Authors: Maddy Roman
T
he office was chilly
and I was late as I dashed to my desk. Back at work I was ready to face the world. Well, not really, but I tried to put on a good face.
"Good to have you back, are you ready?" said my boss as he poked his head in my door.
"Yes sir," I forced a smile.
"We'll schedule those dinners as soon as we can. I'll have my secretary call yours," he said. Was he leering or was I imagining it? I couldn't tell. Either way I liked him less every day.
As soon as he left I opened the drawer and looked for my antacids.
The day dragged on, I had piles of papers to read. Research to do for rulings that I needed to make. Finally, it was over and I was headed to my car. Turning the key in the ignition I was reminded of Daire's last visit, and a wave of sadness engulfed me. I knew it was right to set out on my own, not to depend on an undependable-superstar-hockey-god. Even if he said he wanted me around. But still I missed him. I reached up and pulled the chain from under my blouse and fingered the gold circlet he had left on my dresser. Wearing his ring made me feel better, but I didn't want to think about why.
My apartment was cold and dark when I got there, the emptiness didn't seem as welcoming as it had once upon a time. I tossed off my shoes and headed for my room and a hot bath to wash away the day.
The week proceeded that way, each day running into the next: work, home, bath, rinse and repeat. Literally.
On Friday I slipped out of work early to do a few errands, and got home as the mail was being delivered. A big yellow envelope arrived, there was no return address. Inside were our divorce papers. Signed by Daire.
I sat down hard on the sofa and held them in my hands. I had been waiting, and asking, for so long that I could hardly believe they were here.
Having them wasn't nearly the party I had expected. They made me sad. Why did divorce papers make me sad, and my work give me indigestion. Why had being home in Bloom been so much fun? The world was upside down and taking me with it.
Quickly I sealed the envelope back up and set it with my purse so I could take it in to the courthouse the next day. Oh, wait, Friday. Right. On Monday I'll take it …
My cellphone chirped and according to the display it was Ally.
"Hey," she said, "you coming tonight?"
"Oh, God, I totally forgot."
"How could you forget surveillance in a camper van? I mean c'mon it's not something you do every day, right?"
"No, no it's not. But Daire and I didn't part on good terms, well you know that," I paused, "he signed the papers, I'm holding them right now."
There was a long silence and finally she said, "And?"
"And I don't know. It's making me sad."
"Come back, the least you can do is help catch the asshole that's making Daire's life hell. Right? I mean, he did you a favor.…"
"It wasn't actually a favor, signing those."
"Whatever, c'mon, you'll be hanging with us, not with him. We can watch the game in the camper and when it's over we'll watch the parking lot."
"How are we going to chase a motorcycle in a camper?"
"This thing moves, you'd be surprised! Ha, no. Not really. After the game Justin will hop on his bike, and if there's someone to follow, he'll follow them."
"God, Ally, that could be dangerous! I'm not sure I like the sound of it."
"Well then come on down here and you argue with him! See you soon, you'd better get driving."
I slid the phone shut and stood in my apartment, staring at the wall and seeing nothing. Surely being there would be more fun than being here for the weekend. Alone. Eating tinned soup. And if anything happened and he got arrested again, I'd be there. And if nothing happened, I could just avoid him. He signed the papers, that was that, but I could still be decent.
I wandered around my house and filled a small bag for the weekend ahead. I wasn't going just to try and see him. Nope, huh-uh, that wasn't it at all.
If I hurried I could avoid the Friday night after work traffic and be at Ally's in time to join her for the drive to the lot. We'd need to get there early to decide the best spot.
Through some stroke of luck, I made record time to Ally's house, and got out of the car just as she was finishing loading up the camper. I peeked my head inside, "looks like we're set for snacks," I said taking in the cheese and meat platter, pork rinds, guacamole and chips, chocolate bars and a variety of flavored waters. "Quite the eclectic spread."
"Oh, you know, something for everyone," she said waving me inside. "You're just in time, sit and relax, we'll be there soon." The camper wasn't one of those huge bus-like things. It was a smaller style, a conversion van. The front seats swiveled to turn toward the back of the van when it was parked. With tables that folded out we had a place to put our snacks. In the back was a small bathroom hidden in a little closet, and some couch arrangements that folded down into beds, or that's what she said. It was pretty cozy.
If the whole thing hadn't been insane, it would have been lots of fun.
"I think I should mention that this is nuts, you know that, right? We should leave this job to, I don't know, someone else?"
"Who's gonna do it?" she said, climbing into the driver's seat. "The police don't seem interested, we could hire detectives I guess, but I'm pretty sure Daire doesn't want any information leaking to the press and that could happen. It's just us, his posse from way back," she grinned. "Besides when was the last time you had an adventure?"
"I, um. I don't know?"
"Well then you're overdue I'd say. Hang on to your hat sister, we're going on a ride."
And with a lurch we were on our way, Justin behind us on his Harley. Just Daire's hometown crew on a Friday night on the way to try to get to the bottom of a mystery and keep him out of jail.
W
e pulled
the curtains across the windshield and set up the snacks. Justin climbed in the van and joined us. He opened a compartment and slid out a silver-colored laptop, opened it and found the game streaming online.
I popped the tab on a flavored water and sat back to watch the game. The second Daire was out of the tunnel and headed for the ice I could absolutely feel it in my stomach. I had always imagined there was a thread that tied us together, that even when we were apart we were attached. My throat caught thinking about how it was well and truly over between us. I turned away and busied myself with the guacamole.
As much as I wanted to watch, I also didn't want to watch. I didn't want to see him skate across the ice with powerful strokes. I didn't want to see him pull himself up to full height and menace an opposing player. I didn't want to see him skate to win. I didn't want to see him at all. Except of course I did want to. I wanted to watch. I wanted to congratulate him. I wanted him.
The crowd roared and I looked up in time to hear the thunder crash and see the signature lightning bolts flash across the scoreboards as Daire scored a goal.
"Yes, Raiin!" Justin fist pumped the air and jumped to his feet.
I smiled in spite of myself, the guy still had it and he was putting it on display tonight. Totally like him to bury his emotions in the game. I felt extra sorry for anyone on the opposing team who crossed his path.
The rest of the game moved fast and before I knew it things were winding up. Daire's team had won. I thought about last time, when he took me home. He couldn't be trusted though. I had to keep reminding myself.
Justin and Ally had some kind of comm link system that they used on the motorcycle when they were out together. He took his half out with him and she sat in the driver’s seat with hers in her ear. We opened the curtains a tiny bit and had just enough space to peek through and watch the crowd. We were able to see the team bus pretty well, it wasn't perfect but we didn't want to be too obvious either.
It seemed to take forever for the cars to slowly filter out of the lot, and with the noise of the crowd and the engines it was hard to know if there was anything unusual happening. Eventually the masses thinned out though and we were able to get a clear view of the bus.
There were small groups of people, mostly men, gathered here and there in the lot, talking, laughing, sharing drinks, maybe eating together. It was hard to tell in the dark who might be menacing and who was just hanging out.
Justin was murmuring to Ally in the headset. He was on his bike and doing loops around the lot, just looking to see if anyone was acting shady.
We heard it before we saw it. The roar of motorcycles. Plural. And the roar of a crowd bent on destruction. Ally's hands clamped down on the steering wheel and her knuckles showed white. She contacted Justin and we spotted him, she visibly relaxed a bit knowing he was safe.
My stomach though was in knots. Where was Daire, was he safe? Was he staying out of this mess? I hoped he would but knowing him he was up for tracking just like we were.
And before I even finished forming the thought, a bike roared up next to Justin. The rider looked like Raiin but the bike wasn't the same.
"What's up with that?" I asked Ally.
"It's Raiin, he wasn't going to, and I quote, let someone else fight his battles."
"It doesn't look like his bike."
"Oh, yeah, he has a spare, it about killed him to ride it and not his own Justin said. But he wanted to make sure not to scare off the idiot that has him implicated here."
"And you left that part out when you talked to me?"
"Well, there wasn't really time," she said as she glanced at me.
I gave her the stink-eye.
"Okay, I didn't think you'd come if you knew, and I wanted you to be here so I maybe left it out. I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not. You should be here, and so should he," she said in her best mom voice. The she turned to face the window to make it clear she wasn't interested in any argument from me.
We didn't have time for this though, the crowd was getting rowdy out there. Some people were throwing eggs at the other team's bus. Others were yelling insults, there was more than one motorcycle circling, and of course Daire and Justin were out there too.
Then we saw it, the bike tricked out like Daire's roared to a stop directly in front of the opposing team's tour bus. The rider got off and right away I could see he was much shorter and less muscular than Daire. He began to rally the crowd, instigating trouble, yelling, waving his arms, and generally encouraging mayhem.
The headset Ally was wearing crackled to life and all I could hear was her side of the conversation. She covered the mic and said, "They're going to hang back briefly just so they can try to figure out who's who."
"Good, I'm worried, it looks like this could get ugly. And Daire shouldn't even be there, now he's on the scene."
"Alpha males, what are you gonna do?" she said shaking her head.
The noise increased and the crowd size escalated.
"Where are the cops?" I asked.
"Who knows, but it's a great question. They know there have been problems, they're here to direct traffic anyway, they should be all over this," she said, shaking her head. Her hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly again. I shifted in my seat, my hands were clammy and I dried them on my jeans. I tried to keep my eye on the motorcycle guy but the crowd was shifting and moving too fast. Then I saw him, leading a crowd that began to try to rock the bus.
Justin and Daire roared up on their bikes, trying to intervene. The crowd broke up a little and the guys began to try to herd people with their bikes, heading for the leader. He took off for his motorcycle and Ally started up the camper van and shifted it into gear, keeping her foot on the brake.
I fastened my belt and grabbed the door handle to brace myself. Our guys were right behind the lead biker now, the one with the copy of Daire's bike. He dashed to it and was mounted and out of the lot like a flash. Justin and Daire roared after him, and the van lurched forward as Ally applied the gas. We weren't as nimble as they were though and it took some time to wind around the crowd and lolly-gaggers.
I glanced in the side mirror and saw that without their leader the group seemed to have lost interest in vandalizing the team bus. At least we had managed to get in the way of that.
My attention was grabbed by the horn on the van, Ally leaned on it and slammed on the breaks as someone stumbled then fell in front of us. She managed to avoid a catastrophe and the person who took a spill slowly got up and limped away.
"Here you take this," she shouted at me and thrust the headset into my hands. I slipped it on and listened for a moment. All I could hear was white noise. "Hey Justin?" I tried, but got no response. I settled in to listen in case he decided to call us for back up.
"Which way did they go?" Ally asked.
"No idea, but I doubt it was the road to the city, go left here and we'll head out the back way, and check out the local roads."
"Right, okay," Allyson yanked the wheel to the left, cutting off several cars.
Suddenly the headset came to life, "Heading due west on on Hydrangea Highway,".
I repeated it to Ally, "Is that a code, we don't have a Hydrangea Highway here."
"Yep, it's the road that leads to Daire's house, actually, hang on."
The van lurched forward as Ally applied the gas, us in hot pursuit of Justin and Daire who were in hot pursuit of the imposter. I kinda hoped we got to them before the guys did him any harm, although he'd have earned it if they did.
A
lly dove
through the darkness while we scanned the road ahead for signs of the bikes.
"I can't believe we're doing this," I said, as I leaned forward to get a better look at the road.
"Me either, but it's better than Netflix and popcorn."
"I supposed it depends on whether you want your Friday nights to be relaxing. Which you obviously don't," I said glancing over at her. She was a study in concentration, scanning the road, keeping the big van on track, and listening to her headset.
"There!" she said, pointing to the road up ahead. I had seen them too, taillights, single ones moving back and forth, obviously not a car.
Glancing in my side mirror I hissed out "Uh oh, we have company," as behind us police lights flashed and reflected off the interior of the van.
"Dammit, where did they come from? We're gonna lose these guys. You think they're for us? Hang on," she said as she slowed and pulled to the side of the road. Before she got stopped the cars whizzed by.
"You don't think …?" she looked at me quizzically.
"Yep, I do think. Let's go!"
Ally pressed the van to the speed limit and just beyond, we wouldn't be any help to anyone if we got pulled over, which made the whole thing frustrating. It felt like a slow speed chase. As we rounded the next corner we saw the police cars pulled over with the two bikes, but the third, the unmarked one was nowhere in sight.
"Dammit!" Ally hissed.
"Now what?"
"We keep going, the boys will have to catch up if they can talk their way out of this."
Ally drove on, keeping at a sedate speed. Who would look twice at a conversion van with two women in it, right?
"Up ahead, look!" I pointed to where a motorcycle was parked alongside the road. The rider was walking ahead of it, looking at his cell phone.
"Do you think there's something wrong with it?"
"I'm not sure, looks like he's not going anywhere. What should we do?"
"Let's ask him if he needs help, then at least we can see who he is."
"You're not …"
"I won't pick him up, we can offer to call the police if he needs help though."
We wheeled up beside him and I rolled down my window, he was youngish, long blond hair. Short, not especially muscular, but not fat either. Lean. He had familiar looking eyes, though I couldn't quite place him. "Hey you okay?"
"Oh, yeah, thanks, just ran out of gas, I called for help," he waved us on by.
"Okay, just checking, good luck!" I said as Ally pulled onto the highway again.
"Did you see who that was?" she was fairly vibrating.
"Should I know him?"
"He's Clay's son."
"Clay the sheriff Clay?"
"Yeah, that Clay."
"What the hell?"
"Clay always did have it in for Daire, his kid is … what? Avenging him now?"
"I guess. It's kind of perfect. The kid does the dirty deed and makes it look like Daire. The dad looks in the most obvious place; the kid keeps making trouble." I paused, "We should get his picture."
"What?"
"Who's gonna believe us? We should get his picture, turn around!"
Ally looked over at me and she could see I was serious. "Okay, this is nuts, you know that, right? We shouldn't go back toward him."
"Yes, yes we should, no one is going to believe us. C'mon."
Ally slowed and pulled a U-turn heading back the other way on the deserted two lane highway. As we approached where the motorcycle was we saw flashing lights and a Sheriff car was sitting next to the bike on the roadway.
"Now what?" Ally hissed.
"Slow down, I'm going to get some pictures," I said as I released my buckle and climbed into the back. I leaned toward the window and set my phone to record. Ally slowed as we passed, and I leaned forward recording everything I could, Clay and his son talking by the side of the road. I was also hoping to get the license plate of the bike and the cop car. They looked up as we went by, looked right at us. Score!
As she sped up to drive away, her headset crackled to life, she was wearing it again. The guys must have been nearby.
After a brief conversation Ally drove and met Justin and Daire in a turnoff by the highway. She got out to go talk to Justin and I stayed inside avoiding Daire.
It didn't work. Of course. It never did. Why did I even bother?
He came up to the passenger side and rapped on the window. My heart hammered in my chest and my hand shook, I could feel tears welling up behind my eyes. I rolled the window down, but didn't speak.
"Hi," he said.
I blinked.
"Nothing to say?"
I shook my head no.
"Come with me."
"What?" I blurted.
"Come with me, I heard you have video, I need to see it."
"Oh, right," my disappointment was palpable as I realized it wasn't me he wanted to see.
I opened the door and climbed out, deliberately avoiding any contact with him. I walked to join the others and flipped my phone sideways so they could see it.
Justin and Daire's faces wore masks of concentration as they watched. I could feel the anger rolling off of Daire in waves and wondered idly if the motorcycle mischief maker knew just how dangerous a game he was playing.
"God damn it!" he shouted when the video was over. "That family has been on my ass ever since high school. That’s it, I'm not going to take it any more," he shouted as he stormed off.
I couldn't just stand there and watch him walk off in a huff, wondering about what he was about to do next to endanger his life, or his career, or both.
I jogged to catch up with him, and touched his arm.
He spun around. "Don't, don't touch me!"
"I just wondered where you were going."
"I don't know, run this kid off the road?"
"No, that's it, see, you can't do that."
"What can I do, take this to the police? Oh, wait, no, they are the police!"
"Right, I know. But let's think about this. Come back to Ally's house with us, I'm staying there tonight, and we'll figure it out."
"I gotta go home first, maybe I'll come by."
I eyed him carefully, "You're not getting away with that. I'll come with you, then you'll have to go to her house. You can't rocket around here all night dreaming of revenge. We'll come up with something, but I'm not gonna let you burn your career down for the pleasure."
He scrubbed his hands through his hair, and I realized he must be exhausted. He was probably only running on adrenalin. "I know, you're right. Killing my career is their job."
"Hang on, I'll be right back," I said and jogged back to the van. Ally was already in the driver's seat. "Did I see a spare helmet in here?" I asked, opening the rear door.
"Yeah, it's mine, I keep it nearby when Justin is out on the bike."
"Can I borrow it?" A rhetorical question since I was already putting it on.
"Sure, you coming by tonight?"
"Yeah, I'm just gonna keep an eye on him so he doesn't do anything to imperil his career."
Even as I said it I was pretty sure it would be nearly impossible to keep a lid on my six foot five inch powder keg of a hockey player, but I was ready to give it the old college try.