John Miller - Side by Side

“Second wind.”

“Second wind. You hear that, Clayton? Massey’s just caught a second wind.”

Alexa turned to her sister, her face reflecting both disbelief and indignation. “You have my car bugged?”

“No. Clayton does. Your cell phone and Massey’s had GPS and transmitters in them. This car, Massey’s truck.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“Nothing personal, Lex. Trust is in very short supply when so much is on the line for so many people. We had to make sure you stayed on task.”

“You think I could betray you?”

“Of course not. If I did, you wouldn’t have been brought in.”

Alexa understood that Antonia had been talking about Alexa’s involvement not only in the kidnapping but in the killings coming up. She had Clayton recording their conversation for leverage, for an edge. Antonia was always playing an angle, grabbing power any way she could, power over everybody; even taking out insurance against her own sister. Alexa had to smile. Antonia Keen was some nasty piece of work. And they shared blood.

“How long have you, Randall, and Clayton known where the Smoots are holding the Dockerys?”

“I know everything, Lex. Having the intelligence is how I stay in control. And we both know how important control is. Don’t we? Didn’t you teach me control is the most important thing there is?”

“Yes,” Alexa said sadly. “That’s true. I guess that’s all I taught you.” She sighed. “I’m not interested in opening any more of my life up to Mr. Able. So let’s just drive without talking. Able gives me the creeps.”

“Close your wax-encrusted, hairy-assed ears, Clayton!” Antonia yelled. “That’s an order, you sheep-diddling schmuck!”

Antonia’s rich baritone laughter filled the car. Alexa couldn’t help but join in.

Edna Utz watched as Lucy fed Elijah his cereal and talked to him. “That’s a good little man,” the old woman said.

“Guuud,” Elijah agreed, grinning.

“Thank you,” Lucy told her. “I don’t know what we’d do without your help.”

“Don’t be silly,” Edna replied. “We’re happy to help.” She waited until Lucy had put another spoonful of cereal in Elijah’s mouth before adding, “But it would be best if you didn’t tell anybody we helped you, dear.”

“Why?”

“Because we’d be burned out, dear. It isn’t much of a store, but it’s all ours, Ed’s and mine. We’re a bit too old to start over.”

Ed came back into the apartment from the store, closing the door behind him, then bolting it. “I called the number,” he told Lucy. “I got one of those ‘All circuits are busy please try your call again later’ messages.”

“That happens sometimes,” Edna said.

Ed shrugged. “I’d best drive these kids home,” he told his wife. “Her daddy must be worried sick.”

But Edna was thinking. “It’s funny,” she said. “Well, not as funny as it is odd. Ed called the fire department number over an hour ago when it started. You’d think they’d have been here by now.”

Lucy felt a growing unease. “How far is the fire station from here?”

“Six or seven miles,” Ed said. “But some fire out in the woods when it’s this wet might not have got their total attention, especially if there was a house burning somewhere else.”

Lucy caught the nervousness in Edna’s eyes.

“It’s a volunteer department,” Ed explained. “But they get the job done.”

“Call them again,” Edna told her husband. “Ask them what the heck’s holding them up.”

Ed lifted the receiver and put it to his ear. He pressed the button down several times, then replaced it in the cradle.

“Somebody on it?” Edna asked.

“Of course,” Ed said.

There was an explosion outside and the lights went out.

Elijah started to wail. In the sudden darkness, Lucy put her arms around him.

A vehicle roared around the building and bright headlights blazed in the windows, filtering through the closed blinds.

A loud voice hollered out, “Utz, sounds like you got a baby in there!”

Ed yelled out, “That you, Smoot?”

“You know it is. Send out the gal and her baby and we’ll get out of your hair.”

“Well, Smoot. Why don’t you just come in here and get ’em?” Lucy saw Ed move, and knew he was reaching for his shotgun.

“Hell, Utz. Senile as you are, you might shoot me.”

“I might.”

“My boys are out here with me,” Peanut yelled. “One out front and the other right here. Make this easy on yourself. This ain’t about you. That gal murdered my Buck and Dixie in cold blood.”

“He’ll kill you both,” Lucy whispered to Edna.

“Well, he’d have to do that anyhow since we know.” She patted Lucy’s leg reassuringly. “You just let my Ed handle this. He was in Korea.”

Ed taunted, “You won’t be the first murdering heathen I’ve sent to hell in my life, Smoot. You don’t scare me.”

“No hurry,” Peanut yelled back. “We’ve got plenty of time to nee-go-see-ate. Plenty of it.”

“I’m a patient man myself, Smoot. Lead don’t rust.”

“Terrible people,” Edna whispered to Lucy. “Just awful.”

Lucy clutched Elijah to her and prayed.

“Goodness, I should get out another gun or two.” Edna said it as if she’d forgotten to bring salad forks to the dinner table.

From the equipment cases in the rear of the Tahoe, Winter Massey took what he thought he might need and put those few items into a black nylon knapsack. He took off his coat and holster rig, put on a ballistic vest, and put his figure-eight rig and camouflage coat back on. Using face paint he found, he blacked his face and put on black gloves. Selecting an H amp;K Tactical twelve-gauge with a high-intensity flashlight mounted under the barrel, he loaded it with alternating 00 buckshot and Hydroshock slugs. He put on a pair of night-vision goggles, slung on the backpack, grabbed the shotgun, and jogged off into an eerie world of vibrant green.

He set an angle for himself that should intersect the gravel road well behind the roadblock. The carpet of wet leaves gave him a surface almost as silent as wool, the only sound the occasional snapping of a twig. The goggles allowed him to run as fast as the undulating terrain permitted. He ran along a ridge for a long while, spooking three deer and a fox before he came to the road.

He slowed, took a bottle of water from his pocket, and sipped a few ounces. He wasn’t hungry, but knowing he needed to feed his muscles, he opened a packet of jerky and chewed the stiff dried meat as he ran. When he arrived where he was going, he wanted to have his full mental and physical faculties to call upon.

Reaching the gravel state road, he decided to run on it to save time, planning to veer off into the woods if vehicles came along. He knew from Able’s file that Peanut drove a black Dodge truck, and what the other siblings drove. If he saw any of those automobiles, he would have no choice but to stop them just in case the Dockerys were being transported in it. The roadblock was keeping everybody out; that had Winter convinced that dead or alive, the Dockerys must be ahead of him, and if they were, so were the Smoots.

Winter saw headlights before he heard the approaching vehicle, and leapt off the road to get behind a tree. He raised his goggles so he wouldn’t be temporarily blinded. The SUV that roared past was identical to the one he had stolen. Winter couldn’t make out how many people were inside, but he hoped Max Randall was in there. If he was, he was probably accompanied by whatever backup he could call upon. More could be coming along.

Before Winter had made another hundred yards, he had to leave the road again. This time he recognized the car that passed by, and he knew instantly who the two people he glimpsed inside it were. Alexa Keen and her sister the Major. Now Winter was even more certain that the Dockerys were ahead of him.