Free The Stranger Beside You by William Casey Moreton

raised to the back of my head, and for a moment, at least, the tears faded.
    “The arrest,” I said.  “He must have known it was coming.”
    “How?”
    “I don’t know, but he saw it coming.  I feel it in my gut.”
    “You said he was babbling, so what was the crazy thing he told you?  What were his exact words?”
    The question stopped me cold in my tracks.  I shook my head.
    “I don’t remember, but I wrote it down in my notes.”
    “Where are your notes?”
    “In my car,” I said.
    We raced to the door.  
     

 
     
    14
     
    Mr. Z stood in front of Scotty Sheldon.  Sheldon felt a tremor of fear rising and he couldn’t bear to make eye contact with the man.
    “It’s been an hour, Scotty.  Do you know what that means?”
    No response.
    “I was very clear that this would happen,” Mr. Z said.  “All of it was carefully explained to you, and you told me you understood, didn’t you?”
    Sheldon knew that he should have packed his family into a car in the dead of night and driven to Mexico.  They could have gotten lost in the vast anonymity of South America.  It would have been hard on his wife and children, but anything would have been better than this.
    “I told you an hour ago you had sixty minutes to make a decision or I would have to send Pierre back into that bedroom.  What’s it going to be, Scotty?”
    Scotty Sheldon lifted his eyes and glanced at the closed bedroom door.  He felt the acid rising in his throat.  They could have been deep into Mexico by now.
    “It doesn’t have to be like this.  You’re a smart guy, Scotty.  The secret is to think like a winner.  Find a way to make it happen.  You can do this.  It’s not that hard.  I’d rather be on a beach with a drink, but business comes first.  So let’s take care of this little inconvenience and get on with our lives.  Come on, Scotty, step up to the plate.”
    Sheldon tried to push through the mind-numbing fear. 
    “I…need more time,” he said.
    “You’ll have to be more convincing than that.”
    “Please.”
    “We had an agreement.  You’ve had warnings.  None of what’s happening now should come as a surprise.”
    “I just need a few more days.”
    Mr. Z was silent a moment.  He was a master at motivating people like Scotty Sheldon.   
    “Why should I believe you?  Why should I believe you aren’t just trying to buy time in an effort to delay the inevitable?”
    “I swear, I just need a couple more days.”
    “I’m really not much of a negotiator, but I know that you want to do the right thing here.  Tell you what, let’s take a drive.”
    Pierre cut him loose from the chair.  They loaded into a Cadillac with dark windows, Pierre driving, Sheldon up front in the passenger seat, and Mr. Z seated in the back behind Pierre.  They drove for half an hour.  The road narrowed and turned to gravel.  The gravel ended at a dirt lane.  The Cadillac followed the dirt lane until there was nothing left but a vague track running through grassland.  When there was no visible track left to follow, Pierre stopped the car and they continued on foot. 
    They were surrounded by swamp.  Trees with gnarled vines and branches crowded in on them. Clouds of flies and mosquitoes swarmed overhead.  It was a fifteen-minute trek.
    They stopped at an opening in the middle of a grove of trees.  A patch of earth had been disturbed.  Sheldon saw a shovel with a long, yellow fiberglass handle leaning against a tree.  His stomach dropped.  Six shallow graves had been dug.  Two of them were already filled, topped with loose fill dirt heaped on by the shovel.  The sight of the fresh graves made Sheldon drop to his knees.
    “The one on the end is yours,” Mr. Z said without emotion.
    Several mosquitoes buzzed in Sheldon’s ears, then settled onto the back of his neck and went to work.  He ignored them. 
    “Does this help put things in perspective?” Mr. Z asked.
    “Please, no more.  I will get it for