Kathleen Tailer - The Reluctant Witness

“Don’t do this,” Jack said, shaking his head, his hands up in a motion of surrender. “I’ll help you get back on the right track. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Stevens laughed, but it was filled with bitterness. “Nobody can help me. I’m too far down the road to turn back now.” He motioned with his pistol again. “What’s in the bag?”

Jack glanced down at the satchel he had dropped on the ground. He had found a laptop and quite a few papers in the private investigator’s cabin that he had just searched, but he needed time to analyze everything before he would know the true value of what he had discovered.

Earlier he’d hoped the laptop and papers would contain the evidence he had been hunting for that would implicate a ring of conspirators operating out of the federal courthouse. Apparently Stevens was also one of the conspirators. The knowledge was a bitter pill for Jack to swallow. He had considered that maybe someone on the FBI payroll was involved, but it had never occurred to him that Stevens would turn on his own. How had he missed that? Why hadn’t he seen the evil lurking right below the surface in this man he had worked with every day for the past five years?

He glanced up at Stevens, whose familiar eyes now looked dark and sinister. “Just a laptop and some papers,” Jack hedged, hoping that if he somehow survived this encounter he could still use the evidence to break the case.

Stevens aimed and shook his head. “Goodbye, Mitchell.”

Jack tried to dive behind a tree to escape, but it was an exercise in futility. The impact from the bullet caught him hard and spun his body around as it ripped into the flesh on his side. He was still falling when the second shot caught him in the head. For the moment, gravity had saved his life, giving him enough momentum that the bullet sliced a trail across his forehead rather than passing straight through to his brain. But how long would it take before blood loss—or another bullet from Stevens—finished the job?

His body hit the ground hard. Pain enveloped him and he struggled to stay conscious. He felt Stevens kick his ribs, but he had enough presence of mind to try to remain as still as possible. He felt another kick, and it took everything inside him not to react to the agony that radiated up his side and around the assortment of bullet wounds. He heard the other man take a few steps toward him and holster his weapon.

“Now what? This partner of yours was a pretty good shot. He managed to kill Milo down on the ridge. Now we’ve got two bodies to dispose of.”

“Let’s take care of Milo’s body first.” Stevens shifted and Jack could hear his partner’s shoes rustling the leaves as he started to pace.

His partner had always had a creative side. Jack guessed Stevens was already devising a plan in his mind to explain what had happened this afternoon. The man would probably tell just enough truth to keep him from mixing up the story if he ever got interrogated, but he would name Jack as the criminal and would try to get the conspiracy investigation closed as soon as possible. The thought made Jack sick inside.

A moment passed, then another. Suddenly Stevens stopped and a laugh erupted.

“What’s so funny?” the other gunman snarled, his voice gruff. “I don’t see anything to laugh about in two dead bodies that might somehow come back and bite me.”

Stevens secured his weapon and snapped the holster shut. “Let’s put Milo in Jack’s trunk and park his car back at his apartment. It’ll throw the local cops off our trail, and Jack won’t be around to defend himself or point the finger at us. That should keep the heat off and make such a huge stink that nobody will even think to look in our direction. After we dump Milo, we can come back up here, clean up the scene and bury Jack. My uncle has some property near here that’ll be the perfect place to hide the body. Nobody ever goes over there.”

“You’re the boss. I’ve got some plastic in my trunk for just such an occasion. We can make it look like he was about to dispose of the body but got interrupted.”

“Perfect.”

A wave of nausea swept over Jack as he fought to keep in the here and now. Still, he struggled through the pain and tried to concentrate on their words. He heard Stevens reach down, grab the satchel and sift through the contents. A few seconds passed and then the bag closed with a snap.

“See anything in there that’s a problem?”

“I don’t know. It’s going to take me some time to sort through it all. I’ll take it along just in case.”

Jack tried not to tense as he felt Stevens reach over, pat his pockets and pull out his car keys.

“Aren’t you even gonna check the guy’s pulse? There’s an awful lot of blood, but I’m telling you I don’t want to take any chances.”

Stevens’s voice took on a menacing tone. “Relax. You worry too much. I know killing Jack wasn’t part of the plan, but I think it can actually work to our advantage if we play our cards right.” He paused. “All right. If it makes you feel better, I’ll check.” Jack felt Stevens reach toward his neck, but suddenly a cell phone ring broke the silence.

Stevens pulled back and answered the phone. “What? Okay. I’m on my way. Don’t move without me.” The cell phone snapped shut with a click and Stevens stood abruptly.

“We have to go. Now. Colby has an emergency and needs us downtown. Let’s get Milo’s body and get out of here. We’ll come back and take care of Jack later.”

Jack heard them retreat and breathed a sigh of relief. He was alive—for now. But his thoughts were getting fuzzy and he could feel the life ebbing from him as his blood soaked into the ground. He tried to move and groaned as another wave of pain swept over him. He paused a moment, then tried again. His limbs felt heavy and nothing seemed to work right. With another groan he succumbed to the blackness, wondering if he would ever see the light of day again.

* * *

Casey Johnson gasped and shrank back against the bushes. From her position on the cliff she had clearly seen the entire scene play out, and her heart was beating overtime as fear washed over her. They had just killed that man in cold blood!

She’d been out taking her daily run when she’d heard the first shot and had quickly made her way toward the edge of the cliff to see the valley below. Seconds later she had crouched behind some shrubbery, hoping the plant and her green shirt would camouflage her from the murderers’ sight as the horrible scene had played out in front of her. What were they doing up here? Why had they killed that man? Her heart felt as if it was about to come right out of her chest and her limbs felt frozen and numb.

A movement caught her eye and she saw the two men get into a blue two-door vehicle, drive down the road a short distance and pull onto the grass before exiting the car again. A few seconds later the two men returned, carrying a body out of the woods. Casey swallowed hard as realization swept over her. Two men were dead, not just one. She watched, horrified, as they wrapped the body in a large sheet of plastic and threw it into the trunk of the car. Seconds later, the blue car and a brown sedan, each driven by one of the shooters, sped down the road, leaving a plume of dirt and a dead man behind them.

Questions and trepidation spun through Casey’s head. What had happened? Why had there been a gun battle out here only a short distance from her cabin? She sat back and tried to keep her hands from shaking. Did the gunshots have anything to do with her situation? Various scenarios abounded in her mind, and she stayed hidden a few moments, mulling over the possibilities. She’d thought she was still safe, but she should have known better than to have assumed anything. Still, the idea that her brother-in-law had sent them didn’t quite fit. If the men had been looking for her, they wouldn’t have ended up shooting each other, or left so quickly without finding their quarry. No, it seemed clear that their target had been the man that was still lying on the ground below.