Cliffhanger Theater!

Mokoto slowly got out of Michelle’s Toyota.  The motorcycle rider took off his helmet as Mokoto put her gun away.  “You’d better not have scratched that” she said as she walked towards the bike.  She glanced back and forth as Jeremiah sat the helmet on the seat.

“It handles real nice.  To bad it will probably get identified.”

“New license plate and some new detailing and I’ll be fine.”

“So, how in the world did you track them here?”

“Honestly?”

Jeremiah pulled a toothpick out of his coat pocket.  He looked around the alleyway and shrugged.  “Nah, I don’t really want to know.  It ruins your mystique.”

Mokoto laughed.  She saw Michelle inside the car, and she wasn’t talking yet.  “We need to get them in and separate them.  Phil and Michelle are the ones we can work over the best.  Bob might be a lost cause at this point.”

“That’s not so good.  He’s the one who was best friends with Gerrard.”

“I have some ideas for that, but maybe we’ll get lucky with Phil.”

“The girl?”

Mokoto took a deep breath.  “She doesn’t have anything to do with this, but we’ll keep her around for now.  I don’t think we’ll have to eliminate her.”

“We’ll see.”  Jeremiah smiled as he looked over the car’s passengers.

“Say, who’s Jebediah on the phone with?”

“Beats me.”  Jeremiah waved at the silver car, and Jebediah slowly got out of the car.  Once out, he flipped the phone closed.

“Let’s get these three inside.  Who were you on the phone with?”

“Mister Man.”

Jeremiah and Mokoto nodded.  They turned towards the Toyota.

***

A loud buzzing went off as the phone was hung up.  The chair spun around, so that the back was towards the door.  As the office door opened, the man in the chair spoke slowly.

“Shaun, what can you tell me?”

Shaun looked into the room.  A large, oak desk almost stretched all the way across the room.  The walls were covered in bookshelves, and the hardwood floors echoed his footsteps as he walked in.  He knew how far forward he could walk, and he walked in no further.  “We have no idea where Laura is.”

“That is…unfortunate.  Her actions could lead to…storm fronts that were not predicted.”

“We haven’t heard from our contact yet.  It’s possible they’re in a dead zone…”

“No.  That’s a case of two fronts…merging I would guess.  Fear not, for soon they will all be in the same isobar.”

“No word on where the F.B.I. Agent is.”

“He isn’t my concern right now.”  The man in the chair’s hand lifted, and three screens on the wall lit up.  The far left screen was a map of the the Dakotas and Minnesota, with some lights blinking red, and other areas were blinking blue, green and yellow.  The screen on the right was a long list of names, amounts and times.  The middle screen was the largest, and on it was the Weather Channel.  The hand lowered as Cheryl Lemke started going over the nation’s forecast.  “That’s all for now Shaun.  I’d like some time to absorb the new weather data now.”

“As you wish” Shaun said, as he walked out of the room.

Laura crossed her arms. She had washed all of the blood off of her shoulders and legs, and her hair had been conditioned for a good five minutes.  She closed her eyes and imagined herself far away from Sioux Falls. She tried to drift far away from her time with the Weatherman. She yearned for a place in her life before the army. Her mind reached back beyond her tomboyish years in high school, her parent’s divorce, and her always stronger kid brother always getting the best of her. She unfolded her arms and shut the water off. She could never go back far enough.

While she was toweling off, she noticed her answering machine blinking. It wasn’t blinking before she had gotten in the shower. She pressed play, then started pulling on her underwear.

“Laura, we need to talk. I believe you know the number to reach me at. You still have that Nokia, right? If not, I may need your number.”

Laura frowned. She knew the voice on the other end. She walked over to her entertainment center, and pulled out a VHS copy of Twister. The videotape slid out of the cardboard box, and she gripped the sides of the tape. It popped apart, and the Nokia inside popped out and landed on the floor. She put the tape back together, and then she found the battery powered phone charger. The phone charged while she fastened her bra and pulled on a black tank-top. She flipped open the phone and found “weather” in her contacts list. After pressing send, she had to only wait for one ring to hear that familiar voice.

“Laura, I’m so glad you beat the storm.”

“It wasn’t easy. I’ll tell you that.”

“I’m afraid more bad weather is heading your way. It’s really a shame. No one in Sioux Falls expected cop on cop violence.”

“Wait…what?” Laura’s tone was much less calm, and the Weatherman took notice.

“Easy, easy. Laura Black is the problem. Laura Blake, on the other hand, has a good opportunity in Houston.”

“Houston?”

“It is a bit near tornado alley, but I think the skies are much calmer there.”

“Listen here, I’ve done everything for you and your group. You’re hanging me out to dry, and you expect me to get out of this town with the F.B.I. and the locals on my tail? I have to take a fall now too? How is that fair? And where is Mokoto right now anyway?”

“She…is off the grid. She’ll turn up when we need her.”

“You…I was with you long before she came aboard. I’ve given over a decade to you. Now you’re letting this rouge make her own hours?”

“She is hard to control. Much like the weather, she is not often easy to predict, but she always has a good extended forecast.”

“Let me guess, I’m more day to day?” Laura’s voice was getting louder every time she spoke.

“Your skills are not in question, but your judgements are like correctly picking the path of a hurricane.”

“Let me guess, I should be glad Jeremiah and Jebediah left me to rot then blew up their damn car?!?”

“Those two are like the thunder and lightning that-”

“AHHH!!!! SCREW YOU AND YOUR DAMN WEATHER METAPHORS!!! TRY AND PREDICT THIS!!!” Laura closed the phone and threw it into the living room. She was huffing and puffing, and she had the urge to take a baseball bat to everything in her apartment. She took a deep breath, then walked to the living room, where the breeze from her broken patio window was quite pleasant. She picked up the phone and played with a few commands. She soon had a map, and a blip that was flashing.

“Well weatherman, your ‘thunder and lighting’ are on my doppler. After them, we’ll see about shortening your extended forecast.”

Laura smiled for the first time in hours.

“Good evening, I’m Don Jorgensen for KELO Land news at six.”

“Authorities are still not commenting any further on an explosion that occurred earlier today near the Sioux Falls police station. There have been unconfirmed reports that a car exploded near the station, but so far we have not been able to confirm this. There have also been unconfirmed reports that at least one officer is in critical condition at Avera-McKennan. Sioux Falls’ Police Chief would not address the situation, other than saying no one was killed, and it was not an act of terrorism.”

“The explosion comes on the heels of another tragedy, the death of police officer Jeff Stevens sometime yesterday. While his death has not been listed as a homicide, Sioux Falls police are still looking for two men for questioning. Those men are Phillip Anderton and Robert Fulton, both of Sioux Falls. Anderton is a native of Mitchell, and Fulton is originally from Spearfish. Authorities are expanding their search to those areas, and to areas North and South of Sioux Falls. It is still unclear whether those men are being sought for information about the death of officer Stevens, or the multi-car pile-up on interstate 229 Friday evening. Amazingly, no one was killed in the accident, but two people remain in critical condition, including one unnamed member of the South Dakota Highway Patrol. “

“As if Sioux Falls police weren’t busy enough, they are also seeking this woman. Authorities do no know her name, but she is known by the alias Laura Black. She was being held by police earlier today, but escaped during the confusion after the explosion near the police station. Sioux Falls police have an officer named Laura Black on staff, but it is not known at this time if the two Lauras are one in the same.”

“Let’s turn things over to Jay Trobec in the KELO-land storm center, where he’s tracking a storm front moving into South Dakota at this hour.”

“Well, this one is an unstable front that’s moving in, and we could see a lot of atmospheric turb-”

CLICK

Phil’s face was frozen in shock. Bob hung his head after turning off the television. Bob’s mind was all over the place, and now he knew his family would be calling his cell phone non-stop until he got ahold of them. Phil swallowed a mouthful of Pepsi, then spoke. “So…I’m thinking we should turn ourselves in now.”

“Phil, I have no doubt that explosion near the police station has something to do with all this. If they can get a bomb right outside the police station, I don’t feel safe there, and especially at a station in a town like Aberdeen.”

“So…what do we do? Do we keep running? We can’t afford to just run from town to town like this.”

“I don’t know. I really should call my family somehow. My parents are going to worry all night.”

“Well, my mom might get worried” Phil said as he stood up, “but my dad won’t notice for a few days. I think he’s in Vegas for some kind of business seminar. He tends to forget his cell phone.”

“Let’s go get a bite to eat…we’ll decide what we do next after some food.”

Phil looked down at his cell phone. Michelle’s number was ready to dial. All he had to do was hit send. His thumb rested on the green button, but it didn’t press it. He looked up, and noticed he had wandered into Kmart’s toy department. “How did I get here?” he muttered under his breath. How indeed he thought. Jer’s death, the shooting in Jer’s apartment, the car chase, hiding in B’s car, freight hopping and wandering Aberdeen were all racing through his mind. How could he call her now? He found the number on-line months ago, but could never bring himself to call it. He was being sought by the police and an assassin, so calling her now seemed like the stupidest idea he could think of. Yet, he still missed her. He thought about her every day. He wandered out of the toy department and kept walking. His finger still on the button.

***

There she is! What is going on? I have to confront her Felix thought.

Is that officer Black? What is going on here Will thought.

This room got a lot more tense all of the sudden. Who is she Clayton thought.

Those must be her heavies old man B thought.

Dammit…those looks…my cover Laura thought.

This isn’t good. I really didn’t want to involve Mabel again Jeremiah thought.

Mabel and Jebediah didn’t think. They reacted.

Mabel screamed like she’d never screamed before. She thought about the guns that were drawn on her, and the fear she felt when she sat in her apartment and heard the second break in. She remembered crying when she saw the torn jacket in the tree. She thought she had put it out of her mind enough to function, but she only now knew how close her fear was to the surface.  She put her hands on the sides of her head as her scream tailed off. Old man B grabbed her arm and kept her from falling hard.

Jebediah’s mind had been going over everything that had gone wrong so far. He hadn’t counted on Mabel showing up, but he had been mindful of what to do if Laura’s cover was blown. Laura froze in the door of the elevator as Mabel started screaming. He took a step forward. His right hand shot to the door close button and the basement button at the same time. His left arm stiffened and shoved Laura out of the elevator. Laura was not expecting it at all, and Jebediah saw her fall to her knees as the door closed. He looked at Jeremiah as the elevator moved downward. “Fall back alpha.” Jeremiah was used to running the show, but he deferred to Jebediah in times like these.

Laura went from frozen to putting her arms out in seconds. She knew that Jeremiah and Jebediah had hung her out to dry. She didn’t blame them. She knew she would have done the same. Now she was alone in a police station, and even the protection of Sioux Falls’ finest wouldn’t be enough to save her if she rolled over on the weatherman. Felix came running over to help her up, but she had other ideas for him. Laura fell to her right and clutched at her right knee. As Felix helped her up, her arm slid upward, and her hand reached for her sidearm.

***

Bob held the gray cargo pants in his arm. He didn’t care for cargo pants, but it was the best option he was finding at Kmart. He started walking towards the Northeast corner of the store. He was walking by the storage section and he glanced to his left. He saw a large plastic trash can, with a sale sign taped on it, with one piece of tape on every corner. It was exactly how Bob had taped Michelle’s letter to the bottom of their garbage can. He stopped and just stared at the sign. Why did I not throw it out? Why did I tape it to the can? Was I ever going to tell Phil? Should I have let him read it? What did it say? Will I ever be able to tell Phil? Will he forgive me? Wi-

“Hey, uh, are you going to buy that trash can?”

Bob snapped out of his mental prison. “Excuse me?” He turned and saw a large man with a dirty NASCAR hat on.

“The garbage can. If you aren’t going to buy it, I was going to. It’s the last one.”

“No, no take it. I…I just remembered I needed to take out the trash later.” Bob walked rapidly away towards the automotive section. The man watched him walk for a second, then he started dragging the can to the check-out.

***

Mabel was screaming and crying, and old man B was doing all he could to keep her from crumpling into a heap on the floor. “What the hell was it? What’s going on?”

“The…the men in the elevator…Bob’s apartment…threatened to kill me if I went to the police…” she said in between sobs.

Old man B hoisted her up. “We need to get out of here, and now is our chance. Let’s go. I’ll make sure they don’t hurt you.” Mabel didn’t know what to say. Was B offering to protect her? How could he? She couldn’t think straight as B led her towards an exit, away from the scene at the elevator.

Felix reached Laura and started to help her up. “What was that about? Are you okay? We need to talk.”

“Thanks for the assist Felix, but no talking.”

“Huh?”

Laura swung her leg under Felix’s lead leg. As he teetered backwards, she pulled her sidearm and threw her left arm around his neck. She pulled him to a standing position while pressing the gun barrel to his temple. “Don’t make this hard Felix. I’ve already died once, as you found out.”

Will moved forward, but a look from Laura made him back off. “Easy Black, easy.”

“No, you take it easy, and back off. Felix, press that elevator button.”

Clayton calmly took a step towards the wall and to Will’s right. “I’ll call you back” he said as he slowly lowered his phone.

***

Phil looked down at his cell phone again. Michelle’s number was ready to dial. All he had to do was hit send. He took a deep breath…

Laura pushed the button of the elevator.  “Well, that was a waste of time.”

***

Will shoved open the Captain’s door, and Clayton followed close behind.  “Well, that was a waste of time.”

***

Mabel walked down the hall, and spotted old man B.  “Cops.  Total waste of my time.”

***

Felix Moore flipped the screen.  His search for Clayton Iron-Horse turned up yet another spotless record.  “What a time waster.”

***

Agent Garrett nodded.  Agent Lewis sipped a coffee as the Sheriff’s men circled the house.  “This better not be a waste of our time” Garrett quipped.

***

Jeremiah and Jebediah stood together while the elevator made its slow ascent.  “It wasn’t a total waste of time.  Now we just need to start on places Gerrard worked and hung out.  We’ll make it work.  The weatherman is fairly patient.”

“I realize that Jeremiah, but I don’t know how much longer I can be here before somebody digs too deep into Laura Black’s past.  I’m on borrowed time.”

“In another week, you’ll be someplace else.  I promise.”

“Good.  This town is just too…small town for me.”

***

Will started down the stairs.  Clayton was right behind him.  “I didn’t think you ever took the stairs.”

“I take them when I need to blow off steam.”

“Will, things will work out.  You’ll find your man, I’ll find some leads and we’ll call it a good weekend.”

“Something doesn’t add up here Iron-Horse, and you know it.”

“Maybe so, but you have your task, and I have mine.  I’d rather not have your captain call my director.”

“If you want to play it safe, fine, but I need…ah hell, I don’t even know where to go on this case.  It has my brain all screwy.  I’ve been making one mistake after another.”

“You’re a good cop Will.  Don’t beat yourself up over this.  Chances are it’s something over both our heads.  That poison patch…”

“Yeah yeah, the poison patch.  Now I have to go find Moore and spend the day reading up on anyone who might have had a beef with Stevens.”

***

Mabel walked up to B.  “How are you otherwise?”

“Me, I’ve been better, but I’m not ready to call it a day or night yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“I need a ride to my car.  I have to find out where those two tools are that I loaded on the train.”

“But I th-”

“Shhhhhhhh!” said B as he put one finger over her lips and his other arm around her, turning her around as they kept walking.

Mabel whispered “but I thought you told them where they were.”

“I told them one possible place to look.  If Julio checks his schedule he might tip them off that I lied…I think.”

“You think?”

“Listen, what I told them…might be true.  I honestly don’t know.  But I want to start looking and maybe do my own poking around.”

***

Felix bounced from window to window, tab to tab.  Google searching was getting old, and he was near the end of all the results for everyone he was looking for.  He flipped the screen and saw something that made him sit up quickly.  The link read: In Memorial-Officer Laura Black.

Laura looked back and forth nervously.  Jebediah was underneath Bob’s Pontiac, and Jeremiah was checking the trunk.  The garage was empty for the moment, but Laura knew someone could show up at anytime.  “Would you two speed it up?”

“Relax Laura, our stories will check out.”  Jeremiah kept talking as he tugged on various parts of the trunk’s interior.

“I have no doubt your visitor passes can easily be confirmed.  People will still ask questions.  It isn’t like we get a ton of visiting officers from San Diego.  That and they’ll want to know why you’re checking this car out.”

“We can deal with anyone who asks too many questions” came Jebediah’s voice from under the car.

“That’s another thing.”  Laura walked quickly by the car and lowered her voice.  “Which of you two thought it was a good idea to shoot an officer?  The cops here are practically foaming at the mouth looking for someone who shot one of their own.”

“Funny you should ask us that” said Jeremiah, as he closed the trunk.  “I regret to inform you that you’re asking the wrong guys.  Maybe you can call Mokoto and ask her.”

“She’s the shooter?”

“That’s right” Jeremiah kept his eyes on Laura as he opened the rear driver’s side door.  “We were on our way out of town when that happened.”

“What were you doing in town?”

“We came looking for Gerrard, but we couldn’t find him, and then we got word that he was dead, so there was a…a change in the ‘weather’, so to speak.”

Jebediah popped up behind Laura.  “Doesn’t that weather mumbo-jumbo bother you?  I can’t stand it.”

“Why Jebediah, you have an opinion on something.”  Jeremiah smiled as he started checking the backseat.

Laura spun around.  “Anything?’

“Nope.  I don’t think Gerrard hid the information on this car.  We’re wasting our time.”

“Well, just let me check back here, then we can waste our time elsewhere.”

Laura walked back to where she was standing before, and started keeping watch again.

***

Phil ran up to Bob, just before he opened the dumpster.  “Are you out of your mind?”

“Don’t you think it will be suspicious if they find something?  There could be security footage of the pay phone, then they’ll have us on the run, tied to a dead cop and a dead kid.”

“It already isn’t suspicious that two guys who look like they slept in a boxcar are rooting in some dumpster behind Kmart?  The longer we stay back here the more attention we draw to ourselves.”

“Then shut up and let me look and we can get out of here.”  Bob reached for the dumpster lid.

“Wait!  At least use your sleeved arm.  We don’t want fingerprints.”

“Oh for the love of…”  Bob grabbed the lid and flipped it up.  He saw and smelled a lot of garbage, but nothing else.  “One down, three to go.”

“You’re going to check all three?  Why not find us some lunch and we can really live the wandering hobo stereotype?”

“Can you can it for a second?”

“What are you two doing?” came a voice from behind them.

Jebediah poked at his pancakes.  Carefully and quickly, he was assaulting his stack with precision pokes in what was soon resembling a near perfect grid pattern.  Soon the entire pancake was full of tiny holes.

“Are you doing that again?”  Jeremiah asked the question, even though his mouth was still chewing on a mouthful of waffles.

“It’s a more efficient way for the syrup to get where it needs to go.”

“You are the only person I know who has a battle plan for pancakes.  You’re also the only person I know of who takes them so seriously.”

“I take everything seriously.”  Jebediah started pouring the maple syrup over his pancakes.  He poured quickly and, again, in a grid pattern, following his fork holes.  Jeremiah just shook his head.

Jeremiah started to say something, but instead turned his attention to his waffles.  Before the next bite could reach his mouth, he felt a familiar vibration in his jacket pocket.  He decided to take a chance that it was a text message, and proceeded to eat his waffles.  The vibration continued as he kept chewing his waffles.

“Are you going to get that?”  Jebediah asked him while he cut his stack of pancakes into six almost equal pie-shaped pieces.  Jeremiah nodded and reached for his phone.  The readout simply read XXX-YYY-ZZZZ.  He flipped the phone open as he swallowed his latest bite of breakfast.

“Hello good sir.  A fine morning to you.”

“Is it really?  I’m not seeing evidence of the occluded front I was hoping for.”  The voice was still cold and altered, but their was enough inflection to indicate the caller was not in a jovial mood.

“Well, the weather doesn’t always go as planned.”

“A stationary front would have been better.  I’m not happy with the two cold fronts I’m seeing.”

“Well, I’m hoping to shop for a new Pontiac later, so maybe that will turn things around.  It would be my luck.”

“I’m texting you a number of someone who can help you with finding the right one.  Text before you call.  Her…schedule is a bit dicey.”

“Any word from our friend Mokoto?”

“She…must have her phone off.  If you can, check into that too.”

***

“That…that is a problem.”  Bob saw the second set of tracks, and the cars off to the side without a locomotive.  The train was bending to the East, and soon the rail yard would be gone from their view in the West, which was quickly becoming a view of the Northwest.

“Hold up.  Did you see any tracks that went West?  Maybe this is one of those situations where the train has to back up to get in the yard.”

“That’s a sentence with one too many maybes.”  Bob’s eyes were back on the ground, which was slowing down.  He was starting to make out individual rocks.  “When I said we get off here, I was really hoping the train would slow down just a bit more.”

Phil watched as their view shifted completely to the North.  The train kept slowing down, but it hadn’t stopped yet.  He could feel his rekindled quest for answers slipping away.

Phil reached the top of the pyramid. He lifted his arms up and placed his hands on the trap door. His right arm shot pain directly into his brain. His teeth clenched and his eyes closed.

“Hey Phil, are you okay?” Bob’s voice dug into his ears, driving him onward.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to do that?”

Phil’s anger was building. He’s always doing stuff like this. He loves to make me out to be the chump. The wimp. The loser. I’m sick of it. I have to do this. I need to do this. I will do this. Phil pushed upwards with all his might. The rusty trap door didnt’ budge at first, but after about ten seconds, it began to creak.

“Phli? Is it moving?”

Shut up shut up shut up. Dammit Bob, I’m going to be the tough guy for once.

CREEEAAAK

“Phil, maybe if I came up and gave you a hand?”

I have to do this. I will do this. I can do this dammit!

CREEEAAK

*SNAP*

The door flew open. Phil was elated. He had done it, but at the cost of his balance. His elation began evaporating quickly as he felt himself falling forward. Phil arched his back and twisted his body, in an attempt to compensate, as he reached for the hole in the ceiling. His fingers found the edge and he tried to pull himself up. The crate he was standing on began to tip as well. His shoulder was throbbing in its socket, and his right elbow felt like it was made of wet spaghetti. He felt the box tipping further, and he pulled with all his might towards the light.

***

Officer Laura Black walked into Captain Hale’s office. He was asleep at his desk, and he was alone.  She walked around to the back of the desk, and spotted a folder marked “Gerrard”.  She waited for a moment, listening to the loud snoring.  Slowly and carefully, she tried to pry the folder out from under his right arm.  Laura’s slow, deliberate pace was starting to pay off.  The folder was halfway out from under Hale’s arm.
She began biting her lower lip as the folder slid just a bit farther.  Her progress was about to be rewarded, until the door rattled from a fierce pounding.  Laura’s eyes darted to the door, as the knob was slowly opening.  Her arm shot from the folder to Hale’s shoulder.  Hale’s head slowly lifted.  His eyes cracked open only to see Agent Garrett and Agent Lewis strutting into his office once again.  They had both stopped in mid strut, which he found perplexing.

“Captain, who’s this?” Garrett asked.  His sunglasses were still on, so Hale couldn’t tell where he was looking.

“Beg pardon?” Hale asked with a yawn.

“Sorry sir, I saw you asleep at your desk and I was trying to wake you up.”  Laura chimed in.  Hale craned his neck to his right, then his left.

“How long have you been here?”

“A few minutes.  You’re a tough one to wake up sir.”

“Ugh.  Coffee first, then you two.  Laura, is there any word about a search of Franklin Richmond’s house.”

“I can check for you.”

“Do that.”  Hale got up slowly, straightened his tie and stumbled into the morning light towards the coffee maker.  Laura followed closely behind, quickly walking past Garrett and Lewis, who made themselves at home with their laptops and lattes.  Laura whispered to the Captain once they were safely away.

“Who are they?”

“Government types.  Don’t ask.  They’re the bee in my bonnet this weekend.”

“Right.  I’ll check into the Richmond matter.”

“Mmmm” Hale said.  His focus was now lost as he started filling his mug.

Laura turned to the left and started walking down the stairs.  She stopped between floors and pulled out a cell phone.  She scrolled through her contacts until she found the one marked “WEATHERMAN”.

“I know, but I can tell you have a good tama.”

Mokoto slammed her hand down on the table.  Her bottle tipped onto the floor, and alcohol and mixers flew out of Jeremiah and Jebediah’s drinks, then back into the glasses.  The two men had moved their hands towards their own inner jacket pockets, but they lowered their hands slightly when Mokoto didn’t draw her gun.  Her hand lifted up slightly, and her fingers quickly snatched some kind of small picture up from the twenty dollar bill on the table.  “On second thought, don’t answer.  You two fight over morgue duty.  I’m out of here.  I have some other ideas to check out.  Don’t call me until 3 AM.”   She angrily walked out of the bar, and only when the door closed did Jeremiah speak. 

“That didn’t go as we planned.”

“Now what?”

“We wait until midnight, then we go to the morgue.  Whatever idea she’s chasing, I hope it works.  It would be a shame to call the boss and tell him that she…isn’t heeding the forecast.”

***

“It’s dark in here.  And it’s freezing too.”

“Not so loud Phil!”

Old man B shook his head.  “Shaddup, both of ya.  Now, remember what I said.”  He then closed the door of the boxcar almost all the way, and Bob and Phil heard his footsteps on the rocks as he walked away.  Bob pulled out his cellphone and flipped it open to use as a makeshift flashlight.

“Well, it looks like we have our own sleeper car.”

Phil flipped open his phone as well.  He walked to a group of crates and plopped down on the floor.  “Well, I’ve never rode on a train before.  At least I’ll be able to tell that tale to my cell mate.”   Bob sat on a crate near Phil and crossed his arms.

“Phil, I’m sorry about all this.  I really am.  If I had any idea we’d end up on the run and in a boxcar when we went over…”

Phil started laughing.  “We’d still be here, because there was no other way for this night to go.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“C’mon.  Those lucky sunglasses meant a lot to you.  I’ve tried to avoid it, but I know that Jer’s death really shook you up.  You’ve got those.  Hopefully they aren’t evidence, and we can have a good laugh about this when it’s all over.  Besides, you’re big into adventure.  This…this is an adventure.”

“Adventure is one thing, but I’ve put us both in danger.  Real danger.  Not my cooking kind of danger, but police and assassin danger.  Cripes, we live in Sioux fuckin’ Falls man.  How on Earth did some kind of weird conspiracy find its way to South Da-freakin’-kota?”

Phil considered his answer, but his phone started vibrating.  He looked at it.  “Sioux Falls police.  They’re calling.”

Bob checked his phone.  “Same here, I didn’t have mine on vibrate.”  Bob turned his phone over and slid off the battery cover.  He popped his battery out, and then back in.  Phil saw and heard him do it, and quickly followed suit.  “Let’s hope Old Man B’s paranoia about cell phones doesn’t prove true.

Suddenly train lurched forward.  Bob and Phil looked at each other, as neither knew where they would be stopping next.

“Evening Jonas.”

Officer Jonas Bernard looked up and saw Will Hetfield looking over the Grand Prix.  “Hey detective.  I thought you were on the Stevens case.  What brings you here?”

“Tina tells me the captain wants us to find the owner of this car.  I have reason to believe the two might be connected.”

“Oh?  I just though we were looking at this car in connection with the 229 accident?”

“The 229 accident?”

“We’ve had a few calls about a red Pontiac driving erratically, and a HyVee gas attendant spotted the car an hour or so ago.  She said a man came in to buy two drinks, but he was behaving oddly.  Some witnesses to the 229 accident reported a red Pontiac exiting the interstate shortly after the hi-po went off road.  You think the two we’re looking for are also involved in Stevens’s murder?”

Hetfield looked at the backseat, then at Jonas.  “Nah, not really.  I just heard some scuttlebutt that the captain was acting oddly and that we were looking for these two for reasons that nobody knew, so I thought it was worth checking out.  Tina can handle the crime scene for a few minutes, plus some FBI guy showed up.”

“Jonas, look at this.” came the voice from inside the car.   Jonas and Hetfield looked in the car, where another officer was holding a tiny origami butterfly.  “I found it on the dash.  Did you ever see one that small before?”

***

Mokoto sat down.  She took a long drink from her beer, and looked at Jeremiah and Jebediah.  She didn’t care for working with them, but missions where she didn’t have to actually spend time with them were always better.  Jeremiah sipped from a glass, and looked around.  “So, we need to decide our next move.  The boss wants an occluded front.”

“Doesn’t it bother you two that he insists on using weather terms to give us our orders?”

“With so many governments trying to track him down, a certain degree of misdirection is key.  Besides, I’ve tried to look at is as a learning experience.”

“I don’t really get this order.” Jebediah admitted, while Jeremiah took a breath.

Mokoto took a long drink, knowing that the ever talkative Jeremiah would take this one.  “Well, in our terms, we have to work together, and be unpredictable.  An occluded front in nature is usually home to a wide variety of weather.”

Mokoto slammed down her bottle.  “It also usually leads to a drying out, something we’re not doing now.”

“Relax Mo.  We need to give the local authorities a chance to sort through things, then we make our move in the late night hours.  We’ll be out of town by morning.”

“Don’t call me Mo.  You know I hate that.”

“Mokoto, we think you should hit the morgue and check on Gerrard.”  Jebediah said this with no inflection or emotion, but almost as an order.

Mokoto glared at him.  “What makes you think I should do that.”

“Well…” Jeremiah started, but Mokoto put her hand up .

“No, I want him to answer.”  Jebediah said nothing.   She stood up and reached into her jacket.