by Hunt, Jack
Nick sat there for a few more minutes until he saw Devan’s head appear at the door. He ducked the second Harper turned, and then reappeared a few seconds later gesturing for him to come.
“Mr. Jackson. Do we have a problem?”
“Uh. No, sir. Actually I was hoping I could use the washroom.”
“You as well? In my time, we had to hold it until the end of class.”
“I really need to go,” he said as he winced and gave his best impression of needing a piss.
“Fine. Just make it quick and find out where Jones has gone. Damn boy spends more time in the washroom than in my lectures.”
“Will do,” Nick said rising and glancing at Callie, who brushed her hair behind her ear and smiled. He felt his heart pound a little harder before he ducked out. As soon as he was outside and halfway down the hall, he felt a hand grab him and yank him back.
“Shhh! Or I’ll slit your throat,” Devan said before cracking up laughing.
“Seriously, you have mental problems.”
“Don’t we all. C’mon!” He jogged down the empty corridor full of steel lockers on either side. The walls were coated in a thick off-white color, and had a green band that went horizontal. It didn’t take them long to get over to where the gym was. The door had a huge thick lock on it.
“Great. See. Told you. Now let’s get back,” Nick said.
“Oh ye of little faith.” With that said, Devan pulled out of his pocket a small plastic container and flipped it open to reveal a lock picking set.
“Seriously? That stuff doesn’t work.”
“It doesn’t if you’re an idiot,” he replied crouching down and jamming two small steel rods into the lock. “Keep an eye out. This might take a little bit of time.” He began working on it while Nick peered down the hallway. He knew Harper wouldn’t let them be out there long before he’d hunt them down.
Then next thing heard was the sound of the lock coming off.
“Voilà!” Devan said all proud of himself. He yanked the thick chain off and pushed through into the gymnasium. Nick ducked inside and his eyes fell on the now open bleachers.
“Devan, this is nuts.”
“I’m telling you something is going on. People are freaking out and acting strange. I mean, who the hell jams their hand inside closing bleachers, or jumps inside a lions’ den?”
“Those with mental health issues.”
“Yeah but then how do you explain all those accounts of people in Alpine and Marfa recently?”
They jogged over and Devan scanned the area like he was on an Easter egg hunt. He had a look of glee on his face as if expecting to see something real gnarly.
“I told you. They would have cleaned it up.”
Devan jumped up onto the bleachers and Nick watched as he ran up a few and then ducked down and slipped between them. “What are you doing?”
He saw his cell phone light switch on, and then within seconds, he said, “Bingo! Nick. Come see this.”
“I don’t think I want to.”
“Nick.”
Nick groaned and hurried up the steps and slipped between them. As he dropped down he caught sight of what Devan was illuminating with his light. It was blood that was still on the bleachers themselves. They’d cleaned it off the floors but missed a spot.
“See, I told you.”
Right then they heard the doors open in the gymnasium.
“Devan Jones. Nick Jackson. Out now!”
They stood there frozen, unsure if they should pretend to not be there and hope that Harper went away, but once they heard his footsteps making his way over they knew the gig was up.
“I said out!”
Nick knew this would happen. They crawled out and brushed themselves off as they made their way down to the waxed floor. “This is detention for both of you, and Jones…” Harper put his hand out and at first Devan tried to act like he had nothing but then he pulled out the lock pick set and handed it over.
“Right, head on out.”
Outside in the hall Harper berated them and told them this was going to leave a big mark on their record. He was laying the fear on heavy. He was known for doing that. It was all bull crap but he thought it worked. The guy was old school and if he had his way he would have advocated for corporal punishment but it had been taken out of the school system, thank God. Well, at least in quite a few states. When they reentered the classroom and were told to take a seat, he noticed that Toby Winters wasn’t there.
“Anyone know where Winters is?”
“He just walked out a few minutes after you,” Callie said.
“Okay, well stay here. I will be right back.” He sighed. “They don’t pay me enough to do this crap.” Once he was out of the room Devan rolled into his speech about how he’d found the severed hand of the kid beneath the bleachers.
“Bullshit,” someone said.
Devan pulled out his phone and showed them the snapshot he’d taken.
Right then several of the students in the room hurried over to the window and looked out. “Hey, check this out. That’s Winters.” A few kids started laughing as Nick went over and looked. Sure enough there was Toby Winters. He’d climbed up onto the roof of the building and was walking along the edge. Down on the ground, Harper and the caretaker were trying to get him to come down.
“Hell yeah!” Devan said pumping his fist in the air. “Rage against the man.”
“No, something’s not right,” Callie said. “He was acting all out of sorts. You know, looking into space earlier on as if he was in some kind of trance state. I snapped my fingers near him and he jumped back looking petrified as if I was going to kill him.”
“Ah, so this is all your fault, Callie,” Devan said before laughing.
Everyone in that moment just thought this was a kid acting out, trying to make a point, but Nick knew otherwise. Toby Winters wasn’t the class clown. He was a straight A student. When it came to studies and school he was all business. Unlike Devan who took every chance he could get to slack off.
Someone in the class opened a window so they could hear what was going on.
Nick got closer and watched as several teachers came out and tried to coax Toby into coming down but he wasn’t listening. He looked like a tightrope walker balancing on the lip of the school building making his way to the far end. Students began making assumptions.
“You think he’s going to jump?”
“The kid must have home issues.”
“It’s all the pressure. Probably his old man reamed him out after he got a B instead of an A.” Chatter spread across the knot of students as they pressed forward. All of a sudden, everyone stopped breathing as Toby stepped off the edge and hurtled to the ground. Nick winced at the sight.
His impact on the concrete was palpable.
Chapter 5
What was the military doing here? Emerick had been sitting in the radio station for the past ten minutes expecting an ambulance to appear. He was staring out the window, his hand shaking as he sipped on a glass of bourbon, when the large green military truck rolled up the street and multiple soldiers hopped out the back, rifles at the ready, directing the people to step away from McCarthy’s body. The look of fear and confusion on bystanders’ faces was evident as they took control of the situation. The soldiers weren’t geared up in regular attire; they had respirator masks, goggles and gloves as if they were treating some kind of pathogen.
“Angela, check this out.”
She’d returned to setting up some of their pre-programmed shows so they could take the rest of the day off. She came over and glanced out. “What the hell?”
“When was the last time you called for an ambulance and they sent the military?”
“Those rumors about Alpine must be true,” she said.
They loaded the limp body of McCarthy into the back of the truck and then approached several of the people that had been close to him when they arrived. Emerick couldn’t hear the conversations but it was clear that
there was some disagreement as the two men and one woman who’d been close began raising their arms, shouting and backing away. Their attempts to leave were met with resistance. A soldier grabbed one of the guys by the arm and the man responded by wheeling around and punching him in the side of the head. All hell broke loose. Rifles were raised, hands went in the air, and within seconds the three were thrown down on the ground and zip tied. Meanwhile curious spectators looked on bewildered by it all. Emerick couldn’t believe his eyes as the woman and the two men were strong-armed to the back of the truck and thrown inside. He had a good mind to go out there and protest with the crowd but that idea went out the window once he saw Jill Grayson point at the radio station. One of the soldiers looked their way. Their only saving grace was that the window had a tint to it, otherwise they would have seen them staring back. Two soldiers made their way across the street heading towards the radio station. Like a light turning on, Emerick came to his senses and began backing up. “Angela. We need to get out of here now.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“No time to explain. Let’s go!”
He grabbed her by the hand and yanked her to the back of the room, he shouldered through a door and they hurried down a corridor and slammed into the emergency exit. As soon as they were out the back he made a beeline for his Chevy Blazer that was parked a few feet away.
“Emerick. We haven’t done anything.”
“Yes we have. We came in contact with McCarthy. Those three other people were also touching and close to him.”
“But I never…”
She looked at him and then realized she’d touched Emerick. They hopped into the Blazer, fired up the engine and reversed out, tires squealing before he crushed the accelerator pedal and tore out of the back alley. The Chevy bounced off the curb and onto El Paso Street. Businesses were a blur as he powered away, trying to put as much distance as he could between them and the station.
“This is crazy, Emerick. Stop the vehicle.”
“You saw what happened back there. You heard the radio broadcasts, and watched those videos online. Something is going down and I don’t intend to get caught up in it. I need to get my kid and then reassess the situation.”
Brody and Gottman carried Viola out of that rocky ravine. Under any normal circumstances they would have left her there and got the medical examiner to come out and seal off the area but there was a fear that whoever had done this might return and dispose of the body. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to dump a body and return later to transfer it elsewhere. But that wasn’t the biggest concern they had. When Brody had contacted dispatch to get an EMT to meet them out at the main highway, they were told that EMTs weren’t going out as the dispatcher had been having a hard time connecting with them. It made no sense. Even at their busiest time in Alpine there was always someone who would at least take the call. Brody told the dispatcher they would take her body to the ME’s office and to not worry.
They were within half a mile from the vehicle and had stopped to take a break when Gottman spoke up. He had taken out his phone and was trying to get a signal.
“Chief, you know I’m not even getting one bar out here.”
“We’re too far out. Wait until we get back to the highway.”
“I wanted to get in touch with the department and find out what’s going on in Alpine.”
“It’s probably just a breakdown of communication.”
“When has that ever happened?”
“Look, just give me a hand carrying her back.”
Gottman wiped sweat from his brow and with a sour look on his face grabbed Viola’s legs. They continued on, shuffling across the desert plain. The afternoon heat was making his shirt stick to his back and the constant yapping by Gottman was starting to get on his last nerve. At the back of his mind, Brody knew he was going to have to give a death notification to the family and he hated doing that. The amount of training they gave them at the academy amounted to half a paragraph, that’s because there was no easy way to drop it on a family. All you could do was express your sympathy, ask them if there was someone who could stay with them and then reassure them that the department was doing everything they could to resolve it, if it was related to murder. Murders were the toughest cases of them all because there were no guarantees.
Brody had wrapped a handkerchief around his face because the smell of the decaying body was awful. “So hey, I was thinking, with you and Jenna breaking up and all. Would you mind if…?”
Brody’s eyebrow went up as Gottman trailed off.
“Are you kidding me?” Brody said.
“No. I know it’s fresh right now. I was meaning in time. Six months from now if she’s still single.”
“I haven’t signed the papers.”
“But you plan on it.”
“Gottman.”
“Right. I’m sorry. Just she’s a great-looking gal and I would hate to see that all go to waste.”
Brody had tried to not think about Jenna. It was easier to shut her out of his mind. In the first few days after she left he couldn’t work. He just couldn’t get his head into focusing. He wasn’t a man given to crying but something broke inside of him after she walked out that day. He wouldn’t have minded if she wanted to keep an open line of communication but she shut him down, cut him off and made it seem as if there was no way forward. For the first time in his life he’d felt out of control. Like his world was falling apart and twenty-four years had been flushed down the drain. He would walk through the day like a ghost, doing the bare minimum to survive. He spent hours talking to his family but there was nothing they could do except console him and tell him to give her time. She’ll come around. She always does, they would say. But something inside told him different. It wasn’t just a disagreement. It was her mental anguish over the death of Will. She had never really got help for it. Whereas him, he’d had the police services psychiatrist to bounce his thoughts off, but Jenna had avoided the idea of speaking to anyone. Perhaps thinking time would heal the wound but it hadn’t.
Brody felt the muscles in his arms weaken as they carried Viola the last leg of the journey. His truck was now in sight, which was a relief. He glanced at Gottman and shook his head. The nerve of the guy. Only two months after she had walked out and he was already looking to scoop her up. It pissed him off but on the other hand, he didn’t blame him. Jenna was a good-looking woman. It was the reason why she’d caught his attention back when they were in their late teens. She was stunning. Something about that long hair, her green eyes and reserved character was massively attractive. And yet even though time had put wrinkles on both of their faces, he could still see that young girl buried beneath the years. He missed her. He missed the woman he’d married. That’s why he couldn’t bring himself to sign the papers. His mind kept churning over every good memory in his head. Every vacation, every glance and every moment they laughed together. How could he give that up? He’d forever be searching for her in other women, if he could even bring himself to love anyone else again.
“Well I have never been more glad to see your truck,” Gottman said as they laid Viola on the ground and Brody opened the rear and they carefully placed her into the back. He covered her with a blue tarp and shut the door. The wind blew grit in his eyes, and tumbleweed rolled across the terrain. He gazed up into the blue sky, where only a few clouds drifted slowly across the horizon.
“So who do you think is behind it?”
“No idea,” Brody replied.
“C’mon, you must have a gut instinct.”
He stared back at him.
“Without solid evidence, my instincts are just that, instincts that I keep to myself. And you would be wise to do the same thing,” Brody said as he came around to the driver’s side and hopped in. He fired up the motor and once Gottman was in, they peeled out leaving behind a plume of dust. It didn’t take them long to get back to US-90. Brody exited the desert plain and headed northeast on the thirty-minute drive into Alpine.
/> “Where is everyone?” Gottman said, noticing there was no one on the road. Sure, Marfa was in the middle of nowhere and there was a good twenty miles between towns but they usually passed by at least one vehicle. In the ten minutes they’d been driving they hadn’t seen anyone, not even an RV on the roadside. Something seemed off about it all, especially in light of dispatch saying what they had. Brody pulled off to the side of the road as he saw military trucks in the distance. Although he could have driven into town and logic would tell him that it was probably nothing, the military didn’t show up in their neck of the woods without good reason.
Back at the school, everyone was still in shock after witnessing Winters’ suicide. But it was what happened next that caused everyone to chatter. Multiple military trucks rolled into the school grounds, fanning out in every direction. Soldiers bounced out, rushing forward. All of them were outfitted in hazmat suits, bearing rifles and preparing for a confrontation. If that wasn’t bad enough, several phones throughout the class started ringing, one of which was Devan’s.
“It’s my old man. Hold tight,” he said turning away and answering it.
Nick listened in on several conversations people were having. From what he could grasp it was their parents.
“Yes, I’m here at the school,” someone replied.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Mom, you are worrying me. Calm down.”
“Dad, where? You want me to meet you?” Devan asked.
Nick stared out trying to make sense of the odd sight of soldiers patrolling through the school grounds. They approached Mr. Harper and got into a conversation before he was led away and placed in the back of the truck. In fact, all of them were. At least those who were close to Winters.
Right then, Nick felt a firm hand on his shoulder. It was Devan.
“My old man says he’s on his way to pick me up. He says the military are in town as well.” His mouth remained agape as he looked out seeing soldiers approaching the school. “He says it’s not safe and we need to get out. I’m meeting him over at Coffield Park. You coming?”