Nick closed the van doors. An hour later, Nick had bagged all the men’s personal items, and cleaned the living room and kitchen meticulously. His gym bag was repacked. One black garbage bag was tied closed near the front door. He walked to the staircase.
“I’m sure you all are hungry and thirsty, so come on down,” Nick called out.
When they were all sitting in Suzan’s kitchen, drinking sodas, and eating chips Suzan had served, Nick waited until they were through before speaking.
“Rachel, Jean, and I have to leave. I have a couple more errands to run. Tomorrow’s Sunday. Rachel and I would like to have you all over for the barbeque we missed today. Once we leave, this bad stuff will all be in the past. We’ll talk tomorrow, Suzan. Talk to no one until then.”
“I won’t,” Suzan promised.
“What if those guys come back?” Kelly asked.
“They won’t be coming back,” Jean told her with exasperation. “Are you stupid?”
“Jean!” Rachel rebuked her daughter. “You apologize right now!”
“Sorry,” Jean sighed. “I didn’t mean that, Kel.”
“It’s…it’s okay.”
“Can we go tomorrow, Mom?” Garth asked Suzan.
“Yes, I think we should,” Suzan answered, exchanging glances with Nick and Rachel.
Nick stood up. “C’mon you two, it’s almost dark. I’ll go out through the garage and get the van out of Suzan’s way. I packed an extra soda, and the Oxy, Suzan. I’ll bring back what’s left.”
“Keep them.”
Nick went out to the van with the garbage bag and his gym bag. He heard the loud grunts and groans from Craig as the man now thrashed around the cargo area. Nick opened the rear door. He used the stun gun on Craig until the man vibrated. Nick made a silencing motion with his finger to his lips for Joe, who was staring wide-eyed at him. Joe nodded his head energetically. With the trash and gym bags up front, Nick started the Dodge and backed it out to the street. He then put it in park and walked over to the Escalade driver’s window. Rachel had already opened it.
“Follow me. When you see me turn off into the dirt, stay where you are by the street. I’ll hike out to you. It won’t take me long.”
“Okay, Nick.”
“Don’t get caught speeding, Nick,” Jean called out from the back.
“Oh…Jinx! Thanks a lot, Jean.”
Nick waved and went to the Dodge. Half an hour later, Nick had driven the van out into the desert on the East side of Las Vegas until the wheels stuck. He took the garbage bag, gym bag, and cleaning supplies out of the van. Nick put on Nitrile gloves from his gym bag, and went to work with the bleach and paper towels, working around Craig and Joe in the back when he finished with the front. Satisfied the van was clean, Nick took out Carl Brewster’s weapon, which he had already packed earlier, wiped it off, and set it aside. He repeated the process with both weapons taken from Craig and Joe. With his stun gun and Joe’s weapon, Nick went in the back. After leaning the squirming Craig up into a kneeling position against the side of the van, he stunned Craig senseless. Nick crawled around behind Joe, helping him up so he was seated, leaning into Nick. Nick cut Joe’s hands free. Joe cried out as Nick forced his numb right hand up and wrapped it around Joe’s gun.
“Ready, aim, fire,” Nick joked, triggering the silenced auto with Joe’s numb finger twice. “Nice shooting, Joe – right between the horns.”
Nick propped Joe against the passenger rear seat after taking the weapon back. He used the old tape to bind Joe’s hands behind his back once again. Nick went out and brought back Brewster’s silenced auto. He cut all the tape off the deceased Craig, balling it up and putting it aside. Nick positioned himself behind Craig’s corpse, fitting Brewster’s weapon into Craig’s hand and aiming it at Joe.
“Say cheese, Joe, c’mon big smile now.” Nick fired two shots into Joe’s head with Craig’s finger. “Man, you two guys can really shoot.”
Nick left Brewster’s gun in Craig’s right hand and added Craig’s own Glock into his left hand, allowing them to rest on the dead man’s legs. Nick repeated the process with Joe, wadding up all the tape, and makeshift knee bandages, leaving Joe to stare off into eternity with his weapon in hand. He closed and locked the van after a final cargo area wipe down. With his gym bag in one hand and the garbage bag in the other, Nick jogged at a slow pace out to the road, nearly two miles away. When he reached the Escalade, he walked in front where Rachel could see him. He heard the doors unlock. After dropping his bundles off in the rear, Nick hopped into the front passenger seat. He took deep breaths and enjoyed the air conditioned air. Jean was fast asleep on the back seat.
“You look like you could use a beer.”
“Absolutely,” Nick said, leaning back with a sigh.
“It doesn’t get as cool in the desert at night as I thought it would.” Rachel handed Nick an ice cold mug. “I’m surprised you’re out here in the backyard.”
“There’s a breeze,” he replied, hanging on to her hand for a moment after taking the mug. He kissed her palm. “I like looking at the stars out here. Jean never stirred when I carried her to the bedroom. She was really out.”
Rachel sat down in the chair next to him, her own mug in hand. “We’re not going out in the desert at dawn tomorrow are we?”
“No, I think we should stay in tomorrow and wait until we talk to Suzan. I’ll check out Jim Benoit, then go through those bozos’ personal effects for names and addresses. We need to keep watching the news for updates on the roadside intervention I pulled in Bakersfield. We’ll stay apprised of any dead bodies being discovered around here too. I should be doing it now, but my batteries need charged.”
“You were amazing today. How many times have you done something like that?”
“Counting today, once.” He smiled over at Rachel. He could see her watching him, even though it was dark out on the patio. “I trained for hostage situations extensively when I was with Delta, but Delta doesn’t conduct hostage negotiations in the manner I did today.”
“Maybe they should.”
“Oh, you don’t go along with the ‘we have to be better than them’ line of thinking?” He shook his head in a disapproving manner. “By the way, you did exceptionally well today. That was one hard episode for an on-the-job training session.”
“It taught me there really isn’t anything I wouldn’t do if I had to,” Rachel admitted. “I’m not sure I’ll make as good a psycho as you are, but I might make it as an assistant psycho. Besides, you’re a fake psycho.”
“A fake psycho?”
“A real psycho would have dumped Jean and me, and laughed while they were driving away. Now I have a real problem. If I ever left you, my daughter and dog would refuse to go with me…damn it.”
Nick laughed. Deke sat up from where he lay between him and Rachel. She gave Deke a push on the side of his head before petting him.
“The goofy dog even knows when he’s mentioned in a sentence, by name, or not. You really don’t think we should make a run for it?”
“We need some time to pass between our first run for it and our next one,” Nick explained. “I have to get you up to speed on weapons and defense techniques. Joe confirmed the word is out on where the safety deposit box is. I’m thinking we’re going to need a hell of a distraction. I’m working on a simplistic plan where we scout the bank for the usual suspects. We then get very familiar with what they look like and how they operate. They will be expecting helpless Rachel Hunter to saunter into the bank and give them whatever they want. What I want them to get is a Rachel Hunter ready to take out anyone we’ve deemed a potential bad guy, with me as back up.”
“Do you really think I can be that Rachel Hunter?”
“Absolutely,” he patted her hand. “If you’re not, I’ll have a kid and dog to raise.”
It was Rachel’s turn to laugh.
“Okay, okay, but I don’t think a gun battle in broad daylight in Sarasota, Florida would further our agenda,” she commented after thinking about what he proposed.
“No gun battles in the streets, Rachel,” he assured her. “I want you to hustle into the bank from a running car when we’re set, get your business done, and hustle out. They won’t have time to grab you going in. Coming out, you will know the bad guys or gals on sight. When they approach, you pepper spray the crap out of them, and stun gun them with no hesitation. Jump in the waiting car and away you go. I’ll be on a rooftop with a clear view of the scene. Any heavy action, I’ll handle. Any vehicles pulling out after you, same deal. Hopefully, we’ll know all the bad guys’ vehicles. I’ll disable them before you hit the bank. Remember, you’re in the right. If they have someone we didn’t count on in the bank, stun them and call security. Don’t use the spray inside.”
“Oh this sounds really simplistic.”
“The fun part starts when we get the flash drives and they launch an all-out manhunt for our asses in a spiraling search from ground zero out across the states. They’ll be desperate. The kid gloves will be off. That’s where our friends Grace and Tim come in. We need to pass off the drives to someone not on the payroll of this syndicate, who can get them high up the ladder. We’ll have copies of the drives, because they won’t want to deal with some of the folks who’ll just need killin’.”
“This will be a test of Grace and Tim too… won’t it?”
“I’m afraid so. There’s so much money loose on this deal, we can’t afford to trust anyone. I’d also hate to get those two killed.”
“They were the only reason I’m not stark raving mad. Doing a disappearing act is not as much fun as it sounds. I do not want to keep on the run with my daughter for the rest of our lives. I sure envisioned a different kind of day after our…ah -”
“Interlude?” Nick finished for her. “If I told you how many times our interlude flashed into my mind, even while we were all in danger, you’d probably promote me back to full psycho.”
“You Satyr!” Rachel leaped up out of the lounge chair, pointing at him. “I’d forgotten all about when Joe made us strip. You were popping right out of your underwear.”
“What can I say?” He shrugged. “Sometimes my priorities get a bit skewed at inappropriate moments. While you’re up, Sister Mary Rachel, get me another.”
Rachel giggled. She grabbed Nick’s proffered mug on her way inside. When she returned, she wore only a black thong. She handed him the mug over his shoulder. When he glanced back, he nearly ended up wearing the beer.
“I have a kink in my neck. Would you mind working it out for me like you did the other day?” Rachel sipped from her mug while turning the chair she had been sitting in around in front of Nick. She sat down on it with her backside perched out over the edge, leaning with her chin over the chair back.”
Nick set the now half-empty mug down near Deke, who lapped up the remainder without hesitation. Leaning forward, Nick splayed out the fingers of each hand near Rachel’s temples and his thumbs at the base of her skull. By rotating his thumbs into the jumble of nerves, he had her groaning audibly in under a minute. Slowly, he worked every inch of her spine, his thumbs methodically moving over and against her spinal column, while his fingers probed the shoulder area before trailing down with feathery caresses in tandem with his thumbs. With more freedom than the day before, he massaged the base of her spine with powerful upward pressure while gripping his fingers into her hip area. Rachel cried out, shuddering as she staggered forward, chair in hands, out of Nick’s grip. She spun around, breathing heavily, having tossed the chair aside.
“No fair,” she whispered, grabbing his hand and pulling at him. “Let’s go.”
“I need a shower.”
“Later!”
“How come you get up so early, Nick?” Jean asked, rubbing her eyes at the entryway into the kitchen, dressed in pajamas, robe, and slippers.
“About five to six hours is about all the sleep I care to have.” Nick looked up from his notebook computer, where the character Diego had just killed the hierarchy of a gang in East Los Angeles with a car bomb. “How are you feeling this morning, Danger Girl? You had a rough time yesterday.”
“Danger Girl,” Jean repeated, giggling as she walked over to pet the ever-present Deke, who rolled over for a belly rub. “I’m okay. That guy didn’t beat us up or anything. He told us to stay quiet or he would beat us up. I guess he’ll be pretty quiet himself now, huh?”
“That’s a very grim way of speaking, DG.” Nick saved his file and closed the notebook.
“Oh, right, we’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead.” Jean grinned up at Nick, who immediately dropped his head into his hands.
“Keep it up, keep it up.” Nick covered his face in feigned exasperation. “It won’t be funny when you say things like that at the worst possible moment by mistake.”
“Okay.” Jean sighed, plunking down in the seat next to him. “I’ll be more careful. Hey, do you know how to make pancakes?”
“Absolutely.” He moved to the counter nearest the stove. He took pancake mix out of the cupboard along with a four cup mixing bowl. After collecting an egg and milk from the refrigerator, he gestured Jean over. “C’mon, I’ll show you how to do it, too, Danger. Do you like bacon with your pancakes?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Rachel woke smelling the aroma of bacon drifting up through the house, one of the most tantalizing odors in the world. She sat up groggily, glad Nick had bullied her into her own bedroom after they had showered together. The thought of explaining to Jean a relationship change involving her suddenly sleeping in Nick’s bed did not appeal to her. The alarm clock on her nightstand read eight-thirty. She wondered idly how long her two cohorts had been up. After donning her robe, she made a quick trip to the bathroom before going downstairs. She could hear laughter coming from the kitchen. Pausing at the kitchen entryway, she saw Deke doing somersaults to get small pieces of bacon thrown to him. Nick noticed her, and gave her a quick salute.
“You’re just in time for breakfast.” He walked over to the oven and took the leftover pancakes and bacon out. “I saved you a plate all warmed up. Good thing you came down when you did. Deke is getting demanding.”
“Nick taught me how to make pancakes, Mom,” Jean told her. “He calls me Danger Girl, and Danger for short. I like it.”
“Wonderful.” Rachel grimaced as she sat down and took the plate from Nick, along with a napkin containing silverware. “You could have slept in at least until eight, Nick.”
“Diego waits for no one,” he stated solemnly, while placing a mug in front of her. “How’d you sleep?”
“Great. I don’t think I even moved. Did you already check the news?”
“There’s nothing on the internet. The local news starts at nine. I’ve been meaning to bring this up, but you two trouble magnets keep cramming our days full of adventure. I think it would be a good idea to dye your hair darker.”
“Mom already bought the dye at the store.”
“We should have done it in Monterrey.”
“Then they would have known.” Nick pushed Deke away from the table. “This way, maybe we get a little extra time.”
“These are really good,” Rachel pointed at her pancakes. “Did -”
The doorbell rang, and Deke ran to the door. Nick made a calming gesture.
“Easy…easy…not everyone in this town is out to get us.”
Nick walked to the entrance and looked through the security eyelet. Two police officers stood on the front stoop. Nick looked them over carefully, from their shoes to how they wore their belts and badges. As the taller one reached for the doorbell again, Nick opened it, kneeling down to quiet the growling Deke.
“Good morning,” Nick greeted them.
“I’m Officer Mendez, and this is my partner, Officer Carrington. Are you Roscoe Weatherby?”
“Yes?” He assumed a questioning look and stood up.
“May we come in? We have some questions for you about a missing person’s case.”
“Sure,” Nick said, opening the screen door, as Rachel and Jean came out of the kitchen. Jean beckoned to Deke and the dog went to her reluctantly. “This is my wife Rachel and daughter Jean.”
Some of the tenseness left the police officers’ faces at the appearance of Rachel and Jean. Rachel clasped Nick’s arm. She leaned into him with a natural grace.
“What’s this about, hon?”
“Something about a missing person,” he answered, gesturing toward the kitchen. “Would either of you like some coffee? We were having breakfast.”
“Sure.” The dark-skinned Carrington nodded with a smile. “I’ll have a cup if it isn’t too much trouble.”
“Thank you,” Mendez added, following Nick, Rachel, Jean, and Deke into the kitchen.
Mendez and Carrington sat down at the kitchen table next to each other, opposite Rachel and Jean, while Nick poured two mugs of coffee. After placing the mugs in front of the officers, he set milk, sugar bowl, spoons, and napkins down too. He sat next to Rachel. Mendez took a picture out of his right breast pocket, setting the picture down in front of Nick. It was a picture of Carl Brewster with a fishing pole in hand, holding out a stringer with two trout.
“Have you seen this man?”
“The day before yesterday,” Nick replied, picking up the picture for a closer look and then handing it to Rachel. “His name was Carl something…”
“Brewster,” Rachel finished on cue.
“That’s it,” Nick agreed. “He said he worked security for a neighbor of ours we met over at the Excalibur. Apparently, when our neighbor’s husband goes out of town on business, Brewster watches over the mom, and the two kids.”
“Do you know the neighbor’s name?” Carrington glanced down at a notepad he had in hand.
“Benoit,” Nick answered. “We got together with Suzan Benoit and her kids. What’re the kids’ names, Jean?”
“Kelly and Garth,” Jean put in, smiling with enthusiasm, knowing she was playing a part in a very adult game.
“Do you remember what car Mr. Brewster was driving?” Mendez questioned in a more relaxed tone.
“I only glanced at it when he left, but I think it was a Toyota of some kind…silver colored. Is Brewster the one you’re looking for?”
“The woman he’s living with reported him missing when he didn’t come home. She said he left early Friday afternoon, saying he needed to check out something. Your address was on his day planner,” Mendez explained. “Did he say where he was going after leaving you?”
“He did say something about being late for a meeting with two associates, named Joe and Craig. Suzan didn’t say anything about him when we were over at the Benoit house yesterday. They’re coming over for a barbeque today. Should I ask her to call you?”
“No, we’ve been over to see Ms. Benoit already.” Carrington put away his notebook, and handed Nick a business card. “She told us she hadn’t seen Brewster since Friday. We found his Toyota already, but no sign of Brewster. Thanks for your cooperation, folks. If you remember anything else, please call us.”
“Sorry to have bothered you on a Sunday like this,” Mendez added, as the two police officers stood up.
“No problem.” Nick escorted them to the door.
“Will you be leaving us soon, Mr. Weatherby? Ms. Benoit said you stay in Las Vegas for short periods of time.”
“I’ll be here for another two weeks. I have business back East after that, but you can reach me -”
“Ms. Benoit gave us the number to reach you from your business card,” Carrington finished for him. “We’ll call if we think of anything else.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Weatherby,” Mendez added as the two walked out past Nick.
“Goodbye.” Nick watched them walk out to their squad car with the familiar buzz he inadvertently experienced when details flowed together around him to his advantage. Now if my Roscoe ID holds up, we may last through our two-week cushion.
“Everything okay, Nick?” Rachel joined Nick at the entrance with Jean and Deke.
“Everything’s fine for now. Nice going in there, both of you. The barbeque should be interesting later.”