Discovery

“Hello Mr. Cliff…” Darlene realized she forgot his last name, unprepared to make the call… just not very ‘sheriffy’ of her. It was enough she found herself, her town, in this idiot position of chasing ghosts again, lost patrons of The Zanzibar Club, but now there’s a whole host of new bullshit in these three righteous warriors on the track. Obviously looking for revenge. It was enough to scare her, but she didn’t have that convenience. And now, she felt like a rheumy, old librarian, forgetting the name of this military vet.

“Hello Sheriff. You heard from the dragon lady already?”

This caught her off guard… no, it caught her in another part of the world entirely. What the fuck did this mean? “How ya mean, Mr. Cliff?”

Cliff felt a morsel of relief, “You didn’t hear from Fat Sally, or whatever her name is?”

“You didn’t! Tell me you didn’t Mr. Cliff!”

“Sheriff, it’s either Cliff or Mr. Polite. You sound like a hooker from Hanoi.”

Darlene found it funny, righteous good humor, but she had no convenience for that either. “Sorry, Mr. Polite… But please tell me you didn’t do anything I had warned you not to do! That would mean you’re stupid, and I just don’t want to think that about you.”

“So, she didn’t call you…” he called out away from the phone obviously to his partners, “She didn’t call us in… It’s the sheriff.”

“Yea, I’m pretty sure you’re stupid now. No, Big Sally Burroughs didn’t call me. Should this bring me comfort or a rocket fuel hard-on to put your stupid asses in jail?”

“It’d be a tough bust since we didn’t even disturb the dust.”

“Then why would she call it in?”

“I’m not supposin’ anything, Sheriff. But we went to meet the proprietor, and we almost signed up for a night.”

“You didn’t Mr. Polite!”

“I prefer, Cliff, Sheriff.”

“I prefer you smarten up. How do you think this helps the case? Now you’re harassing her? She’s a taxpayer in Nye County. Pays my salary. And she is not… I will say again, not a suspect. Her place of business was violated, one of her girls was killed…” Cliff interrupted her.

“She has Mark Denton’s phone. She’s the one who was texting, pretending to be Mark.”

There was a long silence… This would change some things… confirm some things… “Okay… how do you know for sure?”

“Why we went there. We were playing like we would be clients, and she knew we were the friends. She had no qualms.”

“And why did you do exactly as I forewarned you not to do, sir?”

“Because our boys are lost in this desert, ma’am! And I was about done waiting for procedures.”

“That’s dangerous talk, Mr. Polite.”

“No, ma’am, it’s dangerous idleness. So, we went. And I ain’t trying to flip you off, Sheriff, we are good men, we’re trying to help you. But under your rules might mean our boys get dead… if they aren’t already.”

Darlene had to uncomfortably savor the words… it was that place where lawfulness defeats a sooner justice… but that’s why they have the laws and procedures, she would tell herself, because if the damn fools get it wrong, innocent people get hurt or dead. But those horses are already out of the barn.

“So, what did you achieve besides swatting a hornet’s nest?”

“We were there in the lobby. Johnny signing us up as clients, and I fiddled on my phone, pretending I was checking email, whatever. And I sent a text message to Mark. It rang in her phone… in her blouse thing.”

“It could’ve been a coincidence?”

“Sheriff, she looked at me and said, “I’ll tell Mark you called.” That sound like a coincidence? And then she called her heavies into the room… and that’s a bad thing to do to a room full of marines, ma’am.”

“What happened, Mr. Polite? Please don’t tell me you guys had a fucking brawl.”

“We were well-behaved marines, ma’am. We promised we’d get back to them… in a suggestive way.”

“I don’t want to know any more than that. As long as Big Sal hasn’t called us, or at least until Big Sal calls us, I’m gonna look the other way on this.” Cliff didn’t say anything. “Did you hear what I said, Mr. Polite?”

“I prefer you call me, Cliff.”

“I’ll keep that in mind Mr. Polite, if we get out of this fuck-fest you are baiting right now. But you need to come to the Sheriff’s office. I got more to share with you.”

“Don’t expect me if you think you’re gonna lock us up. Cuz we did nothing. Nothing!”

“Well, I got two things to say to that: number one, you did a whole-fucking-lot more than nothing, and you know it. One of those things is you are now exposed. She knows you’re here on a mission… and this getting out of control is a very real possibility. She doesn’t just push back, mister, she swings heavy lumber. I’ve known Sally Burroughs for a lot of years.”

“Ma’am, I’m retrieving my brothers. Trouble doesn’t bother me or my boys a bit. What’s the second thing?”

“I fucking forgot with all the shit in number one… maybe I’ll remember by the time you and your fellow troublemakers get here.”

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Darlene felt inept, even as they were doing good police work, simply because the veterans were ahead of the curve the whole way. They knew things intuitively, by tea leaves or blood on the road behind them. As much as she didn’t want to think this, she didn’t want to invite more shit into her county. She had to at least admit, these guys have been right, however they got their information – extraction methods were the possibility she made herself ignore. And here she was, excited to be able to tell them beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the texts to their phones did indeed come from Mark’s phone being put to use, pinging on the cell tower nearest to The Zanzibar Club… putting that user in the whorehouse for the extended use. Now that news will fall like feathers after the goose is already cooked.

But she had to tell them, and have them sign off on the information. Meaning, to swear they would never speak a word of this inside knowledge. Cliff put her concerns to rest.

“Won’t have to, Sheriff. We already got the information before you, being that we’re stupid and such.” It wasn’t an insult… not intended anyway.

“Yes, yes you did. Thanks for reminding me. But I do have something for you, and I’m gonna pretend you’re responsible citizens and not share this with anyone… in fact, I’m thinking I might deputize you jarheads for the duration of the case…” She truly began thinking like that, when all three of the vets almost in unison, “Fuck, no! Not a chance, Sheriff! You know how insane you’d have to be?”

“Why would that be insane?”

Johnny stepped into this one, “Look at us. Mid-40’s with an axe to grind with some of your citizens… and fucking pissed off!” Darlene held up her hand, and looked at Detective Bunting, “Harry, this conversation is not happening. You know that, right?”

“I know that Sheriff.” She was so proud of Harry at that moment, he remembered to call her “Sheriff.”

Johnny would finish, “It’s not about whether we would like that broad power, the freedom that might give us…” here was the delicate part… “But we are far more free right now. And that makes us more powerful.” He wouldn’t explain. Sheriff Coyle was with closed eyes… just knowing this wasn’t stopping anytime soon… or easily. She couldn’t even think of a response. So, she went with the number-two that she had forgotten earlier.

“Okay… holy hell. You guys…” She shook her head, they said nothing more… “I remembered number-two Mr. Polite. Please let’s look at the monitors, both actually. First the one on the left, and then we’ll see the one on the right.”

Detective Bunting cued both up and turned on the screens, and began the description.

“Being you guys… the sheriff told me… but being you guys were there at Zanzibar, you’ll recognize the images here.” No response, meant yes, “Obviously the lobby, where customers sign in and get the introductions. Their security footage. The screen on the left is the security vid Big Sal just gave us two days ago. I had the pleasure of going through the loop, 2:00 pm to 12 midnight. It’s the time within which the driver said he dropped three men off. But Big Sal has no record of clients on Thursday – almost the whole day, in fact. Now, I’m not gonna need to show you eight hours…” he clicked ‘play’. “You’ll see what you need to see in a matter of minutes.”

He let the video play, and he sped it up in a managed speed, divulging nothing of anybody but the occasional employee, very occasional... like almost nothing whatsoever. “Okay, I’ll put it back to real speed.” He suddenly paused the video, “There! I’ll stop right there. And now, let me show you the other video. This was from something similar, where a patron went missing some months ago.. like four, I’m thinkin’ Darlene?”

The sheriff closed her eyes and waited…

“Sheriff, sorry. Sheriff. But about four months or so?”

“Yes Detective, it was about four months.”

Harry clicked play and sped up the loop, until he hit a coincidental moment where one of the girls with a most unique braided hairdo passed through the picture. “There! See that girl?”

It seemed incidental to both Cliff and Johnny, but Art saw it. “It’s the same girl… the same video loop.”

“Bingo, Mr… uh, yes. You nailed it.”

Cliff and Johnny were still uncertain, a little confused. “But it’s dated and time stamped.”

“Doctored. If I was only paying attention to time stamps, I never would have realized, but I went through every second of film, twice, and figured it out. I’ll show you exactly. The loop is dated and time stamped – those things are different. But you see that clock on the side wall? It’s the exact same time right after the girl with the hair. What’s more, we had another loop from a different incident about 14 months ago, and I pulled that out and found the same girl, the same clock and the same time. They’re just stupid enough to pull an easy video loop of a day when almost no one was in their shop.”

“Sonofabitch. They’re disappearing people, Sheriff.”

“Yes, they are. And my detective, Harry Bunting put this together.” She sounded very tired… or painfully aware of the atrocities of past… and the near future.

“That’s fine work Detective…” looking back to Darlene, “Why are you sharing all this with us? Not law enforcement. Johnny just told you why we didn’t want to be deputized, and as much as I won’t repeat what he said, you know we have a penchant for setting things right.”

“And that’s why I’m gonna pretend we didn’t have this meeting, and we didn’t see videos together, and you don’t know jack-shit about what Sheriff Coyle and her number one deputy Harry Bunting are doing on this case. Harry and I are going to pretend we know nothing about some jarheads that came in from Vegas…” she looked at the group of middle-aged vets, “who have a penchant for setting things right. All I got is two visits from United States marines asking about their friends. That’s it.”

She leaned back in her chair, announcing the end to the meeting. “We’ll help you however we can. You do the same for us. If you guys are good with that, we will get through this with the least amount of damage, either in my personnel, citizens or ex-marines visiting from out of state. Is that good for you all?

“All the way, Sheriff. And very happy to hear it.”

“Good, because I got my first good notion to share with you. I think I know where your buddy Donnie is holed up.”

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