Dig two graves, p.5
Dig Two Graves, page 5
A different nurse came in and took Ashley’s vitals, made some notes on a tablet and left. A couple of hours later Dr. Adams walked in followed by Joe’s friend Phillip. “This man was asking about you Joe,” Dr. Adams said. “It’s okay Doc, I know him.” Joe replied. “Well, you are dressed, looks like you made it through the night alright, how are you feeling Joe?” Adams asked. “I’m fine Doc.” Dr. Adams insisted on taking his vitals, when he was finished, he informed Joe that he would have the nurse get the discharge papers ready. When Dr. Adams left, Phillip said, “Since he’s letting you out of here today, you’ll need this.” Phillip tossed him a set of keys; they were the spare keys to his Jeep. “When I heard what happened, I figured they brought you somewhere by ambulance, and your ride was left at the fair, I grabbed the spare keys from your house, and brought it here for you.” Phillip said. “Thanks man, want me to give you a lift back to your ride?” Joe asked. “No, I’ll grab an Uber.” Phillip said. Phillip stayed a few minutes, asked about Ashley, and finally left. Ms. Bullock arrived shortly after the nurse had brought him his discharge papers. “It’s okay Joe, go home, shower, and get some rest, I’ll call you if anything changes.” She said. Joe thanked her, grabbed his gym bag and discharge papers and left the room, heading for the parking garage.
Once inside his Jeep, Joe checked the lock box for his Kimber, it was still there. He press checked it to make sure it was still loaded, re-holstered it in the Gunfighters Inc Kydex holster, and put it on where he usually carried it, in the 4 o’clock position on his hip. Joe started the Jeep. He pulled out of the parking garage and headed for his house, a little over an hour away. His cell phone was in his pocket, so when it beeped, he ignored it. He was driving and wasn’t about to try to dig it out of his pocket to read the text. He had planned on stopping at a gas station anyway for a soda soon. He would check his phone then. With all the events that had happened recently he was a little off his game. He didn’t notice the black SUV following him when he exited the parking garage. Joe decided that a nice drive might help him clear his head, so instead of taking the direct route back to his house, he decided to take the scenic route. He exited the interstate and turned left. The SUV followed. There were a few rural backroads that snaked along and would lead him back home. He drove thinking about the fair, and what had happened. He thought about Ashley. He prayed that she would pull through. Just as he was slowing to round a sharp hairpin turn, a glance in his mirror told him the SUV behind him had accelerated. It was going to hit him. He braced for the impact. The SUV hit him in the left rear quarter panel and spun the Jeep around, causing it to leave the road and roll down the steep embankment. The Jeep came to a rest on its side. Joe wasn’t harmed, just a few scratches and probably a few bruises. He unbuckled his seatbelt and started crawling out through the shattered windshield.
Just as he had made it onto the ground, a round hit the hood where he had been crawling across just a few seconds before. Joe reached for his Smith, as he saw a man coming down the embankment with a pistol in his hand, getting ready to fire again. Joe aimed his 1911 .45 and fired 4 quick shots at the man. His rounds hit the man twice in the chest, once in the neck, and one in the head. He was out of the fight. Joe stood up and looked at his Jeep. It was totaled. Just as he started up the embankment, he heard his name. He looked up and saw his sister Cassie, rushing down the slope toward him. Confusion set in immediately. Why is Cassie here? Am I losing it? Is this a hallucination? What the fuck is going on? None of this makes any sense! He thought. Cassie rushed up and hugged him tightly. “I’m so glad you are ok. You got my text and was ready. That’s good.” She said. Joe was confused, but then he remembered then that his phone had beeped in his pocket as he was pulling out of the hospital. He had never stopped to check it. “Cassie, what the fuck? Why are you with someone who wanted to kill me, and better yet, why did this guy want to kill me? Joe asked. “It’s a long story, Joe, but I’ll tell you all of it later. First you should probably report this.” She said. Joe agreed, but first he searched the man, and his vehicle. Cassie removed her bag from the SUV while Joe found the target package on himself. Someone wanted him dead, someone high up enough to put together a professional target package. Joe pulled out his phone and dialed 911.
The local sheriff’s office answered the call. Within minutes deputies arrived on the scene followed by a couple of detectives and a team of crime scene investigators. Joe explained to the detectives what had happened. The only variation to the facts was that he and Cassie both told the detectives that she was in Joe’s vehicle. They were there for a few hours while the detectives questioned them and looked over the scene. Joe told them that he didn’t know the man or know why he would want to attack him. The lead detective, a man named Evans, said it was probably a road rage incident gone wrong. They told Joe that the attacker had a criminal record for drugs and car theft and had also been kicked out of the Marine Corps for drug use. Evans and his partner both agreed it was self-defense. They were letting him and Cassie leave. No charges would be filed. A tow truck had arrived to remove the Jeep out of the ditch. Phillip showed up and gave Joe and Cassie a lift back to Joe’s house. On the way there, Joe told him about finding the target package. Cassie explained what she knew. It became very obvious that someone wanted Joe dead, but who. Joe had no doubt that this had something to do with the shooting at the fair. The fact that a few newspapers and several social media influencers were calling him a hero didn’t help matters any. “What are you going to do Joe?” Phillip asked. “I’m going to shower and change. Then I’m going back to the hospital to stay with Ashley until I can convince the authorities that she needs protection. If they are after me, I would bet they may try to come for her. I’ll figure the rest out as it comes.” Joe said. “You have my number if you need anything, don’t hesitate.” Phillip replied. Joe thanked him and said he would call if anything else came up. He then headed for the shower.
Chapter Eight
A safehouse
Outskirts of Dallas, Texas
Brian Carson was busy. He was frantically scrubbing the blood off of his hands. Moments before, he had been sitting in an old recliner. He had closed his eyes for some light rest, but could still hear. He heard Musfari start to whisper to the other man. He heard what sounded like a knife being unsheathed from a kydex sheath. He figured this would be their play. He had been expecting it. Just as they approached him, Carson leapt from the chair, and spung an attack, the element of surprise and years of training his only advantage. Musfari stumbled backwards as Carson leaped from the chair. When he crashed into Musfari he had his own knife in play, a Topps Cochise Ranger. Carson buried his knife into the man’s neck. Arterial spray hit his face, and he knew immediately that Musfari was down. Seeing his friend and mentor fall, the other man decided to bolt. Carson threw the Topps knife, and it landed in between the fleeing man’s shoulder blades with a thud. He hit the ground as Carson walked over to him to finish the job. As he washed his hands and face, he thought to himself that Argyle wouldn’t necessarily like this outcome, however it was a helluva lot cheaper than trying to smuggle those two out of the country. He would wait to tell Argyle about the events that had just transpired until he heard from Tim that the job was done. It was best to deliver bad news with good news. He spent the rest of the night wrapping the bodies of the two men up, and cleaning the safehouse as best he could. He then dumped the bodies in a dumpster in the alley out back, set the dumpster on fire, got in his rental and drove away.
Carson drove to a small storage facility. He pulled up to the gate and entered the six-digit code into the pin pad. The gate began its slow crawl opening. Once the gate had opened enough, he drove the car through. He drove around the west side of the facility and pulled up in front of the unit he had rented just a few months prior. He got out of the car and slid his key into the lock and opened it. He raised the door and went inside. In the small unit was a gun safe, a small cot and a footlocker. He typed in the combination to the safe and opened it. He picked up the LaRue Tactical AR15 and inspected it. He laid it on the small cot. From the footlocker he retrieved a rifle bag for the LaRue, a large duffle bag, and a smaller backpack. He took the duffle bag to the safe and placed several loaded magazines for the LaRue inside. He then placed several boxes of 9mm and 5.56 ammunition in the duffel bag as well. He grabbed the small backpack and inside it he put several large stacks of cash that he had removed from the safe as well. He grabbed the three passports he had made, each in a different name, and put them in the backpack with the cash. Before closing the safe, he picked up his Taran Tactical Glock 19, press checked it to make sure one was in the chamber, then placed it in his custom Tier One Concealment holster and put it on. He closed and locked the safe, then went to the cot and put the LaRue inside the rifle bag he had laid out. He had a feeling this could turn ugly, it had already started that way with the events at the fair not turning out as planned, and he was going to be prepared for the worst. He was beginning to have doubts about Argyle’s ability to plan for contingencies and he wasn’t going to be caught in the crossfire when things backfired. He loaded his gear into the rental, closed and locked the storage unit, and got back into the car. He was planning on driving to Waco. He could lay low there for a few days and wait to hear from Tim Wright that Ramsey was dead. He would have to lose the rental he was driving and purchase something more permanent. He’d do that on the way to Waco.
***
In Dallas, Lt. Davies was coming under a lot of heat. The Chief was furious at him for having S.W.A.T. away on training during the fair. The S.W.A.T. Commander himself had expressed his extreme displeasure at not being able to respond to an active shooter scenario as well. Several FBI agents had questioned him and opened an investigation into his actions leading up to the shooting at the fair. They were interviewing the officers who were called away right before the shooting started. On top of all of that, Argyle was being a constant pain in his ass. He took daily calls from the man informing him to maintain his composure and he would be taken care of. Argyle coached him on what to say to the investigators, and how to answer the FBI’s questions. To make matters worse, several high-ranking city councilmen were calling for Davies’ resignation. He thought of speaking with his attorney about his options, but didn’t want to look like he had anything to hide. He was trying to minimize his exposure on this, but that just didn’t seem to be happening. It was starting to look like Argyle had set him up to be the scapegoat if this thing broke bad. He began making his own plans to get away from it if things started going that way. Just then his phone rang. He answered it, processed the information, told the caller thank you and hung up. Someone had tried to take out Joe Ramsey on his way home from the hospital and failed. Argyle must not know about this yet, or I’m sure I would have heard about it from him. He thought. This piece of information could put him back in favor with Argyle, who would then in turn help him out of his current situation. He picked up his encrypted cell phone, pulled up the only contact in it, and placed the call to Kevin Argyle.
Chapter Nine
Southwest of Ft. Worth, The Ramsey house
Joe had showered and changed his bandages. After he was dressed, he went to his gun safe and opened it. He took his spare Bear and Sons Bowie out of the safe and put it in his 5.11 Tactical sling bag. He pulled out 4 spare mags for the Kimber and loaded them. He tossed those in sling bag as well. He topped off the magazine that was in his 1911 when he had fired it. He closed the safe and grabbed the sling bag. He told Cassie that he would be at the hospital with Ashley until he could get her police protection, and that she could stay at the house as long as she needed. She told him to be careful. He picked up the target package on himself and placed it in the sling bag. If there were any clues as to who was after him, they would be in it. He walked out the door and over to the enclosed garage that sat off of the house about 50 yards. He walked, throwing the sling bag over his shoulder and onto his back as he did. He opened the passenger side door to his Silverado and put the bag on the passenger seat. He got in on the driver’s side and fired the truck up. He dropped it into gear, and roared down the driveway, anxious to get back to the hospital.
Joe was flying down the road. He drove a little faster than the speed limit on the way back to the hospital. Not enough over it that would get him pulled over, but he was in a hurry to get back and be with Ashley. She was all that mattered to him, he would be damned if he let anything else happen to her. He got to the hospital in a little under an hour, the drive back had been uneventful. He walked through the sliding glass doors, completely ignoring the no handgun sign posted there. Fuck that, if these fuckers try anything here, I’m going to be ready. He thought. He took the elevator to the floor Ashley was on and walked down the hallway to her room. Her mom was still there, sitting beside her bed reading a novel. She looked up as Joe entered. “There has been no change yet, Joe.” She said. He nodded in recognition, then took a seat on the opposite side of the bed from her. He told Ashley’s mom what had happened on the ride home, letting her know all that he thought about the situation. He said he was going to stay by Ashley’s side until he could convince the police that she might be in danger, and they provided protection for her. Ms. Bullock just nodded and said that she was going to go get some food from the cafeteria. Joe said okay and settled back into the chair. He was in for a long night. He pulled the target package that he had taken from the dead assassin’s SUV and started reading through it, going over every little detail and piece of information in it. It was put together professionally, this reeked of government, which didn’t make any sense to him. Why would the U.S. government want him dead? He hadn’t crossed anyone during his time with the Special Forces. He had been discharged Honorably. If it wasn’t due to something he did in the military, then it had to have something to do with the fair. Joe thought back to the events of the fair, tried to remember the details about the men he had put down there. They were of middle eastern decent and were speaking in Arabic. At first Joe had thought that they were possibly from a terror cell that had been radicalized here in America, but now he wondered. He had put down 4 terrorists on U.S. soil, why would that cause the government to want him dead. Maybe it wasn’t the majority of the government, he thought. What if it was just a small group of individuals who had the authority and the means to hire mercenaries. The more he thought about it the more his head started to hurt. He put down the target package and reached into the sling bag for some aspirin. He took the pills and washed them down with some water. He settled back into the chair. He was just beginning to doze off when Ms. Bullock returned with a couple of hamburgers, some fries and a soda for him. “Didn’t know if you had eaten, figured you might be hungry, Joe.” She said as she handed him the food. “Thank you, no I haven’t had a chance to eat yet. This is much appreciated.” He told her.
Joe ate the food, not realizing just how hungry he had been. When he was finished, he settled back into the chair and fell asleep. His sleep was haunted by men with rifles, memories from his time in the military mixing with the recent memories of current events morphing into one long nightmare. His vision was in red, like he was seeing through a sheet of blood. He watched as the men opened fire on a crowd of civilians. He watched as Ashley was cut down by their fire. The nightmare then shifted to a man walking down an embankment firing at him. In the nightmare he was trapped inside his wrecked Jeep and couldn’t move. The man kept firing and laughing as he was approaching. Several rounds struck Joe in the chest. As he laid there bleeding out, the man looked into the Jeep, nodded and said, “your little girlfriend is next.” Then he walked away laughing. Joe woke with a start. Ms. Bullock had shaken him awake. “Joe, look.” She said. Joe looked over to where Ashley lay, she was awake and looking around. “She woke up a few minutes ago, I’m going to go let the nurse know.” She told him. Joe looked over to Ashley. “Hey beautiful.” He said. Ashley smiled; she reached her hand toward his. Joe took her hand and in it he placed the small box that he had been carrying around. Ashley looked at him confused. “Go ahead, open it. I meant to give you that at the fair.” He said. Ashley opened the box and looked at him, tears filling up her eyes. She looked into his eyes, nodded, and whispered, “Yes.”
He was putting the ring on her finger, just as her mom returned to the room, followed by the nurse. The nurse checked Ashley’s vitals as she was showing her mom the ring. The nurse told her that everything looked good so far, and she would call the doctor and let him know that Ashley was awake. After the nurse left, Ashley asked Joe about the bandage on his head. He told her it was just a scratch, nothing to worry about. They sat and caught up on what had happened while she was in the coma. Joe left a lot out of what he told her, he didn’t want to worry or scare her. She had already gone through too much. Dr. Adams came in several minutes later and checked Ashley over. “How are you feeling?” He asked her. “I feel okay, a little weak, but other than that I’m good.” She said. He explained what they had done to her, and what should happen going forward. He said that they were going to keep her here for a few days to make sure no other complications arose. Ashley nodded and said that she wanted Joe to stay if he could. “I’m not going anywhere.” He said. Dr. Adams said that it was fine.
