NINE MONTHS LATER
Troy Warner pulled off the 40 just on the Texas side of the New Mexico line. The station was barely more than a few self-service pumps fronting a cold beer, junk-food emporium at the head of a sun-baked parking lot, but Warner was hungry and he needed to pee. He’d just turned off his engine when a black Monte Carlo slid past him and pulled into one of the slots at the side of the building where there weren’t any windows. Two guys got out and each took a long lazy look around.
Warner recognized them instantly, not their names, but who, or rather what, they were. He had seen hundreds of men like them in the joint – hard men, merciless and cold. Troy figured they couldn’t see him through his cab’s tinted glass, but he ducked down anyway, just to be sure. The driver’s gaze fastened on his Peterbilt 579 for a second or two then slid on by.
The driver said something and a moment later his passenger pulled a sawed-off twelve gauge from the back seat and covered it with a nylon jacket. They began to close the doors then something spooked the driver and both men jumped back inside. Troy twisted around and saw a glitter of chrome two-hundred yards down the frontage road. A few seconds later an Oldham County Sheriff’s cruiser approached, and the men in the Monte Carlo disappeared from view. The patrol car parked near the front door and two deputies in khaki uniforms got out and headed inside. Troy saw one of them wave to the clerk, a heavy-set woman with puffy blonde hair, and head for the soft-drink cooler.
Troy expected the two punks to take off as soon as the deputies were out of sight, but the Monte Carlo stayed right where it was. A few seconds later Troy saw the driver’s face peek above the edge of the glass then sink back down.
They’re going to wait until the deputies leave and then take the place down, Troy thought. They must be up against it, too broke or hungry or low on gas to move on to a safer score. Which means that they probably aren’t planning on leaving any witnesses alive.
He thought about that for almost a minute. Nothing was keeping him here. He could pee in a bottle and grab a burger someplace on down the road. It wasn’t his problem. Then he saw the driver’s eyes slip back up above the dash. He pressed the “9” on his phone and was surprised to see that he had two bars. He paused for half a second then pressed the “11.”
“Nine-eleven operator. What is your emergency?”
“I’ve got my big-rig parked here at Millie’s Shake Shack just off the forty about ten miles east of the New Mexico line. You’ve got two Oldham County sheriff’s deputies inside the store, but what they don’t know is that there are two guys with a sawed-off shotgun parked around the backside of the building just waiting for them to leave. I think maybe you should tell them that, and if I were them I’d be careful because I don’t think these guys are fooling around.”
There was a brief pause then the operator came back on the line.
“What’s your name, sir?”
Every fiber of Troy’s being told him to hang up, ditch the phone, and run like hell. He waited half a second then said, “My name’s Troy Warner. I’m out in the parking lot in a red Peterbilt pulling a silver trailer.”
There was another pause.
“Thank you sir. Please remain where you are.”
A couple of minutes later the deputies ran out the front door and circled around to the back of the building. A minute after that the sawed-off boomed like a cannon, and Troy scrunched down behind the firewall until the shooting stopped.
It was almost dinner time by the time he had given his statement and was back on the interstate, riding high above the asphalt, heading west. For a minute he tried to identify the strange emotion singing in his blood. It was a good feeling, happy. He thought about it some more and, finally, he knew what it was.
He was free.
Lawyer Victim In Carjacking
Criminal defense attorney Martin Fitch was seriously wounded Tuesday afternoon when an armed man accosted him on Cancelara Drive. Mr. Fitch’s vehicle, a 2015 Mercedes Benz S500, was pursued by Los Angeles police and county sheriff’s deputies. After a ten-minute high-speed chase the driver lost control and crashed near the intersection of Warren Avenue and Durning Road.
The driver, Aaron Watkins, was transported to the Los Angeles County Hospital with serious injuries and has been charged with felony assault, armed robbery, and attempted murder. Watkins is reported to have a long criminal history and had been released on bail two days before his arrest after being charged with the alleged armed robbery of a Glendale branch of the Bank of America.
Mr. Fitch is being treated at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and his condition is listed as critical. Hospital representatives have refused to comment on whether or not Mr. Fitch is expected to survive his wounds.