A Pair of Second Chances (Ben Jensen Series Book 1) (10 page)

They returned from loading the second body, failing to see the six crouching Bosnians stacked up in front of the van. Kai had just pulled the rear doors of the van open, to get the chain and cement blocks, when they suddenly found themselves surrounded; with rifle muzzles pressed against they're backs and necks.

Only one man spoke. The ice in his voice made the Jamaican disposal crew shiver.

"Hello Gentlemen. Nice night for a cruise, don't you think? Go ahead and pick up what you're after. I'm sure we'll find a use for it."

"Zlatco, Jadranko, Milan, take the cars and go find a place to wait without drawing attention. Mirza, and Juka will come with me. You two," Raif gestured at the two Jamaicans,"just continue with what you were doing before we so rudely interrupted."

Raif laughed at them. Pointing at Kai with his rifle barrel as they carried their load down the gangway he told him; "You know, you're not half as stupid as you look!"

Chapter
10

Amanda had called the motel office, the night before, to ask for a wake up call. That call came through promptly at 6 a.m. as requested.

With the few possessions they had, it didn't take the two long to get them loaded in the car and be ready to roll. Amanda was about to put the key in the ignition when an idea struck her.

Though she didn't see how they could be following her yet, they had always found her in the past. Maybe, just in case, laying down a false trail would help. It sure couldn't hurt. With that thought she looked back at Timmy, already nearly back to sleep in his car seat, and told him; "Be right back Baby, I have to go to the office for a minute."

The boy just mumbled something, as he slid back to sleep in the early morning.

When she walked into the office with a road map in her hand the clerk behind the desk asked if there was something she needed.

"Yes, there is. I'm going to take my son camping! I was wondering if you could suggest which of these might be the nicer places." and she held the map up, pointing to several state recreation areas to the south, near the Nebraska state line."

The clerk replied that he and his father frequently went fishing at the Burke Lake area, and that's where he'd go, if it was his choice.

Amanda thanked him, and with the comment; "Well then, that's where my son and I will go then!" she shook his hand and gave him a bright, full face smile. If he was asked, she wanted him to be able to say; "Yeah, she said she was going south, to camp at Burke Lake!"

However, when she got in her car and started the engine, her car went west, not south. As she pulled away from the motel, the clock on the dash clicked over 6:45.

Unseen by her, at that same moment, a black Yukon was rolling down an exit ramp into the eastern edge of Mitchell, South Dakota.

Amanda drove steadily west, stopping only for fuel at Wall, lunch in Rapid City, and of course, for Timmy to pee. "I swear little man... You pee twice as much as you drink!" she teased him. The boy just looked up at his momma, and laughed.

That afternoon, though her map said the driving time should take her seven and a half hours, she found that she'd made it to Sheridan, Wyoming in eight, even with their many stops. "I better watch the speedometer better" she laughed to herself, "We don't need any speeding tickets! All I need is for some curious cop to find a gym bag full of twenty dollar bills!"

After they'd checked into their motel for the night, it still being not much more than mid afternoon, she asked Timmy if he'd like to go for a walk and stretch his legs. "I think I saw a park with a slide just up the road!"

Chapter
11

They had made two circuits of the main drag through town when Jamal finally told Terrance to pull into the lot of a Motel 6. His hand on the door, he told the others; "I'm gon' go ask around in here. Then we'll hit all the others down this road until somebody say they seen somet'ing. You jus' wait here till I come back." With a flip of his hand he slammed the door and walked into the office.

Less than two minutes later, a scowling Jamal came back to the car and climbed in. "Well?" Devon spoke first.

"What? You don' think I'd be grinnin' if one of these dumb honkeys knew somethin'? Just pull the car down to that one over there" he said pointing at the Roundup Best Western Motel across the street.

Jamal walked into the Motel office feeling like he was just chasing the wind. How was he going to find her in all these miles of open country? He'd never seen a land so big.

As he walked up to the counter he spoke to the young clerk who'd looked up as he came in. He made an effort, with little success, to reduce his Jamaican accent. "My Name is Jamal, I am an investigator with the CDI." He quickly flashed an ID card in a leather wallet in front of the young man.

"We are looking for dis girl" He said as he slid a photograph of Amanda Blake across the counter. "She is a fugitive traveling with a young bwoy. Have you seen her?"

The clerk started when he saw the picture. "A fugitive? Her?" he asked, looking from the picture to Jamal.

"Yah Mahn, a fugitive, she has crossed state lines with a kidnapped bwoy. This is an official investigation. Do you have any information? Have you
seen
her?" Jamal repeated, working hard at his bluff; trying hard to bully the man with a commanding, authoritative tone in his voice.

As is often the case, once you've broken through their reservation, and a person thinks they're being interrogated by the authorities... the intimidation factor has them answering questions, you've not even asked yet.

A black man, looking for a young blond girl, might cause a white boy to resist answering... but... a law enforcement agent, looking for a fugitive; well that's something else all together.

"Seen her? Hell yes." the clerk replied. "I had a conversation with her. She was standing right where you are now. Hell, she only left 20 minutes ago in that red Saturn they're driving. Stayed here last night. Asked about a good place to camp with the boy when she came in this morning. She said it was her son. I sent her to Burke Lake, State Recreation area south of here."

Jamal reached across the counter to shake the Desk Clerks' hand and grinning said; "You have been very helpful, Thank You Mahn. Helping us find her will get that lil' bwoy back to his father." Then, he turned and hurried back to the Yukon.

The three men sitting outside in the car saw Jamal come out of the office with a wide smile on his face. Terrance was the first to speak; "I be damned. He found her!"

Jamal supported that exclamation with the command; "Hand me the map" when he'd regained his seat in the car. "We just miss da bitch. She just left a few minutes ago... she's goin' to a place called Burke Lake. It be south of here. She's driving a red saturn... Start the car... Let's go."

Jamal, looked from Musa to Devon and back again; "I don' have a clue Mahn! All you got to do with these honkey fools is say three letters in a row, any three letters, flash a fake ID card and sound real bad... they lay down and whimper like dogs!" and every man in the speeding Yukon laughed.

Neither the driver of the Saturn nor the occupants of the Yukon in pursuit, had any idea that just thirty two miles separated them, as the two cars rolled west on the interstate that morning. Or, that the distance separating them had been shaved to only twenty eight miles, a half hour later. The occupants of the Yukon had no idea that the prey they'd unknowingly been closing on, slipped away when they turned south onto U.S. 281 at 7:45am.

Just twenty two miles after leaving Mitchell, South Dakota, following Amanda's Red Herring leading them to Burke Lake State Recreation area, the Jamaicans turned away from the woman they pursued, without ever knowing just how close they'd been.

Several hours later, after methodical but fruitless, cruising and searching, the pursuers in the SUV finally came to the conclusion that their prey had escaped. They drove to a cafe up the road a few miles, in the town of Winner. They found enough cell signal there for Jamal to call in a report to their boss in Chicago. "We'll wait right here Tyrone. We'll take shifts watching that phone. We're close, I can smell the bitch. When we get her, I'll call you."

Without any goodbye Tyrone hung up. The line went dead before Jamal had time to even close his phone. He looked at the phone in his hand for a few seconds before speaking to the others. "Musa, you take the first watch. Stay here in the car with that phone plugged in. I don't want that son of a bitch goin' dead now! We'll go inside, get something to eat and some coffee. You see anything... ANYTHING" he emphasized the last with a jab of his finger; "... you come inside. I'll send Devon out to relieve you as soon as he eats... Got it?"

"Ya Mahn... I see anything, I come get you." he repeated in understanding.

The balance of the crew walked into the cafe taking a booth in front, with a view of the parking lot. Their meal was ordered, and when it arrived, the road weary Jamaicans attacked it as if they were near to starvation. Apparently, coffee and donuts wasn't enough to sustain two hundred pound Jamaicans.

Except for what was required to give their orders to the waitress, not a word was spoken until the meal was nearly gone. All that could be heard at the table was the clinking of silverware on the plates and the slurping of coffee.

As he wiped up the last of the yolk from his, "Breakfast All Day", eggs with a piece of toast, Devon spoke; "What we gon' do Jamal? We gon' jus wait again for the bitch to turn up?"

Jamal looked up from his plate, forking the last of his own eggs into his mouth and looking at Devon as he chewed, saying nothing. He picked up his coffee cup, without speaking, still looking at Devon and took a long drink...

"No Mahn... we're not gon' jus' wait on dat bitch. You go send Musa in to eat, while I think 'bout what we are gon' do."

Devon just nodded and silently stood up to relieve Musa from his phone watching duties; while Jamal pulled a map of the western states out of his jacket pocket. Pushing the dishes aside, he spread it across the cafe table.

"Look here Terrance... She left Chicago and came here. Somewhere, it don' matter where, she got herself a car... but she came here. Chicago to here is mostly west. She's been comin' west..." Jamal said as his finger marked a westward track across the map. "What she told that Motel clerk was bullshit... she don' come this way... she don' come back south... This woman is learning I think. I think she just tried to throw us off... she knew we'd be comin'... an she jus' tried to throw us off her track... I'm bettin' Mahn... she's still gon' west. There's nothing north, nothin'... jus' Canada. I think she's gon' west." As Jamal spoke the last, his finger stabbed the map in the general vicinity of Sheridan, Wyoming.

Terrance looked at the map and nodded his head. "Yeah Mahn, there's nothin' North... but" tapping his finger on the map, "There ain't nothin' here either Mahn".

"No there's not... but I-90 is here" replied Jamal, and running his finger down the track of I-90 on the map continued; "and it runs all the way... West."

Again, Terrance nodded. "Yeah... what you wan' do Mahn?"

"We can sit here, drink coffee and jus' wait... or we can move west. I'm bettin' that's how she gon'... so we gon' go west wit her... we gon' follow the highway a while and not waste time sittin' here. When the bitch turn the phone on again... we'll be a lot closer, than if we just wait here. We'll be close enough to grab da Bitch this time!"

Musa came through the door as he finished laying out their plan of action with Terrance. Jamal climbed out of the booth and faced the man as he walked up. "Musa" Jamal spoke; "Get your food and choke it down quick Mahn. We leavin' as soon as you're done." Then he turned and headed for the men's room to drain off a little used coffee.

As the Yukon pulled out of the parking lot twenty minutes later, Terrance looked across the seat and asked Jamal; "Do we need to call Tyrone an' tell him we movin'?"

"No Mahn... we need to find dis bitch!" was his only reply as the Yukon, rolling west, passed the city limits sign of Winner, South Dakota.

They'd wasted all day following Amanda's successful Red Herring, and left Winner after six in the evening. Looking at his map Jamal thought out loud; "nothing north... jus' this empty land... first big town west is Rapid City... She sleep good last night... Rapid is only maybe, four hours... she wouldn't stop that soon... she likely go on to..." his finger traced their course west, following along the line of Interstate 90... "to somewhere roun' about" his eyes scanning the map, settled on; "Sheridan, Wyoming."

The big man left the map on his lap, raising his hands to his face and rubbing his eyes. It had been twenty hours since they'd left Chicago the night before. He'd been roused out of bed at six that morning when Tyrone discovered that Amanda had made her escape, with not only his son... but $750,000 of his money as well.