Bill Hopkins - Judge Rosswell Carew 02 - River Mourn (28 page)

The trio snuffed
their flashlights
. Rosswell tugged Alessandra and Ollie into a shallow
side passage. The cave was darker than the night outside. Rosswell hoped the side
passage was deep enough to make them invisible to whoever was entering from
Nathaniel’s house. A door slammed shut. A noise, a soft scuffing sound, grew
stronger then stopped. Someone walking, then halting directly in front of them.
Whoever it was had a small flashlight, although its beam shined on the ground, enabling
the person to see where he or she was walking.

The figure coughed, turned off the flashlight, then
flicked a lighter and held the flame up to a cigarette. Charlie Heckle. The
scarfaced man hadn’t caught the night train to Memphis after all.

Ollie and I were set up. Nathaniel sent Charlie to the
alley so he could entice us to come here!

Charlie exhaled a stream of smoke. When it reached
Rosswell, he detected a smell like a skunk burning in an alfalfa hay bale. Charlie
was toking a joint. Rosswell hoped Charlie and his blunt weren’t keeping
company with anyone else.

As best he could, Rosswell explained by grasping
Alessandra and Ollie’s hands, then pointing and gesturing, that he wanted Ollie
on Charlie’s left and Rosswell would take his right. Alessandra would stand in
front of Charlie. Rosswell placed Alessandra’s hand on his head and he nodded. Then
he touched her head. Alessandra nodded. Rosswell and Ollie also exchanged a
silent greeting in the darkness.

Rosswell liked the phrase Ollie had used in the alley.
He decided to use it on Charlie.

“Show time, boys and girls!”

“What the—”

Charlie’s surprise was complete, allowing Rosswell and
Ollie to knock him on the ground, but not allowing Charlie to finish his
question.

Rosswell, risking one light, turned on his flashlight
and stuck a gun in Charlie’s right ear to whisper, “Where’s Tina?”

“I don’t—” Charlie spoke a bit too loudly. Rosswell
punched the gun barrel into his ear to silence him.

“Real quiet. Tell me where Tina is.”

Barely audible, Charlie whimpered, “I don’t know no
Tina.”

Alessandra stuck her gun in Charlie’s left ear as
Ollie pulled off Charlie’s shoes and began wrapping him with clothesline.

Rosswell bent over Charlie’s face. “I’m not going to
shoot you. It would make too much noise.” He felt Charlie relax. “Instead, I’m
going to stuff cotton balls in your mouth and nose, then duct tape them shut.”
Charlie stiffened and began shaking. “Charlie, you ever see anyone suffocate?”

Rosswell knew death threats spoken in a soft, clear
voice were more effective. It was a lesson learned from watching gangster
movies.

Charlie’s tiny voice quivered. “No. I don’t know where
nobody is. Don’t kill me. Please, don’t kill me.”

“Suffocation’s worse than drowning. Takes a lot
longer. And you don’t pass out before you die. You die after a lot of pain. A
lot of terror. I’ve heard it seems like hours.”

Charlie said nothing. Ollie had wrapped all the
clothesline around Charlie and was finishing the task of duct taping the man
into complete immobility.

Before Ollie taped Charlie’s mouth shut, Rosswell posed
his question one more time. “You get to choose whether to tell me or die of
suffocation. Where’s Tina?”

“Second door to your left, about hundred feet after
you get into the house.”

“That’s better. Any guards?”

“No.”

“Any alarms?”

“No.”

“Anything dangerous I need to know about?”

“No.”

“If you’re lying, I’ll come back and choke you to
death with my own hands.”

Charlie nodded.

“And where’s my silver?”

“Nathaniel.”

When he rose, Rosswell stepped on Charlie’s hand,
grinding his heel into it for emphasis. “Ollie, finish bundling up the trash.”

Ollie stuffed cotton balls in Charlie’s mouth. Charlie
whimpered. Tears ran down his cheeks when Ollie taped his mouth shut.

Rosswell assured Charlie, “I’m not going to suffocate
you. For now. This is to keep you quiet.”

Ollie added, “Try not to upchuck before we get back.
The vomit won’t have any place to go, which means it cuts off all your air.
Understand?”

Charlie nodded again. Rosswell’s nose picked up an
odor telling him that Charlie had crapped his pants before he peed himself.

“Ollie’s right. Another word of warning.” Rosswell
made certain Charlie could see his face. “Don’t swallow. You could wind up
choking yourself. That’s suffocation.”

Charlie’s eyes grew wide. He lay still. Very still.

With the promise that no guards or alarms or anything else dangerous
awaited, the trio exited the cave through the wooden door that Charlie had come
through. When they reached the door of what Rosswell prayed was Tina’s room, he
admitted to himself that perhaps Charlie hadn’t been lying. The glow in the
hallway radiated from small night lights plugged into outlets at various
intervals. Whenever they had passed one of them, Rosswell yanked it from its
socket. At the end of the hallway were two fire doors with push bars. If the
map from Mrs. Bolzoni’s was correct, the rest of Nathaniel’s house waited on
the other side of the fire doors.

The door to Tina’s room lay shrouded in darkness.

Rosswell risked a whisper. “I’m going to try the door.
If it’s unlocked, I’m going in first. Ollie, if it’s locked, kick it open if
you can. Then I’ll go in. Alessandra, guard the hallway. Ollie, if Tina’s
drugged, you’ll have to help me carry her out. If anyone else is in the room,
don’t shoot them. Unless they point a gun at you.”

Ollie moved close to Rosswell. “What if she’s not in
there?”

Alessandra stood close to Ollie. “Then we go to Plan
B.”

“Rosswell never has a Plan B. You’d best give him
details.”

“We kick down every door in the place. With our
weapons drawn.”

Rosswell said, “Alessandra, I like the way you think.”

Ollie, clearly not satisfied by the answers he’d
heard, barged ahead. “What if she’s not in this house anywhere?”

Instead of answering Ollie, Rosswell asked Alessandra,
“Have you ever been in this part of the house?”

“No.”

“Then we leave the way we came in.”

Ollie wanted answers. “If we blunder through every
room and don’t find Tina, what do we do?”

Rosswell said, “We leave any way we can.”

Ollie and Alessandra gave Rosswell a thumbs up.

Riffling through the tote bag until he found a length
of plastic rope, Rosswell thrust it in to Ollie’s hands. “Wind this through
those crash bars on the fire door. It won’t stop someone from coming through
eventually but it will slow them down.”

Above the metal doorknob of Tina’s room, Rosswell’s hand
hovered for a couple of seconds until crunch time arrived. As soon as his skin
made contact, alarms—louder than the ones Rosswell had heard the first time at
the house—screeched in a deafening siren whoop. Lights in the ceiling flashed
on, giving the hallway the look of high noon in June. Rosswell twisted the knob
and shoved the door open, promising himself he’d kill Charlie Heckle.

Tina lay on a bed
,
her eyes wide, her body tensed.

“Rosswell!”

He risked taking a moment to kiss her, then rubbed the
Celtic cross necklace lying at her throat. The actions served as his validation
that he’d reached the end of his journey.

The klaxons screaming in his brain couldn’t dampen the
joy of seeing Tina. Using his medic’s training, he assessed her condition
within seconds. Her hair smelled of a recent washing with a shampoo recalling fresh
air on a mountainside. Her skin felt smooth, supple, and soft. They’d kept her
clean. It was nice when bad guys kept their prisoners clean
.
Her belly
was huge with their baby.

“I’m fine,” she screamed over the screech of the
alarms. “Get me out of here!” She jumped from the bed and shoved her feet into
tennis shoes, all in the same motion.

Even through the sound of the sirens in the hallway,
Rosswell could make out people yelling somewhere, running straight for them.

“We’re leaving this dump!” Rosswell assured himself
the orange rope tied to the door would keep the pursuers at bay long enough to ensure
their escape. “Alessandra, clear a path for Tina and Ollie. I’ll bring up the
rear.”

Alessandra, her flashlight clutched in one hand, the
gun at the ready in the other, sprinted down the hallway toward the cave.
Ollie, whose adrenalin must’ve been surging overtime, cozied up close behind
Alessandra, dragging Tina as she hurried to keep up.

Rosswell followed the three of them, his pistol in
firing position, his eyes ready to catch sight over his shoulder of anyone who
gained on him. No one followed. With a glance forward every second or so to
make certain he wasn’t going to smack headfirst into a wall, he closed on his
goal of the cave’s outside entrance with each step. Now, he spotted the wooden door
marking where the hallway in the house ended and the cave began.

Alessandra grabbed the doorknob and turned. “It’s
locked.”

Behind them, Rosswell heard people—it sounded like a
lot of people—pounding on the fire door. “Ollie, kick the door where the handle
meets the frame.”

“Actually, it’s where the lockset meets the casing.”

Alessandra smacked Ollie in the face. “Start kicking,
damn it!”

A few swift kicks from Ollie shattered the wood where
the lockset met the casing.

They all dove through into the back of the cave. Rosswell
found a chunk of rock and stuck it under the useless door. Another speed bump
for would-be pursuers. With all of their flashlights on, the way shined clear. It
took the rescue party only a few seconds to reach the entrance.

Rosswell, Tina, and Ollie halted, turned, and aimed
their pistols into the cave.

“Don’t…Where…” Ollie stopped, his panting leaving
him unable to speak. He gasped and breathed deeply until he regained his voice.
“Where’s Alessandra?”

Rosswell hollered back into the depths of the cave, “Alessandra!”
The clamoring of the alarms swallowed his yelling.

Ollie said, “She’s still back there.”

“You and Tina get to the car right now. I’ll fetch
Alessandra.” No way was Tina staying in the filthy cave.

Before Rosswell could move five feet, Alessandra appeared
out of the darkness, jogging toward him.

“What kept you?”

“Since you didn’t kill Charlie like you promised, I
had to kick him in the nuts for lying to us.” She smiled. “I think he’s hurt.”

Outside the cave, Rosswell’s shaking fingers punched 9-1-1
as they sprinted for Sofia.

The operator said, “What is the nature—”

“Two people have been shot at River Heights Villa. One
dead. One injured.” Not once slowing down, Rosswell repeated the message two
more times, then clicked off.

Ollie panted. “Who’s been shot? Who’s dead?”

Tina’s adrenaline must’ve kicked in since she was
leading the pack.

Rosswell’s phone rang. The emergency operator making
the standard verification call on hang-ups. He let it go to voicemail. “Serious
injury and death calls take precedence. I lied. So sue me.” Shortness of breath
began working a number on him. “Keep running, people.”

Running being the only concern now, not a one of them checked
behind them nor did they slow down.

Gunshots sounded.

They reached Sofia, huffing and panting after the sprint. Although
Rosswell expected the place to erupt with cops and ambulances within minutes,
he felt duty bound to check on Jim Bill immediately. Except that now it sounded
as if people were shooting at them.

Ollie stated the obvious. “Officer Evans is overdue.”

“I already know that. You three get to the hospital.”

Rosswell bent to kiss Tina again. “I love you.”

“Don’t leave me!”

“If it weren’t for Jim Bill, I wouldn’t have found
you. I’m going to help him.”

“Hurry.” Alessandra put her arm around Tina. “All of
us are going to be fine. The cops will beat Rosswell to the scene.”

Ollie beamed. “You’d make a great research assistant.”

Alessandra jiggled and smiled. “Never forget that.”

Their elation rapidly deflated when from behind, Susannah
and Frankie Joe, each armed with a pistol, flanked them.

Susannah chuckled. “Everybody’s weapon on the ground.
Now. Real slow. Real easy.”

“Guns on the ground.” Frankie Joe stuck his gun to Tina’s
temple. “Now.”

Rosswell, Ollie, and Alessandra did as they were
ordered. Frankie Joe flung all three guns deep into the burnt area.

Rosswell dropped to his knees by Tina. “If you’re
going to kill me, then you’ve got to let me tell her good-bye.”

Tina said, “You assholes let me go. The cops are coming.”

Susannah said, “Shut up, girly.”

Alessandra dropped the tote bag next to Rosswell. In
all the confusion, he thought the thing had been left in Nathaniel’s house. He
risked a glance inside the bag.

“About time you jokers showed up.” Alessandra marched
up to their captors. “I’m through with these losers.” She pointed to Rosswell,
Tina, and Ollie. “I found out all I can. I’m reporting to Nathaniel.” Doing an
about face to all of them, she walked away from the car, toward the house.

Susannah yelled, “Get back here or I’ll shoot your
sorry ass.”

Without turning to face Susannah, Alessandra said, “I
take my orders from Nathaniel, not you,” and kept walking.

Frankie Joe joined his wife. “You turn around right
now or I’ll shoot you myself. I’d enjoy it.”

Alessandra continued trudging up the hill. “Shoot me.
Then enjoy what Nathaniel does to you. He specializes in slow and painful
deaths.”

Frankie Joe and Susannah, never lowering their guns,
exchanged a quick glance, shrugged, and returned attention to their three
prisoners, each of whom now brandished pistols.

Ollie’s weapon hovered mere inches from Susannah’s
face. “Anyone who’d stick eighteen garden gnomes in front of a doublewide doesn’t
have the sense God gave a green goose.”

Tina positioned herself into a firing stance. “This
girly is a cop.”

Alessandra called down from the hill, “And so is this
girly.”

Rosswell’s gun barrel touched the tip of Frankie Joe’s
nose. “You certainly have pretty hands for a farm machine mechanic. Alessandra,
check in the tote bag. Might be some extra clothesline and duct tape.”

Alessandra sprinted down the hill toward the group. “Gladly.”

Ollie crowed, “Told you she’d make a great research
assistant.”

Alessandra poked around in the tote bag. “You weren’t
kidding about the code talk. I can’t believe all the crap you got in here.” She
glanced at Susannah and Frankie Joe. “We’ll add your guns to our stash. Thanks.”

Ollie shoved Susannah and Frankie Joe to the ground
and flipped them face down. He removed their shoes, and inspected the pistols. “Trash.
Gustave’s a cheap boss man.”

Rosswell said, “Tie them, then drive Tina to the
hospital.”