Cold Snow: A Legal Thriller (18 page)

"Yeah, I do."

"Do you also remember four kids who arrived at your station two days later, after the investigation had ended?"

"Yes!" Eidson said, as if recalling some bad memory. "They stole my car! The just hotwired it and drove off!"

The audience was surprised, and the prosecutor looked at Alex. "Is that true?"

"I—and I'm sure my friends the defendants would agree—am quite happy to admit to auto theft in place of multiple homicide," Alex said, smiling.

"What day was that?" he went on.

"It was March 2nd."

"That means nothing!" the prosecutor snarled. "They could have hidden around for two days after the murder!"

Alex looked him directly in the eye. "Besides the fact that any murderer worth his salt does not loiter at a crime scene, I can prove that that was not the case.

"Eidson," he asked, "do you have a clear view of the ferry traffic across the Niagara River from your store?"

"Yeah," Eidson said. "Very pretty. That's why I bought the land for my store."

"Were you able to see that the kids who stole your car arrived forty-five minutes earlier on a ferry?"

"I was watching them the whole time—I didn't have much else to do—and that's exactly the case."

"No further questions," the defense attorney said. Eidson hung up. "We have proven Alex's innocence in two of the three murders. One remains. Alex?"

"One more call will have to be made, to a Shell station on the Quebec Transit. There's only one, I believe."

Again the clerk disappeared and reappeared, dialed the number, and put on speakerphone. A young cashier picked up the phone, and the clerk requested the manager. The manager picked up a few minutes later, and the oath was administered.

"Again, let me ask the questions," Alex said to the defense attorney. "Please state your name and occupation?"

"Al Holloway, I run a Shell gasoline station."

"Tell me, what is your practice for people who select the 'pay inside' option and then drive off?"

"Oh, that? Happens all the time. We keep a record of their license numbers so we can bill 'em later."

"Has that happened recently?"

"Only once, last week. A green Ford."

"Do you have the license number?"

"347DCL. We billed a guy named Eidson."

"If you'll look outside, on main street, you'll see that very same green Ford, with the same license number," Alex announced. Grover sent the bailiff to check, and sure enough, it was there.

"That's the car I got here in. Mr. Holloway. Can you tell us the exact date of this car's arrival at your station?"

"March 3rd."

"You'll remember I arrived in Ridge City on March 5th."

The defense attorney, sensing what he had to do, piped up. "Harold Quinn was shot on March 4th."

Alex smiled and his face lit up. "The court, then, is suggesting that I got far enough up the Quebec Transit to arrive at this gas station, then turned around, drove to Ottawa, then turned back and went here,
all in the space of two days
?"

Members of the audience were visibly distressed and angry at this statement. They had been expecting a clean "guilty" and were angry with anybody who would dare infringe on their town.

"You did it!" someone shouted.

"Fry them!" yelled someone else.

Alex shouted for quiet at the top of his lungs, and continued on. "So, I ask the jury. I have proven that I, or my accessories, could not have committed these murders. The only thing you have to incriminate me is the testimony of Ordoñez."

The prosecutor piped up. "What are you insinuating!?"

"Ordoñez has testified under oath that he was the scene of all three crimes. Can he prove that he wasn't?"

Ordoñez rose from the front of the crowd. "Alex, please do us all a favor and shut up. We've heard enough."

Judge Grover rapped his gavel angrily. "Mr. Ordoñez, only the defense attorney may ask his witness to stop speaking."

Alex went on. "Ordoñez was at the scene of every murder. I wasn't at any. His testimony said that there wasn't anybody else at any of the scenes. Thus, Ordoñez was the only man at the scene of every crime, and therefore the
only man who could have committed the crimes
!"

"I told you to be quiet, Alex!" Ordoñez yelled. Alex cast a glance over to Jake and Sarah, who seemed to be cheering him on as quietly as they could. Motivated by their encouragement, Alex stepped out of the witness box and walked toward Ordoñez.

"Do you mean to incriminate my witness?" the prosecutor yelled. "You have no basis!"

"You're not a car dealer, are you?" Alex said quietly, his words filled with contempt and loathing. "I'll bet nobody bought a car from you in fifteen years. You're a hired gun, and you were sent to kill me!"

"The boy is crazy!" Ordoñez announced. "The weight of his sins must be getting to him."

"What's more," Alex raised his voice, "It was me you were sent to kill!"

Ordoñez dropped to his knees and whispered. "To
bring you back alive
."

"Oh, no, to kill! To kill me!" Alex said, now almost shouting. "I don't know why, but that's what you were sent to do!"

"Shut up!" roared Ordoñez.

"Go ahead!" Alex shouted, standing with his arms wide. "Kill me now! Let's see if you can!"

"Order in the court!" Grover called. "The witnesses will cease immediately!"

Ordoñez looked at Alex, a steely glint in his eye. "I can."

Suddenly, Alex heard a cry. He whirled around, and saw Anthony at the window, an arm around his throat. "Run!"

Alex called to Sarah and Jake, just before four armed men burst into the room.

CHAPTER 13

Escape

The four of them handled the situation in different ways. Alex immediately began looking around the room, desperately searching for an easy escape route. Jake examined the assailants themselves, looking at how they were armed, how they were dressed, and for some kind of clue that would indicate who they were. Sarah was overcome by a rush of incompatible emotions: fear, anger, confusion, desperation. Anthony, in the direst predicament, took it upon himself to fight viciously with his captor. He struck out his fists and legs wildly, punching the air at times, making contact at others. This all happened within the space of perhaps three seconds.

The court audience began screaming and running for the door, trampling each other in a haste to escape. They were all out within seconds. Judge Grover, the attorneys, and the staff slipped out through a back door.

Alex, after seeing that there was no way out, decided to talk his way out of it. He stepped forward.

"So, who are you?"

His polite question was answered in a short burst of gunfire, which may have not been intended to hit him; or maybe they had all just lost their target in the crossfire. Sarah, no longer able to stand it, leapt from the defendant's chair.

Anthony was barely gaining the upper hand in his struggle, and was fighting as hard as he could, dodging in and out of the downpour that now drenched the streets, cutting off any opportunity for his enemy to attack. He saw his attacker with his back turned, moments after he had last moved, looking around for him but seeing only the courthouse wall. He threw his full weight against the man, throwing him into the stone.

Sarah ran toward the four gunmen with all the speed she could muster, and they leveled the guns to fire. She probably would have been filled with shots if she hadn't uttered a phrase that made them hesitate.

"You killed them!
You killed my parents
!"

It seemed like a very strange thing for them to say, but Alex had no time to think about it. In the split second in which they faltered, Alex forced past them, reached blindly, grabbed Sarah's hand, and pulled her toward the door. As he moved, it occurred to him that Sarah might have realized something before he did. Two mysterious words flashed in his head:
Moose Killers
.

Anthony raised his foot and turned his eyes away from the horrible pain he was about to cause. He thrust his foot into the man's face, grinding him against the wall, closing his ears to the agonized moans. At last, when he was content that the man was out of commission, he returned to the window.

As Alex and Sarah stood by the door, the gunmen looked around to see their targets standing defenseless, and raised the weapons. Alex let go of Sarah's hand, and could see Ordoñez grinning broadly in the background, Jake stunned and locked up, as he sometimes became in danger's face. The four attackers, and Ordoñez, were each holding automatic rifles in their hands.

At that moment, Alex decided he was sick of guns.

Disappointingly, his life did not flash before his eyes. He resisted the urge to pray, deciding instead to use his last moments on a more worthwhile gesture.

Alex Orson, with all the courage he could muster in his last breath, raised both his middle fingers to his enemies.

It wasn't his last breath.

Anthony fired before he could see, knowing that everybody inside was in a life-or-death circumstance. By some kind of providence, it made contact with the back of one of the gunmen.

Alex had learned quickly that distraction was everything in such a delicate position. Drawing his own gun from his pocket, he shot another gunman through the chest and ran, throwing the door wide. The other two quickly pursued Sarah from the courtroom, while Anthony ran to meet them at Main Street, leaving Jake and Ordoñez alone in the room.

Ordoñez grinned wider than he ever had. "So, Harwell," he said maliciously, "How are you?"

"Shut up and shoot me," Jake replied coolly.

"No thanks," Ordoñez said, pacing the courtroom floor slowly but always keeping the barrel of his rifle on Jake, "keeping you company is much more fun."

"What are you doing?" Jake asked. "Are you trying to psyche me out? It's not gonna work."

"I'd just like to talk to you for a little while about your friend Alex. I understand you believe he came here to save you."

"Alex who is escaping on the road right now, you mean?"

"I have people to take care of that."

"If you're going to shoot me, I think you'd better go ahead and do it. My friends'll come back. And they're armed."

"They won't come back," Ordoñez said, his voice inflected with a disgusting mix of bitterness and cheer. "Alex didn't come to save you. He came to finish his enterprise."

"I can't believe you're trying to pull this."

"Alex treated you as second fiddle the whole way here. He insulted you. He ignored your advice. It was his fault you were kidnapped and it will be his fault when you die."

Jake tensed, in his head repeating every prayer he knew, desperate for the return of somebody from his side. "I promised I'd stay with him, and I will."

Ordoñez frowned. "You'd keep him as a friend? Even after all he's done to you?"

"Alex…he needs my help, and I need his."

"You would stand by Alex in the face of your oblivion?" At this question, Jake looked up and saw Ordoñez finger on the rifle's trigger. He shut his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"Yes."

The rifle flashed once, and with a crack, Jake fell to the floor with a bullet in his stomach.

Alex, Sarah, and Anthony were standing in the crowd, running with the tide, fighting to keep their heads down. Alex looked up periodically to check the position of the gunmen. At one point, he saw them meters away, dark silhouettes in the midst of the rain, but then they seemed to be going in a separate direction.

Suddenly, Sarah realized something missing.

"Where's Jake?"

Immediately, as if by an unspoken order, they all turned around. "Is it safe to go back in?" Sarah asked.

"The gunners are gone," Anthony replied. "And two of us are armed."

Inside, they stepped over the bodies of the two men they had killed earlier. Anthony stopped to pick up one of the automatics. Alex called out. "Jake!"

"Here…" a voice groaned.

Alex ran up to see his friend on the ground. "Are you alright?"

Jake smiled. "What's it look like?"

Alex paled, suddenly realizing what fate had befallen his companion. "Jesus Christ…did he…" He couldn't finish it.

Jake finished the thought for him. "Yeah, he shot me. It was Ordoñez. In the stomach…from what I know I have about fifteen minutes to live."

"No, you
don't
!" Alex shouted, his voice quavering and his body shaking. "We're going to get you out of here." He turned around. "Sarah! Help me carry him!" Sarah was as shocked as Alex to see Jake, but lifted him by his legs just the same. Together they managed to hoist him onto their shoulders. "Anthony!" Alex yelled. "Take that gun and get the car!"