But Danielle still had to be dealt with. Dr. McNally had the answer. He asked his friend Nick, “Do you have some cash with you?”
Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out five one hundred dollar bills that he’d planned to spend at the dog track, “Here’s all the money I have.”
McNally took it. Turning to Danielle, he said, “I’m not going to answer your question. The less you know, the better off you are. You just get everything here back in shape and never, ever mention this to anyone. You hear?”
“You mean not even Dr. Lucas?”
“Not even him.”
“Well,” she fanned the money in her hands. “You sure Dr. Lucas won’t find out? I don’t want to lose my job over this.”
“I promise you that he won’t. You know none of us will tell. And you won’t lose your job.”
Danielle’s squeaky voice got higher pitched. “How about that security guard? He asked what you were doing here. Maybe he’ll say something.”
Oh, damn, Mona thought. The guard. How can we take care of him?
Dr. Romano was a step ahead of them. “What did you tell him when you went to the door?”
“Oh, that’s right. I told him you were here to pick up the X-ray machine.” She shrugged. “And I don’t even know why I said that.”
“It’s good that you did. That’ll take care of it,” McNally interjected. Seeing her worried expression, he anticipated her next question and gave a rebuttal. “Look, if you’re concerned that what day the repairmen were here might come up, don’t worry about that. If I know Dr. Lucas, all he’ll be thinking about when he returns is getting back to business, and I’ll bet he’s already made it clear that that machine must be back here in working order by then.”
That seemed to satisfy Danielle. When they left, she stuck the money in her pocket and got busy putting everything back in order. The group was convinced that she’d keep her word.
McNally laughed as they got into the car as he told Nick, “You know, I probably just threw away your five hundred dollars. We’re all convinced that nobody would believe us, why in the world did we ever consider that they’d believe a gal like Danielle?”
About five minutes later, Romano pulled the car into a deserted area. Strong winds and light rain slowed the foursome down as they walked along the beach with the mysterious object carefully placed in a double thickness of a towel. As Mona carried it, she thought about Frank Dees. She hoped that he hadn’t decided to come in this direction. When they reached the water’s edge, the newspaper editor wasn’t in sight. In fact, the beach was completely deserted. Mona was relieved.
McNally picked up the biggest bottle he could find in Lucas’s office. It had a wide mouth, so he would be able to stuff a small towel into it, but in order to give it some weight to carry it out away from shore, he needed something heavy. He scrounged around on the beach and found an empty plastic container with a top.
He told the others, “We need some rocks.” He looked around, but the only things in sight were seashells of various size, shape, and color.
“What if we fill it with sand? Will that make it heavy enough?” Mona asked. As she leaned over and picked up a handful, lightning struck, and she jumped and dropped the towel. Before the others saw what happened, she quickly picked it up, slipping the capsule into a handful of tissues and putting it in her purse.
“Give me that towel, Mona,” McNally said.
She handed it to him, and he packed it into the bottle and placed it into the container. They added as much sand as they could fit in.
“It’s not going very far,” the dentist said, “but I guess this will have to do.” He frowned at the lightning that struck all around them while the wind blew heavy rain into their faces. “We’ve got to get rid of this and get out of here.”
Rob agreed. “Yeah. Or we won’t need to worry about that bottle; that hurricane will be the thing that’ll do us in.”
But who had the best arm to throw the bottle into the water? Not Doc Romano, certainly. Mona couldn’t throw that far, either, and Rob was still too groggy from the anesthetic. That left Joe.
As Joe raised his arm, wishing the container were heavier, the thought crossed his mind that in his hand might be an atomic bomb. With the pitch, a chill ran up and down his spine. This was an experience he never wanted to repeat as long as he lived — if he lived.
Nothing happened when it hit the water very close to the shore, except for a splash.
“Well, so much for that,” McNally said. “I guess destroying the world wasn’t the Aliens goal. Wait just a minute,” he said with a frown as the bottle floated back to them. He picked it up and emptied out the sand. When he retrieved the towel, no capsule was in it.
“Where did it go?” he screamed at Mona. “Did you drop it?”
She swallowed hard and from quivering lips said a weak, “Yes.”
“Oh, my God.” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently. “Where?”
She pointed behind her. “There — I think.”
After scrounging around in the sand for fifteen minutes, the weather got worse and worse. But the capsule was gone. Mona hoped they’d think it was just buried in the sand, that it would get washed away in the storm and would never hurt anyone. She’d felt that she had to take it because without it, there was no tangible proof of their experience.
When they seemed to have given up looking, Mona asked, “Where do we go from here?”
McNally came right up with the answer. “Hell, we might as well go back up to my hotel room.”
They did.
It was there that Joe sprung his big surprise, catching the others completely unaware. “This is all one big farce and I can’t let you get away with it. Mona,” he stared at her, “I think you lost that capsule on purpose.”
Mona’s mouth dropped open and she shook with the fear that he might know the truth. She clutched the purse in her lap. “How in the world can you say that? You think I’d just drop it in the sand and take the chance of somebody, maybe a child, stepping on it and blowing themselves to pieces?”
“Yes, I’m afraid I do.”
“Now wait just a minute,” Rob started to object, but Romano spoke first.
“Listen, Joe, I know you’re upset, but I know you’re wrong. Mona wouldn’t — ”
McNally talked right over him. “Nick,” he began. “I know what you’ve been through in the last few years. And I understand this is just a form of excitement for you. You believe this cock and bull story because it’s what you want to believe.”
As Nick started to interrupt, Joe held up his hand. “Wait. Actually, this has been good for you. You’re sober for the first time in a long time. But you can’t really let yourself fall for this. It’s a fake. Oh, I’ll admit that you even had me fooled for a while.” He pointed his index finger at Mona and Rob. “But those two haven’t seen any outer space beings. It’s a publicity stunt.”
Mona protested with a frown. “That’s not true.” She pulled on her tattered clothes. “If you think we’d go through all of this just for a story, you’re crazy!”
McNally continued just as if she hadn’t said a word. “Now you listen to me, young lady. I know you newspaper people. You’ll do anything for a story. I’m going to tell you what I think you’re up to and let you fill in the blank spaces later.
“When those sightings started at the sight of your wreck, Mona, you two decided this would make a good copy. But for it to stick, you had to have evidence. So you inserted that object into your boyfriend’s mouth. And you put something explosive in the capsule so you could prove it was dangerous when it was removed. I’m sure whoever fixed up this concoction told you it was harmless as long as it was in Rob’s mouth, but he or she goofed.
“Anyway, you took it and inserted it in a tooth that probably already had a cavity. Maybe he’d lost the filling. Tricky, but somehow you managed that. And I’m sure you thought you had a way to safely remove it. Then it boomeranged. I think it w
as nitroglycerin. Whoever gave it to you discovered that it was dangerous. And they let you know that. I bet Rob’s tooth started hurting and when you couldn’t get that capsule out of it, you panicked and came to Dr. Romano, a typical sucker who sympathized with you. Through him, you just plain lucked out getting to me.” Pleased with himself for seeing through their scheme, he leaned back against the headboard of the bed he was sitting on and grinned smugly.
Mona tried to punch holes in his theory. “If there was so much danger, why do you think we’d come all the way to Pensacola — ”
“Oh, I’m sure you were already on your way over here, maybe to cover the storm. Somebody’d probably given you Doctor Romano’s name. Or maybe you looked for a dentist first and couldn’t find one. Who knows?” Without giving her a chance for another rebuttal, he added, “But your little ruse didn’t work. I felt obligated to save Rob if I could, but the more I thought about it, the less I believed your story. Do you realize now what a foolish trick that was? You could have both been killed and think of the lives you could have endangered.”
The dentist finished his spiel. To find out he didn’t believe them was an unexpected blow. Relieved that Dr. McNally didn’t know the whole truth, Mona kept silent. Rob and Romano protested at once, but Romano was the loudest. He got the floor.
“I’m sorely disappointed, Joe. I didn’t think you were so cynical.” He pointed the finger this time. “You’re the one who’s wrong. Dead wrong. This couple has been telling the truth. I believe them because I’ve seen a U.F.O. myself.”
Nick was hurt and his voice cracked with emotion and anger, but he didn’t stop there. “Call me what you like, but don’t question my ability to make judgments of people. That’s my job. I know what I’m doing. All my life has been dedicated to deciding what’s good for people. I’m good at it — drunk or sober.” He pulled out a checkbook and wrote a check to Dr. Joseph McNally for three hundred dollars. “Here’s your fee and don’t worry — my check’s good.”
Shoving it in McNally’s hand, he refused to take it back. Try as they may, none of them could convince Dr. Joseph McNally that their report of seeing space ships was factual, even when Nick kept insisting that he’d seen one, too. Saying, “It’s not you that I don’t believe, Nick. But hell, you know it’s true that in the shape you were in, you could’ve seen most anything, even space ships,” Joe made a half-hearted attempt to patch things up with his old friend, but his patronizing manner did not sit too well with Nick.
He didn’t even make an effort to reply.
Rob stepped in. “Look, I’m grateful to you for saving my life and I’m sorry that you don’t believe us. We’re not getting anywhere, and this storm’s getting worse and worse. Doc, can we leave now?”
As they left, they knew that Dr. McNally was not convinced of one single part of the story. It was deflating. The object was gone, Joe’s double vision disappeared, and he hoped that his last tie with the space people was broken. Instead of finality, Rob, Mona, and Doc felt the job was incomplete. It was good to be back to normal, but they’d never really be satisfied until they convinced others of the existence of outer space beings that they’d seen with their own eyes.
This time it was Rob who asked, “What next, Doc?”
Feeling every one of his years, Doc shook his head. He had no idea what they should do next, except find safe harbor from the storm. But, because he was driving the car, he automatically headed straight back to his own home.
Chapter 13
FRANK DEES TRIED TO forget current events that complicated his job and his life, but he could not. Even his sad mission of mercy, which took him away from the city of Mobile to attend to his nephew’s funeral arrangements, didn’t take his mind off of his two missing reporters for long. In addition, reports of big news had to be attended to. Not only was Hurricane Dennis on its way with a force stronger than any in Alabama since Hurricane Frederick in 1979, but the space ship sightings were still being investigated with no visible results. Thank God Loren Brady’s in Mobile, Frank thought. He’ll pursue the story of explosions in my absence and he’ll keep me up to date. So, Frank planned to stay in Navarre until funeral arrangements were complete. With cremation, that wouldn’t take but one day. Perhaps having time to think would give him a better perspective — but so far it had not worked.
At six p.m., Frank went down to the poolside bar to get his first drink of the day. He’d always made it his policy never to drink during working hours. Many, many times his luncheon companions tried to persuade him to “have a drink with us,” but the plea always failed. Waiting until after six p.m. to imbibe was his rule and he kept it. But today had been depressing and he was tempted to break that rule, but he didn’t. He was ready for one, though, when the magic hour came.
Another man had the same idea. He also felt that a drink was in order. Dr. Joseph McNally’s day had been nerve-wracking, too, even for a dentist. And that disagreeable exchange with his old friend, Nick, didn’t help matters a bit. Still, Joe was convinced that he was right. The reported space ship sightings was part of a contrived fallacy. Those two reporters worked out this crazy scheme to attract attention. They’d succeeded; they had the national news media sprawled all over the city of Mobile actually investigating a space oddity. He could see how Nick might believe them since he thought he’d had a sighting of his own. They’d timed it all very well, too. This was a well-planned farce. Whatever they did and how they did it didn’t matter. McNally was just glad he’d seen through it. Maybe he’d cash Nick’s check; maybe he wouldn’t. The only other thing that he had to decide was if he’d tell anybody. If so, whom? These thoughts were so prevalent in his mind that he was paying no attention to where he was going. As he entered the bar, he bumped right into a bulk of a form.
“Oh, I beg your pardon,” Joe apologized, looking the man square in the face. With a double take, he exclaimed, “Why you’re Frank, Frank Dees. It’s good to see you. I’m Joe McNally. Remember me?”
When Dees gave no sign of recognition, McNally him reminded him of their association.
“When I first finished dental school, I bought this little house in Mobile, hoping to use it for my office as well as my home. I sunk every dime I had into it. To complicate matters, I had zoning problems. You came to my rescue. After you did a feature story on it, it was rezoned to commercial.”
“God, man. I’ve haven’t seen you since then.”
“Yes, but if it hadn’t been for you, I might still be trying to start a practice. As it is, a few years later, I sold that place in Mobile and moved to Memphis. Worked out fine. Business is thriving. Come on. Let me buy you a drink for old times’ sake.”
Frank followed him back into the bar. They took their drinks to the foliage- covered area and sat surrounded by plants in the solarium-type section of the hotel. Not one soul was there but them.
“Guess the storm’s run them all away,” McNally commented. “Say, how come you’re still here?”
Frank sighed. “I’m on a sad mission.” He told the story about his nephew’s suicide and added, “Since the boy’s parents died in a car wreck, I’m the only blood relative. I’ve got to stick around till everything’s settled. Sure is a bad time, though, with this storm — ” He was going to say more, but Joe interrupted.
“This really sounds like a big one. Maybe I’d better leave. I’m just here on vacation — a long weekend.” He thought to himself, some vacation. At that moment, he decided fate may be with him, if Frank still worked for The Times. He asked, “Are you still at the paper?”
“Yes, I’m the editor now.”
“Well, I knew you’d be successful. You’ve always had it in you.” He squinted. “It’s a real coincidence meeting you here,” he began. He was about to tell Dees that he’d just met two of his employees when his cell phone vibrated. He ignored it. Immediately, he heard himself being paged for an emergency telephone call. Telling Frank, “I’ll be back in a minute to finish my story,” he excused himself and
took the call.
It was Nick Romano. “Joe, no matter what you believe, you’ve got to help us. Rob is hemorrhaging from that tooth. I can’t stop it. I’ve tried. We’ve packed it. The bleeding just won’t stop. Under the circumstances, you’re the only one I can call. Hell, nine-one-one may not even come with the hurricane so close. Please help.”
Joe looked at the trees bending in half in the wind. “What makes you think I can get there? Damn, man.”
“Please,” was Nick’s only reply.
With no further argument, Joe bolted out of the door. His personal feelings didn’t matter. When duty called, he answered. Why the hell couldn’t Nick, a medical doctor, stop the bleeding? If he couldn’t, how could a dentist? As he stepped out into the driving rain, thoughts raced through his head. Whatever had been in that cavity could have set up an infection. The man might need to go to a hospital. Many doubts crossed his mind. Could it be possible that they were telling the truth? No, he didn’t believe it. But that was not important. Even checking what Dees knew was not a priority. Right now, he needed to attend to his patient, even if he had to face a hurricane to do so.
As soon as he turned the key in his car’s ignition, he saw that the gas gauge registered empty. Damn it all, he swore, now I’ll have to stop for gas. He pulled out of the parking lot and turned on the car radio to hear weather conditions. He did. He also heard that most people evacuated the panhandle of Florida and that Alabama’s governor issued a mandatory evacuation, targeted at the area south of I-10. The next thing he heard in the broadcast was alarming news.
“Most service stations are out of gasoline, so if you haven’t filled your tank, you may have difficulty.”
Time Will Tell Page 18