Psychosis_When a Dream Turns Deadly

by Roger Bray

They pulled up in Alex’s driveway next to the front door. After clearing out the garage, Alex had been true to his silent promise to Hazel and had started parking his car inside.

  He had bought himself a late model Impreza to replace his Mustang, which had been sold somewhere between the second and third appeal after the police had returned it from forensics. After resisting buying anything flashy he had simply gone to the closest dealer and bought the first car that had seemed OK.

  Alice knocked on the door and Alex answered it with a smile.

  “Hi stranger,” he said to Steve, “Alice was getting all stressed out when you didn’t answer her calls.”

  “Yeah, I turned the sound off in the library and forgot to turn it on again,” he lied, but Alex seemed to accept the reply and led them into the kitchen.

  “How’s Jim with the damage,” Steve asked.

  “OK, I guess, happy with what we did I think. He’s clearing up a bit more out there now, he’s been out there all morning.”

  “I suppose he’ll be hitting you up with an insurance claim, you or Miss. Muir. Whose tree was it?”

  “No idea. It was slap bang in the center of the fence line. It was there long before we moved in and Miss. Muir says it was there when she moved in as well. But it doesn’t matter, anyway.”

  “Oh, why?”

  “Jim said not to worry, ‘Shit happens’, he said. It could have been one of his trees that came down on us. He reckons that the damage isn’t that bad so he’ll have it fixed up or do it himself.”

  “He’s staying around for a few days to get it sorted then?”

  “No, he said that he is going to tidy up now, but he has an urgent job in two days which he says he can’t postpone. So, the boarding that we put up will have to do until he gets back.”

  “He’s staying around for a couple of days then?”

  “It seems like it.”

  Alice, standing behind Alex mouthed, “Road trip,” at Steve who answered by saying, “Anyway, we popped in to see how you were doing but I’ve a few things to do.”

  “But you’ve only been here five minutes.”

  “Yeah, sorry but we only popped in,” he repeated.

  *****

  Jim finished stacking the cut timber from the fallen fir and was raking up as he saw Steve’s car turn into Alex’s driveway. Another ten minutes he would be finished, and he decided he would wander over and say hello. He didn’t get the chance as, just as he was finishing, he saw Steve’s car reverse back out of the driveway and heard the engine as it accelerated up the street. With the last of twigs, needles and cones dragged into a neat pile Jim leaned the rake against the pile of timber and took a drink from a bottle of water he had left next the boarded up remains of his patio doors. As he finished drinking, he moved the bottle from his mouth and water dribbled down his chin. He hadn’t actually seen who was in the car. It could have been Steve or Alice or both as he had presumed. He wiped the dribble of his stubbly chin and spat the last of the water in his mouth in a small arch and onto the grass.

  He heard the door from Alex’s house onto the patio closing and guessed Alex was coming over to see how he was going. Thirty seconds later he was proved correct as Alex came into view through the gap in the hedge dividing their gardens.

  “Hi, Jim” he called, holding his hand up in a wave. “All tidied up?”

  “Yep, just about, now I have to get rid of it all. I’ll burn some and dump the rest, but if you need any barbecue wood, you know where to come.”

  Alex smiled and nodded.

  “I was going to come over when I heard Steve’s car turn up, but by the time I’d finished he’s gone. Wasn’t here long?”

  “No, they just popped in.”

  “Alice as well?”

  “Yes, they’re off somewhere, and stopped by.”

  “Seemed in a hurry.”

  Alex nodded.

  “Where are they off to?”

  “To be honest Jim, I have no idea. He seemed more interested in how you were going, cleaning up and everything. How long you had before you had to go back to work.”

  “Really? Seems a little strange, he could have come over and asked me instead of hurrying off.”

  “I don’t know what he’s up to. Ever since the storm he has been racing around, chasing something.”

  “About Hazel?”

  “I guess, but he is keeping pretty quiet about it if he is.”

  Jim nodded slowly, distracted, before he seemed to remember that Alex was still there.

  “I had better get on, still some more cleaning up to do inside.”

  Alex nodded, “OK, if you need help with anything let me know.”

  Jim had already half turned toward his house, “You too, Alex.”

  With that he walked toward the rear of the house and the back door leaving Alex standing next to the woodpile.

  *****

  Fifteen minutes later Steve and Alice were crossing over the i5 on the 126 heading east toward Deerhorn. Alice was quite proud of herself that she hadn’t yet asked Steve what he had been doing and where they were going. When they were clear of Springfield he started.

  “Grab my folio bag from the back seat and get the green folder out.”

  She did as he asked and, stretching round, managed to drag the bag into the front. Looking inside she found the folder and pulled it out. Opening it she saw that Steve, as careful as ever, had indexed the documents into plastic sheaths which were held in place by the folder’s clips.

  “OK. When the tree came down, and we were tidying up, Moth knocked those magazines onto the floor.”

  “The little rascal,” she laughed.

  “The little rascal has given us a big break.”

  “How?”

  “Did you know Jim’s wife?”

  “No. Alex and Hazel didn’t move into their house until a few years after she died.”

  “Had you ever seen her?”

  “Probably. I think so. Eugene is a fairly close community.”

  She thought about it before answering. “I did, my mom once chatted to Jim and Linda while she was out and introduced me.”

  “Do you remember her?”

  “Quite a striking woman I recall. Beautiful with long dark hair.”

  “Like Hazel’s?”

  She nodded, “Yes, now that you mention it.”

  “Look at the first picture in the folder. That fell out of one of those magazines. Is that Jim’s wife?”

  Alice looked at the picture and gasped, making the same connection that Steve had.

  “That could be Hazel at first glance. The way she’s standing and the way her hair falls down her face.”

  “That’s what I thought as well. When we came out of Jim’s house, I was going to show you the picture but after, well you know …”

  “Todd?”

  “Yeah, Todd; I held back. I wanted to have a little more than only the picture.”

  “And you think you have now?”

  “I think so, but it wasn’t only that that sent me scurrying around town and then up to Phil’s to use his databases.”

  “His databases?”

  “He does a lot of work for banks and insurance companies, so he gets access to their data. It’s extremely useful at times.”

  “And you found more there?”

  “Yes, but I’m jumping ahead. After I found the picture, I was going to tell you and then decided not to until I had more. Remember I went and put the yard broom away.”

  She nodded.

  “I found these.” He flicked through the pictures on his phone, showing Alice.

  “Mountain bikes?” she asked.

  “In a storage area off Jim’s garage. His and hers I think for Jim and Linda.”

  “And?”

  “Nothing to add to how I was feeling about Jim. I decided to start again and look into him. I went to the county office and requested the details of his house. That took a few hours, so I went up to the Union Pacific offices which aren�
�t far from where Hazel’s car was found. If he was still there, I knew someone who works as a security manager for Union Pacific. He does, so I went to see him.”

  “To get Jim’s work schedules? To see where he was when Hazel went missing?”

  “That was the plan. Once I had convinced my friend that my inquiries would be of no detriment to Union Pacific he helped me go through Jim’s file on their system.”

  “And was he where he said he was going after Hazel went missing.”

  “I have no idea where he was. Jim hasn’t worked for Union Pacific for nearly fifteen years. He probably resigned a few months after Linda died. Resigned is a bit of a stretch. They knew what had happened and gave him as much time as he needed. And he never went back.”

  “So what the hell is he doing all these times he says he is going here and going there to do rail road work?”

  “Good question.”

  “After lunch I went back to the county office and got the documents that I had asked for. Jim owns his house outright; the deeds show that he paid it off a few months after Linda died.”

  “Insurance payout?”

  “Yes, but don’t jump ahead. I’d asked for the information on Jim’s house in Eugene and that’s what I got, but the clerk is doing law at the university part-time and I have a few lectures with her.”

  “You used your charm?” she laughed.

  He joined in before saying, “No, actually I didn’t use anything. I paid for the documents and was about to leave when she asked quietly if I wanted the details of the other house as well.”

  “What other house?”

  “Exactly. When she did the search, she found a second property on the edge of the county.”

  “Which is where we are going now?”

  “Correct. It’s on the 126, quite a large house on about forty acres of untouched land. If it had been a few miles further east, it would be in Deschutes County or a few miles north it would have been in Linn and without thinking of looking at their records office, we would have never have known about it.”

  “Jim’s always going on about going to Umpqua. Spending his free time camping and fishing, that kind of thing.”

  Steve nodded, “In almost exactly the opposite direction and a hundred and forty miles between them.”

  “And the clerk gave you this information.”

  “I paid the second fee and filled the form in. She already had it printed out, so I got it straight away. With that, and what I’d found out at Union Pacific, I decided to go to Phil’s and check out what I could there.”

  “The insurance?”

  “Five million.”

  “What? No wonder he doesn’t care about a bit of damage from a tree falling into the door.”

  “He and Linda had matching policies which they took out when they got married. Linda’s policy paid out when she died, he canceled his a few months later.”

  “You’re telling me everything I know about Jim is a lie?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “All the times he said he was away for work, he wasn’t and all the time he said he was off camping south of Eugene, he was actually in his secret house on the other side of the county.”

  Steve nodded.

  Alice shook her head, trying to take it all in.

  “Is there any more?”

  “Not much. He paid his mortgage on the house in Eugene a few months after Linda died and he bought the property off the 126 a few months later.”

  “And that’s it. I mean it’s huge, but are there any other surprises?”

  “That’s about it except that on July 11, 2007, he was cited for having a broken tail light on his truck. He had some spares and changed the bulb there and then. He still got the ticket though.

  “He had a broken tail light, so what?”

  “The officer pulled him over in Penn Avenue.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “The Orchard district in Bend.”

  “What was the date?”

  “July eleventh, Ruth Johnston went missing on the twelfth.”

  “Holy shit, I mean holy shit. This is coming together isn’t it. I mean it’s actually coming together.”

  He nodded, “I think so.”

  “Where are we going now, the house?”

  “It’s the most obvious place to look for anything, although given what his house in Eugene is like, I would imagine it’s going to be fairly secure.”

  “We’re not driving all this way to admire the outside of a house.”

  “No, I have a pry bar in the trunk. We’re going to have a good look at this place. Inside and out. That’s why I needed to know where he was and that he’ll be there for today at least. We’ll park up a little way from the house and make our way through the woods.”

  “That’s why you wanted me to bring the walking boots?”

  He laughed, “I would hate to see you trying to get over that terrain with those little pumps on.”

  He nodded down to the flat heeled Mary Jane pumps she was wearing.

  She jokingly scowled at him, then laughed. They were comfortable but would be hopeless in the wilderness.

  *****

  Jim walked into the house and stood in the mess that had been his dining room until the storm. The patio doors still hung, broken where the storm had left them. When they had cleaned up, someone had swept the glass in to a neat pile near the wall and moved the broken table and damaged chairs away from the doors so the job could be done. The room was dark thanks to the emergency paneling which had been put up and Jim turned on the light to look around. Nothing unexpected. The damage had been confined to the area where he stood. The rest of the house was undamaged and there was no reason for anyone to have been anywhere but here.

  Something, he decided, had made Steve chase off, as Alex had put it, after the storm. Not before, but after. The storm had set Steve off, but why?

  It wasn’t his computer, it was switched off and the BIOS password he set would prevent any tampering. The house looked fine, but he slowly walked around to check it out again. Nothing caught his eye. There was no sign that Alex, Alice, or Steve had been anywhere except where the damage had been.

  He found nothing, and he was almost reassured as he stood in his study at the back of the house. Until he realized what was bothering him.

  The magazines on top of the filing cabinet were wrong. The wrong one was on the top. He’d kept them as a reminder of Linda, and where they used to go. The one which had been on top had an article on the Crater Lake National Park where they had loved to go camping. He sorted through the pile, found the right magazine and opened it to the page expecting to see his favorite picture of Linda, but it wasn’t there. He shook out the magazine, nothing, he dropped it and picked up the next one and repeated the shaking. That magazine joined the first on the floor. Now frantic, he continued with the other magazines until they were all on the floor. No picture—it was gone.

  Was that what Steve had discovered? What else was there, nothing he could think of. Nothing in the house. He clenched and unclenched his fists. How dare they come in here and take Linda’s picture from him? Then he dismissed it with an irritated wave of his hand, not enough. He could see the connection but could they. Would a picture of his dead wife be enough to set Steve off on whatever mission he was on? He doubted it.

  What else? What else could they have found? Nothing … except.

  Jim rushed out of the back door to the side of the garage. He opened the door and went to the workshop. Turning on the light he looked around, there was nothing out of place. The mountain bikes were still where they had been, Linda’s for over fifteen years, his for less, but still where it should have been. He shook his head and turned to leave before looking down.

  The clump of resin and pine needles about two inches wide on the floor was fresh. He hadn’t been in there for months but whoever had, had got this litter on the sole of a boot and tracked it in. Jim picked it up and felt the stickiness and could smell the pine,
holding it up to the light he could see clean sawdust clinging to the resin.

  Someone had been in here after the tree had been cleared away and it hadn’t been him. Now he knew, and he guessed what had set Steve off after the storm.

  “Bastard!” he muttered angrily. How dare he interfere?

  He turned off the light and went back into the house. Alex didn’t know anything, that was obvious. This could be fixed, but he would need to act quickly.

  Opening the right-hand drawer of his desk he removed a box which he placed on the desktop. He opened the lid and removed the 9mm Beretta 92 and its magazine. He found the box of cartridges and quickly loaded the magazine which he slipped into place. The weapon cocked easily, he kept it well maintained but had hardly fired it since he’d bought it the week after Linda’s funeral.

  Walking back to his bedroom he pulled on his heavy coat and slipped the Beretta into the side pocket. He walked out of the back door and ten minutes later was on the 126 following Steve and Alice’s tracks.

  *****

  About a mile after driving through a wide spot in the road called Belknap Spring, Steve pulled over off the road. All Alice could see were trees, all around her, on both sides of the road, there were trees.

  “Are you sure about this?” she asked indicating in her tone that she wasn’t.

  He pointed with a flat hand up the road, north. “The entrance to the property is about five-hundred yards straight up the road. The property itself is along a track of about four-hundred yards. If we cut through the woods here,” he indicated past her ear, “we have about a half mile walk to get to it.”

  “A walk you say?” she said looking at the woods. She realized that she couldn’t see much after the first twenty yards.

  He laughed. “Don’t panic. There’s a fire track running due east from here that will take us straight toward the back of the property.”

  They spent a few minutes changing footwear. Alice pulled on her surprisingly well-worn hiking boots. She hadn’t worn them in a few years but they felt comfortable as she pulled them on over her thick socks. Steve pulled on his army-issue Gore-Tex infantry boots and laced them up before stamping his feet a few times. She watched as he removed his jacket and put his arms through the slings of his shoulder holster, fastened it on his belt, and moved the straps around a little until he was happy.