of bolt cutters from a toolbox in the rear of the Pathfinder. He cut through the rusted chain that held the gates together and pushed them back wide open, through weeds and creepers that had grown up through the wire and gave up their grip grudgingly.
“Where are we going?” Karen said.
“Just up ahead. You’ll see in a minute,” Logan said as he led the way up the grassy incline.
The observation tower reminded Karen of the one on the drive round loop in the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. It appeared to be sturdily built, but as they neared it she could see that it needed refurbishing. Some of the timber uprights appeared to be rotting, and a warning sign had been attached to one of them.
“Seems that these times of austerity affect everything,” Logan said.
“You expect me to climb up there?” Karen said.
“It’s sound enough. I’m six-four and at least twice your weight, and I managed to get up and down it. Just watch your step and don’t trust the handrails.”
Dawn was breaking as they stood at the top of the tower and looked around. A flock of red-billed Ibis flew across their field of vision. The dayshift of wildlife was beginning to stir.
Logan phoned Cady again. Guessed that he would be getting close.
“Yeah?” Nick said.
“You need to make a left at the four-way in Copeland. About a mile farther on you’ll see warning signs on a post that’s losing its fight with gravity. Go down the track and through open gates in a wire fence. Stop fifty feet in and switch off your engine.”
“I want to speak to Karen,” Nick said. “For all I know she could be dead.”
Logan handed the phone to Karen, who had overheard the short conversation. “I’m fine, Dad,” she said.
“Has he harmed you in any way?”
“No, he doesn’t harm women or children,” Karen said brusquely before passing the phone back to Logan, who ended the call.
Nick reached the warning signs and stopped and phoned Larry and told him his exact location.
“We’re ten minutes behind you, boss,” Larry said. “Slow it down and give us time to get there and set up.”
Nick sat back and let five or six minutes crawl by before driving along the track and through the open gates, to park as per Logan’s instructions. He climbed out of the Merc and told Jade to bring Kelly. It was almost full daylight.
His phone rang again.
“Just walk straight on,” Logan said. “You’re almost there.”
Nick carried on until he saw the top of the observation tower appear. He stopped, backed up and phoned Larry again and told him where the tower was.
Larry parked the Explorer at the side of the road, up on the long grass, and got out. Alan lifted the sniper rifle out of the rear and carried it cradled in both arms as they jogged along the track. They rounded a bend and saw the open gates up ahead and the rear of the Merc, and so angled off into the trees and approached more slowly.
Alan stopped at the foot of a large gumbo limbo that was close to the link fence. The thick lower branches of the thirty meter tall tree were drooping very close to the ground.
“Hold the rifle,” Alan said to Larry, passing it to him before he began to clamber up the tree. The mass of long and twisted branches made it easy to climb. Ten meters up there was a natural standing place, where he would be able to position himself with his back against the shiny red bark of the trunk. The fork of a branch in front of him would be ideal to rest the barrel of the rifle; from where he had an uninterrupted view of the top half of the tower. It would be a comparatively easy shot, less than three hundred yards. With the scope fitted it would be impossible to miss. He could see the shadowy shapes of two people standing at the top of the tower, one tall and one much shorter; a man and a woman. Logan and Karen. Cady’s daughter would get one hell of a shock when Logan’s head suddenly came apart and she was covered in blood and brains. The guy would be dead before the sound of the shot reached his ears.
Alan surveyed the surroundings. He couldn’t see Cady or Jade, but assumed that they were heading for the tower and were now over the raised rim of grass-covered earth that shielded the bottom of it from sight.
Descending the tree, Alan nodded at Larry, took the rifle from him and leaned it against the trunk. “Logan has to be stupid to arrange to meet here,” he said. “The guy is like a duck in a shooting gallery. Only problem is his buddy isn’t with him, which means he’s watching from cover. When I take Logan out he’ll make a move.”
“I’ll scout round and see if I can find him,” Larry said. “He won’t start blasting with two women and the kid’s lives at risk.”
As Larry made his way back into denser cover, Alan slipped the strap of the rifle over his head, positioned the weapon at his back and climbed the tree again and took up a firing position.
Tom had a nine millimeter pistol tucked in the right pocket of the dark navy windbreaker he was wearing. And he wa
s carrying the crossbow that Gail had shot the guy at the store with. He had watched the two men leave the track, and had followed them into the wood. He was positive that he was involved in what was nothing short of a life or death situation. If he found himself up against an armed man he would not hesitate to shoot. The men that worked for Nick Cady were here to kill him and Logan. So attack would be the best form of defense.
Larry thought that he saw movement a few yards to his right. He crouched down, drew his gun and watched and listened and waited. He wanted to chamber a round, but knew that if someone was nearby then they would hear him do it.
A damp twig broke under Tom’s foot with the sound of a creaking stair; not a sharp crack, but the noise sounded loud in the quietus of early morning. He stopped dead in his tracks and instinctively held his breath. The seconds past. He breathed out slowly, took another two steps and stopped again behind the wide trunk of a cypress tree. A minute later he heard the rustle of leaves from several feet away and tensed, lifting the bow and curling his pointing finger around the trigger, ready to pull it.
Larry held the gun in his right hand with his left hand on the spring-loaded slide, ready to pull it back, chamber a bullet and shoot. He heard a twig snap and believed that Logan’s partner was very close by.
Movement. Larry was sure that the guy was behind a tree just a few feet in front of him. There was a possibility that a raccoon or some other critter had stepped on a twig, but he wasn’t going to dismiss the likelihood of an armed man being there.
Treading carefully, Larry moved out and began to edge his way around to be in a position to see behind the tree.
Tom knew that he couldn’t just stay where he was. Logan needed cover. He stepped backwards, waist-high in some kind of tall emerald green ferns.
They spotted each other simultaneously. Larry pulled the slide back in half a second, took aim and…
…Tom fired the crossbow smoothly, aiming for the main body mass. The arrow spun through the air, and the duel side-by-side serrated broadhead hit Larry in the upper abdomen; the cutting edges creating up to a two hundred and fifty percent greater wound opening than a traditional broadhead tip, ripping through the network of nerves in his solar plexus and almost exiting his back, causing significant blood loss, and ultimately a fast kill.
Larry instantly lost the ability to control his motor functions. He doubled over and sagged to his knees, dropping the gun, to stare at the fletching of the short arrow that was now in his body. The pain was agonizing. He stayed in place, silent and unmoving as he attempted to comprehend what had happened.
Tom reloaded the bow, took careful aim and put a second arrow in Larry, through the top of his bowed head.
Pitching forward, Larry fell onto his face and was still. The whirling head of the arrow had penetrated his skull and macerated the part of the brain that it was now stuck fast in.
There was no need for Tom to worry about fingerprints. The arrows had been clean, and he had only handled them by the feather fletches. He stepped over the body, paused and picked up a grenade that must have fallen out of one of the dead man’s jacket pockets, and then stealthily moved in the direction of the fence. He had noted that the other guy had been carrying a long rifle, and so assumed that he had found a position to shoot from. It would have to be elevated, because Logan had told him that the tower could not be seen from the track, due to the ground dipping down steeply into what was a large flat area. The shooter would be at the fringe of trees that bordered the fence, and would no doubt be up in one of them and have a view of where Logan would be waiting for Cady. All he could think to do was walk along the tree line between two points that he decided would give the best view of the target. It was a bracketed fifty yards in his mind; where the sniper would take the shot from.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
NICK’S pants were soaked from the knees down to his now sopping shoes. The long grass was still wet, and the ground beneath it was spongy. Jade had fared worse; the heel of her right shoe had sunk into the ground and she had almost fallen over, but kept her balance and a grip on Kelly. She kicked both shoes off and left them where they lay.
Nick reached the bottom of the tower. He saw the big man up above, his hands on the rail, watching him.
“Come on down,” Nick shouted up. “Let’s get this over with.”
“No, Cady, you get your sorry ass up here, after you take your jacket off and lose any hardware you’re carrying.”
Nick slipped his jacket off and folded it and hung it over the handrail. Took a handgun from a belt holster that he wore high on his hip, close to the body, to hold it out for Logan to see before placing it on top of the jacket.
Jade followed Nick up the stairs, avoiding the dead vulture on the first landing as she watched where she put her feet.
Reaching the top, Nick faced Logan for the first time. He couldn’t help but be impressed by the man’s stature: extremely tall and powerfully built, and obviously more than just capable. So why was he standing up here in plain sight, making himself an easy target?
Jade reached the top and stood at least six feet to Nick’s left. She had no idea what was going to happen, but did know that they had been followed, so expected an attempt on Logan’s life.
Kelly was awake and started to cry. She was hungry, scared and wanted her Mommy.
“Shut the fuck up,” Jade said, placing Kelly down on the planks of the floor. “Just sit there and don’t move.”
“Has he hurt you, honey?” Nick said to Karen.
Karen shook her head. She had nothing to say to him. That he was with the woman and child was proof enough to her that everything Logan had told her was true. There was only one bad guy up here, and that was her father.
“Step over here,” Nick said to Karen.
Karen didn’t move.
Logan smiled. “You were followed, Cady,” he said. “Your hired guns are probably out there now, waiting until you and Karen are safe before they make a move on me. But they’ll have already been dealt with. You’re on your own. Jade, Karen and Kelly can go back down and walk away, but you and I have unfinished business.”
“We had a deal, Logan.”
“One that you had no intention of honoring,” Logan said.
Jade knew that her best bet was to stay on side with Nick. She reached down and swept Kelly back up in her arms and then held her out over the rail of the tower.
Nick grinned. “You lose, Logan,” he said. “This has all been for nothing if Jade lets go of the kid. Dump whatever weapon you’re carrying, or the little brat is history.”
“You aren’t my father,” Karen said. “You’re some kind of psychopath. I didn’t want to believe just how evil you are, but now I know that everything Logan told me about you is true. Just tell that whore to put Kelly down, and leave.”
“But―”
“There are no buts,” Karen said. “I’ve always thought that you were a decent man, but you’re not, you’re a monster.”
Nick didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t explain that he was like a person with a split personality. He had always led two lives, and now they had collided and threatened to ruin his relationship with his daughter beyond any reasonable chance of reparation. To his way of thinking it was all Logan’s fault.
Logan took the Glock he was carrying from his pocket, aimed it at Nick and said, “You’re bluffing. If anything happens to Kelly, you’re history and know it.”
“So how do we resolve this… situation?” Nick said.
“Jade puts the girl down gently on the floor and steps away from her, and then you and her go back to your car and drive away. If Karen wants to go with you she is free to do so.”
Nick nodded at Jade and she swung Kelly back under cover of the roof and set her down.
“Come on,” Nick said to Karen. “Let’s go.”
Karen shook her head. “I’ll stay here. I don’t want to ever see you again.”
Nick had expected help by now. Larry and Alan
should have done something. There had been no sound of shots or outcries. Perhaps they were still searching for Logan’s accomplice. He needed to do something. To come out here and hand over the girl like an errand boy and then leave was not acceptable.
He half-turned, stopped behind Jade and pushed her in the middle of her back, to run her straight at Logan, who did no more than step aside in the half second it took for the woman to reach the spot he’d been standing in.
The forward momentum took Jade into the safety rail. Had it been sound she would have bounced back off it, but over time the wood had become damp, and then rotten, and gave way under the impact.
Jade could do no more than put her hands out in a vain reflex attempt to save her life. She had no time to scream. Terror had instantly formed in her mind as she crashed through the rail and posts. There was a flash of realization that she was going to die, and then she did. Both of her arms shattered and her neck broke and she was suddenly as dead as the vulture on the landing.
Nick jinked to the left, grasped hold of Logan’s gun hand and wrenched it sideways as he attempted to head butt the taller man. They grappled like lovers dancing in a close embrace, only inches away from the break in the rails. Nick’s forehead struck Logan in the throat below his Adams apple, causing no real damage as he retaliated and brought his right knee up sharply between Nick’s legs.
Nick gasped as he lost his grip of the gun that Logan held, to double over, unable to ignore the pain and continue fighting.
Alan almost fired, but stayed his finger as Cady blocked his view of Logan. He was having difficulty taking the kill shot. He needed an instant to zero in and do the job. He waited, staying relaxed, breathing evenly and not taking his eye from the end of the scope. And then the moment came. Cady went down, to reveal Logan standing behind him.
He was rock steady as he took up the slack on the trigger, breathed out and fired. The middle of Logan’s forehead was in the crosshairs.
Tom was standing directly under the big tree. He had almost given up his slow, silent search along the tree line. And then he had spotted the figure up above him, aiming a rifle in the direction of where he knew Logan to be. Life is all about choices and decisions, and some were far harder to make than others. Since meeting Logan he had been caught up in violence and death, and was now, in the eyes of the law, a murderer. The choice of doing what was right or wrong was not always a clear, clean, cut and dried issue. You sometimes had to act on what your heart and mind knew was the right thing to do.
