Saving Medesha

by DK Land

  He nodded as he dropped the box to the floor and covered his face with his hands. “Oh, my God!” he exclaimed as he reached out and hugged Mabel. “Oh, my God!”

  “Ollie!” said Harold. “Tell us what’s wrong, for Heaven’s sake.”

  He continued hugging Mabel as he said, “Oh, Mabel! I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  Mabel pushed back from Ollie’s embrace and demanded, “Ollie! Stop! Take a deep breath and tell us what is wrong.”

  He stood before them shaking as he said with a quivering voice, “She’s gone.”

  As fear began to rise within her, Mabel placed a hand over her mouth and asked, “Who’s gone, Ollie? Tell us who’s gone.”

  He suddenly became calm as he looked from Mabel to Harold and back to Mabel again. “Tandy!” he said. “Tandy’s gone.”

  With her legs shaking, Mabel grabbed hold of the edge of Harold’s desk. Slowly, she reached for her chair and pulled it closer. As she sank into the chair, she looked at Harold and said with tears in her eyes, “I don’t understand.” She looked up at Ollie. “What do you mean, ‘Tandy’s gone’?”

  Harold walked over and took Ollie by the arm and told him to sit down. “Now, Ollie,” he said firmly. “This is way too important. You’ve got to pull yourself together, and tell us exactly what happened.” He pointed at the box lying on the floor and continued, “I want to know just how you were able to get your hands on that box. But, first I want to know every single bit of information you can think of concerning Tandy.”

  Ollie grabbed the arms of his chair and tried to calm himself. “Okay,” he said. “About an hour and a half ago, while the parade was just getting organized, I suggested to Tandy that we go over to the factory and get those files for you ourselves. I knew that everybody in town would be down at the Marina, and I also knew that the windows on the back of the factory had some really chintzy locks.”

  He could tell by Harold’s expression that he was wondering how Ollie knew about the locks on the windows. “I’m sorry, Sheriff. That’s another story altogether. Anyway, Tandy and I took my walkie-talkies and headed over to the factory. When we got there, I looked in the windows until I found the right room, and I asked Tandy to keep watch in the alley. If someone came along, she was supposed to call me on the walkie-talkie and let me know. I found a file cabinet with a bunch of kid’s medical records in it, and I just grabbed all of them, and headed back toward the window. As I got close to the window, my walkie-talkie crackled a couple times, and I heard Tandy whisper, ‘Ollie! There’s somebody…’, and then there was nothing but silence. I waited a few seconds and then looked out the window. There wasn’t a soul around. I climbed out and stood in the alley looking for Tandy. She was gone! Her walkie-talkie was lying in the alley broken into pieces, but she was gone!”

  He brought his hands to his face as he continued, “Oh, God! I’m so sorry! I ran over and hid the box in some bushes next to the Vander-Wear Truck Garage, and walked up and down the alley looking for her and calling her name. Then I walked around the whole block, and even looked out in front of the factory. I never saw a single person. She just disappeared.”

  Harold asked, “All you heard on the walkie-talkie was, ‘Ollie! There’s somebody…’?”

  Ollie nodded.

  “You didn’t hear anything else?”

  He shook his head. “No, I didn’t hear a thing!”

  “You didn’t hear any sounds of a scuffle out in the alley or anything like that?”

  Ollie moaned, “No, Harold. There was nothing but complete silence.”

  Harold looked over at Mabel. “You don’t suppose that she could have headed back to the station or the diner, do you?”

  Mabel shook her head. “I really don’t think that she would have willingly left without Ollie.” She dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “Something dreadful must have happened to her.”

  Harold picked up the cardboard file box and threw it under his desk. “Damn it, Ollie! I wish you would have checked in with me before the two of you decided to try this crazy scheme all on your own.”

  Ollie replied, “I couldn’t, Harold. I knew if we were caught by someone, you’d get in all kinds of trouble if you knew about it. Tandy and I figured it was worth the chance to see if we could get those files so you and Shauni and Jefferson could get this disease thing solved. Neither of us expected that something like this could happen.”

  Harold softened his voice. “No, I guess I wouldn’t have expected it either. Right now, the most important thing is to see if we can locate Tandy.”

  “What should we do, Harold?” asked Ollie.

  “Mabel, why don’t you take Ollie’s keys and go over to the station and check around. If she’s not at the station, then go to the diner and check there. Ollie, you go down to the Marina and mingle around. If you see Deputy Walsh, you can inform him of the situation, but don’t let anybody else in on this right now.” He looked at both of them. “I think that the fewer people that know about Tandy’s disappearance, the better off we’ll be for the present time.”

  “But, Harold,” said Mabel. “Wouldn’t it be better to tell everyone we see about it? Don’t you think that we’d find her faster?”

  “I’m sorry, Mabel,” he said. “I’m really not sure, but it just might happen that whoever has her could get desperate if they see everybody in town looking for her. If they get desperate… we don’t know what they’d do.”

  He thought for a moment and continued. “Say, Ollie. When you get to the Marina, talk to Larry as soon as you can find him. Make sure that nobody overhears the two of you talking and tell him everything that’s happened. Tell him that I would like him to drive out to the edge of town and station himself there. If he sees any strangers leaving town, I want him to write down their license numbers, and stop them if they look at all suspicious.” He opened his desk drawer and said, “ Here. I want both of you to take one of these PCD’s. Keep them on at all times and contact me if you find Tandy, or if you’re able to get any information that might be helpful. I’m gonna go over to the hospital and talk to the staff over there. Who knows? Maybe she got hurt and she’s been admitted.”

  Ollie asked, “You’ll call us if you find her, won’t you?”

  “Of course I will,” said Harold.

  “You don’t think that Tandy disappearing has anything to do with this disease, do you, Harold?” asked Ollie.

  “I don’t know, Ollie. I really don’t know. It just doesn’t seem to fit in with the things that have been taking place at the hospital. You know? When you open your town for a big celebration like we’re having today, you can’t just automatically expect that only good people are going to show up.”

  He looked out his office window as a large Vander-Wear truck was backing its way down the street toward the boat ramp. “Somewhere out in that crowd, somebody knows exactly where our little Tandy Williams is.”

  Chapter 14

  As Mabel left the Sheriff’s Office and headed across the street in the direction of Ollie’s Service Station, Ollie walked down to the Marina and into the crowd of laughing strangers. He had to keep reminding himself to appear as normal as possible. All the while he was smiling and laughing and patting people on the back and wishing them a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, he was trying to study every individual in the crowd. The thought of what Harold had said kept ringing in his ears, ‘Somewhere in that crowd, somebody knows exactly where our little Tandy Williams is.’

  He waded through the crowd and out onto the main dock of the Marina. The main dock was at least twelve feet wide and stretched out into the lake for nearly a hundred feet. Off to the right of the main dock was the boat ramp. To the left, several narrower docks were connected to the main dock and ran parallel to the lakeshore for another hundred feet. The spaces between these smaller docks were completely filled with boats of all types and sizes. There were small fishing boats, and runabouts, and pontoons, and even a couple smaller cabin cruisers.

  Almost ever
y boat in the Marina was filled with boisterous people drinking and partying. He walked down one of the smaller docks until he came to one of the cabin cruisers. It was decorated with painted cardboard cutouts hanging off each side in an attempt to give the boat the appearance of a sea monster. He recognized the boat as belonging to the town’s illustrious mayor, Paul Sorenson. As he walked up to the side of the boat, he realized that the mayor was in his usual condition for this yearly celebration. There were eight or nine people laughing and cheering on the mayor’s boat, while the mayor himself was busy leaning over the side of the boat vomiting into the lake.

  Everybody on the boat laughed uproariously as Paul pushed himself up to a wobbly standing position and demanded, “Damn it! Somebody get me another beer. I dropped mine into the lake!” He looked up and spotted Ollie standing on the dock smiling down at him. “Aaaahhllie, my boy!” he said as he spilled his fresh beer down the front of his flowered shirt. “I’ll be damned! Hey, everybody! It’s Aaaahhllie Storrrr-gur-stund!” He waved his hand. “Hey, Aaaahhllie! Come on, Buddy! Come have a beer with ush!”

  Ollie replied with a forced grin, “No thanks, Mr. Mayor. I’m kinda busy right now. I’m looking for Tandy. You haven’t seen her around here lately, have you?”

  “What?” answered Paul. “For Gawd’s sake, Aaaahhllie! I asked you to come’n have a beer.” He continued to wobble as he slowly looked around the boat. Then he looked back up at Ollie and said, “Hell, Aaaahhllie! We don’t got any brandy on board at all. All’s we got is beer!”

  Ollie chuckled. “No, Mr. Mayor. I didn’t say I wanted brandy, I said I was looking for Tandy! Have you seen her?”

  Paul frowned as he apologized. “I’m really sorry, Aaaahhllie. We’re all outta brandy. All’s we got left is beer. Ya want one? Ya know, Aaaahhllie. You shouldn’t be drinking that hard stuff anyway. That crap’ll kill ya!”

  Ollie smiled as he turned to walk away. “Okay, Mr. Mayor. I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks anyway. I’ll see you later.”

  As he walked back toward the main dock, he heard Paul Sorenson say, “Did you hear that? All that young guy could think about is gettin’ some damn brandy. My Gawd! I think the poor kid must be a alcoholic or sumthin’.”

  Ollie continued walking back toward the shore when he noticed the large Vander-Wear truck sitting near the boat ramp. The overhead door on the back of the truck was open, and he could see Wally Crenshaw handing out life vests to people standing on the ground. He made his way through the crowd until he came to the back of the truck. He looked up and smiled. “Hey, Wally! What the heck are you doing?”

  Wally looked down. “Hi, Ollie,” he said. “Boy this sure is a mad house, isn’t it?” As he continued to hand out life vests, he said, “I got a call from the manager this morning. He told me that Mr. Vandervork wanted this load of life vests driven down to the Marina. He said that I should hand them out free of charge to anybody that wants ‘em. I guess that he wants to make sure that everybody has a safe weekend. That Mr. Vandervork sure is a great guy, isn’t he?”

  Ollie nodded. “Boy, I’ll say! That’s a pretty nice thing for him to do. He’s never done this before, has he?”

  “Nah,” answered Wally. “I guess he just came up with it at the last minute. Do you want a couple for yourself, Ollie?”

  Ollie smiled. “No thanks, Wally. I’ve got more than I need already.” As he looked into the back of the truck, he asked, “Say, Wally? What in the world do you have all that wood back there for?”

  Wally grinned proudly. “Heck!” he said. “That’s another fantastic thing that Mr. Vandervork is doing.”

  “Oh, really?” said Ollie.

  “Yeah! That old guy, Julius Benson is going to retire. What the heck is he anyway? He must be almost ninety years old. Anyway, Mr. Vandervork decided that he wanted to do something for Julius for all his years of dedication. So he got all this redwood and he’s gonna have one of those gazebo things built right next to old Julius’s little cabin over on the island.” He pointed back further into the truck. “See that big box over there?”

  “Yeah?” answered Ollie.

  “Well, that’s one of them fancy hot tub things. You know? With all them water jets that shoot water at you so they kinda give you a massage. That thing is going to be built right inside of the gazebo. I guess old Julius is going to have some fun times in his old age.”

  Ollie nodded. “So, how are you gonna get all that stuff over to the island?”

  “Well, as soon as things start to die down here a little, a couple guys that work at the factory are gonna get that big pontoon boat of Mr. Vandervork’s.” He pointed to a large flat decked boat tied up at the far end of the Marina, “And we’re gonna load all this stuff up and haul it over before nightfall. The only thing is, we gotta get it loaded before they set up the bandstand for the street dance, so I can get this truck out of the way.”

  Ollie glanced at the crowd. “I don’t know, Wally. Looks to me as if you’re gonna have a bit of a wait before you get a chance to start loading. It doesn’t look like this crowd has begun to thin out much at all.”

  Wally waved his hand. “Ah, I’m not worried. We’ll get it done.”

  “Say, Wally. You haven’t seen Tandy around here lately, have you?”

  He stood up straight in the back of the truck and scanned the crowd with his hand shading his eyes. “Gee, Ollie. I don’t think I’ve seen Tandy for a couple days now. She isn’t over at Mabel’s waiting on tables is she?”

  “No,” he replied. “Already checked it out. Well, I’d better get going. Good luck, with your trip over to the island.”

  “Thanks, Ollie. Have a fun day.”

  Ollie frowned as he walked away. He thought to himself, “Yeah! Have a fun day! If I hadn’t talked Tandy into doing such a stupid thing, we’d both be having a fun day.” He continued scanning the faces of everybody he passed. “How in the heck do you tell if a person is guilty of something just by looking at them?”

  * * *

  Sheriff Harold Wheaton was sitting in the Doctors Lounge at Medesha Memorial, talking with Gerard Slocum. “You haven’t seen Tandy Williams lately, have you, Doc?” he asked.

  Gerard frowned slightly. “Tandy Williams? She’s that cute little blond girl that works at Mabel’s Coffee Shop, isn’t she?”

  Harold nodded. “Yeah. That’s her. Some friends of hers were looking for her, and I thought I’d ask here just in case she got sick or hurt and came over here to the hospital.”

  Gerard shook his head. “No, I haven’t seen her. I’ve been on duty all day, so if she came into the hospital for any kind of medical attention, I’m the one she would have seen.” He poured another cup of coffee and said, “Say, Harold. I’m glad you stopped by. I’ve been wanting to ask you if you’ve been able to uncover anything else about this illness.”

  Harold removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “No, I haven’t been able to discover a single thing. You’re absolutely positive that this thing was man made, aren’t you?”

  With a wry grin, Gerard answered, “Oh, yes. I have no doubts whatsoever. Somebody out there has achieved the ability to do the most horrible things to their fellow man, and I believe that they are taking full advantage of it. Yes, this was most definitely a ‘Tin Lizzie’. There can be no other explanation for the things we’ve experienced these last few days. The main thing that confuses me, other than how they’re doing it, is why they’re doing it.”

  Harold placed his hat back on his head and crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair. “Well, that’s the answer I was expecting. But, it wasn’t the answer I was hoping for. To tell you the truth, Doc, I am really at a loss as to how to even begin to investigate this thing. I haven’t been able to uncover a single element of this case that would lead me away from this hospital. Sure, all these kids were sick when they got here, but none of them seemed to be spending great amounts of time together. I just can’t come up with an instance outside of the hospital that they all
seem to have in common. But, I’ll tell you one thing. Whoever is doing this, definitely has an agenda.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” said Harold. “If you take into consideration the few similarities that we’ve uncovered so far, it just seems to me that this character has some kind of personal goal in mind.” He leaned forward in his chair with his elbows on his knees. “First, all these kids are boys. Second, they all have the same blood type. Now, I’m sure that I could be way off base here, but with what little we know, it seems to me that the person behind this is male, and has AB negative blood.”

  Gerard sat with his arms crossed. “Hmm. That’s an interesting theory. I don’t know if it would help prove who the culprit is, but it might help prove who it isn’t.”

  “This AB negative blood,” asked Harold. “That's a pretty common blood type isn't it?”

  “No, actually it's just the opposite.” said Gerard. “AB negative is the rarest blood type there is. Less than one percent of the population has AB negative.”

  “Oh really?” replied Harold. “Now, that's confusing. Do you suppose the person that started this whole thing could have targeted these particular kids because he has the same rare blood type and maybe needs their blood to guarantee a source for a transfusion or something?”

  “No, this person may be very diabolical, but he's also a very experienced scientist,” said Gerard. “He would have to be very knowledgeable about the basic components of human blood. You see, a person with type O blood is considered to be a universal donor. A person with type AB negative blood is what they call a universal recipient. That person can receive blood from virtually all of the other blood types.”

  Holding his hand up, Harold said, “Whoa, just a second there Doc. You're not making this thing any easier. This just keeps getting more confusing.”