American Crow (21 page)

It
was a short walk from the hospital to the main police station on East Street.
At the door I pulled back suddenly and beckoned Nancy closer.

‘Look, can you go in alone? Call me
paranoid, but I don’t want to give any I.D in there, or get clocked on CCTV in
case my face is on some national database. Here’s Olivia’s photo...’

‘Sure,’ she said studying it for a
second.

I watched her walk up the steps enjoying
the view, then waited a good half an hour in the rain before she returned
stony-faced.

‘Nothing.’

‘Damn it...’ I said, feeling like I’d arrived
at yet another dead-end.

‘The officer I spoke to even rang the
sheriff’s office a few blocks over to see if they’d heard anything. They
haven’t...’

Nancy reached out for my hand and
squeezed. For a while we walked in silence, staring at the moon rising above
the city sprawl.

‘Come on, let’s go back to my place, eat,
get some sleep, then forge a new plan in the morning.’

‘What about the Street-Level Café?’ I
said suddenly, having forgotten all about it, ‘there might be someone over
there who might have heard of something?’

‘That’ll be closed now, Blake. It’s
late...’ she said almost apologetically. ‘Come on, there’s nothing more we can
do tonight...Let’s rest up.’

I knew she was right, but knew that doing
nothing wouldn’t cure my restlessness either. I felt like I was getting close
now, tantalizingly so, and just needed that extra slice of luck, that bit of
timing, that would lead me straight to her and Ethan walking up the street hand
in hand.

That’s if she hadn’t got her head blown
off already by one of Corrigan’s men...I shook my head feeling frustrated, as
well as agitated at what they intended to do. In the morning I would head over
to this cafe and try and pick up a fresh lead, then think of a new plan of
action if that drew a blank too. Something had to give soon. Something. 

‘You got coffee?’ I said eventually.

‘The best Kentucky can offer, Blake.
Hell, are you going to tell me what your blessed first name is, for god’s
sake?’

I got in the truck and slammed the door.

‘Nope.’

*

I
jumped in the shower while Nancy made some fresh coffee and threw in a
microwaved Chinese for both of us to eat. When I came downstairs the resulting
aroma was the best thing I’d ever smelt.

‘Hey, you feel better? You were kinda
tense back at the police station.’

‘I had a bad feeling before I took the
job on, and now it’s getting worse the longer I hang around here. This Corrigan
guy is pretty heavy handed from what I’ve experienced already, and if for
whatever reason, Olivia and Ethan have trod on the wrong toes, or are planning
to again, they’re going to get stamped on big time in return.

I ran a hand over my face and sighed,
feeling frustrated.

‘I just hope I can get to them before he
does, if that’s the case.’

Nancy reached out and laid a hand over
mine and smiled. I didn’t respond. My mind was in a fog.

‘Corrigan owns so many properties and
offices too...they really could be anywhere.’

‘They’ll either pick the one with the
least security, or the one with the highest profile depending on how brave
they’re feeling,’ I tendered.

‘Well Corrigan’s offices in Lexington
would certainly fit the bill, as well as his ranch out of town. The latter
though would have a lot of security. He breeds a lot of his expensive horses
there.’

‘Which means, that they’ll probably pick
his offices, dangle some protest banner from the roof, or chain themselves to
the desks so that they can interrupt his work and make some local headlines.’

‘Look, food’s ready,’ she said, sliding a
large bowl of Chow Mein along the worktop to where I was sat. ‘Eat…’

I forced a smile.

‘It’s not much, as I haven’t been here
all week, but it’s something I suppose.’

I worked my way through it ravenously,
thinking about the pair’s intended plans. If the same sort of guys who’d
tortured me back in the forest, had managed to get their hands on Olivia
already, I’d hate to think what she’d be subjected to.

I shuddered and reached for the mug of
coffee to wash down some of the noodles. Nancy leaned over and switched on an
archaic television opposite then pulled up a stool next to me as if realizing
conversation was going to be hard.

When the picture finally flickered on and
stilled, the late-night news appeared to be in full flow. I stared at it
mindlessly trying to enjoy the hot food and refreshment, trying to stop being
so pessimistic, until my attention was drawn to some footage of an enormous
ranch from the air. The camera shot changed suddenly and panned to a wall close
up covered in defiant language, pronouncing: ‘SAVE BLACK MOUNTAIN!’

I sat bolt upright and tensed as the
presenter continued with the related news story.
 ‘And finally…the home
of powerful mining magnet, Lyle Corrigan, was broken into earlier and his
property damaged, including this graffiti sprayed over his stable block. Police
are appealing for anyone with information about the attack on the Red Rose Stud
to come forward and help them with their investigations. And now, the
weather...’ 

We looked at each other in shock.

‘Well, now we know what they’ve been up
to,’ Nancy said switching off the T.V.

‘They must be lying low
somewhere.’

‘God, that could be anywhere. They could
be a million miles away by now. Jesus!’ I shouted, slamming my hand down on the
worktop in frustration.

Nancy’s phone rang. I watched as the
voice relayed the bad news on the other end and the resulting horror painted on
her face as the reality of what had been said, sunk in. Finally she put her
cell down and shook her head slowly as she informed me of what had just been
revealed.

‘That was Chrissie. They’ve found Ethan
in what was left of his car and brought him in.’

‘You serious?’

‘Yes...and he’s dead.’

I absorbed the words and tried to remain
calm.

‘Did she say anything about
Olivia?’ 

‘No.’

‘Did he crash?’

‘On some road just outside Lexington, on
the way to Ver-sailles. Looks like it was close to Corrigan’s ranch. Probably
happened as they were getting away... They found his and Phil’s body at the
scene.’

Nancy stood up and cleared the bowls.

‘I think we should head back to the
hospital, Blake. Chrissie will be distraught. Ethan’s her nephew...’

‘Let’s do it,’ I said agreeing, hoping
that when we got there she might be able to tell us more about Olivia’s
whereabouts too. And an alive Olivia at that...

*

When
we finally found Chrissie in the hospital, she’d just come out from the morgue
where she’d been identifying Ethan’s body. Her face was ashen.

I’m so sorry,’ Nancy said, embracing her
in the corridor.

‘I told him he was going to get himself
into trouble. The stupid…’

She started to sob. Some of the tears ran
down her face and dampened Nancy’s shoulder. After a minute or so, she pulled
away, took a deep breath then blew her nose.

‘They reckoned they crashed at high speed
while being chased from the scene. The car evidently overturned and caught
fire. A passer-by managed to pull them out, but they’d both sustained extensive
head injuries and were dead by the time the police turned up.’

She looked at me solemnly.

‘The girl wasn’t with him by the way...’

I exhaled heavily with relief.

‘Are you going to be okay?’ Nancy asked
softly.

‘Yeah, I rung Tug. He’s gunna drive down
in the morning. Wonders will never cease.’

‘That’s great,’ Nancy said trying to be
positive.

I fetched some drinks then managed to
pull Nancy close for a second as a doctor took Chrissie to one side.

‘Look, I’m going to head over to the
crash site and check things out, go and see if Olivia isn’t hiding somewhere
half-dead. You wanna come?’

‘No, best I stay here and keep Chrissie
company.’

‘I’ll head back to yours after I’ve done
my search then.’

‘Blake…be careful.’

I saw the concern in her face and offered
a reassuring smile, then walked out of the door, already thinking about what I
was going to do before I got there.

If Olivia had gone with Ethan, then she
could be lying out there somewhere seriously injured, or at the very least be
cowering all alone in the dark, just having seen her boyfriend killed in front
of her very eyes.

What sort of mind-set would an eighteen
year old be in after witnessing something like that? And more importantly,
would she be able to hold it together and find her way back to safety without
falling into the hands of the police or Corrigan’s heavies...

I sucked some air through my teeth, then
jumped in the pick-up hoping Olivia wasn’t lying on a cold slab like Ethan now
was, then visualized Laura’s face for a moment staring back at me in the water
in France, thinking how for all our sakes, that the banker’s daughter just
had
to be alive still...

Chapter Twenty-Two

‘the compound’

T
he hospital faded into the distance as I joined highway
Four, then the Sixty, which I followed for a while until I saw signs for
Versailles. A few minutes later I’d turned right onto Pisgah Pike, then onto Sugar
Hill Rise where the crash had supposedly taken place, then travelled a mile or
so up the long winding road until I saw flashing lights.

I eased my foot off the accelerator, fearing
a checkpoint may have been set up to quiz potential eye witnesses, then saw the
white squad car of Lexington City Police parked up on the verge, its roof
lights merging with those of a long flatbed truck, as it winched the burnt-out
shell of a brown Nissan 200 onto its back.

Anxious to get a closer look, I edged the
car forwards. A fresh-faced deputy in an immaculate blue uniform waved me
through, one thumb wedge in his belt as if disinterested with his task. I drove
on, eyes looking straight-ahead so as not to arouse suspicion, then continued
at a steady speed until I was finally out of sight.

A half-mile down the road I pulled up
myself, stepped out of the car, and slipped through the rails into the
darkness, then jogged back to the crash site, remaining at a safe distance so
as not to be seen.

I scanned the area methodically looking
for the girl, as the alternating lights danced across the field in eerie
sporadic scarlet and blue flashes.    

‘Olivia…’ I called out softly, weaving my
way across the open expanse in a semi-crouch. ‘Olivia…’ I called again a little
louder, expecting to see her body slumped somewhere on the ground. 

After a good ten minutes of searching I
withdrew, then crossed the road and did the same the other side. Finding
nothing again, I wandered back feeling strangely relieved, staring out across
the rolling pastures into the abject darkness, then over at the enormous
astrobellum mansion in the distance lit up like a spaceship.

God, I hoped Olivia hadn’t joined the
others on their little suicide mission. And if she had, that she hadn’t been
caught by Corrigan and was now undergoing some ‘private’ interrogation at his
own behest.

I felt my stomach turn at the idea, then
thought it was more likely that she was just holed up somewhere with friends,
anxiously awaiting her boyfriend’s safe return.

After all, she was only eighteen, and
while she had a lot of pluck about her, she was still relatively young for
hard-core activism. Would Ethan have put her at risk involving her in such a
dangerous action? I hoped not. But then again, maybe that was just wishful
thinking right now. I’d been wrong about a lot of things concerning the job
already...

I ran back to the truck, jumped in then
let it run at idle for a few minutes deep in thought, before turning around in
some grandiose ranch entrance wondering if it was actually the tycoon’s.

I dabbed the brake and stared at the
massive stone pillars towering above me, then at the ferocious-looking horses
on top, their hooves kicking out in the air as if guarding the black, wrought
iron gates below, warning the uninitiated to enter with caution.

I shifted my gaze and clocked a CCTV
camera positioned in a nearby tree, making sure any unexpected guests were
vetted before entry, then read the italic lettering welded into the centre of
the bars.

‘The Red Rose Stud...’

It
was
Corrigan’s ranch, and if my
sense of direction was right, then it was the same creepy building I’d seen lit
up in the distance.

‘That’s just beautiful...’

Getting more anxious again, I edged back
onto the road and returned the way I’d come. As soon as I could make out lights
again, I pulled over and killed my own. If I could just get a closer look at
the Nissan, see if there was something inside of Olivia’s, like a hairband or a
phone, or even a shoe that may have been dropped during the chaos, then I’d
know for sure if she’d been in the vehicle.

If she hadn’t, then I could relax and
track her down through some of the other activists, or via Chrissie when she
surfaced again at her house. Maybe then, things wouldn’t be looking so bad...

Eventually the squad car pulled away. A
few minutes later the flatbed truck followed in the same direction. I eased out
slowly and remained at a discreet distance, then re-joined highway Sixty where
I melted back into the traffic, staying in eye contact with the now lone truck
as it travelled north, then west, away from the centre of Lexington through
some quiet suburbs, before finally heading back out into Bluegrass country.

Perplexed, I wondered if the Nissan was
being taken to some junkyard way out of town, then if the police had carried
out a proper forensic. They’d certainly done it in double time if they had.
There was no sign of any other investigators, no police tape nor fuss…Something
wasn’t right about it, I could feel it…

We continued for a while, driving further
out into the countryside until we arrived at a dead-end town with a small
industrial complex tacked onto its outskirts. I slowed down as the truck took a
sharp turn suddenly, gave it a second then followed myself. Directly ahead was
a huge floodlit compound... 

I stared at the imposing perimeter wall
surrounding the site and decided to hang back, feeling more and more uneasy. At
the entrance, the flatbed pulled up to a security hut and waited for a moment.
A minute later, two burly guards came out and appeared to check some papers,
then headed back in and operated the gates electronically.

I ran a hand over my face feeling tired,
feeling an increasing sense of foreboding. The gates were just as high as the
perimeter wall...I needed to find another way in if I was going to check out
the Nissan. Getting passed two guards, security cameras and a gate with razor
wire unseen was going to be damn near impossible...

I eased the pick-up out with its lights
off then pulled down a side-road to my left, running behind what looked like
abandoned warehouses. Halfway along, I parked up next to some bins in the dark,
slipped through a broken section in the fence, then ran across an overgrown
parking lot, down an alleyway littered with glass and garbage, until reaching
some thick undergrowth, which seemed to skirt the junkyard wall in both
directions.

I stared up at the pile of broken cars,
just about discernible above the lip of the wall then headed anti-clockwise,
eventually breaking out onto some scrubland, before reaching a more suburban
area with a second-hand car dealership located at its edge.

I peered through the meshwork fence
barring my way, then at the flat roof of the static in the far corner of the
plot, nestled against the perimeter wall. With little a bit of luck, I could
jump onto the office roof and haul myself up onto the junkyard wall. Then, if
there was something to climb down onto the other side, I was in...

I turned and headed up an access road,
keeping to the shadows as best I could, then ran passed a massive warehouse
ensconced in darkness, where the sound of machinery echoed out eerily from
inside. Just beyond it, I found another alleyway, which eventually led me back
to the dealership, a good fifty to sixty metres over from where I’d previously
stood.

I eyed the base of the fence, which
looked as if some animal had burrowed beneath it then forced it up inch by inch
until I could squeeze underneath it myself. On the other side, I sprinted over
to an old Ford estate, then crouched down in the dark and eyed the gleaming
black sedan parked next to the static some twenty or so metres away.

I had to move fast to avoid detection, or
hope the CCTV camera fixed high above the lot was simply a dud. I took a breath
then broke cover, ran hard at the sedan, then jumped onto its bonnet, onto its
roof, and leapt in one fluid motion at the office in a way that would have
impressed a free-runner.

I slammed down hard onto its surface and
spread myself quickly, trying to distribute my weight on the flimsy roof, then
waited for a reaction. Nothing...I relaxed a little and looked up. The
perimeter wall had shards of glass imbedded into its surface making it hard to
scale. I cursed. Getting a clean foothold to jump down safely was going to be
just as awkward...

Discounting any other options, I stood up
tentatively, threw my jacket on the wall, then took a few steps back and leapt
at it hard with everything I had...

I landed hard on my stomach and held on,
then slowly redistributed my weight over the angled shards feeling a few of
them dig into my ribs as I moved. Eventually, I managed to ease myself up into
a crouching position and survey the junkyard from above...

The place was massive, a sprawl of
crushed cars piled up like houses around a circular area where some grabbing
machines were parked up for the night. Behind them I could just make out three
flat-bed trucks, including the one with the battered Nissan still on its back.
I nodded in satisfaction. All I had to do was get down there and examine the
car for myself now...

I eyed the creaking stack of cars below
as the wind stirred and didn’t like the look of it suddenly. There were
potential foot-holes and handgrips for me to get down safely, but it looked
mightily unstable from where I was sat. It was at least ten or twelve metres
high too. High enough to break some bones if I misjudged the jump...

Gradually I talked myself into it,
snagged the inside of my jacket against some of the glass so that the sleeve
was left hanging down, then stood up carefully, wobbled, counted to three and
leapt into the darkness like a madman again...

Thump! The resulting contact echoed out
across the yard. I pressed my face against the cold crushed metal hoping that I
hadn’t been heard and waited for trouble. A dog barked in the distance suddenly
as if acknowledging my concerns, then one close-by within the processing area
sounding a lot more menacing.

I looked down and saw a Doberman chained
to the bottom of some stairs, leading up to what appeared an office.

‘Shit...’

The guard dog stood up and trotted over
to the perimeter wall as if sensing something was wrong, then responded
fervently to the barking outside for a while. I stared at the thick metal chain
fastened to its collar hoping that it was well-secured, then lowered myself
over the side and gained a foothold in the crumpled window of the car beneath.

I’d descended perhaps two or three meters
at best, when ominously, everything fell silent once more. I glanced down. The
dog had returned and was now sitting directly below me...I froze, trying not to
make the slightest sound, clinging vertically to the stack like a spider on a
windshield.

A full and very painful thirty-seconds
later the barking started up again, drawing the dog away. I exhaled and
continued my descent...When I was close enough to risk jumping down into the
shadows I pushed myself off and landed hard in the dirt.

Quickly, I rolled to one side, righted
myself, then waited for the dog to come racing around the corner. When it
didn’t, I picked myself up, scrambled over to the next stack, then inched my
way to the end and looked back at the office area. The dog was now some twenty
metres away, standing alert at the extent of its chain, peering in my
direction, but now mercifully out of reach...

I was just readying myself to move again,
when suddenly a side-door opened in the warehouse opposite. It looked like one
of the guards coming to check on the disturbance…

‘Fuck it…’

I watched him make directly for the dog,
then go down on one knee and give it some of his sandwich as he surveyed the
compound warily. I pressed myself tightly against the wreckage in response,
melding into the darkness, then gave it another minute and looked again. The
dog was still staring in my direction, the guard’s torch beam zigzagging across
the yard towards my position.

I ran back to the rear of the pile,
crouched down and eyed the pair of boots coming my way, then desperately crawled
through the collapsed windscreen of the bottom car, dragging myself fully
inside, incarcerating myself in the darkness...

The guard’s footsteps work their way
ominously closer, then stop at the end of the stack suddenly. 

‘You okay over there, Charlie?’ a voice
broke from his radio suddenly.

‘Yeah, the dog’s heard something that’s
all,’ the guard responded.

His torch beam penetrated the twisted
metal above me, then lowered to where I lay. I tensed, waiting for the
inevitable. A second later, the light pulled away. No one came. Silence. Just
the sound of the wind whistling through the car wrecks.

Then a tirade of barking erupted from
outside again, cajoling the Doberman to join in some more...

‘Fuckin dogs,’ the guard cursed, turning
back.

I eased myself back out, like some alien
birthing from a metallic womb, then stood up, and jogged to the end of the row
to check out the situation again. The guard was nowhere to be seen now, nor his
dog…

Seizing my opportunity, I darted across
the yard into the safety of the elongated shadows extending from the trucks.
The Doberman raced back to the end of its chain and started barking louder than
before.