by J C Fuller
The sun, hanging high in the sky, bore down upon him. The heat of the day, hotter than usual for this time of year, was making him drowsy and the light buzzing of bees hovering over the large flower pots placed on each side of the park bench wasn’t helping. Tired of fighting his drooping eyelids, Philip decided to take a bit of a cat nap as he waited on someone to show up.
It was the sound of his own snoring which jarred him awake, his head jerking back and rapping hard against the building wall. Gingerly rubbing the back of his head, Philip rapidly blinked himself awake, wiping a small amount of drool off his chin. Taking in his surroundings, he was surprised to see Deputy Pickens’s patrol car was parked next to his rig, but the ‘Out to Lunch’ sign still hung upon the door.
Philip gave a fitful yawn as he stood up from the bench and stretched. As he did so, he noticed Lucas was parked across the street, his truck backed into a parking spot in front of Doctor Hadley’s office. Figuring he still had some time to waste till either Lane showed or Caleb finished his lunch break. Philip decided he’d go over and say hi. Looking both ways for traffic, he half-walked, half-jogged across the street.
“Hey, man! You finally woke up!” Lucas teased. “Been watching you for the last ten minutes.”
“Yeah, yeah. You waiting for Gabe to get off work?” Philip asked, pounding the truck’s hood in a friendly hello.
“Yup. Should be out in a minute. We’re heading up to Cougar’s Cap. Gonna check out a cool cave we heard about.” Lucas gave Philip a bright smile.
Philip frowned, “A cave, huh? Doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. Could have a bear or a cougar stored up inside. Who told you about it?”
Lucas shrugged, “Don’t remember.”
Philip grunted, “Well, make sure you check in with Kody at the ranger station, so if anything happens, we know where to find you. We’ve had enough accidents to last us for a while,” Philip instructed, giving Lucas a fatherly look.
“We will, Phil. I promise. We just need something to take our minds off of…you know.”
“Yeah, I get it.” Philip shifted his weight, putting his elbow on the hood, giving a casual look around them. “Lucas, since it’s only you and me. Can I ask you a personal question?”
“I guess.” Lucas gave Philip a lopsided smile, curious to what was coming.
“You and Danie. Why didn’t you go with her, when she said she was going for a swim? Why did you stay behind with Janie?”
Lucas’s light smile dropped, his eyes suddenly glued to the steering wheel, avoiding Philip’s. He started to say something and then stopped, pressing his lips together in indecision.
“I don’t’ mean to pry, but I’ve always been curious. I would have thought you’d ask Danie to help put up your tent, not Janie,” Philip prodded, knowing Gabe might come out and interrupt them. It would be all the excuse Lucas would need to not answer the question.
“Yeah, I see why you’re asking.” Lucas turned to Philip, finally meeting his eyes.
He nervously drummed his fingers along the curve of the steering wheel for a second longer, before saying, “The night before, I’d made a right ass of myself and mistook Janie for Danie. Everyone was ribbing me about it, especially Brent. Telling me I should have been able to tell the two apart, even in my drunken stupor.” He continued to drum the steering wheel, the pattern slowing, “The next day, I was still feeling a bit embarrassed. But Janie and Danie seemed fine, so I decided not to worry. Then I noticed Danie was eating watermelon for a late breakfast. Even offered me some!” Lucas chuckled, “She hated watermelon.” He stopped drumming his fingers and gripped the steering wheel tightly. “And in my fuzzy, hung over brain, I started to wonder. Maybe the two girls were pretending to be each other, playing a practical joke on all of us for the night before?” Lucas cracked a crooked smile, “Thought I was being clever asking Janie to help me put up my tent.”
“You believed you were really asking Danie,” Philip said slowly, following along with Lucas’s logic.
Lucas nodded sheepishly, “I thought I was pulling one over them by knowing they’d traded places,” he sighed heavily, “I’d been all wrong.”
“Janie was too good of a swimmer.” Philip nodded his agreeance, knowing they were thinking the same thing. “She never would have gone to Shallow Point to go swimming. She knew the risks too well.”
Lucas forcefully hit the steering wheel with the heel of his hand. “I don’t know why Danie did what she did. She should have known better. If I’d been with her, I would have stopped her. I’ve sometimes wondered if she knew what she was doing… she wasn’t acting normal that day. Maybe she jumped…on purpose?”
“Lucas, ready to go?” Both their heads turned at the sound of Gabe’s greeting. He was walking out of the medical clinic still dressed in work scrubs with a climbing backpack slung over his shoulder.
“I’m sure he is,” Philip said good heartedly, when Gabe spotted him. “I’ve been keeping him company till you got off work.”
“Did Lucas tell you what we’re up to?” Gabe shot Philip a mischievous smile, yanking off his scrub shirt, stripping down to the white t-shirt underneath, “Pretty cool, huh?” Stuffing his discarded clothes into his backpack, he tossed it into the truck bed.
“Actually, I was just advising him against it. I don’t think it sounds like a very good idea. You guys got your bear spray with you, just in case?” Philip watched Gabe climb into the passenger side, moving a bouquet of flowers from the seat and placing them onto the center console.
“In my pack!”
“Never climb without it!” Lucas chimed in.
“Good. Who are the flowers for?” Philip smiled, eying both carefully.
“Oh, um.” Lucas’s face turned red. “I thought we could lay them where we found Janie. Pay our respects while we’re out there.”
“That’s a nice gesture.” Philip’s smile faded, “You guys holding up alright?” He’d asked both, but directed the question mainly to Gabe.
Gabe nodded his head, but didn’t say anything.
“Gabe blames himself,” Lucas said, in a half-whisper to Philip. “He was the one who told Brent the brownies didn’t have any nuts.” Lucas started the truck, the engine roaring to life, drowning out anything else Lucas or Philip may have had to say.
Philip pounded on the hood and gave a good-bye wave as Lucas pulled out onto the street and steered towards the docks. They drove by Sheriff Lane, who was coming the opposite direction, giving her a light honk of a greeting as they passed. Philip quickly jogged back over to the sheriff’s office, as Lane pulled into her parking spot, her tires screeching to a halt. Philip grabbed her door handle and pulled the door open.
“Was that Lucas and Gabe?” Lane asked, squinting through her passenger window and then down at her wristwatch.
“Yup, and Lucas just said something interesting. Said Gabe told Brent there were no nuts in the brown—"
“Hmmm, Lucas is back early. I need to have a talk with him.” Lane hopped out of the truck, too excited to realize Philip had been speaking. “By the way, I’m glad we bumped into each other! I was hoping I wouldn’t have to track you down in the park.” Lane stepped onto the sidewalk, watching Lucas’s truck turn off the main street. She looked back at Philip with a distracted air. “What are you doing here anyway?”
Philip dug a white envelope from his shirt pocket and held it up, shaking it lightly. “Got the memory cards from the trail cameras. There were two I thought most likely to catch someone walking on Indian Flat trail and the base of Shale Rock. Might have caught someone heading for the body to retrieve her camera.”
“Excellent!” Lane hurried to the front door, sans ‘Out to lunch’ sign, and yanked it open as she gestured for Philip to hurry and walk through. “Come on, you’re going to want to be sitting down when I tell you what I found out.”
Chapter 38
“Are you sure?” Philip asked incredulously, leaning his elbows on his knees, giving Lane a hard look.
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br /> “It was verified by an ID tech.” Lane looked from a dumfounded Philip over to a flabbergasted Deputy Pickens. Both were in her office, Philip sitting in the chair by her desk and Caleb, leaned up against the door. “Janie drowned last summer and Danie has been pretending to be her ever since. It’s my belief, when the girls traded places, Janie was murdered mistakenly and Danie was forced to live her life as her sister, to stay in hiding.”
“But…” Caleb’s forehead scrunched up in confusion, “Why stay around in Washington state? Why not go straight to Pennsylvania and hide there?”
“Because Janie wouldn’t have done that. I think Danie decided to act as Janie would, for a year or so, to not raise suspicions. Then, after some time had gone by and the relationship with Brent was obviously over to everyone including Brent, she’d move back east. Back home to Pennsylvania.” Lane ripped open the small envelope Philip had given her and took out one of the memory cards. “Do you know which card went to which camera?” she asked him, comparing the two memory cards.
“You’re gonna have to give me a minute, Lane,” Philip said, shaking his head. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around this.”
“Why didn’t Danie go to the police?” Caleb crossed his arms over his chest, leaning hard against the door jamb. “Why not tell them who she was and her suspicions?”
“She didn’t know which one of them did it,” Philip said, slowly. He was starting to come out of his daze. “She couldn’t point the finger, because she didn’t know who to point it to.” Philip turned to Lane. “That explains why she avoided the island and ended the relationship with Brent. Poor kid. Loses her sister, her friends, and her family…all in one day.”
“Wait! Why come back to the island now? I mean, she was loaded, right? She didn’t need the job or the money. Why didn’t she turn down this job like she did the others? It doesn’t make sense?” Caleb started to rub his back against the jamb of the door, scratching an itch between his shoulder blades.
“Yeah, that’s a good question.” Philip’s brow creased, mimicking Caleb’s mystified grimace. “Oh, and the memory cards are initialed.”
Lane looked at the cards and then put the one initialed I.F. into her computer.
“Well, I don’t obviously have all the answers. But my best guess is there was a part of her which wanted to come back. Maybe she felt safe enough? Confident everyone had been fooled sufficiently that she could come back? She was still precautious. Didn’t tell anyone she was coming. Didn’t meet up with her friends. Maybe this trip to the island was a trail run? A way to see if she had indeed fooled them all?”
“She hadn’t…” Philip stood, motioning for Lane to vacate the seat in front of her computer. “Scoot, I’m driving.”
She begrudgingly stood up, handing Caleb the second trail memory card. Caleb took it, with a curt nod, and headed back to his desk upfront.
“So, how do these trail camera’s work?” Lane moved to the extra chair and placed it slightly behind Philip to his left, so she wouldn’t crowd him but could still see the monitor.
“These are motion activated. Anytime something walks within a certain range of the camera, it takes a picture every five seconds, until whatever has walked by is then out of range.” Philip moved the mouse, double clicking on a file, opening an additional screen where several thumbnail-sized black and white photos popped up. He clicked on the first photo, a deer nibbling on a sapling, and enlarged it to normal size.
“Is this going to take forever?” Lane’s tone was clearly impatient. She inched her chair a hair closer.
“Shouldn’t think so. There’s only twelve hundred pictures.” Philip smirked, hitting the arrow key, moving to the next frame.
From the front, Caleb gave a groan of protest, “Fifteen hundred photos!”
“Stop your complaining, Deputy!” Lane hollered, then settled her eyes back onto the screen. She leaned forward up against Philip’s shoulder. “Please tell me these are timestamped.”
“Time and date, all nice and tidy. Won’t take me long.”
“Good!” Lane sat back. “So, I was thinking. Brent must have felt Danie was a threat to him and Janie’s relationship.” Lane watched Philip tab to the dates they were looking for.
“You’re still thinking he’s the guilty party in both deaths?” Philip asked, surprised. He’d started rapidly clicking through the shots.
“I’m hoping he is,” Lane said, rubbing her forehead. “If he’s not, then we may still have a killer on the loose.”
Philip lowered his voice, not wanting Caleb to overhear. He was doubtful Lane had gotten the chance to have a word with her deputy about his loose lips.
“You know, I keep thinking of the expired EpiPen.” He looked over his shoulder at her.
“Pretty irresponsible,” Lane agreed. “Thought the kid was smarter than that.”
“He was.” Philip faced forward again.
“You think someone switched out his EpiPen?”
“Starting to wonder. Especially after what Doctor Hadley said.”
“What did Doctor Hadley have to say?” Lane asked, perplexed. “When did you talk to him about Brent’s EpiPen?”
“Shoot!” Philip slammed his palm to his forehead. “I completely forgot to tell you. I talked to him last night.”
“Tell me what?” Lane hit Philip’s shoulder, forcing his chair to swivel towards her.
“Doctor Hadley only prescribed it eleven months ago. Which means, Brent had been packing around the EpiPen for less than a year. Doctor Hadley double checked his records. According to him, there’s no way his prescribed EpiPen should have been two years expired.”
“Might have been a mistake made by the pharmacy?” Lane offered, her voice sounding unconvinced.
“Doctor Hadley said it was highly unlikely.”
“So, someone swapped out his good pen for a bad one? Why? Killing Brent, what would it achieve?” Lane leaned her elbow onto the back of Philip’s seat, placing her chin in the cup of her hand. “I guess, if maybe he knew something? Dead men tell no tales, that sort of thing.”
“Possible revenge?” Philip threw another theory into the mix.
“Are you thinking someone figured out he’d killed Janie and didn’t want to wait on the justice system?” Lane looked at Philip, her eyebrow arched.
“He was the only suspect and his granddad is a lawyer. May have been worried he was going to get off scot free?”
Lane fretted her bottom lip, thinking.
“Or maybe, someone was trying to set him up as sacrificial scapegoat?”
“It would be a bold move.”
“And it sure would confuse everything.”
Philip grunted his agreement, turning back to the computer. He clicked on the next frame.
“Lane! Look, it’s Janie…err…Danie. It’s the girl!” Philip held his hands away from the keyboard, keeping them clear of hitting a button by accident. “She’s heading up trail.”
“Okay, let’s see how soon someone we know comes along.”
Philip tabbed the arrow keys a few times and stopped on a picture of Gabe.
“He must be heading up to go huckleberry picking.” Lane nodded, having flipped back to the interview with Brent on her notepad. “Keep going.”
Philip tabbed through shots of rabbits hoping across the trail and came to a frame of Gabe coming back down.
“Okay, that fits as well. Keep on going,” Lane prodded him again to continue, “We should see Brent next.”
Brent’s image flashed onto the monitor. His head was held high, as if looking further up trail, his face anxious and eager. The time stamp matched roughly the time he’d given Lane during the interview.
“So far, so good. Let’s see what time he came down, if he really did come back this way or—”
Philip hit the arrow key and another picture popped onto the screen.
It took both of them a second to realize what they were looking at.
“Son of a bitch!” Philip�
�s chair fell over as he rocketed out of the seat, charging out of Lane’s office for his truck.
Lane, following a hair’s breadth behind, barked for Caleb to follow, tossing him her patrol keys.
“Radio Kody, let him know we’re coming!” she yelled, Philip hitting the front door. “If he sees Lucas and Gabe, tell him to stop them!”
Chapter 39
“I should have figured it out!” Lane slapped her notepad hard against the dash of the truck in frustration. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it!”
“Don’t be so…” Philip jostled against the truck door as they maneuvered over a large hump in the old jeep road. “hard on yourself. He fooled us all.”
“Can’t you drive faster?” Lane yelled over the rumbling tires, failing to keep the impatient irritation out of her voice. “They could already be halfway up The Mole Hill by now!”
“Lane, these jeep roads are not made for speed!” Philip suddenly lurched to the opposite side of his seat, “I’m going as fast as I can without tearing out the motor.” Philip gritted his teeth, swerving hard to avoid a major rut. “I’m doing my…” The truck bounced hard as it hit a dip in the road, cannoning its way back out. “… my best. We’ll lose the axel if I’m not careful.”
Lane braced herself with one arm on the dash, the other gripping the handle above the passenger window, and decided to hold her tongue. She knew Philip was pushing the vehicle as hard as he could. It wouldn’t do them any good if they had to find the two men on foot.
“Besides, Lucas said they were heading up to Cougar’s Cap. It’s just a few miles up ahea—” Philip slammed on the brakes, bringing the truck to a skidded stop, dust billowing up from behind.
“That’s Lucas’s truck, isn’t it?” Lane asked, waving the flying dust away, coughing. She recognized the bumper sticker “I stop for hot chicks and Big Foot” stuck to the back window on the driver’s side.
“Yup. And this isn’t Cougar’s Cap.” Philip snatched his two-way off the cradle, radioing into Kody. Lane anxiously listened as Philip informed him they’d found the truck, guessing the two men were heading up a different route than original reported. He gave Kody some brief and hurried instructions before hanging up the radio, grabbing his shotgun out of the middle console and jumping out of the truck.