In the Shadow of Angels

by Donnie J Burgess

  This dark thought stayed with him only a moment before he snapped back to the present. He had two bodies back at his house to deal with and he needed to get this van off the road. He was confident that he had all the illicit images of himself and Dr. Stephens accounted for, everything else would have to wait.

  Devin stepped forward into the driver’s seat, started the van, and drove across the road to get back on his driveway. It was hard to see the road, as the van clearly had a headlight out. What was odd was that it was out on both high and low beam. Probably an electrical problem, he assumed. After driving his Mercedes and even the old Sunfire tonight, this one had very limited visibility. Driving it back safely was a task.

  When he reached the front of the house, he turned the van around and backed up as near as he could to the construction site. Hopefully he pulled in close enough to minimize the amount of labor involved in getting Digby into the van. Moving Jezebel’s body around was one thing - she was a tiny little waif. Edward Digby, on the other hand, was nearly as big as Jimmy. Even with a couple of guys on him, it would take some work to get him into the van.

  Once the van was in place, Devin joined the others in the living room. “Before we start moving them around,” he said, “we need to figure out exactly who is doing what.”

  “Well, I’ll get his arms,” Brent suggested, but Devin shook his head.

  “I don’t mean getting him into the van. I mean once we get there. We know Beth needs to come along to drive Jezebel’s car back, but…”

  “What!?” Beth shouted, this being the first time she had heard this part of the plan.

  Devin looked at her, feeling quite guilty for having to ask her to do it, but more guilty for forgetting to ask her at all. “Beth, you need to drive her car back. If someone sees the car, they need to see a woman driving it.”

  “But I don’t look anything like her.”

  “You look a hell of a lot more like her than any of us do. I don’t think it will matter that much, though. If they see a woman behind the wheel, they probably won’t spend a lot of time comparing facial features and hair color from memory. At least not in the dark at two in the morning.”

  “I don’t like it, Devin. I really don’t want to do it.”

  “I know, Beth. I don’t want to be driving around with a guy’s body in the back of his van either. Hell, I don’t want there to be any bodies at all, but there are. We have to do this though, or we’re both going to jail for a long time. Dr. Stephens too. And now BrentandJimmy are in it as well.”

  Beth sighed and lowered her head.

  “In a couple of hours this will all be over.” Devin followed. “One way or the other. We’ve all got to do things that we don’t want to or it’s definitely going to be the other.”

  “I could drive her over at least,” Dr. Stephens suggested.

  “If it’s all the same to you, Doc, I’d just as soon your car stay here until we’ve taken care of this.” Devin looked to Dr. Stephens. “It’s not that I don’t trust you… Well, actually it is. Until we get rid of these bodies, I don’t want you accidentally forgetting the plan and driving over to the police station.”

  That statement immediately offended Dr. Stephens, but he couldn’t reasonably argue with it. “How about Brent drives her over?” He suggested.

  “I think he has to. We’ll need to get him into the driver’s seat of the van once we get there.”

  “If you’d like, he can drive her over in my car. I’ll stay here and tend to your friend. Having my car should help with the trust issue.”

  Devin didn’t hear any deception in his voice, but his mind started running through scenarios. What if he called the police and said his car was stolen? But at least if they had his car, he would be less likely to leave. What other choice was there?

  Beth made the decision. “We’ll do that.”

  Devin looked to her, hoping she would see the reservation in his eyes. If she did, she wasn’t letting on. “We have to do something, Devin, and I don’t want to leave Jimmy here alone. Are we going to pile him into the car too?”

  Beth was right. He didn’t like the thought of Jimmy being here alone either. What if Officer Reynolds came back? Someone would need to run interference or he might think there was trouble and stumble into the house. Devin certainly wasn’t going to trust the doctor, but leaving him behind did seem like the best solution.

  “All right, Doc, I guess we have a plan then. But don’t try any…”

  Dr. Stephens interrupted him. “You’ll insult us both if you finish that sentence, Devin. I’ve told you where I stand. No one can find Jezebel’s body or I could go down just as easily as you could. And Edward Digby being dead is a happy coincidence.”

  Though Devin didn’t care for the particular phrasing, he did agree. He would have to take him at his word. Eventually they would have to sort out what to do after this whole business was behind them, but they had to get it behind them first.

  “Alright, then. Brent, let’s get him into the van,” Devin said, getting up from the couch.

  “Devin,” Dr. Stephens said. “What we talked about before, did you find it?”

  Devin reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the memory cards with Dr. $ on it. He tossed it to Dr. Stephens. “Small safe behind the seat.” He said.

  Devin pulled the rest of the packages from his pocket. “I got them all, Doc, don’t worry about it.” He slowly slid them back into his pocket and tapped it in an exaggerated gesture. At least now he knew that Dr. Stephens wouldn’t want him arrested just yet. That was as close as he was going to get to having insurance.

  Devin and Brent went through the kitchen door and out to the construction forms where Edward Digby’s body was. There wasn’t any discussion about how they were going to get him into the van before they started, they just grabbed him by the shoulders and heaved. Once his top half was in, they grabbed the legs and repeated the process. It was much easier than either of them expected it to be. It was the only bright side to the otherwise unsavory task.

  “Do you really think this is going to work out?” Brent asked Devin as they stood at the doors of the van looking at Digby’s body.

  Devin laughed despite the situation. The question caught him a bit off guard. “I don’t know, Brent. All we can do is hope we can get there and back without anyone seeing us and getting too suspicious.”

  Brent shook his head. “I don’t mean that. I mean do you really think we can do this and all just walk away? How do you trust this Stephens guy?”

  Devin slid the door of the van closed and stood silently for a moment. “I don’t trust him, Brent. We’re just going to have to hope that he’s not stupid enough to talk.” Devin tapped the pocket where he had the memory cards.

  “I guess,” Brent said uncertainly. “But when they find this guy in his van, if that cop starts wondering about seeing the van out here along with Stephens’ car… You have pictures of him, but if they put the screws to him, he could give you up. Even if you turned over the pictures, he’d only be on the hook for fucking a patient.”

  “Actually, he was trading sex for drugs. Besides, what other choice is there? I think it’s a chance we have to take. You’re not saying we should take care of him too, are you?”

  Brent thought about that for longer than he cared to admit. Again, despite the bodies, he still didn’t think of any of them as killers. “I’m just saying that we need to minimize the chance of anyone asking any questions.”

  “How are we going to do that?”

  “Well, I don’t think we can leave him in the van. People will ask questions if they find someone strangled in their car.”

  “Do you have a better idea?”

  “Yeah I do. But let’s just get to The Place and worry about it then.”

  “Alright. Why don’t you go get Beth and we’ll get this done.”

  Devin had left the keys in the van’s ignition and was still wearing his golfing gloves. He got into the driver’s seat and pu
lled forward to the driveway to wait for Brent and Beth to get into Dr. Stephens’ BMW. Once they were in the car behind him, he started down the driveway. If all went well, they would be back in less than a half an hour with one less body to worry about.

  The roads around Ashwood were deserted at 1am on a Sunday morning. Devin drove cautiously, partly because of having a body in the back of the van, but mostly just due to the unfamiliarity of driving someone else’s car. Devin’s biggest concern was the missing headlight on the van. If anything was going to draw attention to them, it would be that.

  It took them only a short time to make it to the turn to highway 62 and once they made the turn toward The Place, his apprehension abated considerably. With the BMW behind him and no lights coming toward him, it seemed the worst of it was over.

  *****

  Dr. Stephens watched the taillights of his car and the van disappear down the driveway. He waited until they were gone for a couple of minutes before closing the front door. He went up to the guest room to check on Jimmy, who was still asleep. He left Jimmy’s room and went back downstairs. He had a couple of things he needed to take care of.

  He went back to the garage and picked up Devin’s gun, which Brent put down on top of the freezer during their previous encounter. He opened the cylinder and started loading the bullets, which were still in his pocket, into it, one by one. He did not intend to use the gun, but they did leave him alone in the house with Jimmy - who had no idea who he was. And Jimmy did just strangle someone to death - someone he also didn’t know. Better safe than sorry.

  He didn’t want to escalate an already tense situation though, so he took the gun back into the kitchen and put it into the junk drawer he pulled the keys to the Pontiac out of earlier. If it became necessary, he would be the only one who knew where it was. He hoped it wouldn’t be necessary, but the situation had changed dramatically since he first entered the house. Instead of a possible confrontation with Devin, there was a possible confrontation with four people if they decided to turn on him. He honestly wouldn’t blame them if they did. He was the odd man out in this situation.

  Once the gun was secure, Dr. Stephens started looking for Devin’s office. Certainly, he would have one. An office or a den at the very least, where he kept his files. More importantly, where he kept his computer. He didn’t see it when he went upstairs earlier, so he went down the small hallway near the stairs on the ground floor. He found Devin’s office at the end of the hallway, just beside another bathroom.

  Devin’s computer was already powered up and as Dr. Stephens expected, it had a multi card reader on it. In the digital age, clients are just as likely to transfer documents with memory cards as they are in paper form or email. He took the memory card that Devin had thrown him earlier and placed it in the drive. He opened up the images folder and clicked the first image, the last image and a few at random. They were all pictures of him with one of his patients: Suzanne Henderson.

  Damn it. He had a one in four shot and missed it. He took the card back out of the computer, deleted the images from the recently viewed files list, and emptied the recycle bin. He walked back to the kitchen and got a fresh cup of coffee. Then he went back and sat on the couch to wait. He could do nothing else.

  *****

  The drive to The Place went without incident. Devin was so preoccupied with the body in the van that it seemed to take an eternity, while Brent and Beth passed the time making small talk. They never really spent any time alone together and even this short drive was filled with so much awkward conversation that it was clear why.

  “It’s a pretty nice car, huh?” Brent asked.

  “What?” Beth replied, her mind was elsewhere and it took her some time to process the question. “Oh. Yeah, I guess so. If you like BMW’s.”

  “So, this Dr. Stephens guy, what’s he like?”

  “He’s a manipulative weasel and I wish I’d never met him.” Her response was firm and held a venom he had not heard from her before.

  “Heh. I think we’d all agree with you right about now. We probably wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  Beth was looking out the window at the darkness and Brent knew he would be better off just letting her be. He couldn’t though. “I don’t trust him. Dr. Stephens, I mean.” He said, not sure if she was hearing him. He continued anyway, “We can’t leave Digby in the van. If that cop saw both of their cars by your house and then they find him dead in his van, they’re going to ask Stephens about it. I think he’ll sell us out.”

  Beth didn’t say anything, but nodded slightly.

  “We’re going to put him in a room. I think I can make sure no one asks any questions. It’ll just take a couple of minutes.”

  Again, Beth didn’t reply, but nodded. Brent didn’t attempt any further conversation.

  They didn’t pass a single car on the road, nor did it seem that anyone saw them. At least that was good. With everything that went wrong tonight, it was nice to have something go in their favor.

  When they arrived at The Place, Devin hesitated for a moment as he entered the driveway. Seeing this, Brent got out of the driver’s seat of the BMW and walked in front of the van. He motioned for Devin to pull up next to the gate. He got back into the car and parked near Jezebel’s Fiero.

  “All right, Beth, we’ll be as quick as we can. You can just wait in the car until we’re back.” Brent said.

  “Please be careful,” Beth replied. “I don’t like this.”

  Brent nodded and closed the door of the car. He walked past the van and opened the door to the lobby. He spoke to the clerk briefly, plopped some cash down on the counter and walked back out with a key. He stopped at the driver’s door of the van.

  “All right, Devin, let’s go. The faster we do this, the less attention we draw.”

  Devin nodded. He went between the seats to get to the side door of the van. Brent slid the side door of the van open. They tried to get Digby out of the van in the same way that Devin led Jezebel out of the place earlier: one arm each around his waist with one of his arms over each of their shoulders. Even with their combined strength, they couldn’t keep the body from slipping down between them.

  “Well shit,” Brent said. “We’re going to have to just take him by the arms and legs.”

  “Which room do we have to get him to?” Devin asked.

  Brent pulled the key from his pocket to check the tag. “It’s room 108.”

  “That’s not so bad. Just go open the door and we’ll do it fast. We can probably get him there in ten or fifteen seconds.”

  Brent nodded and walked quickly to door 108. He unlocked it and opened it just a crack. He made his way back to the van just as quickly.

  “I guess you get the legs,” Brent said, “I’ve had to drag Jimmy around enough that I’m probably better at the top.”

  Digby’s body was lying flat with his legs dangling out of the side of the van. Devin grabbed an ankle with each hand.

  “Not like that, you’ll lose your grip. Get a forearm under each of his calves and force his feet up behind your armpits. You can hold your fists up in front of your chest to keep them from slipping out.”

  Devin wondered how often Brent was having to drag Jimmy around that he had so much specific information on how to drag a body, but he didn’t mention it. He made the adjustments and found that it did seem more secure.

  “Are you ready?” Brent asked.

  Devin nodded.

  “Let’s get him on the ground first.”

  Devin pulled on the legs and Brent lifted by the arms. They lifted him together and laid him down next to the door. Brent knelt behind him and lifted the body up, bending it at the waist. Then he slid his arms under his armpits. Before picking up the weight completely, he lifted his hands as high as he could in front of Digby’s chest and interlocked his fingers. If the body hadn’t been there, it would have looked like he was begging.

  Brent took a couple of deep breaths. “Okay, go!” He said and immediately put his str
ength into heaving the body from the ground. Devin had the much lighter end, but was walking backwards. He was forced to walk in a weird shuffle step, which almost caused him to trip over himself with nearly every step.

  Brent had the bulk of the weight, but had carried a passed-out Jimmy like this enough times that he was embarrassingly good at it. He would have been more comfortable if he were the one walking backwards, but it was too late to make adjustments now. He could tell that Devin was struggling to keep from tripping over his feet. As they moved quickly toward the door to 108, they shared a single thought: ‘please don’t drop him.’

  They made it to the room without dropping him, but barely. The whole process took about twenty seconds. The second they had him inside the door, Brent dropped him hard.

  “Jesus Christ,” he said, “that is way harder when the feet are in the air too.” When Brent had to drag Jimmy around, his legs were still on the ground. He never considered that the legs could still be holding some of the weight, but they must have been if Brent’s burning forearms were any indication.

  “So what’s the plan now?” Devin asked.

  “Go get his camera from the van and see if he has a video cable to hook up the output to this TV.”

  Devin left without hesitation. He left the camera on the floor of the van near the safe when he went through the memory cards earlier. He saw a mass of wires in the back of the van and was sure he would find a video cable there too. When he reached the van, he began digging through the cables.

  There were dozens of video cables with varying connectors. He picked up the camera and started trying to plug them into it. He found one that connected but had what looked like an HDMI output and it didn’t seem likely that the TV at a place like this would be capable of taking that connection. He put it to the side anyway, but kept checking. He tried four or five more cables when he found one that plugged into the camera and had the familiar red, white and yellow RCA connectors. That seemed more likely to work, but why would did it have the red and white wires? Did the camera have audio as well?. He took both and went back to the room.