Past Sense.



He pauses slightly to lean forward before knocking a second time on Sheriff Leonard Davis’s door. He pulls his collar up around his neck and looks out into the early morning skyline before lighting up another cigarette. The faded peeling white paint on the front door seems to fall off as it swings open to reveal the tired figure of Leonard Davis.
“Daniel? Come in please. Tell me you’ve found the book.”
He looks down at the decaying floor boards of the front porch swinging his head from side to side. Leonard Davis bows his head at the notion. Letting Daniel Vickers step into his home.
“Coffee?”
He nods.
He disappears into the kitchen to retrieve the coffee leaving Daniel Vickers eyes alone to scan the room . There are pictures scattered along the far wall of the living room, snapshots, glimpse’s into the life of a career lawman. There are pictures of him and Tyler Malloy standing side by side smiling for the camera. Happier times he guesses. A strange feeling tugs at the back of his thoughts and for a brief instant he considers the trust issue that he has toyed with since meeting the sheriff.
Leonard Davis appears in the living room and hands him the cup of hot coffee. He gestures for a cigarette which Daniel responds to. They both light up.
“So what exactly are you thinking son?”
He stares out the window at the gray skyline exhaling smoke almost as he answers.
“I’m thinking that there are a few things out of place with this whole mess, things that I haven’t been able to put a finger to. I know where Jennifer is. The problem there is if we find a body your boy may run Sheriff Davis. And if we can get a hold of the book, then we may be able to piece together why she ended up the way she did.”
“Well son. I’m flying blind here, I have to follow your lead on this. Where exactly do you think her body is?”
“I think that he took her out to Cherry Creek and murdered and then buried her there.”
He eyes the sheriff cautiously.
“By the way, Did you happen to get a look at who ran you off of the road ?”
He shakes his head no.
“It all happened too fast and it was way too dark to see, I could barely maintain control over the vehicle, son of a bitch ran me right into a ditch.”
He leans forward slowly smashing the cigarette butt into the ash tray his eyes never leaving the sheriff.
“Look. I want this girl.. I want her mother to have some peace. You lay low sheriff, I’m going to Cherry Creek to find her body if I can. I’ll call you as soon as I have anything to tell you. Then you move. Deal?”
“No son I can’t let you do that. If he gets wind of what your doing or where you’re going or why, he may follow you. You alone with him?? He’s armed Your not. I’m coming with you.”



Cherry Creek.



They slowly pull away from the curb with Daniel Vickers watching the rear view mirror for any signs of Tyler Malloy. He pulls out onto main street and heads west towards Cherry Creek stopping at a gas station just at the edge of Pleasantville.
“I gotta go to the bathroom can you fill it up for me?”
Leonard Davis nods getting out of the car. Daniel stops briefly when out of sight to call Sharon Milner on her cell. He quickly tells her the plan and that he’d left an envelope with instructions for her in her purse for her to follow, and she should open it and read it as soon as possible. He returns to the vehicle without ever using the rest room. He pays the clerk in cash for the gas and returns to the drivers seat. With a tug of the gear shift, the Chevy slowly moves out onto the road and he turns towards Cherry Creek leaving Pleasantville behind them. There is a strange silence for a time leaving each man to his thoughts. Daniel thinks about the past twenty four hours and all of the surreal scenes that had played out in his head. He thought about Sheriff Leonard Davis, he thought about Jennifer Watson, and of course his attention never strayed far from the thought of Tyler Malloy. But it was his traveling companions voice that finally broke the silence.
“Tyler was a good man once, I respected him Mr. Vickers. At least enough for him to marry my daughter. Hell, I never expected it to turn out the way it did, He changed somehow, became a different person. I always felt it in my gut that he’d had something to do with that girls disappearance. I just never found any proof to it.”
He listens intently all while watching the road signs. He turns onto Crows Crossing Road and ten miles out they cross over the Jasper county line into Freemont County. Daniel slows the speed of the Chevy as they turn onto the dirt road that will take them down to the very edge of Cherry Creek. He stops fifty yards in.
“Its foot trails from here mostly, we’ll have to walk in to where he buried her.”
He retrieves a shovel from the trunk and leads the way to where he thinks that the body of Jennifer Watson may be buried. Daniel Vickers isn’t stupid and he isn’t surprised in the least when the figure of Tyler Malloy appears at the edge of the tree line of Cherry Creek. He is even less surprised when he turns to find himself staring down the barrel of Sheriff Leonard Davis’s Gun.
“Son. I really got to hand it to you. I don’t know how you figured this whole thing out but you’re going to wish you hadn’t. now real easy like take your hand out of your pocket and put that shovel down nice and easy like next to that tree right there. This is as far as your going.”
Daniels stares down Sheriff Leonard Davis.
“So let me guess. Tyler Makes a mess so you clean it up by killing his sixteen year old lover. Is that how it works?”
Tyler steps forward.
“What’s he talking about Len?”
“Shut up Ty.”
He cocks the pistol .
“I cleaned up your last mess, and now I’ll clean up this one.”

~Scratch A.B.T. copyright © 2008.~

Doobix.com