Evil Agreement (15 page)

When she rounded the corner, she didn’t see anyone. There was
a sound below her. The person had taken the stairway to the floor below and had
exited the motel. She ran back to her room and tiptoed past the now sleeping
Aaron to the open window.
Korie
surveyed the parking
lot for any sign of the person who had been listening at their door.

Across the parking lot, in the dawn of the soon to be rising
sun, she spotted someone sitting in a pickup truck. The truck started up and
pulled quickly away. She couldn’t see the license plate. All she could note was
that it was an old truck, dark green or black in color. She thought the person
driving the truck was a man, but even to that she couldn’t be sure.

What the hell was that person up to?
she wondered.

Her mind began to fill with all sorts of possibilities.
Meanwhile, she still had to use the bathroom. Before she did, she locked their
motel’s room deadbolt lock, the chain latch and the sash lock. She wasn’t going
to take any chances.

When he gets up later, we’re going to have a little talk
and settle up on a plan, that’s for sure. No more free wheeling,
she
thought as she closed the bathroom door behind her and flipped on the light
switch.

18

Ed Townsend couldn’t wait to consult with the other coven
members. He had cultivated sources, spies and informants, all over the greater
Sutton area. Many were fellow church members. Others, mercenary by nature,
provided tips to Ed for a fee or a favor. One of his paid informers had been
driving around the area’s motel parking lots. Ed had obtained Aaron Powell’s
license plate number from the State of Massachusetts
Motor Vehicle Registry. He had a friend, whose
daughter Ed had once saved from a life of crack and prostitution, who worked
high up in the ranks of the Registry. He was only too happy to oblige Ed’s need
for information.

The informer, Teddy Hawkins, was a nervous sort. He had spent
half his life as a patient of Vermont’s
State Mental Hospital,
in Waterbury. With drugs he could
generally keep his bad habits under control. His bad habits included torturing
small animals and petty larceny. Ed would frequently settle Teddy’s problems
before they landed in court. During his drive back to Vermont, Ed had placed a
call to Teddy and another couple of “scouts,” as he often referred to them, to
be on the look out for Powell’s car. It was Teddy who had come through.

Teddy was quite excited about his having found the Powell car
parked in the back of the Ethan Allen
Motel. He was carried away with his
find. Ed had offered one hundred dollars for anyone spotting the vehicle. Teddy
had earned the reward, but went looking for more. He wanted to impress Ed.
After Teddy had located the car he decided to go one step further. He would get
a look at this Powell
fella
. If Ed wanted a
description, then Teddy could step up to the plate, “
Yessirree
,
and hit one out of the park.”

Teddy had approached the motel’s night clerk with a story
that he had noticed that one of the guest’s car had a flat tire. He just wanted
to get word to the person, so they could get it taken care of bright and early
in the morning.

“A traveling person doesn’t need to be surprised by bad
news,” offered Teddy.

“I guess you’re right,” said the night clerk as he wrote down
the number of the license plate and description of the car Teddy had offered
moments before.

“I guess you’ll let him know in the morning,” said Teddy.

“Yeah, I’ll leave a note in their box and I’ll slip one under
their door later, when I go off shift.”

“Do you mind if I help myself to a coffee?” asked Teddy.

“No, go right ahead.”

Teddy sauntered over to the continental breakfast table and
poured himself a cup of coffee. While he was making himself the coffee, he
watched the night clerk place a note in a numbered slot, Powell’s room. He now
had Powell’s room number.

“Thanks for the coffee,” said Teddy as he left the motel.

The night clerk waved his good-bye.

Teddy headed straight for his truck. He pulled it around back
and parked it a couple of spaces down from Powell’s car. He was planning to
wait until morning to get a look at Powell, when the motel’s back entrance door
opened and was propped open by a man using a small box. Teddy quickly left his
truck and headed straight for the now opened door. Motels usually lock their
doors at night, so that only guests may enter or exit using their passkey.

A guest was apparently getting up extra early to head out on
the road. Teddy passed him on the stairs. The two men avoided eye contact, each
for their own reason.

The motel is usually quiet at this time of the morning. It
was nearly five in the morning. Teddy slowly approached the room he believed
Powell was staying in. He reached the room and stood still at the door. He put
his ear to the door and listened for any sound.

He heard a man’s voice. It was then followed by a woman’s
voice. He shuffled his feet at the door. He tried to appear like he was trying
his room key for the benefit of the motel’s security camera located at the far
end of the hallway.

Teddy heard someone’s feet padding across the floor heading
towards the door. He broke to his left and ran for the stairs.

He heard a woman call out, “Hey, wait up,” only he wasn’t
going to wait.

Once out in the parking lot, he ran for his truck. He had to
get away before anyone could get a good look at him. If Ed knew what he had
tried, Ed would be furious. If he could make a clean getaway, Ed would never
have to know.

Teddy pulled his truck out of the motel’s parking lot and
headed straight for Ed Townsend’s house.

Ed was pleased with Teddy’s information. He pressed a couple
of fifty dollar bills into Teddy’s sweaty palm.

“
Ain’t
you going to check it out
first?” asked Teddy.

“No need, Teddy. I have a good idea what he’s up to. Besides,
he’s probably still sleeping. He doesn’t know we’re on to him, does he Teddy?”

“No...No he doesn’t, Ed. I mean, how could he, right?”
answered a plainly nervous Teddy Hawkins.

“Now Teddy, make sure you take your medicine today. You’re looking
a little tight, so get some rest. Remember, I don’t want to have to come and
get your ass out of the slammer again anytime soon.”

“I’ll be okay, Ed, I promise.”

Teddy left and climbed back into his pickup truck. He
adjusted his Montreal
Expo’s
baseball cap and then
backed out of the driveway. His mind was now on the stray cat he had picked up
at the Town’s dump yesterday and what he was going to do to it.

Ed watched Teddy leave.

The scum that life serves up,
thought Ed.

Ed went back inside. He had some planning to do. First up
would be to contact Samuel and bring him up to speed on what Ed’s uncovered so
far. Ed knew he had no choice on this. Moloch had chosen a new leader and a new
leader it was. It didn’t matter to Ed who the leader was, only that they get
the job done. Ed’s years of police work had programmed him to respond to the
pursuit in a matter of fact way. His altered state,
Kratua
the master torturer, was one impatient devil. However, even
Kratua
recognized the importance of landing the Powell male and therefore didn’t push
Ed to hard. They both would have their satisfaction before all of this was
over, of that they were both certain.

Korie
pulled the covers off of
Aaron. She had opened the curtains to their widest position.

“C’mon, Aaron,” she said as she shook him awake.

Aaron rubbed his eyes with both hands in that little boy way,
thumbs tucked inside clenched fists.

“What time is it?”

“Never mind what time it is. I think that whoever was
following your mother now knows we’re here. We’ve got to move out of here,
pronto.”

“All right, just let me have a moment in the toilet, okay?”

“Sure, but hurry, I’ve already packed for both of us.”

Aaron shuffled off to the toilet and closed the bathroom
door.

Korie
heard the toilet flush. In a
moment Aaron emerged. He had splashed water on his face.

“Okay, I’m ready.”

They picked up their bags and opened the door.
Korie
looked down the hall to the left and then the right.
The hallway was empty.

“Hurry,” she said.

They headed down the hallway, down the stairs and out the
back entrance. They both headed to the car. Aaron started it up and pulled it
around to the front of the motel.

“We’ve still got to check out,” he said.

“I know. You wait here. I’ll go,” she said.

She took her purse and ran into the lobby of the motel. Aaron
sat in the car with the motor running. The morning was foggy and cool. Aaron
had to turn on the windshield wipers. Directly across the large parking lot sat
an eighteen-wheeler. Its engine was also running. Aaron thought he could see
the trace outline of the driver sitting in the cab.

Is he watching me?

Aaron couldn’t be sure.
Who was
Korie
talking about this morning? Who was watching? When and from where?

As his mind began to fill with nervous paranoia he spotted
Korie
running out of the motel’s lobby. She quickly entered
the car.

“We’re all set.”

“Good.”

“Let’s go.”
 

“Fine, where?”

“I don’t know.”

“Me either.”

“Well, we can’t just sit here.”

“You’re right.”

“I’ve got an idea,” said
Korie
.

“Let’s hear it.”

“First, we’ve got to get rid of this car.”

“Why?” asked Aaron.

“Because earlier this morning I think whoever was watching us
also knows what we’re driving. We need to dump this car today.”

“Well, according to the Vermont
map, we’re only about thirty-five miles from Burlington.
It’s Vermont’s biggest city.
There must be a place we can get rid of the car. You know, maybe a car dealer
or something.”

“Sounds fine, let’s go.”

Aaron looked away from
Korie
and
back across the motel parking lot. He put his car in gear and pulled out of the
parking lot onto the street. He turned left at the light and headed back to
Interstate 89. In his rearview mirror, he noticed that the truck had also
pulled out of the parking lot. Smoke was pushing out of the truck’s twin exhaust
stacks.

Aaron took the entrance ramp heading north on the interstate
highway. For a few moments the truck was no longer in view.

Korie
started to tell him about the
incident outside their motel room door.

Aaron was only half listening. He pushed the car’s speed up
to sixty-five. He was pulling away from the slower truck.

“You were having some kind of bad nightmare. You were sitting
in that small straight back desk chair. I wasn’t sure if I should try to wake
you up. You know what they say about waking someone up who’s having a
nightmare? Anyway, when I touched you, it must have broken the spell that the
nightmare had on you, because you sort of woke up. I helped you to bed and you
were asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow.”

Korie
continued to relate the
morning’s event, but her voice began to trail off. Aaron could see in his
rearview mirror that the truck had closed the distance between them. It was now
less than a half mile away and closing. Aaron stepped on the accelerator and
the car’s speed shot up to seventy-five miles an hour. Aaron looked back up
into the mirror. The truck wasn’t closing anymore.

Aaron pulled to the left lane to pass a Volvo station wagon.
He looked up to his mirror again and the truck was somehow now only a couple of
hundred feet behind him. It was in the left lane and gaining.

Aaron griped the car’s steering wheel so hard his knuckles
were turning white.

Korie
noticed that Aaron was not
really focused in on her detailed narration. He was perspiring and seemed nervous.

“Aaron, what’s wrong?”

“We’re being followed. It’s that big rig directly behind us.”

Korie
turned around and looked out
the car’s back window. All she could see was the massive grillwork of a
Peterbilt
Diesel, Roadway Special. The truck couldn’t be
more than five feet off their rear bumper.

“Step on it, Aaron.”

“I am,” he answered.

Aaron had his car doing ninety-five miles per hour. He passed
a couple of cars in the right lane so fast that they seemed to be frozen in
place.

“He’s closing in again, Aaron.”

Aaron looked in the mirror and all he could see is the
truck’s chrome grill.

One hundred miles an hour and the truck was still there. The
two vehicles were flying along the left lane of the interstate. They were now
in an area known locally as Bolton Flats.

“I’ve got an idea. Hurry, fasten your seat belt.”

Korie
sat back in her seat and
buckled her seat belt.

“What are you going to do?”

The truck’s horn blasted at them. It blasted several times.

Korie
put her hands to her ears.
The sound was both deafening and frightening.

When the horns stopped Aaron said, “I’m going to quickly pull
into the right lane and put on my brakes. I’m going to just tap them hopefully
enough so that the truck will shoot right past us. Ready?”

“Ready.”

At
Korie’s
ready Aaron smoothly
pulled to his right and tapped his brakes. He was right. The truck driver
couldn’t attempt a similar maneuver at that speed without loosing control of
his rig. The huge truck and trailer shoot right by. Aaron was now behind the
truck. As he kept an eye on the truck in front of him,
Korie
looked back along the highway. She immediately spotted a police car with its
blue lights flashing racing towards them.

“Looks like we have more company,” said
Korie
.

Aaron glanced up into the rearview mirror and he too spotted
the police car. He then returned his sights to the truck, which was directly
ahead of him. The truck’s speed and Aaron’s by now had been reduced to sixty
miles an hour.

“The truck driver spotted the police car, too,” said Aaron.

The State of Vermont police car pulled along side of the
truck in the left lane. A voice could be heard coming from the police car’s
loudspeaker.

“Please pull the truck over to the side,” and as if for
further emphasis, “now.”

The truck put on its right turn signal and began to pull over
to the right side breakdown lane. The police cruiser pulled to a stop directly
behind the truck.

Aaron and
Korie
drove past the
truck and cruiser as they continued north towards Burlington.

Several minutes later, they pulled off the highway and headed
up Williston Road, into South Burlington. They stopped at a used car dealership
named “Randy’s
Dandeezs
.” After some haggling, they
sold Aaron’s car for at least fifteen hundred below its book value. After
signing over the title, they signed the papers for the used car they were
buying to replace the car they had just sold. Soon they were headed to downtown
Burlington. They asked Randy to recommend a good hotel. Without hesitation he
recommended the Radisson Hotel. Twenty minutes later
Korie
had rented a room for the two of them.