Dark Road Read online

  His patience was rewarded when the pair of shadows emerged from around the corner of the Taylor’s old place. The last time he’d been in there, after Dan had found the sleeping bags in the attic, he’d locked the back door for some reason. He hadn’t known why he did it, he just had. Turned out that luck may have been on his side; it looked like whoever this was had tried the back door first and was going to have to come in the front door instead.

  Then he recognized them. He wasn’t sure if it was the taller one’s build or the length of the woman’s hair—it was obviously a woman—but he was sure it was Dan and Marissa Clark. “Now isn’t that interesting,” Carey said to himself, and made a quick decision.

  …

  “I swear the back door was unlocked the last time I was here,” Dan said.

  “It’s fine, let’s just get inside and get back home. And quit talking, sound carries.” Marissa said.

  The front door was still unlocked and that was a good thing. If the door had been locked Dan wasn’t sure what he would have done. Probably knocked out a window and gone inside anyway. His nerves were shot from sneaking the block-and-a-half over here.

  Once inside, Dan showed Marissa the postcards on the corkboard in what used to be the kitchen. Marissa looked at them for about half a minute and then turned to Dan. “I’m willing to bet they went to Natchez Trace,” she said.

  “How in the world can you say that?” He asked.

  “A couple of reasons. One, it’s the closest one and without refueling they couldn’t have made it to any of the other parks in what they were driving—none of them could. Two, if you look at them, these are from old trips; they weren’t originally on this board. See the tape on the corners of these two? They came from a photo album or scrapbook. One of them was even sent to them from someone else, ‘To: Aunt Rachael and Uncle Joel’. Three, Natchez Trace is pinned on top of all the others. Every other postcard has at least one corner or piece of the postcard under another card, but the one for Natchez Trace is completely on top. It’s not totally obvious the way they are arranged, but everything together says this was left for someone to find and tell them where they went.”

  “You really are better at this than I am,” Dan said for what felt like the thousandth time in the last week.

  “And I’m still trying to make up for you getting into the gun safe. Let’s go.”

  They were carrying the stuff sacks for the sleeping bags to hold the ammunition. Marissa had the 9mm between the belt and waistband of her jeans on her left side, butt forward for a cross body draw if she needed it, and was hoping there was a holster for it in the safe. Depending on what remained, Dan would be carrying a pistol and a rifle or shotgun on the way back, and so would she.

  Dan didn’t turn his flashlight back on until they were upstairs in the master bedroom closet and ready to open the safe. It worked just like last time, and Marissa grinned when she saw that Dan had been right.

  There was indeed a shotgun, another pistol, a hunting rifle, and a ‘small rifle’. “We’re taking it all and it’s a good thing I came along,” she said. The first thing she did was scan for a holster—of which there ended up being four. She took off her belt, threaded the holster on, seated the 9mm back on her left hip, and felt much more comfortable. “There, that was driving me nuts. Ok, your turn.”

  The remaining pistol was smaller but still another 9mm, and designed to be used as a concealed-carry piece. Of the two remaining holsters to choose from, they decided on one that clipped onto Dan’s belt. “This will be convenient, only one caliber for the handguns.” There were nine boxes of 9mm left in the safe, which meant 500 rounds total. They took all nine boxes.

  The shotgun was a Remington Super Express Magnum 12 gauge with a 28’ barrel. “Grab twenty boxes of,” Marissa paused for a second, “of the ‘zero-zero’ shells.”

  Dan snorted. “Ok, sweetheart, I don’t know anything about guns but double-ought was around before guns were invented.” He smiled at her to take any sting out of the comment.

  “Sorry, I wasn’t sure. We need slugs too, then.”

  Dan gave her a blank look.

  Marissa shook her head. “That would be bullets for the shotgun, dear; they say 12 GA Slug on the box.”

  “Gotcha, how many?” Dan asked

  “There’s only five to a box, so ten.”

  That left the two rifles. Dan asked “Do we need them both?”

  Marissa sighed, not out of frustration but because she was resigned to what she was about to say next, now that she had seen what was in the safe. “Yes, because I want to teach Bekah how to shoot the small one.”

  Dan didn’t say anything at all, he couldn’t. He was thunderstruck.

  “Don’t look at me like that; you’re going to learn on it too.” Marissa said. “That ‘little one’ is the venerable Ruger 10/22. It’s what my Dad first taught me how to shoot with when I was just a little older than Bekah and there’s no reason she can’t learn to shoot on it now too.”

  She moved Dan’s hand to point the flashlight at the boxes of ammunition again. “That is the .22 ammunition.” She pointed it down to the bags, “and that is the 9mm ammunition. You are going to need practice no matter what. Each of those tubs has 2/3 as many rounds as all the 9mm in the safe.

  “There are almost three hundred and fifty rounds of .22 in each of those tubs,” she pointed the flashlight back at the safe. The tubs were not quite twice the size of a butter tub. “And that ammo will allow you to get used to things going bang, Dan, and let Bekah and Jessie get used to it, too. And if Bekah can get good with a .22 there’s no reason she can’t hunt rabbit and squirrel, if there’s any left.”

  “Ok, good point. I’m sorry; I just wasn’t expecting my eight-year-old daughter to have to learn to shoot a gun.” Dan was still visibly coming to grips with it, though.

  “I didn’t expect her to have to either.” Marissa said softly.

  After a quick hug they turned back to the task at hand. “Ok, let’s get this over with and get home.” Marissa said. “I hate leaving the girls by themselves.”

  “What do we need for the rifle?” Dan asked.

  After a quick examination, Marissa said they needed all ten boxes of .30-30. “It’s a .30-30, and the scope will come in handy even without the rifle.”

  “I understood nothing but ‘the scope will come in handy’.” Dan replied.

  “But you’re a quick study and I love you anyway. Now let’s go.”

  Both rifles and the shotgun had carrying cases and they took a minute to zip them up and stow them correctly. It also made carrying them easier. Dan carried the hunting rifle, and the shotgun, and both bags of ammo. Marissa carried the .22.

  On the way out of the closet, Dan motioned with the flashlight and said, “That’s where I found the,” and stopped. Marissa looked at Dan and she could see he’d gone pale, but she hadn’t followed the flashlight beam yet.

  “What’s wrong, Dan?” Then she looked where he nodded. There was another bar of Irish Spring under the sink.

  “Maybe you missed it last time?” She asked, knowing he couldn’t have. The room was white and beige and the box was green for crying out loud. She was pretty sure she could see it in the dark if he turned off the flashlight.

  “Carey put it there; he knew it was there all along.” Dan said. “No wonder he’s been suspicious of me, of us, ever since I came here last time.” Dan ran his hand through his hair which sent the flashlight beam all over the bathroom and reflecting off the mirror.

  “I told him I found two bars of soap under the sink because I had the box of bullets in my pocket.” Dan was back to calling ammo bullets. “The soap and the box were about the same size on the end so I told him I found two bars of soap.” He looked at Marissa. “I pulled out the one bar of soap that I found and offered to give him one of the bars of soap. He could still see the bulge in my pocket and he knew there was only one bar of soap in the bathroom all along. He knew I found something else up here and h
e’s been suspicious ever since.”

  “Let’s go home, we just need to get back and we can figure out what to do in the morning.” Marissa said. “Everything will be fine. Let’s go.”

  Dan turned off the flashlight and they left as their eyes adjusted to the dark.

  Chapter Nine

  Getting home seemed to take twice as long as the trek to the Taylor’s had, but in reality they had skimped on some of the stealth and made it back in almost half the time. They were whispering as they got to the front of the house and Marissa was putting her key into the door. Marissa had moved the Ruger to her left hand so she could get her keys out of her right front pocket and Dan was carrying basically everything else.

  Both of them froze when the door slowly opened on its own. Keys forgotten and still in her pocket, Marissa’s initial thought was that Bekah had woken up while they were gone, and when she realized they were home had come to open the door for them. “Bekah, honey, you know you shouldn’t open the door when Mommy and Daddy aren’t home.”

  Marissa’s heart stopped cold when she heard Carey’s voice, and she dropped her keys. “A very good lesson that I’m sure she’s learned well. Maybe we should wake her up and ask her?”

  Both Marissa’s and Dan’s minds were racing. How did he know? What has he done? What have we done?

  “Now,” Carey said, “why don’t you two tell me just what you’ve been up to at the Taylor house and what you’ve found, hmm?”

  “Let’s go inside and we’ll tell you everything.” Dan said.

  Marissa shot him a look, but didn’t say anything.

  “Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t think you’ll be coming back into this house until my curiosity has been satisfied,” Carey said. “And, after all, isn’t possession nine-tenths of the law? So why don’t you start by answering my questions. What were you doing out so late at night, or should I say early in the morning, skulking about in the dark like common criminals?”

  “We’re not the ones in someone else’s house Carey!” Marissa hissed. “We’re not the ones in someone else’s home with someone else’s children without their permission, Carey!”

  “Now now, I’m a parent too, and someone needs to look out for these two lovely little girls while their parents are out doing heaven only knows what. Why, anything could have happened to you while you were out.” Carey’s voice grew dark. “And I can guarantee you that you will never see these children again if you don’t play ball will me starting right…now.”

  Carey took a step into the doorway and Dan and Marissa had to step back or be run into when he took another step outside and closed the door. “I am tired of you two lying to me and you will answer my questions, and you will tell me what you were doing in that house, and you will tell me what’s in those cases right now. If not, I will take your children,” he was looking from Marissa to Dan and back again, but mostly at Marissa and the look of utter horror on her face, “and I will find another family who would love to have two darling little girls, or possibly two families who would each like a little girl, and I will banish you from the community!”

  Dan was numb. Numb with fear, shock, and pain. How could this evening have spun so entirely out of control? We were going to grab the guns and make good our escape. In retrospect it sounded like the plot of a really bad Western and those always went horribly wrong…but this, this was supposed to have been different.

  Marissa hung her head and hugged herself for a second and the look of triumph on Carey’s face told Dan everything, right up until she looked back up. Marissa wasn’t defeated.

  While she’d been hugging herself she’d dropped her right hand to the butt of her gun and she drew it as she looked up. Carey’s attention was on her face instead of her hand, which was a bad move on his part but in the end it wouldn’t have mattered. Once Dan saw the look on her face he put down his burdens and got ready to do “something”—what, he had no idea, and the thought of pulling his own gun never occurred to him.

  “OK, Carey, you want answers? We found the key to Mr. Taylor’s gun safe and we found this.” Marissa pulled up her 9mm and handed the .22 to Dan, who now had two empty hands. We also found a number of other guns but this is the only one you need to be worried about right now.” Then she thumbed off the safety and pulled back the slide to chamber a round.

  Carey didn’t grasp the gravity of the situation. “You should have come to me with this immediately. The community needs those for protection, possibly to hunt. We’ve been trying to figure out a way to get into that safe for three months! The last thing we need is for people sneaking around in the middle of the night to steal guns from other people.” Carey didn’t see the least bit of hypocrisy in the last two things he’d said.

  “I’m afraid that knowing this, it’s going to change your standing in the community. We’re obviously going to need to take those guns.”

  Carey reached out to grab the .22 from Dan and, almost as a second thought, grab the 9mm from Marissa. He was too slow, and it was a mistake either way. Marissa lowered the barrel to Carey’s chest, the muzzle touching directly over his heart, and pulled the trigger in the blink of an eye.

  At first it appeared that nothing had happened. It was quieter than any of the three had anticipated it would be, but not silent by any stretch of the imagination. The majority of the noise from a firearm comes from the end of the barrel, the muzzle, and having that pressed against Carey’s chest absorbed quite a lot of it. A couple of streets over, the first of the remaining dogs in the neighborhood started to bark.

  Carey had time to look down at his chest, grimace, open his mouth, and then tumble forwards. Both Marissa and Dan had to jump out of the way to keep from having Carey fall on them. Marissa and Dan stared at each other for several seconds until Dan broke the silence by saying, “Rissa, what did you just do?”

  “I…the girls…he threatened…” Marissa closed her eyes for two seconds and took a deep breath.

  When she opened her eyes she had changed again, like she had on the night Danny died. “He threatened the girls, Dan, he was threatening us. He’s not going to be threatening anyone else anymore. Let’s get him behind the bushes and then we need to get into the house before someone comes out to see what the noise was.” She swallowed, proving she wasn’t actually completely over it. “It’s been a couple of weeks since we heard gunshots around here but we can hope everyone just keeps their heads down for a little while. Dan, I did what needed to be done.”

  “Right, ok…and then we need to talk.”

  “Fine, later.” Marissa replied. “Get his shoulders; we need to get him off the porch.”

  The number of barking dogs was up to three.

  …

  Once they were inside, they both noticed that Bekah was awake and looking at them from under her covers. Jessie was still sound asleep.

  Marissa was the first one to her but only by half a step. “Bekah, honey, are you ok? Did anything happen while we were gone?” Dan asked.

  “Mr. Carey came in through the window in the kitchen, but I stayed still because I didn’t want him to know I was awake,” she said.

  Dan closed his eyes and let out the breath he’d been holding. “Good girl,” Marissa said. “Mr. Carey is gone now. It’s ok.”

  “What was the noise outside?” Bekah asked.

  “Don’t worry about it right now,” Dan told her. “Mommy and I need to do some things and you need to get some more sleep.”

  Bekah wasn’t stupid, so she wasn’t going to argue with her parents, but she also wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep. “Ok,” she said and then rolled over and pretended to try to go back to sleep while Dan and Marissa watched her for a few seconds and then went into the other room.

  “We have to leave, like tonight or this morning, as in, as soon as we can pack the bikes.” Dan said.

  Marissa nodded her head. “I know. I’m sorry. Not for what I did but for what it means we have to do.”

  The look on Dan’s
face was one of shock, and bewilderment, and dismay. “Come again? You just killed a man Rissa. You’re not sorry?”

  “No, Dan, I’m not.” Marissa’s face was as hard as her voice. “And once the shock wears off you’ll be able to see my point of view, even if you won’t agree with it. He threatened us and our children, and I would not and will not have it. Not now, not ever.” Then she walked away to start packing.

  …

  The last thing to pack took the longest because they had to get Jessie awake enough to get her into the pull-behind and that was no mean feat. Bekah was still awake, and when Marissa realized she hadn’t gone back to sleep she had her get up and get dressed since she would be riding her own bike anyway.

  As Marissa was bringing the last load of things out to the garage she saw Dan tinkering with the lawnmower and asked him what he was doing.

  “Creating a diversion.”

  “How so?” She asked.

  “It’s been over a month since anyone has heard a lawnmower, right?” Dan asked. Marissa nodded. “Well, even though they siphoned out all the gas from the tank there’s still a little bit in the bowl of the carb and the tank that they couldn’t have gotten. I’m guessing it’ll run for at least a couple of minutes.”

  “I’m going to take it down the street and around the corner a half a dozen houses in the other direction from where we’re going and fire it up. I figure if I leave it running on the sidewalk, everyone will come out to see what the commotion is and hopefully won’t even notice us leaving. With the gunshot earlier, some people are bound to be awake already. When we open the garage door someone is more than likely going to come outside and investigate. I’m going to take this out through the front door and have it running when we open the garage door.”