“Do you have a name for me?”
“Did you hear about the accident last night?”
“No, honesty I just got into my office and haven’t even broken open a paper” flipping another page he began to read the ads for fishing boats dreaming about retirement, not the conversation on the phone.
“I guess a local priest was killed in a one vehicle crash last night. He also had a passenger with him, a young lady. She was also killed.
We don’t have an I.D. on her yet.”
“Bill, how does this concern me? I can tell you right now, I have no one under as a priest or any young ladies in my charge. I am too old to keep up with any young charges.”
“Dan, it was August Hawk, the caller was looking for?”
Dan felt a rush of heat through his whole body. The air-conditioning seemed as if it quit. His body’s reaction was echoed in his voice.
The FBI agent could hear the paper being crushed not folded.
Dan mouthed into the phone,
“That can’t be… It’s not time.”
Then he spoke out loud,
“I’ll call you back.”
“Thank you, Bill. Keep me informed of any new calls.”
Dan cradled the phone with a motion as if he had been delivered news of the death of a loved one. He almost wished that was the case. He had so many things he needed to do right now.
“I wish they had told me this was happening.”
Dan knew that what was just placed in motion couldn’t be reversed.
Chapter 26
Tuesday, Lincoln, NE
August woke and looked around the room without moving his head. He could feel the heat of morning sun on the side of his face. He knew where he was but not why. He jerked his head in the direction of where he last saw his visitor standing. The only thing there now was a closed door with a hospital escape plan mounted in the center. A quick flip to the other direction was Michelle sleeping, her head about to hit the window sill.
“What the hell is she doing here?”
Pushing up the pain shot through his arm and it was the gasp that woke Michelle.
“August, you’re ok, you’re in Lincoln Memorial hospital. You had a heart attack.”
August lifted his bum arm. “Your arm isn’t broke, but they have it wrapped to keep it from moving any more than necessary. Auggie I was scared for you.”
“Where’s Angelina?”
“I don’t know who you are talking about. I don’t know anyone by that name.”
“She was here not too long ago. I saw her at the foot of my bed. You talked to her.”
“You mean that woman who came in here. She was crazy.
She said she knew you and that her you raped her mother. She then accused you of burning her and leaving her scarred.”
“She’s not crazy. I knew her mother and I knew her as a baby. I also know how she was burned. But why was she here. How did she know where I was?”
Michelle was biting her bottom lip when August finished talking. She was trying to forget what the woman said. All she could respond with was,
“You need to get your rest August. You’ve obviously been hallucinating while you were under. The woman was here but she obviously had the wrong room. They gave you some strong drugs. I am going to check at the nurses’ station to see if they can give you anything to help you rest again.”
“I don’t need anything. I just need my clothes and my gun. If you’re not going to believe what I am telling you then keep on walking when you leave.”
Michelle reached around her back and pulled the Glock from her waistband.
“Here you old fool, I hope the two of you have fun together.”
Laying the gun on the sheets beside his good arm, Michelle turned her back to August not wanting him to see the tears. A night with little sleep and worrying about August was taking its toll. She closed the door behind her, straightened herself up and walked down the hall in her best imitation of nothing wrong.
August rolled over on his good arm and slid the gun under the sheets and squeezed his eyes hard pushing out the tears forming. He was hoping Michelle would never have to learn his past.
This changes everything.
The door opened, and August was prepared to ask Michelle for forgiveness. Instead a bubbly nurse with a breakfast tray backed through the door.
“Rise and shine Sheriff.
I’ve never had a sheriff as a patient before. Do I call you sheriff or sir or Mr. Sheriff?
I don’t know but here’s your breakfast. Doctors’ orders, you have to eat it all.”
August tried to keep a disgusted look off his face from her jabbering on. Pulling himself up and wincing at the motion.
“Just call me August. August is fine. Nurse?”
“You can call me Suzie.”
“Suzie, glad to meet you. Were you on all night long?
“Yes sir, I mean yes August. I was here when they brought you in. You were pretty messed up as they say. But you look better now.”
“Did I have any visitors through the night?”
“You mean beside the pretty lady that stayed by your side all night?
There was another lady who came in while you were down in the ER. She didn’t stay long though. Your overnight friend didn’t seem to like her sticking around. You’re a little devil aren’t you having these two young ladies chasing a man your…”
She stopped short of finishing what August knew was coming.
“Can you tell me what the other lady looked like?”
“She was a beauty. Tall, silky black hair. Very shapely. She had an accent like a Mexican or Spanish person. She was very rude to the hospital staff I can tell you that…not like your other lady friend."
Chapter 27
After fighting with the doctors, and convincing Nurse Suzie to track down this clothes August checked himself out of the hospital. One call to Stan Farney and a plan was hatched for him to drive to Lincoln and pick up August.
August had to get to the heart of what was going on with Fr. Steve and why he was being visited now by Angelina and that wasn’t going to happen in a hospital.
Chapter 28
Watercreek,NE
Once back on Watercreek August had the advantage of no one knowing he was back. His first task was retrieving his jeep from the Courthouse and hoping he could do it without anyone noticing.
He wasn’t lucky enough to escape the patrol of Mayor Park. She watched the jeep pull away from the Courthouse.
“Stupid man. He’s going to kill himself before I get the real dirt on him.” She grabbed her keys and was out the door having a good idea where he was going.
Chapter 29
August pulled up to the impound lot and logged himself in with a key swipe at the gate. The electric gate struggled to roll itself back. It was like watching an old man pushing a heavy door open. After what seemed like minutes, it was wide enough for August to pass the jeep through. In the rear-view mirror August watched the gate make the same labored journey back to the closed position.
It was no effort to locate Fr. Steve’s SUV. There were only two other vehicles in the lot. In the light of day more of the trauma to the vehicle was clear. August stopped the jeep directly in front of the vehicle. He sat there for a few moments. The Fill-N-Go coffee cup in the holder grabbed his attention. August’s bloody thumb print was facing him. He reached down and matched his thumb back to the print. His chest tightened and suddenly he felt cold and wet.
Chapter 30
Climbing out of the jeep was harder than getting in. He was starting to regret his decision to leave the hospital. August sat on the edge of the seat before sliding off. He made a grunt like his grandfather did getting up from his chair.
“It’s finally happening, getting soft.”
The jeep was parked in such a way that it blocked the one security camera’s view of his investigation. He didn’t need anyone second guessing this investigation. Walking around the wrecked vehicle
August immediately started recording in his head all the details of the car. No camera or notepad was necessary. The one thing he had always been blessed with was an exceptional memory. A quality, after the other night, he wished would diminish.
There were things he didn’t want to remember anymore.
The front of the SUV was bent at a nose dive angle to the ground. The roof over Steve’s side was cut and bent back by the jaws and the morning sun spotlighted the blood stains on the deflated airbag dangling out of the steering wheel. Mud and grass covered the entire vehicle giving it more of a camouflage paint job rather than the normal shine that Steve was always proud of.
The driver’s door was secured with zip ties. August cut them away and the door swung free towards his legs. The smell of wet carpet, grass, and mud mixed with the humid morning. August carefully pulled back the lifeless air bag to reveal more blood on the steering wheel. The wheel itself was broken and blood was on the jagged edge.
“That must have been what Steve felt in his side.”
August bent down to look around the floor boards for any clues also hoping to find Steve’s cell phone. No luck with either. The contents of the console were scattered over the floor. Various flavors of breath mints, pens, a rosary and parking passes; none of which added to the story of what might have happened.
There was the wrapper for a bouquet of flowers, but August didn’t see any flowers at the scene. The flowers must have been mangled in the wreck and probably someone pitched them at the scene.
Steve could be a real flirt and charmer when he wanted to be. August figured those flowers were probably meant as much to impress the girl as they were to make her feel comfortable with him for the first time.
August made a mental note to check the crash scene for any evidence of flowers.
Walking around the back of the vehicle August found one of the clues he was hoping to find, signs of another vehicle. The rear bumper was crushed. This could only happen if Steve backed into something or if he was rammed from behind. Steve never would have backed into anything with enough force to cause that much damage and a rear bumper does not get crushed like this based on the way Steve’s car rolled.
Steve wasn’t speeding, he was trying to get away from someone.
Chapter 31
Moving to the other side of the vehicle August tried to open the passenger door. It was wedged tight by the accident. Reaching in to try and get some leverage he ripped his shirt on a piece of metal sticking up through the door. He noticed this same piece of metal already had a piece of cloth stuck to it. The glass from the door was broken and shattered across the floor on the inside. If it broke because of the accident more glass would be on the outside of the vehicle.
The seat belt also had a clean cut in it not a jagged cut or tear from an accident.
No one would have been in Steve’s car without a seatbelt. Steve’s was still on when August arrived at the accident scene. The girl wouldn’t have been allowed to ride without hers. The phone didn’t seem as important now. What was more important was figuring who forced them off the road and broke out this window pulling the girl through. The first responders all agreed, she was in the field when they arrived. There was no way, based on the injuries August saw the night of the accident that she could have crawled out by herself.
There would be no cell phone. Whoever caused this accident mostly likely took Steve’s phone before the accident was reported.
Who reported it?
And who was in the car that caused the wreck?
This was not an accident.
The whole incident just turned into a homicide.
Someone knew a lot more than August did at this moment.
August would need to put this together with the clues he had in front of him.
Now there were four deaths that weighted on his soul.
If God was sending him any message that he wanted him back, it wasn’t working.
August pulled out of the lot and headed toward the morgue where he knew the bodies of the girl and Steve would still be in the hands of the coroner.
August was too absorbed in his thoughts to notice Susan’s car rounding the corner as he pulled out of the lot.
Chapter 32
Susan followed August as close as she could without being detected as August pulled from the impound lot. She prided herself in being good at following a source, no matter who or what it was. She felt a little rush knowing she was following a professional. Now that she knew she was dealing with more than just a small-town sheriff she was being more careful.
August’s mystery was her new quest.
Susan watched as August pulled into the community hospital and parked cockeyed in a spot reserved for him. She didn’t risk pulling in, that was too obvious. Instead, she decided to pay a visit to the impound lot herself.
“After all, I am the Mayor, they should let me in.”
Chapter 33
August walked down the halls of the community hospital. By small town standards this was a top-notch facility. Built only a few years ago it boasted features that made many big city hospitals envious. One of those jewels was the morgue and forensic lab which August, now with tunnel vision, was fixed on. He didn’t see the stares of people as he walked through the corridors. Wearing no uniform people not familiar with him thought he was just another visitor. Natives of the area knew better, and they tended to step out of his way as if expecting some wrath to come down, then they whispered in corners as he past. All of this was lost on August. He was too concerned with running events over in his head.
His past and present were colliding with the same trauma as Steve’s accident.
Pushing through the doors of the morgue, he was greeted by Michelle.
She was resting her palms against the exam table as if she was waiting for someone to deal a hand and use the corpse as a gaming table.
“Good morning Auggie, I heard you jumped ship. You’re a damn stubborn Marine. If you decide to drop dead, do it in my morgue, you’ll make my job easier.
I figured I’d be seeing you this morning.”
“Good morning Michelle.” Even with a cloud of depression and regret hanging over his head, August couldn’t help admitting to himself how good she looked in a lab coat and jeans. Her dark skin against the crisp white lab coat made her look like she just stepped out of a black and white fashion photo. August fantasized more than once about what it would be like to be with a woman like Michelle. On a few occasions, he thought he had mustered the courage to invite her for lunch but then like a scared school boy he wilted. He satisfied himself by rationalizing that there was too much age difference and she was probably looking for someone more exciting than him.
August wrestled with apologizing for his actions in the hospital but all he could come with was,
“Any news for me Michelle?”
“I can tell you three things I know for sure. First, you are the talk of the hospital, hell, probably the whole town by now. The only thing people have not said is that you and I are dating. I also heard the mayor paid you a visit before your trip to the hospital.
Should I be jealous Auggie? Is there something you need to share with me?"
Both statements made August blush and he could feel that school yard embarrassment that comes when someone calls you out on what you thought were your secret desires. All August could get out of his dry mouth was,
“Let them talk.”
Michelle continued, with just a little lighter tone knowing she touched on something.
“Second, neither victim, Fr. Steve or the Jane Doe were drinking.”
“Michelle, she is no Jane Doe, although I can’t give you a name. Her name is supposed to be Angelina. And, you know as well as I do, Steve would never drink and drive.”
“That’s good information. But what do you mean supposed to be? Aren’t you sure?"
“I don’t know what I am sure of right now. I’m working on that. My visit here might help me with a name.”
>
“Well, August, here is a third tidbit, and you probably already suspected, Jane Angelina Doe was not killed by the accident, what you didn’t know, was that neither was Fr. Steve. And….this is going to make your investigation even more difficult.
He was poisoned.
All I can tell you right now is that it was a fast-acting toxin. There was a good chance, from what I can tell from my preliminary autopsy, he might have survived the accident if the poison wasn’t in his system. His injuries were severe, but survivable with immediate attention normally administered at the scene or in an ER.”
“And the girl, what was the real cause of death?”
“She was suffocated August. She survived the accident, but someone beat this poor girl to make it look like accident injuries, then when she had no fight left, they smothered her and left her out in the rain.”
“You’re right. I was afraid that was what you were going to tell me.
When I examined Steve’s vehicle I could tell the seatbelt was sliced, not by the accident, but by someone.”
August, was visibly upset by the confirmation of the news he feared.
“And there is one more thing. It’s probably just one of those coincidences. One of the firemen that worked the wreck was brought in this morning.
His wife found him dead on the back porch. From the reports it looks like he just stepped off the back porch and fell over.
I’ll keep you posted on that one also.”
Michelle noticed the change coming over August before she finished her explanation. She wanted to reach out to him.
She took two steps around the exam table that held Fr. Steve and then stopped herself from getting any closer. She figured if she could just touch him that might be enough.
The normally tanned and rugged August was even more pale and soft than when she left him in the hospital. She just wanted to hold him, but she knew August wasn’t that kind of guy you don't walk over and hugged.
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