“Listen carefully. In the warehouse there’s going to be a single light, in the very center of the room. It’s perfectly safe. All I need you to do is walk into the warehouse, pick up the package in the light, and leave as quickly as you can. Keep your head down, keep your eyes up, don't look at anyone, don't talk to anyone just take it and run.”
“Okay Dad, you’re asking a lot of me and I need to know what the hell this is all about. Are you involved in drugs again?” I demand, my face flushing with anger.
“Lucy, I don’t wanna talk to you about that right now,” he says in his voice firm. “I just need you to help me, I hardly ever ask anything of you. Just do this one thing for me.”
“You hardly asked me to do anything for you? I put my hands on my hips. “What you’re asking me is huge. Do you understand what I am risking? I'm going there involving myself to save your skin because you can’t stay clean?”
“I’m not a drug addict,” he protests, turning away from me and looking at the picture of my mother and my sister that he keeps on the small bookshelf in this tiny apartment. “Believe me Lucy, I’m not doing drugs. I just need you to trust me and please go to the warehouse and pick up the package and bring it back here. Can you please do that for me? I would do it if I could, but I can’t. It’s too risky I don’t want people to be getting the wrong idea about me. I need to straighten up.”
Chapter Ten
KENTON
Kenton
* * *
It’s nearly midnight, as I follow the nineteen-year-old punk to the warehouse. That kid is more nervous than anyone I’ve ever seen, and I have seen a hell of a lot of people nervous and strung out on drugs. “He needs to calm down and take a breath before he blows this entire thing for us,” I mutter as I park my car down the road, where I first found the boys standing around looking for potential clients for the drug deal hours earlier.
When I first met the punk, I was worried that I wasn’t able to properly put the fear of God into him. Kids like him just don’t seem to realize the true remedy of the situation that they are in. A simple arrest isn’t enough. Most of them think they will be able to get off without a hitch, or that life will somehow carry-on as normal, and they will be able to stroll right back out the door of the station. The truth of the matter is very different. People who do drugs go to prison. Lives are wasted, and I don’t want that for these kids, even punk kids like Chip.
I’m grateful the kid was even born to try to take this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the people in this town. Anyway, I suppose he is sacrificing his own at this point, but if we are being totally honest with each other, Chip’s life was over the day he chose to pull a gun on me.
At least now he is able to do something useful with what little time he has left as a free man. Normally, I would be scared that a guy like Chip would double-cross me. He seems like a typical opportunistic, scared kid with nowhere else to go who turns to a man like Noah looking for signs of comfort or appreciation or anything remotely resembling a father figure.
However, Chip has a monitor on him that is linked to my phone. The monitor allows me to watch his every
move as he begins the cash drop.
God, I hope he doesn’t fuck this up. I don’t like having to rely on other people to get things done. In fact, I don’t like having partners at all. I’m more of a solitary guy. One who would rather work alone and be alone. Perhaps that was why I waited so long to be with someone after my divorce. Now that I have Lucy, I still have a hard time letting her in. My family is the same way I suppose. I’m not someone accustomed to having someone that I can rely on, so it makes sense that I have a solitary lifestyle. I hope that one day when this is all over, I can make real progress in my relationship with Lucy. For the first time in my life, there is someone who matters more, well not more, but as much as my darling daughter, Charlie. I just need to get through this case.
Tapping my fingers impatiently on the dash, I close my eyes and shift focus to stay calm. This could be my first real breakthrough in a long time, and I want to find out once and for all if this has something to do with Noah Knight.
Part of me hopes that it is not Noah, simply because I don’t want to upset Lucy. I know how difficult it is to lose someone close to you like that. And I don’t want her to have to suffer any more than she already has. She suffers enough because of her father. I don’t want to be someone who brings out pain in her life. However, if it is Noah, I don’t think I will have a choice.
Maybe I’ll get lucky. If it isn’t Noah, then Lucy will live a happy life finally free of the turmoil that her chaotic family causes her. Also, if it’s not Noah, then I still have someone else to chase after. Reaching down and adjusting the gun on my hip, I double-check that a bullet is in the chamber. I like the chasing, it’s something I am good at. I am good at protecting people, ones that I care about.
I care most for Charlie and Lucy, so I will do everything I can to protect them and this town.
Sliding out of the truck and closing the door, I click the lock and cross the street. I stay in the shadows so as to avoid being seen by potential onlookers. The air is uncharacteristically hot for an evening, even in the summer. I wore the wrong shirt for a sweltering stakeout. Hopefully, this will prove to be worth the discomfort.
There is no moon in the sky tonight. Streetlights are flickering in the houses like Erie Haye’s over the small Wyoming town. Honestly, it is a perfect night for such devilish things. Believe me this is not the way I planned to spend my evening. I was going to set aside time for Lucy. In fact, the image of her disappointed face comes to mind, and I feel it’s out of guilt. Lucy deserves better than all of this.
Then I remember the pictures she sent me earlier tonight. They were… incredible to say the least. I’m going to have to spank her though for teasing me like that. I want to know exactly where she was going in a dress like that. I shake my head to get it back in the game. Now is not the time to be thinking about that tiny scrap of panties I could see in the first picture she sent me.
Creeping forward, keeping to the shadows in the entrance of the warehouse, I sit and wait for a moment. I can see Chip in the distance, he’s not too far away. His lopsided baseball hat is a dead giveaway. I will never understand the fashion of teenage boys these days. I am only glad that it is not something that seems to appeal to my daughter. I think I would have an aneurysm if she brought home some hooligan who thought he was a gangster.
As I go to stand up my flashlight slips and crashes to the ground. I hold my breath as I look around to make sure no one else heard. Chip freezes too, obviously hearing me, and I wonder if he is going to try to bail on me and pretend he forgot about tonight’s stakeout. “No such luck, Chip,” I whisper.
There is a lot hanging on tonight, and although we all wish the days like these were bad dreams, reality is much darker. We must live with the consequences of our actions: something that Chip will soon find out as he bends over and lowers the package of money. It hits the ground with a “thunk” that echoes through the dark warehouse.
So far so good. A single hanging lightbulb snaps on and swings ominously with the force. I watch as Chip stands in the middle like the star of some twisted play. I wonder how this all seems to him? He’s like the main character of a dark drama. Is he waiting for some monster to come from the dark and attack him? Well there are no monsters here, only men. Although if there was something I’ve learned from my line of work, it is that men can be the worst monsters of all.
Come on, Chip don’t do anything stupid. The young man stands there uncomfortably for a moment, adjusting his ball cap before turning away and leaving the small package under the single light in the giant warehouse.
Chip stands in the shadows for a bit longer looking around the dark room. I don’t think he sees me. I don’t think he can see anything; it’s too dark.
What is he waiting for?