Book 5: Another Way

Episode 11

© by William Arthur Holmes

Blount let the heavy door slam shut behind him to block out Kaylie’s screams. JD pushed him out of the way to get to her first and cover her mouth. She slipped out of his grasp and hopped back onto the bed. Her weight shifted from one foot to the other. She stopped screaming and focused on a way past Blount and out the door.

Looking up at her in her underwear, Blount stood mesmerized. Bouncing up and down on the bed, Kaylie prepared to launch herself at the door. She thought she could get past the older and slower Blount.

Midflight between the bed and the door, Blount grabbed her into his arms and held tight. A lifetime of manual labor had made him strong. It was only recently that he became a cook because no one else would hire him.

When Kaylie started screaming again, he got behind her and placed a hand over her mouth. Clutching her, he looked down at her breasts, rising and falling with every frightened breath. Giggling like a fiend – this was a highlight of his miserable life – he held tight with one arm while placing his left hand on her breast as JD dragged duct tape across her mouth.

JD went looking for the rest of her clothes, leaving Blount to lean his head against Kaylie’s and smile blissfully. Tears came to her eyes. She screamed again but the tape muffled it.

With all her might she threw an elbow into Blount’s rib cage. He lurched in pain but held tight. She stomped her heel down hard onto his toes. His work boots protected him, but it was enough to make him briefly let go before he regained his hold.

“Let me have her, JD. Just once, and I can die a happy man!”

JD came back around the bed with her pants and shirt in hand, not bothering with her shoes. He shook his head, dropped her clothes onto the bed, and pulled a stun gun out of his back pocket. Without hesitation, he fired it at Blount. The electricity flowed through him into Kaylie, knocking the legs out from under both of them.

“We’re not doing this for you, old man!” JD yelled at Blount, now on the floor underneath Kaylie. “You might die, but you won’t be happy!”

With some difficulty, JD got Kaylie’s clothes back on her, if only to make them less conspicuous as they escaped. He wrapped her hands and ankles in duct tape and threw her over his shoulder.

With a smile, he said to Blount, “There’s yer proof, bubba, all ya need for fixin’ anythin’ is duct tape!”

Bruised and disoriented, Blount stood and held the door for JD, carrying Kaylie. Watching for witnesses as they entered the hallway, they moved quickly toward the stairwell exit.

The cleaning woman, Doris, came out of a room two doors ahead of them. Realizing what was going on, she disappeared inside the room, leaving her cart in the hallway. The deadbolt could be heard locking from the inside.

JD thought about shooting her through the door but didn’t want to draw any more attention. He hoped she kept quiet. If not, he knew where to find her.

Just as they reached the back stairs, Blount turned to look behind them. A teenage boy — phone in hand as he returned to his room — captured a few seconds of video of the three of them escaping. It would have been impossible to identify any of them with any certainty until Blount turned for one last look behind. He thought about chasing the kid down, but he had vanished into his room.

JD descended two steps at a time down to the back door, left propped open. His black, late-model Chrysler 300 with blacked-out windows was outside with the motor running.

~ ~ ~

Dobie was at that moment climbing the stairs on the opposite side of the building. As he reached their room, he spotted what looked like one of Kaylie’s hairbands on the hallway floor near their door. Could belong to anybody, he told himself.

Opening their room and calling her name, he got no answer. He checked every square inch of the place, even under the bed. Nothing.

Seeing her phone on a table on the far side of the room, he knew something was wrong. Nobody goes anywhere without their phone… unless they don’t want to be tracked. Maybe she finally dumped me?

When he tripped over one of her Keds on the floor, it left no doubt something was very wrong. He grabbed her phone and shoes, bolted out of the room, and ran down the back stairwell.

~ ~ ~

A small, mixed-breed, gray-haired dog was sniffing around JD’s car. Its tail began to wag at the sight of the big man. He kicked it, sending it yelping away. Blount laughed and tried to get in back where JD had put Kaylie.

JD grabbed and threw him into the front passenger seat. “What’d I tell you, Blount?! Don’t touch her!”

~ ~ ~

Watson and Audrey had spent the night in the same hotel, and he was in the parking lot after saying he needed something from his car. What he actually needed was to get away from her. She was a little too lovey-dovey lately and he could not abide.

When Dobie came around the corner to confront JD, Watson smiled and slipped inside his Escalade to watch in comfort whatever might unfold before him. He only wished he had popcorn.

Dobie came out the exit door, around the corner, and planted himself in front of JD’s car. It occurred to him too late he should have brought his gun. He kept it in the glove box but was so not a gun person, he forgot he had it.

All he had in his hand was her shoes. He couldn’t see her in the backseat but assumed she was there or in the trunk.

“Hey!” he shouted.

JD was behind the wheel and about to step on the gas. He could have easily run Dobie over and probably would have if it was anyone else. Instead, he shook his head, shifted back into Park, and got out to deal with him.

“Time for a rematch!” he climbed out with a smile on his face. “This time, you’ll be the one on the floor, Dopey!”

“Ground,” Dobie reflexively corrected JD’s choice of words. No idea why. It just came out. “And my name is Dobie.”

“Whatever, Dopey,” JD sneered. He watched a lot of professional wrestling and ultimate fighting and seriously considered doing one or both for a living. Now was the perfect opportunity to try some of his moves. Shouldn’t even break a sweat.

As Dobie set the shoes on the ground, it occurred to him that JD smiled a lot, though it was never friendly. More like an animal baring its fangs. Do animals think humans are baring their fangs when we smile?

He remembered Kaylie’s phone in his pocket and tried to think of a way to get it inside JD’s car. Its screen was locked, but maybe someone could use a tracking app to track her down.

With one flying spin move and punch from JD, however, Dobie’s clever idea was a moot point. It was his turn to hit the ground, unconscious.

JD laughed and got back into his car. He was right. Hadn’t even broken a sweat but did hurt his hand on Dobie’s face.

“You still got it,” Blount tried to high-five him, but JD glared at him. High-fiving would hurt too much.

He checked to make sure Kaylie was still in the backseat. She was.

Peeling out of the parking at top speed, they were a couple miles down the road to Blount’s trailer on the outskirts of town. Blount was turning and looking at Kaylie every few seconds, so JD said, “You can have her mom.”

“That old bag?” Blount complained.

“She’s younger than you, dumbass! Play your cards right, and I’ll stop banging her so you can have her all to yourself.”

Kaylie’s eyes went wide.

~ ~ ~

With JD gone and Dobie lying unconscious, Watson got out of his car and walked over to check on the latter. He was disappointed to find Dobie still breathing. Things would be a lot easier if he was dead.

Watson, smoking a cigarette, left Dobie lying there. Someone would find him eventually. He replaced the old tracking device in Sabina’s wheel well. The old one had short-circuited.

Those things were normally rock solid. The same model device was planted in JD’s car as soon as Watson realized JD was Kaylie’s ex-boyfriend. Wherever she went, JD was sure to follow.

The dog that JD had kicked walked up, sniffed Dobie once, and peed on his leg. When Dobie came to, he was alone on the hard pavement. Loose dirt and bits of gravel stuck to his skin. JD and Kaylie were gone. It was a mystery how long he’d been on the ground. He then caught a whiff of urine.

It wasn’t until he stood up and started walking – with his jaw throbbing and one or two broken ribs – that he felt something damp against his leg. Looking down, he realized he had been peed on. He assumed it was JD.

He shook his head, picked up Kaylie’s shoes and limped back to his room for a shower and change of clothes. The back door was still propped open, so he went that way. He and the cleaning woman eyed each other warily as she came down the stairs while he went up.