Mysterywriter's Final Spring

"So Writer, Zandy tells me you like to watch?" It was a question not a statement.

"She obviously has a kinky bend there but I'm the wrong guy."

"I know, I noticed when you walked away. You didn't have to go you know."

"Sure I did, you just don't know." I smiled at her so that I could be a little mysterious.

"How about putting on some clothes and take me back to my van?"

"How about Zandy takes you back. I kind of want to take a shower. You do remember how it is after sex.?"

"Vaguely what about Zandy?"

"She is like you, she has no clothes here. She can drop you off on her way home it isn't too much out of the way."

"Sure but we need to move the computer to her car then. I am going to want to work some. It might be a long time before you make it out."

"Okay but it wont be long. I am going to take a shower and get dressed. It could be a couple of hours but no more."

"I still want my computer before that."

"Alright," with those words she removed a set of keys from a nail set in one of those cutesy key holders. It was the word I had been searching for to describe her interior design. It was early childhood cutesy.

She didn't even bother to put on shoes as he walked to the door calling Zandy over her shoulder. The three of us stood around while I moved the computer equipment from Dee's sports car to the trunk of Zandy's family style sedan.

I was surprised that Zandy said hardly a word as we drove to the campground. She did ask me what Dee and I were up to. I gave her the sanitized version of our little investigation. I also explained that I was going to be writing a novel about it all.

"I think that must be what appeals to Deloris about you. It certainly had nothing to do with sex. I think she sees you as a father figure. Since you are a writer like her dad."

"It could be," I replied not at all flattered by the remark.

"Well whatever," she said dismissing it and me too I expect. We found the space exactly as we had left it. I had not been worried about that part of it. Gerald didn't have time to prepare a proper reception for me. Even in the freewheeling world of crime, you cant just have something done instantly. There has to be meetings ect, unless you were dealing with a very high figure. Gerald would probably never be one of those. I was pretty sure he played in a world where he lacked the pedigree.

An hour later a cleaner sweeter smelling version of me walked into the office of the state park. Finding a telephone directory was easy. Finding a meeting was a bit more difficult. It took a couple of calls to find the meeting spot then reasonably good directions to it. The one o'clock meeting required that I do a little fast moving but I made it just fine.

It started with the usual My name is Charles Burke and I'm an alcoholic. I admitted my slip and the circumstances behind it. As usual most of the comments though encouraging meant nothing but as most always happens one person cut right to it.

"Going out drugged might be okay for most people, but not for you. If it was you wouldn't be here, so you know what you want to do. I can't and would never judge you anyway, but you have already made the next decision on the road out,"

He was right of course. I guess I just needed if not say it then to at least admit it to myself. I wanted to be in control till the end at a time of my own choosing. The man had looked at me without flinching. I nodded that I understood.

After the meeting the man a few years older than me handed me a Styrofoam cup filled with coffee. "It's a rough break but at least it wont be alzheimers."

"At least I have that. How did you know?"

"It's in the eyes. I was a medic in the Nam. I seen that look on guys who knew they was gonna die. That is a memory that never goes away."

"I missed it but I had an uncle there. They tell me he never was like other people after he came home. Not crazy, just saw thing different."

"Did that to some of us, others it humbled, but some just went back as if it never happened."

"I guess so, by the way thanks."

"For what you had already made up your mind."

"Yes but I needed that one last piece of the puzzle." He looked at me knowingly but I said it anyway. "To take control till the end."

"Control is what it is all about Charles."

"My friends call me Deacon," I said it looking into the thick black coffee. "You know they have the same lousy coffee at all these meetings.

"Don't they just?" he said it with a grin. I dropped a ten in the coffee can on the way out of the door.

I was at the van when I remembered to turn the cell back on. It had been off during the meeting there were no signs people just did it. Cell phones ringing at an aa meeting somehow seemed wrong. I think it has to do with your priorities maybe.

The missed call light was blinking as was the number of the caller. Handy little things those phones. I punched in the numbers carefully since my fingers are not the right size for those tiny buttons.

"Sandyridge State Park," The voice stated it almost happily.

"Yes this is Deacon, I mean Charles Burke did you guys call me?"

"Just a moment please." With those words the voice turned into homogenized music.

"Mr. Burke, You had a call a while ago."

"Since when do you guys forward messages?" I asked it because I already knew the answer.

"When it's the Governors office." The man didn't add the, that's when, but it was in his voice.

"So what does Ed want this time?" I asked it as if I knew Edward Thomas the Governor of North Carolina at the time.

"Er Er, it was some kind of secretary or something, said to tell you to be available around noon."

"Did the secretary or something leave a number?" I asked it enjoying the man's discomfort. He had probably either been to my site or asked someone else to go there. When whoever it was saw my beat up old van instead of a fancy motor home they must have been truly bewildered. Then me acting as if I knew the Governor probably made them very uneasy.

I took a quick look at my watch. It was already noon and me with a fifteen minute drive back to the site. "If I were you, I would send someone down to the site to advise the governor's representative that I will be another fifteen minutes to half hour. Of course, you don't have to. It is just a suggestion."

I stopped at a convenience store for more coffee and orange juice. The stop put me at the campsite closer to 12:30 than 12:00. I wasn't a bit surprised to see the long black car in my drive. The Lincoln town car was at least as long as my van. What did surprise me was the woman sitting at my picnic table. She was smoking a cigarette and seemed for all the world to be communing with nature. The view of the lake was magnificent even if the deer were no longer watering.

"You should see it in the morning mist and with the dear standing on that sandbar," I said it when I was within earshot. I looked back to the driver standing outside the car watching us closely. He was close enough to intervene without being close enough to hear. I could imaged the ten mm pistol hanging under his shoulder or tucked in the waistband of his pants. Either way he had bodyguard written all over him.

"I can only imagine. You know I lived here pretty much all my life but have never been to this park. It is quite lovely."

"That must make you June's mother?"

"It does, and who the hell are you?"

"You mean you don't know already. I'm just a struggling writer."

"I have never heard of you until a couple of days ago, but you sure make a big noise when you begin something. I spoke with a detective who is working on June's rape. He checked you out."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Doesn't much matter what you would or would not have Mr. Burke."

"Good Point Mrs Thomas." I smiled even though it probably would have given me an ulcer, if I had time for one to develop.

"So, you know my daughter is not perfect?"

"Yes I do, what I don't know is why your husband doesn't stop her from doing something so obviously dangerous to herself and the family."

"Ed gave up on her long ago. He pretty much told me to handle her and try to prevent any embarrassment."

"Sounds about like the best a stepfather can do." I had a little experience in that myself.

"It probably was but in effect he said to June, 'Do what you want just don't make waves. She has been trying ever since to make waves without doing too much damage."

"And this newest one?"

"Until your friend Mike came along I had it contained. He began poking around. He somehow knew which buttons to punch, so he had June all upset." She noted my look and stopped talking.

"Why the hell would June be upset. She was out to create a little havoc in your life. Mike was as good a way as any."

"Oh no, if it make the paper she would lose the safety net." I looked blank enough for her to explain. "June knows I won't completely desert her. At least not unless I am forced to choose. Edward is very important to me on several levels and June is grown. She should be able to take care of herself. The influence I can throw around from the Governors office can help her out now and then. She doesn't want to lose it."

"Okay, so which one of you killed Mike?"

"Truth is Mr. Burke, I had to look it up after June called me. I had no idea who he was or that he was dead. She called and I told her to just leave it alone till he had something real then we would buy him off. I didn't even know his name until last night."

"That all sounds good but there are only three of you with a motive to kill him. Somebody is going to hold his murder."

"The highway patrol says it was a hit and run accident."

"Since they work for your husband, I have to question the amount of effort that went into their investigation."

She nodded her dyed blond head at me. "So Mr Burke, what is you price? Everybody has one you know?"

"True but you can't meet mine."

"You never know, give me a try."

"Ten more years of life." When the recognition finally struck her, I watched the hard look slip from her eyes. She wasn't the bitch I had met at the table.

"I see."

"I expect that I have enough time to finish this."

"How about your family?" It looked as though the bitch had returned.

"Only one I have is a wife, who has more money than I ever did. You don't have anything I want."

"That isn't want I was asking. How are they taking it?"

"Same as you would I expect."

"Life is so unfair." She said that as she began walking to the car.

I got past my dislike for her at least enough to give her an honest appraisal. June's mother was a knock out for a woman approaching fifty. Lots of money had made her trim, well dressed, and a woman with that 'taken care of' look. The big question was not how attractive or even how innocent she appeared. The question was could she have had Mike killed. It was a toss up question. I had defined the investigation while I talked to her. There was always a point when it all got sorted out. There were only three groups of people with a real motive.

I had already pretty much ruled out the Charlotte connection. Unless they had a hit squad on standby for a moment's notice job, it would have been impossible to organize it in the few hours they had. The four hour drive alone would have made it almost impossible. The other possibility which was very unlikely was that the man June called at Nightlite just took off and did it himself. Nothing fancy about a hit and run. I just couldn't buy it. Mike would never have stopped for a stranger in big black car. He knew there were risks involved.

The same was true of the governor or was it. Mike would stop for a cop car and the governor was the chief law enforcement officer. But could he get a rogue cop from where ever he was to the scene. Logistically it just didn't work. June's mother would have had to call someone who would kill for her, then get them to the scene, then spot Mike, then follow him out of town, then get him to stop and stand there while he was run over. It all sounded far fetched except that there was one person who could have done it. June could have done it all. The problem with that was that I had seen her car and it didn't have anywhere near the damage it should have if it had been used as a murder weapon. Cars are more fragile than people think, or maybe the human body was better designed.

Since I hadn't had a shower all day, I walked through the deserted camp ground to the bath house. Being and early spring and Thursday afternoon explained the empty park. The empty park explained what happened next.

I never heard a sound over the running water. When I stepped out into the cool air nothing seemed out of place. I was even in the camp space for some time before I noticed the first irregularity. The computer was inside the tent to keep it out of the dust between uses. I went inside to put my dirty clothes into the large plastic bag just in case I ever decided to wash. It was more likely that I would just buy new ones.

I saw the computer when I entered. The case had been bashed by what could have been a sledge hammer. I stood with my mouth open. It had been rendered absolutely junk. I could only hope the hard drive wasn't ruined, nothing else was going to be salvageable. The small bank type monitor had survived only because it wasn't hooked to the computer's box at the time. Likewise the CD library, what I considered to be worth more than anything else I owned at the time, was spared. I could replace it, but it would have meant a trip home to the safety deposit box.

The computer had taken all the hits inside the tent. I expected the perpetrator was in a hurry to get out of the place. He obviously hadn't bothered with the other items, they were of little or no value. I went outside to check the van since I was sure there would be more damage. As I suspected the van also took a couple of hits. The windshield was cracked in the bullet hole pattern, without the hole. It also screamed hammer at me. Since I could see out the windshield, I wasn't all that pissed. Howev er, I didn't like it that was for sure.

The note scribbled on the windshield in what looked like lipstick read, 'No matter how bad it gets, it could always be worse' I supposed that to be a death threat. I took it seriously. I looked about to determine what to do next. I had chosen the secluded site when I arrived at the park. It was proving to have been a lousy idea. I considered calling the cops, but thought better of it. They would take a report for the insurance company then forget it. I didn't have any insurance on the pile of junk.

I thought I would drive down to the park office. Just to see if they by chance had a record of visitors license numbers. I got the van to the end of the drive when the motor seized. It didn't even get hot, it just seized. I wasn't sure what happened until I opened the gas tank cover. The white crystals, still adhering to the inside of the opening, told me that someone had dumped a fair amount of sugar into the gas tank. The engine was gone and would never be right again.

It was a warning no doubt but by who and why. It made absolutely no sense at all. They killed Mike without so much as hello. I like to think that I was more dangerous than Mike, yet I get a warning. It just made no sense at all.

I called Dee just as soon as I allowed the van to roll back into the camp space. "So what you doing hon?" I asked it as though nothing had happened. I wanted to know where she had been the last half hour.

"I'm at the office helping dad with a few things he let get behind."

"Could I speak to your dad?"

"Why?" She asked skeptically.

"I would just like to say hello that's all."

"Okay, but listen he doesn't know about me. He thinks we were fooling around don't set him straight . Okay?"

I knew before I even spoke to him that it was a waste. If her biggest concern was that I would tell him we weren't fooling around, she had to be innocent. She was of course. Her dad and I had a nice two minute talk. I asked what time Dee finally made it into the office and he told me around noon. He also told me I shouldn't keep her out so late. I just smiled.

I was sitting at the table drinking my lousy coffee when it came to me. I had not kept my eye on the ball. I was running around chasing what ifs, instead of moving forward with the one things I was sure of, June's rape stank to high Buddha.

I found the card in my wallet. The one the governor's wife had left me. I dialed the number, as she promised it went directly to her. No sense in asking her where she had been. She was slick I was sure of that.

"Hello there, this is the vast right wing conspiracy calling."

"Burke is that you?"

"Yes Ma'am it is. I need to ask you a question then maybe get some help."

"Now why would I help you?"

"Set the record straight?"

"There is no record, I told you that."

"Okay then do it because you are a first class bitch and we can do some damage to the people who are out to get you."

"Hold on, are you on a cell phone."

"Yes, why?

"This line is monitored. I don't think I want this conversation overheard."

"I would think that the truth."

"How about going to a landline and calling this number." She read off a number. I expected that it was recorded but she was the only one with access to the tapes.

"I can't somebody screwed up my van."

"You have to be kidding. I expect that it just died."

"Sure, with the help of five pounds of domino sugar."

"Geeze writer, what the hell is going on."

"Maybe there is a right wing conspiracy. I just doubt that it is vast."

"You have me confused with that other politicians wife." The chuckle was not unattractive. "Just for the record, I would have cut his balls off. Now what the hell is going on. No don't tell me till I get you on a secure line. Damn, there are too many people who know that you are looking into this, none of these lines are secure and you have a cell phone for god's sake."

"Calm down lady."

"You might as well call me Jessy, since you know most of my family secrets."

"I do, but do you?"

"What the hell, no don't tell me. I am on the way back to that campground."

"Good idea, but I would ditch the driver this time. This one you might not want to share."

"I can't get there for three hours. You stay right where you are."

"I need to get rid of this van and find some wheels."

"Don't you make a move or call anyone. I will take care of everything when I get there."

"You might get here but I will take care of everything. You are not my mother or my wife."

"No but as you so rightly observed I am the world's biggest bitch. Now pour yourself a drink or whatever you do to relax."

"Alright."

"Give me four hours so that I can explain things here before I leave."

"Fair enough it is three now. If you aren't here by dark all bets are off."

"You just be careful Burke, I think you have the answers."

"No, but I have the right questions for a change." While I waited I gave some thought to my next move. Since they hadn't burned me out I was in reasonably good shape compared to the last time I got a warning. I had a place to sleep and food to eat. I even had someone to help me with the logistics of my next move, whatever that might be.

In addition to all that I had the wife of arguably the most important man in the state on her way to help me unravel the mess. What I couldn't dig up on my own she sure as hell could. My main complaint at that moment was that I was out of ice. The closest place was the campground office. That was going to be a pretty hefty walk for a man with clogged pipes.

I gave Evelyn a call before I did anything else. She gave me the name to match the prints on the cup. That new computer Identification program the cops have is amazing. Gerald didn't have a record, but the most amazing thing happened when I put his real name into Google. Out of the ether popped Gerald Evan's contributions to political journals. Gerald was one of those pros who truly leach off politics. The jump to conclusions was just a small hop.