Hazy View: Souls of the Vanished (14 page)

Davis pulled him back and restrained
him with force.

“
I do believe you had more
than enough to drink.” Andrew grabbed the bottle first and emptied
it in the bin.

“
You’re messing with
Martin’s wife and when he kicks her and your whelp out, you took
his job. Shame on you, you shouldn’t be sheriff.”

“
Get this man out of here,
there’s no way of talking to him like this. When he wakes up make a
note of this accusations. I’d like to know what he’s on
about.”

Davis pushed and pulled the man past
desks and chairs. They stumbled down the hall towards the holding
cells. The man fought and cursed as he tried in vain to escape
Davis’s grip.

Andrew walked into his office and came
out ten minutes later. He stood at Yvonne’s desk.

“
Did you find the
information I asked for?”

Yvonne handed him a paper. “Yes. I
found a lab, here’s the number and as far as the other information,
Martin had activities on his credit card as well as
Janet.”

Andrew examined the information. “It
doesn’t look like he’s trying to hide at all. He’s probably not
expecting me to be looking for him. The last activity was last
night. The question’s how was Janet’s credit card used when Martin
was here?”

“
Wasn’t he on leave just
after Janet left? I believe it’s around the same time the mayor
gave him time to deal with the break up.” Yvonne said handing over
another paper. “From his service record, I took the liberty of
checking.”

“
I can see why Martin
thought you are an asset to the office, if only everyone thought on
their feet like you?”

“
Thanks. I’ll take that as
a compliment.”

“
But it still makes no
sense, even if he was on leave, he was here.”

“
How sure are you?” Yvonne
asked.

“
What do you mean?” Andrew
asked confused.

“
It’s the oldest trick in
the book. Have you never slipped on school? Make people believe
you’re one place when you’re really somewhere else. Maybe he
slipped away on a little road trip.”

“
He was at home, I went to
see him.” Andrew insisted.

“
Did you speak to him face
to face?”

“
Come to think about it,
no. A woman was in the house saying she was helping him out with
cleaning and sorts. I believe he was sleeping. I didn’t physically
see him.” Andrew replied thoughtful and sat in a nearby chair. “I
didn’t see him for a few days actually.”

“
There you go.”

“
Someone’s lying. Either
the woman’s covering for Martin or he’s covering his tracks even
from day one. What about the phone records I asked for?”

Yvonne handed over the records. “Do
you know who the woman was?”

Andrew sat for a moment in silence
scanning the records.

“
I think so, but I’ll get
her later. This is interesting. There were no incoming or outgoing
calls from outside town. This only means one thing. The person who
called Martin on the day he left called from town, by the looks of
it from a phone booth. I bet you anything it’s near the trailer
park.” Andrew stood up and walked toward the office then
stopped.

“
Wait a minute before I
forget.”

Andrew turned to Yvonne. “What’s
it?”

“
The hospital phoned about
two hours ago. Dillon Adams had developed complications because of
the infection he’d picked up.”

“
Is he going to be
okay?”

“
No sorry, he died because
of it.”

Andrew fell silent, and then mumbled.
“That’s four deaths now, how many more people need to die? Did the
sketch artist get to see him?”

“
No. He was unconscious
when he arrived. I believe Dillon didn’t wake up again.”

Andrew walked into the office and came
out an hour later. He handed a parcel to Yvonne with strict
instruction for the lab technician.

“
A courier will pick up
the parcel soon. Get Davis to take down this drunken man’s
statement at all cost. He might forget. I want to know what I’m
accused off.”

Andrew left the office and headed to
Martin’s old house and met Tom, Helen and Mr. Craft.

*~*~*

*XI*

Andrew reached Helen’s house and
noticed a hive of activities. Tom was helping Mr. Craft to gather
equipment that he needed to installed in Helen’s house. He parked
next to the house and walked to the kitchen door. The door was
standing wide open. Helen was amusing Olivia in the lounge with a
cartoon video about a donkey and an ogre.

A coloring book and crayons were on
the coffee table where Olivia was coloring while watching the
movie. The donkey and ogre were bumping heads over land. Andrew
smiled wondering if Christopher was with her, but it didn’t seem
like it.

“
Afternoon, how are things
going with the investigator?” Andrew asked as he met
Helen.

“
He seems nice. I don’t
mind him taking over here for a while. I was thinking of staying in
the guesthouse to keep Olivia away from the equipment, it looks
expensive.” Helen whispered.

Andrew sat down in the lounge. “I
don’t think that’s necessary. I’ve done just about everything I
needed to do here. I’ve even tracked Martin to a farm, owned by
Janet’s family in Ohio. I was going to leave tomorrow morning
before sunrise.” Andrew informed.

“
What should I do while
you’re gone?”

“
I was hoping you would be
able to help me with a little problem.” Andrew started
embarrass.

“
What’s the
problem?”

“
I’ve called for a
forensics technician to come to the house and look around, he’d
probably do a few tests on the floors and walls to see if anything
happened in the house. It could be the house’s the crime scene. The
technician would also need my vehicle to do tests on it, seeing
it’s the vehicle Martin had used last and the most.”

“
Do you think he did
something in the house?” Helen asked more surprised than
shocked.

“
It’s possible, I won't
argue that. But it’ll be better if the technician checks just to
make sure. Then there’s another problem.”

“
You have to leave your
vehicle here for the technician to look through it while they’re
busy with the house.”

“
Yes, but that’s not the
real problem. Martin knows my private vehicle and would recognize
it long before I get to him. I can’t rent a vehicle because the
town’s getting too close to election and the mayor’s tightening the
budged.”

“
So I get the feeling
you’ve already worked out a solution.” Helen said
smiling.

“
Yes. How would you like
to come with me? Naturally you wouldn’t be in any danger and I’d
like the company, besides two heads are better than
one.”

“
What about Olivia? It’ll
be difficult with her, especially on such a long trip.” Helen
paused, and then stood up. “Give me a minute.”

Helen left the room. Andrew watched
the movie and often looked at Olivia’s reaction to it. As soon as a
part lost her interest she would picks up a crayon and scratch in
her book. Occasionally she would glance at the TV, favoring the
donkey and his smart remarks, and then she would laugh again. Helen
entered the room and sat down.

“
I‘ve phoned her father,
he agreed to spend some time with her while we’re on the trip. We
can drop her off on the way and it’s just a few miles out of the
way.”

“
Thank you. I’ll fill Tom
in on the events to come and leave the vehicle keys here with him.
I can pay for gas and meals on the trip. If we take turns driving,
than we can keep moving and get there faster, if you’re okay with
that?” Andrew offered.

“
I’m sure it would work
out better than stopping every few hours just to sleep. I’m just
glad you’re taking me with.”

“
I have one or two thing
to sort out today. I will be here very early.”

“
That’s fine. It’ll give
me time to get ready. See you in the morning.”

*~*~*

*XII*

Andrew left the house and found Tom at
the panel van. After a short conversation Tom promised he’ll be at
the house before sunrise to collect the vehicle keys. Andrew got
into his vehicle and drove to town.

He stopped at the mayor’s office and
walked in without an appointment. To his surprise the mayor spoke
to him and didn’t protest about him leaving so soon. He greeted and
left. He passed the trailer park on his way home.

A brief search of the park revealed
the woman that had been at Martin’s house wasn’t at home, according
to neighbors the woman, Vanessa McPherson had left town to visit in
the city. He’ll pay her a visit when I got back.

He drove
himself home and packed for the trip, ate supper alone and went to
bed to catch up on sleep lost the last few days.

*~*~*

Chapter Five

*I*

Two gas stations later they traveled
on the highway toward Ohio. Olivia finally fell asleep on the
backseat. She had been playing with her toys and listening to music
on her headphones. At times she would sing out loud to her nursery
rhymes. It’s clear she would never become a professional singer,
but at least now the silence was soothing to the ears.

Four hours into the trip Helen pulled
off from the highway. She continued onto a smaller road leading to
a small farming community still some distance away. Just over an
hour they had dropped off a very excited Olivia at her father’s
farm and were soon back on the interstate. They started discussing
their thoughts on the case freely. Andrew dressed in jeans and a
T-shirt.

“
I believe that Martin’s
not a good man. From all you’ve told me he sounds too good to be
true. My mother always told me, if it sounded too good to be true
it usually is. If he’s a good man, why did he do this? How could he
take the life of his own child? I think he’s a raving lunatic that
deserves what’s coming his way.” Helen started with a strong tone
of anger in her voice.

“
The mayor told me that I
shouldn’t let my friendship with him cloud my judgment. I think
it’s because I’m trying to make too much sense of this. All I can
come up with, knowing him as well as I do is that I think it’s an
accident.” Andrew admitted.

“
Maybe you should think
about the victims, concentrate on that. Did they deserve what
happened to them? I mean they were close to you too.”

“
Nobody deserves something
like this. No one really has the right to harm anyone no matter
what the reason.” Andrew fell silent. “I’m over thinking this too
much.” He admitted after a brief silence.

“
Well, I think you should
take this one lead at a time and see where it’s leading. If he’s
guilty you’ll be able to prove it. If we don’t then the community
won’t know and your reputation will stay good.” Helen advised
thoughtful. “A lot of things don’t make sense to me.”

Andrew cleared his throat softly.
“Like what?”

“
What would make him do
this? What would possibly drive a man to kill? Did the child leave
the towel on the bathroom floor? Didn’t he clean his room or did he
make too much noise? People don’t just fly off the handle like that
and kill children. Yes they abuse children, I won’t deny that but
to kill and dump the body in the lake. I don’t know that’s beyond
me.”

“
What’s his motive you
mean?”

“
Yes. Maybe it’s for money
or maybe his wife really wanted to leave him. Maybe he was jealous,
that’s a common one isn’t it?”

“
I don’t believe that they
had those serious problems. Janet would’ve told me and at any rate
if he wanted to kill her for money, but then why kill Christopher?
He loved that child more than most parents I’ve seen.” Andrew grew
silent again and stared out of the window thoughtfully.

“
Maybe it was something
completely different? Could he have cheated on her or maybe Janet
on him?”

Andrew remained in thought. Helen
pulled into a gas station and stopped at the pump.

“
If we need to make up for
lost time we need to make fewer stops and travel harder. I’ll drive
a while if you’re tired.” Andrew changed the subject and wiped a
tear out of the corner of his eye. He needed to get his mind of
Janet and Christopher for just a moment.

Helen walked into the small shop and
paid for the gas. She topped up on snacks and drinks, after using
the rest room. They continued their trip thoughtfully listening to
the music from the radio. Andrew was driving as lazy country
scenery passed by slowly.

*~*~*

*II*

Vanessa McPherson had a very strong
bond with her family and returned to her mother’s home in the city
for a short visit. She didn’t just visit because Martin had
suggested it. He had even paid for the trip just before he left
Hazy View days earlier.