With the kids at school, Roy spent a couple of quiet hours puttering around in the garage while Joanne worked out back in the garden, trimming the moon flowers and cutting sweet peas to make an arrangement. After putting his tools away, Roy went upstairs for a quick shower before work. As he put on jeans and a polo shirt, he heard his wife come in from the yard.
"If I had known you were taking a shower, I might have joined you," she said playfully at the bedroom door.
Roy groaned and shut his eyes. "Joanne DeSoto! You can't do this to me when I'm leaving."
Laughing, his wife gave him a kiss. "Don't forget to remind John."
He wrapped his arms around her waist and smiled. "I'm afraid you're going to have to remind me what I am supposed to remind him."
"The watch? You're going to remind John to call Vince about that watch," she said smoothing down the front of his shirt.
"Oh, yeah!" He kissed her again. "Tell the kids I love them. I'll give you a call this evening, if I can."
"Stay safe."
After a quick commute, Roy pulled his sports car into the parking lot behind the station. To his surprise a police car sat in his regular spot. Crossing the empty apparatus bay, he saw Marco standing to one side, still wearing his civvies. "Hey Marco, what's going on?"
"I'm not sure." Marco folded his arms across his chest. "I went to go change, but Vince Howard stopped me. Said I couldn't go in the locker room."
"Why is Vince here?" Roy asked.
His friend shrugged. "I don't know. He's over there talking to Cap and Chet."
"Hi guys." Mike had silently come up behind them. "What's the deal?"
Hearing members of his crew arrive, Captain Stanley walked over followed by a serious-looking Vince and an obviously keyed-up Chet.
"Cap?" Marco and Roy asked in unison.
"Something odd has happened, fellas."
"What?" Mike asked worriedly, noting Cap was still in his street clothes, but Chet had on his uniform.
There was no mistaking their captain's concerned expression. "Kelly, tell them what you told me."
A thin sheen of perspiration covering his forehead, the stocky fireman spoke at a rapid-fire pace. "I got to work early, so I went in the kitchen to make coffee for the guys of C shift because they are out on a call, right? Then I hear someone running and a second later there was this loud bang. So I yell, 'Who's there?' and go to the locker room. Then, boom! Gage comes flying into me like a bat out of hell and flattens me! I mean, straight to the floor! He tells me to stay down, so I do. Then he throws an index card at me and takes off!"
Listening intently, Roy made a face. "That doesn't make any sense, Chet. Surely he told you what was going on?"
"Just that note." Chet gestured to the blue index card Vince held. "When I realized he wasn't coming back, I went out to the parking lot, but his Rover wasn't there. It was crazy, even for Gage! So I ran to the locker room, and man, there's stuff thrown everywhere, and it looks like it's all from Gage's locker!"
Stanley joined in. "I thought I'd play it safe and call Vince. I've tried repeatedly to reach John at home, but there's no answer."
"What's it say?" Marco asked warily.
Flustered, Chet threw him a confused look. "What does what say?"
"The note Johnny wrote." Marco placed a comforting hand on his upset friend's shoulder.
"You know I can't read Gage's chicken scratch!" cried Chet.
"Roy probably knows John's writing better than anyone," Cap said to Vince.
The policeman handed Roy the card. "I know I can't make it out."
Even by Johnny's standards, the handwriting was terrible. Roy's brow furrowed as he squinted to read the slanting words. "I think it says 'Help,' which is underlined. Then it says 'Watch Body Park,' and then 'Key to AC.'"
Vince looked from one man to the next. "Any idea what that means?"
With a growing unease settling over them, all five shook their heads. Still staring hard at the note, Roy turned on his heels and walked quickly to the locker room. Strewn across the floor lay the rest of John's index cards, his clean uniform, and countless papers. The others joined Roy in baffled silence.
"Why would Johnny trash his own locker?" he wondered aloud.
"Maybe he found it this way and thought you did it, Chet," Marco said, trying to lighten the mood. "That's why he knocked you down."
"Look!" Chet had circled the locker contents before noticing Johnny's necklace, which lay sad and neglected on the bench.
The worried feeling growing in Roy's stomach suddenly became one of cold, hard fear. He brushed by Cap to pick up the delicate beads. "The only—and I mean the only—reason John would leave this out in the open like this is if something is wrong."
Chet nodded his head. "Even The Phantom knows not to ever mess with Gage's Indian stuff. But if something was wrong, why didn't he just tell me?"
"Where's the pocket watch?" Mike squatted down to survey the clutter on the floor.
As the crew quickly did a visual sweep of the room, Vince's frustration grew. "Pocket watch?" the policeman asked. "What pocket watch?"
"The one he found in the park where that woman was murdered," Chet answered.
"What?" Vince whirled around to face Stanley. "John removed evidence?"
"No, of course not. It was nothing like that!" Cap jumped to the defense of his youngest crew member.
"When we were getting ready to leave, Johnny found a pocket watch, but not at the fire," Roy explained. "He found it down at the trailhead where we were parked."
"He told me he had asked a few people on the scene if they had lost it," said Cap. "He even ran an ad in the Penny Saver to see if he could find the owner. He was keeping the watch in his locker."
Marco stepped forward. "What if the 'watch' John wrote about in his note meant the pocket watch?" he suggested. "It would fit with 'Body' and 'Park.'"
Suddenly all of Joanne's concerns related to the watch and the murder echoed in Roy's mind; he gently held his partner's necklace a little tighter.
"OK, even if that's true, what does it that have to do with how he acted today?" Cap reasoned. "Why does he need help?"
"I don't know," Mike said quietly. "But a woman was murdered and set on fire not that far from where Johnny found the watch. And the killer hasn't been caught yet." The engineer didn't verbalize his thoughts frequently or at any length, but when he did, what he said carried a lot of weight with the men.
Vince Howard rubbed his forehead. "If that watch is somehow related to the murder… Listen, I know the detective working the case. I'll give him a call."
Pacing, Chet mentally reviewed the earlier events for the fiftieth time. "Wait, I just remembered something else!" he exclaimed. "I couldn't really see it that well, but Gage had a cut on his head. It was bleeding."
"He was hurt?" Marco asked apprehensively.
All of the anxiety Roy felt balled up in his gut. "Why did you let him leave?" he exploded.
Chet held his hands up in defense. "He told me to stay down!"
"Since when have you ever done what Johnny has wanted you to do?" Roy shouted.
Angrily the fiery Irishman lashed back. "Shut up, DeSoto! I stayed on the ground because…because I knew he was serious! And…"
"And?" Roy demanded.
"And because of the look on his face, OK? Gage was scared."
A heavy silence fell on the room. Finally, Vince said, "Captain, for now no one goes in this room. Notify your command chain. I'm going to go call this in…whatever this is."