by Mikayla Lane
“Are you kidding me? I can’t believe she’s allowed to carry a gun! I can’t believe people like this exist in this day and age,” a soldier added with a sneer.
“How can someone this incompetent get to be a cop?” another asked.
That had Kyle’s mind thrumming with suspicions.
“Indeed. How does that happen?” he pondered. “Greg, get me everything you can on everyone in that room, and get them out of there. We’re already here, and we’re staying until I know what happened, so get the men to set up camp for the night in the field behind the station.”
Kyle ignored his men’s groans as they set out to comply with his orders.
“What are you thinking, sir?” Greg asked when he had the men set to their tasks.
Kyle watched dispassionately as the soldiers pushed the cop and the others out of the office. The odd group stood in front of the building and looked around blankly as if unsure what to do with themselves.
“I want you to get the cop, that Mojo guy, the DA, and the mayor into interviews. Someone knows something. They’re either hiding it, and if so, why? Or they just don’t realize they know something, and we’re going to try and help the ignorant fools with that,” Kyle replied with a feeling that it would be the former and not the latter.
He wasn’t sure how he knew, but that tingling running through him was always a good sign that he was on the right track, and he wasn’t going to give up without making sure he’d covered all of his bases.
“Where do you want me to put them, sir?” Greg asked as he looked around the sparse town in disgust.
Kyle studied the area, and the thought of going back into the diner made his stomach churn. He wasn’t about to go into the other buildings if he didn’t have to since he figured it’d be varying degrees of the diner all over again.
“Take the cop in the station first. Let the others go wherever they want as long as they don’t leave town. Keep a guard on each of them,” Kyle ordered as his eyes narrowed on the tall, thin, black woman who appeared so out of place among the others.
She had an elegant, almost regal bearing about her that was completely at odds with the bumbling fools around her-including her own children.
“Who was the tall woman again?” Kyle asked Greg.
“That’s Bess Markson, the mother of the cop and the Mojo guy. Did you notice their eyes? What the hell color do you call that? It’s like a starburst of all kinds of colors,” Greg asked as he stared at Bess.
“It’s hazel, I think. Why is she hanging around?” Kyle muttered aloud, his mind turning with suspicions. “Keep an eye on her too.”
“Yes, sir,” Greg said before he headed towards the small group still standing outside the front door of the station.
Kyle watched the cop shove a massive wad of chewing tobacco into her mouth and nearly gagged at the thought of having to interview her with that smell coming from her. He shook his head and went back into the station through the door with the melted handle.
“Get that handle off, and get it sealed and sent to the lab,” Kyle told a soldier standing just inside the door.
“Yes, sir!”
Kyle entered the office just as the cop sauntered into the room and wiped the back of her hand over her mouth, leaving a small streak of brown tobacco juice on her hand. He repressed a shudder of revulsion and gestured to a seat at the nearest desk.
“Please sit down,” he said.
BJ flopped into the chair and tried not to puke from the tobacco in her mouth. She clutched the empty water bottle in her hands and tried to push away the queasiness.
Oh Lordy, I took this a little too far, she thought as she stood quickly, her stomach threatening to heave right there on the floor.
“I ain’t eat yet, and I’m feeling kind of ill. I’m going to hit the shitter real quick,” BJ said, her eyes daring him to argue with her.
Kyle stood back from her quickly and watched her run into a closet-sized bathroom near the coffee pot and fridge. He listened close for any strange sounds but didn’t hear anything coming from the bathroom that would make him think she was doing anything other than using the bathroom.
Please, let her wash her hands, Kyle thought with a shake of his head.
From what he’d seen so far, basic hygiene didn’t appear to be high on the list of important things to do for these people. There was no way he was shaking her hand.
BJ almost gagged out the wad of tobacco into the trash can and turned on the water to try and rinse the foul taste from her mouth.
So nasty, she thought, trying not to gag as she vigorously brushed her tongue with her fingers.
“I think you need to be more careful,” Niklosi whispered into her mind. “You’re too nervous.”
BJ stared into her eyes in the mirror above the sink with a dark look aimed at the intruder in her mind.
“Go screw yourself. I’m doing fine,” BJ countered before she rinsed her face and patted it dry.
Niklosi smiled to himself at her spunk, but it didn’t ease his worry that something was going to go terribly wrong and he wouldn’t be there in time to save her.
BJ opened her mouth wide and checked her teeth. She peeled another piece of the black wax from the inside cuff of her pants and reapplied it to a spot that was wearing off.
“You need to tread more carefully,” Niklosi warned. “Throwing yourself at them isn’t going to help either.”
BJ quirked a brow at the hint of jealousy she felt come through her mind when he said the last.
“Oh, shut up,” she countered with a snort. “I guarantee you those guys will run when they see me coming, which is what I intended, you buffoon.”
Niklosi was glad she couldn’t see the blush that stained his cheeks as he watched what was happening inside the station from the hovering ship above.
BJ was equally glad he couldn’t feel the thrill of excitement that unwillingly skittered down her spine over his jealousy and concern for her. It was an interesting, yet not unpleasant feeling to feel cared for by him, to have someone besides her family be concerned for her.
“I know you’re doing a good job. I’m not saying you aren’t,” Niklosi said defensively.
He didn’t want her to think he believed her to be as incompetent as she was pretending to be. Mate or not, even he was convinced by her performance, and he knew she was intelligent—and beautiful.
BJ sighed as she felt his attempt to make sure she wasn’t offended and keep things friendly between them.
“I know. This is just a really weird situation. For all of us,” BJ admitted, not wanting to argue when she had other things to think about. “Show time.”
She checked herself one more time in the mirror then pasted on a silly grin before she threw open the door and almost slammed into one of the soldiers standing just outside the door.
“Whoa there, baby, you don’t have to hunt me in the shitter,” BJ said as she clutched the soldier’s shirt and smiled at him.
The soldier’s eyes widened, and he yanked his arm away from her before looking for help from the major.
“Over here,” Kyle said with a disgusted roll of his eyes as he waved the flirty cop over to the desk.
BJ gave the soldier another smile before she sauntered over to the major and plopped herself into the chair she’d sat in before she’d bolted to the bathroom.
“So, general, what can I do fer ya?” she asked as she picked at her fingernails.
Kyle couldn’t help but notice the strange contrasts in the cop. She was missing teeth, looked incredibly disheveled, and talked like an inbred fool. On the other hand, he could still smell her clean soap when she ran past him to the bathroom.
The nails she was fussing with were neatly trimmed and clean. Her hair, although a complete mess of a hairstyle, clearly showed a clean scalp where it was parted. It only reinforced his belief that something wasn’t right in Baker’s Creek, and it started with her.
He moved to the desk and sat on top of it a few feet
from her so he could watch her more closely.
“I want you to tell me what happened—from the beginning,” Kyle told her as he watched her face.
BJ did her best to hide her discomfort at the nearness of the major and his intent gaze. She knew it was more important than ever to remain in character so she scratched her head and scrunched her face.
“I was looking out by Jepson’s place, hoping to catch that there haint that’s been bothering him at night,” BJ began.
Kyle ran a hand over his face before he slapped it down on his knee, causing BJ to pretend to jump.
“What the hell is a haint?” Kyle asked in frustration.
BJ gave him a puzzled look.
“A haint’s a haint. Ya know, oooh, oooh,” BJ said as she held her hands up and pretended to be a ghost.
“I think she means a ghost, sir,” Greg said as Kyle shot him a glare.
“I got it,” Kyle said before turning back to the cop. “So you were seriously out there looking for a ghost?”
“O’ course! That haint’s been after poor Jepson fer weeks now. It’s my job to protect him,” BJ said defensively while keeping her face a blank mask.
Kyle shook his head in disbelief.
There’s no way in hell even this chick believes that shit, he thought.
Kyle decided to try another tactic.
“How long have you been a cop?”
BJ scratched her head again.
“’Bout 12 years now,” she admitted.
“You’ve been the town cop for that long?” Kyle asked incredulously.
BJ laughed and slapped her knee.
“No, sir! I was a cop in St. Louis until recently. I had this case where we was a-chasing this guy, and he got me tackled and beat pretty good afore my partner got there. Momma ‘vinced me to come home not long after that,” BJ explained.
She couldn’t be happier that the incident and her injuries had been pretty well documented. When she knew the major was coming, she’d called her old partner, and without caring why, he’d agreed to tell anyone who asked that she’d never been the same after that beating she’d taken. This part of the plan looked like it still remained solid, and she continued to play it.
Kyle looked over at Greg and nodded his head. Greg pulled out his satellite phone to verify her story as he headed out of the door. Kyle looked down at the cop, wondering just how badly she’d been beaten.
“OK, so you were a street cop in St. Louis for a while, and you’ve been back home a few months now?” Kyle asked, trying to confirm what she’d told him.
“Naw, sir. I was a de-tective in St. Louis. I’ve been back home for a few months,” BJ said as she nodded her head rapidly.
“A detective?” Kyle asked, completely floored that the woman sitting in front of him could have ever passed a detective test in a major city.
He looked up when Greg opened the door and nodded for him to come over.
“Give me a second,” Kyle said to BJ as he strode to the door and stepped outside to find out what Greg knew.
“Sir,” Greg began with a sad shake of his head. “She’s telling the truth. One day she was a brilliant detective on the fast track to promotions, and then she was beaten by a perp so bad she was in a coma for days with a blood clot on her brain. Her partner said she was never the same after that. He convinced her to go back home because it was getting harder for him to cover for her.”
Kyle cursed and kicked at the dirt before he looked down the street and saw the same filthy faces staring back at him. He’d been sure there was something wrong with the cop; he hadn’t expected it to be a work related brain injury.
“Have we gotten anything worthwhile from here?” he asked in frustration, wondering if the whole trip had been a waste of time.
“The fingerprint cards are smeared beyond recognition. The Mojo guy said the suspects were fighting them too hard, and they spilled coffee on them,” Greg told him while he pulled out his notepad and began scanning it.
Kyle snorted and shook his head.
“Yeah, I can’t imagine the aliens were sitting patiently as these idiots tried to print them,” he agreed as he stared back at the various people who watched their every move.
They are creepy as hell, Kyle thought.
“We won’t know anything on the door knob until we get it to the lab. We haven’t found any usable fingerprints on or around the building, other than the locals’,” Greg read from his list. “The strange one is that the weapons are gone.”
Kyle turned to Greg when he heard that.
“Did the cop take the weapons when they processed them?” he asked.
Greg shook his head and shrugged.
“She said she took the weapons, but they disappeared after the suspects did,” Greg said, not sure he believed it, but he really didn’t care as long as they left Baker’s Creek.
Greg wasn’t convinced the aliens had ever been there, and as long as they were gone, he was happy to just leave and go back to hunting them somewhere else. That corner of the Ozarks gave him the creeps, and he was really hoping the major would decide to leave before nightfall.
Kyle shook his head for a moment and looked back out at the street and the faces still openly staring at them.
“Why the fuck do they keep staring at us?” he ground out in frustration, pissed off that they’d wasted the time to come here.
“Probably haven’t seen this many teeth in one place in a long time,” Greg said with a snicker.
“What information did you get on the others?” Kyle asked, trying to keep the captain on task.
Greg cleared his throat and scanned through his notes again.
“The only thing we got on the mother is a birthdate and wedding date. The brother was a graduate of an institute of technology in New England before coming back here,” Greg read from his notes.
“Wait,” Kyle said, stopping Greg. “The Mojo guy graduated from an institute of technology, and the cop was a damn prodigy before her attack?”
Greg read the information again and looked at the major curiously.
“Yeah, what the hell is up with that? How did those two get to be the smartest people in this place but ended up as dumb as the rest?” Greg asked, his own suspicions rising now.
“Weren’t there cameras in there?” Kyle asked as he pointed towards the station.
“I think Mojo told one of the lieutenants that the cameras hadn’t been hooked up yet,” Greg said as he flipped through his notes.
“Then why are they there?” Kyle replied as he studied the building. “Where is Mojo?”
“He’s at the diner with the others,” Greg said, hoping like hell he wouldn’t have to go back in there to get them.
“Good,” Kyle said cryptically before he strode back into the station and sat back down on the desk near BJ. “How come the cameras aren’t working in here or outside?”
BJ looked up at him and made sure her brother was paying attention to the conversation as well since this was his area and they needed to be consistent.
“BJ, just repeat what I tell you,” Mojo warned in her mind.
“Well,” BJ said with a heavy sigh. “See my brother was supposed ta hook ‘em up, but since he come back from that fancy school in the city,” BJ said and leaned closer to him as she lowered her voice, “all he do is smoke that wacky weed. I can’t get him to work.”
BJ struggled to keep the wide-eyed look on her face as Mojo laughed in her mind, and even Nik snorted in humor.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Kyle asked her in complete disbelief.
BJ just slowly shook her head.
“Momma been trying all the remedies. Even put the nettle in his shorts on a full moon, but nothing is working yet. It takes time to purge the evil once it takes root,” BJ explained as she nodded her head, still struggling to keep a straight face.
*****
Traze slapped Nik on the shoulder as they watched the video of what was happening in the station through the fully
operational cameras inside.
“I’m telling you, man. They aren’t pretending. They really are that fucking crazy and sick. You need to run, man. Run for your life,” Traze said in all seriousness, not the least bit convinced they weren’t all insane and inbred in Baker’s Creek.
“Shut the fuck up,” Nik retorted before he slapped Traze in the back of the head. “I’m trying to listen. Now see if you can find out who the hell beat her in St. Louis. I want to know what the hell happened to her.”
Chapter Eight
Kyle wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scream in rage at the obviously addled cop. On one hand, he really felt sorry that her life was destroyed by a violent criminal. On the other hand, he didn’t have the time or patience to deal with the brain-damaged woman and her drug addict brother. Suddenly a thought occurred to him, and he dragged Greg towards the door.
“Get their mother,” he whispered to Greg before he shoved him out of the door, ignoring the horrified look on the soldier’s face.
Kyle stood near the door for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts as BJ resumed picking at her fingers. Finally, he headed back to the desk.
"OK, Miss Markson, do you remember what they looked like? Can you give me a description?” he asked as he grabbed a pad of paper and a pen.
BJ chewed on her lower lip for a moment as if deep in thought.
“The one was real tall. He had black hair and eyes that looked like they come from the devil himself,” BJ looked wide-eyed at Kyle and scooted closer to the edge of her seat. “He was mean and ornery too. Fought like he had the strength of 20 men.”
Kyle looked at her doubtfully when she said that, and BJ knew she needed to tone it down and make it more believable instead of trying to needle a listening Niklosi.
“It took two Tasers to bring him to heel,” BJ added with a nod of her head.
“You Tasered him?” Kyle asked as his interest perked up.
“Yes, siree, we done Tasered him with two Tasers. Done had to, he was fighting like the Devil, like I said,” BJ explained, telling enough of the truth to be believed.
