Chapter IX
© Copyright 1995,2001 David R. Mohr
As the morning sun is peeking through the tall trees, Sheriff Marshall Winston drives into the Super Market parking lot. Caleb Danielson and Jason Harris, both three year officers, are there waiting for him.
At 6’2” and 200 pounds, Caleb is a young man who can take care of himself. A very athletic person who enjoys everything from Moto-cross racing to football to baseball, and everything in between. He loves to tease the girls, and his brown hair and soft, caring, brown eyes let him get away with it. He loves people and always tries to help. He can quickly make friends, and keep them. His command of the English language was enough to astound the most lettered scholar, yet, he seldom uses it. He found too many people couldn’t understand a word he was saying, unless he would talk at their level. A very serious young man. Some say, too serious for his age.
Jason, his partner, who is two months younger than Caleb, has a different attitude about life. Jason loves to have his fun though he does know when to be serious and is able to be when necessary. He is very laid-back. His usually messy blonde hair complemented his green eyes. He too, is very popular with the ladies. You can always count on him to try and bring you up when you’re feeling down. He is two and a half inches shorter than Caleb, but just as strong. Like Caleb, Jason spends his fare share of time at the gym.
They are both dressed in plain clothes and had driven their own private vehicles. As directed previously by Marshall, they parked in inconspicuous places which still afforded them high visibility to the parking spot in question.
Caleb and Jason have been best friends since they were born. They did everything together, including becoming police officers. They are very competitive with each other and for each other. When on the same team they would not only try to out do the other team but, at the same time, try to out do each other. Knowing when and where to draw the line made them both very successful in all their endeavors.
“Hello, boys.” Marshall says walking up to them, carrying a leather sack.
“Greetings and salutations, sir.”
“DUDE!”
Stunned, Marshall and Caleb turn to Jason.
“And Dude right back at ya.” says Marshall, smiling.
“Attired as we are, am I to presume you wish us to maintain an unsuspected surveillance, focusing on this area?” inquires Caleb.
“Yeah, I want the two of you to stake-out this spot.” Marshall smiles again.
“What’s the situation, sheriff?” asks Jason.
“Missing persons.” Marshall begins to explain the case. “Mike, the store manager, has towed nine cars from this spot. It appeared to him that they were abandoned here. Mike let them sit for a couple-a-few days, then had them towed. We checked the tags, found the registration addresses, then compared them to the current missing persons reports we have on file. They matched.”
“Someone’s been snagging folks, and leaving their cars?” queries Jason.
“Exactly.”
“Are we watching just this spot or the whole lot?” asks Jason.
“It seems whomever it is, they only abduct people who park in this spot.”
“Weird.”
“Did you run any print checks on the vehicles?” questions Caleb.
“Yeah, yeah we did. All the prints in the car belong to only the people who were in the car, and so far, all the prints match the missing persons.”
“So far?” asks Caleb.
“Pops is still cross checking the prints.”
“I guess somebody really likes this spot.” quips Jason in an air of disbelief.
“Were there any signs of applied force attached to any vehicles, or any signs of a struggle?” Caleb asks.
“No, no, none at all.”
“Anything else we should be aware of?” Caleb wants to make sure he has all the facts, and as much information as possible.
“Yeah, like, any other weird stuff?” Jason adds.
“Yup. From what we have, it looks like the culprit waits for their victims to get out of their car, then he, or they, we don’t know that yet, grabs them, takes their keys, starts their car, fastens their seat belts and locks all the doors, before leaving.”
“Dude, that’s an awful lot of trouble to go through just to grab someone.” says Jason.
“Exactly. Whoever this is, they appear to be playing games.”
“And from no other spot but this one?” inquires Caleb.
“This is the only spot. Mike was very specific about that. One of the cashiers also said the same thing.”
“How do you want us to work this?” asks Caleb.
“I want both of you out here at all times as much as possible. If one of you has to leave, work it out with the other so that at least one of you is here all the time. I want you on different sides, to give you two different angles to view this spot. Keep an eye on each other. Here.” He gives each of them a portable two-way radio as he pulls them from the sack he is carrying. “You can talk via these things. They’re not on any regular police frequency, so they can’t be monitored with a police radio scanner. I want both of you here when the store opens, and I don’t want you to leave until it closes.” Marshall’s voice takes on a more commanding tone. This is serious and he wants to make sure Caleb and Jason understand the importance of this assignment.
“Do you have any leads of any kind we should watch for?” asks Jason, now in a more serious tone.
“Nothing yet. All we have is a theory built around a bunch of possibly unrelated facts that have been present with each car.”
“Winston! You out there?” booms a voice from the sheriff’s
car police radio.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
BAM!
“You ready in there?” Buddy calls out to Virginia as he knocks heavily on her door. “We gotta get movin’.”
Virginia opens the door looking beautiful, but the expression on her face bemoans: “I want to go back to bed!” She had driven for a very long time, on interstate 90 out of Washington, before stopping here in Garrison Montana.
“I’m so glad you’re driving.” she says sleepily while yawning. “I don’t think I’m awake enough yet.”
“Me? I thought you were going to take first shift? Shoot, had I known I was gonna be driving, I’d ’av slept in another few hours.”
Virginia stares at Buddy with a glare of disbelief.
“Me? Drive that big truck?” she says to him, pointing at the truck, “You have got to be nuts!”
With a small chuckle, Buddy looks back at her and smiles. “You ready?”
“Yeah, just about. I’m all packed up.”
Buddy goes in and gets her suitcase and overnight bag, while Virginia dresses the baby. Of course, she couldn’t “just” dress him. With Virginia, she couldn’t “just do” anything with Micah. All the usual fun and playing with him had to take place. It truly is a pleasure to watch her with the baby. Even Buddy, who wants to get going, found himself just standing in the doorway, watching the two of them. He couldn’t help but smile.
“Hey Gin,” he says softly, “We’re all ready out here, so, whenever you’re all set.”
“Oh, okay. I’m sorry. I just love him so much.” she says turning to Micah and continues: “Yes I do. I do, I do, I do.” Micah begins laughing and wiggling and putting his hands into his mothers face.
As they approach the truck, Micah who is trying hard to talk, in his inquisitive way asks, “Dis?” while pointing with his arm to the truck.
“That’s a truck.”
“Dis?”
“Yes, it’s a truck. We’re going to go bye-bye in the truck. It’s going to take us to see Grandma.” Virginia is so good with Micah.
“Dam ma, Dam ma” Micah’s eyes light up and open big and wide. He always gets excited when he is going to be able to see his grandmother.
It has been a month since Micah, Virginia and Jeff have seen her. Jeff had to move to Washington because of his job. They had decided his aging mother would not move with them, because the move to Washington is only supposed to be temporary. It should last only a year, maybe a bit more. After that, Jeff is scheduled to move back to the Georgia offices.
“Wow! It’s really high up here.” Virginia says as she climbs into the truck. “You can see everything.”
They secure Micah’s car seat, then everyone gets settled and they start off.
“A hundred bottles of beer on the wall...” begins Buddy.
Both Virginia and Mary turn to Buddy at the same time and say, “Oh, please!” The three of them start laughing. When everyone else laughs, Micah begins laughing excitedly.
“That’s one happy kid.” says Buddy.
“Thank you.”
“I think he looks a lot like you.” observes Mary.
“I dunno, I was thinking he looks more like Jeff.” offers Buddy.
“About half the people who see us think he looks like me and the other half thinks he looks like Jeff. When you see all three of us together, you can see both of us in Micah.”
“Whoda you think he looks like?” asks Buddy.
Smiling, Virginia says: “I think he looks like Micah.” Then she turns to the child and says: “I’m gonna get you, I’m gonna get you.” and she begins tickling him.
“Good answer.” says Mary. “I like that. He looks like Micah. I like that.”
“Say good-bye to Garrison.” Buddy begins. “Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Route 29, here we come.”
Getting onto the highway, Interstate 90, Buddy asks Virginia to get him something to eat. He had gotten all of them some food from the hotel, before leaving.
Taking the food from Virginia, Mary says: “Once we get on the road, we don’t stop for nothin’ but diesel. And I mean nothin’!”
“What about going to the bathroom?”
“You’ll get the hang of it after a while.” offers Buddy as Mary points to a portable facility.
“Eeeeeewwwwww!” says Virginia, looking as if she just bitten into a lemon. “On second thought, I think I will drive.” she chuckles.
“Okay, where were we?” Buddy asks while taking a bite of a breakfast sandwich. “Oh yeah, ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall.”
“Ahhhhhh!” shriek Virginia and Mary, as they begin pelting him with crumpled up napkins. “Not that song! Please!!!” they laugh.
“Babe, you gonna get more sleep, or stay up for a while?” Buddy asks Mary.
“I’m awake now, so I’ll stay up with you for maybe a couple of hours, then I’ll take a nap.”
“That’s how we make good time.” explains Buddy. “We keep each other company for a while, then one drives while one sleeps. When I get tired, she’ll take over so I can get a couple hours sleep. Then I get back behind the wheel and drive a couple more hours. By that time, we’re both ready to get out and walk around, get more fuel and something to eat. It works pretty good. Even when we’re not sitting together talking, we’re still together. I can reach back and hold her hand while she sleeps and vice versa. We may not always be awake with each other, but at least we’re together.”
Virginia agrees, shaking her head yes. She couldn’t help but think about Jeff. This new project has been keeping him away from home too many hours. She really misses him. She knows it’s only temporary, but still, she can’t help to miss him, and feel lonely at times.
“Hey Buddy, stop it! You’re depressing poor Virginia.” Mary reaches back and gives Virginia a hug. “Can’t you see she misses her man?”
“Oh, sorry Gin. I didn’t mean nothin’ by it.” he apologizes.
“No, it’s okay. I do miss him. It seems like you two have the ideal situation.”
“It is for me.” says Mary. “I just love the fact that when my husband wakes up in the morning and goes off to work, he’s still right here with me. And when I’m ready for bed, and he wants to keep working, I can fall asleep with no problem, because, while he’s working, he’s still right by my side. Holding my hand if necessary. He makes me very happy.”
Buddy is almost blushing.
“That’s so wonderful.” Virginia answers with tears forming in her eyes. “Don’t you miss living in a house sometimes, and that kind of stability?”
“Sometimes, yes, but I know how much this means to Buddy, and I know how much he cares for me, that I don’t even think about it, or at least try not to. When I find myself longing for all that stuff, I think about all the other wives who have it, but who don’t have their husbands with them almost twenty four hours a day. That makes it worthwhile to me.”
“Love you baby.” Buddy says, kissing the back of Mary’s hand.
“Love you too.”
“That’s just wonderful.” Virginia reaches over and gives both of them a group hug. “I’m so happy for you both.” She squeezes them together.
“We’ve got what we call the Paul McCartney marriage.” says Buddy.
“The what?”
“Yeah, you know. Paul and Linda McCartney. They both worked together, they traveled together, they sang together. They never had to be separated on a regular basis. They never had to spend several hours a day everyday away from each other.” says Mary.
“If I remember correctly,” continued Buddy, “Paul said, in an interview, that he and Linda had only been apart for maybe a total of two weeks, or something like that, during their entire marriage.”
“Even when she wasn’t playing or singing, she was always able to find some way to help with what Paul was doing and vis-a-vis. As you have probably figured out, we are big Beatles fans.”
“Speaking of which.” Buddy says while popping in a cassette.
“How ’bout some.”
“Something in the way she moves………………...” begins to echo softly
from the speakers.