Friday Night Frights (Jack and Ashley Detective series Book 1)

by R. D. Sherrill

  “Seymour?” the lean dark-skinned farmer repeated. “You aren’t nowhere near Seymour, son. This is Thompson. You can’t even get to Seymour from here.”

  “We could have if we had a plane,” Jack mumbled in response as he finished inspecting the remains of his aircraft.

  “No signal,” Ashley announced, holding up her cellphone.

  “Not surprising with that thing,” Jack said with smirk. “I’m surprised you can talk to folks across the street with that old dinosaur.”

  “Ain’t never been no signal out here,” Varner declared.

  “Imagine that,” Jack mockingly replied. “Would you happen to have a phone at your house that we could use?”

  “Yep, sure do,” Varner answered, spitting another plug, the sight causing Ashley to gag. “If y’all want to jump on with me, I’ll run you up there.”

  After retrieving a pair of bags from the aircraft, Jack joined Ashley and the farmer on top of the tractor as they slowly made their way toward the distant farmhouse.

  “Would you happen to have an airport anywhere near here?” Jack shouted over the sound of the tractor engine.

  “Yep, there’s one about ten miles north of here,” Varner replied just before he spit, Ashley dodging the juice as it rode the wind. “I don’t know if I’d call it an airport, though. Planes land there so I guess that’s what you call it.”

  Jack tapped Ashley on the shoulder, breaking her from her concentration which was focused on dodging the farmer’s tobacco juice as it rained down from the driver’s seat.

  “You need to get your brother to fly down here and pick us up,” Jack said.

  “Are you crazy?” Ashley exclaimed, not believing what Jack had just requested. “I just survived a plane crash and you’re asking me to climb back on another one of those death machines, and with my brother at that? Absolutely not. I’ll walk there before I’ll get back on another plane. My flying days are over.”

  “We have no other choice,” Jack stated flatly. “Even if we can get a car here, we’ll never make it in time with the roads between here and there. We’d have to back track for more than an hour to hit the highway before we could even get started there.”

  “Since when did you become such an expert in the Texas road system?” Ashley wondered.

  “It’s just another one of my strong points, honey,” Jack winked. “I’m telling you, we have no other choice. If we don’t get there, well, I don’t need to tell you what’s at risk.”

  Ashley sat resolute for a few moments as the farmhouse neared, the wind blowing her hair over her face, hiding her expression from Jack. It was an expression of dread.

  “Can’t you get one of your federal buddies to pick us up?” Ashley asked. She wasn't keen on setting foot on a plane piloted by her brother given her past experience with him.

  “I can’t just summon them out of the air, pardon the pun,” Jack responded. “If we’re going to get a plane, your brother is pretty well our only chance, especially since it sounds like what they got here isn’t exactly an international airport.”

  “It ain’t exactly even paved,” Varner yelled back, overhearing their conversation over the roar of the tractor engine.

  Ashley made her way into the farmer's house full of consternation, pausing momentarily to greet Mrs. Varner before picking up the phone to call her brother.

  “I need a big favor, Buddy,” Ashley began, bypassing a formal greeting when her brother answered.

  “Ashley?” Buddy said from the other end of the line. “What’s going on?”

  “Well, we kind of crashed,” Ashley shot back.

  “Crashed?” Buddy repeated, not believing her first report. “And you’re still alive?”

  “I wouldn’t be talking to you if I wasn’t,” Ashley said, rolling her eyes. “We need you to come down to Thompson and pick us up. This is very important.”

  “Tell him the government will compensate him,” Jack called out from behind, while accepting Mrs. Varner’s offer for a cold glass of sweet tea.

  “I can’t, Ashley,” Buddy replied. “I’ve got a run I have to do this afternoon ahead of the weather. By the way, there are some serious storms coming up that way.”

  “But you got to,” Ashley said.

  “Tell him I’m commandeering his aircraft,” Jack called out between sips of tea.

  “You can’t commandeer a plane over the phone,” Ashley said, shooting Jack an annoyed gaze over her shoulder.

  “This is official business,” Ashley said, pointing out they could provide an excuse for him not being able to make his late afternoon run.

  Buddy remained quiet on his end of the line for a few seconds, long enough for Ashley to worry he may have hung up.

  “Buddy? Are you still there?” Ashley asked.

  “You’ll owe me big time, Ashley,” Buddy responded. “I wasn’t kidding about the storms. There’s some bad ones building up. If we get there, we may not be taking off for a while.”

  “All you need to do is get us there,” Ashley responded, torn between the dread of flying again and the relief that they would arrive in Seymour in time.

  Following a few more calls, the three piled into the farmer’s pick up and made the drive over to the air strip.

  “They’ll be some people coming over from the NTSB tomorrow morning to look at the wreckage,” Jack told Varner. “Do you suppose you can make sure no one messes around out at the crash site until then?”

  “I reckon, since no one ever comes out to these parts anyway, aside from maybe a coyote or two,” Varner replied as they arrived at Thompson Airfield.

  Air field was an accurate description of the place as it consisted of an open field, a light tower and a small trailer, all located in the middle of nowhere. The place was deserted, the trailer locked up tight, the search light set on automatic.

  “I hope your brother can even find this place,” Jack said as he pulled his bags from the back of the farmer’s pick up.

  “He knows the state better than you, I bet,” Ashley replied, scanning the horizon for sight of her brother’s plane.

  Her lookout was rewarded after about fifteen minutes as a small speck appeared on the horizon. It was Buddy, his plane fighting the swift air currents as he slowly closed in on the landing field. Minutes later he made his landing. His plane was even smaller than Jack’s, much to Ashley’s chagrin.

  “Let’s get going,” Buddy said unceremoniously as he walked up, taking Jack’s bags and piling them in the back of his already jumbled plane. “We need to stay ahead of the weather or you may be having another crash, and this one might not be as pleasant as your first one today.”

  A knot formed in the pit of Ashley’s stomach. The rush of adrenaline from their first crash was now gone, replaced by her normal feeling of apprehension.

  “No funny stuff,” Ashley insisted as she timidly climbed into the cockpit, recollections of her last flight with her brother now racing through her head.

  “Hey, I’m just getting us there,” Buddy replied as he cranked the engine without conducting the pre-flight checks Jack usually did before taking off. “If we’re lucky we can skip between the thunderstorms.”

  “And if we’re not lucky?” Ashley wondered, drawing her seatbelt tight.

  Buddy didn’t answer as he and Jack looked at each other knowingly.

  “Let’s just say small planes like this don’t like big thunderstorms,” Jack said.

  The trio sat silently for much of the trip, Jack and Ashley reflecting with their brush with death just hours before. Buddy broke the silence, wondering why he had been called out with such urgency.

  “So, is this case top secret or can you share it with your pilot?” Buddy asked. Ashley and Jack looked at each other as Jack leaned up between the front seats.

  “It’s a case me and your sister’s agencies have been working on for a while,” Jack explained, without giving away details. “We believe the person we are looking for may be in Seymour this evening. That�
�s where we were heading when we had our accident.”

  Accident? You mean crash, don’t you?” Buddy said, not taking his eyes off the horizon.

  “Crash, accident, whatever you want to call it,” Jack responded. “Either way, my plane has had it.”

  “That was your personal plane?” Buddy asked.

  “Yep, been flying since I was in college,” Jack replied. “I got my own plane about ten years ago. I love flying. It gets me away from the jerks on the ground.”

  “I feel ya,” Buddy agreed with a grin, noting his best times were also spent in the air, away from the rat race below.

  Ashley could see her brother’s tenseness as dark clouds appeared on the horizon, the black sheets seeming to move in from every direction. She felt her nails begin to again dig in to the dash as the butterflies returned to her stomach. The plane started to heave from the turbulence just as Jack’s had just before the engine died. Gear stowed in the back of the overstuffed plane began to rain down on Jack in the back seat. Ashley felt her teeth rattle as the small aircraft was hit with wave after wave of turbulence from wind being pushed ahead of the storm. She could hear the rattling of bolts as the plane rose and fell like a ship on choppy seas. There was a good chance the Chinese was about to make another appearance if they continued being battered around. Of course, air sickness was the least of her worries since they faced the real possibility of dropping out of the sky.

  “There!” Buddy called out with a sense of relief, pointing just ahead of the gathering thunderhead. “That’s Seymour. We made it by the skin of our teeth.”

  Buddy did a circle of the small town. The football field was already lit up against the overcast sky as the town readied for the home standing Iron Eagles of Seymour to host the East Ridge Lions.

  For the first time that day, Ashley enjoyed a soft landing as her brother’s plane touched down without incident.

  “I’ve got to admit, you did good, Buddy,” Ashley said in a teasing tone. “Last time I flew with you, not so much.”

  “I’ll try not to be so responsible next time,” Buddy shot back as he brought the plane to a stop.

  Jack made a call as soon as they touched down, requesting the sheriff send a car to ferry the pair to the football stadium.

  “What about your bags?” Buddy asked as Jack and Ashley stood talking near the airplane.

  “Just keep them here,” Ashley responded. “You are going to stay, I assume, given the weather.”

  “Yep, I’m not going anywhere until this stuff passes,” Buddy replied as leaned against the plane. “Can I go with you?”

  Jack shook his head at Ashley as he was still on the phone with the sheriff.

  “No, if you don’t mind, stay here,” Ashley said. “We’re not sure what might happen.”

  “Oh, so little sister is trying to protect her big brother?” Buddy chirped. “Now that’s a first.”

  The sheriff arrived personally to drive the agents to the football field. Jack withheld the exact details of their mission, telling the lawman only that they were looking for a fugitive that they had reason to believe may be at the game. While having the sheriff station extra officers around the stadium, Jack never revealed the true nature of his mission.

  They arrived at the stadium several minutes ahead of the game despite their unexpected delay in the remote cornfield, giving them time to scope out the stadium. Both agents wired up before going in, using hidden earpieces to keep in contact as they stationed themselves on opposite sides of the field. It wasn’t long until Ashley saw the point of their surveillance as the golden eagle, dressed in a black Seymour jersey, stormed into the stadium ahead of the Seymour Iron Eagles, all decked out in black uniforms with golden numerals.

  Ashley felt a chill at the sight of the eagle mascot, even though she stood a good fifty yards from where he entered the stadium. She would now be on the lookout for a second eagle while also being careful the real mascot did not leave her sight for any reason. The job would become harder as, even as the national anthem was being played by the Seymour marching band, rain began to fall, accompanied by the distant roll of thunder.

  Jack and Ashley kept mobile, working their way amongst the crowd while keeping an eye on the mascot, looking for anything out of the ordinary. However, the first quarter passed with nothing aside from an intensification of the rain which began to soak Ashley to the bone, her Texas sweatshirt soaking up the rain like a sponge. Ashley leaned against the rail near the fifty-yard-line, wondering if the killer was even in Seymour.

  He was. Even at that moment he was making his play for his next victim.

  Angelica Knowles was a blonde bombshell. The senior cheer captain was the aspiration of every red-blooded boy in Seymour and surrounding counties. Her biggest issue was that she knew she was model-quality. The perky senior was full of herself and quick to dismiss anyone she felt was not in her league.

  “Look at that fat heifer up there trying to cheer back,” Angelica said with conceit to one of her fellow cheerleaders as she nodded toward a heavy-set student in the front row who was cheering for the Iron Eagle squad as they took the lead in the second quarter. “I think if I was that fat, I’d kill myself.”

  Angelica rolled her hazel eyes as she dropped her pompoms to take a drink, pushing back her hair which was now flattened out by the solid torrent through which they cheered that evening. She took a moment, as did most of her partners on the cheer team, to check her messages, shielding her phone from the rain.

  “Take a look,” Angelica said, shooting Lisa Brewer, junior cheerleader, a grin as she showed her a message on her phone. “You’ll have to cover for me if I’m a little late after halftime.”

  Her friend gave her a knowing nod as they picked up their pompoms and resumed their duties, cheering on the home team alongside the Iron Eagle mascot.

  An earth-shaking roll of thunder gave Ashley a start as the first half came to an end. The home team ran off the now-mud-covered field with a seven-point lead.

  “I’m following the eagle, you stay here,” Jack called out over the radio as she saw him stroll behind the team to the nearby field house. “Oh, and we may just get some help. I just got a call and our online forensics team thinks they may have hacked the site I told you about. I’ll let you know as soon as I know.”

  Such a breakthrough, Ashley realized, would be a boon for their investigation, perhaps giving them the identity of the next victim. The question was whether it would come in time to save the next victim.

  AND THE LIGHTNING STRIKES

  Angelica’s tennis shoes squeaked on the tile floor of the school hall as she stepped inside from the rain. She shivered as the air conditioning hit her like she’d just stepped inside a freezer. Goose bumps ran up her arms as the air chilled her in her rain-soaked clothes.

  She walked slowly down the dimly-lit, deserted hall, listening for any movement. She knew getting caught inside the school after hours would mean after-school detention. Students were forbidden to be in the school without supervision. The reason for that rule was the reason she was there – to meet a member of the opposite sex for a little make-out session. She figured she could slip away at half time and never be missed, straying away long enough for some heavy petting with local bad boy Denny Keys. His text lured her like a moth to the flame. While she could have any guy she wanted in Seymour, she always preferred the rebels, those who were forbidden and dangerous. Denny fit the bill as he spent more time on suspension than in school with a juvenile record longer than his arm. She had long thought it would be hot to make out with the long-haired, motorcycle-riding scofflaw. When she received the text with his name attached, telling her to meet him in their English class at half time, she couldn't resist the temptation. The problem was, unbeknownst to her, he was presently making out with Marcy Daniels underneath the bleachers in back of the stadium.

  “Denny? Are you here?” Angelica called out timidly as she stuck her head inside the English classroom in which they shared fourth pe
riod. “Come out; come out, where ever you are! I’ve got something for you. I think you’re going to like it.”

  Her flirtatious overture went unanswered. The classroom was deserted. Certainly Denny hadn’t stood her up, especially in her short cheerleader dress and rain-soaked top which clutched her bosom like a tight-fitting glove.

  “Your loss, loser,” Angelica sighed as she closed the classroom door and began to make her way back down the hall.

  That’s when she heard the sound of the outside door closing and footsteps heading in her direction.

  Denny?” Angelica called out.

  It wasn’t Denny.

  “We’ve got a name!” Jack shouted out breathlessly as he sprinted toward the football field. The sudden yell hurt Ashley’s ears over her earpiece. “It’s Angelica Knowles. She’s head cheerleader for the Iron Eagles.”

  Ashley wasted no time hopping the fence from her station on the visitor side of the stadium. She sloshed across the wet field, weaving in and out of the Iron Eagle football squad as they returned to the gridiron for the second half.

  “The cheerleaders are under the tunnel!” Ashley shouted back as she could see the girls taking refuge from the rain underneath the overhang of the stadium.

  They arrived at the congregation of cheerleaders at the same time, both breathing hard as they displayed their badges.

  “Which one of you is Angelica Knowles?” Jack blurted out as he tried to catch his breath, water dripping off his nose.

  None of the girls volunteered. The cheer squad instead looked around as if there were just realizing she was not in their midst.

  “She’s not here,” one girl declared, still looking around. “I mean, she was here. She must have gone to the bathroom or something.”

  Ashley scanned the group, trying to figure out what was going on. After all, this was their captain. How could they not know where she was? That’s when she noticed one of the girls averting her gaze.