Not Dead Yet (20 page)

Lu pointed at Jack.  “Don’t hurt my friend, that’s all I’m saying.”   

“I get it.  Besides, you have no idea what really happened.  I’m not sure I do.”

“Hey, can we talk about something that might help my sister?  No offense, but your love life is none of my business,” Colleen asked. “Now let me get this straight – Donald is still loose, and so is Nathan? What the fuck?”

“It gets weirder,” Jack said.  “Whoever broke in to Theia’s apartment took a tube of lipstick and wrote on the bathroom mirror, ’Why do you kill the one you love?’ Apparently, her ex-husband wrote the same thing in lipstick on her bathroom mirror five years ago, when he trashed her condo. The similarity of the two incidents is creeping her out.  Do you know about her ex-husband?” he asked Colleen.

“Yeah, Lu filled me in.  What a psycho,” Colleen commented.  “Man, I thought Donald was messed up until I heard about Foster.  But what does that message have to do with Donald?”

“If Donald was the one who broke in to her apartment, how did he find out about the message on the mirror from five years ago?” Jack explained. “The detective suggested they both got the line from a book or movie.”

“That would be a pretty bizarre coincidence, don’t you think?” asked Lu.

“That’s what I said to the detective,” Jack agreed. “Theia’s wondering if Donald has, for some reason, been digging into her background.”

“Why would he do that? And how would he find out about the message?” Lu asked.

“Did you know about the mirror message?” Jack asked.

“No,” replied Lu. “She doesn’t like to talk about the past. When she does talk about it, she doesn’t go into detail.”

“She didn’t tell Rose, either,” Jack said.

“And now Nathan has escaped from prison? How much worse can this get?” Colleen asked.

“That’s a very bad question to ask, Colleen. Haven’t you ever noticed what happens in scary movies right after someone asks that question?” Lu asked.

“Look, all I know is that my sister is out there somewhere, and she needs our help.  All the cops have managed to do is arrest the wrong guy, for God’s sake.  I don’t know what to do, but I have to do something.  I can’t just sit here and let her die.”  A rare tear trailed down Colleen’s face.  She did not bother to wipe it off.

Theia walked into the room. “Okay, that’s done.”  She looked at Colleen then went to the table, rifling through their notes from the previous day.

“What are you doing? Do you need something for the insurance company?” Jack asked.

“No, I gave them a recorded statement,” Theia said absently. “They’re processing the claim. They’ll request a copy of the police report, and contact me if they have any questions.” 

“So what are you doing?” he repeated.

“I’m going to find the bastard. We have to get Rose,” Theia insisted. “God knows what Donald and his brother are doing to her. I’m going back through every piece of paper and making a list of all rural property that could contain a barn or other outbuilding with a floor like the one in the video.”

She searched online for every piece of property owned by Donald and his relatives, and found various scattered houses, primarily in the St. Louis area.

“Nothing is clicking,” Theia rubbed her temples.

“Wait a minute,” Colleen suggested. “Where was Nathan when he escaped?”

“He was in a courthouse in a small farm town out in the middle of nowhere. None of these people own any property in that town,” Theia replied.

“But isn’t the courthouse located in the county seat? That’s the only courthouse for that entire county, right?” Colleen persisted.

“Yes, and the divorce was there because that’s the county where his wife lives now,” Theia said.

“And the hunting cabin we found before is in that same county, right?” Colleen continued. “Different towns, but the same county.”

“Hot damn, girl – you’re right!” Lu said.

“When he climbed out of the bathroom window at the courthouse, he didn’t have to go far to the hunting cabin,” Jack said.  “Great job, Colleen!”

“Ha!  Maybe I should become a private eye,” Colleen crowed.

“Let’s call McCarthy!” Theia said.

He received the information in a lukewarm manner, as though he really did not think amateurs could possibly provide useful information.  The hunting cabin was out of his jurisdiction, but he promised to call that county and pass on the information.

“I don’t think the cops way out there are gonna do a damn thing,” Colleen complained. “After I went and figured out where he might be hiding, they’re gonna sit on their butts.  Damn it!  Just when I think something is going to work I end up banging my head against the wall again.”

“She’s right,” agreed Lu.  “Since the attack on Theia and the trashing of her apartment happened outside their jurisdiction, they don’t have much motivation to do anything.”

“So what are we supposed to do? We can’t sit here and do nothing.  Rose needs our help.  And I refuse to live under siege,” Theia stated. “I’ve lived like that before, and I swear I will not live like that again. I never knew when my ex would just show up out of nowhere and jump me.  I never knew when I went home if the place would be broken into and destroyed. I was passive then, because I hoped that he would eventually quit, but he didn’t. Being passive does not work, and I’m not doing that again.  Let’s do something.”

“Let’s go save your sister,” Jack nodded to Colleen.

Colleen and Lu shouted, “Yes,” in unison.

They drove the three hours out to the rural county.

“Let’s stop off first at the Sheriff’s office,” Jack advised. “You never know, they might really hate Donald and Nathan out here, and be looking for an excuse to put them in a cell and beat the crap out of them.”

They walked in to the sheriff’s office, in the lower level of the courthouse. There were some battered wooden chairs against one wall and desks on the other side of the room, but no people. 

“Hello?”  Jack called several times, but received no answer.

“I guess we wait,” Lu suggested.  They were too keyed up with nervous energy to sit still.  They fidgeted, squirmed and paced.

A toilet flushed and a door opened down a side hallway.  Footsteps came toward them, in no hurry.  A trim man in his fifties, wearing a crisp, tan deputy uniform ambled over to a desk and looked surprised to see them. 

“How may I help you all?” he asked, smiling and approaching the partition window. His wavy black hair was carefully held in place with gel.

Jack identified them and explained their connection to Nathan.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” the deputy said.  His nametag read ‘Deputy Carroll.’ “That escape has been the talk of the town. I sure am glad that didn’t happen on my watch.  You see, when they transport inmates from the state prison, the prison sends their own security. I sure as heck wouldn’t wanna be those boys when the warden got done with them, no sir.  You all want some coffee?” he offered.

“That would be great, thanks,” Theia said.  Having grown up in a rural community, she knew they would get the most cooperation if they accepted his hospitality. She told him about the attack on her as well as her apartment break-in.  “We need to find Rose before it’s too late.” 

“Donald owns some land out here,” Jack said, “that might be where he filmed the video of Rose.  We think they might be holding her in a cabin.  Since Nathan broke out from here, we’re hoping you’ll go check out the property to see if they are hiding there, and if they have Rose.”

The deputy looked a little alarmed. “By myself?”

Jack and the others looked at each other, then back at him.

“Well, yes sir,” Theia said.  “Or perhaps another officer could go with you.”

“Oh, no.  We can’t do that.  There are only two deputies and one sheriff in the whole county.  We cover all three shifts, so there’s no way we can double up.”

“What do you do when one of you goes on vacation?” Lu was curious.

“We can call for a temporary officer from the Highway Patrol, but we don’t take vacations much. And I’m not going out to some cabin where the two of them might be waiting to ambush me.  Heck, you don’t know if they’re out there, or if there’s even a cabin there.  Let me see that address,” he said.

Theia handed the deputy the page of notes with the address circled.

“Let’s see, that’s past the Gumersheimers, and the Bickleins, but before the Bairds.  Oh, yeah.  That’s the old Schnellenheim farm,” the deputy tapped the page. “Old man Schnellenheim lived out there for years after his wife passed.  Nice lady.  Their kids didn’t want to be farmers, so they sold out for next to nothing when the old man died.  Can’t get much for land out here unless someone wants to farm.  Some places sit on the market for five, ten years.  They were lucky to sell at all.”

“What buildings are on the farm?” Jack asked.

“Well, if my memory serves me correctly, there was the farmhouse, a barn, I think a hen house or two, and maybe some sheds.  I haven’t been out there since before the old man died,” the deputy shrugged his shoulders.  “He had let things go after his wife died, so some of the buildings were in a sorry state of disrepair. If the buildings are still standing, they’re in terrible shape, unless those Catalino brothers fixed them up.”

“Ha!  Not Donald,” Colleen said.  “My sister Rose couldn’t get him to fix a damn thing at the house.  And I never heard about Nathan being a Mr. Handyman.”

“Then I doubt they’re hiding out there,” the deputy advised.  “The buildings aren’t fit for habitation.”

“Well, can’t you check?” Theia pleaded.

“I told you, I’m not going in there solo. I’m not going to ask the sheriff or the other deputy to go with me – that would be pulling a double shift for them.  And I’m not going to ask for outside help without more evidence.  Think of how embarrassed I’d be if I called for back-up and we got out there and saw nothing but crickets,” he said, grinning sheepishly.  “They’d razz me until kingdom come.  Those Catalino boys are more than likely in Mexico or Canada by now.  There’s no reason for them to want to stay out here, where there’s no action.  No, nothing ever happens out here.  Sorry, but I can’t help you, not without something more to go on. You hear something definite, you give me a call. Nice meeting you, folks.  Have a safe trip back to the city.”

They walked out to the cars, Colleen muttering and kicking at stones along the way.

“Cool it, Colleen.  We didn’t expect them to do anything, remember?” Jack reminded her.  “That was just a formality, a shot in the dark.”

“My sister is not a fucking formality,” Colleen snarled.  “We gotta do something.”

“Like what?” Lu asked.

“Like lift a couple guns from Deputy Useless and go get my sister.” Colleen paced outside the car, waving her hands.

“We can’t do that,” Lu said.

“Well fine, if you guys won’t help me I’ll do it myself.  And don’t even try to talk me out of it.”

“We want to help, Colleen.” Theia said.  “We just need a plan.”

“Hey Jack, what would you do if they had Lu?” Colleen demanded.

Jack raised his eyebrows.  “I guess I’d go check out the farm.  If we find something then maybe the deputy will get off his ass.”  

“Are you sure that’s safe?” Lu asked.

“Look, we’ll just go take a look,” Jack said.  “How dangerous can that be?  If the place is deserted and looks like no one’s been there in a long time, we go home and come up with another plan.  If someone is there, or has been recently, we drive back to the deputy and give him that information.  Then he’ll have the additional evidence he wants.  I’m not suggesting we go do something stupid, just go look around.  We won’t even get out of the car.”

“Well why are we all still standing here?  Put your asses in gear,” Colleen demanded.  “And this better not be one more dead end.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

After a few wrong turns, they turned onto a road they hadn’t driven on yet.  “Is this the right road?” Lu asked irritably. 

“I don’t know.  I haven’t seen a road sign for miles and these directions suck,” Jack snapped.

“Directions from the internet are terrible.  Did you hear about the people who drove off a cliff because of their internet directions?” Colleen asked.

“I heard about that.  How does someone do that?” Theia asked.  “I mean, how do you not notice you’re about to drive off a cliff?”

“Maybe the weather was bad,” Colleen suggested.

“If the weather’s so bad you can’t tell you are about to drive off a cliff, you need to pull over and wait for the weather to clear,” Theia replied. “Oh, look – a mailbox.”

“Looks like someone took a baseball bat to it,” Lu said.

“That happens to mailboxes out in the country,” Theia said.  “We had to replace ours once or twice a year when I was growing up. Sometimes people would put explosives in it.”

“Jeez, what did your family do to piss people off?” asked Lu.

“Nothing, destroying mailboxes was just a thing people did out in the boonies.  They’d hit ten or twenty mailboxes in one night.”  When they looked at her in disbelief, Theia explained.  “Look, there wasn’t much to do out there for entertainment.  Watch the corn grow or blow up mailboxes.”