A Wil Clarey Short Story
Set one week before Christmas, the Christmas, Six months before The Impossible Summer (Wil Clarey Book One.)
Chapter One – Helping Hand
“Open up, it’s the police!” A husky voice was followed by pounding.
“It’s open, Zach.” I wasn’t fooled for a second.
Zach bounded into our apartment and leaned around the Christmas tree. He held his hands out like he was holding a gun. “This is an emergency, Wil. You must follow my commands and come with me right now.”
My hands were busy on my game controller as I blindly ran away from the closing ring. I turned back to the screen only to see my avatar collapse. “You got me killed!”
“Sorry dude. But you gotta come with me.”
“Why?” Even as I asked, I evaluated the soreness of my thumbs. Maybe it was time for a break anyway.
“I met an angel. I need someone with me to be brave enough for me to introduce myself.”
“You didn’t need anyone to make you brave enough to meet me.”
“Respectfully, you’re not pretty.”
“You know you always use that word to introduce a disrespectful sentence.”
“Whatever, come on!”
I reached for my shoes. “Why not?”
We skidded our bikes to a stop on a road overlooking a large lot covered with tents. “Isn’t this a homeless encampment?” A lot of those had been popping up around the LA area. Even down here in Santa Ana.
“Yeah, but she has a home.” He pointed to a line of old RVs along the side street next to the lot.
“Those aren’t homes, Zach.”
“They’re homes to them.”
One of them had Christmas lights hanging in a couple of windows and a wreath on the door. The wreath swung out as the door burst open. Out popped a red-haired girl about our age. She was carrying a big blue jug.
“This is our chance!” Zach started riding down the hill.
I took a longer look at the girl. The thought occurred to me that he might be right. She WAS prettier than me.
I rode after him.
The girl stopped at the back of a laundromat down the street from the encampment. There was a hose that she put in the jug. She pulled a handle from her pocket, fit it into the spigot and turned on the water.
We rode up to her just as the water started flowing. Zach slid his bike to a stop just a foot from her.
“Wow, figured out where the brake was a little late there?” The girl hadn’t flinched. She just kept watching the water flow into the jug.
“We, we just wanted to see if you needed any help?”
“I don’t accept help from uncultured swine.” She kept her eyes on the task.
I don’t know what came over me. “Hey, he’s the uncultured swine, I’m just uncultured.”
She tore her eyes from the jug and looked at me.
My face burned.
She smiled.
Words fled as my brain melted.
“Well, you can tell your porcine friend that I don’t need any help from people who sneak around looking at me.”
“I wasn’t…”
She gave him a hard stare.
“Wow,” I said. “I’ve never seen anyone silence Zach.”
“I’m not porcelain anyway.”
“Porcine.” She repeated.
“Like a pig or a swine.” I told Zach. I turned to her. “And we know you don’t need help. But that jug is heavy, I have a basket on my nerdy bike. We can make your job easier.”
I had no idea where my boldness came from. Maybe Zach’s embarrassment helped. Maybe I just liked her attitude.
“Okay Zach and …” She pointed to me.
“That’s Wil.” Zach filled in. “He’s my smart friend.”
“Well, William and Zachary, since you are kindly offering. I accept your gracious offer, as long as we can walk it back. I don’t want the jug to fall out. It’s the only one we have.”
“It’s Wil, with one ‘L’ actually.”
“Wil, huh.” She looked me up and down. “Okay, the jug is full.”
Zach and I lifted the heavy jug to the basket at the back of my old ten-speed.
I strapped the jug down and walked the bike back toward the RV. “So why do you live on the street?”
“You don’t waste words, do you?” She flashed a crooked smile.
I shrugged my shoulders.
She smiled. “My dad’s gone. My mom is in jail, so I moved in with my grandma. Then she had to sell her house ‘cause she couldn’t afford the mortgage. Something about taxes going way up. She got enough to buy that RV but not enough to keep it in an RV park. So here we are?”
We were still 50 feet from the RV When she unhooked the strap and grabbed the jug from the basket. “I got it from here. Grandma’s kinda weird about boys so you should go.”
She walked toward the RV but looked back after a few steps. “If you have time, you could show up this time tomorrow when I have to fill this again.”
“Sure thing.” Zach piped up.
We both watched her long red hair sway as she walked up to the RV. When her grandma appeared at the door and shot us an angry look, we took off.
“Do you realize we didn’t get her name?” I huffed out as we struggled up the hill.
“I’m an idiot!” Zach smacked his forehead with his right hand, almost sending his bike to the curb.
“You have a knack for the obvious.”
“What am I gonna do, Wil. I can’t stop thinking about her! I gotta get to know her but she likes you now.”
I slammed on my brakes. “She does not like me.” My mind quickly reviewed the entire encounter.
“Are you blind, bro? She hates me but loves you. It was all over her face.” He rode his bike in circles around me.
I’m kinda blind when it comes to girls. Or people for that matter.
Mom says I’m so smart that my brain doesn’t have room for stuff like social skills.
At school, they just say I’m “on the spectrum,” meaning I have autism.
I don’t feel like I have autism. What does that feel like anyway?
I don’t know.
I do know that Zach’s the only other kid that “gets me.” But even he doesn’t really get it. He’s just really good with people.
Well, except cute redheads.
“Look Zach, you have no competition from me. She’s not my type.”
“She IS my type.”
“You mean cute and female?”
“I’m kinda picky that way. What is your type anyway, Wil?”
“I’m 13. I don’t have a type yet.”
“I’ve had a type since I was 8.” He looked off in the distance. “Remember Lucy Grande from 2nd grade? I thought heaven had opened and sent an angel to me.”
“What ever happened to her?”
“She must have been a fallen angel. She rejected me like a pickle sandwich. Wrinkled nose and everything.”
“Rejecting you doesn’t make her fallen.”
His eyes got big. “Hey, maybe tomorrow I could just borrow your bike and say you couldn’t make it.”
“I can’t make it. Tomorrow’s Sunday. Remember, Mom drags me to church every Sunday.”
“Perfect. I’ll swing by before you leave.”
“Okay.”
Chapter Two – Gone
First thing in the morning, Mom informed me that she had a sore throat.
I saw my opportunity. “Mom, you know how they keep telling us to do good things for our fellow man?”
“Where’s this going?” Mom croaked.
“We’ll, we shouldn’t go to church because you don’t want to get people sick, right?”
“We can sit right here and watch it online.” She patted the sofa where she was sipping hot tea.
“Zach offered to help one of the people at that homeless encampment get some water. Since I have a basket on my bike, I could help him. And helping my fellow man is at least as good as going to church, right?”
Of course, I neglected to mention my “fellow man” was a pretty redhead.
“Would you like me to drive you so you can haul water more quickly.”
“No! You’re sick. Besides, you want to watch the sermon.”
“And you don’t?”
There was no good answer to that, so I kept my mouth shut.
She stared at me.
“Okay, go do your good deed.” She lifted an arm toward me. “Give me a hug first.”
I took a step back. “Germs!”
She rolled her eyes.
I fled out the door.
“Where’d they go?” Zach slammed on his brakes at the edge of the hill behind the encampment.
When he took off down the hill on a dirt trail. I stayed behind to look over the whole area. An old pickup truck with a homemade wooden camper so big it made the back sag sat where the girl’s RV had been.
I scanned the entire area. There were a few RVs on the far side, but they weren’t the same.
When I caught up to Zach, he was talking to a bearded man sitting in front of his tent near where the RV had been.
“I told you; I did call the cops.” He glanced around. “Took some flak for it too. Them cops didn’t believe a word I said, even when I told ‘em ‘bout the gun.”
“The what?” I hoped I heard him wrong.
“The gun. A couple of guys in a big black Escalade came last night. One of ‘em waved a gun around and made Gladys drive away.”
“Was the girl there too?” Zach asked.
“Lizzy? Far as I know.” The man took a drink from a bottle hidden by a paper bag.
“No, Bruce, I wasn’t.” Wild red hair emerged from a dirty patched tent fifteen feet away.
“Lizzy!” The man raised the bottle toward her. “You staying with Dunk?”
She did her best to gather her hair in a clip. “Dunk left two weeks ago, and you know it. And you can quit the drunk act. I know better.”
“What act?” He lifted his drink. A familiar bottle neck peeked out of the sack.
“Beer isn’t blue, and you bragged to me last week that you’ve been sober for six months.”
“Lizzy!” Bruce hoarse whispered as he covered his Powerade bottle. “I got a rep to protect.”
“Wait.” I faced Lizzy. “If you were here, did you talk to the cops?”
“Are you kidding? They’d a put me in a foster home.”
“Wouldn’t that be better than sleeping here?”
“These people may have problems, but they watch out for me.”
“They didn’t watch out for your grandma.” Zach said.
“Those guys had guns.”
“She’s right.” Bruce said.
“Besides, Grandma warned me they might be coming. That’s why I was in the tent.”
“Who were they?” I stared at her.
She climbed out of the tent, wrinkled sweatshirt with a reindeer on it straightened as she stood. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
“Sorry.” I looked away and realized I didn’t know where to look.
“You’ll have to excuse my socially awkward friend.” Zach said.
“I was talking to both of you.”
I looked her in the eyes. “You didn’t answer my question.”
It was her turn to look away.
“Do you know who they were?” I tried to keep my voice gentle.
“No. I heard Grandma agree to meet them, but she didn’t trust them.” She fidgeted with something on top of her head, trying to keep her morning hair in place. “That’s why she didn’t want me there when they came.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Neither did Zach but that didn’t keep him from talking. “Can we help you get water this morning?”
“Sure.” Lizzy patted her pockets. “Oh wait. I left that five-gallon jug in my other jeans.”
“We could call the police for you.” Zach got his cell phone out.
“No!” Lizzy pushed the phone down. “Didn’t you hear me. The cops’ll put me in a foster home.”
“How is that bad. You’d have a warm place to sleep, good food, nice people,” he replied.
Bruce snorted. “Yeah, right. I mean, I’m sure there’s nice foster parents out there but, not the ones I had.”
As they talked, I looked up and saw a garbage truck and several police cars pull up to the curb on the other side of the lot. “Looks like someone called the cops anyway.”
Bruce stood up and looked. A long string of cuss words flowed from his mouth as he threw stuff in a big trash bag. “Get your stuff together kid. They’re clearing us out. Happens every time we find a good place.”
“I can’t leave. How’s Grandma gonna find me.”
I don’t read expressions well, but the one she wore then would break the heart of a serial killer.
Bruce collapsed his tent in ten seconds. “You got any stuff in that tent?”
Lizzy answered by leaping to the tent and grabbing a small backpack.
“C’mon, boys. Pull the stakes on that side.”
We pulled Dunk’s tent down in a short minute. The stinky bundle filled my arms as we headed to the back of the lot, Zach walking the bikes.
“I gotta car back here.”
Bruce’s car was a rusty old Chevy with long expired tags.
Bruce threw his stuffed garbage bag on the front passenger seat. “Throw the tent on top of that.”
I was glad to get the thing out of my hands.
Before we knew what to do, the old car coughed to life and wheezed its way down the street, leaving us in stunned silence.
“Okay,” was all I could say.
All any of us could say.
We must have stood that way for five minutes, watching a policeman make announcements we couldn’t quite hear.
Chapter Three – A Burger and a Shake
We ended up sitting at the top of the hill overlooking the lot.
“This is gonna be the best Christmas ever.” The sarcasm dripped from Lizzy’s voice.
“A lot can happen in a week.” Not that I would know but it felt like the right thing to say.
“Oh man.” Zach dropped his head. “It’s a week ‘til Christmas. It’s a banner day in our house.”
“Whatcha mean?” Lizzy asked.
“Three years ago today, Mom kicked dad out of the house.”
Lizzy laughed.
“It’s not funny.” Zach complained.
“Sorry.” She tried to stifle her smile. “That’s the same day my mom was arrested. I didn’t see it. I spent Christmas break at Grandma’s. But when it was time for me to go home, and Mom wasn’t there…”
Zach scooted closer to her and went to put his arm around her.
She shrugged him off and stood up. “Um, no. Everyone I get close to gets hurt or worse.”
“Sorry. I…” Zach stopped, looking beyond Lizzy and me. “Hey Wil, isn’t that your mom.”
The old, dented Taurus struggled up the hill.
Lizzy leaned close to me. “Glad to see I’m not the only poor kid here.”
“Where have you been, Wil?”
“I said we we’d be helping at the homeless camp.” I motioned to the encampment below. “And now we’re too late.”
“Zach, does your dad know you’re here?”
“I’m with Mom this weekend and she don’t care.”
“Isn’t that a long ride?”
“Yeah, but it’s worth it.” He glanced at Lizzy.
“I see. And you are?” She nodded at Lizzy.
“Elizabeth Ann Garnett.” She reached to shake Mom’s hand. “But my friends call me Liz, not Lizzy.” She glanced our way.
Halfway through the handshake, Mom jerked her hand back. “I’m sorry. I forgot I’m fighting a cold. Wil, give Liz a wipe.”
I reached in the little pack hanging from my handlebars, pulled a hand sanitizer wipe and gave it to Liz. I don’t know what her expression meant but it was … different. She wiped her hands and stuffed the wipe in a pocket.
“Where are your parents, Liz?”
Liz turned back to Mom. “My Grandma should be back anytime now.”
I started, “Last night her grandma…”
I swear I could physically feel the heat from Liz’s glare. “She went to visit my mom. She should be back any time now.”
“You guys hungry? It’s almost noon.” Mom looked at her watch.
“I need to wait for my grandma.”
Mom pointed across the lot to the restaurant across the street. “In n’ Out is right there. We can sit where you can see your grandma coming.”
I elbowed her. “Say yes. Mom hardly ever gets me fast food.”
“Sure. We’ll walk.”
Mom hesitated, then popped the trunk. “Boy’s put your bikes in the trunk.”
They barely fit after I removed my quick release front wheel.
“Okay, I’ll see you down there. Cross at the light. And Zach, call your mom so she knows where you are.”
“I’ll text her.”
“Wil, make sure he does.”
I shrugged, “Okay.”
He did. “She’s ticked,” he whispered to me.
My plain double-double was delicious and Zach downed his “animal style” meal in no time.
Liz picked at hers.
Once Mom finished her burger, she looked at Liz. “Okay sweetie. Let’s have the truth now.”
Liz looked at me.
“You can trust my mom.” I said between fries.
“You’ve hardly looked out the window. You’re not really expecting your grandma back, are you?”
Liz looked down. Her eyes looked wet as she just barely shook her head.
Mom pulled her credit card out of a pocket on her phone case. “Boys, go get us all chocolate shakes.”
I was glad to get out of there. Zach started dashing to the counter.
I grabbed his shirt. “We should take our time.”
We almost took too long. Zach’s mom showed up to take him home just as the shakes arrived.
“I’ll get Mom’s keys and get your bike.” I offered.
“Don’t bother,” his mom said, “he’s grounded. He’ll get it next week.”
“But Mom…” He made the mistake of saying that with his shake in his hand.
“You won’t be needing that.” She grabbed the shake and took a long sip. “Mmm, that might start earning your freedom back. But you got a long way to go young man.”
As they headed out the door he turned and mouthed “Pray for me.”
I had to smile. I’d been to his house enough to know, in Mom’s terms, she was all bark, no bite.
Mom got up when I got back to the table. “Where’s Zach?”
“His mom picked him up. We’ll be hanging on to his bike for a while.”
“Wait here with Liz while I talk to one of the officers across the street.” She grabbed her purse. “And don’t touch my shake.”
She kissed my forehead and walked out.
For a moment I was embarrassed about the kiss.
“You’re so lucky to have a mom like that.” Liz said as she grabbed her shake and took a sip. “And next time, Oreo shake.”
Her smile made my heart skip a beat. Seriously, I think it did.
“Uh huh.” Was all I could get past my lips.
“I feel a little bad that I gotta ditch you guys now.” She stood.
“No!” I said it a little too loud, but it got her attention.
“She’s getting the cops. They’ll put me in the foster care system. Do you know how bad that is.”
“Mom can take care of you while we find your grandma.”
“No, she can’t. She’d have to be certified. That takes, like, a year.”
“She’s already certified.” I hoped I wasn’t lying. “At least I think she is. She was gonna to be a respite care foster parent. You know. To give other foster parents time off.”
“You have other foster kids at home?”
“No.” I could feel my face burn. “The first time we had a foster kid; I had a meltdown. She dropped out but I think she’s still certified.”
She looked up and bolted for the far door.
A glance behind revealed Mom with a lady police officer.
“I’ll stop her.” I jumped up right into a worker carrying trash.
The man grabbed the booth to keep from falling.
I wasn’t so lucky. I sprawled out across the floor.
“I’m so sorry.” The man held a hand out to me.
I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t his fault, but I didn’t have time to apologize. I got on my hands and feet and launched toward the exit only to see the door close behind her and a line of people blocking me.
I dodged through the best I could, hoping to at least see what direction she was going in.
When I emerged, there she was, face down, with a big cop putting handcuffs on her.
I froze.
“Carmichael! Get off her!” The lady officer came through the door right after me. “And take those cuffs off.”
“She was running.” Carmichael pulled Liz up by her arm behind her back.
The lady officer had some choice words I couldn’t repeat in Mom’s presence.
Liz smiled.
A little.
“You’re not in trouble, honey.” The lady officer took the cuffs off. “I hear your grandma is missing.”
Liz nodded.
They sat at one of the outside tables. “I’m Officer Garcia but you can call me Mary. We need to make sure you’re okay and try to find your grandma, okay?”
Officer Garcia proceeded to get as much information as she could about Liz’s grandma and the RV. She handed her notes to Officer Carmichael. “Can you post this without arresting any more kids? And grab me a voucher from the EOC trailer.”
He rolled his eyes and walked back across the street.
“Now to make sure you’re safe.” Officer Garcia pointed at Mom. “Do you know this lady?”
Liz nodded.
“Do you trust her to take care of you while we try to find your grandma?”
Liz nodded again.
“I need to actually hear you say it.”
“Yes. She’s nice and she’s my friend Wil’s mom so I trust her. But how will I know if my grandma comes back.”
“We’ll do everything we can to find her. We’ll call Ms. Clarey when we find her. In the meantime, I have a voucher to give to Ms. Clarey to get you some clothes and food. Child Protective Services just texted me back and verified that she’s a certified foster care provider, so you’ll be safe and cared for.”
Chapter Four – Dinner, and a Movie
Mom dropped me and the bikes off at the apartment. “Lock those up and clean your room.”
“Okay.”
“And when I say clean, I mean clean. All the dirty clothes in the bathroom hamper, vacuum, and take your trash out.”
“Is she staying in my room?”
She gave me a look. I may not be good at reading expressions, but I knew this one meant I would be sleeping on the sofa.
“It’s just for a day or two.”
A weird thing happened in my brain.
At first, I felt the beginnings of defense mode coming on. That’s when my brain kinda freezes up because it can’t deal with the different pressures coming at me. Thanks a lot, Autism.
Then I saw Liz climbing back in the car and something clicked in my brain. Helping her felt right. “Okay.”
“Thanks Wil, we’ll try to be quick.”
They rushed off to the store and I rushed to clean my room.
“What Christmas movie you want to watch tonight?”
“Die Hard.” I had to try.
“Nope.” Mom’s reply was instant.
“How about ‘The Santa Clause”? Liz asked.
“Works for me. You okay with that Wil?”
“That’s fine.” I’d seen that a bunch of times, but it was okay. Besides, I had my phone.
I played Subway Surfer and had a long run going when I started messing up. After the long day, my eyes were getting heavy.
I was leaning against one arm of the sofa. Liz was on the other end under a blanket, the same one I would be using soon after. Her feet were tucked up under her and she looked like she might be nodding off too.
BANG BANG BANG.
The knock on the door had the ring of authority.
“Just a second.” Mom crawled out from under her blanket on her recliner.
“Who is it?” She looked through the peephole.
“Oh.” She yanked open the door.
“We found something.” Officer Garcia held her phone out for Mom to see.
Mom’s face turned white. “Should I show her?”
“We need to be sure we have the right one.”
“Liz, come here.” Mom held the phone to her chest. “I’m afraid you need to see this.”
We both got up. As Mom turned the phone to us, we could see a burnt-up RV.
Liz grabbed the phone and zoomed in. “That’s our RV. See the ‘Back Off” sticker on the bumper.”
“No one was inside.” The officer said quickly.
“Oh, thank God.” Mom held her hand over her heart.
“Can we see it?” I asked.
“Tomorrow, after the crime lab team goes over it.”
“You’re sure my grandma wasn’t in it.”
Officer Garcia hesitated. “I’m sorry but until they’re done going over it tonight, we cannot say that with absolute certainty, but all indications are that it was empty.”
“No sign of my grandma?”
“None.”
“Was it found in LA?” I looked out at a second officer with her.
Officer Garcia’s face went slack for a second. “No, Irvine. Just north of John Wayne Airport. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” I turned. “Mom, I’m really tired.”
“The movie’s almost over.” She turned back to Officer Garcia. “Is there anything else we should know?”
“Just that we’ll have a patrol car watching the area. Just to make sure that Lizzy is safe.”
“It’s Elizabeth, but thanks.” Liz said.
“I’ll try to remember that, Elizabeth. By the way, did your grandmother give you anything important to watch over.”
“Only if you call my little pack of clothes important.”
“I would imagine that’s important to you.” The officer hesitated. “Do you mind if I look through it, just in case there’s any clues in there.”
“What are you looking for?” Mom asked.
“Anything that would give any perps reason to want to come here. Just to be safe.”
“It’s fine.” Liz handed the bag over.
Garcia handed it over to the other officer who emptied its contents onto the porch.
I looked for Liz’s reaction. She just messed with her hair like nothing was happening.
After a thorough search, he stuffed everything back in and tossed the pack back to the threshold. “Nothin’”
The adults said goodbye as I followed Liz back to my room.
Chapter Five – Amazon Delivery
I whispered, “What did you do with it?”
“With what?” She put her finger to her lips and pointed to a pad of paper.
“With the remote.” I picked up the pad and found a pencil and handed it to her.
“I think your mom has it.” She tossed the bag to the far side of the room and closed the door.
“Okay young man, I know you’re not tired.” She had her hands on her hips.
“I can watch the rest of the movie.” I grabbed the remote and turned the movie back on and the volume up.
Liz handed me the pad. “Other guy not a cop.” It read.
I wrote back. “No duh, LAPD uniform that didn’t fit right and didn’t use proper protocol to search bag. What are you hiding?”
“Nothing” she wrote back.
Mom grabbed the pad. “Maria looked nervous. But she’s a real cop with a real Santa Ana PD badge and uniform.”
I wrote, “You still on good terms with that rich guy?”
“Mr. Patterson. Of course.”
I grabbed Mom’s phone from the little table by her recliner. The names were sorted by first name, so it took me a minute. I couldn’t remember his first name was Cliff until I saw it.
I texted “SOS – can your security extract us from my apt?”
His reply was immediate. “u ok Jen?”
“Will be if u can extract us.
“Fake cops in parking lot want something a young visitor has.
“3 to extract.”
“Same address in Santa Ana?”
“Yes.”
“30 minutes. Listen for chopper. Code word is ship where we met.”
“UR my hero.” I typed back.
“You’re very welcome, Wil.”
“How?”
“Talk when you get here.”
Mom wrote on the pad. “Gather enough for an overnight.”
Liz and I silently filled cloth shopping bags with clothes in my room.
She pointed to my toothbrush in the hall bath.
I gathered it and toothpaste.
We put the bags behind the front door and sat in front of the movie, blaring from the living room TV.
Just as the elves used tinsel to free Santa Clause from jail the air throbbed with helicopter thumps.
I peeked out the front window. The chopper hovered at the far side of the parking lot.
Two soft knocks and a voice said, “The Star of Mystery.”
We grabbed our bags and headed out the front door. TV still blaring behind us.
“This way.” A man in all black motioned to the back of the building away from the chopper.
In the alley behind the building sat an electric Amazon van.
I hesitated before getting in.
A voice behind me whispered, “the chopper is a distraction.”
“And nothing blends in better than an Amazon van.” I said as I climbed in what was obviously not an Amazon van on the inside.
It was like a small luxury bus with leather captain’s chairs and a big TV. The sides, that looked like metal on the outside, were really one-way windows. Similar material separated us from the driver and from a section with a couple of rear facing guards in back.
The man who had directed us to the van sat in the forward most seat and swiveled it to us as three others hopped in the front and back sections. The driver was already in her seat and silently drove us away.
“Who are these people?” Liz looked around in wonder.
Mom answered, “Cliff Patterson is a very successful businessman we met on a cruise last year.”
“So, you’re not poor if you can afford a cruise.” Liz looked at me.
“Grandma and Grandpa Clarey paid for it.” I answered.
“My name is Michael.” The guard in our compartment with us spoke. “April is driving, Carlo is riding shotgun and Jim and Gunner are in the back seats. This compartment is bullet proof, and this is a highly modified Rivian that will get us safely to Mr. Patterson’s Malibu estate in about 45 minutes.
Michael grabbed a small tablet from a vest pocket a scrolled. “I know you two are Jennifer and Wil Clarey, may I assume that you are Liz Garnett?
“How did you figure that out?” She asked.
“As soon as we got the call, we had a team search police activity.” His eyes got big. “Oh, we might need to detour.”
“What’s going on?” Mom asked.
Michael pressed a button on his sleeve. “April, head toward Downton Disney.” He released the button. “Your grandma has been found. We’re meeting her at the circle.”
The van jerked violently to the left. The seatbelts tightened on us as a black SUV bounced off the van right next to Michael.
That SUV swerved off into a light pole. Two more appeared behind us.
The tablet slid next to me, so I grabbed it. It was dark.
Michael, hardly phased by the impact next to him, reached for the tablet. As soon as he touched it, it lit up. “There’s help for us at Lampson and Harbor.” Michael yelled in his mic.
We went around a curve fast enough to flip any other delivery van. This van didn’t even lean. The SUVs fell behind but the lead evaporated as we approached traffic.
Far ahead I could see red and blue lights.
Wham! One of the SUVs slammed into our rear.
As the rear door flew open Gunner held out a funny looking device. He pressed a button on the side of it and the SUV slowed to a stop.
I’d seen that device before, maybe on You-Tube. It was a directed charge weapon. It disables electronics that it is aimed at: like a car’s ignition.
As he aimed the device at the other SUV, bullets pinged against the rear of the compartment.
Gunner pressed the button and slumped even as the other SUV stopped.
We surged forward, putting a couple blocks distance from the SUVs as police surrounded them.
They surrounded us too.
Michael jumped out holding his hands up, his security badge in hand.
The lead officer looked at the badge and waved a sergeant over. Once he read the badge and looked at Michael’s face, the sergeant smiled and waved off the other officers. Several guns that hand been aimed at the Amazon van lowered.
Michael shook the sergeant’s hand and opened our door.
As I stepped out when I heard a engine racing.
A loud hum replaced the engine sound. The bike slowed suddenly, throwing the rider and an object in their hand.
The object flew to the right impacting a palm tree next to the road just past us.
The blast threw me back into the van.
I jumped back out to see if anyone was hurt.
The rider was curled into a ball moaning even as police surrounded him.
All around, officers were helping each other up.
“Hey Mike.” Jim helped Gunner stumble up from the back of the van. “A little help here.”
Michael shouted “Medic” as ambulances arrived.
I went back into the van and closed the door. “We should probably hold tight here.”
We did.
We watched EMTs treat injured people.
We saw investigators start to set up for a very long night of crime scene processing.
Yellow tape went up everywhere.
One detective questioned us as we sat there.
A parking lot next to us filled with police cars and vans.
Between the throng of police vehicles squeezed a white SUV, another Rivian. It pulled right up to the tape when the rear door flew open.
“Grandma!” Liz flew past the detective and out the door.
They merged in a flying hug ten feet inside the yellow tape.
Officers converged on them until they saw the hug. They hung back surrounding them.
Mom and I approached.
I went up to Gladys, Liz’s grandma. “Can she turn it over to the police now.”
At first, she was quiet. I thought she was going to deny it. Instead, she nodded.
“Who’s the lead investigator.” I asked the crowd of police.
A woman in a suit with a badge on her hip stepped forward. “Detective Lila Chung.”
“Liz, you can give her the hair clip.”
“How?” She started to ask.
“You’ve been touching it all day and evening. I’m guessing there’s a micro-SD card taped to it.”
She nodded and handed the clip over to Detective Chung.
The detective sealed it in a bag, labeled it and handed it to a technician standing by.
“You folks are free to go with Mr. Patterson.” She nodded at Cliff Patterson standing by the SUV. We’ll come by his estate to get your official statements tomorrow, but you’ll be safe there.”
Chapter Six – Cliffview
We took a short, police escorted ride to a big parking lot where the chopper we saw earlier waited for us. The lights of Southern California blurred beneath us as my head reeled from the speed and height.
In no time we flew out over the waves at Malibu and circled back to a pad next to a huge ultramodern house sticking out on the edge of a cliff over the ocean.
“I assume you are all exhausted, so I’ll get you straight to your rooms. The guest wing is this way.” Cliff led us through a glowing courtyard.
Seriously, the pavement, made of some kind of marble, had a soft glow to it so you could see where you walked.
A glass door led to a row of rooms overlooking the ocean. Mom and I shared a two-bedroom suite. Each room led to a massive common deck set down a few steps so it wouldn’t block the view from the rooms.
We all drifted through our rooms and on to the deck. Cliff stood by the rail looking at the waves.
I glanced at my watch. “It doesn’t feel like midnight.”
“Too amped up?” Mom asked.
“I know I am.” Liz walked up to us a plopped down on an outdoor sofa.
I sat on the opposite end of the sofa.
Cliff approached. “If you want to take the time to talk about it tonight we can.”
Gladys reached out to shake Cliff’s hand. “I can’t thank you enough. And I’m so sorry for all the trouble, especially that man, Gunner, was it?”
Cliff shook her hand back. “I’m just glad I could help. Gunner will be fine. He already texted. He said they pulled some bits from the back door of the van out of his leg.”
“I’d like to thank him in person if I could.”
“So would we,” Mom said.
“Do you mind if I ask what was on that SD card, assuming my young detective friend is right, as he usually is.” Cliff put a hand on my shoulder.
I cringed a little.
Gladys continued. “A few nights ago, we were parked over by the LA River. Lizzy had gone to bed, and I was up reading in the front seat.
“This big black SUV pulled up in front of me. I turned off my reading light so no one would bother us.
“They pulled these two guys out of the back of the SUV and… Well, I don’t really want to describe it.”
“They killed them.” Liz said. “I didn’t see it, but the gunshots woke me.”
Gladys took back over. “They took off so fast they almost hit my rig. That’s when I remembered the dash cam. I leave it on all the time, and it caught the whole thing.
“I got us out of there and called 911 from a pay phone. It took a while to find one.”
“That’s when she got greedy.” Liz said.
“We need the money. I asked if we could get paid for the dash cam footage. They said they’d have to get back to me and set up a time for me to call them back.
“When I called them back, they transferred me to someone they said was a detective and they set up a meeting at the homeless camp in Santa Ana.”
“It wasn’t the police who showed up, was it?” I asked.
“Nope. I had Lizzy hide in a tent with the SD card. Once I figured out it wasn’t the police, there was no way I was going to let them know about her.” Gladys sat next to Liz and put her arm around her.
Cliff asked, “Did they hurt you?”
“They made me drive down to an industrial park in Irvine. Then they tied me up and threatened me. I just told them over and over that the dash cam hadn’t worked in months, and I was just trying to get some money out of the cops.
“They finally believed me, but they burned the RV just for spite.”
Cliff sat in a chair and leaned toward us. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need to. In fact, I’d be honored if you all joined me for Christmas.”
“I have to work all week. It’s the busiest week of the year for us.”
“I don’t know if it’ll be safe for you until they round up the crime bosses responsible for this mess.”
“I’d lose my job.”
“If they did, you could work for me. Wait, where do you work?”
Mom told him.
“I own their parent company. Consider yourself on vacation.”
“I couldn’t leave them short like that.”
“You could. But…” Then he grabbed his phone and texted someone. “You now have a security detail for the week. They’ll drive you from here and be on hand while you work.”
“Cliff! Don’t” Mom looked either angry or thankful. Maybe both.
“I take care of my friends.” He held his hand out in a stopping gesture. “I know we can’t be more than that. Just accept this as a Christmas gift.”
“Thank you, Cliff.”
“You welcome. And I mean that literally.”
So that’s how we got to spend Christmas at Cliffview.
Zach and his mom joined us on Christmas Day.
If you’re wondering, no, Zach and Liz did not end up together. Liz and her grandma ended up moving to South Carolina a couple weeks later to be closer to family. I think Cliff set them up in a new townhouse that was just built by one of the companies he owns.
Mom didn’t let Cliff spoil us too much with Christmas presents (but we do have a new X-Box now). She worked the whole week. When her boss found out what was happening, I think they were impressed.
Life got back to normal around the time that school started back up.
That is until summer came around.
That’s another story, literally.
Because that summer was impossible.
NOTES:
I hope you enjoyed this fun little story.
Some of the characters came from the Wil Clarey book series which starts with “The Impossible Summer.” It is not released yet but if you are interested in becoming a beta reader, please email me and I will get you a copy.
Please note that this story received only minimal editing so please excuse it’s shortcomings. I assure the rest of the Wil Clarey series is undergoing extensive editing.
If you liked this story, please check out the Star of Mystery, another Wil Clarey Christmas story.
Solano Writing 