The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival (19 page)

Tony spoke, softly, “did you hear that,
girls, he’s going to kill that rabbit while we watch. I’ll be
fucking one of you, but you’ll need to watch. When I’m done with
you, I’ll take your blood.”

Johnny could hear the sound of a scuffle in
the background. The eastern european man ran back into the room.
“Go! Go!” he shouted. An arrow lept out of his chest and he
collapsed in a heap on the floor.

“Oh fuck!” Tony said. He gripped the girls
and hid behind them.

Johnny killed the recording, and then Robbie
and David burst into the room. He could still hear the audio. He
clutched the gun and watched.

“It’s going to be alright girls.” Robbie
urged. He had a gun leveled at Tony’s head. David was holding his
on Vampire Elvis.

Vampire Elvis pulled a bowie knife from his
bag, and grabbed the boy by the neck. The kid was wailing. He spoke
icily, “Everybody stay calm… Don’t move or the kid gets…” an arrow
from Dana pierced his head. By reflex, his arm reached up to grab
it, but he collapsed to the floor in a quivering heap.

“Wait.. Wait… I can get you anything you
want!” Tony pleaded.

Robbie said, “Well, how about you go back to
that shithole you came from?”

Robbie kept stepping closer and Tony pulled
the girls together and ducked behind them. The group backed into a
corner of the room. The caramel colored girl wrenched her arm away
from Tony, and Robbie stepped forward and put the gun against
Tony’s chest and pulled the trigger twice. Tony crumpled backward
into the corner and David pulled the other girl clear. Tony gasped
and bubbles of blood frothed on his lips. Robbie shot him in the
head.

“Check for security tapes and wipe it all
down,” Robbie said, “then let’s go.”

They did a quick tour of the house and found
nothing. When they got back to the car, Johnny was already inside,
reviewing the footage. They put the rabbit’s cage in the trunk, the
kids in the back seat and pulled away into the night.

“Did you get it?” Robbie asked.

Dana sat on Johnny’s lap, and the three kids
took up the rest of the space. He looked over her shoulder and
said, “Yep. Cut it just before you got in the room. That was the
most twisted thing… Nobody will believe it. It’s worse than a
nightmare. People will think it’s a movie or something...”

Dana put her hands out, “Let’s not talk shop
right now with the little ones here…”

David turned around. “You guys speak
English?” The kids were too traumatized to respond.

They drove in silence back to Kenny’s. He met
them outside. Dana mothered the kids over onto the bus and the men
stood around.

“How’d it go, greenie?” he asked Johnny.

“We got amazing footage and audio.”

“Take ‘em down?” Kenny asked.

Robbie replied, “yeah, they’re back on the
other side. A couple of nasty ones.”

“Two down… thousands to go?” Kenny laughed at
the futility of it.

~End of Episode Three~

Present Day

Steve and Chloe trotted down the main
staircase of the high school heading toward the cafeteria. A tall
girl with thick blond curls blocked their way at the bottom.

Monica Merchant folded her arms and got in
Chloe’s face. She squeaked, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re
doing.”

Chloe looked at Steve. He shrugged. Chloe
said, “Ummm… I’m not sure what you’re talking about, so why not
tell us?”

“Stay away from my man, you trash. You,
freaking cow!”

“Who? Steve?” Chloe pointed.

Monica rolled her eyes and shook her finger
in Chloe’s face. “Oh, as if! You know who I’m talking about.” Steve
put up his hands and walked past.

“I’ll save you a seat. When you’re done with
this freak, I’ll be in there.” He walked through the cafeteria
doors.

Chloe said icily, “Look. I have no idea what
your drama is. I’m going to go get some lunch. You should too. It’s
sloppy joe
day.” Chloe started to walk past.

“Oh, and a cow like you would know. Cow.”
Monica was a volleyball player--the captain of the team this year.
She was a head taller than Chloe and she wanted a physical
confrontation. Monica shoved her. Chloe absorbed the push and
gracefully took a step back and eyed Monica.

Chloe breathed. She worked hard to keep her
temper under wraps. “Don’t touch me again… I’m going to go in there
and eat and talk to my friends. I suggest if you have a problem
with ‘your man’ you bring it up with him, got it? I can’t imagine
anyone would want to let a prize like you go.” She started walking
past Monica.

Monica attempted to push her a second time,
but Chloe grabbed her arm and let Monica’s momentum carry her past.
A dozen possibilities flashed through her mind before Monica even
began to understand what happened. She could destroy Monica’s knee
with a kick, or punch her in the neck or kidney or in the bundle of
nerves by her shoulder, but instead, she grabbed her index finger
and bent it back.

Monica knelt on the floor. She said, “Ow ow
ow ow ow… Please…”

People were starting to gather around the
scene, so Chloe let her go before any teachers got involved. Monica
held her hand and started crying and went for the bathroom.

Chloe said, “Drama. Drama. Drama.” and held
her hands up over her head and did a stage bow, then joined Steve
at their table.

“Who was that crazy chick?” she asked.

Steve had a mouthful of sloppy joe. He held
up a finger until he swallowed. “Oh, that’s Monica Merchant. She’s
a jock chick. Her dad’s in real estate has a few McDonald’s too.
She’s got the beemer out in the lot.”

“What was her problem? Is she always like
that?” Chloe started eating, too. “Oh man, you can’t beat a good
sloppy joe. Why do they serve anything else? Food of the gods.”

Steve laughed. “Wanna hear what my Dad’d
say?”

“Sure…” she chuckled as he got into
character.

“Son, high school is a
lek
. That’s a
‘breeding’ arena. The males and females compete for dominance and
the ability to breed with partners with desirable characteristics…”
he laughed.

“Hmmm… what’d you call it?”

“A ‘lek’. He had me watch a documentary on
it. It actually made some sense.”

“How so?” She was intrigued.

“You’re new… you’re super fit, attractive.
Definitely the best hair and smile of any girl here.
Competition...” he blushed a little. “I’m so used to being around
Tracy as a buddy--she’s a hottie too--that I kind of forget about
the whole dating drama. But now, homecoming… People starting to go
crazy, competing.” he chomped another bite.

“I think you’re dad’s pretty smart.” she
said.

“Yeah. He knows a lot of stuff. He’s into
science.”

Morgan and Tracy sat down. Steve said,
“Monica Merchant got all up in Chloe’s face.”

Tracy said, “That chick is crazy. Last year,
I saw her in a hair pulling fight with Amber Rose in the parking
lot.”

“About what?” Chloe asked.

“Her boyfriend ‘cheated’ on her with
Amber.”

“Ah, she’s a jealous one, I guess. Accused me
of the same thing.”

Morgan asked, “Oh, and who’s the lucky
boy?”

Chloe said, “I honestly have no clue. I’m the
new girl… been making the rounds talking to everyone. I’m friendly.
It’s what I do.”

Tracy tapped the table, “I know! It’s Richard
Golden. We talked to those guys in the parking lot this
morning.”

“What? That? Please…” Chloe answered. “She
is
crazy.”

Robbie finished the video chat with Johnny
and dug out some binoculars and went up into the attic. The attic
had windows on each face of the house, so he had a decent view of
the yard and the woods. He shifted boxes out of the way so he could
move around. Perry followed him up the steep stairs.

“That’s a good boy. Chill out up here with
me.”

It took about a half hour for a truck to show
up in the driveway. Two men in generic security guard uniforms got
out. “Game Warden” had been stencilled on the side of the
truck.

“I wonder if that paint’s still wet.” he
snapped a picture of the license plate and sent it to Johnny. It
was a normal Ohio plate, not a state vehicle.

A reply came a few seconds later. “ON IT”

Two guys got out of the truck. Robbie didn’t
recognize the faces--it was Yuri and Saul. Yuri’s uniform was
overly large and the pants were rolled up. They unloaded a
cardboard box from the back of the truck. Saul carried the box and
Yuri slung a rifle over his shoulder. Robbie watched them with the
binoculars as they went into the woods.

Once they thought they were out of sight,
Saul boosted Yuri into a tree and tossed him something from the
box.

“Must be a camera…” he said to Perry and
patted him on the head.

They repeated the procedure at another
location in the woods with a different sight line on the house.
They circled around through the woods and he lost sight of
them.

They installed cameras. SEND

Johnny emailed him the registration
information on the vehicle. It was registered to the Charles Smith,
the Sheriff.

That’s odd… Sheriff’s personal truck.
SEND

“Interesting… I’ll dig.” Johnny replied.

Another thirty minutes passed and the two men
returned to the truck. They put the empty box in the cab and
climbed in. They honked the horn and drove away from the house,
turned left and accelerated away.

Robbie walked out to his M1008 and Perry
hopped in with him. “Let’s follow these bastards.”

He stormed down the driveway, turned left and
accelerated to catch up, but a few seconds later he stomped on the
brakes since a sheriff’s car was parked in a drive at the bottom of
the hill. He wasn’t speeding, but the bubble lights lit up
anyway.

“Oh sheeeit.” he grumbled and pulled over.
The car continued past him up to the stop sign. He continued on
slowly. One of the sheriff’s deputies climbed out and held up a
hand.

“Sorry, sir the road’s closed up ahead…
Accident. You can go around on 322 or Wilson Mills.”

“OK. Thanks…” Robbie turned around and went
back to the farm.

Perry was puzzled by the short trip, and
stayed in the truck after Robbie got out. “Well, boy, seems like
things are getting interesting, here. C’mon.”

He texted Johnny, “Need backup. Busy?”
SEND

He got a reply from Dana, “On the way.
:x”

He went upstairs and started to set up the
guest rooms.

Keith Marte tracked down Sarah Cantoe’s
friends by doing a reverse phone number lookup on the numbers from
Sarah’s statements. The addresses were both in Portage County but
on opposite sides of the proverbial tracks. One of the addresses
was a rented house in Windham. The other was in Hudson in a big
Greek revival house.

He drafted an official looking letter and put
a headshot of himself in the upper right hand corner. It was
addressed from “The Office of Unclaimed Wealth” to Dickie Parsons,
Sarah’s friend. It read that an unclaimed bank account registered
to Sarah Cantoe was going to be turned over to the state of Ohio
unless someone claimed the funds. He included the phone number of a
prepaid phone. He sealed up the letter and stamped it with a fake
postmark and drove to Windham.

The address was for a run down house with a
view of the turnpike. A sad chainlink fence surrounded the
property, but had collapsed in a couple of places. A big willow
tree swayed in gentle wind and shaded most of the yard from the
midmorning sunshine. The driveway was gravel and had several muddy
potholes. The white paint on the house was peeling and the wood
underneath was battleship gray from the weather.

He got out of the car and knocked on the
rattly screen door. Nobody home. The mailbox only had a few pieces
of junk mail, so he put the letter inside and climbed back into the
car and drove toward Hudson.

He was more intrigued by his next target, a
man named Fredrich Reichstaff. If Sarah had a handler before she
killed Marcus Rice, he could be the man. He stopped at a bagel shop
to pick up some coffee and a snack. A short balding man in a suit
was berating the counter girl.

“I’m sorry sir, we don’t have any cinnamon
raisin today.” She said matter of factly. She was short, only about
4’ 11” and had dark red dyed hair that was pulled up under a black
baseball cap with a logo that said “BagelCo”.

“What do you mean? How’s that even possible.
This is a bagel shop. I get that every fucking day.”

The girl said, “I don’t know what to tell
you. I can’t make them magically appear.”

“Don’t you get smart with
me
you
trash…” the man stepped around the counter and the girl backed
away.