Chase, page 17
‘Where are they?’ he asked the girl. ‘Where are the men who put you in here?’
She could only shake her head.
‘I’m taking her back to the RV,’ Amy said, her voice catching.
David hesitated for long seconds then nodded, watching as Amy half carried, half dragged the terrified child back towards the hard shoulder and the waiting RV.
Then he hurried round to the passenger side of the police car and pulled it open.
He saw the shotgun immediately.
It was a Remington 870 pump action model and it was standing bolt upright, secured between the two front seats.
Almost without thinking, David grabbed it, pulling it from its housing, surprised at the weight of the weapon. He pulled open the glove compartment nearest to him and found a box of cartridges inside. These he also took, surprising himself with his blatantly aberrant actions. He backed away from the car, eyes alert for any movement but still there was no sign of the policemen.
Close to his feet there was a piece of fallen tree branch. David picked it up in one hand, snapping off part of it so that it left a jagged point. Using all his strength he jammed the point into the front tyre of the police car. It punctured the rubber at the side of the tyre with ease and the loud hiss of escaping air accompanied the car’s slight slump to one side. He did the same to the other front tyre then tossed the branch to one side and ran off down the dirt track back towards the highway, the Remington in one hand, the ammo in the other.
***
Exactly how long the child had been missing neither man knew.
The two policemen stood beside the stricken patrol car, one of them looking at the punctured front tyres, the other peering at the rear of the vehicle.
‘The shotgun’s missing,’ the second man said. ‘So’s the ammunition.’
The man with the thick moustache nodded then walked towards the highway, glancing in both directions.
He stood there motionless for a moment then returned to the patrol car and slipped into the passenger seat, reaching for the two-way radio.
‘Who are you calling?’ the second man wanted to know.
‘Wherever she is she can’t get far,’ the man with the moustache said.
‘What about the bodies in the trunk?’ the other man enquired.
‘We’ll take care of them. We have to find the girl.’
There was anger in his voice but also something that sounded like fear.
FORTY-ONE
The child was soaked in blood.
Her clothes were drenched, her hair matted and almost every visible area of skin was seemingly coated with the red fluid, much of it congealed now.
Amy looked helplessly at the child who simply stood in the rear of the swiftly moving RV gazing at her with eyes filled with fear.
‘It’s ok,’ Amy told her, softly. ‘You’re safe now.’
The girl looked at Amy, her eyes still bulging in the sockets.
‘Can you tell me what happened to you?’ Amy asked, holding the child’s hands.
The girl looked at her more intently and spoke one word.
‘Chase,’ she said, her voice catching.
Amy looked puzzled.
‘Is that your name?’ she asked.
‘Chase,’ the little girl said then promptly dissolved into floods of tears, flinging her arms around Amy’s neck and pressing herself close. Amy felt her body shaking uncontrollably.
‘It’s OK, sweetie,’ Amy cooed as she held the child, although, from the child’s appearance and the way she was shaking everything quite obviously wasn’t OK. It was as about as far from OK as things could get, Amy reasoned. ‘Did those men hurt you?’ Amy enquired but her question was met only by another barrage of sobs and wails as the girl clung on to her. Amy stroked her hair as she held her, blood from the girls matted locks smearing her hand. She could also feel it soaking into her own clothes as she held the child to her, trying to comfort her but knowing that it would take more than physical contact before this child ever felt anything approaching calm again.
David glanced back into the RV as he drove, seeing Amy holding the girl.
He sucked in a worried breath and glanced again in the wing mirrors of the RV, expecting at any moment to see a police car speeding up behind them.
Exactly what he was going to do if one did he wasn’t sure. The shotgun he’d taken from the police car was lying on the floor of the RV close to his seat, the ammunition stuffed in the glove compartment. Every time he looked down at the weapon his heart beat a little faster, the magnitude of what had happened hitting him a little harder each time he allowed himself to consider it.
He decided it was best not to consider it. The repercussions were too much to bear at the moment, David told himself. He couldn’t think straight. His only mission was to keep driving, to get them as far away from the disabled police car as possible. It wasn’t worth thinking about anything else yet.
He could see that the girl had stopped crying and was now sitting on the edge of the bed with Amy kneeling beside her. He could hear Amy murmuring words quietly to the child but what they were he couldn’t make out. He gripped the steering wheel more tightly and drove on, noticing that the clouds were growing darker and thicker up ahead.
He thought about flicking on the radio but then decided it might be better not to. There might be something on the news already about the child. Police reports that she’d been taken and that police were already closing roads in an effort to find her. David sucked in a worried breath. The vision of what he and Amy had seen in and around the boot of that police car suddenly filled his mind but it made no more sense to him now than it had when they first uncovered the grisly find. Three children stuffed into the boot of a car, two of them dead. David shook his head, his mind still spinning.
‘She can’t wear those clothes.’
The words startled him and he turned his head sharply.
Amy was standing behind him, her hand on his shoulder.
‘We have to get her cleaned up,’ she went on.
David nodded.
‘She’s calming down,’ Amy went on. ‘I think she’s going to sleep. But the poor little thing needs some clean clothes and I want to get her into the shower to get that blood off her.’
‘Has she said anything?’ David wanted to know.
‘Just the same thing over and over again,’ Amy informed him. ‘She just says “chase” and that’s it.’
‘What the hell does that mean?’ he wondered aloud.
Amy merely shook her head.
‘It’s not her name, is it?’ David persisted.
Again, Amy shook her head.
‘I’ll pull in to the next truck stop and we can get her some clothes,’ David murmured, feeling Amy squeeze his shoulder gently.
‘We did the right thing, David,’ she said, leaning close to his ear. ‘I know we did. Someone had to help her.’
David reached up to touch the hand on his shoulder and, as he did so, he noticed there was dried blood on Amy’s fingers.
‘They’ll be looking for us you know,’ he said, quietly.
‘Let them look,’ Amy said, flatly and moved away from him back towards the rear of the RV.
He glanced round and saw her once again kneeling beside the bed at the back of the vehicle. The little girl looked at him and smiled.
David’s response was immediate and unhesitating. He smiled back.
FORTY-TWO
‘She’s sleeping.’
Amy sat down in the passenger seat, her gaze fixed on the horizon.
She ran a hand through her hair and exhaled wearily.
David glanced at his wife then concentrated on the road once again.
‘Has she said anything else?’ he enquired.
‘She’s probably still in shock,’ Amy told him, shaking her head. ‘I’m not surprised. David, why would they do that to three children?’
‘I wish I knew,’ David confessed, gripping the steering wheel more tightly.
‘Why would they kill them?’ she murmured, still gazing out of the windscreen. ‘I don’t understand.’
David swallowed hard and glanced again at Amy.
‘What have we done?’ he murmured.
‘We’ve saved a child’s life, David, that’s what we’ve done,’ she told him.
‘I wonder if that’s what the court will say.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘We took a child from a police car, then I disabled that car and stole their shotgun.’
‘They would have come after us.’
‘They’ll come anyway, Amy.’
‘We had to help her.’
‘Because she reminded us of Daisy?’
Amy shot him an angry glance.
‘Would we have done it if Daisy had still been alive?’ David asked.
‘But she’s not. You keep reminding me of that, David. Well, that little girl is alive now because of us.’ She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. ‘We couldn’t save our own daughter but we’ve saved her.’
‘For how long? They’ll come after us Amy.’
‘I know.’
‘They’ll come after her.’
Amy didn’t speak, she merely glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the sleeping child.
She waited a moment then got to her feet.
‘What are you doing?’ David wanted to know.
‘I’m going to sit with her,’ Amy told him. ‘Is that ok with you?’
He caught the edge to her words and tried to concentrate on the road again as he heard Amy make her way towards the back of the RV.
It was as he peered out of the windscreen again that he saw someone on the highway about two hundred yards ahead. David blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him but then he realized that there was indeed someone on the road, standing on the tarmac with arms upraised. Just beyond the figure there was a large vehicle that seemed to be parked half on and half off the highway.
‘What the hell is this?’ David murmured under his breath, his heart thumping hard against his ribs.
He could now see that the figure up ahead was a man and, the closer the RV got to him, the more frantically he began to wave. David eased up on the accelerator.
‘What’s happening?’ Amy called from the rear of the RV. ‘Why are you slowing down?’
‘There’s someone in the road,’ he told her. ‘I think he needs help.’
‘Don’t stop,’ Amy said, sharply.
David pressed gently on the brake, slowing the speed of the RV even more. Now he could see that the vehicle ahead of him was indeed stopped with most of its considerable bulk on the highway. Just the red painted cab seemed to be on the hard shoulder. The driver, or the man David assumed was the driver, was close to the back of the truck, arms upraised. As David slowed down to a crawl he ran towards the RV, a smile spreading across his face.
‘Hey there,’ he called.
‘Don’t stop,’ Amy said from the rear of the RV.
David ignored her, opening his side window as the truck driver hurried up to it.
‘Hi,’ the man said, smiling broadly. ‘Thanks for stopping. Two cars have already driven passed me.’
‘What’s the problem?’ David enquired, pointing towards the huge truck.
‘Blow out,’ the man informed him. ‘One of my rear wheels.’ He gestured towards the truck and David could see the black slicks of rubber on the highway where the rig had obviously skidded when the tyre burst. ‘I need to call for help but I lost my goddam phone. I was wondering if I could borrow yours to make a call, get someone to help me out.’
‘We don’t have a phone with us,’ David said, apologetically. ‘I’m sorry. We’re on our holiday, I mean our...vacation. We just wanted to get away from technology for a bit, leave the mobiles and the laptops behind.’
‘There’s a truck stop about ten miles right down this road,’ the driver said, gesturing off into the distance. ‘If I could hitch a ride with you I could make a call from there.’
David hesitated.
‘It would really help me out, man,’ the driver persisted. ‘I usually have my phone with me but...’
‘I thought you guys had CB radios,’ David ventured.
‘Not all of us,’ the driver corrected him.
The man stood motionless on the highway, looking at David with a hopeful expression.
‘Just a minute,’ David said, closing his window. He turned in his seat to look at Amy.
‘He wants a lift to the next truck stop,’ David told her.
‘No,’ Amy said.
‘Pull the curtain across,’ David offered. ‘He won’t see you or the girl if you’re quiet. It’ll only take twenty minutes to get to the truck stop. All we have to do is drop him off.’
Amy got to her feet and slid the curtain across so that the rear part of the RV interior was masked from view. She slipped behind it and settled herself on the bed beside the sleeping child.
David waited a moment then turned back to the side window.
‘I’ll take you to the truck stop,’ he told the waiting driver.
FORTY-THREE
David watched as the man made his way around to the side of the RV. He tapped gently on the door then let himself in, walking across to the passenger seat where he settled himself, stretching out a hand by way of greeting and gratitude.
‘Thanks, man,’ he said. ‘I really appreciate this.’
David nodded and shook the offered hand.
‘My wife’s asleep,’ he said, gesturing towards the curtain behind him.
‘No problem,’ the driver said. ‘I’ll be quiet.’ He grinned. ‘My name is Mike Cooper by the way. Good to meet you.’
‘David Carson.’
‘Where are you from?’ the driver asked.
‘England,’ David told him.
‘Cool. Where you headed?’ Cooper enquired.
‘We’re just driving,’ said David. ‘We hadn’t got anywhere in particular in mind. We just wanted to experience a bit of freedom and the wide-open spaces for a week or so.’
‘Well, you got plenty of wide open spaces here in Colorado,’ Cooper told him. ‘Trust me, I’ve been driving a truck for fifteen years. And when you get into Nebraska and Idaho, there ain’t nothing but open spaces.’ He cracked out laughing, the sound reverberating inside the RV. He held up his hands in supplication, hoping he hadn’t woken the two unseen passengers in the rear of the RV.
‘Where are you from?’ David asked.
‘Texas originally but I live in Nevada now.’
‘What happened to your lorry...your truck?’ David enquired.
‘One of the rear tyres just blew on me,’ Cooper explained. ‘It’s a good job I’m not hauling anything perishable.’
‘What are you carrying?’
‘Beer,’ Cooper laughed, the sound filling the RV once more. ‘Enough to float a ship.’
‘So you wouldn’t have been thirsty while you were waiting to get picked up?’ David offered.
‘No, sir,’ Cooper chuckled. He glanced around at the inside of the RV, his attention caught by the curtain drawn across the rear of the vehicle. ‘The missis sleeping behind there?’ he enquired.
David nodded.
‘Is there just the two of you?’ the other man went on.
David swallowed hard, a bead of perspiration trickling down his face.
‘No,’ he said, quickly. ‘Our daughter’s with us.’
‘She sleeping too?’
David nodded again, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.
‘How old is she?’ Cooper persisted. ‘Your daughter I mean, not your wife?’ Again he cracked out laughing.
‘She’s eight,’ David told him.
‘And how old is your wife?’ Cooper chuckled, leaning forward in his seat.
David didn’t look but he was aware that the other man was looking at him.
‘I’m just fooling, man,’ Cooper continued.
David nodded.
‘We Texans, we’re just friendly,’ Cooper said. ‘Hope you don’t mind.’
‘Whereabouts in Texas are you from?’
‘San Antonio.’
‘That’s where the Alamo is, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Why did you leave Texas?’
‘I was looking for work. What do you do to make ends meet?’
‘Not much,’ David smiled. ‘I work for a clothing company and I write in my spare time.’
‘A writer?’
‘Well, I might be building my part a bit to call myself a writer.’
Cooper looked a little perplexed by David’s answer then merely smiled.
‘And what about the missis? What does she do?’ he asked.
‘She’s a designer. Are you married?’
‘Yes, sir. Nine years. My second time. I didn’t learn the lessons first time around.’ He laughed loudly.
‘Any kids?’
‘Two from my first marriage. None from this one yet, but we keep practising,’ he nudged David. ‘If you know what I mean.’
David nodded and forced a smile.
Cooper turned and looked again at the curtain that hid the rear of the RV from the view of those in the front.
‘The missis tired?’ he asked, jabbing a finger towards the makeshift partition.
David looked at him then nodded.
‘Probably still jet-lagged,’ he said. ‘We only arrived a couple of days ago.’
The drone of the engine filled the vehicle as the two men sat in awkward silence for a moment.
David glanced at his new companion again and saw that the man was peering fixedly out of the windscreen. As he did so he tapped gently on the arm of the seat with what appeared to be unusually long finger nails. The sound became irritating very quickly David noted.
‘So you say you lost your phone?’ David asked, anxious to break the silence that was becoming oppressive.
Cooper nodded.
‘You come to rely on it when you’re driving,’ he said. ‘It can get kind of lonely out here.’
‘I can believe that,’ David said. ‘Do you have much contact with the police or the highway patrol or whatever they are?’
