Slightly Out of Focus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



She remembered it as being a particularly cold day on the last morning that she saw her daughter alive. Angela Watson always took a chill rather easily and wore extra clothing that morning before she’d went to the market. She’d left Jennifer there alone on several occasions and had seen no cause for alarm when she’d left her daughter standing at the doorway wearing her long white nightgown. In fact she remembered commenting to her that the air outside was much too cold for such attire and she’d needed to go back inside the house and close the door. It was the last time she seen her in five years. Even now she seemed remarkably composed as Daniel related to her in exact detail every comment she’d made to him in the dream. The Scribbling on the papers, the vivid imagery that he’d painted on the walls of his fathers den. They talked through the morning piecing things together about Jennifer.. About Evan Vickers.. They’d went over the writings several times painstakingly examining every word in an attempt to jog a familiar image in Angela Watson’s memory, but it wasn’t until Sharon Milner reminded him of the book that Jennifer had spoken of in his last dream. Angela Watson’s confusion slowly began to grow.
“A book?.. My daughter spoke of a book?”
“Yes Miss Watson. Did she collect books? She said specifically.. ‘Find The book and you will find the answers’ .”
She takes them into Jennifer’s room and they examine her book shelf. Treasure Island.. The Complete Adventures of Tom Sawyer.. Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.. Among others. But nary a book out of place.
“And nothing is missing? Daniel asks.
Angela Watson shakes her head no.
Daniel begins to pace back and forth in front of the book case.
“The answer is here somewhere.” He tells them. “It has to be.”
Angela Watson and Sharon Milner return to the kitchen to make a new pot of coffee leaving Daniel Vickers to wrestle with the possibilities. He sits on the edge of her bed. And suddenly he begins to think of the beautiful sixteen year old girl in a new light.
“She was MY little sister.. And someone took her from us.”
His eyes slowly return to scanning every inch of the bedroom.
“Ok.. So what am I missing here?”
He returns to the parlor to find the two women laboring over his writings.. The phrase “White hats are a lie.” repeated throughout the text. Miss Watson again shakes her head.
“I don’t see the significance Daniel.” She tells him. “A lot of people around here wear a lot of different white hats.”
“No Ma’am. I think that Jennifer was talking about something specific. It wouldn’t be a ordinary thing.. It seems to me that it would be something that stands out.”
He returns to the bedroom to look over the books, once again leaving the women to ponder the significance of white hats.

Dark Reflection.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



They mull over it for several more hours until their tired brains can take no more, and Daniel has to take the initiative and volunteer to take the two women to dinner. To which of course Sharon Milner gleefully accepts.
“Alrighty Dan, as long as your buying.. But no more diner food, I want a nice sit down and relax dinner, and I’ll just bet the Miss Watson could use one too.”
He raises his hands playfully.
“Hey.. I know when I’m out numbered. What do you say Miss Watson. Your town.. You pick the restaurant .”
They close up the house and retire to the Chevy and Angela Watson directs them to The Flamingo Palace. A small but elegant eatery just at the outskirts of Pleasantville. As they pull into the parking lot an odd yet familiar feeling begins to tug at him.
“Man where have I seen this place before?”
Disregarding the feeling as an odd coincidence, he escorts the two ladies to the door where they enter into the establishment and are told by the Maitre’ d that they are not terribly busy and they can be seated without having made reservations shortly. And as they are being escorted to their table a faint reflection on the window pane catches the eye of Daniel Vickers. The image of a tall blonde middle aged man wearing a white flat brimmed cowboy hat with a black headband just above the brim. As they are being seated he draws the attention of Angela Watson to the hat.
“Miss Watson?.. Do you recognize that man over there?”
She trains her attention on the man in the hat.
“Why yes.. That’s deputy Tyler Malloy. He’s lived around here for almost seventeen years now. Everybody knows Tyler.”
Daniel leans forward, closer to Angela Watson.
“Miss Watson did Jennifer know him?”
“Daniel.. I would hope so.. He coached her girls soccer team for over three years.. He doesn’t do it anymore though.”
Daniels eyes never leave the table of Deputy Tyler Malloy. And as he turns towards the exit, Daniel Vickers rises from his seat and excuses himself from the company of the two women, citing that he forgot something in the car and he would return momentarily. Cautiously keeping his distance from Tyler Malloy, he follows him to the parking lot and watches from a distance, and almost as Daniel expects he opens the drivers side door and pulls himself up into the cab of the black pickup truck with the broken side mirror. The sharp cold words reverberate in the back of his mind.
“White hats are a lie Daniel.. White hats are a lie!”
Good guys wear white hats.. Bad guys wear black.. Sheriff’s.. Deputy’s.. Cops.. They were supposed to be good guys.. But THIS white hat was a lie. And now Daniel Vickers was on to him.

Words on a page.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Although he and his two companions dine mostly in silence, a thousand different thoughts are going through the mind of Daniel Vickers. He knows that he would have to be careful in his interrogation of Angela Watson from this moment forward as Deputy Malloy was possibly a friend of hers. And at the same time he needed as much information on this man as he could get. Through some well managed subtlety, he deduced through the evenings conversation that deputy Tyler Malloy was the son in law of Sheriff Leonard Davis of Pleasantville. And he’d coached the girls soccer team that Jennifer was a member of for three years up until the time of her disappearance. he had stopped by a few times in the months that followed to see how Angela Watson was doing and to see if she had heard any new news concerning Jennifer, but as time went on it seemed to Angela Watson that his attention in this matter had waned, and the visits through the years became fewer and fewer . And finally the only people that would even bother giving attention to the case were from the local division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Selma County. On a local level the case had been all but forgotten. Except for Sheriff Leonard Davis himself who would still take the time every so often to circulate missing persons pictures of Jennifer.
They return to the Watson residence shortly after nine pm. And once again Angela Watson invites the young pair to join her for coffee. they sit and the women exchange unrelated small talk leaving Daniel Vickers to his thoughts. He returns to Jennifer’s bedroom and stands in front of the bookcase. Silently his eyes slowly move over every book, searching time and time again for the missing clue. He sits on the bed and rubs his eyes. And his hands slowly return to his knees.
“So tell me.. What’s Missing?”
He yawns and stretches before once again closing his eyes.
“Find the book Daniel.. Find the book and you’ll find the answers.”
“What Book Jen?”
He rises from the edge of Jennifer Watson’s bed.
“Ok.. So lets try a different approach.. What isn’t on a sixteen year old girls bookshelf, that should be there?.. What book is so important to a six-”
He returns to the living room where he finds Sharon Milner and Angela Watson playing cards. And he leans down towards her.
“Miss Watson?”
She looks up at Daniel Vickers smiling.
“Yes?”
“Miss Watson.. Did Jennifer keep a diary?”

~Scratch.. A.B.T. copyright © 2008.~