Paige thought for a moment, then retrieved a rolled-up map from one of her desk drawers. She opened the map and spread it out on the desk. Barns and Mira stood up to get a good view of it.
“This is where they were last seen.” She pointed. “Right here at this junction. We’ve searched left and right—in every direction they could’ve possibly gone.”
“Do you mind if I took a snapshot of the location with my camera phone?” Mira asked the detective.
“Not at all,” Paige replied.
She zoomed in and captured a picture of the location. “How do we get to this Highway 60?”
Paige explained to them as clearly as she could, while Mira scribbled down the directions.
“You plan on taking a drive, huh?” Paige asked.
Barns glanced at Mira, then said, “Possibly. Um…what about the pastor whose ranch they were headed to?”
“He took ill a year after the incident and he and the boys moved away to San Francisco so he could get treatment,” Paige replied. “He swore that the children never arrived at his ranch which has been closed down permanently since the day he left for treatment. I don’t know if you’re aware, but two busloads of kids from that same school went to the ranch and returned, as expected. Your niece and the others made the third busload that were on their way there and they were the last group the school intended to send for a while.”
“How odd.” Mira noted.
“I’d say,” Paige glanced her way.
“So, you don’t have any clue at all what might have happened to them?” Barns asked Paige.
She shook her head. “I’ve thought about this case a thousand times; came up with different scenarios as to what might have happened; checked out everything that I and my colleagues could possibly think of and I’m still at a complete loss. I know it sounds bad, but you came here for the truth.”
Barns nodded, in agreement.
“I will tell you though, that I’ll never give up—even if I’m the only one who won’t in this precinct. I tell you that from the bottom of my heart. I have kids of my own and I feel for the parents of those children and the family of those adults who were chaperones that day. I want you to believe that. I know your sister has had an especially difficult time coping. She was in here every week for years.”
“She’s suffered another nervous breakdown over this,” Barns informed her.
“I heard, and I’m very sorry. I really wish I could’ve done more to help.”
He stood up and straightened his shirt. “I’m sure you’ve done what you can.” He then looked at Mira, who got up as well. “We’d better be going now. Thank you, Detective, for your time.”
“Please take my card and feel free to call at anytime to check up on the case.” Paige handed him the card with her direct line and cell numbers printed on it.
Barns slid out his wallet and tucked the card in. “Thank you.”
“What did you think?” he asked Mira as they headed to the car.
“It’s a shame they haven’t been able to come up with anything,” she said. “As for us, I think we need to do two things: We need to speak with the mother whose child didn’t board the bus, then we need to go on a little ride on Highway 60.”
“Today?”
“No. Let’s wait ‘til tomorrow. It’s been a long day.”
They stopped at a fast food joint on their way to Rachelle’s house. Once at the house, Mira refused to see the child’s room until the next day. She took Rachelle’s room while Barns took what used to be his mother’s, and left the door to Priscilla’s room closed, the way they met it. They turned in early that night in order to get a fresh start in the morning.
8
_________________
Shortly after six o’clock the following morning, the draft carried a slight stench of rotting trash from the public dump, situated on the western edge of town. Gertrude Evans had just pulled up to the stoplight on Vanderville Lane seconds after the light turned red.
With her window rolled halfway down due to a crack in the seal of her car’s air conditioning system, she was humming to a familiar tune on the radio, when suddenly, she felt a splash of something hit her face and an unusually warm sensation accompanying it, which quickly turned into a furnace-type heat. Simultaneously, she noticed her left eye socket experiencing a similar pain which was now beyond excruciating. Within seconds after she’d felt the splash, Gertrude was feeling her face and screaming as the skin melted off onto her hands. She exited the car in full-blown hysteria, desperate for help, but the only person in sight was a blonde, straggly-haired guy sitting on a bench near the stoplight. He was holding an empty jar in his hand; laughing and pointing at the woman he’d just mercilessly attacked by throwing acid through her car window.
* * *
Barns woke up a little after eight o’clock that morning feeling rejuvenated. He went into the bathroom, washed up, then headed into the kitchen in hopes of finding something to cook for breakfast before Mira woke up. Peering into the refrigerator, he pulled out a carton of eggs and a small package of bacon.
Within minutes, the smell of cooked bacon surreptitiously entered Mira’s nostrils, and unable to ignore the delightful smell, she rubbed her eyes and took a good, long stretch. Feeling a bit tired still, she figured a strong cup of coffee was just the thing she needed.
Sauntering into the kitchen, she was delighted to see that Barns had already taken care of everything. Waiting for her on the table were a plate of toast, scrambled eggs and bacon, and a large cup of coffee.
Rachelle had a neat, little table set in a corner of the kitchen as there was no separate dining room. The house was fifteen hundred square feet, very tidily kept and modestly furnished. Mira was surprised Rachelle had been able to upkeep the house in spite of her grief.
“Good morning, Doctor Cullen. Please take a seat,” Barns said with a smile.
“Why, thank you, Doc! This is great.” She sat down and immediately used the cream and sugar nearby to mix her coffee just the way she liked it.
Barns brought his plate of food over and joined her at the table.
“How long have you been up?” she asked, after taking the first sip of her coffee.
“Not long. About a half an hour maybe.”
She glanced around. “This is a nice place your sister has here.”
“It used to be my mother’s house. She left it to Rachelle.”
“I see.”
“My stepfather, Rachelle’s dad, who was just like my own father, bought the place a few years after he and my mom married. I was a teenager then. Rachelle was very young. He worked long hours at the factory for this house.”
“Things were so much harder back in the day, huh?”
“Well, it terms of earnings, I’d say so. But back then, people, in my opinion, were a whole lot nicer. If you were short on sugar or flour, or whatever in the house, you could walk right over there to your neighbor’s house and they’d gladly give you what you need. Everyone was pretty much their brother’s keeper, you know? And even though times were tough, they all struggled together. These days, people aren’t quite that way anymore. It’s every man for himself.” He took a sip of his coffee.
Just then, they heard a knock at the front door and Barns rested his coffee on the table. “I wonder who that could be.”
Mira arched her eyebrow. She wondered the same thing.
Barns got up and walked into the living room. Pushing the front curtain aside, he looked out on the porch and saw a heavy-set woman with a young boy standing with her.
He opened the door. “Can I help you?”
“You Doctor Barns?” the woman asked. The boy was looking down and sliding his feet continually on the spot in which he stood.
“Yes… and you are?” Barns asked.
“The name’s Angie. The boy here’s my son, Johnny. I heard you were looking for us.”
Barns cracked a smile. At the same time, Mira appeared behind him at the door.
&n
bsp; “Well, I had asked about you and intended to come to your house today in hopes of speaking with you. I see you’ve beat me to it.”
“Nurse Bella’s a nice lady. She called yesterday and told me to expect a visit from you. I figured after dropping the old man off to work this morning just down the road from here, why not stop and see what you wanted?”
“That was very gracious of you, Angie. Forgive my bad manners, please come in and sit down.” Barns stepped aside.
“This your madam?” She nodded to Mira on her way to the couch.
“No.” Barns grinned. “This is Doctor Cullen, a colleague and friend.”
“I see.”
Mira extended her hand to her. “It’s nice to meet you Angie. And you too, young man.” She smiled at Johnny, who’d sat down on the couch with his mother, leaving a generous gap between them.
“I’m really sorry about what’s happened to your niece and your sister,” Angie said as Barns and Mira sat down as well.
“Thank you. I can imagine how you felt after you heard the news about the others that day, knowing your son was safe and sound,” Barns said.
“Yeah. I was grateful I’d heeded my instincts and kept the boy right home with me like I said I would. I told them other parents in the meeting that day they’d be foolish to send their child off to some so-called spiritual camp, but obviously none of them paid me no mind. Now, look what happened to their kids! They all thought I was just being a big, fat nuisance, but now they see I was right.”
“What made you so resistant to the trip?” Mira asked her.
“I know he’s dead now, but I didn’t like that preacher man they brought in who was running the whole ranch deal with his boys. I know he had a good reputation around these parts, but I just didn’t trust him. I’ve seen a lot of so-called miracle workers bamboozle people out of their hard-earned money, telling them what they wanted to hear—entertaining them and using Christianity as a cloak. Some of those prophet people are the worst, I’d say. They seem to hypnotize people into thinking they’re God and folks become totally dependent on them; it’s pitiful. I lost a couple of long-time friends on the count of me voicing my opinion about a so-called prophet or two whose church or conference they were frequenting. It’s stupid, I know, but they look up to these people as if they’re God Himself. They get lost in what they’re telling them and if anyone disagrees, they’re the enemy. Know what I mean?”
Barns and Mira were both nodding.
“My resistance to this next one—this particular preacher man is what saved my boy from being a victim right along with everyone else who rode on that bus that day.”
“So, Angie,” Barns crossed his legs, “...what do you think happened to all those people?”
She sighed deeply. “I think they might’ve gotten held up on the way or something like that—maybe by a group of bikers from out of town. I’m only guessing. And maybe after they held them up and robbed them, they just got rid of everyone—adults and children alike. I can’t think of anything else that might’ve happened. I considered the bus could’ve broke down and maybe they were stranded as a result, but not for three years. Definitely not! I’m sure someone had a cell phone; they could’ve made a call. So, I think the biker scenario makes more sense. I went into the precinct and told the cops that too. Don’t know if they looked into it, but...”
Mira looked at Johnny who was quietly twiddling his thumbs. “Johnny, how do you feel about losing so many of your classmates like that?” Mira asked him.
“Sad,” he said, still focusing on his thumbs.
“That’s a hard thing for a kid to have to deal with,” Mira said. “We’re you and Priscilla friends?”
He looked up momentarily. “She was all right. We played together sometimes.”
“She’s one of the only few who never called my boy any names,” Angie interjected. “That’s why I don’t mind sitting here this morning talking with y’all. Johnny told me countless times about how the other kids in his class used to tease him ‘cause of his weight, but he always spoke well of that Priscilla.” She looked up at the portrait of the child which clung to the living room wall. Priscilla had silky black, wavy hair and a pretty face. “I heard she had some problems at home here with her mom; was kind of getting a bit unruly—wanting to stay out later than she should and all, but I gather the girl had a good heart—just some challenges she needed to work through with her mom. Guess that never happened. Sad as hell that her mom now has to live with that.”
The room was quiet for a few moments, then Angie added, “Well, all I can say is I hope one day they find everyone of ‘em and if all that’s left of ‘em are bones, then those bones deserve a proper burial. Everyone should go down in decency and their grief-stricken loved ones need the closure, you know?”
“You’re so right,” Barns said. “I want to thank you wholeheartedly, Angie and Johnny,” he smiled at the boy, “for coming by and speaking with us. It’s very kind of you.”
“It’s the least we could’ve done.” Angie got up and Johnny followed her lead. “Well, we’ll be off then. I wish you and your sister all the best, Doctor Barns.”
Barns and Mira walked them out and stood on the porch as they drove off in a white Silverado.
“Guess we’d better get ready to hit the road, huh?” He looked at Mira.
“Right after I’ve had a chance to see Priscilla’s room. Will you give me a few minutes?”
“Sure.”
Mira walked off and headed for the middle door on the left of the hallway.
As she started to twist the doorknob, a strange sensation gripped her. It slid through her fingers, then traveled all the way up her arm, and across her chest to the other arm. She could feel mild electrical shock waves, throughout her body. A little dazed, but not deterred, she proceeded to open the door and walked into the room.
Priscilla’s room was fairly small, ten by eleven foot space. The walls were of a sunny yellow hue and both double windows furnished with matching yellow curtains with scores of little cartoonish smiling suns speckled throughout the thin fabric. On a table beneath the flat screen mounted television, sat various knick-knacks, such as multi-colored pens stacked in a white mug, a few books, a gold jewelry box and a couple of gold-plated bracelets. Mira picked up one of the bracelets, slid her fingers over it, then rested it down again. Along the southern and western sides of the wall, dozens of teddy bears were neatly lined off—all of various proportions from miniature to the size of a toddler. As Mira moved across the room, she could have sworn that the button eyes on those teddy bears followed her. She abruptly stopped and looked back. They all appeared normal—just like they were when she first entered the room. She turned around and moved on over to the bed. All eyes were on her again. Some of the teddies glanced at each other, then fixated their stares on her until she sat on the bed and was facing most of them. Again, they looked normal, but she sensed she was not alone in the room.
The feeling she got in Priscilla’s room was quite different from what she felt when restless spirits were present. In fact, once she sensed them, it wasn’t long before the temperature inside the room dropped—at least in some cases—and the souls came into full view. However, none of that occurred, but the feeling of being watched prevailed.
She looked at the teddies again and was now sure that the vibes she felt were coming from them—perhaps one or even all. She got up from the bed and headed for the door. Now, more than ever, she was ready to make that trip up to Highway 60.
* * *
“I have to tell you, Doc…I’m pretty sure your niece is still alive,” Mira said as they walked to the front door. The keys to the rented car were dangling in Barns’ hand.
The older doctor heaved a sigh of relief and a wide smile instantly crept across his face. “You don’t know how good that sounds, Mira!”
“We must get to the highway. Something’s there that’s been overlooked, but it couldn’t be helped.”
Barns quickly o
pened the door and allowed her to walk through.
His heart was leaping for joy with every step, as he considered the possibility that one day, he’ll get to see his beautiful niece again.
* * *
Nurse Bella Carey was listening to the midday news while having lunch in the cafeteria, when she heard the unthinkable: Vanderville Lane—the brutal, random attack—a man who frequently hung out at the bench near the stoplight was arrested that very morning, hysterically joyful over having committed such a heinous act. She gasped; covered her face with both hands and was immediately overcome with emotion; also immensely grateful to Dr. Cullen who’d warned her not to continue to take that very route to work. She was sure if she hadn’t heeded the odd request, she would have been the helpless victim that day instead of poor Gertrude Evans.
9
_________________
Mira read off the directions to Barns again. She had done so twice before since leaving the house. He was admittedly not so good when it came to following directions, and was thankful that Mira was there to guide him through.
Eventually, they saw the big, green sign labeled ‘Highway 60’ and he made a sharp right turn onto it. After Rachelle broke the news years earlier that Priscilla was missing, it never crossed his mind to travel the road where the bus was last seen. In fact, he was sure, at the time, there were no reports he or Rachelle had heard of the school bus actually taking that route. Now driving along the wide four lane highway, he found it incredible that he was there cruising along the same passage Priscilla did—where tall rock formations on each side of the highway were how he pictured the red sea being—like two massive walls—when God allowed the Israelites to walk through on dry land.
“This area is incredible, isn’t it?” He glanced at Mira, who was deep in thought.
The Cornelius Saga Series Box Set 2 Page 17