“Now this talk of you going back to Texas, I just cannot buy all of that. You were only gone less than thirty minutes - yet you say three days?
Yeah, right!!
You’re trying to gently lay the suggestion on our subconscious minds how exciting a mission would be if we went to Dallas ourselves. I emphasis the word ‘would’ - you are just telling us a make-believe story and inserting yourself in as the main character, so we will imagine the thrill and excitement of such an adventure. Just like I said earlier, you’re trying to make us do something. You think we will beg to be thrown on that ‘time-traveling’ pie in the sky, pipe dream, hunk of junk. Oh, I’m sorry – your Pegasus flying machine thing-a-ma-jig. Tell me Grandpa that I’m wrong.”
“Gabby, I... I...”
“See, I told you, it is all a fictitious story, right?”
“Krista, load up the rest of my pictures and tell me when they are loaded.”
“Hold on Grandpa, I thought you only took three pictures.”
“Your correct Gabby – three pictures – up HERE in the conference room. Let me begin the slide show from the time I went downstairs.
“Grandpa, I have been sitting here listening to all you have said, and don’t get me wrong some of it makes sense, but a lot of it is foggy. I can’t grasp this Parallel Universe thing yet. Daddy, Bud, Lou, Sam Lin, Spook, Tinker and Lei Li you are all scientists, so this probably makes sense to you all. Mom, I guess you and Dad have been working around these crazy people long enough that it probably makes sense to you too. You admit I only have an Anthropology degree, so you understand this is not my forte. Grandpa just tell me in simple words, plain English, what do you want us to do?”
“Thought you would never ask - for the few minutes, to you, I was gone, I experienced almost three days of the most unimaginable adventure.” Pushing the button to the projector’s remote control, the Captain said, “This is the first picture after I left you guys as I was being ‘launched’ from our lab in Pegasus.” He then went into detail of his ‘launch’. “I snapped this one looking out the porthole in the laboratory,” he explained. He went on to tell how he had taken the next two shots of the cow pasture in Texas after his landing. He had to point out how Pegasus landed in a pasture about forty miles north of Dallas, outside the town of Celina. He went into detail describing the couple of problems he had, “to begin with,” he said, “I landed, tilted at about a thirty-degree angle, on a tree stump, and, oh, did I fail to mention it was on the wrong day! I was supposed to arrive at 12:30 on Friday November 22, 1963; however, I plopped down in that pasture on Wednesday the 20th, two days early.” Captain Scarburg then explained what he saw in and around the cow pasture.
“Oh, almost forgot I took this one,” he said switching to picture number four on the screen. “This is a shot of the farmhouse where I got the red shirt and the blue overalls; the very clothes I was later arrested for stealing.” Pulling the shirt and overalls from the bag he held them up for all to see.
“Pictures five, this one, and now picture six were taken going into Clem and Penelope’s home they call the ‘Ponderosa’. I snapped both of these from their driveway. Clem and Penelope were the nicest people. He was a handyman and part-time limo driver, and Penelope was an every-now-and-then waitress. Admirable folks, yes, admirable people I tell you.
“I had to have transportation to get from Celina, Texas to Dallas. As you can see in picture seven, we used Clem’s Nash station wagon. Here, we are getting ready to back it out of Clem’s shed. See this is a shot of the back of Clem’s grey car parked in the shed.
“Clem and I drove into Dallas, Thursday morning on November 21, 1963 and went straight to Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club. Here is my picture number eight, a view of the outside steps of the Carousel Club before we went inside.
“The next pictures were taken inside Ruby’s club. Notice the guy with the brown fedora hat sitting with his back to the wall, that’s Jack Ruby. The other pictures are all Mafia bosses.” Captain Scarburg explained the subterfuge he had to use to get these snapshots. And he detailed how he was arrested for stealing the shirt and overalls, and carried to the Dallas City Jail just a couple of minutes after those pictures were taken.
For the next half hour, or so, the Captain painted a word picture of his stay in Dallas’s Finest – their city jail; he told the group how he left the message for J.D. Tippit on the cell wall; how concerned he was Clem was not going to arrive to get him out of jail in time to meet his 12:30 rendezvous on the Texas School Book Depository roof with the presidential assassin.
“Clem bailed me out of the Dallas City Jail just minutes before the 12:30 assassination. This next snapshot was taken as I looked north toward the School Book building. It was taken from the sidewalk as I walked out onto Houston Street from the jail. If you look at the picture closely, I believe you can faintly see someone already in the sixth floor sniper’s window. I’m going to give this photo to our lab and see if they might be able to enhance it enough to see who is there. It might be possible they could enlarge the image so we could identify that person. Look down to the far end of the roof and you can just barely get a glimpse of another assassin. He was my target.” He proceeded to detail the movement he and Clem made from his release from jail to his encounter with the man on the roof.
“I was on the rooftop of the Texas School Book Depository the exact second President John F. Kennedy was shot. I was extremely fortunate to disrupt one of the snipers.
“This next photo is a snapshot of that very same sniper. I took it standing on the fire escape a second or two before I charged the assassin. I hit him just as he fired his rifle.
“As he and I were tumbling on the roof, I distinctly heard a shot coming from the vicinity of the sixth floor, one floor beneath me and back toward the east end of the building. My assassin jumped to his feet and fled down the fire escape. He only fired one un-aimed shot. As he was escaping, I hurried to the four-foot wall surrounding the top of the School Book building and gazed down on the macabre scene that was taking place below me. I’m ashamed to admit, I was totally enthralled. I was in a state of mind even I cannot describe: I was watching history unfolding in front of my very eyes.
“I saw the President the moment the bullet struck him in the back, I saw Secret Service Agent Hill jump on the trunk. This photo I snapped from the roof, looking down on President Kennedy’s black limousine just as the second sniper shot was being fired.
“Here, is the most startling thing I saw. Maybe saw is not the right word, I heard a shot coming from the vicinity of the Grassy Knoll - it was not a rifle shot. It sounded more like a high-powered handgun. I tried to see the assassin, but I was running out of time and had to get off the roof before being caught. This picture I took of the grassy area, which is now referred to as the Grassy Knoll. I snapped it from the rooftop before running to escape. This photo was taken just a second or two after the shot was fired from the Grassy Knoll. I got a picture of the assassin running away from the wooded area.”
“Wait a minute,” Spook loudly interjected, “Can you enlarge that figure - that looks like a WOMAN!!”
Suddenly the room grew silent - you could have heard a pin drop as the Captain spoke, “Let me say, yes, this person I saw running away from that area was a WOMAN! And for some reason I think I have seen this woman before.
“What? What are you saying Captain that one of the assassins was a WOMAN? And you have seen her before?”
“Yes, Spook, it was a woman, and I really do believe I have seen her. This photo is presently in our lab to be enlarged and also enhanced. Once they have obtained a clear image of the assassins face they will run it through the facial recognition software. We must find out who she is. She is the first person, besides Oswald that has ever been directly linked to the Kennedy assassination. Anyway, let me continue.”
After the flurry of talk about the astounding revelation of the fleeing lady assassin from the Grassy Knoll, the Captain had a hard time returning to his
description of his Texas adventure. He managed to quieten the group and continued explaining how he had hurried down the fire escape and jumped into his get-away car. “Oh, yeah,” the Captain said laughing, “I waved and called out to Anhur as we sped away.”
“What?” One of them said, “You saw Anhur? He was there?”
“I sure did. Anhur was standing on the north side of Elm Street with a large black umbrella. He recognized me, and as you can see in this next photo, I took a fairly decent picture of him also. What do you think?”
“Doggone Grandpa, you sure are leaving out a lot of details - like who was driving your get-away car?”
“It was Clem... Clem Ruby was driving the car Gabby. Did I mention I met his uncle Jack Ruby in person? Actually I shook hands with Jack. Seemed like a pleasant enough fellow, but there is so much work still needing to be done in the Kennedy Assassination.
Captain Scarburg began with Lee Harvey Oswald mentioning he certainly didn’t work along. He related how he personally saw or heard, at least, three shooters in Dealey Plaza; the one on the roof; the one in the bushes and the one firing the shot from the sixth floor, which may or may not have been Lee Harvey Oswald. He insinuated it was possible the shot could have come from the Dal-Tex Building across the street. From his position on the roof, if was hard to tell where the shots came from.
He speculated Jack Ruby was more involved in the assassination than just the murder of Oswald. There was a lot of information the Warren Commission never uncovered, or didn’t want to discover. The Thursday before President Kennedy was killed the Captain was in Jack Ruby’s place. There were guys sitting at a table. He had taken pictures of them talking with Ruby. They were Cosa Nostra or Mafia. The Captain told the group the mobsters all had been identified. He then pulled the pink napkin from his pocket with their names. “Now we need to find out what their association was with Jack Ruby and the assassination of President Kennedy. As I mentioned earlier, I was arrested in Ruby’s Carousel Club and booked into the Dallas City Jail. I literally was placed in the same cell, which would later hold Lee Harvey Oswald. Guess who was my jailer? No, no more guessing I’ll just tell you... Officer J. D. Tippit. J. D. Tippit the very same policemen Lee Harvey Oswald supposedly killed as he was escaping from the Presidential assassination.”
“Grandpa, did you meet Lee Harvey Oswald?”
“No, never did – really did not have enough time, but I though I heard his rifle being fired. Let me rephrase, I heard the noise from a rifle being fired - I have no concrete proof it was Lee Harvey Oswald or not.”
“I am now making a request - lets all go back to Dallas and find out what really happened. I used the term ALL loosely. Spook, you and Tinker, should stay here and maintain a constant link with the Dallas team. Krista you need to stay too for administrative purposes. We will need your help here in the SCAR facility, and Olive Marie you must stay behind also. Trey you need to stay and run everything.”
“But Grandpa!! I can help on the Dallas trip too!” Moaned Olive Marie.
“I realize you can, but honey, we will be in and out of some sleazy places, and these could include bars and lounges. In Texas, you have to be twenty-one to get in those places, and you were just of age your last birthday. I believe you are just too young to be going in some of the dives in Dallas. Sorry, but you can be more useful here. Hope you understand.”
“Okay,” she said sadly, “Grandpa I’m sure you know best.”
Captain Scarburg continued to explain how they would travel back to 1963 Dallas in Pegasus, which he reiterated he had now proven was safe. Safe if the computers are programmed correctly. One other thing he mentioned.... this information was for their ears only. He stressed it could not leave the conference room. He cautioned them that someone had deliberately sabotaged the instrument settings before he left. He landed on the wrong day and forty miles from his destination point. Again he warned, with the wrong numbers, they could land on the right day forty years or four hundred years from the destination date and might never get back to the present!
Tinker had been sitting there silently through all this talk, but with the hint of a saboteur among SCAR’s personnel, that got her attention. “Captain, do you have any idea whom this saboteur is?”
The Captain responded that he had a fairly good idea whom it was and explained he had called this meeting with all of them that morning to reach an ultimate decision on the Dallas mission, and in doing so they could flush out the saboteur.
He wanted to send some of the SCAR personnel back to 1963 and look into the Kennedy Assassination case once and for all. There were a number of questions they must find the answers to. Things like: exactly how many assassins were involved? Who were they? What was the connection between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald? Who was Oswald? Who was Officer Tippit? Why did Oswald murder him, or did he? Did the CIA have a clandestine finger in the pie? What was the Mafia’s connection? Was Lyndon Johnson involved? Why were so many of Kennedy’s medical records ‘lost’? There are these questions and others, but the Captain believed he had made his point - a lot of questions need to be answered. Questions the country needed, no, deserved to have answered. And only SCAR and their ‘special’ equipment would be able to discern these answers.
He then announced he wanted to put the plan to time-travel back to the Dallas of 1963 and he wanted a vote, a secret vote. He did not want anyone ostracized for his or her vote. And he wanted everyone to vote, even those who were not actually going to Dallas. It concerned them all.
“In front of each of you is a pen and a note pad - just write ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the pad and drop it into my hat as I pass it around the table. Vote your conscious, if you believe we should go write ‘YES’ if not write ‘NO’. No one will have knowledge of your vote. Any questions? Okay... good... vote!”
The Captain’s hat passed from hand to hand around the table as it reached Gabby she, using only her thumb and forefinger, gingerly dropped her scrap of paper with her vote into the old, brown, sweat stained, tattered cowboy hat, with the lone comment, “Ugh!”
“Gabby that old, brown, tattered cowboy hat may be sweat stained, begrimed and tattered but I would not take a million dollars for it right now! You do not comprehend how much the man that gave it to me valued it! The hat continued around the table back to Grandpa at the head chair. He reached into the hat and pulled out the slips of paper one by one... ‘yes’, ‘yes’, ‘yes’, ‘yes’, ‘yes’, ‘yes’, ‘yes’, ‘yes’. “Well that’s all the votes - the voted are unanimous - yes.
“WE ARE GOING TO DALLAS!!!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." (Churchill)
THE PLAN
The next step was to devise a plan, thought the Captain.
“Okay folks, the votes have been made and tabulated. We all agreed to return to Dallas and find the reason for the assassination. But we cannot jump into Pegasus and hop on back to 1963 and start running around wildly. We must first plan a course of investigation before we set foot inside that slick, shinny, time-traveling machine.”
“Okay Grandpa, give us the plan.”
“First and foremost we have an enormous problem in the lab. The computer coordinates and the final destination date had been changed on Pegasus before I left the launch site in the laboratory. Someone in the lab was responsible for making the changes. I was fortunate while on the ground in Texas to have one of the best shade-tree handyman rescue Pegasus, or I would be a sixty-nine year old that had only been born twenty years earlier! And you would still be sitting here in this conference room waiting, forever, for my return.
“Earlier I said we were going back to Texas. We are, but we have urgent work here that must be solved before we go. I have already assigned jobs to Krista and Olive Marie, but Sam Lin and Si Lie I have a job for you too. Spook and Tinker I haven’t left you out. In just a moment, I will discuss your assignmen
ts.
“The more thought I have given to the saboteur in the lab the more I believe I can fathom whom he is.”
“Who Grandpa? Who is this loathsome snake-in-the grass?”
“Just a minute and I will reveal him to you. Sam Lin and Si Lei I appreciate you want to go with me to Dallas, but I now believe I have an assignment that is just as important.”
Sam Lin answered, “Captain, you realize we will perform any duty you think is essential, you are the boss. Si Lei and I are at your command.”
“Thank you for your support. What I am about to ask of you is going to seem distasteful, but it is necessary. I don’t even relish the thought of requesting this assignment, but I believe it is entirely necessary. You will both be of greater value to me and our mission if you will faithfully perform what I am about to ask.”
“Of course Captain, what do you want us to do?”
“You asked if I recognize whom the traitor is. Yes, I believe it is Mr. Ryan Rousseau, SCAR’s Chief of Experimental Design and the Flight Director downstairs in the lab. Before any of you say anything, Sam Lin and Si Lei, I realize he is your friend as he is mine, but I strongly believe he is responsible for my almost disastrous time-travel failure. I want you both to do a complete, and I mean complete, background check on our friend. I grasp he was with you both in Bangkok, and I also understand he was instrumental in getting Spook, Tinker and me out of Thailand and safely home with the satchel full of alien documents. I also understand we owe him a lot, but we do not owe him our lives. Go back to Bangkok and check him out guys, I believe he is hiding some deep, dark secret. You must find out what it is.”
Walking over to the table, he picked up the bag where he had stowed his red flannel shirt and blue denim overalls. He removed the overalls and took out a piece of pink napkin from the front bib. It was the napkin from the Carousel Club in Dallas. Slowly he unfolded it, silently read the name written on it and turned to face the others sitting around the conference table.
Justification For Killing Page 22
