Mystery of the 19th Hole (Taylor Kelsey, Mystery 1) (10 page)

             
“We told you to stop snooping,” he yelled.  “And this was the other choice.”

             
Taylor didn’t know what to do.  For some weird reason she wanted her dad to be here with her.  No matter.  Billy ripped off two shots; the muzzle flashes seemed to be in slow motion.

             
Taylor plunged her head to her knees, as did Susan, and the bullets zipped through her window and out Susan’s.  Coming up, Taylor hit the gas pedal and straightened the car, now flying down the long, winding road.

             
Looking about, she could see why the bad guys were trying to kill them here.  The road was in the backcountry, a road necessary to get to her house.  The left side featured mountains and hills, and the right side steeply dropped into deep valleys.

             
She tugged the steering wheel left and the vehicle screeched as they barely made a bend.  Behind them, their pursuers did the same.  There were a few more bends as the road declined before they’d reach a long straightaway, which was bad because it meant the bad guys would have a good shot.

             
Taylor tried to devise a plan but found it hard to think.  She swerved around another left bend at break-neck speed.  The next one was a few hundred yards off and it was a right bend.  Yanking out her iPhone, Taylor tossed it into Susan’s lap.  “Call the lieutenant,” she said over the rumbling of the old engine.  “He’s in the contact list.”

             
Susan started pressing buttons and scrolling.

             
“They’re right behind us, can’t this thing go faster,” yelled Chad from the back, peering over the back seats.

             
“I’m trying.”

             
Suddenly, they hit a bump in the road and the car violently jerked upward.  Chad, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt because the old car didn’t have backseat seat belts, sprung up and hit his head on the roof, then came down hard, landing on the seat and bouncing off onto the floor. 

             
They hit another bump and the same thing happened.  “Ahhhh,” Susan moaned.  “Stupid touch screens.  They really aren’t designed for emergencies.  Every time we hit a bump—”

             
The car jolted from another bump, and Susan’s finger accidentally scrolled the phone.  “Stupid phone!”

             
“Just hurry up,” yelled Taylor. 

             
“Uh...  Guys…”  Chad was mumbling.

             
“What,” yelled Taylor.

             
“They’ve got the rifle out again.”

             
The gun ripped off another shot, and Chad threw himself behind the seat again.  The bullet punched through the back window and exited through the roof.  Taylor looked back to see several gaping holes in the rear window.  “I wish that thing would break.  The broken glass might  might pop one of their tires,” she said, mostly to herself.

             
“On it,” said Chad.

             
“Susan!” yelled Taylor.  “Why aren’t—”

             
“It’s ringing.  It’s ringing.”

             
“All right, guys, we’re coming up to the next bend so hold on tight,” warned Taylor.  Susan and Chad braced themselves.

             
Taylor forcefully spun the wheel.  Smoke from the skidding tires spewed backward as the car pivoted.  The right side of the car slightly lifted from the ground.  The back license plate was loose from the gunshots and the bumps.  It flew off, landed in a tumble, and rolled from one end to the other until smacking into the mountain’s rock wall.

             
Honk!  Honk!  Honk!

             
As a result of the sharp turn, Taylor was drifting into the wrong lane and a car was coming directly for her.  Instinctively, she hit the brakes before she drifted too far onto the wrong side.  The car swerved closer to the mountain wall, slightly clipped Taylor’s car, but made it through.

             
“Ahhh!” screamed Chad.

             
Taylor turned in her seat to see why he was screaming.  Through the cracked back window she saw their pursuers’ car only for a split second before it slammed right into the back of her car.  Chad was jarred into the back window, breaking it, and fell sideways into his seat as glass showered over him.  Talk about whiplash.

             
“Yeah, yeah, Lieutenant, this is Susan.  We need help now!”

             
“You okay?” Taylor asked Chad.

             
He managed a thumbs up.  Taylor nodded and hit the gas, screeching out toward the next bend, which turned left around the mountain wall.  She hated these ones more because if she took it too fast they wouldn’t slam into the wall—they’d simply fly off the road and fall a few hundred feet into the canyon below.  Fortunately, the road declined with every bend, becoming less and less dangerous.  Unfortunately, it led to the straightaway previously mentioned.

             
The bad guys’ car sped out behind them, still in pursuit.

             
“Yeah, that’s what I said.  We’re being chased and shot at!  What?”  Susan paused a moment to hear the lieutenant respond.  “Forget about Billy.  I shouldn’t have ever tried to explain that.  Just get the police down here and fast!”  Susan listened.  “What do you mean what road?  I just told you!”

             
Taylor yelled loud over Susan and the engine, “Chad, you might wanna brace yourself for this.”

             
She knew he had no seatbelt back there.  He pressed his feet into Susan’s chair and pushed his back against the back of his seat.  Taylor spun the wheel yet again and the g-force pinned Susan and Chad against their windows.  Alternatively, Taylor had to hold the wheel tight so she didn’t lean too far into Susan.

             
They came out of the turn cleanly.  For once.  Taylor thought they might even gain some ground on the gang of bad guys behind them.

             
Chad must have been thinking the same thing because he turned in his seat to watch their pursuers make the turn.  They went just as smoothly, if not smoother.

             
“Dang it!”

             
“Still on the same road,” Susan yelled into the phone.  “Yes.  Just please hurry.  Thank you.”

             
Taylor peered ahead as the road unwound before her.  “I didn’t realize how bad this road was until going this fast,” she yelled.  “Pothole city coming up.”

             
“Rifle behind,” Chad yelled back.

             
“Yeah, let’s see how good their aim is on this road.”

             
Chad spun just in time to see the first bump.  The car’s front tires bounced up and landed, then the back tires did the same.  Then it happened again.  And again.  And again.  Each bounce caused everything that was lying around—purses, phones, watches, trash, wallets, loose change—to be tossed around like spaghetti in a meatball fight.  The car rumbled, jerked, bounced, slowed, sped, roared, jarred, twitched, and thumped up and down in the most grueling manner.

             
A gunshot went off behind them, but the bullet hit the carved mountain wall beside them, flaking off dust and debris.  Taylor’s voice was warbled when she told Chad, “Find out the m—m—ma—a—a—ake and model of the car.  Find out the license plate number.”

             
On the other end of Susan’s phone conversation, the lieutenant was asking what was wrong with her voice.  “I told you, potho—o—o—oles.  Are you coming yet?”  He assured her that he and many other squad cars were on their way.  “
Good.
”

             
Chad tried to get his eyes to focus on the car behind them, but the colors blurred with each jolt and jar.  “I can’t see—e—ee—e it yet,” he said, voice also undulating.

             
“Can you—ooo—oo—ooo—oo see how many me—e—en are in it?”

             
He blinked a few times and tried to keep his gaze steady.  “Yeah.  There are three of them,” he said quickly between potholes.

             
“Okay.  Easy does it,” Taylor told herself, swerving into the next turn, which was comparatively easier than the last few.  The road smoothed out and though the wind was blasting through the car, the engine was roaring, and the car behind them was screeching out, everything seemed quieter.

             
Until, of course, the rifle fired and sent a slug through the back window, now bare of glass, and through the center of the windshield.  Taylor and Susan watched as the small hole instantly caused the entire windshield to crack into a million lines without breaking.  The road before her was suddenly refracted at every fissure in the window.

             
Bobbing her head up and down to get a clear view, Taylor realized they were just coming into a sharp left bend.  She fervently twirled the wheel and the car spun out from beneath.  The tail end slew about, headed toward the unguarded edge of the road, the edge that dumped into the canyon.

             
“Oh no!” screamed Chad.

             
“What?”

             
“Oh no, oh no—”

             
The whole car was vibrating with life as it violently took the turn.  Taylor glanced into the rear-view mirror and screamed likewise when she saw what Chad was looking at.  The back end of the car was inching toward the road’s precipice.

             
She pushed on the pedal, but it was already all the way down.  The tires were on the road’s dirt shoulder, spinning out, trying to grip the ground.  Moving fast, she took her foot of the gas to put it on the brake, but it was too late.  The back of the car slid off the road with ease, taking the front with it.

             
The mountain wall that was seen through the windshield dropped away as the car shifted backwards.  Taylor pushed her back into the seat and screamed.  Susan did the same.  Chad was in midair, pinned against the backs of both Taylor and Susan’s seats.

             
The entire car was now in the air, free falling.

             
Taylor and Susan watched the road’s precipice scale away as they plummeted into the canyon.  Then Taylor remembered it was a canyon.  With a river in it! 

             
Susan must have known what Taylor was thinking.  “It’s too shallow.”

             
When they didn’t think it could get any worse, the car slowly started to rotate upside-down.  Suddenly, though, the rear of the car skimmed the top of a tree and it jolted the car upright again, so that the nose pointed toward the sky.  Taylor tried to turn around to see what was happening below, but thought better of it.

From Chad’s point of view, for he could see through the back window, the bottom of the car began skimming trees and brush as the car slowly matched the near-vertical mountainside and auspiciously started rolling down the slope.

             
Still, they were going fast and narrowly avoiding large trees.  They were rolling over sagebrush and plowing through scrub oak.  The scent of plants filled the car during this stage of the fall.  Then Chad saw the most horrifying thing he could at this time.  A large pine tree.  Just standing there tall and thick, directly in their path.

             
“Taylor!  Turn the wheel!  Turn the wheel!”

             
“Which way?” she yelled.

             
“
Any
way!  Just turn it!”

             
The car was skipping down the steep hill, and Taylor was having a hard time with the wheel.  She finally yanked it as hard as she could.

             
Instantly the car spun about, completing a 180.  Now the nose faced downwards so that Taylor and Susan could see down slope.  This would have been better except for the cracked windshield that Taylor could barely see through.  The large tree Chad had seen ballooned in just seconds as they neared it.  Taylor spun right and narrowly avoided its massive trunk.

             
Then the car entered a clearing.  It would be smooth sailing for a few hundred yards from what Taylor could see.  But it was closing fast.  At the end of the clear stretch was a large rock projection, stands of trees lining both sides, and Taylor knew that was where there short trip would end whether they liked it or not.

             
Instinctively she slammed the brake pedal with both feet, and the car tires started sliding through the dirt, spewing it out the sides like a boat propeller spews water.  The car started turning sideways, but Taylor straightened it with small corrections to the wheel, still pressing on the brakes with all her might.