Franky Is Lucky

CHAPTER 12

WHEN OFFENSE DOESN’T WORK GO FOR THE JUGULAR

First and foremost I had to get home. My laptop was there, all my credit cards, my bank information, my other important documents and my clothes. If I was going to accomplish what I was planning I needed those things.

I put on the scrub pants, t-shirt, and sweat shirt I had bought at the drugstore. I slipped into my shoes. I did not match at all but who cares about style when you are being hunted by a maniac genetic company? Not me.

I walked out the door and went into Amy’s room. I heard her breathing softly the television was on some lame late night show. I snuck over quietly to the desk and wrote a note on the telephone pad. It said:

Amy,
If I am not back when you wake up don’t leave until morning.
Franky

And I left one of my credit cards and my car keys on the end table, then slipped out of the room.

I walked through the lobby and saw the sleeping security guard and the front desk clerk lazily starring at a small television on the counter. I walked up to him. He rounded his eyes on me and looked annoyed.

“Hey can you call my a cab?” I asked leaving out the pleasantries. The clerk sighed and picked up the phone and dialed.

“We have a pick up at the Grand Haven Hotel on West Eden street… Yes she will be waiting in the lobby...Thanks Bye.”

I walked to the front entrance went through the revolving door and sat outside on a small bench out front by the cigarette receptacle and waited.

It was a cool night the breeze underneath the carport was comforting, but it smelt like rain was coming. People always though it was weird that I can smell when it is going to rain, it was a strange skill after all. I was always right too which was strange as well. On top of that I could smell when it was going to snow as well which was even stranger I guess.

I am a strange person all around. I sat there in idle thought for a while as I waited for the cab and then I drifted back to what Brent had said to me in the holding cell.
"How can you hate someone for what they are?" He had said. I realized that it was easy to do but did I really hate Brent? Was I really okay with what had happened to him? At that moment a song popped into my head and I began humming. I then sung the chorus softly to myself.

“So fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. And all we've been through I said leave it, leave it, leave it. It's nothing to you. And if you hate me, hate me, hate me. Then hate me so good that you can let me out. Let me out of this hell when you're around.” Damien Rice was right.

I was going to hate Brent, hate him so good that he would be out of my life. At that moment the cab pulled up and I got in. I handed the cab driver my credit card so he could run it and gave him directions to the street my house was on. We pulled away from the hotel, nothing but the faint sound of the radio waffling through the air of the vehicle. About fifteen minutes into the drive the taxi driver spoke to me.

“You a prostitute?” He asked looking back at me in the rearview mirror.

“Do I look like a prostitute?” I looked right back at him in the mirror, my eyes steely.

“Well, no but why else would a pretty girl like you be leaving a hotel so late?” He glanced back again to see if I was mad.

“Let me give you some deductive tools for the next time you have such an inquiry. One, if I was a prostitute then I probably would have paid with cash because I wouldn’t want confirmation of where I had been. Two. if I was a prostitute I would not be wearing scrub pants and a sweat shirt. And finally three, I would not be able to use the words deductive, inquiry or confirmation properly in the same paragraph.” I looked out the passenger window as I casually said this but I saw his reflection in the glass he was embarrassed. Well good. At least I accomplished something today. He was quiet for a moment.

“Look, I am sorry lady. I guess I don’t have any manners, you know?” I nodded and looked out the back window. We drove in silence the rest of the way.

As we approached the long open street my house was on, I had the man pull over at the corner. I got out of the cab and stood on the corner until he drove off. I snuck down the sidewalk to my neighbors house and hopped the fence. I slunk across their yard till I reached the fence separating my property from theirs. I looked through the slats of the fence into my yard. The lights to the house were off. Well that posed a problem but I didn't see anyone lurking around which was good. I would have to make it to the shed on the other side of my property to get a flashlight. I looked around for something to use as a weapon, and I saw stuck into the dirt of the flowerbed I was standing in a pair garden shears. Bulky, but effective. I grabbed the sheers and hoisted myself one handed over the fence. I landed softly on my grass on the other side.

I stood for a second listening, trying to discern any noise. All I heard was the wind rustling through the trees. I ran to the cover of the house and flushed myself against the wall. I crouched as I passed along the deck.

I was still side stepping along the expanse of the deck when I heard the two male voices approach through the side gate. I dove underneath the deck and crouched in the shadows poised for action.

"I still can not believe we can't find Green's body anywhere. How the hell would a girl like that get rid of a body so fast? I mean there is not a trace in the house." I heard the first man with a young and anxious voice say to the other.

"Well according to the Chief she is highly resourceful, I am not surprised that she was able to get rid of a body. I mean she did melt the guys face, break into headquarters, manage to extort and torture Taylor and then blow up the building." The other man's voice was level and a deep baritone.

Man I had a wrap sheet and the kicker was I had obtained it all in one day. The men kept talking but suddenly I couldn't hear. I had a problem.

I felt the warm tickling sensation spread on the inside of my nose. I looked up and pinched my nose shut with my fingers. It was no use. I reached up with my hands just in time to pad the sound but the sneeze was loud and it echoed under the deck.

"What was that?" The anxious man said.

"Spread out and check the area." said the other.

Great now I was a sitting duck. I sat poised and waiting, waiting for the sweeping flashlights that were flooding the area with lights to catch me in their rays.

"It sounded like it came from over here." Said the younger man. His flashlight swept the ground by the deck and I heard him crouch down by the side. He shinned his flash light under and before the beam even touched me I thrust the sheers to where he was. I felt the blades sink into something, I ripped them out and heard a thud and the flashlight fell and rolled on the ground. The beam rolled to show the boys face as he scrunched it in agony. He let out a howl and grabbed his stomach. he was writhing in pain.

I heard the heavy yet swift footsteps of his comrade and I poised myself again. As the man crouched into the flashlight beam I struck him in the leg. I didn't want two deaths on my hands but I had to wound him enough so I spread the sheers and twisted as I pulled them out. Where did I get these instincts from? Jesus I was scary, even to myself.

I climbed out from underneath the deck on the other side away from the bodies. I grabbed the flashlight by the kid and shined it on Mr. Baritone. He had a cell phone in his hand. I kicked it away and picked it up slamming it shut. I showed the light into his eyes and started talking.

"Why are you here?" I said standing over the man.

"We were sent to clean up your mess." He said in agony and contempt.

"Well, why didn't you leave when you found that I had done it for myself?" I was breathing heavily and I felt the burden of what I had just done to these men but I saved face and pushed forward in my mind.

"Well we were told to bring you in after the building collapsed." He said.

"Well then, how many of you are there?" I looked at him sternly. "Don't lie to me."

"It's just us, they figured we could handle it." He looked at me straight in the face. He was lying. I stepped on his hand.

"How many others are there?!" I repeated.

"There's two inside the house!" He cried in pain.

"Better not be lying." I turned and walked away. With the flashlight and the sheers I bounded towards the house and up the deck. I opened the backdoor silently as I could and stepped inside. I had a definite advantage here, this was the house I had lived in for the past three years. I knew every inch and every creek of the floor plan and they didn't. I walked silently through the kitchen and I ducked behind the island.

I sidestepped over and peaked my head around the side of the island. I saw into the living room. Two men were sitting on my couch both asleep. A faint glow hit their face, they must be asleep. I eased myself up trying not to make a noise. Once I was standing I tiptoed through the kitchen to the hallway next to it and walk up the four steps to the hall. I went to my bedroom first.

Once there I shut the door quietly, I would hear them before they saw me. I grabbed my duffel bag off the shelf in the closet and started stuffing it with clothes. I grabbed a couple pairs of sneakers and double of everything. I wasn’t sure Amy would be able to go home and get her own clothes. She would just have to deal with my sense of style. When the bag was full I figured that would have to do. I went to the end table and grabbed the box of bullets and a full clip from my end table. I then approached the door to my bedroom and placed my ear against it. This felt oddly like earlier today, all I heard was the soft drowned out noise of the television. I opened the door and crept into my office. There on my desk was my laptop and the charger neatly placed side by side. I reached into my desk drawer once again looking for my gun. It wasn’t there. I rummaged for a few seconds trying to be as quiet as possible.

“Looking for something?” A gruff but smug voice rang out. I froze when I heard it. And I looked frantically for what I needed and then I saw it on the book shelf where I had left it.

“Yes.” And with those words I grabbed the gun swung around and shot the man in the doorway of my office in the gut. He grabbed his side where the bullet had hit and he fell to the ground.

I looked at him. I knew what they did in the movies, they killed him off, but I couldn’t do that. I could not bring myself to kill him. I stood there in shock watching the man die and I grabbed my laptop and charger. I had to get out of here.

I left the study in haste and headed to the kitchen. My keys were hanging on the wall by the phone. I grabbed the keys to my motorcycle. When I turned to head to the backdoor I found I was looking at the barrel of a gun.