Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set (20 page)

I wondered what she was up to.

We sat and decided how to divide up the watch for the night. We had enough men to cover the entire night, once an hour, so we made a roster. Luther called over his men and told them what the schedule would be. Everyone agreed.

Deacon told all of them that he had a duty as a cop to object to any weapons they might have, so he said he just wouldn’t look. He smiled and then said, just don’t miss and hit him. The men cheered.

After everyone went off, the four of us were talking when this short biker came over. “Hey, Luther, you said to be on the lookout for anything strange. Well, I’m almost sure there’s some guy in the woods watching us.”

Luther introduced Deacon and me to Boon, then asked which side of the yard and how long ago.

Boon carefully pointed to the right and said about five minutes ago. We thanked him and said for him to just stroll off as though nothing was going on. He did. We ambled down the drive, and Buck and Luther went out to the road and down towards the side property.

Deacon and I walked over to the edge of the property. We both had our hands on our weapons. Buck and Luther ran into the woods, and we did the same when we saw them break for it. Guns held out, we combed the area but found nothing. Then we found a spot covered with cigarette butts and a couple of candy wrappers.

There was good cover from Buck’s property, a good spot to watch from. From the next lot over, we heard a car start. We ran in that direction. A black car sped from a beaten down trail off the main road. Buck said it was a black Bonneville.

“Damn, how did he find us?” I screamed. “Someone is telling them! Has to be!”

“Jimmy, no one knew we were here. Other than our own group, but I can vouch for every one of them,” Buck defended.

“Yeah, well, Davey was just here. Explain that.”

Luther looked surprised. “Davey? Is this guy’s name Davey Morgan?”

We had never mentioned his name before, just referred to him as her brother and mostly talked about Julia. I said, “Yeah, how’d you know?”

“Son of a bitch!” Luther spit, then went back to the yard. He broke out of the woods, yelling, “Cindy! Cindy Stewart! Where the fuck are you!” Cindy was lying out in the backyard when Luther, followed by us, came up and yanked her up by her hair. She screamed as Luther released her.

“Talk to me, woman! When did you last talk to Davey?” he shouted in her face. “Talk fast, bitch!”

Cindy’s eyes went wide and wild. “I guess yesterday. Why?”

Buck calmed Luther down and looked at Cindy. “Davey Morgan is one of the killers we’re hiding from.” She made a little noise and looked stricken. Buck said to Luther, “How does she know him?”

Luther stepped back and said, “Cindy came to me last month saying she met a guy at a bar, and they had a thing going. She wanted some advice on what to do about it since she was married to Ricky. She told me his name, Davey Morgan, when I asked if I might know him. I didn’t and told her to be careful, Ricky was not one to share his woman.”

“Cindy, what exactly did you tell Morgan?” Buck asked. “Tell us everything.”

She had tears in her eyes. “I called Davey ‘cause I missed him. I told him Ricky brought me here to help protect some TV talk show host. Davey asked me who. I told him.”

“How did you call him? Where was he?” I asked.

“I called him on his cell phone. I used mine.” She was crying now.

“Cindy, I need his number. Get it for me.” She ran off to get her cell phone. I continued, “Some cell phones have GPS tracking. His may. Deacon, see if you can check on it.”

Deacon said he’d call a friend in the forensic lab to see if it was possible.

I said, “Son of a bitch, talk about coincidences. OK, we have to change plans now.”

She came back and gave me the number. I gave it to Deacon. Then I had an idea. Since Davey didn’t know we knew about Cindy and him, we might be able to set a trap. I took my three amigos to the side and told them my idea. They thought it might work. We looked at Cindy. She just said, “What?”

We all went into the house, and I told Cindy we wanted her to call Davey, “Pretend you don’t know about his connection to us and tell him you can get away for the night. Tell him you want to meet him at a bar in New Baltimore.” I explained.

“But Davey will kill me if he finds out I’m setting him up,” she wailed.

Don’t worry. We’ll be watching you closely. You need to do this to help us stop him.”

She hesitated then said, “All right, I do it.”

I said we should wait for a while. “It’s too soon after we chased him off.” We sat Cindy down and told her not to move from that spot.

Luther called Boon in and told him to watch Cindy. If she moved, shoot her in the foot. She looked in panic at Luther, then to Boon, and back again to Luther. He grinned at her, and we went out.

I told Penny what had just happened. She looked around in panic. I said he was gone and told her of our plan.

“You think Davey will fall for it?” she asked.

“Well, so far he doesn’t know we know. It may work. We have nothing to lose, so we’ll see.”

She hugged me and said, “don’t let go.”

We waited about two hours, then turned Cindy loose after coaching her. She dialed the number, and after a couple of rings he answered. She put it on speaker so we could hear. He must have seen the caller ID. He said, “What’s up, baby?”

“I really need you, Davey. I’m getting so hot just thinking about you. It’s been so long. You miss me?” She poured it on.

He paused. “I miss your fine body, woman. What do you want to do about it?”

“Davey, I’m sneaking out of this stinking place tonight. There’s a bar in New Baltimore that I can get to. Want to meet there? I may not even come back here. It sucks. We could just run off together.”

I whispered in her ear not to overdo it.

He paused, thinking, I guess, then said it sounded like a winner. He asked the name of the bar. She told him what we told her. She said she’d be there by 9 P.M. and would be wearing her sexiest outfit. I could almost hear him drool. Idiot. He said he’d be there and hung up. Cindy looked at us, and we decided to go scout out the bar for best attack. I asked Luther to round up four of his best men with their bikes and follow us to the bar.

We headed down 23 Mile Road and arrived at the “Bore’s Head” bar, I liked the irony of the name.

The bikers and hot rods roared in scaring half the people in the parking lot. We parked off to the side, and Buck, Luther and I scouted out the lot. Deacon sat in his patrol car across the street in a restaurant parking lot, waiting for us to signal him to ride to the rescue. We figured on grabbing Davey while he was in the lot so as not to endanger any patrons inside the bar. We had Cindy stand out front, and the rest of us milled about the lot where most people were starting to party before heading into the place.

It got to be 9:00 as we waited. No sign of Davey. Buck and I sat in his van and watched the road for the black Bonneville. Luther was hanging off his Harley about 20 feet from Cindy, talking to Boon.

It was now 9:30, and I was beginning to feel uneasy. We waited another 15 minutes, then I said to Buck, “Something’s wrong. He should be here by now.”  He agreed.

I called Deacon on his cell phone and told him Buck and I were going back to his place to check. He said he’d continue watching the bar in case Davey still showed up. Buck went to Luther and told him our plan. We left the parking lot and headed back to Buck’s.

We pulled into Buck’s drive and got out. There was no one in front, and it was way too quiet. I started to worry. We drew our guns and slowly went around back. There was no one there, either. We went up to the back door, and I looked in the window. I could see the people we left, sitting on the floor in the living room, feet and hands tied.

“Shit!” I yelled, yanked open the door and ran into the room. Everyone was tied and gagged. I pulled a gag out of Mouse’s mouth, and she cried, “They got Penny!”

My heart stopped. I got on my cell and called Deacon, telling him to get the hell back here and bring everyone with him, Penny was taken.

Buck and I untied the eight people in the room, and I started grilling Mouse.

She said speaking fast, “We were all in the backyard except Missy and Frank. They were up front. We saw a man and a woman come around the house with guns pointed at Missy and Frank’s heads, saying they would kill them if anyone moved. The woman told Penny to get over by her. Penny said not to hurt anyone. She seemed to know the guy as she was scolding him for all this and asking how could he do what he did. The guy told her to shut up. He grabbed Penny and pointed the gun at her head. They ordered us all into the house, and the guy pulled out some rope he had in a pack on his back. He ordered Frank to tie everyone, and then he tied Frank. They left, and you guys showed up.”

I asked how long ago. She said not long, about 20 minutes. Deacon and Luther came flying in, and we filled them in on the details.

I asked Frank, “Did you see the car they came it?”

“Yeah, it was a black Bonneville,” he replied.

Luther yelled to his men, “Get on your bikes and spread out to see if you could spot them. Boon, hit the freeway towards Detroit and call if you see them.”

My heart was in my throat, and I was having trouble breathing. I felt like someone ripped off both my arms, and I couldn’t do anything. I had let her down.

*

Chapter Seventeen

Deacon got on his radio and reported a kidnapping to the county sheriff and New Baltimore police. He requested they put out an all-points bulletin. He called Trapper from his cell phone. I was in no mood to talk to Trapper and told Deacon that. I could almost hear Trapper yelling through the phone in Deacon’s ear. He moved it back. Deacon knew I was hurting, so when Trapper wanted to talk to me, Deacon said I was out somewhere.

I sat at the dining table. My mind was spinning. Buck sat across from me, knowing nothing he could say would do any good.

I had to pull myself together. I had to find Penny. I looked at Buck and said, “They want to make their little film so they won’t kill her right off. The police got their video equipment from the cabin, so they would have to buy new equipment or steal it. Where would they go to tape it?”

My mind went blank again, nothing coming out that would help. I took a breath and let it out. “OK, let’s do this by steps. First, they need a place to tape. Second, they need the equipment. Third, and this is the thing that scares me, they would have to force Penny to confess and apologize for what the cheerleaders did. I’m afraid that Penny won’t cooperate with them, and they would have to hurt her. She’d fight them all the way.”

Luther came in and said, “I got on my radio and put the word out to all the Harley riders I know and they’d spread the word to others to be on the lookout for the car. It’s a big network. In an hour every hog hopper in the state would be watching.”

I thanked him and went back to thinking. I couldn’t because my mind was so filled with the thought of harm coming to Penny. Buck could see I was on the edge.

He finally spoke. “Jimmy, stop beating yourself up. It happened, and there’s no one to blame, least of all yourself! Can you just get yourself back into finding her now? This is serious and we will need to stay focused. Time doesn’t wait, man.”

I looked at him and got angry, not with Buck but with Waters and Morgan. The anger was welling up in me, and I had to do something. “OK, let’s put our heads together and work it out.”