Road Rage

Chapter four

"Damn!"

Deaq quickly called Billie.

"Billie, Van called me, he's alive!" He blurted out.

"Yeah, I saw his phone on the GPS screen and tried to trace it."

Deaq could hear the relief in her voice that somehow Van had survived the accident.

"Could you get a location?"

"The signal kept dying out but at least we were able to get the canyon location. He's in a relatively small canyon east of Benedict Canyon. If he calls you again tell him to stay with the car, it'll be easier for us to find him. If he wanders off…" She didn't need to finish. They both knew if he wandered off the odds of finding him kept going down.

"Billie, he wasn't making sense, he's confused. He must have a head injury; he even asked if I knew him." Deaq interrupted her.

Billie took a deep breath. She and Deaq both knew the canyon was full of dangers, rattle snakes, mountain lions, and dangerous cliffs. It was especially dangerous to be wandering around lost at night. At night the canyon could get very cold and it was easy for someone injured to get hypothermia.

Canyon 10:00PM

Van sat beside a large rock shivering, he was miserable. He was in pain, scared and lost. But mostly he was lonely. He took out his cell phone and looked at it. He didn't know who the man at the other end was, but at least he wouldn't be alone. He hit redial.

"Van." Deaq answered on the first ring, he tried to stay calm. If Van was still confused he didn't want to scare him off.

"Deaq?"

"Yeah Van, it's me. Do you remember me now?"

"I think I talked to you before…"

"That's right, you did. I'm a friend of yours."

"Oh…" Van wasn't sure what to believe. He groaned in pain as he brought his legs up and wrapped his arms around them trying to stay warm.

"Van, I know you're hurting and I know you're cold but you need to listen to me. I need you to stay with your car. Don't wander off. Do you understand?"

"My car…I don't…I'm not sure where it is."

"You walked away from your car?"

"I think so…I don't know…I…" Van put his hand up to his head, he felt like the top of it was going to blow off. "I…I can't think…Oh God I hurt all over." He moaned.

"I know buddy, but we're going to find you. Billie figured out what canyon you're in. It's only a matter of time before we find you."

"Billy? Who's he?"

"Billie's a girl Van, she's your boss."

"My boss?" A vision of a pretty dark haired woman flashed briefly in Van's head.

"Van, do you have any idea where you are?"

"No…I just walked… Please, I just want to go home…just want to go home." Van's voice trailed off.

Deaq's heart broke as he listened to Van. He sounded more like a lost kid then his partner of the last few years.

"Van, I want you to stay put, we'll find you. We'll get you home partner."

"I'm tired…I'm just so tired…" Van's eyes started to shut as he gave into his exhaustion and he started fumbling with the phone.

"Van! Don't hang up! Just put the phone down. We need the phone to find you."

Deaq was worried; he knew if Van had a serious head injury he shouldn't go to sleep, he might not wake up. But his pleading was in vain, Van hung up just before he drifted off to a restless sleep.

Deaq immediately dialed Billie.

"Billie did you get his location this time?"

"I'm sorry Deaq, the signal is so weak, it keeps coming and going. All I could get was he appears to be in the northwest section of the canyon."

"I'm heading there now Billie…We're going to find him Billie."

A small house on the outskirts of L.A.

Two men sat at the table drinking, their damaged blue Cadillac hidden behind the house.

"You know that guy you ran off the road might still be alive." Jeff Roberts told his drinking partner Todd Stone.

"No way. There's no way he could have survived that crash."

"Yeah, but what if he did."

"Well if he did, he won't last long. He has to be hurt bad, he'll never make it out of the canyon."

"But what if someone is looking for him?"

"Then they'll find a dead man. If he was still alive the mountain lions would have smelled the blood and finished him off by now."

"Well, I think we should go back there and make sure he's dead."

"What are you, fucking nuts! I'm not going back there…. Hell someone could see us."

"Well I'm not going down for attempted murder if someone finds him and he talks."

"What's he going to tell them? He never saw our license; we were never in front of him. All he can say is it was a blue Cadillac. This is L.A.; there are a thousand blue Cadillacs in and around L.A."

"But ours is damaged."

"Look, if you want to go back there go ahead, that's your business, but I'm not going." Stone downed his beer.

"I just might do that." Roberts got up, walked into the back room, and returned with a rifle. "If he's not dead…he will be."

TBC