Man Made Murder (Blood Road Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  That had to definitely not happen.

  The bar’s front door opened.

  Carl dropped his knee, pulled himself up by the steering wheel.

  The wiry guy from earlier came out with a broom, the door falling shut behind him. He swept it over the sidewalk, walking the length of the building, a cigarette jammed in the corner of his mouth. He’d stripped down to his tee shirt. Some kind of tattoo showed on his bony arm.

  Carl slipped down in the seat until he was watching through the open spaces in the steering wheel. The wiry guy leaned on the broom, taking the cigarette from his mouth, blowing a stream of smoke. He looked up the road, down it, eyes not falling on anything in particular. Carl brought himself down another half inch, his knees jamming under the dash.

  The wiry guy squinted in the smoke as he dragged on his cigarette. Carl’s hand twitched, holding the last of his own smoke between two fingers resting on the gearshift.

  The guy ground the butt on the sidewalk, let himself back into the bar. The door swung shut behind him.

  Carl pulled himself up. With his eyes still on the bar, he stubbed his own cigarette out.

  Evening had started to settle in, a few stars glittering in the darkest part of the night sky.

  Maybe the guy had locked the door behind him, maybe he hadn’t. There was only one way to find out. He leaned over the passenger seat, planting one hand on the manila folder, and reached beneath it, fingers feeling along carpet. It was easier to get to this time—either it hadn’t shifted as much in his slow driving or the last turn onto Main Street had brought it toward the front.

  He straightened with the gun in his hand. Leaned against the wheel to shove it in his waistband. Was just reaching for the door handle when the bar opened again.

  His hand stilled.

  His guy strode out, looking neither left nor right, moving straight for his Triumph. He grabbed the clutch, swinging his leg over, the key in his other hand heading for the ignition. He straightened his ride, nudging the stand back. His foot kicked down. The bike swung away from the sidewalk, the biker picking his feet up, gaining speed quickly.

  Carl turned his own key. Got himself backed up, did a wide U-turn across the main drag, and followed, the red taillight far ahead of him, zigging and then disappearing around a curve.

  He caught sight of it in a few seconds, pushing the Cougar harder, his focus bouncing between the red light ahead and the trees rushing past on either side of the road.

  “Where the fuck were you?” he said to the distant taillight. His foot moved off the gas instinctively as another curve rushed toward him. He forced it back down, afraid to get farther behind. He gripped the wheel through the bend, grinding his teeth together, his shoulders tense. They eased down a little as the road straightened again.

  He ached for a cigarette right now.

  The scenery sped by, as dark as when he’d arrived. He had no idea where he was, figured he could deal with that later. Or the cops would sort it out. He just hoped he didn’t rocket past any cop cars right now.

  Long stretches of woods were broken by the occasional yard , the occasional church here and there. What looked like a volunteer fire post flashed by. He adjusted himself, getting a little more comfortable—taking off had caught him off guard. He flicked a look toward his mirrors, making sure there weren’t any flashing blue and reds behind him. There wasn’t anything behind him.

  The bike banked, hardly slowing as it rounded a turn onto another road. Carl tossed a prayer toward the St. Michael medal and did the same, tires fighting to stick to the road. Back on the gas, he registered, barely, the houses flying by. Another turn, sharper this time. He took it slower, praying no one was flying down the road as he entered the intersection. His wheels straightened. He picked up speed.

  They drove for an achingly long time, Carl’s fingers stiffening, his knee jumpy. The radio was singing about running with the devil through the Cougar’s speakers. Carl didn’t know the band, but he could appreciate the sentiment.

  After miles of emptiness, houses showed up in groups, followed by long stretches of them. Suddenly they got bigger—bulky boxes with strips of yard on one side, a driveway between them, the occasional chain-link fence enclosing a property.

  On the radio, The Who were asking “Who Are You?” and one side of Carl’s mouth curved upward. The WHAK deejay was soundtracking his chase just fine.

  Four-way stops slowed the biker. Carl kept two blocks back at each one. A car turned between them, slowing his race from one sign to the next.

  Up ahead, the bike banked onto a side street.

  He rode right up on the bumper of the car in his way, swerving around it as soon as the other lane was clear. He jumped onto the cross street.

  He leaned toward the windshield to the gallop of Heart’s “Barracuda,” all his focus on the taillight ahead, swooping right at another intersection.

  Small houses now, single-story boxes, more yard between them but not a lot. Fences skirting some, toys scattered on grass. Someone had a boat on a trailer in their driveway, someone else a Jeep.

  The bike slowed. Carl eased off, keeping back. Spent an extra half second at a four-way to leave some space.

  The bike pulled over at a sidewalk.

  Carl passed, going twenty, eyes flicking from the biker dismounting to the gray-sided house, noting the dark windows, the old powder-blue pickup parked under the carport. At the end of the block, he turned, turned again, came all the way back around until he was at the intersection, looking down toward the house.

  The biker was on the front porch, bending sideways at the waist to peer into a window, his hand a salute against the glass.

  Another circle around, and the biker was walking away from the window on the other side of the door, one fist twisting in the other. His knife jutted from the scabbard on his thigh.

  Another circle, and the biker was nowhere in sight, but the bike still sat parked on the street. The house was as dark as it had been on the last pass.

  Carl put on his turn signal and went down the street. Slowed one house before the bike and nudged the tires up near the curb, beneath the reaching branches of an oak.

  He shut off the engine and listened. Couldn’t hear anything through his windows.

  Across the street, light flickered in a window. A TV. The target house, though, remained dark.

  Carl got out and pushed his door quietly shut. He approached the edge of the house’s yard. A hedge separating the yard from its neighbor scratched his jeans as he stayed close to the perimeter, watching the windows. He kept his back hunched, ready to duck. He reached behind him and made sure the gun was still there, even though he could feel its weight in his waistband. He just needed reassurance.

  Beyond the reach of streetlights, the yard was black. He stepped in a gopher hole. His ankle started to buckle. He caught himself with his arms out and whipped his head toward the house, in case anyone had seen.

  Still. Silent.

  He checked the neighbor, a light on, bleeding through thin curtains. No one watching.

  He left the hedge, crouching low, making his way toward the corner of the house. When he got there, he leaned a shoulder against it and peeked around the edge. The shape of a porch in the back. At the top, a door hung open.

  One more glance toward the road, then he moved to the bottom of the steps, staying at the far edge of them so he wouldn’t be visible through the open door. He came up carefully, the skin behind his ears tight, his eyes darting.

  The porch creaked. He held his breath, took the final step, and peered inside, his arm against the outside wall, his other hand gripping the doorframe. Just inside was the edge of a counter. Soft sounds came from within, things moving, being shifted.

  He slipped his hand behind him, under his jacket.

  When he pulled it free, his arm was heavy with the weight of the gun. A good, solid feeling. He stepped inside.

  A wall faced the back door. He thought he could make out a table pushed u
p against it. He glanced over his shoulder before moving slowly across the kitchen, to the doorway pointing toward the rest of the house. Other doors came off from it—pantry, he guessed. Basement. Around the corner, probably a bathroom. Something banged a wall near the front of the house.

  Carl ducked his head, standing against a wall again. His lips moved in a short, silent prayer. Then he swung through the doorway, arm outstretched.

  The front door was wide open, light from the street ghosting in.

  Shit.

  His arm dropped as he jogged across the room. The throat of the bike’s engine sounded before he reached the door. He got there in time to watch the bike speed through the cross street.

  Shit!

  His legs wanted to run down the steps and get to his car—but what was the fucking point? In just the time it took for him to think that thought out, the bike had probably gone a quarter mile.

  By now it was probably a half mile out.

  Just keep standing here thinking about how you lost him. That’s helpful.

  The biker would go back to the bar eventually. Carl would start up the watch all over again. And next time—next fucking time—he wouldn’t be so cautious. Caution was getting him fucking nowhere.

  He started to step onto the front porch.

  Stopped.

  What the fuck had the biker been doing here anyway?

  Carl pulled the front door closed, shutting himself in darkness. The street was quiet with the motorcycle gone. He’d have to figure out where he was, then how to get back to where he wanted to be, but it could wait a second. He brushed his hand along the wall, his thigh bumping a table. His fingers found the switch. A ceiling light came on.

  All the odd shapes whose contours had been ghosts when the front door was open snapped into clear focus. The expected stuff—the couch, the coffee table, the chair and the TV on a brown metal stand—barely blipped as his gaze crawled over practice amps, a couple guitars, odd electronic boxes here and there, some of them with their guts open. Stereo components were racked against a wall between crates full of record albums. Two hip-high speakers angled out from the corners of the room. Ashtrays, emptied but not washed, except for one that held a single butted-out stub. Tour flyers, rock magazines, receipts and papers of all kinds bulged from boxes.

  The table he’d walked into in the dark, papers were spilled across it, some of them scattered on the floor. He hadn’t heard paper falling when he’d knocked it. In fact, it looked like a hand had swept them across the table to get a look at them. With the gun in his hand, he pulled them together, scanning the top page as he dropped to a crouch, feeling with the tips of his gun-holding fingers for the others.

  Revelations popped into place in his head: the guy who lived here was in a band.

  The band was Man Made Murder.

  And the invoice he was picking up from the floor said this guy was Dean Thibodeaux.

  His heart raced in a mix of awe and excitement and confusion. Why Man Made Murder? What was the connection there? (And, farther back in his head: Holy shit. I’m in Dean Thibodeaux’s house. He wouldn’t have guessed it from the look or location of the place. Didn’t stars have mansions? Garages full of cars?)

  The deejay on WHAK, he’d said they’d just headed out on tour.

  He looked up, his eyes crawling the equipment again but not really seeing this time. What was Man Made Murder to his biker? What had the biker come here for? What had he left with, and where was he going?

  Did he know the band was gone, is that why he broke in tonight?

  The papers in his hand, one of them was the second page of a tour itinerary, put together by a typist who’d had to backspace and change a letter every couple dates. That was to say, a not very good typist.

  All he had was the second half of the tour here, the half that ended with them back in New Hampshire in six weeks.

  He shuffled through the pages again. Equipment list, radio stations in the markets they’d be playing, a couple press releases, confirmed interviews, interviews yet to be confirmed, special appearances—apparently there was a meet and greet in Pittsburgh. No first page of dates. He looked under the table. He walked around the room, dipping and crouching, moving stuff, poking into boxes, his heart ticking away the seconds.

  List of radio stations. Phone numbers included.

  Stuffing the gun behind him, he went to the kitchen and dialed WHAK on a phone mounted to the wall. Waited forever for someone to pick up. Asked them where Man Made Murder was playing tonight. Stood on hold while the info was dug up.

  The kitchen was clean. He stretched the cord over to the fridge, looked inside. No perishables. He twisted a can of Coca-Cola free of its plastic, clamping the phone against his shoulder.

  “New York City tonight,” the phone said.

  “Where in New York City?”

  He got a venue name and hung up.

  North or south? Check the bar first, or go with the hunch?

  Why the fuck was the biker interested in Man Made Murder?

  Because he was cleaning up his mess, the one he’d mentioned outside the bar early this morning. There was a mess that was all his to clean up.

  Like Carl, and the mess he was cleaning up.

  New York was a long shot. A long fucking shot.

  You know where the bar is. You know he’s coming back to it.

  Right. Even if the biker went to New York, he’d be coming back to the bar eventually.

  But Carl couldn’t sit and wait; he’d done two years of that.

  And the Man Made Murder thing made trying to catch the biker in New York all the more irresistible.

  7.

  * * *

  The crowd had seen the shapes of them emerging from the shadows at the back of the stage, Jessie first, grinning as Nick slipped behind his kit. They yelled as Shawn walked out with that self-satisfied smile he got when he could tell a show would be good. Dean took a step half out of the shadows, and the sheer presence of the audience hit him like an anvil to the chest. He staggered, and Teddy caught him under the arm, Dean’s guitar ready to go in his other hand.

  With his eyes pinned on the dark crowd beyond the stage lights, Dean got his guitar strap over his shoulder.

  The shouts and whistles were distant, like they were coming from a can at the end of a string, but the thud-thud-thud of twelve hundred hearts pumping…

  He glanced toward Shawn, panicked, and Shawn shot a smile back, oblivious.

  His fingers vibrated as he stepped up to his pedals. He ducked his head. The crowd had a smell—sweat and alcohol and cigarettes. Hairspray and aftershave. And under that, something rich and enticing. Something that made him dizzy.

  A girl reached over the edge of the stage, her fingers straining toward him, her arm white and delicate and breakable as bisque.

  For a split second, he could hear her blood, over all the others thudding in his ears.

  Nick counted them in with his sticks.

  Dean tore a look toward the set list, his mind a cliff, his thoughts falling off it. “Boiler Room” was scrawled at the top of the sheet. He gripped his pick and tamped down on the fret board. The roar of the audience’s pulse drowned under the sound blasting from the monitors at his feet, the stacks at his back. He slipped his eyes closed and hit the opening chords, curling his lip back, his body holding to the guitar like it was the only thing keeping him in the real world.

  An hour later, he stumbled backward, his eyes somewhere above the audience, Shawn waving like it was good night, Nick already halfway out the stage door.

  He felt stunned, like he’d been hit in the back of the skull and was only now just waking up. He dragged his head over to see Jessie give a wink to two girls in the front row. Dragged his head over more to see Shawn throwing a look back from the doorway, raising an eyebrow at him. Him just standing there with his fingers wrapped around the neck of his guitar.

  The audience stomped. Teddy eased the Les Paul from his grip, and Dean fought dueling urg
es to grab his arm, hard, or duck and run.

  Free of his instrument, he spun on his heel, nearly tripping over the drum riser before making his way around it and off the stage. Where he bounced off Shawn’s chest, Shawn still waiting for him.

  He threw a hand out to the wall to steady himself.

  “Are you all right?” Shawn asked.

  “Yeah.” He dug his fingers against the cool cement. “Yeah, I’ll make it.” His throat was so dry it hurt to swallow.

  Shawn crooked a finger into the collar of his jacket—“Come on”—and dragged him along. “Sit,” he said when they got to a metal chair in the back room. He pushed Dean a little to get the message across.

  Dean dropped. Leaned forward and scrubbed his face while Shawn fetched water.

  Dry as his throat was, he didn’t touch the water, reaching instead for cigarettes, finding the pack empty. Crushing it, he looked around. All these people. All these fucking people. He shot to his feet.

  Shawn caught him by the arm.

  “Bathroom,” Dean said.

  Shawn let go.

  He wasn’t all right, not by a long shot. Someone pushed past him on their way out the mens’ room. Another Bus Rolls At 2 sign was pasted to the goddamned door.

  What he wouldn’t give, though, to be on that bus right now, rolling away.

  The door fell closed, and he didn’t have to look under the stall doors to know he was alone. The layers and rhythms of all the pulses in the building were muffled through the bathroom’s walls.

  He gripped the sink, the porcelain solid and cool. He rocked on his feet. Clenched his teeth together.

  Under his gums, the roots of his teeth throbbed, top and bottom, beating in time with his heart.

  Three more songs.

  He swiped his forehead against the sleeve of his shirt. Clutched the sink harder. Just three more.

  He needed a good night’s sleep, that’s what he needed. And maybe antibiotics. He should have gone to the ER, gotten antibiotics at least.

  The face in the mirror was pale. Purple smudges darkened the skin under his eyes. The bandage at his neck wasn’t pristine anymore; sweat and skin oils had turned it gray. Letting go of the sink, he straightened, swallowing, fingers trembling as they reached for the tape. He peeled some of it up, lifting the bandage back.