“Mom, turn off your headlights,” Maria said. “You know, like they do in the movies.”
Matilde glanced at her daughter and then back to the road. The farther they got from the city, the more deserted and rural the roads became. She doused the headlights, and a few turns later the three SUVs pulled into a long driveway.
“Pull over, Mom, or they’ll see us,” Maria said.
Matilde carefully pulled the car onto the grass on the side of the road and turned off the engine.
“Don’t do that, Mom,” Maria said nervously.
Matilde shot her daughter a quizzical look. “What?”
“Turn off the engine.” Her voice was a panicked whisper.
“Why not, honey?”
“What if it won’t start? Please turn it back on before they get out and can hear it start.”
“Okay, honey. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”
Matilde turned the key, and the engine came quietly to life.
Maria breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m not so sure, Mom. Did you see what just happened?”
“It’s okay,” she said firmly. “Calm down. I’ll go have a look.”
“Are you crazy?” Maria locked her fearful eyes with her mother’s. She had sensed the doubt in her mother. “You’re not fast enough to get out of there if they see you. I’ll go. Just keep the car running, okay?”
Matilde’s expression left no room for negotiation. “Absolutely not.”
“Look, Mom, I’ll call you and keep my cell phone on speaker. That way you can hear what’s going on. Just don’t say anything, or they’ll hear you.”
“No. Honey, we need to call my friend. This is already out of control. We can tell him where Etzy’s sister is and let him work out how to get her out of there.”
Maria shook her head no and said, “Mom, I’ll just take a quick peek. I’ll leave the phone on. Don’t worry. I won’t get too close.”
A beam of light burned through the trees and killed their conversation. They both ducked down in a panic.
“Oh my God, it was one of those trucks.” Maria was shaking with fear, and her pulse had quickened. “Do you think they saw us?”
“No. Just stay low.” Matilde pushed her daughter’s shoulder down.
The Mercedes’s engine was practically silent, so they heard the sound of gravel crackling as the heavy SUV made its way down the driveway. The sound evaporated into the rev of an engine that then faded off into the distance.
Maria slowly began to peer over the dashboard, her eyes wide with fear. “Holy shit, that was close.”
“You’re not going near that house,” she decided. “I need to make a call.”
“I’ll just be a minute,” Maria insisted. “You need to stay here in case something happens. If we both go, nobody can get help.”
In a single motion she dialed her mother’s number, opened the door and dashed toward the line of trees surrounding the perimeter of the house. Slowly, she crept her way down the property line along the trees. Soller stayed perfectly still for a couple of minutes, straining to see or hear anything inside. She was about to run across the lawn into some bushes when she heard car doors slam shut. She froze in her tracks.
“Mom,” she whispered into her phone. “Get down. I think another car is coming.”
Chapter 37
Sweat poured down his face, and his hands continued to shake. The gun he gripped tightly was getting heavier by the second as the irony of the situation weighed on his mind. Etzy Millar now knew the man he saw down the length of the gun’s barrel was there to help him. Every avenue leading away from killing a man in cold blood, especially this one, was blocked by the cruel realization that his sister’s life was on the line. His mind raced as he considered what he believed to be inevitable. He was about to kill his only hope.
His trancelike state was broken by the vibration from his phone. There was only one other person who knew this number. He nervously removed a hand from the gun and took the device from his ear. He looked down at the display, and it confirmed what he had already been told. It was a text message from his girlfriend, Maria. The message was a single digit. He began to breathe again and swung the weapon toward the man with the baseball cap.
“Freeze, police!”
The words jolted Millar. He looked over to his left and saw an officer with his service revolver aimed directly at him, and froze.
“It’s okay, Etzy, just relax. Everything’s going to be fine,” the stranger said. His voice was only loud enough for Millar to hear.
“I said, put the gun down!” the officer yelled again.
This time there was more urgency. Sirens echoed through the city in the background.
“I’m only going to — shit!” the officer yelled.
Millar watched the killer and his sidekick take off and then disappear around the side of the building. He tossed the weapon to the ground, and the police officer cautiously approached. The sirens grew louder, and the officer seemed to have more confidence, until the screeching sound of tires followed by the sound of scraping metal took center stage.
“Motherfucker!” the officer barked.
The cop watched the double-parked gray Chrysler 300 ram into his squad car several times. It was what had raised his suspicions enough to check out the park. With a final surge, the vehicle slammed his black-and-white into a line of parked cars on the other side of the street and sped off.
Before the officer could turn back to the two men, he found himself flex-cuffed to a railing.
“Sorry about this,” the stranger said as he emptied the rounds from the policeman’s gun. “Be safe out there.”
Millar watched curiously as the stranger wiped everything clean and handed the weapon back to the officer. He then pocketed the weapon Millar had tossed to the ground.
“Grab your laptop,” he said. “We need to get out of here.”
He followed the stranger across the street, and within two minutes they had reached the hustle and bustle of Adams Morgan. They quickly ducked into a basement bar called Club Asylum. The place was small and dark, with exposed redbrick walls and a couple of pool tables crammed before its single bar at the far end of the room. He followed the stranger to one of the small tables that provided some privacy from the line of patrons situated along the bar. Millar was glad to be sitting again. He was getting used to the pain in his ribs, but it hurt like hell when he ran.
“Who are you?” Millar asked, noticing the stranger had positioned himself to keep an eye on the club’s entrance.
“Trent.”
He offered his hand, and Millar shook it nervously.
“Nice to meet you.” Millar knew the man sitting across from him had everything under control, and it helped to calm him down. “So, what happens now?”
“That depends on you, Etzy.”
Millar’s voice was uneasy. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on. One minute we’re driving down the road, and the next thing I know, Max is dead and…” His voice trailed off as he tried to regain his composure. “Max, he got shot, and then this guy comes after me, and I’m, like, holy shit, you know, what the hell is going on?” He thought about it some more and made sure nobody in the bar was listening. He wasn’t sure what he should share but shook his head, knowing he had nothing to lose. “The same guy shows up at the hotel after I ask for help on the boards, and he says he’s going to kill my little sister. I don’t know what to do, you know? She’s all I’ve got now.” Millar stopped speaking for a long time. He was startled by the sound of a cue ball assaulting freshly racked balls.