by Thomas Amo
"Why the hell isn't the sprinkler system coming on?" shouted Cherney. Shelton ran to the fire alarm and pulled it. The bell began to ring but no water came.
Summers picked up a chair to try and smash through the glass as Clem placed his hand against the glass with the rapidly burning yellow legal paper inside it. Summers dropped the chair as she moved up close to read what the burning paper said. Disintegrating in front of her was the only clue that would tell her why Manson had ordered Clem to kill her. Agent Summers, shook her head as the paper burned away into black ashes. Captain Shelton stood behind Summers watching the bizarre tragedy play out in her very own police headquarters.
"What did the paper say?" said Shelton as she tried to shake Summers into focus. Summers turned to her and whispered. "It said, 'Because you're family.' "
Chapter Twenty
Family
The cool breeze of the Pacific Ocean blew through Thomas James' salt and pepper hair. Driving with the window down the wind was comfortable and relaxing. Summers sat in the front passenger seat of his Crown Victoria. It was a typical generic detective's car for most law enforcement agencies. In San Francisco it was of course becoming politically incorrect to drive one. She was certain before the end of the year everyone would be driving a hybrid.
Summers watched the city as it passed her window. The rows and rows of 19th century Victorian houses were squeezed together like sardines in a can. It was for lack of a better term, stereotypical.
"It's nothing like Hollywood," she said to herself as she turned and noticed Inspector James was deep in thought. His driving was deliberate and focused. She wondered what he was thinking about. Was it the chance his captain was taking by letting them take this course of action in the case? Was it the phone call she had made to her field director in Los Angeles that had made this trip possible? Or was it the fact that in less than 20 minutes they would be at the gates of San Quentin Prison arranging an interview with Charles Manson?
"Do you think he really will talk to us?" she asked breaking his intense concentration. James mulled over her question, collecting his thoughts.
"It's anyone's guess, Miss Summers," he said.
"Ashton."
"Sorry?"
"Call me Ashton, there's no need to be so formal," she smiled. James smiled back and nodded his acceptance of her offer. He then drifted back into his focused thinking and began to wonder if Charlie would talk to them.
"You really do have a lot on your mind, don't you?"
"What? Oh I'm sorry, I do yes. Forgive me the last 24 hours have been intense to say the least. I mean, if someone told me last week I would be going to interview Charles Manson, I would have laughed. Now it's no surprise to me at all. I mean it actually seems to be the only thing that does make any sense at the moment."
Summers sympathized and forced a fake smile. Her thoughts reflected back to the conversation she had with her field director, Paige Collins.
"You have to break the seal on the records Paige. If I was adopted I need to know."
"Summers, even the bureau has to be careful when we go slipping between the cracks. Getting background information is one thing, but when it involves sealed adoption records that's most likely going to involve a judge."
"Paige, this guy told us he was ordered to kill me by Charles Manson back in 1972. Do you know how insane that is?"
"I do and I understand Agent Summers. Listen I will handle things on this end. Luckily the L.A. Bureau was involved in the Manson case so I shouldn't have too much trouble getting you some answers. But I need you to listen to me closely Ashton. You need to keep silent about the case your working on here in Hollywood. There have been some new developments. I can't tell you about them right now. But I can confirm the San Francisco case is connected. Whatever you do, do not tell Inspector James anything...at least not yet," said Collins, ending the call.
Summers looked back over to James as she remembered her director's orders. She wondered what exactly the new developments were.
"What exactly do you expect to find out from Manson?" asked James. Now it was Summers turn to be snapped back into the present.
"I'm sorry Tom, my mind was wandering."
"Considering what happened this morning, I'm really not the least bit surprised," he said.
The two of them sat silently as James made his way through the vast maze of city streets. Each stoplight was either another hill or a one-way street. Both James and Summers wondered about each other and how they came to be here together in this moment. Summers broke the silence once again. "Tom, what happened to you inside The Aleris?"
James felt his blood chill as he thought about being dragged through the hotel by a dead man. Was it a bad dream? Did I pass out and simply hallucinate? He wondered. But I saw those three men...he tried to shake it from his mind. They were crucified upside down, each one with a letter carved...his thoughts were broken by his car radio.
"Inspector James, call coming in from Captain Shelton are you able to receive?" asked the dispatcher. James took the handset and clicked an answer. "James here, yes I'm able to receive, go ahead."
"Tommy? You there?"
"Yes Cap, I'm here."
"Something wrong with your cell phone? I've been trying to call you for the last 10 minutes." James reached into his pocket fumbled around until his found his phone. Looking at it he realized he had it set to silent and then he noticed he had indeed four missed calls. The first three were from Captain Shelton. The last one was a missed call, from Michael Kirkland.
"Cap, I think there is something wrong with my phone."
"We need to talk, Tommy and not over the police band."
"Tell her to call my number," said Summers.
"Agent Summers said to call us on her phone."
"Okay, I'll call you in two, over."
James replaced the handset. Summers gave him a puzzled look. What do you think that was about?"
"I don't know, but I think there is something definitely wrong with my phone," said James as Summers' phone rang. She quickly handed it over directly to James.
"Thomas James here."
"Tommy, it's Shelton. You're gonna have to cancel your trip to see Charlie."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Seems Charlie is in the prison hospital. Another inmate decided to go all Jim Morrison on him and light his fire this morning. He's suffered multiple burns to his face and chest."
"Is he alive?"
"Last report he was."
"Cap, this is too much of a coincidence. Clem burns to death in our station right in front of us along with this guy Rolan Chessman and now you're telling me someone tried to burn Charlie too?"
"That's the long and short of it Tommy. Seems like the Devil is working overtime. You better get back here right away."
"We're on our way. Oh, and Cap, one more thing. I think it's time we found out just who in the hell is Rolan Chessman."
Chapter Twenty-One
Rolan Chessman
James sat parked on the side of the road, listening intently to his voice mail messages. As he heard the missed call from Kirkland's number his face became white as chalk. Summers noticed his reaction and instantly James threw the car into gear and flipped on the silent police lights as he began to navigate through the streets of San Francisco to Kirkland's home.
"What's going on?" asked Summers.
"Apparently someone doesn't want Charlie talking to anyone. An inmate tried to burn him this morning."
"You're kidding?"
"I wish I were," said James, turning the car away from the station. "Can I can drop you off for about half an hour, Ashton?"
"Where are you going?"
"I need to check on something and I don't want your investigation to become compromised."
"No, I'll go with you."
"Seriously Ashton, I'd rather do this alone. It's personal."
"It's personal now for me too, Tom. Whatever it is you need to do, you can trust me. I know something has
you spooked and it's not Charles Manson."
"Okay look, I know this will sound crazy, but I just missed a phone call from Michael Kirkland."
"Your partner? I thought he died in the hotel."
"The call, it came from his house."
"Was it Kirkland? What did he say?"
Both James and Summers were startled by ring of her cell phone. "Agent Summers here. Sure just one second. It's Captain Shelton again." James reached over and took the phone. "Yeah Cap, what's up?"
"Tommy, I just got a call from the warden over at Quentin he said they reviewed the security tapes. No one attacked Manson. The asshole lit himself on fire."
"He burned himself? That doesn't make any sense at all," said James.
"Warden said Charlie did it at 11:13 a.m. exactly, same as the fire here in the station," stated Shelton. There was a brief pause on the phone. "Tommy you still there?"
"Yes, I'm still here."
"What the hell do you think it means?" Captain Shelton asked.
"Cap, I have to check something out, Agent Summers and I will be back in an hour."
"No, I want you back here right now. There's some heavy weather coming Tommy, don't fuck around. I don't need to lose another detective today," she demanded. James dropped, the handset and spun the car around a sharp corner, accelerating up the hill to Kirkland's house. The front bumper scraped the curb as he screeched to a stop and climbed out of the car. Summers quickly tried to keep pace. "Tom, slow down and tell me what the hell is going on."
James didn't listen to Summers. He was practically running to Kirkland's house and when he reached the door, he kicked it, hard, without knocking. Summers made her way up the stairs and met James as he was gaining entrance to Kirkland's home.
"Hey you realize this is illegal right?"
"Not if a Federal Agent suspects a known felon to be hiding inside," said James.
Both officers drew their guns and slowly made their way inside the house. The entire place was trashed. Garbage was dumped upside down on the floor. The furniture was turned over and broken.
"Someone was here looking for something," said Summers as she made her way deeper into the small living space. James looked at the mess. Holes were punched into the walls and it looked as if someone had sprayed some graffiti while they were wrecking the place. James stopped suddenly as he noticed a painting over the fireplace.
"What is it?" asked Summers.
James pointed, "That painting doesn't belong there." Summers looked up noticed the back of a large piece of artwork. It had been hung up oddly, causing the image to face the wall. The picture wouldn't be visible unless you picked it up and turned the frame over. Written on the back of the canvas in black were words James could not make out.
ÃÒÚÓ, „‰ ‡Ì„Î˚ Ì Ì‡ÒÚÛÔËÚ
"What the hell is that?" he asked.
Summers looked curiously at the odd writing.
"That, my friend, is Russian."
James looked at her confused. "Russian?" he asked. Summers nodded. "It says, The Place Were Angels Will Not Step or stand, something like that."
"You read Russian?" he asked. She smiled back at him. "Read it, write and speak it fluently. It was part of my training. Does it mean something to you?"
"Yes it does. Those very same words were written on a can of film, but were in German. In Nazi script, no less. I found it in the crawlspace inside Room 1220 at The Aleris Hotel."
"Have you seen the film yet?"
"No, I put the can inside my jacket pocked, that was before..." James paused as it made him think of the events that followed.
"Before what?" asked Summers as she used the camera on her phone to capture the image of the Russian script. James quickly changed the subject. "What's on the other side of this thing?"
Summers turned the painting over and immediately recognized the image "It's the 'Witches Sabbath' by Goya."
James felt a sick feeling come over him as he looked at the painting. There were several old women surrounding a large goat that stood on its hind legs. Some of the women were holding dead infants. Other women waited in a line with living babies. In the distance there were three dead infants being hung by the neck from a spear impaled in the desert sand. It appeared that the women were sacrificing the children to the goat.
"You said this didn't belong here. How can you be sure?"
"I've been here a thousand times and Mike would never have anything like this in his home. He's a Christian. Something like this would disgust him."
"So what was here on the fireplace before?"
"A painting of Jesus with the children."
Summers looked at the painting again. It was obvious that this was the absolute antithesis of the image Kirkland had placed here before. Summers felt there was a definite message being presented here.
"Let's keep looking," said Summers.
The two investigators resumed their search of the house. James pushed through the garbage and overturned furniture as he made his way into Kirkland's bedroom. The door was partially open. Quietly he pushed the door open. The room was as much of a disaster as the rest of the house. James stepped inside and stopped when he saw fresh writing on the wall above Kirkland's bed.
James stepped over and lightly touched the dripping wet words. To his fear it was exactly as he suspected, the writing on the wall was blood. James called out to Summers.
"Agent Summers, I've got another one for you in here."
Summers moved as quickly as she could to get through the house without tripping. Finally reaching the bedroom she immediately saw the writing. She looked at James and then back to the wall. The fear in her eyes was apparent.
"It's Russian again, isn't it?" asked James.
"Yes it's definitely Russian,"
"What does it say?" asked James.
"Tom, the missed call on your cell phone. The one that came from here at the house, who was it?" asked Summers as she continued to examine the words written in blood.
"I don't know, but I can tell you it was a girl," he said.
"A girl? What did she say?"
James began to speak when his voice left him. Taking a moment to regain his composure he whispered the words as if he were telling a secret. "She said, 'Kirkland isn't dead.' "
The words caught Summers by surprise.
"Did she say anything else?"
James hesitated and then finally spoke. "No, she hung up right after she said it. Why, is that what it says?"
"No, that's not what it says."
"Then what does it say?"
"It says, Julie Jackson burns in hell.' "
James became white as a ghost and backed into the wall.
"Tom, are you okay?"
James turned and looked directly into Summers eyes.
"The voice on the phone..."
"You recognized it?" she asked.
"I can't be sure, but I think it was Julie Jackson."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Julie Jackson
Agent Summers slowly turned her head to emphasize her puzzled expression. Her body shook with a chill as she started to speak but she stopped herself.
"Is something wrong Agent Summers?" asked James. This time it was Summers who needed to find her voice. "Did you just say Julie Jackson?"
James stared at her silently. "Yes, why?" he asked cautiously.
Summers looked around the room as if she was attempting to be certain they were alone.
"Why are you here?" asked James in a curious tone that caught Summers off guard. But before she could answer James continued, "I assumed that because you're FBI, you were here because of Hermann Kritzler. But you didn't flinch when I mentioned the film can in the crawlspace at the hotel. So you obviously didn't know anything about that. What happened at the station house was as much as shock to you as it was to us. So if you didn't come here for Kritzler, Valerie Rivera, Amanda Carlyle, or Clem..." James hesitated as he looked at Summers. Running the names through his mind he tried to sort
through why she was here. He narrowed his eyes and looked dead into hers. "It's me. You came here for me. Why? Does it have something to do with Julie?"
"Yes," said Summers in a flat, matter of fact voice. She left the room and made her way out of the front door and back to the car. James quickly followed her feeling frustrated and confused.
"Do you know Julie? Is she in some kind of trouble? Just what the hell does that writing on the bedroom wall mean!" he shouted after her.
Summers reached into the backseat of the car and pulled an evidence pouch from her interview folder. With her back to James she clutched the folder against her chest. She closed her eyes.
"What the hell is going on?" James demanded.
Summers took in a deep breath and then turned to James so that they were face to face. She held the evidence folder out, offering it to him.
"This is why I am here."
James looked at Summers cautiously and then opened the file. A series of photos spilled out from the folder and onto the ground.
James looked down at the top photo and recognized it immediately. The glossy black and white photo had captured the image of a bisected nude female laying in a vacant lot.
"You're here because of The Black Dahlia?" asked James.
"I wish, look again," she said as she pointed to the second photo. This one was a close up of the face of the victim. The eyes were glazed, the mouth gashed into a sardonic grin.
"It's Elizabeth Short, so what?"
"No, Inspector James, it's not. Her name is Julie Jackson."
James looked at Agent Summers with disbelief in his eyes. She felt the pain of his lost blank stare.
"This is Julie? What happened?" asked James through gritted teeth. "I mean, do you know what led up to this? Is there a suspect?"