A Vulnerable Broken Mind (9 page)

              “Officer Sparks, to what do I owe the pleasure?” His voice was like a deep hiss. It was almost snake-like to John. His words were welcoming but his tone was not.

              “I came here just to ask a few questions, Mr. Hunt, nothing else,” Spark’s explained in a straightforward tone, not daring to acknowledge Hunt’s darker tone. “I will only take a couple of minutes of your time.”

              “Do you honestly think I want to waste my precious couple of minutes on you?” Hunt asked sarcastically.

              “Listen,” Sparks said more roughly, losing his patience. “This is an emergency and I just need a couple of minutes.”

              Hunt gave an arrogant smile and shook his head. “I would watch that temper, Sparks. I’m pretty sure that you don’t want to lose your job.”

              Sparks took a deep breath and looked very angry. He was trying hard to contain himself. In doing so, his face turned red. “Okay, this is Mr. John Robinson,” He said, pointing to John. Hunt showed no interest. “He’s here looking for his wife, who has gone missing and…”

              “And you’re accusing me,” Hunt replied hotly, his arrogance turning into anger.

              “No, just asking what you were up to today?” Sparks said, trying to keep calm. “The last time I checked, that wasn’t an accusation.”

              Hunt rolled his eyes, looking irritated. “I was at my main store; where I always am. You should all know that by now. Is that all you needed to know?”

              “No, I have one more thing to add,” Sparks said and he then took out the photo of Amber. “If you see this woman, let us know.” He handed the photo to Hunt. He took a quick glance at it and then handed it back.

              “I highly doubt I’ll see her but if it appeases you, I’ll say okay,” Hunt replied. “But let me tell you this Sparks, if I even catch a hint that your department is accusing me of anything, I’ll make sure that your department never gets any work again.”

              “Yeah, sure.” Sparks said, rolling his eyes. “Thank you for your time. Have a wonderful night, Mr. Cunt…I mean, Mr. Hunt.” Sparks gave a small smirk, while Hunt looked positively furious and he slammed the door in both their faces. Sparks then looked to John. “Well, that went well.” He then made his way down the steps with John close behind.

              “You don’t think he acted the least bit suspicious?” John asked.

              “No,” Sparks said. “He acts that way every time we talk to him.” While John had his doubts, he didn’t argue. “Come on, let’s go back to the office. We’ll discuss a new game plan,” Sparks said and they started down the hill. John kept looking back at the house, which was slowly disappearing behind the view of the hill. There was something more to Hunt. It was almost like a gut instinct that hit him as soon as he met him; something was off.

              When they arrived back at the office, the phone was ringing. Sparks ran to the desk to answer it. “Hello?” There was a long pause and then he finally spoke to whoever it was on the other end. “I’m so sorry, dear. I forgot I had them.” He then took out a set of keys from of his pocket. “That is a good idea. I’ll meet you there,” he hung up the phone.

              He gave John a look that screamed for sympathy. “You have to go somewhere don’t you,” John asked disappointed.

              Sparks nodded. “Just for a bit. My wife needs a set of keys that I grabbed by accident. I’ll only be gone for a half hour at most because she’s going to meet me halfway.” A half hour meant a great deal to John. They could have accomplished a lot in that half hour.

              While upset, John didn’t want to show it to Sparks. “You gotta do what you gotta do.” He said flatly.

              “I promise to be back as soon as I can,” Sparks reassured him. “Please don’t leave the office while I’m gone. We’ll figure something out when I get back.” John nodded but remained silent. He wasn’t sure how he was going to do absolutely nothing for that long.

              Sparks walked out the door and John walked to the door to watch him leave. He got into his car and took off. He looked around the office, still wondering what he was going to do. It’s never fun to wait in dead silence. Time moves at a snail’s pace.

              John stared out the window at the hill across the street. He looked in the direction of Ralph Hunt’s house, which was not visible from the office. He had suspicions about Hunt and many questions. He wanted to know more about him and see what he was hiding, if anything.

              He debated on waiting for Sparks but didn’t want to wait that long. He quickly decided to walk out of the office. When he was finally walking towards the hill, he looked back at the office. A tinge of regret hit him but his curiosity about Hunt overtook his regret.

              He began walking up the trail towards the house. Since he was now going alone, his nerves doubled. He was almost shaking as he took small steps up the hill.

              “Hello.” John jumped and almost fell as someone spoke to him. He looked over to the side where the voice was coming from and sitting on a big rock was the same little girl he had seen earlier in the woods. “What are you doing?” She asked kindly, ignoring his near fall.

              Once he regained his composure, he was able to answer. “I could actually ask you the same question,” he said, looking at the little girl. She was actually taller than him when sitting on the rock, which gave her an impressive presence.

              “I’m always around,” she said simply. “What are you doing here?”
              “I’m going to the house on top of the hill,” he said, not really going into too much detail.

              “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the girl said uneasily. “He’s a bad man.”

              John tilted his head, curious. “Why do you say that?”

              “He hides things,” she whispered to him. “He never comes out at night to say hi. Nobody knows what goes on in there.”

              “Do you know?” John asked. While he felt foolish about asking a little girl this question, he would take answers from anybody at this point.

              “I don’t know, but I think it’s bad,” she said as she looked from John to the house. “He’s scary.” She looked back to John. “Why do you need to go up there?”

              John hesitated . He didn’t want to tell a little girl why he was there and would have rather told an adult but he figured that it couldn’t hurt to tell her. “I’m looking for my wife; she’s missing.”

              “You don’t know where she is?” The girl asked. All John could do was look down at her and shake his head. “Do you think that she’s up there?”

              John didn’t quite know how to answer this question at first. He looked from her to the house. The answer finally came to him. “I don’t know,” he said and turned around. He was about to talk to her again but when he turned around, she was gone. He looked in the distance to see if he could see her but she was nowhere in sight.

              He stood there for a few minutes completely stumped. How could she have disappeared? This was the second time she had disappeared on him but being in the woods was the perfect excuse not to be noticed afterward. But there were no trees anywhere near where they were. She couldn’t have just disappeared.

              While the shock hadn’t worn off, he knew that he still had to continue. He glanced back one more time and continued forward. As he walked up, the house came into sight. The moon shone directly on top of it. The house became more visible as he got closer to it.

              Because of his nerves and the fact that he was by himself, the house looked scarier than when he first saw it. He felt that if the house could move, it would undoubtedly crush him.

              Once he was close enough to the house, he looked around to see if there was anywhere he could go to look inside. The front windows were all covered. He decided to walk to the side of the house and went to the left side, watching every step  and trying not to make any noise.

              When he reached the side of the house, he could finally see how long it was. While only two stories high, the house was long enough to be a football field.

              There were eight big windows on both stories of the house and, unlike the front, some of the blinds were cracked or opened. Four of the eight windows on the first story were cracked or opened as light from the house shone onto the ground.

              John walked past the first window, which was closed. The second window curtain was completely open, so he slowed down as he approached it. He didn’t want to be caught. Once he was next to the window, he pressed himself against the house. He peered inside to look and was forced to quickly pull his head back as Hunt appeared.

              John took a deep breath and peered in once more to look. Hunt was thankfully staring away from the window. He was in a large sitting room with books covering all four walls. He sat in a large black chair and was still in the blue robe he had seen him in earlier. John watched him intently to see what he would do.

              After a couple of minutes, Hunt got up. He turned around to put the book away, which caused John to pull his head back again. When he turned away, John looked again. Hunt leaned down to pick something up. He held it in front of him, so John was having trouble seeing what it was.

Hunt walked out of the room and turned left down a hallway. John lost sight of him and moved to the next window which was opened slightly, but he still couldn’t see him. The only curtain left open was the very last.

John ran to the last window, no longer caring if he was heard. He looked in the window and was greeted by a small white room. A big washer and dryer sat to the right, while three racks with towels, rags and detergents sat to the left. The detergents and towels were the only things in the room that actually had color. The rest of the room, including the washer, dryer and racks were white, a startling contrast the houses black curtains.

              The door to the room was open and just outside of the room was another door, which sat at the very end of the hall. It was closed.

              At first, John thought he had lost sight of him. He was about to run to the other end of the house when Hunt appeared before him. Hunt, at first, had his back turned to him. So, John stared at him with great interest to see what he would do.

Hunt was fumbling with whatever he was carrying and then suddenly put it on. John was suspicious of what he had put on until Hunt finally turned towards the door at the end of the hall. Hunt was wearing a mask…a clown mask.

Dumbfounded, John didn’t know what to make of this sight. “Why would Hunt need to wear a
clown mask
?” John thought to himself. He continued to stare as he considered the question.

Hunt pulled out a set of keys from the pocket of his robe and shuffled through them. It took him a while to find the key he was looking for. When he finally found the key, he started to put it in the door, when he suddenly stopped.

He stayed still for a little while until his head turned in John’s direction, who quickly pressed himself against the house. He could see Hunt’s shadow against the ground, indicating that he was staring out the window.

John tried not to make any sound or movement. Hunt stood in the window for a couple of minutes. His shadow finally disappeared. Breathing a sigh of relief, John made his way back to the front of the house. He walked quickly towards the front, occasionally looking back. He was only feet away from the front and was taking one last glance back when two hands grabbed onto his shirt. Hunt stood in front of him and rammed John aggressively against the house.

“So young and naïve,” Hunt said scathingly. “Did you think you could spy on me and not get caught? I don’t like anyone being on my property. What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m trying to find my wife,” John said, not even thinking to lie.

“And you think that I have her?” Hunt said, looking even more angry. “That’s quite a serious accusation. I don’t like being accused; I would have thought that you would have learned that already.

“Let me make something very clear to you. I am not a man that likes being bothered and I’m not a man who forgives and forgets. You mess with me and I’ll do anything to make you pay, just keep that in mind the next time you decide to go snooping.”

“I’m just trying to find her,” John said, trying to say anything that might get him out of this predicament.

“And I commend you for that but if you want to live to find her, I suggest you look elsewhere.” Hunt threatened as he let go of John. “Now, get off of my property.” He stood aside for John to walk around him and leave, which John did.

John walked away from the house as fast as he could. He kept his eye on Hunt until the house was out of sight.

Once the house was out of his view, John slowed down to calm his nerves. When he stopped to think, one thing seemed certain to him; Hunt was hiding something. John had a feeling that he knew what that something was.

His nerves returned when he approached the bottom of the hill and saw that Spark’s police car was back in front of the office. He would have to make up something but what could he make up that Sparks would believe?

He walked back to the office. When he looked inside, he saw that Sparks was on the phone arguing with someone. It could have been about anything but John got the strangest feeling that it was about him. He walked inside and found out immediately that he was correct.

Sparks slammed the phone down. “Sit down,” he snapped. John walked slowly to the desk, looking ashamed. He felt like a little kid who had just gotten busted for being out after curfew. He sat down and looked up at Sparks. “Do you think that this is a game?” John just stayed still and didn’t answer. “I just got off of the phone with Hunt. He was screaming in my ear about you being on his property.” Sparks sat at his desk. “I told you specifically not to leave the office. I…” He then stopped and took a few breaths, clearly trying to calm himself down.

“I know that you want to find your wife. I sympathize with you. Believe me, I really do, but you have to be careful. That’s why I’m here to help you.”

“I understand that but…” John started but was cut off.

“You clearly don’t. Had you listened to me and stayed here, we could have planned something out but you decided to take matters into your owns hands.” Still trying to calm himself down, Sparks sat back in his chair. “Alright, I’ll try my best to forget that this ever happened because we still need a plan of action.”

Sparks thought to himself for a bit, while John did the same. “Is there anyone else we can question?”

Sparks shook his head. “There’s no one else that’s here during the day. The rest leave town until the late evening hours.”

Once John calmed down and his nerves settled, he finally remembered something he saw. “While I was up there, I actually saw Hunt in his house. He was about to enter a room but put on a clown mask before he entered it. Why would someone living alone wear that?”

Sparks put his head down and looked confused. “A clown mask? Are you sure that’s what you saw?”

“I’m very sure,” John said emphatically.

“That’s really interesting.” Sparks said as he stood up again. “And rather weird.”

“Should we approach with that?” John asked hesitantly.

“No,” Sparks said quickly. “We need to avoid anything with him at this time. One more wrong move and it could cost me my job.” John shook his head at this response but knew that there was no talking his way to another result. He had already crossed the line once.

“Well, is there a chance that another resident was around to see anything suspicious?” John asked.

Sparks looked at John, intrigued. “I guess we could try,” he said, shrugging. “We’ll have to check the street that Tom and Mary are on if we do that.”

“Aren’t there more people?” John asked.

“There are, but that’s the only street in town that has any sort of view of that house,” Sparks explained and John nodded, recalling when he saw it from Tom Morrison’s house. “Okay, let’s get going. All of them should be home by now.”

They both got up and walked out of the office and towards the houses. It was silent at first but John got sick of the silence. “So, why do you guys fear Hunt, especially since you guys are law enforcement?”

Sparks was silent for a bit but eventually answered. “Law enforcement is no different than any other form of law or politics. It can be manipulated. If someone is powerful enough, he can manipulate the system.”

“So, you’re pretty much telling me that money manipulates the system?” John asked.

“Yes and no, sometimes all you need is leverage. Stand taller than your enemy and you’re unstoppable,” Sparks clarified.

“You make it sound like an easy thing to achieve,” John said, looking at Sparks, who looked back.

“Sometimes it is,” Sparks replied simply. Once they reached the street, Sparks looked it over in great detail. “We might as well start with the house next to Tom Morrison and work our way down.”

John’s hope to question more people did not go as planned. No one was home in the first three houses, which caved in any confidence that John had been able to build. They walked to the fourth house and John’s shoulders were slouched in disappointment.

“This house belongs to an attorney from Columbia,” Sparks said as they approached the porch. “His name is Joshua Parker.”

“That’s a long drive from here, isn’t it?” John asked.

“Well, every town is a long drive from here, but yes, his drive is longer than most of the people who live here,” Sparks explained. “He wanted a place more secluded because he deals with far too many people during the day, says he doesn’t mind the two hour drive.”

They walked up to the door and Sparks knocked. At first, there was no sign of anybody being home. But a light came on inside of the house. The door opened and a gray haired, thin man peeked through the door. He was wearing a red robe with blue slippers. The man wasn’t necessarily old but wasn’t young either. John figured he had to be in his mid to late fifties.

“Can I help you, gentlemen?” He asked, sounding like he had just woken up.

“Sorry to wake you, Josh,” Sparks said quickly.

“Officer Sparks, I’m sorry, didn’t recognize you,” Parker said, finally stepping outside. He stretched a little bit to wake himself up and opened his eyes completely. “What the hell are you doing here at this hour?” He asked with a sleepy smile.

“Business, unfortunately,” Sparks said. He gestured to John. “This is John Robinson; he got into an accident near town earlier today and when he woke up, his wife was missing. He believes she’s been kidnapped and is here.”

“Do you have a photo of her?” Parker asked.

“Yes, I do actually,” Sparks said and he then reached into his pocket and took out the picture of Amber.

“Am I a suspect in this search?” Parker asked while looking over the photo.

“No, nothing like that,” Sparks assured him. “How long ago did you get back from work?”

“Well, in all honesty, I’ve been here since yesterday,” Parker responded. “Had vacation time and no cases, so I took it. I worked twenty-eight days without a full day off, I needed it.”

“You haven’t been out of town today?” Sparks asked, looking surprised.

“Nope, just been relaxing all day.” Parker said.

“Have you seen anything suspicious then?” Sparks prompted.

“For the most part, no. The only activity came from Ralph up the hill,” Parker explained.

Sparks was surprisingly not quick to ask another question, which John found unusual. In fact, he looked a little skeptical. “What did you see?” He finally asked, his expression not changing.

“He was carrying something big in,” Parker replied. “Couldn’t really tell what it was from here. I could tell that it was in a bag though.”

“How big?” Sparks asked. It almost sounded like an interrogation question to John, especially from Sparks’ tone.

"I couldn’t really tell,” Parker said, shrugging. “It did appear to be tall though. Had to be heavy, looked like he was struggling to carry it.”

“And you’re sure that’s what you saw?” Sparks asked.

“Very sure, I was on my porch when it happened.” Parker confirmed, sounding very certain in his response.

“Thank you, Josh,” Sparks said but he wasn’t smiling nor did he look the least bit enthusiastic about what Parker had to say. Parker went back inside the house while Sparks walked off of the porch and looked dumbfounded.

John followed behind, confused. This was a great statement to go off of. “We’re going to question Hunt again, right?”

Sparks didn’t say anything. He had his back turned to John with his head down. He was breathing heavily and seemed to be lost for words. John couldn’t understand why he was reacting this way. After a long bout of silence, he finally spoke. “I’ve got to make a phone call.” He pulled out his cell phone. “Stay here.”

“Who are you calling?” John asked, feeling that he needed to know.

“Don’t worry, it’s important to our case,” Sparks said as he walked down the street, leaving John feeling stricken. But he had to take Sparks word for it. Although, he couldn’t help but notice that Sparks was acting rather unusual. He didn’t quite know why, though.

He continued to watch as Sparks walked down to the end of the street and called somebody on his phone. He didn’t look like he was having a pleasant conversation because he was pacing. It almost looked like he was yelling over the phone but John couldn’t hear anything from where he stood.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a light appear from Mary Stanton’s house. He turned his head to look and the front curtain in the bottom right window shut instantly. She had clearly been watching him. While odd, John shook it off as her being nosey and reverted his attention back to Sparks.

While John was concerned about the way Sparks was acting, he was more concerned about what their next move would be. He looked back up the hill and stared at Hunt’s home. Something strange was going on up there and he knew that thing he carried into that house was Amber and he was more than willing to go back up there and prove himself right.

As intimidating as Hunt’s house appeared, he was now filled with determination. In the moonlight it looked like a daunting fortress; impenetrable and fierce; not to be trespassed upon. John was feeling ready to trespass. He was ready to break through its walls and find his wife.

Sparks finally hung up the phone and walked towards John. He was obviously disgruntled; he showed a great deal of worry on his face. He approached John but didn’t speak right away. John stood still, stumped on what Sparks was going to say.

“We need to gather more evidence,” Sparks said suddenly but didn’t say anything else.

John stared at him with a great deal of confusion. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, you…you don’t expect us to go on Parker’s statement alone…do you?” Sparks stuttered out. John was seriously suspicious of Sparks.

John tried not show his suspicion. “Well, we have Tom Morrison’s statement, which also claims unusual activity from Hunt today. That’s two statements we can go off of. Is that enough?”

Sparks was not quick to speak. His eyes were not looking directly into John’s eyes. They roamed around constantly. “Well…I…still think we should gather up more information.” Sparks said, again stuttering and unconvincing in his response.

John shook his head; he had officially lost his patience. “What is the matter with you? Are you afraid of him? We have two statements. Why not question him now?”

“I don’t think that’s enough. I don’t think questioning him is a good idea at this point in time.” Sparks said, sounding more and more nervous.

“Well, I do,” John shouted. “I know, in my heart that my wife is up there. I need to know that I am right.” John turned to look at the house again. “I don’t know what it is about him that scares you but I will do anything to find her and if that means taking him on, I’ll do it.”