onto Oak Hill. I could stay on the dark road by watching what the Honda’s pac-man taillights were doing.
I couldn’t see the Escalade, but at the speed we were going I didn’t think it could be too far ahead of us. Finally, as Gretchen got to the top of a hill, her brake lights flashed and for a moment the road was illuminated with red light. I was passing a small side road that was marked with a wooden sign. The brake lights disappeared over the hill before I could read it, but I thought I saw an f. I slowed to a crawl and then stopped as I got to the top of the hill.
The Honda was parked down on the other side, pulled over on the shoulder near a bend in the road with a minivan parked facing it. I put my car in reverse and backed away from them. I turned around and drove slowly, looking at the thick line of trees on my right. I finally saw an opening, so I turned in and took my poor car bounding into the forest between the two trees. I drove about ten feet in before I was brought to a sudden, crunching stop by a boulder. I got out of the car cursing, and saw that I’d smashed my bumper and right front panel on a large rock. The turn signal was gone, but the headlight looked like it might still work. I told myself that it could be worse. At least I hadn’t done any damage to the engine, and at least my car was more or less out of sight from the road.
I put the keys in my pocket, got the binoculars, and started up the hill on foot. I stayed close to the tree line so that I could duck into the woods and hide if I needed to. At the top of the hill I looked through the binoculars at Gretchen’s car and the minivan. The only light in the area was coming from inside the van, and it illuminated a chubby woman in all black, wearing a ski mask. Someone handed her what looked like a hunting rifle and then there was a loud squeak as she slammed the van’s door shut. Four black figures, barely visible in the half moon light, were moving toward me. I ran back down the hill to my car.
TWENTY-THREE
“This is Ben Perkins, Guardian Security Agent, I’m out near Everett close to the Pierson house. They’re gonna get Junior. Four women just went up the road wearing ski masks and they had at least one gun.”
“What women?” Detective Reyes asked.
“One’s named Gretchen Salle, and I don’t know the rest.” I said. “She’s the one that killed Freddie Divos, I think I can prove that, and now she’s after Junior Pierson. You’ve gotta get some people out here. There’s four of ‘em, and they’re headed up there right now.”
“Where exactly are you calling from?” She asked.
“I’m just off Oak Hill Road.” I said. “They’re on foot, going up Fallowfield.”
“Alright, I’ll send some police down from Peninsula,” she said, “and I’m on my way. In the mean time I want you to stay put do you understand? I’m going to want to talk to you when I get there.”
She hung up and I immediately dialed Phil Relna’s number and listened to his message. The machine beeped. “IT’S BEN,” I shouted, “pick up.”
It took a moment before I heard the click and then David’s voice. “Yeah?”
“It’s time.” I said. “You need to turn yourself in right now. She’s making her move.”
“Fuck. Okay.” He said. “Thanks man, for everything.”
“Hey David, before you go, erase the message I just left.” I said. “And break a window or something.”
He said he would, and hung up. I thought about calling John and Jessie, but Gretchen Salle and her friends were on their way to kill Junior and it occurred to me that detective Reyes knew I was there. If they murdered him I would be considered pretty chickenshit for not at least trying to warn him that they were coming. I didn’t care in the least if she killed him, but I wanted it to look like I had tried to stop it. I took the flashlight out of the glove compartment and went after them.
I was half jogging up the dark road, going up a steep hill, and I was out of breath when I reached the fence. It was about eight feet high, chain link, with razor wire in a neat spiral along the top and there was a sign that said Private Property - No Trespassing. I saw a flash of light in the trees, far away on the other side of the fence. It was only visible for a moment and I figured it was Gretchen and company. I wondered how they got in. I tracked my light along the bottom of the fence and didn’t have to go far before I saw what they’d done. A segment of the bottom of the fence had been pulled upwards a couple of feet and they’d wedged a two-by-four under it, lifting it high enough to shimmy through. I got down on my belly and slid under, getting part of my hoody snagged on the wire. I was trespassing now, and the energy of that fact increased my speed up the hill.
I came to a fork in the road and decided to go to the left, because the light I’d seen had come from that direction. As I came around a curve I was confronted by light shining directly into my eyes.
“Get down on the ground.” A male voice said. I held a hand up and tried to block the light to see who it was. “Now.” He said.
I got down on my stomach and the man told me to put my arms out to the side. As he kneeled down beside me I knew it was Dennis Reston. He pulled my hands together behind me and slipped a plastic tie around them, tightening to the point of pain. “Wait,” I said, “I came up here to warn you…”
“You’re Ben Perkins right? What the fuck are you doing here?” He said. “You set off every alarm in the place, what’d you do climb the fence?”
“Wait, listen, there’s a bunch of women with guns who came up here to kill Junior Pierson.”
He rolled me over and pulled me to a sitting position by my sweater. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“They’re in here now.” I said. “I followed them up the hill.”
He smiled at me and nodded. “Your friend’s in trouble and you think if you get something on Junior you can get him out of it.” He said. “Well that’s nice as hell. I wish I had a friend like that, but you’re not going to get anything on Junior. In fact you’re never going to be seen or heard from again Ben Perkins.” He pulled a black canvas sack over my head and tightened the drawstring around my neck.
“Please don’t kill me.” I said, surprised at how scared I was. “I’m telling you the truth.”
Just then there was a loud pop from up the hill. I felt Dennis freeze and then heard him running from me up the hill. I could hear yelling up there but I couldn’t make it out. It sounded like women yelling. I was having a hard time catching my breath and I told myself to relax or I would suffocate.
More pops, but different sounding, two guns, maybe three. I put my face against my knee and dragged downward, trying to pull off the sack but I was having no success. I flexed my neck muscles and moved my head around to loosen the drawstring and it seemed to work. I could hear a car engine start and more gunshots. I needed to be able to see.
I put a leg underneath myself and got on a knee and then stood. The car engine was getting louder, but I had no idea which direction I had to go to get out of the road. I took a few steps but then stopped, thinking it was stupid to continue blind. I took a wide stance and whipped my head forward, head-banger style. I did it so hard that I almost fell, but more importantly I felt the sack almost come off. As soon as I had my balance I took the wide stance and threw my head forward again, harder this time, and the sack flipped off my head. I looked up to see headlights coming toward me fast. There was skidding and I lunged away as Dennis Reston’s Escalade bounced by and slammed into a tree.
My first thought was that he was trying to run me over. I stood and focused my eyes on the truck, ready to run. I saw the back window was shattered, probably from the gunshots, and I watched the SUV back away from the tree with a wrenching sound. Inside I could see the four women and a child.
I looked closer and realized that it was many children, six or seven in fact, all girls. One was crying loud and the others looked dazed or even asleep. A woman in a ski mask was yelling at the driver to go, and another was looking at me like she was trying to figure out what I was doing there.
The SUV was not harmed by its encounter w
ith the tree and speed away down the hill. I was having a hard time processing what I had just seen. I couldn’t imagine where those kids had come from. I tried to break the plastic holding my wrists together by pulling as hard as I could, but it was no use. I looked around for something I could break it on. I thought maybe I could rip it apart on a tree, but then realized I would probably only rip my own flesh. I stood there in the dark for what seemed like fifteen minutes, my mind going in a hundred different directions at once while my body was practically paralyzed.
Another motor was audible coming down the road and I got out of the way in a hurry. I hid behind a tree as Dennis came flying down the dirt road on a motorcycle. He looked crazy.
At that point I knew I wanted to get out of there and away from the whole thing. I started running down the hill, thinking about hiding in my car until the police arrived. The gate had been demolished by the Escalade and a large section of fence had come down too. I was running awkwardly, with my hands restrained, up the side of Oak Hill Road toward my car, when Dennis sped up on his bike. He slowed down to keep pace with me.
“Hey,” he said, “did you see which way they went?”
“No.” I said.
“Where the fuck are you running to? Stop running.”
“No.” I said. “You were going to kill me. The