Justification For Killing (57 page)

Without thinking, he
turned to Penelope and asked, “Miss Penelope you got any of your
hot Luzianne coffee with chicory brewing on the stove in the
kitchen?”

“
Sure
do,” she said turning toward the kitchen, but within a step or two
it hit her, ‘
Miss Penelope... coffee
brewing.... Luzianne coffee... with chicory... on the
stove....’
how’d he know all that? She
wondered to herself.

Clem standing next to the
Captain at the fireplace asked, “Mister! What in the world wuz you
doin’ out in this here storm? Even polar bears have more cents than
that. They burry themselves up to caves and the like afore ventured
out in a blizzard sech as this one. Yer mighty lucky to still be
alive.”

“
You’re right Clem, but I
have an important mission, which could not wait. You see I am
searching for two of my lost grandchildren.”

“
Hold on thar Mister,
how’d you know my name? And you said Penelope afore too, how come
you know’d us? I don’t know you, we ain’t never met.” Frowning he
added, “Have we?” Then added, “And how’d you know the dog’s
name?”

“
You both must have
mentioned your names at the door when I arrived.”

“
Naw, that ain’t right.
I’m likin’ in lots of thangs, but memory ain’t one of’em.”
Somethins’ wrong Mister, whats yer game?”

Penelope was returned from
the kitchen carrying a steaming, hot cup of coffee. Handing it to
the Captain, he quickly took a sip, but something was bothering him
– he was thinking he should tell them who he actually was. Sitting
the cup down he motioning toward the couch, “Clem, Penelope let’s
go over here and sit down. I have a confession to make.”

“
I knew it, I knew it, I
told you Penelope. I told you somethin’ was wrong. Yer one of them
escaped criminals or the like, right? I got me a shotgun if yer
dangerous. Er you dangerous?”

“
No Clem, I’m not
dangerous, and I’m not an escaped criminal. To answer your question
Clem, yes, you do know me, and yes we have met before
today.”

“
Now hold on a minute, we
never seed you afore mister. What’s yer game?”

“
Would both of you, please
sit down? I will try to explain. This is going to sound strange,
but I swear every word I am about to tell you is the truth, and as
they say, in court, ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth.’ Where should I begin?”

“
I’ve always heered its
best to start at the beginning.”

“
All right that’s where
I’ll begin Clem and prove to you we have met. My name is Robert
Scarburg, Junior. Most just refer to me as ‘Captain’ since I was a
Captain in the U.S. Army.”

“
Hold the fort! Hold the
fort! That young lad that come here yesterdee’s name wuz Robert
Scarburg, called hisself Forrest, is he related to you?”

“
Yes! Yes! They were here?
Thank goodness!! You’re right Clem his name is Forrest. Forrest is
my grandson. He and his sister Olive Marie are two of my
grandchildren. Those two are the reason I am out in this blizzard.
They are the ones for whom I am searching.”

“
You know when I heered
his name ‘Robert Scarburg’ fer some reason I reckoned I had heered
that name afore. And yes siree, her name wuz Olive, Olive and
Forrest, well I’ll be – your grandkids!”

“
You have heard my name -
Robert Scarburg, Clem. I came here before, and you volunteered to
help me on a job I had to accomplish in Dallas. I know your name is
Clemson, and you are,” looking at Penelope, “Penelope, Clem’s
sister. Clem and Penelope Ruby. You don’t like the name Clemson, so
you use the name Clem, and this dog of yours, her name is Lady. I
know so very well since I gave Lady her name. You had just been
calling her Girl.” At the mention of her name, the dog whimpered,
got up, moved from the spot in which she was resting and lay down
beside Captain Scarburg’s foot.

“
That ain’t proved
nothing, everbody around here knows that my name is Clem, strange
about you knowin’ about the dog tho’, and I ain’t never seed her
take to anybody like she has took to you neither. Besides, we have
always called her ‘Lady’ since she was jez a pup, but I do ‘member
afore I come up with that name I wuz gonna call her jest ‘Girl’. I
don’t know how you no’d that. You one of them mind readin’ circus
or carnival pre-formers?”

“
No Clem
but speaking of a carnival reminds me of the merry-go-round or the
carousel. I know you have an uncle named Jack Ruby who owns the
Carousel Club on the corner of Field and Commerce Street in
downtown Dallas. You call him Sparky. Miss Penelope you fed me a
great supper served with cornpone. You have a sampler on your wall
in the dining room stitched by your Granny Coker. The inscription
reads,
“Home Sweet Home”
and along the bottom was a name and date,
“Minnie Coker Three December In the Year of Our
Lord Nineteen Hundred and One”
. We were
eating rutabaga turnips cooked with pork chops when you told me
about your Granny Coker and her sampler she stitched as a
child.”

“
Clemson! Clemson, whats
goin’ on?”

“
Hesh up girl, this feller
is right, you know not to call me Clemson! But yer right he knows
thangs.”

“
I know Clem, I’m
skeered.”

“
Penelope, there is no reason to be frightened. As I explained
on my first visit, I am a traveler from the year 2012. I came back
previously to your 1963 Universe to fix a problem, which greatly
affected the latter part of the 20th
and
the first part of the 21st century. Clem you assisted, and you and
I accomplished the job.”

“
You jest makin’ this up,
right? The year two thousand and twelve, come on!!”

“
You have a tan overcoat
in your hall closet, and in your little wooden box on the mantle
where you and Penelope keep your valuables there is some money you
have never been able to explain. There is a ten-dollar bill you
think is counterfeit, and two U.S. quarters. One is dated 2004 and
the other 2012. You probably have never been able to figure them
out either.”

“
Well I’ll be... them
thangs are in that box all right!”

“
I had given those items
to you right before I left from the cow pasture, the pasture that’s
at the end of the Saddleback Gulch trail. You told me Larry Brock
owned that ranch. You carried me there in your Ford wrecker, yeah,
the one with the spring sticking out of the seat.”

“
Shore nuff, your right
‘bout that sprang – I been aimin’ to git it fixed. You no’d about
the sprang?”

“
Right Clem, you don’t
have to sit on it!” The Captain said laughing. “We used your tan
Nash Rambler you keep around back in the shed next to the chicken
coop to get to Dallas. Oh, I almost forgot... Penelope in your
‘valuables’ box you have a note written in your hand stating,
Auburn 10 Alabama 8 Iron Bowl November 30, 1963.

“
Clem, you said my
grandson stated his name was Robert Scarburg. That is his name all
right. He is Robert Scarburg the Fourth. I am Captain Robert
Scarburg, Junior. Why don’t you take out the gold wristwatch? You
know the one with the broken face crystal. It is in the valuables
box also. Turn it over and read the inscription on the
back.”

Clem walked over to the
fireplace, picked up his sister’s keepsake box and removed the
watch. He slowly turned it over and rubbed the lettering on the
back with his thumb. Pretending to fumble in his pockets he handed
the watch to Penelope. “Here Penelope you read this, I seems to
have misplaced my readin’ glasses.”

Taking the watch she read
aloud, “Capt Robert Edward Scarburg, Jr. 5th SF (ABN), RVN,
1968.”

“
I gave you this watch
Clem, and in exchange you gave me your old cowboy hat.”

“
Dadburn Penelope, I been
telling you I had an old hat around here sommers, and you jest said
it weren’t so. See I told you.”

“
Your right Clem, right as
rainwater. Who would’ve know’d”, Penelope replied.

“
Penelope, thar’s no way
he could be makin’ this up. What he’s tellin’ us must have
happened. He knows to much about us. I’ve wondered about the watch
and the funny money, and in a ways, I can almost remember what he’s
sayin’ but I jest can’t get it all to come thru clear.”

“
All right,” Captain
Scarburg said, “I’m going to prove to you once and for all I have
been here before.” Saying this he pulled his Iphone from his
pocket. Pressing the Itune App the lyrics and melody of George
Strait’s number one country hit from 1987 began softly to
play,

“♪
All my
Ex’s live in Texas and Texas is...
♪
”

“
Yeah... yeah Captain,
that does sound like somethin’ I’ve heered afore. It shore is a
purty tune.”

“
Impossible Clem, pretty
or not that tune will not be recorded for another twenty-four
years!”

“
What? No, that can’t be
true?”

“
Okay,
here it is,” the Captain said touching the Iphoto App. Instantly
the screen was filled with the images of Clem and Penelope sitting
on the exact same couch they were now sitting on, and Captain
Scarburg’s voice on the Iphone saying,
“Hey, both of you. Look this way and say
cheese.”

“
Well, I’ll be,” commented
Clem in amazement.

“
Captain, what did you
come here fer the first time?” asked Penelope.

“
Well right now, it’s not
important, the problem was taken care of. You do not need to
trouble yourself with it. My two grandchildren that’s what is
essential now... I must find them. They could be in trouble – I’m
talking about real trouble. The kind that could get them
killed!”

“
By the way Forrest and
Olive wuz drivin’ that old green Ford truck of Larry Brocks. They
must’ve got it out of his old barn. How in the world did they find
it? What wuz they doin’ up at his cattle ranch place
anyhow?

“
I will explain it all
later Clem. Right now finding those kids is my most important
job.”

“
Captain, they left us a
note when they left. It said they wuz goin’ to the ‘Murdock place’
and anyone lookin’ for them would know what that means.”

“
Hmmm, say they said the
‘Murdock place’ huh?”

“
Yeah, the Murdock place.
Do you knows what it means, Captain? And another thang Captain,
they done left us some more of your funny money. There were two of
them ten-dollar bill looking thangs on the table next to the note
they left. You and them must’ve got that fake money at the same
place, fer yours and they’ers looks jest alike.”

“
I sure do, Clem I know
the Murdock place, and don’t worry about those fake ten dollar
bills, just keep them as souvenirs, they will be good money
someday, and for the second time, thanks, thanks a million, but
Clem enough talking, I’ve need to get going.”

“
You be careful, ye
hear?”

“
By the way, Penelope that
wouldn’t happen to be chicken and dumplings I smell is
it?”

The time was 7:15 Thursday
night, November 21, 1963.

Chapter
Forty-Eight

THREE HOURS BEFORE THE
CAPTAIN’S ‘FLIGHT’

“
Is everyone okay?” asked
Bud turning to check on Lou and LJ. Both were still unconscious;
however, Rocky was beginning to arouse.

“
What happened? Where are
we? Am I in a dream – no this must be a nightmare!” Rocky said
drowsily. “Turn up that radio, I love them bagpipes!”

“
Snap out of it Rocky.
There isn’t a radio. We should be on the roof of the Texas School
Book Depository. It is supposed to be 9:00 Thursday morning,
November 21, 1963. I hope we are in Dallas, Texas. Come on, shake
the cobwebs out, and help me get LJ and Lou awake. We have to get
out – this thing is going to disappear any minute now, and we do
not want anyone on the ground seeing this ‘chrome dome’ sitting
atop one of their downtown buildings.”

Outside
Pegasus
, standing on the
TSBD building, the four huddled next to a large air-conditioning
unit watching their time machine evaporate into thin air. “Okay,
men,” instructed Lonnie Joe. “Let’s work our way over to the back
fire escape, get down to the ground, and slip into the impound
lot.”

Two by two they
walked around the back of the School Book building until they
reached the sidewalk on Houston Street. A left on Houston and a
mere dozen or so feet they approached the gate to the Dallas City
Storage Lot for Impounded Vehicles. It was unlocked and
unguarded.
Oh, for the trustful days of
the 1960s
, Bud thought. Trying to act as
though they were city employees, they slide the gate open, “Bud?”
asked Lou, “which car do we take?”

Answering quickly, “The
one that is easiest to steal.”

“
Bud, please could we not
use the word ‘steal’?”

“
Okay, okay, Lou, but
let’s not ‘borrow’ one of these on the end, it’s too easy for us to
be seen from the street. Now let’s be quick everyone!”