The Black Cadillac (13 page)

“Okay, guys, I’ll be gone for a couple of hours. Behave and try not to get on each other’s nerves,” their mom told them.

“We won’t, Mom,” Olive softly replied.

“Oh, Mom, I just wanted to remind you that I was sleeping over Zach’s house tonight,” Cody said.

“That’s fine, after this one, cool it on the sleepovers. Spend some more weekends with your sister and I, please,” his mom said.

“Okay, Mama,” said Cody, feeling a little guilty.

“I have got to catch the bus, guys. Love you both!” his mom said and headed out the front door.

The door slammed shut.

“Ol, don’t worry about it. Soon, we will hang out more and have fun. I just have to finish this project with Zach,” explained Cody.

“I understand, brother. Want to watch cartoons with me?” she asked, pointing at the other end of the sofa.

“Sure, sis,” he replied and sat down on the couch.

He stared at his sister as her eyes gazed at the flashing lights on the television. Part of him thought this could be the last time he spent quality time with her if things didn’t go well tonight. Cody came to the realization that the major part of why he was doing this was because of Olive. As her big brother, he was her protector and swore to his Papa he would take care of his family.

The thought of being a hero by catching the creep didn’t ever occur to him. The helpless kids in the world that were taken, abducted, or kidnapped did.

“Hey, Ol?” asked Cody.

“Yeah, Code?” she responded.

“There is going to come a time when I’m not around, you know. As we get older, both of our lives are going to change. Though it hurts me to say this, but, Ol, I’m not always going to be there when you need me. You have to learn to protect yourself and learn what’s right and what’s wrong,” said Cody.

His sister stopped and looked over at him with a puzzled look on her face.

“I don’t understand what you mean, Cody. You’re my brother, and I’m your sister,” she replied, so confused.

What Cody was trying to say to his eight-year-old sister was too much to comprehend.

“Never mind, Ol. You will understand when you’re a little older.”

The two siblings watched cartoons until their mom came home.

When their mom arrived home, she had bags of groceries in each hand. Cody ran to the door to take some of the bags.

“Thank you,” his mom said. “Hi, Ol!”

Cody took the bags to the kitchen and set them on the counter. Olive waved to her mom and focused her attention back on the television.

“I’ll throw in a frozen pizza for you guys for lunch,” said their mother, removing the box from one of the grocery bags.

“Yay! Pizza! Wahoo!” yelled Olive excitedly from the living room.

“I’m going to head over to Zach’s in a little bit to play basketball, and I will have dinner over there tonight,” said Cody. “But I will have some pizza for lunch!”

His mother just smiled and continued putting groceries away. Cody pulled out a round pizza pan from inside the oven and preset the bake time.

After lunch, Cody went to his room to get everything he needed for tonight. He took his drawstring off the back of his chair and added a change of clothes to it. He opened his desk drawer, finding a black pocketknife his former stepfather had given him for Christmas one year. Cody then went into his closet and pulled a hooded black sweatshirt off a hanger. After thinking of everything he needed, he headed out.

“Bye, Mom! Bye, Ol!” said Cody.

“Be careful and have fun at Zach’s! Tell Zach’s mom I said hello and I am going to call her for a lunch date,” his mother said.

“Bye, Code, see you tomorrow,” Olive said.

Cody headed out the back door for the garage. Opening the faded white-and-black-paint garage door, Cody saw an air pump in the corner. He grabbed the pump and made sure his tires had the correct amount of air. He saw a chain lock on the shelf near the front; he grabbed it and wrapped it around under the seat of his bike.

Cody wheeled his bike toward the gate. A familiar voice came from over the fence.

“Hey, son, where you going?” the voice said.

“Oh, hey, Mr. Durkbridge. Going to my friend’s house,” said Cody, opening the gate.

“Well, you have a good time,” said Mr. Durkbridge with a cheesy laugh.

“Okay, thanks, I guess. Bye, Mr. Durkbridge,” Cody said to his neighbor as he rode down the driveway.

Mr. Durkbridge watched the boy through the slits of the fence. Cody’s neighbor was always catching him off guard. Cody couldn’t worry about Mr. Durkbridge; he was just a creepy man that happened to live next door to him. Cody’s mind quickly focused on another task.

When he got to Zach’s house, his friend was outside shooting hoops.

“Hey, buddy, you almost ready?” asked Cody.

“Yeah, I’ve told my mom about the sleepover. She’s out somewhere now, so we are okay to talk,” said Zach.

“Okay, I want to leave in about an hour for Crestwood. We need to get there when it’s still daylight to find somewhere to stash our bikes,” explained Cody.

“Good idea plus we have a long bike ride. I have mapped out how we will get there,” said Zach, handing his friend a hand-drawn map.

“Very good. When we get there, let’s find a pay phone and call our moms to check in. We need to make sure they know we are at each other’s houses,” said Cody. “We can’t have anything go wrong and need to cover all our tracks.”

“We will be fine on that end, it’s the other thing I’m worried about,” replied Zach.

Cody picked the basketball off the ground and started dribbling it. Cody needed to clear his head before they left on their journey.

“How about a couple of games of horse before we leave?” suggested Cody.

“Sure, dude,” answered Zach.

The boys played basketball, and for the moment, they were just normal kids having fun. Though they wouldn’t admit it to themselves, what they were about to do was dangerous and stupid. The clock ticked closer to four.

When they finished playing, Zach ran into his house and grabbed his drawstring bag with all the supplies he packed in it.

The two friends hopped on their bikes and headed west toward the city of Crestwood. They were in for a long bike ride.

While riding their bikes, the boys traded back and forth leading the way. The ride seemed like it took forever. They finally arrived at the street Braxton was off, named Williams Street. It took a little more than an hour to get there. The time was 5:15 p.m. The boys still had roughly an hour before the sun was going down. They found a gas station store about one to two blocks away from Braxton. The boys parked their bikes outside and found a rack they could lock them to.

“You nervous at all?” Cody asked his friend.

Zach shook his head.

“No, I’m going to call my mom and tell her I’m at your house now,” said Zach, avoiding Cody’s question.

His friend walked over to the pay phone, popped in a quarter, and called his mother.

The phone rang a few times before his mom answered.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hi, Mom, just wanted to let you know that I am at Cody’s house and we are going to order some pizzas,” Zach said, lying to his mother.

“Okay, honey, have fun. Oh, is Georgiana around? I need to ask her a question,” his mother said.

“Um, I think she’s outside, Mom…” he said.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, I’ll ask her tomorrow or next time I see her,” she told her son.

“Okay, well, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Zach chirped back.

“Sounds good, honey, love you, bye,” she said.

“Love you too, bye,” Zach said and then hung up the phone.

Zach turned to see their bikes already locked, and Cody was in the store. He joined his friend.

“Do you want something to drink?” asked Cody.

“Yeah, I am a little sweaty from the ride here,” replied Zach.

Cody grabbed two Yoo-hoos. He paid for them, and the boys went back outside.

“If we get into trouble, we run, Zach,” said Cody, repeating what he had said the other day to his friend.

“I know. We will run right back here to this store,” said Zach.

The sun was a beautiful amber color as it slowly went down. The boys finished their drinks and threw the bottles in the trash. The two friends walked across to the other side of the street. They were just a hundred yards away from where Scotty had pulled over a week ago.

“Let’s walk down Braxton on the opposite side and scope it out first,” Cody suggested.

“Okay, let’s see if we can see the black car first,” said Zach.

The sun was completely down, and it was getting darker by the minute. The boys walked toward their destination. A brisk breeze was in the air as they turned right onto Braxton. Right away, they noticed the car was not in the driveway. It was a golden opportunity to get a look.

The boys walked down and back up on the other side until there were just a couple of houses away. The few streetlights there were flickered on. Zach reached into his bag.

“Here. I put some new batteries in these, so we should have a full charge,” said Zach, handing his friend a walkie-talkie. “Keep the volume low.”

“Thanks,” Cody said, and he took the device from Zach. “I’m going to go in the back, you stay near the front and keep watch. Radio me if you see or hear anything.”

“Okay, I will go hide behind one of these parked cars,” Zach said, pointing at the street but hesitating.

“Hey, wait a minute, Code, I have an idea before you go back there,” said Zach.

“What is it?” asked Cody.

“One of us should go ring the doorbell first and make sure no one is home,” explained Zach.

Cody looked at his friend and nodded.

“Fine, I’ll go, Code,” continued Zach.

Zach set down his bag and walked into the front yard. He stepped inside the front gate and slowly walked to the walkway leading to the porch. Zach then climbed the stairs and marched up to the door. He looked down and saw a mat that read “
go away
” on it. He pressed his finger to the doorbell. Zach looked at his friend across the street and rang the doorbell again. A couple of minutes went by, and no one answered the door. It was completely dark inside. Zach turned around and walked back toward Cody on the other side of the street.

“No one is home, Cody, you’re up,” said Zach.

“Did you hear anything at all?” asked Cody.

“Nope, not a peep,” replied Zach.

“Okay, let’s do this,” instructed Cody.

The boys each went separate ways, being careful not to be seen by anyone. Zach found an old Buick station wagon and hid behind it between another car, trying to stay low. If he had to, he could crawl under it to hide.

Cody headed up the driveway and came to the gate near the back. He lifted the latch on the gate and stepped in, closing the gate behind him. The backyard was small, enclosed by a chain-link fence, and there was a little shed toward the back. Trees and bushes surrounded most of the backyard. The yard itself was ugly and not maintained at all. Most of the grass was dead, and a lot of the ground was just dirt. Pieces and parts from cars were scattered around the yard. There were a few piles of debris. It was a very private area, to say the least.

Cody walked toward the shed to get a look inside a small window on the front door of it. The shed had a lock on it. He pulled his flashlight out and turned it on. The window was at the same height as his head. Putting the light up to the window, Cody saw a garbage can filled with yard tools. There were a couple of shovels, a rake, and some sort of powered tool sticking up out of the can. Cody flashed the light left and right to see if there was anything else. The garbage can was all he could make out. The boy focused his attention to the back of the house. A voice came through his radio.

“Cody, you see anything yet?” his friend said over the walkie-talkie, and it startled Cody a bit.

“Not yet, any cars coming?” responded Cody.

“No, but I am under a station wagon in the street one house down. I’ll radio you if I see anything,” said Zach.

“Okay,” said Cody as he released the button on his device.

Cody started toward the back of the house. The house looked abandoned and dark. There were no lights on as far as Cody could tell. It was very dirty and run-down. There were just two windows on the back of the house, and one of them was boarded up. The screen door was missing the screen and had a piece of plywood attached to the bottom of it. On the actual wood door, paint was chipping everywhere. There was a small mirror attached above the door, which Cody found odd. He talked into his radio.

“Zach, there is a small mirror above the back door. Kind of like a mirror on the side of a car that is adjustable,” said Cody.

“That’s weird. He must want to know if someone is coming…”—he paused—“Dude, there is a car heading down the street, I can’t tell what it is. Hide or get out of there!” said Zach.

His voice came across muffled in Cody’s radio.