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Chapter Three

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"Now Allah has created the dream not only as a means of guidance and instruction, I refer to the dream, but he has made it a window on the Unseen." Words of the Prophet Mohammed, Arabia, 7th century A. D.

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Hawkgirl cornered Mrs. Waters outside the manager's office.

"Who the hell are you, lady?" she said hovering a few feet off the ground in front of the bigger woman.

"My goodness, wings, you are such an angry little thing. I just got you a room and I would think you would be a little more appreciative. After all, you almost screwed up my play. Now, let's go check out your room," said Mrs. Waters walking toward room ten.

Hawkgirl landed in front of the large woman. "Wait a minute, woman. I asked you a question but I won't ask you again. Who are you?"

Mrs. Waters walked around Hawkgirl and continued walking down the walkway toward room ten.

"Well, open me a can of tuna. What are you going to do, Wings? Hit me with your little lightening stick? That might work with the super villains you fight, but honey, how would it look if you zapped a fat, gray haired, old lady who just paid for your room. That certainly won't get you good press. Come on, ease up, honey and I'll explain as we get closer to your room and further away from the manager's office."

Mrs. Waters continued walking toward the room while Hawkgirl followed grumbling behind her. They stopped in front of room ten. Hawkgirl stepped in front of Mrs. Waters and opened the door. They were greeted by the musky odor of stale air coming from inside the room.

"Oh, Wings, let's get that air conditioner on high and let's get this room aired out. This is terrible," Mrs. Waters said, as she pushed her way past Hawkgirl and into the room.

The room had two double beds with a single night table between them. Above the two beds on the wall, hung a large picture of a beach sunset. Across from the beds, a small black and white TV sat on a desk. Underneath the desk were two small straight back chairs. Mrs. Waters opened the windows curtains and turned the air conditioner from 'Low' to 'High'. Without saying a word, she walked to the back of the room, past the bathroom and opened the curtains against the far wall which revealed French doors leading out to the pool area.

Hawkgirl stepped into the room and exploded, "Look lady, bad press and all, I have run out of patience with you. Tell me who you are AND – STOP - CALLING – ME – WINGS!"

Mrs. Waters walked to the front door, closed it, making sure it was locked and sat on the bed nearest the door. Smiling, she pointed to one of the two chairs in the room, "Sure thing, Wings, have a seat."

Hawkgirl didn't move but continued to glare at the seated woman.

"Suit yourself, honey. And for the record, Hawkgirl, I know who you are. My name is Carolyn Waters. I'm a private investigator. Run a business called C. Waters Confidential Investigations out of Los Angeles. I'm working on a missing person's case. That reminds me – we need to talk about how you going to pay me for this room. That was so funny. How in the world did you think you would get a room without a credit card or ID.? Don't you superheroes have a school or something that teaches you how to get by in the real world?"

There was a long silence as Hawkgirl glared at the still smiling woman. Finally, she spoke. Her tone was flat. "Okay...Thanks for helping me get the room - But why the help in the first place?"

"Like I said, honey, you were about to screw up my play. Wings, did you notice that there was a page torn out of the registration book or that there was no key in the box for room four or five? My junior partner and I have been the only people here for the last three days. Neither room four nor five has ever been rented out since we've been here, but at night we can hear noises and voices coming from the room four."

"Damn!" Hawkgirl thought to herself. She had not noticed the torn registration page or no key for room four or five. She eased her stance. "How can you hear voices from room four all the way down here?"

"Pickle me for a beet. Wings, we go to each room and listen from outside. The manager lied to you about the broken air conditioner and he lied about the pool. I seen that air conditioner run at night. I'm sure you noticed the puddle of water from condensation under the air conditioner when we passed by room four? It's been running. And my 'legs' tell me the pool's not cracked – at least not yet."

"Damn it all!!" Hawkgirl cursed to herself that she had not noticed the condensation puddle either. She had been too easily distracted by the manager and this woman she thought to herself.

Hawkgirl sat down in the chair opposite the bed. "Your legs? What do you mean by your 'legs'? And that missing person wouldn't be someone named Peter Hill, would it?"

"Wings, my partner is my 'legs'. He's been down in the pool and as he puts it, something ain't right. Now, honey, I'm not going to tell you who I'm looking for. But is that who YOU'RE looking for? Is that why you wanted room four?"

Hawkgirl decided she could be as coy as the large woman. "Room four is important, but I'm not sure how yet. As for who I'm looking for...I'll keep that to myself for the moment."

"Tell you what, wings. You do me favor and I'll do you one by picking up the cost of this room for one night and maybe we can exchange a little information about our... mutual friend. Here's a freebie to sweeten the deal. Like I said no one else is here at this motel but us, but at night, you can see lights in room fourteen which is on the backside of room four on the other side of the pool. The lights are so bright they leak pass the drawn curtains. We got a deal, honey?"

Hawkgirl's eyes narrowed. "What's the favor?"

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"Where can I find the detective in charge of the Hill missing person case?" The Flash asked the police sergeant at the front desk.

"Are you for real, buddy? Who are you supposed to be?" The police sergeant asked, looking at the masked red costumed figure in front of him.

"Does Superman have this problem?" the Flash thought to himself.

"Look officer, I am the Flash. Now can you tell me which detective is assigned to the Hill case?"

"Missing persons is down the hall - fourth door on the left. Ask for Detective Holcomb. Look, if you are really the Flash – do something really fast."

"When I leave, I'll show you a parlor trick, but if you will excuse me, I have to see Detective Holcomb."

The Flash walked down the hallway ignoring the stares coming from the officers passing him in the hall. He opened the door of the room marked "Missing Persons."

"Pardon me, I'm looking for Detective Holcomb," the Flash said as he walked through the door.

Seated behind one of the three desks in this small room, a heavy-set man looked up and gave the Scarlet Speedster a crooked smile. "You must be the Flash. Mrs. Hill called and said you were in town."

"Thanks, detective."

"Thanks for what?" the detective asked arching his eyebrows in surprise.

"Thanks for not asking for a demonstration or proof of identity." The Flash pulled up a chair next to the desk and sat down. "Now, can you tell me about the Hill case? I mean do you have the Parker autopsy back yet?"

"Yeah, the autopsy came back this afternoon. The Parker kid died from a gunshot at close range. But they also believe there were traces of ricin on his clothes. They had to send a sample away to confirm it."

"Ricin? Isn't that a poison made from castor oil or something?"

"Almost Flash. It's made from the castor bean. They press the bean and get the oil, but the residue of the bean is the poison. It takes only 500 micrograms to kill an adult if it's inhaled. Parker was some place where he came in contact with it."

"How long would it take him to die from a dose like that?"

Holcomb leaned back in his chair. "The accepted theory is it takes three to five days to die form ricin poisoning. If death hasn't occurred within that time, the victim usually recovers. Parker had trace amounts on his clothes and probably wouldn't have died from it, but I think that explains the double bagging. It was to keep the ricin from spreading."

"Are there any places around here that make castor oil or would use the caster bean commercially?" the Flash asked.

"Nope. The castor bean plant doesn't grow naturally around here and there are no commercial plants around here that make the oil. That was the first thing we checked."

"Detective, I can't tell you why I am involved in this case yet, but if you will give me your business card, I'll call you if I find anything."

Detective Holcomb took a business card out of his shirt pocket and handed it to the Flash. The Flash looked at the card, shook hands with the detective and walked out of the office. He stopped at the front desk and looked at the desk sergeant. When the desk sergeant acknowledged his presence, the Flash smiled and said "Parlor trick." The Flash raced out of the building at high speed pulling papers off the desk, down the hall and out of the building.

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The Flash ran toward Red River and the Speed Hawk Motor Inn. It was 6 P.M.

He wasn't running at top speed. He would take his time and make the forty mile trek in a few minutes. This would give him time to review what he knew. And he still knew little. The Hill kid and the dreams must be connected. But he still wasn't certain how? And Lion was right to be concerned about the double bagging. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a comm link transmission.

"Flash. Hawkgirl here. What's your ETA?"

"About two minutes unless you need me sooner." He answered into the comm link.

"Meet me outside the motel parking lot. Look up." The comm link went dead.

The Flash arrived at the parking lot and spotted Hawkgirl hovering at the back of the motel. She landed and met the Flash at room ten at the back of the inn. She opened the door to the room and they both entered. Upon entering the room, she turned on the TV and he closed the door. She turned the volume up on the TV so that the TV could be heard from outside. He looked at her quizzically.

"In case the doors have ears." she said. He nodded, closed the window curtains and sat on the bed nearest the door. She unclipped her mace and sat on the other bed facing him with her mace in her lap.

They quickly exchanged information.

She told him of her meeting with Mrs. Waters, the missing page from registration book and the reported goings on in the supposedly vacant room four and room fourteen.

He told her of his meeting with Ronald Lion, Peter Hill's shrine to both of them, the missing action figures, the double bagged body and the ricin.

"I agreed to do an all-night surveillance outside of room four. That means I'll be awake tonight but you should sleep and see if the dream changes," she said.

"Nope, not sleeping until you do. What time does the surveillance start?"

"I'll start at twilight but if you're not going to sleep how about checking out the construction on the pool with me."

"Wow, a pool – leave to you to get us such high quality accommodations," he grinned and lay back on the bed.

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Around 7:30 PM, the two Leaguers made their way to the empty pool. Hawkgirl stood guard while the Flash climbed down and entered the drained pool. He walked over to deep end of the pool. He called to Hawkgirl, "Can you come down and take a look at this?"

She looked around, unclipped and energized her mace and landed next to the Flash.

"Look at this," he said. "I'm not sure how you fix a cracked pool but I don't think it involves raising the deep end by almost two feet."

She looked at the Flash and then looked at the concrete mass in front of them. The recently poured and still curing concrete was about eighteen inches to two feet high, three feet wide and ran the pool width of thirty feet.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Hawkgirl said. "Remember in the dream, Peter Hill can't swim. What if he's in the pool, but not able to swim? What if this is him?"

"Looks like an amateur repair for a cracked pool – don't you think?" It was voice of Ronald Lion standing at the edge of the empty pool.

Hawkgirl, with mace in hand, immediately assumed a defensive stance against the stranger but relaxed when the Flash whispered; "No threat." She lifted the Flash out of the pool and landed next to Lion. Standing behind Lion was Mrs. Waters.

Mrs. Waters said, "Wings, please introduce me to your big red handsome friend here."

The Flash looked at Hawkgirl, "Wings?"

"Don't say it," she snapped at him. "Mrs. Waters, this is the Flash. Flash - Mrs. Waters who is in room nine."

Mrs. Waters extended her hand and said, "This is my partner..."

"Ronald Lion, we've met," the Flash interrupted. Turning to Hawkgirl, he said, "They've been hired to find Peter Hill by his family."

Turning back to Lion, the Flash raised his eye brows and said, "So Ronald – do you think you found him?"

Mrs Waters answered immediately cutting Lion off, "Lover, let's walk back to our room and talk this over – we don't want to get spotted out here."

She turned and headed back to her room. Lion shrugged his shoulders at the Flash and Hawkgirl and followed Mrs. Waters. The Flash and Hawkgirl looked at each other and followed them both. Once inside room nine, Mrs. Waters spoke.

"Call me a clam and throw me in the stew. If we knew for sure where the Hill kid was, we would have reported it by now and collected our money. We can't be sure until we can prove that either Hill or Parker stayed here. Ronald, break the case down for them, lover."

Lion cleared his throat, "This town lives off of tourism. Rooms in the other bed and breakfast places cost several hundred dollars a night. This place is the cheapest in the area. Mom makes a reservation at a good place – a better place, the kids have the cash. So why not stay at the cheapest place you can find and pocket the difference. You don't tell mom and you don't register here under your own name and maybe the good time you were going to have - gets better."

"Surely, the police thought about that, too," the Flash said. "I mean, contrary to popular mystery novels, they are not stupid."

"Not stupid – just busy. You see Taos has a police department. The body and the car were found in Taos. Red River is out of their jurisdiction. Red River has a marshal's office. It's bad business to have kids disappear during tourist season. Makes tourist not want to stay. The marshal's been helpful, but there is no proof that the kids were ever here, since the body and car turned up in Taos. So he's not going to invest a lot of resources and time hunting for kids that might turn up in Taos anyway.

But here's my question and you two can ponder it. If you're going to bag one body, why not bag two? Since there's not two bagged bodies maybe that means they didn't die at the same time or in the same place."

Lion shrugged his shoulders and continued. "Maybe Hill is still alive and he killed Parker or maybe he's the concrete patch in the pool. Can't prove either one – at least not yet."

"Why not simply tell the police what you know or what you suspect?" Hawkgirl asked.

Mrs. Waters spoke sharply, "Wings, I'm in business to make money. I will tell the police what I know when I know something for certain, but I ain't letting anyone screw me out of my fee. And that INCLUDES you guys."

"And looking at the car you drive, I can't imagine that you have ever been screwed out of a fee or anything else," Hawkgirl retorted.

Lion stepped between the two women, "Ladies, please. To the task at hand. Let's setup up for our stake out. We need to see what going on in room four."

The loudness of Hawkgirl's growl surprised the Flash and certainly startled Mrs. Waters.