Out in the Dark Read online

  “I know something,” Tommy said, sliding into the pit under the car. “Something you might pay to want to know too.”

  “What do you know, Tommy?” Jake couldn’t believe this kid was trying to shake him down for money, and for what? Surely there wasn’t anything he would know that could be of importance to Jake, unless it was another one of Shelley’s former tricks.

  “Well, there were some men, see, and they were real tough-looking, see,” Tommy started to talk, and Jake hoped that if he kept quiet the whole secret would come out. “You interested in hearing the whole story?” Tommy said with a taunting note in his voice. He stood hunched under the car with his arms crossed and his head cocked to one side. Jake wondered if he should tell him that some residual brake fluid was dripping in his hair, but he didn’t feel like being a Good Samaritan.

  “Don’t know,” Jake said. “Can’t see why that story would matter to me at all. So some tough dudes show up, so what?”

  “So, they were looking for you!” Tommy raised his voice and quickly clapped a hand over his mouth, thinking he had said too much.

  Jake decided to keep playing it cool. “Well, here I am.” He moved Tommy out of the way and tightened one of the clamps. Then he wiped his hands on an oily rag and climbed out of the pit, all the while continuing to ignore the young mechanic-in-training. “Where do you guys keep the brake fluid?” he asked. His heart pounded. Despite his cool exterior, he was worried those goons were still around. He hadn’t seen any cars at the service station but that didn’t mean anything. From what he had seen of them they were ruthless and he wouldn’t put it past them to try to finish what they had started the night before.

  Without waiting for Tommy to answer, Jake scoured the shelves and found what he needed. He refilled the reservoir and closed the hood. All the lines were truly repaired now and all that remained was to fill up the tank and get the hell out of this place.

  “I’m going to start the engine; you might want to get out of there,” Jake called out from the open car door. He slammed it shut and counted to twenty, saying his customary prayer. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tommy climb out, and Jake started the engine. He let it idle for a bit and pumped the brake pedal a few times to get the fluid moving before backing down the ramp and pulling up at one of the pumps.

  Shelley stood waiting for him with a worried look on her face. He wondered why she hadn’t come into the mechanic’s bay to see how he was doing. She held a paper bag full of whatever supplies she had thought they might need. As soon as Jake turned off the engine she walked over and before getting into the car she grabbed Jake’s arm.

  In a quiet, but urgent voice, she said: “Hurry, we’re not safe here.” Then she slipped into the car and buckled up. The bag of groceries stood between her legs.

  Jake understood and nodded to her. He willed the pump to pour the gasoline into the tank faster. While he pumped he scanned the road leading to the station, watching for cars that might raise a warning in him. He could feel something prickling at the back of his neck. Shelley was right, this was not a safe place.

  A sudden twinge in his gut told him he was on borrowed time. The gas tank was not full yet, but he didn’t want to stay there any longer. He pulled the nozzle out and shoved it back into the pump, pulled some money from his pocket and handed it to Tommy who had been standing nearby.

  “Ready?” he asked Shelley when he got back into the car.

  “More than!”

  He started the car and the prickling at the back of his neck became more pronounced. Something was up.

  With screeching tires he pulled away and floored it onto the on-ramp. In his rearview mirror he could see a car come speeding out from behind the service station. The same black sedan that had been after them the day before.

  Jake did his best to ignore the car and focus only on getting back onto the freeway without spinning out in any remaining slush patches.

  A loud bang sounded behind them and Shelley whipped around to see what had caused it.

  “No, it can’t be,” she said under her breath.

  Chapter 21

  “What?” Jake cried out. “What can’t be?” He didn’t want to look around because he needed to focus on the road ahead, and the rearview mirror was at the wrong angle.

  “It can’t be,” Shelley said again, turning around again for one more look. “It can’t be.”

  “What?!” Jake almost screamed.

  “Huh, oh,” Shelley looked at Jake and rubbed her eyes, as if trying to rub away what she’d seen. “I think I saw Paul Thomson. I think he deliberately crashed his car into the goons.”

  “Paul Thomson? Why does he keep showing up everywhere we are?. Maybe it’s just someone who looks like him.”

  “Maybe, but it sure looked an awful lot like him.”

  “But that just doesn’t seem possible.” Jake didn’t want to think about it. If Paul was alive, then why had his phone numbers not worked and why would he not contact Jake to let him know he was all right? And why would he run his car deliberately into another car? None of it added up.

  For the next few miles neither of them spoke. Shelley cracked open a can of soda and silently offered Jake one. He shook his head and pressed the accelerator down a little further. He wanted to make up for lost time and reach Reno by nightfall. They had wasted enough time. His father needed him.

  The sun was climbing higher in the wintry sky, nearing the noon hour. The road had been steadily climbing at a gradual slope, raising them above the nearly treeless landscape and up into the rocky, snowy layers of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

  The gas gauge showed half a tank, which should have given Jake some comfort, but instead it made him nervous. He didn’t want to run out of gas again, ever. The car was his only security in this world right now and he needed to make sure he could count on it at all times. He was still upset with himself for not paying closer attention to the gas the day before. He felt sure he could have outrun the goons.

  The jingling of his phone brought him back from his thoughts.

  “Hello?”

  “Jake, Paul Thomson here. Hope you’re making good use of that head start I created for you.” The voice sounded like Paul and Jake got the same mental image, but it just didn’t seem possible.

  “Oh, so you are still alive and able to use a phone,” Jake said, sounding surly. He didn’t want to feel grateful to Paul.

  “Sorry, Jake, but I have to be careful. I operate mostly off the government radar. It’s the only way I can undo what I’ve done, which includes extracting your father. Jake, you are the only one who can find him. He’s closed himself off to me.”

  “He must have had a good reason,” Jake snapped.

  “Yes, he has a very good reason.” Silence followed. Jake wasn’t going to ask. He wanted Paul to tell him. “I betrayed him. But in my defense, I didn’t know they were rogue. I didn’t know the extent of their plans. You have to believe me, Jake. Your dad is like a brother to me, and I feel terrible.”

  “You betrayed him?” Jake said grimly. “Why?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “Yeah, well, that doesn’t help me now does it? What am I supposed to do? Trust that you’ve seen the light and are suddenly on my side? Forget it.” Jake disconnected the call and dropped the phone in Shelley’s lap.

  “Hey, take it easy,” she cried, but she’d heard the whole conversation and understood Jake’s reaction. Paul wasn’t exactly her favorite person either at the moment, despite having bought them some time.

  They passed a road sign, Reno 40 miles. Jake let out a sigh of relief. They were almost there and then he could figure out where his dad was. Again they were silent, each lost in their own thoughts.

  Shelley knew she should back out and take that bus to Arizona, but she felt somehow bound to Jake. She felt that by being near Jake she could keep a little more of Melvin alive inside her. It made no logical sense, but to her it was the most important thing in the world. She was
beginning to understand what Melvin had been teaching her, which her mother had told her to forget. But now she was remembering, and with Jake’s guidance she was beginning to unfold that part of her mind that she had closed up after Melvin died.

  “Do you believe Paul?” Shelley asked. Something about what Paul said made sense, but if he was so secretive and off the radar why had he confronted those creeps by crashing into them?

  “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.” Jake kept staring straight ahead. He could now see the city opening up in the valley below. “Got any more sodas?”

  “Sure.” Shelley rummaged in the bag and pulled one out. She pulled the tab and handed it to Jake with the opening facing him. A simple gesture, but it made Jake remember how his mother used to do that for his father. His mother who was in hiding because of his father. No, not because of his father, because of Paul who had betrayed him. How well did she know Paul?

  “Hey, can you get my mother on the phone?” He turned briefly to Shelley and smiled at her and he was struck by how sweet she looked. There was a glow about her he hadn’t noticed before. Without thinking about it he reached out and put his hand on her knee.

  “What’s the big idea?” she snapped and brushed his hand off.

  “Nothing, forget it,” he grumbled. She wasn’t an angel, she was Shelley, a girl with too much baggage for him. He took the soda can from her and took a sip, spilling some down his front when the car hit a bump in the road.

  “Shit.” He handed the soda back to Shelley, and brushed off his sweatshirt. “Damn.”

  “I’ll get your mother on the phone, shall I?” Shelley said, barely able to contain her giggles.

  “Very funny. Go ahead, laugh. Yes, get my mother on the phone.”

  Shelley pressed her lips together to keep from laughing more and fiddled with the phone. It didn’t take her long to figure out how to call Jake’s mother.

  Once it was ringing she handed the phone to Jake.

  “Come on, answer,” he hissed impatiently through clenched teeth. The more he thought about Paul, the angrier he became.

  “Jakey!” his mother said. “Where are you?”

  Jake took a deep breath and steadied his voice before answering. He didn’t want her to worry. “Nearly in Reno. Mom, what more do you know about Paul Thomson? I mean, he claims to be a friend of Dad’s but he also says he betrayed him.”

  He heard a sharp intake of breath, then what sounded like a sob. “Oh Jake, oh Jake, if that’s true then I’ve been wrong. Then your dad is in big trouble, very big trouble.”

  Jake waited for her to say more but she didn’t seem to want to, so he prompted her and stole a glance at Shelley who was no longer giggling. Instead she was staring at him with wide eyes.

  “Jakey, Jake…” his mother said again.

  “Mom! What?” Jake nearly screamed into the phone.

  “Are you driving while talking?” his mother asked. “You know how I feel about that.”

  “Mom! I can’t stop now. These creeps are after me and will kill me if they find me.” That got her attention.

  “Oh no,” she took a deep, steadying breath before continuing. “Okay, here’s the scoop. Paul was, maybe is, a good friend of your father’s. When your dad quit the remote viewing program, Paul quit too. They were the star team and Paul wanted your dad to join him in a business venture, using remote viewing for private clients and governments around the world. Their services to the highest bidder, if you will. Your dad, bless him, refused. He didn’t like the idea; felt there was too much room for abuse. He didn’t want people to get hurt.”

  Jake nodded, that sounded like his dad.

  “Anyway, it was Paul who called about this job, saying it was a legit government job and it would help save many lives. Your dad didn’t tell me much more about it, but something about after 9/11 we all had to do our bit to keep the world from destroying itself.” His mother sighed and Jake could almost feel her fear.

  “Mom? You are still at Coach’s cabin right? You are safe, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, don’t worry, I’m safe here.”

  “Good.” Jake didn’t know what else to say. Part of him wanted to turn the car around and head home, but the other part desperately wanted to find his father.

  “Go find him, Jake. Go find him,” his mom said, her voice lowering to a whisper as she added, “I love you both so much.” Then she hung up.

  Jake handed the phone to Shelley who briefly put it to her ear, but then realized there was no one on the other end. She put it down and stared out the window. They were now entering the outskirts of Reno and in this light, with the sun covered by a winter’s haze and the accumulated pollution of a city in a valley, it looked dismal.

  She knew it reminded her of a place she had been before, but it wasn’t a happy memory, and she refused to let it come up for her to look at. All along this journey, things deeply buried in her subconscious had been coming up for her to look at. It was all very unsettling and she was even beginning to question her desire for that economics degree; perhaps a different major would suit her better?

  “There’s a sign for a motel, think we should pull in?” Shelley asked, thankful for the distraction.

  “Depends on if we can be hidden from the main roads there.” Jake took the turn off anyway, and at the bottom of the ramp looked both ways to see where the motel might be. Shelley indicated a sign pointing to the left and Jake turned, going under the highway and following the road.

  The motel proved to be set back from the road and parking was mostly behind the building. It looked very respectable and clean, different from what Jake had expected, certainly not a chain establishment. He hoped they wouldn’t ask too many questions.

  He pulled up to the office and they both got out.

  Chapter 22

  “Where you two youngsters off to then?” an elderly lady behind the counter asked.

  “College. We’re starting the winter quarter,” Shelley said.

  “You two related?” There was a note of suspicion in the woman’s voice.

  “Cousins,” Jake chimed in. “I picked her up on the other side of the Cascades at her folks’ place.”

  The woman nodded, but it was obvious from the skeptical look on her face that she did not fully believe either of them.

  “You want one room or two?”

  “One, please.” Jake pulled out his wallet and hoped he had enough to pay for a room for at least one night. He saw no sign with the rates anywhere.

  “How long you staying? Just the night?” Again the suspicious tone and the cocked head.

  “At least. My car’s acting up and I’ll have to see if I can fix it before we go on.” Jake surprised himself. He wasn’t used to lying like this.

  “You sure you want to share a room with him, honey?” The woman gave Shelley a searching look.

  “What?” Shelley was unprepared for the question. “Oh sure, not a problem. Especially since we’re pooling our money. We’ve known each other for years, no need to worry about us,” she said cheerfully, though she hadn’t actually given it much thought until that moment. Jake had been a perfect gentleman all this time; he wouldn’t try anything now.

  “Well, if you’re sure, I suppose I can let you two have one room. We do have a policy about youngsters sharing a room unchaperoned. This may be Nevada, but the Olson family have always run a very respectable establishment.”

  Jake managed not to say something snide, like “that explains all the keys on the rack.”

  “Do you have many guests at the moment?” Shelley asked, knowing it was far more tactful than what Jake had to be thinking.

  “We are expecting a convention of Presbyterians in on Friday. It will keep us hopping all through the weekend. They’re nice people, very respectable, though we don’t share their faith,” the old woman said.

  “I see.” Shelley smiled and nodded and wished the woman would just give them a key and take some money. They were vulnerable every moment the Pontiac was
parked in front of the office.

  Jake started tapping his fingers on the counter in a catchy rhythm Shelley recognized as something she’d heard on the radio not long ago. He kept nervously glancing out the window at the road, as if expecting doom to come thundering down on them like a tornado.

  “You two aren’t running from the law are you? You seem a little nervous.” The woman had a gift for understatement.

  “No, he’s just nervous about the car,” Shelley said with a smile, hoping it would convince her.

  “Got it from my dad. It was his and he wants me to take good care of it.”

  “Well, I can certainly understand that. Why, we gave our Leroy a car for graduation. Nothing fancy mind you, just a solid, dependable Ford, but we told him he had to take very good care of that car or he’d be doing extra chores and might even have to hand in his keys. Well, I can tell you, Leroy was more careful than Aunt Bertha in her Sunday best.”

  Shelley and Jake purposely avoided looking at each other for fear they might burst out laughing.

  “Can we have a room, please?” Jake asked. He was getting tired of waiting and the “required” pleasantries were getting on his nerves.

  “Well, in a hurry aren’t you?” The lady shoved the registry book toward them and handed him a battered-looking fountain pen. He’d never written with one and learned quickly that if you left the nib touching the paper, it would create a spreading ink stain. Judging by the number of such stains he guessed not many of the guests were familiar with this type of pen either.

  He signed them in as well as he could manage, paid for one night in advance and took the key. He was about to go out when the old lady called him back.

  “Not so fast, young man. You’ll be wanting towels and soap, I imagine. You’ll have to sign for them and I intend to count the towels when you check out. I would also like to have a phone number or address for your parents. In case there is damage to the room.” Whatever else she might have been planning on saying died on her lips when Jake glared at her with raw anger and frustration.