SAUL Read online

  The second time he came up, Saul grabbed him and hauled him up straight as the man spluttered. “Any more questions?”

  “You fuck!” the man snarled, taking a swing at him with his paddle. Saul blocked it with his own paddle then jabbed him hard in the side with it. The man grunted and winced, covering his ribs. “Fuck! That hurt!”

  “It’s going to hurt a lot more if you don’t get your ass out of the shot!”

  “I’m going to sue you for this!”

  “Really?” Saul rolled the man over again, the kayak much easier to flip than his own wide and stable craft. He kept poking the man under until he had to swim out of the kayak or risk drowning. He popped up beside the boat.

  Saul grabbed the man’s boat and began pushing it along out of his reach. “Let’s go,” Saul said as he placed his paddle in the water and began to stroke toward the other boats, grabbing the kayak to keep it moving.

  “You fucking asshole!” the man snarled as he swam after them.

  When they reached about the halfway point, Saul gave the kayak a hard push to send it on its way. The man was panting hard. “Don’t make me come out here again. I don’t like boats and it will piss me off.”

  “Fuck you!” the man panted as he grabbed his boat. Swimming against the current was hard work and he was panting hard as he began to crab around the side to bail the boat out.

  Saul slapped the water with his paddle, splashing the man, before they turned their boat toward the shore. They pulled the boat well out of the water, but left it where it was. It was faster for them to walk back than try to paddle.

  The Pagans had been on location less than an hour and they were ready to shoot. Dallas and Caleb paddled up to the crew and stepped out. They hadn’t had to dunk anyone, but only because Saul did it first, which made believers out of everyone else.

  As they hauled the boat out of the water and carried it behind the cameras, the cast and crew began to clap, all but Angela, who sat under an umbrella and glared at Saul. He ignored her as he grabbed a water out of the cooler and chugged half of it down. Paddling a boat was hard work when you didn’t know what you were doing.

  “If we have to go out there again, you go,” Saul said to Dallas as he stepped up. “You obviously know a lot more about boats than I do.”

  Dallas laughed. “I used to fish with my dad. Caleb and I were laughing at you and Andy. You two looked like you were drunk the way you were paddling. You paddled twice as far as you had to because you couldn’t go straight.”

  Saul grinned at Dallas’s ribbing. You couldn’t be good at everything, and if he was going to suck at something, paddling a boat was a good a choice as any.

  He and Dallas had just finished their water when Ryan approached with Bradley on his heels. “I can’t say I approve of your methods, but you’re effective, I’ll give you that.”

  “Personally, I thought it was awesome. I wanted to go out there and deal with them myself, but Ryan wouldn’t let me,” Bradley said.

  Ryan rolled his eyes. “Leave the security to the experts. The last thing I want is to have you get hurt and delay production any more than it already is.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Bradley said with a dismissive wave of his hand, fished a bottle of water out of the cooler, then turned and walked away.

  Ryan shook his head. “You’re a bad influence on him. He’s been hounding me to listen to some idea he has about a biker movie, and he thinks he’s some kind of tough guy now.”

  Saul chuckled. “I haven’t done anything to encourage him.”

  “I didn’t say you have. Before I called you back he confronted some of the troublemakers and I think had his PA not pulled him back he would have taken a swing at one of them. That’s the problem with action hero types. Some of them try to live up to their on-screen image.”

  “Bradley?”

  Ryan shrugged. “I didn’t think so, but the last few days…Maybe. I know he’s been acting like he was spoiling for a fight. It’s almost like he thinks he has something to prove. Anyway, thanks for getting us moving again.”

  “Lock it down!” a voice called before Saul could answer.

  “Speed!”

  “Action!” Johnny said, and Saul watched Angela run down to the edge of the water and splash out to her knees to pull a very soggy Cora out of the river, falling to her knees on the bank and crying pitifully.

  Chapter Ten

  It took the rest of the day and part of the next to finish all the shots at the river. The Laredo PD had shown up and questioned Saul about the incident on the river, but he’d stretched and distorted the truth enough, claiming everything happened after the guy took a swing at him with the paddle, and the police let him go with a warning. It helped that the production crew either pled ignorance or supported Saul’s story.

  Even Angela had stopped glaring at him all the time and had mellowed some, the shots happening as fast as the crew could set up improving her mood.

  They’d left the river three hours earlier and the crew was scrambling to try to get set up for the big gunfight that happened early in the movie to launch Tanya into the story. The scene was scheduled for two days, but they were trying like hell to get it done in only one and a half days of shooting to make up some lost time.

  Arnold was made up with squibs so he could be shot on camera and the camera dollied into close. “Lock it down!”

  “Speed!”

  “Action!” Johnny called. Gunshots popped and Saul smiled. The prop pistols sounded like cap guns as Angela and Arnold crouched behind their squad car, firing over the hood.

  “Cut!” Johnny called. “Let’s do it again.”

  Saul knew he wasn’t supposed to speak during lock down, but he couldn’t stand it and he stepped up behind Johnny.

  “Excuse me, Johnny.”

  Johnny turned to look at him. “Yes, Saul?”

  “Angela and Arnold are shooting revolvers. I don’t know how many rounds they fired, but it was a hell of a lot more than six. I know it’s a just a movie, but don’t you think they should have to reload at some point?”

  Johnny looked at him a moment. “Saul, nobody cares about that kind of stuff.”

  “I care. Anybody who knows guns cares. Same thing with every motorcycle that sounds like a Harley and cars and trucks that shift fifteen times during a car chase. It seems like such little things. I don’t understand why movies can’t get it right.”

  “It slows the scene down.”

  “It doesn’t have to. People who shoot revolvers carry speed loaders.”

  Johnny stared at him a moment. “Patricia, where’s the Armorer? I need to see him.”

  “I’ll find him,” she said then hurried away.

  “You think it’s that important?”

  “Important? No. But it’s one of my pet peeves. You spend all this money on making a movie, then screw up the little details that should be easy to get right. A Honda sounds nothing like a Harley, so why does every bike sound like a Harley? Why does a car that is shown with an automatic sound like it has a stick? Why does every car sound like it has a V8? Why do a .22 and a .45 sound the same? Why do movie guns have unlimited ammo and nobody ever reloads? In fact, if this were my movie, that’s when I’d have Arnold shot, while Angela was reloading. It’s a perfect excuse to blame her. She was too slow to reload.” He saw Johnny’s eyes light up.

  “Now that’s an idea,” he said slowly. “The script cut out all the internal investigation from the book for time. In the book they decided her shot placement—is that the right term?—was poor. We were just going to gloss over that, but his is a good shorthand. Ah, Pete, do you have any speed loaders for the guns Angela and Arnold are using?”

  “Yeah. They each have two on their service belts already.”

  “They do? Ten minute break everyone,” Johnny said. “Angela! Arnold! Come over here a minute. Saul, thanks for the idea. Angela, Arnold, Pete is going to show you how to quickly reload the guns. I’m going to dolly in close and I want
you to count six shots, then reload, okay? Rick! I want you to setup a pan around Angela to focus on Arnold as he reloads. I want to hold that shot then pull back into a two shot for when Angela begins to reload again. That’s when I want to pop the squibs.”

  Saul stepped back out of the way as Pete instructed the actors on what to do. Patricia gave him a smile and a thumbs up, which made him grin.

  He watched as Pete showed the actors how to reload. He could do it seconds, obviously very comfortable with the weapons. Arnold was pretty fast, as well, but it took Angela several tries to get smooth and proficient.

  “Okay people! Here we go! Lock it down!” Jeff called.

  “Speed!”

  “Action!” Johnny said. Gunfire erupted on the set as Angela and Arnold shot it out with the bad guys.

  “Fuck! Why can’t I do this?” Angela yelled, causing the entire crew to snicker. This was the third time she’d botched the reload as the camera dollied in.

  “Reset! Ready? And…action!” Johnny ordered. If she even got it one time he was going to take the shot because her hands were trembling as she wrestled with the weapon and the loader. He didn’t know if she was making her hands shake on purpose or it was the stress of trying to reload the gun quickly, but it looked fantastic.

  She turned her back to the car as Pete instructed and slid down behind the tire as she slipped the loader from her belt, and immediately dropped it. Again the entire crew chuckled as she shrieked her annoyance and banged the back of her head against the fender of the car.

  Saul stepped up behind Johnny again. “Tell her to slow down a little. She’s rushing it and that’s why she’s having such a hard time.”

  “Again!” Johnny waited until the camera was back. “Angela, slow down a little, okay? Don’t rush it so much. Ready? And…action!”

  Angela fired over the top of the car, counting her shots. She saw the camera roll in and pan down out of the corner of her eye as she slid down behind the tire. She focused on her hands as she slipped the speed loader from her belt. She didn’t move slowly, but she stopped trying to do it as fast as she could and made sure of her movements. She slapped the ejection rod as Pete had shown her and smoothly slid the shells into the weapon. She remembered to twist the knob to release the bullets from the loader this time, dropped the loader as she was instructed, and slapped the cylinder shut. She rose back up and turned, bringing the weapon to bear on the imaginary bad guy in the store window and squeezed the trigger.

  “Cut! Great take! Good job, Angela!”

  She grinned at the crew. “It took me long enough.”

  “Okay, again. This time, Arnold, I want you to do the same thing. Angela, this will be right after your reload, so only shoot six times. You’re covering him while he reloads.”

  “Got it.”

  “Ready? Action!”

  The cap guns were popping away and Saul smiled as Arnold dropped behind the car and started to reload. It looked silly now as a second camera swung around to focus on Arnold as he dropped behind the car, but it would probably look amazing once it was all cut together.

  Suddenly a small caliber weapon barked from the side and the back window on the cruiser spider webbed. Arnold’s head snapped around at the sound of the breaking glass, but Angela didn’t seem to notice.

  “Get down!” Saul roared as he shoved through the crew, running the twenty steps between the prop car and the crew line to throw himself over Angela, dragging her down to land on Arnold. He held the actors against the car, shielding them with his body.

  There was a lot of screaming and yelling as he held them down, his face buried in Angela’s back. When there were no more shots, he turned, looking over his shoulder in the direction of the commotion. The Pagans were converging on a spot on the run.

  “Stay down,” he ordered as he left to his feet and ran toward his men. They seemed to be heading to the wrong spot from where he heard the shot, but they had obviously found something.

  He arrived at the spot, the crowd having backed away from the man Kyle had face down on the ground.

  “I didn’t do anything!”

  “You never learn do you?” Saul growled.

  “I didn’t do anything!” Charlie repeated. “I was watching, just like everyone else!”

  “Did anyone see anything?” Kyle asked.

  “Get him up,” Saul ordered as the crowd shook their heads.

  “He was just standing there. What happened?” a woman asked.

  “Someone took a shot at Angela or Arnold. Probably Angela since she was closer. You didn’t see him with a gun or anything?”

  “I wasn’t really paying attention, but no. Did he really do it?”

  “What?” Charlie cried as he tried to shake off the men holding his arms. “I don’t even own a gun! I would never do anything to hurt Angela!”

  “Anyone see a gun? Anybody see a gun or see him throw something away?”

  The crowd backed up a bit more, everyone shaking their heads.

  “Who was first here?”

  “I was,” Kyle said.

  “Did you see anything?” Saul asked.

  “No. But it sounded like the shot came from over here, somewhere. Then I saw him. I knew you’d had trouble out of him. When I yelled at him, he started to run.”

  “I didn’t do it!” Charlie cried again. “I swear!”

  “Then why’d you try to run?” Saul demanded.

  “Because I didn’t want you or one of your goons hitting me again!”

  “Look around and see if you can find a gun.”

  “We’ve been looking,” Andy said. “Nothing.”

  Saul stared at Charlie a moment. Something seemed off. Charlie didn’t strike him as the coldblooded murderer type, and the location was wrong from what he heard. It sounded like to him the shot came from farther around, away from the crowd.

  “What’s going on?” Ryan demanded as he walked up.

  “Somebody took a shot at your actors.”

  “What?” Ryan cried, his face going pale and his eyes wide. “Are you sure?”

  Saul rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m fucking sure! Look at the back window on the car! It happened right in front of me!”

  “Is he the one?”

  “No!” Charlie yelled. “No! I didn’t do it! I swear!”

  Saul looked at him. “I don’t know. Maybe. We’ve had trouble out of him before.”

  “I didn’t do it!” Charlie screamed, his face twisting in panic. “I swear! Ask anyone! They said they didn’t see me with a gun! I’m innocent! I swear! Please!”

  “Hold him,” Saul said, then pulled out his phone and walked away.

  “911 dispatch. State the nature of your emergency.”

  “We’ve had someone discharge a weapon into a crowd.”

  “Any injuries?”

  “No, I don’t believe so. We’re holding the person we believe did it,” Saul explained as he listened to the clicking of keys.

  “Do you have the weapon?”

  “No. We’re looking for it.”

  “What is your location?”

  Saul looked around until he saw the address numbers on the building. “906 Madison Street.”

  “I’m dispatching a unit now. If you find the weapon, don’t touch it and show it to the officer.”

  “We’ll watch for him,” Saul said as he stopped at the car. He ended the call and tucked the phone away as he looked at the shattered glass in the rear door, then looked over his shoulder to where the Pagans were standing. The angle was very bad for the shot. If Charlie was the shooter, the bullet should have missed the car completely, or hit the windshield. His eyes scanned farther around, stopping on the generator powering the lights and camera. It was a long way away so it’s soft growl didn’t affect the sound, but the angle was more right, and the trailer-mounted unit was large enough that a man could easily hide behind it. A man stepped out from behind the bulk of the machine, his head down, as if looking for something.

 
; He squinted, trying to see who it was as he moved in toward him. He was about halfway to the generator when he recognized Bradley just before he bent and picked something up.

  “Found it!” Bradley called, holding the weapon up, his face breaking into a smile as he saw Saul approaching. “Found the gun!” he called again as he began walking toward Bradley, the small pistol pointed at the ground.

  “You shouldn’t have picked it up,” Saul said as he and Bradley stopped. “Do you remember exactly where you found it?”