The Key To the Kingdom (5 page)
Read The Key To the Kingdom Online
Authors: Jeff Dixon
Juliette raised her hand. “He had an accident and he isn’t talking about it.”
Jonathan nodded and looked in at Hawk, “If I can do anything to help just let me know.”
“I will,” said Hawk with a smirk. He appreciated their concern but hadn’t had the time to figure it out for himself. Picking up the phone again, he dialed Farren Rales’s cell phone number. Perhaps Farren would shed some insight on the previous night. Without a single ring he heard Farren’s voice mail request him to leave a message and have a magical day. He waited for the beep.
“Farren, this is Hawk. When you get a chance give me a call. I had a rather interesting evening last night. I was wondering if you would like to hear about it.”
Breathing heavily, he whirled in his chair to face his desk and opened his calendar to the list of appointments for the day. His schedule was booked solid; he would be far too busy to think about the key or his wild flight through the darkness. His first appointment would be walking through the door at any moment. On cue he heard the door open and he got up gingerly to greet his day.
E
VERY TICK OF THE CLOCK
wearied Hawk more than the one before. The late night, the soreness in his body, and the fatigue of being trapped inside the walls of the office only caused him to feel more tired and spent. His last appointment of the day ended at four thirty, and with a slide of the mouse he shut down the computer.
He wondered why he hadn’t heard from Rales yet. It was unusual for Rales not to return his call. Could he have run into trouble last night? Hawk also wanted more information about the key he’d been given. He snapped open his cell phone and hit the speed dial number that connected him to Rales’s office in Imagineering. On the second ring the call was picked up. “Imagineering, Farren Rales’s office. This is Nancy speaking.”
Hawk knew Nancy Alport well. She was Farren Rales’s administrative assistant.
“Hi, Nancy, this is Hawk. Is Farren still in today?”
“He didn’t come in today,” she said, worry creeping into her voice.
“I tried his cell phone earlier and I haven’t heard back from him. Do you expect him in tomorrow?”
“I expected him in today. I’ve been trying to reach him all day, and as far as I know, no one has been able to. I’m a little concerned,” Nancy admitted. “He always checks in, even if he’s not scheduled to be around the office.”
Hawk listened to the concern in Nancy’s voice and felt his own concern for his friend begin to rise. Last night Rales had given no indication that he didn’t plan on being in the next day. The worry and wondering over who had chased him at Gamble Place came back again.
“I saw him after your meeting yesterday,” Nancy stated. “Did he say anything strange to you or do anything out of the ordinary?”
The day before had been the monthly get together, an opportunity for the church staff and Farren to talk. It had been as that meeting ended that the Imagineer had quietly invited Hawk to meet him and slipped him the business card.
“No.” Hawk made a decision not to let Nancy know about the late-night road trip. “Why would you ask about anything strange?”
“I’m not sure, Farren just seemed unusually preoccupied most of the day yesterday. He didn’t say anything was wrong. Things just seemed . . . I don’t know . . . different.” Nancy paused. “But he seemed okay to you, didn’t he?”
“He was fine.” Hawk reaffirmed his decision not to disclose anything that had happened yesterday. “Is there anything I can do to help you track him down?”
“I don’t think so. Hopefully he just forgot to let me know he wasn’t going to be in the office. He had a meeting that he missed, but I don’t think it was a big deal.” Nancy had worked with Farren a long time. Her concern was apparent. “If you hear from him, tell him to give me a call.”
“I’ll do it for sure. Please tell him the same from me.”
“You’ve got it, Hawk. Talk to you soon.”
Hawk hung up the phone, already planning his next move.
He’d been to Farren’s home a couple of times for dinner. The drive was about forty minutes from Celebration. Next stop: the Rales residence.
Striding down the hallway, he walked past Jonathan’s office.
“Hey there, boss,” Jonathan called as Hawk was two strides past the door. “I was serious this morning when I told you if there was anything I could do to help, I would Are you sure you’re all right? You look like you were in a brawl.”
Hawk had almost forgotten about the soreness in his face. Rubbing his hand tenderly over his eye, he winced at how painful it was.
“I’m fine.”
“I just worry about you sometimes, we all do. You never ask for anything and you don’t usually complain. But if you want to or need to, you’re entitled, and we can take it. We won’t think anything less of you if you want to be human like the rest of us,” Jonathan subtly opened the conversation for Hawk to unload.
“Just a long day. I started tired and never got my second wind.”
“See you tomorrow, Hawk. Enjoy your evening,” Jonathan said.
“I’m planning on it. See you in the morning.” Hawk moved back down the hallway. Stepping out into the afternoon sun, he noticed that the only cars in the parking lot were his, Jonathan’s, and one he didn’t recognize.
He hit the key ring to automatically unlock his door, then swung it open and slid down into the seat. Firing up the engine, he pulled out of the lot and turned toward the interstate.
T
RAVELING EAST ON INTERSTATE
4
through Orlando, a driver exited the interstate behind Grayson Hawkes’s Mustang and followed the preacher toward Lake Adair and Edgewater Drive. They passed shops and stores, grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants, and specialty shops of the sort that spring up in prime real estate areas like College Park.
Hawkes pulled up beside a solid wooden gate. He glanced into his side view mirror and waited for the car behind him to pass before opening his door. The driver circled the block and found a secluded place to park and watch. From there, Hawkes could be observed scratching his head and staring up at Rales’s house. The home was located above a boutique along Edgewater Drive. The preacher tried opening the gate, which was locked. He then scaled the wooden fence and disappeared behind it. A few minutes later he came back over it and paced the sidewalk for a few moments before driving to Gabriel’s, a local sub shop where he ordered a sub, a bag of chips, and a large coffee.
Hawkes slumped at his table apparently not noticing the car that had been following him on his College Park trip. It was the same car that had passed him just before he got out of the Mustang at Farren’s house. Now the car sat parked along the street where the windows to the sub shop faced outward. Had Hawkes looked up and out the window he would have seen a set of dark glasses hiding the eyes that closely watched him. The eyes behind the glasses perched on the nose of this person had also watched Rales, Hawkes, and the church staff at lunch the day before. Now with Rales missing all day, the driver of the car decided to keep an even closer surveillance on the preacher from Celebration.
Hawk ate his sandwich and sipped his coffee. Having peered through Rales’s windows and satisfied his curiosity that his friend had not fallen ill or had an accident at home, he now pondered other matters. Wishing for the food and caffeine to jump start his brain, he traveled a memory trail along the previous night’s activities. He remembered Rales giving him the key. What was it that Rales had said about this key?
There is not another one in the entire world that does what this one will do. You are holding in your hand the key to the kingdom
.
He didn’t know what that statement meant. It was just a key . . . wasn’t it? Rales had tears in his eyes as he presented it to Hawk. While Hawk had assumed the value of the key was symbolic, the things Rales had said hinted at something deeper than mere symbolism.
There is not another one in the entire world
. That would make the key unique, one of a kind, and that would give it
great value. An antique key would have some worth, but the real value came from what a key opened. Hawk again remembered what Rales had said.
There is not another one in the entire world that does what this one will do
. An old key would open an old lock. Still, there had been the last part of what Rales had said,
you are holding in your hand the key to the kingdom
. How could it be a key to a kingdom?
He allowed his mind to loop the phrase over and over again.
The key to the kingdom, the key to the kingdom, the key to the kingdom . . . it didn’t matter how many times he replayed it, he had no idea what it might mean.
“Excuse me sir, did you hear the announcement?” The clerk smiled as she asked the question.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear an announcement.”
“We’re closing in five minutes. Is there anything else you need this evening?” The young lady gathered the remains of his meal to take to the trash.
“No, but thanks. I suppose I should quit taking up your table space,” Hawk said.
Hawk slugged down his last gulp of coffee. The coldness of the java bitterly reminded him of how long he had been sitting there thinking. He rewrapped the key in the protective cloth and deposited it into his pocket. Exiting the sub shop, he never glanced at the car pulling away from the street parking area the moment he came out of the glass doors. The observer in the car had sat there for hours as the daylight yielded to the darkness. As Hawk rounded the sidewalk and stepped to his car he had a thought. He knew it wasn’t a great thought but at least it was something.
The engine fired to life as he turned the ignition switch. He slid the car into reverse and flipped open his cell phone. Tapping the speed dial, Hawk heard the phone ring twice.
“Hello, this is Shep,” answered the familiar voice.
“I have an-off-the-wall question for you,” Hawk warned.
“Throw it at me.”
“Do you remember telling me about a tour you wanted us all to take out at the Magic Kingdom?”
“I think by this time of the evening they are done for the day,” chuckled Shep.
“I was trying to remember one that you told me about that had something to do with a behind-the-scenes look at the Magic Kingdom.”