Authors: Jade Allen
****
An hour later, Elizabeth was staring at
her hands in shock, trying to make sense of what she was being told. She kept
hearing Ella’s words echo in her head—she couldn’t
stop
hearing them
rattle around between her ears, no matter how hard she tried.
My boss is
partnering with the mayor to fill up the prison with drug arrests. My boss is
worse than crooked; he’s full on corrupt. I’ve been working for an irredeemably
corrupt man.
Perhaps it was this more than anything
else that finally fed her rage so that it burned hot enough to eat through her
shock. “So, the DA has a deal with the Mayor to plant evidence so they can make
drug busts, in order to, what…strengthen his anti-drug campaign?”
“In this town, it’s his last foothold,”
Ella said. Her voice was hollow and coarse from talking for so long, and from
being so thoroughly drained by the day’s events. Elizabeth could see the dark
circles under both of their eyes, even though the each of them had clearly
attempted to use stage make-up to conceal them. “A lot of his voters are
leaning more to the left, being swayed by their children or grandchildren. He
knows he’s on his way out, so he’s pulling out all the stops, hitting them
where they’re still vulnerable to alarmist tactics, or at least
impressionable.”
Chase was leaning back in his seat on the
couch, bouncing one muscular leg nervously in place as the two women spoke. He
hadn’t said much, and Elizabeth knew now that it was because he expected to be
turned to when she came to his part.
“How did you get wrapped up in this,
Chase?” Elizabeth said. “How did you ever find out about this?”
“I saw them,” he said simply, and his
green eyes hardened as he recalled the incident. “My cousin has been to jail
for misdemeanors twice, and he’s half black, so he was an easy target for
Hare’s camp, I guess. I was smoking a cigarette in a field behind his house,
and I saw two cops slip into his living room. I crept up on them to watch
through the window, and they put something in the cushions and slipped right
out.” Chase slammed his fist on his leg, and Ella jumped at his sudden burst of
movement. “Before I could get back in, the cops were beating down the door with
guns drawn. I’m not proud of what I did.” The man closed his eyes and dropped
his chin. “I high-tailed it out of there.” His voice choked on his last words,
and as he pressed one hand to his eyes, Elizabeth realized he was tearing up.
Is
he really doing this?
She thought uneasily.
Is this a ploy to get me to
believe him?
Then his broad set of shoulders began to
shake, and she felt a icy tide guilt wash over her all at once. Elizabeth
waited for Chase to raise his head again before speaking. “It’s a human
reaction,” she allowed, keeping her gaze as gentle as possible. “Fight or
flight. You’re not trained to fight, so it’s flight. Nothing to be ashamed of.”
Chase laughed bitterly and wiped his eyes.
“Maybe so, but I got what was coming to me for skipping out on their blood.
They saw me, and even though they didn’t catch up with me right away, they
caught up with me.” He stood then, and lifted his t-shirt to show Elizabeth a
six-inch long gash running from his collarbone to just below his heart. Even though
it had clearly been sutured and healed over, it was such and angry red color
that Elizabeth knew it had been an incredibly deep cut. She gasped
involuntarily, but didn’t flinch away from the wound.
This is real,
she
thought frantically.
They really tried to kill this man for catching them
planting evidence.
“Before that, I had started spreading word
around, trying to see if anyone else had experienced anything similar with
these guys,” Chase continued, dropping back onto the couch. “I had a little
information, but most people were too afraid now to get back to me. Hare’s men
sent their message, even if I didn’t die. Even so, they can’t have me living to
tell the tale more…so they planted a load of synthetic drugs in my place. They
even tested me when they brought me in, three times—but because they were
negative, they were discarded as inconclusive, and they tried to get me to
consent to another test. I didn’t, because I know the more I cooperate, the
faster they can get me in prison to finish me off.”
“They can also throw you in jail for
obstruction of justice, or something lesser,” Elizabeth pointed out. “Why
haven’t they yet?”
“Because they’re so confident they have
him cornered,” Ella said, and her cheeks were high with color as she spoke.
“They’ve been sending us taunting emails from untraceable IPs, telling me I’m
going to lose my “cash cow” to a sacrifice, things like that. At first it was
just words, then they started sending us pictures and videos of…” Ella stopped
and gasped, pressing her fingers to her mouth so hard that the skin around her
lips turned white as a sheet.
“Really dark stuff,” Chase supplied for
her, and he patted Ella’s shoulder comfortingly. “They took pictures of our
families and loved ones and burned them, or arranged them so their bodies
looked…torn up.” He swallowed his disgust and looked at Ella again. The look on
his face was so tender that Elizabeth almost mistook it for romantic love, but
she knew the agent was happily married for the last two years. Arrogant and
spoiled though he seemed at first, Chase wasn’t a leech; in fact, being around
him was completely different from what she’d anticipated, even given the
circumstances. She felt relaxed and alert, and most of all, comfortable; it
unnerved her, but not nearly as much as it should have.
What is this cowboy
doing to me?
“Okay,” Elizabeth said finally. “Say I
believe you. Do you have proof—any evidence at all—of the mayor and his men
targeting you?”
The silence gave her all the answers she
needed to know.
Great. If I don’t figure this out, a lot of people can and
probably will die. How the hell am I going to get out of this?
“We have some ideas, though,” Chase said,
seeing the despair on her face. “And some surveillance footage being sent from
a remote location.”
“I thought no one wanted to come forward
to help out?”
“Well,” Ella said, “No one who could help
us…legally. This footage isn’t exactly theirs.”
Elizabeth. “You found a hacker? Great!
That’s a step, honestly.”
A small one, but a step.
Hackers were often
called as witnesses, and she could always find a way around telling the whole
story about the source of the footage. Truthfully, she would have latched on to
anything just about now, but this was a real, viable possibility. She stood up,
excited to have a plan of action for this awful situation.
Chase sighed and stood “This is life or
death for me, so I’ll try anything.”
Elizabeth shuddered at his phrasing, but
she knew in her heart he was telling the truth. She couldn’t agree to represent
him without evidence, but she could feel the truth of his words deep in the
marrow of her bones. What had Douglass said to her?
This case is going to
bring our little country town lots of attention.
You’re damn right it is,
she
thought viciously.
Just not for the reason you think.
****
Elizabeth wanted to take her own car to
the Chase’s home, but Ella didn’t want to be split up from anyone (“Horror
movie rules,” she’d half-joked), so she ended up driving them both. Ella
complimented her mint green Honda profusely as they got in, and Elizabeth
guessed that this was the way she tended to show her nerves.
There are worse
ways to be in a panic,
she thought.
Like spineless, or rash.
She eased her car onto the main street,
noting the emptiness of the streets once more during her drive from work.
Wait,
there’s one car,
she thought as she glanced in her rearview mirror.
Must
be coming home from work.
Two turns later, however, Elizabeth was
starting to have second thoughts. The black sedan behind them had tinted
windows, and the driver was wearing huge shades, so he looked just like any
other non-descript white man under the age of 65. She couldn’t even make out
his hair color, or if he kept it short or long. Panic started to crowd in on
her, and she struggled to keep her breathing steady as the sedan followed her
down three more blocks and made the same turn as they did. Chase was idly
giving her directions as they went along, completely oblivious to the
possibilities of the death he cheated tailing them in the shiny sedan.
Calm down. They might not be following
you; they could just be driving home.
You know they’re not!
a voice in
her head screamed.
Gun it!
Instead, she waited for the next yellow
light, slowed, then turned left at the last possible second.
“What the hell are you doing?” Chase yelped
as the car shot forward and his barrel chest strained against the seat belt.
Elizabeth took a sharp right and then careened around a corner in a final
left-hand turn before performing a quick U-turn and parking between two SUVs in
front of a donut shop. “Why are we stopping?”
“
Ssh!”
“
Why?” Ella asked, her voice high
with panic. “Why do we have to shush?”
Elizabeth kept her eyes on the street
behind them in the rear view mirror. “Chase, watch the street in front of us
and tell me if you see a car. Shut up,” she snapped as he started to speak.
“Just do it.”
Chase fell silent, but did as he was
told. A bead of sweat rolled down Elizabeth’s neck as she watched her mirror,
waiting for the black sedan to slip around the corner and coming crawling down
the street in search of them.
Why did I think I could handle this? Why did I
try to be the bigger, badder person?
A full minute passed. “Elizabeth, what’s
going on?”
She sighed and leaned back in her seat,
letting the anxiety drain away before she answered him. “I’m sorry, I thought
we were being followed, and I wanted to be sure.” She flashed Chase an
apologetic smile, and the anger on his face swiftly transitioned to flirtatious
humor before settling on a tired cheer.
“You know,” Chase said teasingly, “On
another day, I might accuse you of just trying to take me on a ride to wear me
out and seal the deal.”
Elizabeth gawked at him, then laughed so
hard genuine tears came to her eyes.
“What’s so funny?” Chase asked, frowning
in what appeared to be real confusion over her hysterical laughing.
“How can you flirt at a time like this?”
Chase grinned at her, and it turned both
of her legs to jelly so fast that she was immediately thankful that she was
sitting down. “How can I not?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Chase winked and leaned over to her,
beckoning her closer with the crook of one finger. She leaned in and caught a
whiff of his cologne, something spiced with a hint of cherry. “When you smile,
I almost forget someone is trying to kill me.”
Elizabeth giggled shrilly, and was
immediately ashamed that the noise came out of her at all.
What the hell is
wrong with me?
She caught sight of Ella in the mirror and saw her rolling
her eyes.
“Does he do this a lot?” Elizabeth asked,
smiling in spite of herself.
Ella chuckled. “Yeah, but never so
earnestly. You can usually tell it’s fake.”
That wasn’t fake?
Elizabeth thought
blankly. It set a handful of butterflies flapping around her abdomen, then she
scolded herself:
This is a client, and a cowboy. Neither of those are good
for dating.
He seems more like an actor than a
cowboy,
a small voice in her said shyly.
Rodeo cowboys are mostly tricks
and charm.
He’s still a client,
she
told herself firmly.
Now focus on the task at hand.
She started the car again and was making a
three point turn when she noticed a brown box in the middle of the road, and
the black sedan speeding away. Her heart stopped beating, and her mind raced
with the possibilities: was someone trying to get something to her? Was she
meant to run it over and damage her car? Was it simply something to slow her
down—or worse, keep them there while someone picked them off with their weapon
of choice?
Drive! Kick them out, peel off and
never look back!
But she couldn’t. There was only one thing
to do.
Elizabeth took a deep breath and put the
car in park. “I’ll be right back,” she said as she unclipped her seat belt.
Chase’s eyes grew wide with fear; he looked between the box and Elizabeth, and
started to shake his head.
“Wait…that black sedan probably left that
box. Elizabeth, don’t—“
But she was already out of the car by the
time he ended his sentence. She took a nervous look around in each direction
and shuffled over to the box, making sure not to cross in front of her
headlights and block her best source of illumination.
I wish I still carried
a gun,
she thought. Then again, it would not have been as useful at finding
out what was inside as her hands and eyes would prove to be. She took another
deep, shaking breath, bent over, and picked up the box. When it didn’t explode,
she carried it over to the hood of her car and plopped it on the body of her
Honda before opening the flaps.
It was a plain white case file with inch
high red lettering on the front: FOR ELIZABETH. She took the file in her
trembling hands, noting how incredibly light it was. She opened the file to
find a single sheet of a paper covering a glossy black and white print photo
taken from outside a window. The camera was trained on a spot a pair of open
drapes, where a woman in a large red sweater was standing without pants,
holding a bottle of Jack Daniels. After a moment, Elizabeth recognized the
sweater and the thick legs as her own, and the photo was from two days before.
They’d been watching her—and worse, they had been watching her since before she
knew she was taking the case.
What the hell? What is this? A warning? A
threat?
Her mind was churning through the
possibilities so fast she was beginning to feel sick. Elizabeth sprinted back
to the driver’s seat and got into the car, handing the file off to Chase
without thinking. He looked at the file with faint confusion, which quickly
morphed into fear.
“They’re watching you, too,” he whispered.
Elizabeth nodded. “I think we should go
get that footage now.”