Dead Shot (A Cal Murphy Thriller Book 1)

Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Cal felt Kelly's grip tighten on his arms as they both cringed. This was it. No time for bravado. Only an immediate plea for mercy.

The door swung open and a hand groped the wall for the light switch.

Click!

"Cal? Kelly?" asked the whispering voice in bewilderment. "What are you doing in here?"

They both looked up to see a familiar friendly face: Buddy Walker, the Statenville High boys basketball coach.

"What are you doing here?" Cal whispered back as he inspected Walker's blue jumpsuit with his name stitched into his left chest panel.

Walker stepped inside and shut the door. He hung his head.

"To be frank, I don't make enough money at the school, so I've been moonlighting as a janitor. It's terribly embarrassing. Please don't tell anyone, OK?"

"Don't worry, Coach. I won't tell a soul."

"Me either," piped Kelly.

"Thanks, guys. That would mean a lot to me. My mother is sick and feeble - and I'm trying to take care of her. It's not something I can easily do on a teacher's salary in the middle-of-nowhere Idaho."

"Don't be embarrassed, Coach. What you're doing is very noble," Kelly said.

Before things turned too mushy, Cal knew they only had a limited amount of time to regroup and focus on escaping the facility without being seen.

"Look, Coach. We're in a bit of a predicament and need your help."

"What happened to your arm? And again, what are you doing in this closet?" Coach Walker asked, suddenly awakening to the abnormality of the situation.

"It's simple: we need to get out of here without anyone seeing us. If I told you everything, you'd think we were crazy. "

"Try me."

"OK, here it goes. We're being pursued by some type of secret government agents and we know some powerful people who own this facility want us dead, too. The security guards here have orders to kill us on sight if they see us."

Coach Walker stared at Cal and said nothing.

"I swear it's true. I couldn't make this stuff up."

Finally, he asked the question Cal hadn't really pondered.

"Why do they care about you, Cal? What do you know?"

"Well, I know enough to gain the interest of some government investigation group."

"Like what?"

"Like, this facility is a commercial drug operation that uses its cover as a muti-level marketing company to hide a drug distribution network."

"OK, you're right. I don't believe you."

"Please, Coach Walker. You've got to believe me. See, look at this meth I found."

Cal showed Walker some of the drugs he had found, which was enough to elicit an eyebrow raise from the coach moonlighting as a janitor.

"Well, I did see some armed security guards running around, but I'm not ready to believe all your tin hat theories."

"Fine. I don't care if you believe those. I just need your to help us escape."

Coach Walker stroked his jaw and appeared to be deep in thought. Finally, after a long pause, he spoke.

"Honestly, I don't believe you, but it's stranger than strange that you're hiding in the janitor closet and security appears to be heightened at the moment. I've got a l5-minute break coming up. I can probably get you to my house that's five minutes away-and in time for me to get back to work without missing my window to punch back in."

Cal wanted to hug Walker, but he figured the pain he would suffer in his arm wouldn't be worth it.

"Wait here and I'll be back in five minutes with a cart for you to hide in. I'll push you out and then you can get into the backseat of my car. I don't think you'll be noticed. I've got a blanket you can cover up with once you're on the floorboard."

"Sounds good."

Walker flipped the light switch as he exited the closet and locked the door behind him.

Five minutes later, the squeaky wheel of a large commercial dirty clothes cart could be heard rolling in their direction.

Walker whispered, "It's me, guys," just before he unlocked the door. Then he opened it and moved the cart up to the opening so Cal and Kelly could climb in. They curled up in a fetal position and put their heads down as Walker draped a blanket over them. He wheeled the pair to his silver Subaru Forester and helped them scramble inside. Cal would have preferred the ability to see Kelly's face during the ride to Walker's house, especially since he was so close to her. But in a day of near misses and running for his life, Cal would settle for huddling in the darkness beneath a blanket with Kelly.

Walker's plan was executed to perfection. He returned the dirty clothes cart to just inside the rollup door at the top of the dock and walked back to the car.

"Thanks, Coach," Cal whispered from beneath the blanket. "We really appreciate this. You might have saved our lives."

Through the vibrations in the floorboard, Cal felt the gears clicking into place as Walker jammed the stick into reverse.

"Oh, it's not a big deal, Cal. I'm sure you'd do the same for me."

"Of course," came Cal's muffled voice from under the blanket.

***

Walker smiled as he shifted his car back into the drive position with his right hand. His left hand fingered his gun.

Cal and Kelly had eluded him all day. Could it really be this easy?