The Final Shortcut (34 page)

Ramone hesitated. There was a general feeling of dread in the room. Dealing with an unknown is always a threat. And a wild card like Junior was going to be especially difficult. Every one felt it. This was going to be unlike any other case they had ever handled. His own emotions were in turmoil. Excited at the possibility of finally solving this case, and frightened at what they were about to walk into. His analytical mind was tying the history of his investigation to the circumstances around Junior. He had the perfect conditions in which to carry out a string of hijackings. A short-cut right through his property, plenty of room to dump the evidence and a huge flea market to sell the goods. All without leaving a trail, if he hadn’t panicked they would have passed him by. And the more he thought about the wallet, the more it worried him. Someone as careful as he must have been for years, wouldn’t have let a clue like that slip out. And by doing so it told Ramone that he was losing his grip on reality, and therefore extremely unpredictable.

“We’re going to have to take it slow and easy. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Our boy can be expected to do the unexpected, and remember that he is a killer. No one is to go out alone.” As he looked at their faces he could see the uncertainty. They were ready to go, but not anxious to die. “I think we should start where his tracks ended and try and trail him from there. If Clyde will point us to his hunting shack we can cover that as well. After that we may have to call in reinforcements.”

Clyde sat up in his chair and wiped his face dry. “I’m going with you, and I don’t need but one arm to look for clues.” His determination was obvious and no one tried to dissuade him from going. He motioned for them to gather around the desk and then pulled out a recent map. It only took a few moments to identify the key locations and to devise a plan. They would hold off on sending in the dogs until after the initial search as they hoped to remain stealthy as long as possible. When the meeting broke and they started outside, the outer office went quiet. No one said a word as they passed through. Clyde only stopped for a second to look at Ellen. She hung her head as he grabbed his shotgun from a rack, and left without another glance.

The whole city knew about Clyde an hour after it happened. And as the team raced across town they could see the shock in their faces. It was obvious who they were so the townspeople stared at them and pointed as they passed. Disbelief in their eyes, mouths agape in anguish. It felt like a surreal parade in a bad French art film. There was an eerie feeling about all of it. A somber mood fell across the investigators. When they crossed into Junior’s property they stopped and disembarked to prepare. They each went to their task of checking weapons, putting on a vest, checking radios and reassuring each other.

They all felt it, a cold evil lurking just over your shoulder. Some had already taken on a guarded posture. Scanning the terrain, watching for trouble. And they all were getting more nervous as the minutes passed. A small rock fell onto the road and three agents drew their weapons in response, only to find a curious squirrel was the cause. No one laughed. It would be very funny later, just not right now. Clyde was the first one to speak and his easy country manner helped to ease the tension.

“Don’t worry about the squirrels, they hardly ever attack humans.”

Ramone smiled and stepped up to speak. “All right everybody, let’s keep it together. What we want to do is to follow his trail and look for clues. Don’t get stupid and go off alone. There could be holes from collapsed unstable terrain or mine shafts. When we get to the cut off, you three look for that hunting shack and the rest of us will follow the tire tracks. Stay down and stay quiet, stay alive. If we need help, there’s plenty close by so don’t get brave.” He looked at his charges and they were nodding back at him. The nerves were under control when they loaded in the van and crept forward. Within site of the roadblock they stopped and slid out easily, ready for action. Clyde pointed out the shack in the distance. Choosing not to climb the hill, he followed Ramone. Weapons drawn they walked along taking in every movement nearby. The tracks were still fresh and they followed them down the dirt road and straight into a tall mound of rock. Mike whispered over his shoulder as he turned to cover the rear. “Where did he go, straight into the mountain?”

Clyde and Ramone crouched down and took a closer look. The tracks went right under a granite boulder, or so it seemed. Ramone poked around at the base of the hill and climbed a few feet up, digging deep into the pile. Then he motioned for Mike to join him,

“Take a look at this, feel that?” Mike put hand over a hole in the rock and a smile crept across his face. Ramone stepped down and put his hand on Clyde’s shoulder.

“I can feel air coming out of the rock, it could be a mine shaft.”

Clyde stared in disbelief, speechless. Mike crept over the surface like a monkey sticking his hand into every crack. After four minutes he came down and made a report.

“It’s incredible, but I’d say he’s got a huge opening under here. I found metal reinforcements and air cracks over a large area, he’s gone underground.”

“How could he do all this?” Clyde stepped backward to get a better view of the hill. The scope of it was astounding.

“That’s what I’d like to know. And I’d like to find out how to get inside.” Ramone put away his pistol and took out a pad to right some notes. Suddenly they heard gunfire and the radio squawked loudly.

“Shots fired, officer down, somebody get up here!”

They didn’t bother to answer; they just ran at top speed for the hunting shack. Clyde stayed behind and found a rock in the shade to sit on. He put his head down, the tears welled up in his eyes, and he started to pray.

Chapter 28

The alarms sounded in Junior’s apartment. The ear piercing wail had never seemed so loud during a test. But this wasn’t a test. He had intruders at both entrances. He screamed at the alarm panel, panic filled his voice. “What are you doing here? Go away! You’ve got to go away…leave me alone!” In a mad rush he flung open the gun cabinet and knocked a lamp off the table next to it. He grabbed a rifle and ran out of his apartment and out through the tunnel toward the hunting shack. “Those guys must have come back….I told them the last time….I’ll just have to kill them all over again.” His face was a testament to his madness, clearly maniacal and obsessed with keeping control of the situation. Blindly he jogged through the passages with ease, never stumbling. As he passed his collection he stopped and yelled at the newest skeletons. “I thought I told you last time!” He ran the last few yards and started to climb the ladder. “Maybe I’ll make a hat with that tattoo this time.”

***

Agent Wilkes was the first to the door of the shack but her male cohorts wouldn’t allow her to go in. So as the other two entered, she watched the rear. When she stepped inside they all lowered their weapons. The small cabin wasn’t much to see. But still they began a thorough search moving everything and looking under everything. She walked on a rug in the middle of the room and suddenly screamed. Blood rushed from her boot as she pulled it off. An exposed nail stuck up from the floor. When she flung the rug back she could see several more nails and a hatch in the floor. She quickly started unlacing her boot as agent Todd took a closer look at the hatch.

A blast of splinters exploded from the floor and they dove to the side just as three more bullets shattered the wood. The wood was very heavy and it caused two of the bullets to ricochet wildly over their heads. Todd returned fire as they ran outside. His bullets imbedded in the floor harmlessly, but it was enough to stop the attack. He radioed for help and Ramone and the others were by their side in less than two minutes. Sarah Wilkes had a pencil-sized hole in the bottom of her foot. That fortunately wasn’t very deep, just very painful. Their training guided their moves and each of them worked this situation like a pro. Todd tended to Sarah’s wound, Mike kept a lookout and Ramone eased into the cabin for another look. Two men grabbed Sarah up and carried her down the hill. The rest fell in behind them.

At the bottom of the hill Clyde found everything he had seen very hard to digest, he tried to reason it out but he only got more confused. He walked along the tire tracks and followed them back to the hillside. It seemed impossible that Junior could have driven into the mountain. Lost in thought he started following the tracks back the other way. He slowly trudged down the road, half aware of where he was. Then something caught him as odd and he stopped to investigate. A depression in the dirt that looked like Junior had spun his wheels. He’d pulled up, stopped and then spun off, but why here? The only thing he could see was a clump of bushes. But then he saw it. Something caught the light deep in the bush. When he walked up to it he could easily see a metal lever and without thinking he grabbed it and pulled. To his amazement the rock wall began to move, upward and upward till a huge gaping hole appeared. Slack jawed he stumbled forward mindless to the consequences. He had walked twenty feet inside before he began to shake off the delirium and grabbed his pistol. It was all very real and right now he was neck deep in trouble. The pain in his arm seemed insignificant next to the fact that he was risking his life with every step. So he held his pistol high and walked carefully in. There was a string of lights that disappeared into the distance, and he could see a large cavern ahead. His eyes had adjusted to the dark by now and he was able to see the immense size of the mine. The main cavern where the coal had once been loaded into trucks was still filled with trucks. His arms dropped to his sides and his mouth fell open. He could see six trailers within a stones throw. And as he crept along the wall going deeper into the cavern, he could see several other tunnels leading away. Somewhere in the distance he heard a generator running. He stopped walking and listened for other noises. After standing for a minute in silence, he didn’t hear anything. But he smelled something, something dead. A few more steps further in he was able to see the whole cavern, and he saw Junior’s apartment. The outside looked like an unfinished tree house, a mixture of different materials but all very sturdy. And parked next to it was a red panel van that bore the name InTroniKa.

Clyde’s instincts told him to run like hell, but he couldn’t stop moving forward. As he inched up to the truck the smell of death got stronger and he started to feel more frightened. When he looked in the front seat he immediately threw up on the window. The driver’s body had been there for a couple weeks and it hardly resembled a human anymore. Its ghastly appearance drove him backward till he stumbled and fell on his butt. His heart was pounding so that it felt like it would burst and he wanted to puke again. He tried to get up but he couldn’t manage it. So he sat and tried to regroup afraid that he might be going into shock. The sweat ran down his face and he was panting loudly like a racehorse. Too loudly. He was suddenly aware that he was making a lot of noise, a fact that calmed him down quickly. Somewhere in the dark he heard a sound and quickly got to his feet. He had dropped his pistol somewhere in the dirt. Quietly he searched the ground, careful to remain hidden, then the lights went out and the noise came closer.

***

Junior had heard footsteps in his shack and in his rage he fired at the floorboards. He heard someone fall and he felt certain that he had successfully defended the secret entrance. But when the bullets pounded the floor above him he was so shocked that he nearly fell off the ladder. The rifle fell to the ground and he descended after it in leaps, desperate to get away. He found his rifle with the barrel sticking in the dirt. His world was beginning to crumble around him and for the first time since he was a boy he was truly scared. As he approached the main cavern he could see the light from the big door and he stopped in his tracks. He stared straight ahead unable to comprehend that someone had actually found the way in. Frozen where he stood, lost in his thoughts he couldn’t make sense of what was happening. None of this was ever supposed to happen. Tears of desperation filled his eyes and he slumped against the wall unable to control his emotions.

Then he heard a noise in the cavern and his hunter instincts came alive. Quickly he moved to kill the lights, he knew the mine well enough to search in the near dark. Raising his rifle to the hip he slowly crept forward, longing for any sound to lead him to the invader. The next few seconds passed agonizingly slow, he wanted to put an end to it now. And once he found his prey he would be safe again. He stayed in the shadows and worked his way along the wall toward his apartment. Somehow he had to close the outside door without stepping into the light, but the switch was on the inside wall of the entry way in plain view. Stopping next to the red truck he listened and waited.

Clyde could feel the tension in the stagnant air. The hair on the back of his neck was standing at attention. He knew death was very near and he had to draw on his inner strength to stay alive. Everything around him told him that Junior was a hijacker and a murderer. In the dim light he could barely see a way around the van so he cautiously took one soft step forward and stopped. Then one more step, his heart pounding he took a third step and stood at the back end of the van. A sudden rush made him feel light headed and he felt like he was about to have a heart attack. His radio banged the side of the van and his heart stopped in mid beat. In the same instant Junior stepped around the end. Not three feet from him, the barrel of the rifle inches from his chest.

He wanted to run but his legs couldn’t move, wanted to scream but his lungs couldn’t draw any air. As he looked into Junior’s face he could see the insanity that had taken him over, and he knew he was about to die. Junior smiled feverishly, drool flowing from the down turned corner of his mouth hung off his chin. Raising the rifle a few inches higher, he chuckled and pulled the trigger.

The chamber exploded backward sending fire and brass shards back into his face. The dirt jammed in the barrel caused the bullet to split it wide open. Both men hit the ground, neither sure if they were alive or dead. Clyde’s face was splattered with dirt and he felt the stinging in his eyes as he crawled away. Most of the blast had erupted into Junior’s chest and face. Shrapnel cut him deep across the cheek. The rifle fell so hard across the crown of his left foot that it drew blood. The shock of his failure drove him to his knees and he cried out in anguish. He rolled on the ground shrieking like a wounded animal, his cries echoing through the cavern.