Lady Justice and the Mysterious Box

by Robert Thornhill

  We nodded.

  “Well, a KO gas tossed into the cabin would put Maggie and the two goons to sleep.”

  “KO gas? What’s that?”

  “Surely you’ve seen it on spy movies. It’s a knockout gas called Flothane. It renders people unconscious on contact.”

  “And you’ve got that stuff?”

  “I do. Ishmael made sure his operatives had an arsenal of supplies.”

  “Okay, “Kevin said. “How do you plan to get the gas on board without being seen?”

  “I’m a certified open water scuba diver. I’ll bring it aboard from the river side where I won’t be seen.”

  “Good Lord!” Kevin muttered.

  “But,” Alex added, “we’re going to need something else. Maggie will be out too. We need another boat to pull up along side the yacht and get Maggie and me off the boat. They will need to have gas masks.”

  “I can handle that,” Ox said. “I know some guys in the river search and rescue. They have a boat, and I can get the masks.”

  “Then it looks like we have a plan,” Helen said. “Let’s get busy!”

  CHAPTER 15

  The next morning as the sun broke over the horizon, Garrett Scarborough was making final preparations for securing his coveted box.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Williams. I hope you slept well.”

  “Of course, I always get a good night’s sleep with my hands and feet bound.”

  “Spunky! I like that. Be patient, my dear. It won’t be long until you’re reunited with your husband. Too bad it will be a brief reunion.”

  “Go ahead! Make your plans, but you have no idea how resourceful my husband can be.”

  “So you’ve said. Only in this little game, I’m holding all the cards.”

  He turned to Stokes and Steele. “I will be meeting Williams in the parking lot at a quarter till ten. Make sure the woman’s mouth is taped shut so she can’t warn the old man. As soon as I secure the box, I’ll send him to you. He’ll be thinking you’ll release his wife. Instead, you’ll subdue him and tie him up. Then, leave the yacht, cast off, and let the boat drift away in the current. You’ll have to act quickly, as the bomb will detonate at exactly ten o’clock.”

  Stokes looked wistfully at the elegant yacht. “You’re really going to blow up this beauty?”

  “Randall, this yacht is nothing compared to what we will have once we have acquired the box. Just make sure you follow my orders to the letter. Do you understand?”

  “Got it, boss.”

  He turned to Maggie. “Good day, my dear. I’m so sorry it has come to this. If only your husband wasn’t so stubborn.”

  It had taken us well into the night to get together everything we needed to pull off our rescue mission.

  At nine o’clock, we gathered at a dock a half-mile downstream from Scarborough.

  Ox introduced us to a crusty old guy puffing on a big cigar. “This is Gabby. He’s with the search and rescue team. He’ll be our chauffer this morning. I’ve worked with him before. He knows how to keep his mouth shut.”

  After shaking hands all around, I said, “Do we have everything we need?”

  Alex raised her hand. “I’ve got my scuba gear and the gas cannister. I’m ready to go.”

  Ox held up the gas masks. “One for Kevin and one for me. As soon as we see Alex toss the can, we’ll be inside to get Maggie out. Alex will cast off the lines and then we’ll all jump into Gabby’s boat and get the hell out of Dodge before the boat blows.”

  “Sounds like we’re ready,” I replied. “Be safe and I’ll see you on the other side.”

  It was exactly nine-forty-five when I pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the dock. Scarborough was there in the blue sedan I had seen so many times. I pulled up next to him and we were finally eyeball to eyeball. Thankfully, his back was to the dock. We both rolled down our windows.

  “Right on time, Mr. Williams. I like that. Your wife is on the boat tied up to the dock. As soon as you hand over the box you may take her home.”

  I needed to stall a few minutes. “I’m sure your two goons are in the boat with her. How do I know you won’t have them take me? How about you have your boys bring Maggie up here and then we’ll make the trade?”

  Scarborough shook his head. “Sorry, Mr. Williams, that’s just not going to happen.” He looked at his watch. “You’ve already wasted five precious minutes. If I were you I wouldn’t waste any more.”

  At that moment, I saw Alex toss the cannister, and smoke came billowing from the cabin of the yacht.

  “Maybe you should take a look down there yourself,” I replied. “I don’t think things are going exactly as you planned.”

  Scarborough turned and saw Kevin and Ox carrying Maggie out of the cabin. He watched in disbelief as Alex cast off the lines holding the yacht to the dock. As the yacht was pulled into the swift current, our little rescue boat with all aboard sped down the river to safety.

  I looked at my watch. “Looks like your time is up, Scarborough.”

  A moment later, there was an explosion and the yacht burst into flames.

  Scarborough turned and the look in his eye was pure evil. “This isn’t over, Williams. Not by a long shot.”

  I put my car in gear. “Have a nice day, Garrett.”

  I sped away and met my friends on the search and rescue dock.

  Maggie was just coming around when I arrived. I grabbed her and held her close. “I’m so sorry you got pulled into this.”

  She looked into my eyes. “I knew you’d come. I just knew it!”

  After congratulatory hugs all around, I thanked everyone and took my wife home.

  That evening, over a glass of Arbor Mist, I told Maggie the whole story from start to finish.

  “The thing I don’t understand,” she said, “is why you just didn’t get rid of the darned thing and avoid all the trouble.”

  “In retrospect, I probably should have, but two people I respected, Mark and Ishmael, told me how important it was and that it just couldn’t land in the wrong hands. I thought I could figure out the right thing to do, but I was wrong and it almost got you killed.”

  “So, what are you going to do now?”

  “Tomorrow, this ends --- once and for all.”

  At that moment, the phone rang. “Walt, it’s Mark. I’m at the airport. I’ll be at your place in an hour.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” I replied. “I’ve got Maggie. She’s safe.”

  “But how ---?”

  “Not now. I’ll tell you tomorrow. For tonight, get a hotel room. Then tomorrow morning I want you to meet me down by the Missouri River. I’ll text you the address. Be there at ten.”

  I hung up and dialed Scarborough. “This is Walt Williams. I want to put an end to this madness once and for all. I’m going to be at the dock where you had your yacht moored tomorrow morning at ten and I’ll have the box with me. If you’re interested, be there.”

  I hung up, hoping that by this time tomorrow night, this nightmare would be over.

  CHAPTER 16

  I was on the dock a little before ten the next morning.

  Mark arrived first and spotted the box on the dock beside me. He started to come onto the dock but I stopped him.

  “Stop right there, Mark. We need to have a chat.”

  “Walt, what in the world’s going on here?”

  At that moment, a second car arrived and Garrett Scarborough stepped out. I don’t know who was more surprised, Mark or Scarborough.

  Scarborough’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here Davenport?”

  “I could ask you the same question, Garrett. It seems you’ve been involved in some off-the-book shenanigans. Does the agency know what you’ve been up to?”

  “Now that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it, Davenport. Do you really think the agency isn’t interested in the box?’ Then he turned to me. “You said you’d bring the box.”

  I pointed to the box at my feet. “It’s righ
t here.”

  “Then let’s end this. Give it to me and you can walk away.”

  “Don’t do it, Walt!” Mark said. “Give the box to me. I’ll see it gets in the proper hands.”

  “How about this,” I said. “I’ve been hearing for weeks about how important this is and yet nobody will tell me why. I’ll give the box to the first one of you who will tell me what the hell is inside.”

  Mark and Scarborough looked at one another and both shook their heads. “Sorry, Walt. We can’t do that. Either one of us. We’ll have to settle it some other way.”

  I nodded. “I thought that might be the case.” I picked up the box. “This is supposed to be so important, but so many men have died trying to obtain it, and it almost cost my wife her life. I’ve been told that whatever is in here could either be a blessing or a curse to mankind depending on who possesses it. Frankly, I’m not sure who the right person would be. The world has been getting along just fine without it, so I think the best thing to do is make sure no one gets it.”

  I took a step to the edge of the dock.

  Scarborough pulled a gun from his shoulder holster. “Take one more step and I’ll drop you where you stand.”

  Mark pulled his at the same time. “Put the gun away, Garrett.”

  “Sorry, Mark. I can’t do that.”

  I took another step and Scarborough took aim, but Mark fired before Scarborough could get off his shot.

  Scarborough slumped to the ground.

  I heaved a big sigh of relief. “Thanks, Mark. I was hoping you’d come through.”

  “Well, I did, so let’s get out of here. I’ll take that box off your hands.”

  “Actually, you won’t,” I said, taking another step toward the river. “I meant what I said.”

  “Walt! Surely you wouldn’t ---!”

  “Tell me this, Mark. If I give the box to you, you’ll just turn it over to whoever is above you, and no telling where it will go from there. Scarborough said it himself, are you sure the agency wasn’t interested in the box? Are you sure the agency didn’t send him and tell him to get the damned thing no matter the cost?”

  He didn’t reply right away.

  “That’s what I thought,” I said, and I flung the box as far as I could into the muddy Missouri River.

  Mark just stood there stunned as the box sunk into the murky depths.

  “Jesus, Walt! What have you done? What will I tell my superiors back in Washington?”

  “How about this. Tell them that Scarborough got the box and as he was making his getaway on the yacht, something went wrong with the bomb he had planted to kill me and Maggie. Scarborough, his two goons, and the box got blown away.”

  He pointed to the body on the ground. “What about this?”

  “Hey, you’re Homeland Security, after all. I’m sure you can think of something. Nice seeing you again, Bro.”

  I walked away and at last, the nightmare was over.

  EPILOGUE

  Not wanting to be a total poop, we invited Mark to dinner before his return trip to Washington.

  I told him everything that had happened since the mysterious box fell into my hands.

  We introduced him to Alex who was technically out of a job with the death of Ishmael. After learning of her contributions to our endeavors, he said he could use someone with her skill set and invited her to join his crew at Homeland Security.

  After hearing how the yacht had been blown to pieces by Scarborough’s bomb, Mark decided the scenario I had suggested to explain the death of Scarborough’s crew and the loss of the box was the way to go.

  Although he never said as much, I figured Scarborough’s body was now on the bottom of the Missouri River.

  At last he would be united with the box he had sought to possess.

  If that was the case, Scarborough was in for a big surprise. The box in the muddy depths was definitely a box, but not the box.

  The real box is locked away in my safe.

  As I contemplated how to end this nightmare once and for all, I realized that everyone, including Mark, had to believe the box was gone forever.

  When I purchased the box for Bernice’s cookies at the Office Depot, I bought an extra, just in case, and I was so glad I did.

  The box at the bottom of the river contains two cans of beets, a jar of pickles, and a two pair of old socks with holes in the toes I was planning to discard. I don’t like beets or pickles and the socks had seen better days.

  I had actually thought about tossing the real box, but then I remembered the words of Ishmael, that what was in it could be a blessing to mankind, and it wasn’t my call to destroy something that might, in the right hands, make our lives a little better.

  I am seventy-five years old, and the changes that have taken place during my brief sojourn in this life are remarkable.

  I was five years old when my grandparents finally got indoor plumbing. There was a porcelain chamber pot with a lid at the end of the bed, and a two-hole outhouse in the corner of the chicken yard.

  And speaking of chickens, my grandmother would say, “Walt, go get me a hen.” I had a wire rod about three feet long with a hook in one end. I would select a hen then chase it around the yard until I hooked its leg. I would drag the poor bird to my grandpa who would lop off its head with a hatchet. Then we would dunk it in a pot of boiling water heated by a wood fire. After plucking the feathers, grandpa would dress the hen and give it to grandma who would fry it in lard. In the end, we would have a fine meal of crispy fried chicken. The whole process would take a half day. All that may seem brutal in this day and age, but back then, it was just life on the farm in the 1940’s.

  Today, we can pull into most any fast-food restaurant, and in five minutes have an order of chicken strips, fries, and a soft drink. For a few cents more, you can even super-size it!

  I remember our first TV. It was black and white and we could get three channels on a good day. If we twisted the rabbit-ears antenna on the top of the set just right, we could watch The Ed Sullivan Show or I Love Lucy. Today we have a bazillion channels in high definition living color on a 60-inch screen with surround sound.

  When I was a kid, everyone got a smallpox vaccination and that was it. People my age still sport the little round scar on their arm. Eventually, all of us got the measles and chicken pox. It was a rite of passage. You got to skip a week of school and when it was over we didn’t have to worry about getting it again. Today, the average kid has 26 doses of nine vaccines by their first birthday, 48 doses of 14 vaccines by age six, and 70 doses of 16 vaccines by age eighteen. Progress? Hmmmm! I wonder.

  When I started selling real estate in 1978, there were no computers, no cell phones, and no fax machines. We learned about the houses for sale when the two-inch thick MLS book was published every two weeks. Our contracts were hand-written on forms using carbon paper. Today, the entire process of buying a house can be done online electronically.

  The cell phones every high school kid carries around have more computing capabilities than the first computers that occupied a whole room.

  All of this and more in my lifetime.

  Given the possibility that the mysterious box contained something that could make our lives any better, I couldn’t destroy it.

  But I also remembered Ishmael’s admonition that the contents of the box, in the wrong hands, could be a curse on mankind.

  But whose hands are the right hands?

  That was my dilemma.

  I trusted Mark, of course, but he would have to surrender the box to someone else, and I didn’t feel comfortable not knowing who that might be.

  Maybe someday, I’ll find the right person to possess the box, but until then, it will remain in my safe, along with all of the evidence collected to expose the government’s covert chemtrail program.

  My name is Walt Williams, and if the wrong people ever discovered I had either of those things in my safe, my life wouldn’t be worth spit!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

&n
bsp; Award-winning author, Robert Thornhill, began writing at the age of sixty-six and in nine short years has penned thirty-two novels in the Lady Justice mystery/comedy series, the seven volume Rainbow Road series of chapter books for children, a cookbook and a mini-autobiography.

  Lady Justice and the Sting, Lady Justice and Dr. Death, Lady Justice and the Vigilante, Lady Justice and the Candidate, Lady Justice and the Book Club Murders, Lady Justice and the Cruise Ship Murders and Lady Justice and the Vet won the Pinnacle Award for the best new mystery novels of Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Summer 2012, Fall 2012, Spring of 2013 and Summer 2014 from the National Association of Book Entrepreneurs.

  Many of Walt’s adventures in the Lady Justice series are anecdotal and based on Robert’s real life.

  Although Robert holds a master’s in psychology, he has never taken a course in writing and has never learned to type. All 42 of his published books were typed with one finger and a thumb!

  His wit and insight come from his varied occupations, including thirty-three years as a real estate broker. He lives with his wife, Peg, in Independence, Missouri.

  Visit him on the Web at: http://BooksByBob.com

  LADY JUSTICE TAKES A C.R.A.P.

  City Retiree Action Patrol

  Third Edition

  This is where it all began.

  See how sixty-five-year-old Walt Williams became a cop and started the City Retiree Action Patrol.

  Meet Maggie, Willie, Mary and the Professor, Walt’s sidekicks in all of the Lady Justice novels.

  Laugh out loud as Walt and his band of Senior Scrappers capture the Realtor Rapist and take down the Russian Mob.

  http://amzn.to/16lfjnY

  LADY JUSTICE AND THE LOST TAPES

  Second Edition

  When corrupt politicians, the Italian mob and a dirty cop collude to take over a Northeast neighborhood, Walt is recruited for the most bizarre undercover assignments of his new career.