The Simple Truth (40 page)

“We’re only trying to get your brother justice in a court of law.”

Josh shook his head.
“I can get me justice in a court all by myself. We done overwhelmed your white asses. Prisons full of us and you just too cheap to build more. So I can get me mor’n justice in a court. Problem is I can’t get me none on the outside, and damn if that ain’t where I spend most of my time.”

“This ain’t the way to handle things,”
Rufus said.

“Oh, so now you know the way to handle everything all of a sudden?”
said Josh.

Fiske was growing more nervous. Josh Harms sounded like he was at the point where maybe even his brother would have no control over him. Should he make a jump for the gun? Josh was probably fifteen years older than he, but the man looked as strong as an oak tree. If Fiske made a grab and got tossed on his head, he would probably be eating several rounds from the 9mm.

The screeching of rubber against asphalt made them all look toward the window. Rufus hustled across and cautiously looked out. When he turned back from the window they all could see the fear in his eyes.

“It’s Vic Tremaine and Rayfield.”

“Shit!”
Josh exclaimed.
“What they carrying?”
Rufus took one long breath.
“Vic’s got a machine gun.”

“Shit!”
Josh said again as they all listened to the heavy boots clattering into the building. In another couple of minutes, maybe less, they would be here. He suddenly glared at Fiske and Sara.
“I told you. They set us up. We been sitting here jawing with them while the Army surrounds this place.”

“In case you didn’t notice, we’re not in uniform,”
Fiske said.
“Maybe they followed you.”

“We didn’t come from the direction of the prison. When they see the two of us, they’re gonna shoot, and that’s it.”

“Not if you give yourselves up, they won’t.”

“That ain’t an option,”
Josh said loudly.

“It ain’t an option,”
Rufus repeated.
“They ain’t gonna let me live, knowing what I know.”

Fiske looked at Rufus Harms. The man’s eyes darted left and right. He had admitted to killing the girl. Shouldn’t that be an end to it? Why not let the Army put him back in his cage? But Mike had wanted to help him.

Fiske jumped up.

Josh covered him with his pistol.
“Don’t make this no harder than it is.”

Fiske didn’t even look at him; his eyes were squarely on Rufus.
“Rufus? Rufus!”

Rufus finally seemed to break out of his inertia and looked at him.

“Maybe I can get you out of this, but you have to do exactly what I say.”

Josh said,
“We can damn well get ourselves out of this.”

“In about thirty seconds those two guys are going to come through that door and it’ll be over. You can’t match their firepower.”

“How ’bout I put one of my bullets in you right now?”
Josh said.

“Rufus, will you trust me? My brother came to help you. Let me finish what he started. Come on, Rufus. Give me a chance.”
A bead of sweat trickled down Fiske’s forehead.

Sara couldn’t even speak. All she could hear were those boots, all she could see was that machine gun, coming closer and closer.

Finally, almost imperceptibly, Rufus nodded.

Fiske launched into action.
“Get in the bathroom, both of you,”
he said.

Josh started to protest until Rufus cut him off and pushed him toward the private bath adjoining the office.

“Sara, you go with them.”

She looked at him, stunned.
“What?”

“Just do what I say. If you hear me call your name, flush the toilet and then come out. You two”
— he nodded at the brothers —
“stay behind that door. If you don’t hear me say your name, Sara, stay put.”

“And you don’t think them Army boys might just want to come take a peek at the toilet, especially if the door’s closed?”
Josh asked sarcastically.

“Let me worry about that.”

“Okay,”
Josh said slowly.
“But let me give you another thing to worry about, smart boy. You sell us out and the first bullet I fire is gonna hit you right about here.”
Josh placed his pistol against the base of Fiske’s skull.
“But you won’t even hear my pistol fire. You’ll be dead before your damn ears tells your damn brain.”

Fiske nodded at Josh as though accepting his challenge, which, in effect, he was. He looked at Sara; her face was pale. She leaned into him, shaking hard, trying, without success, to catch her breath, as the pounding feet drew closer.

“John, I can’t do this.”

He gripped her shoulders hard.
“Sara, you
can
do this. You are going to do this. Now go. Go.”
He squeezed her hand and then she and the Harms brothers went into the bathroom and Sara shut the door behind them. Fiske looked around the office, fighting hard to get his composure. He spied a briefcase against one wall, grabbed it and unsnapped the lid. It was empty. He stuffed files from the top of Rider’s desk into the briefcase. As the boots boomed down the hallway, he raced to the small conference table set up in one corner. As he sat down, he heard the outer door open. As he pulled a file from the briefcase and opened it, he heard the inner door start to open. He leaned back in the chair and pretended to study some of the papers as the door opened. He stared up into the faces of the men.

“What the hell — ”
he started to say until he saw the machine gun pointed at him and fell silent.

“Who are you?”
Rayfield demanded.

“I was about to ask you that question. I’m here for a meeting with Sam Rider. I’ve been waiting ten minutes already and he hasn’t bothered to show up.”

Rayfield edged closer.
“You’re a client of his?”

Fiske nodded.
“Flew in from Washington this evening on a chartered plane. The meeting’s been planned for several weeks now.”

“Little late for a meeting, isn’t it?”
Tremaine’s eyes bored into Fiske.

“I have a very busy schedule. This was the only time I could meet.”
He looked at both men sternly.
“And why is the Army bursting in here with machine guns in the first place?”

Tremaine’s face flushed angrily, but Rayfield assumed a more diplomatic tone.
“It’s not our business, Mr — ”

Fiske started to say his real last name, but then decided not to. Rufus had known these men by name. That meant these men were somehow involved with whatever had happened to Rufus. If that was true, they might have killed Mike.

“Michaels, John Michaels. I run a real estate development company and Rider is my land-use attorney.”

“Well, you’re going to have to get another lawyer,”
Rayfield said.

“I’m happy with Sam’s work.”

“That’s not the point. The point is Rider’s dead. He committed suicide. Killed his wife and then himself.”

Fiske stood up, trying to make his expression as horrified as possible. It wasn’t too hard, given the fact that he was trying to scam two armed men, with two more armed men in the adjoining room. If he failed, he would be the first casualty, if Josh Harms had anything to say about it.

“What the hell are you talking about? I spoke with him recently. He seemed fine.”

“That’s all well and good, but the fact is he’s dead,”
Rayfield said.

Fiske sat down abruptly, looking numbly at the files in front of him.
“I can’t believe it,”
he said, slowly shaking his head.
“I feel like an idiot. Sitting in the man’s office waiting to hold a meeting. But I didn’t know. No one told me. The door to his office was unlocked. Christ!”
He pushed the files away, then looked up sharply.
“So what are you two doing here? Why is the Army involved?”

Tremaine and Rayfield exchanged glances.
“There’s been an escape from the military prison nearby.”

“Good Lord, you think whoever escaped is around here?”

“Don’t know. Fact is, Rider was the escapee’s lawyer. We thought he might hit this place for some cash or something. Who knows, the prisoner might have murdered Rider, for all we know.”

“But you said it was a suicide.”

“That’s what the police think. That’s why we’re here. To look around, catch the guy if he’s here.”

Fiske watched with a sinking heart as Tremaine headed to the bathroom door.

“Susan, can you please come out here?”
Fiske called in a loud voice.

Tremaine stared hard at Fiske as they all heard the toilet flush. And then the door opened partially and Sara came out, trying her best to look astonished. She did a pretty good job, Fiske thought, probably because she too was scared shitless.

“John, what’s going on?”

“I told these gentlemen about our meeting with Sam Rider. You’re not going to believe this, but he’s dead.”

“Oh, my God.”

“Susan is my assistant.”
She nodded at both men.

“I didn’t get your names,”
Fiske said.

“That’s right,”
Tremaine shot back.

Fiske hurriedly continued:
“These men are from the Army. They’re looking for an escaped prisoner. They think the person might have had something to do with Sam’s death.”

“Oh, my God. John, let’s just get back on the plane and get out of here.”

“That’s not a bad idea,”
Tremaine said.
“We can search the place a lot faster with you two out of the way.”
He once again looked over at the bathroom door. Holding his gun with one hand, he reached out to push the door all the way open.

“Well, I can tell you there’s no one hiding in there,”
she said with as straight a face as she could.

“If you don’t mind, ma’am, I like to see these things for myself,”
Tremaine said curtly.

Fiske watched Sara. He was sure she was going to start screaming. Come on, Sara, hold on. Don’t lose it.

Behind the door of the darkened bathroom, Josh Harms had his pistol pointed directly at Tremaine’s head through the slight gap between the door and doorjamb.

Josh had already sized up the tactical advantages he had, slight though they were. Vic Tremaine first, and then Rayfield, unless Rayfield got him first, which was a real possibility given Josh’s very limited field of vision. Well, there was no way he could miss the little Sherman tank of a target Vic Tremaine represented. His hand tightened on the trigger as his brother loomed over his shoulder, pressing his bulk up as far as he could against the wall. But there was barely an inch of space between him and the door. As soon as Tremaine touched the wood, it would be over.

At that moment Fiske started to stuff the files in his briefcase.
“I can’t believe it. First two black guys almost run us over and now this.”

Tremaine and Rayfield jerked around and stared at him.
“What two black guys?”
they said in unison.

Fiske stopped what he was doing and looked at them.
“We were coming in the building and they ran by us, almost knocked Susan down.”

“What’d they look like?”
Rayfield asked, his voice strained as he edged closer to Fiske. Tremaine quickly moved away from the bathroom door.

“Well, they were black, like I said. Now, one of them looked like he was ex-NFL or something. You remember how big he was, Susan?”
She nodded and then started breathing again.
“I mean, he was huge. And the guy with him was pretty big too, six-two, six-three at least, but a lot leaner. They were running like the devil and they weren’t young either. Forty-five, fifty if they were a day.”

“Did you see which way they went?”
Tremaine asked.

“They jumped in some old car and took off on the main road heading north. I’m not good with cars, I don’t know the make or anything, but it was an old model. Green, I think.”
He suddenly looked frightened.
“You don’t think it was the escaped prisoner, do you?”

Tremaine and Rayfield didn’t answer because they were rushing out the door. As soon as they heard the outer door open and the boots running down the hallway, Fiske and Sara looked at each other and then they both, as though tied together with string, collapsed onto the sofa. They reached for each other and huddled together.

“Glad I didn’t have to shoot you. You think fast on your feet.”

They looked up at the grinning face of Josh Harms as he jammed his pistol into his pants.
“We’re both lawyers,”
Fiske said hoarsely, still clutching Sara tightly.

“Well, nobody’s perfect,”
Josh said.

Rufus appeared behind his brother.
“Thanks,”
he said quietly.

“I hope you believe us now,”
Fiske said.

“Yeah, but I ain’t gonna take your help.”

“Rufus — ”

“Everybody’s tried to help me up till now, they’re dead. Except Josh, and we all almost bought it tonight. I ain’t having that on my conscience. You two get back on that plane of yours and stay the hell out of this.”

“I can’t do that. He was my brother.”

“Suit yourself, but you’re gonna do it without me.”
He went to the window and watched as the Jeep sped off, heading north. He motioned to Josh.
“Let’s get going. No telling when they might get the itch to come back.”

As the two men started to turn away, Fiske reached in his pocket and took out something, which he held out to Rufus.
“This is my business card. It’s got my office and home numbers on it. Rufus, think about what you’re doing. By yourself, you’re not going to get anywhere. When you finally realize that, call me.”

Fiske looked surprised as Sara lifted the card from him and wrote something on the back. She held it out to Rufus.
“That’s my home and car phone numbers on the back. Call either one of us, day or night.”

Slowly, the huge hand reached out, took the card. Rufus slipped it in his shirt pocket. In another minute Sara and Fiske were all alone. They again stared at each other, completely drained. A full minute passed before Fiske broke the silence.