 
IT'S IN THE BLOOD!

Published by Sheila S. Jecks at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Sheila S. Jecks

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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CHAPTER 1

On a dark street in Portland, Oregon a young Mary Lou picked out the next customer. She squared her shoulders and threw out her ample chest, she knew exactly how to sell. She sauntered into the middle of the sidewalk with a walk that rippled under her tight skirt and made grown men whimper.

"Say Mister," she cooed, "Need a handbag for your honey?"

Mary Lou rubbed her cheek seductively across the bag and looked up with bedroom eyes that promised more.

* * * *

Mary Lou Lafontaine and her grandmother, Lucy Jamiston, worked.

It wasn't a 9:00 to 5:00 job, but that didn't mean it wasn't work.

This month they sold knock-off handbags and assorted leathers to the late night booze-it-up crowd. The merchandise came from Mexico the back way, they got it cheap.

Since Lucy didn't have a permanent address, she didn't qualify for a Vender's License so they moved around a lot, usually one step ahead of the local law.

She relied on Mary Lou to sell, not so much to the women, but the men bought. Their storefront was the trunk of their old Robin's Egg Blue 1976 Chrysler Le Baron, the big trunk made it easier to load when they had to leave in a hurry.

Swearing under her breath while trying to look humble, Lucy slammed her grimy hat on her greasy hair, and smiled invitingly at the potential customers coming out of the late night Brass Monkey Bar & Grill, on State Street.

The women kept to the building wall to avoid the old woman, the men went closer to the road to get a better look at the shapely 'sales lady'.

"Get yourself out there!" Lucy ordered from behind her grimy hand. "How do you expect us to sell this shit before dawn if you don't shake it up?"

Mary Lou Lafontaine looked at the old woman she thought of as grandmother and slid off the hood of the car where she'd been fanning herself with an old copy of 'PEOPLE' magazine. She touched her bleached blond hair with a practiced hand, smoothed down the bursting red T shirt and hitched up her black leather mini skirt. She turned to face the world teetering on four inch red heels.

* * * *

The mark, surprised at the obvious invitation extended by the young woman, stumbled and quickly righting himself said, "Sure, I'll take one." He stood on the sidewalk fumbling for his wallet, not taking his eyes off the female part of the bargain.

The old lady bustled up quickly and heaved herself between the man and girl. She took the money, put the handbag in a paper sack and gave it to him. With a practiced arm she maneuvered him around and sent him down the street with what passed for a smile, and a small wave of her hand.

After a few steps he turned and looked back. The offered young woman had somehow turned into a young teenager who watched him with guiles eyes.

He shook his head and looked at the handbag, what would his wife say? He couldn't think of a good excuse and he knew he didn't want to explain to his suspicious spouse why he happened to buy a handbag she wouldn't want. He stopped at the dumpster at the end of the block and threw it in.

He could explain away $20.00 but there was no explanation good enough for the sleazy handbag.

At the end of the night Mary Lou and Lucy stood on the side of the street as the first rays of the sun crept up.

"Well," said Lucy, wiping her nose with the back of her hand, "guess we might as well get on home."

The young girl started to get into the car, but the older one grabbed her roughly by the arm and said, "Not so fast young lady, who's going to pack up all these leathers and handbags? Get your lazy self out there and start stacking 'em in the trunk. I swear I don't know what would happen to you if I wasn't here to tell you what to do."

"Why I got suckered into these handbags I'll never know," Lucy grumbled as she sat down heavily on the dirty curb.

"Now Lucy, you know we got them for next to nothing," said Mary Lou, "if we'd sold them all we'd have more than enough money to pay. You know we need protection in this city. Fast Freddy said so."

"Don't Fast Freddy me, he's nothing but a fast talking shyster! Who wants to buy knock-off purses from the likes of us?

"You know what they said last time we didn't have enough money and tonight we have to pay."

CHAPTER 2

Just because the sun went down, didn't mean the heat in the city of Portland, Oregon was any less.

May in the city was usually a soft month, warm in the day, cool and crisp at night. But this year was turning out to be unseasonably warm.

Three boys, two street smart and savvy, the other a fresh-faced clean looking kid stood under a street lamp.

It was the first day in the city for the kid. He just graduated from Ralph Morrison High School in Chance, OR, and wanted to show his folks he could look after himself when he went to University in fall. It was particularly important as he thought the Agriculture School in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, offered the best agronomy courses in both countries. But he was having a tough time convincing his mother he was old enough to go alone.

This week in the big city was to convince her he was grown up and didn't need looking after.

The boys stood under the pool of light kicking pieces of cement from the crumbling curb. The city boys tried to outdo each other and impress the new kid with stories more lewd and less believable than the ones before. After a while they ran out of imagination and turned to other topics.

"Say, did you hear about the babe that got killed the other night?" the smaller of the two city boys asked?

"Hell, yes," said the smooth talker, "I've heard that story a thousand times."

"You mean it isn't true?" said the new kid, "it sure sounded true to me when I heard it this earlier this afternoon from a guy in front of the hot dog stand."

"I didn't say it wasn't true, I just said I heard it a thousand times."

The two city boys looked knowingly at one another. This was going to easier than they thought.

"The more times you hear a thing, the more likely it's true," explained the taller, more sophisticated of the two.

"That's right, that's right," agreed the smaller boy making his eyes big, hoping it would make the story sound truer. They needed money and this hick looked like he had a lot to spare.

Easy does it, thought the leader, don't scare the sucker away, just keep it cool.

Taking his cue from the taller boy the smaller one called Squeaker sighed, and tried to look earnest.

"She sure was sweet."

"What do you mean," said the kid, "was she pretty?"

"More'n pretty," said the leader. "She was beautiful, and round in all the right places," he said, making voluptuous shapes with his hands. "Say, you want to see where it happened?"

"Boy, would I!" exclaimed the kid. "We don't have murder and stuff like that where I come from."

"Well, just so's you know, we wouldn't take just anybody down there," confided the leader, "you have to be clued in, y' know?"

The kid from the coast nodded his head and tried to look blasé, but didn't have an inkling as to what 'clued in' meant.

* * * * *

The boy named Squeaker and the leader led the sucker up and down the city streets in the dark, making sure he didn't know where he was until they came to the river front.

It was almost morning now and streetlamps struggled weakly to pierce the murky mist.

"Here," the leader said, "right here! That's where I saw the body." He bent down drawing the mark with him, to peer at the sidewalk as though the bloodstains would miraculously still be on the cement.

"I can't see a thing, I think you're making this up," said the mark, half bending.

Squeaker'd held back on the trip to the water front and retrieved the crow bar he'd stashed behind the dumpster earlier in the day. He was ready!

_Two good whacks should do it,_ he thought, _gives us lots of time to get away_.

"God's truth," said the older boy, "right here. I saw it all! The blood and guts hanging out, her dress pulled up to here," he said, drawing his hand up to his waist.

He kept his head down so the other boy would have to bend over too. They had to do this just right because the mark looked big and strong, and they didn't want to take the chance that he would fight back.

The older boy kept talking, painting a more and more gruesome picture of the awful scene. Giving more details, bending closer to the pavement, drawing the teenager down; getting him into position.

Squeaker felt a chill and looked behind him, sure looked dark and spooky all of a sudden. He hugged the crow bar to his chest for courage and nerve, spread his feet to get better balance and prepared to swing.

* * * *

The tall boy, eyes glued to the sidewalk kept up a steady patter to keep the mark in the right position. Finally he looked up.

No Squeaker.

"Damn that kid!" Where'd he get to now? How long could he keep up this line of bullshit? There was no murder down here. It was just a story to get the sucker to this deserted street. This kid was going to give up his money.

Or else!

The leader kept talking, stalling, waiting for Squeaker to come back.

_Where_ ' _d this cool wind come from_? thought the new kid as he stood up and looked around at the tall buildings and the fast running river. The city was hot and humid during the day and now this? It didn't feel right.

Then he looked around and saw he was all alone.

"Dam it all," he said under his breath, "they just ran off and left me here."

As he looked up, the morning sun peeked over the tops of the city towers and bathed the street in the first fresh rays of a new day.
CHAPTER 3

The early spring seashore, barren this time of year took no notice of the almost abandoned play station in the water front park of Chance, Oregon.

No shore birds chasing the waves trying to catch the tiny bits of food caught in the steel gray water.

No laughing children running up and down disturbing the wet perfection of the sand. Just the endless waves marching in time, up the dunes and down again.

The sun hung just above the horizon. In doing so, it saw the teenage boy on the teeter-totter.

"Look at his eyes," whispered the clouds, "there's no one there."

CHAPTER 4

"Shit, shit, shit," moaned the Sheriff, shoving his hands deeper in his rain-soaked windbreaker.

Another dead kid propped up in the rain and tied to the teeter-totter. There were no obvious signs of foul play.

Again!

But this kid was better dressed than the last one!

Sheriff Cameron Delaney Grant impatiently stood in the rainy gray dawn of morning waiting for Doc Speller to finish.

* * * *

The Village of Chance, Oregon advertised for an experienced Law Enforcement Officer. Cam knew his years as detective first class in the Police Bureau of Portland, Oregon and his time in the army would qualify him for the position

He finally found his home.

From a prosperous and thriving community in the 1950's and 60's, Chance became a depressed area when the local saw mill closed. The supply of logs ran out and no other industry felt the need to come and pollute the still pristine bay and its clean sandy beaches.

Now, years later the summer tourists came, dug clams, fished and generally financed the town. Small souvenir shops, Tee shirt stores and fast food sprang up and the Town Council encouraged them all. The entire town, although grateful for the tourists, heaved a collective sigh of relief when fall came and they all went home.

For the first five years Cam had it all. A beautiful wife, two smart kids and a good hunting dog, everything a man could ask for.

But nothing lasts forever.

Fate, in the form of an out-of-control semi, took his wife and left him trying frantically to keep life together for the sake of his two kids.

Tall, even beside his brother-in-law who was six foot one, he stretched and slid his blue Seattle Mariners baseball cap to the back of his head as he rubbed his big gray-green eyes with hands surprisingly adept for such a big man. Always needing a haircut, sandy brown curls threatened to tumble over his ears. Girls melted when he pulled them over to give them a speeding ticket. Every year there was always a sweet young thing from the city that decided she needed more thorough... Law Enforcement.

His wife used to consider these girls a bother not a threat. Now it didn't matter anymore. How could he settle for a one night stand when he'd had the best?

His ordinary nose sat above a sandy moustache that wiggled when he laughed, but today his normally smiling mouth was held in a grim line that turned down at the corners.

The day old stubble on his cheeks was wet, and he would swear that it was the rain and not tears for the kids he kept finding on the town's unused playground.

* * * * *

"Hey, Doc," called the sheriff, "what do you think, same as last time?"

"Hey, yourself," snapped Doc Speller, "what's wrong here, can't people at least have the decency to do these things when it's not raining? This is the second time I've been out here since Christmas and the rain still hasn't let up. I'm telling you, get rid of this blasted teeter-totter, maybe the pervert that's doing this will go someplace else!"

Doc Speller blustered when he had to do undoable things. Like examine dead teenage boys tied to teeter-totters.

What was he supposed to do?

Doc Speller was past retirement age, but he stayed on. Where else was he to go? He gave his best years to helping the dead. After the shooting, after the stabbing, after the carnage on the highway, there wasn't anyone who stood for the victim like Dr. Speller. He waged a personal war with the trappings of death, fought for the dignity of those who lost their lives on the dirty streets of Portland, Oregon, and gave self-respect to those who had none.

The old Doctor stood in the rain with his hands in his pockets and muttered under his breath, if you got closer you could hear he was swearing. He looked sadly at the body of the young man, waiting for them to cut the ropes and duct tape that held him on the teeter-totter and said to himself _, I_ ' _m too old for this, I don_ ' _t have the stomach for it anymore._

Nothing was going to help this kid, not even when he got him to the morgue, there was still nothing. Nothing, that is because there was nothing to find, except the unforgiveable. He knew there would be no blood in this body either, just like the one they found last January.

These were just empty shells!

Cam squished through the puddles of water that hadn't melted into the sand yet and stood by the teenager; it was the same as before...or was it? Was something different this time, maybe a little sloppy?

"Cam," called the Doc over the wind and sound of the waves, "did you get your pictures yet? I'd like to take him down now."

The Sheriff checked with Bert Dempsey his deputy and nodded to the doctor's assistant.

"Almost done, just the rope left," Bert said to Jason Bellimy, the Assistant Morgue Attendant that came out with Doc Speller.

Bert took pictures of the knots before undoing the yellow rope. You never knew at this point in the investigation just what kind of evidence you would need.

The rule of thumb was, get pictures of everything, figure out later if it was needed.

Cam and Doc Speller stood and watched as the attendants loaded the body into the waiting ambulance for transport to the morgue.

The small town of Chance didn't have an autopsy room, let alone a morgue. They got by with a medical clinic, the hospital up the coast in Central City, and the morgue in Portland.

Actually, Central City wasn't a great deal bigger than Chance but the bureaucrats in Salem, the state capital had to put the hospital somewhere and gave it to the town most central on the coast. The hospital and the ensuing jobs were encouraging Central City to grow fast. It was on its way to becoming one of the larger towns on Coast Highway #101.

Cam and Mayor Ira Jamiston hoped for the jobs that came with the hospital but were glad when it didn't happen. They didn't have to deal with the problems of the big city, but it looked like they were coming their way, anyway.

"So, Doc, what do make of this one?"

"I'll know more tomorrow, after the boys finish the autopsy. But from what I can see, it's probably like the last one. No outward marks, but extensive bruising under the skin. I'm going to have them check very thoroughly, especially in out-of-the ordinary places to make sure there are no breaks in the skin. Even a small intrusion in an odd place could give us a lead as to how the blood was drained. I'll call you when I know more."

Cam was grateful that Doc Speller came out on such a rainy day. He didn't need to, as Chief Forensic Pathologist in the Portland Police Bureau, he didn't need to attend these cases.

But because he had a summer cottage in Chance, and he liked that the sheriff took him fishing in the spring, he came when there was a call from Chance.

He knew this one made two since Christmas, was there going to be a third before summer? Did that mean the killer was escalating, his need to kill becoming more than he could control? Doc knew people expected miracles from him, and sometimes he could deliver, but not this time.

It bothered him no end.

Cam Grant pulled his sheriff's jacket tighter around his shoulders, and looked at the offending teeter-totter again.

He knew by the time the rain stopped any evidence that was there would probably be washed away. Everything else was pounded into the sand from all the police techs and the paramedical people from the ambulance milling around.

_I can_ ' _t see anything else we haven_ ' _t done,_ thought Cam, _but I_ ' _ll get forensics here again tomorrow, maybe they_ ' _ll get lucky and find something that was missed because of the rain._

"Bert," he called, "you can get the yellow tape from the cruiser and put it up now. Make sure you give the teeter-totter lots of room, and make sure it stays put. Maybe we can keep some of the curiosity seekers off the crime scene this time. They touch everything and that means there won't be a print of any sort worth keeping."

Bert Dempsey got the tape and the stanchions from the police cruiser and started to string it around the area. He was almost finished when he glanced down and saw something shiny in the sand. Didn't look like much, but he picked it up anyway even though it was outside the yellow tape. He put it in his pocket and decided he'd show it to the boss later.

Meanwhile he was glad he was finished, the rain hadn't let up for a moment and he was soaked to the skin.

He smiled when he remembered the last time he came home drenched and tired. His wife Kellie was still in her bubble bath when he came through the back door. He was so wet he dripped all over the floor of the back hall. Kellie got out of the tub and helped him get the wet gear off. When he stood naked, she gently pulled him into the bathroom and pushed him into the bubble bath.

Bert grinned as he remembered Kellie adding more bubbles and telling him to "just relax, I'll be right back". He was getting nice and warm when she returned with two glasses of red Merlot wine. His favorite kind!

She put the wine on the floor, let her bathrobe fall and got into the tub with him.

Bert was standing in the rain with a silly grin on his face, still holding the yellow tape. He remembered where he was with a start and how inappropriate his thoughts were and warmth began to bathe his cheeks, the more he remembered his thoughts the more embarrassed he got.

Just then Cam came up behind him and clapped him on the back.

Bert was glad he wasn't facing him as he didn't know how he'd explain why he was blushing at a crime scene.

"Go home and get some dry clothes on Bert, we've got a lot of paper to put out today. I'll meet you back at the office after lunch, I'm going home to dry out too after I drop the evidence box off at the station. Think it's ever going to stop raining?"

"Not in our lifetime," complained Bert as he made his squishy way toward his car. The early call came in while he was still at home and rather than go into town just used his own car.

The Sheriff slogged to the lot where his patrol cruiser was parked. If you didn't know better it looked like a square lake with a vehicle floating on it. It had to stop raining soon.

The sun was finally getting higher in the sky, but only a little bright disk showed where it was trying to burn a hole in the cloud cover.

It was not doing a very good job.

Cam's cruiser looked just like what it was, his office on wheels. Newspapers bunched up in the back seat, an old empty paper coffee cup crunched in a corner, some chip bags from yesterday or a day or two ago. And today's contribution, an insulated coffee cup half full with the lid almost off in the cup holder.

As he got into the car, Cam picked up the coffee and drank the last of it anyway, cold or not, it was still warmer than he was.

He sat in the driver's seat and checked the police cell phone for calls and messages.

Nothing there.

He called Nancy, his housekeeper of four years and left a message letting her know he was on his way home in an hour or so. He needed some lunch and dry clothes.

She was the ideal sheriff's house keeper, competent, independent and great with the kids, and the fact that she usually was available when he needed overtime help made him appreciate her more.

Being the sheriff in Chance had its perks and its drawbacks. Relatives thought you knew everything about the law, and could always help with whatever foolishness their kids happened to get into in Portland or Crescent City and they thought he could fix a traffic ticket anywhere in the whole United States.

Little did they know...

CHAPTER 5

That evening well after sundown, Lucy and Mary Lou hurried from street lamp to street lamp, the older one reassuring the younger one that everything was fine, and tonight was no different.

But you know how old ladies lie.

Lucy cursed under her breath in time to the hollow sound of their footsteps as they walked quickly down the dark sidewalk.

Cursed, because they didn't have enough money to pay for the protection they needed from the woman the street called 'Mother'.

Cursed, because she knew what was coming.

Cursed, because she knew she was too old to do anything about it.

Lucy was afraid!

As she walked she glanced over her shoulder, continually looking behind for someone or something that was keeping pace.

"Lucy, do you think we'll be too early?" asked Mary Lou in her little girl voice. "I don't think we should be early."

"Shut your yap and keep up," snarled the old lady, "it won't do to have 'er mad because we're late."

Both women hurried on, glancing fearfully into each doorway as they came closer to the dark shadowy waterfront.

Suddenly a shape blacker than the other shadows loomed in front of them, they pulled up short and tried to peer ahead to see what was making the shadow.

"Let the young one come closer," said a disjointed voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Mary Lou hung back but Lucy gave her a sharp poke in the ribs and hissed, "do like the nice man says."

Mary Lou inched forward four steps, stopped, and turned to get support from Lucy.

But Mary Lou was alone with the voice.

CHAPTER 6

Cam Grant sat at his desk in the Chance police station still in the wet clothes from early morning. He wanted to put the evidence box in the locked cupboard and check if there were any phone calls from Lisa, the mayor's secretary. She answered his phone when there was no one in the police station. She told people it wasn't in her job description, but she didn't mind.

His desk sat in the cubby hole the town called the Police Station. It was too small! Thank goodness he didn't have to spend much time in the office as there was so little crime in his town.

Never let it be said that Chance was not a forward thinking town. Crammed in the tiny room, was Cam and his desk, a filing cabinet, a fax machine, a computer and a small desk for their part time deputy. Their one holding cell was down the hall in the back.

Bert Dempsey, a university kid that needed work during the summer months was the deputy. He also helped out two or three days as needed during the winter. He'd taken the necessary courses and was bright and willing, but permanent police work was not for him.

He knew getting his degree in Animal Husbandry was his answer. He wanted to be a veterinarian.

* * * *

Cam was doodling on a pad that didn't have a great deal on it. There was no big clue, little evidence, and no suspects. Try as he might, he couldn't see a connection between these two boys, the first one in January and the second one in March.

Last time he'd checked the report of every run-away kid, missing kid and kids in trouble, no one claimed him. This one wasn't local either, in fact he looked like a street kid from the city.

Cam made two columns and headed one 'TO DO RIGHT NOW' and the other, 'GET INFORMATION'.

Things were looking up. He had a beginning now, something on paper. In the 'Get Information' column he wrote:

No. 1, autopsy,

No. 2, missing person's reports,

No. 3, check rope and knots.

While he sat and thought, he drew little deer heads across the page and was putting antlers on them when the phone started to ring.

Cam ignored it, probably old Mrs. McVeigh complaining about her cat up the tree again. He talked with her and told her she needed to go back into the house when the cat climbed the tree, give it a chance to come down on its own. It usually did.

He knew Lisa would answer it eventually if he didn't pick up. _Someday_ , he thought, _I_ ' _d sure like a clerk of my own._

So he drew a line on his paper and put the dates the two dead kids showed up in a row down the side of the page.

Then he made little squiggles that showed what the weather was doing the day they were found.

The first one was January 15, by Fred Sherper's kid on his way home from a party. The weather was overcast and gloomy with sea fog. There were no footprints, no tire tracks in the parking lot, it was as if he'd been dropped from the sky. There were no fingerprints on the teeter-totter either, rain mucked up everything before forensics made it out from Portland.

This body was found in the same place on March 15, and he listed that and put in the squiggle that showed the weather as rain.

Cam went through the motions again, and checked the missing persons report, for run-away and troubled kids, but nothing fit.

It was time to go home soon and get some dry clothes on, he was getting cold.

Maybe Nancy would make him a sandwich if he looked hungry enough.

_I just want to finish this_ , he thought, _then I_ ' _ll go_.

With no connection to a Missing Persons Report, the first teenager was listed as 'Unidentified' Victim No. 1 and now they had Victim No. 2, also unidentified. The autopsy said the 'Cause of Death' was Unidentified Trauma for the first one, he thought this boy would be the same.

The authorities always used 'trauma' when they didn't want the public to know how the person died and sometimes when they didn't know themselves.

He put that in a new column, his lists were starting to show some promise.

He sat and looked at what was written, and made another column for 'Eye Witnesses'.

That one was quite narrow, they never did find anyone other than the Sherper boy that was around in the middle of that night in January and it looked even worse for March.

This morning he and Bert talked to everyone they could think of that might have been up in time to see what was going on. No luck.

There were no kids partying or sleeping by the ocean, not only was it illegal, it was too cold. To make matters worse, it rained hard last night and this morning, so nobody saw anything.

No identification was found on the previous victim or the new boy. He made another column and put that in too. Cam shivered, maybe from thinking about this morning or maybe from the fact that he was still damp. He knew he should go home and change but he was waiting for the preliminary report from the morgue to come in on the Fax. It had to be soon.

So he sat and drank tepid coffee and waited, and drew more antlers.

* * * *

A knock came at the door at the same time as the fax machine started to spew out sheets of paper.

Someday they'd have to fix that damn machine.

As each sheet was printed a hidden hand pushed the paper out with extra force and sent it over the waiting paper tray to land willy-nilly on the floor.

Cam scooted around the floor picking up the pages before they could be stepped on and almost knocked over the pretty young woman who stood by the door waiting for him to finish.

"Are you the sheriff?" she asked as she put her briefcase on the floor. "I'd like to speak to the sheriff please."

Kathe Morgan looked at the flustered man kneeling on the floor looking up at her. He seemed to be having trouble breathing and his face and ears were getting red.

"Maybe you should sit down," she offered in a tone used for old women and small children, "do you need a glass of water?"

Cameron Grant looked to the heavens for help, and since none was forthcoming he turned to the young woman and growled, "Can I help you?"

"Not really, I need to speak to the sheriff, please."

"Lady, this is the Police Station and I'm the Sheriff, now what can I help you with?"

"You needn't't get all huffy, how am I supposed to know the sheriff in this town spends his spare time crawling around on the floor."

"Get on with it, lady," said Cam, getting up from the floor and stacking the papers in his 'IN' basket, "I'm busy."

"I've come all the way from Portland by bus today. I'm tired and I need a cup of coffee," she said, "any chance of getting one here?"

The sheriff looked at the pretty girl standing in front of him. Suddenly he was acutely aware of the gravy stain on his tie and the fact that he hadn't been home to change from the sweaty wet clothes of the morning. He was moist and rumpled and hadn't shaved, his mouth felt like it was growing moss.

"We'll go to the Breakfast Mug."

* * * * *

The Breakfast Mug was a small diner run by the town's best cook. It was two storefronts and a bit down Main Street from the police station and was open 'till late' on the weekends. 'Till late' meant 11:30 p.m. so the folks from the local movie theater could come in and get pie and ice-cream before they headed home. It also opened early in the morning so those who worked in Portland could get their caffeine fix before hitting the highway.

It was a lot roomier than the police station so the sheriff conducted a lot of police business in the back booth.

The sheriff and the young woman walked in and he signaled Carmen Ballenger the owner, that this was police business.

"Can I get you anything?" she called as she wiped the yellow counter in long lazy strokes.

Carmen was a survivor. She came to this town with David Ballenger when it was a thriving mill town. But the mill closed, David died, and since the only thing she was good at was cooking, four years ago she opened the Breakfast Mug. That story was told every time someone asked why a cook as good as her was still in this one horse town.

"Just bring us a couple of coffees, please Carmen, I don't think we'll be long."

The coffee arrived in steaming mugs, black and strong. She didn't offer cream or sugar, they were in the booth for the taking.

"O.K. now, what can I do to help you," said Cam.

"This isn't much of a town," she said stirring her coffee, "the bus driver said he seldom stops here."

Obviously thought Cam, he hasn't heard about the second kid yet.

"You still haven't said why you came to the Police Station, what can I do for you?"

"I hope you'll believe me when I tell you that I've come to help you," Kathe murmured as she reached for her brief-case, "I know about the two boys."

Cam looked at the beautiful young woman and thought, _oh no, suckered in by a city reporter._

Then he thought, _how can she know about this latest one, we just found him early this morning?_

"Who are you and what do you know about this kid? First let me tell you I don't like nosey reporters and I like sneaky ones passing themselves off as regular people even less. When we know something, we'll tell you. Better yet, go back to Portland."

He started to leave the booth but she stood up blocking his way.

"I'm not a reporter," she said, "I don't work for any newspaper, television station, or private interest group. I'm here to help you."

"My gawd," he thought, " _I don_ ' _t have time for this. "_ Lady," he said, "you need to go home, get some sleep. Don't worry about teeter-totters, everything will be better tomorrow. Come on, I'll drive you to the bus station."

"You don't understand, please let me explain, I'm not out of my mind, I don't even really want to be here, but I have to tell you why I came. If you don't listen, more kids are going to die."

Cameron Delany Grant looked at the woman sitting opposite him. How did she know how many kids they found? He hadn't even told the Mayor about the last one yet.

"All right," he said as he slipped back into the booth, "you've got my attention, what do you mean, more kids are going to die? How do you know?"

CHAPTER 7

Mary Lou nervously looked up one side of the street and down the other. Lucy never left her alone in a city before. She started to walk back to where she last saw her; she'd taken a few steps when she spied a pile of clothes lying in the back of a dark doorway. She edged closer to see better and was horrified to realize the dress was the one Lucy was wearing when they left the motel.

She screamed and screamed, hiding her eyes. As she backed away she fell off the sidewalk and broke the four inch heel off her left shoe.

Not pausing to pick up the heel, she fled down the street and ran pell-mell into a young man walking towards her.

"Hey there, lady," he said, catching her as she fell into him "what's the hurry?"

Mary Lou, gasping and crying, wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed uncontrollably.

Finally, he was able to calm her down and make her sit on the curb. As he gently wiped the running mascara from her cheeks with his hanky he found she wasn't a lady after all, just a teenage girl with too much makeup.

"What's the matter, kid?" he said. "What's going on?"

Gulping and sniffling, she said, "I think my grandma's dead. We should maybe be calling the cops or something."

"Aw come on now, you must be mistaken?" he said, "how would you know what is dead and what isn't, let's us go and see."

"No, no, I don't want to go there again," she said, pulling away, "I'm afraid to go back there."

"Never mind," he said in his most mature voice, "I'll go with you, nothing is going to get you when I'm with you." He stood and gently pulled the terrified teenager up. "What happened to your shoe?" he asked as he watched her wobbling without a heel on her left shoe.

Clinging tightly to his hand, Mary Lou walked back up the street and showed him the pile of clothes in the doorway.

The young man slowly knelt, the hair on the back of his neck stood straight up as he looked at the pile of clothes that covered the shriveled form of Lucy Jamiston.

He stood up abruptly and taking Mary Lou by the hand started pushing her firmly back up the street again.

"We don't need to call the cops," he said as he walked away faster dragging Mary Lou by the hand, "I didn't see a body, so there's no crime. Isn't that right!" he lied

CHAPTER 8

Cam Grant sat in his undersized office and went over his lists and wondered, _how did that reporter know we had another victim?_

He thought again about the unbelievable story the woman told him in the café _. I can_ ' _t let that get to me_ , he thought. _I have to follow the evidence._

He picked up the preliminary autopsy report on the latest victim. It had a shoe print on it from someone stepping on it when it flew out of the FAX machine, but you could still read it.

Nada, it said.

Same as last time!

Every good detective knew you had to keep some pertinent fact back otherwise you couldn't compare what the media hungry kook's said with the real thing. The item that was suppressed from the newspapers last time was there again.

The report said this teenager didn't have any blood either and no one knew except the coroner and the forensic pathologist that dealt with the autopsy, the Chief of Police in Portland and the Sheriff of the Chance Police Department.

It was removed in a very professional way.

Same as last time!

_What a nightmare_ , he said to himself as he started to update his lists. Now he knew for sure, both cases were connected.

He had to decide if he was going to escalate these two cases to the Bureau in Portland, or keep them and try to solve them himself. It was starting to look like he might need some help.

And he knew just who he could go to.

CHAPTER 9

Mary Lou hobbled beside the young man as fast as her four inch heel would allow. Finally he let go of her hand and sat down heavily on the curb. It had been a long night.

He'd gone with the two boys he met on the street to the seedier part of the city to see a supposed crime scene, but what he found was a girl who's grandma was dead. He thought again about the body of the shriveled old woman lying in the doorway, and knew he couldn't just abandon the girl even if it was daylight now.

"I don't even know your name?" he said, as he looked up and down the street. "Who are you and what were you doing down by the river in that crummy part of town?"

"We, ah, I was there with my grandma, well, not my real grandma, with Lucy. She's been looking after me since I was nine. We travel a lot and sell stuff. I always thought maybe with enough money we could settle down in one place, maybe even, I could go back and finish high school."

Mary Lou's eyes started to fill up with tears again as she understood she was all alone now that Lucy was really gone. No money, no one to lean on, nowhere to turn. The tears started to flow faster.

"Stay loose," said the young man, "I'll help you. Where did you say you came from? Maybe I can take you back there. Are there some relatives you can stay with?"

"There isn't anybody," she blubbered into the young man's handkerchief, "there's nobody to care!"

"I'll care," he said standing up and pulling the weeping girl to her feet. "Let's find the heel to your shoe, maybe I can fix it later. I was going to stay in town until the weekend, but I think we should go back to my house. My folks'll know what to do."

CHAPTER 10

Retired, Detective-Investigator Jake McClusky was seated on the back of his ride-m lawnmower when Cam Grant found him at home in Tiger, a suburb of Portland. He didn't look too interested in the story his former Captain was trying to tell him. No interest that is, until he got to the part about 'no blood in the body'.

He got down from the lawnmower, switched off the key and started up the path to the house, "you'd better come in and tell me the whole story again Cam. I thought I made it clear that I was through with all this detective business. When I retired, I quit. I don't know what you want from me," he grumbled as he entered the house.

Jake went into the kitchen, took the empty coffee pot from the stove, added water and coffee and put it on to perk. His wife Adele was at her mothers' for a few weeks. The old lady had a fall and they were waiting to see if she pulled through enough to live on her own or would she have to go to a care home. Adele would have a fit if she saw the wet grass tracked onto her usually spotless kitchen.

"Alright Cam, sit down and start again, tell me everything, every detail."

While Cam told him the story, Jake fidgeted with his cup and spoon.

Little clinking sounds made Cam forget his place in the story.

"For Pete's sake, Jake, cut it out, I can't concentrate with you clinking away. I've lost the thread of my story."

"Never mind, its old news."

CHAPTER 11

Mary Lou hobbled after the young man calling, "I don't know your name either. Wait up, I can't walk this fast with only one shoe."

"You're right," he said turning to wait for her to catch up, "my name is Michael McKay, my friends call me Mike, I'm from Chance, over on the coast, you know?"

"Not really, Lucy didn't like the ocean and we never went there."

Mike took her hand and they walked slowly up the street again. Now that it was full daylight, it didn't look spooky at all. Both of them looked determinedly up at the big buildings that lined the streets of Portland, not into the dim doorways of the offices and stores. This was a working Monday, everything looked normal.

But Mary Lou knew things would never be normal again.

Mike crossed to the other side of Madison Street and found the broken heel pushed against the curb. As he stood on the sidewalk next to Mary Lou, he checked his pockets and found the slip of paper where he'd written the name and address of his hotel. His mother made him promise he would do that. What if he got lost, she reasoned, and couldn't remember where the hotel was, what would he do then? He didn't know anybody in Portland. He wouldn't even be able to go to the Police because he wouldn't know where his hotel was.

Silently he sent his mom a little thank you for still looking after him, even if he was big enough to not need it.

He took Mary Lou by the hand and said, "It's down this way, I remember now, when I got to town I saw that building over there. My hotel is just down here on Jefferson Street."

They began to walk, and passed a small café with smells of bacon and eggs wafting out the door. Mary Lou's stomach made embarrassing sounds and she started to talk to cover it up.

But Mike heard and knew what was happening. His own stomach was starting to remind him that he hadn't eaten much since he got off the bus yesterday afternoon either.

"What do you think, Mary Lou, are you up for some bacon and eggs?" he asked in a more good humoured tone than he felt. He didn't want Mary Lou to start crying again. He was not good with crying girls, he had no experience.

Mike was the product of a late marriage between the local Librarian and a farmer from Chance, Oregon. He always felt he was advantaged and disadvantaged. On one hand he had a mother that wanted the best for him. And the best, meant a University Degree. It didn't matter to her which one, just as long as he had initials after his name.

On the other hand, he inherited his father's love of the land. He loved to get up early and smell the newly turned earth, he knew and loved each and every cow in his father's dairy herd. Even though his dad sold most of the cows last year he knew how it all ran. He wanted to buy them back and be a farmer like his dad. But his mother said he could do better.

He didn't know how.

Mike was a good student, although he didn't work at it. Book learning came easy to him. Math was a strong point and his mother's pride. She always said you could go anywhere if you had a Masters in Math. But he didn't want to go anywhere, he wanted to stay right here.

He was a better than average football player, and that made the University of Oregon talk to him. They told him if he wanted to, he could play football on a full scholarship. His father was ecstatic, his mother not so much, she wasn't into full-body sports.

He had until the end of August to tell the scholarship committee if he was going to go to their school. He also had that long to tell his mother that he'd already enrolled in the University of Lethbridge, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. After all his research, he knew it was the school for him. It had the best cattle management and agricultural program.

Mary Lou mopped up the rest of the egg from her plate with the last piece of toast. How could such a small girl eat so much? He was hungry and could eat a lot his mother said so, but Mary Lou ate more.

Mike checked his pockets to make sure he had enough money to pay the bill. The girl didn't have any, looking at her he didn't know where she would keep it.

After he paid the bill they walked up the street hand in hand looking for his hotel.

She walked with a hip hop as there was no heel on her left shoe, so she limped along beside him as best as she could.

When they came to the hotel, the desk clerk handed him his key with a frown that said he didn't approve of him taking this kind of girl up to his room.

"You staying another night?" asked the clerk turning back to the desk. He picked up the buzzing phone and started to write down a reservation. Mike took the opportunity to grab Mary Lou by the hand and walk quickly to the elevator. They both kept their backs to the desk until the elevator came and they were inside.

He looked at her.

She looked at him.

They both started to laugh!

When the elevator door opened on the 4th floor they were laughing so hard that while they were getting off they almost knocked over a fat lady and her husband that were waiting to get on. Mike led the way down the hall to room 402. He took his room key out of his pants pocket and opened the door. Standing aside he gestured for her to go first.

Mary Lou hesitated, Lucy always said, never go into a man's hotel room. It was one thing to walk into the lobby of the hotel, but quite another to go all the way up to the marks room. If she didn't have his wallet by the time they got to the elevator, she was to back out and run for the door.

Mary Lou knew Lucy always knew best.

Mike looked at her as he closed the door. "Get comfortable," he said and took off his backpack and jacket and threw them on the bed.

Mary Lou looked at him and then looked at the bed. _I don_ ' _t know_ , she thought, _I_ ' _d better stay close to the door in case I have to make a run for it._

"Thanks, anyway, I'm just fine here," she said.

"Whatever," said Mike as he sat on the edge of the bed, got his wallet from his jacket and started to count out his money.

This didn't look too good. He'd promised to take this girl back to the farm. He was sure his folks would know how to deal with this problem. But it didn't look like he had enough money for both of them to go on the bus.

"You got any money?" he asked looking up.

Mary Lou didn't usually get that sort of question.

Lucy looked after all the money problems. She always said Mary Lou was about as bright as a burned out light bulb when it came to handling money.

"I only have this ten dollar bill," she said in a small voice. _Now what_ , she thought, _is this guy going to mug me for the ten spot?_

"I think I better go," she said in a small voice, "This is all the money I have and I don't know where I could get more."

"Never mind," said Mike looking down as he counted the money over again including Mary Lou's contribution.

"If we don't have any breakfast I think we can get two bus tickets to Chance for tomorrow. That's where I'm from, remember. My folks'll know what to do."

"Are you sure they won't mind?" said the girl. "They don't know me at all, why would they help me?"

"They'll help because they're good people. Now, let's go out and see the sights of Portland. This is the first time I've been here on my own. My folks just come to shop, but I want to go down to the piers. There are always Buskers working the street and it's free to watch. Come on, it'll be fun!"

Mary Lou and Mike took the elevator down and tried to walk casually through the lobby of the hotel. People looked at them, it seemed they'd never seen a girl walk with only one high heel on before. Some people laughed, and started the two laughing so hard they were outside the hotel before they could get their breath. All things considered, it was turning into a fun day.

When they got back to the hotel that evening they were both hungry, but Mike said, "never mind, just lie down and get some sleep, the bus leaves at 5:30 am and we have to be ready and waiting."

_Here it comes_ , thought Mary Lou, _Lucy was right. That_ ' _s all men think about, well I_ ' _m not having any of this, even if he is nice._

"Just give me back my $10.00 and I'll be on my way," said Mary Lou. "I don't do bed stuff, I don't care who you are."

"What are you talking about?" said Mike with a bewildered look on his face. He looked at the bed and then at the girl, and his face got red. "That's not what I meant," he said stammering and getting redder and redder. "Just lay down on top of the bed and I'll sleep in this chair."

"Really?"

"Yes, really, what do you take me for?"

"I guess I don't know," said Mary Lou in a timid little voice, "whatever you say."

The night passed uneventfully.

CHAPTER 12

Cam Grant rode down State Hwy #6 and tried not to think about his talk with his old mentor. It didn't go so good. It wasn't what he went all the way into Portland to hear.

He wanted encouragement and direction about how to solve this case, and all he got was loud, stern advice to give it to the city cops and wash his hands of the whole business.

Cam looked at the gas gauge in the police cruiser and decided he better get some more gas.

"Fill it up," he told the gas jockey at the Pay & Save Convenience & Gas Bar in Tillamook. He could have filled it himself, but it was law here in Oregon, no filling your own gas tank. It was supposed it make work for those kids who didn't want to stay in school.

While he waited, the Greyhound Bus from Portland pulled in for a comfort stop. As the passengers filed out, he couldn't help noticing the girl with the red T shirt and short black skirt.

How could he not notice, every male in the parking lot had his eye on her walk. Then he noticed one shoe didn't have a heel. " _Now,_ " he thought, " _how do you suppose that happened_." He looked at the kid with her and found himself looking at his nephew, Mike McKay. Mike was his sister Judy's son. She moved to Chance when he did, and got a job at the library. No one ever thought she'd get married. But she fooled them all and married Joe McKay one of the wealthiest Dairy Farmers around. They had a son late in life and she doted on him. Mike was her pride and joy.

What was he doing getting off the bus from Portland... with a girl like that?

Cam Grant got out of his car and walked over to the lineup for the bathrooms and said, "Hey there Mike, what you doing out here?"

"Hi, Uncle Cam," he said, "just coming home from Portland. Say hello to my friend Mary Lou. She needs some help. I thought I'd take her home with me and see what the folks could do."

"What seems to be the trouble, kid," said Cam looking her up and down and deciding what the trouble probably was. He knew Mike was a good kid, but bringing someone home like this to his mother, well, Cam didn't want to be around when that happened.

"Say, Uncle Cam, maybe you could help her," said Mike stepping out of the line and dragging Mary Lou with him. "You have to hear this story."

"I'll bet!"

* * * * *

"So you say you don't know what happened to your grandmother?" said Cam, as he looked from girl to boy. "You two better come into the restaurant and we'll have a coffee and you can tell me this all over again. Don't leave anything out."

Mary Lou and Mike had the quick breakfast, Cam paid. She told of the scam to sell the knock-off handbags so she and her grandmother would have enough money to pay for the protection they needed in Portland. She told of the trip to the waterfront and what happened when the voice told her to step up. She even mentioned how she lost the heel of her shoe, "see," she said, pointing to her shoe, "I've told you all I know.

Mike picked up the story then and told how she ran into him and how they went back to the bundle of clothes that used to be her grandma. Mike didn't mention what he saw. He didn't want Mary Lou to start crying again.

"I told Mary Lou, that my folks would know what to do, so we pooled our money and here we are."

Just then the P.A. announced the departure of the bus. "Never mind the bus, I'm going home, I'll give you a lift," said Cam as he looked more closely at the girl. She didn't look that hard. Actually, she looked kind of frightened and young.

"You got any other clothes you can change into," he said, "still kind of cold on the coast in spring."

"It's O.K., I'm not cold," she said trying to pull her skirt down a little further. Mary Lou was frozen but she wasn't going to tell that to this cop. Who did he think she was?

"Suit yourself," he said, getting up from the booth. They left McDonalds and headed to the police cruiser.

_At least I_ ' _ll be warm in the car_ , thought Mary Lou. She tried not to let her teeth chatter but she could see the goose bumps all along her arms. Mike's uncle would know she lied.

She sat in the back of the police cruiser all the way to Chance. When they started out she thought it would be a long boring trip, but now that they were coming into town it wasn't long enough.

The Sheriff and Mike talked all the way. It was mostly family stuff. Things she didn't know anything about.

When they got to the middle of Chance, Cam pulled into the reserved slot behind the Police Station.

Mike turned to Mary Lou and said, "We'll get out here. I'll call my folks and they'll come and pick us up. Don't go frowning now, it's going to be alright, you'll see."

Mary Lou wished she were dead.
CHAPTER 13

Sherriff Cam Grant was not too good on the computer, but he did know how to access police information. After a bit of clicking around and a few wrong turns he finally was able to read the old unsolved files from ten years ago, again.

They didn't have sophisticated computers in the mid-eighties, so all this information was stored on Microfiche. Then it was transferred to the police data base ten years later and was probably entered by some nameless clerk who was not very interested in what she was doing, some of it didn't make much sense.

Last time, ten years ago, he saw as he scrolled down the e-page, there was one boy found on a teeter-totter in a playground by the sand dunes with access to the ocean in Sea Side on January 15. The third month, March 15, another was found in the same place on May 15.

He looked for the interviews of all the suspects, he didn't have to look far, there weren't any!

There was just the report from the pathologist, and the poor bloke who found the first one. He was out on a run with his big black Lab and the dog decided to stand guard over the dead kid. The report said it took some doing to get the dog away from the body, the owner couldn't figure out why the dog was guarding the kid. The owner was really upset.

There were no more boys for that year, evidence reports just dwindled away.

He checked every year since, no more teeter-totter killings. Until this January, that is.

The last of the file scrolled down and Cam clicked off the computer.

Well, now he had a lot more thinking to do. Like, was there going to be another kid tied to that teeter-totter in May? And what, if anything, could he do to prevent it from happening again.

He put the cover on his computer, turned off the printer and the lights. He was about to leave the office when the FAX machine started spitting at him. There were papers all over the floor again. He was just gathering up the last of the sheets when his door opened.

" _Darn,_ " he thought, " _didn_ ' _t get away fast enough, Nancy_ ' _s going to give me a bad time."_ This was the third time this week he didn't get home for dinner with the kids.

Even though she was the housekeeper, she cared about them and treated them like family. She kept telling him he would soon have to introduce himself to the kids, they saw so little of their dad. Soon they wouldn't know who he was.

Sarcasm didn't become her.

The woman coming through the door was that reporter person from a week ago, the day after they found the last victim.

Cam Grant scrambled around in his head looking for the name. Oh yes, it was Kathe Morgan.

"Well, Miss Morgan, what can we do for you today?" he said as he stood up.

"I've come to tell you to get up off the floor. You're going to find another body. It'll probably be a girl this time. I came to warn you, even if you don't believe me."

"Just hold on there, I didn't say I didn't believe you, I just said it was a really, really long chance of it happening again. And, besides I'm on top of it."

"I know you think you are, but I'm here to tell you, your preparations won't do. I know!"

"Lady, you think you're helping, but I'm the sheriff around here," he said, "and I know what's best for this community. Besides, how do you know? Who told you? We don't need some big city reporter coming here and getting everybody upset," said Cam as he straightened up the papers and put them into the open file folder on his desk.

"Sheriff Grant," said Ms. Morgan, "you are the most pig headed man I've met in a long time!" With those words she marched out the door and slammed it so hard the little wall plaque the town gave him for improving the parking conditions at the beach bounced off the wall and broke.

CHAPTER 14

Joe McKay pulled up to the Chance Police Station in his Hummer H2 expecting to see his son sitting on the curb waiting to be picked up. Instead, what he saw set him wondering.

The young bleached blond with the short mini skirt seemed to be standing too close to his son for it to be just a casual conversation while he waited for his ride.

_Humm,_ he thought, _what do we have here_?

"Mike," he called out the Hummer's window, "over here."

Joe McKay sat back and watched his son help the blond over the curb and onto the street. He noticed the sexy walk and his eye brows went up higher, but then he saw her shoes only had one heel. Ah, there it was in her hand.

"Well, hi there son," he said, as Mike opened the back door of the Hummer, "who do we have here?"

Mary Lou kept her head down and tried to look small. She was so uncomfortable. She'd never been in this kind of situation before and Lucy wasn't much on manners, so she knew she was probably doing something wrong. She moved along the back seat to the furthest corner and tried to shrink into the crack between the seat and the door.

"Hi Dad, this is Mary Lou, her grandmother was killed in the city yesterday and she didn't have anywhere else to go, so I told her you and mom would know what to do. So we pooled our money and here we are. Uncle Cam picked us up at the Pay & Save out on the highway. I don't know what he was doing there but the bus pulled in for a comfort stop and he saw us. So he bought us breakfast and brought us the rest of the way."

"Mary Lou," said Mike turning his head to look at the girl in the back seat, "this is my Dad, Joe McKay."

"How do you do," said a tiny voice from the back seat.

_Well now, won_ ' _t mother be surprised_ , thought Joe.

Mike and his dad chatted on the trip to the farm.

"How is Bessy doing?" said Mike to his dad. He turned to the back seat and said, "Bessy is a cow, she was having some trouble with her left rear hamstring when I left, and I just wondered if she was any better."

Mary Lou listened, her eyes wide, where was she going? No one she knew ever talked about cows, for that matter, no one she knew even knew a cow let alone worried about how one was feeling.

_What have I done_ , she thought, _these people are crazy, and we_ ' _re so far from town I couldn_ ' _t walk even if I had two good shoes. What_ ' _ll I do?_

About then, Joe pulled through the gates of what looked like a park. But no, it must be the farm.

_Boy,_ thought Mary Lou, _this sure isn_ ' _t what I thought a farm looked like._

Joe pulled up behind a beautiful white house with blue trim around the windows and doors. Purplish Red and white Azalea shrubs were beginning to wake up from their winter sleep, you could just see the buds starting to peek out.

An old tree stood in the side yard, it had a swing tied to one of the branches closest to the house and Mary Lou could see the seat was painted blue to match the house.

The back door opened and a slim woman of medium height with blond hair pulled back into a pony tail flew out the door and grabbed Mike in a bear hug and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. Mary Lou watched amazed, no one had ever grabbed her and given such a hug or kiss, and she was dumbfounded.

Judy McKay tugged Mike toward the kitchen door talking all the while. "So Mike, how was the big city? Didn't stay away as long as you thought, I knew you'd be back, you couldn't stay away. I knew it!"

"Hang on there, mom, I brought someone home with me that I want you to meet."

Here it comes, thought Joe McKay, run for the hills!

Mike turned away and went back to the Hummer and opened the back door. Mary Lou didn't want to get out but there didn't seem to be any way she could just spend the night where she was. "Hello, Mrs. McKay, I'm Mary Lou."

Judy McKay looked at the young girl that got out of the Hummer and her jaw dropped, her face started to flush and she looked at Mike and then at Mary Lou.

"Wha..., what's this all about, where did you come from? Why did you come home with my son? What are you doing here?"

"Hold on there, Judy, is this how we meet Mike's new friend? I'm sure after they've had something to eat, they'll tell us all about it. You two go on in, Mike show Mary Lou where she can wash up. We'll be in, in a moment."

Joe turned to his wife and took her by the elbow leading her towards the barn protesting. "Leave them be for a moment, do you want Mike to get all protective on us. Then we'll never find out what's going on."

"Joe McKay, are you out of your mind, I'm going right back there and throw that hussy out on her mini skirt, I don't care where she goes, but she's not staying here!"

"Calm down, don't you see, that's exactly the wrong approach. Mike will have to defend her, and then we'll have a real problem. Let them tell us what's going on. I trust Mike, he's got a good head on his shoulders, he wouldn't have brought her home if there wasn't a good reason."

"I don't think I can do that," said Judy as she gulped and blew her nose.

"I think you'll have to."

* * * * *

Mike led Mary Lou into the big farm kitchen and threw his knapsack on the floor behind the table. He took her down the short hall to the back washroom and gave her a clean towel.

Mary Lou looked at the towel not sure if she should take it. It was whiter and fluffier than anything she'd ever used before. She looked around and realized even the inside of the house was done in white and blue.

Maybe there was a rule about the color you painted your house out here in the country.

She turned the tap on in the sink and hot water flowed. There was a blue and white bottle of soap that smelled nice, but she wasn't sure she should use it. But she felt so dirty she just had to get clean. Mary Lou had a good wash. She took off all the make-up and washed her face twice. It felt so good! Thank goodness the comb Lucy always made her carry in the waist band of her skirt was still there.

"Sure wish I had some other clothes to change into," she said to the fresh faced girl in the mirror.

Mike was in the kitchen checking the pots on the stove. His mother was heating up some good smelling stew for him, he was just making sure there was also enough for Mary Lou.

As he stood at the kitchen sink and looked out the window at his mom and dad talking, he saw his mom waving her hands around like she did when she yelled at him for some dumb thing he did.

She never waved her hands at his dad. What was that all about?

Mary Lou came out of the bathroom and quietly closed the door. She was trying to be invisible. Maybe no one would notice her if she was very still. She stood at the doorway and waited until Mike saw her.

"Come on have a seat at the table, mom will be in soon and we'll have some late supper. I'm starved and I know you are too."

Just as she was sitting down at the back of the table, the door opened and Mike's parents came into the kitchen.

Mrs. McKay went to the stove and started to fuss with the stew. She got out some plates and cutlery. Took a loaf of homemade bread from the refrigerator and cut up half of it and put it on a plate on the table. Then she dished out a generous portion of stew onto each plate.

"O.K. you two, sit down and eat," she said as she turned from the table and busied herself at the sink. She didn't want to look at the fresh faced young girl sitting at her table.

"So, Mike," said his dad as he sat down opposite him, "how did you meet up with Mary Lou, and what happened to her shoe?"

"Well," said Mike with his mouth full, "I found her sitting on the curb, crying, and when I asked what the matter was, she said her grandma just died and she didn't have anywhere to go. She broke her shoe running away."

"Why didn't you take her to the police station," Judy said with more hostility then she wanted to show, "if she was in trouble that would have been the best place for her. Joe, I think we should call Cam and have him come out here. I think he should be aware that this person has come here from Portland and doesn't have anywhere to stay. He'll know how to handle this situation."

Judy turned from the table and picked up the phone, ready to dial the number from memory.

"Just hold on there, honey, we haven't heard the whole story yet. Mary Lou, what happened to your grandmother? How come you wound up sitting on the curb with a broken shoe?"

"Never mind the questions Joe, I think we need Cam here, right now! We aren't interested in how she got to sit on the curb with a broken shoe, what's important is that she get back to Chance so that she can find somewhere to stay tonight."

Mary Lou put her fork down and got up from the table, "never mind bothering anybody else, I can look after myself. Just tell me which way to turn when I get out to the main road. I don't want to be a bother to anybody."

"Sit down again young lady, finish your stew. Nobody ever walked back to Chance from here and they aren't going to start now. You still haven't told us what happened to your grandmother?"

Judy, her face red, started banging pots and pans around the sink, pretending to do the dishes. There was 'No Hope in Hell' that she was letting that young floozy sleep in the guest bedroom. It was right beside Mike's and who knew what hanky panky she was going to try when the lights went out.

Judy looked from Mike to Joe and her mouth was a straight line.

Mike took Mary Lou's hand and said, "Tell them what you told me, it's O.K. they'll understand."

Mary Lou swallowed hard, put her eyes on the table and told them about her grandmother, the knock-off handbags and the Mexican Leathers. She told about having to pay protection and the awful thing she saw in the doorway. She was sure it was her grandmother because they were her clothes, but it was too horrible and she started to cry.

Judy looked at Joe and rolled her eyes, she couldn't understand how these two men were taken in so easily. _The sooner that young tart is out of my house the better. No good is going to come of this, I just know it!_

Joe started asking more questions, Mary Lou tried to answer as honestly as she could, but soon realized Lucy didn't tell her everything. There were so many things she didn't know.

And now, there was no one to ask.

CHAPTER 15

Meanwhile back at the Chance police station Cam Grant picked up his ' **Atta boy** ' plaque off the floor and saw the broken corner. The mayor wasn't going to be happy that he was abusing the generosity of the Town Council.

Actually, Cam thought the plaque was a little much, putting up No Parking signs by the walk ways to the beach was just part of his job.

He turned back to the desk to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything and left closing and locking the door behind him.

Out on the street he looked around to see if Kathe Morgan was still there, seeing no one, got into his patrol car and prepared to go home. Something didn't feel right and he turned left instead of right and drove the short two blocks to the beach. He got out of the car and walked along the boardwalk checking the dunes and swings and especially, the teeter-totter.

No dead bodies.

Yet.

_I have to stop doing this_ , he thought as he walked to the north end and started back. Then he noticed the woman sitting on the bench by the dunes at the other end of the boardwalk.

_Wouldn_ ' _t you know it_ , thought Cam, _she can_ ' _t even sit in the right place. The bodies have both been found in the playground on the teeter-totter, not on the dunes._

Cam Grant walked determinedly to the bench.

_This is just too much!_ he said to himself, _I told her I wouldn_ ' _t have her hanging around and here she is anyway._

"I thought we had this conversation Ms. Morgan, why aren't you on the 5:00 o'clock bus back to Portland?"

"I didn't say I was going to go back to Portland? I can sit here if I want to, it's a public bench, and I'm the public."

"Come on, if we hurry I can catch the bus for you at the Pay & Save down the highway, otherwise you'll have to spring for a motel."

"Can't."

"Why not?" said Cam getting more and more frustrated.

"No money."

"So you're just going sit here till 7:00 am when the bus comes in and get on it then?"

"No, I don't think I'll have to."

Cam Grant looked at his watch and realized he was over an hour late. No supper for him, unless...

"So, how would you like a home cooked meal?" he said, acknowledging defeat.

* * * * *

"Nancy," said Cam on his cell phone, while he was looking at the smiling woman sitting next to him in the police cruiser, "I seem to have a little problem, someone didn't get on the last bus to Portland and there doesn't seem to be enough money, and..."

"Oh, all right, bring him on home, I'll heat up the lasagna," said Nancy. She'd known he wouldn't be home on time today. There was too much going on with the boy they found on the teeter-totter, so there were lots of leftovers.

"What did she say," said Kathe Morgan, "you didn't tell her I'm a woman, did you," she said with a smile in her voice. "Boy, are you going to get yours."

Cam just kept on driving. He kept his eyes on the road.

He wasn't going to get 'his'. Nancy wasn't his wife. Although she cared and tried to help as much as she could, it wasn't the same. He was the Boss, she was the 'help'. He didn't know why he was getting hotter and hotter and rolled down his side window. He wasn't driving into a hornet's nest. It was his house!

Nancy was a great housekeeper and even better with the kids, but it still wasn't the same. No mother was, No mother, and no matter that the paid help was good and caring and efficient, there was still, No Mother, and No Wife.

His friends seemed to feel it was his fault. They accepted there was no one like Linda, but her passing was over five years ago. He got told he better get over it and find a mother for his two kids.

Who did this flim flam artist think she was, saying she just knew there would be another kid and this time it would be a girl! He knew as well as the next guy, 'no one' can see into the future! He wasn't born yesterday even if he lived and worked in a town as small as Chance.

He had the experience. He knew what he was doing. He read all the reports, and even taken additional night school courses. Even his army experience counted.

He knew enough!

All too soon the lights of his red brick house came into view.

"Bet you know all this already. Know how many kids I have, and where I served in the army."

"No, I don't see things like that."

"So, what do you see," he said sarcastically.

"Not as much I'd like, and more than I want."

The car pulled into the driveway on its' own. The sheriff had his mind on other things. Good thing it knew when to stop as there was a bicycle in the middle of the carport. Brakes squealed just in time.

He got out of the car. His guest got out the other side, it was a tight squeeze as he didn't bring many of his 'guests' home with him and he unthinking, parked tight against the wall.

Nancy opened the back door ready to welcome whoever her boss brought home for dinner.

This wasn't quite what she expected.

The woman coming around the far side of the cruiser was young. And wow, was she good looking.

This was going to be interesting.

* * * * *

"Thank you so much for a wonderful meal, Mrs. Fredrickson, I'm sure this was an imposition, but it's been a long time since I've had lasagna this good. Do you have a special secret ingredient?"

"No, just same old, same old," beamed Nancy. Complements on her cooking were few in this household. The kids were good eaters, and 'the Boss' never complained no matter what was put in front of him. But it was nice to have someone actually say it was good.

"I'll put the dishes in the sink, Cam, and do them when I come tomorrow. Don't forget, you owe the milkman about twenty dollars and he keeps asking me for it. I told him I don't pay for any man any more, even if it is just milk," she said, with a wink at Kathe.

Nancy Fredrickson finally got rid of the washed up lush she married right out of high school and wound up in Chance. The first job she applied for was housekeeper.

She was in the right place at the right time. Cam's wife was in the hospital and not expected to come home soon and there were two needy kids that were short a mother. She hadn't planned to stay this long, but this was a job she loved, the kids and dog helped her get her self-confidence back. Not to mention her sunny outlook on life.

"Can I get a word in edge wise, or are we having a mutual admiration coffee klatch here," said Cam a little peevishly, "this is business," and his look told Kathe she better follow him to the other room.

He led the way to his small office at the back of the house. He waited until she sat down in the guest chair.

"Alright now, you have my full attention. How do you know these things, where is your information coming from, and why don't you go to the police in Portland with it."

"Good grief, can you be a little more direct?" she said as she put her purse on the desk and pulled out a medium sized calendar.

"See the dates for this year, one on January 15th, one on March 15th. They were both boys, but something has changed. I don't know what it is. But the pattern has been broken and I know there's going to be a girl this time."

"It doesn't take much to put little colored circles on a calendar. All you have to do is watch the newspaper. They always make a big production when kids get murdered. What do you know about the next one that I don't know, and who's giving you this information?" said Cam, looking her straight in the eye.

"I know it's going to happen one more time. Then it may stop for another long period. Records and communications are so much better now than ten years ago. I hope the fear of getting caught will finally make the difference," she said, as she put the calendar back in her purse. "This has been going on for a long time. Every ten or eleven years it starts all over again, and this time he chose your teeter-totter."

Cam looked at the woman sitting opposite him and didn't know what to believe.

"Don't ask how I know. I just know," said Kathe. "These killings didn't just start, and the one that will be on the fifteenth of May will be the last for a while. Things are so different now, I know it will be a girl, but we have to be ready, I don't know if we can stop it."

"We even have the date, but I still don't know how much that will help," said Kathe as she started to get up and would have walked around if there was room.

She sat down again and said, "If we don't catch him this time, he'll start over again somewhere else, and I won't be around to help next time."

_So, who do you think you are?_ thought Cam Grant. _P_ _olice in Portland and Chance are trained professionals and didn_ ' _t catch him last time? What makes you the smart one?_

Cam pulled himself from the pity party he was having with himself, and said, "So, what do you suggest that hasn't already been done. Tomorrow I'm going to Portland to help coordinate a stakeout to catch this sick bastard if he comes to plant the third kid in May. Portland's been aware of this for some time, longer than I've been on the job."

"It won't help! A stakeout didn't help the second one in March, and it won't help the third one in May either."

"What do you mean, 'last time,' they didn't have surveillance in March, no one told me anything about surveillance 'last time'?" Cam's voice was rising. He was getting hot under the collar and his face was getting red.

"Just calm down, headquarters told me they thought it best not to have too many in on the preparations. Someone said there might be a leak in your operation. They were just taking precautions. Only a few knew what was going on," said Kathe as she shifted to get more comfortable in her chair. "I was watching in March and just when I thought it was going to happen, there was a commotion down the beach and when I looked back, it was already over. Just like that!" she said and snapped her fingers.

"That's it! I think we'd better go back to the office. You're going to spend a little time with me. You're the only person that I've spoken to who has any idea about what's going on here, and I'm going to make sure you stay put."

"Our jail may be small," said Cam, "but it's comfortable as jails go. There's no rug on the floor, but the bed's not too bad and Nancy makes the eats so you'll be just fine."

"Thank you, but no thank you. Your invitation warms my little heart, but I'm not going to spend the next few days cooped up in your jail when there's so much to do," said Kathe, "you don't understand, some cops don't know how to think outside the box. I do!"

With this still ringing in his ears, Cam stood up, "that's enough! I don't believe in all this 'just knowing' stuff, if you can't touch it, it's not there! People see a lot of things that can't be explained, but that doesn't make them real, it just makes them a question mark. You find out what it is, or you just ignore it, and that's the end of it."

Kathe stood up too, it was cramped in the small study, and they were almost nose to nose. She could feel her face suddenly warming up, and when she opened her mouth to give him a large piece of her mind, a little squeak came out.

"Well, I never... I mean, you have the narrowest mind on the entire Western Seaboard, how did you manage to get the job of sheriff in this town. I know it's small and you surely had to have some training for the position. But open mindedness certainly wasn't one of the prerequisites," sputtered Kathe Morgan.

"I think I'll be leaving now, thank you for the supper it was delicious, no thanks to you though, you didn't even tell Nancy what a wonderful meal she put together in such a short time. It would serve you right if she just up and quit!"

Kathe stomped out the door and was half way down the hall before Cam grabbed his wits from the floor where they had dropped and were stepped on by the good looking weirdo from the city.

"Come back here, where do you think you're going?" he called as he fumbled trying to get around the chair Kathe had been sitting on. It kept falling out of his hands as though it was trying to keep him from getting out the door. He finally managed to wedge it behind the desk and made for the back door.

"Never mind, I'll be fine. It's no business of yours!" she snapped, pushing the screen door open.

"All right, all right now, don't get yourself in a knot, I won't put you in a holding cell, but there's no place for you to sleep in Chance.

Most of the Bed & Breakfast places are still closed for the winter, and the rooming house is full. There's a bunch of environmentalists here to do a study on the erosion of the sand dunes and every available bed in and around town is filled."

"And, besides, I thought you said you didn't have any money?"

"Don't be so provincial! I do what needs to be done."

"Just calm down," said Cam, "I'll see if the guest bedroom is made up. Sit down, we'll have a cup of tea and start over."

This was probably the longest speech he'd made to a female, make that, 'good-looking female' that didn't involve the words, 'speeding ticket' for a long time, and it was making him sweat.

He filled the kettle with water. It wasn't common knowledge that the big sheriff was also a tea drinker. It didn't fit with the image he wanted to portray.

Kathe Morgan sat at the table and watched the busy man.

A young squeaky voiced male stood in the doorway. He looked from his father to the woman at the table. He didn't know what was going on but this was way unusual. His Dad didn't bring women home from work.

"So Dad, what's going on?"

"So, nothing's going on, I don't think I asked for any opinions from the peanut section!"

"Dad, that's so corny, I can't believe you say that stuff. Who's the lady?"

Cam turned from the stove where he was putting the tea leaves into the hot tea pot. He learned that from his mom, always put hot water in the pot and let it heat up, throw that water out and put in fresh and the tea leaves. He never forgot that little bit of advice, it was almost all he remembered about his mother and he kept her close whenever he made tea.

"Jeff, this lady didn't have any place to stay in town with all the environmentalists filling up the place, so she's going to stay in the spare room for tonight."

"Boy, have you gotten soft," he said under his breath and grinning from ear to ear turned in time to avoid the dishcloth that was thrown by his dad. "Good night, see you in the morning."

Jeff paused in the doorway and picked up the dishcloth and threw it into the kitchen sink. Then with a small grin at his Dad, he shuffled back to his bedroom.

"Well, now," said Cam, "not only will I have all the gossips in the whole town talking my own son wonders too."

"Don't make such a big thing of this, you should be so lucky!" said Kathe as she stirred her honey sweetened Earl Grey tea. She hadn't asked for honey, he just assumed she'd want some, it surprised her a bit that it was O.K. with her. "I'm really tired, are you going to let me stay the night now that your son knows your wicked ways?"

"I should have 'wicked ways'! I haven't had any 'wicked' in years and sure don't know any 'ways'. Mind you, I could learn."

Cam got up from the table and put his cup into the sink, "this way," he said.

Kathe put her cup into the sink as well, gathered her purse and jacket and followed him down the hall. He paused in front of her door, and she said, "please wake me promptly, there's a lot to be done and I need an early start."

Cam put his hand to his forehead and gave an exaggerated sigh, "women," he said and turned to the doorway on the right. "I'll get you up when I get up," he said, smiling to himself because he knew he got up at 5:30 am every day. He wondered if it would be a mite too early for his house guest.

* * * *

Cam Grant rolled from side to side; he was so tired but he couldn't sleep. It was that Kathe woman's fault. Old stirrings were starting in places he thought had forgotten how. He sat up and punched his pillow. The quilt was on the floor and the sheets were wound around his feet. He stood up and almost crashed into the closet when the other foot, still wound in the sheet, didn't come loose. He hopped around on one foot and pulled the offending sheet off and threw it to the floor.

He sat down on the side of the bed and looked out the window at the full moon. The stars were bright and everything was still.

Too bad it wasn't still, in his bedroom!

Cam stood up and threw the quilt back on the bed, the sheets were already on the floor and stayed there. Then he opened the door and was about to go into the kitchen to get a drink of water when something brushed by him in the dark.

"Gotcha!" he said, surprised that what he got was soft and smooth and definitely not one of the kids.

"Sorry," he whispered, "I didn't see you there."

"Don't be sorry."

Kathe Morgan stood on tip toe and kissed the first man in a long time that had sparked an interest in her heart. The surprise Cam felt was quickly quashed in the unexpected press of warm female flesh.

"Hushhh," said Cam still holding on and backing up into his room. Willing feet followed and the door was carefully shut.

CHAPTER 16

The next day was a surprise!

Cam looked into the spare room and the bed was already made, the bathroom at the end of the hall was spick and span, and he was sure he could smell bacon.

What's going on here?

The kids were at the table talking and eating breakfast.

Something was wrong!

These two kids didn't talk to one another, they yelled a lot and some topics were known to bring on a mild spat, with LeAnn usually stomping off to her bedroom in a snit.

But what was this? Talking and laughing and good food smells, what's going on here?

He got to the kitchen door and saw Kathe Morgan, frying pan in hand dishing out hot cakes and bacon with a fried egg on top. He knew he went to heaven during the night, but all this too?

"So, are you going to stand there all morning? I thought you were the one that got up early. Sit down, I'll have some coffee for you in a moment. Do you want what the kids are eating, or do you want something different?"

Sheriff Cam Grant looked at the cook, her apron just a tea towel around her waist, her hair still a little messy from bed, the frying pan was in her hand and he didn't know what to say. A growing thought was rattling around in his head, yes indeed! Did he want something 'different'?

Reality took over and he grunted and sat down in his chair and held up his coffee cup for the first jolt of caffeine of the day. He kept his eyes on the table and mumbled, "I don't need different, whatever's made, I'll eat."

He seemed to be having a hard time keeping his thoughts and feelings separate. He cleared his throat and looked at his kids, they were up and ready for the school bus. Clean clothes, a good breakfast, and what looked like their homework finished by their lunch bags ready to go.

He checked out the kitchen, just to make sure he was in the right place and this wasn't a dream.

_Enough of this_ , he thought, _get a grip, she_ ' _s not the first good looking woman you_ ' _ve come in contact with since Linda died._

He looked at her again and saw the twinkle in her eyes, and said to himself _, right! Get a grip!_ And he smiled as he looked at the cook.

"I leave for the Station in about a half hour, be ready," he said gruffly, it was hard to eat a breakfast this good and keep his mind on business, but he didn't want her to know how she was affecting him. "O.K. kids, the bus will be here at 7:00, see that you're by the gate waiting. Have you got your homework done?"

He knew the homework was done, he could see it on the table, but he didn't want Kathe to see how well this little breakfast was affecting the kids and what it did for him. "Have you got your bed made, Nancy will be here at 8:00. I don't want a big mess for her to clean up."

Eight year old LeAnn closed up the book she was pretending to read and put it in her backpack and obediently went to clean up her room. Thirteen year old Theodore, or Tod as he liked to be called, kept on nibbling at his breakfast, his thought being, if he killed enough time he wouldn't have to clean his room, and Nancy would do it for him.

Kathe Morgan watched the little tableau and smiled to herself. Gruff and grumpy was just to hide how much his two kids meant to him. Her heart yearned for the kind of relationship that spawned this comfortable scene.

_Oh well,_ she thought, _back to reality_.

She cleared the dishes from the table and hung her tea towel cum apron back on the peg Nancy had assigned it. _I should do the dishes_ , she thought, _no, it_ ' _s more important to get the wheels in motion ready for the fifteenth._

"All right," she said to the Sheriff, "I'll be ready when you are."

CHAPTER 17

"Hi Bert," said Cam as he came into the police station and put his file folder on the desk, "this is Kathe Morgan, she might be able to help us with the kids we found on the teeter-totter. It seems this has happened before. Get on line and check back about ten years, I saw something like this in the Oregon Department of Public Safety Dead Files. I think it was Sea Side, look about nine to eleven years ago. Take whatever you can find. Print it out and put it on my desk."

"Sure thing, Boss."

Bert was paid by the hour and there was nothing he liked to do more than poke around in the 'dead files' of the Oregon law enforcement agencies. Not only was it interesting, but he was paid to do it. And, he didn't have to go out in the rain. How good was that?

Kathe Morgan sat and looked at Sheriff Grant and thought, hmm?

But that's not what she was out here to do...

* * * *

She finally decided, she had to tell the sheriff. There was more going on than he knew.

"Cam, I think Bert should hear this as well. I only want to say all this once," she said.

He looked at her and then threw up his hands and motioned Bert over beside Kathe. They made a very small cozy group around his desk.

No one was at ease.

"Just get the info when you can Bert, today if possible. But right now, just listen."

"O.K., you two, I know you both don't understand, but just take it on faith, this is what's going to work to bring in this killer!"

(No, it's not!)

CHAPTER 18

Mary Lou picked at her pie while she sat and waited. It was now eleven o'clock and fully dark outside and she was exhausted. The trip out on the bus today and meeting Mike's family was almost more than she could bear. She wasn't really sure if she knew why it didn't go well, but right now she was so tired, she didn't care. She put her head down on the table, just to rest for a moment that was all... the thought of going out to the Hummer and sleeping in the back seat was starting to look good.

It wasn't as if she never slept in the back of a car. When Lucy ran out of money they slept in the car until some scheme she was hatching came through. Lucy was clever, but not all the things she turned to, were 100% this side of the law.

Mary Lou's thoughts roamed from one thing to the other. She thought about the times she spent in the car with Lucy when she used to face the back seat and pretend it was the couch in some really nice house that had a mom and a dad and both her brothers that all loved her a lot.

Here was that life, but she knew it would never be hers.

Besides, her brothers were chosen from the orphanage before she was and no one told her who took them. They were just gone.

A tear pushed its way out from under her eye lid and started to slide down the side of her nose. Mary Lou fumbled for the napkin on the table and managed to crush the tear before it started a cascade.

She sat up and squirmed in her chair, she was getting restless and wanted to get up and walk around, but knew she better just sit where she was and wait...

She knew she could sleep in the chair she was sitting in, right here at the table, but since she just met Mr. and Mrs. McKay she didn't think Mrs. McKay would like it.

When she met Mike she never thought she would be in this situation. And on the second day she knew him? This was going awfully fast, especially for Mary Lou.

_What can they be talking about in the living room,_ thought Mary Lou, _it_ ' _s not that complicated, it_ ' _s just_ ' _to sleep or not to sleep_ ' _, that was the question!_

Lucy didn't have much of an education but knew Mary Lou should read to improve her vocabulary. So when she was in trouble, Mary Lou had to memorize Shakespeare. They only had one play and it was from the last school she attended. Mary Lou knew it by heart. Funny the places it came in handy. Coming from her it always blew the marks away.

Mike's dad came into the kitchen and sat down.

"Mary Lou," said Joe, "we've decided that you'd better stay with us tonight and tomorrow we'll go into Chance and talk to Judy's brother. You've met him, he's the town sheriff and he'll know what to do. You go along with Mrs. McKay now, she'll show you where to sleep."

Mary Lou looked at Mrs. McKay who was coming into the kitchen and knew she would rather she slept outside in a doorway than spend the night under the same roof as her precious son.

But she took Mary Lou down the hall and opened the door beside the back bathroom.

It was the most beautiful room she'd ever seen. The crème colored rug on the floor was so soft, she thought clouds in the sky must feel like this. The light blue walls of the room welcomed her, and although in her dream bedroom she had posters on the walls, she didn't mind that this room had pictures of horses. Everything looked calm and inviting. She turned to thank Mrs. McKay, but she was gone.

There was a big fluffy bath towel, and a cool cotton nightgown on the side of the bed. She understood she was to have a shower before she went to bed.

How dirty did that woman think she was?

As soon as the thought was in her head, she felt bad. Who was she to decide who was to sleep in this beautiful room? Whatever Mrs. McKay wanted she would do her best to do. To sleep here was a dream comes true.

Meanwhile, Mike had a last bite of cookie in the kitchen and went off to bed, not understanding why his mother was in such a mood.

Mr. and Mrs. McKay went to their room and Judy shut the door. "So, now that you've gotten your way, what are we going to do tomorrow that couldn't have been done tonight?" she said in a voice that dragged fingernails over a blackboard.

Judy was not used to not having her own way. Her husband was older than she by twelve years and he tended to spoil her. She was not pleased tonight! "And," she reminded him, "if anything goes on tonight, it's all your fault!"

Joe McKay lay down on his side of the bed and smiled to himself. He always thought his wife looked pretty when she got all riled up. And, besides, what could happen in one night. Those two kids already spent a night together, so what ever happened, or didn't happen wasn't going to happen tonight in this house with Mike's mother in the next room.

CHAPTER 19

The ride to the Chance Police Station from the McKay farm the next day was quiet. The Hummer made good time into town, it knew the way.

The bell on the door of the Station tinkled. When there was only one person on duty and they were in the back where their one holding cell was located they couldn't tell if anyone came in and was waiting. The sheriff wasn't happy with the tinkle, it wasn't very professional but what could they do?

Joe, Judy, Mike and Mary Lou stood bunched together in the doorway and looked at the little group around the sheriffs desk. Obviously there was not enough room for everyone. Joe turned to leave, but Judy grabbed his arm and said, "No you don't, you're not going to leave me with all the explaining. It's your fault that we're here this morning and we didn't come last night when I wanted to."

Joe quietly took Judy's hand off his arm and turned to smile at the little group huddled around the police chief's desk.

"How you all folks doing? Hope we're not interrupting anything special. We can come back later or maybe tomorrow." He smiled at everyone and turned to leave.

"Oh, no you don't, you just come right back here and tell Cam everything! And you two", Judy said to the young people, "don't get any ideas about leaving. Go and stand over behind the other desk, I've got my eye on both of you!"

Cam looked wide eyed at the little fit that was happening in his office. His sister Judy was always a little head strong, but he hadn't seen a display like this since she was sixteen and the wrong boy invited her to their town's New Year bon fire.

"O.K. folks, what can I do for you today?"

"You can tell this husband of mine that he's wrong, that's what you can do for me!"

"Well, now Judy, since I don't know what you're talking about it's asking a little much to just tell him he's wrong."

"Cam, you just don't listen!"

"Joe," said Cameron Grant to his brother-in-law, "you're wrong." He turned to his sister and said, "Is that O.K. now?"

Bert was sitting grinning on the far side of the desk and watched as the sparks flew. He was going to have a good story to tell Kellie when he got home for supper tonight.

"Quit grinning Bert, and go out and parole the beach," said Sheriff Grant. "Take the cruiser wash it, get some gas, make yourself useful!"

Bert didn't really deserve the reprimand but Cam had to do something, too many people in his little police station made him nervous.

"All right now, let's sort this out."

Kathe Morgan was sitting back and trying to appear smaller as Judy McKay was leaning over her to speak to her brother and had not even acknowledged her presence.

"Cam, I want you to do something about this, right now! I won't have my son hanging around with... with... with girls that come from Portland," she finished lamely. She finally noticed the young woman sitting in the chair in front of Cam's desk and saw the papers spread over it. This was not going as she planned. She backed up and stood by her husband.

"O.K., O.K. Judy, take it easy, slow down, tell me what's going on?"

"I want you to fix this problem," she said, looking at the floor, her color rising to a bright pink as she realized the embarrassing situation. "I mean, if you have time, if not, we can always come back later..."

"Believe me Judy, you have my complete attention, just get on with it. What's got you so fired up?"

He turned to look at Joe with questions in his eyes. Joe just shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, don't look at me, it's not my problem.

The group finally arranged themselves so everyone had a seat and they could finally close the door.

Kathe turned to say hello and was embarrassed that no one seemed to care that she was there.

They all started talking at once.

"That's enough!" roared Cam, "everyone stop talking! I'll ask the questions, you answer. Now, Joe, what's going on? I see Mary Lou is still here. I thought maybe she would be on the morning bus to Portland, but that's O.K. too."

"Don't ask me anything," said Joe, "I don't know what we're doing here, ask your sister."

"Joe, you..." started Judy again, her voice rising.

"Don't even start if you can't keep calm, Judy," said Cam as he looked at her with a frown on his face.

"Uncle Cam, mom is just blowing this all out of proportion, I don't see why Mary Lou can't stay with us for a few days until we can find a relative for her to go to. Besides, there's no one in Portland for her, now that her grandmother's dead."

"We don't really know if her grandmother is dead," said Cam. "I haven't received notification of a deceased Jane Doe in Portland, last night or even the night before that fits her description. We have to wait for a report to confirm the death."

Just then the FAX in the corner started spewing out sheets of paper, everyone knew the drill and scrambled to pick them up before they were stepped on.

"Just hand the papers over, this is police business, you shouldn't even be seeing this."

Cam gathered all the sheets together and put them in order and then read the top heading. His face got a little paler and he put them in the drawer of his desk and looked at Mary Lou.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you, but they found the remains of your grandmother down by the waterfront. The autopsy showed that she died of dehydration. The police found her purse, so they were able to find the motel you were staying at but her car is missing. The motel put your grandmother's belongings as well as yours, in storage when they realized she was deceased. There's a number here for you to call."

"I remember from another case, when you go to collect it," said Cam, "you have to pay the bill for the days you occupied the room and a storage fee. Other than that there's not much information."

"Oh," said Mary Lou, her face breaking into tears. Although she was fond of the old lady, Mary Lou knew she wasn't really her granddaughter. She was just the old lady that was willing to take her out of the orphanage when she was nine. Mary Lou was really alone now, her parents died in a car crash and her two brothers were adopted before her, she never saw them again.

She didn't like the Catholic orphanage.

So when an old lady came and told the Reverend Mother a story about finally getting notice of her daughter's death and the time it took to track down the right orphanage to find her granddaughter, they were very sympathetic and things happened quickly.

The Sisters took her to meet the old lady and introduced her as her grandmother. Mary Lou knew she was lying, but she didn't care. With her brothers gone there was no reason to stay, anywhere was better than the orphanage. So she said, "Hi grandma, have you come to take me home?"

Now it seemed to be happening all over again. She had nowhere to go and nobody cared.

Again!

Mike gave her the clean napkin he found on the Bert's desk. He awkwardly dabbed at Mary Lou's tears and tried to think of soothing things to say, but he didn't really know any. So, he just dabbed and said hushhhh.

* * * *

Bert Dempsey stood on the bottom step of the Chance police station and looked at the Boss's car and thought, _I_ ' _ll gas it up and get it washed too, even if the scheduled maintenance date was just two days ago, it can't hurt ._

Bert was an adult student at the U of Oregon and took the night school courses he needed to qualify for Veterinary School. Being on call for the police force and keeping his marks up took up all his time.

Although his wife Kellie made enough money to live on, there wasn't any left over for tuition fees.

So Bert needed this job.

"You need these credits from the U of O or you won't be able to apply for an opening in the Vet courses in fall," reminded Kellie, whenever he started to complain about the long hours studying and keeping up with the police duties.

A good thing, Kellie had a sense of humor and tried to share some of the funnier things that happened at her office during the day. Bert was getting better at sharing too, since the dead boys started to show up on the teeter-totters, he had lots to tell Kellie.

He got in the car and waited in line at the 'QUICKY CAR WASH'.

Actually, running the cruiser through wasn't a big deal. But when he put his hand in his jacket to get enough coins he brought out the shiny piece of metal he picked up at the crime scene yesterday morning.

Now what was he going to do? He should have bagged it and put it in with the rest of the items taken from the teeter-totter and the surrounding area. How was he going to explain to his boss that he just forgot? What if this turned out to be important and they couldn't solve the case because he fell down in his duties.

There'd be no more job.

Kellie would kill him!

Of course,,, he'd be dead so no problem.

Bert rubbed the small metal disk and held it up to the light. He could just make out some words on the rim but they didn't make sense, _probably got that wrong too_ , he said to himself.

Bert was feeling very sorry for himself and the fellow that was blowing his horn for him to move wasn't helping. He forgot where he was and was holding up Fred Sherper from the Hardware Store. Fred couldn't get his car through the car wash until Bert moved on, he leaned out the window and yelled, "wake up Bert, if you have to sleep on the job go do it at the beach like everyone else, not in the car wash."

Bert was going to tell Fred to 'flake off', but considering he was in uniform, that wouldn't look good. So he put the cruiser in gear and pulled out of the wash bay, made his way down Main Street and parked in the Krispy Kreme Donuts parking lot.

He told himself that it was a convenient place to figure out what to do about the disk, but habit took over and he got out of the cruiser and made his way into the donut shop.

"Hi Bert," said Cleo Smith the owner's daughter, "the usual?"

Bert grinned and nodded his head. But his pleasure at the taste of the Krispy Kreme didn't outweigh the problem in his pocket. So he took his coffee and donut over to his favorite window seat and began to eat, no easy answers came to him...

He'd even forgotten to tell Kellie about the disk.

Maybe he could just bag it and stick it in the mail to Forensics in Portland, no one would be the wiser.

But that wouldn't work.

He would know. (and... the boss would find out!)

CHAPTER 20

The mail truck pulled up in front of the Krispy Kreme and a slightly bald, older middle age man got out. He wore thick glasses and his postman's uniform was crumpled as though he'd had a hard day. He went into the donut shop and ordered two donuts and a Green Tea and took them over to the table beside the young man in the police uniform.

"Hi there, I'm new on the job, just got this route a couple of days ago and I think I'm a little lost," he said. "But I saw you in the window and thought you would be the ideal person to help me out. You being the law and all, you must know everything there is to know about the town."

Bert looked at the man and wondered what he wanted?

"Well, sir, I may be the law, but I don't know everything. What seems to be your problem?"

"Got this package addressed to, just a moment, let me look at my list." The man took his customer records book from beside his tea and started thumbing through it.

"O.K.," he said, "here it is. It's just addressed to a Miss Mary Lou LaFontaine, c/o Kathe Morgan, General Delivery, Oregon. Now I know I'm in the right place, because they put it in my truck. But the lady in the post office in the Drug store is home sick today, I can't give it back so I have to deliver it. I know that's how I'm supposed to deal with a package with no address, but they didn't tell us what to do in this kind of situation during my training last week."

The mailman looked worn-out, nervous and jumpy, Bert thought it must be because he was new.

"I know it's not your problem, sir," said the mailman, "but I have to hurry or I'll be late getting back to Portland. It's over an hour's drive back to town, and I have to pick up my little girl from the sitter. This is a bit irregular, but do you know this kid?" he asked as he fidgeted with his record book.

"Sure, I know who she's staying with, she's out at the McKay farm," said Bert.

"You are a god's send, I have to hurry to finish my route, I'm going to be so late," he said twisting his hands and looking hopeful. "I don't know where that farm is. Is it a long way out of town? I'm in a bit of a bind, and this is my first week on the job out here, do you think you could do me a little favor?"

Bert looked at the disheveled man and felt sorry for him. What could it hurt? "Sure, I'll look after the parcel, but I won't take it out to the farm until tomorrow."

"This is great! I'll get it for you right now." With those words, he left his donuts and tea went out to the truck and brought a white oblong package tied with a string and sat it on the seat beside Bert.

"Thanks again," he said and headed back out to the truck.

Bert got up, hurried to the door and called, "hey, you didn't eat your donuts!"

The man didn't acknowledge Bert, just threw the truck in gear and pealed out of the parking lot.

_Funny,_ thought Bert, _he doesn_ ' _t look that old anymore._ He stood in the doorway and scratched his head, that was strange, now he looked young, and, he didn't eat his donuts.

Is that weird or what?

_Oh well, can_ ' _t all be good lookin_ ' _like me, I guess,_ he said to himself as he walked over and picked up the package and went out to the cruiser. He paused and shook icing sugar off his pants and wiped his hands on the rag they kept in the door for just this purpose. _What the_ ' _little woman_ ' _didn_ ' _t know wouldn_ ' _t get him in trouble._ He grinned to himself as he thought this, because he knew how much Kellie hated to be called 'the little woman'.

Bert looked at his watch and saw it was almost noon and whatever was going on with the sheriff's relatives should be finished by now.

He'd fill up with gas before he went back, but he still had the problem of the small metal disk.

CHAPTER 21

The dust finally settled and the McKay's stood in front of the police station a little before noon. Nothing had been decided and Mary Lou was still with them.

"So, when are you going to come over to the house?" Judy asked looking meaningfully at Cam. This problem wasn't over yet. "Come over later, I made a cake, we can have some coffee and finish our conversation."

What Judy really meant by 'finish' was, finish the problem the way she wanted it to be finished. In other words, with this half naked girl out of her house, away from her son.

After they left, the Sherriff called the Breakfast Mug and had them send a cup of coffee and a small grilled ham sandwich over. Good thing there were some perks to this sheriff business.

Cam Grant sat at his desk and doodled on the time line he made the day before. There was nothing new to add, but he wanted to give the impression that he was busy doing things.

He knew Kathe Morgan was going to come back. He wasn't really sure why he wanted to give this busy impression, who was this female from the city anyway? Here today and gone tomorrow, that's what was going to happen. These big city reporters only had one thing on their minds.

BIG STORIES!

The bell on the door tinkled and he looked up. There stood the object of all this busy looking. He felt his face getting warm, this day dreaming when he should be working was getting him into trouble again.

"So, have you got the family problems sorted out yet?" she asked in a mocking voice from the doorway. "I hope I'm not interfering with the 'main' business of the Sheriff of Chance, Oregon, please excuse me if I am."

"All right, already, let it go. I'm sorry if my family ran all over your well planned presentation, sit down and let me see those papers again, I'm all yours."

As soon as the words left his mouth, an embarrassed blush began to rise from his collar. _What's wrong with me, every time I come in contact with this woman, I turn into an idiot._

Just then Bert opened the door and came into the office. He stopped right behind Kathe Morgan and tried to look uninterested. He didn't want to ask how it all went with the lady reporter still there, so he went and sat at his desk, kept his head down and did paper work.

Kathe sat down opposite Cam, and reaching for her attaché case opened it and started laying out papers again. "You know, I keep telling you, I'm not a reporter, I'm here on my own time, I only want to help you catch this evil person."

"I can't get my mind around how you know so much about this case," said Cam as he shifted in his chair and moved his coffee cup and the plate that held his sandwich over to the counter.

"I know so little, where are you getting your information? I know you told me, you just know, but in my business, that's not good enough," said Cam.

"You're going to have to take my word for it. I don't know how to tell you what I know any other way than what I'm doing now. We need to concentrate on 'right now'. We need to know the 'what'and the 'how', not the 'where', we all know the 'where'!" she said, picking up a piece of paper from the pile she took out of her attaché case.

"Take a look at this, I tried to do a time line, but couldn't. I don't have all the information in the right spots," she said as she took a pair of reading glasses out of her purse.

Cam's sheet wasn't all filled in either but her's was better than his. He pushed his almost empty sheet into the desk drawer so she wouldn't see how little he really knew.

"You mentioned earlier, that you thought the next body would be that of a girl, why do you think that? According to the old records in the Portland archives there was no female associated with this perpetrator. That made three male victims last time."

Before she could answer Cam, Bert remembered the parcel in the cruiser. He got up and tried to walk out quietly, but the bell tinkled anyway as he opened the door. When he returned with the package it was going on past 4:00 o'clock and his work day was over.

"Ah...don't mean to disturb you, but while I was out, the post man gave me this parcel for Mary Lou. Since she's staying with your sister, boss, I thought maybe you'd be going over there soon and you could deliver it."

Bert put the parcel on Cam's desk and started to straighten his work area before he left for the day. In summer, he worked five days a week. But it was only spring and he was working three days because it was still considered winter no matter what the weather was doing.

Too bad the McKay's already left town. They were probably at home by now. So Cam took the parcel and glanced at the address label. "Look here," he said, "it's got your name on it too."

"Can't be," said Kathe Morgan and although there was nothing really shared, she checked her watch, gathered up her papers and put them into her attaché case again, without checking out the label on the box. She stood up and said, "I'll see you in the morning, and yes, I know where the Bus Station is. You don't need to drive me over, I'll enjoy the walk."

Bert still stood by his desk, he wanted to wait and see if Cam would tell him what went on while he was getting gas for the cruiser. But what he said was, "O.K. if I head on home now?" He was hopeful of a nod to stay and talk, but there was none so he left.

Cam didn't realize the tinkle bell on the door didn't tinkle, nor did he look up to see the hand that reached in and grabbed the package.

* * * *

It was past noon of the same day. The McKay family came out of the Sheriff's office and stood on the street in front of the police station. Judy looked at the young girl in the sleazy black mini skirt and the tight red T shirt and couldn't stand it another moment.

"Come along," she said to the group, "we're going to the Dry Goods store."

She marched the family down the main street of Chance and everyone had a good look at the McKay's houseguest.

"In here," she said, pointing to the door of Henderson's Dry Goods & Sundries."

As small as Chance was, it still had a store that sold socks and underwear, and various items that everyone ran out of, now and then. It also sported a small section of female clothing. Just some generic shirts, a few jeans of various sizes and some T shirts that had 'TAKE a chance on CHANCE!' printed in big red letters on the front. It also had the mandatory tourist items, plastic whales, fish, starfish and small toys and books suitable for keeping young children quiet on long trips.

Judy bustled in and quickly chose a selection of clothes designed to cover up as much of Mary Lou as possible, put them in the changing room and told her to hurry up.

When Mary Lou came out, she looked frumpier than Judy hoped. She also chose a big hoody in a washed-out grey that almost went down to her knees, and told her to put that on too. Mary Lou put on the flip flops Judy picked out. She didn't say a word. There were some other personal items on the counter and Judy said, "Put this on our account Mrs. Tilly, Joe will be in on the weekend and settle up."

Mary Lou fidgeted quietly all the way back to the Hummer. The McKay's were really kind and bought all these new clothes for her. She couldn't expect them to spend any more money on her for some lipstick and a hair brush, so she would have to make do with her comb.

_Maybe_ , thought Mary Lou, _we could go back to Portland and I could pick up my clothes and makeup from the motel._

But she knew that would never happen. She didn't have any money to pay the back rent and it didn't look like she'd have any soon.

The ride back from town was uneventful. No one in the front seat said a word. Mrs. McKay spent the entire ride looking out the window on her side of the car. Mr. McKay looked out the front window.

The silence was deafening.

Mike slid his hand across the back seat and took Mary Lou's. He did it quietly and slowly, so's not to disturb his mother. Mary Lou looked at him gratefully out of the side of her eyes, and tried not to make any noise or movement of any kind that would annoy the front seat.

The farm came into view and there was a postal van parked in front of the driveway gate that had been left open. As they neared the van a man in a postman's uniform came out of the drive way.

"Hi there folks, I'm the new carrier for Chance, there was a parcel for you and with the rain coming, I took it up and put in on the front porch. Just one of Oregon Postal Service's small ways to service its customer's better."

"Be seeing you," he said looking pointedly at Mary Lou, and drove off.

Mary Lou felt a draft and looked around but no one else seemed to feel the cool breeze.

"What a strange mailman, I wonder what happened to Mel, the regular man," said Judy. "When I talked to him last Thursday he didn't mention that he was leaving the Post Office. And...you know? I've never seen that uniform on any mailman that's delivered to us before."

"Judy, you've got a great imagination. A mailman's a mailman, who else would be delivering out here?" said Joe.

"Mike," said his dad, "after you've changed your clothes, I've got some cow manure that needs to be moved around back. You remember how to move it, don't you?"

"O.K., O.K. my favorite job. You probably kept it for me, knowing I'd be home soon," said Mike. Now he felt more at home. His dad wasn't much of a talker, but they shared some funny moments on the farm, and moving cow manure from the barn to manure pile had been one of them.

Mary Lou looked from father to son and her eyes were wide, she couldn't see what would be funny about moving cow manure. She guessed you had to be born on a farm to see the humor.

Judy wasn't smiling either.

It must be a _man_ thing.

Joe turned the Hummer into the driveway and stopped at the 'drive around' in front of the house, he wanted to see the parcel the mailman left.

A white oblong box sat on the porch, next to the front door. Joe got out of the car and went up the stairs to see the label and find out where it came from. He couldn't remember ordering anything.

Being a hobby farm now, he sometimes got complimentary catalogs or free samples of feed. Whatever it was always made interesting reading in the evening when there wasn't anything worth watching on TV.

He picked up the box without looking at the address label and shook it. It looked bigger than the samples he usually got, and not the right size for catalogs. The box didn't make a sound and weighed almost nothing.

"For goodness sake, Joe, just leave it on the porch and get it later. It's almost 2:00 and we haven't had lunch yet. If you didn't order it, it can't be very important."

Joe got into the car and drove around the back and parked in the garage. He unlocked the door to the house and started to unload the groceries Judy bought in town. Mike picked up two sacks and took them into the house.

Mary Lou watched, and silently took the last bag of groceries and went into the house behind Mike. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing. Go out to the barn and help Mike and Joe, or sit in the kitchen and watch Judy bang pots and pans around?

CHAPTER 22

Kathe Morgan was leaving the police station and a thought came to her, she ran after Bert and caught him by the sleeve and made him stop.

"Where's the parcel you said you got from the mailman?"

Bert eyed the small woman beside him, and didn't like the fanatical look in her eye. He backed away, saying, "Now, now Ms. Morgan its O.K., it just came from the mailman, the Boss put it by the door. I didn't think I was breaking the law by accepting for someone staying with the Boss's sister. That girl, Mary Lou Lafontaine is staying at his sister Judy's place, you know," he said.

"Are you telling me a mailman just handed you the parcel? Mailmen don't do that! Did he know you knew where she was staying? Did you say where she was staying?" Kathe's voice was rising and she kept inching closer until she had him backed up against the rear wheels of his truck.

"I don't exactly remember how it all went, but he had a uniform on and was driving a mail truck. He just started talking to me, and asked if I knew the girl the parcel was addressed to, I guess I told him I did. Was there something wrong with that?" said Bert looking worried.

"Did you read the label yourself?"

"Not really, I just sort of believed the mailman. I remember now, he said your name was on it too. But he didn't ask where you lived. He should know who he was supposed to deliver it to.

Kathe's color started to fall, she was as white as a ghost. She turned to the sheriff and said, "I have to find that parcel."

She almost ran over Cam as she barreled back into the office, grabbed her briefcase and checked by the door to make sure the parcel was really gone. And was out the door and down the street before either of the men closed their mouths.

Bert looked at Cam and said, "What do you make of that?"

Cam turned on his heel, ran back to his office got his hat and gun and was in the cruiser before Bert got into his truck.

"You stay in the office, Bert, I'll explain it all later. Answer the phones but don't say where I am unless it's the mayor. Just take messages. And if the detective from Portland calls find me no matter where I am, tell him to hold on. I don't care what the phone call costs the town. I'll deal with the mayor and his budget later."

Sheriff Grant gunned the motor of the police cruiser as he pealed out of the parking lot. He didn't usually drive this fast in town, but he had to catch up to that Morgan woman. She knew something she wasn't telling him.

CHAPTER 23

Mary Lou didn't mind just sitting in the cozy country kitchen, but the looks she was getting from Mike's mom made her shrink. She wished she would just come out and say it and get it over with. _She thinks I_ ' _m not good enough for her wonderful son_. _Well, I may not be good enough for her, but I know I_ ' _m good enough for him!_

She squirmed in her chair until Judy couldn't take it anymore, "Go and get the parcel from the front porch," she ordered not too kindly.

What they were going to do with this uppity little loser she didn't know, but it was going to happen tonight after supper. There was not going to be another night like last night. She'd lain awake, every nerve tingling, trying to hear if the floor boards in her son's room creaked. It seemed no matter how hard she strained, she couldn't hear any sounds that didn't belong.

She didn't know how to feel. Half of her was annoyed that there was no hanky panky going on, and the other half was annoyed that if there was, she hadn't heard it. If they'd dealt with this situation last night, all this would be over.

Mary Lou gratefully got up from the table and started to walk through the living room to the front porch.

"Oh no you don't, young lady, not with those dirty flip flops on, go around outside!"

Mary Lou looked at her feet, these were brand new, she'd hardly even been outside with them on, how could they be too dirty to walk through the living room? Never mind, whatever Mrs. McKay wanted, she'd do.

She went to the back door and said, "Do you want me to bring the package to the kitchen or take it to the barn?"

"Don't go making decisions around here, young lady, just do as I say. Get the parcel!"

"Yes, mam."

And she was gone.

CHAPTER 24

The sheriff drove like a crazy man to catch the car he was chasing down Coast Highway #101. It seemed the faster he went, the faster the other car went. Finally he lost patience and turned on the siren. Cars pulled over as the two cars raced down the road.

They were almost at Lincoln City, when the lead car gave in. The sheriff pulled up behind the Lexus, clutched the wheel and willed himself to be calm. He got out of the cruiser and stomped up to the front car ready to give her a good talking to about the rules of the road, and trying to outrun the law.

The business suit looked at him.

The sheriff looked back.

There was something awfully wrong here.

"You're not that crazy reporter!" sputtered Sheriff Grant, what are you doing roaring down the highway like the devils after you? What happened to that city reporter? Who the heck are you?"

The business man took out his wallet and showed his I.D. and his driver's license. He also took Cam's ID number and the license number of the police cruiser.

"I don't know who you thought you were chasing, but you better have a good explanation for that little fiasco back there. You could have gotten me killed. Why didn't you turn on your siren earlier? I didn't know who you were. I thought you were a hijacker! You just came out of nowhere like a bat out of hell. Rest assured I'll be speaking to your superiors."

With those comforting words he grabbed his ID and license from a dumbfounded sheriff and sped away.

Cam stood on the side of the highway and scratched his head. How could he have gotten it so wrong? He was sure he had her in his sights when he pulled out of the parking lot by the police station. And now, he let a speeder fast talk him out of a ticket.

Just then his cell phone went off, and his beeper flashed.

Now what!

* * * *

"Yes sir, I know, everyone calls you when there are speeders on the highway... I was chasing a suspect... No, I didn't catch him. Well, yes, I guess I did catch him, but he was the wrong one... I was chasing the girl..."

"No, sir, I'm not chasing girls on the town's dollar. I was chasing that reporter that came down from Portland...about the dead kids on the teeter-totter...yes, that one. I thought she was in the car and she knows something I don't know...yes, sir, a lot of people know things I don't know...yes, sir, I'll certainly try my best to find her. She can't have gotten far. I'll let you know as soon as I find her. Yes sir...yes sir, I will sir."

There was no way he was going to tell the mayor the reason she couldn't get far is because she didn't have a car. This realization came to him as he remembered that if she'd had a car, she wouldn't have had to ride the bus to Chance. There was no explanation good enough to get him off the hook for this one.

He finally remembered his beeper. He looked at the number and knew it was Bert. He took out his cell phone again and called in.

"What's going on, Bert? Did Kathe Morgan come back?"

"No, she didn't come back. But, well, I called because I got this phone call that said he was the post office, Main Branch, and he realized a package was delivered to the wrong address. I said I didn't know anything about that. He said he'd send a mailman over to pick up the package they gave me, I should have it ready by the door. So I said, O.K. But then I remembered we couldn't find the box. I called the post office back, but they didn't know what I was talking about, they don't leave parcels for other people to deliver and they didn't know who called me, so I just said, no problem, and hung up."

"O.K. Bert, you can go home now. We'll sort it all out tomorrow."

_Kellie will have a good laugh at my expense if I tell her about this little fiasco,_ thought Bert as he went out to his truck, _maybe I_ ' _ll keep it to myself_.

* * * *

The sheriff shook his head and flipped his cell phone OFF. None of this was making any sense.

Dead kids and spooky women, he didn't like where this was going.

Cam Grant then did what men do best in these situations.

He decided to ignore the problem until tomorrow. After all it was after 6:00p.m. Hunger pangs were growling in his belly and he thought about the pot roast he knew Nancy left every Thursday for him. Warm buns, red potatoes roasted in the pan, the meat so well done it fell apart on your plate, yellow squash, mashed with butter and nutmeg, just thinking about it made his mouth water.

He looked at his watch, 6:45 pm, picked up his cell phone and called home, the kids said they'd wait for him until 7:00. They also enjoyed the pot roast, besides, it usually turned into some 'one on one' time. Lord knew he didn't spend enough time with them.

He just hung up when his cell phone went off again. It was his sister this time and she was annoyed.

"The ungrateful little twerp," said Judy. "Off she went without even a 'thank you' or 'a by your leave'. Just out the door and zip she was gone. There must have been a car waiting for her because that silly son of mine took the car and tried to find her. I thought I should tell you so I wouldn't be accused of hiding anything."

"She's gone? Are you sure? Did you look all around outside?"

"I don't know what you men are in such a knot about, yes, I looked outside on the porch, in the yard, she even took the parcel the mailman left for us. I guess you can add stealing to her list of talents."

"I'll be there in twenty minutes. Don't touch anything. Don't do anything. Don't go anywhere. Wait until I get there."

The sheriff called and told the kids to eat without him.

Things were starting to happen, but what did the missing parcel have to do with anything? Nothing was supposed to happen until the fifteenth of the month. If this missing parcel had something to do with the teeter-totter killings the perpetrator was changing his ways.

He raced back to his cruiser and made an illegal U turn in the middle of the highway. He turned his siren on and raced all the way back to the outskirts of Chance and the turn-off to the McKay place. When he turned the corner, a mail van passed him going east.

As he sped down the road, his mind was racing. Where was all this leading?

He pulled up to the McKay gate, punched in the access code, drove down the driveway and pulled up by the back steps. He could see the three McKay's standing in a row, waiting for him by the back door.

Cam got out of his vehicle and stood looking at them with his mouth open. "What the...??"

"You said 'stay where you are, don't do anything' so that's what we're doing," said Judy in a huffy voice. "We are staying where we are and we're not doing anything. I don't know what all the fuss is about, if she found somewhere else to stay, what does it matter to us? She's not anywhere around here so she had to have a ride, so what are you all so worried about! She knows what she's doing."

Although she'd never admit it, Judy was worried about Mary Lou too. Nobody goes outside to the front porch and disappears. This is Oregon for Pete's sake, nothing ever happens here.

Not until the day they started finding dead kids on the teeter-totter, that is.

CHAPTER 25

The Teeter-totter murder case in Chance went to a Portland detective that didn't seem to be too excited about it. Small town sheriffs usually handled whatever came up on their patch. The Bureau waited until asked before they stepped in.

Rodrigo Alejandro Gomez or Ricky to his friends twiddled his pencil and doodled on the phone message. His dark wavy hair and dancing black eyes made him a favorite with the female Law Enforcement Officers. He usually got the plum cases. His looks were misinformation, in reality he was a single-minded detective determined to make a name before he was thirty.

As a young patrolman he'd worked hard at the Police Academy and wanted to be the first Mexican/American police officer to be on the short list for promotion to Detective, Third Grade in his first year.

His family was so proud of him, they were watching his every move. Ever since they crossed the border into the US, they strived to better themselves and Ricky was the first of his family to go to College. He felt he didn't have time for complicated obscure cases. He wanted recognition that would highlight his talent. He wanted cases that would help move him onward and upward.

He didn't want to answer the phone call from Chance. It sounded like a big problem that would eat up all his time and not produce the right kind of results. After a while you got a sixth sense about these things, this case was a black hole a guy could fall into and he'd be a Detective, Third Grade forever.

He put his pencil down, and got up holding the phone message in his hand. Ricky Gomez didn't want this case, he checked to see if anyone was watching and threw it into the trash by the desk.

He'd deal with it if they ever called back by handing it off to one of the senior detectives. Why not? They kept telling him he was just a rooky. He didn't have enough experience. _They were right_ , he thought, _it needed a more experienced hand and that was fine by him._

Ricky sat down feeling justified in not taking the case, then Jake McClusky walked into the office.

The old guys that just came off duty crowded around him, slapping him on the back and giving him an 'old boy' welcome. He'd been a popular detective before he retired six years ago; he always kept his word and pulled his own weight in the squad.

"Well, Jake, what brings you back to the 'salt mines'? Couldn't keep away from the where the action is? Bet ya got bored with all that lawn mowing you're doing. Say, you didn't dig up a body did you?" laughed big Morley Black, "Wouldn't put it past you. You always were good at digging up the facts. Hey, I bet he's brought a case with him for old time's sake? What d'ya say, Jake?"

Jake just looked at them, and the room quieted down.

"He's back," he said, "the teeter-totter killer is back, I thought I was hearing things, but it's the same case, he's doing it again! I was lead detective last time, remember? I know he's back, and he's already got two kids, what are you doing about it?"

"Don't start again about that old case. Besides, where did you hear this anyway?" said Morley Black turning to the rest of the crew and shrugging his shoulders. "We don't have it here? he said, turning to the rest of the room for confirmation.

Ricky Gomez sat down in front of one of the old computers they had in the 'Bull pen' and punched in 'unsolved murders, period 1999 to 2010, Portland Jurisdiction'. It seemed to take forever but in reality it was just a few moments and there was the list of 'Unsolved Cases'.

"O.K. Sir," he said, "which one are you talking about?"

"Check for three teenage boys. Try 2005. They were found in an apartment block play ground near the ocean at Sea Side, three months apart starting in January, each tied to the same teeter-totter in the playground that had beach access."

"I remember those cases," said Morley Black, "we decided they were the same case and grouped them together. Didn't help though, nothing was ever found that lead anywhere."

Jake looked from face to face and saw they were not eager to open this can of worms again.

"There was one piece of information that we never gave out. Did it show up?" said Charlie Ferguson as he threw his Styrofoam coffee cup in the trash by the coffee machine. "Is that why you think it's the same guy?"

"Yes, I do, Cam Grant from Chance, you know, over on the coast, came to see me yesterday for some advice. He used to be my Second at one time, but I told him I couldn't help him. The help he wanted was about his on-going case that involved two teenage boys. The first one tied to a teeter-totter on January 15, the second one on March 15, same teeter-totter. He told me the piece of information we kept back and I know he didn't read it in the newspaper because we never gave it out. He told me what he hasn't given the newspapers yet either and it's the same."

"It's started again!" said Jake looking around the room at each one of them.

"I didn't want to get involved again so I told him I didn't know much about the case. I told him things were a lot more primitive back in the day, we didn't have the forensics you boys have now. I told him to solve it himself. Now I'm not sure I did the right thing."

Ricky Gomez sat quietly by the computer, thinking furiously.

"McClusky," called the Captain standing in his office doorway, "what brings you down to this sorry hole-in-the-wall?"

When everyone in the room turned and looked at the Captain, he knew something was wrong. There should have been some ribald jokes, some teasing of an old work mate, not silence.

Captain Bud Pearce motioned McClusky to come into the office. He closed the door and sat behind his desk. "Sit down, what can The City of Portland Police Bureau do for you? Surely you didn't come in because you missed the smog and the city traffic."

"Hi Bud, I'm glad to see you in that chair," said McClusky, "I always said you had the makings of a police chief, I'm glad I was right."

"No need to 'butter up the boss', McClusky, you don't work here anymore, remember?"

"I remember thank you, problem is, I just can't seem to let the ones that got away, go."

"And by that remark you mean?"

"The teeter-totter killer is back in business."

"How do you know?"

"Cam Grant, sheriff over in Chance told me so."

"And why did he think that? It was before my time, but was never solved. What have you got to do with this?"

Bud Pearce prided himself on his relationship with his men. He made a point of knowing what each man was working. It made for excellent inter-office spirits; the guys were pleased that he cared about their 'closing' statistics.

"Cam Grant came to me yesterday," said Jake settling more comfortably in his chair, "he had a story about two kids three months apart starting in January this year. Both strung up on a teeter-totter in an ocean access playground. He told me about the absence of blood in the boys. I didn't tell him. When I heard that, I knew 'the teeter-totter killer' was back, I didn't want to get involved again, so I told Grant it was no big deal, he should figure it out for himself. Now I'm not sure I did the right thing."

"Things are different now, we have forensics we didn't have back then," said the Captain.

Jake McClusky noticed the Captain didn't seem too worried about this turn of events.

What did he know that the rest of the department didn't?

CHAPTER 26

Bert Dempsey was muttering to himself as he drove home that night. _Stupid job! I sat in the office till after seven, and what did it get me? Nada, that_ ' _s what it got me. Not even a small thank you for staying late, not even I_ ' _ll see if I can get you some overtime for this. Just a fast phone call from the big cheese saying close up shop and go home. Just no appreciation in this line of work._

Bert was not a happy camper.

He parked the truck and looked at the lit up kitchen window. He could see Kellie moving around getting supper on the table.

At least that was alright. Kellie hadn't minded him being late. She was busy with work that she brought home from the office. So, as far as she was concerned, this all worked out well.

Bert put his car keys in his jacket pocket as he approached the back door and his hand brushed the small metal disk.

" _Darn_ ," he thought, _I did it again._

He was going to put the disk into a plastic baggie and put it in the evidence box the forensics guys picked up this morning. But he forgot! Again! And now he still had the disk!

He wasn't on shift tomorrow. He'd planned on a late morning, a big breakfast, some down time before he cracked the books again.

Shit!

Now he had to go all the way back to town!

Now his supper would be cold!

Now he was really annoyed!

He stomped up to the back door, opened it a crack and called in, "I'll just be a few more minutes, honey."

Back in the truck, the wheels sped out of the driveway all on their own, visions of pork chops danced in Bert's head, soft mashed potatoes, garlic butter drizzled over fresh green beans.

This was going to be a very fast trip.

In less time than it took to say all the nasty words he knew he was back in Chance. It was dark, the only lights showing were in the Breakfast Mug down the street, the all night drug store and some small lights in the police station.

The Police Station? Lights?

That's funny, there shouldn't be lights in the police station. It looked like there was someone creeping around inside. Bert parked in front of the ABC Hardware store across the street and opened the door very quietly.

Whoever was in the office didn't want anyone to know they were there.

But Bert knew.

He crossed the street in a nonchalant swagger hoping if anyone was watching they wouldn't think anything was wrong. He wasn't a real cop, just a part-time student with a first-aid course, and a half hour instruction on how _not_ to fire a gun.

Dam, he forgot he didn't have his gun and couldn't get it. He left it in the bottom drawer of his desk.

Police Regulations said part-time deputies were not allowed to take their gun home with them. It was to be stored in a locked cupboard with the key in a separate place.

"Shit!" said Bert out loud. Now he was going to have to explain why his gun was in the drawer and not in the cupboard. And he still had the problem of whoever was rummaging around in the office.

Finally, Bert stood next to the office. He sidled along the wall till he could look into the window.

Couldn't see a thing!

Bert was beginning to feel silly that he thought he saw lights and a stranger in the office.

Then the light came back on and a shadow moved by the sheriff's desk.

Bert tensed, he watched through the window as the man in a black hoody opened up the forensics box that was on the counter. It contained the leftover evidence from the area surrounding the teeter-totter. It was where he was going to put his shiny disk.

Bert watched as the light played on the box, the evidence that was collected at the immediate crime scene was already at the forensics lab, the techs always took it with them. The evidence that was in that box contained items that were collected from a wider area after forensics left. Not as important, but still, you never knew.

The intruder took out each envelope and played his small penlight over it. He was definitely looking for something.

Bert never thought he would ever be in a situation like this.

Should he barge in and ask the guy what he was doing?

What if he had a gun?

He was just a 'rent a cop'. Better get help. Bert slunk back across the street to where he'd left his truck. His cell phone was lying right where he left it, under todays', CHANCE HERALD.

He grabbed the phone and punched the sheriff's speed dial number. Cam picked up on the second ring.

"What!" shouted Cam who was just getting over the adrenalin rush of the fast trip to his sister Judy's place.

"Boss, there's someone in the office going through the evidence box. I left my gun in my desk drawer. What should I do?"

"Don't move. I'll be back as quick as I can. Watch what he's doing, don't let him get out of the office!"

Bert stood by the car with the phone to his ear and watched the light in the office fade to dark. Did that mean he found whatever he was looking for?

Thoughts of yummy pork chops faded from his mind as he watched, mesmerized by the small pin of light that came on again and moved slowly around the office.

He was no hero, but Bert knew he should do something, that guy should not be able to rummage through the sheriff's office and get away with it.

Bert stepped up.

He crossed the street with righteous fire in his belly, strode up to the door and banged on it, "THIS IS DEPUTY DEMPSEY OF THE CHANCE SHERIFF'S OFFICE, OPEN THIS DOOR, YOU'RE UNDER ARREST," he bellowed.

Although Bert had his key in his pocket, he hoped whoever was in the office didn't know that and would open the door and he could arrest him. Then it wouldn't matter that he didn't have his gun.

Nothing happened.

The door didn't open, no one came out.

But the back door slammed open and before he could react a van sped out of the lane onto Main Street and drove like the devils from hell were after him.

Bert stood in the middle of the road with his hands on his hips and watched the van make a crazy U turn up the street. Whoever was in the van saw the sheriff coming into town on a collision course with his lights blazing and his siren on full blast.

The sheriff, realizing he was going to run over the van, veered to the right at the last moment and followed him down the street, he screeched to a stop in front of Bert, but the lead vehicle carried on down the street.

"O.K. Bert, what's going on?" said the sheriff vaulting out of the cruiser and ready for trouble.

"That's the guy from the office Boss, the one you almost ran over...there he goes down Edgewater Road."

"What's he doing in a van, I thought you said he was in the office?"

"He was, I saw him going through the evidence box. He was looking for something, he checked each baggie. Then he started going through your desk. So I rapped on the door and told him who I was and to open the door. I didn't want to startle him by opening it myself, I thought he might have a gun and he'd shoot me."

Cam Grant stood open mouthed and looked at his deputy.

"I thought I told you not to do anything!" he roared. "I thought I told you not to let him out of the office. Not give him a warning he was trespassing!"

"Go open the office, but don't go in," muttered Cam getting back in his vehicle, "I'm going to see if I can find him. You say he went down Edgewater?"

The sheriff drove down Main Street, turned into Edgewater but there were no cars or vans on the street. He cruised slowly along the road checking every house, looking for the van. Finally, he accepted the culprit got away.

He made his way back to the Police Station and parked the cruiser in the rear.

"Did you find him, boss?" said Bert looking up. _Now I did it!_ he thought, _No Job! Kellie will be mad, she doesn_ ' _t cook when she_ ' _s mad. What_ ' _ll I do? I_ ' _ll starve._

"Get a move on Bert, We'll check for anything missing, where'd you say your gun was?"

"It's in the bottom drawer, I forgot about it when I went home."

"I didn' _t want to just barge in, what if there was another robber_ _in the office?"_ whispered Bert to himself as he justified his inaction.

The sheriff stood at the open passenger door of the cruiser. "It's alright, Bert, he got away. He's halfway to California by now."

"You say so."

Bert and Cam cautiously tiptoed to the back door that still stood open to the lane. They peered anxiously around the door jam and were transfixed by what they saw.

CHAPTER 27

Mary Lou woke up in the back of the van that evening with her mouth taped shut, she wasn't tied up but she could hardly move her arms and legs they felt so heavy.

She sat limply on the floor.

_This must be the mail van_ , she thought, _but there isn_ ' _t any mail, it_ ' _s just an empty truck, with a crazy person driving it._

She didn't know how long she'd been unconscious and now she was getting cramped.

_How_ ' _d I manage to get myself into this mess?_ thought Mary Lou, _why do these things keep happening to me?_

She didn't know where she was, she didn't know who she was with, and worst of all, she didn't know what he was going to do with her when he stopped.

Now Mary Lou was getting annoyed, it helped keep the fear down.

She'd done as Mrs. McKay told her and went outside, around to the front of the house to get the parcel from the porch. She was standing at the foot of the stairs when this mail truck pulled up out of nowhere. The man called out the window that he was sorry he'd made a mistake and the box wasn't for the McKay's. Would she bring it over to the back of the truck for him as he was really late picking up his kid from school?

Mary Lou remembered climbing the stairs and picking up the box. She shook it, it didn't rattle, and it was very light.

While she was standing by the front door, she noticed a hole in the bottom corner and sure enough, when she looked in she could see it was a handbag. Just like the ones she and Lucy used to sell.

It wasn't one of the big ones though, there was a lot of crushed paper in there taking up the room, but still, it was just a handbag. The package felt funny. Almost like there was liquid moving from side to side.

She turned to tell the mailman.

But he wasn't in the truck. He'd come up quietly behind her, put his hand over her mouth and nose. She could smell a funny sickie sweet smell, and then there was nothing.

Now she was stuck in this van with this crazy person and she didn't know where he was going.

_Is he going to leave me like this forever?_ thought Mary Lou _, I have to go to the bathroom._

How embarrassing.

The van stopped, the motor turned off and the driver got out. She couldn't see where they were, but she thought they were still in Chance. After what seemed like hours, the van door opened and shut, the motor started again and off they sped down the street.

_Thank goodness_ , Mary Lou thought, _finally I can ask to go to the bathroom, that is, if I could talk. Surely he would let me go. He wouldn_ ' _t want a mess in the back of the van._

What's this?

She was being tossed from one side of the van to the other, slow down she yelled behind the tape on her mouth. Do you want to get us both killed?

He careened down Main Street barely missing the police cruiser coming at him. Then he made a sharp turn and sped off in the other direction. Poor Mary Lou was ricocheting around in the back of the van like a pin ball in a video game.

It didn't seem to bother the idiot driving though, he kept going faster and faster.

Mary Lou lay on the floor of the van, she was in agony now, as she cut her leg when she was being knocked around during the wild chase. But it didn't matter about the bathroom break any more.

She lay on the floor and tears came trickling down the side of her face. It was going to be a very embarrassing moment when he stopped, but it was his own fault.

The mailman stood over her and crooned a nameless tune while he took a pill out of his pocket and loosened the side of the tape over Mary Lou's mouth and shoved it in.

Mary Lou closed her eyes and something like sleep overcame her.

When she woke up, she realized there was someone under the old blanket beside her. She hoped it was no one she knew, she was so embarrassed by her 'accident'.

She waited a long time with her eyes closed, but the blanket didn't stir.

CHAPTER 28

Sheriff Grant and his deputy stood in the back doorway of the police station after dark. They looked at the papers flung all over the room. Not a drawer, not a shelf, nothing was left in its place. Everything was on the floor. It was all mixed up like it was put through a wind machine. Someone was looking for something and it seems there was enough time to search thoroughly.

Bert almost let a sob slip out of his mouth as he thought of the pork chops that he had waiting for him at home. No problem with dinner getting cold now. It would probably be cold and in the fridge by the time he finished cleaning up this mess.

Cam started at his desk and systematically began picking up papers, his mind searching franticly to see if anything was missing.

With both of them working, it was under control sooner than they expected.

The sheriff stood by the counter and began to look at each baggie carefully as put it back into the Evidence Box. "Can you tell if anything's missing, Bert?"

"Sure, the Portland cops bagged all the good stuff and took it with them. This is what I picked up outside the perimeter."

"I don't think we'll tell the Bureau what happened. I don't want whoever did this to know it's spooking us. Could be something really important here and we don't want anyone to know we don't know we have it."

Bert stood up and shuffled his feet and looked down, "ah, Boss, I ah, I kind of slipped up."

"Bert, what did you do!"

"Yesterday when we were at the crime scene, while I was stringing up the yellow perimeter tape, I came across something in the sand. It wasn't in the crime scene area, just a little outside. I didn't think anything about it and I was going to bag it and put it in the Evidence Box this morning, but with everything going on, I forgot."

"Quit stalling Bert, what is it?"

He reached into his pocket and brought out the small metal disk. "This is what I forgot to put into the box. It doesn't look like much, but maybe that's what the guy was looking for."

Cam turned on his desk lamp and got out his magnifying glass and looked carefully at the small disk.

What do you know, it was the cover of a button. It had words around the edge and a design imprinted in the middle.

"Did you look at this, Bert?"

"No, not really, I didn't think it was important, it's only a squished disk. I couldn't make out what the printing was and I don't think I've ever seen a button that it would fit over. I was just going to put it in the box because it came from the crime scene. You keep telling me, you never know what's important, that's why we have to collect everything."

Cameron Grant grinned a wicked grin.

He knew something that uppity reporter didn't.

CHAPTER 29

_It's freezing here behind the police station this late at night_ , thought Kathe Morgan as she pulled her jacket tighter, _I thought sure our suspect would come. Maybe I should have told the sheriff what was going on, he should have been here, not over at his sister_ ' _s house. Everything's bungled up._

Kathe thought of calling Captain Pearce in Portland and letting him know what happened to their carefully laid plans. Never mind, she'd tell him when she got there later tonight.

"O.K. Ms. Morgan, do you want to share what you're doing out here lurking behind my police station?" said Sheriff Grant as he tip toed up behind her.

"Are you out of your mind? You almost got yourself shot! Didn't they tell you to never creep up on anyone in a dark alley?"

The adrenalin was coursing through Kathe's blood and she was ready!

Fight or flight, fight or flight, one or the other?

O.K. flight it is!

She gave the sheriff an unexpected shove, pushing him back against the dark wall, forcing him to flail around and almost tumble into the weeds and thistles growing around the bottom of the fence post.

He managed to grab the fence and right himself just before he sat down heavily on the rocky ground.

And she was gone!

Again!

"Who is this woman? She's sent here to torment me! Drive me insane. So far, every time I think I'm getting a handle on things, she pops up out of nowhere and fouls everything up. This has got to stop."

Cam Grant, red faced, finger bleeding from the nail in the fence when he grabbed it to keep from tumbling head first to the ground, turned to look for the elusive Ms. Morgan.

Still Gone! Nowhere to be seen.

Kathe Morgan was indeed nowhere to be seen, but she was still there. Thanks to a little trick she learned when she was stationed in Cambodia with the American Consulate. It was about standing absolutely still. It still surprised her that it worked but she'd used it numerous times when she was in a jam and it hadn't failed her yet.

_What had that intruder been looking for?_ Kathe said to herself, _I can't believe our suspect didn't show. He probably saw there were no lights on in the office and left. It's all the fault of whoever was rummaging around in the sheriffs' office. What was he doing in there? Now we have to start all over again, all our planning for nothing._

Sheriff Grant hunched his shoulders and looked at his bleeding finger.

"Stupid bloody finger!" he muttered at his hand, now he'd have to get this looked at. But not right now. He pulled his hanky from his back pocket and wrapped up the offending appendage.

There were things to do first, and one of them was check out this button cover. He knew he'd seen the design, but he had to do some serious thinking and figure out where. The printing around the edge was harder, the rim was squished in on itself.

CHAPTER 30

It was past 9:30, time for man and boy to go in from the barn. They stood by the back door of the McKay farm house, neither of them in a hurry to go inside. They both knew 'the woman of the house' was in the kitchen waiting for them. Neither of them anxious to listen to her tell them she told them so.

"Come on, son," said Joe McKay, "we can't stay out here all night. I'll go in first and when she's concentrating on me, I'll go into the living room and she'll come too. You sneak in and go to your room. She won't bother you, and maybe she'll be in a better mood in the morning."

"But Dad, she'll fuss all night, especially if I'm not there with you."

"Never mind, that's not nice Mike, your mother doesn't fuss, she just speaks with a lot of feeling. She's very worried about you. You know you're the most important thing in her life. Just do as I say, and we'll both weather this little storm."

"O.K., but I should be taking my share too, you shouldn't have to take it all."

Joe opened the back door and went into the kitchen mentally straightening his shoulders ready for the inevitable attack. Judy was sitting at the table with a teacup half full. She was doodling with a bit of tea that spilled, drawing a stick boy with her wet finger, each version saw him getting older and taller.

"Oh Joe, I've done something really terrible haven't I," she said keeping her eyes down, "do you think Mike will ever forgive me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Mike is a young man, finished High School, on his way to University in the fall and I've been treating him like a twelve year old. He's going to hate me, look what I did to that girl. Now he's going to have to defend her, and take her side. I can't bear it, Joe. What'll I do if he hates me, and leaves home and we never see him again?"

"Good grief, Judy, I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself here. He doesn't hate you, and as far as the girl is concerned, first we have to find her before we figure out what you did to her."

"Come on, come over and sit with me in the living room in front of the fire and we'll figure out what to do," said Joe, "then we'll go to bed."

"Oh Joe, what would I ever do without you? You always know what's best."

Joe sat down on the love seat opposite the fireplace and patted the seat beside him. Judy came into the room drying her hands and eyes on the tea towel. She sat down beside him and laid her head on his shoulder and gave a great sigh.

"You know, I do feel a little guilty about sending that girl outside to get the parcel, maybe if I'd let her go through the living room she wouldn't have run away with the parcel. What do you think she's going to do with it?"

"I'm sure we'll find her in Chance tomorrow, where else could she be? You quit worrying, let's go to bed now. I have to check the milk separator to make sure it's ready for the morning milking. You know we promised the Larkins down the road that we'd give them a quart of whipping cream for their daughter Tracy's birthday party tomorrow. You just go on to bed. I'll be there as soon as I'm finished."

Judy got up and went into the kitchen, the dirty tea cup went into the sink and she walked around as though on auto pilot.

After a short trip into the bathroom, she put on her nightie and crawled into bed. She was determined to wait until Joe came in, but her eye lids fell heavily, and she was soon asleep.

Joe went out to the barn, and checked the new cream separator, it was set up and ready to go. He turned to the house but saw something white at the foot of the driveway. He walked to the front of the house and stood looking at a box sticking out of the box hedge.

_Well, well_ , he said to himself, _how do you suppose this got here?_

He bent down and turned the parcel over and noticed the hole in the bottom corner, he put his finger in and made it larger. He still couldn't see what was in the box in the dark. He picked it up, took it into the kitchen and put it on the table.

Just then, Mike came into the kitchen rubbing his eyes, "what happened, pop, I didn't hear any yelling, I guess I fell asleep for a while. What've you got there?" he said noticing the box for the first time.

"Danged if I know, I'm trying to read the mailing label, it says, 'Mary Lou LaFontaine c/o Kathe Morgan, Chance, OR."

He looked up at his son and frowned, "How did the mailman know Mary Lou was in Chance, and where she was staying? And, why deliver it to us, and not leave it in General Delivery at the post office?"

"We don't even know who sent this, look, there's no return address. It doesn't make sense," said Joe McKay as he examined the box again. "I'm going to open this hole a bit bigger. Maybe we'll be able to figure out where Mary Lou went and why it's addressed to this Kathe Morgan, too.

"Hold on," said Mike, "I remember Kathe Morgan. When we were at Uncle Cam's office this morning, she was the lady that was sitting by Uncle Cam's desk. It had papers all over it. Why do you think her name is on the label too?"

Joe put the box on the table, with the hole side up and got the scissors from the kitchen drawer. He stuck one side into the hole and made a cut.

"Dad, you remember we told you about when Mary Lou was in Portland and she and her grandmother were trying to make some money by selling handbags? I bet this is one of them. Let's open the box! And besides, you know Mary Lou would never have left here by herself. Something bad has happened to her!"

Of course the box now had a medium size hole in one corner and you could see some crushed paper and a handbag. But that's not what held their attention.

The blood was doing that.

CHAPTER 31

"O.K., O.K. Joe, you know what time it is?...Yes, I know it's only 10:00 pm., I just got home...No, I'm not mad, I thought maybe this could've waited until morning... Slow down and tell me again, what was in the box?... You're kidding... no, I guess you're not... I'm not making light of this, Joe, but it's almost the middle of the night... all right, not really, you're right, I'll be there as soon as I can."

Cam looked up and there stood his little princess, he knew she hated being called his 'little princess', but sometimes when he teased her, he'd see the small smile she would try to hide. "It's all right LeAnn, I didn't mean to talk so loud and wake you up. Go back to bed honey, daddy has to go out for a while. I'll make sure the door's locked when I leave. I'll come and tuck you in before I go."

"O.K. daddy, is that nice lady that made us breakfast the other day going to be here in the morning too?"

"Good night little princess, go to sleep."

Cam Grant grabbed his jacket in a sleepy fog, said his good nights and got into the cruiser and started backing out of the drive way. His mind wandered to the events of the day and he thought again about the squashed button cover in his pocket as he made his way to his sister's farm.

He was just coming in sight of the McKay house, now that's strange. It was all lit up. He knew his sister and she would never leave all the house and yard lights on at the same time. She was a fair but frugal lady.

Things were happening; Cam wished they would happen in the daylight hours.

CHAPTER 32

Kathe Morgan sat on the hard straight backed chair in Captain Pearce's' Police Bureau office in Portland. It was almost midnight and she was tired. She'd been up since 5:00 that morning and it was beginning to show.

"Tell me again, Kathe, how the FBI managed to not catch this perpetrator. We had everything planned down to the last detail. All you had to do was get Sheriff Grant to stay put. The perp was supposed to come to him."

"Don't hang this on me. I don't know where that mailman comes into this. But there he was, bungling around with his package. At first I thought he really was a mailman, but when I thought about it I knew he couldn't be. And besides, when Cam said my name was on the package too, and that it was supposedly addressed to Mary Lou, I knew something was wrong. You know as well as I, that that's not what was supposed to happen," said a grumpy Kathe Morgan taking her left shoe off and rubbing her foot, "I'm as much up in the air as you are. When we got the DNA back on the street kid from January and the one from March and they told us they were brothers, it opened up another aspect of the case for us. I know the FBI screws things up sometimes, but they, we, were right on the ball with this one. I thought we really had it nailed this time, it's all my fault. I should have known it had to do with the blood line, I thought there was another brother."

"And, the silly part of it is, I told the sheriff that the next one was going to be a girl, because I thought it would throw him off what we were trying to do. It seems like my little lie is about to bite me in the derriere," said a yawning Kathe, as she fought to stay awake

"Who knew no more brothers? I should have been more open with Sheriff Grant and not told him my little fib and we probably wouldn't have this mess. And if you ever tell anybody I said that, I'll deny it till my dying day!"

"I don't think you can take all the credit for the snafu, I think Cam Grant can shoulder his own share. Mind you, there is the little problem that he didn't know what was going on, and we didn't tell him. Think I'm just going to ignore that until the shit hits the fan. Then I'll deal with it."

"I'm so tired I could sleep standing up! I'm going home, see you in the morning." With those well-chosen words, Kathe got up and started for the door.

"You're right," said Captain Pearce making his way around his desk, "it's late. There's not much else we can do tonight. Hold on, I'll get my coat and see you to your car."

"Hurry up, I may fall asleep standing here."

Kathe and the Captain were almost out the door when his phone rang. He turned back and looked at the digital display.

"Dam," he said, "it's Sheriff Grant, now what's he want, doesn't he know its way after my office hours?"

"Put him on 'speaker' let's not make a mountain out of this, I need to hear what he has to say before I go home," said Kathe.

"Sheriff Grant, you're lucky you caught me before I left. What can the Portland Police Bureau do for you at this late hour?"

"Captain Pearce, I'm at my sister's farm and I've just discovered something that should be looked at, I'm not sure we should wait until morning."

"Well, Sheriff," he said in a condescending tone, "what exactly have you got that can't wait until morning?"

"I've got a white box with blood in it, and a teenage girl that can't be found."

"You've got what?"

"I'll bring the box in right now. The blood seems to be fresh. I think things are coming to a head.

"I'll be here."

"Well, Ms. Morgan," said Captain Pearce as he hung up the phone, "are you going to wait around, or are you going home to bed?"

"Seems I've misjudged our man, I'll stay, if that's O.K. with you."

They both turned and went back into the Captain's office. Kathe sat down in the chair she'd just vacated and tried to find the comfortable spot again.

No one looked out the window.

They didn't see the van parked on the other side of the street.

They also didn't see the mailman take the ear buds out of his ears, they were a high tech receiver that was connected to a signal on the Captain's office phone.

Things were going ahead at a faster clip than anticipated. And there was still a light on in the morgue.

"Darn".

"Hmm, now it gets interesting," said the mailman... "What to do...What to do..."

CHAPTER 33

"I'm coming with you, Cam," said Joe McKay, "even if it is after 11:00, don't try to talk me out of it. If you're going to Portland, so am I. Are we going around and pick up Bert? I think he'll be upset if he's not in at the end."

"Who said anything about 'the end', I'll tell him about it tomorrow. We don't even know what to make of this disk, I don't want to say anything until we've had a chance to do a little research." said the sheriff. "We don't know if the blood in this box belongs to Mary Lou, or if it's sheep's blood. I don't want to make more of this than it is," he said, as he carefully repacked the crushed paper and the handbag, blood and all.

As they were about to leave Mike came into the kitchen, "Hi Uncle Cam," he said, "What's going on?" Seeing the box on the table repacked, he realized where they were going.

"Hold on, I'm going with you. I just have to get my jacket."

"Maybe you should take an extra minute and put on some pants, P J's won't look too sweet at the police station in Portland. Just hurry up," said his dad.

"Who are you telling to hurry up? And what are you doing in my kitchen at this time of night, Cam?" said Judy who woke up, heard all the talking and got out of bed to see who was there.

"What's going on here?" she said, looking at the table. "Where did you find the box?" her voice was starting to rise, and her eyes got bigger when she saw the blood on the corner.

Joe tried to get the box off the table before she could see all the blood that had smeared on the side of the box, but he was too slow.

She grabbed the side and pulled it out of his grasp and opened it up again, much to her horror there was blood all over the crumpled paper and handbag.

Judy grabbed the side of the table and almost lost it. Luckily Joe was beside her and managed to get her into the chair before her knees gave way altogether. She turned from the table and hung her head down to force some blood into her head. It was supposed to help you not faint.

What didn't help though, was, she kept peeking at the blood on the box out of the corner of her eye.

"O.K., I'm ready, let's go," said Mike McKay as he stepped back into the kitchen doing up the zipper of his black hoody.

Then he spied his mom.

"Darn!"

"Where do you think you're going at this time of night, young man," said Judy as she stood up, fainting being pushed to the back of her mind. "Does your father know where you're going?"

"Yes mam, he does. I'm going with him."

Judy's eyes began to blaze, but as she looked around the room she seemed to shrink and sat back down again with a small thump.

"Alright, I can see I'm outvoted, never mind me, I'll just sit here worrying and wondering what's going on. Nobody ever tells me anything. I'm just a housewife, I'm nobody." At this point she gave a meaningful little sniffle and checked to see if this was having the desired effect on her husband and son.

Now, usually the sniffle was enough to melt Joe's heart, but not tonight. He turned away and put the cover back on the box. Mike sat on a kitchen chair and put on his sneakers with his head bowed down, concentrating on tying a good knot.

No one was watching, darn! "O.K., I know when I'm licked," said Judy, "obviously you all are going whether I want you to or not. It's not fair; I need to know what's going on just as much as you do. I could be a help, you never know. And, besides, nothing is going to happen, it's too late at night. No one can see what they're doing outside."

The two men and the teenager looked at one another...

The light bulb lit up!

Cam grabbed the box; Joe grabbed Mike and pulled him out the door.

"We'll be back in fifteen minutes, if you're ready, you can come along." said Cam as he rushed out the door. The cruiser made a wide turn over Joe's meticulously mowed lawn, and sped down the driveway. They took the right hand turn and headed toward the beach.

Toward the teeter-totter!

Judy sprinted to the bedroom, grabbed the pair of jeans she'd thrown in the corner a few hours ago, picked up the cast off T shirt and put it back on. Her runners were by the door and she put her bare feet into them and winced, a shiver ran down her spine, she hated to wear runners with no socks, but this was an emergency. A quick trip to the bathroom to comb her hair, a fast teeth brush and a dash of lipstick, (you never knew who you'd meet) and she was ready.

Three minutes to spare.

She grabbed her jacket from the closet and ran out to the back porch leaving all the lights in the house on, she'd get Joe to lock up when they got back.

Off the porch and down the driveway she ran to wait by the gate, but a vehicle sped into the driveway. Without looking, Judy grabbed the handle of the rear door and leapt inside slamming the door with extra vigor. She let out a self-satisfied sigh and settled back. Then she realized she was the only one in the back seat. She looked around and understood this wasn't the police cruiser, it wasn't their SUV either.

Then she looked at the driver.

He was smiling broadly!
CHAPTER 34

Cutting corners that would not have been tolerated in the middle of the day they made the playground in seven minutes flat. Cam slammed on the brakes as they pulled into the paved parking lot in front of the Kiddy Playground that hosted the offending teeter-totter.

There it was, silhouetted in the cruiser's headlights.

The men didn't have to get out; the parking lot spot light illuminated the area, the teeter-totter in particular.

No one was riding the teeter-totter.

No one was tied to it either.

What a relief!

Joe McKay reminded Cam of the promise he made to his sister and he put the cruiser into reverse and retraced their steps back to the house.

As they turned onto Hwy #101, a mail van was going in the opposite direction. No one paid any attention to it, who noticed mail vans, they were concentrating on getting back to pick up Judy and get to Portland as fast as possible.
CHAPTER 35

With adrenaline pumping, the mailman poured into Portland like black oil on a pristine beach. The exhilaration lasted until he pulled up to the Second Avenue Police Bureau again and noticed all the lights still on in the basement morgue. If things didn't quiet down soon, he'd be late for his midnight shift as janitor.

This was not good. He didn't like to go in when people were still around. He'd have to wait and be late. No matter, no one said anything to him, they didn't want him to quit, he did a good job. And besides, they'd have to find someone to replace him, and no one wanted the midnight shift.

Except him.

He'd have to stash the girls and the van somewhere until there was a better moment. No problem, there were lots of abandoned buildings in the city that had private parking in the back. You just had to know where to look.

_Good thing I took the mail delivery van disguise off before I got to Portland_ , he said to himself. It wouldn't do to have someone notice an out-of-date mail van parked next to the police station. It might arouse suspicions.

He leaned back in the driver seat and laughed to himself. He'd had a lot of fun tonight, but now he'd have to get rid of the mail van. Didn't want it to get back to him, might be a problem with some of the blood trace back there.

Can't have that!

_Too bad I didn_ ' _t find what I was looking for at the cop shop in Chance though. What the hell, even if they found it, they wouldn_ ' _t know what they had,_ he thought, _it_ ' _ll be O.K. They_ ' _ll never link it to me._

He turned and looked at Mary Lou. She was still out cold. Good thing or he'd have to drug her up again.

The other one under the blanket hadn't budged an inch either. That was good. He had to get this right tonight, there wouldn't be another chance for a long time and he knew Mother would be very upset if he didn't provide the goods this time. He hated it when Mother was upset, she was a very mean mother when she didn't get her way.

He smiled as he thought to himself; _no one would ever think to investigate a lowly janitor, especially one that didn_ ' _t mind the graveyard-shift in the morgue._

The Employment Dept. of the law enforcement agency always found that position the hardest to fill, so when he applied for the job, they gave it to him, they were ecstatic.

_They didn_ ' _t know I would pay them to work here,_ he thought.

Sometimes he worried that someone would figure out what was going on... but he would never let that happen.

He settled down in his seat to decide where to hide the van. Things didn't look too busy, maybe it would be best to wait until the lights in the station house went down and the rest of the night shift came on. Maybe things would work out anyway and he could stay in the parking lot tonight.

He started to plan again.

CHAPTER 36

The door beeped as Doc Speller punched in the code to allow access into the rest of the police station in Portland. He'd seen the lights in the Chief's window from his office as he was gathering up his jacket and brief case before heading home. It was after 11:00 and he wanted to know if this late night had anything to do with the teeter-totter killer, and if so, should he stay?

* * * *

Captain Pearce sat in his office and tried to read the report on 'Requisitioned Office Supplies - Undocumented, Misplaced or Missing'.

He couldn't seem to keep his mind on missing pencils and post-it notes. He knew this was a good time to be going over this report, as he seldom had time during the busy day. This report was one he inherited from his predecessor who enjoyed the bookkeeping aspect of the position more than the day to day crime prevention.

He was in the process of writing a request to his superior to relieve him of this duty. He was the top Police Captain in the precinct, and although he usually just initialed it 'as read', he knew someone else should be focusing on missing pencils.

He should be focusing on missing kids, missing husbands and what about the crime, the murders, the suicides, the homeless people, the list was endless.

He couldn't dredge up any enthusiasm for missing pencils.

Finally, he just closed the folder and did what he usually did. He put it in his bottom drawer. No one dared ask him about it.

He turned to look at Kathe Morgan. She was curled up on the chair in the corner and was snoring softly. Her mouth devoid of lipstick still looked rosy and inviting. He glanced down at his left hand. The wedding ring on his finger reminded him of who was at home waiting for him.

He harrumphed as quietly as he could, no sense waking her up if nothing was going on.

They had to wait for Sheriff Grant and his evidence.

* * * *

"Got a moment?" said Doc Speller standing in the doorway. He looked at the Captain and decided Bud Pearce was starting to look a little grey around the temple, a little stressed around the eyes, but otherwise he was still in good enough shape.

"Just came up to see if there was any more going on in the 'teeter-totter' saga, Bud. The boys in the bull pen said there was some more information coming in tonight." He looked around the office and saw the young woman sleeping in the corner chair and lowered his voice. "Looks like you're renting out sleeping space?"

Doc Speller knew who was sleeping like a baby, knew she was waiting like the Captain. He just enjoyed teasing Bud.

"Something going on I should know about?" he asked getting serious and looking pointedly at Bud.

"We're waiting for Sheriff Grant from Chance," said Bud Pearce changing the subject. "He phoned a while ago and there seems to be more going on than we realized. He's got a box with some blood in it."

"And he's bringing it in? Why tonight?"

"I wondered too, as far as I can understand it has been passed around quite a bit so there was no 'crime scene', he said he'd explain when he got here. It should be any time now, stick around if you want. I've got a couple of techs that want to get in on this coming in too, and I called Jake McClusky, he was the Lead Detective last time."

Bud Pearce came around his desk and eased Doc Speller out the door. He took the doctor's arm and moved him towards the coffee machine down the hall.

"I'll make us a fresh cup a coffee; we can sit in the conference room, nobody in there yet. It's still too early."

"So, Doc, what's going on in your world?"

His department was below the main part of the building and had a ramp leading to Morgue admittance. The old 'night entry door' that was situated by the ramp wasn't used by the uniforms much these days. It was too far from the new secure parking lot but the night cleaning crew used it as it was close to the building maintenance store room. No one cared who was going in or out the morgue area as it was secured from the rest of the building by a key code lock on the elevator. The stairwell had a lock too, but it was seldom used.

Who went down there unless they had to? The thought being, who was going to steal a dead body?

"Had anything interesting come in today?" Bud was trying to change the subject, he didn't want to have to start explaining things he didn't know yet.

"No, no interesting cadavers, they're all the same, drugs, crime, car accidents, they're all dead, all gone. People never learn."

Doc Speller was just getting warmed up when Captain Pearce's cell phone began to buzz. He grabbed it from his coat pocket and pushed the 'answer' button.

Sheriff Grant's number showed, "Captain? She's gone, my sister's gone too, I don't know what's happening out here? She's disappeared, just like Mary Lou!"

"What are you talking about?" said Captain Pearce. "What's your sister got to do with this case?

"You don't understand. We were supposed to pick her up after we checked the teeter-totter to see if another dead body showed up, but when we got back, she was gone. The house wasn't locked up and the lights were on, but she was gone!"

"Why were you checking the teeter-totter in the middle of the night? You were supposed to be bringing the box in for forensics to look at. Where are you now?"

"We're about half way, we should be there in a half hour. And, if you can round up that crazy reporter," said the sheriff, "what's her name, oh ya, Kathe Melburn, or Murphy, something like that. Whatever her name is, she knows a lot more than she's letting on. Get her over there and find out why she knows so much."

Bud Pearce listened to the lunatic raving on his phone and looked up and saw Kathe Morgan coming towards him. He smiled, shrugged his shoulders and held the phone out to her.

"Just who are you calling 'crazy', and I don't know how many times I've told you, I'm not a reporter!" Dead silence on the line.

Then a slight click as the phone disengaged.

Captain Pearce told her about Sheriff Grant's sister disappearing and the box with the blood.

This was not good news. This was not what was supposed to be happening.

CHAPTER 37

Joe McKay and his son Mike were beside themselves, where did Judy go? They were going along to Portland because it seemed to be the only thing left to do, they'd looked everywhere for her.

Cam gritted his teeth and hunkered down behind the wheel. He turned on the lights and siren and made double time down Hwy 6 into Old Town. On entering Portland proper, he took the overpass over the 405 onto S.W. Market Street and turned left on to S.W. 2nd Avenue to the Police Bureau and parked in the old lot by the morgue loading bay.

Cam grabbed the box, "If you're coming, hurry up," he said as he got out of the cruiser and headed for the old Night Entrance door. He still had his old key that was issued to everyone who worked in the building. Although it was many years ago that he worked out of this building he hadn't returned the key and hoped it still worked.

Tonight he didn't have time to go the long way around by the front doors. This entrance was closer to the elevator and the Captains office on the second floor. There was no time to lose.

Joe and Mike scrambled out after Cam.

His key still opened the door and his old security number still activated the key code lock in the elevator.

The Captain met them at his office door. He looked at the sheriff for an explanation.

"This is my brother-in-law Joe McKay and his son Mike." said Cam, "Judy, the last one that disappeared is his wife and my sister. He's quite concerned and I thought he could help as he was the last person to see both Mary Lou and his wife. Maybe he'll remember something we can use."

Captain Pearce shook everyone's hand after the introductions and guided them to conference room B at the end of the hall.

People were milling around, chatting and pouring themselves coffee. When the Captain's group came in they all found a seat.

All eyes focused on the Captain. He stood at the head of the table and introduced the two Forensics Tecks and former Detective Investigator Jake McClusky. He introduced the two with Sheriff Grant and let their involvement in the case slide.

Ricky Gomez and his partner stood in the back and tried to blend in with the wall. He was having trouble accepting that he threw away the biggest case to come in, in the last decade.

Doc Speller was also at the table but there was no need to introduce him, everyone knew the Doc.

"O.K. Sheriff Grant, you've got the floor, what have you got for us?"

The Sheriff sat for another moment, gathering his thoughts and wondered what he'd gotten himself into. He had a moment or two to calm down and realize that he'd have to do it by the book, and lay his evidence out in a calm and logical way.

As he stood up he was aware that _she_ was coming in the door, cool as the morning dew and never even looked at him. The temper he had just quieted came bubbling up again and stood ready...

"Oh, Sheriff Grant, I see you know Kathe Morgan, Special Branch," said Captain Pearce. "I don't know if you are aware, but this case has been on-going for some time now. The last time we came across the 'Teeter-totter Killer' was ten years ago this past January 15."

"We wound up with insufficient evidence last time, and there was some talk about a leak that allowed the perpetrator to get away. But this time we thought we had him," said Captain Pearce to everyone at the table.

"We had a 'sting' culminating at your office this morning, sheriff, but he didn't take the bait. I'm sorry we didn't advise you, but we had people working undercover and it was decided the fewer who knew, the more secure it would be."

"Kathe Morgan has been working this case for the last ten years on and off. It's become her special project. We thought she would be the appropriate bait."

Sheriff Grant slowly deflated and sat down with a small thump. _Why doesn_ ' _t anybody tell me anything_ , raged Cam inwardly, _I_ ' _m the Police Chief, these kids are dying on my patch!_

He sputtered inwardly as he looked at the table that held the box with the blood. A small voice inside, gently chided him and said, _grow up, get over it, concentrate on the dead kids, not your masculine pride._

Cam Grant stood up again and addressed the Forensic techs, Doc Speller, and everyone else in the room, carefully including the smiling woman by the coffee urn.

"As you can see, we have some additional evidence. It seems to me the perpetrator is starting to make some mistakes. He seems to think he can't be caught but now we have a blood type and with any luck some DNA. I realize it may not be his, but I'm sure it will be of value. I know we can't have the DNA for a few days, but we also found this button cover at the crime scene. It was dropped by someone who was there."

"Also, we had a break-in at the office. I think he was looking for this," he said as he held up the button cover again. "It wasn't entered into the Evidence Box that is supposed to be picked up tomorrow morning so we still had it."

"I've not been able to read all the edge where the printing is, but I know you'll be able to figure it out", he said looking at the two techs and sliding the baggie down to them. "I'm sure it's linked to these murders."

"Also, we now have the abduction of two females, the first one a young woman, Mary Lou LaFontaine, whose grandmother died in Portland two days ago under suspicious circumstance. I got the notification on the fax today and confirmed it."

"Also, my sister was taken tonight from her own home. Her connection to the case is, Mary Lou was staying at her place, and the box with the blood was addressed to Mary Lou LaFontaine and Kathe Morgan but delivered to the McKay residence and left outside on the front porch. The question in this case is, how did our perpetrator know she was in Chance and who she was staying with?"

Cam stood at the table and shuffled his papers, choosing one he looked up and continued reading. "Mary Lou was sent to get the box from the front porch. She went outside, around the house and at some point after leaving the kitchen she was abducted."

"How did you get hold of the box? said Jake McClusky leaning forward to make himself noticed. "Why didn't he take it with him when he grabbed the girl?"

"Don't know that. She was taken earlier in the day, I wasn't informed until Joe McKay found the box with the blood in it later about 9:00 pm. I checked for tire tracks after Judy was taken but it's been raining and there' a lot of mud, a number of vehicles have gone in and out since yesterday," said Cam looking at the techs. "The Forensic team will go out in the morning and check again, but I don't expect much."

"You asked how we got the box?" said Cam as he pulled it towards him, "my brother-in-law was outside in the barn while Mary Lou was taken, and he heard nothing unusual during that time. A short while later he was going into the house when he heard a car go down the road and he looked to see who it was, as it was going faster than people usually went on that road, it was no one he knew. Then he went into the house and was told Mary Lou had 'run off'. Mike, his son was just coming out of the bathroom shower, he dressed and took the Hummer and drove around to see if he could find her. But she was gone. My sister Judy called to tell me, but she decided the girl just ran off and wasn't concerned."

"Later that evening around 8:30 p.m., after checking the barn for the last time Joe McKay was going into the house to watch some TV and go to bed and saw something in his box hedge at the bottom of his driveway. Upon closer inspection he saw it was the box the mailman had delivered and was the one Mary Lou was sent to retrieve. There is no street address on the mailing label," he picked up where he left off, "just the names, Mary Lou LaFontaine, and Kathe Morgan. This label wasn't issued by the post office; it doesn't have a date stamp or an originating postal station, just a generic label with the names."

"At this point, my brother-in-law phoned me and I immediately went over. When we saw the blood and connected it to the investigation of the dead body we found March 15, Joe and his son came with me to check the teeter-totter. We thought maybe we'd find Mary Lou tied to it. But it was unoccupied. Thank goodness."

"We returned to the McKay house and found the lights on and the door open but my sister gone. She was taken some time after 9:30 pm. We searched the premises and the grounds but it was dark by this time, and we thought her abduction was a continuation of the case. So we came here."

Then he sat down and looked at the table not wanting to raise his eyes as he knew he would be embarrassed if he looked at Kathe Morgan.

"O.K. Grant, let's get you in the other room and you can fill in an evidence report on the white box and the button cover and a Detail Report on when and who exactly are the individuals that have been abducted," said the Captain leading the way to the next open conference room. He grabbed some forms from the shelf and a pen from a drawer and put them on the table.

"Do you need anything else? Then get to work. When you're finished we can get an APB out ASAP."

The buzz in the other room made concentrating hard for Sheriff Grant. He kept trying to hear what was being said. Finally he gave up and began to write. It took a few minutes to detail how the box got to his brother-in-laws place. Somehow, as he was writing it down it didn't seem to line up. Things were just a little off. It wasn't anything he could put his finger on, but he knew it would come to him.

Writing down the saga of Mary Lou LaFontaine's trip to Chance took him longer. But the outcome was still the same. Everything seemed O.K., but not quite. He wondered if it was just his recollection or was there really something here.

It was hard to keep the events chronological, other facts kept popping up and he'd have to stop and fit them in. He told how and when Mary Lou got to Chance, and who brought her.

Next he told how Bert Dempsey, his deputy found the button cover and the box in the first place. Then he told why Mary Lou went around the outside of the house to get the parcel the mail delivery van left. That was the last time anyone saw her.

As far as the disappearance of his sister, there really wasn't much to put on paper. She was fine when they left for the teeter-totter, they were only gone a short while as there was no traffic on the road at night. After deciding nothing had happened at the teeter-totter they immediately returned to the McKay farm to pick up Judy on their way to Portland. They didn't pass anyone suspicious on their way over there. The only vehicle on the road was a mail delivery van heading east.

Cameron Grant stopped writing and quickly reread what he had just written. There it was, staring him in the face. He jumped up, grabbed the paper and sprinted for the door.

The people who had been in the conference room with Captain Pearce were just coming out.

"Wait, wait, I think I have something here," he shouted, leading them back into the room. They all took their seats again while he grabbed the chalk and started to write. He made a list of the people who had been involved or been seen in Chance over the last two days.

"Do you see what I see?" he said as he underlined the mail delivery van, again and again.

"The list shows the van in Chance when Bert got the box from the mailman. It's there again in front of the McKay house when the box was delivered. And again on the road in front of the McKay house when Judy disappeared. Since we haven't been tracking the van, it probably was all over."

"Who keeps track of a mail delivery van?"

"The Company that owns it does," said Kathe Morgan raising her hand a little.

The room was quiet, everyone thinking hard about the mail delivery van.

"You know," said Captain Pearce, I saw a mail van parked outside the precinct the other night, I'm sure I've seen it on the street before. I've never given any thought to it parking there. There's nothing illegal about parking in a parking zone, no matter who you are."

"I saw a mail delivery van just before Mary Lou disappeared, I was looking out my bedroom window while I was changing my shirt," said Mike excitedly. "He's got her, that scum bag has Mary Lou!"

"Hold on now; don't jump to conclusions, mail vans have every right to be on the road when ever and where ever they're assigned. We'll get in touch with the Postal Service in the morning and find out if these vans were supposed to be where we've seen them."

"No, no, don't you see, it will be too late! He's had Mary Lou for almost twenty-four hours, and we don't know what he's going to do to her. And now he has my mother, too. We have to do something right now!"

All eyes turned to the passionate young man who just realized who he was yelling at and watched as he tried to shrink back down to 'dumb teenage kid'.

Captain Pearce stood up and said, "there's been some recent events that I think everyone should know about now. We didn't think before to compare the DNA of the boys on the teeter-totters but we now find the recent ones, January and March of this year are brothers. The FBI has had a search going for the parents of the boys. This morning we got word that the parents are dead, not only that, but there was a sister."

"We assumed the third victim had to be a boy as well, but recently we and the FBI have recognized there was a better connection, the blood line. So, we should have been watching for both. We now know the evidence is pointing to Mary Lou LaFontaine. Her mother thought she had a set of triplets. The two boys were twins, and the girl was a single birth, the egg just fertilized at the same time. But the blood line is still the same, boy or girl."

Cam Grant looked confused, I'm sure she told me before it was going to be a girl this time, is this old news?

CHAPTER 38

The mailman sat in the van and watched the conference room windows. He was late for work; he had to make up his mind. He glanced at the two figures in the back and began to stress.

CHAPTER 39

Doc Speller stood watching the two techs looking at the button cover at the back of the conference room. These weren't ordinary techs, they were hotshots from Special Branch. Kathe Morgan used some clout and got these two. They were the best in Oregon and showed the FBI held Kathe Morgan in high regard..

"Ah, if you fellows don't mind the morgue lab, we could go down there," said Doc Speller. "We have a high powered microscope you could use and a pretty good assortment of surgical equipment."

The Boss tech looked down his nose at the old man and thought, _didn_ ' _t people retire out here in the sticks? How old was this guy anyway?_ But what he said was, "well, thanks for the offer, maybe it would be easier to see with a bit more light, it certainly can't hurt."

"Harrumph," said the Doc leading them to the elevator. There was nothing wrong with his lab, it was as up-to-date as tomorrow, and his staff was top notch! These young cubs think they know it all, they've probably never even seen a dead body, let alone the carnage that passed through his lab on a daily basis that needed good technical equipment.

The elevator groaned to a stop on the sub-basement floor. The two techs looked at each other, relief spread over both their faces.

"My gowd," said George Good the senior tech to his assistant, "have you ever ridden in anything like that?" He took out his hanky and tried to wipe his face without anyone recognizing what he was doing. They were not used to elevators that groaned and grumbled.

Doc Speller smiled a little smile but kept it to himself. He was aware of the effect the elevator had on people.

Portland Bureau had tried everything to get it fixed. The Otis Elevator company was out several times and assured them, the elevator was in tip top condition and very safe. Even after an intensive inspection they still had no idea why it groaned. They'd left a card and said to call them if it developed any other symptoms.

Doc Speller opened the main doors of the morgue. He went in and turned on the lights, everything was just as he left it. _The janitor hadn_ ' _t been in to do the floors yet, that_ ' _s strange,_ he thought.

He turned and motioned the two young men in the hall to come in. He pointed to the small room to the left and went ahead to turn on the lights in that room too.

The brand new Forensic Microscope fm035C sat in all its glory on the specially built stand that allowed it to swivel every which way. It could be used from any angle and it was the best microscope Doc Speller could buy.

"Here you are gentlemen, as you can see we keep the forceps, as well as anything else you need in the rolling storage units. Help yourself." And he turned and left the room.

"Well, look at that," said the Boss tech eyeing the microscope and the additional equipment "seems we misjudged the old man. Come on, let's unbend that sucker and read the printing. We can take a negative photo of the image on the front of the button cover and get out of here before dawn."

"Should be a snap!"

Captain Pearce entered the lab and saw the techs in with the microscope, it looked like they'd just taken a picture with the new Faraghan Camera. Probably not the kind it was bought to take, but none the less the picture would be the best.

"We've looked over the button cover and I think we may have something for you. Look at this," said the tech. He handed the Captain the picture they'd taken of the image on the top.

"We almost have all the sides unbent. Looks like a company name, can't tell right now, but we have it soaking in an acid bath to remove the old paint and dirt. The name is imprinted into the metal."

Sheriff Grant took the picture and walking over to the side table, put it down and looked at it. Then he turned it other side around.

"Look at this, guys, what does that look like to you?"

"That can't be right!"

There was a mad dash for the door and everyone, even the techs, flew up the stairwell from the basement to the Bull Pen on the second floor. That was where the surrounding area phone books were kept.

They all knew why they didn't wait for the elevator, the techs because they were never going to get into that _death trap_ again, and everyone else because they knew it was faster to take the stairs.

CHAPTER 40

The morgue was empty as the mailman expected. He put the bundle he was carrying down by an autopsy table, he didn't have much time. Usually he made a bit of a game of this, but tonight there was no time for frivolity. He needed to be finished as quickly as he could. Those cops upstairs weren't going to stay there all night.

He took a chance coming in when the lights were still on, but he was supposed to be here, so no problem there.

The problem was the rolled up blanket he was carrying! He opened an empty drawer on the refrigerator wall and placed the blanket and what it held on the tray. In his haste, he gave the drawer a shove, but didn't quite click the latch.

No lights shone in through the high up windows that looked out over the Willamette River, he still had time. He selected the third drawer from the top of the rolling instrument cabinet and pulled it out. There was a nice selection of very sharp Forester Curved scissors. They would do nicely, now he just needed a new IV bag and some tubing. Not to forget the citrate, phosphate and dextrose that kept the blood from clotting, there were individual packets in the fridge. No one kept track of these drugs, as they were not used often. The mailman always replaced what he used the next day, so no one was ever the wiser.

He looked, but there was no tubing in the bin under the sink that usually held a large box of various sizes, so he had to go to the store room down the hall for more.

He finally got all his equipment together and approached the half open drawer. The blanket seemed somehow out of shape. How could that be? The girl wasn't dead, but almost. He hadn't really had time to make sure, but he believed the dose of Roofies he gave her should have knocked her out and kept her there.

He pulled the drawer out further and patted the blanket, it was awfully thin, then he realized why.

It was empty!

Where was that girl, where did she get to?

He needed to save as much blood as he could get, and he had to be quick about it. It didn't take long when the subject was alive and the heart was pumping. He needed to get it done fast before anyone came down and asked what he was doing.

Now what?

* * * *

What he hadn't seen when he was down the hall in the storage room was a very groggy Mary Lou LaFontaine slither out of the blanket she'd been rolled in. (Thank goodness he didn't close the drawer all the way).

She knew enough not to make any noise, but the room kept spinning, so she had to hold onto the wall.

Someone had to help her, that lunatic was going to drain every drop of blood from her veins and tie her to the elephant. She knew this because every time she woke up, he would chortle and laugh and tell her again how stupid everyone was except him and what he was going to do to her.

He wasn't all that smart! He kept giving her pills, but didn't make sure she swallowed them.

The girl crept down the hall crouching low, trying not to be seen or make any noise. She knew it would not be long before he knew she was gone.

She had to hurry!

She made it to the stairwell door and opening it as quietly as she could, stepped into the entrance way.

Half way up the first flight she saw him at the stairwell door and he saw her. She started to scream and climbed as fast as she could. She made it to the First Floor door and pulling it open with all her might began to scream again and again.

She was on the wrong floor!

This was only the first floor, not the second. No one was supposed to be here, it was past two in the morning! Not even the night cleaning crew was in this part of the building.

But security was.

He was checking all the door locks.

And he looked up.

CHAPTER 41

"Drat, Drat, Drat," muttered the mailman. He couldn't say anything stronger, the witch would find out and wash his mouth out with soap, again! He backed down the stairwell and hurriedly disappeared down the hall. He shot through the door that led to the loading bay where he'd left the van. What was the matter with this night!

He'd have to improvise. If he didn't get the blood he needed tonight, he had one more night left and he better get it right. If not, he'd be in big trouble.

He backed the van out of the bay without checking and drove around the block, parking it in an all-night parking lot. Without the mail signs on the sides it didn't look like a mail van, so he knew he could leave it here.

Then he turned around and looked for the other female. The back deck of the van was empty.

How could he keep losing these creatures? She must have gotten away while he was in the lab.

Shit!

He would have to think this through later, right now he was going to be really late for his graveyard shift in the morgue and it wouldn't do to call attention to himself.

CHAPTER 42

The mailman hadn't given Judy enough drugs when he grabbed her from in front of her house. She woke up with her mouth firmly taped shut and her hands and feet duct taped together as well, then she remembered the man in the black hoody. She felt herself going down. _It must be a loading ramp,_ she thought. The van stopped but the bay doors stayed open.

Judy was still very groggy. She wasn't sure that she saw the things she was seeing. Where was she? Slowly things began to come into focus and she realized the van was in a large building. It didn't really matter where the van was, what mattered was how she was going to get out. No one was going to help her, so she had to help herself. When the man poked her with his shoe she closed her eyes and pretended to be unconscious.

Then he rolled that young hussy Mary Lou into a blanket and put her over his shoulder and left.

What about when he comes back?

"Help!" she mumbled behind the tape on her mouth.

"Help, Help!"

But no one heard and no one came.

She started to cry. Her nose began to run and she couldn't blow it, and that made everything worse.

She knew she should know what building she was in, obviously they were in Portland. The building was too big for a small town. She needed to quit stressing and calmly look around until she saw something she knew that could help her.

"Think," she muttered behind the duct tape, "think!"

Judy never was a quitter.

Attending College was a struggle, with no mother and a father that drank too much, there was no one to help her. Her only brother Cameron enlisted in the army as soon as he was old enough and was busy being a hero overseas to be much help to a struggling eighteen year old. She had to look out for herself.

With these thoughts coursing through her mind, she decided she'd had enough of this feeling sorry for herself crap. It was time to do something. She looked around. There wasn't much she could make happen.

Except!

She rolled over and over until she was on her back and her feet were up against the back doors of the van. She managed to lift her legs and push up the lever to open the back door.

Now she was in a frenzy to get out before the monster got back. It didn't matter that she would have to fall out, it only mattered that she got out.

Judy fell to the road with a thump and took the weight on her left shoulder, she let out a groan and lay still.

_Not yet, you can_ ' _t stop yet! He_ ' _ll find you and then you_ ' _ll be worse off than before,_ she shrieked in her head _._ Gritting her teeth she rolled under the truck. It was dark under there and the road was dirty, no matter, she wriggled and squirmed to get to the middle of the van away from the fluorescent lights by the overhead doors.

Just when she thought she was safe she saw boots approaching the van. They got into the driver's side.

As luck would have it, when he entered the van on the left side, the right side tipped up enough to quietly close the back door.

As he drove away he didn't see the two young techs that were waiting for their ride standing at the back of the van, nor did he realize they were looking at the trussed up woman that lay on the road.

CHAPTER 43

Judy McKay, her wrists and legs sore from where the duct tape had been removed, concentrated on pulling the bits of tape off that were still on her face. She was trying not to cry but it hurt so much and they didn't have anything at the police station that made it easier. She wanted to go home!

Judy was upset that Mike elected to stay at the hotel with Mary Lou and the police instead of coming home with her and his dad. She was not pleased at all. His place was at _her_ side. After all, she was his mother and she'd been through a terrible time. And now he was choosing that floozy over her.

Again.

Judy kept telling them she didn't have any answers, as soon as she realized she was in the wrong van, she tried to get out. But the driver tied her up and put duct tape on her mouth.

They kept asking why she'd been taken, but she didn't know, and he didn't say. He didn't ask her anything, just kept giving her pills.

"Thank goodness," she told them, "I was aware enough to not swallow. He would pull the tape off one corner and push the pill in my mouth, but I tucked it under my tongue and when I turned my head to the wall I spit them out, under the duct tape. It wasn't very sticky by then but he didn't notice," she said. "I guess he didn't see or he would have watched to make sure I swallowed them."

The tears came to her eyes and she lived the moment again, "I tried to tell him he had the wrong person but he didn't seem to care. The last time he gave me a pill he saw the tape wasn't holding anymore, so I had to swallow that one. It made me so sleepy, I was just floating around. When the van stopped the last time, I knew something was happening as he didn't get out right away. I kept trying to stay awake; thankfully the pill was finally wearing off."

"You know the rest, those nice men found me on the loading bay floor of the morgue and helped me. And no, I don't know where he went, I didn't know where I was, just that I had to get out of that van," she said.

Captain Pearce finally gave up. They would talk again tomorrow, maybe by then she'd remember something else after a good night's sleep.

As they left the Captains office, Judy saw the two guards assigned to Mary Lou. She gave a small wave to Mike and followed Joe down the hall.

_He_ ' _s assigned two uniformed policemen to guard Mary Lou_ , Judy thought to herself, jealousy rearing its ugly head again. _I have to be nicer and quit calling her names, Mike will never let her go while I_ ' _m being this way_ , sighed Judy as she accepted Mike would not be going home with her.

* * * *

Cam wanted to hear Mary Lou's story again. But Captain Pearce said they wouldn't get much, the poor girl was exhausted and asleep in the chair.

"Besides," he said, as the two uniforms he put a call for came into the office, "we have both women safe, we'll catch the culprit now that he's made these major mistakes".

Calls were made from Captain Pearce's phone. They concerned arrangements for a room at a secure hotel they'd used before. Captain Pearce said Mike could go with them if he stayed out of the way.

Of course, one of them would be on guard at Mary Lou's door the whole night, the other in the lobby just in case someone tried something. The two uniforms were thrilled to be doing some 'plain clothes' work. After they changed into civvies, they checked their guns and ammunition and left in an unmarked car. They had an uneventful trip to the Lake Shore Hotel, in Tiger. With everything winding down, now that Mary Lou and Judy were found, things didn't seem to be so important.

Cam pulled the police cruiser around to the front of the loading bay on the street. It would be easier for his passengers to get in rather than having to go through the Bureau at night. Most departments had key lock access these days, you couldn't just wander around anymore.

The security guard didn't want any more trouble. After he rescued Mary Lou he had to hurry to catch up on his rounds. The locks were timed, and he had to be there to put the key in and turn it or an alarm would go off. Pity the poor guard that had a false alarm on his shift.

Kathe Morgan stood on the sidewalk and looked at Cam with a question in her eyes. He shrugged his shoulders and she got in. Judy and Joe got in the back. The McKay's looked at each other in a knowing way.

The sheriff checked to see if Kathe was carrying the envelope the techs gave them with their results. He'd managed to convince Captain Pearce he needed a copy as well and he'd get it from her when they got back to Chance. He was casting around in his mind to see if there was a bed at the local Bed & Breakfast in town. He gave up, and pulled out on 2nd Avenue and prepared to retrace their trip back to Chance.

He knew just where she'd be staying.

CHAPTER 44

They pulled up in front of the McKay farm house and Joe and Judy got out. After assurances that they'd be alright he made a U turn and continued on home.

He had a fleeting thought that maybe they should swing by the police station just to make sure everything was locked up and the lights were turned off. But he looked at his house guest asleep in the passenger side of the cruiser and opted for home.

_Whatever is or isn_ ' _t going on at the station will wait until morning_ , he thought as he pulled into his driveway almost too tired to care.

"All right sleeping beauty, wakey, wakey, let's get you inside the house and into bed," he said to the woman beside him.

"Go away or I'll shoot you for 'indecent waking up', I'll just sleep out here," she said, snuggling down into the seat.

"No way, get out of the cruiser or I'll come and move you."

"You wouldn't dare, I out rank you, I'd have you up on charges so fast your head would spin."

Cam Grant stood outside the cruiser and thought about the various options open to him. Some of them seemed like a lot of fun. But he was tired and decided it was way too late to be playing games.

He opened the car door and quick as a flash placed a smart little slap on the rump of the half-awake woman.

The next second she was sitting up and a gun the size of a small cannon was staring him in the face.

"Take it easy now, just a little joke, something to ease the tension, nothing to get excited about!"

"I'll give you 'little joke', the last man that gave me a slap on the rear end wound up in the hospital for a week!"

The sheriff backed away, and said in as soothing a manner as he could muster, "don't get so excited, you'll have a heart attack. The gun might go off, and I don't want to have to fill in an 'Unresolved Gunshot Report'."

She looked at him, and slowly lowered the gun, "Good thing you have great kids, or this would have been a hard decision." Picking up her purse and jacket she and put the gun back in the holster under her arm. With her jacket on, no one knew she had that kind of fire power.

She counted on that.

Now that she was awake, she made a concerted effort to be quiet. No need to wake up the kids, the dog and the whole neighborhood.

She opened the screened back door slowly so it wouldn't creak.

Standing in the kitchen was the dog, his hackles raised and growling low in his throat.

"Nice doggy, don't bark. You'll wake up the kids," said Kathe in a soothing tone.

"If you move, he'll rip your leg off."

"Nice doggy, I'll stay right here."

"I'm kidding, that dog's the biggest wimp around. He'd lick you to death before he'd bite you," said Sheriff Grant grinning from ear to ear.

_Sauce for the goose, and all that_ , he thought. He hung up his jacket on the peg in the kitchen and took hers to hang up too.

He bent down and began to rub the dog's ears and his tail waged so hard it began to go round in circles.

This dog was a lover not a fighter.

Kathe Morgan stood in the kitchen and looked at the stove. The pot roast was still on the platter where the kids left it. Four potatoes, one largish piece of carrot and an onion cemented in with gravy so thick it looked as though it would never melt. Three buns lay drying out on the table that still held the two dishes the kids ate from that night. Two empty milk glasses, and a saucer with crumbs on it.

She turned as he stood up from patting the dog and asked, "Are you hungry? I didn't get any dinner, and I bet I could bring this yummy stuff back to life in a few moments. What do ya say, sheriff? It looks like it was a good meal at one time."

Cam looked at the pot roast, or what was left of it, and the mess on the table and shrugged his shoulders, "Sounds good," He was not much help in the kitchen but he knew how to clear the table.

Kathe found her apron/tea towel and made some supper magic. She put the pot roast back in the pan, turned on the stove and started to heat it up. She found a tomato and a piece of a cucumber in the Frig and a left over piece of lettuce which when it was placed on the plates Cam was putting on the table looked like a small green salad.

Not a bad meal for fifteen minutes of preparation. The buns went into the micro-wave for ten seconds and miraculously everything else was hot and ready.

"Dinner's ready," said Kathe, realizing it didn't feel half bad to be saying this, in this house, to this man.

"I'm always ready," he said, looking at her with a twinkle in his eye, and sat down in his spot at the head of the table.

She looked at him and a flush of soft pink flowed up from her neck to her face, and she turned around and fussed with the pot roast.

Dinner was eaten in silence.

Neither one wished risking something that was so out of bounds.

Right now, that is.

The meal finally over, Cam looked at his house guest and smiled. "You're tired, you know where the bed is," he said grinning.

He stood and picked up the plates, and put them in the sink with the rest of the dishes. Kathe looked at him and couldn't decide whether he was being smart, or should she just take the words at face value and go to bed in the guest room.

She was too tired to appreciate any innuendo in his words so she picked up her purse and left the kitchen.

_Well_ , thought Cam _, I used to wonder about having a woman in the house._ He looked at the closed door to the guest room and decided this wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind.

CHAPTER 45

The mailman cum janitor gripped the handle of the broom he was pushing down the hallway outside the morgue proper, his mind racing furiously, but his body going slowly through the motions of his cleaning job.

This situation, losing not one but two females in one night, never happened before.

Maybe it's because they were girls, he thought, I didn't have all this trouble with boys. It's all Mother's fault! She wanted that Mary Lou's blood. I thought maybe I could sub the other one, she'd never know. But now, they're both gone.

All the possibilities presented themselves in his mind. He studied each one and discarded it. There must be something else he could do. He didn't have much time to dwell on what the consequences would be if he failed.

He had to act decisively!

The old witch always knew when he was wimping out. It infuriated him and he rolled the last two days around in his mind looking for some way to salvage this fiasco.

"Someday I'm going to kill that old bat!" he breathed as he concentrated on looking bored, and tired. "That old bag is going to get me arrested, and then I'm going to go to jail. I can't go to jail, I'd die in there. And I bet she'd laugh!"

He finally finished with the hall and turned to the morgue itself. He usually enjoyed this part of the job.

His imagination evoked all the blood and gore that came with the dead bodies lying on the trays in the refrigerator wall. It always made him feel so pleased.

Part of his job was cleaning up the microscope room. He loved to look at the samples he sliced off the cadavers waiting for identification. He was always very careful to only take miniscule samples from the ones identified as indigent. It didn't matter that they were derelicts the bits and pieces were the same.

As he pushed his broom through the door he saw a sheet of paper in the printer out-put tray. He picked it up and turned it around.

It looked like a tiny bowl.

Why would they take a picture of a bowl? It looked familiar.

The blood drained from the mailman's face as he recognized the image on the paper.

It was HIS button cover!

He knew it was his button cover because he remembered it came off his jacket sleeve when he was tying the last boy to the teeter-totter. He tried to look for it but with dawn breaking, and all the sand, he couldn't find it. He decided if he couldn't find it, and he was looking, no one else would find it either.

But when he saw Bert, scrounging around in the sand last morning, and put something in his pocket. He knew he had to find out if it was his button? When he ransacked the sheriff's office he looked everywhere, but it wasn't there. He thought he was safe.

The mailman couldn't believe they found it. The question was, did they know what they had?

Now the button cover was here!

Now the button cover was a problem.

_Calm down_! He said to himself. _It's just the button cover_.

But the cover was more important than the button as it identified itself as a mailman's uniform button. Complete with the relevant division imprinted around the rim.

If they knew what they had, it would be all over for him. It wouldn't take much to check the employee files at the main post office in Portland that showed he'd been dismissed but never turned in his uniform.

He knew Mother would cackle with glee at any misfortune that happened to him. He knew this woman wasn't really Sonny's mother. But he was afraid, he called her a witch, but never to her face. He was terrified she really was one.

The mailman always wondered what she did with the blood he and Sonny brought her, but he never asked. It was never a good idea to question anything she asked him to do.

He knew it had everything to do with the girl blood and Sonny was going to be in such terrible trouble when he didn't have any to bring her in the morning.

The mailman started whimpering as his mind conjured up the terrible things that were going to happen to Sonny. He always looked after Sonny; he had to find some blood, now!

"No," he said to the paper he was holding. He stood up taller and threw back his shoulders, "I'm never going to let her do that to Sonny again. I have to find some blood, even if it isn't from a teenager, it will have to do. I'll never tell her whose it was. If she doesn't like it, she can go to hell!"

The mailman dropped the broom and it hit the floor with a bang, but he didn't care anymore. He had to get out of there! He had to find some blood.

And then he remembered the phone call...

CHAPTER 46

It must have been about 11:00 pm when Mary Lou walked down the hall behind the two uniformed policemen, she didn't know how to feel. Half of her felt safe, they were after all, the law.

The other half felt afraid, Lucy always said, 'don't get chummy with the police, they always mean trouble!'

Mike was walking beside her and he saw she was getting nervous, so he took her hand and smiled to reassure her that everything was going to be alright.

"O.K. you two kids, this is it. Number 513 is your room, Mary Lou."

Mary Lou new what Lucy would say as she looked at the numbers, 'never stay in a room with a thirteen in it, it was always bad luck'.

She hesitated, and looked at Mike, "I can't go in there," she said as she backed up. "Maybe I could sleep in the lobby, I wouldn't be any trouble." And she turned and headed back to the elevator.

"What are you talking about? You're the reason we're here," said Patrolman McBurny opening the door and turning on the lights. "Come on back and take a look. There are two beds and they look comfy, not the Hilton but they look clean. You take the far bed."

"No, that's not what I mean, I can't, well what I mean is, I don't want to stay in this room."

"What's wrong, kid, the room not fancy enough for ya?"

"No, no, it's wrong, I can't stay here."

"Mary Lou, you're not making sense, what's wrong?" said Mike.

"Oh, Mike, I'm sorry I don't want to make trouble, but I just can't stay in this room."

"Are you saying you could stay in the room next door? They're both exactly the same, you know. Well maybe not exactly the same, but more or less. What's the difference?" said McBurny.

"You'll think I'm crazy, but Lucy always said, never stay in a room or anywhere that had a thirteen in it."

"You're telling us, because the room number is 513 you can't stay here, but you can stay in 512 or 514?"

"Leave her alone," said Mike protectively, "if she can't stay in here, we'll just get the rooms changed. What's the difference?"

"You're right kid, what is the difference. Nothing, that's the difference, get in there and settle down, I'm tired and you need your sleep."

Mary Lou looked at Mike and then at the police officer and just stood there in the hall. There was nothing that was going to make her go into that room. And that was that.

Mike turned to him and said, "I thought we were here to protect her, not bully her into doing something she feels so strongly about. But you're right, what is the difference, none. I'll go down to the lobby and see if we can change rooms."

He grabbed Mary Lou by the hand and they started back to the elevator.

"There a problem here?" said Officer Pete Roolay coming down the hall from the stairwell. He'd just checked all the entrances to the hallway, no problems.

"Well, yes and no. Mary Lou doesn't want to sleep in room 513, if it's O.K. with you we'll go down and change to 512."

"Sure kid, no worries. But I think we can do that from here." He walked back to 513, picked up the house phone and called down to the registration desk and made the arrangements.

Mary Lou and Mike stood in the doorway and waited. A few moments later a maid came up to Mary Lou and asked her name. When she was satisfied that was who she was, she gave her the key to room 512 and took back the one to room 513.

So tired she was almost out on her feet, Mary Lou went in, paid a visit to the bathroom, went over to the bed closest to the window and lay down on top, clothes and all. She covered up with the bed spread and was asleep before they knew it.

"You take the first _watch_ ", said Officer McBurny, he was a little miffed at being over ruled by a teenager and a girl at that, and needed some time to come to grips with it.

"No sweat, Fred," said Pete Roolay, "Go down to the lobby and be comfortable for a couple of hours."

Mike stood looking at Mary Lou sleeping in room 512 and didn't want to leave her alone. But what could happen to her here? One cop outside the door and one in the lobby, she'd be alright.

He went out the door and closed it softly. He'd brought a chair from the other room too, and sat down outside the door with Officer Roolay. As they sat they talked a little football and where Mike was going to go to school. Officer Roolay said he heard school was harder in Canada, but that meant he'd have a good education. Mike said he'd have to think about that.

Time passed and they grew quiet, lost in their own thoughts.

Sometime during the night Mike thought he heard a scuffle. It had to come from the room on other side, he and a cop were outside her door, no one could get in.

Three o'clock came and went and Officer Roolay was starting to yawn. He better get Fred up here before he went to sleep on the job.

"O.K. Fred, times up," he said on his walky-talky. "Come on up and lets go and check on 'sleeping beauty' and you take it till we go back to the station."

"Sounds good to me," said Fred McBurny and he got up from the couch he was napping on in the lobby and headed for the elevator. The doors opened and he got out on the fifth floor.

Fred stood in front of 512 waiting until Pete Roolay was beside him. Then he opened the door and looked in. The room was dark but there was some light coming in from the window. It was freezing in the room; the window was standing open as far as it would go.

Both looked at the bed by the window and saw there was no one in it. They looked at each other and then at the bathroom. No light showed under the door. Pete reached behind him and flicked on the light switch.

The room was empty!

Were they in big trouble!

"All right, kid," Fred McBurny almost shouted at Mike, "what've you done with the girl? She's gone and you're the only other one here that could've helped her escape."

"What're you talking about?" Mike shouted louder, leaping from the chair and pushing his way passed the cop. He stood in the doorway and looked at the empty bed and the open window and then he looked at the two cops.

"He's got her again," he said, "we have to phone someone."

Before the two cops could react, Mike grabbed the house phone and started dialing his Uncle Cam's home number in Chance.

He didn't know how to call Captain Pearce at home and didn't want to just call 911.

The cops stood shamefaced and watched the teenager as he told his Uncle what happened.

People started coming out of their rooms because of all the noise. Some called the desk to complain. The Night Clerk came up the stairway and was barreling down on them.

"Hold the noise down, don't you know people want to sleep?" said the clerk in a stage whisper, "go back to your room or I'll call the cops!"

Training finally kicked in and Fred McBurny, the senior of the two officers said, "chill out, we are the cops."

They closed the door, and Fred called the Bureau and reported in.

There was going to be hell to pay when the brass found out the perp got the girl again.

Even with two of Portland's finest on duty.

CHAPTER 47

Cam sat on the side of his bed at home and looked at his cell phone, it was 4:45 am and he wondered what in hell was going on now? He'd been so tired that when he woke it took him a moment or two before he understood what Mike McKay was telling him.

He dialed again and put in a special request for Captain Pearce, even if he was at home in bed and started getting dressed as he waited for the return call.

The Captain was not going to be happy. They thought they had it all sewn up, and here it was starting again.

"Knock, knock!" said a woman's voice through the door, "Anything wrong I should know about? Cover up, I'm coming in."

Cam was just pulling up his pants when the door opened and there stood Kathe Morgan looking like she just stepped out of a fashion magazine.

"Well?"

"Kid's gone again!"

"You're kidding! How can she be gone? There were two cops and her boyfriend with her. How did he get to her?"

"How do you know something happened? How come you're dressed and ready to go?" snapped Cam, turning his back to her so he could zip up his pants. He put on a clean Tee under his uniform shirt and turned to face her.

"It seems we under estimated our perp." he said. "We were all so tired; I guess we dropped the ball."

"Enough of this football talk, what are we doing to find her now?"

"I've got a call in to Captain Pearce, no sense heading into Portland until we know what's being done. Besides, you haven't told me how you knew?" he said.

"No big deal, it's time to get up. I was about to wake you, no hotcakes and bacon this morning, too much to do."

"I'm calling Jake McClusky," said Cam, "he'll want to be in on whatever is happening. We have to figure out how the bad guy knew where to find Mary Lou. There must be a leak at the station."

CHAPTER 48

It was very early the next day, the sun hadn't come up yet. The mailman had to get to the barn at Mothers place in Chance before dawn. Mary Lou was trussed up in the back, and this time the mailman didn't take any chances. The only thing she could move was her eye lashes, and he had contemplated putting a mask over her eyes to make absolutely sure _nothing_ was going to go wrong this time.

There was equipment in the barn that would make draining the blood faster and easier.

He'd come out along the No. #6 from Portland turned onto #101 and was almost at Chance. Looking ahead, he almost ran off the road.

Coming towards him was the Chance Police Cruiser, and there were two people in it.

"Chill out," he told himself, "there's no reason they should be looking for me. If they figured out the button, there'd be APB and the police radio is quiet." He calmly turned on his signal and turned right onto Dune Crescent.

The cruiser kept on going.

He knew he'd taken all the 'MAIL' signs off the van last night, so why should they be interested in him, a plain delivery van. He turned in at the first driveway, turned around and went back to the #101.

CHAPTER 49

Cam and Kathe watched the van coming towards them turn onto Dune Crescent. They were more interested in getting to the Breakfast Mug and having some coffee than some van going down a side street. It was going on five-thirty and Cam knew the café would be open for the folks that worked in Portland. It was a long drive without your morning caffeine buzz.

They pulled into the parking lot and got out of the cruiser. A short walk and they were in the warm café, people were talking and having breakfast, the place smelled wonderful.

Everything was normal.

More or less...

Carmen Ballenger, the owner was on the phone. "You did what?" she almost screamed! _Calm down,_ she said to herself, _someone will hear._

"Where are you right now? Alright, I'll be home in about an hour. Don't do anything until I get there... Yes, I will. Bye." Carmen looked at the crowded café and smiled. It was so easy to live here, everyone loved her.

She made sure of that.

"Hi Sheriff, what'll ya have?" said Carmen, as she wiped off the counter with long sweeping strokes. "I'll bring a menu right over."

"Thanks Carmen," said the sheriff sitting down in the last booth.

Kathe Morgan followed him in and sat on the opposite side. She put the large envelope she brought from the police station the night before on the table.

They left the house as soon as they were dressed after the phone call, deciding to wait and read the contents at the coffee shop. There couldn't be too much information in there that they didn't already know, but it wouldn't hurt to take another look at it now that they had a moment.

Carmen grabbed the coffee pot and approached the table. She was filling the mugs trying to get a good look at the address on the envelope.

Kathe took a sheet of paper out, laid it on the table and fished out a plastic evidence baggie.

"So sheriff, what've we got here?" said Carmen swiveling her neck trying to read what was on the page.

"Sorry, Carmen," said Cam, "but this is police business," and he turned the paper over and returned the plastic baggie to the large envelope. "I'll have the bacon & egg breakfast, make that three eggs and double the toast. What about you?" he said looking at Kathe.

"Just coffee and two pieces of toast for me, thanks, I can't eat in the morning, and this isn't even morning yet."

_Darn_ , thought Carmen, _I_ ' _d like to know what_ ' _s on that sheet of paper._

She put the coffee pot down and took out her order pad. "O.K., let's see if I remember right. That was the bacon & egg breakfast, three eggs, double toast for you," she said looking at Cam. "And coffee and toast for you," she said, pointing her pencil at Kathe. "Will that be Whole Grain or plain white?"

"Whole grain and dry. Thanks."

"O.K. folks, I'll go put that order in for you, won't be but a few moments."

Carmen put her order pad back in her apron pocket, took the coffee pot and went behind the counter. She checked the time and thought, better not wait too long.

"Henry, I got'ta go home, do ya think ya can manage without me for a few minutes. I won't be long."

Carmen went into the kitchen and took off her apron and hung it on the peg by the door. There was a chill in the early morning so she grabbed her sweater and purse and was out the door before Henry could say no.

It was only a mile to her home and soon she pulled up by the barn.

This was a small 'Hobby Farm' when David bought it. The barn had housed one horse and a few sheep in winter. But now it was converted to a great room and bath. They thought they could rent it in the summer. But the beach access was too far down the road, and few people wanted to walk that far. When David died, she converted it again for a more private purpose.

Carmen stood outside the barn and looked for the van she knew should be parked nearby, but didn't see it anywhere.

_If that boy has bungled it up again, I don_ ' _t know what I_ ' _m going to do with him,_ she thought, as she unlocked the barn door and turned on the light.

CHAPTER 50

Captain Pearce sat behind his desk with a cup of steaming coffee, it was 6:30 am, an hour before he normally arrived and he was not happy.

He listened as Fred McBurny and Pete Roolay told the story again, starting with their ride to the hotel.

"Everything was in order until I called Pete to relieve me and we checked on her about 3:00 am," said Fred McBurny. "When we opened the door, we saw the open window and realized she wasn't in the room. Mike here called his Uncle Cam in Chance and then we called the station," he said, looking at the floor.

_It_ ' _s things like this that make me wonder what I_ ' _m still doing in this crummy job,_ thought Captain Pearce as he struggled not to yell at the two miserable uniforms that sat on hard chairs in front of him. They looked at the floor, they looked at the ceiling, they looked anywhere but at him. He tried to muster up a little sympathy, but all he could think was, where was their training?

Why didn't they check every hour like regulations said? He tried again for more sympathy in his voice, if he yelled any more they would never remember anything of value.

Mike McKay mumbled, "We should have thought to look outside the window, who knew someone could come up the fire escape?"

Fred McBurny took up the story, "We had the corridor covered, we were right outside the door and we didn't hear a thing." He looked at Mike with a menacing glance, warning him to not mention the scuffling sound he claimed he heard through the wall.

Then Pete Roolay took it up, "he must have come up the fire escape real quiet like, they didn't hear a thing. I was downstairs in the lobby!" he said, covering his own ass.

"But, what I don't understand is, how did he know where we were? We made the arrangements from this office, and we've used that hotel before when we didn't want the press to get at a witness. They would never have told anyone we were there," said Captain Pearce.

"I think she must have gone out the window on her own," said Constable McBurny, "maybe she had someone she had to meet, or maybe she needed more drugs. No one came down that hallway that we didn't check out. I don't think it's our fault that she's missing!"

Captain Pearce sat back and rolled his eyes, how had he managed from all the men in the Precinct, he picked these two?

The door to the office opened, and there stood Jake McClusky. He looked at the three of them, and then at the Captain.

"You'd better leave this for now; we have to get to Chance ASAP. Kathe Morgan called and asked if I could pick you and Mike up and get out there. It probably wouldn't hurt to have Ricky Gomez and a SWAT team out there standing by either. Things seem to be coming to a head."

CHAPTER 51

The mailman sat in the van and looked at the house and barn from behind the row of Lilac trees. They'd lost their leaves but since it wasn't dawn yet they afforded a hidden spot where he could watch. He knew he should have gone inside, but he hesitated. This was so far outside the plan that he wasn't sure what would happen if he went in with only one girl. The temper tantrum the witch could throw made a hurricane look like a soft evening breeze.

The light came on in the barn.

"Darn! She's here!"

"You stay where you are," said the mailman over his shoulder to Mary Lou. "You'll be real sorry if you try something again. I'll be right back." With this warning he opened the van door and slid to the ground. It was only seven or eight yards to the entrance, but it felt like sixty.

The door was open and he could see the witch preparing for the ice chest he usually carried the blood in. He didn't know how he was going to tell her the blood was still in the original container in the back of his van. The mailman faded...

"Ah, hi there Mother," said Sonny as he stepped into the light of the open door. "I've got a surprise for you."

CHAPTER 52

Cam Grant and Kathe Morgan sat in the Breakfast Mug and waited impatiently for Jake McClusky and Captain Pearce to get there.

They'd made a call to Deputy Bert Dempsey and he was just coming in the front door when Carmen came back in from outside.

"Hi Bert," said Carmen, "what'll ya have?"

"Hi Carmen, just a coffee for now, I'm going to sit in back with the chief."

Carmen busied herself with the coffee pot again, and delivered the orders Henry had ready. She took a clean mug from under the counter and walked to the back and put it on the table. She poured it full to the brim and pushed it over to Bert.

Then she looked questioningly at Cam and Kathe. They'd finished their breakfast and were discussing what was in the envelope. They looked up and smiled at Carmen and nodded for a refill.

Kathe was sitting idly looking out the window watching the sky turn pink, waiting for reinforcements from the city. She watched the van pull up to the rear of the building and saw the young man get out. In the hazy dawn, he looked like he had a uniform on...

She turned to Bert and nodded to the window. "Look at that young guy over there by the van; doesn't that look like a uniform to you? He couldn't be the fellow that gave you the bloodied box, could he?"

"Oh, I don't think he'd be crazy enough to come back here, besides, he was old. He'd know we'd see him and the jig would be up."

"The jig would be up? How old are you anyway! You have to quit watching those late night Golden Oldie movies. You're starting to talk like them. What I mean is, I can't tell, it isn't light enough yet, but that sure looks like a uniform to me, maybe a mailman's uniform? What do you think?"

Half listening to what the other two were saying, Cam held the button cover in his hand. He knew this was the missing piece of the puzzle but until they talked to the Post Office Employment Dept., they didn't have a name. And with no name, they couldn't move on it. They had to wait until the post office opened before they could get that kind of information.

Just then the man looked up and saw them looking at him. He hurriedly threw the parcel into the van, started up the engine and screeched out of the parking lot.

"Damnation!" said Sheriff Grant as he watched the vehicle peel out of the lot and almost side swipe a car that was pulling in. He threw his keys to Bert, and said, "Go get him Bert, and drag his sorry ass back to the station. We can't have that kind of driving in Chance, even if it's not dawn yet, there are still people going to work out there!"

Bert leaped from the booth.

He loved this kind of stuff!

He didn't get to chase a speeder very often, and this should be a gas. He fired out the door and into the cruiser just as Jake McClusky's SUV pulled into the lot.

The van turned left when he hit the main drag, so Bert turned left, too. He expected to see him heading for Hwy #101, but up the road he could just make out his lights turning right.

Where would he be going, he wasn't a local, Bert knew every van, car, truck and ATV in Chance and this one didn't belong here.

He drove up the road and stopped before he made the turn. The only house on this road belonged to Carmen Ballenger. And there it was, all lit up. Not only was the house lit up, but the barn as well.

_And,_ thought Bert _, I just saw Carmen at the café, so who_ ' _s in the house?_

Bert picked up his cell phone and called his boss.

"What do you mean, the house is all lit up? Is there a car in the driveway? If you can't see, turn down the road and take a look. Don't forget to kill your lights. I'll ask Carmen if she has company staying with her. We don't want to disturb people who should be there."

Carman was going about her business of waiting on the early risers of Chance, making sure they all had their breakfast eggs just the way they liked them. She was going into the small kitchen to speak to Henry when Cam called her to his table.

"Say, Carmen, you got company staying with you?"

"Not really, why do you ask?"

"Bert Dempsey is at your place and says it's lit up like a Christmas tree, lights all over, even in the barn. He can't see a car, and wants to know should he go and look for burglars, or should he ring the doorbell to see if everything's alright?"

Carmen Ballenger's face dropped its color, and she grabbed the table top to keep from falling over. "No, no I don't think anybody's there," she stammered. "Excuse me, I better go home and see what's going on. I'll let you know if I need help."

She didn't even hang up her apron, just grabbed her purse and sweater and ran for her car. She didn't know what that idiot, Sonny was doing, but whatever it was, she knew she better get out there fast. Bert wasn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but even he would be able to tell something was wrong if he saw the girl in the barn trussed up and blood draining out of her.

As strung out as she was, she kept telling herself, _be calm, be calm, everything will be fine. He hasn_ ' _t gone in the barn and found the girl or the sheriff would be here like a shot to arrest me._

Carmen pulled out of the parking lot and turned left. She tried to drive calmly and under the speed limit. No need to call any more attention to herself by driving too fast.

She got to her corner and turned right.

"I can' _t believe what I_ ' _m seeing_!" she hissed under her breath.

There was Bert Dempsey walking back to his police cruiser that now had all its lights on. The grounds looked brighter than daylight!

She pulled into the driveway past the police cruiser and parked in front of the house, but stayed in the car and waited until he came over to talk to her.

"Hi Carmen, I checked the house, no one in there, but the back door was unlocked. I looked in the kitchen but didn't see anyone. Maybe you just forgot to turn off the lights?"

"Thank you so much for looking around for me, Bert. I'm just a woman and this kind of stuff just scares the shit out of me. I keep thinking there are burglars under the bed. What would we do without you, the strong arm of the law."

Carmen winced as she said the words, it sounded like drivel even in her own ears, how could this dummy think she was serious?

She got out of the car, took him by the arm, turned him around and started walking him back to the cruiser.

_I have to get him out of here before he sees something he shouldn_ ' _t,_ thought Carmen as she talked loud and tried to keep his mind on her, not on the barn that had light spilling out all over. _If he gets in there, the shit will really hit the fan!_

As Bert was reaching for the door handle of the police car, a soul wrenching shriek split the air. He turned, drew his revolver and started for the barn. He wasn't a very brave man, but something terribly wrong was happening. He approached from the blind side; he didn't want whoever was in there to see him coming.

Carmen crept along right behind him, trying to look scared.

As they neared the barn, the lights went out! Bert pulled up short and Carmen almost collided with him but managed to stop before she stepped on the backs of his shoes.

"That's it!" said Bert in a whisper. "I'm calling for reinforcements." He turned to go back to the cruiser for his cell phone, but felt something in his back. He knew it was a gun barrel. He didn't dare turn around, he didn't know who was back there.

"Carmen, Carmen, you O.K.?" he whispered as though the guy with the gun couldn't hear him.

"I'm just fine, Bert," said Carmen who had taken the gun out of her purse and was now shoving it into his back a little harder. "Don't be a hero, and you won't get hurt. Get over there by the tree and give me your gun and handcuffs."

Bert looked over his shoulder and sure enough, there stood Carmen with a pistol and now she had his gun and the cuffs too.

Bert smiled to himself, _she_ ' _ll be surprised if she tries to shoot somebody with it, I_ ' _ve got the bullets in my pocket._

"Get over by the other tree. Right now! No fooling around! I'd shoot you as soon as look at you Bert, do as I say and do it quick!"

Bert looked at Carmen and saw she really meant it and started to shuffle to the small tree by the fish pond.

"Not that one, you idiot, I mean the other bigger one."

"Make up your mind," said Bert, frantically looking around for some way of taking the gun from her.

_She_ ' _s just a woman, and I_ ' _m a big strong man. I_ ' _m just going to grab her when she tries to cuff me and take the gun away from her. How hard can that be?_

Bert looked at the big tree, then he looked at Carmen with a question in his eyes, he was big but even he couldn't get his arms around that trunk.

"O.K. Bert, here are the cuffs back, put one on your right wrist, catch!" she threw them and Bert lunged to grab them, missing the handcuffs on purpose. He fell on the ground outside the rim of light from the cruisers headlights and scrambled for the dark shrubs. He heard, and could feel the whiz of bullets as they ricocheted off the trees and rocks around him. Just then the barn door opened and more light spilled from the door. A young man stood in the doorway with a lantern in his hand.

"Where are ya, Mother," he called as he peered into the darkness outside the door.

"Get back in the barn, you fool! Can't you see I have a cop backed up by the rose bushes? Make sure the package is ready for delivery!"

"Huh?"

"For pity's sake, I'm trying to not let the cop know what's in the barn. Get the package!"

"O.K. Mother, I'll get the package, but what should I do about the girl? I've got the Apheresis apparatus set up to drain the blood but she's starting to wake up."

"The package, the package, you fool, the girl is the package! Get her off the thingamajig, however much we got will have to do, we have to get out of here! We can dump her body along the highway. It'll be days before the highway crews find her. Right now I have to take care of that damn cop!"

Day was starting to creep along the horizon of the ocean. The light fingers of dawn tiptoed along the far shore and nibbled at the sand dunes in the distance. It wasn't like in the tropics, where the sun came up in a matter of seconds. Dawn in the Pacific Northwest took at least five minutes or more.

_Lots of time to find that dumb cop now that it_ ' _s almost light_ , thought Carmen.

Bert was under a big hydrangea, it served in the dark but it would soon be light and Carmen would find him for sure. He eased up to a kneeling position and peered through the bush. He could see her talking to the guy that came out of the barn. What d'ya know, he had a mailman's uniform on! Bert could see she was yelling hard at the guy.

Now was his chance, he better take it, the situation wasn't going to get any better. He inched back and felt a large fir tree behind him. He managed to slither quietly around behind the trunk and lie very still.

What Carmen didn't know was Bert still had his walky-talky turned on. He hoped it was broadcasting everything that was being said.

But he wasn't sure.

CHAPTER 53

"Keep it down you guys, something's coming in on my walky-talky, I can't quite make it out."

Jake McClusky, Captain Pearce and Kathe Morgan stopped talking and looked at the sheriff.

Kathe Morgan turned back to the conversation with Captain Pearce and pointedly ignored the call for quiet. She'd be quiet when she was good and ready, and until then, stifle yourself!

Cam Grant banged the table with his fist and finally got the quiet he was asking for.

"Listen, something's going on with Bert. Hang on, wasn't that gun shots? Where the hell did he get to? I thought he was supposed to be at Carmen's."

"Just click the call button ON and ask him what's going on. You know Bert, he's not an experienced police officer. Besides, I think he just forgot to turn the walky-talky off audio," said Jake McClusky.

"I tried that, but he won't come back. It's almost as if he wants us to hear what's going on."

"Listen, isn't that Carman's voice?"

"I think so, call her on the phone, she'll straighten this out," said Kathe with a note of authority in her voice.

"Wait a moment, be quiet, I can make out what they're saying."

"Holy shit, she's got a gun on Bert!"

"No way, Carmen lives in this town, why would she have a gun on Bert?"

"Get out of the way, hurry up, I'm going out there, something's going on and I don't like it!"

Everybody spilled out of the booth and ran for the parking lot.

Henry stood by the till and watched them all leave. Carmen wasn't going to be happy with him.

They left without paying!

Sheriff Grant ran for his cruiser then remembered it wasn't there. He'd given it to Bert to chase the van that peeled out of the café's parking lot almost an hour ago.

He turned to Jake McClusky and said, "Quick, give me your keys Jake, I know the roads out here, we have to hurry, something's going down at Carmen's."

The Captain, Kathe Morgan, Jake McClusky with Cam at the wheel of the big SUV spun out of the parking lot and barreled down the road. Cam turned off the lights and slowed down as they neared the turn-off for Carmen's house.

The beeper was still making noises, and now that they were closer the words were coming though more clearly.

Cam coasted to a stop at the top of the road and pulled across, blocking off the exit route.

More or less.

"Alright everybody, it seems Carmen's the one with the gun and Bert's the one hiding. It's almost full dawn so there soon won't be much cover for Bert. We have to approach fast on foot. Here's what we'll do."

CHAPTER 54

Carmen looked around again and still couldn't find Bert Dempsey's hideout. This was getting completely out of hand. She always knew one day there'd be trouble, but this was silly.

"Sonny," she called to the young man in the mailman's uniform, get over here, take his pistol and go around by the Hydrangeas, I'll come around by the fish pond, we'll get him between us. He can't have gotten far we'd have heard him on the gravel."

"Yes, Mother," said Sonny, "what should I do if I see him, can I shoot him?"

"No, you can't shoot him here. The sun's almost up, he can't keep hiding, we'll see him in a few moments. When we get him, put him in the van and take him into the hills and shoot him there. We don't want a bunch of trouble making neighbors sniffing around until after we've left."

"There, do you hear that? said Carmen in a whisper that could be heard out to the road. "He's behind the big fir tree, no, not that one, the big one. You keep going left, I'll sneak up by the steps and you chase him towards me. We'll get him now Sonny, you still have some of the Uppers I gave you for the girls?

"Yes, Mother," he lied, he'd taken a few of the happy pills himself and he didn't think there would be enough to knock the big cop out.

_More trouble, more trouble, more..._ he mumbled to himself in cadence as he worked his way around the rose bushes _._

"Gotcha," Cam whispered as he and Jake McClusky expertly caught the falling body of Sonny. The quiet approach from the road and a sharp blow to the back of his head did the trick.

The plan was to run a pincer attack, two to the left, two to the right and meet in the middle.

Good Plan...so far...

Carmen was still circling and working her way toward the steps to wait for Bert to come stumbling past.

They had to get him into the back of the van before they gave him any pills though, they were very fast acting and he was too big for her and Sonny to move alone.

She crouched lower, keeping out of sight now that it was getting lighter and she could see better.

There was a snap as a twig behind her broke! She turned and there stood Kathe Morgan.

"Hello, Mother, didn't think you'd see me again, did you?"

CHAPTER 55

"O.K. Kathe, let's run through this again before the big guns from Portland get here," said Cam Grant.

He had Carmen Ballenger and Sonny trussed up with rope as well as handcuffs in the back seat of the police cruiser. Bert Dempsey sat in the front to keep an eye on both prisoners.

They weren't going to get away from him!

The cruiser wasn't going anywhere either. Sitting so long with the head lights on and no motor running the battery had run down.

Not only were they waiting for Pete from the McVey Family Garage in Chance to come and give them a boost, but also for the ambulance from the Central City hospital. Mary Lou needed immediate attention, she was white as a ghost, and her lips had turned blue. They couldn't find a container with any blood in it, but it was plain, someone had been dipping into Mary Lou again.

"I'm sorry you weren't in on all this from the beginning, Cam," said Kathe as she adjusted her jacket. Sitting on the porch as the sun came up with Cam would have been nice at any other time, but now, not so much.

"I wanted to give you the details, but we didn't know how Carmen was getting her information and/or drugs, the Captain and I were playing it very close."

Deep rumbling sounds were coming from Sheriff Grant, it was a good thing he was the one who caught the pair, otherwise no one would be able to live with him.

"Tell me again;" said Cam clearing his throat, "I still don't understand why you let it go on so long if you knew who was doing this?"

"We thought we knew 'who' was doing this, we just didn't know where they were. Last time, when we got close, everything just evaporated, Carmen knew we were coming, and she disappeared"

"Sonny isn't really Carmen's son," said Kathe, "he's just a kid she picked up and trained. She has him convinced that she is his mother, but that's not so, we have a sworn affidavit from a woman in Utah that someone took her son in 1990 when he was twelve.

We didn't put the two together until those two boys turned up on the teeter-totters in January minus their blood, again. Then we knew the 'where', but things had changed and we weren't sure of the 'who' again."

"We still didn't have enough evidence to proceed, and now we needed to know the 'who' again as well as the 'why'."

"She was always careful to move out of one jurisdiction and police agency into another, except this time. That meant the investigation would start all over again. We don't know how long this has been going on."

"That's where I came in, Special Branch is able to function throughout the US, you know that. So, I made it my business to keep track of all the homicides involving young male teenagers. So, here I am," she said keeping her eyes on the rising sun.

"We thought the fact that the boys lost all their blood had to do with the way they were killed, it wasn't until this past January and these twin boys that we realized, 'it's in the blood'.

"We thought we had it all sewn up the day I came and sat with papers all over your desk. I was trying to keep you in the office, there was supposed to be a 'sting' going on in the Breakfast Mug, and they were supposed to come to the police station," she said pulling her jacket a little closer. "Boy, were we wrong. We never even gave Carmen Ballenger a thought, we had someone else altogether in mind."

"We thought we'd have them, maybe not with the killings, but at least with drug offences." said Kathe as she shivered and looked at the trees and bushes to see if an ocean breeze was gusting.

No ocean breeze was blowing.

There was no need to shiver, it was day light now.

Except, she was cold. Freezing!

Then she looked at the cruiser and saw Carmen looking at her. Her mouth was moving and Sonny was cowering in a corner with his head as far away as he could get.

"What's wrong?" said Cam touching her arm. It was cold! "Are you alright? Are you sick?"

"I...I think I have to get away from here right now."

"Come on, I'll take you back to the Breakfast Mug, we'll get you nice hot cup of coffee, that'll warm you up."

It was spring, it was going to be a sunny day, she shouldn't be this cold.

They started to walk towards the cruiser, and remembered the car's battery was still dead, besides, they were also using it as a part-time jail. No one was going anywhere in that vehicle.

Kathe stopped, "I think I'll walk down the road, I just need to warm up, over tired, I guess."

Kathe Morgan knew exactly what was wrong and why she was cold, but she wasn't going to tell this unbeliever what she thought was happening. She had to get away while she was still able.

Gathering her jacket around her she started walking up the road as fast as she could, she had to leave right now!

"Where are you going? Wait up, I'll walk with you," said Cam as he hurried to catch up with Kathe.

"You have to wait until the ambulance gets here, you better check on Mary Lou. I'll be O.K. I'm just going to walk up the road a bit..."

The sheriff looked at the retreating back of the Special Branch super-agent and thought, she doesn't look very 'super' right now, she looks like she's running away from something.

Cam Grant was worried, but there was no going after her and making her come back, he knew a strong minded woman when he saw one.

* * * *

One of the questions Cam was facing was, should he tell Mike what happened to Mary Lou? How mad would his sister be?

After some quick thinking he finally decided to call.

He picked up his cell phone and dialed, "Hello, Mike, how's your mom? Oh...still lying down. That's good, she needs her rest...I thought I should let you know, we found Mary Lou...not so good, she's waiting for the ambulance to take her to the hospital in Central City again...I suppose you could, we're at the Ballenger farm, but make it fast...Make sure you tell your dad where you're going. Make sure he tells your mom when she wakes up where you've gone...No, I don't want any more grief from her if she doesn't know where you are...O.K...Again, tell your dad."

* * * *

A big military looking van pulled into the yard and men began to spill out. They were dressed in disposable crime scene overalls with face masks and gloves. Doc Speller got out of the back and came over to stand by Cam. They watched the well-disciplined team go to work.

"Well Doc, looks like we've got this one sewed up," said Cam, as he watched the men spread out and began to take samples and pictures of everything. "Looks like you're going to have a busy day."

"Not me," said Doc Speller, "this stuff goes to the Forensics Lab in Portland, I only get the dead bodies. And, thank the Good Lord, there aren't any this time. I just wanted to come out and see what they had in the barn. I understand it has a lot of equipment. It's amazing what you can buy on the Internet these days."

"O.K., let me go and tell Kathe I'll be a little longer, I was supposed to take her back to town, but she said she was going for a little walk to warm herself up."

"Kathe, Kathe where are you? I'm going to look in the barn with Doc Speller, be back in a moment," said Cameron Grant to the empty road.

Now where did that woman go?

"Looks like she stood you up," teased Doc Speller coming up behind him.

Cam looked around the yard and up at the house. No lights on, so probably no one in there. She couldn't have gone far, there were only two vehicles other than the forensics van that were drivable and one was behind the police cruiser and the other one was blocking the other end of the road.

He went over to the police cruiser to see if Bert saw where she went.

"Bert! Bert, wake up," he said as he knocked on the window because the door was locked. "Darn, he went to sleep. He was supposed to be watching Carmen and the kid."

Cam bent down to look into the back seat and looked at what wasn't there.

No people, but it did hold handcuffs, and rope.

CHAPTER 56

Carmen, Sonny and Kathe Morgan not wanting to call attention to themselves abandoned Carmen's car where it was and snuck up the street to Jake McClusky's SUV that was parked in the middle of the road. The Forensics truck had a tight squeeze getting by it as the SUV was supposed to keep anyone from coming or going from the Ballenger farm.

Carmen got in on the passenger side and sure enough, there were the keys behind the sun visor.

_How did she know the keys were up there?_ thought Kathe, she shuddered and tried to back away, but something held her in place.

"You drive," said Carmen Ballenger. "Do what I tell you!"

"Yes, Mother."

Kathe turned the ignition key on and the massive motor sprang to life. "I can't do this, I can't do this," sobbed Kathe as she put it into drive and pulled out of the roadway.

Sonny sat on the passenger side and watched the driver as she fought with herself.

He laughed softly to himself.

He understood.

It was great to have someone else bear the brunt of Mother's anger, he certainly was the target often enough.

"Watch where you're going, don't draw attention to us," said Carmen softly. Kathe Morgan jerked and sat up straighter, her head turned stiffly towards the road in front, her eyes searched frantically for some means of escape.

But there was none.

No one to signal.

No one to see them.

_Chance had been a good place to come back to when she needed to disappear,_ thought Carmen. The Breakfast Mug was the best cover she'd had in a long time and she was sorry to leave.

But now it was time to move on.

Except...

* * * *

"Kathe, pull over at the next town that has a pay phone outside."

"Yes, Mother," came out of her mouth. It didn't seem to matter what she wanted to say or do, she could only obey.

Every time she called that woman 'Mother' she got a bad taste in her mouth, and she couldn't even spit it out.

"The next large town is Cannon Beach, it has a casino. We'll stay there tonight," said Carmen. "They'll never think to look for us so close to home."

"What are we going to do about the SUV, Mother," said Sonny, looking out the back window for any police cars that might be following them, "it's not easy to hide."

"Just do what Mother tells you and it will be alright. Isn't that right, Sonny boy," said Carmen as she gazed into his eyes. He turned pale and quivered, worming his way further into the corner of the seat. Although his body now faced the door, his eyes were still on Carmen. He couldn't look away until she smiled a little smile and dropped her gaze.

Sonny collapsed and hung his head. _I'll never be able to get away from this old witch,_ he thought, and he hated himself for losing.

Again!

"Are you watching for a phone, Kathe?" said Carmen, "I know with all the cell phones around pay phones are getting harder to find. Stop at the gas station in Manzanita anyway, they probably have one inside. I need to make some arrangements before we get to Cannon Beach.

The small town came into view and Kathe pulled over in front of an old gas station.

After making her three calls she got back into the SUV and said, "I've got it all lined up, on the way out of town there's a public park on the left side by the ocean. Stop there."

They drove through the town obeying both stop signs.

"We need to look like we're sightseeing in case anyone is looking at us," said Carmen. "Pull into that park take the far parking spot, the one facing the ocean."

The small park at the bottom of the hill was well placed to see the ocean waves wash up onto the shore. The sand was white and the sea gulls ran up and down sifting the tasty morsels from the salty sea.

Kathe pulled into the designated spot and turned off the motor. She gathered up her purse and opened the door prepared to make a run for it. Before her foot touched the road there was a man standing in front of her and ushered her over to a blue Honda Accord. Carman and Sonny were right behind her, they took the back seat. The man handed her a set of car keys, took hers, got into the SUV and drove away.

Not a word had been exchanged.

"We need to get to Cannon Beach before dinner. We're going to stay at the casino and we need to look like tourists."

The trip to Cannon Beach was uneventful, the town looked busy, no one noticed them.

"You go in and sign whatever they give you, Kathe. You cannot say anything I've not given you permission to say. Tell them my son is handicapped and won't sleep alone. Tell them we need a room with a double and a single bed. And, Oh yes, cover your hair, no need to confuse them at the desk when you turn into a blond tomorrow."

Kathe Morgan could not believe she wouldn't be able to say whatever she wanted, so she just took the credit card Carmen handed her, pulled her scarf over her head and went up to the reception desk.

"I need you to help me, I'm being kidnapped, please call the police," said Kathe, but what the receptionist heard was, "I would like a double room with a double bed and a single bed, my brother is handicapped and can't sleep alone."

Try as she might, Kathe couldn't say anything else. She just stood there staring at the clerk. _She thinks I_ ' _m crazy,_ thought Kathe, willing the tears that were forming, to not flow.

The clerk gave her the registration form to fill in for the room; she knew this was probably her last chance.

She started to fill in the blanks with the information Carmen instilled in her. But she managed to write a few words on the side of the form by making herself concentrate on the right words so Carmen would think she was only doing as she was told.
CHAPTER 57

"Tell me again, Captain Pearce, I don't think I got all that," said Cam as he put the phone to the other ear. He was sitting at his desk in the Chance Police Station later that day and he was not happy. Not only had Carmen and the boy got away, but it seems Kathe Morgan wasn't around either.

"Are you telling me, that when you reported Kathe Morgan missing to Special Branch they didn't know what you were talking about? They thought she was on vacation in France, and she's not due back for another two weeks?... Yes Sir, I'll come over now...No, I think it will be alright. The town is so busy talking about Carmen they haven't had time to notice if I'm here or not... Bert and I will be there in about an hour or so."

The sheriff picked up his cell phone and dialed his deputy. He was so wet and dirty when they left Carmen's place Cam took pity and sent him home to dry out and change clothes.

Bert picked up on the second ring. "Hello, Hi Boss,...ya, I'm cleaned up. Kellie just made me a nice turkey sandwich with cranberries and salad...now? You want me to come right now?... I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse...no, I didn't mean to yell at you, but can't I finish my sandwich?... Alright, alright I know you can't go until I get there with the cruiser, I'll eat fast and be right there...Kellie says if you can wait a moment she'll make you a sandwich too...O.K. as soon as she's finished."

Bert sat at the kitchen table eating as fast as he could. Kellie made the sandwich for the sheriff and put it in a sandwich bag. She just made a cake that morning, and a piece for each went into a plastic container. It was Bert's favorite, Carrot Cake so she made the pieces extra big. She also put coffee in two travel mugs and put it all into a plastic grocery bag for Bert.

He stood at the door holding Kellie, the most precious thing in his life.

"Cheers," she said as she snuggled against him and told him to be careful. Then with a quick kiss he was off to Chance and the Boss.

* * * *

Cam Grant sat at his desk and looked at the phone. It started to look like a turkey sandwich and he almost moved his hand to grab it. Hallucinations were not usually part of his makeup, but with all the other strange things that were going on, it was no wonder he thought he saw a sandwich. He started to sweat and the office was getting smaller. _If I go outside_ , he thought, _I_ ' _ll feel better. The ocean air will be fresh and clean._

Bert pulled up in front of the station and looked around for the sheriff. He thought he'd be waiting by the door.

_There you are,_ thought Bert, ' _HURRY UP_ ' _only applies to me, not the Boss._

He wasn't in the office. Bert got out of the vehicle and looked in, it was so small you could see the whole place through the open door. This didn't make any sense. He was in such a state that Bert should get there in a hurry and now he wasn't even here.

Then he saw a familiar figure down the block, heading towards the ocean.

_It_ ' _s the Boss, what the heck is he doing going down to the seashore when we_ ' _re supposed to be going to Portland ASAP?_ said Bert to himself.

He hopped back into the cruiser, and followed him down Main Street until he came to the beach parking lot. Bert got out and called, but Cam didn't turn around, he just kept walking.

Now Bert was worried. Should he catch up with him and ask what's going on, or should he just go back to the office and wait until whatever was going to happen, did.

He stood and watched Cam walked in a straight line. He walked over the 'Marram Grass' sign. It was erected to keep people off the course grass that slowed down the erosion on the dunes. He didn't even stop to make sure he didn't damage it.

_This is very wrong,_ thought Bert as he watched his boss head for the open water. Although Cameron Grant loved the ocean he was not a good swimmer, especially with his clothes on.

"Boss, Chief, Sheriff Grant!" called Bert, "where are ya going?"

He caught up with Cam but got no response. He grabbed him by the arm when they were just feet from the waves. "You can't go in the water Boss, you don't have your swim trunks on."

"Get away from me, you slime bag, I don't want you anywhere near me. Leave me alone!"

"Come on Boss, you're going to get your feet wet, you know you don't like wet feet."

Cam Grant turned towards him and took a hefty swing Bert saw it coming and ducked. The momentum of the swing swung Cam around and he collapsed into the advancing waves. He lay in the water going through walking motions; it looked like he thought he was still walking on the sand.

Bert didn't know what to do but he knew Cam wasn't right in his head. He tried to grab him by the arm to lift him up but he would have none of it and tried to punch him in the nose again.

Thankfully, Ira Jamiston, the town's Mayor was walking his dog along the board walk and saw what was happening. "What's going on Bert?" he said as he came closer.

"I don't know, we're supposed to be going to Portland right now, but he won't get up. He won't let me help him either and now he's getting wet and cold. There's something really wrong with him."

"Stay here with him. I'll call for the ambulance they'll know what to do."

CHAPTER 58

The second day after dawned bright and clear.

Cameron Grant lay in a hospital bed in Central City, OR and looked at the ceiling tile.

He didn't feel bad. He felt fine. But, he couldn't remember how he got to the hospital, nor did he remember why he was in bed.

The door to his room opened and Bert and Kellie Dempsey came in.

"Hi Boss, how are you doing today?"

"Don't hi boss me, what am I doing here? Why didn't we go to Portland?"

His voice began to rise and was getting loud. "Who put me in here and why am I chained to the bed?" He lifted his right arm and a handcuff and chain linked to the head of the metal bed clinked.

"I'm real sorry Boss, but I didn't know what else to do. You kept trying to walk into the ocean and it's too cold for swimming, and besides you had all your clothes on and your gun too. I was real glad when Mayor Jamiston came along and went for help. They took you away in an ambulance, you fought like crazy!"

Cam looked at Bert. There's no way he'd go into the water in May, it was too cold. And besides, he didn't remember going down to the water. What was Bert trying to pull? The Mayor was going to have his head if any of this was true."

"Get me a Doctor I want to know what's happening! Get me out of these hand cuffs! Get someone in here that can tell me what's going on!" said Sheriff Grant at the top of his voice.

Just then the door opened and a young doctor came into the room.

"Calm down sir, I'm glad to see you're feeling better, it looks like the drugs have finally worn off," said Doctor LeYung as he approached and began to make notes on the chart that hung at the foot of the bed.

"We were quite worried about you, you know. For a while there we didn't know what was wrong, you being the age you are, we were sure it was something medical." He finished writing and stood facing Cam with a big smile on his face.

"But after some tests we finally figured it out, and it was drugs. It took a bit of doing to nail down exactly what you took, but we finally figured it out. You must be feeling better."

He would have gone on like this but Sheriff Grant was in no mood to congratulate him, he just wanted out.

Then he understood, "What do you mean drugs? I don't do drugs! I could lose my job if you say that to the wrong people. Who the hell are you to decide if I did drugs?"

He began to sputter and his face was red, clearly this was not going as the young Doctor anticipated.

"I'm very sorry, sir, I'm new here. We found opiates in your urine, that's how we knew it was drugs. It also told us what to give you to counter-act what you took. We don't usually find this drug in people of your age. We consider this a Date Rape drug. Those who it's been used on seldom remember what happened the night before. You had such a high content in your blood we thought for a while we'd lose you."

For once in his life Cameron Grant was speechless.

He calmed down and after a few moments thought he said, "How did this drug get into my system. I didn't eat or drink anything yesterday that it could have been hidden in."

"Oh my, you are confused, do you know what day it is? Do you know which hospital you're in? You've been in and out of an induced coma. You were quite violent. The coma is usually easier than bed restraints but you needed both. You've been here at Central City General Hospital for two days now, I'm very glad you've finally shrugged off the after effects of the drug. You're looking much better now."

"You can take the cuffs off too, I guess I'm not going anywhere until you say so," said a very subdued sheriff as he lay back in bed and tried to remember.

The only thing he could think of that he ate was at the Breakfast Mug, but they didn't know what was going on then. He started to look at the day slowly and carefully. Questions came popping up in his mind, did he have a coffee? Did he eat anything once they left the café? Nothing came to mind.

He turned to Bert and said, "You'll have to handle the office for a few more days Bert. Make sure you change your pay rate, you should be making relief police chief wages for the days you've covered for me."

Then he turned to the wall and shut his eyes.

"Where's the lazy good-for-nothing that plays at being a cop," blustered Doc Speller as he pushed his way into the room. Dr. LeYung looked at the rumpled old man and was going to order him out, but he glanced at Bert and Kellie and understood they knew him.

"So Chief, feeling a little sorry for yourself, are we?"

"Go away Doc, I'm not talking to anybody!"

"All those fuzzy dreams bit you in the ass, did they?"

"I told you, I'm not talking!" said the sheriff rolling over and looking at the old man. Who did he think he was, why was he here?

Cam was so embarrassed that he'd been done by the bad guys. He just wanted to melt into the wall.

As he lay in bed, he saw again in his mind's eye the kiss Kathe Morgan planted on his lips right before she walked up the road.

He remembered thinking, _yum, yum_. Now he was embarrassed. Was that the way the drugs got into his system?

He thought again and remembered Pete from the garage in Chance finally arrived with a newly charged battery for the lifeless cruiser.

Cam's mind scrolled through the events of the morning. He recalled he left the forensic team at the barn and was on his way back to the office. He wasn't thinking about what wasn't blocking the road when Jake McClusky called and told him about his missing SUV.

Cam remembered telling him he'd put an APB out on it when he got back to the office. Carmen was an expert on how to disappear and they had an hour head start.

Now that he looked back, he saw the unopened bag of shoestring potatoes on the back seat of the cruiser, and remembered he was hungry. He saw himself open the bag and eat the whole thing. Something he rarely did.

Then he remembered how hot he got on the way back to the station. Not the sexy kind, just the hotter than blazes kind. It was like he had a furnace inside. He'd taken off his jacket and loosened his tie. He just wanted to lie down somewhere but he knew he had to get back to work, he had a million things to do this was no time to be sick.

He rolled over on his back and realized everyone in the room was watching him. "What? A guy can't relax around here? What are you waiting for Bert, go back to town make sure all the reports get done."

"Sorry I'm not a good patient, Dr. LeYung, do you think I can go home now? I can rest better in my own bed, I feel fine."

"Not today, your body has had a lot to recover from I think you need another day of bed rest. I'll drop in on you later."

The young doctor replaced the chart at the foot of the bed and left the room.

"Finished feeling sorry for yourself yet?" said Doc Speller.

"You know, Doc, you can be a pain in the neck! I'm sick! You heard him I need another day of bed rest. Go away."

"Poor baby, get your sorry ass out of that bed and get dressed, we've got a long drive ahead of us."

"I'm not going anywhere I'm going to stay here until they throw me out."

Doc Speller went to the closet and threw Cam's clothes on the foot of the bed. "I'm going to get you a coffee and sandwich and you're going to be dressed by the time I come back. We've got a line on the SUV and Captain Pearce wants you to take the Lead. You know Carmen best, maybe you can think of what she's going to do now, and I'm not going to touch your relationship with Kathe Morgan with a ten foot pole."

"Get up!" said Doc Speller, "it's time to go back to work!"

"Arrrgh!" irrupted from the bed.
CHAPTER 59

Bert Dempsey took Kellie home, grabbed a piece of cold chicken from the fridge and headed back to Chance. As he drove, he mulled over what happened the last two days, it looked like fate had other plans for him. Maybe he wouldn't be a Vet after all. Maybe he'd stay with Law Enforcement. This was fun.

Good thing he'd taken the office cell phone from Cam when they took him to the hospital in the ambulance. A call came in just as he was pulling into the parking space by the police station, it wasn't a number he recognized, in fact it wasn't even an Oregon phone number, it was a Washington prefix. He put the cruiser into park and answered the call.

"I'd like to speak to Chief Grant right now, please," said a female voice.

"I'm sorry, he can't come to the phone can I help you?"

"No, I need to speak to him, it's a terribly important message," she said, repeating herself.

"Like I said, lady, he's not here. Can I help you?

"Shit!"

And the line went dead.

"Darn," said Bert, "what was that all about?"

He didn't know if he should call the Boss and tell him about the odd phone call. He'd ask Kellie, she'd know how to handle this. After all, Cam was in the hospital and probably didn't care.

Bert knew he did the right thing even though she hung up. Everyone called the sheriff for all sorts of things that didn't have anything to do with law enforcement. He wasn't really sure now that it was an 'old lady' call, but he knew if it was important, she'd call back.

Bert always told Kellie about his calls, especially the 'old lady' ones. They were usually funny.

* * * *

The sheriff dressed, ate his sandwich and drank his coffee all the while muttering under his breath. Things like, ' _people won_ ' _t let you get any rest around here_ ,' and ' _no respect for the sick._ '

"You O.K.?" said Doc Speller, not quite as unsympathetic as when he came in the door. "We've got to get going, the longer we wait the better the chance of them getting away Scott free."

Cam picked up his jacket, looked for his cap but couldn't find it and left.

They walked out of the Hospital front door no one questioned whether the man without a cap was well enough to leave.

Since the city paid the gas for the department Buick, Doc Speller didn't mind that it had a decal in the middle of the door announcing its department.

He parked in the Doctor's parking lot and when they started to pull out, a young man in a security uniform came over to them and said, "You're not allowed to park in this parking lot without a doctor's sticker. I checked and you don't work here, sir. I'm sorry, but I have to ask you both for some identification."

Police Chief Grant sputtered and looked for his wallet and remembered he didn't have it. The cool breeze on his head reminded him of his absent sheriff's cap, but he was still in his uniform and it indicated that he was in law enforcement.

It looked like they were going to be in big trouble as the young man began backing away, his hand awfully close to his gun.

"Just a moment now young man, can't you read the decal on my side doors?" said Doc Speller. "Here's my driver's license, my Morgue I.D. and my Portland Police Bureau parking pass. There's a reciprocal parking agreement between the hospital and the Police Bureau."

"How long have you been working here? said Doc Speller.

The young man stopped backing away and began to stutter apologies. "I just started here last week I'm nobody, I'm real sorry, sir. It's just that we got a bulletin about some suspects that escaped custody. It said they might try to pass themselves off as medical personnel."

"Again, sorry about this," he said, hoping no one else was going to hear about this little embarrassment.

Cam and the Doc looked at each other, now what? Was this part of their case? Cam took out his personal cell phone and called Captain Pearce.

He listened for a few moments and hung up.

"Better get a move on, things are starting to happen."

The Buick didn't have a siren and Cam was surprised at the expert way the old man drove.

It was a fast trip into the city.
CHAPTER 60

Judy McKay sat at her kitchen table and thought about the situation.

Mike had just asked if Mary Lou LaFontaine could convalesce in their guest room. It seems she didn't have anywhere else and the hospital wouldn't let her out until she had somewhere to stay.

How was she going to handle this?

The hospital bill was minimal because Mary Lou had absolutely no money and no one to pay the bill for her. When administration called her indigent, Mary Lou asked Mike what that meant and he had to look it up on his Blackberry. When he told her she started to cry because she knew it was true.

She had nobody.

Mike got up from the table went to the fridge, took out a bottle of water and went out the back door. His mother was thinking. It usually took a while for her to come to a decision. Meanwhile he'd get some of his chores done before his dad came back from town.

Judy sat and thought, she knew if she sent the girl away her special son would go too. Then where would he be? No university education, no job. He'd be as destitute as the girl. She couldn't have that. They had to work something out.

Just then she heard a car door slam and footsteps on the back porch.

"Judy, have you talked to Cam lately?" said her husband coming in the back door, "I just got back from town and there are all sorts of rumors going around. I called his house but Nancy said he wasn't out of the hospital yet. Did you know he was in the hospital?"

"Yes, sorry I forgot to tell you but my mind's been elsewhere. He's in Central City, but they said I shouldn't go to see him because he was in an induced coma and he wouldn't know I was there. I had a chat with the doctor and he said he was doing fine and I should wait until he came home. He said he'd probably be out today."

"We'll see him when he gets back," said Judy, "I'll call Nancy and tell her he should call when he feels better, and we'll visit. Right now we have a bigger problem."

"What do you mean a bigger problem? What kind of rumors did you hear?" said Mike McKay coming into the room and only hearing the end of the conversation, "I heard he got shot."

"Was it at Carmen Ballenger's place?" his dad wanted to know, "in town they said there were gun shots."

"No one got shot," said Judy, "the doctor said Cam had undisclosed trauma whatever that is, but he's not shot."

"Carmen's gone and no one in town knows where she is," said Joe.

"I heard Henry is looking after the café," said Mike, "but he doesn't know how long he can do it by himself."

"I'm sorry to hear that son, who told you all this? Is there anything we can do to help?" said his dad.

"Well, I thought I'd go and see if Henry needed a hand in the kitchen. I could wash dishes and do the cleanup," said Mike.

"Ohhh noo," wailed Judy, "how can you even think of doing that? You need to stay home and help your dad, not work at the crummy café in town. Besides, if Mary Lou stays with us you need to be here. I'm not going to wait on her hand and foot. If you want her here, you have to do it."

Judy hoped the thought of house work and looking after a sick person would put Mike off.

Didn't do a bit of good and she accidently said Mary Lou could stay.

"Darn!"

Both the men heard her say it. There was no way out.

CHAPTER 61

The bored American guard hardly looked out the window at the car. They didn't check vehicles leaving the U.S.A. unless the license showed up on their "Wanted" list.

It was almost the end of his uneventful shift and he had things to do before his wife got home from a trip to see her mother.

Carmen sat in the back and looked intently at Kathe as she drove through and up to the Canadian guard's window. Another few hundred feet and they would be on the north side of the International Border.

"Hi folks, where are you headed," said the polite guard.

The good looking blond at the wheel said, "We're on our way to see relatives in Kelowna. My cousin's son is getting married. It's going to be a big wedding and we were supposed to arrive yesterday but we had a flat tire in Seattle and couldn't get it fixed until..." She rattled on and on until the guard smiled and waved them through.

Getting across the border was a snap. The new blond hair on the driver probably helped and the tight low cut Tee shirt that had the casino's logo on it didn't hurt either.

* * *

The _FAX_ in the American International Border office started humming again. Ralph, the senior guard looked at the machine with annoyance. It was Pete's turn to enter the bulletins today and Ralph wasn't going to read them until he did. He knew if he picked them up he'd have to file them. No way, not today! He had to get home on time tonight.

Neither of the two guards was anxious for the additional paper work. There was a new rule that you had to log them all in now. Seems there was a problem a month or so ago with a couple of the bulletins getting lost and some guy getting across the Border that was wanted for man slaughter in Texas, and the Canadian Mounties had to pick him up.

So the latest bulletins just kept stacking up in the tray, waiting for someone to enter them in the log.

Even the important ones.

* * * *

The Honda Accord drove slowly away from the Sumas/Huntington Canadian Border crossing in B.C., they knew if they headed north they would come to Abbotsford and Trans Canada Hwy #1.

The map said it was the one that went right across Canada to Gander, Newfoundland.

Carmen still sat in the back of the car, but now Sonny rode in front so she could have the back seat to herself. The car wasn't as big as the SUV but it would do.

"When you get to the next light, that should be the right intersection, follow the signs and they will lead us to the freeway. I made hotel reservations in a place called Chilliwack, I'm sure they'll have an 'Off Ramp' somewhere close by."

"Here it is," she said as she squinted at her piece of paper, "it says take the Yale Road 'Off Ramp' and go one half mile east. We should be able to find that."

Sonny was sitting looking out the window and giggling to himself. He'd stop laughing and look out the window and then start giggling again.

"What are you laughing at Sonny?" said an aggravated Carmen, "I don't see anything funny we took an awful chance crossing the border. I thought sure they would stop us."

"Sorry Mother, I just can't stop saying 'Chilliwack', who'd give a town a name like that. Chilli...wack! It tickles me to say it, CHILLI..wack, chilli...WACK."

Thump!

"Owww, all you had to do was ask me not to say it again, I'm not twelve years old anymore, you know," said Sonny, as he rubbed the back of his head.

Carmen had very little patience for him now that they were in such close quarters. She had a heavy hand and Sonny felt it often, even as old as he was.

"Pull over at the next gas station, Kathe, I want to make a call but I don't want to call from the hotel. Stop anywhere you can see a pay phone."

"I see a gas station coming up but I don't know if it has a phone?" said Sonny.

"There must be a pay phone somewhere it's not that primitive up here. I have to make this call today or we won't be able to get any money for another five days."

Kathe took the exit and drove into the gas station parking lot.

Carmen left the two in the car and went around the side of the Shell Gas Station looking for a phone booth.

She was back in a matter of moments, "Do either of you have any Canadian coins?" she asked.

This was something she hadn't thought of. American money was good all over the world, right? But nobody told this hick pay phone company. It kept spitting out the US money and a female voice said, 'Please Use Canadian Coins'.

Kathe Morgan sat in the driver's seat of the blue Honda Accord and watched what was going on. Even though she was unable to physically make a move without Carmen's O.K. her mind was still her own

"Why don't you use the disposable phone we bought at the drug store yesterday?" said Sonny.

"Just shut up and let me think! If this Chilliwack is a big town, maybe they'd have a Money Store."

Kathe listened to the exchange between Carmen and Sonny and a small germ of hope began to simmer in her heart.

"We can't go to Chilliwack it shows on the map as a small town, we won't be able to change any money there. We have to go to Vancouver," said Carmen, "it's a city. I'm sure we can change some money somewhere there. It doesn't look very far."

"Let me look at the map," said Sonny grabbing it from Carmen, he thought he knew more than she did about how to read a map.

"It looks close I think it's only about three inches. We could stay there."

Carman grabbed the map back, "What do ya mean, three inches, you can't read this map any better than I. Let's get going Kathe, look for an overpass I think it's going to be a long drive."

The three inches turned into an hour and a half drive and there still was no sign that said, Vancouver.

"It's getting dark and I'm hungry, we have to get off and find somewhere to stay," said Carmen, "look up ahead, there's a bunch of lights and that looks like a hotel, I'll check the map. Take this off ramp Kathe, I'll keep my eye on the building, you try to find it."

The off ramp had signs and one of them said, Ft. Langley, and then a Turn Right sign, and away they went into the night, with no thought of the reservation they'd made in Chilliwack.

CHAPTER 62

Sheriff Cameron Grant paused in the doorway to Conference Room B. He and Doc Speller drove all the way from the hospital in Central City in record time, but it still looked like they were the last ones to arrive.

"Sorry, sorry," muttered Sheriff Grant as he made his way behind the big table trying to avoid the men sitting around it. The room was crowded with suits and uniforms and people Cam had never seen before. This was now a State wide manhunt. It mushroomed while he was in the hospital.

And it was going to be a big one.

"O.K. everyone, I hope you've all got your coffee, because I just got the last cup. For any of you who don't know me, my name is Captain Bud Pearce, you're here because you've had something to do with these teeter-totter murders."

"It seems things have come to a head with the abduction, finding and subsequent abduction of Mary Lou LaFontaine along with the flight of Carmen Ballenger and an unidentified youth. I'm going to turn this meeting over to Sheriff Cameron Grant of Chance, Oregon who probably knows as much about this case as any of us here," said Captain Pearce and he took his seat at the head of the table and looked at the Sheriff.

Surprised by the quick introduction Cam got to his feet.

"All right gentlemen, I'm not very good at speeches, so there won't be any. What we need is information and ideas for discussion until we can come up with a plan that will bring the suspect Carmen Ballenger and her associates in. I don't need to go over the pertinent information we have, it's all on the fact sheets you received when you sat down."

"I want to give a special thanks to my deputy Bert Dempsey for collecting and editing the times and places' that occurred in Chance that you'll find in the notes."

Cameron moved over to the blackboard and started to make columns then he put headings on them.

"We need a plan! We need a way to get ahead of our suspects and bring them in before they go to ground and we don't see them again for another ten years."

"Any ideas?"

The meeting started slow, but Jake McClusky stood up and gave a short version of what was done ten years ago when they found three young dead boys tied to the teeter-totter in the playground at Sea Side.

"The police force at that time took the matter very seriously," he said, "but without the forensic abilities that are available today, we didn't have much of a chance. We had no indications for the pervert that was doing this, and when it stopped we figured it was all over."

Officer Fred McBurny stood up and gave the short version of how Mary Lou LaFontaine was taken for the second time. He left out the saga of Judy McKay as no one thought it was connected to the incident. Just a case of 'the wrong time and the wrong place.'

The Captain of the SWAT team gave an update on the 'take down' at Carmen Ballenger's barn.

The Senior Forensic Tech gave his information regarding what was gathered at the barn.

Some others stood and shared what they had and Cam wrote it all on the board.

In the long run, it wasn't much.

He noticed a man in a rumpled grey suit sitting in the corner writing on a pad on his knee. He hadn't said a thing, just watched who said what.

Who was this guy?

The meeting wound to a close, not much further ahead than when they started. They'd sent out an APB on the license plate of the SUV and it was located in IL Waco, WA. A local who'd bought it sight unseen on the Internet two days earlier was upset! He got it for cheap, and now he didn't know who to complain to as that site was no longer on the Web.

The forensic lab was going over the vehicle with a fine tooth comb but no one held out much hope of finding anything of value.

Captain Pearce stood up and started thanking everyone for coming and reminding them to check their email, and watch for a fax if anything new showed up.

The fellow in the corner stood up, cleared his throat and everyone looked at him.

"I know I've not been in on this case as long as some of you, but it seems to me you've overlooked a very important clue."

Every eye snapped to the speaker, people started getting their note books out again.

"Let me run through this, and tell me if I've misinterpreted the evidence."

He made his way up to the board and picked up a piece of chalk. "My name is Patterson I'm a psychology professor at the U of Oregon in Portland. Your Captain Pearce asked me to sit in on this meeting to see if I could shed some light on why your suspect is acting the way she is."

"Could it be possible that you have been concentrating on the wrong aspect of your evidence?"

He stood in front of the board and erased everything on it and started writing.

"She is obviously an obsessive/compulsive personality," he said. 'Previously for example; three boys each around fifteen years old, why three, why not five, or seven? Each one sacrificed on the Altar of Youth within a set period of time."

He turned to the table and said, "the youth part, would be the teeter-totter."

"But the information concerning the boys has not been looked into sufficiently. Why two boys this time, why not three like last time. What's different this time? I thought it interesting to note, the boys were twins. Were any twins last time? Were they triplets? I think you need to look at this."

"Let's look at both crime scenes," said the professor dividing the bottom portion of the board into two sides and putting 'Ten Years Ago', on one side and 'Now', on the other.

He stood looking at the information on the board and began to write again.

"Now we know there were three boys last time," he said, making three stick boys on the first side. "However, we don't know their relationship with each other. Each was tied to the same teeter-totter," and he showed one teeter-totter. "We also know they too were drained of their blood," and he showed three drops of blood with a line through them. "They were found near the ocean," and he showed three stylized waves.

"Now, we have to look at to-day, we only have two boys," and drew two stick boys on the NOW side.

"Each tied like the last ones to their same teeter-totter but in a different place," and he drew one teeter-totter. "And again by the ocean," and he drew two waves.

"The best question of the day, isn't why only two this time."

"The question is, why a girl, this time!"

"If you look at this chart you will see, our suspect needs to be constant, needs to have all her ducks in a row. Something's not right with this picture. I think you need to focus on the missing girl. Now I know she isn't missing, she's in the hospital and I understand she's going to be O.K. but I'd advise that it's not finished yet. There has to be a girl on the teeter-totter," he said, putting a chalk underline under the word, 'girl'.

"Is it because she will be the last one, ever? Or does it have something to do with the blood that's harvested? Or is it because our suspect is going to branch out? You can't tell with the information you have, but my advice to you is to watch the teeter-totter 24/ 7, and watch the girl, this isn't finished yet, and it has to be done by the 15th of the month."

The people around the table looked at one another and nodded, he's right.

"Also the question of the lack of blood in the body in each ease, there isn't enough information yet to form an opinion. But I'd suggest you get someone in here that's an expert in the occult."

"Also, I would hold back the lack of blood in the bodies from the media this is bound to bring out all the crazies when the tabloids get hold of it."

He put the chalk down and turned to face the group of men, "Anymore thoughts?"

Cam Grant got to his feet and said, "So, what you're saying is, whoever did this has to do it again? And, because only two boys were killed she has to come back and finish, she can't help it?"

"That's right there is no other end to this. She won't be able to rest or resist until it's finished the way it has to play out in her mind. Don't get me wrong here, I say 'her', but it could just as easily be a male."

"Check the evidence again with new eyes. Maybe something will pop. I have to go back to the University I have classes that I can't put off. If you have any more questions, please call." He put the chalk down, grabbed his coat and briefcase and was gone before anyone could stop him.

"Who the heck was that guy?" said Jake McClusky to Cam, "I've never seen him around. I know I got here a little late, but I don't remember him being introduced."

"I got here even later than you I just thought he was another suit sent down to report to some 'big shot' about what we were doing with the case. But you know, I think he has something here. I think we better start again, and this time we'll start in Portland."

"Sounds good to me. We need to check that first body, Mary Lou's grandmother, to see if there's any connection. What if she's a relative of the boys?"

"Say Doc, can we meet you in the morgue in a few minutes, we need to talk." said Cam as he gathered his papers and prepared to leave.

"Hold on there, you two. Where do you think you're going? We haven't finished this meeting yet," said Captain Pearce as he stood facing the two men in the doorway.

"Sorry, but we have an idea. We'll get back to you when we have something concrete to report," said Cameron Grant as he grabbed Jake by the arm to urge him out of the room.

Captain Pearce stood looking after the two men hurrying down the hall to the elevator. Another time he'd have called them back, but now they needed all the new ideas they could find.

"I didn't want to say this in there, but I think we have a leak."

"You're kidding? How do you know?" said Jake.

"They've been a step ahead of us all through this. Carmen wasn't upset enough, and...she had her escape all planned."

The two men headed for the elevator that moaned. Jake McClusky just shook his head, "I can't believe they haven't fixed this thing. It was grinding when I was working. It still sounds like moaning and groaning."

"Good thing it only goes to the morgue, can you imagine if it went up to the executive floor?" grinned Cam.

The elevator gave a little bump and a small hiss and the doors opened to find Doc Speller standing waiting. "I was just coming back up to see if you still wanted to see me. What's going on?"

"Not much, that's the problem. That professor from the U of Oregon that was in the meeting had some good ideas, and I think we better start again from the beginning."

"What can I do to help you boys?"

"We'd like to see the body of the old woman that was supposed to be Mary Lou Lafontaine's grandmother, we never did much of a check on who she was and where she came from. I remember the autopsy results we got on the fax said, Undetermined Death, I can't recall ever seeing that designation before, what's up, Doc?"

"Don't get silly yet," said Doc Speller with a small smile, "the case is beginning again, look at the body. I gave her death that old designation because other than not having any blood, she was in excellent health for a woman of her undetermined age. And I mean, excellent! No hardening of the arteries, no plaque buildup anywhere, no muscle degeneration, she had the body of a thirty year old inside that old skin."

Doc Speller paused and pulled out the drawer that held the old woman's body. There she lay, not looking any worse for the wear.

"See what I mean," said Doc Speller. I told Captain Pearce about this, but he's been so busy with meetings since Carmen got away that he's not had time to come and see. Besides, I don't think he believed me when I said she wasn't deteriorating."

The sheriff and the old cop looked at the remains with questions bubbling in their minds. How could this be happening? What was going on?

Cam gingerly touched the old woman's arm, the skin felt smooth and cold. He jerked his hand away as though he touched something horrible.

Both men looked at the Doctor and he closed the drawer.

"Now," he said, "I want you to see the boys."

He led them down to the other end of the wall, and pulled out C12, and D12, third and fourth row over and two rows up and opened the small doors. He pulled out the trays.

Jake McClusky and the sheriff looked at the bodies.

"Good grief man, things like this don't happen in the real world," said Jake McClusky. They felt as though they'd stepped into the movies, one of those old SiFi Horror films.

"We don't usually keep dead bodies; we try to release them to their next of kin as soon as possible. If there is no 'next of kin' the state pays to bury them. Some people call it a pauper's grave, it's not the greatest, but it's better than nothing. The reason this body, that's the first one from January five months ago, is still here is this," said the Doc and indicated the shriveled state of the corpse.

Jake and Cam looked at the body and both bit down hard, this boy looked like a thousand year old Egyptian mummy without the wrappings. Cam's stomach rolled over.

"I've never had anything like this on my table," said Doc Speller. "Now look at this one, he's only been dead for five weeks and he looks the same as the other one. I tell you, neither of them have an ounce of liquid, blood or otherwise in them. This can't be."

"What exactly did you expect to see that I haven't?" said Doc Speller moving away from the wall.

"I'm not sure," said Cam swallowing hard, just bring all three out and line them up under the lights. I want to compare the bodies maybe we missed something when we had the wrong approach."

Soon all three lay on their respective gurneys. Two were shriveled and sunken, but the old woman looked good.

"Are the clothes still here, Doc?" said the Sheriff.

"Yes, they're still in the lockers, they have identity cards on the bodies with their name and tray number.

"Jake," said Cam, "would you mind finding the clothes for each one and lay everything out separately. There must be something that ties them all together, we just haven't seen it."

The three men stood and looked at the bodies.

Each one so different.

Each one so the same.

There was no connection, two were extremely dehydrated, the other, not really.

This was starting to be really, really creepy.

"How much blood has been harvested from these three bodies? Did the young male bodies have more blood than the old woman? Did she look like the boys at one time? Where did her blood come from? Are we talking a cup full, or quarts and gallons?" said Jake.

"You know," said Cam, looking at all three faces, "the old woman has a surprised look. Is that a symptom of being dehydrated? Why don't the two young boys look like that too?"

"I'm no expert on hematology or dehydration so I don't know. But it looks to me like she was surprised, or puzzled, but the last two weren't."

"You're right, so she knew what was happening, but the boys didn't?"

"How come none of this came out in the meeting we just had up stairs?" said Cam. "This puts a different light on a lot of things, it ties the two boys together but I don't know about the old lady."

"I did tell Captain Pearce this morning," said Doc Speller, "but he said not to include it in my report. I'm not sure, but I heard a distressing rumor that there was a leak in the department."

CHAPTER 63

"Yes, I know...it couldn't be helped, I realize you had to leave when you did...yes... I'll go over when they're gone... Yes, they finished going through the house, but I don't think they found the secret room in the attic. I'd of heard."

"They're still focusing on the barn. I don't think there's a big problem they don't know what they're looking for. They're all running around in circles. Yessss... I'm staying close and watching...It won't be long now. Where are you?... Really? ...what's it like up there?... O.K...Keep in touch,...Yes, I know...see you soon...Cheers."

CHAPTER 64

Sheriff Grant and Doc Speller stood outside the Bureau in the early morning of the next day. It had been a long night, and both men were exhausted.

The late meeting with Captain Pearce was not painful, but it was uncomfortable to pry into all the staff's private lives. The three of them were the only ones who knew of the effect the dehydration had on the three bodies. If they could find the leak they would find Carmen.

* * * *

"Hi Bert," said Sheriff Grant as he entered the Chance police station that same day after a few hours' sleep.

The day before was a grinding marathon, from the morning when Doc Speller rooted him out of bed in the hospital to their late night private meeting with Captain Pearce and Jake McClusky.

At the end of the meeting Doc Speller offered Cam a ride home. He'd made arrangements to open his summer cottage in Chance, and welcomed the company on the long drive. Besides, it saved Bert having to come to Portland to get him. It was a quiet drive as each man was lost in his own thoughts about how someone, namely Carmen Ballenger, could have been involved in these gruesome murders and no one noticed anything. How did she know what was going on?

"So, what's been happening?"

"Not much, it's been quiet. People want to see you they don't want the gossip second hand from me. I'd get ready for a lot of phone calls once folks find out you're back."

The deputy got up from behind the police chief's desk and taking the papers he was working on, went and sat at his own desk. It was funny how after only three days of being police chief, he was missing the authority already.

"What're you working on, Bert?"

"Well, I've been looking at these reports I, pardon, you, have to do every month and I think I found a better way to keep track, and make it a lot simpler. Look here," he said showing him the form he was making in the computer. "See where you have the number of calls per day totaled? With this form you only have to enter the number once and at the end of the month the computer will calculate each day and it will show per day and per month too. This method is a lot faster and easier, the computer will do it all. I have a few more ideas too, if you want to see them...," said Bert with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Good job, Bert, but what I need right now is for you to go over to the Breakfast Mug and see if Henry's heard from Carmen. Don't let on she's in trouble just ask in a casual way, O.K.?"

"Sure, do you want me to go right now?" said Bert turning off the computer.

"Sure. I'm going over to the Court House and do a little checking to see when the David and Carmen moved here, and when they bought the café. I don't know if that has anything to do with anything but I'm going to find out. You come back here when you've finished talking to Henry."

Both men got up and left. They knew if anything important came up, Lisa at the Mayor's office would beep them.

Bert walked the half block down to the Breakfast Mug and took a seat at the counter. Mike McKay stood in front of him and asked to take his order.

"I didn't know you were working here," said Bert. "When did you start?"

"Oh, I'm only going to be here a couple of days, I'm just helping out until Henry can hire someone more permanent. What'll ya have?"

"Just a cuppa coffee for now."

"Coming right up."

"I don't see Henry in back, if I ordered something to eat would you be making it?"

"Don't worry, he just ran up to the bank, he'll be back in a moment. Here's your coffee. Cream and sugar?"

"No, just black. How is Henry managing, is enough money coming in? Just between you and me I didn't think he was smart enough to manage the café and cook too."

"He's been getting some phone calls, but I don't know who there're from. I asked him who's phoning him, but he just tells me to mind my own business and wait on the customers."

Bert drank his coffee and thought about the conversation. Seemed a little odd that everything was running so smoothly, and Carman wasn't here to oversee.

"Hummmm."

Bert finished his coffee, left the café and hurried back to the office.

Cam wasn't back yet, but Bert was excited. He knew he had something to tell the sheriff and he could hardly wait.

Meanwhile, Cam was at the Court House looking through dusty record books. Another thing about a small town, this information wasn't on computer yet, you had to look everything up by hand in the big County Books. It was very time consuming.

Finally he turned the last page and there it was the record of the sale of the 'Chance Café', to David Ballenger. The new name of the café was registered right below it, 'Breakfast Mug' big as life. He looked over the page very carefully and nowhere was the name Carmen Ballenger mentioned.

He then looked up the date he thought David died. Still no mention of the café changing hands. This almost looked like a clue, but he didn't know of what?

Cam gave the books back and thanked the girls in the Court House for letting him see them on such short notice. Then he walked the block and a half back to the police station.

Bert was waiting for him by the door, just about hopping up and down with excitement.

"I found out something, chief, and I didn't let on I understood what I was hearing. Come in, I'll tell you what I found out."

The sheriff pulled his chair out from behind his desk, sat down and looked at Bert, "O.K., let me have it."

Bert was so excited about the information he could hardly get it out.

"So, Henry gets a lot of phone calls, what of it?" said Cam, "I don't understand what you're so excited about."

"Don't you see, Henry's getting phone calls from Carmen! He couldn't run that place himself. If we can trace the phone calls, we'll know where Carmen is," said Bert with a broad grin on his face. "Maybe Kathe Morgan and the kid are with her. Couldn't hurt to look into it?"

"You know Bert, that's not such a bad idea. I'll give the Captain a call to get something set up with the phone company."

Bert went back to his desk, a broad grin on his face. This law enforcement stuff was getting better and better.

Riiing, riingg.

"Good afternoon, Chance Law Enforcement, Bert Dempsey speaking, can I help you? Oh hello, Mrs. McKay, yes he's here," said Bert as he waved at Cam to pick up the phone. "It's your sister," he whispered.

"Hi Judy, how're you today?" said Cam as he sat up in his chair, put the pen he was using down and prepared for a long chat. "What's that you say? I didn't know you had Mary Lou LaFontaine at your place again... Yes, well, I'm sure she appreciates the bother she's putting you to... No, I haven't been down to the Breakfast Mug since I got out of the hospital. It's been busy here... Why don't you go yourself? No, I'm not being a smart ass, I just think if you want to know how he's doing, go down and see for yourself... I'm sure he's doing fine. I'll call you if anything bad happens... No, I don't think bad things are going to happen."

Didn't mean to mention that.

Cam had the phone on his shoulder and was doodling on the Fact sheet he made of all that happened the last three days.

As his eye went up and down the columns, he remembered he hadn't called the Captain yet about putting a bug on the phone line of the Breakfast Mug. _Might as well put one on Henry_ ' _s home phone too_ , he thought, _got to cover all the bases._

"O.K. Judy, I'll keep an eye on Mike, yes I will...I'll go down there right now... yes...Good-by already!"

"Bert, I have to make that phone call to the Captain, you go down and see if Mike is still O.K."

"What am I supposed to say? Mike isn't going to like that his mother sent someone to spy on him."

"I don't care what you say to him, just ask him if he's O.K. then come back."

Bert got up and as an afterthought put his gun in his holster. It looked good and only a few people knew there were no bullets in it. Sometimes you just needed to appear tough!

As Bert was leaving the office, the phone started ringing again. The sheriff grabbed the phone and almost yelled, "Chance Police Station! Oh, sorry about that, I thought you were another neighbor that wanted to know about Carmen... Well, can't be helped, I keep telling them there's no news, but it doesn't stop them...Yes, I remember, Doc, what did you find out? You can't be serious...that much, eh...I'd never believed there were ten pints of blood in a body. It's the size and the body weight that makes the difference, but not that much...Well, thanks a lot for getting back to me on that, Doc. I'm not sure what exactly that will mean to the investigation but I think it will mean something when we figure out what they are doing with thirty pints of blood."

"Humm," said Cam Grant, as he hung up the phone. Small light bulbs were going off in his head.

CHAPTER 65

"Carmen, where have you been? I looked all over the motel for you, I thought the Mounted Police got you," said Sonny.

"You've got to be kidding. Why would they be looking for me?" she said, as she put the bag of snacks and junk food on the bed.

Carmen Ballenger was in a very good mood.

The road from Ft. Langley, BC to Edmonton, Alberta had been a long and interesting one.

The vision of glacial ice captured them as they went through Banff, Alberta. There were such high mountains, such big glaciers. Who knew glacial ice was greenish. Not the grass kind of green, but the emerald kind.

All in all, it had been a good trip, a little fast, but they only had two days to cover 700 miles. Carmen arranged for them to be in Wild Rose, AB and she knew they'd better be on time or else.

Carmen disappeared every time they stopped for gas or to eat. She wouldn't tell Sonny who she was calling on the phone, and when he tried to follow her she turned on him and shrieked and yelled as though he'd made some terrible mistake.

Kathe Morgan sat in the chair by the window and watched. Her mind was getting cloudy, it seemed to go to sleep and she would wake up and not know where she was or why she was there.

She tried to stay in the moment, since neither Carmen nor Sonny talked to her, she sang songs in her head, and tried to do math problems to keep her mind active. She knew if she didn't, Carmen would own her, body and soul.

Carmen kept telling Sonny it would all be O.K. in a few days, and then they wouldn't have anything else to worry about.

But the mailman knew different! He knew they'd left unfinished business back there. He knew he would soon have to come out again, but he laughed to himself when he thought about Sonny. Sonny didn't even know he was here, too. But Carmen knew, she thought she had him under control, but he knew he was getting stronger every day.

He knew they'd have to go back for the blood.

CHAPTER 66

The two men sat in the Saigon Coffee Shop in Portland around the corner from the Portland Police Bureau on S.W. 2nd Avenue and mulled over the events of the past few days.

"I can't accept what you say, I've known that man for a dogs age, it can't be him," said Sheriff Grant.

The two men looked at the table, the senior one cleared his throat and mumbled again that he couldn't believe it either, but there it was.

Irrefutable proof!

"Tell me again how you got this and where it came from," said Cam as he reread the short paragraph on the sheet of paper that lay accusingly on the table. "I find this hard to believe, the man was with the force for 25 years, his record was spotless."

The coffee in the cups was getting cold and there didn't seem to be much to say. Both men were lost in their own thoughts.

"No, thank you, I've had enough coffee for the day, we won't be much longer," Doc Speller said to the young waitress that came to refill their mugs.

"I have to go back now, Cam. There are people that need my attention, and I still call them people. It gives them dignity before we carve them up like Sunday night's pot roast. I didn't go looking for anything like this," he said indicating the note on the table, "it was in the file. You know you asked me to check the files on our previous three bodies from ten years ago, so that's what I was doing. And, this fell out. I wasn't even going to read it I thought it was just another piece of old information. I have no idea how or when it got into the file for that young man, but there it is. What are we going to do with it?"

"Well, I know what we should do, but do you think there's a rational explanation? Maybe we're making something out of nothing. Maybe we should confront him? I should tell you what Bert thinks," said Cam, "and maybe he's right. Maybe we are being conned!"

"Get on with it I have to be back by half past."

"You've given me a headache with this you know. I sent Bert to the Breakfast Mug yesterday to see if my nephew, Mike McKay was O.K., he volunteered to help Henry out until he could get some permanent help and my sister Judy called and wanted me to go and find out, quiet like, how he was doing. She'd have gone herself, but Mary Lou LaFontaine is staying there again and she didn't want to leave her alone. You know what happened last time. But I'm getting ahead of myself."

The waitress came over again, and this time they both had their mugs filled with fresh coffee.

"I was busy so I sent Bert," said Cam continuing and stirring his coffee carefully, "he went down to the Mug and came back all excited."

"Get on with it boy, I haven't got all day!"

"The long and short of it is Bert thinks Carmen is calling Henry to make sure the café is running smoothly. He thinks, and I agree it can't hurt, we put a bug on the Breakfast Mug's and Henry's home phone to see who exactly is calling so often and where they're calling from."

Doc Speller just sat and looked at the sheriff with his mouth open. "Have you told Captain Pearce about this yet?"

"He knows about the phone calls and I was just on my way up to see him."

"I'll come with you."

"I thought you had 'people' to see?"

"Never mind, they'll wait, grab that paper and let's get going."

Both men finished their coffee. Cam paid the bill and they made their way as quickly as they could back around the corner to the Police Bureau.

Jake McClusky was waiting by the main elevator on the first floor.

"Hi fellas, anything new?"

"Well, we're not sure, but we need to show it to the Captain before we run with it."

"Good for you, can I know what's going on?" said Jake.

"Not yet."

The elevator doors opened and they waited until everyone got off before stepping in. Jake looked at the floor and tried to look uninterested, but they could tell he was dying of curiosity.

"I just came in to have a coffee with the guys, there's a lot in the newspaper about the teeter-totter killings and I'm still interested. Let me know if anything pans out?"

Doc Speller and Cameron Grant just nodded and hurried down the hall towards the Captain's office. He wasn't there. They looked for him down the hall in Conference Room A; stopped in the open doorway and waited until he looked up.

"Hi Doc, can I do something for you?"

"Yes, I think we have a lead on this teeter-totter case, but we need your approval for some bodies and equipment. If you have time, we, Sheriff Grant and I would like to tell you what we have."

"Well gentlemen, I definitely think you have something here. In fact this is the best lead we've got. Any suggestions on how you want to deal with this?"

"I think we need to play this as close as we can. We think we know where the leak is. We also know that Carmen is keeping in touch with Henry."

"But that only answers one question, and that is, how is the Breakfast Mug doing?" said Captain Pearce as he got up and they all went back to his office.

"If she comes back we'll have her, and whoever's with her!" said Cam.

"Only if she tries to sell the Breakfast Mug, but I don't think that's what's going to bring her back. She's got money, not only whatever she's stashed away, but what she got for Jake McClusky's SUV," said the Captain.

"I don't think she's going to come back to sell the Breakfast Mug," said Cam, "I checked at the Court House and she doesn't own it. She was never married, the café is still in David Ballenger's name and he's been dead for four years. But, I know there's some other connection to the café, she's keeping her eye on it through Henry."

"I set up the phone bug when you called this morning," said Captain Pearce, "they're supposed to be monitoring it 24-7, when Carmen calls again, we'll know."

"I have one question before we get on to the other question," said Cam Grant and he showed them a piece of paper that read, _Don_ ' _t talk, we need to go back to conference room A._

The Captain looked at Cam and then at Doc Speller, shrugged his shoulders and got up. They didn't say a word as they left the office, but the Captain was getting a little red around his collar.

"Alright Sheriff Grant," said Captain Pearce, "we are in Conference Room A again, what's this all about?"

"I know you'll understand when you hear this, my question is, how did the perp know where to look for Mary Lou the second time, how did he know which hotel we took her to? There were only a few of us in on those arrangements and yet he knew exactly where to find her. There must be something in your office or on your phone that's telling our suspect what's going on."

Captain Pearce sat down heavily in the chair by the wall. He was starting to look a little pink. "Are you telling me, someone bugged my office?"

He stood up and his face was red, his blood pressure must have been through the roof, "Are you saying," he tried to shout quietly, "that someone was able to bug my office phone? That can't be, we sweep those offices every week for bugs, who would have equipment sophisticated enough to not show up, and better question, who had that kind of access to install it?"

"Get Jenkins down here, to Conference Room A, I want his head on a platter, I want a good reason why I shouldn't nail his sorry ass to the second floor shower. Now, I said, NOW!" he roared at his long suffering secretary.

"Calm down, sir, I'm sure Jenkins didn't have anything to do with this. But do you realize, and I only know this because Doc Speller just told me, the cleaning crew for the morgue has been short their midnight shift man. He's the one that's here all by himself for four hours..."

"Oh shit! I never would have thought of that," said the Captain, "I know I'm supposed to know everything that goes on in this building, but I'm only one man. I can only do so much," he said as he buried his head in his hands.

"I've seen that guy myself on occasion but he looks so harmless. I thought he wanted that shift because he couldn't cope with the day to day events on the floor. We need to get someone in here that is more up to date then our staff."

Captain Pearce picked up the phone and dropped it again. Until they had this bug thing straightened out, the office phones were Off Limits. People were going to have to use their private cell phones.

"Oh no," said the Captain, "we're going to be the laughing stock of Oregon, no, make that the whole Western Seaboard! I don't think I can stand this. Imagine, we've been bugged by the bad guys."

Cam looked at the Chief and had to keep his face straight, if he laughed now, or even smiled, he'd be in such deep shit it would take a _back loader_ to get him out.

He got up and went to the coffee machine luckily there was still some left. Cam poured it into a Styrofoam cup and put it within reach of his boss. He didn't want to get too close.

The captain picked it up and drained it, and then said, "I'm going to call that Professor from the U of Oregon. Cam, lend me your cell phone, mine's in the office. Maybe he's gotten to that one too," said the Captain as he took out his note pad and looked up the Professor's phone number. "As I was saying you remember, the one who spoke to us on Friday, maybe he'll have another idea or two. And besides, he didn't have anything to do with the last killings ten years ago so he should be clean."

Doc Speller and Sheriff Grant sat around the table and listened while the Captain made arrangements for a secret meeting.

The door to conference room A opened, and there stood Jake McClusky.

Did he hear what was going on? Does he know where the meeting's going to be held? Will he tell anybody?

"Hi everybody, I'm just on my way home and thought if there was anything I could do to help, just give me a call. You have my home phone as well as my cell. I love these latest gadgets it's amazing what they can do."

Jake closed the conference room door and they heard footsteps go down the hall. They waited until the elevator door opened and closed.

Even though they were alone, Cam grabbed a piece of paper and wrote, _we think_ _Jake_ ' _s the leak, remember? We_ ' _ve got a piece of paper that you have to see._

Then he wrote more, _we better make the meeting sooner. I_ ' _ll go to the gas station on the corner and call the professor, when and where should I tell him?_

The Captain used hand signals to let Cam and Doc Speller know the new arrangements about the secret meeting.

Doc Speller went down to the morgue to pick up his jacket and as he got off the elevator he remembered they didn't show the Captain the note he found in the file for the killings that took place ten years ago.

"Hi Doc!" said Jake McClusky, "I think you have something of mine."

CHAPTER 67

Mary Lou woke up and looked around. She knew where she was, she was in the lovely room in the McKay house.

_I don_ ' _t remember getting here_ , she thought as she lay and stretched.

In reality she'd been at the McKay household for the past three days, she barely ate but she slept as though drugged. No matter that she tried to stay awake, she would even nod off sitting at the dinner table.

Judy finally became concerned and phoned the hospital in Central City where they treated her.

Since she was found upside down hanging from a hook with her blood draining out through an Apheresis Apparatus while she was still alive, the doctor told Judy he wasn't familiar with all aspects of draining that much blood out of a body. They'd given her the maximum transfusion medical ethics allowed, and he knew sleep was one of the best ways of renewing the blood supply.

He said call again if she doesn't wake up in another week.

That would mean she was having trouble renewing the blood herself, and perhaps she should have another transfusion. He also said if she didn't start waking up for longer periods, bring her in and they would look at her again.

Judy opened the door to her room and looked in. Seeing the young woman awake she went in and stood at the foot of the bed.

"Well, young lady, how are you today? You've been asleep since we brought you home from the hospital. We were starting to worry."

"Oh, Mrs. McKay, I'm so sorry, I wouldn't want you to worry about me," said Mary Lou who seemed to sink back into the bed and was asleep before Judy could say anything else.

_Well, at least we know she_ ' _s alive I was beginning to wonder. No sense trying to make her wake up before she_ ' _s ready,_ thought Judy McKay and she turned and left the room.

Sharp eyes peeked through the bottom of the window pane. They seemed pleased with what they saw.

CHAPTER 68

The next day Sheriff Grant was sitting at his desk when Bert Dempsey came in.

"I thought you were only working two days this week, Bert, what're you doing here?"

"I didn't have that much to do at home, and I, ah, thought maybe, I'd be more useful here. Besides, Kellie said you probably needed more help."

"I can't promise you pay for today, Bert, but I'll put it in. I could use another pair of hands right now."

"Whatever you say Chief, I took my gun home last night, I, I, ah, forgot I had it, and when Kellie saw it she made me hide it in the shed out back. I think I'll just leave it here for now."

Bert took the gun out of the brown bag he was carrying and put it in the bottom drawer for now. He'd put it in the gun cupboard later. Maybe wearing it all the time wasn't such a good idea.

Leaving it in the bottom drawer wasn't much better.

"O.K. Bert, now I want you to go down to the Breakfast Mug again and have a cup of coffee and stay about fifteen minutes. Come back and tell me EVERYTHING you saw and heard. O.K.?"

"Sure Chief, right up my alley."

Bert left the police station and tried to look casual as he headed to the Breakfast Mug. He was wearing his police uniform so he wanted to look purposeful, yet unplanned.

He opened the door and immediately sensed something was wrong. He looked around and saw there was no one behind the counter.

No one? Not even Mike McKay?

What's going on here?

"Henry, Henry, where are you? Got some trouble here?" Bert started to back out the door when a bedraggled looking Henry came shuffling out of the store room.

"Thank goodness someone finally showed up, Bert. I don't know what to do anymore. I've been up all night with this supply list and I still don't know if I should be ordering more coffee from the wholesaler and wait for him to deliver or should I go and pick it up. I need more eggs and milk, but am I supposed to pay them when I get the stuff, or at the end of the month. What do you think, Bert?" said Henry wringing his hands.

"Carmen will kill me when she comes back next week and finds out how bad everything is. On top of that, two girls came in this morning for the waitress job and I didn't know which one to hire, so I hired them both. But they sweet talked me into letting them start on Monday. What am I going to do about the weekend, Bert? I'm in over my head, Bert. When Carmen calls...."

Henry was talking faster and faster, his face was getting redder and his nose started to run. Just then there was a loud hiss and bang from the kitchen and Henry ran to contain the small flames erupting from the side of the gas stove.

The door opened and people were standing in the doorway waiting for the rest of their party. Ira Jamiston the mayor and two aldermen were also coming into the Mug. They were so busy talking they didn't notice Bert until they almost bumped into him.

"Hey Bert, didn't know you'd be in today?" said the mayor, "something going on I should know about?"

"No, just same old, same old," said Bert. "Gotta go now," he said and side stepped the Mayor and left quickly. The Mayor stood in the doorway looking after him as he hurried back up the street.

"Chief, Chief you'll never believe what just happened at the Mug. Henry's in there by himself, I don't know where Mike McKay got to but he's not there either. He told me Carmen will be mad at him when she comes back next week because he got the ordering all screwed up."

"When she comes back? You said he said 'when' she comes back? Am I hearing you right? She's going to come back, now?"

"Here!"

"When?"

Cam Grant grabbed Bert by the shoulders and was shaking him as though jumbling up his brain would make him think more clearly.

"I,,,I,,,I can't think," stuttered Bert, "you have to let go."

"Think man tell me exactly what he said!"

"I'm trying, Henry was real upset. And just when he was going to say when Carmen was going to call, something exploded in the kitchen and he ran in there to put out the fire. We don't need to know when she's going to call because he said she was coming back next week, and besides, we have that bug on the line."

Sheriff Grant sat down in his chair with a worried look on his face.

After a few moments of intense thought, he said, "Bert, we have to get our act together. We're just a hick town on the coast of Oregon but this is going to be the biggest take down of the decade, and we're going to be a major player."

"We need to call a strategy meeting, I was supposed to look again into how Jake's SUV got to Sea Side, but I don't think that's important now. We have to think this through before we tell anyone else what we know. I'm counting on you to keep this to yourself. Maybe it would be a good idea if you don't go back to the Mug I don't want you to give anything away."

"Whatever you say, Chief," said Bert looking down at the floor. Here he thought he was going to be in on 'The Bust', but it looked like he'd be running for coffee again. He just had to suck it up and remember who he was! Small change! That's what he was, not enough brains to make to an omelet.

"Be back in an hour, boss, just going home for some lunch."

* * * *

"Oh, Bert, I wasn't expecting you home for lunch," said Kellie, as she hurriedly put some funny looking bottles into the cupboard.

"I know you're in a hurry, I can make you a nice ham sandwich before I go back to work."

"Sure."

Humm, this wasn't quite the reaction a ham sandwich usually got from Bert, "What's wrong, honey, can I help?"

"There's nothing you can do, the boss thinks I can't keep a secret, I can too keep a secret! You're the only one I tell, you're my wife, and I'm not supposed to keep secrets from you, am I?"

"Bert, you can tell me anything, you know I won't tell anyone," she said as she put the ham sandwich she made on a plate with a glass of milk and a piece of yesterday's apple pie.

Bert ate his lunch and he felt better. He knew he could always count on Kellie to make everything better for him.

"Now, what's this about a secret? I bet Cam can't keep a secret, I bet he tells other people. What's going on?"

Bert ate his apple pie and told Kellie all about his morning.

"O.K. honey, you feel better now?" she said, seeing him off at the back door. "Of course you do."

"Cheers," she said, and waved good-by.

* * * *

Cameron Grant was busy making lists. He didn't look up when Bert came into the office. "Hi Bert, how was lunch?" he said and kept his head down.

He realized how quiet it was when he saw Bert staring absently out the window. Then he knew what he did.

"Bert, I'm writing this report on when Carmen's coming back for the Captain, and I don't remember how some of this went. Can you write it down for me?"

"Sure you want me to?" _I_ ' _m only the deputy you know, what do I know about writing reports,_ he said under his breath.

Cam understood he was really hurt, and felt even worse. Here was his big break and he thought he lost it. No help from his big boss, shit!

"Look, if you don't want to do this just tell me, I'm swamped. It would be a big help to me if you wrote it down, after all, you're the one who found the lead, you're the one to get the credit. Just make sure you put in the times when everything happened."

The deputy picked up the report sheet and looked at it, there was nothing wrong with the way the boss was writing it down, but Bert knew what he was trying to do and didn't know if he liked it or not.

"O.K. Chief, I'll just add the bit about the mayor and that will be the whole thing in a nutshell."

"What do you mean the 'Mayor' you didn't say anything about the Mayor?" Cam's voice was rising again, it was too early in the afternoon for this much aggravation.

"You didn't give me a chance," said Bert looking down at the floor again.

"Alright, let's start again, this time give it to me minute by minute. I need to understand just how many people know Carmen is coming back, and if they know when."

* * * *

Joe McKay was finishing up the milking. It wasn't much of a job anymore since they got rid of the big herd. They only owned two milk cows now, and Joe enjoyed milking by hand. It gave him a comforting feeling, knowing something's never changed.

He also enjoyed being the Gentleman Farmer.

Joe knew Mike would make a good farmer, and if a country didn't have good farmers, how would it survive? Leaving the barn he noticed a blue car parked on the road a little way down from their driveway, but didn't think much about it.

He went into the house through the back door and began to make himself a cup of coffee. Now that things seemed to be getting back to normal, Judy was back at work. It made it a lot quieter when she was at the Library.

_Probably should go and check on the girl again_ , thought Joe, _she sure is sleeping a lot. But I guess when a body has to remake all the blood she_ ' _s lost, it takes a long time._

Joe stood for a few moments in front of the door trying to decide if he should knock. If she was asleep he didn't want to wake her, but he promised Judy he would check every few hours.

The door gave a small creak as he pushed it open only far enough to see the bed.

It was empty.

_Oh, oh, she must be in the bathroom,_ thought Joe.

He turned around to check for a light under the bathroom door. No light under the door because the door stood open and there was no one in it.

He pushed the bedroom door open further and saw that it really was empty. No girl, no blanket and the window was standing open.

Joe McKay ran for the phone.

CHAPTER 69

"Calm down, Judy, start again... I'm glad Joe called you but I'm real busy here I don't have time to sort this out if you don't give it to me straight," said Sheriff Grant. "What are you talking about? So the girl isn't in the spare room, maybe she got dressed and went for a walk...Calm down Judy, if you don't calm down I can't help you... Alright, I'll wait for you, whenever you get here."

"You know, Bert," he said as he sorted through the papers on his desk, "some women are just too flighty, it's a good thing she works at the Library, nothing much happens there. You know what she's upset about this time? Mary Lou got up! I thought that was what was supposed to happen. The kid is probably walking around the farm with Mike."

"Boss, you don't think..." said Bert as he looked at Cam with a question in his eyes, "we don't really know when Carmen is supposed to be back. What if it's sooner than we think?"

The color drained from Cam's face as he acknowledged that he was so caught up with planning for Carmen's return that he didn't grasp that she could be there already.

And now, the girl was gone again.

"I have to call the Captain!"

CHAPTER 70

Sheriff Cameron Grant was in full police mode, the hurried plans he made with the Captain earlier were still about a half hour away from the barn at Carmen Ballenger's house.

He and Bert were doing reconnaissance. They parked the police cruiser at the top of the road and were supposed to wait and watch until the reinforcements from Portland got there.

But they couldn't wait!

They had to see for themselves.

"Keep your head down Bert; take your hat off, it sticks up like a flag."

The lights were on in the barn again.

Bert was standing guard. Actually, he was lying on his stomach standing guard, keeping a low profile at the far end of the yard.

There was a blue Honda Accord with the back doors open standing next to the barn. He could see people running around, in and out of the house, going to the barn and back to the car. It sure looked like they were packing to leave for a long time.

_Where is Ricky Gomez and his partner? They_ ' _re supposed to be guarding this crime scene, if their supervisor doesn_ ' _t rip a strip off,_ thought Cam, _I_ ' _ll do it!_

There was a small rustling in the brush behind them and they both came alert, but it was only Mike McKay.

"What're ya doing here? snapped Cam, "your mother's frantic with worry, how come you didn't turn up at the Breakfast Mug, Henry's short staffed and was in a bind? You're in hot shit!"

"Can't be helped, when I was going out the door around 9:00 to head for the Mug, I noticed a blue car at the end of the driveway. I haven't got a car so I'm on my bike and thought maybe I'd go through the orchard, it's faster, and the driver won't see me and I'll know if they came to our place or went down the road." said Mike, making himself more comfortable in the grass.

"I saw someone skulk up the driveway and come around back. I could see him peeking into the bedroom we gave Mary Lou." said Mike. "Well, I'll tell you it groused me out! Who'd this peeping Tom think he was? But by the time I got back through the orchard, he was taking her out of the window rolled up in a blanket, and I thought, Oh, No, not again."

"I didn't go back in the house to phone," he said, "because I didn't want to lose sight of the car, but I lost him anyway, you can't keep up to a car on a bike. But I saw a blue Honda turn down here, so I came too. Have they got her in the barn again?"

Mike looked around, "aren't there any more cops? Are you two the only ones?"

"Never mind how many cops are here, you two wait until the reinforcements get here, I'm going down there to take a look in the barn," said Cam.

"Be careful," said Bert, he was remembering his gun was in his desk drawer. He started praying, "if nobody gets hurt, and I don't get in trouble, I promise to wear my gun all the time."

Bert wasn't sure it was going to help, but you never knew?

The grass gave a small rustle as Cam crawled away, old habits die hard and his army training kicked in. It was just like he remembered, smooth and quiet.

* * * *

Kathe Morgan stood in the corner of the barn by the door where Carmen left her. She was unable to physically move, but with Carmen so caught up with the preparation for the last of the blood, her concentration was divided, and Kathe found she was starting to think for herself.

Mary Lou was once again in the harness that allowed her to be lifted up and the Apheresis Apparatus was in the artery in her neck, again.

The blood had to flow through the strange looking bottle and out again through the spout into the flexible plastic bag that contained the chemicals to keep the blood from clotting.

"Sonny, the flow seems to be slacking off, move her so it drains from her legs too, and hurry up the bag is only half full."

_Sonny do this, Sonny do that, not even a thank you, or a please_ , thought the Mailman. _I don_ ' _t know why he puts up with this, we could do so much better, he and I. This is the last time! I_ ' _m strong enough now, no more._

Kathe Morgan felt her arms and legs coming back to life and realized with Carmen so intent on the bag of blood, her hold on her was weakening. She knew she mustn't let anyone know she could move on her own now. She had to do this right. It was her only chance.

The sheriff made it to the far side of the barn unnoticed and worked his way to the nearest window. He peeked in and saw to his horror and surprise Kathe Morgan standing by the door watching. Then he realized, she wasn't watching, she couldn't move.

What he didn't realize was, she saw him looking in the window and was trying to warn him...

"Mother, we got a peeping tom here, what do you want me to do with him?" said Sonny. He'd seen Cam creeping through the grass and caught him on the back of the head with a rock from the flower garden border. He grabbed the sheriff under the arms as he passed out and was pulling him towards the barn door.

"Don't these people have anything better to do than come and bother me? Put him in the garden shed. By the time he comes to, we'll be gone. We just need a few more moments. Kellie, Kellie, where is that girl," said Carmen as she reached for the plastic bag.

It was still only half full.

"Why is the bag only half full? Did you do something stupid?" she said as she grabbed Sonny by the collar and started to shake him.

"That's enough!" roared the mailman in Sonny's ears.

Sonny closed his eyes and prepared for the beating he knew was coming. But something came over him, he opened his eyes and there was a bizarre change.

It wasn't Sonny anymore, it was the Mailman, came out to protect Sonny. He grabbed Carmen by the wrist and bent her over backwards, grabbed the old bottle from the table and threw it against the wall.

The witch crumbled to the floor. She looked at the old bottle and the blood that was dripping out of it, and began to cry. She crawled over to the puddle on the floor and began to lick it up like a dog.

The mailman grabbed her by the hair and stood her up, "get out of here, don't ever come back," he said shoving her out the door. "Leave Sonny alone, I'll be watching!"

Kathe Morgan crumpled to the floor and laid there, the strong will that had been forcing her to stand, vanished. The past events crowded into her mind and she remembered Cam and the tool shed.

She rolled over to her stomach and crawled to the door, her head pounded and her eyes were blurry but she knew she had to get to the tool shed, had to get the sheriff out before Carmen got away.

A rusty bicycle lock was on the tool shed door and it was fastened. She looked around to find something to hit the lock with when she felt someone standing by her elbow. She started, and didn't know what to say.

"Here, I think we could use this," he said and she saw a large old hammer in his hands. We have to hurry, Carmen is running down to the dunes, she'll get away, and all this will start again."

The lock broke and the door opened, there was Cam Grant half way out of the shed's broken window. He was stuck! The opening was too small.

He didn't know what happened in the barn and couldn't understand why Kathe was here with Jake McClusky.

_It_ ' _s all over for me_! he thought.

But Kathe grabbed him by the belt on his pants and started to drag him out of the window. "Hurry, hurry she'll get away. Isn't there anyone else here with you? She's heading for the sand dunes, we'll lose her in there and we'll never have another chance to catch her."

Cam couldn't believe his ears, but he did believe Kathe Morgan. He ran around the barn and called for Bert and Mike McKay.

Ricky Gomez and his partner came running, but Mike got there first. He ran into the barn and took Mary Lou out of the harness and laid her on the floor. He knelt beside her and knew he had to hurry. He took out his cell phone and dialed 911, he told them he was calling for Sheriff Grant of Chance, Oregon and it was an extreme emergency and gave them the address. He was just putting it back in his pocket when the sheriff came in.

"I need your cell phone right now," said the sheriff.

Mike handed it over and listened as Cam called Captain Pearce's private number and was put through immediately."

"It's Cam Grant, Captain all hell's broken lose over here... Carmen is on the sand dunes and we're going to need more than the two detectives you sent this morning to help locate her before she disappears again...Yes, I know, but...Sonny is gone, we thought we had him cornered, but he managed to disappear...Kathe Morgan is here too, she seems to be O.K. she'll tell you all about it later. Right now we've got a lot going on...Yes, we found Mary Lou. She was back in the barn, hooked up to that harness and apparatus again. Mike took her down but she's lost a lot of blood but it looks like it's not as bad this time. She's awake and can talk...the ambulance is on the way, Mike will wait with her...About the helicopter, you'll send it now?...Great,.... and the men? O.K...As soon as you can."

"Well, that's not good news, it's going to take them more than a half an hour even with sirens screaming to get here, by that time Carmen will be long gone," said Cam, "and I can't even imagine where Sonny went."

Just then Bert came walking into the barn dragging Kellie who had her hands cuffed behind her. She didn't look like herself. Her hair was standing straight up and her eyes had a wild, crazed look. She threw herself at Bert and kept trying to head butt him.

"What's happening, Bert? What's wrong with Kellie?"

"She's been our leak, every time I went home and told her what was going on at the station, she would tell Carmen. She knew everything I knew. I've been such a sucker," he said, with tears in his eyes.

Cam looked around, Kathe Morgan was gone again.

He ran outside in time to see a stream of ATV's and Dune Buggies coming down the road. They pulled up by the police car. Jake McClusky came around the side of the tool shed.

"I heard your conversation with the Captain, Cam, and thought you might need a little help until the helicopter gets here."

"How did you hear me, I didn't see you in the barn?"

"I was waiting and the scanner picked you up."

"You could hear us on your scanner? I didn't know you could do that. Was it you listening in, is that how you knew what was going on?

"Not me, I never scanned for Captain Pearce's phone calls if that's what you're asking, I was listening for the guys."

"Who guys?"

"My guys, in the 'Dune Rider's' club. We were going to do a 'run' today, but I called them and we've come to help. We'll fan out and start the search. You stay here and coordinate. Don't worry, we'll find her."

He turned back to the group of men that gathered, gave them directions and got back into his own buggy. They spread out and headed for the sand.

Cam stood and watched the men disappear into the dunes. Hearing the faint twump, twump of the helicopter in the distance, he looked at the horizon and picked up the handset of the police radio.

"Chopper one, chopper one, calling Sheriff Grant, do you read?"

"Loud and clear..."

CHAPTER 71

Four weeks later, all those involved in the 'final take down' of the Teeter-Totter Killer were gathered in Conference room A.

"I wanted to express my deepest appreciation for all your help, Sheriff Grant, and you too Deputy Dempsey, without your help we would not have caught Carmen Ballenger, aka, Freda Gowolski. She's been doing this for years. We haven't figured out just how long, but she's finished now, it all revolved around that old bottle that was broken. The Techs don't understand what it did to the blood, but it's gone now. It's cases like this that make some people think it's too bad we don't still have the death penalty," said Captain Pearce as he looked down at his notes.

Everyone who had something to do with the case was seated or standing around the walls.

Mary Lou LaFontaine stood up from her seat beside Mike and his parents. "I want to thank all of you for keeping me alive I've told everyone how wonderful the Portland Police Bureau and Sheriff Grant and Deputy Dempsey have been to me."

"I also want to tell you all, my name isn't really Mary Lou LaFontaine. When Lucy took me out of the orphanage she told me my name wasn't Sara McKinnon any more, it was now Mary Lou LaFontaine. My real parents, LaVerne and Ron McKinnon died in a car accident, I still remember them. I didn't know the two dead boys you found on the teeter-totter were my twin brothers. I still remember people thinking we were triplets, but we weren't, they were twins, but I was just born at the same time. They were adopted before me, so I lost track of them."

"I also want to especially thank, Mike and Mr. & Mrs. McKay for all they've done for me," and she sat down.

Everyone started to talk and the Captain banged the table with his pencil and they all quieted down.

"There are so many people and departments that were involved with this case that I want to thank them all personally and assure them a recommendation will be included in their personnel files."

"Also, 'old cops never die they just hang on for one last case'. Jake McClusky, I want to thank you and your dune buggy crew for the excellent job on the sand dunes. It would have been a lot tougher to bring Carmen in, if you hadn't been there.

"And, not to be forgotten, Professor Petterson from the University of Oregon, Psychology Dept., you started us in the right direction."

After another short thank you to Kathe Morgan and a short explanation why Special Branch hadn't admitted to her assignment, then it was really over and everyone was milling around comparing notes and congratulating one another.

Mike McKay stood up and took Mary Lou by the hand, "Come on, Sara," he said, "the folks are waiting, let's go home."

"Just a moment, just a moment," said Bert Dempsey, "what happened to Sonny? Why can't I find anything about him? I know we didn't catch him on the dunes with Carmen, but I don't see his name anywhere in the files?"

Sheriff Grant took Bert aside and said, "we looked all over for him, you know that Bert. We have an APB out, but I don't think we'll ever find him. I think when Carmen lost control he reverted back to his old self. He could be anywhere."

Cam turned to watch as Jake McClusky approached Doc Speller, "I want to thank you for not spreading that note you found in the files from ten years ago. I know how it looked, and I want to thank you for believing in me until it was all sorted out. Old evil never dies, it just lies and waits."

Kathe Morgan moved closer to Sheriff Grant as she gave a small involuntary shiver.

She took him by the arm and said, "Let's go somewhere for a few days, how about Hawaii, I don't think they have sand dunes there, do they?"

The end

