In the Shadow of Angels

by Donnie J Burgess

  He rolled by slowly, watching in his mirror. Once he was sure that he was far enough away that they weren’t paying any attention to him, but still close enough to see the cars, he pulled into a driveway, turned the car so the nose faced the road, backed up so he wasn’t quite so visible, shut off the lights and waited. His eyes remained firmly locked on the location of the interaction between the officer and Devin, but at this distance, he could scarcely see the cars at all, let alone the people. It was just a blur of red, blue and white lights.

  Several minutes passed as he waited, but finally the red and blue lights went out and the old Pontiac pulled back onto the road. He ducked down in the seat of the car while he waited for the lights to pass him. He was just about to turn the lights back on and pull out to follow when he saw Devin turn down a driveway to the right. He had been to a number of the houses out here and knew there were no more than two houses sharing any of these driveways. Wherever Devin was going, probably to his house he guessed, it couldn’t be far. Dr. Stephens assumed that once there, Devin would be removing a body from the trunk of his car. So he also expected him to be on high alert for any unusual lights or noises - both of which a car would create - so he opted to leave his car behind.

  He got out of the car and started walking toward the driveway, but stopped. He went back to the car, got in, started it up and pulled onto the shoulder. If someone happened by and questioned him, he would claim that the car died and he was seeking assistance. That would seem far less plausible if the car was backed into a driveway facing the road. Satisfied that he had covered his bases, Dr. Stephens started walking again toward the driveway.

  Shortly after he started walking, just before he reached the driveway, Dr. Stephens saw a pair of headlights coming up the drive. The car was going considerably faster than the Pontiac was. He went to the edge of the shoulder and knelt down in the gravel just out of sight from the road. When the car had passed him, he scrambled back up onto the shoulder to see the tail. He couldn’t tell what make it was, but it definitely wasn’t the Pontiac. He also couldn’t be sure if this car was Devin’s. Whether it was or wasn’t, didn’t change his goal. The Pontiac was still down that driveway and he needed to find it.

  Soon thereafter, he arrived at the driveway. He noted two mailboxes on the turnout. The one on the left said Williams and the one on the right said Bryant. So, there would be two houses. He started walking down the drive. When he reached a T in the road, he guessed it would be to the right, since the mailbox was. He continued walking that direction and quickly arrived at the house. There was a three-door garage a hundred yards in front of him, but there were so many lights on that it might as well have been daytime. If he approached the house and Devin was there, he would be spotted for sure. What to do?

  What is a plausible reason for your psychiatrist to show up at your house at damn near midnight on a Saturday? He wondered. Broken down car? That was way too convenient to be believed. To check on his well-being? Well why not just give him a call? To check on someone else’s well-being? Well that seemed much more reasonable. Still, why not give him a call? What about his wife? He didn’t know where she was either. What to do?

  He took out his cell phone and dialed a number.

  *****

  “Why is she in the trunk of your car?!” Beth screamed.

  Her cell phone rang, startling them both. She took it from her pocket and they both looked at the name on the screen: Dr. Stephens. It seemed awfully late for him to be calling.

  She was just about to hit the decline button when Devin stopped her.

  “Answer it Beth,” he said. “Answer it like none of this happened.”

  Beth took a couple of deep breaths before hitting the answer button.

  “Hello?”

  “Oh, hello, Bethany,” Dr. Stephens said, “I’m sorry for calling at such a late hour, but it is rather important.”

  “What is it?”

  “Are you at home, Bethany?”

  “Am I at home?” Beth repeated - both confused by why this would matter to him and to make sure Devin knew what he asked her.

  Devin was also taken aback by the question, but he quickly remembered the car that followed him back from The Place, the car that passed him when the officer had pulled him over. That car was Dr. Stephens’. He also saw a silver BMW on the side of the road when he turned onto Turner Road to come to the quarry. He was in such a rush at the time that he hadn’t even thought about Dr. Stephens following him back from The Place and didn’t think to check the plate on the way by. Had he followed him all the way to the house? Had he seen him switch cars and leave again? Was he actually at the house right now?

  “Why?” Beth questioned, not getting a response from Devin.

  Dr. Stephens sighed deeply into the phone, “It’s rather a delicate matter, I’m afraid.” He said. “Jezebel Anders is one of my patients. She phoned me earlier tonight. She sounded suicidal.” He paused and took a deep breath, “I was out looking for her and I saw her leave The Place with Devin.”

  If he were expecting this to crush her, he would now be very disappointed.

  “What does that have to do with whether or not I’m home?” She asked, unable to mask the anger in her voice.

  “I’m sorry to have upset you, Bethany.” He said calmly, “It’s just that I don’t think Devin would have taken Jezebel to your house if you were there.” He paused again, “She is in a weakened mental state and I’m afraid my concern for her well-being currently precludes my ability to remain tactful.”

  Yes, Dr. Ulysses Stephens was a deplorable little weasel.

  Beth looked to Devin, who was frantically shaking his head no. “No. Dr. Stephens, I’m not at home.”

  “Thank you, Bethany.” He replied. “Perhaps I’ll drop by and make sure they aren’t there. Neither of them are answering their phones.”

  Beth replied without thinking. “You could just ask him. He’s right here.”

  This was probably the only thing she could have said that could have caught him by surprise. And it did so in spades.

  Devin grabbed the phone from Beth.

  “Jezebel isn’t with me, if that’s your question.” Devin said, “In fact, I haven’t seen her for days.” He lied.

  “Okay…” Dr. Stephens replied, searching for words. “I must have been mistaken. Do apologize to Bethany for me.”

  He hung up the phone before Devin had a chance to respond.

  Devin turned to Beth. “Why did you tell him you weren’t home?!”

  “You were shaking your head no. I thought that’s what you wanted me to do!”

  “I meant don’t tell him that you’re not home…” he said, realizing that he couldn’t fault her for thinking that. “He followed me back from The Place. He only passed me when I got pulled over.”

  In that moment, Beth now realized what Devin realized while she was still on the phone: Dr. Stephens knew. And now he also knew that neither of them were at home.

  “But if he knows, why didn’t he just call the police?” Beth asked the question that they were both thinking.

  “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Devin said, under his breath.

  “What?” Beth asked.

  “He killed Jezebel.” Devin said, shaking his head in confusion. “I don’t know how or why, but he must have.”

  “But…” Beth started, but was interrupted by the ringing of a phone, Devin’s this time.

  Devin looked at the caller ID. It was showing an 800 number that he recognized from many false alarms over the years. He answered it quickly.

  “Hello?”

  “This is Tim with HomeGuard security. We’re getting an alarm from your kitchen entrance. The door was opened and the disarm code was entered improperly. Do you require assistance?”

  Devin didn’t even need to think about it. The last thing he needed right now was a bunch of police snooping through his house.

  “Tha
t was me. I was trying to disarm it while carrying a big package in from the trunk of my car.”

  “Why didn’t you set the package down?”

  “You know, that’s a damn good question. Where were you five minutes ago?”

  Tim laughed. “Okay, if you’ll just give us your disarm code, we’ll get that shut right off for you.”

  “9,7,4,6,9” Devin rattled back.

  “Thank you, Mr. Bryant.” A brief pause. “There, that should do it.”

  Tim finished with his scripted closing speech, which ended with “have a HomeGuard night!” Which Devin thought was probably the lamest slogan in the history of lame slogans.

  *****

  After Tim disconnected the call, something occurred to him. He wondered why he hadn’t heard the sound of the alarm in the background. Could Mr. Bryant have been under duress? He would check with his supervisor and see if maybe they should send someone out anyway.

  *****

  Devin looked to Beth. “He’s in the house.” He said. But she already knew it too.

  But why? He thought to himself. Why was he trying so desperately to get to her body? He was well past the point where he could believe that Dr. Stephens had simply seen Beth push Jezebel over the railing; past the point where he could believe that he had simply seen him put the body in his car. Even if he saw both of those things happen, it still didn’t make sense. The only thing that made sense was that there was something on Jezebel’s body that would incriminate the doctor. He didn’t know what it could be. She was wearing such a skimpy little dress and she hadn’t been carrying a purse, but it was obviously something important enough that he already killed someone for it. Important enough that he was searching for the body even after someone else took it away, seemingly exonerating him. Devin had no doubt in his mind that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill for it again.

  “Bethany,” Devin started, addressing her as Bethany for perhaps the fifth time in his life, but the second tonight. “You need to stay here. I’m going to the house.”

  “What am I supposed to do here?!” Beth shouted, more afraid of being alone than whatever might happen if she went to the house with Devin.

  “I don’t know, Beth. But he’s already killed one person tonight…”

  “Just call the police, Devin!” Beth screamed through a new wave of tears. “They can figure out what happened. I don’t want to lose you!”

  “If we call the police, we’ll both be going to prison for a very long time.” Devin paused. “Whatever he is looking for, I have to find it before he does. It’s our only chance.”

  “But what if he attacks you? You can’t go alone!”

  “Oh, I’m not going alone.” Devin said. “But you need to wait here. If you don’t hear from me in an hour, then you call the police and send them to the house. You tell them that you saw Dr. Stephens kill Jezebel at The Place. You tell them that Dr. Stephens held a gun on me and made me put her body in my car. We’ll sort it out when they get there.”

  “But Devin…” Beth started to protest.

  “One hour.” Devin said firmly, “promise me that you will wait for one hour.”

  Beth hung her head in tears. “One hour. I promise.”

  Devin looked at the clock on his cell phone: 11:43pm. “1am, you can call, okay?”

  Bethany started to protest, “But you said an hour!”

  “I know, but I need to stop somewhere else first.”

  Devin leaned in to Beth, “We’ll get through this, Beth. I promise.” He kissed her gently. “I love you.”

  “I love you too,” she responded in tears, hoping this wouldn’t be the last time she saw him.

  Devin quickly got back into his car and drove away.

  Chapter 10

  Edward Digby sat in his van and watched the little blonde make a frantic phone call. When no one answered, she typed out a text message every bit as frantically. She stared at her phone, pacing back and forth waiting for a response. After a short time, two minutes or so, she made another frantic call. This time it was clear that someone answered.

  Edward was now regretting that he hadn’t taken the time to dig his parabolic microphone out of the back of the van when he saw her pull up. Without it, he could only look on limply as the little blonde had a conversation that was clearly of dire importance. Her arms flew about as she spoke and even from his van some fifty yards away, the intensity of her conversation was perfectly clear. When he saw her pull the phone from her ear and end the call, he knew she would be leaving soon.

  Edward started the van and pulled out onto 62, heading back toward Ashwood. Edward had a bit more experience than Dr. Stephens did when it came to tailing someone and found that the best way to do so was to be in front of them. This little blonde had pushed Jezebel over the railing, returned to the scene (why on earth would she do that?), and made a very frantic call. She was clearly going to be getting the hell out of there and in enough of a hurry that she would likely pass him immediately after she got on the road. Once she did that, she wouldn’t even consider that he was following her.

  He had only been on the road for thirty seconds when Beth’s Mini flew past him. He sped up a bit to try to keep pace with her, but even with his speedometer reading 80mph, she was still losing him. He didn’t dare go any faster though, or it would be apparent that he was following. He had to hope that he would see her when she made a turn and try to catch up then.

  Another thing Edward learned about tailing someone is the importance of knowing the area at least as well as the person you are following. If you made a turn to follow down a dead-end road, you would compromise the pursuit. So when he saw the Mini make a right turn onto Turner Road, he knew he would have to pick up the pursuit later. That road led to the quarry, but nothing else. There wasn’t a turn-off to speak of on that old dirt road and based on the abbreviated conversation that she had on the phone, he expected she would be meeting someone there. He didn’t know if that person or persons had already made the turn and being stuck between the two could be suicide.

  Edward made a left onto Turner Road and pulled into the first public parking lot available: O’Halligan’s pub. He located the darkest portion of the lot and backed his van into a space. It would take only a couple of seconds to get back onto the road when it was time.

  Edward picked up his cell phone and dialed his voicemail. He selected the option to record an outgoing message and recorded a new one: “You’ve reached Ashwood Safe Ride. Please leave your name, location and a callback number. We will contact you as soon as possible.”

  Surveillance 101: if you are going to post a fake phone number, don’t use bogus area codes or numbers. Expect that someone is going to dial it and prepare for that eventuality. An active sign for a business should have a real telephone number associated with it. If it doesn’t, you are asking for trouble.

  He got out of the van and looked around for any prying eyes. Seeing no one outside, he quickly peeled the magnets, which read:

  Collectible Ashwood

  Unique Gifts &

  Hidden Treasures

  off the sides of the van. He opened the back door of the van and started flipping through his signs. He kept dozens of magnetic signs in the back of his the back of his van for a variety of situations. Near midnight on a Saturday was the perfect time to post the safe ride sign:

  Ashwood Safe Ride

  Don’t Drive Drunk – Ride Safe

  634-518-0111

  Doing so while sitting in the parking lot of a bar might seem a bit risky, but he already worked out that conversation as well. He would tell them all rides need to be scheduled through the number posted on the van, and when they called the number, they would actually be calling his cell phone. He would then call Ashwood Ride Safe, the name of the actual business operating in town, and give them the information. So why post his number on the van at all? He liked to monitor who was calling based on seeing the van - that was the best way to know if his cover was compromised.

 
Once he found and applied the Safe Ride signs to the side of the van, he went to the back again and found the magnetic roof sign that read Livery Vehicle. He found out early on that posting a taxi sign on the roof could lead to people jumping into the van, even if the light was out. With the livery vehicle sign, he could usually talk his way out of it by citing some bogus regulation that didn’t allow for non-scheduled passengers. Besides that, he was only looking to make the van look different than it had when he was in the lot of The Place in case anyone had been paying him too much attention.

  Edward still felt a bit of unease about continuing to pursue this little blonde though. She had already attempted to kill someone tonight, so there was no way to know that she, or whomever she was meeting, wasn’t going to do it again. In one final move to disguise the van, he popped his hood open and disconnected the passenger side headlight. Now even if he got directly behind her again, she wouldn’t have any indication that this was the van following her back to town after she passed it outside of The Place.

  Edward sat back in the driver’s seat waiting to see the Mini come back down Turner Road. He waited for perhaps fifteen minutes when he saw something else. A pair of headlights was coming down that old dirt road at breakneck speed. As it neared highway 62, it didn’t even slow for the stop sign. At about the same time, two men scrambled out of the bar and got into an old Econoline. The car coming down Turner Road crossed highway 62 too quickly and may have even lost contact with the ground. The Econoline spun its tires as it pulled out directly behind it.

  Edward still wondered what happened to the mini, but wherever these two cars were going, they were doing so with a purpose. He made the decision to let the Mini go for now and follow the action.