Interpreter for the Dead Read online

  "Michael, stop! There's no road there."

  "Alley. Turn down the alley. Do it!"

  She swatted his hand off the wheel and turned, knocking over a cone. The idea of hitting him with another tranq flashed through her mind as he leaned over and shook his head at the speedometer.

  "Calm down," she said, grinding down into third. "The way I'm driving we'll be lucky if we didn't already pass him."

  "Okay, okay," Dane said, seeming to take her advice to heart, but then immediately shouting, "Turn left here, turn left!"

  AJ turned and gritted her teeth, telling herself it was the drugs that were causing him to jump around like a panicky prairie dog. "You spill that cup in this truck and I swear to God I'll stop and make you clean it up."

  "Sorry," said Dane, aware of the cup full of urine again. "You need cup holders in this thing."

  She shot him a look.

  "There it is," he said, pointing to a white panel van parked in the loading zone beneath Spurlitz' office building. AJ pulled over and left the engine running.

  "How do you know," asked AJ. "There are no markings."

  "Intuition," Dane replied, "and the fleet vehicle number over the front wheel well."

  A young guy in a baseball cap came out of the building, clipboard in one hand, box in the other. AJ put the truck into gear and pulled out, falling in behind him.

  "Not too close," said Dane.

  The van turned at the next light.

  "I can't believe I'm doing this," said AJ, letting a couple cars get between them before turning herself.

  "It's not too late," said Dane, watching her bite her lower lip. "You can still bail if you want to."

  She shook her head and glanced at him. "I've never been real good at just dropping something halfway through."

  "So I've noticed," said Dane, craning his head to look ahead. "Don't let him get too far ahead."

  AJ made up some of the difference, and then slowed as they came up on a gas station on the right.

  "What are you doing?"

  "I'm thinking we should grab a phone book."

  "Why?"

  "Well, how many urinalysis places can there be? If we lose him at least we'd know where he was heading."

  "No," said Dane. "Even if they have a phone book, half the pages will be ripped out."

  "I don't know, Michael," she said, eyeing a row of payphones.

  "You don't know."

  He put his hand out to keep her from turning and gestured for her to keep going.

  "So trust me and just keep going, damn it."

  "Alright," said AJ, "You don't have to be a jackass about it."

  She punched the gas and Dane fell back into his seat, the sudden acceleration threatening to upset the contents of not only of the cup in his lap, but the insides of his stomach. The thought crossed his mind of maybe pushing her out the door at the next stoplight.

  They continued to follow the van along Twenty-Eighth Street, neither one speaking until AJ asked what he'd found out at Baxley Distributing.

  "Only that they always seem to get what they want," said Dane, rolling down the window and letting the wind wake him up.

  "I just can't see those guys risking going to jail over a contract."

  "It's not like they would have done any of this themselves, AJ. These kinds of people always pay someone else to do their dirty work."

  He turned on the heater and leaned against the vent with his eyes closed. Sleep immediately threatened to overtake him as the warm air washed over his body.

  "Hope this guy's turning soon," he heard AJ say, her voice sounding far away.

  "Why's that?" asked Dane.

  "Because we're going onto the highway and I don't have any gas."

  Dane came fully awake, staring as the exit for Baseline Road disappeared behind them.

  "Hey," protested AJ as he leaned over in front of her and read the fuel gauge.

  "Shit, AJ, why didn't you say something?"

  "Don't yell at me. I'm the one who wanted to pull into the gas station!"

  "For a phone book!"

  "Well I'm sure that would have been a good place to get some gas."

  "Tell me he's not going all the way to Denver," said Dane mostly to himself, rubbing his face in his hands, the smell of urine making him nauseous again.

  "Why would they send urine samples all the way to Denver?" asked AJ. "That makes no sense."

  "We are dealing with a government agency here, AJ. Logic and reason have no meaning to these people."

  AJ shook her head and adjusted her cap. "There's a new hospital in Superior. I'll bet he's taking it there."

  "Superior?" said Dane.

  "Yeah, right outside of Louisville on the other side of 36."

  "That's a town?"

  "With a Super Target and everything." said AJ nodding out the front.

  Superior loomed up ahead. Warehouse-sized chain stores stood where once there had been open fields and rolling hills. Neon signs and six-foot tall channel letters were beacons to the stream of traffic moving past, assuring consumers that although they were between Boulder and Broomfield, civilization was still close at hand. A giant cartoon rat looked down approvingly from the top of his pizza kingdom.

  The van kept going south.

  "Maybe he'll stop for lunch," said AJ, not willing to concede just yet.

  "Maybe," said Dane, his tone letting her know that there might just be a real Easter bunny, too.

  "I'm doing the best I can here," AJ shot back.

  "I didn't say anything," said Dane, looking back out the window and spotting dark rectangles appearing over the horizon like shark fins. Office buildings and hotels, rivers of asphalt leading from one to the next. As they drew closer Dane saw another sprawl of retail stores and restaurants, but this one ten times the size of the mess they had just passed. "What the hell is that?" asked Dane.

  "Flatirons Mall," said AJ. "They built it after they built Interlocken. Thought they'd make it more convenient for the Techies to spend all their money."

  The funky cookie-cutter architecture was the same Dane had seen in a half dozen other states. It was getting harder and harder for him to distinguish one town from the next.

  "C'mon," AJ said under her breath as she flexed her hands on the steering wheel and tried to will the courier van to exit. It didn't work.

  Guess he wasn't hungry; Dane wanted to say but thought better of it, remaining silent until the Broomfield exit came up. The needle was well below E.

  "Listen, AJ," said Dane clearing his throat. "We're going to have to get off here whether he does or not."

  "But we might lose him."

  "Well, we don't really have much choice now, do we?" said Dane, trying to keep his temper in check. The van kept going past the exit. "Would've been better if we'd taken my dad's truck. At least that had a full tank-"

  He was cut off and pushed into his seat as AJ slammed her foot down on the accelerator and the truck surged ahead, quickly gaining on the white panel van then passing it.

  "What the hell are you doing?" said Dane, juggling the cup in his lap.

  "I'm doing something instead of just bitching about it," said AJ keeping her foot glued to the floor and glancing at the van in the rearview mirror. "There's an Amoco just off the next exit."

  Dane glanced back, the van disappearing altogether by the time they hit the exit at 120th in Westminster. He held his breath as she shot up the ramp doing seventy. She slammed her brakes as the light changed, the truck sliding halfway through the intersection to a blare of horns before the tires caught.

  "We're not going to get anywhere by being dead," said Dane, holding onto the door panel.

  "Now you're worried about how safe I'm driving."

  "AJ-"

  "Just shut up and get ready to pump gas."

  AJ pulled into the gas station, cursing like a sailor as she jockeyed for an open pump. They both jumped out. Dane flipped open the gas cover and spun off the lid. AJ removed the hose and t
ossed it across the bed to Dane then tried to swipe her credit card several times.

  "What the hell?"

  "Ma'am," crackled an electronic voice from up above. "Our outside machines aren't working; you'll have to pay inside."

  "I've got it," said Dane. "Just go."

  AJ dashed inside while Dane scoured the highway for signs of the van. He had to admire her for coming up with the idea - and being able to carry it out. He started to wonder what was taking so long when he heard her come running back out.

  "Looks like you're buying," said AJ. "My credit card is maxed out."

  Dane quickly felt his pockets. "Shit. All of my stuff's back in the other truck."

  "Why the hell didn't you bring it?" yelled AJ.

  "I don't know, maybe because I was busy puking my guts out?" Dane yelled back. "How the hell could you not know you had no money on your card?"

  "Gee, I don't know. Maybe because I was too busy trying to figure out how to save our farm from a self-centered prick?"

  "Is that what you think? Then why the hell are you here?"

  "I have no fucking idea."

  They stared at one another for a moment then looked away, just in time to see the white van shoot past on the highway.

  "Guess that's it," said AJ.

  "No, it's not," said Dane pushing himself off the truck and walking away. "Get in and start it up."

  "Michael-"

  He was already gone. AJ climbed in the truck and started it, watching as Dane walked over to a truck parked near the car wash. Hitched to the back of the truck was a small flatbed trailer loaded with landscaping equipment. Dane reached in and extracted a five-gallon gas from the trailer can while the owner vacuumed out his truck.

  "Unbelievable," she said as Dane dumped the contents into her own tank then threw the empty can into the bed of the truck and climbed inside. She pulled out of the station before he even got his door closed and hit the highway doing ninety. She caught up to the van before they got 104th, neither one speaking until they got to I-25.

  "I guess you were right," said AJ, following the van south toward Denver, Dane making no response until after they'd gone onto I-76 then 270.

  "No, you were right," said Dane finally.

  AJ shook her head. "I just didn't think about my credit card being maxed."

  "Not that," said Dane. "You were right about me being a self-centered prick. I'm the one that got myself into all of this, and nobody else should have to suffer for it."

  "What are you saying?"

  "I'm saying I'm not going to fight the school's claim, AJ. They can have it. Or they can sell it back to your father. I don't care."

  "Michael. I swear to you-"

  "It's okay, really, it doesn't matter. The last person that should have it, the last person that deserves to have it, is me."

  "But what about your trial, what about being able to get a good lawyer?"

  "I'll just have to take my chances."

  AJ drove on for a while. "You were leaving this morning, weren't you? That's why all your stuff was in the other truck."

  Dane made no reply.

  "How can you live like that?"

  "It's either that or go to prison."

  The van turned off onto Colorado Boulevard and AJ followed.

  "If you're just going to leave, why are you doing all this?"

  Dane said nothing as they made their way around yellow school buses headed for the Denver Zoo and the Natural History Museum.

  "I need to find out who did it, AJ," he said, finally. AJ didn't ask if he was talking about who killed his father or who tried to kill him.

  "Your trial is in less than a month."

  "I may not have to worry about it," said Dane shaking his head as Saint Anthony's Hospital came into view.

  "What now?" asked AJ, stopping for the light, the van just visible three cars ahead.

  "Try to get right behind him before we get to the next light," said Dane, opening up the glove compartment and pulling out a screwdriver.

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Giving him a reason to pull over."

  The light changed. AJ cut began cutting her way up and forward, ignoring the honks, until she was able to get in directly behind the van.

  "The next time we stop, turn on your flashers and pop the hood."

  "Michael," said AJ, putting a hand on his arm as he opened his door at the next stoplight. "Don't do anything that might get you hurt."

  He smiled at her. "Just don't move until after I get back in the truck, okay?"

  "Okay."

  He got out and went to the front of the truck and opened the hood all the way as if to check on the engine. AJ could see nothing and time seemed to slow to a crawl.

  Dane lowered himself to the ground as if to check for a leak, then grabbed the van's bumper and pulled himself underneath the other vehicle. He stabbed the screwdriver into the tire and pulled it out, listening to the satisfying hiss of air as he pulled himself back upright and closed the hood of the truck, getting back in just as traffic began to move.

  "There's a gas station up on the right, I'm hoping he pulls in there," Dane told AJ as the van loped ahead, the distance growing smaller between it and the hospital.

  The driver seemed to notice and began signaling to get over. AJ made sure he was able to, blocking traffic behind him as he hobbled his way off the road and into the gas station. AJ pulled in behind him, parking where they could watch the driver as he got out and examined the tire, shaking his head as he spoke into his cell phone and walked into the store.

  "Just keep him busy for five minutes," Dane told her, pocketing the Exacto, screwdriver, and a pair of pliers. He carefully gathered up the bottle of acetone and the cup full of pee.

  "How?"

  "You're a woman, use your imagination."

  Waiting until AJ got into the store before going over to the van; Dane slipped on a set of latex gloves and got to work. Setting down the cup and acetone, he jammed the screwdriver into the keyhole on the rear cargo doors. He gripped it with the pliers and popped it. Not pretty, but it worked. Ducking inside, the smell of marijuana assaulted his senses and caused his stomach to roll.

  Great, they had a stoner delivering urine samples.

  The courier contract had probably been awarded to the lowest bidder, with nobody thinking to check out all the employees.

  Using his shirttails, Dane brushed acetone onto the tape that secured the box. The fumes stung his eyes as it worked its way through the paper and into the adhesive, slowly releasing its grip on the cardboard underneath. He repeated the process with the bottle containing his urine sample. A moment of panic when it looked like Spurlitz had signed it using a felt tip instead of a ballpoint, but the ink didn't run. Dane counted to thirty then slowly worked the Exacto blade under the label to get it to release from the bottle, his fingers chilled by the rapidly evaporating chemical.

  He glanced out the window and saw AJ bump into the van's driver, giving him a flirtatious look. The guy didn't react, so AJ dumped a jumbo cup full of soda all over the front of his shirt and pants. Dane laughed, then took the sample bottle and dumped it out the back door. He wiped the bottle dry, sterilized it with the alcohol and then refilled it from the cup supplied by AJ. He suddenly heard her voice coming from outside the van, unnaturally loud.

  "Are you sure you won't let me buy you some nachos or something? I'm really sorry."

  Dane shuffled to the back of the van, trying to get the still wet label to stick back down over the bottle, but it wouldn't stay.

  Dane pulled the label completely off and blew on it, trying to speed-dry it.

  "I told you no, lady. Just leave me alone."

  Dane pushed the label down over the bottle again and this time it held. He dropped it back into the box, closed and resealed the box top then scurried out the back of the van. He closed the doors just as the driver unlocked the front and climbed inside.

  All Dane could do was hope the cargo doors would stay
shut as he walked back to the truck.

  "Did it work?" asked AJ, walking up to him.

  "I think so," said Dane, dumping the acetone and the cup in the trash and climbing inside the truck. "Let's get the hell out of here."

  AJ started the truck and pulled out onto the highway. Michael was already asleep.

  Chapter 29

  Dane cracked his eyes open. The sunlight sent a jolt of white-hot pain from his eye sockets to the back of his head. The inside of his mouth felt like it was lined with burlap.

  He bolted his eyelids shut to stem the onslaught of light. He vaguely recalled his half-hearted protests as AJ led him into the house and deposited him in his parents' bed instead of the couch.

  He pulled the goose down comforter over his face, ready to fall back asleep when he felt the bed jiggle ever so slightly.

  His body tensed and he held his breath for a few seconds. Finally, he let it out and relaxed, convinced it was just his imagination working overtime.

  The bed shook again, and warm breath caressed his neck.

  Had AJ spent the night?

  Panic filled him as he searched through the wreckage of his memory. He couldn't recall anything after his head hit the pillow.

  An image of AJ's father came to him, the old man watching from across the way as his daughter's truck sat parked outside his neighbor's house all night. It was quickly followed by one of the old man walking towards the house, silhouetted by the rising sun as he chambered shells into a double-barreled shotgun.

  Time to get up.

  "AJ?" said Dane. He slowly peeled off blankets and winced against the pain as he turned around to face her.

  He turned and saw, not AJ, but her dog.

  "Brandy?" asked Dane, stating the obvious. The dog wagged her tail in acknowledgement.

  "That would explain the god awful breath."

  A note lay on the nightstand.

  Michael - Went into town to pick us up some breakfast. DO NOT eat anything in the fridge! AJ.

  PS - Left Brandy here to keep an eye on you.

  Dane rubbed the dog's head and promised not to tell AJ that she had been sleeping on the job.

  He eased himself out of bed and shuffled to the window. He pulled back the curtain. The yellow sun and clear blue sky seemed alien. It looked as if all the rain had finally put out the wild fires. Charred mountaintops still smoldered in the distance, the only reminder of the purgatory he'd endured for the last two weeks.