by Robert Boren
“Sure,” he said. “You going into that workshop under the barn? Saw soldering irons and that kind of stuff in there.”
“Yeah,” Frank said.
“Okay, see you in a little while,” Jake said. “Want to help me rummage, Terry?”
“Sure,” he said. They climbed into the bobtail.
***
“Finally, Sharon Springs,” Hilda said, looking at the sign on the highway. “I can’t wait to get out of this damn car.”
“You and me both,” Charlie said.
“Duchess has had more than enough, too,” Dobie said.
“She need to stop?” Charlie asked.
“How much longer we going to be on the road.”
“Fifteen minutes, give or take,” Charlie said.
“Fine, no problem,” Dobie said.
They got off the highway and cruised into town.
“Look, Howard’s truck stop is open,” Hilda said. “Should we stop and see if he’s around?”
“No, let’s get home,” Charlie said. “I’m antsy as hell.”
“Afraid somebody else will attack?” Dobie asked.
“Yeah.”
“Me too,” Dobie said.
They got on the deserted roads leading back to the park, eyes peeled, scanning the area.
“Oh my word!” Hilda said. “There’s the semi that attacked the park.”
“Looks like we messed up their whole day,” Dobie said, chuckling. “We hit them with Willie Pete?”
“That’d be my guess,” Charlie said. “Surprised they got so close.”
“They probably had to let them get that close,” Dobie said. “To be in range of the small arms.”
They rolled into the park. Everybody came out to meet the three vehicles as they pulled in front of the clubhouse.
“I’ll brief you on the meeting we had earlier,” General Hogan said, surrounded by his kids.
Everybody followed him into the clubhouse. George, Malcolm, Kurt, and Mary came in to listen. The rest of the group went back to the work they were doing.
After the briefing, Charlie and Hilda walked up to Malcolm and George.
“Howard’s place is open again,” Charlie said.
“Oh, yeah, we didn’t brief that part,” Malcolm said. “It’s being run by a friend of theirs named Sherry. We enlisted her help.”
“Oh, really,” Hilda said. “Why?”
“Early warning, mainly,” Malcolm said. “I’m holding the contents of the VHS tapes over her head.”
“Wait, she was a participant?” Charlie asked.
“Yes, many years ago,” Malcolm said. “We need to find a working VCR so we can watch the tapes.”
“Well, I’ll sit that one out,” Hilda said. “I want some coffee. I’ll go crank up the big pot.”
She walked to the kitchen.
“So she confirmed that Howard and Scotty are together, I take it,” Charlie said.
“Yep,” Malcolm said. “They’d probably be back here already if it wasn’t for the nuke attack. They got stuck on the other side of big muddy.”
“What are we gonna do about that?”
“We’re trying to find out where their house is. We’re sure it’s in Ohio, but we don’t know where. Heidi and Trish are working the historic angle now, but that’s a long shot. If we’re lucky Howard or Scotty will drop a clue in conversation with Sherry.”
“You trust her?” Charlie asked.
“Maybe,” George said. “Malcolm has more faith in that situation than I do.”
“Why?” Charlie asked.
“I’ve spent a lot of time interviewing suspects and witnesses,” Malcolm said. “I’m a pretty good judge of what they’re thinking behind the mask. She probably looks at us as her best hope for survival at this point.”
“You aren’t going to turn her in?” Charlie asked. “If there’s evidence on those tapes, that is?”
“Haven’t thought that far ahead,” Malcolm said.
“We’re supposed to be telling the authorities about that dungeon when things settle down,” Charlie said. “We agreed to that. How are we gonna hide her involvement?”
“I don’t know yet,” Malcolm said. “We might be able to work an immunity deal for her. We changed the plans for when we’ll notify the authorities about that dungeon, too.”
“Really? Mary okay with that?”
“Yeah, Charlie, we convinced her. She was worried about anybody that might have been convicted of one of the crimes. I’ve already researched that. Nobody was convicted for any of the Nighthawk Road killings, so we aren’t keeping anybody stewing in jail if we don’t bring this to light right away.”
“Okay,” Charlie said. “Good.”
“I should get back to work,” Malcolm said. “Ran into a good trail in my research.”
Charlie smiled. “Thanks, guys. Talk to you later.”
Malcolm and George watched him go to the kitchen to join Hilda.
“Think he’s okay with this?” George asked.
“Yeah,” Malcolm said.
“What thread are you following?”
“I’m looking at all houses in Cleveland which were in one families hands starting in the 30s or before, and sold to somebody un-related in the last five years. There aren’t that many, believe it or not.”
“So you still believe the historic angle will get us there?” George asked.
“It’s a long shot, but you never know. If we find a likely prospect, think you and Frank can get a satellite view?”
“Sure,” George said, “But what good is that going to do? You can’t see into the house.”
“True, but I might see a Class C motor home parked on the property or nearby.”
***
The film in the projector finished, the end flapping as the take-up reel continued to turn.
“I’m hungry,” Scott said.
Howard laughed. “You can eat after that? Sick, man.”
“You okay, Bailey?” Scott asked.
She turned to him and smiled. “Any more of the Black Dahlia?”
“Well, she’s already carved and cleaned,” Howard said, a distasteful look on his face. “How much more could there be?”
“There’s one more reel in that pile,” Scott said. “I’m hoping it shows how they placed the body, but the camera wasn’t exactly portable.”
“Maybe they had a smaller one,” Bailey said, her eyes on fire. “Let’s watch it.”
“Okay,” Scott said. He got up and switched film reels.
“I’ll watch the beginning, but after that I’m done for a while,” Howard said.
“No problem, Howie,” Scott said, as he flipped on the projector.
“That’s not the dump site. It’s indoors,” Bailey said. “I don’t recognize that room.”
“Definitely not here,” Howard said.
A woman in her mid-thirties appeared on the screen, looking around, scared.
“Relax, this’ll be over in a few minutes,” said a man off-camera. “Please state your name.”
“Gertrude Landon,” she said, her eyes darting around. “Who’s that guy?”
“Don’t worry, that’s just my partner Chet,” the voice said. “He’s going to take part in your screen test.”
The large man got behind her, and a flash bulb went off. “Superb. Hold for another.”
The man put his arms around the woman’s torso. She looked back at him. “Watch your hands, buster.” There was fear in her eyes.
“Relax,” the man’s voice said. “Chet, we need to see her without the blouse.”
“What! No,” Gertrude said, struggling. Chet tore her shirt and ripped it off of her, leaving her in her bra. She screamed. Chet tossed it aside, and worked on her skirt, tearing it while he struggled to keep her under control. She screamed again. Chet put his hand over his mouth, and she bit him hard.
“Dammit,” he cried, pulling on his hand, trying to get it out of her teeth. She let go and screamed again. Then there was
pounding on the door.
“Quiet down,” an old woman’s voice shouted.
“Help!” Gertrude cried.
“I’m calling the cops!” the woman shouted.
The other man ran through the frame, over to the door. He opened it and slipped out. There was a heated conversation. Gertrude continued to struggle and yell.
The man ran back into the room. “Shut her up,” he whispered. “I told the old bat we were doing a screen test for a horror film in here.”
Gertrude tried to get a punch in, but Chet caught her hand. “We won’t be able to finish here,” he said.
“I know,” the man said.
Chet put both hands around the woman’s neck and choked her, holding as she struggled. It took several minutes, but she finally went limp under his hands.
“Hold her for a little longer, Chet,” the man off camera said. “We need to be sure.”
He held her for close to a minute, then dropped her, crumpling to the ground. “We gonna cut her up?”
“No, let’s get our stuff loaded and clear out of here, before the old lady changes her mind.”
“You want to kill her on the way out?”
“No, let’s just split. Pull the car around.”
Chet stepped over the body and left out a door on the other side of the room. The picture went black.
“Wow,” Howard said. “Who the hell was that?”
“We can search for her name. Remember it?” Scott asked.
“I just found it on my phone,” Bailey said. “Another unsolved one. The woman was snatched not far from where the Black Dahlia was taken. Her body was dumped in a gravel pit up in a place called Rolling Hills Estates.”
“I know where that is,” Scott said. “It’s by the coast, on a hill called Palos Verdes.”
“Interesting,” Howard said. “Before or after the Black Dahlia?”
“Before,” Bailey said. “Mid-1946. You think Chet and the Torso Murderer were there long enough? They’re about six months apart.”
“Lots of jobs there after the war,” Scott said. “I know my dad looked around there for a while.”
“Can we go upstairs now?” Howard said. “I’m getting hungry, and we should check on Kerry too.”
“All right, Howie,” Scott said. “I guess five hours is long enough.”
“Can we watch some of the other movies later?” Bailey asked.
“How about tomorrow,” Scott said. “I’m itching to find a new playmate.”
Bailey’s eyes lit up. “For real?”
“Yeah,” Scott said. “Let’s go make plans.”
The three of them went back upstairs. Kerry was sitting in the kitchen, watching the door. He looked terrified.
“What’s the matter, Kerry?” Howard asked.
“Scary noises down there,” he said.
“It was just movies, Kerry,” Scott said. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Horror movies?” he asked, eyes wide.
“Definitely,” Scott said, with a twinkle in his eye.
“I’m calling Sherry,” Howard said. “I’ll be out in the living room.” He sat on the couch and took his phone out of his pocket.
“Hello?”
“Sherry?”
“Yeah, this Howard?”
“Yep. How’s things going at my place?”
“Nothing to worry about,” she said.
There was silence on the line.
“Something’s wrong,” Howard said. “What?”
“Oh, it’s all right. There was an enemy attack on the RV Park last night.”
“I know,” Howard said. “Scotty told me he talked with you. Who was it that showed up again?”
“Some guy named Kurt, and another guy.”
“What was the other guy’s name?”
“I don’t know,” Sherry said. “He didn’t say. Some black guy.”
“I don’t remember a black guy with the group.”
“Oh well,” she said. “When are you creeps coming back here?”
“Won’t be too much longer. You okay for a little while longer?”
“What’s a while?” she asked.
“Couple weeks,” Howard said.
“Okay,” she said. “I gotta go. Customers.”
“I’ll talk to you later, Sherry. Thanks.”
“Save it. See you. Sooner the better.”
Howard came back into the kitchen. Scott and Bailey were making sandwiches.
“You get her?” Scott asked.
“Yeah. We got problems.”
“Why do you say that?”
“She’s hiding something. I asked her the name of the black guy that was with Kurt. She said he didn’t say,” Howard said. “I know these RV types. The first thing they do is tell you their name. She doesn’t want to tell us who he is. The tone of her voice wasn’t right, either.”
“We going back there?” Bailey asked, bringing a plate piled high with sandwiches on it. Kerry followed her to the table.
“I think we ought to make this our new home and forget about that place,” Howard said. “We go back there, we’ll get ourselves killed.”
“You worry too much, Howie,” Scott said. “I agree that we should lie low for a little while. How long can Sherry run your place?”
“I told her I’d be gone a couple more weeks,” Howard said.
“Then we don’t have to decide what to do just yet,” Scott said. “Let’s plan for tonight. We’ve got an empty cell in the dungeon just waiting for a new resident.”
Chapter 8 – Motion Sensors
Frank bent over the workbench, a thin line of smoke rising as he soldered wires onto the cell phone’s circuit board. He pulled back the soldering iron and blew on it. Jake, Terry, and Jerry were watching.
“There, that ought to do it,” he said. He applied power to the motion sensor, and then waved his hand in front of it, watching the cell phone’s output. “Bingo.”
“It’s transmitting?” Jake asked.
“Yeah,” he replied. “We’ve got an issue though. We need good batteries for the motion sensors. Batteries we can swap out.”
“I’ve got a few in my bobtail, but not enough,” Jake said.
“How many do you have?”
“Five or six,” Jake said.
“We need twice that,” Frank said.
“Wait a minute,” Jerry said. “Maybe we ought to get some small solar panels. We could use them to charge up those batteries during the day. They ought to have enough juice in them for the nighttime.”
“We’d have to be careful placing them,” Frank said. “They’d be a tip-off for sure.”
“We could run wire, put them out in the fields a ways from the roads,” Jake said. “I’ve got wire and some small panels.”
“We’d still have to swap out the cell phone batteries, though,” Jerry said. “You won’t get enough juice out of a small panel to keep them both charged.”
“No big deal,” Jake said. “We need to check these things daily anyway. We’ll have to keep the solar panels clean, for one thing. Especially if they’ll be on the dirt.”
“Okay, I’ll tell you what,” Frank said. “I’m going to go get the programming done to receive these signals. You guys can get the motion sensors tied to the phones and the solar panels, and then get them placed. Deal?”
“On it,” Jake said, laughing. “I love doing this stuff.”
“Me too,” Jerry said.
“I’ll need to take off for a while,” Terry said. “I’m up for watch on the roof of the barn.”
“Okay, I’ll catch you guys later,” Frank said. He headed back to the clubhouse to get on the PC.
***
“Wow, look at this,” Trish said, looking at the screen of her laptop.
Heidi rolled her chair over. “That’s a transcript of the interview that Chet did with the cops, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Trish said, eyes wide, reading through it.
“What year?”
“Really?” Heidi asked. “What crime were they asking about?”
“You aren’t going to believe this,” Trish said. “He was being questioned about the Black Dahlia murder, and some other murder that happened about six months before that. Somebody named Gertrude Landon.”
“Hmmm, haven’t heard that name before,” Heidi said. “Why were they questioning him about this?”
“It looks like part of it was due to the person he traveled to California with,” Trish said. “Holy shit, they thought the other guy might have been the Torso Murderer.”
“No way,” Heidi said. “I’m calling George and Malcolm over here.” She picked up her phone and called, making comments in hushed tones.
They continued reading while they waited. Malcolm hurried in, George right behind him.
“Let’s see,” Malcolm said. Trish got out of her chair, and Malcolm took it. George looked over his shoulder. “Holy cow!”
“What?” George asked, straining to read the screen.
“Our friend Chet was hanging around with a Torso Murderer suspect, being questioned about the Black Dahlia murder, and the Gravel Pit murder about six months earlier.”
“Gravel Pit murder?”
“You don’t know your LA South Bay history very well, do you?” Malcolm asked, turning to look at him. “Just another unsolved murder, but some investigators thought the person who did the Black Dahlia murder also did that one. The body turned up in what’s now Rolling Hills Estates.”
“You’re joking,” George said.
“Nope,” Malcolm said. “I never subscribed to the theory that it was the same killer. I also never bought the Torso Murderer connection to the Black Dahlia murder. Maybe I ought to re-think that.”
George backed up a little, thinking. “This is interesting, but how does it relate to our current dilemma?”
“What do you mean?” Heidi asked.
“How does it help us find out where Scott and Howard are hiding?”
“It plays right into what I was working on,” Malcolm said. “I’m looking for a historical site in Ohio. We know Chet was from this world, and any trips he took or associations he had with other suspects are likely to be connected to murders. We need to search property records in Cleveland for this other suspect’s name. Rupert Smith.”