Chapter 32

Tony ran around to the other side of the Nissan and tore the rear door open. His eyes met Natalie’s.

“He’s gone,” she said, reverently. “He’s already gone.”

“Gone? You mean dead, don’t you? You killed Hank. You murdered my friend. I warned you what would happen if he died.”

Tony leaned in and looked into Hank’s still eyes. “Do something!” he yelled at Natalie.

“I’m sorry but there’s nothing else I can do. He’s gone. Can’t you see he isn’t breathing? Can’t you see the color has left his face?”

“Don’t you know CPR?”

“Even if I did, it’s too late.” She kept her voice calm and even. “He needed a doctor. Rudy tried to tell you.”

“Damn it, I don’t need a lecture.”

“I know he was your friend. I tried my best to keep him alive but there was just too much damage.”

“Damage you caused, bitch.”

“You’re right of course,” she said and tried but failed to contain the sarcasm about to spill out. “I should have just let him rape and beat me some more. Who knows maybe between the two of you, you’d have killed me already and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Just shut up, shut the hell up. I’ve got to think. Get out of the car.”

She held up her hands to remind him he had her tied. He grabbed her hands pulled her from the seat and let her fall to the ground outside the door. Since it had rained recently, the ground forgave more than she expected. Yet, an uncontrollable tremble from the cold dampness of the ground, the night air that bit into her, and the memory of Tony’s promise swept over her. As she rolled to get away from Tony’s feet, his words rang in her ears, “If Hank dies your next.” Her heart hammered against her ribs and panic engulfed her like being caught in a riptide. She needed to quell her emotions. She grabbed the handle of the rear door and used it for support as she stood to her feet.

Tony, bent at the waist, leaned into the rear seat compartment over Hank. He suddenly withdrew, stood upright, and turned toward Natalie.

Natalie knew this would be the decisive moment. Her life hung in the decision Tony formed behind that angry, acne-scarred face. A decision he might have already made moments before Hank died while he searched the mirror for her. If she could survive the next few minutes, she had hope again of salvation, of escape.

Tony lunged at her and grasp for her throat. She threw herself backward. Just out of his reach, he slammed into the opened door. She lost balance and fell backward into the mire.

From his hunched position in the front seat, Rudy screamed, “We need her, Tony.”

“And why the hell is that?” Tony asked and grabbed the door for support.

“’Cause, if this doesn’t go well,” Rudy said, “and the police do catch up with us, she is our bargaining chip.”

“I see and, now that Hank’s dead, have you and your girlfriend cooked up a plot to get rid of me, too?”

Natalie needed to take over the conversation as Rudy was no match for Tony’s tongue. She had hoped to drive a wedge between them but this was not the time to exploit this schism. She rolled onto her knees.

“You think I’d make a pact with him?” she yelled and saw Tony turn his head toward her. “Rudy raped me! I told you last night at the motel you may think it’s your job to inflict as much pain on me as you can but it’s my job to escape. When I said that, I meant from all of you, Rudy included.”

She knew that stung Rudy and from the edge of her vision, she saw him drop his head.

“Despite Hank’s violence towards me,” she continued, “I’ve done everything I could to keep him alive for the last day. There have been so many times I could have slipped my hands around his neck and choked the life out of him, and I would have been justified doing it, but I didn’t. I tried to keep him alive, Tony”

“How do I know you didn’t do that now?” Tony demanded and leaned away from the door.

“You don’t but I wouldn’t. How stupid do you think I am? You’ve said repeatedly if he dies, I’m next. Look at me, I’m defenseless here. You keep me tied up worse than a dog. I have no power here. From your lips, killing him would seal my fate.”

She realized that she needed to divert the attention away from herself and Rudy. She found a place of calm and confidence, and continued, “We need to do something with Hank’s body.”

Tony glared at her for a moment and then the evil in his eye began to soften.

“This isn’t over,” he said. “I’m still going to put a bullet in your head and then feed you to the vultures.”

He reached to Rudy’s door and opened it. “No shit or she’s dead.” With a swift tug, he ripped the cloth that tied Rudy’s hands to the seat and then continued, “Get the keys and let’s put Hank’s carcass in the trunk for now. We can’t leave him by the side of the damn road.”

The irony that Hank was to be confined to the steel sarcophagus as she had been for so many hours was not lost on Natalie. He had let her out of the trunk before she died but, now dead, he filled the space. She wondered how long it would be before someone freed him from that crude internment.

After Hank was in the trunk, Tony said to Rudy, “Get her in the car.”

Natalie was still kneeling, tied hand and foot, by the side of the road. As Rudy approached, she let out a deep breath and a tentative relief washed over her. She was glad to be alive but, as she waited for Rudy to help her get into the back seat, she renewed her vow to find a way to escape with or without Rudy’s help.

She knew her statement about escaping “Rudy included” wounded him, so, to lift his spirits, as he placed her on the back seat, she whispered, “I had to say that, you know. We don’t want him thinking we’re plotting against him.”

“I know,” he said.

Even though he verbally agreed, Natalie sensed he battled disbelief.

As they pulled back onto the road, Tony reached into his shirt pocket and came up empty.

“Nice going, lover boy,” Tony said, the scorn hot enough to scorch a new hole in the ozone layer. “I’m out of smokes, shithead.”

“How’s that my fault?” Rudy asked. “I don’t smoke.”

Twenty silent minutes passed and they pulled up to a twenty-four-hour convenience store with only one car in the small parking lot.

As Tony stopped the engine, he said to Rudy, “You wait, I’ll rob.” He opened his door and continued, “Do you think you can do that right? If you fuck this up, you both die along with the clerk.”

He stepped out, walked around the Stanza, and opened the door next to Natalie. After he untied her, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. “You’re with me. I don’t trust you two together. If you want to see the light of day tomorrow, you better damn well be on your best behavior.”

*

Sonya knew her boyfriend would love the new tat she had had inked to her hip today and could hardly wait until her shift ended at midnight to show him. The nineteen-year-old clerk sat on a stool behind the convenience store counter and, to pass the time on a slow night, she watched an old vampire movie on a twelve-inch black and white television. Except for a polite nod, when a couple came in, she ignored them and let them go about their business in the store.

“A couple cartons of smokes,” the man said when he had finished and dumped the last load on the countertop. “Bag it and hurry.”

Sonya tore her eyes away from the set and slipped off the stool. “What kind,” she asked and turned toward the cigarette rack behind the counter.

“How ‘bout those Marlborough and make it three cartons.”

She retrieved the boxes and then turned back to the counter. When they had entered a few minutes before, one glance at the disheveled girl was all it took to dismiss her. Now, as she faced the bruised cheeks and the dark circles under her smoky eyes, she knew she needed help. Sonya looked from the teenager to the ponytailed man and then back at the girl who couldn’t have been much younger than her.

“Damn it, I said ‘bag it and hurry.’ What about that didn’t you understand.”

Sonya looked into the angry eyes of the man, shot him a disdainful scowl—he should keep his hands to himself—and then reached for the first item. She scanned the barcode and slid a loaf of bread into the bag.

“No need to ring it up, bitch, and don’t forget the till.”

Sonya glanced up just in time to see the man pull a silver barreled pistol from his belt. He put his arm around the girl’s neck and drew her close to his chest. He pressed the gun to the teenager’s temple. “Bag it now or I blow her brains out right here, right now.”

Sonya’s jaw dropped as she looked between the gun and the girl. Paralyzed, she couldn’t act.

“Do it now,” the girl said with a calm voice. “He’s not kidding,”

Sonya tore her eyes away from the revolver and began to shove the items from the counter into plastic bags.

“The money,” the ponytailed man shouted and waved the gun toward the register. “Get the damn money.”

Sonya opened the till and pulled the bills out.”

“There’s not much here,” Sonya said and feared that her inability to produce a wad of cash would be the last thing she did in this world. “We don’t keep much in the register at night. Only fifty bucks or so.”

“That all?” the man shouted.

“There’s a safe in the back but I don’t know the combo. Please, sir, just take it and go.”

“God damn it. Carry the shit to the car.”

With the beaten girl’s help, Sonya grabbed the bags and the three headed for the sedan. He had released his grip on the girl but Sonya could see he was pushing her along with the muzzle of the pistol in her back.

“Back seat,” the man yelled as they approached the Stanza. “And no shit.”

After Sonya placed the sacks on the seat, she stepped back from the rear compartment, stood, and faced the man. He held the gun on her now.

“Back to the store,” he said and pressed the gun into Sonya’s chest. He cinched his left hand around the other girl’s bicep and pulled her along as they walked to the store. Once inside, he forced Sonya into the back room.

“Don’t do it, Tony,” the girl pleaded. “Don’t hurt her, please.”

“Shut your damn whining asshole, Whore. Why do you give a shit?”

“She’s just a kid like me Tony. Don’t please.”

Sonya looked at Tony and saw the stone features of his face. “Please don’t kill me, sir.”

“On your knees, bitch.”

Sonya dropped to her knees, compliant, but kept her face turned toward the man with the gun.

Tony pressed the Python between her eyes.

*

Angela Hawk had driven for the last hour and a half on instinct. Her week hadn’t gone well. She had let a witness go missing on Wednesday. It had taken the local police to find her body three days later and, in all that time, she had found nothing to lead her to a suspect. She wasn’t sure her instinct even worked anymore. One thing she did know, she had lost the trail of the tan Stanza before she even had it. It had been several hours since the suspects had fled the scene in Oregon and, even though she had convinced herself they would’ve continued on north, she had nothing to support it but her gut. They could be anywhere which meant she was on a hopeless chase. So far there had been no sightings of the sedan from the APB she had put out. If they had crossed the state line and were in fact in Washington State, there were just too many side roads they could have taken. She felt as if she had been conscripted to chase a ghost and there was no telling what thin air it had vanished into.

She figured they’d need to refuel eventually but the suspects had reportedly stolen cash in Oregon. Since they saw the newspaper article in Lincoln City, they wouldn’t use plastic again. To take the heat off, they’d pay cash. That left no way to pick up their trail.

Angela had just parked outside an all-night café to consume some caffeine to jolt her mind awake. As she wound her long black hair into a bun, her phone rang. She reached for it and let her hair fall onto her shoulders.

“Agent Hawk,” she said and listened as the voice in her ear gave her a report about a hold up at a gas station. She couldn’t believe her luck or was it her instinct reigniting. She had just about given up hope but the suspects drove a tan sedan and now they weren’t thirty minutes away. She gunned the engine of her black SUV, flipped her strobe lights on, and headed back onto the road.