NorthWest (John Hazard - Book II)

by Glaze, JH

  “Either way, I’d be screwed. I’m way behind on my rent and about to be evicted. I’d figured with a bartender’s job I could probably get some cash in tips right away and be able to give the landlord enough to hold him over. I guess that doesn’t really matter anymore after all of this shit.”

  He reached out across the table and held on to her hand. “Don’t worry, Em. I was once a detective back in Idaho. I know the drill. They’ll probably find the body dumped along the side of the road. Scumbag probably deserved what he got, but the thing that bothers me is how you’ve got yourself all mixed up in all of it now. A case will be opened, but without a witness, they won’t have anything to go on.”

  “That isn’t making me feel better, John.” She shot him a stern look.

  “Sorry, I guess that’s the best reason for you to go with us. It’ll get you out of town ‘til things cool down. When we get back from the trip, you can stay with me for a couple of days until you get things sorted out. I can help you with that. I have some favors to call in. It’ll be alright.”

  “So you were a detective in Idaho, huh? Why’d you quit? What in the world brought you to San Francisco?”

  “Long story, and I wouldn’t want to bore you with it.” John sighed and looked away from her trying to keep the memories from racing through his mind.

  “Boring might be nice for a couple of hours after what I’ve been through today. Please.”

  “You are not going to give me a pass on this are you? Are you sure you’re not some kind of reporter, or something?”

  “It’s your place, John. I’m your guest. You can tell me about it or not. You can even toss me out if you feel like it. It’s completely up to you. Besides, maybe it would be therapeutic in a way to tell someone about it. I’m not a reporter, for sure, and I am certainly not a shrink, but I get the feeling you keep things to yourself a lot.”

  “You might be right, but I gotta tell you it’s some weird shit, which is exactly why I prefer not to talk about it.”

  “First you say boring – but weird is okay, John. I’ve seen and heard a lot of strange things at this point in my life, especially living here in this crazy town. You go ahead. I’ll just listen. If it pushes my insanity meter into the red zone, I’ll let you know.” She looked into his eyes with an understanding that melted his defenses.

  “Promise you won’t ask me to explain the details? I mean I’ll give you most of it, but I won’t answer any questions, okay?”

  “Okay, John, I promise. Go on with the story.”

  He took a deep breath and let it out slow. He was feeling the alcohol now, and hoped he wasn’t slurring his words. He leaned back in his chair and began, “Well, one night I got a call to investigate a double homicide, which was way out of the ordinary where I’m from. I went, checked out the scene, but something didn’t feel right.”

  “As I was digging into it, you know the usual investigation, interviews of friends and all, people in the town started turning up missing. Now don’t forget, I was in a small town in Idaho. Missing people are few and far between, but over a period of about a week and a half, not only did I have two murders, I had four missing people.”

  Emily smiled her encouragement. “Pretty strange, I guess. It probably seems like a slow night around here compared to that action.” She smiled again, “Continue, please.”

  “Right, well I finally identified a suspect and planned to put him under surveillance. That’s when he decided to kidnap a baby.” He held his hands about twenty inches apart, “From the maternity ward at the hospital no less!”

  “A baby?”

  “Not just a baby, a newborn! How fucking crazy is that? I didn’t even know he’d done it, but I had a hunch and went to his apartment hoping to find something when he showed up with it.”

  “Wow, sounds intense. Did you catch him getting out of the car with it?”

  “Well no, not exactly. I had to break into his apartment and then all hell broke loose.”

  “You broke into his apartment? That doesn’t sound like standard procedure.” She tilted her head a bit and pursed her lips. “Sounds kinda strange for a police detective.” She purposely said slowly.

  John hesitated. He wasn’t sure why he was telling her all of this, but he really wanted to tell her more. For most of his life, he’d kept his feelings and emotions under wraps. Emily was one of the few people he’d ever met who seemed to understand something about him, like she really knew him, although he couldn’t figure out why he felt he could trust her that way.

  “Em, you’ll think I’m crazy if I tell you all of it.”

  “No, John. Crazy is what my day was today. Crazy is the shit storm you saved me from. I don’t, and won’t think you’re crazy.”

  “This is totally different from that, and that is exactly my point. Your experience was… I hate to call it normal criminal activity. This was…”, he looked away from her and toward the window. “What I saw that night, I simply can’t explain and the others who were there couldn’t either.”

  “So you had witnesses? What did you see John?”

  “You promised, remember? No questions I might not want to answer? I don’t know you well enough to tell you all the details. Maybe someday. I can tell you that I had to take a leave of absence after that. Ultimately, I quit the force, moved here and enrolled in the Paranormal Investigation program at the college.”

  “So you saw ghosts?” She moved a bit closer to him.

  “Maybe I saw a pink elephant playing a trumpet. You promised not to ask questions.” He reached out and tapped her on the nose as though she were a child. She could sense that he was getting a little frustrated, so she changed the subject.

  “Okay then, tell me about this trip we are taking, this wilderness adventure. What’s at the bottom of it?”

  “Well there’s some kind of phenomenon that has been manifesting up there in the forests of the Pacific Northwest for the past couple of months somewhere near the border of Washington and Oregon.” He had a map of the area laying on his coffee table, and he gestured for her to follow him to the sofa. He leaned forward and circled a place on the map with his finger.

  “A number of small aircraft, hunters, hikers and campers have gone missing without a trace. The officials don’t have any idea what is happening and, aside from posting warnings to the public, they have put their investigation on hold because of budgetary problems.”

  “Then we’re going there to investigate this so called phenomenon?” Emily sounded as nervous as she felt.

  “That’s the plan, and you’ll be filming every minute of it.” He gave her a big toothy smile. From the looks of the girl, she was going to need some rest.

  “You know what,” he said. “We have to get an early start tomorrow, and I’m really buzzed. We should get some rest. I’ll get some blankets and sleep on the couch.” He crossed the room and she followed as he opened a closet door and reached to the top shelf for the blanket and pillow he kept there for friends who might crash on the couch once in a while.

  “John, I’m not a shy person, and I really have the creeps now. If you don’t mind, I’d rather share the bed with you.” She put her hand on his arm.

  He turned to look at her and her eyes seemed to look right through him. He felt a rush of warmth through his body, something he hadn’t felt for a long time. He hesitated for a second, and then replied, “Uh, sure, that’s okay with me if that’s what you want.”

  “Yes, it’s what I want but I’d rather wait a while, it’s only seven-thirty or so, and the sun is still shining. I hate to sleep in daylight. Does that TV work?” She brushed her hair from her face with her hand.

  John nodded, “It sure does. Uh, but I don’t have satellite.” He picked up the remote control off the table and pressed the power button.

  Fourteen

  Marcus Strand (Ho-tep, as he called himself, since he believed he was really a reincarnated Egyptian king) took another long hit off his bong, held the pungent smoke in his lun
gs for as long as he could take it, then coughed violently before resuming his conversation. He was talking on his cell with Taneisha, the girlfriend he had tried to break up with earlier. “Girl, I tried to tell you, you don’t be feeling my long wave spiritual vibes. Ho-tep needs more from you. How can I be tied to one woman when I gotta glorious harem surroundin’ me when I’m out in the kingdom? A man needs his freedom to be a man! You know how it is.”

  Taneisha was screaming into the phone. Even when he held the phone away from his ear, his friend Lamont could hear her from across the room. The words were muffled, but it seemed the cursing was quite clear. To him, it sounded like, “screech, screech, motherfucker! screech, piece of shit! screech,” from where he was sitting.

  “Fuck you and your Ho-tep Egyptian king bullshit, Marcus. It’s over!” The volume of the words pierced his eardrum. “Don’t bother to ever call me again. I am putting you on call fuckin’ block, forever! GOODBYE!” He heard the sound of the line disconnecting as she hung up on him.

  He sat stunned for a moment, then held the phone away from his face and looked into it. “You too bitch!” and he pushed the button as if to end the call that had already ended long before he yelled.

  He smiled at Lamont, “And that’s motherfuckin’ that!”

  Lamont smiled back, “It sure sounded like it, Yo’ You the man, Ho! I can’t believe ya put up with her shit for so long, the whinin’ bitch!”

  “Man what are you talkin’ about? That girl is smooth like chocolate candy cream. I like it when she comes back around.” He smiled slyly. “And she will.”

  “Huh? Yeah, candy with a hard center that’ll bust ya fuckin’ teeth when you bite into it!”

  “You know she’s special, man.” Marcus looked at the phone in his hand.

  “Well, her special ass just dumped your stupid ass.” He poked him as he said it, and Marcus pulled his hand back as if to swing, then busted up laughing.

  “Oh, she’ll be comin’ around. Ain’t nobody walk away from the King… and you know Ho-tep got the hoodoo mojo magic!” Marcus wagged his head and pursed his face as he spoke.

  “Right.” Lamont motioned to the remains of the bag of weed on the table. “Say, King, how ‘bout repackin’ that bowl?”

  Marcus lifted the bong from the table and held it out in front of him. “For the good of my kingdom and my subjects, let it be done.” They both started laughing as he reached for the bag.

  Fifteen

  Macy Renner was sitting on her bed in a tank top and some cotton workout shorts. She had a very large backpack lying next to her. She had spent the past several hours carefully rolling her clothes and sealing various supplies in zip-lock bags in preparation for the trip. She had carefully loaded each item into the pack and zipped it shut.

  Next to the bed and across from her sat her mother’s old dresser. She and her sister used to enjoy brushing each other’s hair in front of the mirror hung behind it on the wall. She looked over at it now and imagined her sister staring back at her. She wondered if they would have still been as close all these years later, the way they say that twins are. Would they still look alike as they did when they were children?

  She imagined that she might not be making this trip if her sister were still around. She very well could be visiting her sister instead right now, sitting in a coffee shop somewhere, enjoying her friendship.

  “I know we did everything we could to explain to mom and dad what was happening to us. The doctors were just ignorant and I blame them for everything that happened after that.” She spoke to her reflection and she could see the pain in her eyes.

  She had a sense that the reflection was speaking back to her. “Macy, you’ve been blaming yourself for what happened to me for all these years since that night. It’s time to let it go. Move on with your life.”

  “But you never knew how much I loved you, Mary. I never really told you. I never had the chance before you were gone, and we were just kids then. What’s love to a kid?” Tears began to fill the reservoirs of her lower eyelids.

  “Do you really think you had to tell me? We could finish each other’s sentences, remember? I knew how you felt and I felt the same way about you. I wish I could reach out and hug you right now, but I’m too far away.”

  Tears were streaming down Macy’s face, and she could see that Mary was crying as well. Macy reached over and picked up the .38 revolver that was lying on the bed next to her. “Mary, after you were gone I could still feel you, sense you for months. I felt your sadness, and sometimes pain. I didn’t understand. Mom and Dad kept talking about taking me some place where I could get better. I think they wanted to have me put away, but I convinced them that I would be fine.”

  “I’m glad you told them not to worry. You might have been locked up for years if you told them the things we saw, what those creatures did to us.” Her sister was right. They did think she was crazy.

  “Maybe this trip will give me a chance to get things straightened out. Maybe I’ll find you up there in the woods when we find them.” She shifted the pistol to see if there were bullets in the cylinder.

  “You mean the aliens? Honey, you know you’re not gonna find me. You knew it as soon as you stopped feeling me. By then, there was nothing left of me. When they finally ejected my body out somewhere in the universe, there wasn’t much left of me.” The image of Mary in the mirror began to shimmer like waves in a pool of water.

  “I won’t believe that. I can’t give up hope that I can find some sign of what happened to you.”

  “Well, don’t believe you can kill those things with that gun, Macy. I think you will need a lot more than that.”

  “I won’t be alone. There’ll be eight of us, Sis, and most of my team will be armed in some way. I’ve got a diverse group each with some special skill. Besides, even if I can just get some kind of proof that the fuckers exist, I’ll be in a better position to stop them.”

  With that, Macy stretched out her arm, lifting her gun to take aim at the corner of the room as though to shoot an alien just then. She made the sound of a shot firing and motioned her gun in imaginary recoil.

  “I see. So your people have special skills. Tell me, Macy, what special skill does that stripper have?” The image of Mary was fading.

  “She calls herself an exotic dancer, Mary. She is important to my plan.”

  “And what role do you see her playing?” The fading image of Mary was merging with Macy now.

  Macy hesitated as she popped the side of the revolver open and inspected the six shells in their chambers. As she flipped her wrist sideways to slam the cylinder back in place, she answered her own question. “Bait.”

  Sixteen

  John and Emily had been sitting on the couch watching television for some time. It was near nine o’clock, and John was scrolling through the list of upcoming shows. None seemed interesting. “Oh, the joys of local television,” John opined.

  “Try PBS. There’s always something unusual on PBS, unless of course they are holding a fundraiser, which they usually are.” Emily settled back in her seat as John clicked through to public television.

  “…Now remember for those of you at the fifty dollar donor level, you will receive a copy of the show you just finished watching, ‘The Haunted Castles of Hollywood,’ and a ‘Support Real Programming’ t-shirt. There are just a few phones open so call and make your pledge right now to keep quality programming on the air...”

  “I knew it, change the ch… no wait! Let’s check this out.”

  The title of the show was “Predators of America’s National Forests.” During the opening credits, there was video of a very large grizzly bear attacking a camper. The footage was shot using someone’s cell phone camera. Next, a moose chased some guy through the woods and he scrambled up a tree. Lastly, a mountain lion dragged a bleeding goat down the cliff of a steep ravine as the opening credits rolled.

  Just then, there was a knock at the door. Emily looked at John and asked, “Were you expecting c
ompany?”

  “No, I hardly ever have guests over. I mean look at this place. You can tell I wasn’t expecting anybody.” He made a sweeping motion with his arm as he stood and walked toward the door. He looked through the peephole and then unlocked the two deadbolts and swung the door open.

  “Sherri, this is unexpected. Come on in.” John motioned for her to come into the room. “You remember Emily Sparks, from the interview?”

  Sherri walked through the doorway and stood in the middle of the room looking at John. She looked very pale. “Hey babe, you feeling okay?” he asked.

  She looked right past him as she answered in a monotone voice, “John.”

  Emily rose from the sofa and, walking toward them, held her hand out to Sherri. “Hi Sherri…”

  “There will be pain and darkness,” Sherri interrupted. “I see them screaming.” She raised her arm and pointed at the wall across the room.

  “What? Sherri, what are you talking about? Are you okay? Come on over here and sit down for a minute.” He reached for her hand and as he touched it, his hand passed right through. “Oh, shit!” Sherri faded away and was gone.

  “What the hell just happened?” Emily gasped as she rushed to where Sherri had been standing only seconds before. She passed her hands through the air where she’d stood and looked around.

  “I’m not quite sure.” John was reaching into his pocket. “I’d better call her.” He pulled out his phone and hit the button for directory. He scrolled through to Sherri’s number and waited while the phone rang, once, twice. “This is the kind of shit I’m talking about, Em. Why I’m taking this class!”

  He redirected his attention to the phone as it connected, “Hello?” Sherri sounded as though she’d been in a deep sleep.

  “Where are you right now, Sherri? What were you doing just before I called?”

  “What? John? Is this John? I was asleep in a chair. What’s wrong? Why do you sound like you’re freaking out?” She coughed and excused herself.