Otter Under Fire (29 page)

“We have a house over on Cactus and 59th.”

“Who are ‘we’?”

“Troy, Graham and I, we’re renting it together.”

“Don’t they have girlfriends or wives? They always seem to be on the job.”

“Well, they’re a gay couple, so I don’t think they’re interested in girlfriends or wives--at least not for them.”

“Ah, ok—that changes a few things and it makes other things make sense.”

“I thought with your keen powers of observation that you would have figured that out.”

“I’ve been busy,” Otter muttered. “It’s a little unusual that both your best friends are gay.”

“They’ve saved my life more than once. Why should it matter?”

“I don’t suppose it does.”

“I’ve known them forever,” Joel said. “That’s just the way they came.”

“That makes sense.” Otter said. “But you’re not gay, are you?”

Joel laughed out loud. “It would hardly make sense to date you if I were, would it?”

“Well you’d need to get information.”

Joel sighed. “Yes, knowing you was important to this case, but I would have gotten a lot of the information without you--eventually. Knowing you has made it much easier, though.

“I am not gay. Not even a little bit. I’ve wanted to get to know you since the first time I saw you and I’ve been determined to make it happen for some time now.”

“When was the first time you saw me then?”

“Can we talk about this later? There’s a lot to it and it would take more time than we have right now.”

“I suppose.”

“Thank you. And here you are safely home. It looks like Tempest is waiting for you.”

“She probably wants to know what happened.”

Joel came around and opened the door for her. It was a little weird, Otter thought, but nice. When she got out of the car he kissed her goodnight, saw her to her door, watched her open the door and kissed her again.

“Be safe,” he said and got in his car. He waited until the garage door shut before he backed out of the driveway.

“And she finally comes home,” Tempest said. “I was waiting up for you so I could make some milkshakes for us both.”

“Now that is a good idea.”

“So what happened?”

Otter told her about the interview with Ron Defray.

“It’s just weird Tempest, it doesn’t make any sense.” Otter said when she finished.

“What doesn’t?”

“That he would kidnap Defray and keep him in his basement. Why would he do that?”

“Maybe he did it because he’s crazy.”

“And he tried to make it look like Defray was stealing equipment that Mitch wanted himself.”

“Well that makes sense.” Tempest said as she scooped ice cream.

“But why keep him alive and humiliate him then? Nothing is adding up.”

“I don’t know, maybe he will tell you some day.” Tempest turned on the blender and they had to be quiet for a moment.

“There are just too many unanswered questions.” Otter said when the appliance had stopped. “It doesn’t feel right and I’m uneasy.”

“Like what, for instance?”

“I worked in highly stressful conditions with Mitch for years; he never struck me as crazy. I talked to him and his wife, she never seemed like she was in distress or being held captive. The facts are not fitting what we think we know.”

“What do you want to do about it?” Tempest asked watching the cats come running into the kitchen sensing food. It only took moments before the puppies started whining.

“I don’t know that I can do anything,” Otter said. “It’s up to the officials. I doubt they’d let me talk to Mitch.”

“Maybe Joel will pull some strings for you.”

“You know, I’m almost to the point I want to call in tomorrow. I need to just get my head on straight about all this.”

“You never call in.”

“I know, that should tell you how unsettled I am.”

“Relax; you’ve had a crazy few weeks.” Tempest said, handing Otter a thick chocolate malted milkshake.

“Be still my heart.” Otter said. She took a glorious sip and savored the taste.

Tempest was worried. She was sure that Otter paced around her half of the house most of the night and then left early for work. She knew from experience that if Otter was that worried, there was something wrong. She almost stopped her friend from going in to work that morning, and keep her safely at home.

After Otter left, Tempest wandered around the house wondering what to do. Between the two of them, they made the cats and the puppies nervous. Otter could take care of herself in most situations, but it was always that odd and crazy thing that caught most folks unaware. The more she thought things over the more concerned she became. Finally she pulled out her cell phone. She would call everyone she could think of and they could worry with her. There was no point in anyone else sleeping if she was wide awake.

Annie had told Otter that she was coming in late that morning, so Otter drove to work ahead of schedule and alone. Oddly enough, there were plenty of cars on the road so early in the morning. The snowbirds were coming back into town and clogging up the streets again. She wondered where they were all going at that hour.

She unlocked the gate and let herself in, then locked it behind her. It was too early to leave it open it yet. She walked to the side of the building and let herself in the door that led to her office. She put her purse and her lunch away and took a walk around the plant.

Third shift was winding down and would go home in a couple of hours. A few would stay behind to make sure they passed on information to the first shift coming in. The shop was never quiet, even when empty, it was like the machines and the furnaces muttered to each other when all the people were gone.

Otter liked getting in at this time of day once in a while. She said hello to the night crew and checked on her projects. Forklifts sat like sentries all around shipping, only a few employees using them at night. She went back into her office and pulled out paperwork and travelers that she needed to work on and kept herself absorbed in the work for at least an hour.

She was disturbed in her work when the power went out and the office went completely black. Otter swore to herself and waited for the backup generator to kick in. It took about five minutes and the overhead lights came on. The furnace alarms buzzed and warning alarms rang all over the plant. She jumped off her chair and started out the door, but was stopped abruptly.

Victoria was standing in her office doorway holding a gun. Otter realized how much Victoria looked like Mitch. Standing there in her blond hair she looked just like him wearing a wig. She was a little smaller but people must have mistaken them for twins more than once. Odd, she had never noticed that before. She looked into her visitor’s face –Victoria was smiling--and her eyes were two deep, dark pools of hell.

Otter had spent a lot of her childhood looking into eyes like that and she knew what hadn’t felt right. Everyone had made a terrible mistake.

“You ruined everything, you Bitch,” Victoria said and raised the gun.

Suddenly, without warning Otter was six years old again. She was looking into her mother’s eyes with that same, mad unreasonable expression. She knew that nothing she could do or say would get her out of trouble if she addressed her mother directly. But she had special tools for survival.

It was weird to realize that all the images, voices and impressions only took seconds in her brain. It seemed like it should have taken longer to run everything through her mind. Otter did what she often did as a little girl; she dropped to the floor and made a smaller target. The gun went off and blew a hole through her office wall.

Otter’s psyche flew through calculations as she decided on her next move. If Victoria was anything like her mother, she would stand and stare at the gun for a moment as if she was shocked it had gone off. Her mother had never tried to shoot her, thank goodness, but she had been no less dangerous.

She pushed past Victoria, thrust upward with her fist and knocked the gun from Victoria’s hand. Knowing it would take too long to stop and pick it up; she chose to kick it into the shadows down the hall from her office. The firearm flipped into Michael’s engineering projects stacked in a darkened corner. It would take her assailant some time to find her gun in there, but she probably had a spare. Otter ran for the door to the shop and a bullet whizzed by as she pulled it open. She was right; Victoria came with more than one firearm.

Otter reached the shipping area and she had to decide which way to run. The shop was dim with emergency lights and alarms were screaming all over the complex. But the parking lot and roadway between the buildings were fully lit. She had to keep the gun away from the endothermic units toward the east. A stray bullet would level the whole block if it hit the gas lines with all that fire shooting around them.

She also had to stay away from welding and the storage tanks for the same reason and ditto for most of fabrication. She worked out her plan quickly and she knew the best place to go. Adjacent to fabrication was a smaller building that had a few multi-ton presses in it. The machines were heavy and dense and had a huge footprint. She could hide in there in the dark and the killer wouldn’t find her right away. The worst her assailant could do to the machines in that room would be to shoot out a hydraulic line and have Dan the supervisor swearing later on when the machine didn’t work.

In the dim light Otter made her way partially by feel to Dan’s work station and grabbed a spray can of penetrating oil he always had on his desk. She also grabbed his bar of one and a half inch diameter steel--honed on one end-- that he used to lever parts and components into the perfect position.

It didn’t take long for her assailant to catch up to her. Otter had no more than ducked behind the 30 ton press when she saw Victoria silhouetted in the door way by the parking lot lights behind her.

“I know you’re in here Bitch, and I’ll find you,” Victoria said angrily.

She aimed her gun in front of her and shot into the darkness. It ricocheted off a press and into the wall. Slowly, Victoria advanced into the room, step by step into the dimness. Otter kept quiet and held tight to her improvised weapon, trying not to breathe in any way that Victoria would hear her. Her heart was pounding and her lungs wanted her to gasp for air from the run across the complex. She concentrated on calming herself down as she watched for her assailant.

“Come out, come out where ever you are,” Victoria said in a high sing song voice. She giggled a nasty little giggle that made Otter’s skin crawl. She waited to see which way Victoria was coming around the machine and backed toward the opposite direction. She raised the tool over her head and as soon as she could see the whiteness of the hand holding the gun, she slammed the bar down with all her strength which made an excruciating crunching sound. The gun shattered and judging by the sound, she had broken some bones in Victoria’s hand. Victoria screamed and Otter ran back around the press and took off in the opposite direction.

She had made it as far as the common area between fabricating and hydroforming. There a skylight made the visibility better, but Victoria caught up to her and slammed her against the wall. The maddened woman grabbed her throat and caused Otter to drop the steel bar. Otter couldn’t believe Victoria would be so stupid as to try to strangle someone when she had a broken hand. Otter reached up and grabbed the pinky of both of Victoria’s hands and bent them back as far as they could go. They made a satisfying snapping sound as did Victoria’s knee cap when it met the steel toe of Otter’s boot.

“You never listened, you just did as you wanted,” Victoria shrieked at her. That phrase, the hysterical madness behind it just flipped a switch for Otter. Without warning, she became a mad thing herself. No longer a frightened child at the mercy of a mad woman, she was an adult and quite capable of defending herself. She jumped on an advancing Victoria and went wild.

Victoria just kept screaming, an insane, shrieking sound of madness and pain at the highest possible level. And she just wouldn’t quit. Otter threw her across the room and backed against the wall. Victoria came at Otter again with her fingers curled in the position to scratch her eyes out. Otter grabbed the penetrating oil out of the side pocket of her cargo pants and sprayed Victoria directly in her face. Blinded, Victoria swung out in Otter’s direction and caught her on the side of the jaw, and Otter saw stars.

Just then the lights came on. Otter found herself looking at the screaming wreck that was still trying to come at her. She bent down and grabbed the steel bar again. If she had to crush Victoria’s skull to keep herself alive, she would do it.

Gonzo and two of the lathe operators appeared next to Otter with foam fire extinguishers and opened them up full blast on Victoria, finally putting her on the ground--retching and choking.

“We heard the gun shots by your office Mee ha,” Gonzo said, keeping an eye on Victoria, “but I couldn’t find you—and there’s a big hole in your wall, especially in the hall on the other side. Good thing nobody was in the bathroom this morning. After all the alarms were turned off, we heard screaming, I followed the sound to this building and I see this crazy chica attack you. You’re a good fighter Meeha, I had no idea.”

Otter laughed weakly and leaned against the wall.

“So I tell my two guys here to grab the fire extinguishers and we came around so she didn’t see us. She is one chica loca, Meeha.”

“Yes, she is.”

“I’m only going to say this once while I’m sober,” Gonzo looked like he was going to cry. “You’re one of the best bosses I’ve ever had, Meeha; it sure would piss me off if some
pendeja
[13]
took you out on my watch.”

Otter closed her eyes to keep the room from spinning around her.

“Kind of what I was thinking Gonzo,” she said.

Otter concentrated on keeping herself breathing and from being sick to her stomach. Victoria must have punched her in the abdominal area somehow. She heard male voices all around her chattering rapidly in Spanish. Nobody had any rope, she gathered, so someone grabbed a couple plastic film dispensers from shipping and Victoria was plastic wrapped securely in place. She wouldn’t stop screaming so they stuffed a rag in her mouth.

Otter crept sideways, holding onto the wall for support. Once she got to the corner, she made her way slowly back to Dan’s desk. She eased herself into his chair, even though she could hear her men call to her that the police and an ambulance were on the property. Carefully she put her forehead on the cool edge of Dan’s desk and felt for his wastebasket. She was violently ill for some minutes, grateful she had only had a protein shake for breakfast. Poor Dan, she thought, he always prided himself on a neat and tidy office. When he saw what she had done to it, he was going to be royally pissed.

“My God Otter, are you all right? Let me look at you.” Joel’s voice came from somewhere above her. It was a nice voice, and it was rich and warm like beef and vegetable soup on a cold day. She savored the sound of it even though she was still afraid to move.

“I think I have a concussion,” she said slowly. “If I move, I will throw up again.”

“You really did a number on her.”

“She tried to kill me,” Otter said. Her forehead was still resting on the desk and eyes were closed. “I did what I could to stop that from happening.”

“Are you bleeding?”

“I don’t know, probably somewhere.” She breathed for a moment. “You should probably tell the paramedics that she has penetrating oil in her eyes and foam fire extinguisher all over her. The fire extinguisher won’t hurt her, but the oil will do serious damage.”

“Ooh, bet that stings,” Joel said and he went the few steps to relay the information as the ambulance crew were attempting to sedate Victoria for transport. He came right back and observed that Otter hadn’t moved.

“You also should know there are pieces of a gun around here on the other side of the smaller press.”

“We’ll find them.”

“And another gun in a pile of scrap parts by my office.”

“Good Lord, woman, anything else?”

“No, but I hear there’s a good sized hole in my office wall.”

“I heard about that too.”

“Everything seems to still want to spin around me.”

“They’ve called another ambulance for you,” Joel continued.

“Yeah, I supposed I should get checked out.”

“You certainly have some really good friends.”

“I know that, but why would you say so?”

“Because Tempest had me on my way down here this morning—we were almost here when we got the 911 call from your guy Gonzo.”

“Why would Tempest call you down here?”

“Because she said that she knew that if you were this worried there was something about to happen. She’s seen it happen with you before.”

“Maybe she has a time or two.”

“And she can be quite persuasive.”

“That she is.”

“Gonzo called when he heard a gunshot,” Joel said, “and he went to your office and couldn’t find you—but he did see the bullet hole in your back wall.”

“My poor office has taken a beating lately,”

“Not as badly as you,” Joel said, “Come on honey look at me, so I can see how damaged you are.”

Otter rose slowly into a sitting position, keeping her eyes closed. Well, she couldn’t open one of them anyway; it seemed to have swollen shut. She heard Joel hiss and a moment later there was a cool wet rag on her face. It felt like heaven.