by Robert Boren
“Later,” he said. “The Doc left, I take it?”
“Yeah, he took off about the same time that the Major left.”
“Alright.”
Frank and Jerry walked through the door after about five minutes. They walked over to the Sheriff.
“Sheriff, maybe we should talk somewhere more private,” Jerry said.
You guys can use my office,” Hilda said. “It’s that door back in the rear of the room, next to the stage.”
“Thanks, Hilda,” the Sheriff said. “Let’s go.”
The three men walked back to the office door. The Sheriff opened it and ushered Jerry and Frank in.”
“Have a seat, guys,” the Sheriff said. Everybody sat down.
“Where’d the footprints lead?” asked Frank.
“Well, they definitely led into the park, through the side gate up towards the front, but after they got in a little ways, they were pretty well wiped out by other foot traffic from this morning.”
“Who did the tracking?” asked Jerry.
“The Lieutenant.”
“Hmmmm, wonder if he’s any good at tracking? Extra foot traffic makes it harder, but it’s not impossible if there is a good pattern from the prints.”
“You want to go out and give it a shot?” asked the Sheriff.
“Not now. If the bad guys are still around, they would see me looking.”
“You think they might have left?”
“Well, it is possible,” Frank said. “They have to know that the heat is on.”
“Well, let’s drop this part and focus on Arthur,” the Sheriff said.
Frank and Jerry looked at each other.
“You know that whoever killed Arthur probably called the scumbags that we fought this morning, correct?” asked Jerry.
“What makes you think that?” asked the Sheriff.
Frank and Jerry looked at each other again.
“Sheriff, somebody here had to have called them. They knew where that parking area was, and the trail over the creek. They knew where the blind was too. They got the drop on Jeb, and I’ll bet that isn’t easy to do.”
The Sheriff sat there looking at the two men. You could see the gears in his head turning.
“Okay, I think you probably have something there,” he said. “So what now?”
“We need to interview anybody who wasn’t at Happy Hour the last night,” Frank said.
“Do you know who wasn’t there?” asked the Sheriff.
“Off the top of my head, I know of some,” Frank said. “And I know of some people who were gone during parts of the evening.”
“Me too, but it might help to have Hilda in here to help us remember everybody,” Jerry said.
“Alright, I’ll go get her,” the Sheriff said.
“Wait a minute,” Jerry said. “Did the coroner tell you how long Arthur had been dead?”
“He gave me a range. Between four and sixteen hours. But remember that he didn’t start looking at the body until a couple hours after they picked it up.”
Jerry and Frank looked at each other again.
“We can’t count on this happening during Happy Hour,” Frank said.
“I was thinking it would have been difficult for this to have happened during broad daylight,” mused Jerry. “I’m changing my mind. The person or persons who did this were brazen enough to pull that off easily.”
“So did you see Arthur hanging around with anybody in particular?” asked the Sheriff.
“No....huh…..wait,” Jerry said. “Cynthia was in his rig with him.”
“You don’t think that little lady could have killed Arthur, do you?” asked the Sheriff.
“Arthur was a very frail old man,” Jerry said. “Hell, he probably didn’t weigh much over a hundred pounds. Yeah, she could have easily killed him.”
“Jerry’s right,” Frank said. “We can place her there during the time in question. Maybe we should bring her back in.”
“Alright, you two,” said the Sheriff. “Not sure that I agree here, but I’ll go talk to Hilda. I’ll have her go get Cynthia, and then they can both come in here.” He got up and left the room.
“We are going to have to lead this character through every step of this investigation. You know that, right?” asked Jerry.
“Sad. I wonder if he has any criminal investigators on his force.”
“Well, there’s always Barney,” Jerry said. The two men cracked up again.
Jane poked her head through the door.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“The Sheriff went out to get Hilda and Cynthia back here,” Frank said. “How’s it going out there?”
“Rosie is keeping us entertained. She’s already asking when Happy Hour is.” Jane smirked.
“That’s my girl,” Jerry said. “Jasmine still here?”
“Yes, she’s been sitting by the window reading her Kindle most of the time.”
“Sounds about right,” Jerry said. “It drives her nuts to watch her mom being the life of the party.”
“Here comes the Sheriff,” Jane said. “Talk to you later, sweetie. Bye, Jerry.”
Both men nodded. The Sheriff came back in.
“Alright, Hilda went to get Cynthia. She’ll be back in a couple of minutes. Where were we?”
“Well, when the murder could have happened,” Frank said. “And who do we know of that had access to Arthur….Either during Happy Hour or before?”
“Yeah, that covers it,” Jerry said.
Hilda rushed into the office.
“Cynthia is gone,” Hilda said, sounding out of breath.
“No, really?” asked the Sheriff. “Is her rig still here?”
“Yes, but her car is gone. And Jerry, the door of your coach is hanging open. I saw it on the way back.”
Jerry looked at Frank, eyes wide open.
“The radio,” Jerry said. He got out of his chair and took off running.
“I’ll call Charlie and see what time he saw her leave,” Hilda said. She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket.
“Charlie?”
“Yes, Hilda, what’s up?” Charlie asked.
“Did you see any cars leave the park?”
“Yes, I saw a Honda CRV leave about an hour ago. Didn’t think anything of it. Why.”
“I was just down looking for Cynthia. She’s gone. Her coach was left open.”
“Uh Oh,” Charlie said.
Just then Jerry ran back into the office.
“The radio’s gone,” he said, trying to catch his breath.
“I think our murder investigation is over, Sheriff,” Frank said.
“What’s happening?” asked Charlie over the phone.
“Looks like Cynthia took off with the short wave radio. She broke into Jerry’s rig and took it on the way out.”
“Crap. Never would have pegged her as the one,” Charlie said.
Suddenly there was a pop, pop, pop in the distance.
“Did you guys hear that?” asked Charlie.
“Yes,” Hilda said.
“I know that sound,” Jerry said. “Gunfire, about half a mile away.”
Then there was more. Pop pop pop pop, muffled by the distance, and then two explosions.
“Grenades,” Jerry said.
Chapter 5 – Guns in the Distance
More distant gunfire. The muffled pop pop pop sound. Lucy looked towards the windows and growled.
“I can see some smoke,” Charlie said over the cellphone to Hilda. She took the phone away from her ear.
“Charlie can see some smoke.”
“Maybe we should all go up there to continue our meeting, so Charlie can be involved, and so we can see what’s going on,” Frank said.
Hilda nodded.
“Charlie, we’re coming up.”
“Great, see you in a few minutes.”
Another pop pop pop, and two more loud explosions. Then more pop pop pop. It was starting to go faster now….too fast to count.
<
br /> “That’s more than just six guys shooting at a couple of militia nuts,” Jerry said.
“Yeah, there’s a fire fight going on down there,” Frank said. “I hope the Major and his men didn’t get ambushed.”
“Me too,” the Sheriff said. As they were walking towards the store, Earl and Jackson joined them.
“You guys are obviously hearing this,” Earl said.
“C’mon, we’re going up on the roof of the store to have a meeting,” Frank said. He looked over at Jerry for approval, and he nodded. When they were almost to the door, Jane rushed over and got beside Frank. She looked up at him, and he put his arm around her shoulders. They walked into the store, and over to the back room door.
“Alright, everybody watch your step,” Hilda said. They went into the dark storeroom, and Hilda turned on the lights. There was a rough wooden staircase in the back of the room, leading to a trap door. Hilda climbed up and pushed the trap door open. All of them walked up onto the roof…..Hilda followed by Frank and Jane, Jerry, the Sheriff, Earl, and Jackson. Jane carried Lucy up. Charlie was over at the edge of the flat roof, behind a façade that was about chest high. He was sitting on a short stool with a rifle in his hands.
“I know it’s a little dirty, but you folks probably should sit down,” Charlie said. “If you stand up and there are bad guys out there, they could hit you with a sniper rifle.”
“Good point,” Jerry said. He sat down Indian-style, and the others joined him.
“OK, so here’s the situation as we know it right now,” Frank said. “Major Hobbs took his troops and headed down the back highway, looking for the missing vehicle. Sheriff, is that billow of smoke over there in the direction that the highway leads?”
“Sure is,” the Sheriff said.
“I figured. Sounds like whatever went on there is over, because it’s been a couple of minutes since we’ve heard anything.”
“That smoke looks like a vehicle fire to me,” Jerry said.
“Just what I was thinking,” Charlie said, looking back at the group. Then he turned back out to overlook the front of the park. Hilda went over and sat next to him.
“We also think we know who killed Arthur. It appears to have been Cynthia, and when she took off, she stole Arthur’s short wave radio from Jerry’s coach.”
“Cynthia, huh?” asked Jackson. “Shoot. I should have seen that coming.”
“What?” asked Jerry.
“Cynthia was very close to the leader of the militia,” Jackson said.
“Close, hell, they were lovers,” Earl said. “They had a big fight right before we left the militia, and she decided to go with us. Phony baloney. She fooled us good.”
“Who’s the leader of the militia?”
“Some nutcase named Franklin J. Hornady. And don’t leave out the J or call him Frank. He don’t like that.” Earl looked over at Jackson, and they both laughed sarcastically. “That cretin is a legend in his own mind.”
“Is he the brains of the operation?” asked Frank.
“No, that was Hank and Lewis,” Jackson said. “Franklin J. Hornady is a charismatic character, though. He’s probably the main thing holding that band of rednecks together now.”
“Apparently he’s made some kind of alliance with the Islamists. Half of the folks that we killed this morning were Islamists, the other half were militia men.”
Earl and Jackson both laughed sarcastically again.
“Yeah, that sounds like Franklin,” Earl said. “He never thinks things through past the first move. Hank and Lewis would have vetoed that for sure. As soon as the Islamists accomplish whatever objective they have, they will just behead all of those militia folks. Idiot.”
“Tell us more about Cynthia,” asked Charlie.
“She comes off all meek most of the time,” Earl said. “She was always nice to me, but she also always made me a little nervous. I wasn’t thrilled when she was coming with us.”
“Did she really have a son in South Korea?”
“Yes, that part is true,” Jackson said. “I actually know him. I think he joined the service to get away from his mom and Franklin.”
“Franklin isn’t the dad?” asked Jerry.
“No, she probably doesn’t even know who his dad was,” Earl said. “She was quite a looker back in the day. Wild gal. Real disco queen. Must have been hell to deal with as a mom. She can still pretty herself up enough to catch the attention of men, though. Worked on Franklin. Hell, I’ve even given her a second look myself.”
“She just looked like an older mom to me,” Frank said.
“She doesn’t dress up that often,” Jackson snorted. “Usually only when she wants something from somebody. She can be a good actress.”
“I wish you guys would have mentioned this before now,” Jerry said. “How come you weren’t at Happy Hour last night?”
“We both had to quit drinking,” Jackson said. “I’ll bet you guys thought that Earl and I did in Arthur.”
“Well, it did cross our minds,” Frank said.
“Can’t blame you for that, I guess,” Earl said. “We’ll take off if you don’t trust us.”
“No, don’t do that,” Frank said. “We’re cool. We know who did it now. We could use able-bodied men at this point too, and you guys know more about the militia than anyone else here.”
“Good, we’d like to stay,” Jackson said. “Too many bad people out on the road.”
“That brings us to the main thing we need to talk about. Do we make a stand here, or do we hi-tail it,” Jerry said. “I don’t think we’ll know for sure what to do until the Major gets back here.”
“If he gets back here,” Frank said.
“Yeah,” Jerry said. “This place does have some advantages for defense, but it could also turn into the Alamo.”
“I still think you would be a lot less safe on the road,” the Sheriff said. “You were going to go north. You might have gone up the same road the Major and his troops went up. Somebody was lighting off grenades up there. Could have been the Major, but it also could have been the bad guys.”
“There’s definitely some truth in what you are saying,” Frank said. “This place is of no real strategic value that I can think of.”
“Franklin J. Hornady is not a strategic thinker,” Jackson said. “If he’s coming here, it’s to find the folks who killed Hank and Ken.”
“Didn’t Lewis just get arrested, not killed?” Frank asked. “What if he’s out now and he rejoins the militia?”
“That wouldn’t be good,” Earl said. “But I’d be surprised if he’s out. If he was, I doubt that the Williams Militia would be teaming up with Islamists. He’d know better.”
“Yeah, I’d have to agree with Earl on that,” Jackson said.
“How many people are left in the militia?” asked the Sheriff.
“Good question,” Earl said. “There were a lot of ‘casual’ members who wouldn’t have gone along with crap like this. At the peak, there were about sixty people in that group. I’d be a little surprised if they had half that now.”
“I’m not sure I agree, Earl,” Jackson said. “Things are crazy now, and Franklin might have many of them convinced that going it alone is more dangerous than staying with the group, even if they aren’t on board with all of the decision making.”
“Wonder if Officer Simmons is still in this mix?” asked Jane.
“If we’re lucky the Islamists have already taken him out,” Charlie said. He looked down at Hilda, then back at the group. “Bottom line here, in my way of thinking, is that we need to be able to carefully compare the relative safety of being on the road vs. staying here. I don’t think we have enough info to do that yet.”
“Yeah, I agree, that is the basic problem,” Frank said. “And as much as I hate to go there, if it does turn out that we need to make a stand, we’re going to have to get better organized, or somebody is going to get the drop on us.”
Frank looked over at Jerry, and he nodded back at
Frank.
“It’s been quiet for quite a while,” the Sheriff said. “If things went well, the Major ought to be back before too long.”
“Hopefully we won’t see the other side come back through here,” Jane said. Hilda looked at her and nodded.
“You heard from your deputy lately, Sheriff?” asked Jerry.
“No, as a matter of fact,” he replied. “I’d better go radio him.” He got up and went downstairs, and out to his patrol car.
“That Sheriff is a little passive, isn’t he?” asked Jackson.
“Yes, bless his heart, he’s no leader,” Hilda said. “Nice enough guy, and he’s always here quickly when I need him, but this world is way beyond his capability.”
“Yeah, Jerry and I were talking about that too,” Frank said. “We’ll need to fill in for him at times. At least he’s not one of those proud types who wants control even if he can’t handle it.”
“He’s a real good shot with a long gun,” Charlie said. “As good as Jeb.”
“He didn’t even fire off a shot in that altercation we had this morning,” Jerry said. “And he only brought his handgun.”
“Yeah, good at shooting a gun and good in a fight are two different things,” Jackson said.
“Hey, I can’t get an answer from the Deputy,” shouted the Sheriff from the parking lot next to the store. “I’d better go out there and check on him.”
The other men leapt to their feet.
“Wait for us, Sheriff, we’re coming too,” Frank shouted. “And get your shotgun this time.”
“Okay,” he shouted back.
“Hilda and Jane, want to hold the fort up here?” asked Charlie.
“Sure,” Hilda said. “I’m not a bad shot myself. How about you, Jane?”
“I can shoot,” she said, looking nervously over at Frank. “Don’t you go getting yourself killed back there. Take Lucy.”
“I’ll be fine, honey,” Frank replied, grabbing Lucy’s leash. “Keep a good eye out here. If anything is going on, they might try to surround us. Wish we had Jeb up here with you girls.”
“Stop by his rig and ask him to come over,” Hilda said. “He’ll come. He’s not hurt that bad, and the stairs aren’t that difficult.”