Chapter 13 Moving Parts
Moving Parts
ERIC’S GPS was surefire, which was a blessing, because weaving the Winnebago through the desert wilderness without ripping out its chassis was not easy.
After a few scant hours in Brady’s arms, Eric woke and slid out of bed, knowing that the only way to avoid the roadblocks was to wind through the desert and find some of the narrow back roads that the satellite showed.
He’d gone about half an hour when his earbud gave a tone. He hit it and heard the cool voice of Lee Burton. “You up?”
“Looking for the back way to the station in Baker,” he replied tersely.
“We got you on satellite. You’re half a mile from a military road that will take you directly south. Five miles down, you’ll find your west crossroad. It’ll get you to the sheriff’s office by oh-five-thirty.”
“You, sir, are a lifesaver,” Eric said, letting out a relieved breath. According to Brady, shift change was at six.
“That’s not all I got for you,” Burton said. “Ernie told me your cover, about the sidepiece with the love nest, and that got me and Ace thinking. Cuthbert has a wife and kids—he wouldn’t keep the phone there because too many people can find it, you feel me?”
“Yeah,” Eric said, remembering Brady asserting exactly that during their planning session the day before.
“But I came in to work early and ran his financials, and he’s got a spare apartment right square in the middle of Victoriana. Jason’s gone to pay it a visit to see if the phone doesn’t show up there.”
“Does that mean we shouldn’t do the station?” Eric would love to not have to break into a police station.
“No, look for the phone, because this is just a hunch. But also you’re gonna hear dispatch and plans and shit.
We may not be able to avoid all the action today, but you can bet your ass you’ll hear something useful.
If you’re feeling really bold, steal us a fuckin’ radio, hear me? You got a plan for how to go in?”
“I’m going in to complain about vandalism,” Eric said. “According to Brady, there should be one guy holding down the fort, and the dispatcher talking to the people in the field. While I’m making an unholy stink, he’s going to be sneaking around searching for the phone and doing crime.”
“Gotcha,” Burton said. “Keep your Bluetooth on, even if it makes you look like an asshole, and get out of there quick—especially if we recover the phone first, hear me?”
“Hear you,” Eric said. “And hey, there’s the road.” And thank God. He legit thought the camper was going to fall apart bolt by bolt.
“THE SHO’LL go faster,” Ace said reluctantly.
“The SUV is safer,” Sonny told him. And then his voice broke a little. “Besides, I see where this is headin’, Ace, and I can’t do that to a friend.”
Ace gave Sonny a fond look, their sweet touches of the night before in his eyes. He could argue for both sides, but the SHO was Sonny’s baby, and Sonny got a say.
“The SHO is pretty identifiable here,” Ace admitted as they stood under the auto bay in the dark. “You got that Forester primed?”
Sonny nodded. While the rest of them had planned, plotted, and discussed, Sonny had spent the last three days working on that SUV Brady had brought them in his spare time.
They hadn’t been able to change out the ID, but then, they hadn’t submitted change of ownership and weren’t legally required to for another four days.
And Ace figured Brady had other things to do.
Nope, this car was clean, impossible to track since it had already been declared totaled, and thanks to Sonny, it could probably go 40 mph above factory-spec top speed.
The SHO would blow them away, but the odds of anybody knowing where this vehicle came from and who was driving it were significantly lower.
“It would have made an exit,” Ace said wistfully, but then he brightened. “But this way, we can still race the SHO in two weeks, how’s that?”
“I wish you didn’t have to, Ace,” Sonny said softly, and Ace didn’t brush him off. He never did.
“Remember what we said?” he asked, although of course Sonny remembered. “You couldn’t stop working on cars if they tied your hands behind your back.”
“And they couldn’t stop you from driving ’em if they locked you up,” Sonny said. “I hear ya. Let’s get through this day.”
At that moment, they heard the whine of another SUV coming behind them on the desert.
Not many people knew this, but between Ace test-driving the SHO and Burton and Ernie finding privacy out behind the gas station before they’d found the cul-de-sac, there was a significant area of flat land out there.
He knew Eric and Brady had gone farther north to evade their gunman, but Jai had no problem picking out the well-worn flatness that would help him cut around the roadblocks they could see developing on either side of the garage.
Jai cut the lights almost as soon as they could hear the engine, but Ace looked at the sky, now gaining just a smidge of gray, and knew they would all have to cut out of there soon if they were going to do what they needed to do.
Ernie and George hopped out of the SUV about a quarter mile from where Ace and Sonny stood, and Ace pulled the keys to open the garage out of his pocket before calling to Dimitri, who was making pleased noises as he checked out the auto bay and the pit.
“Dimitri,” Ace said, “c’mere. You’re gonna meet your two coworkers today—they can operate some of the testing machinery you might not know, and they’re the only ones allowed in the cashier cage unless the cops are converging and you all need safety, understand?”
“Da,” Dimitri said. He was walking better in a pair of Sonny’s old boots stuffed with two pairs of socks, but if Ace could wave a magic wand and make the man’s feet feel better, he would.
“Look, man,” Ace said as Dimitri drew alongside.
“You’re gonna have to work some, okay? But don’t forget to use the stool in the pit if you need it, and take a load off every now and then.
Let Ernie and George work some too. If the cops leave you all the fuck alone, it’s still a long, hard day, you hear me? ”
“I hear,” Dimitri said and then smiled a little. “And I will not forget to let Duke out of the crate and put him on the leash for a walk every two hours. He is a good little dog. At the very least, I won’t fuck that up.”
“You’d better fuckin’ not,” Sonny said, but without heat.
They met out in the middle of the desert, as the first of the stars faded back into oblivion and the cold morning breeze picked up.
“George, Ernie, this is Dimitri,” Ace said as they drew near. “George, watch his feet, they’re fuckin’ ragged, and he’s gonna need to be on them. You know where the first aid shit is in the garage. Don’t skimp.”
“Will do,” George said cheerfully. In a plain gray hoodie, he looked like a college student, smiling benignly up at everybody, and Ace wished like hell they could leave him out of this.
“Ernie,” Ace said, “remember, we’re a smart bunch. If the shining takes you, I wouldn’t mind knowing, but don’t force it, you hear me? We like your brains in your head, right?”
“Ace,” Ernie said softly, “I love you and Sonny like brothers. I won’t steer you wrong.”
Ace ruffled his curly black hair in response, and Ernie added, “And good call on taking the SUV not the SHO.”
Ace and Sonny met eyes.
“Told ya,” Sonny muttered.
“Yeah, Sonny, you’re right a lot,” Ace conceded. “We’re driving the Forester right out of the garage when this is over—you three go get in place.”
To his surprise, George went in for a hug, and then Ernie did, and then they both hugged Sonny before George grabbed Dimitri’s arm and they strode back to the garage in what was almost the first light of dawn.
“Where are they?” Ace asked Jai, who had squeezed George’s shoulder as a farewell. Ace was pretty sure they said their goodbyes like he and Sonny did—privately.
“Nearing the station. Jason and Cotton are at the mistress’s apartment, and Burton is setting up the computer Eric left last night.”
Before this entire plan had changed and they’d been planning on using the cul-de-sac as a safe haven.
“We got the handoff plans nailed?” They’d planned two contingencies, depending on where they found the phone.
And if they didn’t find it in place A or place B, they were fully committed to breaking into Arlen Cuthbert’s home for it, although Ace was really hoping to avoid that one because there were kids there.
Arlen Cuthbert was a shitty excuse for a human being, but he’d been a corrupt sheriff for a long time. Ace was pretty sure he knew better than to keep a piece of incriminating evidence in the first place somebody would look.
Besides, Ace thought with a churning stomach, if Cuthbert was a member of that awful little circle, well then, he wouldn’t care, would he, about that level of soul stink near his children, but if he was trying to blackmail the people involved, well, it would matter. It just would.
“Da,” Jai said. “Burton’s motorcycle is gassed and ready. I am heading beyond the station to run interference, and you two are….” He shuddered. “The only image I have is of Indiana Jones, being chased by an entire indigenous tribe as he runs like hell for an airplane.”
“You know,” Ace said, “them poor guys had a legit complaint.”
“Da,” Jai said, “but I do not want them to catch you.”
“We’ll do our best.” Ace held out his hand and shook hard, then pulling up chest to chest he and Jai thumped each other on the back. “Be safe, brother.”
“You too,” Jai replied grimly. “Keep him safe as well.”
“With my life.”
And with that Jai strode back to his SUV, and Ace and Sonny took the long way around the garage to hop in the Forester.
They pulled off the hardpan while the sky was still mostly dark, and Ace drove like an honest-to-God citizen toward the lightshow that represented the roadblock.