With a straight face, Johnathan stared into her eyes. “No, I’m not saying that to make you feel better. I’m glad it does but Sandy, haven’t you realized something? Anytime someone or something, irritated Lance or Ian, hell followed.”
Holding her chin up, “He would’ve told his momma,” she declared defiantly.
“Honey,” Johnathan said, looking around. “I’m going to tell you something. Do you remember that honeybee episode?”
“The boys were cleared. They even passed a polygraph,” Sandy huffed.
“Yep,” Johnathan nodded. “The thing is, I knew they did it. I was in the room when Lance was given that polygraph, Sandy. I’ve never seen anyone so relaxed.”
“Why should he be nervous? He was innocent,” Sandy snapped.
“Sandy, any person would exhibit some distress under a formal interview. Not those two. Lance was perfectly still, smiling, and totally relaxed answering the questions. I told you the examiner instructed Lance to answer yes on ‘Did you put the bees in the school?’ and Lance did. I was standing there and saw the readings. Lance passed with flying colors,” Johnathan reported with awe. “The only reason Ian’s session lasted longer was that his interview had a hot babe asking the questions. Once Bill told her to button up her shirt, Ian had no problems passing.”
“Just shows you, my baby didn’t do it,” Sandy replied, though not as confidently as before.
Glancing around and not seeing any threats, Johnathan looked down at Dan walking beside his horse. “Sandy,” Johnathan said softly. “On the way home, I stopped the truck, pulling off the road and looked over at Lance for several minutes. I told him don’t lie to me, but did he do it? Sandy,” Johnathan paused, sucking in a breath and looking off.
“Our son looked right in my eye and I can still hear his words. ‘Dad, if I did something like this, why would I tell someone who could get in trouble like my parents because I would never admit to it, even if I did it. I will never be caught dishonoring my parents.’” Johnathan recited. “Sandy, I don’t know how, but those boys are master of self-deception. They can make themselves believe a lie.”
Visibly disturbed, “Well, how could you know? That just means he respects us too much to be bad,” Sandy almost panted.
“Sandy, what was the last thing I interrogated Lance about?” Johnathan asked, cocking his head and looking over at her.
“I don’t know, but I shouldn’t have to ask you every time,” Sandy snapped. “When something bad happens, everyone always thinks it’s Lance and Ian. Those boys are angels.”
Hearing snorting behind them, Johnathan turned around to see Bill stifling a laugh and Mary steering her horse closer and hitting Bill with her bow. “Keep on, funny man, and we stop,” Mary growled, resting her bow across her saddle.
“So, do you remember?” Johnathan asked, turning back to Sandy.
“Johnathan, I always ask you since you’re the dad, but after…” Sandy stopped and slowly turned to look at Johnathan. “When Mr. Oliver’s riding lawn mower took off.”
Nodding as he raised his eyebrows, “Very good and yes,” Johnathan replied. “I asked Lance a series of questions and I found out how he and Ian convince themselves.”
“He admitted it and you didn’t tell me!” Sandy bellowed.
“Hell no, he didn’t admit it,” Johnathan scoffed. “But when I asked, ‘Did you have an idea an engine performed a certain task last Saturday?’ Lance froze and didn’t answer. It’s the only time he’s never answered right away and looked panicked. That was the last time I questioned him. He and Ian convince themselves, they didn’t do anything, an inanimate object does. At least, that’s what I think.”
“You got a confession and didn’t tell me?” Sandy gasped, pulling her horse to a stop.
“It wasn’t a confession,” Johnathan corrected. “You know the cops swabbed that riding lawn mower for DNA and fingerprints and neither Ian’s nor Lance’s were on it. What does that mean? The boys plan out their little pranks with a fine-tooth comb. Hell, when the gazebo blew up, we had the FBI in the neighborhood and low and behold, no evidence was found connecting Ian and Lance.”
Shaking her head slowly, “Maybe they didn’t do it?” Sandy mumbled.
Moving her horse up, Mary looked at Johnathan and then at Bill. “I questioned Ian for three hours about the riding lawn mower and his story never changed,” Mary stressed and Bill bit his bottom lip and turned away.
Sandy turned to look at Bill, sitting in his saddle and shaking as he chuckled silently. “Is that why you took Ian’s chemistry set away?” Sandy asked.
“Honey,” Johnathan said and when Sandy turned to Johnathan, she saw a shit-eating grin. “We didn’t take the boys’ chemistry sets, the FBI did. They sent it back three months later saying it wasn’t connected, but Bill and I decided the boys didn’t need another temptation like that.”
“My baby lied to me,” Sandy moaned with a remorseful sigh.
“Not in his mind, because you didn’t ask the right question,” Johnathan replied, reaching over and patting her hand. “Lance loves his momma and would never allow someone to look at you badly for a stupid action.”
Looking over at Mary, Bill nodded. “Ian loves you too, but his reasons for not getting caught deal more with self-preservation. He remembers you beating Jason in the backyard in a fist fight,” Bill admitted with a grin.
“Jason was fourteen and called me a bitch!” Mary snapped. “He’s lucky he didn’t get up after I knocked his ass out!”
“That’s what I mean. Jason was four inches taller and had almost fifty pounds on you then. And here his mom, who has never had any training, takes him outside after Jason says he’s a man and beats him down in a fist fight,” Bill chuckled, reaching over and grabbing Mary’s hand. “And you expect Ian, who is nowhere near the size of Jason, to tempt your wrath by getting caught.”
Giving a nod, Sandy squeezed Johnathan’s hand and kicked her horse back into a walk. Johnathan stayed beside her as Mary and Bill followed. “So, what has my baby done?” Sandy asked with remorse.
“Shit if I know,” Johnathan huffed. “I have ideas, but that’s all. I quit asking because I knew he wouldn’t get caught. The only thing I told him was if he seriously hurt someone, he and I would step outside even if he didn’t admit it.”
“Johnathan, Mr. Oliver was hurt. He broke his wrist and was all cut up with road rash,” Sandy snapped.
Holding up his left hand pointing up, “Let me rephrase that,” Johnathan said. “Someone that didn’t have it coming. Sandy, I’m sorry. I’m an adult and I hate Oliver with a passion. That old man is just mean. Heaven doesn’t want him and Satan feels Oliver will take over, making hell a worse place than it already is. One morning on the way to work, I saw Oliver sweeping leaves off his curb and was tempted to run his ass over and claim I spilled my coffee. I really hate the son of bitch.”
Sandy looked over at Johnathan with pursed lips. “Johnathan,” Sandy growled.
“Sandy, you know how many pranks Oliver has had pulled on him in the four years we’ve lived in the neighborhood and he’s been the president of the HOA? Forty-seven,” Johnathan told her as he stroked his beard. “I know for a fact, Ian and Lance are responsible for thirty-two.”
Giving a long groan, “Please don’t tell me they rolled his house last Halloween,” Sandy whined.
From behind them, Bill chuckled. “They would never do something so juvenile.”
“Honey,” Johnathan said, cocking his left eyebrow up. “You remember last spring, when you and Mary planted those weird flowers and Chelsea Myers told you two that the flowers weren’t approved by the HOA and had to be removed by the end of the month?”
“That bitch gets elected as vice president of the HOA and thinks she can tell us what we can plant!” Sandy snarled, huffing hard.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that not one week later, Chelsea and Ernie’s house is infested with fleas and they don’t own any animals,” Johnathan smirked
under his beard. “Then, the computer boards on their cars were wiped. Lexus wouldn’t replace them under warranty because they said the programming had been tampered with to give the cars more horsepower. That cost Chelsea and Ernie almost ten grand and the fumigation of their house cost another four.”
“I love how their driveway cracked apart in one night,” Bill admitted, glancing over at Mary who was staring ahead with her mouth hanging open. “I still wonder how they did that.”
“I have a few ideas,” Johnathan said and saw Sandy was in the same state of shock that Mary was. “Then the next day, the lush green grass Ernie prided himself and worked so hard on died and as you should remember, it fucking turned brown overnight.”
Slowly, Sandy turned to Johnathan. “But we checked on Lance during the night after we heard the Myers cars had been tampered with,” Sandy droned.
“Yes, and the alarm was never turned off. And unlike Bill’s house, every window and door in our house is alarmed,” Johnathan nodded.
Still staring at Johnathan in shock, “So, when Chelsea brought over that apple pie…” Sandy stuttered and stopped.
“Yep, she apologized because she was told to, not because you and Mary filed a petition,” Johnathan confessed.
“How do you know?” Sandy mumbled.
“Jed Thompson told me. I asked when he and Jennifer came over to get Carrie one day when she and Allie were at the house,” Johnathan said, looking around. “He said a message was etched in Chelsea and Ernie’s picture window overlooking the backyard. ‘Apologize now or more will follow’. Since they didn’t know who was doing it but that Chelsea had pissed off a bunch of people, they made apple pies for all of them.”
“But the police,” Sandy mumbled.
“Honey, you know how much working a crime scene costs? Jed Thompson told me the city spent over sixty thousand dollars on forensics and didn’t have one clue. You know the weirdest part? The cops set up cameras on the Myers house from every angle when Chelsea told them it was retaliation against her. The surveillance started after the fleas and ran for three weeks. With six cameras and two thermals running, and over three thousand hours of footage, they never got a look at who was doing it,” Johnathan paused to steer his horse around a boulder.
Glancing around and not seeing any threats, Johnathan turned to Sandy. “Jed said after last year, the police refused to do more than take reports in the neighborhood on elaborate pranks. Sandy, Jeb shook my hand and all but said he knew it was the boys and he was in awe. Jed only worried about them teaching Jennifer.”
“Don’t make the mommas mad or hell will follow,” Bill empathized, scratching his beard. “I think the message was delivered because I told Ian it was getting out of hand after the grass thing. Ian looked at me with a scowl. I told him I didn’t think it was him or Lance, but a point had been proven.”
“Well, what about Mr. Oliver?” Mary asked.
Shrugging his shoulders, “All I can say is, the man is stupid,” Bill answered. “I would’ve resigned from the HOA the day I found six skunks in my house.”
“I liked the superglued car,” Johnathan chuckled over his shoulder.
Shaking her head, Sandy looked around. “So, when Ian’s bike was stolen…” she left open.
“Remember the block party where Mr. Collins was talking about a bike that shocked him in the playground?” Johnathan asked and Sandy nodded. “Well, I had Jed do some checking and found he wasn’t the only one. Terry Bates was also shocked, but said he was working on a light socket.”
Laughing, Sandy asked. “Terry Bates is our age, why would he steal a kid’s bike?”
“Have no idea, but Jed also told me the week after he was shocked, the sewer backed up in Terry Bates’ house, his home computer crashed and then two days later, child porn was sent to his e-mail at work and then, all the electronics stopped working in his house. After talking to Jed, I checked. Terry Bates’ problems stopped when Ian’s bike showed up in the driveway,” Johnathan explained.
“It wasn’t Ian’s bike,” Bill chuckled. “It was a brand new one that was identical to the one that was stolen.”
“How can they do that? They’re boys,” Sandy gasped.
Shrugging, “I don’t know, but I’m impressed,” Johnathan admitted. “The day we moved into that house was the best thing ever. I can say without a doubt, without meeting Ian, Lance would’ve been a hermit. Ian is the one that got him over his shyness and into activities.”
“Hey, without Lance, Ian would be failing school. He’s much smarter than me but until Lance, Ian couldn’t and wouldn’t buckle down and stay on task,” Bill said.
Nodding with a big sigh, “The summer you moved in, Ian had Ds and Fs and almost repeated third grade. In fourth, he went to straight A’s and the gifted program the next year,” Mary stated proudly, looking down at Ann who was glancing back. Turning in her saddle, Mary couldn’t see anything behind them. The fact she could see for miles relieved her.
As Mary turned back around, Johnathan leaned over in his saddle to pat Sandy’s leg. “That’s why I stopped worrying about the boys when they reached the cabin. I told Lance, and Bill told Ian, ‘You don’t feel guilty or hold back. If you feel threatened, you kill however you have to’.”
“But he lied to me,” Sandy huffed.
“Not in his mind,” Johnathan corrected. “Sandy, he and Ian never admit to it because they don’t want us to get in trouble. Give him time, I’m sure they will both admit it in time.”
Behind them, Bill busted out laughing. “Yeah, when the statute of limitations runs out!”
Chapter Twelve
May 22
Releasing the arrow, Sandy watched it streak across the twenty-four yards to sink into the stinker’s head. “Good shot,” Johnathan praised, reaching down and patting Dan who’d finally stopped growling.
“I hate the sound the arrow makes coming out,” Sandy said with a shiver, nocking another arrow.
Keeping watch around the draw they were set up in Johnathan nodded, not seeing anything else moving between the trees. “Hey, I’m a surgeon and the sound makes me cringe,” Johnathan confessed. “I’ll move with you. The other bodies should be ready to burn now.”
Holding the bow out, Sandy eased along beside the small stream that ran down the draw. “Why are they coming uphill through the trees when there is a road?” Sandy asked, glancing over to see Dan tense but not growl. Looking out through the trees to her right, Sandy saw the dirt road thirty yards away in the bright sunlight that led up the draw.
“That I don’t know, and it’s not like stinkers. That road is much easier to travel than this draw,” Johnathan said, holding his AR up to his shoulder as they moved toward the body Sandy had shot. Putting her foot on the stinker’s face, Sandy grabbed her arrow and pulled it out, making a sucking slurp.
As a shiver ran down her spine, Sandy wiped the arrow off on what was left of the stinker’s pants. “I’ve never loved gloves more than now,” she mumbled, putting her arrow back in the quiver hanging from her waist. Holding up her hand and looking at the mechanic glove, “I like the ones you bought better, but these aren’t bad,” she admitted as Johnathan pulled the stinker she’d shot over to the pile of nine more they had killed in the last two hours.
“I know they move by scent, but this is ridiculous,” Johnathan said, waving at a burnt spot with only a mound of ashes next to the pile. “With what Mary and Bill killed this morning we are at fifty-seven.”
Looking around as she nodded, “About right, six an hour,” Sandy said as Johnathan pulled out a lighter and medicine bottle. Pulling out a chunk of gauze soaked in petroleum jelly, Johnathan lit it and tossed it on the first body they’d shot.
“See? It’s like I said, they aren’t as flammable,” he said, putting the lighter and bottle away. “They don’t get flammable for an hour or two and by ten hours, they are highly flammable. The silicon life form is evolving and doesn’t make as much hydrogen sulfide until the body becomes immobi
le.”
“I told you before we were out of California, when you showed me how to use the water filter pump, that they didn’t smell as bad,” Sandy reminded him, glancing over and seeing the bodies slowly catching fire. “The ones we burned in Hawaii singed your eyebrows off and burned blue!”
“Like I said, it’s evolving,” Johnathan repeated, backing up the draw with Sandy. “Want me on bow and you cover?”
“Nah, I need the practice,” Sandy said as they reached the outside of the camp set under a cluster of trees near the small stream. Turning and looking up the draw, “None have come from the top,” she said.
“Honey Bunny,” Johnathan said, sitting on a large rock. “The group that was following us is headed for the snowcapped peak and if any others were close, we would’ve seen them. We’ve traveled over twenty miles and these are the first real trees we’ve seen.”
Sitting on another rock and looking up the draw, Sandy nodded. “Johnathan, about last night, thank you.”
“Honey, you have to learn how to read a map. I’m sorry I didn’t help you find where we were,” Johnathan quickly apologized.
Laughing, Sandy glanced over her shoulder at him and saw Johnathan was still looking down the draw. “No, I mean, talking about Lance and Ian. It really put my mind at ease,” she said, turning to look back up the draw.
“Sandy, I was telling the truth. You don’t have to worry about the boys. Your worry needs to be here,” Johnathan nodded. “I know I would go insane without you, but our son would go ballistic if his momma got hurt. Hell, either momma for that matter.”
Laughing, “Yeah, Lance loves his momma Mary,” Sandy acknowledged, then her face slid into a grimace. “I still can’t believe Mary took yours and Lance’s side about going to the Fall Formal dance with that skank, Sabrina.”
“Sandy, it was a dance. Lance wasn’t asking for Sabrina’s hand in marriage,” Johnathan sighed. “Sabrina was a very pretty young lady.”
Forsaken World (Book 3): Rite of Passage Page 14