Read Voices - A Special Abilities Novel Series Page 23
Chapter 22
Oh Rats
Stacy found a cozy spot to sit on Marty’s lap after dinner. She was going to tell us what they had found out at the car dealership.
“As usual we used Meea as boy bait… She tied her tee shirt up in a high knot on her stomach and we rolled up her shorts as high as we could get them.” Stacy laughed to herself. “It’s so easy to lead around the opposite sex… if you just dangled the right bait. Anyhow, when we sent Meea in first to go bend over the new sports car in the show room, it took all of ten seconds and every guy in the place was at her side wanting to explain the latest in turbo technology. As soon as Meea had them all seeing stars, Rachel and I slid in the side door and back to the office. Rachel spotted the infrared warning bell in front of the door, so all we had to do was duck under that and we got right to the files.
The four Vans’ were purchased under the name of a Mr. Rosco Wells at 212 West Portland Road. They were paid for in cash. So, do we go find Rosco?”
“Yeah, that’s seems to be our only lead. Steven Stacy and I will take off in the morning. I call for another pilot… you did great Marty but…”
“Hey, I’m fine with coming in off the bench when you need me coach.” Marty said, giving me a winked.
Apparently he felt better after being fed and having Stacy in his lap again.
212 West Portland Road… what a dump. I was glad I brought our side arms and a few heavy weapons along in Stacy’s buggy. The old and poverty ridden neighborhood was filled with broken down graffiti covered houses. A few the houses on this side of the street had broken windows that hadn’t been replaced while some of the houses had plywood nailed up over the windows. Tight alleyways ran between the houses splitting them into little duplex looking units. There were seven steep steps leading up to the small porch at 212 West Portland Road.
Stacy stopped her buggy at the end of the walkway in front of the steps. “You go up and come get me if you need me” she said tapping on her side arm with a wink. Marty can’t have all the fun.”
“Ok, wait here and we’ll see if he’s home.” I said.
When Meea got to the front door she turned and looked at me… the door was already ajar. I pushed it open, but stayed on the porch to yell in.
“Mr. Well’s, anyone home?” Just then a man took off running from one of the front rooms. He ran into the main hallway and bolted for the back door.
“Stacy! He’s running out the back. Get him!” Meea yelled back at Stacy.
Stacy took off down the alleyway like a shot, while I took off through the house and out the back door after him.
The man hit the back alley turning left with a good head start on me. He was a strong agile guy who looked like he was running for his life. He was about a block ahead of me when I saw Stacy slide around the corner in front of me. She was a half block back from him and if he would jump a fence Stacy wouldn’t be able to follow him. I was too far back now, so I would probably lose him too if he decided to jump one of the side fences.
I wondered why Meea hadn’t passed me, when Stacy stepped on the gas and closed the gap on the runner in a flash. She clipped him in the head with the butt of the shotgun she was carrying as she sped by and knocked the man into the air. He crashed to the ground landing on his back and rolling up against some broken wooden pallets.
Stacy skidded to a stop and turned the gun on the man. When I caught up to them the man was still unconscious. I bound his hands and threw him on the back of Stacy’s buggy to take him to the house.
“Meea! Meea! Are you OK? Where are you?” I yelled out.
“In hear. I’m fine.” Meea called, from the front room, were the man had run from. Stacy’s buggy fit through the back door where there was a wheelchair ramp.
“Stacy got the guy.” I said pointing at the limp man hanging over the back of Stacy’s buggy.
“She got somebody. But I think the guy we came for is dead.” Meea said nodding to the body on the floor covered in blood.
I picked the man up off Stacy’s buggy and laid him on the floor beside the body Meea was kneeling over.
“Shit, Stacy… did you kill that guy?” Meea squealed.
“I don’t think so… Wilson?” Stacy said, looking at me for confirmation.
“No, you didn’t kill him, he’s got a pulse. I better finish tying him up before he comes to though.”
“This dead guy’s driver’s license say’s he’s Rosco Wells.” Meea said thumbing through the dead man’s billfold.
“He was handicap.” Stacy added.
“How can you tell?”
“Look at his hands, he has callous on them from rolling his wheelchair.”
“So this must be the guy that killed Mr. Wells.” Meea said, pointing at Stacy’s catch.
“Stacy let’s see what we can get out of him when he wakes up. I’ll get a bucket of water.”
“What’s the water for” Meea asked.
“I don’t plan on waiting for this guy to get his beauty sleep.”
Splash! The cold water soaked the man on the floor. He started to cough and spit coming to, the knot on his head from the shotgun still getting bigger.
“Wake up.” I yelled, as he began to look around, sizing up his situation, squinting from the pain in his head from the blow Stacy gave him.
“Why did you kill this man?” I asked harshly.
“I didn’t.” Stacy shook her head slightly indicating that he was lying.”
“I really don’t care if you admit this or not… let’s try another angle. Meea, how about some rats, there must be rats around a dump like this, right?”
“Give me a second.” Meea walked to the back door and stared out at the alley for a minute. She left the back door open and walked back in to sit down.
A minute later five very large rats slowly made there way into the living room stopping at the door way. Their noses were up in the air sniffing what I assumed was the spilt blood of Mr. Wells on the floor.
“Good… lets try again. Where are the Vans you had Mr. Wells buy?” The man on the floor never taking his eyes off the rats spat in my direction.
“Last chance.” I said calmly.
“You don’t scare me you punk kid!” The man said, like he was calling a bluff in a penny anti poker game, still thinking he had a good hand.
“Yeah, I’m not very scary, but those rats. They’ll probably only take five minutes to gnaw your leg off, and then they’ll drag it off for a thanksgiving feast. Now that’s a little scary, I believe, don’t you? So were did you say the vans were?”
“OK, there at the parking garage down town on 42nd street.” Stacy looked at me and shook her head no. Lie.
“Meea, tell them they can eat now.” Meea looked at the rats and a second later… the rats were at the man’s knees. Chewing through his pants in a split second they were into the meat with blood flowing everywhere. Scream’s started flowing as fast as the new red blood coming from the legs of this murder. Between the agonizing screams I heard…
“…Stop, stop…I’ll tell you…Awe!”
“Meea.”
The rats took a few seconds but stopped the carnage. They scurried back about three feet, licking the man’s blood from off their own fur.
“Well then? Oh, and this time, I’d think twice about lying to me.”
“Shit… ok the vans are at the Presidio warehouse, building fifteen.”
“What are your plans for the vans?”
“No man… you just said tell you where they were, that was the deal!”
“There are no deals. You tell me everything I ask or you can be Purina rat chow… you pick”
“Shit…shit… We’ve loading them with C4 to blow the bridge pillars. Ok… let me go.”
“Oh no, it’s not that easy, where are you getting the C4?”
“The Airlines owns a small demolition business and we’ve been buying extra C4 for every job the last couple years.”
“When is the bridge g
oing to be hit?”
“Awe… I don’t know…I really don’t.” Stacy looked over to confirm he did not know.
“Do you know if the three SA teams are alive?”
“What’s a SA team?”
Stacy looked over and shook her head. “That’s all he’s got Wilson.”
“Meea, have the rats stand guard over him until the cops arrive. If he moves…”