Halfway to the Truth (19 page)

The boy was returning with more food and water for Reese. Raising the roof panel to gain entry inside, he heard a sound and, instead of sliding down the pole leaning against the wall, he struggled to pull it up and out.

When Reese saw what he was doing, she started to panic. Then she heard the sound of car engines approaching the building. Before they arrived, the roofing panel over her head closed, sealing her back into darkness.

Car doors opened and closed. She heard voices. Then she heard Salomon giving an order followed by at least two men that ran behind the building. Their footsteps trailing off as she envisioned they saw the boy and gave chase after him.

For a few minutes she heard a conversation, but could not understand what was being discussed. Then, she heard the lock on the metal door being manipulated. But before it opened, she heard panting voices on the other side engage Salomon. He sounded disgusted at them and she believed the boy had got away.

Then the light from the open door filled the space, causing her to look away. Two men stepped inside.

“A-h-h Miss Summers, I see you survived this hellhole. You must have listened to me and rationed your water,” Salomon said. “Good thing I arrived when I did though, looks like some village boys were getting interested in what was inside this building. Did you make contact with them?”

Regaining her vision, she looked at Salomon and the bigger man standing next to him.

“Yes, as a matter of fact I did. And they’re bringing help.”

Salomon gave his evil smirk and stooped next to her saying, “There’s no help coming for you. But I did arrange for your freedom from this place.”

He turned his head to the side speaking in their native language to the big man behind him. He ran his hand over her head and toyed with her hair, and then down her blouse while he talked.

She recoiled from his touch but, with her arms chained to the wall, she had no way to shield herself from his advances. The big man said something to Salomon and he stopped his groping. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a key and unlocked her wrist bands.

Reese brought her arms together and tried to hug herself, but she was stiff from the prolonged position in which she had been pinned, and her shoulders ached. It would be a while before her circulation would return to normal. She tried getting up, but that only brought a laugh from Salomon from seeing her awkwardness.

“Let us help you,” he said. “You won’t be able to stand on your own for a time. Sitting in that location for days tends to make your muscles weak.”

The big man came over and helped Salomon hoist her to her feet. Any hope she had of running was dashed by the realization she could barely move under her own power.

“Where are you taking me?” she demanded.

“Such an attitude, Miss Summers. I would think you’d be grateful for your freedom. But if you have to know, well, you’re going with my friend here to Ghana. He’ll take very good care of you.”

They assisted her outside to one of the sedans, and leaned her against the hood.

As her eyes slowly adjusted to being outside, she saw four other men. Two she recognized as Salomon’s, but the others were unknown to her.

She wanted to run, but the ache in her body parts persisted, preventing that course of action.

“Scratch, I think I see something,” Daniels said, as they were rounding a bend in the road.

His companion brought the van to a stop, and Robert got out.

Using the tall brush on the side of the road as cover, he peered through the foliage. There, he could see two sedans in front of a cement block structure and several armed men. When two of the men moved from the front of one of the cars, he saw Reese leaning on the hood, his hearted started to pound inside his chest.

He returned to the van. “She’s there! Appears to be six men with her. Give me a few minutes to work my way through that brush over there,” he said, indicating to his left. “I think I can get to within seventy-five feet of where they are before they see me.”

“What do you want
me
to do?”

“Take the safety off that M-16 and then drive around the bend until they see you. Fire a few shots in their direction through the window, being careful not to aim it at Reese. Then gun the hell out of that engine and drive toward them, but don’t get too close. I’ll surprise them from the other side.”

They looked at each other for a second wishing there was an alternative. There wasn’t, so Daniels headed into the brush, while Scratch fingered the lock on his weapon and waited.

When he thought the Chief had sufficient time to get closer, it was time to make his move.

“It’s going to be a long drive Miss Summers, so we have something that will make you relax,” Salomon said, as he was passed a little box by the big man. Opening the lid, he pulled out a syringe and a small bottle. He inserted the needle into the bottle and sucked out its contents.

The big man grabbed her shoulders as Reese started to struggle.

Salomon pulled up an arm to inject her.

Suddenly, Salomon was struck in the back by the body of a boy who came running from behind the building. The needle fell to the ground, and Salomon buckled to his knees, writhing in pain.

The big man yelled at the other men, drawing their attention to the boy, and let go of Reese. She fell to the ground near Salomon, as the boy ran behind the building with the men in pursuit.

Seeing her opportunity, she crawled her way to Salomon and grabbed at the pistol on his waistline.

Almost immediately, a white van appeared from around the bend and shots rang out from it at the group of men chasing the boy. They stopped and returned fire from their pistols and AK-47’s with some bullets hitting the side of the van.

Scratch hit the gas and headed toward them firing a few more shots as he went. Then, he quickly spun around and drove a zig-zag pattern back toward the bend in the road. Bullets ripped into his rear tires causing them to shred off the rims and making him lose control of his maneuverability.

He stopped the van and got out. Using it as a shield, he fired several more rounds hitting one of the men, and watched him go down.

Two AK-47’s chattered from the group of men as they approached the van running in a crouched position.

Then one by one, the machine guns fell to the ground along with the men holding them. Daniel’s Sig-Sauer had finally spoken finding their impact points.

The big man picked up one of the Ak-47’s as he, and one of his bodyguards, dove into a nearby pile of brush. From a laying position, they fired at the running figure of Daniels who continued to pepper their location with his P226.

As the sound of shots rang out, a struggle ensued on the ground next to the Mercedes. Salomon had recovered sufficiently from his blow to knock his pistol out of Reese’s hand. Now each of them was trying to restrain the other from crawling toward the firearm.

From out of nowhere, three pickup trucks and a deuce and a half, filled with armed men, rounded the bend in the road. They stopped near the van and swarmed Scratch.

Chief Daniels thought they were more of Salomon’s men, until he realized they were wearing military uniforms.

The AK-47 in the brush chattered again at Daniels as he reached the vehicles.

The leader of the military men began yelling commands, and a half dozen soldiers ran toward the area where the big man was lying, their own weapons raking the tall grass as they went.

Within a short span, the AK-47 and pistol shots became silent. The uniformed men signaled to their leader they had the situation under control.

“Chief Daniels,” yelled the leader, “I am Lieutenant Ahouana of the National Gendarmerie. Please put down your weapon.”

Robert showed his pistol, and then dropped it.

Meanwhile, Reese’s adrenaline was pumping giving her some control over her movements. She gave a kick to the startled face of Salomon, who was holding onto one of her feet. The kick allowed her to break free and she was able to grab the pistol.

Pointing it directly at Salomon’s head, she managed to sit upright — her finger slowly applying pressure on the trigger.

“I’ll take that Reese,” said Robert, as he appeared and took the pistol from her with one hand, while helping her to stand with the other.

Two soldiers arrived and lifted Salomon off the ground, his face bloody from Reese’s strike. They pulled him in the direction of their trucks, only stopping for a second so their commander could say something to him in their home language.

With Chief Daniels’ support holding her up, she buried her face in his shoulder and hugged him tight.

The Lieutenant approached Daniels and Reese, while his men started to gather the dead and wounded.

“I’m glad to see you both are alright.”

“How did you know?” asked Daniels.

“Your country’s Diplomatic Security Services in Abidjan received notification that some U.S. citizens might be in danger. After some description of the issues, we kind of knew where to look. When we got here, we were directed to a house and talked to Monsieur Boisseau. My medic is looking after him now. Then we heard the gunfire.”

Reese turned to the Lieutenant, “Guillame’s alive?”

“Yes ma’am. He’ll need hospitalization, but he’ll be alright.”

“Thank God,” she burst out, and then saw the boy approaching with some soldiers.

“Missy Lady, Je vous ai dit que je vous protégerait.”

“What did he say?” she asked the Lieutenant.

“He said,
I told you I would protect you
.”

With the Chief still holding her upright, she reached for the boy and pulling his head into her chest said hugging, “You sure did little man, you sure did.”

Back in Savannah, Reese was packing her car when two vehicles drove up. Robert and Shelley got out of one, and Doug Williams out of the other, and they approached her.

“Come to see me off?”

“You know Reese, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I said,” uttered Doug sheepishly, “and maybe I wasn’t thinking too straight when I said it, but you’re welcome to keep your job at the
Savannah Daily
.”

She looked at him and smiled. “Thanks, but I’ve had my fill of Savannah — at least for now.”

“Well if you change your mind …”

“I know where to find you,” she finished for him. “I never did thank you Doug for sending the Chief after me and getting in touch with the State Department.”

“You’ve had a lot on your mind.” He paused, “That was a nice thing you did for that boy.”

“He saved my life,” she said, unconsciously grabbing her elephant necklace, “and so did Guillame. It was good to hear Guillame’s voice on the telephone the other day; I can tell he’s getting better. When he told me he was going to look after the boy, I knew I had to do something. Offering to pay for his schooling in Abidjan was the least I could do.”

“Maybe someday you’ll go back to the Ivory Coast and see him,” said Shelley.

“Maybe, but I have a long way to go to put that nightmare out of my mind.”

“Salomon will be in prison a long time, if he ever gets out,” said Robert.

“Yes, I hope so. The evidence found in his Mercedes showed he was going to sell me to that man from Ghana. No telling what I would have faced then.”

“Where are you going to go?” asked Shelley.

“Not sure right now. I’m just going to get on the road and see where it takes me.”

Doug handed her an envelope. “Here’s a list of the names of some big city editors. Any one of them would be more than happy to have you. That last story you wrote about the E-waste connection between Savannah and the Ivory Coast went global. It’s definitely got the attention of some people in Washington.”

“What’s going to happen to Drakos Shipping?” asked Robert of Doug.

Shelley interjected, “All kinds of Federal agencies are down here investigating. At a minimum, they’ll shut down their E-waste operation. And, as for Nikolaus …”

“Too bad he tried to take his own life,” Reese said, cutting her off. “I don’t believe he wanted all that bad stuff to happen to me. He just got caught up in his hatred for his father.”

“I’m not so sure he tried to kill himself because of what he did to you,” said Shelley. “Apparently, when they read Viktor’s will he learned his father had Drakos Shipping so leveraged, that there wasn’t a fortune for him to inherit after all.”

“When he gets out of the hospital, he’ll have some explaining to do,” added Daniels.

“Don’t worry about him,” said Doug, “he and Salomon will both be old men before either one of them gets through paying for their crimes. I don’t think we know the whole story yet.”

Reese finished placing a box in the trunk of her car. “That’s the last of my things,” she stated. “I’ve paid my rent through the end of this month. It was nice of the owners to let me out of my lease early, but I’m sure I have you and Shelley to thank for that,” she said, turning to Doug to give him a hug goodbye.

“And you two, let me know the date of your wedding,” she said to Shelley and Robert. “I’ll come back to New Harmony and try to catch the bouquet.”

She hugged Shelley tight.

Finally, she stepped away from her, and looked into the face of Chief Daniels.

“Nothing to be said,” he remarked, watching a tear fall from her eye. “Just watch your speed on the highway. Those other cops probably aren’t going to be as understanding as me, especially when you lip off at them.”

She laughed and gave him the longest hug of all.

“You going to be okay?” he asked.

She nodded and then pulled away from him. “Yeah, I think I’ll do some freelance work for a while,” she answered. “Maybe head up to Omaha and do a follow-up on New Harmony’s ex-Mayor.”

Her attempt at humor helped to break the apprehension about her leaving that was building between them.

“I’ve never been to New Orleans,” she said, getting into her car. “Louisiana is on the way to Omaha isn’t it? You all take care of yourselves, you’ll be hearing from me.”

She returned their final waves and left the parking lot. But there was one more stop she had to make before leaving Savannah.

A short while later, her car pulled into Bonaventure Cemetery and she rolled to a stop in front of Viktor’s grave. Picking up a flower from the seat, she got out of the car, and strolled over to the headstone.

“Viktor,” she said aloud, “I picked this for you on the way here,” and carefully laid the magnolia flower on the ground. “I really don’t know what happened between you and your son, but I wished you would have lived. Perhaps I could have found a way to change things between the two of you. We’ll never know now. But I do know the next time I see a cargo ship, I’ll be thinking of you. Goodbye Viktor, rest in peace.”

As her car pulled away, a piece of Spanish moss broke off and fell draping itself across his headstone.

{End}