Centuries Ch. 01

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"It's been good in Texas." said Eduardo Escobar as we drove along the road. "I've been in San Antonio, working mostly on gang activity crossing the border... drugs into the USA, guns into Mexico."

Meanwhile, Cindy asked Tim Jenkins "How did you guys get here ahead of us?"

"Jack got a call from Chief Harold Bennett last night." said Jenkins. "Bennett said that something strange was going on around here. He's been seeing strangers around for a few weeks. He thought it might have to do with the Midwest & Pacific Railroad's plan to build a railroad line through here, but the guys who are with the Railroad said they weren't with them."

Jenkins: "Jack didn't say much more, but I know about that video he was sent, since you guys asked me about it yourselves. I was in the City overnight, so Jack had me meet him at City Airport, and we took an FBI plane out there. We landed at the military post northwest of here, and Eduardo Escobar's plane flew in about ten minutes later."

I had half-turned my head to listen, and I caught Teresa's eyes cutting over to mine. She was deducing what I was: there was more, a lot more, to this story. Not one but two FBI planes committed to this mission? And Jack Muscone bringing in Escobar, someone he trusted? And after hearing from Chief Bennett... who coincidentallywas attacked this morning, and in the hospital now? Hmmm...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I'm FBI Special Agent in Charge Jack Muscone." said Jack Muscone as he showed his credentials at the front desk of the hospital. "This is Sheriff Griswold." He declined to mention the Sheriff's jurisdiction. "We're here to see Chief Harold Bennett."

"Yes sir." said the receptionist. "He's in Room 108, but I don't know if he's come out of his coma yet."

"We'll just look in on him, then." said Griswold. "He's an old friend of mine."

"Yes sir." said the receptionist. "I'm sorry your friend was hurt. But don't go in unless he's awake."

At Room 108, they saw Harold Bennett in bed, with a doctor doing doctor things, examining him. The LEOs went inside.

"How is he, Doctor?" asked Griswold.

"He's coming out of it." said the Doctor. "He's out of danger, but he still needs a lot of rest. Are you relatives of his?"

"I'm an old friend," said the Sheriff, "and this is an FBI Agent who is his friend, and is looking into the case for me."

"Okay, but he's in and out right now. I'll give you five minutes." the doctor said, then left the room.

The Sheriff and Muscone went to the sides of the bed, seeing some of the damage. There were bruises on Bennett's face and head, and a lot worse bruises on his forearms. They couldn't see the damage to his chest and legs, but it was bad.

Bennett's eyes half-opened and he said "Uhhh, I must've died and gone to Hell. I always knew you were the Devil, Chief Griswold. What are you doing here, Grizz?"

"Wondering why you didn't duck." said the Sheriff, chuckling at Bennett's joke. "Jack Muscone of the FBI is here with me. What happened, Harold?"

"After I called you last night, Jack," said Bennett, "I never got any sleep. Just before dawn... I got a call that something was going on at the cemetery. I got in my Patrol car and went straight down there... and one of the headstones was smashed... I was going back to my car to call it in, when I got jumped. I tried to protect my head... but they got me pretty good."

"Anything you remember that can help us?" Muscone asked.

"They were in all black, and black ski masks... couldn't see anything." said Bennett. "They weren't... all that fit... one of them had a belly..."

"Okay, that helps." said Griswold.

"I passed out." said Bennett. "I came to for a minute, and one of them was pressing my fingers to a cell phone... guess it was mine, and they were trying to open it... then I don't remember anything else until I woke up a few minutes ago..."

"Okay, you get some rest." said Griswold. Harold Bennet followed those instructions; he fell back asleep.

As they walked out of the hospital, the Sheriff told Muscone about Teresa getting the photo. Muscone asked: "You get the idea they meant to lure Teresa here?"

"Sounds like Iron Crowbar thinking, there." said the Sheriff. "Let's get back down there..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We approached the large grassy area that was the de facto town square. To the east was the cemetery, and north of it was the Police/Fire Station complex. To the right of the cemetery, going east-west, was the road that led to the Downtown district, literally one block of stores and shops. On the other side of the grassy field was the City Hall, Courthouse, and Library.

"I'm going to stop by the Library first." I said. "Eduardo, if you'll come with me, Tim can stay with Cindy and Teresa and check out the cemetery."

"Sounds like a plan." said Cindy. Eduardo and I went northwest as the others walked east.

Going into the library, I saw an attractive women in her late 30s or early 40s behind the desk. She gave me a bright, flirtatious smile as I approached the desk.

"Hi," I said, giving her a smile, "my name is Don Troy, and I'm with---"

"I remember you." the woman said. "You were here several years ago, asking about that girl Teresa and her family."

"Yes, I was." I said. "You have a good memory."

"You spoke to Mildred." said the woman. "I remember that because Mildred died a couple of weeks ago."

"Oh no." I said sadly. "I'm sorry to hear that. She was very nice to me, and very helpful. What happened"

"It was so sudden." said the woman. "She came down with a cold, or so we thought. Then she had vomiting, coughing, fever, and she couldn't breathe. The doctor thought she had pneumonia, as she had fluid in her lungs, and they took her to the hospital. But she just got worse, and her blood pressure dropped, and she died. It just happened so... fast! Like one day she was here, and fine; and the next..." She didn't finish the sentence.

"That's terrible." I said. "Let me ask you this. Do you remember these two persons?" I showed her pictures of Cindy and Tim Jenkins.

"Oh yes, they were here the year before last, right around Thanksgiving." the woman said. "Cute couple, too. They had 'bedroom eyes' for each other." The woman was looking at me with her own 'bedroom eyes', and I just grinned and nodded. "They recorded some of our old videos onto CDs, and gave us a copy of them."

"Have you seen them since then?" I asked.

"No, not them." said the woman. "But someone else did come in to look at the DVDs."

"Was that person one of these people?" I showed photos of Martin Nash, as well as the members of the Rovers BAU Team, Mort Springer and William Drew.

"No, none of them." said the librarian. "This guy didn't stand out. He was the kind of guy who blended in with the crowd... even when he was alone in the room, here in the library."

"I see." I said. "Okay, thank you very much. You've been a great help."

"Any time." said the librarian. "If you're looking for a good place for lunch or dinner, I'll be glad to show you."

"That's kind of you." I said. "I'll let you know." With that I turned and collected Eduardo, and we left.

"She's married, but she's hot as hell for you, Don." Eduardo said, teasing me.

"True on both counts." I said.

"What about that woman that died?" Eduardo said. "Who was she? Anything in that?"

"Yeah." I said, my face and voice turning grim. "She was the woman that gave me the story about Teresa some years ago, then helped lead Cindy to those tapes in the library. And those symptoms... they could be pneumonia... but they sound more like ricin poisoning to me..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"And this is supposed to match
The darkness that you felt
I never meant for you to fix yourself..."
--- Fall Out Boy, 'Centuries'.

Teresa noticed a relatively new grave site a ways down from her family's as she, Cindy, and Tim Jenkins came up to the headstones. Teresa saw the quarter she'd left on her father's headstone... it had been superglued down and never touched since... and her sister Alexis's grave.

Then she allowed herself to look at the shattered headstone at her mother's burial place. Police tape surrounded it.

She felt Cindy put her arm around her as Cindy said "I'm sorry about this. It ain't right."

"No, it's not." Teresa said. "Whoever did this obviously wanted to get me here. So... I'm here." They went inside the tape to look more closely at the damage.

"You're violating a crime scene!" they heard a voice say. They whirled to see three men. One of them was Teresa's age, maybe a bit older, with black hair, a thin beard, and a hard look on his features. The other two were younger men, and were wearing Deputy Sheriff uniforms.

"Well, well, well." said the older man. "If it ain't Teresa Cunt."

"And if it ain't Kenny Belton." Teresa replied. "As worthless an asshole as ever."

"You're violating a crime scene, bitch." said one of the Deputies.

"It's my mother's grave, and I'll look at it if I want to." Teresa said. "You really think you can stop me?"

"We don't care." said the Deputy. "We'll shoot you if you go inside that tape again."

"You're not welcome here, cunt." snarled Kenny. "Get out of town. By sundown."

"And if we don't?" Cindy said menacingly, tapping the green crowbar in her hand. Tim Jenkins was off to one side, his hand over his holstered gun under his jacket.

"Then you two bitches are going to be raped, and then your throats slit." promised Kenny.

"Oh really?" Teresa said with disdain. "By you? Just tell me now: do you want me to break the same shoulder I broke last time? Or break the other one... to even things out."

"We'll see about that." snarled Kenny, who advanced upon Teresa. Cindy came forward, ready to use the crowbar. The two Deputies went for their guns, as did Tim Jenkins.

"Who the fuck are you?" one of the Deputies asked Jenkins, bringing his gun up to face off with Tim's.

"FBI." said Tim. "You're pointing your gun at a Federal Agent."

"And you're pointing your gun at us." said the Deputy. "This is our County, not yours. We have jurisdiction here."

"What?" Teresa said disbelievingly. "You haven't had a Sheriff's Department here since--- er, for almost 20 years."

"We're going to elect a Sheriff this year." said the Deputy. "Until then, the County Council has authorized a Sheriff Department, and we Deputies answer to the Mayor."

"And who is that?" Cindy asked, still ready to destroy Kenny with her crowbar.

"My father." said Kenny. "You remember him, don't you, Teresa Cunt?"

"Call her that again..." Cindy said, advancing on Kenny. The two Deputies trained their guns on her, and Jenkins once again pointed his at the Deputies.

"Bring it on, bitch." said Kenny, to Cindy. "Guys, just blow her dyke ass away."

*WHAM!*

Kenny pitched forward as the red crowbar slammed his squarely on the back. The Deputies looked over just in time to see the red crowbar slam into their arms, knocking their aim off, followed by a powerful blow to one man's chest and another to the other's ribs. Then I slammed them in their backs, knocking them down.

"Don't even think about it, motherfucker!" I growled in my 'Batman' voice as one man tried to raise his firearm while on the ground. I knocked it out of his hands, and he screamed in pain; crowbar blows on knuckle joints hurt. "If either of you try any more shit, I'll gouge your fucking eyes out!"

Tim Jenkins and Eduardo Escobar collected the Deputies's weapons as I turned my attention to Kenny. "And you, punk." I said as I got in his face. "You would be dead already if you didn't have those two bozos with you."

"The Iron Crowbar." said Kenny disdainfully. "Better get your bitches here back to your home Town... unless you'd rather bury them at this cemetery here. Come on guys, let's go." He and the Deputies walked to the car they'd arrived in, and drove off with a screech of tires.

"What in the fuck was that about?" Cindy asked.

"Are they faking being Deputies?" I asked Teresa.

"I... I don't know." said Teresa. "I don't know if you heard me a minute ago, but there hasn't been a Sheriff here for nearly 20 years."

"Yes, I heard that." I replied. I looked around, seeing the damage to the headstone. I walked over to the other new grave site. As I suspected, it was where Mildred was buried.

I invited Teresa to come over, then said "You owe your Police career to this woman. She's the one that told me and Jack about your story when I first came here." Teresa nodded silently in acknowledgement.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We were at the Police Station. Jack Muscone and Sheriff Griswold had procured a second Escalade for the drive back. Wow, I thought... two planes and two Escalades. These FBI Agents are living it up!

One man in his early 30s, named Griffith, was a Police Lieutenant. "Yes, I guess I'm in charge here until the Chief gets back. How's he doing?"

"Better." said Jack Muscone, who had arrived with Sheriff Griswold some moments before. "What happened this morning with him?"

"We got a 9-1-1 call that he was lying on the ground at the cemetery, and went over." said Lt. Griffith. "We must've gotten there right after the attack. My guys just put him into a squad car and drove him up to the hospital. An ambulance would've taken half an hour, at least."

"Your guys did correctly." said Sheriff Griswold. "So let me ask you, do you have any idea why your Police Chief would be attacked that way?"

"No sir." said Lt. Griffith, politely giving respect to the older man. "This town is quiet to the point of nearly dead. That may change if the new railroad line brings in new businesses, though. But I don't know who'd want to attack the Police Chief."

I could see in his eyes that there was something he was holding back, but unfortunately I did not have time to get it out of him. Instead I said "Do you have the Chief's cellphone here?"

"Yes sir, but it's evidence." said Lt. Griffith.

"That's fine, I just want a look." I said. An officer brought out the bagged cellphone. I looked at it.

"Yep," I said, "there's blood on the finger-reader, there. I think the perps used his fingers to get the one that opened up the phone, then they used it to take a photo of the destroyed headstone and send it to you, Teresa."

"Not much gets past you." said Sheriff Griswold. "I hadn't yet had the chance to tell you that that is what Harold Bennett said at the hospital... he regained consciousness while they were pressing his fingers to the phone."

"But why?" asked Eduardo Escobar.

"To take that photo of Teresa's mother's destroyed headstone," I replied, "and to send it to her seemingly from Chief Bennett."

"I think Teresa had it right at the cemetery." said Cindy. "They did it to get her out here. And as soon as she got here, we had a thug and two wannabee Deputies confront her. I don't think they expected an armed FBI Agent, though." She punched Tim Jenkins lightly on the shoulder as she said it.

"He may have saved your lives with his presence." I replied. "Okay, before it gets to 4:00pm and everything closes down, I need to get to City Hall. If you, Jack, and you, Teresa, come with me, I'd be grateful. Eduardo, if you'll escort the Sheriff, and if you'll let me assign you a mission, Sheriff, I'd like you to go to the newspaper office." As I spoke, I handed Sheriff Griswold a folded piece of paper.

"We're on it." said the Sheriff.

"And Cindy and Tim," I said, "I'd like you to do a couple of things. Take the Escalade and drive around. You've seen the video of the night Alexis died, so see if you can find that street, and look around it. Then drive all around town. See if you can find the junkyard where Alexis's car was towed. But if you see you're being followed, abort and come straight back to the Police Station here..."

Part 4 - Data Gathering and Organizing

We pulled up at the Courthouse and went inside. The receptionist gave us a look... not unfriendly, but like an 'I'm almost out of here for the weekend; go away!' look.

"Hi." I said. "I know it's late, but we're FBI Agents, and we really need this information. It's about this lady's parents, and we need to find their marriage certificate."

"Well, we're about to close." the woman said.

"Please!" Teresa said pleadingly. "It was a thousand-mile trip to get here."

The woman peered at Teresa and said "You're Teresa Croyle, aren't you?"

"Er, yes." Teresa said.

"You don't remember me, do you?" asked the woman.

Teresa peered at her, then said "I'm sorry, I don't."

"It's okay." the woman said, then introduced herself and said "I was in 5th grade when you were a Junior in High School. My older sister Janet was in your Class."

"Oh yes, Janet." said Teresa. "She was the Homecoming Queen when she was a Senior, wasn't she?"

"Yes! She was." said the woman. "Okay, you guys can come on in." She took us to the huge file room, and Jack and I began going through the records of 1968.

"Here it is." I said. I pulled the record and we all looked at it as I took photos with my iPhone. "First name 'Sarah', which we knew already. Says here your mother's maiden name was 'Lenora'." To the woman, I asked "Are the birth certificates stored here?"

"No sir, those are stored in the Archives, at old City Hall." said the woman. "You have to go to the current City Hall building and put in a request, then someone goes and finds it. It'll take days."

"That's okay, it was a long shot anyway." I said. "I very much appreciate your help."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Damn, I don't know how Crowbar does it." growled Griswold as he took the old photo out of the file drawer. "He was right As usual."

"What did he want you to find?" asked Muscone. Griswold showed him the note I'd written.

"Wow." Muscone said. "You know, the FBI can get that colorized for you."

"Let's go ask them if we can borrow this." said Griswold...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Yep, we're being tailed." said Cindy as she rode shotgun in the Escalade, with Tim Jenkins driving. "Dark blue Ford GT. But he's eye candy. There's a Police vehicle further back, also tracking us."

"Neat trick." Tim said. "They're hoping that if we spot the LEO vehicle, we'll think he's following the muscle car."

"That's Iron Crowbar thinking, there." Cindy said with a smile. "Not bad, for an FBI Agent."

Tim grinned. "I took the driving course at Quantico. They teach everything from defensive driving, driving a VIP and the 'escape and evade' techniques, and also how to spot tails, and how to tail without being spotted."

"All right." Cindy said. "When I looked at Apple Maps, I saw the Junkyard down that street, on the east side, just before you get to the only hilltop in this whole county, it seems. If we take that road, they'll know we're looking for the junkyard. And it's a dead end, and a great way to get ambushed."

"I hear that." said Tim. "Okay, the downtown area. It ain't much. What did Don want us to see?"

"I think I saw what he looking for." said Cindy. "Alexis's car came north from the road further south, which is the road she'd take from her house. That subdivision is just south of the downtown district. The north-south road that is Main Street is narrow, with buildings on both sides. There was no place for Alexis to go. Her car was in the left lane, almost parked to the side when she was hit head on."

"Yes, I remember." said Tim.

Cindy went on: "I think Don wanted us to realize that there was another car involved. Maybe coming up the wrong way, forcing Alexis's friend, who was driving, to go left. Then Jack's brother's car comes up and plows into them."

"So Don is building a murder case, here." said Tim. "Or trying to."