Case of the Dysfunctional Daredevils

by Jeffrey M. Poole

  “Clever,” I chuckled. I held out a hand. “Zack Anderson.”

  Jafo took my hand and gave it a firm shake. “Joel Kline. Pleased to meet you, Zack.”

  “This is my fiancé, Jillian. And over there? That’s Sherlock and Watson.”

  “They’re corgis, aren’t they?” Jafo wanted to know. “I’ve seen the breed before. Cute dogs.”

  “Yep,” I nodded. “Sherlock? Watson? I know you’ve already met him, but I’d like you both to come here. Wait. Why are you still woofing at the jumpers? Is C2 still there? He hasn’t jumped yet, has he?”

  Jillian took the binoculars and held them up to her eyes.

  “He’s still there,” she confirmed. “Perhaps there’s a problem?”

  “Probably got cold feet,” I decided. “It just doesn’t make any sense. Why now? If he’s a veteran jumper, then why would this throw him for a loop?”

  “He’s probably arguing with the guy running the platform,” Jafo guessed. “C2 seems to be angry with just about everyone. I’m not sure why.”

  “What do you know about him?” I asked, genuinely curious. “Aside from having a history of jumping, that is.”

  Jafo shrugged, “Well, his real name is Caleb Brissell. For all intents and purposes, he appears to be a loner. I don’t think he has any friends. I’ve personally invited him and a few other Daredevils out for drinks, or dinner, and C2 is always the one who turns me down.”

  “C2 is the computer tech, right?” I asked.

  “He’s a computer tech, just not the computer tech. That distinction belongs to Techie.”

  “Got it,” I nodded. “What does C2 do?”

  Jafo shrugged. “He maintains all the Daredevils’ social media accounts. He always seems to have some type of gizmo in his hand.”

  Caleb Brissell, I thought to myself. He was the right age and the right height. He knows his way around a computer, and more than likely, uses it to keep tabs on anyone who might be looking for him. This was someone who would make a damn fine suspect for a disguised murderer, desperate to remain hidden.

  I made eye contact with Jillian, hopeful that I could persuade her to send a message to Ash, only I didn’t have to. My fiancé already had her phone out and was in the process of tapping out a message. Just then, Jafo stood up and held out his hand again.

  “I’m next. Guess I should start getting prepared. I’ll see you three later.”

  “Wouldn’t that be something if Jafo was our Jerod,” Vance idly remarked.

  I was already shaking my head. “There’s no way. Ash said that Jerod was only 5’6” tall. Jafo is, what, at least 6’0”?”

  Vance shrugged, “True. I will say, though, that I’m really leaning towards this C2 guy. I mean, look at the dogs. Neither of them have taken their eyes off of him.”

  “C2 wasn’t on the third raft,” I pointed out. “He wasn’t even in the first. He was in ours, buddy. Don’t you remember? He was seated next to Harry.”

  “Oh. Damn, I didn’t remember that. Well, perhaps Jerod had help?”

  “There are no known associates,” I said, lowering my voice. “As far as we know, he doesn’t know anyone else in town.”

  “Besides that roommate,” Vance interjected.

  “Who is dead,” I reminded him.

  “True. As I was saying, there are no known…”

  A piercing scream split the air. The three of us gasped with alarm and leapt to our feet. Sherlock and Watson started barking hysterically.

  “What happened?” Jillian cried. “Why are people screaming?”

  Vance stiffened with alarm, whipped the binoculars back out, and stared hard at the ravine. He stifled a curse and immediately pulled his two girls in tight against his chest.

  “No, don’t look,” I heard him tell Victoria, as she started to protest.

  Jillian clutched my arm and tears formed in her eyes. She was frantically gesturing at the jumping platform. Not wanting her to say anything out loud, which could frighten Vance’s kids, I looked for myself to see what the problem was, only I had a nagging feeling I knew what I was going to find.

  The bungee cord twisted and turned as it bounced up and down in the ravine. The problem was, there was no jumper attached to it. C2 was no longer there!

  SEVEN

  “How is he?” I asked, as soon as Jillian and I entered the hospital and the two of us saw Vance reading a magazine in the waiting room. Pacing nearby was the leader of the seemingly accident-prone Daredevils, Thor. One look at the Daredevils’ leader confirmed that he had taken the latest accident very badly. Then again, I can only assume he’s been having one hellaciously crappy month so far.

  “He’s gonna pull through,” Vance assured us. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s not out of the woods yet, but the doctors do expect him to make a full recovery.”

  “Finish the story,” Thor miserably said, as he passed Vance during his fervent pacing.

  “There’s more?” Jillian hesitantly asked.

  Vance nodded, “C2 will recover, but he’s got a long road ahead of him. Both of his legs are broken. He’s got fractured ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a concussion. Hey, where are the dogs? You didn’t leave them outside, did you? It’s too warm for them to be left in the car today.”

  “You sound like Harry,” I mock-accused. “No worries. We dropped them off at the house before coming here. That’s why we were late.”

  “Ah.”

  “How did this happen?” I asked, as Jillian and I took chairs next to Vance. “I mean, I would think that checking the bungee rope for cracks and breaks should be high on the Check Before Jumping list all platform operators should adhere to.”

  “It wasn’t the rope,” Thor said, as he passed for the third time. “It was the harness.”

  “C2’s harness broke?” I repeated, dumbfounded. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a harness breaking during a jump. The rope, sure, but the harness? Not once.”

  “Ditto,” Thor agreed. “Leave it to us to have the first.”

  A thought occurred, and I had to ask.

  “Natural causes?”

  This brought Thor to a stop. “Huh?”

  “The harness,” I clarified. “Did it break due to natural causes?”

  “How do you have natural causes for a nylon harness?” Thor wanted to know.

  I shrugged, “I don’t know. Repeated use?”

  “Then the harness should have been replaced,” Jillian softly added. “I had a friend who was an avid bungee jumper. He said they maintain strict reports and records on the ropes, including frequent inspections to see if any signs of wear can be seen. If so, then the rope is replaced. The same goes for the harness.”

  “Someone tampered with it,” Vance guessed.

  Thor sighed and sank down into the closest chair. “It’d have to be. That’s the only thing I can figure. Someone tampered with C2’s harness, and I don’t know why.”

  Vance’s notebook appeared. “Has anyone looked at that harness yet? I mean, do we know which part broke?”

  Thor practically leapt out of his chair and resumed his pacing. He tapped his chest. “Right here, right where the carabiner connects the shoulder straps with the lower part of the harness. The EMTs had to cut it off of him, but I could still see that the strap holding the ring in place, where the carabiner attaches to the harness, had been ripped away.”

  “Wouldn’t it take a lot of force to rip something like that?” Vance wanted to know.

  Thor nodded. “Minimum breaking strength for those harnesses is typically 6,000 lbs.”

  “There’s no way that thing broke on its own,” I whispered.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Thor agreed. “His harness had to have been tampered with. I just don’t know why.”

  “Or how,” Vance added.

  “How well did he get along with the other Daredevils?” I asked.

  Thor shrugged. “As well as to be expected. I mean, he pretty much kept to himself. I don’t ever remember him me
ntioning he had any friends outside of our club. But damn, was he good on a computer. Any time any of us had an electronic issue, be it with computer, tablet, or phone, C2 was our guy. Hell, I’ve seen him take a phone that had been put through a wash cycle and somehow revive it.”

  “Where was he last year?” I grumped, thinking back to the time I hadn’t remembered my phone was in my pants pocket until the rinse cycle.

  “You told me you lost that phone,” Jillian said, as she turned to me.

  “Yep. Lost it, as in, ‘lost it to stupidity’. It means the same thing in my book.”

  Jillian giggled, but not before shaking her head in exasperation.

  “No friends, and no family here in town,” I mused. “Sounds like he’s someone who pretty much kept indoors and preferred it that way.”

  Thor nodded, “Exactly.”

  “He doesn’t strike me as the type of guy who would associate with your Daredevils,” Vance decided as he frowned. “What made him join up? Did he ever say?”

  Thor shook his head. “No, it’s not an admission requirement. If you want to join, and have some fun with new friends, then we’re the club for you. At least, we were.”

  I looked helplessly at Vance. I really didn’t have any comforting words of wisdom to pass along, especially when looking at the Daredevils’ past run of bad luck. Two deaths and one almost-death? It didn’t look good for this group of thrill-seekers.

  “What are you going to do?” Vance asked.

  “I don’t think I have a choice,” Thor responded. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Seeing how someone is trying to sabotage me, I’m gonna have to close the club. I just wish if it is me they want, then just come after me and get it over with. Leave my team alone.”

  “You’d better not be thinking about grounding the ‘Devils,” a new voice said.

  We turned to see the rest of the Daredevils walk through the hospital’s main entrance and stop in front of their leader. Curious to see how this was going to play out, Vance, Jillian, and I carefully stepped off to the side.

  As the Daredevils argued and pleaded with their leader to keep their club open, I caught sight of someone peeking inside the hospital from the parking lot outside. It was Ash. Angry and ticked that the marshal still refused to be seen in public, I gave Jillian’s hand a squeeze, and then pulled it free from hers. Curious as to where I was going, she followed, as did Vance.

  “There you are,” I angrily accused, as soon as the sliding front entry doors hissed closed behind me. “Dude, I don’t know what evidence you have, or if you’ve made any deductions yet, but this has got to stop.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Vance added. “Listen, marshal, Zack and I have only been on two excursions since joining this group, and look at what has happened! One death and one seriously injured. Zack is right. If you have enough to make an arrest, then I’d suggest you do it now. You do, don’t you?”

  I watched Ash’s face fall and I knew precisely how much the good marshal had: zilch.

  “You don’t have a clue who Jerod is, do you?” I guessed.

  Ash reluctantly shook his head. “I just need some more time, fellas.”

  “More t-time?” Jillian stuttered. “More time?? Are you kidding? Look at what’s happened, Marshal Binson! One person falls off a raft and drowns, and a second nearly plummets to his death! I’m with Zachary and Vance on this. You’re not putting my fiancé, and my good friend, into any more needless danger, do you hear me?”

  “Do you, or do you not, have any type of case built up yet?” Vance wanted to know.

  Ash sadly shook his head. “I don’t.”

  “You’ve been here for how long now?” I wanted to know.

  “Almost a month,” Ash admitted.

  “On the tax-payer’s dime?” I demanded. “Tell me that’s not the case.”

  A blue-suited janitor appeared just then, pushing a neon-yellow mop bucket out the front entrance. He promptly headed for the parking lot. My guess would be he was planning on dumping the water outside.

  “It isn’t the case,” Ash admitted, after glancing at the passing janitor. “I was given two weeks. After that, my expenses here would be covered on my own dime. So, I had to find some cheaper accommodations if I wanted to stay, which I did. I’m actually renting a lady’s spare bedroom right now. Much more economical.”

  “And your bosses are okay with you spending so much time trying to apprehend the same guy?” Vance skeptically asked.

  Ash nodded, “Of course. I wouldn’t be here if they weren’t. Listen, just bear with me for a few more days, okay? I’m pretty sure I know who Jerod is, but I just can’t reveal that right now. Listen, I have to go. I have a sneaky feeling Jerod knows what I look like, so I don’t want to be seen talking to you two, okay? I’ll be in touch.”

  Much to my surprise, I watched the marshal hurry over to an older blue Corvette, fire it up, and then peel out of the parking lot.

  “Do federal marshals typically drive around in classic sports cars?” Jillian asked.

  I shook my head, “I wouldn’t think so. It is a nice-looking car.”

  “It’s a 1967 Corvette Stingray,” Jillian confidently told me. “Coupe.”

  I turned to my fiancé with surprise written all over my face.

  “I remember seeing one that looked like that when I was in high school,” Jillian explained. “I thought it was just as pretty then as I do now. My father noticed my interest in Corvettes, so he bought me this poster of nothing but Corvettes, one for each year they had been in production. I became quite adept at guessing a ‘Vette’s age just by looking at it.”

  Shrugging, I grinned at Jillian and then frowned as I hooked a thumb in the direction Ash had gone.

  “So, what’s the general consensus of our pal, Ash?”

  Jillian eyed me, turned to look back at the direction Ash had gone, then back at me. She tenderly took my hands in hers, looked me straight in the eyes, and shook her head.

  “I think he’s full of crap.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Not what I was expecting you to say.”

  “Oh, trust me, I have a completely different word in mind,” my fiancé told me. “I don’t buy his story that he’s determined Jerod’s false identity. He’s just as clueless as we are. I’m convinced he told us that just to placate us.”

  Vance nodded, “Agreed.”

  “What should we do now?” I inquired. I pointed back inside the hospital. “Should we go back in there?”

  Jillian nodded, “I would. I’d like to hear for myself that… C2, is it? I’d like to know C2 is going to be okay.”

  Hand-in-hand, Jillian and I walked back inside, with Vance trailing behind us. However, we walked ourselves right into a full-blown argument. From the sounds of things, half the Daredevils were wanting to… no, I’d better make that demanding the club be shut down until this run of bad luck runs its course. The other half steadfastly supported keeping the club open, for obvious reasons. Each side, it would seem, was trying to convince the other. How? By continually raising their voices so they could shout over the others.

  Bad luck? Is that what the rest of the Daredevils think this is? Clearly, their fearless leader has refrained from sharing his suspicions with the rest of the group. Then there were those opposed to disbanding the group, spearheaded by Yeti. Thor’s second-in-command was pushing to keep the club open, in honor and memory of Hades and Jitters. I then heard talk inquiring how C2 was holding up, and that was all it took to start the argument all over again.

  It was giving me a headache. I felt Jillian tug my hand.

  “Let’s go over there, where it’s quieter. I can see some chairs over there.”

  Once the three of us were comfortably sitting – in silence, mind you – where we would be in a position to hear if someone had an update on C2, I pulled out my phone and started looking through the various pictures I had taken. Jillian slipped her left arm through my right and leaned up against me so she could watch what
I was doing. It took me a few minutes to find the correct starting point, but once I did, I couldn’t help but laugh.

  Before I describe the first picture, I feel I should point out my current routine whenever the dogs and I are on a case and they express interest in something, seemingly insignificant or otherwise. Since I know full well that – somehow – there’ll be something in the picture which will be pertinent to the case, I’ve taken to simply pointing my phone in the general direction the dogs were barking (in case I was driving) and taking at least 4-5 pictures at a time. When you’re trying to drive and hold a phone at the same time, all without allowing your eyes to leave the road, then you really don’t have a clue what is getting their picture taken. My phone, when the camera is enabled, will allow me to press any available button (except the power button) to take the shot.

  Remember that.

  Now then, the first picture was taken when Vance and I were having lunch at Casa de Joe’s. It was the day we met Marshal Ash Binson. If memory served, a guy walked by our table and both dogs started woofing. Actually, I believe Sherlock had even given one of his low howls of frustration. Why? I didn’t know. To shut him up, I took a few pictures. What had I managed to capture?

  I stared at the screen with an embarrassed smile on my face. The person who had walked by was a guy in his mid-fifties, wearing a black shirt and camouflage pants. None of my shots had a picture of the guy’s face. What I ended up taking a picture of was the guy’s ass. There it was, centered on my screen for everyone to see.

  Jillian started laughing, as did Vance.

  “Not one of my best pictures, I will admit,” I hastily said.

  However, the next three pictures were all of the same guy, showing him in mid-step as he walked away from us. Yes, his ass was prevalent in every photograph.

  “Well, that’s not awkward at all,” I chuckled, as I hurriedly swiped the display, eager to get to the next picture.

  The next set of photos were of my attempt to take a picture of Gary’s Grocery, all while driving in reverse, mind you. Sherlock had started his low woofing the moment I had returned to my Jeep after buying a few things from the store. I stared at my attempts and had to laugh.