Tipping Point (36 page)

“I think I married lucky. It looks like he did a hell of a job, considering. Good thing the truck is black, since it’s a common colour to have in stock.”

*     *     *

When they had been on the road for an hour, and the distance was flying by, Mac was grateful so many people had already run the stations dry. Otherwise she was sure the highways would be a mess. They saw the odd car that was still mobile, but more of them were abandoned than anything else.

As badly as she felt for the few people she saw walking along the side of the road, she didn’t ask Neil to stop for them. It was too dangerous. These people were already afraid, and probably desperate enough to do anything. They couldn’t risk being left by the roadside themselves. They not only had a job to do, but they also had to get back home when it was done.

Mackenzie took the wheel half an hour past North Bay, Neil not stopping until he was absolutely certain no one was around. She had already memorized the route that she’d need to take to reach the shelter. There would be no need to stop when she hit the Sault. It didn’t matter to her who drove back, since she’d be anxious enough to get home it was highly unlikely she’d be sleepy.

Three and a half hours after she’d started her portion of the journey, Mac pulled into the driveway of the shelter. A woman came out and stood beside an old Camaro. When Mackenzie saw that it was packed and there were carriers inside it she started to get the feeling there might be some trouble.

26

M
IDDLE
A
GES
S
PREAD

“Neil, wake up. We’re here, and it looks like this woman thinks she’s bringing her car. You brought that SIG with you right?” Neil was alert in a heartbeat. It was a skill she envied, since she was usually bleary-eyed for at least an hour after she woke up.

“Yeah. I haven’t chambered a round because there’s no holster for it, but it’s in the moulded door pocket.”

“Good. Get it ready before you get out, will you? I don’t like the look of the situation here. She told Kelly she had to abandon her car when she ran out of fuel, so she’s not looking like an upstanding citizen at this point. Maybe she has a second car, but I suddenly don’t trust her.” Mac set the parking brake after taking the car out of gear, but didn’t turn off the engine, and then she got out of the car to introduce herself as politely as she could. She wanted to start off on the right foot. There was no point in triggering a bad situation if she didn’t have to.

“I’m Elizabeth. Thank you so much for coming. Thank God you brought extra fuel, because there was no way I was leaving my car behind.” And there the shoe dropped.

“Elizabeth, we didn’t bring any
extra
fuel. In fact, we were under the impression that you had already abandoned your car. We brought enough that we would make it back safely with this one, not enough to get back with two.” The woman got a stubborn look on her face, and Mac prepared herself.

“Well, like I said, I’m not leaving my car, and the ferrets are already loaded and ready to go, so we’ll just have to switch cars.” Mackenzie crossed her arms, and Neil got out from his side.

“Your car wouldn’t make it on the fuel we have,” Mackenzie said quietly, her patience stretching unbearably.

“Well, sure it would. You just don’t want to give up your fancy BMW!” Mac gritted her teeth.

“This car will travel five hundred miles on a single tank, and it cost me a grand total of a thousand bucks. I’m not so stupid that I’d buy a car for its coolness factor. Look, we came here to help
you
. More than that, we came here to help those ferrets. This is your only shot at a safe place right now. If you don’t want to take it, that’s your business. We’ll load up the ferrets and go.”

“You’re not taking my ferrets anywhere without me, and I’m not leaving my car behind.” Mac gave up on patience. It wasn’t her strong suit anyway.

“Do you have enough food to feed those ferrets for the next ten years, or any way to get that much? Because if you don’t we
are
taking them. The fact that you were already considering putting them down tells me that you don’t. The fact that you’re using them as a bargaining chip, rather than being concerned for their safety and survival, tells me you don’t care about them as much as you care about your fucking car.

“I’ve tried to be polite about this. And I’ve tried to be logical. You basically want us to waste fuel on a car that won’t make it to our destination, putting all of our lives at risk, and in the process pretty much guaranteeing those animals will die. You’ve just made my decision real easy for me with respect to leaving you behind. We don’t need any more people at the farm, but I won’t see an animal harmed for the stupidity of a human. So, they’re coming with us. You’re not.”

“I’d like to see you try!”

“Are you mentally defective?” Mackenzie was stunned by the woman’s cocky attitude, but then she understood when she saw her lunge toward a shotgun that was leaning against the wall. Neil fired into the wall of the garage, stopping the woman in her tracks when wood chips from the siding exploded out toward her.

“That answers that question, honey.” Mac’s lips quirked, but it really wasn’t funny.

“Mentally defective and stupid to boot.” Elizabeth started begging and gibbering at them, and Mackenzie sneered at her.

“Give me your fucking car keys. I’m taking the ferrets, and any kibble you have for them. You don’t deserve to have any animals, and I doubt you ever did. From what I’ve seen of you so far, you’re probably someone who used them to bring in money so you wouldn’t have to hold a job. Fucking cunt.” It was a word Mac almost never used, but she felt it was appropriate under the circumstances.

Elizabeth’s hands shook as she took the keys from the pocket of her shorts.

“You’re not really going to leave me here to starve are you? That wouldn’t be very Christian!” Mac bared her teeth.

“I’m not a fucking Christian. And if you’re any example of one of those, the world would be a much better place without them. Instead of getting religion, maybe you should get some morals instead. Not that you’re likely to have time for that.” Mac grabbed the keys from the ground where Elizabeth had dropped them, and started moving the carriers over to her car.

Once she started moving the kibble she noticed there was a bag of dog food in the garage, but none in the car.

“Please tell me you haven’t been feeding dog food to these ferrets!” Elizabeth refused to answer.

“Or do you have a dog locked up somewhere in that house?” When she still refused to answer, Mac grabbed her by the ear and pulled her head at an unnatural angle to face her.

“I’m going to ask you this question one time. I want a full and complete answer, and if you forget a single detail I will make sure you don’t live long enough to go through your food supply. Are there any other animals in that house, and by ‘any’ I mean dogs, cats, ferrets, birds, fish, gerbils, hamsters, mice, or pet fucking spiders? Are there
any
animals in there?”

“There’s a dog, nothing else,” she whispered.

“Why didn’t the dog bark when the gun went off?”

“I knocked him out.” Elizabeth cringed when she saw the look on Mackenzie’s face. Mac couldn’t remember the last time she’d been in such a towering fury.

“You were going to leave him behind, weren’t you? We came for the ferrets, so they were your ticket out of here, but you didn’t even care enough to ask if he could come with us. You’re a fucking piece of shit. Christian my ass. Where is he?”

“Just inside the door. Tied up to the kitchen table.” It wasn’t until Mac opened the door that she understood why the dog had been tied up if he was unconscious. The smell of rotten eggs sent a shaft of fear up her spine. She propped the door open with the plastic dish rack from the counter to air out the room.

The dog was actually still conscious, but barely. He was a Doberman, and pretty big, too, which meant she’d never have been able to carry him, so she was very relieved when the dog struggled to his feet to try to do his job and guard the house. He couldn’t even bark, though, and Mac felt tears of sympathy stinging her eyes.

She unhooked the leash from the choke-chain around his neck, careful not to let the metal scrape together, and briefly held the dog’s face in her hands to let him sniff and lick at her. She wasn’t sure how much he could still smell of her with the gas in the room, but he needed to feel a gentle human touch if she was going to convince him to come outside with her.

It only took a few seconds before he was amenable to her prodding. She left him standing in the yard, knowing he was too confused to go anywhere without being led, and went back in to turn off the gas, coming straight back out afterwards.

Mac knew it had been a risk, but she didn’t want the house blowing up while they were still there, and she also didn’t want to leave things like that when any of the surrounding houses might get blown up, too, or just catch fire. She didn’t know what the situation might be with the fire department or other first responders, and something like that could rapidly get out of control.

She coaxed the dog over to the garage, but when he saw his owner he backed away and whimpered. Mac had already assessed the situation, and wasn’t at all surprised. She walked around until she was face-to-face with her, and then punched her in the mouth three times before the woman saw the first one coming.

“Calling you a fucking cunt was giving you too much credit. I just don’t have a word nasty enough.” Mac watched the woman fall to her knees, her hands going to her face, and shook the blood from her hand. She’d broken the skin on her knuckles, she knew, but she’d worry about the pain later. Neil just raised his brow at her.

For the time being she got the antibacterial wipes out of her glove compartment, using them in hopes of avoiding a fight-bite infection. She’d rather not have to dip into their supply of antibiotics so soon, and she wasn’t even sure if amoxicillin would be enough to handle an infection that vicious.

The fact that no one had bothered to investigate the sound of a gunshot was concerning. People were sleeping, sure, and probably wouldn’t wake enough to understand what it was and get out of bed to check it out, but there were bound to be people who were still awake. If so, they were probably too afraid.

It was too late to get any information out of this woman, Mac realized. She should have questioned her before getting into the whole issue about the car, but the dog might have been dead by then. It didn’t matter what the asshole on the ground had named the dog either. She’d be changing it. That boy needed a fresh start with people who wouldn’t hurt him.

She had everything moved to the car a few minutes later, and took the precaution of removing the shells from the shotgun. Mac didn’t want to leave the shotgun for the woman to reload, either, so she double-checked the barrels to make sure there was nothing lodged in them and stored it under the folded over seats. She found spare shells on a shelf only two feet from where it had been leaning.

“I guess she didn’t read all those pesky requirements for the safe and legal storage of ammunition and firearms.” Neil gave a dry laugh, though there was little humour in it.

“Alright, let’s leave this terrible excuse for a human to her impending death. We’ve got better things to do.” They got in the car once the dog had been coaxed into the back beside the carriers, and then Neil had a question.

“You going to check on the ferrets to make sure they’re okay?”

“As soon as we’re safely outside the city. They won’t die without water or food for a few miles anyway, and I saw water bottles inside the carriers.

“Ah, fuck. No, I’m not going to trust it. Keep an eye on her while I get fresh water and food for those carriers. Then I’ll tell you about the kitchen thing.” Neil stepped out with her and re-aimed the SIG.

Mac didn’t bother explaining to the woman why she was going back into the house. She was probably being paranoid, but after seeing a dog nearly gassed to death she wasn’t sure. She sniffed the air as she went back in. It was better, but she was still cautious as she moved around, trying not to breathe too much.

She placed the bottles she was holding in the sink, found some empties and washed them out. Mac was even more careful when she placed the metal spouts on the countertop, even though there was no reason to think she could create a spark of any sort. The bearing inside the spout wasn’t likely to do so.

She didn’t see any poisons in the kitchen, so it was doubtful the woman had gone that far. It would have been hard to hide death-by-poisoning of two carriers full of ferrets, too.

When Mac had finished putting the bottles in the carriers, she dumped out the food in the dishes, threw the open bag of kibble on the ground, and then opened the fresh bag. It was this she added to the food dishes.

She took a look at the ferrets in the carriers when she put the food back in. They were huddled against the back walls. Once again Mac felt the sting of tears in her eyes. She let them sniff her hand in each one, but didn’t have the time to soothe them. They had to start heading back home.

This time when they got back in the car, Mac released the brake and let the car roll back down the driveway. When she’d turned far enough, she depressed the clutch pedal, shoved it into first, and peeled away, leaving Elizabeth to die.

She was getting awfully sick of going to cities and dealing with bullshit like this, so she was relieved to be on her way. She stopped five minutes outside the city, and pulled over to put fuel in the tank. The car was starting to sputter. Then she got back in and started driving again.

“So, what was that you were saying about the kitchen?” Mac told him what she’d found when she’d gone in to get the dog.

“Well, it’s probably better that you’re the one who punched her in the face. I don’t hit women, but I might have made an exception there, and she might not have lived through it. Not that this does her any favours. She’ll be dead in two weeks, probably. I doubt she’s made friends there. There sure as hell wasn’t anyone rushing out to help her when I fired the gun.”