Chapter Five
Lexie awoke with a start, something she hadn't done since the start of the racing season, and she slipped out of her cone and drove toward the V8 Cafe. The only light that was on was the yellow traffic light, which partially illuminated a chassis and the left rear wheel of a car as it blinked. She drove toward the dangling car, unsure whether it was a drunk driver or a practical joke. As she approached and her eyes adjusted, she saw the slashed fuel lines, and she knew neither of her previous assumptions was true. She reached forward and tapped the car with her tire. The car swung back and forth on the cable suspending the traffic light, creaking as it moved and then settled back into its original position.
Then all was silent. A chill shook Lexie's frame, even though the night air was warm. She turned and rushed out to the sign welcoming cars to Radiator Springs, behind which the Sheriff slept. She shook the police car awake, and he asked, "Huh? What? What's going on?" Lexie gestured for him to follow her, unable to get the words she needed to say across her lips. The Sheriff drove off after Lexie, back into Radiator Springs. He turned his headlights on and looked up at the stoplight cable when Lexie indicated it. The Sheriff's eyes widened and his mouth hung open. His headlights illuminated the car's chassis more clearly, revealing not only slashed fuel lines but axles almost completely ripped out of their places, a large gash beneath the gas tank, and several other gaping holes of varying shapes and sizes in various other places along the undercarriage. Underneath the corpse was a mixture of gasoline and oil.
The Sheriff finally tore his gaze from the dangling corpse and turned toward Lexie. "How did you find this body?" he asked.
"I don't know why, but something woke me up," she rasped. "My gut woke me from sleep before, and it got me out of some pretty sticky stuff. I know it's not admissible in court or anything, but that's the truth."
The Sheriff nodded and then looked over at the corpse. "Do you know anyone who might give us any clue as to who did this?"
"Yeah, I do. Alex Pacer, in Cone Six. Maybe Mater, too."
"How about you wake Alex up? I wanna talk to him. I'll go get Mater."
Lexie nodded and drove back to the Cozy Cone, eager to get out of the crime scene. She slowed as she entered the curve lined with cones, stopping at the one numbered 'six'. She rolled up the ramp and knocked on the door. When there was no answer, she knocked again, louder. A half-asleep Alex opened the door and mumbled something. "C'mon," she said, pulling him down the ramp and onto the pavement.
"What's going on?" Alex asked, more awake.
"Just c'mon."
"Lexie, seriously. What is happening?"
"Something that hasn't happened in this town in all my years," the Sheriff said from the main road. Mater was examining the body dangling from the stoplight cable, and as Alex's gaze fell on it, his eyes widened.
"I haven't seen a Trunkov style since I was fourteen," he whispered, rolling forward and switching on his headlights. "The slashes to the fuel lines are wrong, though."
"And the fuel's unleaded regular," Mater added, looking at the puddle beneath the corpse. "A car like this one runs on premium only."
Alex followed the tow truck's gaze. "The oil could be his, but it looks pretty fresh." Then he looked up at the body. "The wounds to the chassis look postmortem, and the slashes to the fuel lines are too clean, not like somebody forced his way through them. The gaping holes are a little much, almost like somebody was trying to show off a new weapon."
"What'd you jus' say?" Mater asked, looking at Alex.
"'Like somebody was trying to show off a new weapon.'"
"I gotta get Finn on the phone." Mater raced off toward the town's only pay phone to place his call, and Lexie and Alex looked at the Sheriff.
"You get all that?" Lexie asked.
"Oh, yeah," the Sheriff replied.
Lexie drove around the puddle of gas and oil and turned to face the car again. His silver body was scratched almost beyond recognition, but when she got a good view of his face, she knew who it was immediately. Then the pieces of the puzzle clicked together in her mind. "I know who did it," she said with what breath hadn't gotten taken from her upon recongition of the corpse's face.
"What're you talking about?"
"It makes perfect sense. I know who's responsible. I know who wanted George dead."
"You know the vic and the perp?"
"Okay, Finn and Holley are on their way," Mater said as he returned to the scene. "What's goin' on?"
"Tell him, Lexie."
"This is George," Lexie said, gesturing to the corpse, "and Montgomery ordered the hit."
"Well, why?" Mater asked.
"Treachery probably. He was good to us, even though he was carrying out the orders of our enemy."
"So what do we do?"
"Wait for Finn and Holley, then go from there."
CARS
"Bad news," Finn said, turning from the computer in Siddeley's cabin. "There's been a murder in Radiator Springs."
"Is Mater alright?" Holley asked.
"Absolutely. He's the one that placed the call to us."
"So who's the victim?"
"Mater doesn't know, but I suspect someone will soon enough." He turned the intercom on and said, "We're going to Radiator Springs, Sid. We have a murder to investigate."
"You've got it, Finn," Siddeley replied. Both spies could feel the plane bank a turn and then level out. Finn looked out the window at the desert below as the moon- and starlight illuminated it, giving it a sort of pale blue glow.
"Murders don't occur in small towns," Finn said.
"Maybe whoever did this is sending us a message," Holley replied.
"Or sending Alexa a message."
"It's Montgomery, isn't it?"
"We can't know that for sure until we examine the crime scene and the body."
Siddeley began to descend, and several minutes later, he touched down and lowered his ramp. Holley and Finn drove into the desert and then onto Route Sixty-Six, in between the sparse traffic. Radiator Springs was virtually asleep, save the Sheriff, Lexie, Mater, and Alex, gathered around a car suspended on the same cable as the town's only stoplight, now blinking yellow. Holley recoiled with a gasp, but the two drove on. Lexie drove around the rest of the crowd to meet them. "It's Montgomery," she said. "The perp, I mean. The body's George's. You know, one of Montgomery's agents. Anyway, George turned out to be a pretty decent guy, and it looks like Montgomery found out about his plans to quit his job and ordered a hit out on him and tried to make it look like the Trunkovs did it."
"Wait, what?" Finn asked.
"Alex can tell you more, but basically Montgomery tried to pass it off as a Trunkov killing but didn't do his extra credit very well."
Finn nodded and approached the corpse. From Holley and Lexie's standpoint, it looked as if he was engaging Alex in a conversation about the body. Holley drove over to Mater and engaged him in a conversation on the same subject.