Fifty-one
Kali's heart pounded wildly; fear and panic set in, as she tumbled in the air toward the ground below. She felt as if she were falling in slow motion. Is this how I am to die? she fretted. Isn't my life supposed to pass before my eyes? Why is my only thought, 'I hope it doesn't hurt too much when I hit the sidewalk'?
Any second now, she expected to be a puddle of mush on the concrete. She closed her eyes, praying it would be over quickly, but instead of crashing against the hard sidewalk, she felt two arms slip underneath her, breaking her fall. What…? Kali wondered.
As she opened her eyes, she looked up expectantly into the smiling masked face of her favorite super-hero. "Flash!" she cried, tears of joy welling up in her eyes. She threw her arms tightly around his neck and held on tight.
"What's going on?" asked a familiar voice from nearby. Kali lifted her head to see who it was, hoping it was not Mr. Jensen or Vince.
Standing there, looking his handsomest and staring worriedly into her face, was Wally!
"Wally?" Kali asked in disbelief. Speechless, she looked back and forth between the two men.
"Isn't it amazing what little treasures you can pick up when you're out for a little stroll?" Flashed joked, gently lowering Kali to her feet.
"What happened?" Wally asked, wrapping his arm around Kali's shoulder.
"Wally? Flash?" Kali mumbled before fainting in Wally's arms.
"Looks like she's got a problem with her apartment," Flash said, "You take Kali, while I check out what's at the other end of this… rope?"
"Sure, I think I'd better take her over to the police station, I'll see you up at the apartment," Wally said.
"Do you think that is wise?" Flash asked.
"I think it will be the safest place for her, at the moment," Wally reasoned.
"Flash followed the rope up to Kali's bedroom window and climbed in. He quickly yanked the cord into the room and carefully hid it behind the shoeboxes on the floor of Kali's closet. He leaned against the bedroom door, listening to the heated discussion he heard on the other side.
"I can't stay here all day and baby-sit, C.J.," Vince argued.
"Vince, I have to go pick up Vern at the Sheriff's office. Lord knows how his attorney got him out on bail! Just stay here until I get back."
"What do I do about her?" Vince asked. "I haven't heard a sound out of her since we got back..."
"The door is barricaded shut, she can't get out any other way. She certainly isn't going to jump out a four story window!" C.J. retorted.
"Hey, Miss O'Malley!" C.J. called, walking over to the bedroom door, "Are you nice and comfy?" he asked.
"Leave me alone!" Flash said in his best voice impression of Kali.
"See? Nothing to worry about," C.J. replied.
"I suppose. I don't want anything to do with her, C.J.," Vince warned.
"We'll let Vern handle her," C.J. answered. "Just keep your eyes and ears open. Vern wants to know when Flash and Wally are in the apartment. I'll be right back."
Flash heard the apartment door slam shut. Taking a discreet position near the bedroom window, Flash watched as C.J. exited the apartment house and drove off in his car down the street.
Good, he thought.
Flash glanced around the room. Spotting the radio alarm clock beside the bed, he walked over to it and turned it on. He tuned the dial onto a music station that claimed to broadcast romantic songs all day long. Flash moved back to the window and perched himself on a chair, awaiting Wally's soon return.
Fifty-two
As Wally carried Kali to his car, two plain-clothes police officers ran over to him.
"Wally!" An officer called, trying to keep his voice down. "You can't leave the area. You have to go to your apartment, remember? We'll take care of Kali," said an officer, lifting her from Wally's arms. "Don't worry, she'll be fine."
Wally watched as the two officers scurried off and disappeared into their unmarked police van with Kali.
He knew what he had to do.
As he headed for the back entrance into his apartment house, he spotted Flash inside Kali's apartment, waving at him from her bedroom window.
Wally shrugged his shoulders and waved back.
Fifty-three
Vern was impatiently pacing outside the Sheriff's office, when C.J. arrived. C.J. could tell from the disgruntled look on Vern's face that he was annoyed.
"Sorry I took so long, I tried to get here as quickly as I could," C.J. apologized. He didn't know how he could have gotten there any sooner, but he hoped an apology would placate the angry man.
"Never mind, just drive. Go straight to Wilkinson's Mortuary and step on it!" Vern ordered.
"Is Sarah out too?" C.J. asked casting a quick glance over in Vern's direction.
"The lawyer says he's still working on it."
"But he's going to get her out, right?" C.J. questioned concerned.
"I said I'd get her out and I will." Vern's snappy retort warned C.J. that now was not the best time to argue with Vern.
When they arrived at Wilkinson's, C.J. followed Vern into the back entrance of the mortuary. This place always gives me the creeps, C.J. thought. I do not know how in the world Sarah and Vern can stand to work here. He shuddered as they passed the show room displaying an assortment of coffins lined in a row. The lids to each coffin were raised, presumably exhibiting the fine selection of silks and satin linings to choose from.
C.J. followed Vern into the autopsy room. The room stunk of a nauseating mixture of antiseptics, disinfectants, and who knows what. From the looks of the metal gurneys bearing leather straps, camera equipment, surgical instruments, and the like, C.J. imagined the worst. He did not even want to think about what they did in this room.
Vern went directly to a locked oaken cabinet against the far wall. After unlocking the cabinet, he excitedly opened the wooden door.
"Here we go!" Vern said proudly, with a self-satisfied look on his face.
C.J. strained his neck to see what it was that brought about Vern's sudden mood change. In his hands, he held a fair-sized vinyl-covered case.
Vern carried it over to the table with care and slowly opened it.
Inside the case, was, what appeared to be, a silver 38-caliber revolver and ten gleaming white bullets.
Vern glanced over at the puzzled look on C.J.'s face and grinned. "This, my friend, is no ordinary gun. What we have here is the latest in tranquilizer guns used to sedate the fiercest and most vicious animals of the world. I have zoologist friend who uses these guns in order to sedate untamed lions in the wild."
C.J. warily moved in closer to get a better look. "Those don't look like regular bullets, are they tranquilizers?"
"These bullets are not the typical tranquilizers you'd expect to find in the store. These bullets are my own personal creation, designed for a special purpose, which is now at hand," Vern announced chuckling.
C.J. waited for Vern to continue, as he knew he would.
Vern began loading the bullets into the gun. "This gun holds 10 bullets, but I don't intend to use more than one."
"Who are you going to use them on?" C.J. asked, growing impatient.
Vern looked directly at him and smiled. "Why C.J., these bullets are prepared specifically from a chemical compound I created for Flash, Neurotrixatocin. Unfortunately, it is very unstable in its liquid form, but by altering its composition to a solid form, it should retain its potency. I expect it will achieve the desired effect instantaneously."
C.J. nodded in agreement. "Can we leave now?" he asked. "This place gives me the willies!"
"Sure C.J., I have what I came for," Vern said, returning to the wooden cabinet.
C.J. watched as Vern attached a leather holster to his belt and slipped the loaded gun snugly into place.
"Where to now?" C.J. asked, as Vern locked the cabinet and returned the keys to his pocket.
"O'Malley's place. I want to know exactly when Flash arrives," Vern answered, gently patting his precious holstered gun.
Fifty-four
"Where am I? What's going on here?" Kali asked sluggishly, as she came-to in the back seat of a luxury passenger van. There were three men dressed in suits, huddled together behind the driver's seat. They appeared to be studying some expensive looking computer equipment bolted to the inside of the van.
"Anything happening yet?" a man in a dark blue pinstriped suit asked the others.
"No, Wally is there alone. Isn't Flash supposed to come by?" the second man asked.
"Yes. We'll just have to wait and see what happens when he shows up," the first man replied.
"I'm glad I'm not in there!" the third man interjected. "Imagine, he's being watched by Monocello's gang and bugged by the police. Talk about no privacy! I hate it when the wife looks over my shoulder when I'm reading the paper."
All three laughed unaware that Kali was listening.
Kali thought it best to remain quiet and see just who these men were and what they were up too. The last thing she remembered was falling to the ground… and landing… in Flash's arms? She was not sure she remembered clearly because she seemed to recall Wally talking to her AND Flash. Was that right, or was it all some kind of dream? she wondered.
Fifty-five
As C.J. pulls his car into the parking lot for the apartment house, a hunter-green luxury passenger van catches C.J.'s eye. "Hey Vern, get a load of that van! That baby must cost a fortune!"
"Who lives in this apartment house that can afford that kind of van?" Vern asked suspiciously.
"Hey, it may not be 'The Ritz' but it's a decent place to live," C.J. shot back, feeling insulted by Vern's remark.
Vern gave C.J. 'that look'.
"Well… okay, maybe not, but it's no slum!" C.J. admitted.
"Something stinks. Check it out," Vern ordered.
"What do I do? It's not illegally parked," C.J. asked uneasily.
Vern rolled his eyes, "Just check…. Never mind, here's what we'll do."