Desert Kill Switch

by Mark S. Bacon

  Lyle jammed on the brakes and jumped out. Sergei lay on the sand, groaning and clutching his left ankle. Lyle seized the gun and ejected the magazine and the round in the chamber. He threw all of them as far as he could into the brush. Sergei couldn’t stand so Lyle patted him down on the ground. He found Sergei’s cell phone, dropped it on the pavement, and stomped on it before throwing it into the desert.

  Dashing back to the Mustang, Lyle saw one of their suitcases and a string of clothes along the pavement behind the car. The trunk lid had remained open after the Chechen’s search. He grabbed the clothes and stuffed them into the suitcase. Before tossing the case in the trunk, he opened a hidden compartment near one of the taillights and pulled out two handguns.

  Like a thoroughbred, the Mustang was eager to run, its twin exhausts grumbling. Lyle gave it gas and the high-powered American fishtailed when it hit the dirt road, then righted itself and dug in. Lyle knew his dust tail would advertise his arrival, so speed was essential. But the Ford Mustang was not made for dirt roads. Four hundred horsepower is only as good as the traction. Lyle turned the wheel left and right to avoid ruts and keep the rear wheels on the ground. When he heard gun shots, he thought he was too late.

  ***

  Kate touched the boulder to steady herself and almost pulled her hand away when she felt its heat. Nina tucked her small body into the ravine and kept her head below the level of their temporary fortress.

  Kate could see Alex and Viktor walking slowly toward them, holding their guns, ready to fire again. She ducked as low as she could.

  “We come out there and kill you, woman,” Alex said as he advanced. “Then we just throw your body in desert.”

  When Kate raised her head again she sighted down the barrel of a .38--the gun she’d taken from Viktor’s shop coat the day before.

  One of her shots just grazed Viktor’s shoulder, the other thudded into the side of the SUV, but she got the reaction she wanted. Both men looked on in terror. Alex returned one shot that missed by six feet and the Chechens scampered over the rocks and back to safety behind their Suburban.

  “Where’d you get the gun?” Nina asked, holding her ears.

  “Took it from them yesterday,” Kate said. “Stay down.”

  Kate knew she had only three shots left. If they just traded shots, she’d be defenseless soon. A ridge off to their right could give one of the Chechens cover to circle around behind her and Nina. Just a matter of time. Maybe if she fired at the Suburban they might decide it was too much trouble, too dangerous, and drive away. Dream on, lady.

  Blam, the shooting started again. Kate ducked until she realized the Chechens weren’t firing. She looked to her left and saw Lyle’s Mustang kicking up dust as it tore down the road spitting bullets. Staying behind the Suburban protected the Chechens from Kate’s shots, but exposed them to Lyle’s fire.

  Kate stuck her head up and fired twice. Lyle, too far away to be accurate, drove with one hand and fired with the other. But it was too much for the Chechens. Alex and Viktor got in the car and pulled out so fast they looked like actors in a Keystone Cops film. Kate stood up and waved at Lyle as he came to a stop where the Suburban had been. She still held the .38 when Lyle walked up.

  “You okay?” he said, stepping around the sagebrush.

  “Yes,” Kate said expelling a big breath. “We’re glad to see you.” She gave Lyle a bear hug and held her head close to his for a moment.

  “They were going to rape us then, like, leave us in the desert,” Nina said, coming out from behind the boulders. “Alex and Viktor, you should have killed them.” Her face glowed red from anger, fear, or the sun. Maybe all three. They walked to Lyle’s car, Nina holding her blouse closed with one hand.

  Lyle pointed to the revolver in Kate’s hand. “I assume that’s the gun you took from Stark’s guys yesterday.”

  “Yeah, that idiot Alex didn’t even search my purse. Women don’t carry guns, do they?” Kate leaned against the side of the Mustang. Her breathing became rapid and shallow.

  “Kate,” Lyle said. “Deep breaths, slowly. Drink some water.” He put a hand on her shoulder.

  “I’ve fired guns plenty of times,” she said, “but never at someone.”

  “And with someone shooting back,” Lyle said.

  Kate nodded, took a deep breath, then a sip of water. Just excitement, like a basketball game. Game’s over. Relax.

  “How are you doing?” Lyle said to Nina.

  “I’m...okay. Just glad you two are here, totally. And I’m so sorry about everything. You should leave me here.”

  “C’mon,” Kate said, opening the trunk. “Let’s get you something to wear.” .

  “They searched everything,” Lyle said.

  “So I see.” Kate tugged at one of Lyle’s white shirts sticking out of a suitcase. “Here, Nina, this is about as good a fit as anything I have.”

  Nina put on Lyle’s shirt, rolling up the sleeves many times and tying the shirttail around her waist.

  “How did you get the car started?” Kate asked.

  “Gayle, that’s the NC garage manager, told me about kill switches. I was curious so I took notes. It’s under the dashboard and connected to the ignition. Gayle said you can take it out, but sometimes it’s wired so that if the little box is removed, the car won’t start--ever.”

  “You didn’t tell me.”

  “I started to, before you left, but I didn’t want to get your hopes up. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it. I took a chance. They didn’t have much time to install it, so they did it quick and dirty.” Lyle explained how he’d been concentrating on the inside of his car, and had not quite finished the job, when Viktor and the others surprised him.

  “Was Sergei with them?”

  “Yes, they left him to guard me. I hit him with the car. You won’t be seeing him on Dancing with the Stars any time soon.”

  “Were you worried?” Kate said.

  Lyle held up his wrist with the rubber band. “You mean anxious? No. When things happen fast, I don’t have time. The present moment takes over.”

  Lyle started the Mustang and cranked up the A/C. After a few moments, Kate looked at Nina in the back seat. She seemed to have regained some of her composure. Kate hoped she’d be a credible witness. The problem was, they’d lost Rick Stark and didn’t know where he would sell the car the next day.

  “We might be able to get back to the main road if we go straight ahead,” Lyle said. “But we have to turn around. If we leave Sergei there, he’s dead.”

  Chapter 60

  Back at the intersection with the paved road, no Sergei.

  “They must have circled back and picked him up,” Lyle said, standing at the spot where he’d left Sergei. “Looks like they dragged him to the car. You can see it in the sand. That must have hurt.”

  Heading north, back on two-lane US 95, Lyle scanned the highway ahead.

  “They’ve got a head start,” Kate said, mirroring Lyle’s thoughts. “I wonder if we can catch them.”

  “If we only knew where they were going to meet the Alfa Romeo buyers,” he said, “we could just show up there in the morning.”

  “I know where it is,” Nina said. “At an auto museum.”

  “The American Transportation Gallery?” Kate said.

  “Yeah, that’s it. I think he knows someone who works there. He wants to use the museum parking lot. Make it look official.”

  “Add to his credibility,” Lyle said. “Do you know what time?”

  “Nine thirty tomorrow morning.”

  “But Rick must know you’re with us,” Kate said, turning in her seat to look at Nina. “He’ll probably change the location.”

  “He doesn’t know I know about it. I heard him on the phone a few days ago. Rick was in the living room and thought I was asleep. He won’t suspect.”

  This will only work if we get the police involved, Lyle thought. It’ll be a gamble, but with Nina in tow, we can get Stark arrested. Obviously, he’d ha
ve to explain the risks to Kate, but with Stark planning to leave the country, they were out of options.

  After about an hour, Lyle saw a sign. “Tonopah is up ahead,” he said. “You guys hungry? If we’re not in a hurry, we can stop and eat.”

  “Maybe we can buy Nina something to wear, too,” Kate said, “though Tonopah’s a very small town.”

  Lyle saw wooden mining towers on the side of a hill, then a few buildings. “That scaffolding looks like a mine elevator or something,” he said.

  “Tonopah had one of the biggest silver strikes in the state,” Kate said. “But it ran out sometime in the 1920s. Now it’s just a tiny town, but everyone in Nevada knows about it because it’s the halfway point between Reno and Vegas.”

  Lyle pointed to the sign at the outskirts of town: Elevation 6030 feet. “We’re pretty high.”

  “Yes,” Kate said, “everyone thinks it’s a flat desert, but Nevada is really one of the most mountainous states.”

  A western store appeared to be the most promising place in town for Nina to buy something to wear. She found a blouse and a new pair of shorts. The rest of her necessities would have to wait until Reno.

  Over lunch, Lyle explained what he wanted to do and the best way to catch Stark and have him arrested. Kate asked a few questions. Nina, brooding and largely silent, nodded agreement. Lyle knew she must be pulled in different directions, her disillusionment with Stark fueling her goal of seeing him in the slammer and overriding--for the time being--her interest in building a case against Busick Motors. Lyle hoped her focus would remain on Stark, at least long enough to exonerate Kate.

  As they left Tonopah, Kate took over driving again. Lyle needed to concentrate on the phone. He asked Kate for her burner phone and started to dig out the number of the Reno detective Howard Chaffee had given him, when his phone rang. He set Kate’s phone down and answered his.

  “Lyle, it’s Rey. I think we found your body.”

  “You found my body?” It took Lyle a few seconds to process the information. SUVs and guys with guns were his present focus. He’d forgotten the blue Firebird.

  “Hikers found it a couple of days ago, called deputies over in Yavapai County. It was buried but not very deep. Animals must have dug it up. We don’t have a positive ID yet, but close. It fits the description you gave--although the clothes were gone--and time of death could be about the time you saw the body.”

  “But after that many days in the desert, time is sort of approximate.”

  “Yeah, but we found a slug in the body in pretty good condition.”

  “That could help.”

  “Uh huh.”

  Lyle listened to the silence, waiting for Rey to continue.

  “Anything else, Rey?”

  “Yeah, a young man named Dario Galluzzi came into the office and said he helped steal a Firebird from the park. Said his buddy Shaun Harris has been missing for more than a week and he thinks he may be dead.”

  “The name’s Galluzzo, Dario Galluzzo.”

  “And when were you going to tell me about this? Galluzzo said he talked with you about it.”

  “Rey, Dario just told me Friday. Since that time I’ve been beaten up, kidnapped, and almost killed, along with Kate and one other person.”

  “You kidding? You’re not kidding. You still haven’t solved that murder with Kate yet, have you?

  “We have, but the perp’s not arrested yet.”

  Chapter 61

  As Lyle put down his phone and leaned over to pick up Kate’s phone from the floor, he glanced in the right rearview mirror and saw something he didn’t like. He looked over his shoulder and saw a light-colored Suburban gaining on them.

  “Kate, hand me my gun. It’s under your seat.”

  Before she reached for the gun, Kate glanced in the mirror. She pulled the semi-auto out and handed it to Lyle. Just then, the Suburban piled on the speed and pulled out to pass.

  Two young women sat in the front seat.

  “We’re still jumpy, huh?” Kate said.

  She stowed the gun and Lyle dialed the phone, hoping for good reception since they were still near Tonopah.

  “Ben Waldman? My name is Lyle Deming. I got your number from Howard Chaffee.”

  “You’re the guy involved in this Busick murder, used to be with Phoenix PD.”

  “I’m not sure involved is the right word, but yes, I’m the guy. I work for Nostalgia City now and we seem to be getting blamed for all sorts of things in Reno.”

  “Howard’s a great guy. I told him I’d do what I could. But I haveta tell ya, you guys are in a world of trouble.”

  “We’ll sort it all out for you.”

  “You’ll have to. But I’m not the lead on the Busick murder, just working on it. This is a relatively small department. Several detectives are on it.”

  Yeah, Tom Polhouse is on the case, Lyle thought. I should tell Waldman what a trigger- happy screw-up Polhouse is. Instead, Lyle spelled out their case against Stark. He told Waldman--if he didn’t know--that Stark had a record. Lyle said he was prepared to come into the station with Nina Ortega, Stark’s former girlfriend who could explain everything. He also had a list of other witnesses, he told Waldman, who had seen, firsthand, arguments and threats between Stark and Busick.

  He explained the necessity of quick action because Stark planned to sell a $2-million antique car and then flee the country. That seemed to get Waldman’s attention.

  “And there’s more,” Lyle said, and he launched into an abbreviated account of the Chechen’s attack on him and Nina and Kate--attempted murder he called it. “These Chechen thugs either work for Stark or maybe vice versa. Could be some kind of foreign mob connections.”

  “Sounds like a helluva mess,” Waldman said. “Are you here in Reno?”

  “I’m on the way. Nina Ortega and I can meet with you--or whomever--first thing in the morning.”

  “And Kate Sorensen?”

  “She’s willing to come in after you talk to Ortega and Stark.”

  Lyle explained Stark’s meeting with the car buyers at the auto museum the next morning, suggesting that a police presence at the scene would yield Stark and, with any luck, the Chechens.

  “That lot would be easy to block off,” Waldman said, “But I’m not committing to anything. You say the deal is going down at oh nine thirty? Why don’t you and Ortega show up at the station early, before eight? You talk to us, and we’ll go from there.”

  Just what I would have said in Waldman’s position, Lyle thought. In fact, he’s being generous, though he certainly sounds skeptical. Then Lyle remembered one more detail. “There’s a possibility of some physical evidence. I know you searched Stark’s apartment.”

  “How’d you know that? Logical, I guess. Go ahead.”

  “Stark has a rented space in one of those public storage lots. It might have physical evidence--bloody clothes or shoes--something that links him to the crime.”

  “We can’t search it without a warrant.”

  “I know,” Lyle said. “But you could keep an eye on it. Stark will probably be in Reno in a few hours.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Where is it?” Lyle repeated. “Shit, I don’t--”

  Before he could finish the sentence, Nina tapped him on the shoulder. “It’s near that big hotel that’s all by itself and has an indoor water park.”

  “Tahoe Tower Hotel,” Kate said.

  “The storage facility is near the Tahoe Tower Hotel.” Lyle told Waldman.

  “You’re not asking much, are you Deming? Stake out this place on the say-so of someone I’ve never met? Someone who’s assisting a murder suspect?”

  “I understand your position completely, Sergeant Waldman. Okay, we’ll leave it at this. Nina Ortega and I will be at headquarters before eight tomorrow. In the meantime, let me give you two more names if you want to check up on me.”

  Lyle gave him phone numbers for Rey Martinez and Nick Markopoulos.

  When he put down the
phone, Lyle started the CD player and the next track began. The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm.”

  Chapter 62

  Kate’s first priority the next morning was a shampoo. Traces of the dye remained and she wanted to get her hair back to normal. She hoped she’d have reason to celebrate that evening if the police caught Rick and believed Nina’s story. If not, she might go to jail today. At least she’d look like Kate Sorensen again. She showered and shampooed her hair, then examined herself in the hotel room mirror. Still slightly dull. Back in the shower. More shampoo, more conditioner.

  When they had arrived in Reno the night before, Lyle had checked Kate and Nina into the Atlantis Hotel/Casino. Kate and Lyle agreed she would room with Nina--just to keep an eye on her until they could deliver her to the police. Lyle would check in somewhere else as a precaution against the police tracking him and finding Kate before she wanted to be found. They spotted a clothing store across the street from the hotel and Nina bought a few clothes, including something conservative for her visit with the Reno PD.

  When Kate had her long blonde hair looking right again, she put on clean clothes. She’d had a bellboy pick up some of her clothes to be cleaned overnight. Everything she had was wrinkled and permeated with desert dust.

  Next she called Henrietta Mauser to talk about going to the police. She’d talked to her briefly the day before, explaining the strategy of having the police interview Nina Ortega then corral Rick Stark.