by David Kersey
The two men saw that the car had been trashed. Both car doors were cave in, sprung and inoperable. One tire was flat, and two more were low on air. The license plate dangled from one screw. “Damn redneck teenagers,” one of them said as he used his pistol butt to break the passenger window. He climbed in and the other man waited for him to cross the center console, then climbed in. The driver turned the key. Nothing, not a sound. Not the clicking of a dead battery. “Go look under the hood. Check the distributor cap.” The man in the driver’s seat saw intermittent blue flashes lighting the sky above the corn stalks. He climbed over the console and out the passenger window. “All the wiring has been cut”, the man looking under the hood said. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We’ll go through these woods, those hicks can’t catch us.”
After seeing the two men disappear into the north woods, several animals left their positions in the corn rows and headed for the house. They were extremely happy, overflowing with self-satisfaction. Buck will be so proud. Oliver flew over them and told them that Buck and the other dog were unhurt. “I can follow them as they go through the woods. You’ll have to tell Buck that and have him listen for my shrieks.”
“Oohhh Kkaaayy.”
Chip and John questioned Sylvester at the front door. Marlene ran a straight line to the kennel. Lykins canvassed the car park and garage with his flashlight. Marlene was surprised that it was me that jumped up on her and not Guido. Instead Guido burst out of the kennel and raced to the driver’s side of the Land Rover, then sat as if he was turned into a concrete statue. He barked at Marlene.
“Oh my God, no!” she whispered. “Sheriff?” she screamed. “Look under the car, hurry!” Chip lay prone next to the K-9 Special Ops Army dog that would not move. Marlene was already laying on the pavement and waiting for the Sheriff’s light. He shone his flashlight underneath and saw it. He couldn’t see well enough to know how the detonator was wired, but he knew not to touch the car anywhere, especially the door handle. Chip reached for the radio clipped to his shoulder epaulet. “We have Navajo at the Christianson house. Send the PSBD immediately, or sooner. Wake people up if you have to.” Navajo was the code word for calling the rarely used Public Safety Bomb Disposal squad into action.
“John, get anyone in the house out of there. Now! Ok, people, we have to get out of here. Get in one or the other of the cop cars but whatever you do, do not touch either of the civilian cars. Hurry. We got ourselves a huge bomb under the Land Rover.”
Cassie was the first out of the house, followed by Sylvester holding the arm of Mozetta, who was non-stop jabbering in her Alabama drawl, fussing about only having her housecoat on, the length of which stopped just above her Mickey Mouse slippers.
“Buck, I was sound asleep. What is going on?” Cassie said with a yawn.
“Come on, Cassie, follow me, and run!”
“What the heck?” Lykins said out loud when his headlights shown on several animals running toward the corn field, being led by John’s dog and cat.
Marlene joined John in the Mercedes with Guido on her lap. They followed the police cars that drove across the grassy field that led to the corn field and dirt road that ran through the middle of the Christianson estate. “Look, John,” Marlene yelled when she saw the host of animals running in front of the police car headlights.
Chip’s SUV mowed down a corner of the corn field and skidded to a halt. The squad car fishtailed to a halt behind the SUV. John slowly pulled his car through a shallow drainage ditch and stopped on the dirt road. His headlights revealed the junk car just thirty feet in front of him. He dug the note out of his pocket and walked toward the abandoned car. It was a match…..same license number.
Chip instructed Lykins to take the squad car to the end of the drive and wait on the bomb squad. That location would be safe being more than a hundred yards away from the IED. He then walked toward John who was at the rear of the junk car. John showed Chip the crumpled note and pointed to the plate. “This car, with two men in it, was spotted at ACC earlier today and my guard jotted down the number. The guard thought they looked foreign.” John didn’t reveal to Chip how Cassie had alerted him to an impending danger.
“Look at this John.” Chip showed the text message Marlene had sent this very day. THERE IS NO NECTAR, THE BEE DOESN’T KNOW, YELLOW BIRD TO FLY AWAY.
“So she was telling us the truth, wasn’t she? She was planning to leave and walk away from the twenty grand? And walk away from me too, John said under his under breath.”
“She was. John, she has fallen in love with you. She was going to leave because she loves you. She said as much on the way here. Chip was interrupted by his dispatcher. “PBSD and two squad cars en route, Sheriff.”
“Roger that. Send Halverson out here too. I’ve got at least one suspect on foot and on the loose.” Chip turned to John, you hear that bird having a fit in the woods? Wonder if the men belonging to this car are too close to its nest? He then pointed out to John that there was only one set of tire tracks. They’re on foot, John. We’ll get ‘em. Get your people out of plain sight. The bad guys are probably armed and would love to have one of our cars. They may come back out of the woods with guns blazing.”
“That bird is an owl that lives here. Wherever that bird is the fugitives are just below him, I can almost guarantee that, he’s tracking them,” John replied.
John took Marlene’s cell phone into his hand and approached her. “Thank you for telling the truth. I wanted to believe you, as a matter of fact, I did.” He showed her the message she had sent. Marlene made no response other than embracing John in an extremely firm hug. Both wondered if the hug was either the embrace of making up, or breaking up. Neither wanted the latter.
I looked at Mort after I saw the beat up car. “It was you causing the banging I heard, wasn’t it?”
“YYYeeeaaahhhh.”
Penny told me the whole story. How Oliver had flown over the estate and told the circle, and their kin, to meet at the car on the dirt road, and do whatever was possible to disable it. She explained how Randall and his raccoon family tried their best to bite through the tires. That Stammer and some other squirrels, that Methusaleh and his mice buddies, and Raspy with two other rabbits, squirmed up through the engine compartment and chewed anything that looked like a wire. She explained that she stood watch while the circle performed their noble deeds.
Guido, who had jumped into the car through the broken window, sniffed around and then barked loudly. Chip shown his flashlight into the car and saw that its occupants had in their haste left a cell phone. He started to reach for it when he thought better of it. It could be keyed to detonate the bomb.
Guido jumped back out of the car holding a handkerchief in his mouth and dropped it in front of Marlene. “Guido has their scent. I can send him if you think so Sheriff?”
I heard Chip say no to Marlene’s question. I said, “Come on Guido,” and began running into the woods. Guido followed right after me. I could hear Mort and Penny also following behind. “Locate where the owl is shrieking,” I yelled to Guido, though I knew he wouldn’t have any idea what I way saying. The big, bad army dog was following me, how about that? He was sniffing, I was pinpointing the location of Oliver’s signals. Mort and Penny were making one heck of a racket snapping branches somewhere behind us. All of a sudden Randall approached us. “I see them Buck.” I forgot how well raccoons can see in the dark, and I was unaware he had joined us in the hunt.