Authors: Jeff Gunhus
The parking lot was an ominous landscape of hiding places and unknown dangers. The storm-wracked trees next to the street-lights cast erratic shadows like dark birds flying on damaged wings. Jack sprinted toward the pay phone. He slowed only to glance over his shoulder to look for the man. Nothing. Only shadows
Jack reached the phone and snatched the keys off the ground. He was about to turn back to the car when he saw the phone hanging off the hook. He froze. The new option dangled there in front of him. He looked back to the car, then to the phone. He didn’t want to just run away from this man, he wanted him caught. Besides, the call would only take a second.
Jack lunged forward, grabbed the phone and slammed it back into place. He lifted it up and jabbed his finger into the keypad. 9-1-1. The dial tone disappeared and the phone clicked through the relays. “C’mon. C’mon.”
He switched the receiver to his other ear so he could twist around to look back at the car. The dome light was on and he saw the blurry outline of the girl’s sitting in the back.
No sign of the stranger.
Where is the Goddamn operator?
The phone continued to click.
His eyes shifted to the far corner of the parking lot. A dim light twinkled through the rain. He hadn’t noticed it before. Then headlights came on and started to move toward the rest area exit. Jack breathed easier. The car must belong to the stranger. He was leaving. It was over.
Then the car stopped. The rain slowed for a moment and Jack could hear the car’s motor across the parking lot. The driver was revving it hard, over and over.
“Oh God.” As the words stumbled out of Jack’s mouth, the driver engaged the clutch and the car’s wheels spun on the wet asphalt. Once the tires found traction, the car bore down on the Jeep, engine whining.
Jack tore off across the lot, screaming at his daughters. “Get out. Get out of the car!”
The car closed the space. It was going too fast. He would never make it in time.
“Becky. Sarah. Get out of the car!”
The rear side door opened on the opposite side from the approaching car. Through the windshield he saw Becky pulling her sister by her jacket. Finally, they tumbled out of the car and started to run.
As the girls cleared the door, the incoming car turned hard to the left, its rear tires losing traction. The car’s back bumper crashed into the rear panel of the Jeep in a grinding screech of metal on metal. Sparks flashed then disappeared in the rain. The stranger kept the accelerator down and the wheels spun again. In the seconds it took before the tires found purchase on the asphalt, the car trunk car popped open.
Jack’s wiped the rain away from his eyes. He could have sworn he saw a face staring at him from the truck of the car, and thought his mind was playing tricks on him in the stress of the moment.
He staggered forward a few steps and stopped.
Jesus, it was a face.
The face of a girl tied up in the back of the stranger’s car. A young girl, not more than a teenager, with duct tape stretched across her mouth, blood covering her shirt, her body twisted into a grotesque fetal position. The image lasted only a couple of seconds. The tires grabbed, the stranger’s car surged forward, and inertia forced the trunk closed.
Jack stood frozen in place and watched as the car sped out of the parking lot and disappeared into the storm. He had to do something. It had happened so fast he couldn’t tell if the girl had moved. Still, somehow he was sure she girl was alive. Her eyes had begged him for help. And people didn’t look scared when they were dead.
He cried out as something ran into him from behind and wrapped itself around his leg. He reached down to defend himself, and felt something soft and smooth. It took a second to register: the texture of children’s jackets. Becky and Sarah. They were hugging his legs and crying.
He knelt down and scooped the girls into his arms and held them. Their hug lasted only a few moments while the image of the girl in the trunk forced its way back into Jack’s brain. “All right, girls. Back in the car. Quick now.” They obeyed him without hesitation, needing no urging to get away from the parking lot as fast as possible.
A minute later they were on the road. The girls were silent in the back seat, strapped into their car seats, too afraid to do anything but whimper. Jack looked in the rearview mirror and watched Becky reach across to her sister and run her fingers through her hair. He smiled. It was what their mother did to comfort them when they were sick or scared.
Tail-lights appeared on the road ahead, one red, one white where the rear bumper was smashed. The stranger’s car.
Jack flipped open the cell phone and dialed out. Seconds later it beeped and an error message appeared on the LCD panel, ‘Signal Faded.’
What now, Jack? What the hell are you going to do now?
When he looked up from the phone, the tail-lights were gone. Jack didn’t remember a curve in the road here and there were no off ramps either. Still, the road ahead of him was pitch black, as if the stranger’s car had disappeared into a tunnel. Jack slowed to a crawl and squinted through the rain spattered windshield. There were steep ditches on either side of the highway so the man couldn’t have turned. The windows started to fog up and he realized that his breathing was too quick and shallow. He needed to calm down. He reached up with the sleeve of his shirt to wipe off the fog on the window in front of him.
As he wiped the condensation away, he saw the car out of the corner of his eye sitting on the side of the road, its lights turned off.
As soon as Jack was past, the headlights came on and the car swerved onto the road behind him. In a matter of seconds, Jack had gone from being the hunter to the hunted.
Jack gripped the wheel and accelerated. The Jeep reacted and surged forward but the stranger’s car already had momentum and bore down on them. The rearview mirror blazed with the approaching headlights. It was right on his bumper.
The girls screamed with the first hit from the car. Jack steered to the right, careful not to overcorrect on the slippery road.
The stranger pulled alongside and swerved into them.
Jack felt the blow on the door next to him.
Sparks flew as the cars ground into each other as they sped down the road side-by-side.
Jack stepped on the brakes, the ABS system controlling the deceleration on the wet highway.
The stranger didn’t react fast enough and his car continued down the highway.
Once Jack was clear of the car, he accelerated again to stay behind the stranger’s car.
He wasn’t going to let him out of his sight again.
The stranger’s car lurched to the right once the Jeep decelerated, but soon corrected itself. A second later, red light filled the Jeep’s windshield.
The car had locked up its brakes.
Jack didn’t have time to react.
The Jeep smashed into the car’s back fender.
Screams erupted again from the back seat.
The force from the collision ripped open the car’s trunk. Jack lost sight of the road as something landed on his windshield with enough force to shatter the safety glass into a spiraling web of cracks.
Oh Jesus, not again. Not like before.
Jack tried to turn but the cars’ bumpers were caught together. Then he saw it. In the lower corner of the window, where the windshield was still intact, was a face.
The girl from the trunk.
Her body, thrown from the trunk by the impact, was draped across the windshield,.
And she was alive.
Her eyes stared at him through the glass.
Full of pain.
Full of terror.
Jack cried out.
Then the face was gone.
The world turned on its end and gravity ceased to exist. His girl’s screams mixed with the whine of metal twisting in on itself. Jack heard a muted explosion and felt pressure over his chest and face. And then darkness.
Jack slowly opened his eyes, wincing at the room’s raw light. Lauren sat on the edge of the bed, holding his hand. Jack figured she hadn’t slept all night but God she still looked fantastic. A youthful thirty-nine, not even the hint of a wrinkle appeared around her blue eyes. Her physique had survived two pregnancies thanks to a rigorous running and regular yoga schedule. She could put most men to shame on any endurance course.
This afternoon, though, she looked like she had endured her limit. She let go of Jack’s hand, walked down to the end of his bed and pulled his chart. As she studied it a nurse walked in pushing a food tray. When she saw Lauren she shook her head impatiently, “I told you to stop messin’ with that chart.”
Lauren looked up at the nurse. She still wasn’t used to the informality of the hospital here. “Just checking. You know…” her voice trailed off.
“He’s fine. Just look at him. A little cut on the head won’t hurt his pretty little face.” The nurse turned on her sassy voice and gave Jack an appraising look, “I’m telling you suga’, he’s
fine
.”
Jack clapped his hands. “You tell her, Janice. I’m ready to get out of here.”
The light above the phone on the wall lit up. Lauren pointed to Jack. “You behave.” Then she turned to Janice, “And you. Don’t let me walk in here and find you giving him a sponge bath.” She smiled, “He’s a smooth talker, so watch out.”
Lauren picked up the phone. “Yes, this is Doctor Tremont.” She paused. “All right, I’ll be right down.” She turned to Jack. “It seems that our daughters are fighting over what cartoon to watch. Becky thinks she’s in control because she has the cast on her arm, but Sarah doesn’t seem to agree.”
Jack grinned. “It’s amazing how fast everything gets back to normal.”
“Thank God for air bags and safety seats.”
Jack noticed the catch in her voice and knew his wife had just pictured what might have happened if they hadn’t been so lucky in the crash. He had done it a thousand times over the past twelve hours. “Hey, Lauren.” She looked up and he saw tears in her eyes. “We’re all O.K.”
She came over and hugged him. Janice turned away to give them privacy, but she could not help sneaking a look the warm scene with a smile. Lauren let go and headed out of the room. “Now I’m off to make peace with the sisters. And I thought being a doctor was hard. Remember Janice, no sponge bath. No matter what he tells you.”
As Lauren left the room, Jack heard men’s voices in the hallway. They were arguing about something but he couldn’t make out the words. Lauren walked back in the room followed by Hugh Janney, Prescott City’s sheriff, and one of his deputies. They stood at the foot of his bed in an uncomfortable silence.
“So,” Jack said, leaning forward. “Was she dead?”
Sheriff Janney cleared his throat. “No Mr. Tremont, she wasn’t dead.”
“Thank God.” Jack lay back in the bed. “Is she here? In this hospital?”
Janney looked down at the floor and then over to the deputy. “Mr. Tremont, I’m not sure how to tell you this.” The sheriff ran a hand across his chin and then rubbed the back on his neck. Finally, he looked up and met Jack eye to eye. “We looked everywhere you told us. As far as we can tell, this girl you told us about doesn’t exist.”
Even after hearing the details of the search, Jack couldn’t manage much better than a dumbfounded stare at the sheriff. How was it possible that the body was gone? He had seen her. She was right there on the hood of his car. There was no way the body could just disappear.
As Jack processed the information, a pit carved out a space in his stomach as the three other people in the room waited for an explanation. He suddenly realized they didn’t believe him.
“I saw her. I swear it. Did you look in the woods? She probably crawled into the woods.”
The sheriff held up his hands. “Now look here. I’ve had men out there since last night and we’ve been looking all day. Deputy Sorenson here and myself did most of the search ourselves. We even brought the dogs out.”
“And?”
“Nothing. Not a thing.”
“She couldn’t have gone far. She was all tied up.”
“Yeah, you told us that.” Janney opened up the notebook where he scribbled his notes from the morning. “You said she was bound and gagged with duct tape. That she rolled off the hood of your car right before you rolled into that ditch.” He closed up the notebook. “That’s what you said this morning.”
“That’s what happened.”
“Yeah, so you say,” the deputy said.
Jack ignored him. “How about in the man’s car. What’s his name…Huckley? You had to find evidence in the trunk of his car.”
Sheriff shook his head. “Looked myself.”
“And?”
“Nothing. Not a thing.”
“Impossible. I just don’t…I mean, how could…”
“Mr. Tremont, I’m gonna need to ask you a few more questions, all right?”
Lauren reached down and took Jack’s hand. He appreciated her gesture of support, but he wondered if it made him look guilty, like he needed the support because he had something to hide. He wondered if they knew about the last time he was questioned by the police.
“Were you over at Piper’s last night?
Jack felt the muscles in his stomach tighten. “Yes, I was at Piper’s last night from about four to seven.”
“Have a couple of drinks?”
“Yeah. No…just one drink actually.”
“You had one drink in three hours?”
Jack remembered the shot of whiskey he and Max had after watching Albert James die. “No, I guess it was two drinks.”
“Uh-huh, now it’s two drinks. You want to think on it a little longer?”
Jack didn’t care for the sheriff’s tone. “Wait a minute. What’re you thinking? I got blitzed, picked up my kids drunk and hallucinated that a psychopath tried to kill me. Jesus.” Jack raised himself up in the bed. He was yelling now. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”
Janney was a big man and not intimidated by Jack’s outburst. He pointed a finger at Jack’s chest. “You
will
calm down. And I mean, right now.” He took a deep breath. “I’m just trying to figure all this out. All I know is that I have two smashed up cars on my highway and a crazy story with no proof. I have no victim, no blood in the trunk of the other car.”
“I didn’t make this up,” Jack insisted.
“You were at Piper’s when Albert James took a lightning bolt to the head, right?”
Jack nodded.
“Shook you up pretty bad, huh?”
“The man died in my arms. Yeah, it shook me up. But I--”
“Then there’s this business in California a few years back.”
Jack felt Lauren’s hand tighten in his.
“The little girl. What was her name?” Janney flipped through his notebook.
Not until that moment did Jack realize how much he had let himself believe no one would ever find his secret in his new life, that at least the public side of it was behind him. He knew the private torture would never end. But he thought he might at least spare his family from living through it again. Jack’s voice had a catch in it when he answered. “Melissa Gonzales.”
“That’s right. Melissa Gonzales. Damn shame about that.”
“Damn shame,” the deputy said.
Lauren squeezed Jack’s hand. “That was an accident,” she said.
Jack closed his eyes and tried to put his mind somewhere else. Or course he’d seen the similarities. Of course he knew it was a bizarre coincidence. He’d been working it through his brain all morning. But it didn’t change what he saw last night.
Janney puckered his lips. “Yeah, got the whole report sent right over to me. Says here little Melissa hit the windshield just like--”
“Their tire blew out. He ran right into me,” Jack whispered.
“And the girl went through the windshield of her daddy’s pickup and landed on the hood of your car. Just like this girl last night? The girl you’re trying to save?”
Jack turned away. A shiver started at the base of his spine and worked its way up his back. He closed his eyes but the girl’s face was there to look back at him. Not the girl from last night, but, now, Melissa Gonzales. Ten years old. Honor student. Played softball and liked blues music and horses. Wanted to be a doctor or a vet, her grandma had told him at the hospital. Right before she spat in his face and called him a murderer. The official report said the deaths weren’t his fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Accidents happen. It was what his friends told him too. Still, he caught the looks they gave him. Something had changed. He’d killed someone and that was part of who he was now.
Their reaction was bad enough when they thought he was innocent.
It would have been much worse if they had known the truth.
The sheriff was right. Melissa Gonzales had smashed into his windshield just like the girl last night. He could still see her face when the air bag deflated, wide, unblinking eyes that stared at him while a flood of red spread out of her hair like a halo. That’s where the image was different. The girl last night had been alive. He was sure of it.
“I know how it looks. But you have to believe me, I didn’t imagine this.”
“I’m just sayin’ I can’t find a body or evidence of one. I’m just sayin’ that it doesn’t take a shrink doctor to wonder if something’s not going on in there?” Janney tapped the side of his head.
“Did you question the guy in the car yet?” The deputy grunted and turned away. Jack turned his attention to him. The man looked to be in his mid-twenties, clean shaven with a crew cut. His uniform was starched with the pleats of his pants pointing down to polished black boots. Every thing he carried seemed to shine. Jack imagined the kid sitting in his living room at night intensely cleaning his gun millimeter by millimeter, praying for the day he’d have a chance to blow someone away. He probably polished his handcuffs too. Jack just hoped that Sheriff Janney had been smart enough not to give the kid any bullets. Jack decided he’d had enough of the deputy’s attitude. “Excuse me. Do you have a problem?”
The deputy glared back but held his tongue.
Janney jumped in and broke the staring contest. “Jack, the man you hit--”
“That I hit! You mean the man who attacked me.”
“Yeah, O.K. Like I told you, his name’s Nate Huckley. It’s not like he’s some drifter. He’s pretty well known around here. He’s a little on the strange side, sure, but nothing like this. You gotta understand it makes your story that much harder to believe.”
“O.K. So what does Nate Huckley say about all this?”
Lauren answered before the sheriff. “He’s in a coma. There’s not so much as a scratch on him but he’s not reviving. We have to do more tests.”
“Will he come out of it?”
“Hard to say. He could wake up an hour from now, a week from now…”
“Or never,” Janney said.
“Or never,” Lauren agreed
The deputy mumbled something.
“What’d you say?” Jack said.
The deputy fixed him with a hard look. “I said, ‘Another notch in the belt’.”
“You son-of-a-bitch.”
Janney grabbed his deputy by the arm and pulled him toward the door. “All right, that’s enough of that. You wait outside.” He waited until the deputy was gone. “Sorry about that. He’s a damn fool sometimes. Don’t let him get to you. Listen, I’m gonna keep looking into this and try everything I can to figure it out. A lot of folks are gonna wonder if Nate Huckley getting a fair shake here.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m just saying I’ve got to look into the possibility that Huckley’s the victim in this mess.”
“I don’t understand.” Jack said.
“You’re driving home, had a few drinks…”
“I wasn’t drunk.”
Janney started to say something but seemed to think better of it. He tucked his hat under his arm and headed for the door. He paused, a little too dramatically Jack thought, and stared at Lauren. “See, funny thing is, when you were brought in they didn’t check your blood for alcohol. That’s standard policy, isn’t it Dr. Tremont?”
Lauren was tight lipped. “It should have been done. I’ll check into it.”
Janney smiled. “Oh, I checked. Wasn’t done. Nurse’s say you treated him when he came in and said it wasn’t necessary.”
“It wasn’t. I could tell if he was intoxicated or not.”
“I’m sure you could,” Janney said. “Just looks a little funny, you know? Any way, I know this sounds like some bad cop line, but don’t be leaving town for a while, O.K.? It might take a little time to figure this out and I’d like to have you both around to answer questions.”
“We’ll be here,” Lauren said.
“All right, then. I’ll be getting along now.” Janney nodded to Jack as if he’d just stopped by to wish him a speedy recovery. Jack and Lauren watched the sheriff leave, both of them silently wishing he’d never come at all.