The Uninvited

by mike Evans

“No, but it’s really bugging me. Didn’t you say that the detective, what’s his name?”

  “Detective Hardin is his name. Why, what is it?”

  “Didn’t you say that he had some buddies with the LoJack Company?”

  “Yeah, he’s always able to get answers quicker than anyone when we need information on it. I'm pretty sure he sends some amber colored liquor to a guy in customer service there on a regular basis. Why? What is it, Chuck?”

  “I'm looking at Isaac’s bills trying to make sense of both of their debts and there is a bill from Kia here saying that he hasn’t made payment on the service in the last four months. It says that as of March it was turned off...the LoJack that is. How the hell did he find them so quick if it wasn’t working?”

  Nick sat forward thinking about this and knowing that sometimes just because they said that they would turn the stuff off didn’t mean that it had happened. “I’ll make a few calls and see what’s up. He left pretty shortly after everything had ended. He said that his wife was ready for him to be done with the badge and to start doing private work. She wanted him out before it was too late to get his head fixed and put this past him. This was his second-”

  Nick trailed off, thinking about that, seeing some things that didn’t make sense. “Chuck, you finish up what you are doing. I’ll get back to you later, okay?”

  “Are you going to get back to me, Nick?”

  “Look, I said that I would. You keep doing your job, and you let me do mine, okay? I need some time. This stuff isn’t too quick and it might take me a while.”

  “Seems funny that he just left right after getting done with this case, doesn’t it, Nick?”

  “You take care of your daughter's affairs and let me take care of this. I won’t let you down. I’ll make some calls until I get what I need to know.”

  Chapter 27

  Lambert set the phone down in the cradle slowly, sitting back in his leather chair and thinking. He knew the shit storm from this would make headlines across the country. He didn’t need Chuck to try and spell it out for him, he wasn’t stupid. He hit his speakerphone. “Hey, Sara, do you think that I could bug you for a favor?”

  “You can ask anything you want sugar, but whether or not I agree to do it is on a completely different story. What’cha need?”

  “I want to see phone records for Hardin, am I able to do that?”

  “Sure, but it isn’t going to do any good if you caught him using the company line for anything but work related purposes. Besides he’s gone and has already forgotten about this place. You’re just wasting your time and breathe making the call.”

  “Well, I’ve heard more than once that I am full of hot air and let me worry about if I’m wasting the taxpayer’s time and money.”

  “Do you need something to eat, Chief?”

  “No, not that I know of. Why?”

  “Well, you sound just a little grumpy. Do you need a Snickers? I love those commercials.”

  “Sara, just get me the damn files. This is pretty important to me.”

  “I’ll order us some sandwiches, you want roast beef or chicken?”

  “Damn it, I want the files!”

  “You are gonna get them Chief Lambert, but you are going to get lunch too. You don’t need to be all grumpy with me. I’m not afraid to call Tricia and tell her how you are treating people in your office.”

  Lambert did his best to control his anger, treating the receiver as if it was her neck and trying to choke it out. He said with clenched teeth, “I’ll take chicken with a dill pickle and barbeque chips thank you very much, Sara.”

  “What flavor pie you want?”

  “Cherry, please. Chocolate if that is gone.”

  “Now see, doesn’t it feel good to be nice, Chief?”

  “Oh, it’s wonderful Sara, and thank you for helping me with my grumpy ways. You are just short of an angel.”

  “I know, thanks Chief. You check your email and I’ll have links for the cell phone and the office phone. You can follow them and find whatever it is you are looking for. I’ll tell Evans Diner to get a move on. Diane is a mover and a shaker, she’ll probably have her husband on the way here in a few minutes.”

  “Well, that would just be splendid.” Nick hit the end button and started hitting the refresh key every few minutes on his email browser until a new message popped up from Sara that had the links he’d requested. He clicked on the cell phone, and then the house phone for the office. He was tilting his head back and forth trying to put everything together. He knew that the answers he needed were going to be sever and their end result would be extremely serious. He couldn’t just make any assumptions and looked up the Kia dealer in the next county over. He got the phone number directly from the owner for who they used for LoJack service and the one that would be on Isaac’s SUV.

  Nick punched in the number, waiting and pushing through the options. When he finally got through to a customer service agent he said, “I need to speak to someone about a LoJack system please.”

  The customer service representative said, “Can I please have your name?”

  “Yes, the account would be under Isaac Hunter. I am calling on his behalf.”

  “Are you a relative or a power of attorney, sir?”

  “No ma’am, I’m a police chief in Missouri. I’m calling on a case and I was hoping that you would be able to give me some information that might help me to solve a case that is in question.”

  “Sir, you would have to get verbal authorization from the owner of the account. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it is company policy.”

  “Did you not hear me when I said that I am the chief of police?”

  “I heard you just fine sir, but unfortunately if you can’t get me verbal authorization to signed information then I’m not able to answer anything for you.”

  “Well, it would be just a little bit difficult to be able to get authorization for that, ma’am. Do you have a supervisor that I might be able to speak to please?”

  “We have to determine that it truly is a supervisor matter, sir, before transferring.”

  Nick kicked his drawer with the heel of his cowboy boot, crashing in the cheap plywood and feeling a bit better about it. “The reason that I am unable to get you this verbal authorization you need so bad is because the man is dead. He had a truck hood decapitate him. So for him to call you would truly be a damn miracle. Is that good enough for your dumbass to get me to a supervisor?”

  “I don’t like your tone very much, sir.”

  “Well, I don’t appreciate your fucking inability to be useful. The longer we talk, the more your existence on Earth is actually beginning to bug me. There were deaths, it was horrible, if you read the paper you’d probably already know where I am calling from.”

  “Oh god, you aren’t calling from Missouri are you?”

  “Yup, I sure as hell am.”

  “Fuck me. I mean, please hold, I’ll transfer you to my manager, Mr. Fox.”

  Lambert leaned forward in his chair, writing down the chain of people who he was talking to. When Fox came on he sounded like he had definitely been advised of who he was talking to.

  “For lack of a better term sir, I’d like to say good afternoon to you. How many I assist you?”

  “Well, it wouldn’t take too much work for you to be more helpful than that stupid shit that was on the phone with me first. I mean. Jesus good lord, were you scraping the bottom of the barrel on hiring day?”

  “Unfortunately if you saw what they paid customer service reps here, sir, you probably would be a hell of a lot more impressed at the service that you got. For most people working here they’d have to improve to be referred to as stupid.”

  “That doesn’t fill me with a lot of hope, sir. I’m trying to figure out a termination date of service on a customer of yours that I am confident missed enough bills that you shut off his service.”

  “Sir, we give ample warnings before shutting-”

  “I�
�m not calling to bitch about it. I simply need the date, it is a very important matter that I’m calling about. The quicker that you could do things the better. Like I told the other woman the man’s name that I am inquiring about is Isaac Hunter out of Missouri, if that helps narrow things down.”

  Nick heard the tap tap tap of keys on the other end and just as he thought his patience was going to disappear for the rest of the day, he got a response back over the phone. Fox said, “No, primarily we give people 3 months. Now this man didn’t opt for any additional features which this is one of them. Since he neglected to get any his service has been gone since January 2000.”

  “So even if another police officer would have called, say two weeks ago, there would be absolutely no way whatsoever that they would have received any information about a LoJack unit on that man’s vehicle?”

  “No sir, you miss a bill they shut it off. You go past the warning date, which was months ago, and you are done. That LoJack unit is just a paperweight at this point.”

  “I see. Okay, Mr. Fox I thank you very much. You have a good day.”

  “Good luck with your investigation, Chief Lambert.”

  “I...I will, thank you.” Nick set the phone back down in the cradle. He looked up to see Sara standing there watching him. “Is there something that I can do for you, Sara?”

  “You can tell me what’s really wrong.”

  Nick smiled uneasily and she could almost see his face turning green. He leaned over, grabbing his wastebasket and losing everything he had eaten that morning, which for once he was thankful that he had skipped the big breakfast option over coffee. He said, “You know I think that I’m going to go home. I am pretty sure that I have some sort of a bug. I think the last few weeks have really gotten to me.”

  “Yes sir, that seems like quite a good idea. You go on home, there ain’t nothing that you need to worry about being done today, sir. Besides, you got that murdering son of a bitch off the streets at least you can sleep at night now, right?”

  “Yeah, thank you Sara. I think I might be out tomorrow as well.”

  Chapter 28

  Nick climbed into his pickup truck and sat in the driver's seat holding the keys in his hand. He had a moral dilemma, one that was seriously splitting him in half. He had taken an oath, one that made him uphold the laws. At the same time, he could not decide how he could not give his friend the news that the killer was still alive. That the man that had taken his daughter from him had received awards for his valor and recognition for his bravery all across America.

  He turned the key over, driving slowly at first until he was racing down the highway towards his home. He stopped quickly in the driveway, scaring Tricia half to death in the window. Nick went inside not saying anything. He went to his closet, ignoring Tricia doing her best not to be nosey while standing in the doorway. She said, “Well, hello to you too Chief Lambert. It’s been awhile since you’ve came home for a nooner.”

  Nick turned around, seeing his wife in an apron fully dressed and shaking her stuff for him, mocking him. He said, “I wish that was why I was here. I did some research on a case and it’s going to end up making me need to travel for a few days. Do you think that you’ll be okay for a couple days by yourself?”

  “Since when have you ever had to go somewhere for your job?”

  “Honey, I just finished wrapping up a national case. I looked up some additional information for someone, needless to say something got overlooked. I just need to go and have some depositions and I will be back before you miss me.”

  Tricia laughed, “I don’t know dear, it might take longer than you think. I mean as much as I appreciate picking up dirty underwear off of the floor and having a heart attack at two in the morning when I need to go pee at almost falling into the toilet I think it could take a day or two.”

  “You’ll miss me, baby. You don’t have to say it just so poetically as you do.”

  Nick pulled out his bag, sliding a few pairs of work uniforms in and a few pairs of jeans. “Do you need any help packing, Nicky?”

  “Nope, you make me a thermos of coffee and I’ll be heading out. They said they’d get me a room to stay up in Iowa. Some town just outside of Des Moines named Ankeny I’m going to stay at. I need the caffeine and maybe a sandwich to make it up there without falling asleep.”

  “I’ll make you two. I don’t want you crashing that truck out in the middle of nowhere. If your cell phone or CB radio doesn’t work then you’ll have a hell of a time walking to the nearest small town.”

  Nick, who was just barely able to have a conversation that made sense, said, “Sure honey, thanks for doing that. I appreciate it.” She disappeared and when she was gone he pulled out a pistol that he’d gotten from a swap meet quite a few years back and slid it and the ammunition for it into his travel bag. He grabbed his shaving kit and toiletries from the bathroom. He gave his wife a hug, one that was long and hard, before he left. She pushed him out just a foot from her, looking him in the eyes, and asked, “Nick, is there anything that you want to tell me before you leave? I’m used to you being weird, but you are being extra weird today.”

  “Yeah, the last few weeks haven’t been easy on me. I’ll get back to normal, just give me some time. It isn’t easy, okay? This last week messed with my head.”

  “Well, you get back to normal. You have too many friends and family and employees that look to you. We can’t have you losing your mind after all this, okay?”

  Nick gave her a kiss on the forehead and one last squeeze before heading out to the truck. She watched him and could see it in his eyes that there was more going on than he could tell her. She hoped for her sake that he would at the very least be safe and come back to her in one piece and a healthy state of mind.

  Nick drove like a robot. He had so many things running wildly through his mind that he didn’t realize that he’d driven to Chuck’s house and not to the apartment of Traci and Isaac. When he made it to the apartment he sat out in his truck for ten minutes before going up there. He had never been a vigilante, had worked hard for what he had gotten in life. Nick knew that sometimes people would get away with crimes. He thought about Colorado, Iowa where he was now, and Missouri and to his knowledge they did not have the death penalty. The visuals of Traci being decimated by that bomb and shotgun blast didn't seem like a cushy matte with a few needles taped to his arm would seem justified. He had never been a man that believed in torturing another, but at the same time he’d been a God fearing man going to church his entire life. There was one thing that he knew that God believed in and that was do unto others as you wish to have done to you. He thought about Hardin and thought that yes he did deserve it. He was a disease and he needed to be eradicated. He knew Chuck was hard, but didn't know if justice like this was something he would pursue. Nick was pretty confident if that meant that they knew who did it that he surely would though.

  Nick put his truck in park, then slid out and walked slowly up the steps. When he made it to the doorway it was already open and he saw Rosa in there wiping at her eyes as two men from Goodwill stacked boxes on a dolly and took what seemed like a never-ending row of items no longer needed downstairs. When she saw Nick she walked over and said, “Oh hey Nick, you didn’t need to come all the way over here. We got a good handle on things. Don’t tell me that Chuck actually forgot to bring something with him. Not that his head might of been a little foggy when we left.”

  Nick said, “Hey, Rosa, no…...he didn’t forget anything. I just wanted to have a quick chat with him. You think he has a minute for me?”

  “Yeah, anyone else I might say no, but I think he’ll be happy to see you.”

  Nick walked by, squeezing her arm and thinking how he needed to go tell his absolute one true friend in the entire world how the man that killed his daughter had been hired by himself. How he had been paying the man who had been on a murdering rampage to find the killer. He thought how this was almost a fucking stand up joke while be it for the mentally t
wisted, but he could be looked at as the fucking stupidest police chief in the United States. The one thing that ran through his mind was that Hardin hadn't been in Iowa long enough for him to begin killing. He thought that if they took him out, or if just he if Chuck was not up for it, that everyone could just continue thinking that it was the person blown up in the woods.

  Nick tapped on the door outside, watching Chuck swearing under his breath about some China made piece of damn shit on the floor. He looked up saying, “I said, that I’d tell you when it was ready and that no. I did not need no damn,” he saw that it was Nick there trying to smile but looked like he had come to deliver the worst news that he possibly could. Chuck dropped the tool. “What, what is it?”

  Nick shook his head no, he didn’t want to say it at first but broke down and said, “Not here, come on. I got a feeling you’ll be thinking that this is important or at the very least you’ll want a hand in this. You need to come up with something saying that I need you to help me do a quick drive for some information that needs to be heard from a witness’s mouth, but that I’m half sick and you are going to drive me there. All expenses paid.”

  “Why the hell would you need me to drive you somewhere? Christ, are you getting that old?”

  Nick pulled up his shirt, showing a revolver that definitely was not his service piece. “Because you and I have some unfinished business that we need to put to bed, brother.”

  “Did you find something?”

  “Again if you don’t want to break, her heart all over again, I suggest highly, that we head outside and have a chat, but save yourself the trip back up those stairs. I’ll lay down the lie for you. You just take it home okay?”

  Chuck nodded and within five minutes Chuck was walking down the stairs with a purpose. He climbed into Nick’s pickup and said, “Okay spill it. Spill all of it.”

  “I took your tip like you said about the LoJack because it was a helluva great question. I checked and they said it had been off for months. I went a few steps further though and Hardin never made any calls to the number where you would check it; no one from the office did that day. I saw the only call he had made that day was to us to call in backup. Apparently he had plans to make a blood bath out of it, or he would have just done them on Saturday when he had the opportunity to.”