[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
California anyway and wouldn t be back until spring.
Margo backed her snow-covered car into the garage and closed
the door. She got out and stood staring at the inside of the door,
trying to remember how to lock it. Then she saw the spring-
252 DAVE MEAD
loaded slide bar and walked over to examine it. After looking at it
for a minute she lifted the lever that held the bar in the unlocked
position and jumped when it shot home, locking the garage.
She felt rather smug about that. She didn t need Dan. She
inspected the small cabin, finding it wanting in several respects.
For one, there was no full-length mirror; also, the drapes did not
match the carpet, and the furniture . . . well, it was deplorable.
She found the thermostat and turned the heat up. At least the
baseboard heaters were adequate. She was very careful
unloading the car, so that she didn t hurt herself any more than
what Dan had done to her. She wondered about the scarring,
how many operations she d have to endure.
On the last trip in from the car she picked up the bottle of
ammonia-based window cleaner and carried it in, along with Dan s
Uzi that she put in the kitchen cabinet so that she didn t have to
look at it.
Because she had to pee, she started in the bathroom, spraying
all the surfaces with the window cleaner and wiping them down.
Once she was satisfied that the bathroom was as clean as her
deteriorating physical condition could make it, she sat on the toilet
and peed. The kitchen was next, but as it consisted of one four-
foot counter, like the one in the office, she realized, and a single
cupboard overhead, cleaning it didn t take long. The small range
and the refrigerator would have to wait until she felt better,
though she did put the groceries that needed to be kept cold in
the fridge.
She gave herself an injection for pain, another of antibiotics,
and then just before she lay down on the bed she opened her
power blue suitcase and took out a small leather case. She could
hear Dan calling her, at first pleading, then more stridently
demanding, she shook her head no, and with tears streaming
down her cheeks unzipped the case and took a pre-filled
hypodermic needle out and stabbed it into the muscle of her
upper leg. Dan was clawing at her mind, pounding on the inside
of her skull, as she slowly pushed the plunger down.
She sat there for the better part of an hour, feeling her own
identity become the dominant one. Feeling Dan s influence
recede.
STIX 253
You were a very bad boy, and I shan t let you out, she said,
remembering the pictures on the TV of the murdered woman.
She took a small chromed nine-millimeter automatic out of a side
pocket of her suitcase and laid it on the nightstand. She
shuddered, remembering the hours Dan had made her practice
with it until she sobbed with fatigue. And still he would not let
her quit. Day after day after day and the heat and flies. God!
How brutal he had been to her. Not until she could hit a small
can, placed on a bench, at least five times out of six would he let
her quit for the day.
Only after she realized that he would keep after her every day
until she was as good as he demanded did she settle down, stop
the theatrics and proceed to learn to shoot with deadly accuracy.
Only then did he let her rest.
Brute! Brute! Brute! She said, thinking of the way Dan had
treated her. At least he hadn t raped her like one of her friend s
brothers had done to his sister. She arranged the pillows so that
her hair wouldn t become matted, pulled the sheet up just over
her breasts and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Nine
Once back in Stix s office, which was going to become the
search headquarters for both Stix & Co. and the FBI, the three
mapped out a plan.
The four agents who had been the on-site team were recalled
from the Portland Airport where they already missed their flight
due to being held up in a traffic jam trying to get to the airport.
As Jane explained to Sam and Stix, their future depended on
results.
If they fuck up now, they will be permanently assigned to
research. They know it. We know it. She looked at Sam, But
they don t know that you pinned the tail on them. And in case
you consider the not-yet-offered offer, I would suggest that they
not ever learn it.
They went through three pots of coffee, trying to foresee every
possible move by the press, area police departments and the
fugitive, while they waited for the FBI agents to arrive. When
they got there Jane filled them in on what had happened and
what was going to happen. Then she sent two of them south, to
the towns of Yamhill, Carlton and McMinnville, to search for leads.
The other two would stay with her.
Before they left she said to all four of them, For the duration
of this investigation, if I catch any of you wearing a suit, a tie or
polished shoes, here s what will happen. I will strap your arms to
your sides, pull your feet up behind your back and tie one end of
a rope around your nuts and the other end around your ankles,
and leave you. Got that?
They got it! All four were remembering the summer before
when the Israeli Secret Service had left five Arab terrorists in that
256 DAVE MEAD
position for the FBI to find in the Mojave Desert. Leg cramps are
a problem, when the human body dehydrates. The FBI spin-
doctors had a little problem with that one, since the Arabs thought
that the Israelis were FBI agents.
An hour later, with the blessing of the Washington Brass, the
chase began to unfold.
Stix drove out to Cherry Grove and found the body, then
made a phone call from the 2nd house from the corner. While
she was on the phone a small barefooted child with a runny nose
watched her, scowling.
Jane and two of the agents arrived and began to set up a fairly
elaborate crime scene investigation and area search.
Sam was never seen at the site, but was in constant contact
with Stix via a mike. He also used night glasses, a tracking device
that gave her location to within a foot on his hand-held monitor,
and visual tracking when possible.
By the time Stix left the scene of the murder, the two agents
who were looking for clues to where Kingston might have gone hit
pay dirt. They had found two different store clerks in different
towns, one in Carlton and one in Yamhill, who had sold the same
type of groceries to a penny-pinching recluse. Things he never
bought.
By the next day when the press got to them, the clerks had
forgotten all about the agents and only remembered that it was
Stix who had talked to them. When an agent does his job right,
no one remembers him. And these agents were into doing their
job right.
Both clerks were excited to be on TV and to be a part of Stix s
investigation that put it together that something wasn t right. By
the time of their interviews they knew that the hermit was a guy
named Francis and that he lived some seven miles up the Yamhill
River Road.
Sam could tell from the way her crutches were squeaking on
the floor of the last store she was in, that Stix was getting tired.
He was wrong about that; she was almost ready to collapse.
She bought a cola, opening the top on the can while she leaned
on her sticks just outside the store. The wire she was wearing
STIX 257 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl ocenkijessi.opx.pl
California anyway and wouldn t be back until spring.
Margo backed her snow-covered car into the garage and closed
the door. She got out and stood staring at the inside of the door,
trying to remember how to lock it. Then she saw the spring-
252 DAVE MEAD
loaded slide bar and walked over to examine it. After looking at it
for a minute she lifted the lever that held the bar in the unlocked
position and jumped when it shot home, locking the garage.
She felt rather smug about that. She didn t need Dan. She
inspected the small cabin, finding it wanting in several respects.
For one, there was no full-length mirror; also, the drapes did not
match the carpet, and the furniture . . . well, it was deplorable.
She found the thermostat and turned the heat up. At least the
baseboard heaters were adequate. She was very careful
unloading the car, so that she didn t hurt herself any more than
what Dan had done to her. She wondered about the scarring,
how many operations she d have to endure.
On the last trip in from the car she picked up the bottle of
ammonia-based window cleaner and carried it in, along with Dan s
Uzi that she put in the kitchen cabinet so that she didn t have to
look at it.
Because she had to pee, she started in the bathroom, spraying
all the surfaces with the window cleaner and wiping them down.
Once she was satisfied that the bathroom was as clean as her
deteriorating physical condition could make it, she sat on the toilet
and peed. The kitchen was next, but as it consisted of one four-
foot counter, like the one in the office, she realized, and a single
cupboard overhead, cleaning it didn t take long. The small range
and the refrigerator would have to wait until she felt better,
though she did put the groceries that needed to be kept cold in
the fridge.
She gave herself an injection for pain, another of antibiotics,
and then just before she lay down on the bed she opened her
power blue suitcase and took out a small leather case. She could
hear Dan calling her, at first pleading, then more stridently
demanding, she shook her head no, and with tears streaming
down her cheeks unzipped the case and took a pre-filled
hypodermic needle out and stabbed it into the muscle of her
upper leg. Dan was clawing at her mind, pounding on the inside
of her skull, as she slowly pushed the plunger down.
She sat there for the better part of an hour, feeling her own
identity become the dominant one. Feeling Dan s influence
recede.
STIX 253
You were a very bad boy, and I shan t let you out, she said,
remembering the pictures on the TV of the murdered woman.
She took a small chromed nine-millimeter automatic out of a side
pocket of her suitcase and laid it on the nightstand. She
shuddered, remembering the hours Dan had made her practice
with it until she sobbed with fatigue. And still he would not let
her quit. Day after day after day and the heat and flies. God!
How brutal he had been to her. Not until she could hit a small
can, placed on a bench, at least five times out of six would he let
her quit for the day.
Only after she realized that he would keep after her every day
until she was as good as he demanded did she settle down, stop
the theatrics and proceed to learn to shoot with deadly accuracy.
Only then did he let her rest.
Brute! Brute! Brute! She said, thinking of the way Dan had
treated her. At least he hadn t raped her like one of her friend s
brothers had done to his sister. She arranged the pillows so that
her hair wouldn t become matted, pulled the sheet up just over
her breasts and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Nine
Once back in Stix s office, which was going to become the
search headquarters for both Stix & Co. and the FBI, the three
mapped out a plan.
The four agents who had been the on-site team were recalled
from the Portland Airport where they already missed their flight
due to being held up in a traffic jam trying to get to the airport.
As Jane explained to Sam and Stix, their future depended on
results.
If they fuck up now, they will be permanently assigned to
research. They know it. We know it. She looked at Sam, But
they don t know that you pinned the tail on them. And in case
you consider the not-yet-offered offer, I would suggest that they
not ever learn it.
They went through three pots of coffee, trying to foresee every
possible move by the press, area police departments and the
fugitive, while they waited for the FBI agents to arrive. When
they got there Jane filled them in on what had happened and
what was going to happen. Then she sent two of them south, to
the towns of Yamhill, Carlton and McMinnville, to search for leads.
The other two would stay with her.
Before they left she said to all four of them, For the duration
of this investigation, if I catch any of you wearing a suit, a tie or
polished shoes, here s what will happen. I will strap your arms to
your sides, pull your feet up behind your back and tie one end of
a rope around your nuts and the other end around your ankles,
and leave you. Got that?
They got it! All four were remembering the summer before
when the Israeli Secret Service had left five Arab terrorists in that
256 DAVE MEAD
position for the FBI to find in the Mojave Desert. Leg cramps are
a problem, when the human body dehydrates. The FBI spin-
doctors had a little problem with that one, since the Arabs thought
that the Israelis were FBI agents.
An hour later, with the blessing of the Washington Brass, the
chase began to unfold.
Stix drove out to Cherry Grove and found the body, then
made a phone call from the 2nd house from the corner. While
she was on the phone a small barefooted child with a runny nose
watched her, scowling.
Jane and two of the agents arrived and began to set up a fairly
elaborate crime scene investigation and area search.
Sam was never seen at the site, but was in constant contact
with Stix via a mike. He also used night glasses, a tracking device
that gave her location to within a foot on his hand-held monitor,
and visual tracking when possible.
By the time Stix left the scene of the murder, the two agents
who were looking for clues to where Kingston might have gone hit
pay dirt. They had found two different store clerks in different
towns, one in Carlton and one in Yamhill, who had sold the same
type of groceries to a penny-pinching recluse. Things he never
bought.
By the next day when the press got to them, the clerks had
forgotten all about the agents and only remembered that it was
Stix who had talked to them. When an agent does his job right,
no one remembers him. And these agents were into doing their
job right.
Both clerks were excited to be on TV and to be a part of Stix s
investigation that put it together that something wasn t right. By
the time of their interviews they knew that the hermit was a guy
named Francis and that he lived some seven miles up the Yamhill
River Road.
Sam could tell from the way her crutches were squeaking on
the floor of the last store she was in, that Stix was getting tired.
He was wrong about that; she was almost ready to collapse.
She bought a cola, opening the top on the can while she leaned
on her sticks just outside the store. The wire she was wearing
STIX 257 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]