The Rise of the Watchman

by G Oldman

  "Oh, well. That is interesting. There is nothing left from the family. Most of the assets of the family were sold off to pay for the new lodge. I don't think there is anything left of the family's possessions. Their work is in the buildings they created. Not in possessions they left behind. I can't imagine that they owned anything important. They were good people but by the time they died out in nineteen-nineteen, they'd very little other than their house. They made bad investments and impoverished when the Spanish Flu hit. I'm sorry. I don't think there is anything I can help you with."

  It seemed like he had struck out. No heirlooms or artifacts if this guy was telling him the truth. Yet he couldn't shake the thought the Sanders played into this somehow. The question was how?

  Chapter 10: Clues and False Leads

  The next morning, found Daniel back at the precinct. Today would be a long day as he had to go to his second job after his police shift. Getting his second cup of coffee for the day, he went to the roll call. The captain was there and the other two police sergeants. There were at least twelve other uniforms present.

  "Now, this has been an unusual week, With the two high profile robberies and the murder, the media has been hard on our case to find this guy."

  The captain pulled out notes before continuing, "last night, the safe from the watchmaker was found. The safe was destroyed. Someone had taken a sledgehammer to the safe door and smashed it open. The odd part was that there was nothing missing. All the watches and property that Mr. Whitaker had listed as being in the safe were still present. This has to be the oddest burglary we have ever seen. We have a set of prints from the safe door remains that match with what we have found at both the crime scenes. Be careful out there. This guy is dangerous."

  The meeting continued for another thirty minutes. All the normal items were covered. There was a note on training that would be available next weekend. There was a warning to the practical joker that had been gluing people's shoes to the bottom of their lockers. The rest was all rather mundane.

  The captain ordered Daniel to desk duty for the day. This was annoying as he preferred to be on patrol but he understood the necessity. His shoulder was still in poor shape. Any significant motion could rip the stitches out. He spent the day thinking about the robberies and how they could be connected. Three old families in Hemisphere. Two were robbed. One family had no survivors. There was no way of knowing if the thief had secured an object from them or it they even were part of this.

  For lunch, Daniel went back down to the archives. The town model was fascinating to him. It looked so much like the current town hall. The clock-face on the front of the tower was the work of the three families. But something looked different about the clock tower. On the left and right sides of the tower, there were these blank concrete sections. Something seemed off.

  Daniel went outside to look at the clock tower in its current configuration. The front still had the same clock. But the right and left sides were the same brick as the rest of the tower. Daniel pulled out his cell phone and snapped a few pictures before returning down to the archive.

  Looking at the model, Daniel help up the pictures from his phone. There was a difference between the model and the actual structure. The question was, is this a poor model or had something changed? He sought out Agatha Smallwood and asked her about the differences.

  "Oh, you noticed that, did you? The original clock tower was to have three clock faces on it. But the other two clocks didn't get the funding needed to complete them. The clock tower was ready for the new clocks but they never happened. Back in the 1920s, the town removed the panels for the other clocks. That is how we have the tower looking like it does today."

  Daniel nodded at her explanation. That all made sense. No funding would mean no clock.

  "Ma'am, is it possible to go up to the clock tower to look around?"

  "I don't see why not?" Agatha rooted around her desk for something and eventually came up with a key.

  "Here you go, young man. Please bring it right back."

  "Thank you very much."

  Daniel took the stairs up to the clock tower. He used Agatha's key to gain entrance to the clock room. The room was well lit through the massive clock face's frosted glass. The room felt narrow and confining. This room wasn't visited often as there was layers of dust and cobwebs all around. The room was dominated by the gears and mechanisms to keep the clock running.

  Not knowing what he was looking for, Daniel just took in what he could of the room. The room was about fifteen feet deep from the door to the glass of the clock face. But the room was only about nine feet wide. That was odd. The room should be much wider. He looked for anything that was out of place. Then it struck him. With all the dust was on things in this room, the floor was clean. As if it had been swept recently.

  Why would the floor have been swept when nothing else had been cleaned? Daniel stepped into the room. He looked at the wall to the left. Everything about the wall appeared to be ordinary. It seemed solid and secure. The same was true of the wall to the right. He was running out of time for lunch and decided to return the key. He could always come back later.

  Back at his desk, Daniel placed a call to Clay Whitaker.

  "Hello, Mr Whitaker? This is Sergeant Daniel Corgan. I was just calling to check with you and if you have reviewed the contents of the safe."

  He listened for a bit, "I see. So the item we talked about before wasn't in the safe but all the other items were?"

  "I see. Thank you for confirming that."

  Daniel made more notes on his notebook. The chronometer was missing. The jewelers object was still in its safe. Nothing else had been stolen that the police had realized. It was possible that the thief would make another attempt at the Jeweler's safe.

  With notes made, Daniel was unsure of what to try next. After his shift at the big box store, he would swing by the jewelers and check it out.

  Chapter 11: Follow Up

  It wasn't until two in the morning that Daniel finished with his shift at the store. He was desperately tired. They'd to conduct and inventory assessment. The work wasn't hard; it was just repetitive and boring.

  Daniel had tried to ask both Daren and Elwood about what they knew about the town's history and its founding families. Elwood was an ignoramous and Daren didn't care. Daren would only care if one of them had sold him pot at some point in his life. That hadn't happened.

  He drove downtown to look into on the jewelry shop. On the side of the store, there was a large panel van illegally parked. Daniel shut down his car and approached on foot. He heard some banging noises. Approaching the larger vehicle cautiously, he kept his hand on his pistol but didn't draw it from the holster. He had a flashlight in his hand but hadn't turned it on yet.

  He rounded the front of the van and now was able see across the length of the store wall. There was two eyebolts sunk into the wall. Chains extended from the bolts to the back of the vehicle. There were still soft clanking and banging noises coming from within the van.

  Daniel moved between the van and the wall towards the back of the vehicle. As he was walking, a figure stepped out from the rear doors and rounded the corner to stand right in front of Daniel.

  In reflex, Daniel triggered the button on the flashlight, sending a blinding beam of light into the man's eyes.

  "Stop, this is the police. Put your hands up." Daniel barked in his loudest voice.

  In the circle of light thrown out by the powerful flashlight, he could see the man throw his hands up in front of his face. He recognized the glint of metal on the gloves as similar to the ones that the man wore who attacked him. He couldn't make out the man's face as the gloved hands were in front.

  The man in front of him growled. It said something that Daniel couldn't make out before it started to move towards Daniel.

  Daniel stepped backwards and drew his pistol. Now with both pistol and flashlight trained on the man he called out again.

  "Get down on the ground. Put your hands
behind your head."

  He words were loud and clear. Yet the man kept coming on. Worse, there was a sound from the opposite side of the truck. This guy had a buddy, and they were surrounding him.

  Walking briskly backwards, Daniel made for the front doorway of the jeweler shop. As he cleared the van, he could make out a second figure advancing on him from the other side of the vehicle. He couldn't see a weapon even when he trained the flashlight on the second man.

  "Freeze, both of you. This is Sergeant Corgan, Hemisphere police department."

  This announcement didn't seem to phase the two. They kept advancing steadily. Then, the one closest to the wall began to run towards him.

  "Freeze! Ah, shit." Daniel said this last part before pulling the trigger on his pistol.

  The round took the running man high in the chest. It nearly toppled him but he remained on his feet. The second man then began to run at him.

  Daniel's training kicked in. He had to get off of the 'x.' He started to side step out into the street. He fired a pair of shots into the second man. Again, both were aimed and hit the man in his chest. He too didn't fall.

  The two men were having trouble following him as he sidestepped in a circle. The first man began to resume his run. Daniel was getting alarmed. Being shot with a forty-five should slow someone down a little more than these two were showing. In his opinion, it should have ruined their whole day.

  Still sidestepping, he fired three shots. The first two were double taps into the chest and the third a bit slower and into the runner's head. Running man collapsed in the street and lay motionless. The second man kept coming after him. He could hear police sirens in the distance approaching fast. Backup would soon be here. But this guy wasn't getting the hint. Daniel kept moving backwards and to the side to keep space open between them. He didn't want to kill this man, but he wasn't leaving him any choice.

  "Stop. Freeze. Stay." He tried every verbal order he could think of to get through to this guy. From the light of his flashlight, he could see that this second man wore the same gloves as the other one. Daniel did all he could to avoid firing at this second man again. He moved enough that the first of the responding units arrived. The officer recognized Daniel.

  "Sergeant, what is going on?"

  "I keep telling this guy to stop and he keeps chasing me."

  The other officer tried his luck, "Don't move. Raise your hands and get down on your knees."

  The verbal order didn't seem to affect him other than redirect his efforts towards the other officer.

  "What the hell is wrong with this guy?" said officer Polaski. Daniel remembered his name and meeting him when he first joined the Hemisphere police department.

  "No clue. I'd to put his other buddy down. I am trying not to do the same with this guy."

  Polaski drew his weapon and pointed it at the gloved man. He began back peddling as the guy kept coming towards him. Daniel saw that Polaski wasn't breaking the line of contact. The guy could charge him at any time.

  "Move to your right. He seems to have issues turning."

  When Polaski tried this, he opened the distance between them again. Two more police cars arrived. The headlights from the squad-cars now illuminated the scene. Daniel noticed that the body of the man he shot in the head left no blood stain on the asphalt. That was strange.

  One of the new units to arrive moved to his trunk and grabbed a shotgun. Daniel nodded in approval. These guys must be drugged up to keep moving this long with so many holes poked through them. As each officer told the man to freeze or stop, he would redirect towards that person. The shotgun armed officer stood behind an open car door with the shotgun aimed over the top of it.

  Suddenly, the man charged the shotgun armed officer with his hands extended before him. Light glinted off of the blades on his gloves. The officer had enough time to shout stop one more time before pulling the trigger.

  A load of buck shot took the man in the chest, neck and head. The man collapsed to the ground.

  Daniel pointed to the van, "check out if there are more in the back of the van. That was a clean shot. He didn't give you a choice."

  They took a few minutes to secure the scene. The coroner arrived to document the scene. Their captain arrived and listened to Daniel and the other officers recount what happened. The department was too small to have an internal affairs group so the captain would be the one to review the shooting and declare if it was clean or not.

  Inside the van, there was a large steel framed mount that connected to the chains. Gaining access to the Jewelry shop, they found that the rig would have ripped away the wall and exposed the safe. It was possible that these guys would haul the safe off using the panel truck. If Daniel hadn't stopped by, they may've been able to pull it off.

  Officer Polaski took over the scene and kept the curious away from the bodies and the van. Daniel showed the gloves to Captain Miller.

  "This is the same glove or type of glove that cut my shoulder captain. We had no idea there were more than one of these guys until now. But I guess it makes sense. The safe from the watchmaker would have been too heavy for one man to manipulate. With two of them, it could be done much faster. I have no idea why they kept coming after us. My guess is drugs."

  Captain Miller just took it in. The coroner came to where they were kneeling over the first body. The was an Asian American man that was rail thin with a constant disapproving look. He frowned down at the body.

  "For an initial assessment, I would say the head shot did him in. But that would be a lie. There isn't enough blood on the ground for the gun shot wound to have been the fatal injury."

  Daniel pointed out, "he didn't stop in his attack until I shot him in the head. I put no less than three rounds in his chest before that head shot."

  "We will need to do a more thorough examination of these two. I can get to work on them right away once I get the pictures taken. Not much is going on down at the morgue this week. Which is the way I like it?"

  Daniel remembered the glasses again. He put them on and looked at the bodies. Again, everything took on a rose colored hue. But he couldn't see anything odd with the bodies or anyone else at the scene. He could see darker shadows than were there without the glasses. He took them back off. Thus far he was underwhelmed with Ebenezer's gift.

  The coroner and Officer Polaski took pictures of the scene and the bodies where they lay. Polaski had a body camera on him during the shooting. That would help resolve the shooting as clean. Daniel volunteered to follow up with the coroner today. He needed a few hours of sleep.

  Chapter 12: Case Closed?

  The coroner began his examination around eight in the morning. Daniel arrived in uniform a few minutes into the exam. He put on a mask and stood next to him. He had the first one cut open.

  "Ah, you arrived just at the right time. I have found five bullet holes in this guy. I think he may've been the one you shot at the jewelers."

  The doctor held up a gloved hand, "I'd shake hands with you but I don't think that would be a great idea for you. I'm Eugene Arnold."

  Daniel smiled, "Daniel Corgan. Pleased to meet you doctor."

  The coroner then dramatically waved his hand and put a gloved finger up near his lips. He then walked over to the tape recorder. With a flourish, he pushed the stop button on the recorder and walked back over to Daniel.

  "I have no idea how I'll write up the cause of death. This guy has been dead for about two weeks. His blood drained and his heart removed before you ever met up with him and shot him. You were attacked by a corpse. Now Hemisphere has some weirdness, but I have seen nothing like this. If I file a report with this, I'll be sent to the loony bin. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

  Daniel was taken aback. He cocked his head to one side and stared at the Eugene.

  "You are telling me, that this guy was a zombie or something?"

  Throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation, "You got me. Or something seems about right. I can't file this. I am a docto
r not a fantasy writer. Yet, I know I'll have to make up some fiction if I want to save my job."

  "Who else have you told about this?"

  "No one. No one would believe it."

  Daniel nodded, "Why did you tell me?"

  The coroner just shrugged, "I don't know, really. I just have the feeling you would believe me."

  "I do. Walk me through what you actually noticed. Then we can think about the report later."

  He pointed at the man's chest, "there were already suture marks from a previous autopsy. To open him, I simply re-cut the sutures to open him up. His heart was missing, and it looks like most of the blood was drained. The paths of the bullets you shot through him passed straight through. Your head shot was the one that caused some damage to the brain. One that was dry. There was no fluid in his skull. If I wasn't at the scene, I would have said you opened fire on one of the corpses in my vaults behind me. Except they are all empty as it's been a slow week."

  Daniel rubbed his chin for a bit to think.

  "Can you make two reports? The official one should say both men died of gun shot wounds to the head. This caused the trauma that resulted in their deaths. You can file what you actually observed in a second one you hand over to me. We will give folks what they want to hear and we will just know what really happened. Or a guess at it."

  The coroner nodded gratefully. He made notes as he finished the initial autopsy on both men. Both had their hearts removed and blood drained. Both looked like they'd been "dead" for over two weeks. From what he could tell, there was no way either could have been up and moving around last night. Apparently, the head shots were the only thing that reminded them that they were dead.

  He then returned to his tape recorder and resumed his official autopsy and reported that the gun shot wounds were what ultimately caused the fatalities. Once that was finished, he wrote the second unofficial report he gave to Daniel. That one was on a single sheet of blank paper with no signature on it. That way, if anyone else saw it, the coroner could deny having written it.