The scent of the fox was in his nostrils again.
That was the good thing about bloodhounds. They never forgot the scent of their prey. Sure, the fox may elude them for a time. The hounds may even lose her smell amidst other smells, but they remained dogged and persistent in their search until they caught the scent again.
Behind them, Charlene twisted the bolt locked and nervously watched the federal agents as they disappeared down the street. She let out a heavy sigh and turned to begin her shift.
Chapter 17 – Date Night
Almost as soon as her aunt had left for her monthly book club, Alex had appeared at Dylan’s doorstep. They had resigned themselves upstairs immediately with Alex perched on the edge of the bed while Dylan paraded outfits.
“So, how’s he kiss?”
“Totally dreamy.” Dylan replied from behind the closet door. She walked out in a top and turned right back around when Alex shook her head.
“And what else?” Alex asked with an ample dose of innuendo as she flipped through a magazine.
“I’m not telling you that.” Dylan called out. “Good girls don’t talk of such things.”
“Mm-hmm. Who called you a good girl?”
A pair of jeans came flying from around the corner and smacked the sitting girl in the chest. “Nice aim, Jezebel. Anyway, so you haven’t talked to him since the other night?”
“Nope.” The muffled answer came from under another blouse.
“Wow. That’s just weird. No phone, no texting, no tweeting. I can’t imagine.”
“Hey.” Dylan came out from behind the door and got a thumbs up from her best friend. “You know, there was a time when kids our age actually like, met up and talked and hung out.”
“Yeah, well, those kids were lame.” She laughed at the notion.
Dressed, Dylan began to work on her makeup. Not too gaudy, but enough to give her cheekbones. Alex teased her hair into a new configuration that accentuated the oval of her face. All the while, the two girls dished about the new boy in Dylan’s life as well as their friends, the latest gossip and the inevitable rumors that swirled around the beach party. When they finally called the look complete, they moved downstairs to wait for Jaron’s arrival, still dishing about everything and anything.
At a little before six in the evening, Jaron showed up at the door, dressed more casually than he had on their date two nights ago. She invited him in and he had barely crossed the threshold before picking her up, twirling her around and pressing his lips to hers. Although taken by surprise by the sudden show of affection, she quickly melted into the embrace and molded her own body to his. Dylan was extremely grateful that her aunt had already left for her weekly book club meeting.
“So what’s on the agenda for the evening?” he asked as soon as their lips parted. His arms were still wrapped around her, reluctant to let her go. She had been so lost in the moment that she had forgotten that Alex had been in the kitchen grabbing a soda until she cleared her throat loudly from the doorway. She pushed away from Jaron’s embrace, not totally embarrassed to be caught in a compromising position, but close.
“Jaron, you remember Alex from the beach, don’t you?” She asked and watched as Alex’s mouth widened into a broad smile. She walked into the living room carrying the can of soda that had made her miss the main show. She sure as hell wasn’t going to miss the encore if there was one.
Jaron glanced up from Dylan, unperturbed at being caught in such an intimate embrace. He gave a short nod to the girl watching them and said. “Of course, I do. It’s a pleasure to meet you again, Alex.”
“Well, the pleasure’s all mine…again.” Dylan caught her best friend’s eye and wiped her forefinger on the corners of her mouth, signaling her to wipe the imaginary drool there.
“Alex was just here to help me get ready for tonight.” In response to her name, the young girl nodded her head and just stared at Jaron, enraptured by him. The can of soda remained unopened in her hand and she nuzzled it against the side of her cheek, which had suddenly grown hot in the last few minutes.
“And…she was just getting ready to leave.” Dylan added as she hurriedly crossed the room, grabbed Alex’s arm and started to pull her towards the front door. Alex resisted and stumbled, but finally she was shuffled out the screen door. The entire journey she craned her neck to keep an eye on Jaron, giving a curt wave to him as they passed. By way of goodbye, Dylan simply said, “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
The screen door clattered loudly behind Dylan as she slid the heavy door back into its frame, closing out the heat. She turned to apologize to Jaron and found that he had crept up behind her so that when she turned, she fell into his arms and another embrace. Startled, she found herself gazing into his deep blue eyes.
“So, you were telling me what you had planned for us this evening?” His voice was silky smooth and he was so close that she could feel as well as hear his question. His warm salty breath caressed her cheek. His hands grasped her waist firmly. Dylan found herself getting flustered and gently extricated herself from the intimacy.
Maybe a little milk, but no cow yet. She almost laughed at the thought, but contained it before she’d have to explain.
“I thought I’d take you to the carnival near Cocoa. It’s about 45 minutes from here and a total tourist trap. But, I guess you are technically a tourist. So you’ll definitely fit in there.” She began rooting around the magazines and newspapers on the coffee table as she spoke.
“And what are we going to do there?” He asked coyly, a sly smile making the ends of his mouth curve upwards slightly.
She turned to disappear into the kitchen to find the car keys. “It’s like a year round carnival with games, bad food and rides. I thought it might be fun. A little taste of Americana for you.”
Finding the keys on the counter, she jangled them loudly to signal she had found them. She turned the corner and found Jaron standing there by the front door with an eager grin across his face. He may act and talk different from the other boys she knew, but that look was universal. As much as her heart just wanted to spend the evening in his arms and no matter how far she had succumbed to her growing feelings, she was still a practical girl. She just wanted to have some fun tonight.
“Hold it steady, boy. We got a carnival to go to.” Jaron’s face dropped in mocked disappointment. It was clearly not an expression he was comfortable with because it didn’t take long for his frown to transform back into his goofy grin. Patting him on the chest as she walked past him to the door, Dylan couldn’t help laughing a little at the change, to which Jaron met her laughter with his own.
After she closed up the house, she put her arm around Jaron’s waist and led them down to the walk where her aunt had parked her two year old Corolla. Deciding to play a little role reversal, Dylan opened the passenger door in a grand gesture, inviting Jaron to sit down. Recognizing what she was doing, he bowed graciously and ducked his tall frame into the midsize car. She climbed into the driver’s side and kissed him quickly and gently before revving the car up. Despite her own resolve, she wasn’t going to let him go totally vegetarian tonight.
Halfway down the block behind the tinted windows of the sedan, Mark Fitzsimmons watched the Corolla speed past him. He pulled out after a moment and began to follow them at a discrete distance.
“Target acquired and on the move.” He said out loud, seemingly to an empty vehicle.
“Copy.” Came Angelo’s voice from the ear bud. “We’re right behind you.”
Mark didn’t need to look to know that the converted moving van would be a few blocks behind him. There was no real need to keep a visual on the couple. At this very moment, Angelo would be viewing the images coming from the bank of monitors. Signals from the other two cars would be monitored as well as the traffic cameras along their route. The tracking device on the Corolla would be giving off a steady signal for them to follow, but he didn’t want to deprive himself the excitement of the chase, the thrill of the hunt. After
weeks of dead ends, he could finally smell blood in the water.
Identifying Dylan Roberts last night had been a bit of a setback since she seemed to be exactly what she was: a high school senior. No covert associations. No incendiary blogposts or YouTube videos. Even background checks on her known acquaintances and relatives came up negative. So far as Mark could tell, she had no ties to anything that might be considered even the slightest revolutionary.
Other than the mysterious boy she was with, that is.
Whoever he was, he appeared to be an enigma wrapped in a riddle. He didn’t seem to exist in any database they had mined. No background, no school or hospital records, no driver’s license. At the moment, Wilkinson was running his picture through their European and Asian counterparts, although he doubted they’d have any success.
Earlier this morning, he and Angelo had taken a trip to the high school. The staff hadn’t recognized his picture and a quick perusal through the past few editions of the yearbook proved he wasn’t a student, at least not at Beach Side.
They didn’t even have a name for him. All they did have was his connection to the girl.
Someone else might’ve been disillusioned by the lack of any firm identification or plausible link between the crime scenes and these two. But not Mark Fitzsimmons. His instincts told him he was on the right track and he was going to follow through until they were proven otherwise.
As soon as Mark had confirmation of the girl’s identity, he had sent out one of the field teams to set up surveillance on her house. They had taken the initiative to place a tracker on the car that was registered to her aunt. By early afternoon, the surveillance van and additional teams had been brought in. Slowly, he was beginning to move his pieces into place.
The plan was simple. Follow the girl to the boy or vice versa. As mysterious as he was, Mark doubted the kid was the mastermind of their investigation, but the other guy, the bruiser…he was definitely a possibility. Once they had firm contact with the kid, they hoped he would lead them to the other one where both could be apprehended and questioned.
Still, there was a niggling edge of doubt in the back of his thoughts. He hadn’t had it when the boy had appeared down the street. It hadn’t reared its ugly head when the second girl had popped out of the house, put in her ear buds and bopped down the sidewalk. No, his doubt showed up when the pair had exited the house. Just not them, though, it was how the two were acting.
The idea that caused that doubt had come unbidden and unwarranted. Could they really be on a…date?
Because that was exactly what it looked like. The pair was laughing, holding hands, smiling. Mark watched as they got into the car and the girl kissed the boy. And not a peck on the cheek kind of kiss. This was the intimate kind. The kind that lovers gave each other, not terrorists or conspirators.
Could this really be that innocent or was it some elaborate ruse?
It was only a small sliver of uncertainty that crept into Agent Fitzsimmons’ thoughts. As hard as he tried to sweep it away, it still lingered at the edge. It didn’t matter. Whatever the truth was, he’d find out eventually. Now the important thing was to put their secondary plans into place.
“Agent Cooper. Come in.” Mark called out to the rest of the teams, all of them connected to the same open frequency.
“Here, sir.” Cooper’s voice came through the small speaker, making him sound even younger than he was. “What’re your orders?”
“Are we picking up the signal from the transmitter on the car?”
“Loud and clear, sir.”
“OK, good. Team Leader Four?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Implement the sweep.”
“Yes, sir. On it.” Mark heard a single click as the fourth team went dark. Within minutes, they would be entering the house and setting up wire taps, microphones and cameras.
He looked down at the tablet on the seat beside him. An animated map was on its screen and he could see the target car, himself and the other two surveillance teams, one of which was his partner.
“Angelo?” he asked, calling his partner on his cell. He saw that the Corolla’s blinker was on and shifted lanes to follow.
“Yes, Fitz?”
“Is everything in place?”
“That’s a roger.”
“Good. Have Team Three take over visual at first checkpoint, then meet me at the rendezvous. Time to get this endgame in play.”
He tapped the end button and turned away from the hunt, albeit only momentarily. As he drove down the highway to pick up his partner, he couldn’t help but smile a little to himself.
Chapter 18 - Carnivale
Forty minutes after leaving the house, Dylan glided the Corolla down the gravel drive and into the field that served as a parking lot for the carnival-slash-fair. The sun had dipped farther into the horizon and night’s shadows had sprung up along the road.
The car jerked up and down on its suspension over the uneven ground, stones crunching noisily underneath the tires. Two football fields away, both of them could see the bright lights illuminating the dusk like a corona from a fallen sun. Jaron’s face gaped as he saw the rise of the Ferris wheel and other rides spiking into the evening sky. Dylan noticed his gawking as she pulled into a spot.
“Haven’t you ever seen a carnival before?” She stopped the car and slid the gear into park. The speechless expression on Jaron’s face was almost comical enough to make her laugh. As it was, she had to smile at the innocence in it. She opened the car door and stepped out into the squishy mud and grass, thankful she had chosen sneakers tonight.
“Not like this.” His voice was filled with awe and wonder as he got out of the car after her and strained to see everything over the sea of vehicles. “We have celebrations and fairs but nothing to this extent.”
“Damn. If this impresses you, I’m going to have to take you to Disney World. You’ll lose your huevos over that.”
She pressed the fob on the key ring and listened as the locks clicked into place. She had worn a loose pair of jeans tonight and stuffed the keys into one of the pockets. She watched her date’s head crane around trying to take in all the colors and sounds ahead of them as he moved around the car towards her.
His hand reached out for hers blindly as Jaron looked on, mesmerized by the sight of the carnival. She entwined her fingers in his and she pulled him along, through the rows of parked cars. The trickle of people became more of a press, then a flood, all of whom were headed to the entrance. The smells of cotton candy and pretzels wafted on the breeze towards them. The once-faint sounds of bells, whistles and barkers grew louder as they drew nearer.
The entrance was open, no admission fee needed to get in. Several carnies were out front, passing out flyers and hawking their wares in loud voices under the giant arch that announced CARNIVALE in bright, bold letters. Pennants flapped in the breeze, colored red, white and blue for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. Dylan stopped them just inside the archway, allowing the couples and families to pass them by.
Before them, the midway stretched out, ending at the Ferris Wheel at the far end. Multicolored bulbs lit up the dirt path and blinked in the faces of the people who were playing the games of chance and trying to win the giant stuffed monkeys for their dates or kids.
“This is just…a lot.” Jaron muttered beside her in an obvious state of sensory overload. She looked up at his wide eyes as he tried to take in every nuance that he could, kind of like a dog with his head out the window of a speeding car. She realized in that moment that she was falling for him. There was no doubt of that any longer. She couldn’t deny how she felt, although she would never admit that to him. At least not yet.
“Come on.” She said and began to pull him down main strip, wanting to get away from her own realization.
Casually, she led them both through the maze of walkways, letting him see everything. They passed the carousel with its blinking, coma-inducing lights and whimsical music. They paused in front of a tent with
a small stage at its entrance. A man in a black suit and cape stood on it, enrapturing a crowd of onlookers with magic tricks and enticing them to part with a few dollars to see even more feats of illusion and deception within. Screams and laughter echoed out of the trailer that housed the Haunted Manse, which stood next to the closed Hall of Mirrors and the rickety wooden coaster that shook precariously as each car passed over the tracks. They had made a complete circuit when Dylan finally stopped them.
“Well, what do you want to do first? We can ride the Ferris Wheel.” She separated from him and pointed towards the giant wheel that rose above the far row of booths. “Or maybe the roller coaster, which isn’t half bad. We could play a few of the carny games and just chill for awhile. Up to you.”
“Which one do you like?” he answered with his own question, his smile almost as radiant as the thousands of lights around them.
“Let’s do the coaster first.” Dylan said excitedly. She loved thrill rides. One day she had promised herself to ride the top twenty coasters in America. In that dream, she was always with someone who shared her adrenaline junkie enthusiasm. Usually, it was a faceless guy she hung on to. Now she could picture Jaron beside her.
Through the serpentine maze of paths and crossways, the pair moved back the way they had come, closing in on the sound of metal on wood and the source of the screams they kept hearing. The first hill rose up into the air, a massive arch of white-washed track lit by more bright bulbs. Jaron paused beside her suddenly, pulling Dylan to a stop.
“What’s the matter?” she asked him.
“It’s a bit…” His voice trailed off for a moment as his face tilted upwards. “…daunting.”
It wasn’t exactly fear on his face, but Dylan could definitely see the lines of doubt and uncertainty in the corners of his eyes. As always, his thoughts were easily read from his expression and she knew she was with a coaster virgin. In a weird way, that made her even more excited to take him on the ride.
From the Blue Page 19
