Клер Донелли - The Big Kitty

“Sort of like life,” Sunny replied. “Sometimes it doesn’t tie up in a nice, neat way.” She frowned. “The problem is, we’ve been playing defense since everything started happening around me, watching out for crazy drug dealers. The other suspects have sort of faded into the background. That’s the other thing about the ticket. It messes up all the motives.”

“So when it expires, that will go away,” Will said.

“And so will the drug dealers,” Sunny said gloomily. “The hope of cashing that in is the only thing that’s keeping them around.”

They were both silent, lost in their own unpleasant thoughts, all the way home. At the last minute, Sunny offered Will a lunch of leftover stew, only to be politely declined. He dropped her and Shadow off—Shadow following Sunny out of the pickup without any fuss—and drove away.

“Hey, Dad,” Sunny called as she came inside, Shadow charging ahead. “What do you think of leftovers for lunch?”

She stopped at the entrance to the living room, afraid that Mike was in cardiac distress again. Then she realized her father was pale with anger, not illness, as he sat clutching a piece of paper. “Call that jackass Barnstable—he should still be at the office.”

“What’s the problem, Dad?”

“He accused you of stealing!” Mike burst out. “The idiot wanted your cell number—apparently he couldn’t find it. I told him to go to hell!”

Sunny began to get worried. Ollie the Barnacle had not been happy with some of the stuff she’d done in the last week. Frankly, her job didn’t look all that secure right now, and Mike’s lack of diplomacy wasn’t helping Sunny’s cause.

She dialed the office number. Ollie picked up on the second ring. “Who is this?”

Before Sunny even got her whole name out, he growled, “Where’s the goddamn cash box?”

Sunny blinked. This was his big problem? “I took it home for the weekend. Mr. Richer gave me a large cash deposit—you can check with him. I didn’t think it was safe—”

“I don’t care what you think!” her boss interrupted. “You bring that box back here right now! And if there’s anything missing, even a penny, you’ll be looking for a new job.”

He slammed the phone down. Sunny was tempted to do the same.

Well, he’ll look pretty stupid when he finds out we’re several hundred bucks to the good, she thought. Had Ollie been drinking? God knew he didn’t always wear his wealth gracefully. He could act like a spoiled child if he didn’t get his way. She frowned, remembering the conversation with Will about the possibility of Ollie being a suspect in Ada’s murder. For someone who’s supposed to be rich, he sure sounded awfully worried about the cash box .

Sunny bit her lip. If he’d learned that Richer wasn’t going to invest in any of his schemes, that disappointment, coupled with the embarrassment of discovering that one of his properties housed a meth lab and burned to the ground, might make his temper even more uncertain than usual. And I get to be the one he takes it out on, Sunny silently complained.

“It’s just a misunderstanding, Dad,” she told Mike. “But I’ve got to go into the office and straighten things out. Be back as soon as I can.”

Sunny went upstairs, got the cash box, and climbed into her dad’s truck. She’d gone about half a mile before she remembered her promise to call Will if she was going out alone.

Just as she reached for her cell phone, an SUV came roaring up behind her. Sunny pulled aside to let the maniac driver pass. But as the SUV came abreast of her, the passengerside window rolled down. A guy leaned out, his mullet streaming in the breeze.

Sunny immediately recognized Fatso from the brawl at O’Dowd’s. The shotgun in his hands needed no introduction.

Oh, my God! A quick tromp on the gas pedal, and Sunny’s pickup shot ahead before Fatso could get a shot off.

She heard confused shouting behind her, quickly drowned out by engine noise as the SUV accelerated after her. It grew larger and larger in Sunny’s rearview mirror as she zigzagged from lane to lane, trying to keep them from pulling beside her again.

The SUV got right behind her and rammed her rear bumper, sending her fishtailing along the road. Sunny had to grip the wheel with both hands, her phone dropping into the well beneath her feet.

Wonderful, she thought. I can’t outrun them, and I can’t call for help.

All she could do was hang on and hope she could control the speeding truck. If those guys made her spin out, that would be the end. She’d seen the look in Fatso’s eyes. He fully intended to use that shotgun on her.

A second smack on her bumper jarred her, but she was prepared now. Sunny’s hopes rose as the SUV shrank in her mirror briefly, but then it came at her again—the driver had just pulled back for a little more running room.

Then, up ahead, she saw her only chance: an old shortcut. Sunny hadn’t taken that rutted, disused road since she was in high school. It wasn’t even much of a shortcut, but bouncing along between the ruts was about the closest thing local teenagers had had to an amusement park ride.

The shortcut angled off from the road, and Sunny hit it at full throttle. Despite the fact that her dad had always dinned into her the importance of using her turn signals, for once Sunny was willing to be a bad driver if it didn’t give those goons behind her any warning about what she planned. The pickup bounded into the air and landed with a shock strong enough to shake her fillings loose.

If I make it through this, I guess I’m going to owe Dad for a new wheel alignment, she thought.

The truck jounced over the ruts, flinging her against her seat belt until she was sure she’d have bruises. Sunny braked, forced to lose speed if she wanted to keep control. She grimaced as the front wheel dropped suddenly with a head-rattling bang. Maybe I’ll have to throw in new shocks, too.

Her mirror had been knocked askew, so she didn’t get a full view of the pursuing SUV. But she saw it take that same punishing dip that she’d just gone through.

Besides the rattling bang of protesting car parts clashing together, she also heard a lower, sharper boom! ring through the air.

Behind her, she saw the SUV slew erratically back and forth, finally jouncing to a stop. Sunny continued on her wild ride, content to see her attackers diminishing in the mirror.

She finally hooked up with a county road about a half mile away, well out of Fatso’s shooting range, and brought her truck to a stop. Her whole body shook as she groped around under the seat for her phone.

Sunny finally got her fingers around it, got it open, and called Will. As soon as he answered, she spewed out, all in a rush: “I had to go in to the office—urgent call—and two guys came up and tried to shoot me—”

“Sunny!” he interrupted. “Where are you?”

“I’m at the southern end of the old shortcut.” It used to have a name—what was it? “Ridge Road—that’s what we used to call it. Do you remember it?” she said into her phone. “Look, I really have to get to the office. Barnstable is going to fire me if I don’t turn up. The SUV that chased me looks to be stuck out there. They had a shotgun, and I think it went off—”

“Sunny, are you okay? You sound—”

“No, I’m not okay,” she answered, cutting him off. “Somebody tried to shoot me with a shotgun.” Sunny wasn’t sure she could deal with that right now. What she could deal with was reaching the office and saving her job.

“You can’t just drive off, Sunny.” Will sounded every inch a cop now. “And you’ve got to call 911.”

“No, I’ve got to get in to work. You call 911.” Getting angry did one thing—it steadied Sunny’s nerves and hands. She started up the truck and drove down into town and the MAX office.