24. The Ambush
The Ambush
The black bag was small, and it had a piece of tape covering one end.
Its velvety canvas felt like silk to Belle; but a fear began to seep into her mind without filter.
The deep shadows of the night stretched into the room like fingers reaching for freedom; she looked to the parking lot.
The door was left ajar and their backup was nowhere to be found.
This made Belle nervous. She hesitated to open the bag.
“Open it,” James said, tapping Belle on the elbow. She looked at him and then at the bag; then turned it over carefully and grabbed the zipper on one end.
“Let’s take a peek, but leave its contents for the crime scene team to analyze and dust for prints,” replied Belle.
She unzipped it and peeked inside. Rings and diamonds, and earrings filled the bag almost to the top.
Brilliant and full of color, the gems glistened when the mustard-yellow light in the room filtered into the bag.
“Stolen Jewelry. From the robberies that Detective Hernandez was working on?” James said.
“Looks like it,” Belle said. She squeezed the bag and moved some of the jewelry around nonchalantly. As she continued, from the middle of the pile, the hard drive emerged. Black and ruby red on the sides with the words APOLLO on its back. She froze.
“The hard drive! From APOLLO. It was here!” James said, his voice quavering. “And all this jewelry?”
“From multiple robberies. I can’t believe this was here,” Belle said. “It looks like our thieves didn’t trust the men they were doing business with.”
“You’ll have to call him, you know. To come and pick up the jewelry. It looks like this motel was a stash house. Still doesn’t explain who hired them and why.”
“None of that matters anymore,” Belle said as she angled the bag towards him.
“Why?” James said, looking inside. “Because we got the tech back?”
“Yes, but it’s not safe here,” Belle said, her voice dropping. “We need to secure this immediately. Those men might be seeking this out.”
James nodded, and the two headed back out to their car.
* * *
In the distance, close to the motel, but just over the property line and behind a rusted, half bent, chain-link fence was a black SUV.
It had arrived not long after they did. It parked, but nobody exited.
Its brake lights glowed, and its exhaust, smelling faintly of gasoline, puffed out a gentle cloud that nourished the plants behind it.
“Look there! She has a bag in her hand. It’s just like the one the thieves brought,” Nazim said, watching from the driver’s seat.
The four men had driven from the restaurant in search of the package which Belle so gracefully found.
Belle unknowingly did the work for them, and now she was the target; Nazim watched as she pressed the bag against her body.
The four men put on black masks with rudimentary holes cut in them, then passed around pistols modified with switches and extended magazines.
“We need to be fast before anymore arrive,” Omar said.
And as the men opened their vehicle doors, a scuffle broke out just outside room six.
The lovebirds had a falling out. The man was being pelted with a shoe and a purse.
To flee, he grabbed her fake hair and yanked it off.
Then ran across the open lot towards one end and tossed the wig into a trash bin.
The woman was furious; she howled and cursed him.
Belle and James stood motionless and watched the scene unfold.
Moments later, a patrol car pulled into the motel parking lot, flashed its lights, and stopped short of the couple. The two patrol officers exited and went to work. Trying their best to stop the fighting. And protect the man from the furious and hairless woman.
“Wait. Look, the police are there,” Omar said.
“We must wait,” Ahmed said.
“We cannot wait. More will arrive shortly, and the package,” Nazim said, pointing at Belle. “Will go with them. We must strike hard and fast and leave before they call for help.”
“But Nazim, what about Amir? He will not like this. The risk is far too great.”
“Then I will tell him it was your fault we failed to acquire it, Salim,” Nazim said.
“Screw you. Let’s go,” replied Salim. The men exited their car and took cover behind a small bush just outside the parking lot of the Paradise Motel.
“We need to be fast like lightning. Before more police arrive,” Salim said as he took charge.
Suddenly, the four men emerged from behind the cover and opened fire on the unsuspecting Belle, her partner, and the patrolmen.
It was chaos. Bullets zinged overhead, crashing into the patrol car, destroying the ice machine, shattering glass, and the parked vehicles.
Belle dived in front of her car with James the moment the shooting started. The patrol cops weren’t as fast.