The ring, p.24
The Ring, page 24
This was the part where Eva was supposed to tell her it was okay, that she understood and it was no big deal. But she would have been lying. While Priti wasn’t integral to her plan, she offered valuable support and was often the lone voice of reason when Eva failed to find logic. Now she wouldn’t be there. But Priti or not, Eva was on a mission, and she would not be deterred.
“I’m really sorry, Eva,” Priti said again as more tears came.
“Don’t be. You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. You’re not the only one circling the wagons today. So you just hang with your family tonight,” Eva continued. “Okay? I’ve got things covered.”
“Eva?” Priti virtually whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Call me later?”
Priti gazed at Eva from the phone regretfully. As let down as Eva was, she had to remember what was most important: her friendship. For the reality was that after today, regardless if the halo occurred, she and Priti would remain friends, and Eva could find no sound reason to sacrifice their relationship.
Eva looked at Priti and winked, twisting her smile into a corkscrew. “Count on it.”
She hung up the phone then immediately dialed Wes. He picked up after three rings.
Eva said in a downcast tone, “We’re on our own.”
* * *
Twenty minutes later Eva and Wes were double-timing the five blocks over to Jordan Kempfer’s house. Eva lugged a bag she had prepared the night before, having stocked it with various supplies including snacks, water, binoculars and several flashlights. Why she thought she might need flashlights she couldn’t say, only that she could see no reason not to bring them.
The heat was already taking its toll. The sun felt like an overhead furnace and further intensified the pain in Eva’s throbbing head. She tried to convince herself the terrible ache was due to dehydration rather than a sign of forewarning, but failed to believe her own argument.
She cracked the lid on one of the two water bottles she brought and drank deeply, passing it to Wes who took a swig before handing it back to her. He swiped his sweaty forehead with an equally sweaty forearm.
“At least it’s a dry heat.”
Eva grinned despite the pain and shoved the water back into her bag. She palmed trickles of sweat from her temples.
“If I didn’t need you, I’d kill you for that.”
Reaching Sequoia Street, Eva and Wes peered down the road in the direction of Jordan’s home. As expected, the street was lined with cars, many of which Eva recognized from the school parking lot. Then she pinpointed her prey: Troy’s car.
It was parked halfway up the street, three houses away from Jordan’s home. It lay on the opposite side of the road, sandwiched between an old burgundy Honda Civic and a white Dodge Neon.
“Okay, come on,” Eva said, bracing for minor protestations from Wes. But he said nothing and simply followed behind her.
A lone Toyota RAV-4 cruised up the street toward them, passing by seconds later. Eva pretended to stop and tie her shoe behind a Nissan as it drove by.
“Relax,” Wes said. “It’s just some soccer mom.”
Eva popped back to her feet.
“I just want to be safe. You sure you’ve got the keys?”
Wes’s face dropped like a stone as his hands patted his pockets, his bulging eyes expressing, Oh no, I forgot the keys!
Eva tilted her head, not at all amused and, at the moment, not entirely convinced that Wes didn’t forget the keys. It seemed like a perfectly Wes thing to do. With a grin, he plucked a tangle of keys from his back pocket and dangled them in front of Eva like a toy to a child.
“Oh, here they are,” he said teasingly.
“Whew,” Eva said, feigning relief. “I was so worried.”
She snatched the keys from Wes’s hand and started back down the street.
“Come on. We need to hurry. I don’t know how long Daniel’s going to hang around.”
Eva and Wes trotted the remaining distance without incident, scurrying up to Troy’s car with a final survey of the street.
“I think we’re good,” Eva said, checking in all directions. She pressed the “unlock” button on the key fob, all four doors unlatching simultaneously with a ka-thunk. She opened the driver’s side door. With a final glance down the street toward Jordan’s house she dropped behind the wheel.
Wes plopped down beside her in the passenger seat as Eva slid the key into the ignition and turned the engine over. The car purred smoothly. Eva looked over the dashboard, reacquainting herself with its organization: windshield wipers—check; headlights—check; air conditioning—check.
Snapping her seatbelt into place, she released the emergency brake and shifted into reverse. She looked in her rearview and realized that both it and the side view mirror had yet to be adjusted. Noting its current position, Eva reached for the control lever that actuated the side view mirror and adjusted it accordingly. Satisfied, she gripped the rearview with a clumsy hand and positioned it downward, and with its reflection a single word was forced from Eva’s throat, involuntary and completely accurate of the trouble in which she now found herself.
“Shit.”
Wes paled instantly. “What?”
Running at full speed toward them from the rear of Troy’s car was none other than Troy himself.
Eva sank back into her seat and powered down her window. Wes watched with a bemused interest that quickly metamorphosed into terror.
“Please tell me you’re kidding,” he said, twisting in his seat. Wes’s face dropped at the sight of his brother streaming at them, his arms pumping. “Oh, fuck me.”
Troy staggered to a stop beside Eva, clutching the doorframe to halt his progress. He was panting wildly, but that didn’t stop him from unleashing a verbal tirade on the two people sitting in his car.
“Eva? Wes? What the… what the fuck are you doing in my car?” He sucked in a lungful of breath. “How the fuck did you get into my car?”
Troy bent through the window and glared at Wes. “It was you, wasn’t it you little fucktard? I’m gonna beat the ever living shit out of you you stupid ass—”
“Troy!” Eva interjected. “It’s my fault, okay? Wes didn’t do this. As a matter of fact, he and Priti tried their damndest to talk me out of it. But this is all me here. So if you want someone to be mad at then it needs to be me.”
Troy’s eyes darted between Eva and his brother.
“What are you… are you trying to take it? What the hell’s going on, Eva?”
“I know how this all looks and I promise you when there’s a better time I’ll explain why I’m doing what I’m doing. But the fact is, I need to borrow your car. I’m sorry I didn’t just ask you, but I need it. The truth is too crazy.”
The car was still running; Eva gently twisted the keys off.
“Where were you coming from anyway?” Wes said, his voice struggling to find confidence.
“You shut the hell up!” Troy blared, stooping over and wagging his index finger at his cowering brother. “I don’t care what Eva says, you’re fucking dead!”
“Troy!” Eva shouted loud enough to startle him. She grabbed his finger in her hand and held onto it. “This is not about Wes. This is about me. And I need your help. Will you please give it to me?”
Troy’s eyes passed over Wes one final time before resting on Eva and as he did so his face softened. She could see the hurt ease, the sense of betrayal wane. In his eyes, though, Eva discovered a new emotion—interest.
“So you need my car,” he said.
“Yes.”
Troy studied her. His scrutinizing gaze implied a lack of trust, but he also knew how he felt about Eva. He crouched to one knee and folded his arms on the doorframe.
“If you want to borrow my car,” he began, “then there is no better time to tell me what’s going on.”
“But, Troy, I told you, we don’t have—”
“That’s the deal, Eva. Take it or leave it.”
There was no option. She needed the car and she needed it right away. If Troy wanted to be privy to all of her wild theories and mischievousness then so be it. Eva launched into her hypothesis and all that she’d done to arrive there. She told of Daniel’s weird habits and behaviors and how as a result she and Wes had broken into his home. This, of course, earned Wes a stern, reproachful glare from his brother, but Eva continued unabated, allowing the truth to roll from her lips in an uncompromising flow. Troy raised his eyebrows when she mentioned the door in the floor, and when she finished her assessment of Daniel’s most recent schedule change, she brought her theory full circle, back to the very person that had prompted her to be sitting in Troy’s car in the first place—Rory.
To Troy’s credit he listened, offering no nods of assent or scowls of disagreement. When Eva finished, she sucked in a heaping breath, conscious of the fact that she had barely breathed during her entire defense.
Troy glanced in the direction of Jordan Kempfer’s home then checked his watch. He opened the driver’s door.
“Move over,” he said. “I’m driving.” He looked at his brother. “Dipshit’s in the back.”
CHAPTER 25
Day 27
The plan was to wait at Eva’s house until Daniel departed. Once he started down the street and put a comfortable distance between them, they would charge for Troy’s car. It was a prudent plan that involved minimal risk with zero chance for interaction. Everyone agreed.
But it never happened.
As Troy turned off Oasis onto Ironwood drive and headed for Eva’s home, Daniel’s truck was braking from the opposite direction as it approached the stop sign at the intersection.
Eva couldn’t keep from stating the obvious. “There he is! There he is!”
“Is he leaving already?” Wes asked.
“What do you want me to do, Eva?” Troy said.
“Just keep driving,” Eva responded, her heart pounding in her ears as she angled for a discreet view of Daniel’s truck from her side view mirror. “For all he knows we’re just kids killing time on a half day.”
Eva fixated on the mirror, sure to keep her head forward so as not to draw suspicion of any sort. With no turn signal, she watched as Daniel’s reflection turned onto Oasis and headed toward the main entrance for Copper Creek.
“Okay, go!” Eva barked.
Troy didn’t hesitate. Gunning his engine the last one hundred yards to Ironwood Circle, he stood on the brakes and pulled on the wheel. The turn was tight, his tires chirping as he drove the circumference of the cul-de-sac before accelerating toward the same stop sign from which Daniel had just turned.
Eva leaned onto the dash and peered left in the direction of Daniel. His taillights blinked as his truck slowed on the dogleg that curved around to the right. At the end of that curve was another stop sign at the intersection of Oasis and Palm. Just after Palm were the gates.
“Let him get around the curve,” Eva said. “I want to make sure there’s enough time for him to get across the intersection.”
“You got it,” Troy said.
He tapped his fingers nervously on the wheel to a silent rhythm, allowing five seconds to pass before he accelerated along Oasis and followed the curve to the stop sign at the intersection of Palm. As he braked, Daniel’s truck pulled onto Ridge Road, the main artery that connected Copper Creek Estates to the highways and interstates.
Gunning the accelerator, Troy drove through the intersection and the main gate beyond, passing decorative sandstone boulders, which lay on either side of the entrance.
Creeping up to the stop sign that sat perpendicular to Ridge Road, Eva, Troy, and Wes looked simultaneously to their left and watched as Daniel’s truck ascended a shallow rise then crept away from view.
Eva inhaled what seemed like every last molecule of oxygen from the car.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Troy followed a half-mile or more behind Daniel along the 101 South toward Mesa until they approached a major juncture where the 101 intersected with the Red Mountain Freeway or, as it was most commonly known, the 202.
Eva kept her eyes fixed on Daniel—he not once having exceeded the speed limit since leaving Copper Creek—when she twitched at the sight before her. Daniel’s turn signal was on.
He was exiting.
“He’s getting off on the 202,” Eva said. “Get right.”
Troy’s hands tightened on the wheel. “Keep a close eye on him. Make sure you can see which way he’s headed or this whole thing will have been for nothing.”
“I know, I know,” Eva snapped, not intending to do so.
“I’ll bet ten to one he’s heading east,” Wes said.
“That’s a great theory, dilrod,” Troy said. “Now do me a favor and shut up.”
“Man, you know what? I’m getting sick of listening to your cr—”
“Guys! Cool it, all right?”
Eva looked at Troy who glared at his brother in the rearview mirror, Wes no doubt scowling in return. She chuckled at the sibling rivalry as she withdrew her binoculars from her pack. She leaned over the dashboard and locked on Daniel’s truck.
He merged into the farthest right lane, squeezing in between a Ford Excursion and a long-haul semi towing a fleet of shiny new cars. The off-ramp approached; Daniel veered onto its path, the semi right behind him.
“Okay, here he goes,” Eva said as she watched, the binoculars pressed so hard against her face the eyecups created indentations.
The off-ramp divided into east and west exits. As Troy eased into the right lane and closed the gap between his car and Daniel’s truck, Eva’s view became obscured by the bulky semi trailing behind him. If Daniel continued on his present course, he would be exiting onto the 202 West toward Phoenix.
“Looks like I should’ve taken that bet,” Troy said smugly, eyeing Wes.
But no sooner had the words left Troy’s lips than Daniel was making a last second change into the 202 eastbound exit, pulling abruptly into the left-hand lane just before it twisted away toward Mesa.
His self-assured bluster deflated, Troy scrambled to execute his own lane change before he ran out of freeway—but the steady line of cars to his left prevented it.
“Crap,” Troy said as a battalion of cars zoomed past, allowing him no point of entry.
“Put your signal on,” Eva commanded.
Troy flipped the signal lever as the green highway signs indicating East and West soared overhead.
“You better get over, man,” Wes said excitedly.
“I’m trying!”
Troy’s eyes ping-ponged from the dwindling road in front of him to his side view mirror. More cars streamed by with a steady line queuing up into what seemed like infinity.
“Troy…” Eva urged, her hand subconsciously finding the handle above her window.
Troy swallowed. His hands wrapped around the wheel in an incremental finger roll.
“All right. Everyone hold on.”
A Nissan Sentra darted past and before Eva could question his intentions, Troy stepped on the accelerator. His car lurched forward, the engine churning with effort. He pulled on the wheel, injecting himself into the left-hand lane. The sparkly gray Jaguar he cut off stood on its brakes, its nose dipping. The car’s horn blared insistently.
Throwing the requisite hand in the air as a form of apology, Troy raced the engine and accelerated from the Jaguar.
“My brotha!” Wes cheered.
“I knew you said you wanted to kill us,” Eva said. “I just didn’t think you would really try to.”
Troy glanced at Eva and grinned as he descended the off-ramp. He merged with the 202 East, its lanes humming with Friday afternoon traffic.
Eva picked up her binoculars and glassed Daniel’s truck one lane over and a quarter mile ahead.
“Do you think he knows we’re following him?” she said to the car.
“Who, Daniel?” Troy said. “No way.”
“Why’s that?”
“If he did, he’d be doing whatever he could to put distance between us and him. But ever since we started following him he’s barely stepped over the speed limit.”
“So why do you think he pulled over so suddenly into the eastbound lane?”
Troy shrugged. “Not sure. Could be he just forgot where he was going for a moment. He is human after all, no matter how weird he is.”
“Is he?” Wes quipped. “And just ‘cause he drives the speed limit doesn’t mean anything. Could be that whatever he’s got in the back of his truck is so important he doesn’t want to risk anyone finding out about it. Especially the police. He could just be playing it safe and totally aware that we’re on to him.”
Eva nodded half-spiritedly. Wes had a point. All they could do now was proceed with caution.
Troy followed Daniel to the Beeline Highway. The primary go-to road for those seeking a day trip or weekend in the mountains northeast of Phoenix, the Beeline cut through the blandness of the Sonoran Desert and was a straight shot to the higher elevations and cooler temperatures of the Tonto and Coconino National Forests.
Wes sat forward between Eva and Troy.
“Where is this guy going?” Wes said. “You don’t, like, think he’s luring us out here or anything do you? I mean, if dude knows we’ve been tailing him and he really is up to something, it might be something he’d do. Don’t you think?”
Troy looked at Eva who returned his gaze uneasily.
“I don’t know, Wes,” Eva said. “It’s possible, I guess. But my gut doesn’t think so. I think he’s angling for something else.”
Wes scrunched his face. “What’s that?”
Eva turned in her seat to face him.
“To be where there’re no people.”
“If that’s the case, then he’s heading in the right direction,” Troy said.
The expanse of land along the Beeline was largely devoid of civilization, save a smattering of homes and businesses sprinkled along the roadside. It passed through a segment of the Salt River Indian Reservation before it entered the southwestern boundary of the Tonto National Forest. The terrain was pure desert. Random saguaro cacti sprouted up among scrubgrasses, saltbush, triangle-leaf bursage and creosote. In the spring, the roadside and prairies would be flush with wildflowers of the most intense colors, oceans of yellow Mexican poppies, speckles of blackfoot white daisies with the interspersed purple-rich hues of lavender and sage. But August was the killer of all things beautiful; the colorful swaths of vibrancy that once dotted the desert floor one season previously were now reduced to desiccated husks of their former glories. All that remained was the ubiquitous beige of the desert and the muted greens of parched flora that crept up from the sands, their dry stems spidering into the arid air in an exhaustive plea for moisture.
