Earth's Survivors: box set

by Wendell Sweet

  "ID, sir," Don said stepping closer now. "Or I'll help you to get it."

  The guy shut up and dug out his wallet. He seemed nervous.

  “Anything you want to say before I run this ID?" Don asked.

  "Why you fuckin' with me?" he asked.

  "Because I asked you a question and you decided to fuck with me." He looked at the ID and then slipped it into his pocket. "You see how that works? … Of course we could start over again," he offered.

  "Yeah. I'm not a bad guy. Let's start over again. The thing is, I can't help you with April. She ain't home. I wish she was. I've been here half the day and she ain't been around. That's all I know."

  Don reached into his pocket and flipped the guy's driver's license back to him.

  "She works on Friday nights?" Don asked.

  "Not usually... She's around nights. Works days down to the Stop in Stock... Store at the end of the road... Comes home real early mornings... Like sun coming up early... Cashier... Good girl," he said.

  "She got a boyfriend?" Don asked. "Specifically, you know this young guy down at the end of the road, Billy?" Don asked. “Billy Jingo?”

  "Ain't never seen her with a boyfriend... I know Billy, a little anyhow... At least I use too... He used to do a little dealing, if you know what I mean. Went to jail... He ain't done shit since then... And I never seen him around here. I don't think she'd be his type," the man said.

  "What do you mean not his type?" Don asked.

  "She don't date... He was always hanging around with the guys, following the partying. She don't party either," the man said.

  "Make you sad?" Don asked with a smile.

  "Of course... She's pretty... Needs a man," the man said.

  Don took another of his cards, wrote "Call me" on the back and walked over to the trailer door, and pushed it into the gap. He handed another card to the guy when he came back. "John, you call me when she gets home. I don't care how late it is, okay?" Don said.

  The man took the card. "How do you know my name?" he asked.

  "The license," Don told him. "I'm good like that. It comes with the job."

  "I'll call," John said.

  "You do that," Don said as he walked back to the car with Sammy.

  John watched them as they drove away and then went back to smoking and drinking. Wondering to himself where April had gotten to.

  Billy Jingo's Place

  "Hey! Hey! You dogs get away from there!" Don yelled.

  He was tempted to shoot his gun into the ground to scare them, but the department frowned on discharging firearms without good reason. You had to fill out paperwork, which was exactly why he usually carried a few extra rounds with him. Only today he was out. He took the gun out anyway: If one of them charged him he could shoot it. There were three of them, a big rottweiler, a mangy looking yellow shepherd mix, and some sort of chow mix: The chow worried him most.

  "Shoot that goddamned Chow," Don started to say, when beside him, Sammy raised his pistol and shot the chow.

  "Jesus," Don said. "You shot the fuckin' Chow."

  "You said to," Sammy said.

  "I wasn't done speaking. I was going to say, shoot that goddamned Chow if it charges us," Don said.

  "Huh," Sammy said. "Guess it charged us."

  The other two dogs had taken off, well, like a shot, Don thought and chuckled.

  "What's so funny?" Sammy said.

  "The other two dogs took off like a shot," Don said and smiled.

  "Well, yeah. They were probably scared," Sammy said.

  “Gonna cost you some paper work though,” Don said.

  “Uh uh, got extras,” Sammy told him.

  “Well fuck,” Don said and stopped. “I was out or I would have shot that fucker myself.”

  Sammy laughed. “Well he's shot.”

  Don shook his head and then started into the clearing to see what about that duffel bag had them so agitated. He walked around the side and saw that they had gnawed a hole into the side of the bag.

  The two of them almost had not come back. They had been nearly to the end of the road when Sammy had said, "What if it's not a woodchuck?"

  Don had turned around and headed back down to the trailer without another word.

  He squatted now and looked at the side of the bag and what was outside the bag too. He leaned forward and used his pen to push aside leaves and blades of grass to see the bones and scattered pieces without disturbing anything. He rose back to his feet.

  This was no woodchuck. Sammy had been right. Something raw and red showed inside the bag. Outside the bag was a scattering of small bones and something meaty that wasn't really recognizable until you really looked at it, let your mind put it together, and realized it was part of a human hand. The palm part to be specific. And those little bones were finger bones, all except that one piece right up against the bag. That was a finger with a manicured fingernail still on it. He looked at his pen, debated and then slipped a plastic bag from his pocket, dropped the pen inside and sealed the bag.

  "Better go call for the crime scene guys," Don told Sammy. Sammy nodded and took off back through the woods with their only flashlight. There was a moon and that helped, but he didn't feel particularly good knowing those other two dogs were around somewhere.

  He reached into his pocket, fished out his pack of cigarettes: Sammy was gonna pitch a fit: He didn't smoke. Didn't like the smell of it. But right now Don needed one. And something was rustling in the underbrush close by. No telling what it was, but smoke, cigarette smoke, would keep most of the wildlife away. They hated it even more than Sammy did.

  He lit the cigarette and drew the smoke deep into his lungs. It immediately calmed him. He shifted gears in his head and began to wonder about the duffel bag and what was in it. No way could it hold a whole body. It was a small bag. The girl was small, but not that small. It may have nothing to do with the two of them, but he doubted it. It was too much coincidence. It was either parts of one of them... Or... He just didn't know. He smoked and waited for Sammy to return, occasionally rustling the tree limbs and scrub brush around him to let any animals near know that he was there.

  Rochester

  Billy Jingo

  It was even later. Once again April was curled into him with her head resting on his shoulder, but this time they were both back from another shower and under the covers.

  "You think we'll be okay?" April asked.

  "Yeah... I think we have to move on. We might have to get another vehicle after today...... Besides, we need one that's not in our names," Billy added.

  "What about that Neo guy... You look a little like him, if you get it right they would never guess it wasn't you. I mean make yourself up to look like him, you see?" April asked.

  Billy nodded. "It could work, but we should wait until we're out of this state. Just in case. That way no one can remember seeing us... Where do you want to go?" he asked.

  "Mexico... There are so many nice places down there. You can live like a queen on almost nothing too. We got to get rid of the pot and the heavy stuff too before we go down there," April said. “They are not kidding if you get caught with that kind of shit over there... Prison there is not like here... You better have family or someone to pay money to feed you or you'll die... Bad.”

  Billy looked at her and she met his eyes with her own.

  “T.V. show... Saw it on a T.V. show a few years ago. A girl with her boyfriend. She didn't even know he had the stuff... He got out of it and she was stuck for it. It was bad...” Her eyes went away and her hand came up and rubbed across his belly.

  "We'd have better luck selling it down south anyway, before we cross. We just got to look for the right guy. I could call my friend tomorrow, ask him if he knows anyone down there that would buy a lot," Billy said.

  "Should we chance it?" April asked.

  "It'll be okay. I'll call from a prepaid phone. He won't know where I am. He's a big deal, he don't mess with the cops. No one will know." Billy said.

/>   "Okay," April said. "Then Mexico?"

  "Mexico," Billy agreed.

  They were both silent for a while. Billy started to drift off into real sleep. April felt so good against his side. So won...

  "Billy?" she said softly. Unwilling to wake him if he were sleeping.

  "Yeah?" Billy answered.

  "I want to build a house... I mean build it ourselves... And I want babies, Billy. I want babies."

  “We'll build one then," Billy said. "And we'll have babies."

  She snuggled closer to him and kissed his chest. In a few minutes both of them were fast asleep.

  FIVE

  Saturday morning

  Watertown Center

  Shop and Stock

  Sammy and Don

  "Last one," Sammy said.

  It was 2:00 AM and they had just come back from six hours of sleep to get a jump on the day. The last half hour they had been interviewing the people who worked the same shifts as April Evans.

  "Haley Mae," Sammy added.

  Don looked up and stopped writing in his little notebook. "How do you," spell her name, he had meant to ask Sammy, but she was right in front of him.

  "EM, A, E," she said with a smile.

  "Vietnamese?" Don asked. She was obviously mixed race, African American and Asian, he questioned himself.

  "Japanese," she told him.

  "Nice name," Sammy said, "Haley."

  Beautiful girl, Don thought. "Did you know April Evans? Sometimes works this shift?" he asked.

  "Not really," she answered. "I mean I met her, but only in passing... I just started here myself."

  She really was beautiful, Don thought. "You wouldn't know if she had a boyfriend... Other friends?" he asked.

  Haley shook her head. "Sorry," she said... "What has she done?"

  "Nothing. She's gone missing," Sammy supplied.

  "She was an eye witness to a serious case and then went missing," Don said. "She's not in trouble we just want to ask her a few questions... And, really make sure she's okay."

  Haley shook her head. "I just started here a few weeks back, and like I said, I don't really know her... But I heard it might be a girlfriend not a boyfriend though."

  Don looked at her. "You wouldn't know who?"

  "No. It's just a rumor. Someone said to me... I don't even remember who... But I've never seen her with a guy. And I have seen her with other girls... Maybe also the way she looked at me a few times... That's all I know. I hope you find her though. She seems like a nice girl," Haley said.

  “You don't seem the type for this... Bagging groceries at 2:00 am,” Don said.

  Haley laughed. “I had this idea of dancing... Tough to get a foot in a door though.”

  “Any good,” Sammy asked.

  “Excuse mister smooth there,” Don told her. Sammy feigned a hurt look and Haley laughed. “He meant have you done some dancing? I know somebody... Might be interested.”

  Haley arched her eyebrows. “I can dance. I just need to prove it to the right person.”

  “Probably start out serving drinks... Dance a little... Then if he likes you he'll put you in.”

  “I can do that,” she said slowly.

  Sammy passed her a white business card with his own name scrawled across the back. “Tell him I sent you... That's my name on the back.”

  “Jimmy Vincioni,” Haley asked.

  “Just V... Jimmy V. Good guy,” Sammy said.

  Haley nodded and tucked the card into her front jean pocket. “I'll call him... Thanks. Look...” Her voice dropped to a near whisper. “I'm pretty sure she had a girlfriend here... I just don't know who,” Haley added quietly.

  Don finished writing in his notebook, nodded once he met her eyes and then shook the hand she offered. She walked away.

  "Beautiful," Sammy said.

  "Absolutely," Don agreed. “You ain't getting none of that though.”

  “Yeah? But if Jimmy V hires her? It'll be the next best thing.”

  Don shook his head and smiled. His eyes rose and watched as Haley walked away. “Guess I'll have to have a few drinks at the club if that happens.”

  Sammy chuckled low. “You and me both,” he agreed.

  They had spent most of the previous night at Billy Jingo's trailer. The techs hadn't picked up much, but what they had picked up was telling. Blood stains under the bed and beside one wall in the bedroom. A splatter of small pink stains that had tested positive for blood in the kitchen sink. Two rolled up socks drenched in blood in the kitchen garbage. Blood spatters in the bathroom sink and shower too. All his clothes seemed to be gone, or at least there were none in the battered dresser in the bedroom. There were dirty clothes in a hamper in the bathroom, blood spatter and what looked like bone flecks on the clothing. The forensic team had come up with two sets of fingerprints in the bedroom, his and someone else. Hair samples from the bed, from the couch in the living room. Foot prints out back and in the soft dirt of the front yard matched a pair of boots they had found in the bedroom. And best of all, a tech that had been sent back to get pictures put the girl in the trailer yesterday afternoon.

  The tech said the girl had seemed quiet, subdued, standing behind Jingo, like Jingo didn't want her to be seen.

  Questioning her friends was fill in work while they waited on the warrant for her place. The tech that had put her at Jingo's trailer would probably clinch that. There had been bits of bone and brain matter along with the bloodstains under the bed and by the wall too. That bothered Don. It probably meant that something had happened. He didn't have a lot of hope of seeing April Evans alive again.

  He circled the word gay that he had written on his note pad. Maybe he had been asking the wrong questions.

  "This girl," Don said and underlined the name Alice Chambers in his notebook. "Knew her well. Or at least better than anyone else here. Why didn't she mention a possible lesbian thing?"

  "They were in high school together... She's still here working, maybe we should have a conversation with her again?" Sammy said.

  "Maybe," Don agreed. He looked up, spotted the girl working one of the checkouts and walked over to the manager; a young kid who didn't even look old enough to shave yet. The manager himself went over and relieved her and sent her over to Don and Sammy.

  It was clear as she made her way over to them that she was worried. "You be the bad guy," Don whispered to Sammy, "I'll be the understanding father figure." Sammy nodded almost imperceptibly.

  Alice Chambers smiled weakly as she walked up. Sammy scowled at her and her smile melted.

  "Don't worry," Don said. "I'm sure we'll get this cleared right up. Sit down, Alice."

  "Why is he so upset?" she asked looking at Sammy who continued to scowl.

  "Because I don't like being lied too, Missy," Sammy told her. "Pisses me off."

  "I didn't lie," Alice said, going on the defensive.

  "Yes you did," Sammy said, as he leaned toward her across the table. "You lied, and now you're lying about having lied."

  She cringed away from him, looking ready to cry.

  "Alice, I'm sure Sam here will be fine," Don told her. "We work around hardened criminals all the time. I guess he forgot you're a young lady, not a criminal." Don sent Sammy a potent stare, and Sammy sighed and turned away. "It's this lesbian thing... It's understandable that you wouldn't want to mention it, but this girl's life could be at stake..." He made eye contact with her and made her hold it. Her eyes filled up and began to overflow. "Alice?" Don asked. She looked back toward the front of the store where she had been working and then looked back at them, swiping at the tears with the back of her hand and she did. "You want to tell me?"Don asked. She nodded.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered. She took a few seconds, seeming to fight to gain control. Don left and came back with some tissues that he handed to her. She thanked him, blew her nose, and then took several deep breaths.

  Don mentally looked her over as she got herself under control. Alice Chambers was on the skinny s
ide. Almost no breasts. A body like a boy, no hips, short, bobbed blonde hair. Nose ring, tongue ring, probably a dozen other piercings in her ears and who knew where else. He had taken her look for punk, not gay, but now that he was really looking at her she seemed more boyish than girlish. It seemed like maybe it was more than just a subtle statement, and he had overlooked it. Read it wrong. It wasn't just that she didn't look all that attractive as a woman, she just looked more like a boy. And it looked like most of it was by choice.

  "We were together in high school," Alice said in a near whisper.

  Don nodded like he'd known it all along. "Here at work too?" he asked.

  "No... Of course not. April isn't... April's not... She likes boys... It was... It was just a thing for a little while... This guy..." She took a deep breath and swiped at her eyes. "This guy forced her, you know and so she stayed away from guys after that for a while." She focused on Don, refusing to look at Sammy.

  "This guy... Know his name? The one who raped her?" Don asked.

  "She didn't say raped, she said forced," Alice corrected.

  "Okay, forced... But you can see, Alice, that even if you don't say it's rape, it's still rape, right? Are you saying there was no intercourse?" Don asked.

  "No... There was," she admitted.

  "Then its rape, Alice. Let's not cut the guy any slack at all on that, okay?" Don asked.

  "Okay," Alice agreed.

  "So, his name?"

  "He's dead," Alice said. "Tyler Matthews, he died in a automobile crash a few months back, remember?"

  "Yeah... The local football star," Sammy said.

  Don just nodded. "So it was just the two of you. What came between you?" he asked.

  "I told you, guys. She's not like me," she looked down at the table and then back up. "But I don't know this Billy. I never heard her say anything about him. Maybe a cute guy that lived at the end of the road. And two guys on either side of the trailer who have been bothering her," Alice said.

  Sometimes you failed to ask the right questions, Don thought. Sometimes the answers were right there. "Okay... Tell me about this cute guy who lived at the end of the road? You mean the trailer park road or Lott road?" he asked.