Cactus Island, A Stan Turner Mystery Vol 8

by William Manchee

CHAPTER44

  UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

  I should have been delighted with Steven Caldwell's acquittal, but I wasn't. An uneasy feeling had settled over me almost immediately after the verdict was announced. Even after months of investigation, the case was still a mystery. When Barbara Falk had revealed to me that Martin Windsor was her ex-husband that blew my mind and got me thinking about other unsettling facts. The first was that Steven Caldwell had stuck to his story about seeing an alien spaceship, even though that could have cost him his freedom. Then I realized Martin Windsor had disappeared the same night his son, Jimmy Falk, had been killed. Finally, there was the fact that we hadn't really explained what Steven saw on September 10. There were no military aircraft flying that night, no commercial flights, no blimps or weather balloons, so what had Steven seen? I had to find out because I had a gut feeling that knowing this information would be important to Cheryl Windsor's defense. Of course, I couldn't tell Paula or anyone else that.

  I'd begun to believe that aliens were responsible for Jimmy Falk's death as well as the disappearance of Martin Windsor and Cheryl's kids, among others. It was such a radical idea, I didn't dare breathe a word of it to anyone until I was absolutely sure it was true. Even then it would be a hard sell to even the most open minded of listeners. My investigation had to be completely secret and off the record. That's why I had enlisted Peter's help in creating a cover story for our covert operation.

  To prove that aliens had used Cactus Island for a landing strip, we'd have to discover the caves that supposedly linked the island to the shore. Without such a passageway, it wouldn't have made sense to land on the island. Ferrying the ship's crew back and forth across the lake on a barge or a boat wouldn't have been practical and such activity would have been slow and easily detected. If the caves did exist, they might contain evidence of the alien visits to the island.

   My efforts to find the geological study showing the caves finally bore fruit. Doc Verner called with the name of the firm that had prepared the report. But when I called them they admitted they'd done the survey but advised me that the operator who had commissioned it had never paid for it. So, if I wanted it, I'd have to pay the bill of $1,500. After a little haggling we finally agreed on $750.00 and I had the report on my desk via Federal Express the next morning.

  With the report in hand, Peter and I drove to Possum Kingdom Lake. What we'd do if we actually found the caves, I had no idea. Exploring them would be perilous work, so I didn't have any plans to do anything but find them for now. Exploration would be a task for another day.

  We drove to the north end of the lake where the caves were supposed to begin, and then got out on foot and started walking along the shore. We didn't know exactly what the entrance to the caves would look like, so we just kept our eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. After awhile, we came across two fishermen working the shoreline. We asked them if they knew of any caves in the area. They said they hadn't seen or heard of any. After several hours of searching, we decided to knock on a few cabin doors to see if anyone in the area was aware of the caves. Still, no luck.

  Just before dark we discovered a huge metal barn that was situated right above where the mouth of the caves should have been located. We walked over to it but it was locked up tight and there was nobody around. There were no signs on the barn or other indication as to what business was conducted there, but there was a small corral that suggested horses were trained or stabled there in the summer.

  We continued to search for several more hours but finally gave up. Anticipating that this might happen and not wanting the trip to be a total bust, I had arranged for a guide on Sunday morning to take us striper fishing. Peter loved to fish and I wanted him to have some fun before we went home. That night we rented a room at the Armadillo Motel that overlooked the lake. It wasn't a place Rebekah would have stayed in, but it was good enough for a fishing trip. We ate catfish and blackberry pie at the diner near Camp Comfort where Steven had been taken after his accident, and then walked along the shore of the lake awhile. A half moon in the western sky gave us a good view of Cactus Island.

  "I'm sorry we didn't find the caves," I said. "For a time there I was starting to believe there were aliens landing on Cactus Island."

  "There still might be," Peter replied. "They're not going to make it easy for us to find them."

  "That's the spirit. Never give up."

  "We can look some more tomorrow."

  "Nah. It was a bad idea. I can't believe I actually thought we'd find something. Let's just catch our limit of striper tomorrow and head on home."

  "Okay. Maybe the fishing guide will know about the caves."

  Suddenly there was a fluttering sound out in the lake that drew our attention. In the moonlight we could see hundreds of fish thrashing in the water. It wasn't unusual to see a fish frenzy of this sort. It often happened when a school of stripers cornered a school of shads. The shad, in a desperate attempt to escape, would go ballistic and jump right out of the water. The odd thing was that striper usually didn't feed at night and usually a fish frenzy would quickly subside as the shads were disbursed, but this one intensified. Another oddity was the size of the fish that were frantically jumping and thrashing about. They were much bigger than shads. As we watched the commotion in amazement a big green object shot out of the water and then plunged back into the lake causing a huge splash. We both jumped.

  "What the hell was that?"I said. "An alligator?"

  "I don't know, but it was a big momma," Peter said excitedly.

  We kept our eyes fixed on the spot where we'd seen the green object emerge, hoping we'd get another look at the creature who was causing all the commotion. Nothing happened for quite awhile, so I suggested we should head back for the motel. . . .

   

  When my eyes opened, I was lying on my stomach on the beach. I was disoriented, wet, and cold. My side hurt, apparently from lying on a large jagged rock for God knows how long. I looked around and saw Peter lying beside me. What had happened to us? I checked Peter's pulse and made sure he was breathing. Then I gently woke him up.

  "Is it time to get up?" Peter asked, rubbing his eyes. He looked around warily, then abruptly sat up. "Where are we?"

  "I don't know. We must have fallen asleep on the beach, I guess. Come on. Let's get back to the motel."

    When we got back to our room it was 11:59 p.m. We had left our motel room around 10:30 and now suddenly it was nearly midnight. Over an hour had gone by but it seemed like only a few minutes. I racked my brains trying to remember what had happened during the missing time but my mind was a blank.

  We got out of our wet clothes and went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking of what Paula had said about the memory eraser. Did someone have a machine that could actually erase your memory at will? Was that possible? I had to find out what had happened to us. There had to be a way to reach back into the recesses of our minds and recover our memories. Then I remembered Martin Windsor's warning to Cheryl about hypnosis. Was it possible that there was a flaw in the memory-erasing machine? Hypnosis had helped Steven regain some of his memory, so why not us? Anyway, we could find out easily enough.

  The next morning we met the guide at the bait shop anxious for our round of fishing. He apologized and said there wasn't any use going out because the fish hadn't been biting the last few days. For some reason they were scattered and difficult to find. The previous day he'd caught only one fish rather than his usual limit of twenty. Something was obviously wrong with the lake. Peter was disappointed so I suggested we rent a couple of jet skis for a couple hours before we headed home. He thought that was a great idea.

  On the way home I took a detour to Plano where we stopped at Dr. Gerhardt's house with a dozen doughnuts. He seemed shocked and dismayed to see us, but invited us in anyway.

  "What's going on? I don't usually see patients at home nor do I work on Sunday."

  "I understand that, but this is an emergency. Something happene
d to Peter and me last night and we have to find out what it was."

  "I don't understand. How do you know something happened if you can't remember it?"

  I explained to the doctor how we'd woken up on the beach. He seemed skeptical and asked, "You mean neither of you can remember lying down on the beach? It was late and you might have fallen asleep, don't you think?"

  "No."

  "Were you drinking?"

  "No. Peter doesn't drink and I wouldn't have had a drink when I was alone with him. We had just left our motel room and the next thing we knew we're lying on the beach."

  "So your memory lapse was over an hour?"

  "Yes."

  "Hmm. Interesting. So, how can I help?"

  "I need you to hypnotize me so maybe I can remember what happened."

  "Can't this wait until Monday? Why do you have to know right this minute what happened?"

  "It's important. I think what happened to us last night might have a connection to the murder trial I'm involved in. It could be the key to proving our client's innocence."

  "Well this is crazy, but I suppose you won't leave until I do it."

  I smiled. "Right."

  He shrugged. "Okay, then. Let's get on with it."

  "Thanks, Doc. I appreciate it."

  "Let's go into my study."

  Dr. Gerhardt led us into his study and told us to make ourselves comfortable. We both sat and waited as Dr. Gerhardt got ready for the procedure. A few minutes later he looked at Peter. "You better wait in the living room. Sometimes these sessions can be quite intense."

  "No," Peter said. "I want to know what happened."

  I said, "He's right, Peter. It's probably better you don't know."

  "Dad!" Peter protested.

  "Peter! Go in the living room and read a magazine or something."

  Peter threw up his hands and stomped off. When he was gone, Dr. Gerhardt took a small pen light and shone it in my eyes. He told me to watch it as he slowly turned it in small circles.

  "You will start to fall asleep as I count to ten. When I am done counting, you will be in a deep sleep but you will be able to talk to me and tell me what happened to you and Peter last night. When I snap my fingers, you will wake up and remember everything that you told me about last night."

  Dr. Gerhardt counted to ten as my mind began to drift."Okay, you are very, very sleepy. It's Saturday night and you are with Peter at Possum Kingdom Lake. You are in your motel room. . . ."

   

  "Snap!"

  I woke up in a fog feeling disoriented. Where was I?

  "Stan," Dr. Gerhardt said. "Are you with us?"

  "Huh."

  "Do you remember what happened now?"

  "Remember what?" I said as Dr. Gerhardt's face came into focus."

  "Your experience last night. I put you under hypnosis."

  I strained to comprehend what he was saying but there was nothing but darkness. Then I saw a glow, the darkness began to fade, and the memories returned like the rays from the rising sun. "Yes, I think so. . . . Now I see it. We decided to take a walk on the beach. It was a beautiful night and the stars were very bright. We reached the beach and were starting to walk along the shore when we heard something out in the lake. We looked over and saw a huge lizard-like creature surface not fifty feet away. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before."

  "Was it an alligator?" Dr. Gerhardt asked. "You don't usually see them this far north, but it's not unheard of."

  "No. It was standing up like a man and was at least six feet tall."

  "What?"

  "It was greyish green and was watching us with its orange penetrating eyes. It had what must be an eight-pound striper in its mouth struggling to get free. Its arms seemed as functional as my own and looked to be incredibly strong. Peter was scared and started to scream. I put my hand over his mouth and told him to shut up.

  "We slowly retreated from the beast, Peter trembling and breathing hard. The creature watched us closely as it chewed but didn't seem to care that we'd seen him. Once we were out of his sight, we turned and ran like hell back to the motel. With the door closed and the deadbolt latched, we both took a breath. Peter was pale and still trembling. I took him in my arms and held him tightly. We were both in shock and had little to say. As I held Peter, I thought back to his testimony in court about the frogmen who were supposedly the slaves of the aliens and provided the labor for operating the spaceship. As I recalled from the story, the spaceship landed at Cactus Island so the frogmen could feed off the fish in the lake. Could the story be true?

  "Excited by the possibility that aliens might actually be visiting Cactus Island at that moment, I told Peter to stay in the motel room and I'd be right back. I rushed outside and looked out at the lake. There was a faint glow above the island. I ran toward the shore to get a better look, my heart pounding, not from running but from the thought that alien life might actually exist.

  "A strong wind suddenly whipped up making the trees sway and the leaves rustle. There was a thin layer of clouds in the sky and the moonlight created an eerie ambience over the lake. Suddenly there was a flash of blue lightning from the island that stopped me dead in my tracks. Something hit me from behind startling me—scaring the shit out of me. I turned and was relieved to see it was only was Peter.

  "I put my arm around him and we both gazed out at the island in amazement. There was one hell of a light show going on out there. By now the wind was blowing fiercely and we could hardly keep our footing. The glow from the island kept getting brighter and brighter. Then a giant object shot out of the island. It fired bursts of blue lightning as it came right at us. There was a terrible piercing noise that forced us to grab our ears or lose our eardrums."

  "What sort of object is it?" Dr. Gerhardt asked.

  "It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was a huge grey object, a spaceship of some sort."

  "A spaceship. Are you sure?"

  "Absolutely! Believe me. There is no doubt. I wish you could have seen it. It was incredible!"

  "It could just be some kind of a delusion—stress from your trial," Dr. Gerhardt said. "The mind plays strange tricks on us sometime. You sure you weren't drinking or perhaps you took a Valium?"

  "No, doc. It really happened. Apparently these aliens can erase your memory somehow. I think it's the blue lightning. Somehow it causes you to forget that they were there. It's pretty amazing, isn't it?"

  "Yes, but if it's true, the ramifications of something like that would be quite astounding."

  "Yes, so I'm going to have to ask you to keep this matter secret until I can figure out what to do."

  "I won't tell a soul—Doctor-patient privilege—but Stan, you may not have seen a spaceship."

  I smiled. "Yes, I did. When you see something that incredible you don't forget it. It will be imprinted in my mind forever. I can't believe it! There are alien beings after all. . . . Jesus, mother of God! I never thought I'd hear myself say that. . . . Thanks for your help, Doctor. Sorry I intruded on your weekend."

  On the way home I had a serious talk with Peter and told him he couldn't tell anyone, under any circumstance, what had happened—not even his mother. He said he still didn't know what happened since I wouldn't let him go under hypnosis. I apologized for that but told him it was for his own protection. I made him promise he would keep his mouth shut about waking up on the beach and going to see Dr. Gerhardt. He was a good kid, so I was pretty confident he'd honor his pledge even though it would be difficult. I would probably eventually tell Rebekah, since she would sense that I was holding something inside, but I needed to wait for the right moment. She might not take the news so well. In the meantime I needed to sort everything out and decide what to do about this incredible discovery, that alien life existed and that somehow Martin Windsor was involved with them—maybe was one of them. It was a delicate situation that required much thought and consideration before moving forward with a plan to deal with it. If I went public with this information prema
turely, it might be the end of my career. On the other hand, if I didn't use this information to help prove Cheryl's innocence, she might be convicted and never see her children again. And then there was the whole issue as to whether the public had a right to know that aliens were visiting Cactus Island and probably were landing at other locations as well. Why were they here and what were they up to? These were all questions that weighed heavily on my mind.