Sean Black - Lockdown

The shelter they were about to visit was run by a woman with whom Cody had an on-off relationship.

A chorus of barking from the back of the house greeted their arrival. Lock checked his Sig. When he saw the gun, Don’s attitude shifted.

‘No guns,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘It’s one of the rules.’

‘One of the rules for you whackjobs maybe. I’ve got my own rules. And right around number six is, when confronting a wanted felon, carry a gun.’

‘You’re not gonna turn him in, are you?’

‘That all depends.’

‘On what?’

‘If he has Josh Hulme,’ Lock said, failing to add that if Cody did have him, he’d be turning him in as a corpse.

‘He doesn’t. You have to believe me.’

‘Let’s go see, then.’

In truth, Lock had no intention of handing Cody Parker to the authorities. Not yet, anyway. If Cody was arrested, Lock knew the first thing he’d do would be to lawyer up and take the Fifth.

The house had been painted white but had faded to yellow, and the front yard was overgrown. Don led the way round the side. Lock followed a few steps behind. They were greeted by a pack of dogs who bounded up to them, a blur of wagging tails and lolling tongues. A boisterous yellow Labrador Retriever, shaped like a bowling ball and carrying about the same momentum, shoved its nose into Lock’s crotch. The top of the dog’s head showed a rectangular scar pattern where its skin had been peeled away. Lock wondered if it was the poster dog for the Meditech protests. He scratched behind its ears and it nuzzled in even closer to him.

‘That’s Angel. She was pulled out of a lab in Austin.’

They turned the corner to find Cody Parker, lugging an industrial-size bag of puppy chow. He stared at Lock for a second before turning to Don, but made no move. Nor did he seem to register any grief. Maybe the woman Don had spoken to hadn’t yet broken the bad news.

‘They got her, huh?’ he said to Don.

Uh-oh, thought Lock, here we go. All aboard the paranoid express.

Cody threw down the sack of chow. ‘Who’s this?’

‘Ryan Lock.’

Cody was a big guy with a hooker-blonde ponytail that snaked halfway down his back. Six four and two hundred and ten pounds, none of it fat.

‘I remember now. Meditech. Come to kill me too?’ Cody asked, shifting another bag.

‘You don’t really believe that?’ Lock said, caught flat-footed by the question.

‘That my mother was murdered or that you’re here to kill me?’ Cody stood, feet apart, arms by his side, way too relaxed to believe the second part. ‘If it’s the latter, I don’t see why you’d have brought a witness.’

‘OK, so why would someone have wanted to murder your mom?’

‘Because they think I’ve got something.’

‘What’s that?’

‘I said they think I have, not that I do.’

‘One of the places Cody was staying got robbed a few weeks back,’ Don said, filling in.

Lock thought back to the apartment in the Bronx. How low did a burglar’s ambitions have to be to target a shithole like that, never mind kill an old lady?

‘What’d they take?’

‘Papers mostly.’

‘What was in them?’

‘Details of places they torture animals.’

‘You mean laboratories?’

‘Among other places.’

‘But Meditech are discontinuing their animal testing.’

‘That’s what they all say.’

‘Listen, I’m here to find Josh Hulme.’

‘He thinks you took him,’ added Don.

Cody didn’t blink. ‘And why would I want to do that?’

‘Because you’re capable of it,’ Lock interjected.

‘Everyone’s capable of some serious shit if they’re pushed hard enough.’

‘So would you mind if I had a look around?’

‘Go right ahead.’

Lock crossed to the screen door at the back of the house. Cody, Don and the Labrador followed him inside. He tried to shoo the dog away but it plodded on after him.

‘Must be more messed up in the head than we thought,’ Cody mused, with a nod to the dog.

Lock scratched at her scar as she rubbed against his legs. If Cody had Josh here, he was remarkably calm.

‘You know a girl called Natalya Verovsky?’

‘Know the name, sure. Same as I know the name of Richard Hulme. And his son. Been all over the news.’

‘You know the FBI are looking for you?’

‘Not about this they ain’t.’

‘Only a matter of time. I doubt grave robbery to kidnapping would be much of a stretch for a jury. Unless you’re denying digging up Eleanor Van Straten as well.’

Cody looked straight at Don. A dead giveaway. Cody knew it too. ‘Have to plead the Fifth on that one, my friend,’ he said. ‘But lemme ask you a question.’

Lock stopped in the middle of the living room. ‘Go ahead.’

‘Why’d Gray Stokes get his head blown off? And don’t give me that stale bullshit the media have been feeding the folks at home about the sniper aiming for Van Straten and missing. That was some cold shit right there. One shot. One kill.’

‘I can’t answer that question.’

Cody stared straight at him. ‘Well I can.’

Lock sat down on a couch matted with dog hair. Angel dropped her head in his lap and stared up at him with thousand-year-old brown eyes. ‘Enlighten me, then,’ he said.

‘Are you for real, brother? Stokes and everyone else in the movement had been yanking Meditech’s chain for months. The way we saw it, if we could get them to stop using animals, a big power-house corporation like that, all the others would fall into line. But they dug their heels in. Just kept hiring more and more guys like you. Then, out of the clear blue sky, they cave. How come?’

Lock was silent.

‘Man, I might not have all the answers, but at least I’ve got some of the right questions,’ Cody said.

‘Say they got tired of the intimidation,’ Lock offered. ‘It happens.’

Cody burst out laughing. ‘To individuals, sure. But to a company who’re going after a big contract from the Pentagon?’

‘What?’

‘Oh, but nobody’s supposed to know about that, are they?’

‘So how come you do?’

‘You think we don’t have people on the inside too? People might join a company like Meditech, buying into all the soft soap about curing cancer, but some of them open their eyes. It’s all about the money. Always has been. Always will be.’

‘So what’s this got to do with Josh Hulme? Or Gray Stokes, for that matter?’

‘Like I said, I’ve only got the questions. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure that settling should have been the last thing on Van Straten’s mind. Big contract like that means more testing. More animals tortured, like your new best friend there.’ Cody nodded towards Angel, who’d now fallen asleep with her head on Lock’s lap. ‘But call a truce is what they did, and next minute Janice is picking her pa’s brains off the sidewalk. He knew something, my friend. Knew something big enough to get them to back down and get him killed at the same time.’

‘OK, so what did he know?’

Cody clapped his hands together. ‘Bravo, Mr “Take the Corporate Dollar”. Now you’re asking the right questions. Listen, I got some stuff around here somewhere, might help you out. Let me get it for you.’

‘Thought all your stuff was stolen.’

Cody’s lips parted, forcing a smile. ‘Not all of it.’

Cody stepped out of the room. Less than five seconds later there was the sound of a screen door slamming shut and Cody running. Lock was immediately up and on his feet, turfing Angel on to the floor. Angel righted herself and slammed into Lock’s legs. He stumbled, but stayed on his feet.

As he hit the doorway, Don made a point of blocking his way. Lock shoulder-charged him to the ground and bolted outside, just in time to see a red pick-up take off down the driveway, snow and mud spinning up from its rear tyres.