R. E. Bradshaw - Rainey Nights (36 page)

Rainey could hear the truck engine roaring as the driver tried to crush the Charger. The passenger side was smashed into the embankment of the ditch she’d been slammed into. The truck pinned her door shut. She had to get out of the car. Rainey released her seatbelt. Holding her left arm close to her side, where she thought her ribs might have been broken, Rainey climbed over the console and into the backseat. She pulled the Glock from the holster on her waistband and took the Beretta from the console. She laid the pistols on the seat and pulled the shotgun from the floor. All the while, she managed to grit her teeth against the pain and take a breath, so she could talk.

“Brooks, it’s him. Send everybody. I have to get out of this car. I’m a sitting duck in here.”

Rainey saw the light in the cab of the truck come on and go back off. He was out of the truck. A bolt of lightening illuminated his silhouette in front of the car, aiming a pistol directly at her. He fired three times. Luckily he never hit the same place twice and the armored glass did its job.

Brooks screamed through the speakers, “Oh my God! Help her. Help her.”

The pain in her ribs had to be ignored. He was out there and she couldn’t see him. Rainey pulled herself across the seat and reached for her keys. She yanked the remote off the chain. She dug into the console, pulling out a pocket knife.

“I’m getting the hell out, now!”

Brooks yelled, “But he’s out there.”

Suddenly, shots exploded above Rainey’s head in the rear windshield. Again, the glass held.

Rainey shouted back, “It won’t be long before he’s in here with me.”

Brooks was talking again, but not to her. “I repeat shots fired! Shots fired! Agent in distress. Move your asses! McNally! James! Anybody! Rainey’s in trouble!”

Rainey dug the knife into the center of the seat back. She installed the computer equipment in the car. Rainey knew what was behind the seat, access to the trunk. She smelled something burning and looked up to see the man standing behind the flames that were now engulfing the front of her car. She tore at the fabric and foam with the knife, as he put one shot after another in the windshield, chipping away at the high security glass. Thank God he had not realized the roof was unprotected.

Once she had a hole in the seat large enough for her body, Rainey lifted the shotgun and used the butt end to break away the fiber board blocking her exit. She shoved the shotgun in before her, put the remote in her teeth, and lifted the two pistols from the seat, putting them in her waistband. She laid on her back, kicked off the console and pulled herself into the trunk. Rainey located the shotgun and grasped the remote with two fingers. She hit the trunk release and came up out of the trunk like Rambo, firing over the lid at the front of the car.

She turned and jumped out of the trunk, blindly firing the shotgun behind her, as she landed on the ground. She lost her breath with the pain of the jolt, but kept moving. Rainey fired the shotgun again and scrambled over the embankment, into the cover of the woods. Brooks was screaming her name, her cries faded as Rainey ran for cover, while her car went up in flames.

#

Rainey lay on the ground behind a fallen tree. She tried to calm her breathing, so she could reduce the pain in her ribs and listen, but the rain and thunder were too much to overcome. All she could do was wait for the next lightning flash and hope she saw him. Rainey raised her head slowly, peering into the blackness. He could be right on top of her and she wouldn’t have seen him. The rain soaked her, running into her eyes, making it even harder to see. Still, she focused on the abyss in front of her. Three strobes of lightning lit up the area. A tree exploded about a hundred yards away. Rainey had to fight the instinct to duck and took the opportunity to see where she was. Rainey had one advantage. She knew these woods.

Another lightning strike revealed the silhouette of a man running to her left. Rainey stood up and fired one of the pistols in his direction. She immediately moved from that position, because the muzzle flashes would have given her away. She ran further from the road, heading for the lake. With the water at her back, she could lie in wait for him. The rain slowed. Rainey dropped down behind a tree, listening. This guy was military trained. He would be moving with her, stopping when she stopped, listening, as Rainey was, to every sound.

Rainey knew she had to keep moving. If he had night vision, he couldn’t use it now. The lightning would blind him, but the storm was moving fast. She couldn’t count on the lightning hanging around and he struck her as the kind of guy that probably owned night vision goggles. The thought kept her head down, as she crept closer to the lake. A streak of lightning revealed the lake just a few yards away. It also revealed Rainey to the man chasing her. She heard the pistol fire behind her and she hit the ground. Two more shots whizzed over her head. Rainey began to crawl.

The ground started getting soggier, as she inched through stumps and brambles to the water’s edge. She slid on her stomach down the muddy bank, disappearing into cypress knees and the blackness of the water. Behind a large tree stump, Rainey put the shotgun down in the water. She pulled out the pistols, taking the bullets from the Beretta magazine and filling up the one for the Glock. She now had fifteen chances to take Jared Howard down. Leaving the shotgun behind, Rainey slithered between the stumps and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long. Jared emerged from the trees, just as a flash lit up the woods around him. Rainey fired three times, hitting him in the shoulder with one. He stumbled back into the cover of the trees. He was wounded, but not dead. Rainey ducked behind a stump and waited, again. The rain subsided and then abruptly stopped. Rainey listened to the sudden quiet. For the first time, she heard sirens, lots of them.

Jared heard them, too. He called out to her from the darkness. “I’m hit. Help me.”

Rainey didn’t answer. He was trying to get her to give away her position. The sirens were very close now. She heard movement near the shore to her left and fired. She heard him scream in pain and her car blow up, just before her head went under water. Rainey emerged about ten feet away. Jared had fallen back behind the curtain of bushes lining the bank.

She heard him moaning. He cried out, “Fuck, my knee is shattered.”

Rainey thought he could have been bluffing, to get her out of the water, but he sounded truly hurt. The cold of the water caused Rainey to shake uncontrollably. She couldn’t stay in the water much longer and still be able to shoot her gun accurately. The sound of tires screeching and sirens abruptly shutting off alerted Rainey that help was near. She needed to let them know where she was. Thinking quickly, she turned away from shore to help cover the muzzle flash, aimed the gun at an angle so the bullet would fall harmlessly to the bottom of the lake, and fired. Quickly she slipped under the surface, hearing what sounded like an echo of her shot, just before her ears filled with water.

Rainey skimmed under the surface of the shallows, until she could no longer hold her breath. When she raised her head, she saw flashlights and heard her name being shouted from the shore. Still she remained quiet. Calling out now might get her killed. The lights grew closer and the shouts louder. Jared could be lying there waiting to take her rescuers down when they emerged from the woods. Rainey weighed her options, deciding to take a chance on getting shot, rather than watch someone else walk into a trap.

“Watch out! He’s on the bank. He’s hit,” she shouted toward the shore. Rainey waited for the shots to come her way, but none came. The flashlight beams stopped coming forward and began to search more slowly, moving toward the shoreline. Her teeth were chattering loudly now, she called out again. “I’m here, in the water. He’s on the bank to your right.”

A silhouette, formed by a glowing flashlight, stopped where Rainey thought Jared had fallen. The beam examined something on the ground and then began searching the water.

A familiar voice called out to her, “Rainey, where are you?”

More flashlights searched the surface of the lake. Rainey tried to stand, her frigid muscles unable to push her out of the water. She clawed at the surface for balance and managed to stumble forward a few steps.

She called out weakly, “I’m here, Danny. I’m here.”

Several beams of light lit up the water around her. She heard splashes and then Danny’s strong arms lifted her to her feet. He cradled her against him, bringing her to the shore.

Through chattering teeth, Rainey asked, “Wh… Where is he?”

Danny sat her on the ground, took off his jacket, and draped it over Rainey’s shoulders. He stood up, shouting at someone. “Get those EMT’s down here. Tell them to bring warming blankets.”

Rainey asked, again, “Wh…wh…where is he?”

Danny looked down at her. “He’s dead, Rainey. Looks like he shot himself in the head. It’s over.”

#

Rainey stared at the clock, as the minutes passed by. She was on a bed, in the distant corner of the emergency room of Wake Memorial, wearing a hospital gown. She could hear activity all around her, but because the nurse had pulled the privacy curtain closed, Rainey was isolated and beginning to wonder if they forgot about her. She had been deposited in the corner bed, after x-rays showed no broken ribs, just deep bruising. Warm blankets and a saline drip took care of her hypothermia. Playing with the bed’s remote control, trying to find a comfortable angle to accommodate the pain in her ribs, had grown futile. She settled on forty-five degrees and tossed the control on the table. Rainey wanted to go home, but there was no one there to take her. Her clothes were soaked and stuffed in a plastic bag on the chair against the wall. Her cellphone was in her pants pocket, probably forever ruined. It was six a.m. and she was contemplating how to get to a phone without exposing her ass to everyone in the hall.

Danny’s voice called to her from the other side of the curtain. “Hey, you decent?”

“As decent as I can be in a hospital gown. Who designed these things, a voyeur?”

Danny parted the curtain and stepped inside Rainey’s “room.”

Her spirits brightened. “God, I’m glad to see you. I thought everyone forgot where I was. Can you get me out of here?”

Danny looked at her closely. “Well, your lips aren’t blue anymore. Guess you’ll live.”

“I’ll be fine. The doctor said it’s just bruised ribs and I didn’t go too far into hypothermia. He was going to release me, but that was an hour ago.”

Danny took the bag of clothes from the chair and sat down. He looked tired and worried. Rainey saw that look many times when she was in this very emergency room almost two years ago. It was one of the few memories she had of that night.

“Really, Danny, I’m all right. Like you said, it’s over.”

He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, hands clasped in front of him. “That’s the thing, Rainey, it isn’t over.”

Rainey sat up too quickly. Pain radiated out from her bruised ribcage. Wincing, she wheezed out, “You said he was dead.”

“He is dead. Jared Howard was the man in the woods tonight and he died of a gunshot to the head, like I said.”

“Then why isn’t this over?” Rainey asked, holding her side and taking quick breaths.

Danny dodged the question with one of his own. “Did you see anyone else in the woods?”

Rainey squirmed around in the bed, until she could sit up straight without the searing pain. “No, I barely saw
him
.”

Danny rubbed his face in his hands, vacillating. Then he dropped his hands and turned to look at Rainey. “The M.E. says Howard was shot while lying on his back. The gun in his hand was placed there. The person who shot him was standing over him.”

Rainey’s jaw dropped open. She wasn’t sure how to respond. Rainey knew she didn’t shoot the guy in the head. The M.E. must have been wrong. At that moment, the curtain was thrown back and a very hung over Katie appeared. She had tried to clean herself up, but the alcohol had taken a toll only bed rest and hydration could cure. Crossing the few steps to the bedside slowly, Katie’s eyes moved over Rainey, checking her for signs of injury. Satisfied that Rainey would live, Katie let out the breath she seemed to have been holding.

“Are you okay?” she asked, reaching for Rainey’s hand.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Rainey answered, just before Katie spontaneously bear hugged her. “Ouch! Except for the bruised ribs.”

Katie released her grip on Rainey. “I’m sorry, did I hurt you?”

“A little,” Rainey replied through gritted teeth, fighting off the stabbing pain.

Katie went back to just holding Rainey’s hand. “We’ll put ice on it and then climb in that big bed and sleep for days. I’m so tired, Rainey. Let’s go home.”

Rainey’s staccato reply was interspersed with quick intakes of breath. “If they… would… give me… release papers… I will… gladly go home with you.”

Danny interrupted the reunion, “Katie, I need to talk to Rainey. Could you wait outside?”

Katie glanced at Danny and then turned back to Rainey, a look of confusion on her face. Rainey squeezed Katie’s hand. She took a deeper breath so she could calm Katie’s fears.

“It’s okay. Go find someone to get me out of here.”

Katie’s color began to fade. “Rainey, is everything all right? He is dead, isn’t he?”

Danny answered, “Yes, Jared Howard is dead and he was the UNSUB we were looking for. There was enough evidence to convict him in his basement, alone.”

Rainey watched as Katie focused her blue eyes on Danny. She was a smart woman and she heard the “but” in Danny’s tone. “Then what do you need to talk to Rainey about? What are you not telling me?”

Danny’s eyes darted back and forth between Rainey and Katie. Rainey hoped the expression on her face said, “Yeah, answer her.”

He must have realized they were standing together on this one, because Danny didn’t ask Katie to leave, again. He replied, “There is some question as to the manner in which Howard died. I’m sorry, but Rainey is now a suspect in the investigation.”

Rainey fell back against the mattress, causing shards of pain to affect her exclamation of, “Are you… fuc… king…kidding… me?”