53 JM Fires His Gun
Wednesday morning, Detective John Merryweather sat in an unmarked car half a block from the Waffle Haus. It was cool, but today like yesterday looked to be clear with some sun and a light breeze. He had dressed down in jeans and long sleeve shirt with a loose fitting jacket covering any evidence of his weapon.
Harry dying so suddenly was a shock, but it was more shocking that there were absolutely no recordings of what he had said. He and Roxy in the room and one uniform in the observation room heard Harry's wild tale. Roxy took it all in stride. She made it clear that she thought the guy nuts and she also made it clear that she would not repeat his story. Whatever had knocked him out at the house had killed him in some sort of delayed effect. Let the doctors autopsy the guy and figure it out, or not. Harry the corpse had no name and no trace in any database. And, John was all too aware, there was no evidence of Georgia and Daisy at the crime scene. No one was looking for them. To the others investigating and reviewing evidence there was a mystery of sorts, but it was explainable or would be, or maybe not, but there was nothing leading to either of the women. Nothing. How could that be?
Roxy refused to repeat Harry's demon bitches narrative. She said it was loony toons nonsense. The uniform in the back room said he hadn't listened to Harry's story. He had tried talking to Reggie at the hospital, but she still insisted she didn't remember anything. But the forensic evidence pointed to others being present. There were traces of her blood in the hallway leading to that closet, where she was shot again. Someone pulled her out and applied two tourniquets. The knot on the arm tourniquet was placed such that she could not have done it herself. Maybe the leg, but not the arm. Then someone draped that coat over her. The quantity of blood in the closet made it hard to believe she got up to pull a coat out of the closet by herself. After that much blood loss, if she was conscious, she wasn't worried about the chill in the night air. He had walked her through the evidence trail and she insisted she remembered nothing and that she was unconscious at the time someone shot her in the closet. They found another set of blood splatter in the hallway, which was not Reggie's, and was not the parents, and not the boy's. Maybe it belonged to the gunmen, but that didn't fit the narrative from Harry, which as wild as it seemed, he was drawn to believing. And then there was that evidence of another person's blood found outside at the front door and then in the closet with Reggie's, and all over Reggie's clothes, a lot of someone else's blood on Reggie. More definitive DNA testing on all samples would take time. Based on Harry's wild story the blood out front should belong to the Georgia/Millie girl. And then the other sample in the hallway would belong to Daisy. And somehow the Georgia/Millie girl got shot standing in between the gunman and Reggie. From what he could tell, if you took Harry and the evidence trail at face value, not that he had repeated this to anyone, Reggie got shot twice, Daisy once in the back, and then Georgia/Millie was shot in the front of the house by Ashley, which accounted for her shotgun being fired once, and then again in the closet, and yet. They had no evidence of the gunmen taking hits, and yet, they lost. One of them went through the window and left his gun and equipment on the ground. Harry was found unconscious on the floor, with no wounds. The team left much of their equipment in and on one side of the house. They did not leave in good order, but more likely in full retreat if not panic.
As for the kidnapping, there of course was no ransom request. A very tight circle knew the kid had not been kidnapped. An even tighter circle knew, vaguely, who might have him. This was not a stable situation. The three Hesburghs couldn't be put off, or could they? But what to do? Meigan was keeping quiet for now. He considered, if she were behind the assault, what would she do next?
But very oddly after Trip and Charlotte had visited with Reggie at the hospital, they settled down. What did Reggie tell them? He knew she knew far more than she admitted to, but neither he nor Roxy was willing to push her, at least for now. He doubted she would say anything at all to implicate her…sister…in any way…or Daisy for that matter. Why was that? Under normal circumstances Reggie would have been released from the hospital, but it was easier to protect her there, and she had lost a lot of blood.
Acting on a hunch he had decided to pick up the GPS tracking trail again. He met the mustang at the Waffle Haus. From his car he watched the little band depart. He was not surprised that the boy, Tommy, was with the two women. How compromised he was becoming. Why didn't he just grab them and the boy and haul them off to the station? Some part of him told him to hold off. Let this play out. What he was surprised about was the fact that they walked openly in public with him. The kid's face was pictured in every newspaper and on TV. And yet there they were, the Georgia girl, Daisy, and the boy walking down the street. Daisy held Tommy's hand looking for all the world like she was his mother. Georgia walked on the other side. He found it interesting that not once did he see either of the women look around. Were they protecting him, or were they kidnappers? Why were they really holding him?
And for two women, according to Harry's account, to be out walking at all was unbelievable. Harry said he shot Daisy in the back. Harry said he saw Georgia take a shotgun to the midsection and fall to the ground where she left blood, a lot of it. The evidence in the closet seem to indicate that it was her who left a lot more of her own blood on Reggie intercepting the shot that hit Reggie in the arm. Harry and the fact that these two had Tommy pointed to the impossible, that these two took mortal wounds just a few days ago and yet, here they were, out for a morning stroll. Maybe Harry was right, they were demons. No living human could survive what they seem to have and be out walking about. And yet Daisy sure did not feel like a reanimated corpse from the grave brought back to collect souls or what was that story Sheila had told Charlotte? Reapers or soul collectors. The car that night was in fact within easy walking distance of the Ferguson house. That put at least the Georgia girl not far away. He had found her with Reggie in the hospital, but...she could not have been shot at least twice and walking around like that.
They were heading towards the waterfront area. He got out and followed them. The thought crossed his mind to try and strike up a conversation with them, in the most nonthreatening way he could manage, to sound them out about their intentions. Did they know who attacked the Fergusons? If the police could wrap that up the boy could go to his Aunt and Uncle, who could afford plenty of security. They certainly were on guard now and he suspected that they were having doubts about the sister, Meigan. Anyway it was worth a try.
He stayed well behind. They walked totally oblivious to the possibility that someone might notice the kid. He followed them to an ice cream shop. And from there over to the park and down towards the water. They walked a bit down among the shrubbery near the water and then back up meandering with no apparent goal in mind. Plenty of people were out walking and enjoying the sun. A few joggers and even a family or two flying kites.
Georgia and Daisy took a seat on a bench with the boy in between and all three facing the water. They were talking to Tommy who leaned in close to Daisy. She had her arm around him. She was pointing out the different boats on the water. He thought as a rule if you need to wear a jacket then it's a bit cold for ice cream, but the sun was out.
Then he noticed a man watching them. His first thought was that the guy had realized that Tommy was the missing kid. He expected him to dial his phone, but no, he moved closer from behind staying close and pretending, John thought, to be interested in the water scene. John had alarm bells going off. He jogged closer and stopped off to the side. The man didn't notice him. He was focused on the three on the bench.
Then really oddly, George looked at her watch. She said something to Daisy, turned and looked at the man, and then she looked over at John and raised her eyebrows. John closed up the remaining gap pulled his gun out just as the man showed a knife and rushed at them on the bench. John had no doubt he was intending to slash one or all of them. He fired twice hitting the man once in the head and once in the back. He crumpled to the ground dropping the knife.
He bent over the man and verified he was dead. He looked up to see the girl, Georgia, close by watching him still with her ice cream cone. She casually took a small bite. She was in no hurry. She said with no emotion and just a touch of a smile, "Detective Merryweather. He tried to kill me. You saved me. My hero." She smiled again. She made no effort to hide her sarcasm.
Her detached devil may care demeanor startled him, and from his crouched position he looked around. Daisy and Tommy were gone. He stood and looked around again with more care. There were people coming this way to see what had happened. A few were running away. But Daisy and the boy were nowhere in sight. He had seen many people who had escaped violence and their reactions could take many forms. This one from the Georgia girl was a new one. She calmly finished her ice cream watching him and looking over the dead man.
George looked at him and smiled. "I'm so glad you were here."
He looked at her already knowing the answer to his question, but he asked anyway, "Where did Daisy and Tommy go?"
George said, "Who? No, Detective. It was just me enjoying a walk by the sea and this man…" She leaned closer to him so she would be heard in the gathering commotion around them. "He tried to kill me." She crouched down to look at the dead man, and then back up into his face. Then in a voice for him only she said, "Just between you and me. He was one of the four that killed the Fergusons. But you figured that out already." She winked and added, "Two down, two to go." And then she added. "And Sunshine, I have a busy afternoon, so let's get to the station and I'll give you my statement."
Actually, he hadn't figured that out, but he believed her.
