John Miller - Side by Side

Ed said, “I can call your daddy from the pay phone out front. Peanut Smoot had it put there, but it might be safe enough. Never could imagine why the Smoots couldn’t get a phone put in at their place instead of having one out on my porch that nobody but them ever uses.”

“It’s handy for people you don’t want using your phone,” Edna said. “At least the Smoots don’t have to come inside to make calls.”

“Give me your daddy’s number,” Ed said. “I’ll go call him.”

Lucy scribbled the number on a church bulletin Edna handed her.

Taking the shotgun with him, Ed Utz went out through a door that led into the darkened store.

“So it was you started that big fire,” Edna said.

Lucy nodded.

“Very appropriate,” Edna said, nodding. “Didn’t the good Lord use the very same instrument to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?”

Serge Sarnov lit a cigarette, more to pass the time than because he wanted one. He enjoyed pushing his smoking on people that didn’t appreciate it, because he was powerful enough to get away with it. He did it for the same reason a dog pissed on a tree that some other dog had already peed on.

Max Randall cracked the window behind Sarnov. Opening the one behind him channeled the smoke away from Randall without making the statement that he found the smoke annoying.

The two military-trained men in the back seat were napping like children without a care in the world. Combat-seasoned men like them learned quickly to catnap in the spaces between actions. When the time came, both would open their eyes and be good to go.

“How much further?” Sarnov asked.

“Twenty minutes,” Randall told him.

“The woman and child can’t get far in woods they aren’t familiar with, running from people who are. And if by some miracle she gets to a phone and calls her father, we’re covered, right?”

“Our people have the judge’s incoming calls blocked. Anybody dials his number, we’ll have their location inside five minutes.”

“You think this U.S. marshal is headed here?”

Randall shrugged. “If Click didn’t know, Massey doesn’t know either. If he does, it would save us the trouble of tracking him down.”

“He’s got some of your toys that he could use to make a big problem.”

Max frowned. “He’s competent.”

“Competent?” Serge laughed. “Yes, he seems to be somewhat competent. It’s too bad Peanut’s little family hasn’t been.”

“I should have handled it. But Laughlin was insistent on letting them do it.”

“We’ll deal with Peanut tonight.”

“The Major wants her sister the agent calling the shots on the Dockery deal. It has to be done a certain way.”

“And you agree?”

“Without the Major, we don’t have the connections into the Pentagon. She’s setting up the agent’s future, and I think having the agent’s credibility and insights is worth allowing her to clean up the kidnapping. That’s the sister’s expertise. She can make this into a kidnapping based on financial gain, not Bryce’s trial.”

“Needlessly complicated if you ask me,” Serge remarked, eyes on the wet road ahead of them. “Especially now with this Massey running amok. It seems a pointless bit of drama now.”

“Mine is not to question why,” Max said.

Sarnov was going to enjoy working with Max Randall.

Randall’s cell phone rang and he opened it. “Okay,” he said. “Directions?”

Serge watched as Max listened, his eyes on the windshield.

“We’re ten minutes out.”

Max snapped the phone closed.

“The Dockerys are in a store up the road from the Smoot place,” he said. “Time to wake up, boys.”

“They’re sure?”

“Smoot found her tracks.”

Max’s phone trilled again. “Yeah, Major. We’re on it.” He listened. “That’s confirmation on what Mr. P. told me ten seconds ago.” He closed the phone. “Somebody just placed a call to the judge’s phone from the store’s pay phone. The Dockerys are definitely at the store.”

Serge smiled. Behind him there were metallic clicks as the two men double-checked their weapons.

“It’s turned into a beautiful evening for a hunt,” Serge said.

Alexa Keen concentrated on the road ahead, the traffic. Antonia had been giving her driving instructions since they left the Westin thirty minutes earlier. There had been only silence between the sisters since they had gotten on the I-77 going south, only Antonia knew where.

“That ga-damned Massey,” Antonia said, sighing. “You swore to me that you could keep him in check. You’ve made me look like shit, Lex. You know what’s at stake here.”

“Precious, why do you talk like that?” Alexa blurted. “It’s. . it’s unbecoming an officer.”

Antonia burst into laughter. “Christ on a cross, Lex. How in God’s name you can give me crap about what comes out of my mouth given the present circumstances is something only you could do.”

“I don’t like foul language. You know that.”

“We’re about to murder two people, no, make it five people in the next little while-six, if we’re lucky and find your old pal. And you’re offended by my language?”

“I am not murdering anybody,” Alexa insisted. “I’m just cleaning up a mess. And doing my best not to let it get any bigger. I can fix it unless your people get sloppier.”

“For which you’re being paid more money for cleaning up than any maid in history. That’s for sure.”

Alexa frowned. “This isn’t just about the money, Precious.”

“It isn’t?”

“The money’s nice. But I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t being pushed aside at the Bureau.”

“Put out to pasture before your time. Now you’ll retire rich and you’ll stay that way, working for people who write very large checks for a consultant who knows how things really work.”

“I was leaving a real mark, a legacy. But those boy-club bastards are giving me the bum’s rush because they’re jealous of me. My abilities. I was the best. I am the best. JERKS!”

“Men,” Antonia said bitterly. “If they didn’t have erections, they’d be useless.”

Alexa laughed despite herself. “Like Max Randall.”

“Max,” the Major said, laughing. “That man fu. . screws you and you have been very well nailed, believe me.”

“You cuss like a man,” Alexa said. “Worse than a man.”

“Massey never cared about you beyond getting in your pants.”

“He never got in my pants,” Alexa said.

“He got in your head. He stole your girlfriend and married her.”

“Eleanor was not my girlfriend. She was just my roommate.”

“Yeah, right. This is me, Alexa. I know how you felt about her. I know how bad her dying screwed you up.”

“You don’t know squat.”

Antonia reached over and wiped the tear from Alexa’s cheek.

“You don’t cry for plain roommates,” she said.

“You don’t cry for anybody,” Alexa shot back.

“We’re going to kill Massey for you, big sister. We’re going to even things out once and for all.”

“I don’t like talking about it,” Alexa said. “He’s not going to be in the way now.”

“He’s too unpredictable. He has friends and he can make big problems.”

Alexa nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe. But he isn’t easy to kill.”

“But you agree he has to go?”

“What is necessary is inevitable. I agree he has to go.”

“Can you get him to come to you, so Max can make sure he goes down for good?”

“Yes, I can.”

“How?”

“He will come anywhere to save his wife.”

“Okay. Admit one thing. He isn’t as washed up as you said he was.”