Dead Shot (A Cal Murphy Thriller Book 1)

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Cal's head spun trying to process what he knew and what he wanted to know. It felt like a two-sided puzzle of the same picture with no straight edges. If only I could start to put a few of the pieces together ...

Kelly volunteered to drive to lunch. She was just as engrossed in the growing mysteries surrounding the events of the past 48 hours. Three dead teens overdosing on drugs. Their bodies looking as if they had been ravaged by a wild animal. Guy acting unusual at the office. The sheriff's department giving them the runaround. The near fatal crash. A clandestine kidnapping. Cal being nearly ambushed at his home. Trumped up charges. Brief incarceration. The ramblings of crazy Willie.

None of it made sense. Nothing. And Cal needed to sort it out with the brightest mind he worked with - and the only person he trusted at this point: Kelly.

"Where are we headed?" Kelly asked, adjusting her sunglasses for the bright early afternoon glare.

"I make a mean chicken salad sandwich."

"OK, Cal's Kitchen it is."

"You know Ray-Ray's is always my top choice, but we need to be able to talk about this stuff in private."

"I understand."

The two sat in silence for the rest of the short drive to Cal's house. Cal knew what he really needed to do was find a good lawyer during his lunch break, but this story felt more pressing.

Once they reached Cal's apartment, they both entered and began performing utilitarian functions-Cal whipped up chicken salad, while Kelly grabbed a notebook and started to look for common threads in the recent events.

"What secret could this town hold that is so important that some people would collude to do anything to keep me from knowing it?" Cal asked as he chopped up a cooked chicken breast.

"If we could answer that one on our own, Cal, we wouldn't need this conversation."

"I know, but you've lived here your whole life. Do you remember ever hearing anything that could be considered a secret to an outsider?"

"Well, I know that Paul Bridges' farm uses a pesticide on their tomatoes that was outlawed by the feds 15 years ago."

"I fail to see how that could connect to what's been going on."

Kelly tapped her pen on the blank notebook.

"You've got a point. Let me think."

"Before we try to figure out the secret, let's think about this. Do all three of the grieving families have something else in common other than boys who died by being stupid and using drugs?"

"Nothing that readily comes to mind."

"And they weren't hanging out together on Sunday, were they?"

"Nope. They all went to church at their respective ward houses on Sunday morning."

"Hmm. They're all Mormon, right?"

"So is eighty percent of this town, Cal. Just take comfort in knowing that if you do get killed here, someone will be praying for you after you're gone."

"And you won't be, Kelly?"

"What? You think I'm a Mormon?"

"Yeah. You aren't?"

"I don't like anyone telling me what to do."

"You did graduate from high school and college-two places where someone tells you where to be and what to do and when to do it. And now you have a job..."

"OK, OK. I'm not quite the rebel I make myself out to be. I don't know why I don't like religion, but it just didn't feel right to me. My family's definitely not happy about it, but they'll get over it eventually."

"Obviously, the link to faith is a moot point in this case. What else?"

Cal had finished making the chicken salad and was slathering his gourmet concoction all over toasted sandwich bread for the two of them. He handed her the sandwich. She then took a sizable bite and told him how impressed she was with his cooking prowess. Then she answered his question.

"Nothing that I can think of. Their parents all work in different places and live in different areas of town. The only thing I can think of is that they all played football together."

Cal suddenly got excited.

"That's right! They all played football together."

"Cal, I swear you'd get excited about finding a nickel in your favor on your bank statement. Of course they played football together."

"No, no, no. I mean, that's the last time they were all seen together. I should look through those photos and see if I can identify any of the other kids and ask them about what they saw or what they might know."

"OK, 'party at Coach Walker's house' is going down on the pad," said Kelly as she scratched out her first visible connection.

Despite the first breakthrough, Cal was beginning to feel hopeless.

"But who were those guys who kidnapped me?"

Kelly was getting annoyed with Cal's non-existent sleuthing skills. Neither of them were asking the right questions-and they knew it. They needed a break.

After cramming the last piece of her sandwich into her mouth, Kelly headed toward the door.

"I need some fresh air," she said.

Cal deposited all the dishes into the sink before sitting down at the table to ponder what he knew-and what blanks were left to fill in. It was almost all of them.

Just as he was considering taking the advice of the mysterious note left for him earlier that day and doing nothing, Kelly raced back through the front door and started yelling hysterically.

"There's a black van that just pulled up across the parking lot and the guy in the driver's side was wearing a ski mask!"

Cal hunched down and peered out the window. Two men dressed in all black carrying assault weapons were running across the parking lot toward his apartment building.

He grabbed Kelly's hand and began formulating a plan.

"Follow me!"

Kelly grabbed her bag but left the notepad, hoping that whoever was pursuing them would discover by the near-blank paper's admission that they knew little to nothing.

They ran out the back door and toward the small private garages behind the apartment unit. Cal fumbled for his keys as he ran and managed to jam the key into the lock on his first attempt. He slammed the door behind them.

"What are we doing?" Kelly shrieked.

Cal ignored her and finished uncovering the motorcycle in the corner.

"What is this?" Kelly asked.

"It's what's gonna save our lives. Get on."

Cal had pushed the motorcycle near the door and was now stomping on the foot crank. On the second kick, the bike roared to life. Kelly climbed on and Cal swung open the door.

The Honda 280XR dirt bike wasn't the fastest bike, but it had some much-needed zero-to-sixty acceleration. It was exactly what Cal needed right then.

Cal guessed the two men would split up, with one coming around the front and one coming around the near side of the building. He pointed the bike toward the far side of the building and opened the engine wide open.

He looked back over his shoulder to see one of the two men taking aim with an automatic assault weapon. A few stray bullets whizzed past their heads. Kelly screamed in terror. Cal suppressed his desire to join her. He banked left and rounded the building. He then headed straight for the farthest exit in hopes of losing the men.

Cal's strategy worked brilliantly. After another 30 seconds of riding, the two men couldn't be seen. The last image Cal had of them was a mad dash to their truck, but he knew he would be long gone by then.

Cal knew a place they would never find him.