Man of Steel

by Dave Conifer

  “You mean the Strunk kid. Oh yeah, remember the Reader’s Digest story he talked about? I couldn’t pin down where it came from but every time JFK ran for anything for the rest of his life they reprinted that story and passed it around,” Reno said. “So Castle got a reminder every few years. Especially in 1960, I’ll bet. It just so happens that the key race in the Democratic primaries was right here in West Virginia. How many copies of that article were flying around here to remind Castle of what happened?”

  “If he ever forgot in the first place,” Jonas said. “Which I doubt.”

  “How did your meeting go?” Reno asked. “Did you get to see anything interesting?”

  “No. There’s a court battle going on over Castle’s papers. Nobody’s been allowed to look at them at all.” He pulled the plastic lid off his soda and shook some ice into his mouth before relating what Van Scoy had told him.

  “We’re on the right track, don’t you think? We sure have motive,” Reno said. “But I can’t stop asking myself that same question. How did we figure it out when nobody else did?”

  -- Chapter 22 --

  Jonas could hear Reno breathing in the other bed when he woke up the next morning. It surprised him how quickly he’d gotten used to living with her. He wondered if they’d stay in touch after this was all over, assuming they survived. He hoped so.

  “What time do you think Mrs. Pomeroy leaves for mass?” Reno asked when she saw that Jonas was awake.

  He cleared the nighttime accumulations out of his throat as he thought about it. “Could be anytime after four or five o’clock, I would guess,” he said. “That’s about the time I called that day.”

  “Hey, where do we stand with Dr. Van Scoy?” she asked, sitting up in bed. “You conked out last night. Do you even remember getting back here?” She sat up in bed. He tried not to notice that the bottom of her shirt was pushed up nearly to her shoulders.

  “I was pretty beat. You weren’t?”

  “I was just getting started. There you were, copping Z’s.”

  “Van Scoy has no idea when the fight over the Papers will be over, but she’s sure she’ll win,” he said. “We really need to see them.”

  “So what else did she say?”

  “Not much about what’s in the Papers. She’s never seen them. They haven’t gotten very far with it.”

  “No kidding. I wonder what this ERC security department is all about. Wasn’t Pomeroy in security?”

  “Yeah,” Jonas said. “Maybe his old group is holding it up.”

  “Or maybe he was doing it himself. He’s only been dead a week.”

  “I wonder if these are the same people that are chasing us around,” Jonas said.

  “It would explain a lot.”

  “It would?” Jonas said. “Like what?”

  “Well, for one thing, it might explain how they knew you called Pomeroy,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Jonas said. “I see what you mean.”

  “All of a sudden I’m not feeling so good about going to Pittsburgh today,” she said slowly. “I was thinking about dying my hair a different color. I’m really feeling weird about it all.”

  “They probably don’t know where we are right now,” Jonas said. “They know we left Charlotte but they have no way of knowing where we went. If we go, we’ll probably lose our cover. We’ll be driving right into their home base.”

  “They probably don’t know what we’re driving, at least,” Reno said.

  “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. We left a trail when we rented the car. They may have access to it by now. They just don’t know where we went.”

  “Let’s stop talking about it,” Reno said. “I’m going out to get some dye and stuff.”

  She was gone within ten minutes and back in twenty-five. From a shopping bag she pulled scissors, a bottle of bleach, several boxes of dye and a set of chrome-colored electric shears. “These were only twenty bucks,” she said, holding the shears up. “I thought you might want a haircut yourself.”

  “Me?” Jonas asked from his bed. “I haven’t had a crew cut since grade school.”

  “Exactly,” she said. “Keep letting that beard grow and let me at you with these. You’ll look like a different person.”

  ~~~

  It took nearly an hour to wipe up the dye and scoop up the hair. When they stood in line to check out of the hotel they were barely recognizable to themselves. Reno’s strawberry blond locks were gone and in their place was straight brown hair, cut neatly into a bob with bangs that hung into her eyes. Jonas’s hair was shaved down to a quarter inch, which changed its hue even without a dye job. He’d carved his emerging beard down to a goatee, further altering his appearance. “I can’t believe that’s us,” he said when they caught their reflections in the smoked mirror wall behind the counter. “I look like I should be in a porno flick.”

  ~~~

  “I was thinking,” Jonas said after they had checked out. “We don’t have to leave for Pittsburgh for a few hours. Do you think Van Scoy’s in the office today?”

  “I never met the woman. You’d know better than I do.”

  “We really need to see those Papers. Do you think they’re really in a vault? Or is that just a figure of speech?”

  “I have no idea. You can’t possibly think we have a chance to get anywhere near them, do you?”

  “I think I remember where her files on the Castle Papers were kept. If we could get that file, or at least see it, we’d know where the Papers are. You could distract her with a bunch of questions and I could sneak in and take a look.”

  “I think it’s too risky. What are the chances that you’ll actually find something we can use? Besides, it’s not like the Papers aren’t under lock and key, no matter where they are.”

  “Those papers could firm everything up for us. There’s no harm in trying. Maybe I’ll come across something good. Are you forgetting that somebody tried to kill us just a few days ago? This is serious business. It’s no time to mind our manners.”

  “True,” she said. “Maybe it’s worth a shot. But do we have to take anything? Can’t we just look?”

  “It would be even more dangerous to stand there reading it. Think about it while I go get the car.” A few minutes later they were on their way to see the professor. When they reached Bailey Hall he drove past and parked down the hill. “This’ll make it easier to sneak away if we have to.”

  “I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

  “What are you going to ask her about?” Jonas asked as they walked up the hill.

  “The same thing you asked her about, I guess,” she answered.

  “She won’t care. She loves to talk. If it looks right I’ll disappear to the bathroom or something. Then I’ll sneak in and get the files.”

  “The secret files. It sounds so easy.”

  They walked inside and up to the second floor. “She’s in those offices at the end of the hall,” Jonas said. “It looks like she’s actually here.” When they reached the outer office they found her glaring at a stack of folders on a table. Jonas knocked on the metal doorway. “Professor?” he said.

  She looked up with a puzzled expression. “It’s me, Joe Jonas. I was out here last night.”

  “Oh, sure,” she said. “Come on in. That was quite a haircut.”

  “This is Abby Reno. We’re working on this story together.”

  “Nice to meet you, Abby,” Van Scoy said, extending a hand.

  “We spoke on the phone,” Reno said.

  “Abby wanted to ask you a few things about Kent Castle. She knows more about the Kennedy years than I do.”

  “I’ll be glad to help if I can,” Van Scoy said. “Let’s not talk here. There’s not enough room for all of us.” She led them back to the cluttered alcove. “Sit down, please.”

  “I need to use the men’s room,” Jonas said. “I’ll be right back.” After excusing himself he walked back to Van Scoy’s office. He could hear Reno peppering Van Scoy with que
stions. They’re not going anywhere, he told himself. After one last check of the hallway he slipped into the office and headed for the filing cabinets.

  He was sure he’d opened the right drawer but the label tabs on the files were no help at all. Instead of words, they contained nothing but meaningless digits. He froze long enough to make sure Reno and Van Scoy were still talking and then began opening files.

  As he pulled open the fourth one he heard footsteps. He knew it wasn’t Reno or Van Scoy because he could still hear them talking in the alcove. After pushing the drawer closed he flattened his body against the cabinet as somebody walked past. Time was about to run out, but he didn’t want to leave empty-handed after the risks he’d taken. He yanked the drawer back open and pulled out a wad of documents.

  The next voice he heard was Reno’s. “If you’re going back that way could you look for my partner?” It was too late to bolt from the office. Without closing the file drawer he dove underneath the desk. His wrists burned where he scraped them on the carpet. The lights snapped on just as he came to a stop. Afraid that the sound of his breathing would give him away, he held his breath.

  Two leather-clad feet appeared inches away from his face on the other side of the desk. He heard the shuffling of papers and a man quietly humming. He was desperate to fill his lungs with air but willed himself to hold out. Finally the visitor had what he was looking for and walked out. Jonas gasped and sucked in air as quietly as he could, then counted to ten before crawling out from his hiding place. On his way back to the alcove he stuffed the pages into his pants and made sure to brush the dust off his clothes. The three talked for a few minutes more before Reno announced that it was time to leave.

  “I have to know,” she said as they walked back to the car. “How close did you cut it?”

  “Thank God you warned me. You were right. This wasn’t such a good idea.”

  “You didn’t get anything good?”

  “I’m not sure but I don’t think so. The secret files are in my underwear. I’ll look at them after my heart starts beating again.”

  She laughed nervously. “Maybe I better drive, then.”

  -- Chapter 23 --

  “So what’s the plan?” Reno asked after they were back in the car.

  “Let’s decide now,” Jonas suggested as he looked at his watch. “It’s a little after two o’clock.” He thought it over. “There really isn’t much to decide. If we want to follow her to church, all we can do is sit outside her house and wait. We don’t know for sure what time it starts. We don’t even know if she’s going.”

  “I hope she doesn’t mind me just showing up,” she worried.

  “Or following her, ” he added.

  “If she’s upset I’ll just leave. Whatever.”

  “That stuff in your hair still smells. I hope it doesn’t give you away. Somebody might figure out you’re really a blonde.”

  “I’m not planning on letting anybody get that close,” she answered.

  “Don’t look,” he said as he unzipped his pants and pulled out the papers.

  “Anything good?” she asked after he’d examined them for half a minute.

  “Bunch of crap. I’m not surprised,” he said as he crumpled the papers up and dropped them onto the floor. “It was a random grab.”

  ~~~

  They reached the Pomeroy residence on Grace Street before four o’clock. Just as they’d done a few weeks earlier, they parked within view of the house and waited. There was no way for them to know if or when June Pomeroy would come out of the house and go to mass, except for her husband’s remark over the phone on one of the last nights of his life.

  “I think we should switch places,” Reno suggested. “If we have to follow, you should drive. Then you can drop me at the church, if it goes that far.”

  They changed places without getting out of the car just in case somebody was watching. Then both of them kept an eye on the house and as time went by, the clock. Just before six o’clock a brown sedan rolled past before stopping at the curb in front of the Pomeroy house.

  “It’s a carload of women. That’s got to be her churchgoing biddy friends,” Reno said. Before he could answer, a woman in a turquoise pantsuit came out of the house and worked her way down the steps to the waiting car. “Oh, my. We’ll be able to spot her a mile away in that outfit. Is she color blind?”

  “She looks just about the right age. It’s got to be her. So as soon as they take off, we follow, right? Are you just going to walk into the church behind her?”

  “I’ll play it by ear,” she answered as she pulled out a pair of sunglasses. “Where are you going to be?”

  They heard the car door thump closed. Seconds later the sedan pulled away from the curb. Jonas waited until it had reached the end of Grace Street. He was about to follow when a sturdy black Chevrolet shot by. “Where did they come from?” he asked.

  Reno grabbed his arm. “Let’s call it off. I’ve got a bad feeling about that car. That’s probably them. They’re here doing the same thing we are.”

  “We don’t know that,” Jonas said, but he slammed the gearshift lever back into park. “We’re perfectly safe. It could be anybody. They couldn’t possibly know we’re here.”

  “If they didn’t, they do now. Would you be so sure of yourself if it was you that was going into the church with her instead of me?”

  “You mean assuming it’s them in the first place?” he answered. He watched as the brown sedan and the black Chevrolet turned left onto Crafton Boulevard and disappeared. “We’re losing them!” he said as he threw the car back into gear and raced to the end of the street. His head swiveled as he watched for a break in traffic from both directions. “Can you still see them?”

  “Yes, barely,” she said. “They’re way up there. But we have to think this through. We’re not the only ones keeping tabs on Mrs. Pomeroy anymore.”

  “No,” Jonas said, “but we’re the only ones who were invited.” He saw a narrow gap in traffic and floored the accelerator. The car fishtailed as it narrowly missed a Honda, whose driver leaned on the horn in return. “I say we go for it.”

  “We just shook these guys two days ago!” Reno protested as Jonas inched closer to the rear bumper of the car ahead of them. “I want to stay lost!”

  “I see them!” Jonas yelled, trying to be heard over the air rushing in through his window. He stepped on the accelerator and barreled around two cars when there was a break in oncoming traffic. “Look, somebody’s already decided if we’re going to live or die, just like they did for Pomeroy! It’s too late!”

  “But we’re walking straight into this! Turn here!”

  He slammed on the brakes and wrenched the wheel to the right. Tires squealed and the back end skidded wide as the car lurched onto a side street. The two cars were in clear view about a quarter mile ahead.

  “They’re right up ahead. Can you slow down now?”

  “Yeah. We don’t want to attract attention. We need to stay in the shadows.”

  “How am I supposed to stay in the shadows if I’m going to talk to Mrs. Pomeroy?” Reno asked angrily. “What am I going to do, hide in a potted plant and tap her on the shoulder when she walks by?”

  “Let’s take a deep breath, both of us.”

  “I don’t need one,” Reno snapped.

  They followed the cars through suburban streets lined with fast food restaurants and car dealerships. Finally after one last left turn they saw a modest stone church. Brake lights flashed as the brown sedan turned in. The black Chevrolet continued past the church and disappeared around a bend.

  ”See,” Jonas said. “You were worried about nothing. Whoever that was had nothing to do with us.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I’ll just park here on the street. I don’t want to get stuck in there. Nobody’s moving.”

  “No way, Jose,” Reno countered. “If I’m doing this, you’re dropping me at the door. I’m not strutting across the street in full view
.”

  “Okay,” he agreed. “So how do you think you’ll do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Get her attention.”

  “I’ll try to get close to her after the service,” she said. “Somehow.”

  “I would have thought they were Baptists.” He stopped behind a line of cars dropping passengers. “Do you remember what she was wearing?”

  “Are you kidding? That’s her, walking through the doorway right now,” she said, pointing at a flash of turquoise.

  “Okay,” Jonas said. “I’ll be close by. I’ll try to pick you up right here, just like we’re doing now,” he said as she pushed the door open. “I won’t leave without you.” She scowled at him before slamming the door shut.

  ~~~

  Reno looked around once she was inside the church but didn’t see Mrs. Pomeroy. There were at least ten empty pews in the back so she slipped into one of them and slid towards the middle. Her sunglasses didn’t come off until she was seated. The priest was fifteen minutes into the mass before Reno saw her. Having noted that the only exits were in the rear, she came up with a plan. She found a pen and a scrap of paper in her pocketbook and scrawled a note.

  ~~~

  When the mass was over Reno carefully watched to see which aisle Mrs. Pomeroy would leave by, and slid to the end of the pew in that direction. After Mrs. Pomeroy passed by Reno stepped out behind her, pretending not to notice that she’d cut off Mrs. Pomeroy’s friends until it was too late. “Mrs. Pomeroy,” she said softly.

  Mrs. Pomeroy seemed startled and turned around to see what had happened. Reno looked her in the eye as she forced the note into her hand. “Read it,” she whispered. Mrs. Pomeroy turned away and looked at what was in her hand as they all shuffled towards the door. A moment later she turned back to Reno with a surprised look on her face.

  “How did you find me?” she asked, forgetting to lower her voice.

  “Can we talk?” Reno whispered. Pomeroy’s friends craned their necks from behind to get a glimpse of the interloper. “In private?”

  A few steps later Mrs. Pomeroy looked like she’d collected herself. “We can go to the basement,” she whispered over her shoulder. She veered right towards a door on the side. “It’s okay,” she said quietly to her gaping friends. “I know her. Just go home without me. I’ll call later.” None of the friends moved but Mrs. Pomeroy and Reno walked through the door and out of sight. Their footsteps echoed in the empty stairwell as they made their way to the basement.