The Scarlet Plan

by Rick W. Warren

  Convert quickly got out from under the deck and made his way back to the gate. Chuck and Ellie stood across the street with their neighbor, Eunice, who was wondering what was happening. Zipper started to squirm in Ellie’s arm, wanting to get down, but she held on to him tightly.

  “Did you call the police?” Convert said as he ran across the street to them. They could all see the alarm on his face and knew it was serious.

  “What did you see back there?” Chuck said.

  Convert took his phone out and showed them the pictures he took. “That kid put a bomb under your deck.”

  “A bomb!” Ellie said in horror. “How? Why?”

  “I think it’s meant for me,” Convert said. “I believe there is a pressure trigger underneath the floor mat you put out there.”

  “That’s been there since last night?” Chuck said stunned. “Any of us could have gone out there!”

  “Thank the Lord you didn’t,” Convert replied. “Do you by chance remember what that kid was wearing? Was he all in black?”

  “Actually yes,” Chuck replied. “I didn’t think much of it, but everything was black. Even his shoelaces. Who is he?”

  “I don’t know his name, but what I do know is that he is big trouble.”

  They could hear the police sirens as a couple of squad cars turned the corner of their block and headed their way. Convert waved to them as he crossed the street back towards their house. There were only two officers, one in each car, and they swiftly got out and walked towards Convert.

  “Thank you for being here, officers,” Convert said. “We have a serious situation.”

  The officer with the name “Glass” on his badge said with urgency, “What’s going on? Is anyone hurt?”

  “No,” replied Convert. “I found a bomb underneath these folk’s deck.”

  “A bomb?” Officer Glass said surprised. “How did you find it? How did you know it was there?”

  Convert pulled out his phone as Chuck made his way over to them. He showed both officers the pictures. The eyes of the other officer with the name of “Jones” on his badge widened as he saw the picture. “This is crazy,” he said. Convert knew how he felt. Bombs were not a normal problem in Galesburg. This was one of the last things they were expecting.

  Immediately, Jones got on his radio and called in for reinforcements including the bomb squad. Glass had already started making his way to the back yard.

  “Are you sure you want to go back there?” Chuck said.

  “We need to make sure there is nothing else. Convert, would you be able to show us exactly where it is?”

  “Sure,” Convert said as he walked toward him with Jones right behind him. He could see that Glass had a calm demeanor while Jones was visibly shaken.

  Glass propped open the gate while Convert and Jones walked through. Everything looked the same, but the wind had picked up making the wind chimes louder. Chuck stayed in the front yard. He was too nervous to go back there and he knew he wouldn’t be any help.

  “So how did you discover it?” Jones asked.

  “I built this deck last week and I had just got back today to finish it up,” Convert said. “When I got here this morning, Chuck, the homeowner had told me that my assistant came yesterday to get something from the back yard. Well, I don’t have an assistant and the person he described fit the description of a teenage kid who caused me some trouble last week.”

  “Can you describe him?” Glass asked.

  “White kid, blond hair, 15 or 16 years old, probably 130 to 140 pounds, and around six feet tall. He was dressed in all black. Black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, and black shoes. Always grinning. He was dressed the same way when I met him last Friday as well.”

  “How did you meet him?”

  “I was in my driveway unloading the tools from my truck when he and a friend dressed alike just showed up. They started asking me a bunch of questions and made me feel very uncomfortable. I told them to leave or I was going to call the cops and that finally made them go.”

  “Did they vandalize anything?”

  “No.”

  “Threaten you?”

  “I’m not sure. It felt like it a little.”

  “A little?”

  “They were acting very strange and that alarmed me. Also, they knew my name and I had never seen them before in my life.”

  Jones wrote everything down while Glass asked the questions. Convert wasn’t sure, but he almost felt as if Glass didn’t believe him. He shook it off as nothing. They were just trying to get information.

  They cautiously approached the edge of the deck. Convert squatted down and said, “It’s right there under the floor mat on the deck. My bet is that there is a pressure switch under it so that whoever stepped on the mat would set it off.”

  Jones laid down flat to look under the deck while Glass stayed standing. Jones gasped as he saw the bomb attached between the floor joists. It was one thing to see a picture, but seeing it up close made it real.

  “Wow,” Jones said. “You guys are so lucky that no one had come out that door. Where does a kid get a bomb like that?”

  “They probably learned how to build it on the Internet,” Glass said.

  “This looks more sophisticated than something put together from the Internet,” Jones replied.

  “Are you sure about that?” Glass replied. “How many bombs have you seen up close? Why don’t we leave this to the professionals?

  Jones made no reply back. Convert couldn’t help but notice the rudeness by which Glass spoke to Jones. “I thought the same thing, Jones,” Convert said. “Where does a kid get this?”

  “Well, before we figure out the ‘where’ and ‘why’ let’s deal with the current situation,” Glass replied. “There’s a bomb here and we need to deal with it first.”

  What happened next was in complete slow motion.

  With a shriek of fear from across the street Convert distinctly heard Ellie yell, “Zipper! Stop!”

  Through the gate, that was left open by Glass, came Zipper running full gate into the back yard. Chuck feebly tried to grab him before he could get through, but the eighty-year-old man’s reflexes were not as fast as the dog’s.

  Convert was in no position to get to the dog in time and neither were the officers as they saw Zipper sprint by. Convert turned toward the deck in time to see that the dog was headed straight up the stairs and towards the glass door. Standing behind the officers, with no time to think, Convert grabbed the backs of their belts and flung both of them behind him and over the fence right as Zipper stepped on the floor mat and set off the bomb. Both officers had cleared the fence and landed in the front yard as the blast went off sending forth a wave of heat and force. Convert was propelled toward the fence that he had just thrown the officers over and splintered it to pieces as his body collided with it. Pieces of wood and shattered glass fell everywhere as the entire back of the house became engulfed in flame. Only a pile of flaming wreckage remained where the deck had previously been.

  The officers stood up shocked by what happened and even more shocked that they had ended up where they were. Everything happened so fast that they had assumed the blast had sent them flying, but Chuck had seen what really happened. He saw Convert throw them with a strength that he had never seen in a man. The force of the blast had knocked him down on the driveway, but he hadn’t been hurt. Convert, however, had gone through the fence and was lying under its remains.

  “Convert! Convert!” Chuck yelled in a panic as he made his way toward him. Jones went over to Convert as well while Glass was yelling on his radio for help. Chuck and Jones grabbed a hold of a large panel of fence to get it off when to their surprise Convert pushed it off himself and stood up.

  “Are you guys ok?” Convert said. “Chuck? You ok?”

  “I’m fine,” Chuck replied. “What about you?
You just went through the fence!”

  Convert hadn’t had a chance to think about it, but he didn’t fell any pain at all. He didn’t know why it was happening, but he was convinced that God had given him the strength and the protection. He had thrown those officers like they were rag dolls. Just like he had torn the door off of that van and ripped the seat out with the woman trapped in it. He had supernatural strength and he had used it twice now to save lives. Convert shook himself out of his thoughts. “I’m alright, but we have to get away from here.”

  The four of them crossed the street as sirens blared from every direction. Ellie ran up to Chuck in tears both from the relief that Chuck was safe and sadness that Zipper was gone. Neighbors came out everywhere in shock and awe over what happened. The blast could be heard from blocks away and people looked in horror as Chuck and Ellie’s house was consumed in flame.

  The bomb squad had arrived, but realized it was too late. The first fire truck had also arrived and got to work on the house.

  Chuck and Ellie stood in tears as they watched their home destroyed right in front of them. Ellie turned to Convert and asked through sobs, “Why would someone do this to us? We could have been killed! What did we ever do to anyone?”

  Convert’s heart broke as he looked at her. Too much had happened in too short of time. Jack’s murder tore at him every day, but this was an attempted murder as well. Anger began to well up inside of him. He was tired of guessing and now it was time for answers. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out if it’s the last thing I do!”

  3

  Since the funeral on Tuesday, Emma had been pouring herself into investigating Jack’s murder. She knew that every day that passed meant that information would be more scarce. It had been hard for her to keep focus on everything with the church service on Sunday and funeral on Tuesday. Her parents and both sets of grandparents were all still alive so this genuinely felt like the first family member she had ever lost. Even though Jack wasn’t blood, he was like a grandfather to her.

  The police were not as cooperative as she had hoped and she didn’t know why. She had done plenty of interviews with different officers before and had a good working relationship with them. This time they seemed to be annoyed with her, though, and didn’t give out much information at all. Either they knew something and didn’t want it getting out, or they didn’t know much at all and were embarrassed by their progress. She wasn’t sure, but she felt like they really didn’t know much this time. Jack’s death was truly a mystery.

  Her only witness was a taxi driver and all he had done was drop off Jack and leave. She called to interview him again, but he said he told the cops everything and didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Emma felt a tinge of desperation because she was quickly running out of new information and this was beyond professional. It was personal.

  Emma sat at her desk contemplating her next move when suddenly her cell phone rang. She grabbed it and saw on the screen that Aaron Clark was calling her. A jolt of excitement went through her as she pressed the answer button.

  “Hello?”

  “Emma!” Aaron answered in a very urgent tone.

  “Hey Aaron, what’s going on?”

  “I just got a call from Convert! Someone just tried to kill him with a bomb!”

  “What?” She said standing up. “How? Where?”

  “At Chuck and Ellie Hamill’s house. You know them from church, right? He had built them a deck and someone put a bomb under it.”

  The questions filled Emma’s mind faster than she could talk. “Who would have done that? Is he hurt? When did this happen?”

  “He thinks he knows, but he wanted to talk more with me about it. Everyone is ok except their dog, Zipper. He set off the bomb. Can you meet me there?”

  Emma had grabbed her things and was already moving toward the door. “I’m on my way.”

  Emma couldn’t help but feel excited. This had to be connected some way to Jack and thankfully no one was hurt this time, especially Convert. She couldn’t help but sprint to her car. Time was crucial and she felt hope again.

  Emma showed up to the Hamill’s around 10:00. The ends of the street had been blocked off by the police so she had to park farther away and run over. A crowd of about fifty was standing across the street from the house as the firefighters were getting close to extinguishing the flames. The house was a total loss and the back half of it was gone. She was stunned by the destruction. A bomb? Who could possibly have done this?

  A shadow.

  The thought rang through her mind as loud as a bell. “A shadow?” She said out loud. “What does that mean?”

  Nothing.

  Emma dwelled on it as she drew closer to the crowd. She definitely needed to tell Aaron about it. She also had some other questions for him too. She had never had a chance to talk to him about the accident that he and Convert had witnessed as well as their rescue of the mom and her children. She had watched the video on YouTube of Convert ripping the seat out with the woman still in it. She knew that what she saw was supernatural. She had meant to talk about it after the funeral yesterday, but there was never really a time to do so. Now she really hoped she would find some answers.

  She reached the crowd and finally saw Aaron and Convert. Convert’s clothes were burnt and disheveled, but he looked like he was fine. A few people were comforting Ellie as she wept over the loss of her house and dog. It hurt Emma to see it. There had already been one tragedy in Galesburg and now another. There was no way that these events weren’t connected.

  “Emma!” Aaron said as he saw her approach. “I’m glad you’re here. This is crazy!”

  “Thanks for the call,” she replied. “You let me know before the paper even knew about it! Are you ok, Convert?”

  Convert looked at her. She could see the anger in his eyes even though he was trying to hide it. It was a look of frustration. She could tell because she had been feeling the same way. He wasn’t hurt; he was mad. “I’m ok,” he said. “But I’m not happy. This was no coincidence and I believe I know who did this. I’m hoping you can help me.”

  “Absolutely,” Emma said. “I want nothing more than to figure all of this out. Where can we talk?”

  “Can you meet me at my house?” Convert asked. “Marie would be happy to make some lunch for us. We still have a ton of food and there’s a lot to talk about.”

  “Sounds good. Can you join us Aaron?”

  “I’ll be there,” Aaron replied. “I think getting on the same page would be beneficial to all of us. Maybe we can figure out some connections and find the people who did this.”

  “I’ve got to talk with the cops for a while, but I will give Marie a call. Can we meet at noon?” Convert said.

  “Ok,” Emma replied. “See you then. Thanks for calling me, Aaron.”

  “No problem,” he said. “We’ve been needing to talk for a while and I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to sooner. I can’t wait until we can speak about something other than tragedy.”

  “Me too,” she said with a smile.

  4

  For everything that had gone on over the weekend, the first couple days of the week for the guys had been pretty uneventful. On Monday, it had been the standard celebration of Clayton and his football team. People treated him like he was royalty and that even included the teachers. That afternoon was the usual pep-rally celebrating Friday’s victory, but this one had been even bigger because they were celebrating an undefeated season with an upcoming home playoff game on Halloween night. The guys were happy to celebrate the occasion with the school, but there remained with them the bittersweet fact that Clayton had once been in their circle and abandoned them. Tuesday had been as normal of a school day as it could be, but they weren’t expecting what was awaiting them on Wednesday.

  Mark and Jordan walked together with their trays to their usual lunch table in the cafeteria. They
could see that Trent and Josh were already sitting there. Trent was talking a mile a minute as always, but this time Josh didn’t have his phone to look at and block him out. Just seeing Josh continually nod his head and never get a word in edge wise made Jordan smile.

  “Hey Jordan,” Trent said as they got to the table. “Sparks, was saying we could stay at his house again Friday night if you wanted to. Since there is no football game, I bet we could have a massive marathon session of playing video games.”

  “Sounds fun to me,” Jordan said sitting down. “What do you think, Mark?”

  “I’m in!” Mark said. “So Josh, you didn’t get grounded for losing your phone?”

  “No, but if I want a new one I have to pay for half of it,” Josh replied. “We’ve been looking on eBay for some deals because they still want me to have a phone so that they can get a hold of me.”

  “Isn’t there something you can do to find it through your computer?” Jordan asked.

  “Yeah, its called ‘Find My iPhone’ and I actually used it the day I lost it after you guys went home.”

  “You did?” Trent asked surprised. “Where is it then?”

  “It was in the field right near the entrance to the woods,” Josh replied.

  “Is it still there, you think?” Mark asked. “You don’t think Drago found it do you?”

  “I never saw it move, but the battery was low. It probably died that afternoon. Once the battery is dead, you can’t find it.”

  “Better the phone’s dead than us,” Trent said. “I still can’t believe what happened.”

  “Yeah, and there is no way I’m going back to get it either,” Josh replied. “It’s probably hidden in the weeds, never to be seen again.”