Dane and Sam had just driven through Danville and were now on their way along highway 58 to Martinsville.
‘This is some fuckin set o’ wheels, yee-haw,’ yelled Dane, snaking Marianna’s BMW X5 across both lanes of the road.
‘Cut it out, Dane, ya gonna kill the fuckin’ two of us.’
‘Awe stop your winin’. T’aint like we’re goin’ fast!’
‘I ain’t winin’, Dane, and y’are goin’ too fast, now would ya slow the fuck down?’
‘Oh I know what it is, you’re just jealous cause you ain’t drivin’. Ya drove that heap of shit for a week, and now ya wanna go o’ this. Ain’t that right?’
‘No I ain’t jealous, ya moron, so just quit it, please.’
‘Jeez, Sam, you really are a pussy sometimes. D’ya know that?’
Without warning, Dane slammed on the brakes, screeching the car to a halt and throwing Sam hard against the inside of the windshield.
‘Ya cocksuckin’ Mother fuck … what in Hell’s name d’ya go’an do that for, Dane?’
Dane said nothing; he just stared through the windshield letting out a long two-tone whistle. His eyes widening as he took in the view before him.
‘Are you even listenin’ t’me? Hey!’
Dane still looked through the windshield, but this time he pointed.
Sam turned to look. ‘Holy-mother-of-God,’ he said, stunned by what he saw.
On the near horizon there were dozens of lightning strikes, and thick, dark clouds.
Dane knew the storm was roughly over the location of Martinsville. It had to be the biggest he’d witnessed in years. He moved his foot from the brake and began heading towards it.
‘What the fuck ya doin’? We gotta wait till its clear, Dane.’
‘Not this time, Sam. We can’t delay gettin’ this cargo to Ella.’
‘Why, what so fuckin’ special bout this one?’
‘Can’t say, Sam, cept we gotta deliver soon!’
Sam pouted, folding his arms. ‘Well all I can say is that garage door better be wide fuckin’ open when we get there, otherwise you’re drivin’ this “Some fuckin’ set o’ wheels” right through the fucker. Ya hear me, Dane?’
Dane smiled, flattening the pedal. ‘Copy that little buddy.’
*
*
*
*
‘How fast are we travelling, Mr Kessler?’
Larry looked down at the speedometer. ‘Sixty five, why do you ask?’
Celia looked at her watch. ‘I’m trying to determine how much head start they have on us, and how long it will be before we actually get there.’
‘Well we arrived at your place at around 6:50, what time did you say Marianna left for the lake?’
‘She left the house at seven, always does.’
‘So if we say they took Marianna as soon as she arrived, they’d have left around, say, 7:20? We left the lake at 8:15. It’s now 8:50. That gives them about an hour over us.’
Celia was pulled back into her seat as Larry put his foot down; they were now doing eighty-five mph. If the two hours Mason told him of, was at 55 mph max, they should get to Martinsville in less than 80 minutes. Give or take a few minutes. As Mason had so specifically pointed out.
Larry looked at Celia through the mirror. ‘I’m going to call Brenda, see how they got on with the police.’
‘The mountains make it difficult, Mr Kessler. You’ll be lucky if she has any signal at all.’
Larry looked at his cell phone; he had three bars. He pressed a couple of buttons retrieving Brenda’s number from the memory; then waited for the call to connect. After a few seconds he heard a response. ‘It’s engaged, she might be trying to call me,’ he said, cutting the call.
Celia wasn’t happy to hear that, she hoped by now Mason had done as she’d ordered. ‘Are you sure it was engaged? Perhaps you weren’t properly connected; please try again, Mr Kessler.’
Celia could only see Larry’s back, but she could hear key-pad tones.
‘Nope, her phone’s definitely engaged.’
Celia squirmed, uneasy in her seat. If that fool had failed to kill the woman, Kessler could receive a call from her any time now. She had to get the phone from him. ‘May I borrow your phone, Mr Kessler; I left mine with Mason, I will call him to see if he has any news,’ she told him, and then looked at the rear-view mirror to see hesitation, or perhaps a measure of doubt in his eyes.
‘What about the no signal thing with the mountains? Won’t his signal be poor also?’
Again she squirmed. Private investigators, why did they always have turn things around? ‘Quite true, Mr Kessler, but you seem to have managed to get an engaged tone from Miss Wise, so perhaps the Goddess of communication is smiling down on us today.’
Still looking in the mirror, she saw his eyes roll before he handed the phone over. She took it from him and called Mason on his own cell phone.
‘It’s Miss Brontrose, Mason, I’m using Mr Kessler’s phone as you have mine, is Miss Wise there? … Ah, I see, is she on the phone? … Very good, when she finishes that call, can you ask her to ring Mr Kessler please?' Again she looked at Larry, this time to see him watching only the road. Her window opened with an almost silent hiss. Taking one final look, she let his phone fall from the car. ‘Oh my, Mr Kessler.’
‘What, what is it?’
‘Your phone, it slipped from my hand, I’m afraid it fell from my window, I’m dreadfully sorry.’
Larry slammed his foot on the break pedal bringing the car to a shuddering halt. After slamming it in reverse, he headed back to where his phone, or what was now left of it, had fallen from the car. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good news; broken bits were strewn across the highway for about twenty yards. Eventually they managed to find almost all of it, but the rubber number pad was nowhere to be seen.
The small screen was cracked, and the outer casing ended up in three separate parts. Larry put it back together as best he could, and holding the loose casing in place, he attempted to switch it on. But the cracked screen gave him no indication if it worked or not, and without the number pad, he couldn’t dial to test it.
‘I’m very sorry, Mr Kessler; the wind from the window must have taken it from my hand. It isn’t too badly damaged is it?’ she could tell he wasn’t very happy about the situation, but as far as she was concerned, the threat of discovery had now passed by.
‘Well nothing can be done about it now, Miss Brontrose.’
‘I will personally buy you a new one, Mr Kessler, as soon as this whole business is sorted out.’
Larry just smiled at her as he got back into the car, Celia did the same. Only her smile was a genuine smile, a satisfied, genuine smile.
