Chapter 22
"Identifying the Dead"
December 23rd…almost 36 hours since Pan Am Flight 103 came over Lockerbie, Scotland. Even now, bodies of passengers and now, Pokemon, were being collected after having been lying in the fields and streets for almost 2 days. The Lockerbie Town Hall was probably the saddest place in the world right now as families of the dead began to arrive to identify the bodies of the dead and bring them back home to the United States.
I then saw what appeared to be a wooden coffin being taken out of the town hall and loaded into one of 12 hearses slated to bring bodies out of the town.
"Psyduck," I heard Psyduck cry sadly and I saw an orange tail sticking out from underneath a blue tarp. There was no denying what tail that belonged to.
"That was a Charmander," I sighed deeply. "A Charmander, Psyduck."
I then made my way into the town hall where a group of families were waiting to identify their deceased loved ones. All of them looked like they hadn't slept since hearing the news and who could blame them? I should know, I lost a friend and colleague on Flight 103.
"Mr. Conn?" I heard a voice say and an older looking man and his grandson got up and followed the nurse to the back of the town hall. I knew immediately that the man and his grandson were going to be in for a horrifying experience.
"OH, MY BABY! MY BABIES!" he screamed. "NANCY! CHARLOTTE!"
The grandson stepped out of the back room and walked towards me, giving me a look that said he wanted to talk to me.
"Are you Lucy Stevens?" he asked. "From CMN?"
"Yes," I answered, slightly taken aback that I would be identified so quickly. "And who are you?"
The grandson looked around and gestured me to follow him out of the town hall as more families came into the tiny building.
"I'm sorry to have to drag you out of this, but I wanted to talk to you in private," he said. "My name's Gary Conn, that was my grandfather you heard scream back there."
"Psyduck?"
"This your Psyduck?"
"He is, he's my Pokemon partner. What is it that you want to tell me, Mr. Conn?"
"Call me Gary," said the young man. "I think I know who may be responsible for this bombing. He's with Team Rocket."
I took out the notes from my purse and carefully prepared myself to write down whatever he had to say.
"Who is this person you speak of?" I asked.
"His name is Richard Matthew Ellard," answered Gary. "He's been stalking my mom and first cousin for several months. I believe he's a serial killer."
"And what makes you say that, Gary?" I asked, feeling somewhat uneasy by what he just said. "That he helped bomb the flight?"
"Because he wanted my mother and her cousin dead ever since he got arrested for attempting to kill them."
This made me feel taken aback for a second.
"What? What are you talking about, Gary?"
"A couple of years ago, they were having one of their girls night's out on the town. He kidnapped them, assaulted them and threatened to kill them by axphysiating in the trunk of his car. They survived, but he broke into the hospital and tried to kill my mom by choking her with a pillow. He was arrested and sentenced to prison, but he escaped and left the country to join Team Rocket."
With each word Gary confessed, I couldn't help but feel scared at the idea that someone would go to such lengths to carry out a vendetta against someone.
"And how do you know this?" I asked.
"Because his escape from prison was on the news in Syracuse," Gary answered. "He wanted to harm my mom from a place where he couldn't be captured and protected from the law. It was just a guess, but given how big of a threat Team Rocket has been lately, well, I can't keep my suspicions hidden forever."
…
At that moment, we then saw Gary's grandfather come out of the town hall followed by two coffins containing the bodies of his daughter and her cousin.
"If you bring up anything on the news, Lucy," Gary warned. "I want you to send a message to Richard Ellard: that he may have killed my mother and her cousin, but final justice will come to him. He will lose."
As the two coffins were loaded into the hearse, Gary turned to his grandfather and followed him into the drive back to the Carlisle Airport. Once he was gone, I couldn't believe the fact that such a man would go to such lengths to kill someone including joining Team Rocket to help carry out a terrorist attack against his own countrymen. Just then, the body of another Pokemon was brought into the town hall and it was clear that the dead Pokemon belonged to the Pokemon League Academy students.
…
At the same time, I began to notice a memorial starting to form outside the town hall containing flowers, notes and other mementos to remember the victims. This was not just an American tragedy, but a Scottish one as well.
"Lucy?" I heard one of my news crew cry out as he approached me. "Lucy, I just heard that the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is coming here to Lockerbie."
"When?"
"Later today, she's flying in from London."
Lockerbie was about to get a representative of her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and I was going to be up close and personal with her for the first time in my young career as a journalist.
…
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