by C. C. Wall
Sue grinned, “I was until I heard about what happened last night.”
“It was a disaster,” he said. “Consider yourself lucky.”
“I have tried calling him,” she said, “I don’t hear his phone going off in there. Can you try your radio?”
“Where’s yours?” Dyer asked.
Sue didn’t want to get into it. “Could you try, please?”
Dyer nodded. “Yeah, sure.” He held it near his face. “Lukas, you read me?”
Sue had her head pushed against the door trying to hear any inclination of Lukas’s radio behind the locked door. “Nothing.” She looked at the door as if she was trying to understand its purpose in blocking her from entering. “Maybe we should bust it down?”
Dyer rolled his eyes. “Listen Callahan, I know Lukas was your, you know, go to guy, but he fucking shot and killed a young girl last night. Maybe he just wants to be alone.”
Sue looked Dyer in the eyes with anger and said, “I know what he did.”
“I’m not trying to upset you, but you know how he gets drunk and wakes up in the woods or in ditches and then calls for us to come get him. It’s still early, he could call any minute asking us to show up.”
Sue knew that Dyer had a point even though she didn’t want to hear it. She needed Lukas and she needed him right then and there. “I can’t just leave. His car is down stairs, I know he’s here.”
“He was probably wasted and knew better to drive. Again, which is why we have to go pick him up all the time.” Dyer put his hand on her arm, caressing it.
Sue looked down at his arm, then quickly back up at him. He stopped before she could ask What are you doing? She then turned away from him feeling uncomfortable.
“Look, I just want you to know that I am here for you if you ever need to talk or anything,” he said.
“My friend. My colleague, who I care deeply about, just went through the worst night of his life probably and I just want to make sure that he is all right!” Sue yelled. “Is that okay with you, deputy?”
Dyer slowly nodded his head and bit his lip. “Whatever you say, boss.”
“I’m not your boss,” Sue said. She shook her head and looked away.
“What are you talking about?” Dyer asked.
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “Is there anything else?”
“Reagan needs to see you right away,” he said.
“To talk me out of something?” she asked under her breath.
“All I know is, things went tits up. I have a lot of other things that I could be doing that would be useful and for some reason, Reagan is making tracking you down his top priority. So if you think I’m a piece of shit or whatever, just go to the station and see him so I can get back to work.” He turned and walked away.
Sue felt awful. “I’m sorry, Dyer.”
He didn’t even look back at her, “Whatever.”
10 - Apple Pucker
Jack Hart walked up the stairs to his apartment. He was whistling a tune. It was a happy tune. Jack was happy. Jack was happy because for the first time in his life, he felt that he was doing it his way. He was very upset with Tom Harker at first for letting him go from the paper, but now he almost wanted to thank Tom. His new website, The Black Star Canyon Hart Attack, has given him more attention and praise than anything that he has ever done before. Jack thought that if was going to thank Tom for firing him, he might as well thank Lukas for shooting Michelle Roth in the face. But then he thought it might seem better if he kept his gratefulness to himself.
Those thoughts made Jack chuckle as he came through the door. Even though it was light outside, it was always a bit dark in Jacks apartment. He always kept his heavy drapes closed. He didn’t want anyone spying on him or seeing what stories he was working on. He thought that level of secrecy was even more important now that he was on his own. He turned on the light in the small living room and then felt as though he was kicked in the stomach when he saw that all of his equipment was gone; cameras, computer, printer, tripod, hard drives, everything.
“What the fuck?” Jack yelled.
“I’m the fuck,” said a voice from the other side of the room.
That side of the room was still a little dark. Jack could tell someone was sitting in a chair over there. Jack was frozen in fear. He had no idea who would be in his apartment but knew that he had probably made many enemies over the last year. He could see the dark figure reaching for a lamp that was next to the chair. He was about to find out who it was.
“I think you and I need to have a little chat,” said the voice.
The light turned on.
Jack saw who it was. Most of his fear was gone now and turned into anger. “Is this where you tell me I have until dusk to leave town or else?”
“That would be much too easy,” Sheriff Reagan said. “Why don’t you have a seat.”
“Why don’t you get the hell out of my apartment!” Jack yelled. “I’ll call the…” Jack realized how stupid that sounded as soon as it came out of his mouth.
“I’m the sheriff, son,” Reagan said. “I make the rules in this town. Now why don’t you sit down and let me tell you how this is going to work out.”
Jack reluctantly sat down.
“There you go,” Reagan said with a smile, “Now, I would have offered me a drink by now, but considering all you have is vodka and apple pucker, I’ll let you get away with that one.” Reagan sat back in the chair.
“Where are my things?” Jack said with his voice slightly elevated.
“We have taken your belongings into evidence,” Reagan answered.
“Evidence?” Jack questioned.
“You see, Jack,” Reagan said, “You are the only one to have any hard evidence about the goings on at Cook’s last night. I have to launch a full investigation on my best detective, which I don’t want to do, and I think your footage will exonerate him.”
“You can’t do that,” Jack protested.
“I’m sorry son, did you get confused when I told you that I am the sheriff? I can do what I want,” Reagan said. “To be fair, I don’t like pulling that card, but you’re kind of a piss ant, and I don’t like you very much, so I doubt I’ll lose any sleep over this.”
Jack stared daggers at Reagan. “I’ll write about this. I’ll expose you and your whole corrupt station.”
“We’ll get to that in a minute, but since we are here having such a friendly conversation, can you tell me what happened at Cook’s?” Reagan asked. “Being a nice guy right now could help you.”
Jack thought about it for a moment. He really just wanted his stuff back so thought that he would play along. “The one thing that you need to know, is that I was following Lukas around the second he ran into Cook’s. You could tell in his eyes something was going to go down. When he pulled out his gun and yelled for everybody to get down, there was no one that he was pointing that gun at besides Michelle. She froze. She was staring down the barrel of Lukas’s gun. There was no other shooter. Once Lukas realized he shot her, he got on his radio and started yelling about some guy in a black hoodie. I never saw that guy. I don’t think he was ever there. I think your detective slipped into the deep end of the pool, sheriff.”
Reagan sat there letting that sink in. “Thank you for your candor. I appreciate it.”
Jack thought for sure that he was about to get punched across the face or pistol whipped or something.
“I guess we will find out through your footage if that is true or not,” Reagan said. He stood up and Jack flinched.
“When do I get my stuff back?” Jack asked.
“When I say so,” Reagan answered. “Not before.”
“But I have my site. You can’t take all of my equipment!” Jack said.
“Oh yeah,” Reagan said. “You aren’t doing that Hart Attack thing anymore.”
“Excuse me?” Jack jumped up. “Like Hell! You can’t take away my right to free speech!”
“I don’t have to. You just aren’t go
ing to do it anymore.” Reagan said. “There will be other people who will quiet you, I’m just giving you a warning.”
Jack was confused, “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve said too much already,” Reagan smiled. “Have a great night.”
As Reagan walked down the stairs, he thought that maybe he should warn Jack about Donald Roth and their lawsuit, but then thought it was best to keep it from him. Reagan thought one of the best things ever would be to be the one who gets to serve Jack with the papers once the lawsuit goes through. The look on Jack’s face should be priceless.
11 - The Great Escape
“I’m so sorry you were home alone for so long,” Francine said.
Prince Harry didn’t really care too much. He was lapping up a bowl of water. He was happy for the moment. He had been very thirsty. He was just about to figure out how to drink out of the toilet without falling in, just as Francine pulled up out front.
He heard the can opener. That was enough to pull his face away from the water bowl. He licked the wet fur around his mouth as he watched her open a new can of food. He ran over to the bag of dry food and spun around in circles, growling and barking out of happiness. He was very hungry. She scooped out a cup of dry food and mixed it in fancy beef and lamb mixture. Harry’s little mouth was watering.
“Now don’t eat so fast that you throw it all up, dear,” Francine said. She put the bowl down on the ground and Harry tried to eat it as it came down. He tried to balance on his hind legs to do so, but in the excitement, fell over.
“Harry!” Francine gasped. “Are you all right? You have to be more careful.”
He dove face first into the bowl and seemed to hum and mumble as he ate up the bowl of food much quicker than he should have.
In the meantime, Francine had walked through the house making sure that it was in an acceptable order. “Harry!” Francine yelled.
Harry just remembered that he had been using the sitting room as his toilet while they were gone. He knew he shouldn’t have but couldn’t hold it any longer. He had planned on eating and drinking it up so that no one would find it as he had done in the past, but heard a squirrel outside that distracted him. He had completely forgotten that he was going to do that. He hoped that she wouldn’t smack him. The only thing that Francine loves more than him, is her house and Harry knew it.
Harry ran around the corner looking sad. Francine’s face turned from anger to pity.
“I’m sorry. I know you only did this because we left you in here all night,” she said. “It’s okay, Harry.”
Harry stood up and wagged his tail. He trotted over to her who was on her knees cleaning up his mess. He licked her right across the mouth.
“Harry!” she yelped. “That’s disgusting. I can taste your food!”
Harry backed up as she got up and ran into the bathroom. Once she came out, she walked upstairs. Harry ran up next to her almost getting under her feet and tripping her up. But over the years, Francine had gotten pretty good at not having Harry kill her on the stairs.
Francine stopped at Elizabeth’s doorway. She looked in and rested her head on the doorjamb. Harry ran up right beside her. He didn’t go in either. He whimpered. Even though he liked having the house to himself to some extent, it seemed like ages since he had seen his big sister Elizabeth. He missed her.
He looked up and barked at Francine.
“I know,” she said. “I miss her too.”
Harry then heard something in the distance. He barked.
Francine jumped, “Harry!”
Harry tore down the stairs barking. He jumped up on the chair next to the window and looked out. He was hoping it was Jonathan and Elizabeth, but the car he heard pulling up their long driveway was one that he had never heard before.
Francine finally made it down the stairs and looked out the window too. “Who in the world can that be?”
Harry began to growl.
A man got out of the car. A man that Harry had never seen before. He was coming to the door.
Francine thought it best to meet the man outside.
Harry could sense that she didn’t want him in the house. This made Harry even more protective of his home.
She opened the door and Harry ran out.
“Harry! Get over here!” she yelled.
Harry ran right up to the man growling. The man didn’t seem to care.
“Francine,” he said.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said.
“I won’t stay long,” the man said. “I just want to talk.”
Once Harry could sense that the apparent danger was over, he left the man alone. He sniffed him and then sniffed the tires of his car. Harry thought it best to mark it in case he needed to find it later, so he lifted his leg and urinated on the back driver’s side tire.
The two continued to talk and Harry figured since he was out, he should do some sniffing. He could’t remember the last time he was allowed out front without a leash on and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.
He sniffed around all over. He kept going as far as he thought Francine would let him and then he would look back at her talking to that man. When she didn’t seem bothered by where Harry was, he would go a little bit farther. He repeated this cycle a few more times until Francine was out of eye sight.
What Harry really wanted to do, was to go back to that spot where he and Jonathan found that yummy, salty, puddle next to that naked girl. That really tasted good, Harry thought, and if he could find more of that, he might even roll around in it because it smelled so good too.
He finally got to the spot. There wasn’t any of the wet, yummy, salty stuff on the ground but he saw where it was. The ground had dried but the dirt became chunky where is was. Harry licked the ground a bit but thought it would work better if he just ate a chunk of the mixture. Kind of like the food Francine makes him at home, a mixture of dry and wet.
He picked up a piece and started chewing but it wasn’t very good. He let most of it fall out of his mouth.
It was at that moment that Harry heard another strange noise. It sounded like there was something in the woods, not too far away. It sounded big. There was a lot of rustling going on. The noise sounded too big to be a squirrel and the noise sounded too loud to be a deer. Maybe, it was a bear, dragging a deer he thought. But the bear would probably make a louder noise and he couldn’t smell a bear.
Then he heard a muffled scream break through and scream out loudly. It was a girl. Harry barked. The scream stopped. Harry thought someone was in danger and that someone might be Elizabeth and that’s probably why he hadn’t seen her for so long.
Harry darted into the woods. Quickly jumping and dodging bushed, tree roots, rocks and anything else that got in his way.
The noises she was making were getting louder. He knew he was getting close. He approached an opening in the dense forrest. That’s when he saw a man, dragging a woman by her feet through the woods. Her hands were tied and her mouth had something in it. Harry was sad when he saw that it wasn’t Elizabeth. The man seemed to be getting tired and couldn’t pull her anymore. The girl seemed to be injured. The man stood up and picked up a big rock. He held it above the girl’s head. She screamed.
Harry knew he had to do something. He ran towards him as fast as he could, barking the whole way. He was right about to bite down on the man’s ankle and then felt an overwhelming pain like none he had ever felt before. The man’s other foot came swinging by and connected with Harry’s side right before he was able to bite the man. Harry went flying in the air and landed in the bushes, yelping and whimpering.
Harry rolled over and looked through the brush, knowing that he was well hidden, he didn’t sense anymore danger to himself. His pride was hurting more than anything else.
Harry saw the man pull out a large sharp knife, like the kind he would see in the scary movies that Elizabeth would watch late at night after Jonathan and Francine were asleep. He brought the knife down on her wrist.
She screamed out. He picked the rock back up over his head and brought it down swiftly onto the girl’s face. Her screams stopped. Her arms and feet jiggled a little bit afterwards, but then nothing.
Harry whimpered a little bit more. The man then picked her up over his shoulder and walked away through the woods.
Harry came out from the bush with his tail between his legs. He sniffed around. He wanted to know who that evil man was that sent him flying into a bush. He got a very strong scent and his tail began to wag.
Yummy, wet, salty! He thought. Harry got to lick up some new yummy, wet and salty! This time it was warm. That was so much better than it being cold. So now his new favorite thing was the warm, yummy, wet and salty!
He understood what was happening now. That guy was trying to keep all the warm, yummy, wet and salty to himself! Harry thought that probably, that girl got too close to it, so that guy had to get her out of the way. This all started making perfect sense to him. But Harry wanted all of it for himself.
He licked up as much as he could of it. He saw that there was a trail of it going the same way the man went. Harry made a decision right there, that he would get that guy’s warm, yummy, wet and salty instead of going back home. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and Harry wasn’t about to let slip through his paws.
12 - Special Delivery
Sue finally pulled up in front of the Sheriff’s Station. She was surprised to see such a huge crowd out front. She knew this couldn’t be a good thing. Maybe Lukas was in there finally and they were getting ready to get their torches and pitchforks to go lynch him.
She parked her car and started to wade through the crowd. It was worse inside. It looked like a hot, summer day at the soda fountain in the general store. When she finally made it through the crowd at the front desk, she found Deputy Reed, drowning, trying to help all the screaming people and answering the phones. He looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown.