by Aiden James
“Yeah, I’m not crazy about the idea either,” David agreed. “But, John needs me, man. He was there when I needed him, and I sure as hell can’t let him down.”
Norm eyed him pensively, puffing on his cigarette that wouldn’t be allowed inside the remodeled grand Victorian mansion he used to work at, leaning against the front edge of the desk.
“John’s a good man,” Norm observed. “And, I can tell you’re quite fond of him. He feels the same toward you, too.” He exhaled a long stream of smoke rings.
“Well, then, I guess it’s best that I go out there and help him,” said David. He walked over and sat down in one of the plush chairs in front of the desk, the one closest to where Norm stood. “If I don’t go, who else is going to help him against this thing?”
A slight smile tugged at the corners of Norm’s mouth.
“What??” David asked, indignant.
He debated whether or not to pick up a cruise ship vacation brochure lying on a small table next to his chair. The ship on the cover appeared to move through the ocean’s waves, which made him pause to look closer at it. But the image proved stationary once he brought it up to his eyes, and he later recalled that moment as when he realized this experience was a dream.
“I’m serious, Norm. It’s not like you can do anything about it, right?”
Norm’s smile faded and he walked over to the window next to his desk. David remembered the spectacular view of the downtown skyline that Norm enjoyed each day from his office. Only now, the other side of the window was dark, similar to looking out on a blackout at midnight. The darkness seemed impenetrable.
“No, you’re correct… there’s nothing I can do for your friend, David.” Norm’s voice became a mere whisper as he gazed out into the blackness. “She might free me, in order to help you out…. But he sure as hell won’t.”
“Who are you talking about?” David sat up straight in his chair, prepared to get up and walk over to where Norm stood by the window.
“‘She’, David,” Norm replied, turning to face him again. His handsome face was suddenly emotionless, like a doll or mannequin’s. But his eyes glowed like sapphire flames. “Allie Mae? Remember? …The nice hillbilly lass who impaled me on the fountain in the lobby of this very building?”
“Yeah, like I’d ever forget her,” David replied, grimacing. “I guess you don’t get around much over here, do you, my friend? Because if you did, you might’ve noticed she was about to send me over to join you just a couple of months ago after I returned to Tennessee!”
“Yes… I suppose it was bad for you as well,” Norm replied, the depth of sadness in his voice sharp enough to cut through David’s heart, and he cringed as he listened. “I had hoped to follow your progress there… to Gatlinburg, where I take it you faced her. Obviously, since you’re still among the living, you succeeded in forcing her spirit from your world. That might explain why I was allowed to leave her prison—to return here and regain some semblance of who I used to be… “
His voice trailed off and he looked around the room, confused and seemingly unable to recognize his surroundings. He shook his head when he noticed David again, sitting less than ten feet away from where he trembled next to the window.
“He’s calling,” Norm spoke into the air above him, shifting his gaze to follow some invisible presence hovering beneath the ceiling. “And soon he’ll be here…. It’s best that you call this whole thing off before you, Miriam, and your kids get hurt.”
“Why?”
A wave of panic swept through David, and he stood up from the chair. Before he could reach the spot where Norm stood, his best friend’s body began to disintegrate, becoming a swirl of tiny glowing particles sucked into a swirling stream, soon absorbed by the thick darkness beyond the window. In desperation, David tried to grasp what was left of him, but it slipped easily through his fingers.
“Gotta go, bro!” shouted Norm from just outside the window. “It’s too dangerous to stick around… no way in hell I’m going back with ‘him’—it was bad enough the first time! You need to stay the hell away from him, too, David!! Don’t go to Tennessee, man—do NOT leave Colorado!!!”
“Norm, wait!”
David tried to wrap his arms around the fading mist that a moment ago had been his buddy’s spirit, feeling only iciness slice through his arms and hands. The mist dimmed and disappeared while David called out frantically for Norm to come back. Meanwhile, an even deeper chill descended from the ceiling, and just before it reached where he stood, he awoke with a start in the warm bed he shared with Miriam. She stirred lightly and turned over, mumbling softly in her sleep. That was around 1 a.m., nearly ten hours ago….
“David? David!!... Did you even hear anything I just said to you??”
He’d been so busy thinking about his dream that he missed most of what Miriam talked about during the past few minutes. Something about what to bring with them for the trip, and something else about what she and Auntie had talked about at breakfast. In short, he had no idea what she’d said and now headed for a deeper world of shit if unable to repeat what she just told him.
“I caught most of it,” he began, a weak response, but one he hoped bought him time to think harder…. What the hell did she say? “I guess I’d better get started on packing too.”
Halfway done packing her bags, he hoped she would appreciate his focus on grabbing his suitcase and overnight bag out of his closet and immediately get busy with the same task. For the moment, she regarded him evenly as he brushed by her on his way to his closet.
“What time again do we need to be on the road to the airport?” He hoped this moved him further from his transgression.
“We need to leave by noon,” she replied.
He glanced at the clock on his nightstand, which gave the current time as 11:19 a.m.
“Don’t think that changing the subject will excuse the fact you didn’t hear a damn thing I had to say just now!”
She retrieved the last items she needed for the trip from her vanity in the bathroom and placed them in her toiletry bag on the bed and closed it.
“I was listening!” he replied, getting angry.
“Oh, yeah? Then what was I talking about?” She smirked knowingly while she locked the bag and then her suitcase. “I’m waiting, Mr. ‘I was listening’.”
“Well… you were talking about the nice visit with Auntie this morning and what you two have planned for when we get to Gatlinburg. You then talked about the chalet we’re renting for the next five days.”
Not bad, he decided, despite his growing irritation with her coolness. From her initial look after he finished, he thought he might get lucky.
“It’s for six days, David, which I told you twenty minutes ago. As for the conversation with your aunt? We talked about your family growing up in Chattanooga, since you’re so reluctant to share anything about that with me and the kids!”
She shook her head in disgust, and turned to leave the room.
“Hey, darlin’—I’m sorry. Okay?”
He reached out to stop her from leaving the bedroom without a hug. She eluded him, easily stepping away from his grasp.
“Just don’t dally up here, David,” she advised, disappearing into the hallway. “Ruth is making a quick lunch for us all downstairs, which should be ready in a few minutes. Like I said, we need to be on the road by twelve o’clock.”
Again, her tone perturbed, it took all of his resolve not to pursue her into the hallway and demand that she tell him what was up with her shitty attitude toward him. His most recent blunder stopped him, and he regretted even more not paying better attention to what she said. He would’ve...if it hadn’t been for that goddamned dream.
“Thanks a lot, Norm,” he mumbled.
Without further delay he finished packing, and grabbed his bags as well as Miriam’s, and then hurried downstairs. He wasn’t about to push his luck with her mood.
Chapter Twenty-four
Evelyn sat down on the other s
ide of the clear, thick glass supported by a light steel mesh running through it. Not that the window needed it, being bullet proof and all, part of the latest addition to the recently remodeled wait area at the Sevier County Jail.
“Grandpa, you look terrible!” she gasped, as she watched John sit down in the seat across from her. “You look like you haven’t slept for days!”
She started to weep, placing her spread-open palms on the glass to where they faced him. He leaned toward the window and placed his palms up against hers. Only the three-inch-thick glass plate separated them from touching each other.
“You shouldn’t worry so much about your grandpa—I’ll be fine,” he assured her, speaking into the intercom. Smiling weakly, he glanced toward the female guard who escorted Evelyn into the visiting area. An attractive brunette, she leaned her back against the wall next to the room’s exit.
“You shouldn’t even be here!” Evelyn seethed, casting an angry glance at the guard and a male deputy standing nearby.
“It’ll all be taken care of by tomorrow, once Butch gets here,” John assured her, his tone gentle. He mustered a bigger smile, one she knew was intended to lighten his haggard appearance.
Though he’d never admit it, she picked up his agenda from his thoughts. He wanted to impress two things on her before their twenty-minute visit ended. Number one, she needed to hold onto the hope that Sheriff Silva would take care of this misunderstanding, and speak with the homicide detectives from Knoxville who interrogated John for nearly two hours last night about the triple homicide he was accused of. Hopefully, Butch could make them see that they not only lacked any tangible evidence connecting him to this terrible crime spree, but also realize the arrest they coerced through the sheriff’s department wasn’t a legal one, and then set him free.
The second thing he hoped to accomplish is to get her to immediately resume the search for Hanna. With each passing moment, the chances of rescuing her slipped away. Hanna didn’t have long.
“You look like you could use some rest too,” he noted, scooting his chair in as close as possible to the wooden ledge beneath the window. “Wasn’t Shawn good enough company for you last night?” He grinned wryly.
She nodded, her eyes sad, and hesitated before saying anything. She feared he might see her thoughts as easily as she had read his. She conceded it might be too late to shelter the anxiety and terror that she fought to keep hidden from his knowledge. Perhaps if he couldn’t clearly define the cause for these feelings, she could keep the fact she didn’t share his confidence that Hanna would be rescued away from his awareness.
Hanna’s dead. I was bathed in her blood that took me almost five hours to clean up…. Sorry, Grandpa—your prized black bear rug got the worst of it, and it’ll need some special attention to get it cleaned up again. But, more than likely you’ll want to throw it away or bury it…. It’s rolled up for now in the guestroom’s closet, wrapped tightly within two large trash bags that are taped together securely….
“Shawn did his best to get me to play with him for most of the night,” she told him, making sure that the protective shield she envisioned for her other, more serious, thoughts remained intact. She pushed aside all urges to grieve openly for her beloved sister, and chuckled tiredly to further sell the humor in her response. “I think it’s more a situation where I’m not good enough company for him.”
“I see.” He eyed her, thoughtful, as if he just now caught a mental glimpse of the war going on within her.
“I promise to keep looking for Hanna, Grandpa,” she assured him, moving to block his effort to steal a clearer look inside her psyche. “I plan to include a deputy or two from here, now that the required wait period of twenty-four hours has passed.”
“Uh-huh,” he replied, his frown revealing only the depth of worry that weighed heavily upon him, as all of his other thoughts were suddenly cloaked to her. “Just be sure that Deputy Jeremy Brown isn’t among the deputies that come along with you.”
“The blond pudgy man with the handlebar moustache and glasses?” she sought to confirm, though she already recognized the man’s disdain for her and her grandfather when she passed his desk shortly after she arrived at the jail.
Unlike the other employees in the building, Deputy Brown lacked any sensitivity that she could pick up on. Based on her past experiences, that usually meant an elemental soul at best.
“Yes,” said John, his tone hushed as if he half-expected her to confirm Deputy Brown as someone she had in mind to help with the search for Hanna.
“Grandpa!” she scolded him. “You should know me better than that!”
“Sorry—I just want to make sure you avoid him,” he told her, nodding to acknowledge his faith in her judgment, despite his protectiveness.
A moment of awkwardness followed, where neither spoke.
“You should’ve allowed me to come here with you last night, after they arrested you,” said Evelyn, breaking the silence. “How long did they interrogate you?”
“Deputy Brown kept me in his office for half an hour, until the detectives from Knoxville arrived.” John frowned again. “There were two of them, a Detective James Russell and his partner, Thomas Calhoun. Like the warrant stated when I was arrested, they’re investigating the UT murders…. I answered their questions from roughly eleven-thirty until the detectives finally left to return to Knoxville around one o’clock this morning.”
“Did they believe what you told them? Surely they realize you couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with the murders.” Evelyn fought to keep her emotions in check, despite the fact the mere thought of what her grandfather had endured since last night incensed her.
John shifted in his chair, and glanced back toward the male guard nearby. As if he had something even more important to share, he leaned in closer to the intercom.
“At first, I’m not sure that they believed my alibi, although one look at me surely told them that climbing up the trellis to the second floor of Dr. Pollack’s mansion wasn’t likely—for a man at my age, anyway,” he chuckled at the irony. “However, by the time the interview ended, I got the feeling they didn’t think I killed any of those men—at least not alone.”
“So, should I prepare myself for a visit by these detectives, since I guess that makes me your co-conspirator?” She also chuckled at the irony.
“I’m not sure…probably all the more reason to get busy looking for Hanna again,” he advised. “Stick to the areas about a mile or so around the cabin, unless you feel comfortable with whatever deputy comes along with you. I’m hoping to be out of here early tomorrow morning. My arraignment is at nine o’clock, unless Butch can get me out of here before then. If he does, then maybe the charges will be dropped, and I won’t even have to go to the arraignment.”
John nodded again, as if he could picture what would actually happen Friday morning.
“I hope you’re right, Grandpa,” Evelyn said softly, her tone optimistic. “I’ll go talk to a cute deputy I spoke to briefly when I first got here. I think I caught his eye, so maybe he’d be willing to help me look for Hanna.”
She gave him a playful wink, and he laughed for the first time in her presence since Christmas Eve.
“I love you, Grandpa!” she told him, after she got up from her seat and motioned to the guard, letting her know she was ready to leave. “Now, get some rest, and I’ll see you tomorrow!”
“I love you too!” John called after her as she walked over to the waiting room’s exit. “Be careful!
***
John waited for her to disappear before slowly shuffling over to where the deputy waited for him. His head low, he hid the tears streaming down his face. The picture in his mind’s eye was of Evelyn weeping as she sought out the deputy she described earlier. Something she already knew about Hanna…something terrible had happened.
Chapter Twenty-five
“Well, would you just look at this place?” Ruth enthused, right after she removed her long overcoat and laid it
over a large beige leather sectional sofa that faced an enormous stone fireplace.
She stood in the middle of the living room of the chalet rented by Miriam and David for much of the next week. The large, central room to the chalet was a splendid design of rustic pine logs and smooth river stones from the region, along with the comfort of posh furniture and a theatre entertainment system.
Christopher and Jillian ran into the living room behind her, finishing a game of tag that began shortly after the family’s rented Honda Odyssey pulled up to the modern log cabin, perched on top of a high hill on the eastern side of the town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
“You’re it!” shouted Jillian, as she slapped her younger brother on the back.
Her voice echoed shrilly against the tall vaulted ceiling. Christopher let out a squeal after getting caught from behind.
“Wow, Mom—this place is so cool!” marveled Tyler, as his eyes followed the gaze of his great aunt.
He laid down the bundle of suitcases he carried next to a curved breakfast bar that separated the living room from the cabin’s large eat-in kitchen. His eyes again followed the height of the stone chimney which culminated at the apex of the two-story, A-frame building. Several tall windows on either side of the fireplace faced a gorgeous view of the Smoky Mountains, which faded quickly as the early evening darkness engulfed the surrounding snow-covered hills. To Tyler’s right was a long hall where three of the cabin’s bedrooms sat, and to his left a spiral, wrought-iron staircase led to a loft with another bedroom and the chalet’s billiard area.
Miriam soon followed her eldest son into the living room, and David made his appearance shortly after her, dusting the snow from his boots as he brought in the last of the luggage and two bags filled with groceries for the next few days.