Chapter 52
Juanita was at the counter ordering coffee. The men sat at the booth in the back of the café. “So you're telling me you don't know where this cabin is?” Chance snapped.
“No. I'm not telling you that. But that's the fact,” Ovan answered calmly. “Thought for sure Maravel would have found it by now but there's nothing listed for a Craven Michaels or a Hap Washburn in all of the state. The cabin must be in someone else's name. She's doing some cross references ... It's not that easy.”
“Do you know how big this state is?” Chance whispered trying not to alert Juanita who was finally calm. He looked up and smiled and waved at her. She smiled back. She looked worried but was covering it over well. He immediately returned to the two-man huddle with Ovan. “She performed illegal surgeries there, I'm positive it's not a cabin she wanted the authorities to findâso how the hell are we supposed to just trip up on it?”
“Yes, I understand your concern but think about it, Chance, it has to be near here. It's got to be on the route they are taking or Roman would not have devised this plan. He would have sent the boy somewhere else and used another doctor. We just need to get Kingsley Field to the Air Guard there, so we can get in the air. I do know how to do what I do.”
“And what do you do Ovan?” Chance growled slamming himself back in the seat. They'd stopped at a coffee shop to regroup, and for Ovan to check his computer for updates from Maravel. He'd also printed out the Amtrak map on his portable printer. Glancing at his watch he was sure they'd beat the train by hours. Just then Chance's phone rang. It was Rashawn's number. His stomach jumped. Ovan nodded for him to answer it.
“What do you want, you bastard,” Chance growled into the receiver. He knew in his heart Allen Roman was on the other end.
“Wow, is that anyway to address your wife.”
“My wife is in the hospital ...”
“In a coma I might add. She slipped back into one just a little bit ago. Where are you to where you don't know this?”
Chance paused slightly, rubbing his head and pushing up his glasses. He tried to hide his immediate concern behind a tough exterior. “Don't you worry your black ass about me. What are you doing with her phone? Did you take it as a token of your sick success in killing her? I'ma kill you on sight you fucking murdererâI swear it.”
Juanita who had just reached the table sat the coffees down and covered her face at the sound of his hateful words. Ovan pulled her into the booth next to him and quickly handed her one of the cups of coffee.
“She's not dead,” Roman mumbled.
“How would you know that?”
“I've been to see her.”
“You stay away from her.”
“I wasn't trying to kill her, Chance, you have to believe me. I just wanted to talk to her about our son.”
“Where is Reggie? Do you have him?”
“Not yet.”
The call ended. Chance looked around at Ovan and Juanita. Ovan's face was frozen for a second before he finally spoke. “Okay ...”
“Shouldn't we get the cops involved? GPS and all that ...”
“Definitely call Miller and Beem and let them know he's made contact with you on your wife's phone. My guess is he'll dispose of it now, but it's worth the call.”
Chapter 53
“Well, I'll be damned,” Jim exploded, looking through Roman's things. Nothing they could use in this search would be admissible as they'd entered without a warrant. In all truth this call should have been handed over to Theft as it was tantamount to a stolen cell phone. However, Jim and Lawrence both needed the last bit of confirmation that Ovan was not just some wildman chasing a phantom. “Roman,” he said watching a DVD that was clearly from his stash of medical meanderings. They'd found many unrelated items in the roomâclothing, books, pictures of Rashawn Ams and other beautiful women but the DVD just called Jim to the player that sat under the television in the room.
“Said his name was Smith ... Dr. Smith ... had ID and such. I had no reason to question him,” the hotel manager explained looking on with Jim and Lawrence at the operation being performed on the DVD. “What the hell is that?” he gasped at the bloody sight.
“Kidney's my guess,” Lawrence said, grimacing at the sight before shutting off the TV. Jim pulled out his phone to call Maravel. Maybe she could make some sense out of some of the stuff in this room. Maybe something here would help Ovan and Chance find Reggie and Junior before this maniac preformed the same surgery on them.
Chapter 54
The train pulled into Klamath Falls. It was not the stop they were even planned to notice let alone where they planned detrain.
How did dude get a gun on here? So much for Amtrak security
,
Reggie thought, feeling the hard barrel of the gun pressing against his spine as dude pushed him out the door with the others who were scheduled for this top. Dude had moved them though the cars discreetly and up to the car that would be unloading at this stop. No one seemed to notice as they must have appeared to be a nice family out to celebrate Christmas in the snowy mountainous region of the Pacific Northwest.
Reggie glanced over at Julia who stepped off before him, still holding tight to his backpack and Junior whose eyes were red from strain and the fight with emotions. Dude must have figured Reggie would be less of a threat with both his hands free and he was right because had the chanceâReggie would have busted dude's head in with that heavy backpack and then tackled him down for that gun. But no, dude held the gun on him the whole time as if to use him as a warning for the rest, and it was working.
Reggie could tell Junior and Julia were scared, and what was worseâhe was scared too.
For the past few hours that they had sat in the observation car, listening to the voice of the man who was no doubt planning to kill themâand for whatâReggie had no clue. For now it just seemed to be no real good reason. Reggie knew he didn't have any moneyâand neither did Junior. Dude was mistaken if he thought he was kidnapping kids who could pay off. Juanita didn't have a pot to piss in unless Chance had recently given her one ... and as far as his mom went, she hadn't even pulled down her first pay check yet and even then, this job was all title ... even he knew that.
And Julia? Who knew why she had gotten caught up in all this, but she seemed to be a victim as well.
“Let's go,” Dude said, as they pulled into the Klamath Falls station. He'd not even made a phone call to anyone. This was all too surreal. But then again, his aunt Trina wrote mysteries for a living and this wasn't any stranger than some of the things she'd come up withâonce her story plot had even landed her in jail for being too crazily realistic. She'd written a murder and not to long after her ex had died the same way . . . so, strange things could happen. Reggie's mind drifted on to some of her stranger plots to see if perhaps a kidnapping of teenage kids had ever been tapped by the workings of her twisted mind.
“We're getting off here? It's the middle of nowhere!” Junior finally said, noticing the snow on the ground. His plea brought Reggie's mind back. He had never seen anything like this place outside of photographs. He was a born and raised city boy. Klamath Falls was beautiful and would have been even more so under different circumstances.
“Come on, Roman is waiting,” Dude said.
Roman? It was a familiar name. Reggie couldn't place it but he wanted to. He also wanted Junior's backpack. No, he wasn't hungry, he needed his BlackBerry. It was a new one and so surely he'd be able to get a signalâeven out here. Surely he'd be able to text a note, even if it went through on a delayed signalâ
“I'm hungry,” he lied. Julia looked at him with an odd expression.
“What?” she asked, perhaps thinking she didn't hear him right.
“I'm hungry. I need my backpack. I have snacks in there,” Reggie continued. Julia looked at him and then at dude, who shook his head.
“No. Not right now. If you're hungry you can just wait. Besides, I'm sure there's more than snacks that you want in that backpack,” he growled. “Where's your cell phone?”
“I ... I ... ” Reggie bluffed. Hap grabbed the backpack from Julia and tore through it, finding Reggie's old cell phone. The one he used only to store his phone numbers. He shoved it deep in his pocket before dropping the backpack on the bench near the entrance of the building. He then ripped open Junior's backpack and saw it filled with goodies. He zipped it up and threw it at Reggie.
“Okay, Mr. Hungry Man, you are now in charge of carrying that heavy-assed snack bag! You need to eat anyway. Keep up our strength. But the cell phone, it's history! Come on,” he said, after watching Reggie shrug Junior's backpack on his shoulder. “Don't try anything funny because now the gun is on little brother here.”
“They call me Junior,” Junior spoke up now. It was as if Junior could tell Reggie was up to something and was willing to play along, no matter how scary it seemed.
“Whatever,” Dude answered.
“You gotta name, dude?” Junior asked.
“Sure do ... We'll get all that out of the way once we get to the cabin.”
“Cabin?” Julia asked.
“I told you I had a cabin, sweetie. You were all eager to see it before.”
“That's when I thought it was in Eugene. Don't even think I was trying to let you get near me,” Julia began, jerking her neck from side to side and swaggin' her finger. British or not, she had all the moves of an angry black woman right now.
“Riiight!” Hap retorted smartly.
They walked toward the lot where a dark SUV was waiting. He pressed the unlock button on his key ring as they approached. “Get in. Julia, you're gonna drive.”
“Me?” she asked, nervously. “I don't have a license.”
“You don't have your license?” Junior asked sounding almost as if taunting.
“Shut up, Junior,” she snapped.
“Hey, I just finished driver's ed ... and ummm,” Junior blew on his nails as if that meant he was all that.
“Then you drive!” Hap snapped showing a loss of patience growing.
“What?” all three kids yelped in unison. Julia rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, you are the only one I have no problem with today ... matter of fact, I kinda like you ... Junior. So you drive. You'll be our chance to get away. Chance is your father right? Or do you share a mother ... must be because you two look just alike. Or is ...” Hap pondered for a moment and then shook his head. “Can't be.”
“No we don't share anything,” Junior answered with a smirk. “And yeah, my father is Chance, thus the Junior ... duh.” Chance climbed in behind the wheel of the big vehicle. “Chance to get away... ughhh lame. If this is gonna go on all day, I say kill me now!”
Hap laughed. “Yeah I knew I liked this kid.”
Julia climbed in the front passenger seat and Reggie and Hap climbed in back. “Let's roll,” he ordered. Chance started the roaring engine and off they went, jerking slightly until Chance shifted his weight in the seat and adjusted the mirrors. Reggie would have laughed at his step brother if his life hadn't depended on him at this time.
Chapter 55
Shelby was actually pretty excited about her nephew visiting for a couple of days. If he liked the university there she would offer him a place to liveârent freeâwhile he finished his education and hopefully made the team. She had talked about the opportunity with Chance and it all sounded good earlier in the month. But still this visit seemed so unexpected. So far she'd not been able to reach Rashawn with any of it. Even now, it was strange that Rashawn had been unavailable to talk about it. She'd called her sister a few times but as Chance had told her, Rashawn was not near her phone.
It would be great for him to play some pro ball. Even though she and her husband had made their career in the NBA and WNBA, football was fine for a boy his sizeâprobably a better choice. Besides that, playing a sport wasn't the worse thing he could be doing with his life. So many kids were all methed out right now. Oregon had seen a rough couple of years with the methamphetamine epidemic. More white kids than black ones were drugged out on the junk but that was just because of the demographics . . . per capita the problem was even worse for black kids simply because there just weren't that many there. Reggie's positive presence would make a difference in her day and her nurturing and mentoring would help make a big difference in his life as well.
Shelby was lonely. With her husband always on the road with his team, she was left alone at home to fend for their daughter and herself emotionally. Diversity did not run long in Eugene. She missed her five sisters terribly. She could only imagine her crazy acting ghetto fabulous sisters invading this uptight ultra white city. The thought made her laugh. They were all older nowâbut still, age had not changed them much. The thought of them all in Eugene made her cringe slightlyâbut no fear of thatâ
there's absolutely nothing to bring them here,
she thought.
Shelby glanced at the clock. It was time for the train to come rolling in. She'd called the Amtrak station and the coastline eleven was actually running on time todayâthe first time in months. Shelby and her daughter often, during season, traveled up to Washington State to watch her husband's basketball team play tournaments in Seattle, so she knew the Amtrak schedule well.
It had been drizzling all morning, so, gathering up her light jacket and umbrella, she and her daughter headed out to the car. They made it downtown in about fifteen minutes, just as the train pulled in. “Good timing, Mom,” her daughter complimented. “Will I know him when I see him?” she asked, not having ever seen Reggie in person. Shelby realized then how long she'd been away.
“Yes, you'll know him. He looks like an Ams,” she said, knowing the truth of the matterâthat actually Reggie looked like his biological fatherâbut nobody would ever want to repeat that one out loud.
Excitedly, Shelby and Stacy climbed out of her car and headed into the station to greet the arriv-ers. She assumed he'd have bags and Junior too. She'd only met Chance's son Junior a few times, but despite how crazy acting his mother, Juanita wasâshe'd met JuanitaâShelby was totally fine with Junior being part of the family. As supportive as Rashawn had been, receiving Chance Jr. as if he was her own child, the least Shelby could do was replicate the love.
The people poured into the station, and Stacy grew excited. Her head darted this way and that as she quickly scanned the crowd for her cousin. Shelby had to admit she had thought she too would have spied him by now, as tall as she'd heard he was. The crowd eventually thinned out, with each person unloading, meeting their connections. Shelby felt strange suddenly wondering why amidst all the people there was no sign of a tall handsome young black manâor two. She pulled her cell phone from her bag while heading to the information counter, as the train pulled off. “Where is he?” Stacy asked. Shelby didn't answer but waited for Chance to pick up.