Free Envy the Night by Michael Koryta Page B

of them off the roads, help me deal with this? Seems to me it isn’t that difficult a situation.”
    Should’ve been here five minutes ago,
Frank thought.
Like to see
you
come across that room when he showed the gun.
    Mowery got the cuffs off his belt and fastened the man’s hands behind his back. The prisoner was fully conscious by the time the second cuff snapped shut, twisting his head to try to look back at Mowery. The movement didn’t work so well; he made a soft grunt that seemed driven more by nausea than pain and laid his cheek back on the concrete.
    “I hit him pretty well,” Frank said. “Might have a concussion. Maybe need an ambulance.”
    “He isn’t gonna die in my car before he gets to a hospital.” Mowery leaned over and flicked the man’s cheek. “You with us, asshole? Want to walk out to the car with me, get that headache checked?”
    The guy grunted again, and Mowery wrapped one hand over the handcuffs and the other in the guy’s shirt, then hauled him upright with a jerk.
    “You can stand,” he said, as the man’s legs started to buckle. “Stand
up
, damn it!”
    Excellent procedure,
Frank thought.
Way to be concerned with the potential medical condition. Should be filming this for a police academy.
    “All right,” Mowery said when his prisoner held his own footing. “Let me get him in the car, get him down to the hospital. Don’t want the son of a bitch dying on us, do we? I finish with him, three of us are gonna talk.”
    The tall man’s movements seemed steady enough heading across the room to the door, shuffling along without comment, casting one long, hard stare at Nora as he passed her. She gazed right back at him and flicked her middle finger up. Mowery, walking behind his prisoner, reached out and grabbed a handful of the guy’s short hair and twisted his head away from Nora.
    “You don’t look at the lady, shithead. You don’t even
look
.”
    They stepped out the door. Frank and Nora walked that far and then stopped, standing just inside as Mowery guided the tall man toward the police cruiser parked about twenty feet away, a Lincoln County Sheriff logo on the front door. Mowery opened the back door of the car, put his hand on the back of his prisoner’s head, and started to shove him into the seat. He was facing the inside of the car, and when a man rose from behind the trunk, on the opposite side, Mowery never saw him. Had no idea trouble was at hand until Nora shouted, and Frank went through the door and started toward them as the new man, wearing a camouflage jacket and black boots, hit Mowery in the side of the head with a handgun. Mowery fell into his prisoner, the two of them tumbling into the backseat in a crush of bodies, and then the gun swung down again and Mowery’s nose shattered and blood sprayed the inside of the window.
    Frank had taken a few steps toward them when the new man whirled and lifted his gun, and just as he’d been so certain before that there
wouldn’t
be any shots if he kept moving, this time he knew there would. He lifted his hands and backpedaled, and for a moment he was sure the crazy bastard was going to fire anyhow. Then Mowery, sliding down out of the car to the ground, reachedout and got his fingers in his attacker’s shirt, and that was enough to draw another whip of the gun. It was two seconds of distraction, but it got Frank back inside.
    He grabbed Nora around the waist and pulled her into the body shop and swung the door shut behind them with his free hand. Nora’s feet tangled with his, and she started to fall. He let her go, turned away as she hit the floor hard on her ass, reached for the dead-bolt lock and turned it. He banged his hand over the light switch and dropped to the floor, and then it was just the two of them inside the dark room and Mowery outside with his prisoner and a man with a gun.

9
    __________
    T hey’d been closed for the day. That was the first thought Nora had, lying on the cold concrete floor with