Starlight Starbright


These good fellows don't belong to me but I promise to pick um up, dust um off and with a kiss on the cheek return them safely home.

"If it were not for hopes, the heart would break." Thomas Fuller

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Holiday!

Chapter 16

Lt. Marcos waited for the other man to be brought to the interrogation room while he continued to file through the stack of photographs. He paused at one holding it in one hand while he pulled out the picture in his pocket. Standing up he took the picture and headed to the phone.

Roy slammed the phone back onto the hook then turned to his crewmates. Each one was holding their breath. He was raging mad and wanted to punch something, anything.

"Damn!"

"Roy? Where is he?" Hank asked.

He shook his head, "I don't know. I still don't know. The connection was so bad I only got bits and pieces of what he said."

Hank took the pad of paper and pen sitting next to the phone, "Write it all down. Even bits might help us. I'm going to call the police and see if there's any way to find out where the call came from." He left Roy surrounded by the other men while he headed to the office.

Roy shook his head, "Um, Kern, he said Kern. Something about 12. But I don't know 12 what."

Mike started writing as Roy mumbled scattered words. Roy kept thinking, "Shot." He looked at them, "He said something about being shot."

"Did he sound ok?" Chet asked anxiously.

"No," Roy said, shaking his head.

Hank returned to find the men sitting at the table trying to decipher the clues. They all waited anxiously for the shift to come to a close.

"You're not going to believe this," Hank said.

Everyone looked up to the stunned look on their Captain.

"What is it Cap?" Chet asked.

"I just called the police department and they said they just got a new lead on Johnny. Now, they don't know where he is but his wallet has been found. They linked that to the missing person's report and called it in."

"Where?" Roy asked, standing up.

"Kern County Sheriff's Office."

"Kern," Roy whispered to himself.

"Well, one clue deciphered," Marco said.

"We're off in 30 minutes. Let's meet at my house," Hank said.

Roy looked up at Hank.

"Well, we can't find him sitting around here. We'll go to the Sheriff's office and see what we can do to help from there," Hank said.

"Look, we already know you took the girl and she got shot in the process. We also know that you took her to a cabin. Now you got a federal charge pending based on this." Marco's tossed the missing person poster on the table at the man.

Carl picked it up, instantly recognizing the young fireman. "Don't know nothing about this," he said throwing the picture back at Marcos.

"Funny, Red does. He's already identified him as the man you beat to a pulp at the cabin. He's a fireman and the charges will be heavier. Just tell us where the cabin is. There's still time to get them medical care. But if they die…"

Marco's looked up to see a young woman stick her head in the door, "Marcos, Cap's on the phone for you."

Marco's turned back to the man sitting smugly at the table, "Double homicide carry's a death penalty." Then turned to leave the room.

"I didn't kill no one!" Carl yelled as the officer's left him alone in the room.

Amy opened her eyes to the sun shining into the living room. The bitter cold of the air told her the fire had gone out. She reached over to check on Johnny. His wet forehead told of his still high fever but what concerned her most was the change in his breathing. Before it had been loud and heavy with coughing but she hadn't heard him cough in a while now. She gently laid her hand on his chest, feeling the rattle inside and the very shallow efforts he was now making.

She knew she had to get something done, she had to save them but she was so tired and exhausted she couldn't even stand. The fire was now gone and the sun coming in the window would be the only warmth for a while. Then it too would be gone.

She looked up to the ceiling with tears in her eyes, "Amanda, I need ya little sis. I know this was your idea so that Johnny would know what really happened." She smiled to herself, "Only you would concoct such a crazy scheme." Taking a deep breath, "Amanda, I don't think he can make it another night. Johnny understands and now it's our job to get him out of here. Send help Amanda. Hurry." She reached for more blankets to pull over them again and fell asleep beside Johnny.

The drive north was quiet, each man in his own thoughts. The broken and frantic words from Johnny plagued Roy's mind. Then this lead up in Kern. He knew that Johnny went all over the mountains of California finding prime camping spots to escape too but he'd never heard him talk about going up there. Staring out the window he watched the city traffic change to country then to tall green trees that seemed to reach for the sky. Having been camping with his partner more than once he understood the draw that this country had on Johnny. It was beautiful and looking up into the higher ranges you could see the snow white peaks. Roy sighed a deep breath. If Johnny was lost in these mountains they could spend weeks looking and never find him. The Sierra's were vast and mostly wild. And something pulled at Roy telling him that they no longer had weeks, not even days. In fact, the dream he had last night at the station told him of only hours.

Hank pulled into the small town, a one horse town one might have called it. Walker Basin was in the middle of nowhere. However, Roy noted how it was right on the edge of the Sierra Nevada Range. Unloading and stretching the group of men hesitated as they stood in front of the small police station.

"Well, let's go," Hank said.

Marcos looked up to see a group of men standing at the receptionist's desk. He didn't get up but instead chose to observe them from his desk. One looked familiar but not the others. He watched Maggie point them in his direction. Yes, they were the friends of the missing fireman. They made good time he noted to himself. He stood up and extended his hand to the tall, thinner man who seemed to be in charge of this group.

"Lt Marcos, how may I help you gentlemen?"

"Hank Stanley, we just drove up from LA. We understand you have a lead on our missing friend, John Gage?"

Marcos shook his head then looked over to Roy. "We usually don't get this much attention for a missing person report. Do you guys work with him?"

Hank nodded, "Yes sir, were all shift mates with the LA County Fire Department. Johnny is one of our paramedics that's been missing. He came up here to camp and hasn't been heard from since."

"Have a seat fellows and I'll try to bring you up to date on what's been going on around here."

The group pulled up chairs to listen. Roy was ansy, he didn't want to chat, he wanted the lead and to go find Johnny. Besides, this Lt was making him nervous, he kept staring at him.

"About 3 days ago there was a bank robbery down in Bakersfield. We just happened to get a tip from the hotel manager in the next little community and managed to bust the two men."

Roy wanted to scream, WHO CARES.

"When we picked um up we found this on um," he tossed the worn wallet onto the edge of his desk.

Roy reached over and picked it up. He felt his heartbeat quicken, it was the one that he had given Johnny for Christmas a couple of years ago, "its Johnny's." He said looking over to Hank. Then he opened it up, finding it empty. "There's nothing in it. How did you know it was his?"

Marcos then pulled out the pictures. First he handed Roy the picture of Jenny and Chris. "Nice kids but I have inkling that they more resemble you," he said with a smile. Roy took the picture. It had been Johnny's favorite one, the kids at his birthday party last year. The second picture shook him up a lot more; it was a picture of him and Johnny in front of the station.

Hank shook his head again, "I don't understand, how did they get their hands on his wallet?"

Marcos continued, "Well apparently they had picked a remote cabin for a high away."

"But Johnny was already there," Roy finished the sentence.

"Yea. One of the men has positively identified Johnny as being in the cabin when they arrived. The other still refuses to give up any information. And unfortunately he's the only one that knows exactly how to find the cabin again."

"Johnny said something about being shot," Mike spoke quietly from the back of the group.

Marco's jerked his head, "You've talked to him?"

Roy gave him a 'yes' nod, "He called the firehouse this morning but the connection was so bad we couldn't hear most of what he was saying. The whole call lasted about 30 seconds." Roy pulled out the scribbled paper with the words he remembered on it. "This is about all we could get."

Kern

12

Shot

Help

Uck

Marco's nodded, "Let me finish the story then. "The two men kidnapped a woman at the bank and took her hostage back to the cabin. Apparently they also managed to shoot her."

The look of shocked relief was apparent to Marcos, "John's not been shot as far as I know but it sounds like he was beaten pretty badly. Badly enough that they left him tied up in the cabin to make the ransom phone call. When they got back both were gone."

"Gone?" Hank said.

"How do two injured people get up and leave without a trace," Chet asked.

Roy just smiled, "Johnny would do anything to protect her. And nobody knows better how to survive in the woods."

"Look, I've called the park service and there's no Gage registered at any of the cabins," Marcos said.

"No, this one was owned by a friend of Johnny's." Roy offered.

"Private huh? Well then this might be important too. It was the only other thing left in his wallet but every time I call the number there's no answer." Marco's pulled out the slip of paper and handed it to Roy.

Buck (number). Now 'uck' was defined in Roys mind, "This must be who owns the cabin. I've seen this too. It was in the stack of papers from Johnny's place I picked up."

"Well, if this is the owner he's no help if he won't answer the phone but I'll try to put a track on the phone number and see if we can trace down an address."

"Lt, for what it's worth. When Johnny called this morning there was a woman on the line too. She was still alive at that point."

"Thanks. I'll let her husband know. It sounds like the family has already seen enough death. Apparently her twin sister just died in a car accident down in LA a few days ago and they were supposed to have the funeral this week."

Roy looked to Hank, "Couldn't be."