by Raven Snow
“It’s a thought that overrides other thoughts,” explained Margo, giving him her own perspective on the subject. “You know. It’s like when someone in your family hurts you and never apologizes even though they stole work right out from under you. Even though you’re the PR person.”
Rowen groaned. “Now really isn’t the time for this.”
“The time for what? I’m just explaining something for Eric.”
“That’s, ah…” Eric took a step away from the women. “That’s all right. I think I get it.”
Margo frowned at him as he walked on ahead. “See that? It stings when people don’t want your help.”
That was enough of that. Rowen was finished arguing with Margo. With no warning, she pulled her into a bone crushing hug.
“What are you doing?” Margo demanded.
“I’m sorry. Your phone was off and the traffic was terrible, but I still could have talked with you after the fact. I knew you were upset and I could have apologized. I could have done a lot of things. You’re our PR person for a reason, and you’re great at what you do.”
Margo stood very still. “I’m sorry too.” The words came out of her like someone trying and failing to hold their breath. She couldn’t keep it bottled up anymore. “I shouldn’t have turned my phone off. I should have been more careful with Irene and what she had planned. Maybe I got all caught up in the idea of being in front of a much bigger audience. Now let go.” She pushed at Rowen when her cousin just squeezed her tighter. “You’re just trying to annoy me now.”
“Hey guys?” Eric’s voice came from a few yards off. “I think that feeling is strong over here.”
Rowen released Margo and the both of them quickly caught up with Eric. He was right. The air was heavier than ever. If it wasn’t Harmony that was here, it was something else terrible that had happened. Either way, it was worth looking into. Rowen held up a hand to try and silence the others. Harmony? she called, hesitant.
Who are you? Who’s there? The response was almost immediate.
“She’s here,” Rowen quickly said aloud. “Let me try to talk to her.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. My name is Rowen. The people here with me are Eric and Margo. We’ve been looking for you.
Well, you found me! Harmony snapped. Now do something useful and help me find my children.
I already found one of them. I found Sara. I’m looking for Roswell now.
There was some mild relief at the mention of Sara. It didn’t last long, however. And where is my boy? she demanded, like it was Rowen’s fault he was missing.
We’re looking for him. It’ll work out better if we all work together, right? Where do you last remember seeing him?
Harmony didn’t say anything for a bit. It was like she had suddenly grown wary of Rowen. Hopefully, she wouldn’t make a run for it. I told him to wait. I needed to have a word with his father.
Stephen Berry?
Harmony’s energy vibrated angrily. Yes. He agreed to a blood test, but he never meant it. He didn’t think I would catch up with him again, make an appointment for all of us. He thought he could just hide in the woods.
So you found him out here? How? Rowen found it difficult to imagine how she could have found his campsite by wandering aimlessly through the woods. Harmony didn’t strike her as some kind of expert tracker.
Greg told me, she said, simply. He’s a good guy. He’s cute, a shoulder to cry on. He tried to help.
And then? After you found him?
The anger began to fade. It was replaced by fear. I… I don’t remember.
Chapter Fifteen
Ben was at the hospital. That was good. It was where Rowen was headed. “Harmony had a blood test scheduled,” Rowen told him over the phone while Eric drove. Margo had stayed behind at the campground. She said it was because she had a gut feeling about the place, but Rowen thought it more likely that it was because Sutton was there in plain clothes, keeping an eye on things. It was just as well that she had stayed behind. Rowen didn’t need her for what came next.
***
Once again, the hospital wasn’t all that crowded. Rowen and Eric didn’t have much difficulty being intercepted by Ben. He showed them back down to the morgue. They had privacy there. “Did you get what I asked for?” Rowen couldn’t sense Stephen in the room anymore. That was a shame. She had been hoping to confirm some of the things she was suspecting with him.
“The blood test?” Ben shook his head. “I got the samples from Stephen and the girl upstairs, but the results will take a little time… I did however find the next best thing.”
Rowen had been sinking into her disappointment only to perk up when Ben went to collect a manila folder from a nearby desk. “What’s that?”
“I had Steve’s records pulled… somewhat unofficially. I hate to bend the rules, but this all seems very time sensitive.”
“It is, so hurry up and show me what you found!” Rowen urged.
Ben opened the folder and flipped though some pages. He tapped a line on the page. “Stephen Berry is sterile. He had a vasectomy decades ago.”
“So, he was right then,” said Eric, mostly to himself. “Was he just being stubborn or did he like stringing Harmony along?”
“Could be both,” Rowen reasoned. “As angry as Harmony seemed to be with Steve, she was still having intercourse with him enough that she was sure he was the father of both her children.”
“But he wasn’t,” said Eric. “So who was?”
Rowen turned to her husband. “I think we both might know the answer to that.”
“Well, I don’t,” Ben said loudly and to the both of them. “So why don’t you fill me in?”
It wasn’t like they had all the proof they needed just yet. Rowen was wary to share her thoughts on the matter. Like Ben had said, though, they were working on a tight deadline. “I think… I think the man who killed them is a guy named Greg.”
“Greg?” Ben repeated.
“I’m going to go ahead and call Odds & Ends,” Eric said quietly before stepping out of the morgue.
“He’s a friend… was a friend of Stephen,” Rowen explained. “I don’t think this is like him. I think he panicked. That blood test. Harmony said that he was cute and a shoulder to cry on. She didn’t strike me as the sort of woman who needed shoulders to cry on. I have a sneaking suspicion that she had sex with this guy a few times. The kids might be his. Harmony might have set her sights on him next. Confirming that was terrifying for him.”
“So he murdered Harmony. Why Stephen?”
“Her kids were always with her.” Rowen had given the matter some thought on the way over. “I doubt he’s ever murdered anyone, and I don’t think he wanted to kill a couple of kids that might be his. He waited until Harmony had left them to play and then followed her after that. Things got messy. Ros saw what was going on. Sara didn’t see anything, but he probably tried to get her too. Finally, he just left. I’m not sure where he put the boy, but he probably came back. That’s probably when he moved the bodies and tried to make it look like some sort of… alien attack. I’m not sure what his aim was with that, but it worked. It’s kept the tourists around, made it harder to investigate.”
“You have no idea,” Ben said quietly. Rowen could see that he was mulling all this over in his head.
It was at that time that Eric came back into the room. “They say he’s not there.”
Rowen wasn’t surprised. “Well, he and the others usually leave before it even gets dark, so—”
“Norm said he never came back after his break… He had a lot to say after that, too. I kind of had to hang up on him.”
“That’s not good.” Rowen looked to Ben, but he was already pulling his phone out and marching toward the door.
“Sutton? Are you still at the campground? Good. I need you to—”
Rowen made a call of her own as she followed. Thank goodness Margo actually answered this time. “Margo,” she began before her cousin could even speak.
“Remember what I told you about that Greg guy?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“We think he might be at the camp. He cut out of the store early. He might be trying to make a run for it before morning, assuming he hasn’t already.”
“What does he look like?”
“Thin, tall, blond. You’re good at reading men. Find one that’s panicking. I don’t think he thought this through enough.”
“Understood,” Margo hung up and Rowen found herself left to wait impatiently in the elevator.
“Ride with me,” said Ben, addressing Rowen and Eric while still on his cell. “It’ll be faster.”
Rowen didn’t argue with him. She and Eric followed Ben out into the driveway and crammed into the back. The engine came to life and the blinking lights came on. Rowen’s phone rang.
It was Margo. “Things are getting tense. Channel 2 must have noticed the change in the cops’ behavior. They might have even heard what’s going on over the radio. People are getting wary.”
Rowen tapped Eric on the shoulder. “Honey, do you think you could tune into Channel 2 on your phone? See if they’re broadcasting live.” She watched Eric’s fingers fly over the keys as she continued speaking. “Do you need me to see if Ben can have the cops back off a bit?”
“I think the damage is already done.”
Margo was right. On the phone in Eric’s hands, Rowen could see a very animated Julia Martinez standing in front of the camp entrance. Sutton was in the background scanning the crowd. Even in casual clothes he looked an awful lot like a cop. Rowen could even make out Margo several yards away, glaring at Julia Martinez’s back.
“What’s going on?” demanded Ben.
“Looks like the media caught wind of something.”
“Too late to fix that. Let’s hope it’s for the best. Maybe it’ll rekindle some of that panic in Greg. Maybe he’ll slip up again.”
No sooner than Ben had finished speaking, Rowen spotted Greg in the background. Like a cryptid WNT might cower, he was back in the shadows. It was hard to be sure, but Rowen trusted her gut. “That’s him!” she said into the receiver, making Eric jump. “He’s behind you, that tall guy. There! Him.” She knew Margo couldn’t see her stabbing her finger at the screen, but that didn’t stop her from trying.
“I feel him… He’s scared. He’s fragile.” There was a video delay before Margo turned. It looked like she had zeroed in on the right guy. She had a way with guys, a way of fiddling with their emotions. The way she described this guy sounded like she found him extremely malleable.
“Where’s he going?” Rowen asked as she could no long see Greg on the screen.
Margo swore. “He’s going for the fence.” She had been moving toward Sutton while attempting to keep eyes on Greg so as not to lose him in what looked like a considerably large crowd. “Sutton! Over there!” she yelled before taking off. Sutton turned and stared for a moment before taking off after her. He was saying something into a walkie talkie.
“It seems we have some sort of pursuit here,” Julia said, looking over her shoulder. “Hurry,” she hissed at the cameraman as she took off down the sidewalk to the side of the campground, where a high fence surrounded the perimeter. Rowen held her breath. She could hear people talking to Ben over his radio, but it was difficult to pay attention. The camera bobbed and bounced like she was watching a found footage movie. It finally stopped when it had caught up with Julia. “We have something… interesting going on here.” She pointed down along the fence.
Margo came into view again. She was balanced with her bare feet on the fence and her arms encircling the branch of a nearby tree. It looked like she had kicked off her heels and dropped her cell phone on the way. That was a rare one for her. She was taking this quite seriously, it seemed.
Greg was a little higher in the tree. He was standing and glancing down. “D-don’t come any closer.” Rowen could make out his panicked breathing as the sound guy moved closer. “I’ll jump. I’ll jump and you’ll never find the boy.”
“Fine,” snapped Margo. “Jump. You won’t die from that height, you idiot.”
Greg looked down at the ground. “I-I might. It depends on how I fall.”
Margo pushed herself up into the tree branches. As image obsessed as she was as an adult, she had climbed trees barefoot like all the Greensmith children had. “Idiot,” Rowen heard her say again as she threw her weight so that they both fell to the ground.
Sutton dropped down on the other side of the fence. He was laughing to himself as he looked down at Margo kneeling atop a winded Greg. It stopped as soon as he spotted Julia Martinez and her cameras. He assumed a somber face and motioned the cameras away before turning to Greg. “Where’s the kid?” he demanded.
“I don’t—”
“Where’s the kid?” Sutton demanded, louder this time. “The court already isn’t going to look kindly on you. If I have to formally arrest you and get you a lawyer before—”
“Here!” Greg shoved his hand in his pocket. Sutton’s hand moved to his holster, but Greg was only pulling out what looked to be a key fob. “He’s in my trunk. I’m parked across the street.”
Margo grabbed the key fob and took off running. Sutton yelled after her to stop, but more police hadn’t reached him yet. He couldn’t just leave Greg alone. He was pulling his walkie out when Julia and her team turned and took off after Margo.
Rowen put a hand over her mouth. She couldn’t blame Margo for not wanting to wait. Hearing that a kid was in a trunk was terrifying. If he was alive, wouldn’t he be making some sort of noise that a passerby would hear? What if Greg had drugged him? The guy seemed like an idiot. What if he’d given the kid too much?
Margo held the fob up in the air, clicking the panic button. It was in the shopping center Rowen and Eric had driven through a few times. Leaving from there would have made it easier for Greg to beat traffic if he needed to make a quick getaway. Julia motioned for the camera to turn away as Margo stopped at the trunk.
The camera turned back toward the commotion at the camp. Whoever was behind it didn’t really seem to know what to do with themselves. After a few moments of shuffling back and forth, they turned back to the trunk on their own.
Margo had Roswell in her arms. He was motionless, though Margo appeared more puzzled than anything else. Julia was fussing over the boy, one hand on his throat, the other brushing back his hair. She looked around, likely for an ambulance. Her eyes landed on her camera crew instead. “Are you kidding me?” she demanded as she marched over to them. It was nice to know that filming the potential death of a child crossed even Julia’s limits.
The feed suddenly went dead. “They found the kid,” Rowen told Ben.
“I heard,” he assured her. “It sounds like Greg gave him antihistamines to keep him tired. Sounds like he couldn’t bring himself to kill a kid that might be his flesh and blood.”
“How noble of him,” Eric sighed, sagging in his seat a bit. It seemed he had been every bit as tense as Rowen had been watching what had transpired.
“I guess Margo got a minute or two in the spotlight there. I bet she’ll be insufferable for a day or two… hundred.” Rowen took a deep, calming breath and leaned against her husband. “Speaking of which, you might have Lydia petitioning to adopt those two kids like pets or something. I don’t envy you having to drag her away from Sara kicking and screaming.”
“I might not have to,” said Ben, calmly.
Rowen had been joking. “What do you mean?”
“Well, the kids don’t have any family that we could find. We’ll have to contact child services, look into things a lot more. We might be able to temporarily let them stay with her. She’ll have to be approved, but… Yeah, it could work.”
Rowen sighed but didn’t argue the matter. Lydia was a good person and a wonderful parent. What would two more additions to the Greensmith household matter in the environment she could provide for them? They would need to bring the kids to the forest as soon as they w
ere able, make sure that Harmony knew they were safe.
That line of thinking brought her back to the alien sightings, to what had started this whole mess. The drone hadn’t been like any of the initial lights she saw. “I guess we’ll never know what was up in the sky, huh?” Rowen leaned against her husband and gazed out of the police car’s window. It was then that something in the clouds caught her eye.
“Eric,” she said softly, watching the blinking lights while they moved. “Do you see that?”
Eric turned to look out the window as well. “What?”
“In the sky.”
Eric looked up. “That’s a plane.
It was. Darn. “Nevermind.” Maybe she was better off not knowing after all. Maybe whatever was behind those lights was sentient. Maybe they’d done them a kindness and left.
*The End*
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