BOMAW Vol. 10-12 (13 page)

"Shawn McPherson's family?"

"Yes, they're out of town."

"He uh, married the black woman who bought that property a while back, is that right? Sylvia ... Sylvia ???" He snapped his fingers trying to jar his memory, "... help me out here, what's her last name?"

"Was Payne ... yes, they're married now."

"So its her son?"

"Yes."

"They own quite a bit of property now down that road, her on one side, him on the other. That include the land his sister's living on?"

"Yes, yes it does."

"I see. Well, you mind, us going by there, having a word with her?"

Royce took another deep breath. "I suppose we could, if you think it'll help find him, frankly I don't... but-..."

"Why don't you think it'll help?"

"Because I've been with her, pretty much everyday if you must know. And uh, quite a few nights. If she'd seen him, heard from him, she would have told me. She was quite frightened of him."

"I see ... well, just for the sake of covering all basis, let's go talk to her anyway. They're waiting on the other end to hear back from me on what I find out here."

"Fine, let's."

Royce stood, sipped his coffee following his chief, no longer interested in the oatmeal cookies. The coffee was hard enough to get down with his mind replaying that night over in his head. Shawn had been in a rage. Shawn determined to protect his sister at all cost. Shawn with a gun. Their father arriving on the scene later with more guns. Their guarded discussion on what to do should he show up again.
'Jesus Christ! Damn you John Sykes ... you show up again? Did you - you dumb asshole? Godalmighty, you took your dumb ass back there and got yourself killed?!'
His mind raged.

They were in the car now, buckling up with the chief thinking out loud some more, "Don't you find it a bit strange that a man would travel all that way, all those miles and not see the person he drove all that way to see?"

"I suppose I do." Royce had no choice but to say.

"Yeah, I find that strange as well. Thing is, he did go back to Ohio ... back home."

"Oh yeah? If that's the case, why are we doing this?"

"Loose ends, that's why."

"But how do you know he went back there, someone must have seen him?"

"They found his car."

"His car?"

"Yeah, seems some kids had stolen it. Thing is, they had the keys to the car. Were joy ridin' in it. Police went on a right chase after them, three young men, a young girl. Took them in and charged them with auto theft and questioned them about how they came to be in possession of the car and keys. They all claimed that the car was unlocked, and the keys were under the front end of the vehicle. So they took it for a ride."

"That means that he went back to Ohio."

"So it seems, still ... if you got a pretty decent vehicle, livin' in the city, what are the odds you gonna leave your car unlocked."

"Who knows, people do it all the time don't they? Get in a hurry, forget to lock their car."

"Yes, yes, it happens some times. But the kids had a set of keys."

"Spares, under the front end, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess. They swear up and down that they never saw a man, that they just took the car."

"Well there you go, seems pretty pointless to bother her with this, I mean, he went back to Ohio. So if anything happened to him, it happened there."

"Why is it bothering you so much, that we're going to question her?"

"With all due respect sir, why do you think? She's gone through hell with him; she's put a restraining order out on him; what does that tell you? And, I'll be totally honest with you, I'm in love with her. I'm already making plans for her, for us. So naturally, I don't want her unduly bothered, upset."

"Fair enough. But we still have to do, what we have to. I'll question her, and then when I'm satisfied, I can send my results back to Ohio. Right?"

"I guess so sir, that would be about right." Royce felt like he was going to choke. He hoped and prayed she made no mention of her brother's involvement or else, shit was going to hit the fan. On the way there, he also prayed she wasn't home. Unfortunately, when they pulled up, not only was she there, but by the looks of it, her parents as well. They were all out front of her property, looking like they were on their way somewhere. All three stopped their progress to watch them pull onto the gravel drive.

Royce wanted to groan out loud, but of course didn't. Right away, Bartholomew took on a stance of ready confrontation. His arms crossed over his chest, his legs astride, his eyes narrowed on them, waiting. Shanna and her mother came up alongside him. He said something out the side of his mouth to Shanna, but his lips had moved so slightly, he wasn't sure if he had said anything or not. Chief Hurst was the first to open his door and step out.

"Good morning." He greeted.

Taking a deep breath, Royce opened his own door, stepping out, greeting as well. "'Morning all."

Bart looked from one to the other, not bothering to return their greeting, instead stated in his slow, contemplative drawl, voice deep and a bit intimidating, "We were just on our way out, what can we do for you?"

"Well we see that, I'm Chief Derek Hurst, you know of course who this is." He indicated Royce.

Bart looked to Royce, nodded, "Officer Collier, what is this all about?"

"Mind if I explain sir? And you are?"

"Bartholomew Jacob McPherson." He introduced himself fully.

"Mr. McPherson, well its mighty nice meetin' you. And the two ladies here?"

"My wife, Gertrude Eleanora and our daughter, Shanna Eden."

"Nice meetin' you all this mornin'. Since you're on your way out, I bes' cut to the chase. We're here to make an enquiry on a missin' person," He looked to Shanna then, "Mrs. Sykes, we received a fax this morning from the CPD, Columbus Police Department concerning your husband. Seems his family, has reported him missing."

"Oh yeah, since when?" She answered calmly. She had been ready for this. Waiting for it in fact. She knew his family, knew that more than likely they would report him missing. Once more, she was faced with her decision, how what she'd done, was going to effect her entire family. This was about her life. Her brother's life. Their family and everything that they were about, as McPherson's. She never blinked, didn't look at Royce and was ready for whatever, come what may. Her father had told her,
"Let me handle this."
But there was only so much he could handle. Were she not to speak up and answer any questions asked her, it would look suspicious.

"They say they haven't seen him since he left there this past memorial weekend."

"I see." She returned, saying nothing more, staring at the Chief of police.

"Does that concern you?"

"Long as he doesn't come here messing with me, I don't care where he goes."

"Or whether he goes missing?" The chief added, watching her.

"You want me to be honest, or for the sake of pretty pictures, you want me to lie?"

The chief stood a moment staring at her. For such a pretty, delicate looking little lady, she was surprisingly stern. "Guess under the circumstances, with him, I hear you have no pretty pictures."

"No sir, I don't. So I'll be honest. I could give a damn if he ever shows his face again. He's the biggest error of my life. I have a divorce date with a judge that's going to fix that error for me. I get this strange feeling, he's pulling this just so he doesn't have to show up at court. Doesn't matter, I'll be there. This is one time, nothing he does will change things between us. I'm not taking him back, which is what he wishes, no way; I'm going through with our divorce."

"So, you ah, think this is a trick he's pulling, to avoid a court date for your divorce?"

"Yes I do. I think that's exactly what he's doing. He's a lying, conniving, nasty, evil man. It wouldn't surprise me if he put his family up to this, no doubt his mother. She'll do anything for him. Including ignore what a monster he is. He's a sick twisted coward, and she ignored how bad he beat the hell out of me whenever the mood struck. Then she made excuses for him to me, to help him win me back. A few miscarriages, my battered body and broken bones meant little to her. So, once more, she's no doubt running to his rescue. I don't doubt it for a moment that's what he's done. What they're doing, playing more games."

Bart looked at his daughter, stunned beyond belief at what he was hearing, never having heard of it all before. Yes, what needed to be done, had been done. He saw her now with different eyes, and yes, he was proud that she'd come out of it so it appeared, a stronger person for it. He had to fight back a smile; she had fight and grit, after all.

Gert stood by watching and listening as well, not entirely sure what was going on; but she wasn't about to say a word that wasn't asked of her.

The chief looked from Shanna up at her father.

"Mr. McPherson, did you know what was happening with your daughter?"

"Not while it was happening. I can tell you this; I hated that no account, beady-eyed, weasel-faced, bastard the moment I met him. Had I found that he'd been doing what he done, I'dah broken every bone, in - his - body. That's why you see, he kept my daughter there away from her family, so we wouldn't know. But that's in the past now. She's here, home, safe. When her divorce date comes, I'll be escorting her there myself to see the job done. That'll be the end of that. Will there be anything else? We have things to do this morning, frankly speaking, more important things than discussing that snake, John Sykes."

"Mr McPherson, I need to ask you, point blank, have you, since the memorial day weekend, seen any sign of John Sykes, at all?"

Bart looked the chief in the eyes and without flinching stated, "No sir."

He then looked at Shanna, "Have you, at anytime since the memorial-..."

"No - sir. I have not. And that sir, is the honest to God truth. May we go please?" She stood firm, eyes dead set on the chief.

He then looked to Gert, "Ma'am, Mrs McPherson, have you seen John Sykes, that weekend, or since?"

"No sir, I have not." She returned simply.

Royce stood with his stomach gripped in unease. He was staring at Shanna and not once had she looked his way. Not once. That worried him.

"Well, I guess that about does it for now. Mr. McPherson, Shanna, have you any idea when your brother will be back in town? With his family? His stepson, Mundo?"

"He's away on business, he and his family. Not sure when they'll be back." Shanna answered.

"Okay then, well I guess I'll let you folks get on with your day then. Sorry to have disturbed you." He nodded turning back to the police cruiser.

Royce nodded to Bart, Gert and then looked at Shanna again, her eyes were still on the chief and then they turned to him. Narrowed, aggressive, accusing. He sighed and then asked, "I'll see you later?"

"Maybe." She replied, turned from him and went to climb in her father's truck.

*

Chicago...

Vivian had driven to work feeling on top of the world. With a smile on her face, she'd dealt with morning rush hour traffic. Horns blaring, road rage language and behavior, she had not been affected by any of it. Finally making it to work on time, half an hour early, she pulled up into the parking ramps, glad to pay for all day parking. That done, she circled the ramps to each level, looking for a place to park the truck. She'd climbed out of it, looked it over smiling brightly, locked it up, clicked on the alarm that was on it and made her way to the elevator and down and then back onto the busy street, walking a block to the bank.

For everyone that made eye contact with her, she offered a smile and a, "Good morning." Because life, was - good.

That morning, she'd seen Dean and Stephanie, the bright smile on her face told them all was good between her and Jake. She saw Janna briefly, who offered her a smile, but she hadn't stopped to talk to her like usual. Like for instance, on the way in, she'd lean in Vivian's door and ask,
"Where for lunch?"
and Vivian would usually reply where, or say,
"Your choice today."
Today, this did not happen. Vivian noted it, but was too happy for now to give it any deep thought. She had a desk full of work that needed to be done, followed up on and filed, so went into her day determined to have a totally productive one. Nose to the grindstone, she was busy and then a tap at her door, "Yeah? Come in." She answered, eyes on her monitor as she typed away on her keyboard. She looked to the door as it opened to reveal, Janna.

"Vivian?"

"Yeah? Come in." She repeated looking her way this time.

"I would if it wasn't for the reason for my visit. Ummm, Dr. Chan is here again. He says, he needs to see you, reason ... something to do with his account?"

"What?! There's nothing wrong with his account and he knows it. Can't you see him?"

"I would, but he requested you. And just to let you know, he requested you through Mr. Van-Marren." She announced.