Those of the Margin: a Paranormal Suspense Thriller (Derek Cole Suspense Thriller Book 2)

by T Patrick Phelps

  "Get the highlights," he said to himself, "ignore anything that is strictly personal. Mark any pages that need additional exploration and study them in the morning."

  The first page of the notebook was filled with terribly neat printing. The page was divided into five columns, the titles of each written in larger handwriting across the top line of the page. "Date-Time-Duration-Conditions-Notes-Summary." Beneath each column were times, dates, and hand-printed notes. Nearly everything written under the "Notes" column was the same: "Not Remarkable." Only two lines, found on the 25th the page, had "Potential Sighting" written, instead of "Not Remarkable" under the "Notes" column.

  Derek flipped through the pages and found that at least 80 pages were laid out exactly as the first: page after page of dates, times, weather conditions, and notes. Like the first page, the "Notes" column on every page was filled with "Not Remarkable" and a few "Potential Sighting" reports. On about the 70th page, Ron had highlighted four entries. The writing under the "Notes" column of each highlighted entry read "OBIT/PIC!"

  As he continued scanning the pages, Derek saw one entry that was highlighted in successively larger ovals. The note was scribbled as if written by a hurried or excited hand, and read "RECOGNIZED/RETURNED!" In small handwriting next to those words, a name was written: "Henry Turck."

  Derek retrieved his Moleskin notebook that was placed on the TV stand, flipped to a blank page and wrote, "Who is Henry Turck???"

  Derek returned to his bed and to the notebook with heightened curiosity. He flipped through several more pages until he saw a page with the letters "JB Investigation Notes" written in large letters across the header of the page. The notes below the heading filled the entire page and continued onto the next page. Each entry was marked by a small asterisk and began with the date the note was written, a letter, then a summary note.

  The first line read,

  "* 11/10/13 'C' Contact with Portland Detec. HT (ret) Claims JB suspected in other cases. F/U"

  Derek tried to decipher Ron's code. He assumed that the letter "C" was the grading system that Ron used to judge the validity of the entry. As he quickly scanned several other entries, Derek noticed that the letters written after the date of entry ranged from A+ to F, giving more credence to his belief of Ron's grading system.

  As he continued trying to decipher the note, Derek flipped back through the notebook, until he found the highlighted note that mentioned the name "Henry Turck." He assumed that the letters "HT" referenced Henry Turck. Derek quickly grabbed his iPhone, launched his Google Search app, and typed in the name "Henry Turck."

  The results chilled Derek. Henry Turck was a retired detective on the Portland Maine Police Department. Turck had been on the force since 1985 and had retired in 2005. The obituary that Derek pulled up stated that "after retiring from the police force, Henry became active in helping victims of unsolved crimes through his not-for-profit private investigation firm, Coastline Investigations. Henry died suddenly on Thursday, December 13, 2013."

  Derek set Ron's notebook aside, grabbed his Moleskin, and jotted down several notes:

  "JB=Jack Bryant???"

  "Turck's cause of death?"

  "What does recognized/returned mean?"

  "Find other unsolved murders in and around the Portland area occurring after the death of Jack Bryant's father."

  "Contact coworkers of Henry Turck. Ask RE Jack Bryant case and other unsolved murders."

  When he returned his attention to Ron's notebook, Derek decided to only read the entries that were graded with an "A+" but promised himself that, when he had more time that each entry would be read, understood, and followed up on.

  As he skimmed the seven pages filled with entries, he noticed only two with the A+ after the date.

  "12/6/2013 A+ Received call from JB – message was "leave well enough alone."

  "1/5/2014 A+ MB and RB visit today- MB knows more than she lets on. MB = danger."

  The feeling was sudden and instant. Derek no sooner finished reading the line before the twisting in his gut began. He felt empty in a flash of a few words, as if things that should have made sense before suddenly became evident. But it was the hatred of the thought that tightened the twisted knot in his stomach. He ran to the bathroom, reaching the toilet just in time for his vomit to find a place to land.

  "Not Maggie," he whimpered. "She can't be involved."

  Derek pulled himself up from the bathroom floor and walked over to the end of his bed. He sat, arms loosely hanging between his legs.

  "It can't be," he said softly.

  Derek knew what he was feeling for Maggie. He knew the second he saw her: The fragile strength wrapped inside a beautiful being. Since Lucy had been murdered, Derek hadn't allowed himself to feel attracted to another woman, as if doing so would have violated the oath he swore to his wife. But something about Maggie dragged at him, pulling him blindly towards something he both feared and desired. As he sat at the end of his hotel bed, he stiffened his spine, tilted his head back, and summoned reason.

  He admitted, to himself, that the way Maggie adopted such a relaxed and cavalier attitude about the rumors surrounding her husband concerned him. He also failed to explain away how Maggie, who seemed to be such a strong and capable woman, seemed resigned to accept the possibility that her husband had a separate life, a life that may have included another child. But what struck Derek so firmly in the gut was when he realized how quickly Maggie assumed that Derek suspected her husband in Ron's murder.

  Though Derek had only met Jack once and had only spoken with him for less than an hour, he felt that Jack was genuinely concerned about his son. He felt that Jack was a man of action and that he expected Derek to find out who had put the idea of ghosts into Robby's head.

  Things were far away from being in a tight little package for Derek.

  He fell back onto his bed, his head smacking Ron's notebook. As he lay there, his head swimming in a cocktail of anger, sadness, confusion, and exhaustion, Derek focused on quieting his mind and letting his military and police training direct his thoughts.

  After a few minutes, he let his thoughts run.

  "First, I am assuming that JB stands for Jack Bryant and that MB stands for Maggie Bryant. While these assumptions may seem probable, they are nothing more than assumptions. Second, I cannot allow how I feel that someone should respond to an event to prejudice me against anyone's unique response. Third, everything that I've seen and learned about Maggie tells me that there is no way she could have done anything to intentionally hurt someone, let alone kill someone. Ron may be the one who is trying to hide something. I can't believe that Maggie is dangerous. No way. No way in the world."

  Before he gave into his body's demand for sleep, Derek committed that he would temper his concerns, say nothing to Maggie about the contents of Ron's notebook, and to not assume anything until he gathered more information.

  He fell asleep with tears marking their travels across his cheeks.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Derek exited his parked car at 9:30 in the morning. His check of the weather report informed him that a storm was approaching the coast of Maine and was expected to deliver high winds, six to nine inches of snow, and bone chilling temps. According to his iPhone's WeatherBug app, the storm was expected to hit the area by 2 pm.

  As he made his way towards where he and Maggie were scheduled to meet at 10:15, Derek was struck by how calm the winds were and how warm the air felt.

  "The proverbial calm before the storm," he thought.

  As he made his way, he made sure to walk slowly and to check out anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Fortunately, his prediction that no snow had fallen since last night was accurate, and Derek was able to follow his own footsteps made the night before. His back and side were still sore and stiff, making any swift movements or slight slips painful.

  He arrived at the meeting point, checked his cell phone to make sure he had a strong enough signal to send and receive calls, and the
n he carefully began to inspect the area on and just off the Marginal Way's path. He could still clearly see the footprints of the stranger and was still unable to find any footprints leading to where the stranger had appeared.

  "It's like he appeared out of thin air," he thought to himself. "I must be missing something," his investigative mind demanded. "What am I missing?"

  "Looks like you and I both had the same idea to arrive early."

  "Maggie," he said. "I didn't hear you coming. Scared the crap out of me."

  "Maybe I'm a ghost, too," she said.

  "I don't think you're a ghost. You're too damn pretty to be dead," Derek said, then felt his face flush with embarrassment. What he had read in Ron's notebook rushed back to the forefront of his mind, as did his pre-sleep commitments.

  "I think there's a compliment in there somewhere, so, thank you," she said.

  "Did you check out the footprints towards the Perkins Cove end of the Way?" he said, trying to quickly take the conversation down a different path than the one his compliment was leading.

  "I did," she said, her arms crossing her chest. "And I saw the same thing you did: The footprints get shallower until they just stop. Very weird. I also saw where you slipped and fell. You crashed right into a pretty large rock. You sure you didn't break anything?"

  "Just banged up and bruised," Derek said. "Nothing broken, I'm pretty sure."

  "Derek," she said, moving closer to him, careful not to walk over any footprints, "there's something else that I saw around the area you fell. Something that I think you need to see."

  "What is it?" he asked.

  "Do we have enough time to walk there before Father John calls? I really think you need to see this for yourself."

  "It's a little before ten now and Father is not supposed to call until 10:45. I think we have plenty of time. I really wish you'd tell me what you saw. You're kind of freaking me out."

  "I'm not sure," Maggie said, her eyes filled with worry. "Maybe nothing but I don't want to tell you what I think and get any ideas into your head. I need you to make your own decision. Please," she said, "can we just walk down there together?"

  Derek pressed no further. He and Maggie walked down the Way, inspecting the path for any missed clues as they made their way. It took only five minutes before Derek saw what Maggie wanted him to see: footprints in the snow that started from the right hand side of the path. The direction of the footprints was directly towards where Derek was running last night.

  "These prints almost look like someone charged towards you," she said. "And look here, " she said pointing to the frozen ground, "these look like whoever made these tracks, slipped a little, right before the point that you started to slip and fall."

  "Are you thinking that whoever made these tracks charged at me and tripped me?"

  "I think that I am," Maggie said. "I mean, the tracks appear out of the shrubs," she said, pointing over Derek's shoulder to a point just off the path covered in thick shrubs. "And if you look at the footprints, it almost looks like whoever tripped you lifted one foot, and then that foot was pushed way out to the right." Maggie pointed out a footprint of a right foot that was a good three feet from the nearest left foot's print. "If I'm correct," Maggie continued, "you came running down the path, our tripper charged out, stuck his right foot out that tripped you and sent you to the ground."

  Derek gave Maggie a puzzled look. He dropped to his knees and felt beneath the snow for anything that may have caused him to trip. Feeling nothing, he stood back up.

  "If someone came charging at me, I think I would have seen him, despite it being pretty damn dark. The moon was slipping behind clouds every few seconds, but it wasn't pitch black."

  "What if it wasn't a man who tripped you?"

  "Maggie," Derek said, "I have a very hard time believing in ghosts in the first place, let alone ghosts that can trip people. I know you saw and heard something in Robby's room, and I am coming to really believe that Robby isn't making anything up, but I don't know if I can make the leap to believe I was tripped by a ghost."

  "I'm not sure I can either," she said. "But you have to admit that it is an option that we need to consider. That is, unless we come up with a reasonable answer for everything else that's been happening."

  "I'll give you that," Derek said. Pulling out his iPhone and glancing quickly at the time, Derek said, "We should head back up to our meeting point. I want to have plenty of time to inspect that area before John calls."

  "I didn't think this was possible, but this whole thing is getting weirder by the minute," Maggie said as she strolled along side Derek. "Honestly, I thought Robby was either making up Phillip to get his father to pay more attention to him or was really influenced by someone. Now, now I just don't know."

  Derek resisted the urge to put his arm around Maggie, to comfort her and to show her his support. He instead plowed his hands deep into his pockets.

  "After you and Father John left last night," Maggie said as the two neared the meeting point of the Way, "I decided that once this whole thing is over, that I'm going to tell Jack that I know everything about his Portland girlfriend, his other son, and what I've learned about his involvement with his father's death."

  Derek stopped in his tracks and pulled Maggie towards him, holding her by her shoulders at arm's length. "You need to be very careful, Maggie. I don't know Jack at all but I've heard a lot of stories about situations like yours, and few turn out well."

  "I have to leave him. For my sake and especially for Robby's. He's not a terrible father, but he is far from being the type of father that Robby needs. And, not that it's any of your concern, he's not at all what I would call a good husband. He never was."

  Derek held his gaze into Maggie's eyes for only a moment longer, before he lowered his arms and resumed walking up the path.

  "That was strangely sudden," Maggie said, still standing where she had just told Derek that she was planning to leave her husband of nearly 15 years. "Something I said?" she called to him.

  Derek stopped in his tracks, heaved his shoulders with a deep breath, and slowly turned to face Maggie.

  "I read Ron's notebook last night," he said. Though he promised himself not to say anything to Maggie, the pressure of what he read was weighing more heavily on him than he expected. "I need you to tell me the truth."

  "What truth?" she screamed. "What else do you want to know?"

  "Ron made a note that he met with you and Robby on January 5 of this year. He said that you knew more than you let on and that you were dangerous. Maggie," he said, "why would Ron think that you were dangerous?"

  Maggie stood silent, seemingly running through her memories. A few seconds later, her expression changed to one Derek could only describe as disappointment and anger. She lowered her head and fixed her sights on the path in front of her and began walking swiftly towards Derek. She intentionally banged her shoulder into his as she passed, saying, "You son of a bitch," as she quickened her pace away from him.

  "Wait. Maggie?" Derek said.

  "What?" she said as she turned so quickly that her hair spun across her face and slapped into her eye. "What do you expect me to say? I open up to you and tell you that my husband is cheating on me. I tell you that my son is seeing ghosts. I tell you that I saw something in my son's room, and then I tell you that I've finally decided that enough is enough, and that I am going to leave my husband and all you say is why would Ron White think I'm dangerous? What the hell do you want me to say?"

  "Tell me that I'm not falling for someone who was involved in something horrible." The words came out so quick that Derek was surprised to hear his own words. The two stood, staring at each other, both charged with emotions and the revelation that Derek had made.

  Maggie softened her stance and face. She dropped her arms to her side as tears appeared in her eyes.

  "The only terrible thing I did was not leaving Jack years ago," she said. "I don't know why Ron thought I was dangerous. He never asked me anything
about Jack or what happened 18 years ago that day when Robby and I visited him. All we talked about was his family, Robby, and about our plans were for the summer." Maggie took a few steps closer to Derek. "Derek, I know that this whole case is way more than you expected when you said you would give me two days to help my son. Your two days are up. If you want to leave, I won't hold it against you. But know that I told you everything. I've told you more than I've told anyone else in the world. I'm sorry that I put so much on you, but if you think that you can't trust me, then you should just go."

  She turned and continued walking towards the point where she and Derek were supposed to wait for John's call.

  "I just told you that I'm falling for you, and all you do is walk away?" Derek yelled. "Damn it, Maggie."

  Derek stood at a point of the path that was several feet lower than where Maggie had just turned and walked away. As she walked, Derek watched as she slowly walked down the other side of the small hill until only her shoulders and head were visible. He stood there, not knowing what to do or to say as Maggie's head slowly sank out of his view. It was then that he saw him.

  Darting towards Maggie from the land side of the Way, and moving with fixed focus on Maggie. The suddenness of the man's appearance and the swiftness of his movements stunned Derek. It was only a second before he yelled to Maggie and began charging up the hill.

  "Behind you," he yelled as he climbed the small hill, desperate to see Maggie. When he reached the summit, Maggie was nowhere to be seen. Just like his chase of the strange visitor the night before, the Way's twists and turns prevented Derek from seeing more the 20 feet of the path before it turned sharply left or right.