Frozen Past (9 page)

“I got a cool idea and nobody will get hurt,” Jimmy said, “but it should scare the crap out of them. Come on.”

John got up slowly and they all followed Jimmy back to Cotton Court.

Chapter 17

After five long months of nothing breaking in the case, Jaxon received a call that got his blood going. He grabbed Sally from the break room saying, “Come on! We’ve got a lead on the pool kids. Let’s go!”

They drove into the familiar neighborhood and made their way to a house which sat directly across from the pool complex. It was a two story, brick affair with a perfectly manicured yard and fresh paint on the eaves. A man stood in the yard watering a patch of flowers planted around his matching brick mailbox. They parked in the driveway and stepped out into the bright morning sun.

Jaxon could see what looked like a swim team practicing at the pool. A man who appeared to be the coach was blowing his whistle and gesturing at something in the water Jaxon could not see.

“What are we doing here?” Sally asked as they watched the man put his hose down and make his way toward them.

“You’ll see,” Jaxon said and grinned.

As the man walked up, Jaxon produced his I.D. and asked, “Are you Mr. Lolly?”

“Yes sir,” the man said. “Glad you two could get here so quick. But please, call me Burt.” And he stuck out his hand to shake. His grip was like shaking a stone statue. Only one that gripped back. It took everything for Jaxon not to flinch.

“Detective Jennings, FCPD and this is Detective Winston.”

“Nice to meet you two,” Burt said. “Come on in and I’ll show you what I got.”

They followed the short stocky man of about seventy in through the garage, entering the house through the kitchen. An older woman with bright red hair stood at the sink washing what looked like the breakfast dishes. She turned as they stepped in behind Burt.

“This is my wife Marie. Honey, this is Detective Jennings and Detective Winston.”

“Nice to see you,” she said as she wiped her hands on a dish towel. “Can I get you some coffee or something to eat?”

“Coffee would be great,” Jaxon said.

“And you young lady?”

“A cup of coffee would be spectacular,” Sally said with a smile. “What a lovely kitchen you have.”

Marie beamed, said “Thank you,” and grabbed two coffee mugs from the cupboard behind her.

“We’ll be in the den, sweetie,” Burt said. “Could you bring the mugs in there?”

She smiled and nodded.

Jaxon followed Burt through the house to a room which was in the rear of the spacious first floor. It was lined with books and had a dark wood desk on the wall opposite the door. Small and tidy, it was a man’s space and Burt had it decorated with small models of military jets along with pictures of a younger Burt in uniform standing next to various aircraft and servicemen. Framed medals hung on the wall behind the desk and Jaxon recognized the Distinguished Flying Cross in a frame all by itself.

Burt saw him looking the medal over and said, “Were you in the service?”

Jaxon nodded. “Army. Major in the M.P.’s. Ten years, but I never saw battle. Got out before Desert Storm and was too young for Vietnam.”

Burt nodded. “Doesn’t mean you’re anything less than you are. It shaped all of us that have been in. One way or another. Good or bad.”

“What was the DFC for?” Jaxon asked.

“Chu Lai, Vietnam. Hill 488. I helped one of the war’s greatest heroes make it off that hell hole alive. His name was Gunnery Sergeant Jimmie Howard. He was Staff Sergeant at the time. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for that battle. He deserved a medal more than I.”

“What did you fly?” Jaxon asked, guessing at his occupation.

“A-4 Skyhawk. Best damn attack aircraft McDonell Douglas ever built. Tough too. Brought my ugly ass home every time, even when she had holes in her.” He looked dead serious and Jaxon believed every word. He looked at a picture of two A-4’s in formation over an aircraft carrier at sea. He assumed one of them was Burt.

“I didn’t bring you back here to reminisce about the past,” Burt said, getting down to business, “but if you want to come by another time, I’ll tell you the whole story. Deal?”

“Deal,” Jaxon said.

“Alright, let me show you what I found,” Burt said, sitting at his desk and logging on to his computer. “I have a motion sensing surveillance system in the front yard, and as I was reviewing the recordings from Christmas, so I could clean up disc space, I saw this…”

He hit play and they watched as a nighttime shot from a camera high up looked over the front yard toward the street. His mailbox was in plain view and Jaxon recognized the pool across the street. From the right came what Jaxon could only assume was an adult male, about six feet four inches tall, huge, wearing black and moving in a crouch around the cars in the driveway, past the mailbox, and into the neighbor’s yard where he stepped behind a hedge and crouched down out of sight. He turned toward the camera as he hid and they caught a brief glimpse of a bright white face.

“An albino?” Jaxon asked no one.

“A mask,” Sally said. “It looked like a Halloween mask.

“That’s what I thought too,” Burt said. “Now, here is the interesting part. If you look at the time stamp,” he pointed to the upper right of the computer screen where the time was displayed and a few other numbers Jaxon could not decipher, “you’ll see thirty three minutes have elapsed.” He paused the video and pointed to the time. “The system is set only to record when it senses movement and it will continue recording as long as an object is moving in front of the sensor. It stops after five minutes of inactivity.”

Jaxon nodded understanding. He had seen many systems use this feature, especially ones which recorded to computer hard drives. It saved precious space and allowed for much longer monitoring times if it wasn’t running the whole time the system was armed.

Burt hit play again and they watched as the camera caught a young male walking down the sidewalk coming from the same direction as the masked man in the bushes. As he got closer, Jaxon recognized the clothing, even in the greenish glow of the night vision.

“Oh shit,” Jaxon said unaware he had cursed.

“Yes,” Burt said. “Now watch.”

“Is that Paul Bannon?” Sally asked.

Jaxon nodded his head, but didn’t reply. Even though there was no sound with the recordings, he seemed to think he would miss something if he spoke or made a sound. He realized he was holding his breath and he exhaled trying to relieve some of the tension.

Paul casually walked past the mailbox and seemed to be talking or singing to himself. As he approached the boundary of Burt’s yard, the boy suddenly stopped and cocked his head. As they watched, he turned toward the hedge and seemed to be listening to something. He took a step into the yard and then stopped again as if unsure what to do. He stayed that way for a moment and then looked in both directions. He made a move to continue on his way and then jerked back toward the bushes as if surprised. He waited, and then took some steps toward the hedge again. He was bent over at the waist as if trying to hear something very faint. He kept edging closer to the bushes and when he was about a foot away, he was yanked into the hedge by some unseen force and disappeared from view. The recording stopped.

“I called you right away,” Burt said.

“Damn,” Jaxon murmured, his face tense at what he’d just witnessed.

“Is there more?” Sally asked.

“I don’t know,” Burt said. “I didn’t watch any more. I didn’t want to risk doing something stupid like erasing it by mistake. This is the boy they found in the pool, isn’t it?”

Sally nodded her head. “We’ve been at a standstill on the case for months. Not a clue as to who would do this.”

“Until now,” Jaxon said. “What do you need to do to see if it caught anymore?”

“Just hit play,” Burt said. “But it’s approaching the end of the disc space.” He pointed at a number which read 98. “It’s 98% full now. That’s why I was going through stuff and deleting things. It will record over the oldest stuff first once it reaches max capacity, but sometimes it messes up. I lost some stuff for you guys last year when the kids vandalized my lights.”

“Lights?” Sally asked.

“Yeah. I run a pretty large animated Christmas Light show and I bought the surveillance system because kids were vandalizing some of the display. I put signs up too, warning them about the cameras, but sometimes they still ignore them. Maybe they’re just stupid.” He looked a little embarrassed but Jaxon thought it sounded pretty cool.

“I’ll trust you,” Jaxon said. “We need to see if there’s more.”

Burt nodded and pressed a key on the computer. He pointed at the time stamp and they saw it had advanced twenty minutes. The man emerged from the hedge in a crouch carrying Paul Bannon over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. He walked straight to the street and then stopped. He turned toward the camera and seemed to look directly at it. His head was tilted up and he stood motionless for about twenty seconds.

“He’s mocking us,” Sally said. “He knows the cameras are there.”

“I’ll be damned…” Burt said.

They watched as the white masked man turned toward the street and crossed it heading for the pool. He stopped at the fence and pushed Paul Bannon up and over the top, letting him crash to the ground on the other side. The man then started climbing the fence, but before he reached the top the recording ended.

“That’s it,” Burt said.

Chapter 18

They waited in the woods for Jason and his friend to return from the pool. John was the lookout and would make some kind of animal noise as a signal. Laughable, Luke knew, but it was their only way of pulling the prank off without Jason and his friend being tipped off. By the time they figured it was some kid making the animal call, it would be too late.

Jimmy, Luke, and Ellie were upstream from the bridge, just behind a tree at a bend in the creek. Sitting in front of Jimmy was an Estes rocket launching system primed and ready for firing. They had taken some of Luke’s dad’s wire fishing line and strung it from the tree they were hiding behind to the base of the foot bridge, right at the midway point. A ‘D’ sized rocket engine was hanging from the line by a piece of soda straw super-glued to the engine’s body. When fired, the rocket engine would shoot toward the bridge, guided by the wire, and impact the large support beam the line was tied to. The rocket engine had a small charge that would ignite at the end of its firing run. This charge was supposed to expel the parachute most rockets carried. It was basically a firecracker that would explode with a loud bang right at the feet of whoever was crossing the bridge at the time.

Sometimes Luke couldn’t believe the stuff Jimmy came up with. He was trying hard not to laugh out loud as he imagined what would happen to the two kids when this loud whooshing noise came straight at them followed by a large bang.

“What are you giggling at?” Ellie whispered, her face betraying the anxiety she felt. She hadn’t wanted any part of this, but she was here in support of her friends.

“Nothing—just thinking about what’s going to happen when that rocket engine hits the bridge.”

“I hope nobody gets hurt,” she said.

“It’s not going to hit them, El,” Luke said. “It’ll just scare the crap out of them and then we’ll jump out and give ‘em hell about making John fall in the creek.”

“I hope that’s all it does,” she said.

“Will you two be quiet. I can’t hear John if he signals,” Jimmy said, adjusting his position behind the tree.

“Sorry,” Luke whispered.

They had tested the system once with a smaller sized rocket engine that didn’t have the explosive charge. They didn’t want the bang attracting attention until they were ready, but they needed to get the timing down. When John signaled, Jimmy would pull the firing pin. And wait. The system had a failsafe of three seconds before the firing button could be pushed, but once pressed, the engine would fire immediately. It had worked flawlessly and they had all hooted and hollered at the brilliance of it. Now they would see if John could get the timing right for riders approaching rapidly on bikes.

The creek had calmed down quite a bit, but it still carried more water than normal. The level had dropped considerably and now stood a good two feet below the bottom of the bridge

Jimmy set the firing unit down for a second to get a piece of gum out of his pocket, just as John made the bird call they all recognized as the signal.

“Crap!” Jimmy cursed under his breath and snatched up the firing mechanism. His gum fell to the ground, forgotten. Luke watched Jimmy pull the pin and wait the three seconds for the ready light to come on. Ellie leaned against him, anxiously holding him around the shoulders. He could feel her breath in his ear and reached up to hold her hand. They waited for the light.

* * *

John cramped up as he knelt in the bushes just up from the bridge. The soreness he felt from the swim in the creek still lingered and his lungs hurt every time he took a deep breath. He had never been that scared in his short life and never wanted to feel that way again, but he didn’t mind making someone else feel it. Especially if that someone was Jason Margot and his friend. What pricks. He would be the first one laughing in their faces after the rocket engine scared the crap out of them.

John heard a noise and peered around the bush. Jason and his friend were slowly riding up the path and he tensed in anticipation. He knew he had to get the timing right or the two boys would either be past the bridge or not yet to it when the rocket engine was fired. He figured he would count to three after they passed his position and that should be about perfect.

Suddenly, little Mel Stinson and her brother Robbie came running up the path behind the two bikes. John hesitated not sure what to do. He didn’t want the two little kids anywhere near the action, yet if he didn’t signal shortly, the opportunity would pass. He waited and watched. Just as he was about to nix the whole plan, Mr. Stinson came running up behind his kids and grabbed them both, scooping them up in his arms as they squealed.

“You two need to wait for your mother,” John heard him say, and watched him turn toward the pool carrying the two little ones back around the bend, disappearing. Just then, Jason and his pal passed his hiding place at a leisurely pace, chatting about dunking some little girl and laughing when she came up crying. Assholes.

He gave the signal.

* * *

The light came on and Jimmy pressed the button, looking up. Luke could see the two kids riding up onto the bridge as the engine fired. It made a loud ‘whooshing’ sound, streaking away from them toward the two riders.

They both turned toward the sudden noise and Luke watched as their mouths fell open in shock. The rocket engine impacted the beam just as the front tire of Jason’s bike reached that exact point. The loud bang echoed through the woods. John’s timing couldn’t have been better.

Jason reacted by reflexively veering away from the loud concussion and steering his bike into his friend’s who kept pace to the left of him. Luke watched in horror as both bikes and riders drove off the side of the bridge into the creek. Jason actually let out a little scream.

“Oh damn!” Jimmy yelled as he jumped up and ran toward the bridge. Luke and Ellie followed right behind him.

“I told you guys!” Ellie yelled. “I knew something bad would happen.”

All Luke could think about was what happened when John went into the creek. They were barely able to get him out in time. How would they rescue two kids who also might be hurt from falling in on their bikes?

It took them a few seconds to get through the dense woods and Luke could see John approaching from his hiding place. John had a huge smile on his face and looked to be laughing as he whooped and hollered. Jimmy got to the bridge first and stood at the edge looking down. When Luke arrived next to him he was shocked at what he saw. Ellie sank to her knees next to him and said, “Thank God!”

The two boys were sitting in the mud on the other side of the creek. Their bikes lay to the side with one halfway in the water, its back tire spinning as the current rushed through the spokes. They were covered in mud, but appeared to be unhurt. John stopped next to Jimmy and bent over with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. He was laughing between gasps. Jimmy started laughing too and then Luke joined them in relief. Ellie, apparently, did not think it was funny.

Mr. Stinson ran up behind them with Mel and her brother in tow. “What was that noise?” He said. “Are you kids ok? It sounded like a gunshot!”

It was then he saw the two boys below and began to put two and two together. He rushed over the bridge and down the embankment, helping Jason and his friend up the slope with their bikes. Jimmy and Luke followed to help. Ellie stood there as Mel came up to her and grabbed her hand. John didn’t move.

“You two ok?” Mr. Stinson asked Jason and his friend when they made it back up to the path. They nodded, but said nothing. Mr. Stinson walked onto the bridge and looked down at the wire that was still attached to the support beam. A small charred area blackened the wood at the point of attachment. He looked up at Luke and his group of friends.

“What did you guys do?” he asked.

“We just wanted to scare them,” Jimmy said. “We didn’t know they would drive over the side of the bridge.”

“You kids could have killed them,” he yelled angrily. “You know that, right?”

“They almost killed me this morning!” John said, just as angry. Luke couldn’t believe he was talking to an adult like that. “They came barreling over the bridge while we were sitting on it and Jason kicked Ellie out of the way. She fell into me and I fell off into the fast water. You saw how strong it was this morning right? I almost drowned and they didn’t even stop.”

“That still doesn’t give you the right to endanger their lives.” He looked at Ellie who was holding his daughter’s hand as she hid behind her leg. “And Ellie, I can’t believe you’d be a part of this. Does your mother know what kind of people you hang out with? Maybe I need to call her.” He noticed his little girl and said, “Mel, come here.” The little girl didn’t move and she shyly shook her head.

“Now!” her father demanded and she reluctantly left Ellie’s side and went to her father.

“We’re sorry Mr. Stinson,” Ellie said, as tears began running down her cheeks. “We didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“You should be telling these boys you’re sorry, not me,” he said.

“I won’t,” John said defiantly. “They owe
us
an apology.”

“What is your name young man?” Mr. Stinson demanded.

“John Besner. Do you want my phone number too? I’m sure my dad would love to talk to you, especially after you take up with the two boys who tried to kill me.”

“Who tried to kill who?”

The voice made them all turn and Luke’s heart sank when he saw Detective Jennings and his partner standing with Mrs. Stinson.

“Just what the heck is going on here?” Jaxon said. “We heard a gunshot.”