CHAPTER FIVE
The sun was starting to set when they found it. In the gathering gloom among the trees, Connors spotted a cabin. It looked to be long abandoned. The few windows that it had were broken. The wooden door hung on its top hinge. Its walls were made of full sized logs. It was tiny, maybe fifteen feet by ten feet in size. Roy thought it looked like something out of "Daniel Boone".
"What's this?" Johnson demanded. He stopped short, nearly pulling the struggling Roy off his feet. The larger man caught hold of the smaller man's shoulder and kept him from falling. Ostensibly to keep Roy from stumbling any more, Johnson pulled him against his side. Roy struggled weakly but ultimately it didn't make much difference.
"We need someplace to spend the night," Connors replied. He glanced at the civilian. Even in the low light he could see how pale the man was. He could also see the grimaces that kept flashing over his features. The heat of the day had vanished with the sun. A shiver passed up his back. They were going to have to find shelter for the night or they were at risk of exposure.
"We should keep moving," the shorter of the two brothers stated. He and his younger brother didn't want to stop. He could almost hear the hounds baying in the darkness. It had never been their intention to escape custody. Both of them had had every intention of serving their time. But when opportunity knocked, who were they to turn it down?
"I don't know about you but I'm exhausted. I need to get some sleep before I keep running," Connors replied. Ignoring the others, he walked up to the door and pulled it open. Inside the darkness was profound. It smelled musty and old. The hairs standing up on the back of his neck, Connors stepped into the single room.
The moment Connors disappeared, Johnson turned to his new friend. "You'll be sleeping with me," he said as a wicked grin spread across his face. Roy's stomach dropped somewhere around his knees. All he really wanted at the moment was to go home, to climb into bed with his wife and forget any of this had ever happened. A small voice in the back of his mind kept asking, "Shouldn't they be looking for him by now?"
O-O-O-O-O
Johnny had gone to bed early. He wasn't feeling quite right and wanted to make sure that whatever it was had passed before he had to go back to work. The sound of the phone ringing brought him awake in an instant.
"Johnny?" he heard the familiar voice of Joanne ask after he mumbled a hello. There was a frightened edge to her voice that made the young paramedic sit up straight in bed.
"Joanne? What's going on?" Johnny asked. He was all ready grabbing at his jeans on the floor and the shirt he'd worn that day.
"I'm really sorry to be calling so late, Johnny, but Roy doesn't happen to be with you, does he?" Joanne asked. She sounded very much like a frightened school girl. Johnny knew that she had waited until she couldn't stand it anymore before calling.
"No, he's not here, Joanne. I haven't talked to him at all today," Johnny responded. He had his jeans on and was working one handed on his socks. The conversation he'd had with his partner about Joanne's birthday gift played quickly through his head. He knew where Roy had gone but he also knew that he should have been back long ago. Fear began gnawing at his stomach.
"Oh," Joanne said. Johnny could almost hear her deflating on the other end of the phone.
"When did you talk to him last?" Johnny asked. He'd gotten his right sock on and was working on the left one.
"This morning. I spend the day with a sick friend. I made sure I was home for the kids when they came home from school. I knew Roy had some running around to do today but I thought he'd be done long before this. It's so unlike him to not even call," Joanne explained in a rush. Johnny could hear the tears in her voice.
"You're right, Joanne. He would have called if he could. Look, I know some of the places he was heading. I'll drive down there and see if he's had car trouble or something," Johnny tried to reassure his partner's wife. The last thing he felt like doing at the moment was going out into the chilly spring night, especially with his scratchy throat and runny nose, but he had to. Now that he thought about it, he knew that something had been gnawing at him for most of the day.
"Thank you, Johnny. Please call me when you find him," Joanne breathed.
"Don't worry, you'll be the first person I make him call," Johnny said. Quickly he hung up the phone and then picked it up again. He dialled the number he needed by memory and waited.
"Hello?" he heard his captain's sleepy voice mumble into the receiver.
"Hi, Cap. Sorry to be calling so late but I need some help. Joanne just called. Roy hasn't made it home yet. I'm going to go out looking for him. It would help if I had an extra set of eyes or two," Johnny filled him in in a rush.
"Johnny? What time is it?" Captain Stanley asked as he quickly sat up in bed. A quick glance at the clock showed that it was nearly midnight. What the hell would Roy be doing out at this time of night?
"I'm not sure," Johnny admitted. He pulled on his cowboy boots one handed and proceeded to pull his shirt on. "Roy went to that jeweller's place on the north side to get that pendant made for Joanne's birthday. Even if he'd gotten lost he should have been home a long time ago."
"Where do you want to meet up?" Captain Stanley asked as he began pulling clothes on.
"I'm going to phone a couple of the other guys. Meet us at the station in twenty minutes," Johnny said.
O-O-O-O-O
It was cold in the shack. Once they got in the inmates realized that there wasn't much of a roof left. What roof there was only covered about a quarter of the room. From where Roy was curled on his sore side, he could turn and look up at the sky. Despite his exhaustion, the fireman was finding it very hard to sleep. That could have been because Johnson was curled up against his back, his free arm thrown over Roy's stomach to keep him close. Roy's cuffed hand was trapped between them. He'd long ago lost all sensation in the limb. For once though, he was grateful. Roy wasn't sure he really wanted to feel the other man's body with his hand.
The more rational part of Roy's mind knew that the big man's body was the only thing keeping him from feeling the effects of hypothermia. The less rational part of his mind desperately wanted to crawl away from the man and curl up in a corner somewhere. The pain in his side was making it very hard for him to breathe properly. The proximity of the large, unwashed body didn't help much either. Roy was forced to breathe through his mouth.
All around him, Roy could hear the convicts breathing as they slept. He wasted a few minutes trying to get his arm free from between them but gave up when he felt his back getting wet. He assumed he'd started bleeding again. Cursing under his breath, Roy turned his head and looked up at the sky beyond the broken roof. A multitude of stars winked at him, more stars than he'd seen in quite some time. Apparently, they'd traveled further into the hills than Roy had realized. Otherwise the lights of LA would have overshadowed the most of the stars above.
Roy began to tremble. He wasn't sure if it was from cold or a delayed reaction to everything that had happened today. The trembling did little to help the pain in his side. Roy was forced to grit his teeth to keep from crying out. The last thing he wanted was to wake Johnson. So far the man had been overbearing and possessive but no real harm had come to the fireman. He desperately wanted to keep it that way.
On the other side of the room, under the section that still had a roof, Connors opened his eyes and looked at the two men. He didn't want to give Johnson the chance of ravage the man. In all his years in prison, Connors had never condoned that kind of behaviour. He could see from the man's expressions that he wasn't gay. He wanted to make sure that the man wasn't introduced to the lifestyle against his will.
Satisfied that Johnson really was sleeping, Connors closed his eyes and tried to rest. They were going to have to get going in a couple of hours. He fully expected the cops to be searching for them. Connors doubted very much that they were resting.
O-O-O-O-O
Twenty minutes after the first phone call, the members of A shift were in the parking lot of Station 51. All five of them were standing beside Johnny's Land Rover.
"Maybe we should call the police?" Mike Stoker suggested.
"You know the drill, Mike," Chet Kelly said. "He isn't officially missing for forty eight hours."
"We could get Vince to start looking for him unofficially," Mike pressed. He had every intention of searching for Roy but he wanted to cover as much ground as possible.
"That's a good idea, Mike," Captain Stanley said. "I'll go get Robertson to set it up." Quickly, he headed into the station's back door. This was Captain Robertson's shift. The older captain would be more than willing to help but the shift needed to stay here in case a fire or emergency popped up.
"Where are we going to start searching?" Marco Lopez asked. He glanced over at Johnny. He could see the fear burning in the young paramedic's eyes. Marco could feel the same sensation burning in his own stomach.
"I know where the jewellery shop is. I phoned him after I talked to you guys. He lives above it. He said that Roy was there around one o'clock this afternoon. I say we start there," Johnny said. He was itching to get going.
"Sounds good. We'll take three vehicles and split up from there," Stanley said as he rejoined his team. Without saying a word, he climbed into the passenger side of Johnny's Land Rover. Mike and Marco got into Mike's car while Chet got into his own. A moment later, they headed out, Johnny's vehicle in the lead.