Cache 72 (A Jaxon Jennings' Detective Mystery Thriller Series, Book 2)

by Richard C. Hale

  “Hey.”

  A sleepy voice that was smooth as silk even at this early hour said, “Hi. When are you coming home?”

  “I just got a call.”

  “Darn. I was going to stay in bed and wait for you.”

  “Tease,” he said. The vision of his girlfriend in his t-shirt always got him going. “Are you wearing my t-shirt?”

  “Why don’t you come home and find out.”

  He sighed. “I can’t just yet. I have to go to the zoo first.”

  “That sounds fun. Did the elephants stampede?”

  He chuckled. “No, somebody flipped a monkey off and it wants to file assault charges.”

  “That’s even better. Ok. I’m going back to sleep. I’ll be here when you decide you want me.”

  “I’ll hurry.”

  “You better.” She hung up.

  He pulled into the zoo and parked at the back entrance near the gator exhibit. He’d been here before. The manager was a woman in her early forties with bright red hair and a waistline that needed a little attention. She was munching on a granola bar as she spoke and he couldn’t help but wonder if that was her fifth one or something. There was no way she put this much weight on eating just one.

  There was another large woman in purple spandex pants scolding a young boy of about five. He had taken his mother’s Coke Zero and shook it up. Then he opened it and it sprayed everywhere. He thought this was hilarious until she smacked him in the behind. Now he was screaming. Apparently she was some kind of witness.

  “She says the guy flashed some kind of badge and then threatened to have her arrested and her kid hauled off to social services.” The manager took another bite of the granola bar. “Pete says the guy took something off of the steps in the pen and left with it after some story about his daughter dying of cancer and her last wish was to feed the gators.”

  “What did he take?” Ray asked, not quite sure where this was going.

  “We don’t know. It wasn’t anything that we have inventoried. Pete said it looked like a small, silver box. He’d never noticed it before.”

  “So what’s the problem?” he asked.

  She just stared at him. “I don’t know. We thought it was unusual and you should know about it. Besides, Mrs. Shelling is pretty upset. She thought that was a horrible way for a police officer to act.”

  “Did she get his badge number or name?”

  “No. He didn’t give her a chance.”

  “All right, I’ll talk to her.”

  He approached Mrs. Shelling and the bratty kid, and introduced himself.

  “Are you a real police officer?” she asked.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Your uniform says you’re some wildlife officer.”

  “Yes it does. I actually have more power than your average every day cop. I can arrest anyone for anything. My jurisdiction is not just with animals. I’m here because this happened in the zoo.”

  “Well, one of your counterparts was very rude to me and I’d like to file a complaint.”

  “The manager told me what happened, but if you don’t have a badge number, or name, I really don’t have anything to go on.”

  “He was tall. Dark hair that was graying. He looked about forty-five years old. Stocky.”

  “That still doesn’t help. I’m sorry, but there is nothing I can do.”

  He turned to go and she stopped him, “Wait! His badge. It looked different than yours. It had blue letters instead of green.”

  “Did you notice if it had the state of Florida in the background, like this?”

  “No. I can’t remember.”

  He nodded. “I’ve got your name. I’ll call you if anything turns up.”

  “Thank you,” she said and went back to her child. He was complaining that she never took him to see the monkeys.

  Ray went back to the manager and Pete. He turned to the guy. “Anything else you can think of? Was he with someone else? You mentioned a daughter who had cancer.”

  Pete nodded. “Cute girl too. She didn’t look sick, but who am I to judge? There was another guy too. He seemed like he was close with the girl. Like maybe her boyfriend.” Ray noticed that he seemed a little disappointed at this. “She kissed me.”

  “But you don’t know what they took?”

  Pete shook his head.

  “Show me where all this happened.”

  Pete led him to the platform and entered the deck. He pointed to the steps leading into the water and said, “The guy just opened the gate and stepped down there. He leaned over and pulled something from under the steps. The croc almost got him too. He didn’t seem afraid.”

  “Or maybe what he wanted was more important,” Ray said.

  Pete nodded his head vigorously. “Yeah. He wouldn’t listen to me and was pretty worked up about his daughter feeding the gators.”

  Ray went to the steps and opened the gate. None of the gators were near so he went down a couple of steps and leaned over to look under the stairs. He could see nothing. As he straightened up, a set of eyes rose from the dark water a few feet away and looked him over. He backed away up the stairs.

  Ray had a lot of experience with gators and he knew when to keep his distance. Besides, that one was a croc and they were even more unpredictable.

  “Have you looked at the security tapes?” Ray asked.

  “No,” said the manager. “We were waiting for you.”

  “I’d like to see them.”

  “I’ll have Ted meet us in the security office. He knows the equipment better.”

  In the security office, a balding, middle-aged man with thick, black rimmed glasses stood in front of the monitors, and as they walked in, he froze a video he was watching.

  “I’m Ted,” he said and extended his hand. “We haven’t seen one of you guys in here in a long time.”

  “That’s probably a good thing,” Ray joked. “We’re not very good with the monkeys anyway.”

  “They’re my favorite,” Ted said, pushing up his glasses. He looked like a cross between Buddy Holly, and Gallagher, the comedian. Where he wasn’t bald, he had long wavy hair to his shoulders. He sucked on a lollipop as he talked. “I’m sure you don’t have much time so I’ll show you what we got.” He turned and played the frozen video. “Here’s the three you are looking for. The girl, the young guy, and then the older one who took the box.”

  Ray watched the video and was surprised at the quality. “This is pretty good.”

  Ted nodded, popping the lollipop out of his mouth. “We just got this new equipment. It’s HD.”

  “How much hard drive space does it take up to record in HD?”

  “We’ve got a lot, but you’re right. It uses it up pretty quickly. We have a high rotation because of it. The videos are saved for only seven days and then the data is overwritten.”

  Ray nodded and went back to watching the screen. The big guy was on the steps now and he could tell Pete was trying to get him off. He knelt and worked at something under the steps, then he seemed to free it and step back just as the croc rose up out of the water and lunged for the steps. It was weird without sound.

  “That was close.”

  “That guy is lucky to still have his hand,” Ted said.

  “Can you zoom in on his hand?” Ray asked.

  Ted manipulated a few keys and used the mouse to zoom in. He froze the frame and they could see something silver in it. It looked to be about three to four inches long and rectangular. “And you say that this item is not part of anything the park would have under the steps?”

  Pete and the manager both shook their heads.

  “All right. Can you save this for me?”

  “Already have,” Ted said. “I can mark it on the hard drive and it will be retained until I delete it manually.” The lollipop went back in, then popped back out again. “I saved something else for you too. I think you’ll find this very interesting.”

  He clicked the mouse on another section of the screen and t
he next monitor over began playing a video. It was night time and the cameras had now switched to night vision.

  “This system is pretty high tech,” Ray said.

  Ted just nodded and watched the screen. He was smiling.

  A man dressed in what appeared to be a dark color with some kind of mask crept along the high hedge of the alligator pond and went directly to the platform. He entered and went to the steps where he bent and looked to place something under the steps right where the mystery box was in the previous videos.

  “I’ll be damned,” Ray said.

  The lollipop popped back out of Ted’s mouth and he grinned. “I thought you’d like that.”

  “What day is this?”

  “Six days ago. If we had waited one more day, it would have been deleted.” Ted seemed proud of himself. Ray would never have taken the time to look at all this recording.

  “What kind of security do you have at night?”

  “Minimal staffing. We usually carry three. Two stationed here and one to roam periodically. They missed this guy, though, as you can see. I only found it when I did a search of motion activity on the after hour tapes.”

  “These are motion activated?”

  Ted nodded. “It also helps with disk storage space. We run motion sensing at night and full time during business hours.”

  “You saved this too?”

  The lollipop was back in his mouth and he nodded.

  “Good job, Ted. This may come in handy. How about the parking lot? Any cameras out there?”

  Ted frowned but nodded. “I didn’t check those. They’re not HD though. Only the cameras in the park.”

  “Can you pull up the parking lot around the time frame they exited the alligator area or a few minutes after?”

  “Sure.”

  The lollipop went back into the mouth as Ted manipulated the system. He stood up straight when he found what he was looking for and they all watched the screens as the parking lot was displayed.

  Shortly, three people were seen exiting the park and heading for their car. They were the only ones leaving. Everyone else was coming in. It was the tall guy, the girl and the young guy. They walked directly to a new Ford Mustang and got in. They sat in the car and did not move. Eventually it started and moved off. The back end of the car showed itself to the cameras briefly and Ray said, “Freeze that.”

  Ted hit pause and he nodded, knowing what Ray would want. He zoomed in on the license plate and wrote the number down. Ray used his radio and called dispatch, relaying the plate number. He had information on the owner in a matter of minutes.

  “Registered to one Gilead James Fowler. Mr. Fowler has a propensity for fast driving. His license is currently suspended.”

  Ted beamed. “What do you think it is?” Ted asked. “Drugs?”

  “Could be, but it’s too vague to tell.”

  “Let me know what you find. I’m curious, and since it happened in my park, I want to know.”

  “You’ll be the first. Here. My card. It has my cell if you find anything else. You’ve been a big help.”

  Ray made his way to his SUV and put the call out for the Mustang as he walked. His next call was to Michelle.

  “I’m still hurrying but I got caught up.”

  “Monkeys pissed?”

  “Yeah. Something like that. Sorry.”

  “Your loss.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  He hung up and cursed. One Gilead James Fowler was going to be very sorry when he caught up with him. Very Sorry.

  * * *

  Jaxon handed the silver box to Gil and cursed. “Shit. Now what?”

  Melanie was in the back and she leaned forward looking at the box. “Is there any writing on the box itself?”

  Gil shook his head as he turned it over in his hands. Jaxon couldn’t believe it. He had made a bad choice and now some innocent girl was going to pay for it. They had bypassed Gainesville and when Lakeland had proved fruitful, they thought they were off the hook. But apparently, they had missed something by skipping the first waypoint and now they were going to have to backtrack and waste valuable time. It was coming up on twenty-four hours and Jaxon felt no closer to finding Bethany than he did standing in the woods holding her severed finger.

  “We’ve missed something,” Gil said.

  “I know,” Jaxon said. “We missed it in Gainesville. Now she has to suffer because I screwed it up. Dammit!”

  He drove his fist into the dash. Melanie and Gil looked away embarrassed, but they remained silent.

  “Maybe we’re missing something else,” Melanie finally said. “Why would he put an empty box for us to find? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “To throw us off,” Jaxon said. “In case we tried to skip something. Just like we did. He or she is paying us back.”

  “No,” Gil said, looking at Melanie excitedly. “She’s right. It doesn’t make sense. If we had gone to Gainesville first, what would we have found?”

  Jaxon thought about it and could only come up with one thing. “Another clue, of course. Something we need so we can move on.”

  “Or just a confirmation that Lakeland was next. What did we find in Lakeland?”

  Jaxon sat forward. In Lakeland, it had just been the set of coordinates that they already had for Naples. Nothing new or nothing that would tell them they had made a wrong choice. It was like a double negative. They were sending them in circles when the obvious was right in front of them.

  “Ok. I’m following,” Jaxon said, “but we have an empty box. Did we miss something inside? Do we need to go back in?”

  Jaxon looked back at the zoo entrance and thought once was enough. The staff would not tolerate being taken advantage of again.

  “Unless the box itself is our clue,” Gil said and smiled.

  Jaxon remembered Gil saying something about some group that had certain boxes decorated just so other cachers would know it was the group’s hide. “What was the name of the group who uses these boxes?”

  “Cock Cachers.”

  “Does that mean anything to you? It means nothing to me.”

  “Would they use the letters as a cipher again?” Melanie asked.

  “That would be too obvious, but let’s try plugging it in.”

  Gil took a pen and quickly scribbled some numbers down and said “No. This isn’t it,” as he entered the numbers into the GPS. “They’re too far away for us. See?”

  He held the GPS up and it showed a position somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean. All the way on the other side of the world.

  “Maybe we’re supposed to go there,” Melanie said, but Jaxon could tell she was just grasping like they all were. No one even bothered to answer her.

  “Wait a minute,” Gil said and pulled out his smartphone. He opened up the GeoCaching app and typed something into the phone. He talked as he typed. “We’ve been given locations that are not registered on any of the caching sites, right? Well, what if our next point has been made inactive from the site?”

  “What do you mean?” Jaxon asked.

  “Sometimes, caches get stolen. Kids find them, or somebody who doesn’t know what it is, and they take it, or mutilate it, something that negates the site from further use. It will still be registered on the website but it will show as inactive. Look.”

  He held up the app and Jaxon read what was on there. Then he understood. “Somebody took this box from its cache point and then the group reported it as inactive.”

  “Right. I just did a search for all of Cock Cachers caches and this one is the only one that is inactive. It has to be the next point.”

  “Where is it?” Melanie asked.

  Gil punched in the coordinates and held up the GPS. “The Everglades.”

  Jaxon sat back grinning. “I knew I brought you along for a reason.”

  Gil shrugged but grinned big. Melanie gave him a kiss.

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go.”

  Gil cranked the car up and head
ed out. They had a little drive ahead of them and Jaxon was not looking forward to more alligators.

  The Everglades waited for them.

  CHAPTER 10

  48 HOURS

  Twenty minutes into the drive on Tamiami Trail, a tire blew.

  Gil had been driving and didn’t see a tortoise crossing the highway. He hit it doing 75 mph and the shell of the creature punctured the tire. It was 10:00 a.m. and the heat was already sweltering.

  They were pulled over on the side of the highway with the car jacked up and the blown tire off when a Wildlife Officer vehicle pulled up behind them with its lights on. Jaxon thought the guy was there to help. He was wrong.

  The officer stepped out of the vehicle and stood with the door acting as a shield. Jaxon recognized his posture right away and realized that they were probably in for some trouble.

  “All three of you,” the officer yelled. “Hands on the car, feet spread!”

  “Shit,” Jaxon mumbled and moved to comply. No use getting shot by not cooperating. Gil froze and Melanie looked like a deer in the headlights.

  “Do it! Now!” The guy meant business.

  “Do what he says,” Jaxon said and placed his hands on the car. Gil and Melanie followed next to him. The officer came up behind them and kicked their legs further apart.

  “What seems to be the problem, officer?” Jaxon asked.

  “Shut up.”

  “If you’ll look in my back left pocket, you’ll find my wallet. Inside is my badge.”

  The officer stopped and stared at Jaxon. “You’re some kind of cop?”

  “Retired,” Jaxon said. “I’m an investigator now.”

  The officer didn’t look convinced. He stepped to Jaxon and withdrew his wallet. He looked it over but said nothing.

  “Can I stand now?” Jaxon asked.

  “Stay right there.”

  He radioed his dispatch and waited for confirmation of Jaxon’s credentials. When he got them he walked up to Jaxon and handed him the wallet.

  “You can relax. You check out. What about these two?”

  “They’re with me,” Jaxon said standing straight up and getting a better look at the man. He was in his mid-thirties, brown hair, brown eyes, muscular build. He wore the uniform of a Wildlife officer and the nameplate said Ray Maningham.