Running on Empty (40 page)

‘That’s one of the bastards who was with Lowanski, the day they left me for dead. He’s the one who wanted to dump me in the harbor’.

‘You sure?’

‘Do you think I’d forget something like that?’ Sally asked quietly.

Grainne shook her head. She paused for a few moments, before lifting the camera to her eye.

‘He’s getting ready to move’ she exclaimed, ‘let’s go’.

They began following again, keeping the same distance between the cars as before. As they drove, Grainne was mentally counting the telegraph poles, until she pulled up abruptly. She jumped out of the car, tying Sally’s black scarf to the base of one of the poles, before returning quickly to resume driving. Sally turned to Grainne.

‘Just a mark of respect acknowledging the final resting place of our friend, Mr. Fielding’ responded Grainne to the unasked question.

Brad gradually decreased the distance between themselves and the vehicle they followed on approaching the outskirts of Chadron. The navy Taurus pulled up at the reception area of Lazy Days motel, the Pathfinder continuing on down the street before coming to a halt. Pat held the field glasses to his eyes, observing the scene through the rear window. The driver returned to the vehicle, and proceeded to drive himself and Joey towards the parking lot, pulling up outside a vacant room. The two of them left the car and entered.

‘Sit down Feeney, over there’ he ordered, gesturing to a well worn tangerine bedroom chair nestled in the corner. ‘You wait here, and don’t you fucking move’ ordered the driver. ‘I’m going out to get us some food. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes’. He pulled back his jacket, revealing a handgun.

‘You got that, Feeney? don’t fucking stir’.

Joey just nodded through the haze. The driver shook his head as he left the room.

‘Jesus’, he muttered as he left, ‘this is what I’ve come down to, babysitting a fucking junkie’.

After he’d gone, the Pathfinder did a u-turn and proceeded back up the street, pulling up about fifty yards from the motel. The three men got out. Joey heard a knock on the door. Slowly, tentatively, he approached the door and opened it cautiously. The sight that greeted Tom as the door opened shocked him. His kid brother stood in front of him, almost unrecognizable from the Joey he’d last set eyes on at his father’s funeral, a few short weeks ago. His eyes were bloodshot, sunken and glazed. His hair was unkempt and in need of a wash, he had about five days of stubble, and his clothes were scruffy. Tom struggled to speak.

‘Hi Joey’ was all he could utter finally.

Joey found it difficult to focus through his half closed bloodshot eyes. Gradually, reality dawned on him.

‘Tom?’ he uttered, ‘Tom, that you? what the..Tom, what’s goin’ on? Why you here, Tom?’

Tom pushed his way past Joey, followed by Pat and Brad, who promptly closed the door behind them. Tom turned back to Joey, putting his arms around him, holding him, squeezing him gently.

‘It’s all right Joey, it’s going to be all right, Kid, we’ll sort this out, don’t worry’.

It took Tom a lot of effort to fight back the tears he could feel welling up in his eyes.

Oh Joey, you’ve done it this time, what a fucking mess you’re in. But it’s all right, we’ll sort you out, you’ll be fine
.

‘Tom, that you? What brings you here Tom, I don’t understand’.

‘Joey, look at me’ pleaded Tom, ‘where’s that other guy gone, the guy who was in the room here with you a few minutes ago. Where’s he gone Joey, is he coming back?’

‘Yeah, he’s just gone for some food, Tom, he’ll be back soon. You gonna hang around for something to eat Tom? He’ll be back soon with the food, and we can all sit down and eat together. That’d be cool, huh? I haven’t seen you in ages Tom, it’d be good to sit down and talk’.

‘Yes, that’d be good Joey, I’d like that. But first we want to have a little chat with your friend, so when he comes back, you just open the door for him, ok? We want to give him a surprise, just for a laugh, y’know Joey? So you open the door for him and don’t say anything about us, ok?’

Joey nodded. ‘Sure thing Tom, I like surprises, it’ll be fun’.

As the driver walked into the room, carrying two pizzas in his hands, a gun was placed to the side of his temple by Pat, while Brad disarmed him.

‘Well now’ said Pat, ‘what have we got here? Pizzas no less. I hope one of them is a pepperoni, I’m partial to a bit of pepperoni myself. How about you lads, what’s your fancy?’

Tom and Brad didn’t answer, while Joey just looked on, confused.

Pat brought the gun from the side of the head to under the drivers chin, pushing it up, causing him to have to walk on tiptoes as Pat led him over to an empty chair.

‘Sit down scumbag’ he ordered. The driver duly obliged.

‘So, my scumbag friend, you got a name?’

‘Jones’, he answered hesitantly, ‘Andy Jones’.

‘Well, Andy here is all yours’ said Pat, turning to Brad, off you go’.

Brad walked up to Jones, standing in front of him.

‘Well Andy, my friend, you want to fill us in?’

‘Go fuck yourself you geriatric asshole’ came the reply.

‘Tut tut’ replied Brad, ageism is frowned upon these days, don’t you know that?’

He turned back to Pat.

‘Well boys, that appears to be it. Andy here doesn’t seem like he wants to talk to us, so I suppose we might as well pack up and go home. Show’s over, I’m afraid. Unless of course, you might feel differently, Pat?’

‘Well…..’

*****

The girls followed Carter, maintaining as safe a distance as was practicable while still keeping him in sight. On the outskirts of Crawford, he pulled off the road into the car park of Red Cloud Motel. Grainne pulled the Buick into a side street, leaving Sally in the vehicle while she returned on foot to the opposite side of the road from the motel, walking slowly, observing, until she got what she wanted. She returned to the car.

‘He’s in room twenty eight’ she pronounced on her return.

‘Tell me Sally’ she continued, ‘can you walk without those crutches of yours?’

‘Well, I can, yes. It sort of hurts a bit, especially if I have to walk for more than a few steps at a go, but I can. Why?’

‘Oh, just an idea I have. If we go down that road, it won’t call for you making more than a few steps anyway’.

She started the engine and turned the vehicle, parking in the same spot, only this time number twenty eight could be easily visible through the front windscreen.

‘I’m just going to get us something to eat and drink’ said Grainne, ‘you keep a watch on that door so we know he’s still in there, ok?’

Sally nodded. Grainne headed up the street, first hitting a hardware shop, followed by a drug store, a second hand clothes shop, then finally a supermarket, before returning to Sally.

‘Here you go’ she said as she handed Sally a chicken roll and a bottle of water, throwing the remainder of her shopping on the back seat.

‘Do we have a plan?’ asked Sally, as she took a bite from her roll.

‘Kinda, sorta’ answered Grainne, ‘it’s not the most elaborate plan in history, a bit rough and ready, but it’s the only thing I can think of at the mo’.

She explained what she had in mind to Sally, and as darkness began to fall, they decided to put their plan into operation. During their wait, Grainne had been practicing, using Sally as her tutor, at what she hoped would be a fair attempt at a Texas drawl.

‘‘Hiya hon, you lookin’ for a good time?’…Well?’

‘Spoken like a true piece of white trailer trash’ responded Sally.

Grainne climbed into the back of the car, and removed her jeans.

‘Shit, I could do with a shave, or a wax’ she exclaimed as she examined her bare legs.

‘Can’t see anyone wanting to pay to spend some time with these legs. Fuck it, sure it’ll be dark anyway’ she added, before pulling on a black leather skirt which barely covered her crotch.

‘Why do I always seem to be involved with prostitution in one form or another’ exclaimed Sally absently.

‘Huh?’

‘Oh, never mind’ said Sally, ‘just thinking out loud’, ‘anyway, don’t be worrying about your legs. It’s better to have hairy legs than ones with bullet holes in them’.

Grainne fished in the trunk of the Buick, handing Sally a wheel brace. The two girls walked, with Sally on her crutches, in an arc around the motel, coming to a stop outside room twenty eight. Sally put her crutches to one side.

‘You ready?’ whispered Grainne.

Sally nodded, standing to one side of the door, wheel brace clasped firmly in her hands.

‘Right, here goes’ she whispered again, knocking on the door.

No answer. The girls looked at each other, trying to figure out if they missed something. Had Carter left the room at some stage, without either of them noticing? Grainne knocked again, harder this time.

‘Yeah?’ a sleepy voice shouted from within.

‘Hi hon, I’m here’ said Grainne in her trailer trash voice.

‘What?’

‘Hi, It’s me, Jasmin, you booked me y’know?’

‘What the fuck are you on about?’ exclaimed Carter, as he opened the motel room door, ‘is this some kind of a fucking joke?’

‘Hi hon, ya booked me, y’know, from the escort agency?’

‘I didn’t book any two bit hooker. You got the wrong mark sister. Go fuck off and blow someone else’.

‘But ya still have’ta pay. Y’all booked me an’ I had ta find my way here an’ everythin’.

‘I didn’t book fuck all, now beat it’.

‘But ya did, room 82 Red Cloud motel, dat’s you, right?’

Carter began to laugh.

‘You stupid dyslexic cow. This is twenty eight, not eighty two. There’s some poor mark with his dick in his hands waiting for you to….’

Carter was stopped mid sentence as Sally, standing unseen to the side of the door, swung the wheel brace, connecting flush with Carters forehead, sending him spinning back into the room, where he crashed to the stained beige carpet, out cold. Sally grabbed her crutches, and Grainne grabbed the brown paper bag she had beside them, as the two of them hurried into the motel room and closed the door.

Carter began to make out two human forms moving about in front of him as he came to. His head was throbbing, and he felt as if his temple was about to explode. He tried to move his hands to the source of the pain, but couldn’t.

Grainne and Sally stood in the middle of the room, looking at their handiwork. Carter was seated in a wooden kitchen chair. His feet were cable tied together, as were his hands, bound tightly behind his back. There was a cable tie around his neck, which was looped through the handle of a wardrobe, making head movement impossible. His mouth was duct taped, and he was naked. He had a blue/purple lump the size of a golf ball protruding from his forehead. Grainne, who had removed her micro skirt and was now back in her jeans, approached.

‘Well, look here, Mr. Wonderful is awake’.

Then Sally approached, putting her face close to his.

‘Hi’ya handsome, remember me?’

Carter’s eyes tried to focus through the pain. He recognized that face, he knew he’d seen it before, but where? Was she that bitch tramp for Boston, the one he and Lowanski and the boys had left for dead? But that’s impossible. She was dead surely, and even if she wasn’t, what earthly reason would have a two bit tramp like her end up here in a motel in Nebraska? It just didn’t make sense.

Grainne came back to stand in front of him, holding his wallet in her hand.

‘Well Mr. Carter, or should I call you David, you don’t mind if I call you that, do you? Well Dave, this is how it works. I’m going to remove that duct tape from your mouth so you can talk. When I do, I’d prefer if you talk sense, and not waste our time talking shite, if that’s all the same to you. But before we start, I think I’d like a coffee. You fancy one Dave? Stick the kettle on Sally, and we’ll have a nice cuppa before we begin’.

Sally put on the kettle, while Grainne checked through carter’s wallet. When it had boiled, sally brought the kettle over and handed it to Grainne.