The Monolith Murders

by Lorne L. Bentley

  “Damn it, Donna, this is too complicated! There are a lot of things that could go wrong.”

  “We have no choice. We both know that Harris has made sure I can’t get back into the AU medical area. We have to go somewhere else; and what better place, with all the neurosurgery facilities, than the hospital in which Dr. Anderson has selected for his practice?”

  “Won’t you need some medical attention after the operation?”

  “That has to be accomplished in this trailer by you and Anderson. My recovery period was swift the last time I had the thing implanted –there’s no reason not to believe it won’t be just as fast this time. I had no complications then, and I won’t this time either.”

  Chapter 27

  The next morning Fred decided to take the day off and plan his next course of action. Since he left Donna’s mother, Fred had been troubled that he didn’t take time to wait for Mrs. Brown after her phone call to determine what she wanted to tell him about. He assumed it had no significance to his investigation, but he didn’t want to leave any detail unresolved.

  Sergeant Albright was having a cup of coffee when Fred came downstairs with his two dogs. Fred could detect the distinct smell of toast, and coffee brewing.

  “I hope you don’t mind, Fred. I don’t want to invade your space, but I desperately need this stuff first thing in the morning to keep awake. And I require a little bit of nourishment as well,” he said, pointing to the toaster.

  “No problem, Albright, anything in the kitchen or the pantry is yours. I appreciate your taking care of Maureen while I’m gone. Today, though, I think I’ll stay here and work in the den. I’d let you go, but if something comes up I might have to take off on a moment’s notice and in that time frame Maureen would be vulnerable.”

  “I understand. By the way Fred, Jim told me to tell you the latest on the woman’s car that was parked just off the Tamiami Trail near the site where she was digging.”

  “Oh, yeah, Jim had a feeling that it was Donna. What’s the status?”

  “We got some good tire tracks and found out the make of the tire. It was a Firestone, but it’s a common size tire which can be used on several cars; it really doesn’t help us at all.”

  “Yes, I wasn’t too optimistic on that lead bearing any fruit.”

  Fred took the dogs out and then went into his den to be alone. He pondered over different possibilities concerning the AU murder. In his reflective process he recognized that a couple of potentially inconsistent things were bothering him but they seemed to be buried deep in his subconscious.

  Then something that had been right before his eyes hit him. He was a friend of George Schultz, who ran the only diversified paranormal institute in the country—most likely in any country. Even though Atwell wouldn’t help him catch Donna, other employees in Schultz’s organization might.

  He decided to wait an hour until he knew Schultz would be at work. In the interim he called the local postmaster in Mrs. Brown’s hometown in order to find out what Mrs. Brown was going to tell him. When he asked if the postman would do him a favor and bring Mrs. Brown to the phone, there was a long pause. Finally the man said, “I’m sorry, but she’s dead.”

  Fred was shocked. “My God—What happened?”

  “According to the rumor mill she was killed during a robbery attempt. I understand they have no suspects. It’s a shame, she was such a sweet lady.”

  Fred contacted the local police station and identified himself. The officer on duty confirmed the death and the fact that it appeared that Mrs. Brown was stabbed during a robbery attempt.

  “That makes no sense,” Fred said. “I was just in Mrs. Brown’s house, it’s very modest; why would a thief choose that house to rob when I passed much more expensive homes on the way to her place?”

  “Beats me, Lieutenant, but that’s the only theory we have at this stage; and unfortunately we don’t even have a suspect yet.”

  After Fred hung up he realized he would never know what Mrs. Brown was going to tell him.

  * * *

  Fred placed a call to AU. The receptionist recognized Fred’s name and rang Schultz’s office immediately.

  “George, I’ve been thinking.”

  “A very dangerous territory for you to explore,” George laughed.

  “I suspect you’re correct, but I have a question. Who’s your best mind reading expert?”

  “I guess it’s Melissa Moore; no one on board compares to her. Remember? You interviewed her during your earlier investigation here.”

  Fred had a hard time placing the person with the name; but then he remembered the interview, and that her ability had been impressive.

  “Okay, George, I might ask you to loan her to me; and I will need your help as well.”

  “What’s the issue? Does it have anything to do with the Anderson kidnapping?”

  “It has everything to do with it, let me call you back when I’ve done a little bit more digging.”

  “Any time my friend, except you have to promise me one thing.”

  “And that is?”

  “Never, never, drive my car again.”

  Fred, laughed, “George, you have a deal.”

  His next call was to Debra Black. He knew this wasn’t going to be either pleasant or easy. She picked up on the first ring. “Debra,” Fred asked, “how about meeting me for another cup of coffee?”

  “As I recall, you didn’t drink the last one I ordered for you. But, sure, I’m free this morning; are you going to tell me what you have been holding back from me?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re now activating my curiosity; same place in an hour?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  * * *

  As Fred started to walk into the diner he observed two men dressed in dark gray suits directly across the street from him. They seemed to be watching him intently. Fred wondered what that was all about; but he decided not to worry about it since he didn’t want to be late for his meeting with Debra.

  Joe’s Diner was crowded with the early morning breakfast types; Fred was happy to locate the only vacant booth in the place. In the background soft elevator music from the 60s was playing. As he started to sit down, Debra tapped him on the shoulder from behind and said, “I guess we arrived here at the same time.”

  Fred said, “Yes, we did.”

  He was not in the mood for small talk. He needed to get his secret off his chest as soon as possible. He jumped right to the subject. “The subject I need to talk with you about is the paranormal device that Donna had implanted in her brain.”

  “You get down to business fast; I thought at first maybe you were seeking to start an affair, but if that’s your best bedside manner you can just forget it.” She smiled seductively. “Yes, of course, I recall the device. At that time I had been planted as a mole trying to determine the identity of the person who provided a copy to the Chinese.”

  “Debra, I realize that was part of your mission when you worked for the company.”

  “Fred, it was my entire assignment at the time, I was a plant at AU. For three months I tried to find the guilty party. I thank you again for uncovering Schultz’s wife as the traitor.”

  “You’re welcome, I guess she’s still in some federal prison. Her sole motivation was to pass the device to the Chinese to attempt to establish military parity. Not patriotic and not smart, but at least she didn’t want to make money at our country’s expense. But what I want to talk about is the disposition of the duplicate device that was removed from Donna’s brain.”

  “Yes, I assume that the FBI took charge of that.”

  “They didn’t, I did.” Suddenly Fred felt the secret that had plagued him for years had been lifted.

  “You? What authority did you possibly have?”

  Fred paused, “Actually, the person who came in contact with it was Atwell. I sort of lost track of where it was; and out of the blue he presented it to me.”

  “Christ, Fred, you better get in touch
with the FBI right away and give it to them!”

  “I wish I could, but Donna stole it from me.”

  “You mean since she broke out of jail?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  “My God! And you had four years to get it back to the proper authorities, and you did nothing?”

  “Yes, that’s right, but now I need your help in getting it back.”

  “Fred, is that why you wanted to see Atwell?”

  “Yes.”

  “And I assume he wouldn’t help?”

  “No.”

  “Damn, Fred, we’re both officers of the law and you’re trying to get me into something I really don’t want to play in. You’re way down deep in a shit hole and I really don’t think I have a large enough shovel to help you out of it.”

  “I understand how you feel, but think a moment about who we’re dealing with. She was a vicious murderer back then; but as Maureen has said, she seems to have lost every modicum of any residual conscience she had since then. She was willing to kill me, along with Maureen, and a room full of people, with no compunction whatsoever. My point is, if she is not caught before we get that device back from her, she will be many times more dangerous than she was previously.”

  Black sat back in her chair and tapped her fingers, for what seemed like an hour to Fred. Finally her expression mellowed. “What do you want me to do?”

  “I want to have a meeting with you, Schultz, and his best remote reader. I want to have that person try to read Donna’s mind to determine her location. I know such a thing can be done. Atwell once did it to my wife from quite a distance, and I suspect Donna is not that far away. Once we identify Donna’s location, we can pick up her and her accomplice, and free Dr. Anderson, who we’re sure she has kidnapped.

  “Debra, your agency is one of the clients of Schultz’s firm so it would make sense if you were part of our team.”

  “Where do you want to hold the meeting?”

  “I don’t want to hold it in your headquarters, nor in my police station. I don’t trust either place. And there are too many gifted people in Schultz’s organization to keep it a secret, so my idea is to get in contact with the D.A. and have him provide a safe location for us.”

  “So now you want someone who is not even in the loop to get involved for the first time?”

  “No, he won’t be directly involved. But I’m sure he can get us an appropriate location for our meeting –that will be his only role.”

  “I’m reluctant, but I’m game. When will we have the meeting?”

  “As soon as possible, tomorrow if you’re free.”

  “It’s my day off, but what the hell. Just call me when you have it set up.”

  Fred’s next call was to Jason Cooper, the D.A. When Fred introduced himself to Cooper’s secretary, she knew right away who he was. Fred’s name had been in all the local papers when he first captured Donna; so anyone who had been in town during that period knew of Fred. She said, “I’ll buzz the D.A. I’m sure he’ll want to speak with you.”

  When the D.A. learned who was calling, he wondered why a lieutenant down in the hierarchical police ladder was calling him directly without going through proper channels. Cooper was inflexible on protocol; his dealings had always been with the station’s chief. Cooper felt speaking directly with a subordinate was beneath him unless it was to his benefit; he almost told his secretary to tell Harris that he was busy, in a meeting, or to create some other damn excuse.

  But then he remembered that Donna was on the loose again, and he was the prosecutor who had put her away. Cooper felt his eloquence alone was the reason that Donna was found guilty, and he perceived that she would clearly remember him for that. Maybe, he thought, Harris has some information on her or is going to warn me of something.

  “Hello, Lieutenant, it’s so good to hear from you. Can I help you, anything at all you understand.”

  Cooper was sure that Harris wasn’t calling for help, but only to provide some type of information; otherwise he would never have given Fred such an open ended offer.

  “I was hoping you would say that,” Fred said, jumping on the offer. “I need to get a vacant room somewhere so I can have a meeting. It’s going to be a strategy meeting dealing with the capture of Donna.”

  Cooper was confused. “I guess I can help you; but you have conference rooms available in your own station, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but in dealing with Donna I have to be careful; you recall what a danger she was in the past and she’s even a greater one now. Walls have ears, even in our police station. So I was hoping you could help. I’m sure you know what a threat she is to us all.”

  Of course the word all was intended to include the D.A. Fred was sure Cooper would interpret it that way.

  “Yes, Fred, of course, anything at all in the public interest.”

  “We need the room tomorrow, around 10 a.m.”

  “You can meet in the courthouse; in fact you can meet in a courtroom that’s not being used at all tomorrow. You can have it all day if you wish, Fred.”

  “Thanks, sir, for your cooperation.”

  “No problem, I’m glad to do what I can to help the community.”

  Cooper thought, damn, I might be on Lang’s hit list; I think I’ll take off for a couple of weeks and do some hunting as far from the state of Florida as possible.

  * * *

  At 10 a.m. all the participants were seated in the Sarasota courtroom. Fred had warned each to stagger their entry into the courthouse so that the court’s security officers would not suspect that a meeting was about to take place. He knew he was being super-cautious, but he feared that somehow Donna could pick up on his tracks.

  Fred started the meeting, “Look, Donna Lang is on the loose, we all know that; we also know she’s a ruthless killer. We need to capture her immediately.” Fred decided he didn’t want to talk about the criticality of time with respect to Donna’s regaining her ESP capabilities. That issue would open the discussion to the monolith, and Fred wanted that matter to be kept secret from as many people as possible for as long as he could.

  “Ms. Moore, Mr. Schultz told me you have displayed the most refined capabilities of anyone in AU relative to mind reading skills.”

  Moore blushed as she said, “Sir, I read about Miss Lang’s escape in the paper; it’s hard to realize that I worked with her when she was at AU and never suspected a thing. Great mind reader I am.”

  “I understand,” Fred said. “I don’t know how your unique powers function; but I brought an up to date photo of Donna if that helps.”

  He handed Moore the photo. She took it, focusing on it for what seemed an eternity.

  Schultz barked out an order for Moore to get on with it.

  Debra Black intervened. “Look, George, this process is not like making a ham sandwich. These are special people and they need to accomplish their tasks their way; you above all should know that.”

  Schultz grumbled inaudibly and looked away.

  It was obvious to Fred that Moore was quickly losing her ability to concentrate. He said, “Debra is right. I have no idea how you do what you do; but I’ve reserved this court room for the entire day, so take your time.”

  Moore continued to concentrate on Donna’s photo; and after a considerable amount of time had passed, Fred observed tears flowing from Moore’s eyes.

  “I can’t do it; I just can’t do it,” she said.

  “Do you think you might be able to do it later?” Fred asked.

  “I don’t know. But I do know that, when I’m upset, all my powers just dissipate.”

  Fred glared at Schultz. Damn it, he thought, Schultz has zero decorum, why did I even invite him. Just then, he noticed Ms. Moore nodding to him.

  Well, at least she picked up on my thoughts that time, Fred thought.

  To the frustration of all those around the table, the rest of the morning produced no results.

  As Fred exited the courthouse to a blinding semi-tropical noond
ay sun, he thought, what the hell do I do now?

  The next day Fred phoned the D.A.’s office to reserve another courthouse room. The receptionist said, “Mr. Cooper had to leave the area on an emergency—it was rather unexpected; he didn’t tell me the reason for his trip.”

  Coward, Fred thought; he’s fearful of retaliation from Donna.

  “At any rate,” she continued, “he told me to give you full cooperation in reserving another room at the courthouse. And he wanted you to get back to me immediately if you had any luck capturing Donna Lang. He said he will check into the office frequently while he’s gone.”

  The next meeting Fred set up was with Ms. Moore, Ms. Black, and himself. He felt Schultz had the sensitivity of a psychotic drill sergeant, and he didn’t want him indelicately interfering with Moore’s concentration a second time.

  * * *

  Twenty four hours had passed; Fred was hopeful that it would prove to be an adequate time for Moore to get her mental capabilities back. He was thankful Debra would be there since she seemed to deal well with Moore, helping to keep her stress level down.

  Moore was smiling as she walked into the vacant court room. A good sign, Fred thought. She wore a purple tee short which said, I almost had a psychic boyfriend but he left me before we met. Fred thought, I guess there’s humor inherent in every occupation.

  Moore asked, “Do you mind if I just try to read your minds first as a warm up test?”

  Both Fred and Debra Black said, “No problem.”

  Moore closed her eyes. “Lieutenant, I believe you’re thinking about Donna Lang and you are extremely worried that she will soon have her ESP powers back and are wondering if you could possibly catch her a second time. I think I picked up on your thoughts easily because I sensed a strong emotional element in you. Somehow, emotion seems to lubricate my mind and it facilitates my functioning as an accurate receiver.”

  Fred said, “You were right on the mark. Good job.”