The Hitman's Last Job (15 page)
Read The Hitman's Last Job Online
Authors: Max Freedom
beautiful place, and with John’s early retirement money he’d
managed to buy a luxurious holiday home in the city. His family and
friends often wondered why he’d pick such a place, but it was
somewhere he’d often travelled to as a child to visit distant
cousins. He had an affinity for the landscape and as Carl grew up
he did too.
As he flicked
through the photos, he thought this was the time in which his boy
was his happiest. His last vacation there was just before he
enlisted in the Navy. And when he came back home the light had gone
out of his eyes. John had a feeling that if anywhere could
recapture Carl’s happiness that was it.
John Reiner
quickly packed a small suitcase, grabbed as much packaged food out
the kitchen cupboards as he could and hurried to his car. Mexico
was a long way from Chicago but he’d make it.
CHAPTER 20
The line at
the bus station was exhausting Anna, and she leaned against
Carl.
“
What’s taking so long,” she huffed.
“
I don’t know sweetheart,” Carl put his arm around her.
“Shouldn’t be much longer,”
“
And I still don’t understand how you’re getting me to Mexico.
I don’t have a passport and just… I dunno. It all seems so
crazy,”
“
Look, trust me,” he spun her round to meet his gaze. “I know
what I’m doing…. Kinda. At least I have a plan. We’re gonna get on
a bus to San Antonio first,”
“
Why the hell are we going there?” Anna seemed tired of it all
and outraged.
“
I have a person…. Who I can call,”
“
Who?”
“
I can’t tell you. You’ll just have to wait and see. But after
that we’ll be only a couple hours away from the border I promise.
Then we’ll be in Mexico,”
“
But where will we live?” tears began to sting her
eyes.
“
Don’t worry, I have a place. Besides, there’s a lot to do in
Mexico. There’s a nice art museum I’d love for you to
see,”
her eyebrows. “An art museum? Now you’re some lover of art?”
He laughed.
“Not in general, but this museum is very important to me. I’m just
trying to cheer you up. Everything will be fine.”
Anna remained
unconvinced. “You’re acting real weird,” and she worried about what
she’d got herself into.
There was a
change that drifted over Carl since the first time she met him.
Granted the situation they were in wasn’t one conducive to acting
normally but still… he seemed to become increasingly paranoid. He
was becoming jittery and strange when he talked. And when Anna
looked to him she’d occasionally find him lost in the moment as if
his mind had drifted away to another era. She figured he was
harbouring some demons but only time would tell if he would open up
to her about them.
The lined
moved slowly but steadily and soon enough they were at the window
buying their tickets.
“
Have a nice trip!” the girl behind the counter
smiled.
tell she looked at them strangely. They did, after all, look like
peculiar kids on the run, except Carl wasn’t so much of a kid
anymore. As they walked through the bus station she thought they
couldn’t have looked more suspicious and prominent if they tried.
But maybe she was the one becoming paranoid.
“
Is that our bus over there?” Anna pointed.
“
Sure is,”
“
It looks kinda old and dirty,” she grimaced.
“
You never been on a coach before?” Carl laughed.
“
Nope,” Anna shook her head.
“
Well let me give you the grand tour,” and he placed a hand on
her lower back to comfort her as she walked ahead.
the steps up into the coach and showed the driver her ticket. He
smiled and nodded at her politely and she was good to go. She
hovered in the gangway for a moment feeling afraid and confused. A
queue began to form behind her, and people were agitated as the
entrance to the bus became congested. But Anna didn’t notice. She
was too busy running different scenarios in her mind. There was
something so terrifying about being trapped in a tin can for hour
after hour with strangers pressed up against you wherever you
looked.
“
Anna, what’s wrong?” Carl nudged her to move forward and she
did so apprehensively.
“
I just don’t like this it feels weird. I feel
trapped,”
“
Don’t worry, nobody really likes buses, but we’re safer in
here than anywhere else,” he squeezed her hand.
“
I guess so,” she relented and sat down at the back.
“
See? It’s not so bad. We’re like the cool kids at the back of
the bus,” Carl chuckled.
didn’t notice him. She was busy staring out the window at a city
she wished she could become more acquainted with. Watching the
hustle and bustle of the bus station she wondered where everyone
had to go, and why they were in such a hurry. She pondered on the
idea that there were countless people like her out there, on the
run and in peril.
Scanning her
eyes over the other passengers as they took their seats she thought
everyone seemed so normal to her. That was until she caught sight
of the last passenger to come on board. The girl couldn’t have been
more than sixteen but had the confidence of a woman more than twice
her age. She popped gum and glared at each passenger with disgust.
Her headphones were blaring loudly but for some reason she had them
dangling down the front of her chequered shirt.
Her eyeliner
was thick around her eyes and it looked as though she’d been
wearing it for days. Acne covered her chin but somehow it didn’t
make her any less pretty. The girl walked to the back of the bus
and nodded in acknowledgment of the runaway couple. She made eye
contact with Anna for a split second before she sat in front of
them. It was as if the turmoil in her respected the turmoil in
Anna.
There was a
roar of the engine as the driver reversed the bus out of its bay.
And as he pulled out of the station she wondered if she would see
Austin again someday, she hoped so. Soon they were back out on the
open road with danger behind them and a life full of opportunity
ahead. Carl looked to Anna and noticed the despair on her face and
the thunder in her eyes.
“
You know you’re coping with this really well,” he whispered
into her ear.
at the words and looked to him surprised.
“
What do you mean?”
“
I mean most people would have gone bat shit crazy living your
childhood, but you’ve gone one step further. You survived it,
conquered it and moved on,”
“
But what have I moved on to?” she questioned him and looked
back out the window at the desert that was moving quickly passed
her.
reached its first stop and the girl in front of them departed. Anna
watched as she descended the steps from the bus with a real
attitude. But as Anna looked to see where she was heading she saw
nothing in the distance. This looked like a ghost town and she felt
panicked for the strange girl. As the bus pulled away from the stop
Anna craned her neck to look behind her and saw the girl stick out
her thumb. A car stopped beside her immediately. It seemed like
such a cruel and peculiar world. Carl meanwhile followed her gaze
and looked out the back window.
“
Kids these days are in all sorts of trouble. Try not to think
about it,”
“
That’s not right though. That’s not normal,”
“
Just try and focus on us and the here and now,” Carl squeezed
her hand.
working. She couldn’t quite shake the image of the lost girl
getting in a stranger’s car. Something about the situation screamed
that she wouldn’t get back out. Anna shivered at the thought
despite the warm sun beaming through the windows.
“
Are you cold?” Carl asked.
his jacket off and wrapped it round her.
“
Thanks,” she spoke weakly.
the jacket around her frail body and lay down on across the back
seats. Letting sleep take hold of her worries she let her eyes
close.
~
When she woke
up the sun was dipping down over the hills. She looked out the
window to see the bus pull into another bustling station and soon
the sign revealed it to be San Antonio. Looking over to Carl she
saw him fast asleep against the opposite window. She nudged him
with her foot and he woke with a start.
“
We’re here,” she yawned and sat up.
“
Urgh…. Fuck,”
“
You ok?”
“
Yuh…. Just weird dreams,” he scrubbed at his eyes with his
fingers.
“
Well forget about them, we’re here!” Anna giggled and stood up
while grabbing her things.
“
You seem in a better mood,” Carl kissed her cheek.
“
Sleep can make people reborn,” she shrugged and waited for the
people in front of them to depart.
stepped out into the station Anna felt the night descend on the
city and she wondered what that meant for the couple. Another night
meant another place to hide.
“
So tell me,” nudged Carl playfully. “This plan of yours… Why’s
it so secret,”
“
It’s not secret… I just… I dunno I’m just not entirely sure
it’ll work yet,”
“
So it’s not really a plan then,” she rolled her eyes and
readied herself for another night in a random hotel.
“
No… no. Don’t be so quick to judge,” he smirked and placed his
hands on her waist. “Now I want you to trust me ok?”
“
Ok,” she nodded and they kissed.
“
Now I want you to wait right here, on this bench. And I mean
it. Don’t move an inch,”
“
What? Where are YOU going?”
“
I’m going to find someone…. I think. I’ll be two
minutes,”
“
Carl I don’t like this one bit…. What’s going on?”
“
Please…. Just give me two minutes,”
for a minute then relented. “Fine… But promise you’ll come
back,”
“
I told you already I’ll be back. Now please……” his eyes were
pleading with her desperately.
“
Fine….” and she slumped onto a metal bench that was somehow
even less comfortable than the bus seats that she still ached
from.
Carl disappeared into the crowd and out the station into the city
center. If she wasn’t sure she would have guessed that he was
ditching her, that he was trying to run away and leave her behind.
After all how well did she know him? They’d only met four days ago.
She nibbled on a nail and kept her eyes fixed on the distance.
Every second she waited the more she was certain he wasn’t coming
back.
“
Fuck,” she mumbled into her sleeve. “He’s not coming back,”
and tears came to her eyes. “Oh God please….. Come
back,”
reality of the situation hit her. She was alone and lost in a
strange city and the only person she trusted and who her entire
life depended on, had disappeared into the city. She felt like a
lost child as she swung her legs from the bench. What would happen
if he never came back? A thousand scenarios ran through her head in
a panicked sequence. He was the one with the money. All she had
were the clothes on her back and what she held in her pockets. She
twisted her fingers into the tight jeans pocket on her thigh. She
had one stick of gum left and she placed into her mouth, her last
worldly possession. Fiddling with the wrapper in her hand she
crumpled it a dozen different ways as she tried to expel nervous
energy. When that didn’t work she threw it to the ground and it
accidentally hit an old lady on the shin.
“
How rude, how very rude,” the old woman had a dried, shrunken
face like a gnarly weasel and she glared with hatred at
Anna.
“
I’m sorry! I didn’t see you there,”
“
Tsk….” the old lady rolled her eyes. “Kids,”
confused at that last remark. She wasn’t a kid at all! Although the
more she waited the more she felt someone at the bus station could
take her into an office and talk through a microphone. They’d
report her as a missing child and her parents would run into the
office to collect her.
But of course
there were no happy endings or simple procedures for a lost adult.
The best case scenario would be if someone kind took pity on her.
Her eyes were still fixed in the distance. She was looking out for
Carl’s tall stature and blonde hair and she longed to see his buzz
cut through the crowd. But it didn’t come.
~
Carl’s
thoughts were focused and laser sharp as he ran from the bus
station with his eyes on the lookout for a payphone. There was one
close by but as he approached he saw the booth was occupied by a
homeless man yelling into the receiver while knocking back a forty
of beer. Jogging round the block he saw another one but yet again
it was taken too, this time by a teenage girl who was in
tears.
“
Please God just give me a break!” Carl angered.
was answered, because as he jogged a few yards up the street he
finally found one available. He crammed his bag and briefcase into
the booth and fished in his pockets for loose change. He pushed the
coins into the machine and prayed that the guy’s number hadn’t
changed. To his delight it answered on the third ring.