Fook (41 page)

“Morning,” Phil offered in an exasperated
tone.

Katie said nothing as she sat in front of a
glass of orange juice that her father had poured during their
squabble.

Sensing the tension in the room, “What’s
going on?”

“Child abuse,” Katie mumbled, keeping her
eyes on the glass before her.

Phil grinned at his younger daughter’s
childish humor. “Nothing. Your sister is devastated about missing
school.”

“Really?” Sarah asked. “When did you…oh,”
she finally realized the true reason behind the tension. Just as
she’d felt yesterday, she wanted to tell her father to relax; that
Katie would be perfectly fine to go not only to school but the
dance as well and that she could use the whole rest of the weekend
to relax but again, considering the benefits of the current
situation, she continued to side with her father. “At least it’s
only your junior prom.”

“That’s what I said,” Phil added, feeling
validated.

“Oh, God, now I sound just like Dad,” Sarah
thought, but couldn’t go back now. “I didn’t even go to my junior
prom,” she continued. “And Daddy, I don’t even think they had
junior proms back then.”

Even more validated, Phil smiled as he
sipped at his coffee.

“Hell, I don’t even think the wheel had been
invented yet,” Sarah added with a smile.

“No, it had just come out,” Phil quickly
retorted. “And it’s a good thing because I don’t know how I would
have been able to pick your mother up without that horse drawn
buggy.”

Katie didn’t respond as her father and
sister exchanged grins.

Ding dong.

“Mike’s early today,” Phil acknowledged as
he glanced at the clock on the microwave.

“How is officer Lucern?” Sarah asked with a
smile.

He knew what she meant. While nearly
eighteen years her senior, his partner’s immaturity and boyish good
looks often gave people the impression that he wasn’t much past his
mid to late twenties, and once a few years back, Sarah had chosen
to inform him of how hot she thought his partner was. He wasn’t
sure if she still felt that way or just liked seeing him squirm, as
she often found a way to work the topic into almost any
conversation. “How’s the weather? Hot like your partner? So, what
are you doing this weekend? I don’t know, maybe your partner.” The
timing and means were random and often uncomfortable, but he was
glad to have such an open and comfortable relationship with his
oldest. They’d always been close, likely because they had much the
same personality. Katie had taken after his wife, which was likely
the reason for her rebellion once her mother was gone.

“Engaged,” Phil answered his daughter’s
intentionally uncomfortable question with a pleased smile.

Sarah let out a little frown, causing him to
again question her seriousness as he made his way to the door.

“You’re early,” Phil greeted Michael as he
pulled open the door, surprised to find a delivery driver standing
on the other side, holding a large FedEx envelope and clipboard.
“Oh. I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else.”

The man smiled, not sure how to respond,
other than to hold out his clipboard and say, “I need you to sign
here.”

Taking the clipboard, Phil signed on the
line, handed it back to the driver and took the envelope as the
young man quickly turned and started back down the path without
another word.

“Not exactly Mr. Personality,” he thought as
he started to close the door, then, realizing that he didn’t recall
seeing the FedEx truck parked along the curb, turned back in the
direction of the departing man who was now gone. Looking up and
down the street confused by the man’s sudden disappearance, he
simply shrugged his shoulders and closed the door.

“Who was that?” Sarah asked, entering the
living room.

“I’ll be in my room…
relaxing
,” Katie
huffed as she passed her prison guards and quickly made her way
upstairs to her bedroom.

Shaking his head with a smile, Phil stared
at the envelope. “You expecting anything?”

“No,” Sarah replied. “Open it.”

Again shrugging his shoulders, he tore at
the perforated strip and tipped the envelope on its side as a VHS
tape slid out into his hand.

The top of the tape simply read,
RCA
,
but a handwritten label along the side said,
play me
.

Confused, Phil looked inside the envelope,
expecting to find a letter or something that might explain what the
tape was or where it had come from.

Sarah didn’t need a note. She didn’t know
exactly what might be on the tape, but she had a good idea that,
whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

“Dad, aren’t you going to be late for work.
You should probably finish getting ready.”

“I have time. Mike’s not even here yet. Do
you have any idea what this is?” he looked up from the mysterious
cassette.

Poorly attempting to conceal her worry, she
shook her head no, as her father returned his attention to the tape
and started toward the television.

“What are you doing?”

“It says play me.”

“Do you do everything a tape tells you to
do?” she uncomfortably joked.

“Don’t know. This is a first,” he smiled as
he fed the tape to the VCR and turned on the television.

“Why don’t you go finish getting ready and
I’ll watch the tape. I can tell you what’s on it.”

“Why don’t you want me to watch this
tape?”

“I don’t care if you watch it,” she lied. “I
just don’t want you to be late.”

“I’ve got time,” he assured her as the
static on the screen cleared and the security footage a what
appeared to be a liquor store came into focus.

“What the hell?” Sarah thought, recognizing
the liquor store from the night before. The mystery of who the tape
was from was now clear, but why would Jason send it to her father?
It would show Jason killing the poor man currently seen mopping the
floor. It would make it that much easier for her to tell her father
the truth about what was really going on. He’d definitely believe
her now. She wouldn’t have to wait for Derek to figure something
out. Her father would believe her and do everything in his power to
protect her sister. What benefit did Jason get by giving them this
evidence? And then she saw it.

With his back turned, a second man entered
the image, but it wasn’t who she’d expected. Instead, it was Derek,
slowly approaching the distracted man. It was Derek carefully
plucking a bottle from a nearby display and it was Derek, smashing
the man upside the head.

“How…?” she thought, even more confused than
she had been in the last couple of days.

“What is this?” her father turned to her.
“Is that?—“

She didn’t know how to respond other than to
continue staring at the familiar footage as Derek sat on top of the
stunned man’s chest and began forcing every coin from the cash
register down his throat before using the jagged bottle to put an
end to the clerk’s struggle.

“Oh my God,” Phil gasped at the horrible
image on his television. “Sarah, what is this?” he asked again,
even more concerned.

“Dad, I can explain. That’s not Derek.”

He just stared at her in disbelief. It sure
as hell looked like the boy she’d brought home yesterday and who’d
mysteriously disappeared less than eight hours later. “Not
Derek?”

“It was Jason.”

“Jason? Who’s Jason?”

How was she going to explain this? It was
hard enough trying to explain the truth without sounding completely
insane. Now she had to tell her father that the image on the screen
wasn’t real and expect him to believe that her unbelievable story
was?

“He’s a friend of Derek’s. Was a friend…,”
she corrected, “…until—“

“—Until what? Until Derek did this?” he
turned back to the screen.

“I told you, that’s not Derek.”

Standing, the man in the video turned and
then approached the camera overhead, pausing to look straight into
the lens. It couldn’t have been any clearer that the man in the
video
was
Derek.

“He was with me all night. Someone must have
messed with the video. That’s not what happened.”

“You knew about this?” Phil seemed even more
shocked.

“He stole Derek’s wallet. We were trying to
get it back.”

“That guy stole Derek’s wallet so he killed
him?”

“No. Jason killed him and then somehow
changed the video to make it look like Derek did it. He’s from the
future.”

Phil didn’t know what to say to that as a
knock came from the front door, shortly followed by the doorknob
turning and the door opening inward to reveal Derek, standing
alongside Phil’s partner.

“He says he knows you,” Michael entered
first, referring to Derek who followed close behind.

“Son of a—!“

“—Daddy, no!” Sarah jumped in her father’s
way as he made a b-line for a very surprised and battered looking
Derek.

Michael didn’t know what was going on as he
watched his partner push past his daughter and grabbing hold of the
stranger’s arm, shove him up against the wall as he reached for the
handcuffs on his nonexistent belt.

“What’s going on!” Derek shouted surprised,
his face being pressed into the wall by the angry officer’s
forearm.

Realizing that he hadn’t finished getting
ready yet, Phil turned to his partner. “Cuffs!”

With still no idea what was going on but
realizing that he should help his partner, Michael handed his cuffs
to Phil and helped to restrain Derek as they were applied.

“Daddy stop!” Sarah cried.

“What’s going on?” Katie called from the top
of the stairs, shocked to see her father and his partner
restraining her sister’s boyfriend.

“Go back to your room!” Phil shouted as he
secured the cuffs.

“What did I do?!” Derek protested, his words
slurred by the wall.

“You’re under arrest for murder,” Phil began
reading him his rights.

“Murder?” Michael responded shocked.

“Anything you say can and will be used
against you.”

“Daddy, let him go! The tape’s not
real!”

Completely confused, but eager to find out
what had happened prior to his arrival, Michael looked over at the
image on the T.V.. Frozen on the screen was a black and white close
up of the man in custody, but more telling was the image of what
appeared to be a dead body lying on the floor behind him.

“Do you understand these rights?” Phil
finished.

Derek didn’t know how to respond. He’d just
arrived back from Tampa, ready to tell Sarah that his plan had
failed and that they were going to have to somehow convince her
father about the whole situation with Jason. He wasn’t prepared to
be brutally attacked again, this time for reasons unknown.

“Do you understand these rights?!” Phil
repeated.

“Yes,” Derek mumbled.

Pulling him away from the wall, Phil shoved
Derek toward his partner. “Put him in the car. I’ll get the
tape.”

Glancing over at the television, Derek
finally understood what was going on as Mr. Bishop’s partner guided
him back out the front door.

“Daddy, he didn’t do anything,” Sarah
pleaded.

“Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on?
What did he do?” Katie asked, now from halfway down the stairs.

“Didn’t I tell you to go back to your
room?!” Phil barked as he ejected the tape and quickly made his way
into the kitchen.

Following her father, “Jason altered the
tape,” she continued to plead Derek’s innocence as her father
grabbed his gun and belt from the counter and quickly made his way
toward the front door.

“Listen,” he turned and paused to address
his pursuing daughter. “I don’t know what’s going on, but you and I
are going to have a long talk when I get back. Now look after your
sister,” he ordered as he disappeared onto the front porch, closing
the door behind him.

“And I thought Daddy was hard on my
boyfriends,” Katie joked.

“Shut up,” Sarah snapped as she ran for her
keys.

FORTY-FOUR

“Now, we’re going to go over this one more time,”
Phil leaned across the table, stopping within mere inches of
Derek’s face, “Why’d you do it?”

“I told you. It wasn’t me,” Derek repeated
the same explanation he’d been giving for the last two hours since
being arrested, booked and chained to the interrogation room table,
behind which he now sat.

The frustrated officer withdrew, dropping
back in his chair on the other side of the table. “Really?” he
uttered in frustration, eyeing his partner who stood behind Derek
on the other side of the room. “We have a tape of what is
unmistakably you killing that clerk, and you want to continue to
claim that it was some other guy? What was his name?”

“Jason,” Derek mumbled.

“Yes, Jason Fook, the grandson of nice old
Mr. Fook’s sister you said.”

“Yes,” Derek insisted. “He must have
doctored the tape.”

“What, does he work for George Lucas or
something? Tapes can be altered, I’ll give you that, but this thing
is clear as day. Do you wanna watch it again?”

“I really don’t,” Derek thought. He’d
already been forced to watch the horrific footage three times since
being placed in the room. The television and VCR on the rollable
cart still stood at one end of the table and Sarah’s father seemed
more than eager for another showing to get his point across. He
could understand the officer's disbelief. The footage was very well
done, but that wasn’t hard to believe given the amazing editing
software available to Jason in his time. While the early nineties
weren’t exactly the stone age, a lot had changed in the last twenty
three years but he’d so far opted to leave the whole, I’m from the
future explanation out of his defense. It was hard enough for them
to believe that a video could be so well altered. How exactly could
he convince them that his presence in their time was the result of
magical blood and a machine that he’d built into a briefcase? It
even sounded ridiculous to him.