Allison Brennan - If I Should Die

He turned and saw the quad emerge from the woods and stop at the base of Bear Rock. Ricky remained alert, staying low on the rock, his hand wrapped around Jon’s pistol. The engine cut out and the rider took off his helmet. It was Adam Hendrickson. He waved. Ricky didn’t wave back.

He watched as Adam climbed Bear Rock. He slipped a few times, and Ricky scowled. They’d come here many times and Adam used to be so sure-footed. Now he was a soft city boy.

Ricky didn’t budge when Adam sat down next to him.

“Leave me alone,” Ricky said. He averted his face so Adam couldn’t see that he’d been crying.

“Sean Rogan seems to think you and I need to talk.”

“I don’t want to talk.”

“Talking to you isn’t my idea of fun, either. Why did you do it? My dad liked you. He took you fishing and horseback riding, even when I wasn’t around.”

Saying nothing. Ricky stared at the horizon and wished he could disappear as easily as the sun.

“Listen, Ricky, there’s a lot of stuff happening right now, and I’m willing to put this crap aside.”

“Why? Go ahead, call the cops, have them arrest me.”

“We’re not turning you in.”

“I wish you would.” He meant it.

“You want your life to be over? For me to just send you off to juvie and be done with you? Do you think that’s what my dad would have wanted me to do?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t-” He stopped. There was no excuse for what he’d done. He could have said no. He whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“I know you are. Dad liked fishing with you, even when I wasn’t here. I’m glad he had you around. I’m a little jealous that you knew him so well, and I only got him two months out of the year. But life isn’t fair. Frankly, it sucks sometimes.”

Ricky grinned, then masked it. Adam smiled. “It really does. But from now on, you’re part of my family. That’s what my dad would have wanted. And it’s what I want.” He paused. “I’m sorry about your uncle.”

Ricky coughed to hide his sudden emotion. “Thanks.”

“I need to call Sean and tell him I found you. Trust us, okay? Sean’s going to keep you safe, but you have to listen to him.”

“I didn’t know Aunt Bobbie was in town. My father always hated her, but I never knew why. When he went to jail she came to see my mother. She-” He stopped. He couldn’t do this. He didn’t want to think about it anymore.

“Sean went to visit your father today. And we found out that Bobbie Swain had my dad killed.”

Ricky shook his head. “It was a heart attack.”

“He was poisoned. There was no autopsy because Doc Griffin signed off that he had heart trouble. I didn’t know he hadn’t . I should have been here. I could have saved him. Or at least known about his medical condition so that I’d known enough to demand an autopsy.”

“Bobbie would have killed you, too, Adam,” Ricky said. He stared at the glowing horizon. “She knew my mom had cancer and was going through chemotherapy. But with dad in jail and everything we owned seized by the government, we had nothing. Dad never had insurance because he had plenty of money selling drugs to pay for Mom’s treatment. And she was getting better.

“Bobbie said she would pay for everything, Mom’s treatment, our house, anything we needed. I thought she was an angel. And Mom told her no, said she was a monster.”

Now the tears came and he couldn’t stop them.

“Bobbie was furious. I thought she was going to hit Mom, so I stood between them. I would have killed her if she’d touched my mom, and I wouldn’t have felt guilty.”

“I would have done the same thing.”

Emboldened, Ricky finished. “Bobbie said Mom would be dead within the year and I would be living with her in New York. Her exact words: ‘I’ll teach Rick the Swain family business like his father never had the balls to do.’ I didn’t realize until after she left that she’d stolen two hundred thousand dollars that my dad had hidden to take care of my mom.”

He turned his head, hating the tears of rage that ate him up inside. Against his father for sheltering him so much that he didn’t know what to do when threatened.

“How old were you?”

“Eleven. Mom died nearly a year later. We couldn’t afford anything. Even my mom’s inheritance from her parents-it wasn’t big, but it would have paid for another round of chemo-the fucking FBI took it. After my mom … died … and my uncle Jimmy was my guardian. And for a while, it was okay.

“But after Joe died,” he glanced at Adam, “Reverend Browne said I could hang out with him. I didn’t know what he had planned. He’s the one who wanted me to sabotage your place.”

“Why did you run from Sean yesterday?”

“I didn’t know why he would help me. Usually when someone offers to help you, they want to use you. But after I saw the reverend with Bobbie at the church, I was scared.”

“So you went into hiding.”

“I went to see Jon Callahan. My mom told me in an emergency I could go to Jon and he would help. But even Jon has changed.”

“What did he say?”

“He told me to hide out at the Fosters’ place and not leave until he came for me on Sunday. But I had to get out for a while.”

“That’s a good place to hide out. I’m going to let Sean and Tim know that I found you and we’ll hang together until all this shit goes down. I don’t want to be in the middle of it.”

Neither did Ricky.

The Kelley Mine’s field office was built up against the hillside, and though boarded up and abandoned for decades, it had been shielded from the worst of the weather and remained standing. It would be a good place to hide out-in fact, it looked like a good place for teenagers to party. Tim noted that some of the boards had been replaced within the last year or two, being far less weathered than others. But he didn’t find any sign of Ricky here.

He approached the building cautiously, though he heard nothing except bird calls and the scurrying of rodents. He tried the boards. Most were firmly in place, but a few were loose, and he noticed one that appeared nailed in was actually on a hook.

His phone vibrated. He glanced down, and read a message sent simultaneously to him and Sean from Adam that he’d found Ricky and they were going to lay low at the Fosters’.

Tim responded that he’d meet them there, then pocketed the phone and assessed the building.

He carefully removed the large board, revealing a brand-new door with a padlock. Who would go to this trouble? There were plenty of abandoned buildings and houses in Spruce Lake. Why use this relatively insecure location?

He couldn’t break the lock, so he tried the other boards. The plywood blocking the windows of the locked room had been nailed from the inside, so he couldn’t get to those.

On the far side, where the building abutted the hillside, a two-by-four over one of the windows looked different than the others. Tim got out his Swiss Army knife and pried out the nails. He wouldn’t be able to fit in through the opening, but he could see what was inside.

Tim shined his flashlight inside and his stomach turned sour.

An open box of C-4 explosives sat on the floor in front of him. It looked as though four bricks were missing. Enough to take out a building or three.

He surveyed the small room. There was a recent calendar on the far wall, a small metal desk and chair, and some boxes of wires and other electrical supplies.

The sound of a vehicle on the gravel road startled Tim. He propped the wood back up and skirted around the edge of the building to see who was coming. He heard but didn’t see the car. He glanced at his truck, visible from the long drive. No sense in hiding. He bolted to his truck and reached the driver’s side just as a big black F-350 came into view.