The Odds - Jeff Strand Page 0,47
a moment to say “Oh shit!” and gape at what he’d done. That gave Rick time to shoot him in the throat.
Rick said “Oh shit!” and gaped at what he’d done, but since Gavin and Butch were dead, he had that moment to spare.
This was bad. This was so unbelievably bad. He didn’t know what kind of punishment he would have received for the botched car bomb bluff—he might have just been severely reprimanded. Or he might have been executed. Right now, standing there staring at the dead bodies and all of the blood, Rick thought that maybe he should have just let them call The Claw Man.
It was obviously too late to take any of this back. Maybe he wasn’t completely boned.
The van itself was not monitored, at least as far as Rick knew. He, Butch, and Gavin gave frequent updates, but it didn’t necessarily matter which of the three made the call. Nobody would have reason to suspect that he’d just murdered his co-workers. So if he could get Ethan under control, he might be able to put a bandage on this situation until he could run off to South America or something.
The phone on the table rang. The Claw Man was calling.
Ethan wasn’t sure how thorough of a confession to give. He decided that leaving out important elements like watching the other player get shot to death and the old woman getting smothered might come back to bite him later, so he gave an almost-complete recap of the events that happened after he walked into the casino. He left out the offer to enjoy physical pleasure with the woman in the crack house, since he saw no particular advantage to Jenny possessing knowledge of that event. And he elected not to traumatize Patrick and Tim by telling them that he’d told their mother about the game during feigned intercourse.
“You made that all up, right?” Patrick asked.
“Do you really think I’d wake you up in the middle of the night and speed off like this as a joke?” It was, admittedly, more credible than the truth. “No, I didn’t make it up.”
“Holy shit,” said Tim.
“I’ll allow that one because of the circumstances,” said Ethan. “But watch your mouth.”
“What are we going to do?” Patrick asked.
“We’re going to drive for a while, and then we’re going to try to trade out this car in case they’re tracing it. Then we’ll go to the police.”
“But you killed somebody,” said Tim.
This was a big part of the conversation that he didn’t want to have in front of his children. Suggesting that they shouldn’t call the police because Dad accidentally slashed some guy’s throat with a meat cleaver would not be setting a good example for the boys. But also, even with the insane circumstances surrounding Grendie’s death, he’d be looking at some prison time for manslaughter, right?
He would almost certainly go to the police, and soon, but not necessarily right at this particular moment.
“For now, all I care about is getting you boys and your mom someplace safe,” said Ethan. “We’ll work out everything else after that.”
“We’ll get through this,” said Jenny. She looked back at the boys. “We’ll get through this,” she repeated.
They drove in silence for a moment.
“You never get to ground me again,” said Patrick.
“I know, smartass.”
“I can cheat on tests and do drugs and get girls pregnant and do arson and vandalism and pretty much whatever.”
“What’s arson?” asked Tim.
“Setting fires on purpose.”
“Oh, yeah, I want to do that too.”
“You’re forgetting something very important,” said Jenny. “Your dad may be in the doghouse for the rest of your childhood, but I’m not, and I have equal say in your punishments. So your free pass has just been revoked.”
“Shit,” said Tim. “I mean, shoot.”
Jenny turned back to Ethan. “But we will get through this. We’ll figure out a way.”
“Hi,” said Rick, trying to keep his voice steady.
“Why is his car moving but his phone isn’t?” asked The Claw Man.
Rick decided that he should stick to as much of the truth as possible. “He’s running. He flipped out over the idea that the drug dealers were going to visit his family and he violated the rules.”
“And you guys are on it?”
“We sure are.”
“Keep me updated.”
“I will.”
Rick hung up. That was easier than he’d expected. Now to get in touch with Ethan.
Jenny took out her phone. “I’m getting a call from an unknown number,” she said.
Ethan’s first instinct was that she should fling the phone out the window, but he decided