The Hunt Chronicles: Volume 1 (8 page)

Of course, the first
thing I did when I shut the door was run towards the staircase, wanting to
speak with
Maddie
.  I was still at the top of
the stairs when I noticed Thomas Freely and Nona Bronson walking across the
large foyer from the direction of the dining room.  Thomas was holding
something. 
Something small and shiny.
  My
eyes aren’t what they used to be, but I could’ve sworn it was a small crystal
penguin.

I stood at the top
of the stairs, frozen, watching them stroll none the wiser.  Nona suddenly
turned and came towards me, towards the stairs.   “Oh, Nona, hi,” I
blurted in surprise.  I plastered a phony smile across my face and headed
down the stairs.  As I did, Thomas quickly shoved his shiny trinket into
his pocket and hastened past the staircase, not saying a word.

Before I left the
last step, there was a knock at the front door.  I looked around for
Maddie
or Thomas, but didn’t see either of them. 
“Door,” I said loudly to the empty foyer.  I heard my voice reverberate
off the walls, but there was no reply.  The person knocked again, louder
this time. 
“Door, damn it!”
I barked
,
knowing full well Thomas was somewhere in earshot and
choosing to ignore me.  I eventually gave up, headed for the door and
yanked it open.  Richard and Cheryl had come out of their rooms and were
standing at the top of the stairs. 
Maddie
appeared to my right.  Cheryl and Richard screamed Donald’s name, and
Maddie
rushed towards the sunlight that flooded the foyer
and the man standing inside it.  Thomas and Nona came running out of the
kitchen. 

Donald stepped in
looking weary and recently sober.  “I lost my keys,” he said, and then he
was surrounded.  Over the chatter and the footsteps and the sobs, the
mysterious grandfather clock struck three in the afternoon.

While the others
accosted Donald in the doorway, I grabbed a hold of
Maddie’s
arm and tugged her into her room.  For the first time that day, she looked
somewhat happy.  She seemed so worried earlier, but when I got a look at
her then, the color had rushed back into her face.    “What do
you want, Reevan?  Donald is home.  I have to make sure he’s
alright.”  She started for her bedroom door, but I stuck out my
hand.  She stopped where she stood.

“He’s fine
Maddie
, trust me.”

“Well, what is it
then?”

“I…well…I needed to
ask you something. 
Something about Richard.”
 
The corners of her mouth drooped.

“Now listen, I told
you the truth and I don’t care what-”

“No, no.  Not
about that.  Richard told me the same story you did.  I know it’s the
truth as far as you’re concerned.  I want to ask you something else.”

“About
what?”

“About
Nona Bronson and Thomas Freely.”

“What about
them?”  She asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

“Thomas said
something funny last night that I just remembered.  I accidentally
overheard the argument that Cheryl and Wilson were having last night in his
study.  Thomas caught me there listening and said eavesdropping must run
in our family.  What was he talking about?”  The question
materialized in my head mere milliseconds before the words flew out. Seeing
them all there in the foyer together made me wonder what other secrets were
lurking in the corners of McCune Hall.

Maddie
was stunned.  She seemed unable to answer. 
“I have no idea what he meant.”  She was lying.  We both knew it.

“Oh please, you know
you can’t lie to me,
Maddie
, especially today of all
days.  Spit it out.  It was you he was talking about, wasn’t
it?  You overheard something you shouldn’t have, didn’t you?”  She
had been caught be refused to give in, like a bear freshly snared in a trap.

“I can’t say
Reevan.  I promised them I wouldn’t tell anyone.  I promised!”

“Oh, so they’re up
to something together, are they?  What is it
Maddie
? 
Come on, out with it!”

“I’m sorry
Reevan.  I can’t say.  I can tell you this though; Wilson was on to
them and would have none of it.  He threatened to fire them both if he
caught them again.  Well, they didn’t stop and then I found out and I
promised them I wouldn’t tell.”

“Damn it,
Maddie
!  What the hell are talking about?”  I
screamed.

“I can’t tell
you!  They’re my friends!  I promised!”

“I can’t believe
you! 
Do you hear yourself?  A man is dead, Madeline.  What are you
thinking?”

“Sorry,
Reevan.
  Go dig somewhere
else.”  With that, she brushed past me and walked out.  I pursued,
but it wasn’t any good.  The others had conjugated in the dining room, all
asking questions.   Where this and why that?  Who and what did
what how and when
?
  When there was another knock at the door, I
rolled my eyes, plowed through the crowd and answered it.

Walters flew in so
fast his shockwave nearly knocked me onto the floor.  Sills was right
behind him, as well as another police officer. 
“
McCune
!”
 
Walters cried.  “
Donald McCune!
”  Donald stood up straight and
turned around sharply, looking up at one of the few men in the state of
Connecticut who was taller than he was.  “Name is Walters…Detective
Walters.  You’ve got some explaining to do, buddy.”   Donald
looked utterly bewildered.

“Excuse me?”

“Where have you
been?”

“Out.”

“Doing what?”

“Thinking,
mostly.
 
Walking
and thinking and sobering up.”

“Oh, so you admit to
suckin
’ back on Grandpa’s Cough Medicine, do
ya
?”  My brow twitched as I held back a one would have
been a most inappropriate chuckle.

“It’s no secret,”
Donald replied.  “That doesn’t pass for news around here.”  Something
was wrong with Donald.  He may have been tired, but he seemed to be…
floating,
like he had come to some incredible revelation that made everything else in
the world pointless.  His tone of voice was quiet, but not without
feeling.

“Would you mind
coming down to the station with us, Mr. McCune?”  Sills asked.

“Why can’t he stay
here? 
We’re
all still here?” 
Maddie
asked.

“We’d rather not let
Mr. McCune out of our sight until we get some answers.”

“Tough
tamales!
  You’re not taking
him!”  Richard screamed.  Donald backed away from the officers
towards his siblings.  Cheryl stepped in front of Donald.

“I’m not asking you,
pal, I’m telling you.  He’s coming with us one way of another, and I’ll be
happy to bring you in on obstruction of justice if you don’t step aside!” 
Walters’ face was red.  He wasn’t joking, but Cheryl did not budge. 
Richard stepped up next to her.  Donald continued to back up, now too far
out of the herd for his own good. 
The lions always go for the one
that’s all alone
Little Reevan said.

What happened next
happened so quickly it remains nothing more than a blur to this
day.
  Sills plowed between Richard and Cheryl, forcing
Richard against the wall to the left.  The push had knocked Cheryl to the
right, leaving Detective Walters a clear beeline right to his prey. 
Walters rushed in.  Donald turned to run but Walters grabbed the back of
his collar.  In less than a second, Donald was shoved up against the wall
next to his brother, and I heard the handcuffs click home.

Cheryl shrieked, as
did Nona.  “Donald McCune, you’re under arrest for the murder of Wilson
McCune,” Walters proclaimed, breathing heavy.  Sills let go of Richard and
headed to his partner.  Richard tried to follow but the nameless officer
grabbed him by the shoulder.  When Richard turned to face him, the young
man just nodded, signaling the next move Richard made would determine where he
was sleeping that night.

Sills led Donald out
the door, who all the while was crying out “What the hell is going on?”, and
when they were far enough outside, the nameless officer released Richard and
followed.  Thomas went up to Richard and placed his hand on Richard’s
shoulder. 

Walters looked at each
one of us but focused on Cheryl.  She had her hands over her mouth. 
The others and I were standing around stunned at the speed at which everything
just occurred.  “I am sorry, ma’am.”  He turned on his heels and
left, shutting the door behind him.  The rest of us stood there in silence
for what seemed like forever as Donald McCune sat in the back of a cruiser on
his way to the station.

“What the hell just
happened?” 
Maddie
asked.  “How did they
get here so fast?”

“The guard,” Thomas
answered.  “The guard at the gate must have saw Donald arrive and called
for the others.”

“Can they just
arrest him like that?”  Nona asked.  “He didn’t do anything but get a
little drunk.  How can they do that?”  All of a sudden, all eyes were
on me again, as if my eyes held the answers to all of their questions.  I
said nothing.

“I don’t believe
it,” Thomas finally announced.  “I don’t believe any of this.  This
can’t be happening.”

“I don’t know what
to believe anymore.  It’s all so complicated.”  Nona’s voice
trembled.  I looked over at Cheryl, who hadn’t budged, seemingly paralyzed
with shock.  She looked up at me, and it was then I realized what had
happened.

“Cheryl?”  I
asked.  Her eyes started to water.  She then exploded into an
eruption of tears and sobs.  She began rambling incoherently, blurting out
everything she had told me earlier.  She blubbered about Donald coming
home drunk and how he damned his father.  When she was finally done
replaying the scenario, the rest of the people in the room were crying too.

“Oh my God,” Richard
muttered.  Then he looked at me.  “He did it, didn’t he? 
Oh my God.”

“Now wait just one
minute,” I announced using my official professor tone, drawing all of the teary
eyes in the class to the front of the room.  “We still don’t know about
the other staffers, do we?  Walters was in and out so fast, he didn’t
mention anything about them.  Maybe he hasn’t gotten around to meeting with
all of them yet and he’s using Donald as an excuse to look busy.  I know
it looks bad, but I refuse to believe anything until everyone’s cards are on
the table.”  My tone returned composure.  The air was filled with the
sound of deep breaths and sniffles.

“So, what do we do
now?  How do we help Donald?”  Cheryl cried.  I ran my fingers
through my thinning hair and scratched the back of my skull.  Then I
looked back at her and smiled.

“Now,” I said, “we
make some calls.”

I went to the
kitchen and stuck my head in the sink.  I turned on the water and let the
coolness wash over the back of my neck.  It was heavenly.

The others followed
me into the kitchen and crowded around me like I was going to pull the murderer
out of the sink drain.  “Who are you going to call?”  Cheryl asked.

“I’m going to call
Walters at his office and find out about the other staffers.  If he isn’t
finished with them yet, I’m going to raise hell on the grounds of circumstantial
evidence.”

“Well, what should
we do?” 
Asked Thomas.

“You and Cheryl go
down to the station and keep an eye on Donald.  Make sure he keeps his
friggin
mouth shut!” I ordered with a finger digging into
Thomas’s chest.  “Make sure any statements you give are thought out before
you open your mouth.  People like your father always have a lawyer on
retainer.  Call him and get him there too. Remember, you don’t have to
answer any questions, and neither does Donald.  Everybody just shut your
yaps, got it?”  They nodded.  “I said
you got it, Paul Bunyan
?” 
I repeated.

“
Yes
.” 
Thomas replied, finally waking up.  He and Cheryl turned and left the
kitchen.

“Nona, why don’t you
do something about a meal?  By the time they get back, everyone is going
to be starving.”

“Will they come back
with Donald, Reevan?”

“I hope so. 
Richard, you alright?”

“Yeah,” he said,
staring at the floor.  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“I said I was
fine.  What do I have to do?”  I thought about it and decided it was
too risky.

“You do
nothing.  You’re upset.  Frustration will get us nowhere right
now.  I suggest you go back to your room and cool down.”

“But Reevan, I-”

“I said go.”  I
pointed a dripping finger towards the hallway.  I listened as he left the
room, dragging his feet behind him like an angry child.  I locked eyes
with my sister.  She stared at me for several moments and then
smiled.  “You’ve got a plan, don’t you?”