Justice Ch. 04: Old Scores

"Yes, I do," Ryan said.

"Probably the best 30 minutes you ever spent on yer knees," Eli said. "You asked for forgiveness. And you got it. Without reservation. And you'll be happy to know that Dawson is doing quite well." Ryan looked at him, shocked. Dawson was a comrade who gave his life saving the rest of the team. Eli smiled.

"Personally, I don't blame you for what you did," Eli said. "Them fellers deserved what they got, if you ask me. Oh, and for the record, I was a Texas Ranger. Once. A long time ago. Served under a different name. I still serve, in my own way. And I now work for a much higher authority. Just so you know, I have no quarrel with you. None whatsoever. You remember that day I first met you? Remember what I said?"

"Something about charging the gates of Hell with a bucket of water," Ryan said. Eli nodded his head.

"That's right, son," he said. "I think that day may be coming sooner than you think." Ryan looked at Eli, wondering what he meant.

"What can I do for you, then?" he asked. Eli smiled and held out his hand.

"You can start by calling me Eli," he said. "All my friends do." Ryan looked at the outstretched hand and took it. After a hearty handshake, Eli continued.

"Tell me, Sheriff, what do you know about a feller named Irwin Johnson?" he asked. Ryan shook his head.

"Name doesn't ring a bell," he said. "Why?"

"Not surprised," Eli said. "Fairly new to town. He's gone missing."

"Oh?" Ryan asked. "I don't recall any report of a missing person. Even so, we typically don't do anything about missing person reports for at least 24 hours. Do you suspect foul play?"

"The most foul," Eli said. He pulled a piece of paper out of a pocket and handed it to Ryan. "This is where he lives. You might want to check the place out." Ryan looked at the address and recognized it instantly. It was the new condominium complex just north of downtown.

"You think his disappearance is related to something you're working on?" Ryan asked.

"I do," Eli said. Ryan thought for a moment before responding.

"Okay, Eli," he said. "Tell you what I'll do. I'll get a search warrant together and dispatch a team to check this place out. Will that help?"

"It will," Eli said. "In the meantime, I'll go with Danni to see those paranormal investigators."

"You know about that?" Ryan asked. "We were just talking about that this morning over breakfast."

"I know," Eli said with a smile.

"Is there anything you don't know, Ranger?" Ryan asked sarcastically. Eli smiled and nodded his head.

"A few things," he said. He looked up at Danni. "You about ready to head out, Danni?"

"I am, Grandpa," she said. Eli turned back to Ryan.

"Don't worry about my horse," he said. "She's very well trained. I'll be back to get her directly."

"Yeah, okay," Ryan said. He watched as Eli and Danni got into her rental car. As they drove off, he wondered what he had gotten himself into. And how DID Eli know so much about him? When they left, he pulled out his phone and called Rhonda.

...

Jessica looked out the window of the RV she shared with April and saw the woman pull up in her rented car. This time, she had a tall man with her who looked like he could've been in an old 1950s western movie. She saw the badge on his red shirt and the two pistols on his hips.

"We got company," she shouted out to April, who was in the back of the RV getting dressed. "That Jones woman and another lawman. Looks like maybe a Texas Ranger or something."

"Texas Ranger?" April asked. "Well, let 'em in, let's hear what they have to say." Jessica opened the door and greeted their visitors.

"Please come in," she said. "Danni Jones, right?"

"Yes," Danni said. "This is..."

"Justice O. Peace," Eli said as he extended a hand. Jessica accepted his hand and felt a strange sensation wash over her. Eli noticed it as well and looked at her closely. Was it possible that she was gifted, he asked himself.

"I'm Jessica," she said as she withdrew her hand. "This is April," she added as she eyed Eli cautiously.

"Ma'am," Eli said as he tipped his hat.

"I have copies of the journals my husband sent me, along with some pictures he scanned," Danni said. "Do you have a way we can transfer this off my phone?"

"Sure," April said, grabbing a cable. "May I?" she asked, her hand out. Danni handed her phone to April and watched as she copied the files to her computer.

"You say these are copies of the journals your husband's grandmother wrote?" April asked.

"Yes," Danni said. "She wrote about their life here, then about the trip back to Indiana. She added quite a bit later on, after her husband was killed in the war. I hope this helps."

"Oh it will," April said. "It'll go a long way toward putting the history of the place in context."

"I'm curious," Jessica said. "Why would the Texas Rangers be interested in an old adobe house out in the middle of nowhere?"

"The Rangers aren't," Danni said. "But he is. He's related to my husband. Do you think it might be possible for him to see and hear your evidence?" April and Jessica looked at each other for a bit.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt," Jessica said. "Go ahead, April. Show him." April handed Eli a set of headphones.

"You can probably hear better with these," she said. "I'm going to play three pieces of audio we captured in the old house." Eli put the headphones on and listened. The first piece of audio was that of a man crying.

"Pa," Eli said quietly, a tear threatening to run down his face. Neither April nor Jessica reacted, but Danni saw his reaction.

"This is the second piece of audio," April said, bringing up the short audio of a woman calling for Eli. Again, Eli's face looked pained as he heard the quiet sound of a woman crying out Eli's name. "Here's the last piece of audio," April said as she brought up the last file. Eli listened as he heard the gunshot.

"Can you play that again, please?" he asked. April started the file again. After he listened, he took the headphones off. "Did you hear that moan after the shot?" he asked. Both girls shook their heads.

"No, we didn't hear that," April said.

"You say you have video?" Eli asked.

"Yes, we do," April said. "We still haven't been able to make heads or tails of it." She turned her computer around and played the video, then played it again at a slower speed. Eli watched closely, his face taking on an expression Danni had never seen before. It was almost as if he was... afraid.

"You say you have no idea what this is?" he asked.

"No, none," April said. Eli nodded his head slowly. He knew what it was, and he also knew where it came from. But he had no way of tracking the thing and he couldn't sense Jack's presence.

"I've seen your face before," Jessica said, causing Eli to look at her.

"Oh?" he asked. "Where?"

"Here," she said, grabbing a stack of printed photos. She shuffled through them until she found what she was looking for. She put the picture on the table next to Eli. It showed a man in the uniform of a Union soldier. He had sergeant's chevrons on his arms. "The resemblance is rather uncanny, wouldn't you say?" she asked. Eli looked at the photo and nodded his head.

"Reckon so," he said. Jessica moved her chair close to Eli and took his hands in hers. He looked at April, confused.

"Jessica is what some people might call 'gifted.' She has a way of discovering things about people," April said. He looked back at Jessica, who sat with his hands in hers, her eyes closed. After a few moments, she opened her eyes and looked at Eli, surprised. She felt his wrist as if checking for a pulse. Then she leaned down and listened to his chest. She put her hands on his chest for a moment, then jumped back, her eyes wide.

"What's wrong, Jessica?" April asked.

"It's him," Jessica exclaimed. "The man in the picture. He has no heartbeat and I can't read anything from him. Plus he has a deep hole in his chest. You're him, aren't you?" she asked. Eli looked at Danni for a moment before responding.

"Yes," he said quietly, causing April and Jessica to gasp.

"How is this possible?" Jessica asked.

"What was it the Bard once wrote?" Eli asked. "Oh yeah, 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' He was right, you know. Trust me, there are some things you aren't meant to know."

"You know Shakespeare?" Jessica asked.

"Personally," Eli said. "He's a pretty decent fella once you get to know him. Years ahead of his time."

"Can you explain the evidence we showed you?" April asked.

"Yes," Eli said.

"Can you tell us?" Jessica asked. "Please?"

"Ordinarily, no," Eli said. "But it seems that you've already surmised more than you should really know. So I'll make an exception in this case. The woman you heard was my mother. I appeared to her some time after my father's death. It wasn't easy for me to do at the time, but I wanted to let her know I was in good hands."

"And the man was your father?" April asked. Eli nodded his head.

"Yes," Eli said. "That happened when he learned of Travis' death at the hands of his Union guards. You see, Pa lost two sons in that damn war. One to a Confederate bullet, and the other to mistreatment at the hands of Union soldiers. He cursed God for that, and did so even on his deathbed."

"Oh my God," April said. Eli nodded his head.

"So, what about the gunshot?" Jessica asked.

"I believe that's the shot that crippled my younger brother William," Eli said. "If you listen closely, you can hear him moan after the shot."

"What about the video?" April asked. "Can you explain that?"

"I believe so," Eli said. "Let me tell you a little story first." He recalled the incident from 1855 in which he killed Jack and his thugs and saved Lizzy.

"So you think that thing we saw was Jack Abercrombie crawling out of Hell?" April asked, incredulous.

"Not the Jack Abercrombie who once walked on this earth," Eli said. "At least not the exact same one. It's difficult to explain. He's not the same as before. He may look the same, sound the same, even have the same memories, but he's been changed somehow. That's why I can't sense his presence the same way I can sense the presence of others, like you or Danni."

"And you think he's come back to settle an old score or something?" Jessica asked.

"That, and possibly more," Eli said.

"But why would he come up on your old property like that?" April asked.

"That was the location of the original well we dug," Eli said. "Pa filled it back in after an old Apache medicine man told him the well could be used by unholy things as an entry point into this world. Pa wasn't a very religious man, but he respected the Apache people. We filled in the well and dug another where the medicine man said it was safe to do so. After we did that, the medicine man cleansed the property and said we would be safe from the unholy things as long as we lived there."

"Wow," Jessica said. Eli smiled.

"Indeed," he said. He looked at Danni and stood up. "I hope this helps you fill in some of the blanks."

"It does," April said. "Thank you for telling us."

"You must never repeat a word of what I've told you," he said. "To anyone. You already know far more than you should and you're dealing with forces you cannot possibly begin to understand. Take my advice. Do what you came here to do, then move on and forget you ever met me."

"Will we ever see you again?" Jessica asked.

"If you need me, I'll be there," he said. Standing up, he turned to Danni. "I think our business here is finished." Danni picked up her phone and turned to April.

"I hope the journals and pictures help," she said. "You have my number if you need anything more."

"Thank you, Mrs. Jones," April said. "It was a pleasure meeting you both." The girls watched as Danni and Eli went out to her car and drove off.

...

Eli looked at Danni and wondered why she pulled over to the side of the road.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"There's more to that story you told them, isn't there?" she asked. He looked out the front window before answering. He slowly nodded his head.

"Yes," he said. "Would you like to hear it?"

"You know I would," she said.

"That day when the medicine man performed the cleansing ritual, he performed a ritual on each one of us," Eli said. "When he came to me, he looked me square in the eye and told me something I've never forgotten."

"What's that?" Danni asked.

"He said, and I quote, 'one day the Great Spirit will lift you up to be his instrument of justice.' I didn't understand or think too much of it at the time," he said. "When I joined the Army, I thought maybe that's what he meant. I realized later it wasn't."

"Is that why you call yourself Justice O. Peace?" she asked.

"Yeah, it is," he said.

"There's something else, isn't there?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "I'm afraid you may be in danger."

"I've been there before," she said. "But I can't let that stop me from doing my job. And you can't spend all your time babysitting me. I have work to do. And so do you."

"What do you suggest?" he asked.

"I'm going to the library to do some research," she said. "I want you to bring Amos out. He'll watch over me while you go after this Jack character."

"Amos needs to watch over the children," Eli said.

"The kids are with my parents," she said. "Between them and the ranch hands, they'll be okay. I want Amos here with me, Grandpa. I'll call the sheriff and have him send a deputy to meet me at the library. I want you to go get Amos and meet us there." Eli chuckled as he looked at her.

"I swear, you're more like my Lizzy than you know," he said.

"Is that a bad thing?" she asked.

"Not at all," he said. "Okay, we'll do it yer way. I'll go get Amos and bring him to the library. Promise me you'll call Ryan right away."

"I will, Grandpa," she said. He nodded his head and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"You stay safe," he said. "Lizzy will tan my hide if anything happens to you."

"I'll be fine," she said. He got out of the car and was gone in a flash. She pulled out her phone and called Ryan.

...

Ryan looked around Irwin Johnson's condo as the team of investigators took photos and cataloged their evidence. Danni had just called and said she was on her way to the library and wanted to know if he could get a deputy to meet her there. He promised to get someone out and called Rhonda to dispatch someone to the library.

"Make sure he doesn't let her out of his sight," he told Rhonda.

"Got it, Sheriff," she said. When they ended the call, he walked to the center of the front room, where a forensic specialist dressed in tyvek coveralls was studying a shirt and a pair of shoes left in the middle of the floor.

"What do ya think, Ron?" Ryan asked. Ron shook his head.

"Not sure, boss," he said.

"What do you make of that powder on the inside of the shirt and shoes?" Ryan asked.

"Hard to tell," Ron said. "I'll have to analyze it back at the lab."

"What does your gut say, Ron?" Ryan asked.

"Off the top of my head, I'd say it was ash," Ron said. "The same kind you'd see in a cremation."

"Is there enough there to account for a whole person?" Ryan asked.

"Not even close," Ron said. "We've found it spread throughout the condo. It's also inside a pair of jeans laying on the floor in the bedroom. You know what this reminds me of?"

"No, what?" Ryan asked.

"That War of the Worlds movie, when the aliens hit people with their death ray," Ron said. "The bodies just went, 'poof' and turned into ash."

"So, maybe we should put out an APB for aliens with death rays? Is that what you're telling me, Ron?" Ryan asked sarcastically.

"Of course not," Ron said. "I'm just saying that's what this reminds me of."

"Interesting," Ryan said. He stood when another deputy came up to him. "What'd you find out?"

"Well, Sheriff," the deputy said. "Police in Albuquerque have a warrant for Johnson. Counterfeiting and false IDs mostly. Low-level stuff."

"That explains the stuff we found on that desk over there," Ryan said. "Any idea who Jackson Abercrombie is? Some of the stuff we found had that name on it."

"No idea, Sheriff," the deputy said. "There's no record of anyone with that name. We did learn something odd though."

"What's that?" Ryan asked.

"Well, some of the neighbors say they saw this guy's car pull out late last night. A dark Camaro," the deputy said. "Strange thing though."

"What?" Ryan asked.

"They said he drove forward and backward a few times. Almost as if he was just learning to drive or something," the deputy said.

"Well, there can't that many dark Camaros in town," Ryan said. "Put out an APB on that car and anyone named Abercrombie."

"Will do, boss," the deputy said.

"Anything else, Ron?" Ryan asked.

"Not much," Ron said. "We've dusted for prints and took his computer to the lab for analysis. Maybe we can get something out of that."

"Okay," Ryan said. He looked around the condo some more. He got the impression Eli was holding out on him. He knows something happened here, Ryan thought to himself. But what? "Call me if you find out anything," he said. "This is top priority."

"Got it, boss," Ron said as Ryan walked out of the condo.

...

Danni pulled into the library parking lot and saw a group of deputies standing around as a dark sports car was being pulled onto the back of a flatbed tow truck. She parked her car and headed for the entrance, where she was met by a deputy in uniform.

"Mrs. Jones?" the deputy asked.

"Yes, that's me," she said.

"I'm Deputy Winthrop," he said. "Sheriff Ryan asked that I meet you here. I'm under orders to keep an eye on you while you're here."

"Oh good," she said. "Thank you. I'll be doing some research for a bit, and I'm expecting my husband and a Texas Ranger to come by."

"Yes, ma'am," the deputy said. "I'll try to stay out of your way."

"Thank you," she said. They went to the second floor and Deputy Withrop sat on one of the couches as Danni looked through the archives. After about a half-hour, he came to her side.

"If you'll excuse me for a minute, Mrs. Jones, I need to use the men's room," he said.

"That's fine, deputy," she said. "I'll be right here, and it doesn't look like there's anyone else here at the moment."

"Thank you," he said. "I'll be right back." She turned back to her work as he walked off. A minute or so later, she heard footsteps behind her and thinking it was the deputy, she turned.

"That was fast," she said. Then she realized the man who crept up behind her wasn't the deputy. "Uh, I'm sorry. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Matter of fact, there is," the man said with a wicked grin. Before she could do or say anything, the man grabbed her, putting one hand over her mouth. She instinctively reached for the phone in her purse and began pressing buttons. Suddenly, she realized she was no longer in the library.

...

I had just returned from Bill and Kate's place, having dropped off the children. As I pulled in front of the house, I saw Grandpa standing at the door. I stopped and got out of the truck.

"Everything okay, Grandpa?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Danni insisted I come get you. Are the kids okay?"

"Yeah, they're over at their grandparents house," I said, opening the door.

"Alright, get yer stuff and let's go," he told me. "And don't forget yer badge."

"Got it," I said, grabbing it off the counter. I also grabbed the Winchester, just in case. We went outside and before I knew it, we were standing in front of the Hard Rock Municipal Library. Grandpa had a funny look on his face.

"You smell that?" he asked, looking around. I sniffed but didn't smell anything.

"Smell what?" I asked.

"Kinda like rotten eggs," he said. I sniffed again, but still didn't smell anything.