Dead Shot (A Cal Murphy Thriller Book 1)

Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Dawkins' patrol car zoomed up the driveway of Walker's house. Only five minutes before, Dawkins and rookie deputy Willie Warren had been attacking a plate of ribs from Ray-Ray's when Sheriff Jones radioed for them to check out a disturbance at the Walker place.

After Dawkins was in the car, Sheriff Jones called him on his cell to let him know that the "disturbance" was actually the location of Statenville's hottest fugitive, Cal Murphy. The sheriff was tipped off to Cal and Kelly's whereabouts and the two snoopy reporters were about to be arrested on more trumped up charges.

Without any reason to believe the situation was dangerous, Dawkins took his time getting out of his car. He sent Warren around the back of the house to make sure the elusive reporters didn't make an attempt to escape. Lacking familiarity with Cal and Kelly, Warren unholstered his gun. He wanted the two fugitives to know he was serious.

Meanwhile, Dawkins sauntered up to the door and rang the doorbell. Then he waited. If anyone was home, they weren't moving about the house. Silence ruled the air.

"I know you're in there, Cal," Dawkins yelled. "Don't make this any more difficult than it has to be."

No response.

Dawkins began pounding on the front door.

***

When the sedative wore off, Cal guessed it hadn't been that long, but he couldn't be sure. Sitting in a pitch black room fastened to a chair with your mouth taped shut offered few ways to get any answers-if there was anyone else in the room to get answers from.

He grunted as he tried to shout Kelly's name. Nothing.

With no light, he couldn't see if she was even in the room, much less if she was all right. Cal figured with Kelly's smaller frame, she would take a little longer to awaken from the sedative. But Cal knew she was there. He could smell her. All day the sweet smell of her perfume had reminded him that the thrill ride they were on had become more about protecting her than extracting the truth from a well-guarded mystery.

After doing nothing but sitting in the dark and trying to piece together the disjointed events of the day, Cal felt Kelly begin to stir.

She began her muffled cries for help, too.

Cal responded with a few of his own.

The pointless exchange went on for about a minute until they both realized communicating was impossible without the ability to make a cognitive sound. Being bound to a chair back to back in a dark room didn't help either.

They went five minutes without even a grunt or a stir coming from either one. Cal decided not to fight Walker either. It was clear that pleas for mercy were more helpful than lecturing him for the mistreatment. Cal still wasn't sure what Walker was doing, but he concluded that his interest was in removing him temporarily from this investigation rather than doing bodily harm. The chances were aplenty to do that, but Walker continued to side with mercy over murder. This, too, puzzled Cal.

Only the occasional scuffle of feet moving outside the door broke the silence.

Until Cal and Kelly heard someone pounding on an exterior door.

Immediately, the room filled with muffled screams from the immobile reporters. The voice that accompanied the pounding on the door was a familiar one.