Chapter 26

Too much time had passed since she’d gotten into the car. She couldn’t define what time period had taken her beyond that tipping point, she only knew that something must be horribly wrong.

Only an eerie stillness greeted her as she gazed across the shadowed parking area. Nothing had changed. The only vehicles present were hers and Ray’s – she and Jerry had carpooled. Everyone else had trickled away, one by one, until only she was left.

The view across the field wasn’t much better. Despite the distant illumination of the towering street lights her vision couldn’t penetrate the darkness that enveloped the grassy expanse beyond. For one fanciful moment, she imagined that it all dropped off into nothingness. A deepening sense of dread settled into her bones.

It was too dark out there, too quiet. Ray should have long since been back. And Jerry . . . . Something was wrong. She could feel it.

She could almost see it and touch it as the images flashed through her brain. Jerry, broken and bruised in the woods, a bullet wood right between –

She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, forcing the crazy images from her mind. It wasn’t real and she absolutely refused to go down that path. She was staying in the car just like Steven and later Ray had told her.

But what if Ray wasn’t who she thought he was. In the movies good cops sometimes became bad cops after they went undercover. What if he was taking care of Jerry until he could come back and get rid of her?

“Stop it! You’re not helping anything!” She spoke the words aloud, half startling herself at the abrupt noise, though the sound did help bring things into perspective. She wasn’t on the set of some clichéd movie – she was there alone and frightened surrounded by the thick silence of the night.

A blaring of light shone unexpectedly from the left. It cut across the side of the car in blinding intensity. Kim put up a hand to shield eyes which watered partly due to the brightness and partly from relief. She was no longer alone – another car meant another human being.

Squinting against the approaching headlights, it registered that the shape of the vehicle didn’t look all that familiar. And there were two forms reflected through the windshield. She pressed at the electronic lock, feeling some small sense of security in the muted click which told her that all of her doors were locked. She gaze them a quick glance anyway just to be sure.

She looked back just as the other car slid into the parking space one over from hers. In the dim illumination she got her first shadowed glimpse of its occupants. The one who got out on the driver’s side elicited a relieved gasp.

“Steve!” She was out of the car and around to the front of the other vehicle between one breath and the next. Steve wrapped her in his arms, his warmth reassuring.

After a moment he pushed her back a pace, but continued to rub his hands up and down her chilled arms. The look in his eyes was serious, but he took a moment and gestured toward the man who stood several feet away, nearer the passenger door. “This is Billy Drake. He’s my partner tonight.”

Billy half smiled and Kim thought he might have nodded, but couldn’t be sure. He seemed more intent on their surroundings.

“Where was the last place you saw Jerry?” Steve drew her attention back.

Kim half turned toward the field. “Out there. On the other side of the soccer field, past the fence the hill drops off. I thought I saw him there. That’s where Ray went, too--” Her words were cut off when a popping sound shattered the night.

Kim had no time to wonder at the noises or be confused. Steve’s hold on her changed in an instant and she was being shoved down beside the car.

--

Jerry barely had time to register that he was once again flat on the ground, tiny bits of rock and gravel grinding into his hands, before hew as being dragged back upward.

“Move!” Ray’s tone instilled urgency, and the other man was at once pulling him from the ground and pushing him toward the darkened opening of the old maintenance shed.

More popping sounds echoed around them, coinciding with muted thuds and the flash of splinters flying off of the shed’s door brick door frame. Jerry ducked in response, trying to protect his head and face with his arms.

The bullets seemed to zing past with increasing frequency while the distance to their only cover seemed too far away and impossible to reach before their luck ran out. One step, then another, and a louder bang sounded very nearby.

It was purely reflex that caused Jerry to look back. He caught a brief glimpse of black gun metal shining in the moonlight, and then it was coming toward him. There was no time to react.

For the third time in as many minutes, something slammed into Jerry’s back. This time, though, was different. The impact knocked him stumbling headlong toward the shadowy confines of the building.

Entering at an angle, he collided first with the doorframe before tumbling the rest of the way in. The next few moments were a blur – Jerry’s next coherent thought was laying sprawled half on his side on the floor.