“Well he’ll have to get one of those folks that speak to dead people for that,” Dan answered with a straight face. “I’ll do it, but it’ll cost him – ‘yo, player… I’m dead, dimwit… move into the light, or whatever you see… probably shadows, darkness, and your spine being ripped out of your asshole.”
The four companions enjoyed that word picture together as they watched the driver’s vehicle do another lap. The driver stopped near where his companions met their doom
“I think he must have triangulated their cell-phones through a third entity,” Nick said. “Let’s see if he wants to find his buddies or not.”
Near where the bodies were left, the driver parked the vehicle. He exited with extreme deliberation, his head moving to search for anything out of place. When he didn’t see any movement, he tried calling one of them on his cell-phone.
“Oh gee, I believe that ship has passed,” Nick said, listening to the confiscated cell-phone doing a Rap version of something remotely familiar in the back of Gus’s Ford, but unrecognizable. “Okay, cross musically inclined off the list of skills. “We wanted a live one. Geezer! Go collect that puppy.”
Dan grinned appreciatively, knowing Nick was testing him. “Ten-four, Hemingway, but I get to do it, and you other butt nuggets stay in the car, no matter what.”
“Agreed. You have your stun gun.” Nick waved off his two Unholy Trio partners while Dan stared out the window. “Take Deke so you have a reason for walking the asshole won’t suspect.”
“Thanks,” Dan said, exiting the Ford, and leashing Deke.
“Are you sure about this, Nick,” John asked.
“Hell no,” Nick admitted, easing out of the Ford through the same door he had allowed Deke to exit. “Stay here until the last second. Don’t ask me when that’ll be, because I don’t know. We need to let Dan work some of this shit out on his own. I’ll go help him when needed. Stay focused. It’s early by the crow flies, and I see a beer and a shot on my horizon.”
“Acknowledged,” Gus said with a sigh. “Save him if you can, Nick.”
“If I can,” Nick replied before easing the door shut.
*
“Well hello,” Dan called out with a wave of his hand. “It’s nice to see another walker out here on a night like this.”
The man glanced down at Deke with a wave off. “I ain’t no damn dog walker.”
“Say… you wouldn’t be looking for those three guys who tried to mug me a little while ago, are you?”
“Oh boy,” Nick mumbled loud enough for his cohorts Payaso and Kabong to hear along with the ‘Geezer’. “Plan B guys, steady as she goes.”
*
“What’s plan B, Gus,” John asked as Gus started his Ford.
“Drive the hell into position fast, and get a gun in your hand as you arrive,” Gus replied through gritted teeth.
“On it,” John said, fumbling around in his equipment bag.
*
“What the hell are you sayin’ old man?” The driver edged nearer to Dan, his fists clenched. “Are you sayin’ you know where my friends are?”
“Sure do, kid. They’re lyin’ dead over there not more than twenty yards away.” Dan pointed in the exact direction where the bodies lay, having made a point of remembering by way of the vegetation, and rocks along the path. “I can show you if you’d like.”
The driver stared at Dan as if he were a new arrival on planet earth. “Did you kill them?”
“Sort of,” Dan admitted. “I was bait for your punk friends to mug. Unfortunately for them, I brought along a couple friends of my own. They made sure your buddies would never hurt another soul.”
“Maybe I cut your heart out right here, old man.” The driver clicked a switchblade into place, jutting the blade threateningly toward Dan.
Dan eased slowly down to calm Deke. “Stay Deke. Don’t move.”
After standing straight again, Dan gestured at the guy in the dark with the knife. All fear of death was a thing of the past. “I was discharged from the Marines back in 1969, kid. I’ve been on borrowed time ever since. You know what they say though, there’s no such thing as an ex-Marine. Maybe I’ll take that knife away from you and shove it up your ass.”
The driver laughed, pocketed the knife, and began drawing a 9mm Glock from his waistband holster. “I believe you.”
Before he cleared it from its holster, he was dead, Nick’s knife jammed to the hilt under the driver’s chin. He pulled it free of the twitching body as the man dropped to the roadside. “C’mon, Geezer.”
“You should have let me handle it, Muerto,” Dan replied as Gus skidded his Ford to a halt near him while Nick took a quick picture, and fingerprint impression.”
“You can’t always get what you want… you can’t always get what you want,” Nick sung the old lines from the Rolling Stones song perfectly as he stuffed the driver back into his car.
“I guess we won’t have much to worry about besides your singing,” Dan observed. “This fog will make it impossible to see this guy’s car until someone gets within a few feet of it.”