by Jay Mackey
Seeing CJ nearly lose it seemed to upset Penny, and Oval apparently saw her reaction. “Are you okay?” he asked CJ.
“Yeah, sure,” said CJ, pulling himself together. “I’m just so sorry for putting you guys in this situation. Plus, I need to thank you. I don’t know how you figured out what was going on, but I’d be long gone in the back of that van if you hadn’t slammed into it.”
Oval seemed to come through without an emotional hangover. He said, “It was a split-second decision. As I was approaching, looking for a place to park, I saw Penny, jumping and waving her arms in front of the coffee shop. There was that van, stopped in my lane, facing me. I didn’t know what was going on. Then I saw some guy pushing Jack into the van, and another guy holding you, and . . . I don’t know, Penny pointing and screaming. Next thing I know, I was trying to do a screeching three-point turn in front of the van, and I don’t really know how to do that, and blam! I’m waking up and looking at your face.”
“It was awesome, Oval,” said CJ.
“Stupid,” said Penny, who wasn’t smiling. “You could have been killed.”
“But I wasn’t. So now what?” asked Oval.
“So now, you get some sleep, and Penny and I do what we can to find Jack and figure out what happened,” said CJ.
CJ and Penny told Oval they’d be back and headed out toward the lobby. Once they were alone in the elevator, Penny, looking at her shoes, said, “I’m sorry for jumping all over you back there in the street. I just got overwhelmed by everything.”
“You might have noticed that I gave you a pretty good squeeze back.” CJ paused, and then added, “I know what you mean. I felt the same way. In fact, I almost kissed you there, right in the street.”
“I was just so emotional, right then. I—I just—didn’t know what to do. And I still don’t. What are we going to do now? Somebody tried to kidnap you, and we didn’t even tell anybody.”
This is where the leadership thing kicked in again. Next steps were up to him. He made his decision, and said, “Let’s go to the library and ask Ms. Parsons about Jack.”
“He’s jerked us around for two days,” said Penny. “And nearly got you kidnapped. I think that’s enough. Let’s let him go.”
“No, we can’t,” said CJ. “Not now. Not when we don’t know who or why or anything else. We’ve got to find him if we’re ever going to find answers. Plus, he may be in trouble.”
“Well, screw him. I think he’s a creep.” Then she peered at CJ, and said, “You are the only person I know who would spend their whole spring break working on a project for school. And look where it’s led.”
“This is not for school. This has never been for school.” Holding up his phone, he said, “Just called for an Uber. Be here in five.”
As they walked out to the driveway where they’d be picked up, Penny took CJ’s hand. He tried to pretend it was no big deal.
Fortunately, Ms. Parsons was in her usual place, behind the desk in the periodicals section. She smiled when she saw the kids approaching.
“My, my,” she said. “Back again so soon?”
“Ms. Parsons, we need some information,” said CJ as he reached the desk. “Can you tell us about your friend Jack? He may be in trouble.”
“May be?” said Penny. “He’s definitely in trouble.”
Ms. Parsons’ smile faded. “What do you mean, dear?” she asked Penny. “Has he done something wrong?”
“I don’t know,” said Penny. “But he nearly got CJ kidnapped, and now he’s disappeared.”
That seemed to confuse Ms. Parsons. There being no other patrons at the desk needing her attention, she came out from behind the desk and motioned for the kids to join her at a nearby table. Once they were all seated, she asked what had happened.
CJ described the meeting they’d had with Jack, the phone call with Noga, the attempted kidnapping and Oval’s heroic actions.
“My, my, my,” said Ms. Parsons, shaking her head and wringing her hands. “I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry I got you involved in all this.” She looked crestfallen, eyes moist, her frown dragging her face toward her ample bosom.
“You didn’t get us involved,” said CJ. “We asked for help, and you tried.”
“Right, it’s not your fault,” added Penny. “But we need to know more about Jack. You said he was a crackpot, but this seems like more than that. Who’d want to kidnap him? Were those guys after him, or CJ, or both—or what?”
“I’m sure I don’t know, child,” said Ms. Parsons, still shaking her head. “Jack is an . . . um, interesting character, to say the least. He’s been coming in here for the last few years, regularly, and so I’ve gotten to know him a bit. We’ve even shared a meal or two now and then. But I didn’t dream he’d put you in danger.”
“Does he put himself in danger?” asked CJ.
“Well, no. I mean, not really, I don’t think,” said Ms. Parsons. “You must understand, he’s a—well, he’s involved with a group of people, they call themselves ‘the True Believers’ or some such nonsense. They all claim to have seen flying saucers, or little green men, or to have been taken by aliens and experimented on.”
“Wow,” said Penny. “So when you said he was a crackpot, you weren’t kidding.”
“No, I wasn’t kidding,” said Ms. Parsons, smiling now. “But Jack doesn’t believe any of that silliness. He says that none of them know what they’re talking about. They’re making it up, trying to get attention, or they’re delusional, or just flat-out crazy.”
“But then why would he hang out with them?” asked CJ.
“He says it’s because they provide a perfect cover for him. He claims that the government—that’s what he always calls it, ‘the government,’ not, ‘the cops,’ or ‘the FBI,’ or even, ‘the authorities,’—the government is after him. He says they’ve held him captive, put him in institutions, and that they watch him constantly. He says he’s always got to watch his back.” She threw up her hands. “I don’t know. It seems like it’s a bit much. But maybe that’s what happened. Maybe he’s right, and they are out to get him. Maybe you got caught in the middle of something.”
Ms. Parsons excused herself to go help someone at the desk. While she was gone, Penny and CJ talked about what they should do next.
Penny said, “I am now absolutely positive that Jack is some kind of nut. I think we should bug out of here and never look back.”
“No, I can’t do that,” said CJ. “I owe him something. Back there when those thugs were shoving us into the van, Jack tried to get them to let me go. He fought them, hit them with his briefcase, and screamed at them. He really tried. The least that I can do is try to make sure he’s okay.”
Ms. Parsons reappeared at the table, sliding into the same chair. If anything, she looked even sadder than when she left. “Please accept my apologies, dears. Go enjoy yourselves, and don’t you worry about old Jack or me. We’ll be fine.”
“That’s what I told him,” said Penny. “We should be happy that we’re all okay, and move on.”
“We will, I promise,” said CJ. “But I just want to check in on him, thank him, and let him know there’s no hard feelings.” He smiled at Ms. Parsons, his best suck-up smile. “I have Jack’s phone number, but not his address. And could you let us know places he likes to hang out, in case he’s not home?”
Ms. Parsons went to the desk, wrote two addresses on a slip of paper, brought it back and gave it to CJ. “This is his home address, and this is where the True Believers get together. Both are near the old downtown. I can’t believe I’m giving you this, but you kids be careful!” She waved to them as they left.
“Let’s get back to the hospital,” said Penny. “That’s where my mom is going to pick us up tonight.”
“Got Uber on the way.”
“We can’t keep using Uber, by the way. Unless you have a lot more money than I think you do.”
“I know, but what can we do? Oval wrecked your mom’s car, so we’re kind
of stuck.”
“I’ve got an idea. Hold on.” She pulled out her phone and made a call. She asked the person who answered if she’d find her grandmother and put her on the phone. While she was waiting, she turned to CJ. “Just have to know how to make connections,” she said to him, smiling.
“Hello, GRANDMA Donna. Hey, do you still have your old car?
33
Las Vegas, April 2018
Penny and CJ spent an uncomfortable night, further soothing her parents’ concerns, apologizing for letting Oval drive the Honda (although Penny’s dad pointed out that Oval’s parents’ insurance would be taking care of the repairs) and persuading them that borrowing Donna’s car was a good thing. CJ also had another long talk with Nini and Noga about much of the same stuff, and got them to reluctantly agree to let him stay until his scheduled Sunday return home. Neither CJ nor Penny said anything about Jack or the kidnapping, of course.
So it was that the next morning they were at the hospital, waiting for Oval to be released and talking about what they should do next.
“We need to find Jack,” CJ said. “Make sure he’s okay.”
“What about your search for Nini’s ancestry?” asked Oval. “After all, that’s what got us here.”
“I know, and I kept thinking that Jack was going to give us something on Nini, but he never did,” said CJ.
“Well, what was in that stack of papers, that book he wanted you to read in the coffee shop?” asked Penny. “There must have been something in it, the way he was protecting it.”
“I don’t know,” said CJ. “He was a doctor in the Army a long time ago, and what I read was all about some patients of his, some people who crashed a plane or something. They must have been important people, or celebrities, because he wrote a lot of stuff about guards, and security. But I never got far enough to find out who they were or what happened to them.”
“Strange,” said Penny. “Really strange. He seemed to know your grandfather, though. Wonder what that was about.”
“Yeah. Something happened in the desert,” said Oval. “Some event he thought your grandfather might have been at. Must have been epic.”
“Epic, my ass,” said Penny. “The only thing epic around here is his imagination.”
“I know you don’t like him, but I can’t walk away,” said CJ. “Plus, we need to find out who those guys were at the coffee shop yesterday. I don’t know if they’re going to pop up and try to kidnap us again.”
“To be honest,” said Penny, dropping her voice to a whisper, “I’m scared. I don’t want to keep doing this. We should have told the cops what really happened.”
CJ slid over next to her, but didn’t say anything. He put his arm around her shoulders to try and comfort her. But he was thinking that she was probably right.
“Don’t worry about any kidnappers. I’ve still got one good leg to kick them with,” said Oval, always the jokester. But CJ could tell he was straining to stay in character, and not just because the joke was lame. He looked tired and had complained about his lack of sleep. The nurses kept waking him up, he’d said, because they were worried about the concussion he’d suffered.
But then he said he was looking forward to getting back to school with the cast on his ankle. “I’ll get all kinds of sympathy, plus I can get girls to sign my cast. It’ll be an epic way to meet all the hot girls.”
Even Penny had to smile at Oval’s effort to lighten things up. But as they sat and waited for Oval’s release, she became moody. In fact, all three kids had fallen silent, perhaps all thinking about what lay ahead.
Penny broke the silence. “What if those men are waiting for us?”
“They’re not,” said CJ, sounding more confident than he felt. “They were after Jack, not me, and definitely not you.”
“You don’t know that,” said Penny.
“We’ll never know what’s going on if we turn and run now,” said CJ.
“I don’t know if I’d call it running,” said Oval. “Running isn’t in my immediate future anyway. I’d just say we were not going to chase the old crackhead.”
He got Penny to smile again. “It’s not crackhead, dummy. But he might be on some drugs, for all we know.”
“Whatever. If he wants to find us, let him,” said Oval.
“Look, guys. Why don’t I drop you off at Penny’s, or at a casino, wherever you want,” said CJ. “I’ll go see if I can find Jack, and I’ll catch up to you later.”
Penny and Oval looked at each other, and both nodded, of like mind. Penny turned to CJ and said, “Nice try.”
“No chance, old buddy,” said Oval. “We’re like the three musketeers. One for all, three for something or other.”
“You know that cracking wise can get old, don’t you?” said Penny.
It was nearly noon before Oval was let out, and food was at the top of their to-do list. They found an all-you-can-eat buffet in the downtown area, with the only complication being that someone had to carry Oval’s tray because he was on crutches. Even so, they managed to get at least their money’s worth at the buffet.
Donna’s car, which CJ was driving, was a Buick, at least fifteen years old. It was the biggest car CJ had ever driven, and it may have been the ugliest. One good thing though—the huge back seat made it easy to get Oval and his crutches into the car.
After leaving the buffet, CJ headed to Jack’s home address, the one given to them by Ms. Parsons. It turned out to be in an apartment complex three or four miles east of downtown. It wasn’t exactly a wealthy neighborhood—CJ had seen a mobile home park nearby, and houses that looked to be about the same size as a double-wide—but the complex was clean and in good repair.
CJ pulled into one of the carports, which Penny quickly pointed out was probably for residents only.
“Hey, we’re not going to be here long,” said CJ, “and this big old car gets really hot sitting in the sun.”
He told Oval to wait in the car while he went up the exterior steps to knock on the door to the second story unit that was Jack’s. There was no answer. CJ knocked harder, and then even harder, but he could hear no movement inside.
Returning to the car, he told Penny and Oval that they’d next try the meeting place for the True Believers.
They missed it twice before they finally found it—a storefront in a shopping strip along a busy street halfway back toward downtown. There was no address on the storefront, or on any of the others in the strip mall, but through a process of deduction, they decided it had to be the one with the worn sign that said only “Billiard Parlor.” The windows were covered with old posters for long-past rock concerts and pool tournaments, making it impossible to see inside.
The door was unlocked and CJ led the way in, followed closely by Penny, while Oval limped in with his crutches.
“Who calls themselves the True Believers?” Oval said. “It sounds like a bad ’90s rock group. I’ve got to meet them.”
They found a dimly lit room furnished with one ratty looking pool table and two round wooden tables surrounded by a total of five wobbly looking wooden chairs. On the left was a small bar, fronted by two bar stools, with a collection of unlit neon signs advertising various beer brands. Not a soul was visible. The place smelled like old beer and stale cigarettes.
Just past the bar was a yellow door with a small black sign that said, “No Admittance.” CJ knocked. “Hello,” he called out as he knocked again. Hearing no response, he tried the knob, which turned. He pushed the door open, revealing a back room roughly twice the size of the front, with several desks in the center and long rectangular tables along the walls. Most of the surfaces were covered with stacks of papers that looked like newspapers and brochures of various kinds.
Seated at the desk closest to the door was a man who was completely bald. He was wearing huge black-rimmed glasses, a shirt that had once been white, open at the collar, and black suspenders. He had a narrow pale face, and, in CJ’s terms, looked nearly grandpa-old. That was not quite
as old as Noga, but older than Penny’s parents.
“What you doing in here?” the man asked, looking up from the desk, startled.
CJ moved through the door two steps to stand directly in front of the desk. “Is this where the True Believers meet?”
“Never heard of them,” the man said, staring at CJ with a blank look on his face.
“Okay,” said CJ. “Well, do you know Jack Dobbins? He sent us here.”
“Who wants to know?” said the man.
“Me,” said CJ. “I do.”
“Like I said, who wants to know?” Now the man’s expression changed to a slight smirk.
Oval stepped in front of CJ, and said, “Sir, may I introduce Mr. Christopher James Mazza, who is well-known in certain circles, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m impressed,” said the man, who was definitely smirking now. “Mr. Mazza, what circles is it that you’re known in?”
Now Penny stepped forward, giving Oval a look as she did. “Oh, for—” she said. “We were with Jack Dobbins yesterday, and we’re afraid he might be in some trouble, so we’re checking on him. Do you know him or not?”
A woman emerged from behind a stack of boxes near the back of the room. She was younger than the man, maybe in her mid-forties, was profoundly pear-shaped with especially wide hips, dark hair streaked with gray, a wide mouth and a fleshy face.
“Clyde,” she said, “Don’t give these kids a hard time.” She wiped her hands on a rag that she put aside as she walked toward the front. “Hi, I’m Marge.” She stuck out her hand and shook with each of the kids, who introduced themselves.
“You were asking about Jack?” She looked at Penny.
“Right. We’re worried about him,” answered CJ.
The woman looked at CJ and said, “Jack didn’t come in today. Too bad, because we could have used some help. We’re getting out our current issue.” She looked behind her and walked over to one of the side tables. Reaching into a cardboard box, she drew out a thin pamphlet and held it up. The title was “The True Believer Quarterly.” The cover showed a blurry photograph that looked like one of those flying saucer pictures that CJ had seen on the Discovery channel or the History channel.