by Aiden James
“Big Bo loosened his grip for just a second, but enough for me to roll out of his grasp. I squeezed my butt, legs, and feet through my arms to bring my cuffed hands in front of me, and quietly stood up. By now, my eyes had adjusted somewhat to the darkness, and I could tell their eyes hadn’t.
“Agent Cochran alerted the other two that I’d escaped his grasp, but he couldn’t tell where I was. He frantically reached around himself, grasping nothing but air. Meanwhile, I could see the others had pulled their weapons and were pointing them in the area I’d just vacated, near where Cochran stood.
“I wasn’t sure how long I had before their eyes adjusted and they could finally see me. So, I dove at Cochran’s feet, which I’m sure most folks would think pretty foolish, given his enormous size and all. But my idea worked. He cried out in surprise and fell over me. The other two began firing in the darkness, thinking, I’m sure, they’d hit me. They didn’t, though they nailed him at least four times. His worst injury came to his throat, serious enough to kill him. That’s where most of the blood on my clothes came from.
“I grabbed his weapon with my bound hands and started shooting at the pair of silhouettes closing in on us, for I was partially pinned beneath Bo’s enormous frame. Luckily, I hit pay dirt both times as the pair of assholes crumpled to the ground. Once I freed myself from Agent Cochran’s body, I heard some keys moving around in his pants’ pocket. I fished them out, difficult to do since my hands were tightly handcuffed together. Believe it or not, it was a helluva lot easier to shoot the fucking gun than get those damned keys!
“I found his car keys with another smaller ring attached to them. The five keys on this ring were small enough to fit my cuffs, and after the first four failed, I was greatly relieved when the last one opened the lock. I threw the handcuffs aside and stuffed the bigger key ring inside my pocket. Next, I moved over to Reynolds and Iverson. Both were groaning from their wounds and unable to move much.
“I got to thinking about Agent Casey, as I certainly didn’t want him alerting any more of these shitheads to what was going on. I attempted to create a consistent theme. Since I’m sure he’d heard the earlier gunfire, I decided to finish off these assholes using their weapons. I’m sure I would’ve been up a creek if Bo hadn’t brought the silencer, for Casey was unaware of the shots I’d just fired.
“I took Reynolds’ gun from his hand and shot him in the head with it. Almost dead already from my previous shot, he seemed barely aware of what was happening. Next, I moved over to that pussy Iverson. Now, he was definitely aware, as my earlier shot merely wounded him in the stomach. Unfortunately for him, his weapon had flown out of his hand when he fell to the ground.
“You should’ve seen him grovel for his life, Jackie—crying like a fucking baby. If he wasn’t such a sorry son-of-a-bitch, I might’ve been tempted to spare him. But, after all the mean-spirited comments he said about our family and all.... The only mercy doled out was for my ears, since his whimpering ended once I plugged him between the eyes.
“With that done, I needed to get back to you before my luck changed. That’s when I heard Bo Cochran moaning on the ground. I couldn’t believe he was still alive! He, too, begged for mercy, but by then I was totally sick of that shit! So, I put a bullet in his head as well. With that taken care of, I retrieved the flashlight. Amazingly, it started working again the very instant the last of those fuckers was carried off to hell.
“I wouldn’t have thought to take anyone’s money, but the flashlight’s beam shined directly on Cochran’s enormous waist, and I noticed his wallet partially hung out of his pants’ back pocket. Temptation got the better of me and I picked it up. Once I found out he had nearly eight hundred dollars cash in it, and remembering he’d been present when Agent Reynolds confiscated my money, I didn’t mind so much taking his. As a matter of fact, I felt pretty goddamned good about it! So good, I decided his dead buddies should also pitch in! When all was said and done, I pocketed big Bo’s wallet and roughly twelve hundred and thirty dollars in cash!
“I quietly moved back to where their cars were parked, turning off the flashlight so Agent Casey wouldn’t see me coming. He looked out anxiously toward the area I’d been taken. For a moment I thought he could see me. Once I circled around him and he didn’t follow my movements, I realized the motherfucker’s as night-blind as he was stupid. I snuck in behind him and whispered, ‘Boo!’ He nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled around. I flicked on the flashlight and shot him twice in the face, making sure my second one blasted his left eye like his buddy Bo Cochran had done to the agent in the trunk with you. Even then, he just stood there, determined to die standing straight up. I pushed him over and he landed hard on his back.
“I checked his pockets for the keys to the car you were in, praying to God Almighty I didn’t have to go back to where the others were to find the damned things. Luckily, they were there.
“The rest you already know. Once I opened the trunk and shined the flashlight into your pretty-boy face, that is.”
Jeremy smiled and turned his attention back to the road ahead. Jack smiled as well, admiring his brother’s moxy and courage.
They drove in silence and soon reached the town of Winchester, Virginia. A Shell station with a food mart open all night sat near the outskirts. Almost out of gas, they stopped to fill up. At Jeremy’s insistence, Jack wore the Peterbilt ball cap and took enough money to pay for the gas and buy some snacks and drinks for the road. After paying for everything, he also purchased a cheap kid’s watch on display at the checkout counter. The cashier, a girl who didn’t look old enough to work overnight, cheerfully told him the correct time was 2:06 a.m. He smiled and politely thanked her, thinking later that day she might regret having been so nice to a federal fugitive.
Once back in the truck, the brothers headed north, taking Highway 81 out of Virginia and on through West Virginia. The old Ford truck moved too slow and needed too much gas for them to make serious headway, forcing them to stop for fuel again near Hagerstown, Maryland. It was here that Jeremy agreed with Jack that they should contact their grandfather to tell him what had happened before traveling much further north. Jack wanted to be the one to make the call, but Jeremy insisted on the honor.
“Grandpa and I developed a language for just this type of emergency years ago,” he said. “Trust me on this.”
They stopped at a small market just south of Hagerstown’s city limits. The store was dark and probably wouldn’t open for business again for at least a couple more hours, they figured, since the little watch Jack had just purchased currently read 3:23 a.m. An old payphone stood in the northern corner of the store’s parking lot beneath the lone streetlight.
Jeremy pulled up to the streetlight and parked the truck. After taking the ball cap from Jack and placing it snugly on his own head, he jumped out of the vehicle and walked over to the phone. With his back turned toward his brother, he used a calling card he found in Bo Cochran’s wallet to call their grandfather. Jeremy insisted this would be more secure than calling collect, and neither one wanted to risk using the cell phones Jeremy lifted from Frank Reynolds and Ben Casey.
While Jeremy was on the phone, Jack kept an eye out for any potential trouble coming up behind them. He worried how long it would take the FBI to trace the calling card and figure out where they headed…. To gain a better vantage point, he turned around on the bench seat, inadvertently kicking his foot against the door. He felt a sharp stabbing pain in the side of his foot and let out a slight yelp.
“Are you all right in there?” Jeremy called back to him.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” said Jack.
Jeremy nodded and resumed his conversation with their grandfather.
Jack reached down and removed his loafer from his foot. When he reached inside the shoe to find the source for his pain, he discovered the sharp point of a skeleton key sticking out through a tear in the small zippered coin compartment in the side of the shoe. He’d purchased the shoes only two months
before, largely on account of the compartments hidden inside each loafer. Always fond of gadgets and novelties, each compartment was large enough to conceal other items as well, such as the key that tore through this one’s side.
The irony for him was he completely forgot about the key’s presence in his shoe. That, along with two other keys as well: a large house key in the damaged loafer, and a smaller house key in the other shoe. Jack removed the keys. They glistened in his hand under the streetlight’s illumination. He suddenly recalled where they came from, marveling at how he overlooked their existence until now. Perhaps the events of the past two weeks were much more traumatic than he realized.
The keys were an odd mixture. Definitely the oldest, the skeleton key belonged to some antique piece of furniture. The other two keys fit standard door locks, with the larger key being the most obvious as to what it was. All three were made of steel, and once belonged to Dr. Oscar Mensch.
The first time Jack ever saw them was when he discovered the professor lying unconscious on his living room floor. When he checked for vital signs to see if Dr. Mensch had survived his terrible assault, the keys slipped out of a small pocket in the professor’s jacket. At the time, the keys were joined together on a small brass ring.
Jack had picked them up and deposited the keys in his pants’ pocket with the intent of giving them back to the professor just as soon as he regained consciousness. Following a gut instinct, he withheld this information from the police detective’s knowledge that night. In retrospect, he did the right thing.
On the night when Dr. Sutherland called him, to let him know Dr. Mensch had regained consciousness, Jack made sure he brought the keys with him. He hoped this would serve to brighten the professor’s outlook and speed his recovery. He now clearly recalled everything about that evening, especially what he and Dr. Mensch discussed….
When he peered into Dr. Mensch’s private room at the hospital, he found the professor propped up in his bed while he finished his dinner. His face covered with bandages, the only way he could feed himself was through a straw.
“Should I come back later?” Jack asked him as he stood in the doorway.
“No, Jack. I sent for you specifically,” he replied. “Didn’t Jeremy tell you? He dropped by to visit awhile earlier.”
“No, he didn’t,” Jack told him. “Dr. Sutherland called me and told me you were awake. I hurried down here just as soon as I could.”
“Very good. Well...are you going to visit from the doorway, or would you mind coming in the room?”
Dr. Mensch sounded weak, but the powerful warmth of his personality came through nonetheless. He motioned for Jack to pull a nearby chair up to his bedside, since the weakness in his voice made it hard to decipher his English through his thick German accent.
“How are you feeling, Doc?” Jack sat down next to the professor’s dinner tray.
“As good as can reasonably be expected,” Dr. Mensch told him, chuckling painfully as he repositioned himself to gain a better view of his guest. “And how are you, my young friend?”
“I’m fine, just worried about you.”
“Don’t be,” said Dr. Mensch. “Sometimes these things happen. Part of life, although I certainly hope you are spared anything quite like this.”
He slowly raised his hands and pointed to the bandages on his face, steadily turning pink as they absorbed blood from his wounds.
“But, enough of that already,” he continued. “I didn’t send for you to draw your pity. I have much more important things to discuss….”
The professor paused to study him, a look of child-like innocence and excitement shining in his eyes.
“Do you believe in premonitions, Jack?”
“You mean, like gut feelings and visions, and other stuff like that?”
“Yes, I do. How about dreams? Do you believe they sometimes can be the same thing?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Jack replied, ever fearful the many nightmares he suffered over the years might someday come true.
“That bothers you, eh?” Dr. Mensch asked him, noticing his reaction.
“No. Not really,” said Jack, pushing his previous thoughts aside.
An uncomfortable silence followed. He needed an effective distraction to keep things from turning awkward, and decided to use this opportunity to give the professor his keys back, pulling the brass key ring out of his pocket.
“I’ve been saving these for you,” he said, handing the key ring to him. “They fell out of your jacket when I found you lying on your living room floor.”
Dr. Mensch reached out slowly to take them, and then studied the keys as if he’d never seen them before.
“I’m forever grateful you saved my life the other night,” he said, finally. He motioned for Jack to take the keys back. “I’d prefer you keep these for now, in a safe place.”
Jack took the keys back as the professor requested, just as the nurse Peter McNamee later identified as Annette Rison entered the room. She moved directly in front of Jack as she approached Dr. Mensch’s right side.
“Looks like you didn’t eat all of your dinner, Doctor,” she chided, casting a suspicious glance toward Jack that made him believe she blamed him for this.
“I ate most of it, didn’t I?” Dr. Mensch replied, feigning contriteness in a playful way. “Perhaps I can finish it later—or better yet, how about some dessert? I’ve always wondered what apple pie or chocolate cake would taste like through a straw.”
“You’re terrible!” she teased back, and naughtily winked. “Tell you what, Doc. Let me check on you a bit later after your company’s gone.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea!” he beamed, and he and Jack watched her saunter from the room to check on her other patients. Once far enough away from the room and certain she wouldn’t return soon, he grew serious and reduced his voice to a mere whisper. “Where did you put the keys?”
“In here,” Jack told him, pointing to his pants’ pocket.
“No! Don’t leave them there, Jack!” the professor scolded him. “Do you not have a less obvious place to carry them? Surely the brother of Jeremy Kenney, a master in craftiness, can think of a better alternative, eh?”
Nothing like a comparison with the one person on the planet he felt inferior to for Jack to think quickly. Almost immediate, he remembered the hidden coin compartments in his shoes.
“How about in here?” he asked, removing his loafers to show the professor the hidden zipper pouches in each one. “I’d have to take the keys off this ring in order to get them to fit inside, but they’d definitely be concealed.”
“Yes! I believe that will work,” said Dr. Mensch, the light returning to his eyes once more. “Good job, Jack! Now, before you place the keys inside your shoes, let me advise you of a few important things to remember. Number one, remember this address: 1016 South Queens Court. It’s just a few blocks from the University. Have you got that?”
“1016 South Queens Court,” Jack replied softly.
“Excellent! Next, I need you to keep in mind that each of these keys is important in its own right. The largest one goes to the front door of the house on 1016 South Queens Court. The smaller house key goes to the basement door. The older one goes to an immense desk down inside the basement. Will you remember all of this?”
“Yes. I won’t forget any of it.”
“I believe you won’t,” Dr. Mensch agreed, grimacing slightly.
Jack could tell this wasn’t entirely due to his physical condition. Profound sadness emanated from the professor.
“Now, put the keys inside your shoes and get them back on your feet before anyone notices,” Dr. Mensch instructed. “Then, I’d like to discuss my latest dreams. Would you mind?”
“No. If that’s what you’d like to discuss,” said Jack, carefully placing the keys inside the loafers’ compartments before slipping them back on his feet.
“It is, indeed,” said the professor, drawing a deep breath. “They are all the same,
these dreams. In each one, I’m lying on my back in a field of colorful flowers. The sky is as brilliant as I’ve ever seen it, with soft clouds floating past where I’m resting. There are birds everywhere, and their wonderful songs make me want to get up from where I’m laying and go investigate. Once I think this, immediately I’m walking through a pristine meadow.
“All of a sudden, I’m transported at incredible speed to an immense courtyard of gleaming gold, filled with fountains, ponds, and waterfalls of such splendor I’ve never seen anywhere in my travels throughout the world. Just as I think nothing can improve upon this magical vision, an amazingly beautiful woman, dressed in a lavender gown of exquisite silk, with flowing hair as white as snow and eyes pure blue as any sapphire I’ve ever seen, steps up to me.
“‘Welcome, Oscar!’ she tells me. ‘Welcome to the place that will soon be your home!’
“Well, I don’t know what to say to this gorgeous female in response to such an unusual greeting. But it doesn’t matter to her. At least that’s what she tells me. ‘What matters most,’ she says, is that I’m about to be ‘rewarded for a work well done.’
“I’m quite confused, so I ask her what she means by this. She refuses to let me in on her secret. Instead, she tells me that I need only to trust her and do her bidding before my life on earth is over. I tell her I’m not ready to die, and I offer arguments as to how this can’t be true, that I still have much left to do on earth. She smiles and waves me off. In fact, in every dream she then tells me the very same thing. I must deliver a message to a dear friend of hers on earth. If I just do this, she will see to it that I prosper in her world in such a way that will make all my earthly accomplishments seem mundane….”
He paused again, looking at Jack intently, his eyes aglow with excitement. This only heightened the fear and horror building within Jack. He didn’t want to hear what he knew instinctively the professor was about to say. It simply wasn’t possible.
