I couldn’t help Sergeant Hargrave at the cemetery. Someone stole bodies from two graves and had started digging another. The deputy didn’t know why the bad guys stopped digging in the third grave, but assumed they may have run out of time, been bored, or may have been startled by a passing car. Since these graves were less than a century old, the two robbed ones being from the seventies, there was no need to call the state archeologist. Instead, Hargrave planned to contact the Department of Criminal Investigations in Des Moines. Apparently, the DCI, as he called it, helps local police with weird stuff.
He asked a few questions about why people rob graves. Unless there was some connection between the bodies from this robbery and the pioneer graveyard, it would be hard to say. My guess was that the first was probably something done by bored druggies. If it was the same people, that theft probably gave them a thrill that they wanted to relive with these new robberies. If it was just boredom, they may keep the bodies around for a while or may just dump them. The Sergeant wasn’t happy about that.
Anyway, there wasn’t much I could do, so he thanked me for coming out and sent me on my way. He did suggest it would be helpful if I could do research into grave robbery, if I had some free time. It seemed like a legitimate request for help and not an order, but I planned to follow his suggestion either way.
With that behind me, I pulled into the convenience store on my way home. Hannah worked today. I shouldn’t really bother her at work, but since I planned to buy something it was probably okay.
She was just finishing with a customer at the checkout when I walked in. She motioned to one of the other clerks to take over for her before running over to me.
I was happy that she was glad to see me. Surprise and worry replaced happiness as she grabbed my arm and pulled me into one of the aisles and toward the back of the store.
“Are you okay?” she asked. She seemed worried, almost frantic.
“Yeah, sure,” I responded. “Is there some reason I shouldn’t be?”
She hugged me tight for a moment before pulling back. She was definitely worried. “Okay, there’s this girl I went to school with, Maddy, Madison Green. Anyway, she invited me over for lunch, so I went. We do that sometimes.”
She stopped to catch her breath. “So, I was over there for lunch and I heard her cousin in the yard talking with some of his friends. They were really upset because their friend Johnny got arrested. One of the guys thought that it was Johnny’s fault for not leaving well enough alone. The other said it was the fault of someone they called ‘zombie guy’. I think that’s you.”
It didn’t take long for my brain to connect their Johnny to Johnny Franks, who had just been arrested. I could see where this would agitate Hannah. It sure had me revving up. “Did they say anything else?”
She nodded her head quickly. “The one blaming the zombie guy said it was too much of a coincidence that he, you, would be at the old farm and at the apartment building. He thinks you’re some kind of federal cop, like drug enforcement or something.”
I let that sink in. It was a coincidence that I showed up at both places. Actually, the people at those places, Stan and Mrs. Sweigart, only called me because the bad guys happened to be at those places too. But why would they think I was a federal agent?
A quick memory flashed into my head. It brought back the first night Hannah and I talked. She said some people already assumed that I was some sort of secret agent or similar. It wouldn’t be hard for meth junkies to imagine me as a secret drug enforcement guy.
“Have you called the police yet?” I asked.
Her eyes widened. “No, do you think I should?”
My turn to nod. “Definitely. The police have enough trouble trying to find the criminals as it is. If we can give them extra information, that’s just gotta make things better, I think.”
She looked back in the direction of the checkout and then back at me. “I don’t get off work till six. You can stay here until then and we’ll go together.”
It sounded like a plan, but I wasn’t sure. The sooner we got info into the hands of the cops, the sooner they could round up the bad guys. Besides, I didn’t want to endanger Hannah through association. I explained that to her.
She hugged me again. “You’re probably right. I’ve just been so scared. You hear about crooks on the news, but you don’t really think about running into them in your friend’s backyard.”
“Okay,” I said, “I’m going to the sheriff’s office to make my report. As soon as you are off work, you go over and make your report. Unless the deputies advise against it, you can come over to my place afterward and we can talk. Is that okay?”
She nodded again and then looked into my eyes.
There’s no explanation for how I’ve been able to go through life not noticing little details in my surroundings. Up to this moment, I hadn’t noticed the red around her eyelids and the veins through the whites of her eyes. She had been crying recently. It was possible that she was about to cry again soon. Tears welled up in the little area of the eye near the nose. There was probably a word for that, but I didn’t know what it was. Worse, I didn’t really know how to make her feel better.
Fortunately, the smooth voice from the night in the big store came back. “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be alright. The deputies already know a bunch of stuff, probably more than they have even let me know. We’ll tell what we know and they’ll be all over it. Soon, all the thugs will be in prison and we’ll be walking down the street hand in hand.”
I don’t know where the smooth guy came from, but I was sure glad that he was part of whatever was wrong with me.
She smiled slightly, and it didn’t seem forced. Then she hugged me again, a lot longer this time. Finally, she kissed me on the cheek, tip-toeing a bit to reach.
We pulled apart, something I wasn’t all that happy about.
I grabbed a bottle of pop from the cooler and then she walked me back to the checkout.
“Will that be all for you, sir?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah, uh, yes, thank you.” I was still in hug mode, so the being-professional-at-work thing didn’t catch on immediately.
About ten minutes later, I pulled into the lot of the sheriff’s office.
Hargrave was still out, but Beringer, the one who showed up at my breakin, was there. I related my visit with Hannah and her story, being sure to let him know that she would come by immediately after work.
“You think Franks, the one from the apartment building, is also tied up with the guys from the fire over at the Loffland farm?”
I wasn’t sure if it was a question or if he was just musing over what I said. To be on the safe side, I responded, “Yes, sir, I suppose so, but I don’t know that for sure.”
He was every bit as cold and unreadable as I remembered from the breakin. He just sort of looked at me as though it would let him see into me. It kind of creeped me out. He was probably really good at interrogations.
It was a relief when he finally shifted position in his chair. “I understand you are helping Sergeant Hargrave with some grave robberies. Is this correct?”
The phrasing of the question caught me off guard. Once I understood that he meant helping with the investigation and not with robbing graves, it made more sense. “Yes, sir, though I don’t know that I’m much help.”
“Do you think these same men are responsible for the grave desecrations?”
“It would make sense,” I said. I had been kind of thinking that anyway. “The first one was near where we found the meth lab out on Stan’s farm. I’ve read a little bit about how meth addicts will do things just for the thrill. If that’s all the grave robbers are doing, then it kind of fits. I’m not an expert or anything, so it’s just a guess.”
He went back into stare mode for a minute or so.
You know, the chair in his office was really hard and uncomfortable, with the edge of the seat pushing into the back of my leg. The office clock was really loud with each tick of the second hand bouncing off the walls. Then there was the hum of the fluorescent lights. All that suddenly became very apparent to me as I sat under his gaze. If I was a suspect being interrogated by him, I bet my lawyer would have something to say about the cruel torture of it.
“What are your plans for the rest of the evening?” His voice startled me.
“Oh, uh.” Where was mister smooth when I needed him? “I’m planning to go home for the night. Unless you guys think it’s a bad idea, Hannah was going to come over when she was finished making her statement here.”
He made the most subtle nod of acknowledgment. “Will she be staying there all night?”
Where did that question come from? I hadn’t even given it any thought. Honestly, I didn’t usually give anything much thought. “I don’t know. We didn’t have any specific plans. She was just really upset about what she overheard.”
“Okay,” he said as he stood up. “I’ll talk with Sergeant Hargrave when he gets back. You go home and call us if anything seems out of order. I’ll be on the lookout for Miss Thompson when she gets off work. Do you have any questions?”
I, of course, automatically stood when he did. Both he and Hargrave had a knack for standing in a way that told you they were done with you and that you should leave.
“No, no questions.”
A brief flash popped up from my subconscious to warn me about my kitchen. “Oh, I won’t go directly home. I need to stop to get some groceries. Is that okay?”
“That should be alright,” he said as he ushered me out of his office and down the hall to the main door. Again, he used that commanding presence to herd me along. He probably could have handed me a rattlesnake using his presence and I would take it without giving it any thought.
Out the door, in the van, and on my way.
The trip to the grocery store didn’t take long. If Hannah was going to be there, I should have food available. Going straight to the sheriff’s office from work wouldn’t allow time for supper. A warm meal could be just the thing to make a person feel better on a late autumn night.
With that done, I headed for home. The sound of being in my own house with my new locks locked just sounded cozy. Not as cozy as it would be when Hannah got there.
I pulled up to the corner where I lived and noticed the sheriff truck sitting there. It didn’t have lights on or anything, but it was strange to see it on the street like that.
My usual parking space was such that I could see the cross street as well.
There was another sheriff vehicle there.
A deputy got out of each vehicle, carrying a shotgun. I think they were shotguns. I didn’t really know anything about guns. I should really learn something about guns.
They walked toward me where I sat in my van.