The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  With his hair combed, unlike his usual tossed locks, Robbie took the pulpit in the silence of the chapel that was only half filled.

  “I want to thank everyone who joined us this evening in the celebration of life,” Robbie spoke almost nervously. His hands gripped the edges of the podium. “Ellen and Dean would like to invite everyone to their home for a late meal they prepared.”

  Ellen quickly shifted her eyes to Joe when she thought she heard him groan.

  “Before we go . . . there’s something I’d like to say.” Robbie stood straight. “Since it originated, Beginnings has always been a very strong religiously based community. Rev. Bob though . . . though a man who hid the truth, led this community and kept it strong faithfully. A big part of that was Andrea. When I first became a pastoral assistant, it was for other reasons. When Andrea named me new Reverend . . . she had faith in me. I’ve not been living up to the standard of those who led this community religiously before so I don’t want all of you to be shocked, if for now, I take it as seriously as Andrea wanted me to.” He slightly cleared his throat. “Let us pray.”

  All heads bowed.

  ^^^^

  With the illumination of the Quantum Regressionator archway came the rabbit that seconds before hand, Grace and Jason watched disappear.

  “Oh,” Grace gasped out as she applauded. “Wonderful. Again.”

  “I wish I could.” Jason began to shut things down. “But I have to be careful how many times I do this. Sometimes the glow of the time machine can be seen in town on a clear night.”

  “Jason.” Grace stood up from her chair. “This is wonderful. And they call Dr. Hayes intelligent. Can he beak the barriers of time? No.”

  “No,” Jason said, “I’ve broken them.”

  “You enchant me.” She moved to him. “You were wonderful last night.”

  “Didn’t I tell you I wouldn’t be affected by Frank’s taunts all night.”

  “You were right. Now . . .” She breathed out heavily. “I only wish the Captain wasn’t waiting to return me home.”

  Jason looked at his watch. “It’s early. The Captain is visiting family. I think he can wait.” He winked.

  “Do you really think he won’t mind?”

  “When those Slagels get together, they lose track of time anyhow. Hal will never know.” Jason placed his arm around Grace. “Come, my authoritarian little woman.”

  Grace giggled as she walked out with Jason. “You flatter me.”

  The door to the Quantum lab closed and, unknown to Jason and Grace who were wrapped up in their reasoning for leaving, the archway to the Regressionator lit back up.

  ^^^^

  After his final drink of milk, Joe looked over the empty glass and shook his head in disgust at his son. “Hal.”

  Hal stopped pacing. “I am not understanding this.”

  “Take it easy.” Joe winced and laid his hand on his stomach. “Damn Ellen and her puffs. I’m kicking her ass.”

  “If you knew her cooking would give you indigestion, why did you eat it?”

  “How could I not.? It would make her feel bad.”

  “And cursing her in your late night pain pace would not?”

  “She won’t know. Why don’t you sit down?”

  Hal checked out the time. “Does Grace not know it’s late?”

  “It’s early.”

  “I would like to get back.”

  “They’re old. How long can it take?” Joe shrugged and finally set down his glass.

  “I hope she doesn’t smell like sex in my Jeep.”

  Cringing, Joe shook his head. “Now, did I need that comment? Christ, my stomach is bothering me enough. Hal, find something to do.”

  “This is Beginnings. There is nothing to do.”

  “Go to the Hall,” Joe suggested.

  “No one is there. It’s Sunday.”

  “Frank’s there with Johnny.”

  Hal stopped pacing. “Why is that? Why are Frank and Johnny hanging out at the Social Hall? Considering Frank’s past problem with alcohol, I would think he should find another place to hang out.”

  “Johnny’s with him.”

  “Do you think that makes a difference?” Hal asked.

  “Of course I do. Johnny doesn’t want Frank drinking. Besides, Frank and Johnny need to hang out for reasons other than the father-son thing.”

  “Which are?’

  “Why are you so curious?”

  “I’m bored.” Hal tossed his hands up.

  “Well, Johnny’s sort of in on this investigation and there are things only those two can discuss.”

  “True.”

  “Plus, if Frank wants to break, Johnny is a good one to break to since he’s on the investigation team,.”

  “Break?” Hal questioned.

  “Well, I think, I’m not sure, but I believe, through his own eyewitness account, your brother knows exactly who killed Bev.”

  “Frank . . . Frank knows who killed Bev?”

  “I think so.” Joe nodded.

  “Why wouldn’t he say anything?”

  “If he knows, he’s protecting them.”

  “Excuse me.” Hal took a step back, turned, and walked straight out of Joe’s house.

  “Well,” Joe spoke to himself. “I’d say Hal’s a little concerned.” He moved to the kitchen. “I have to make a note about this one.”

  ^^^^

  Hal made a beeline straight through the living section to town and to the Social Hall. As he originally thought, it was empty all except for Johnny and Frank who played darts. They were oblivious and didn’t see him open the doorway and stand there in thought.

  Hal was beating himself and hating what he was thinking. He was searching for an answer to Johnny’s all of the sudden ‘be a pal with Dad’ turn around and he believed he found one. But was he searching too hard? If Frank knew who killed Bev and Johnny wanted to find out for his own personal retaliation, then Frank was the key. The Key, the other one, the physical one, haunted him as well. Nothing had been mentioned about that key being missing. Before Hal could continue on what he thought in his heart was a ‘hunt against blood’ trail, he had to confirm his two biggest suspicions about Johnny. The key. And Frank.

  Hal would do just that. With an idea in his head, he would start immediately, but prior to initiating step one, there was something Hal had to do. With a firm stride, his eyes fixed on Johnny pouring moonshine into two glasses, Hal approached Frank and Johnny. “Stop,” he said then looked at Frank. “Don’t.” With that firm word and without saying anymore, Hal lifted the two glasses and bottle, walked them across the Social Hall, set them down on the bar and then left.

  ^^^^

  Joe was quiet and alone and he wasted no time whatsoever putting on his favorite pajamas. Making his way across the living room to get one more glass of milk to combat after-Ellen meal side effects, he stopped when the door opened.

  “Dad.” Hal walked in. He grinned. “Oh, you still have those pajamas.”

  “Where the hell did you run off to?” Joe asked. “You didn’t even say goodbye.”

  “Yes, well, it dawned on me that I had to check in with Elliott so I went to use the phone.”

  “It dawned on you in the middle of the conversation we were having.”

  “Well to be truthful, my mind kind of wandered off in the middle of our talk.”

  “Figures.”

  “Anyhow, I went to use the phone.”

  “It’s locked up,” Joe said.

  “Yes, I realized that and when I tried to find who had the second key . . .”

  “There is no second key.”

  “No one has a spare for you? Possibly holding it if you lose yours?” Hal asked.

  “What do you think I am? An idiot? No one has a second key. I have it. It.” He moved to the kitchen counter. “Frank can break that lock anyhow if need be. So I . . .” Picking up his key chain, Joe tuned around to see an empty living room. “Now where did he go? I thought he needed t
his.” Grunting and tossing back down the phone key, Joe walked to the door. “The hell with him this time. He won’t get back in.” After turning the lock on the door, Joe flicked off the lights and went to bed.

  In oddity, Hal watched his father’s house go black. “He locked me out?” he questioned as he stood outside in a thinking pace. He knew what he had to do next. How to do it was the question. Then with a glance at the house next door, Hal got his answer.

  ^^^^

  Ellen finished tucking the covers around Alexandra. “Daddy says tomorrow if you feel up to it, maybe you can go to one class at school to see the kids. Would you like that?”

  “No.” Alexandra shook her head. “I hate school.”

  “O.K.” Ellen shrugged then kissed her daughter. “Night, Sweetie. I love you.”

  “Night Mommy.”

  Giving a smile to Alexandra, Ellen pulled the bedroom door closed just a little and walked toward the living room. She stopped upon entrance when she had to step over what looked like a train of small papers. Billy was before them. “Time for bed.”

  “Dad said I could stay up. He said since I helped him today, I can work on my own stuff.”

  “Oh. What are you building, a game?”

  Billy slightly rolled his eye. “No. Theories.”

  “Theories.”

  “Yes. See.” He held up the first paper. “I start with a tale I’ve been told, or a story that supposed to be true but has no proof, then I build theories around it.”

  “What theory are you building?”

  “Noah’s Ark,” Billy answered. “See. Card two. It rained for forty days and forty nights. Mom, do you know how hard it would have to rain, even for that long, to flood the earth? And Dad said the pounds per pressure of rainfall that hard would crush someone’s skull.”

  “Bill. You’re seven. How about coloring?”

  “Right.” Billy shook his head. “One of these days you’ll be glad for my theories.”

  “I’m sure. Where’s Daddy?”

  “Dad.” Billy gave a correction of name,. “Is in his office, breathing heavy.”

  “What?” Ellen said with a laugh.

  “Listen to him.”

  Curious to what her son was talking about, Ellen walked to Dean’s closed office door. She placed her ear close. Sure enough, Billy was right. She heard slow, heavy Dean breathing. Just when Ellen deducted perhaps Dean may have been up to something, she heard a woman’s moan. It sounded like her own. Snickering a ‘what the hell’. Ellen, without knocking, opened the door. “Got ya!” She pointed.

  “El.” Dean looked surprised. “What’s up?”

  “I know what you’re doing.” She shut the door and hurried to his desk. “Let me see.”

  “See what?”

  “You have it, Don’t you?”

  “El.”

  “Dean.” She tried to see the computer screen. “I know you’re watching it. Joe said you have it. Are you?”

  After a grunt, Dean tossed his hands up in the air. “Yes. I was trying.”

  Giggling, Ellen walked behind him and leaned over his shoulder to see the computer. “Play it.”

  With a maneuver of the mouse, Dean began to play the disk video of their bedroom antics.

  “Dean? Why are you watching this?”

  “Trying to remember what it was like.” He felt the nudge to his back. “I don’t know. It’s fun. I can. It’s us, so it’s not wrong to watch it. And . . . maybe ….” He sounded sly. “Try to get some pointers.”

  “From yourself.”

  “Sure.” Dean shrugged. “See. Here, you seem to like this.”

  Ellen softened her voice. “Yeah.”

  “And this too.”

  “Um . . . yeah.”

  “But this,” Dean said. “Look at your face. You are somewhere else. And twice you made this face. What the hell are you thinking right here.”

  “Dean,” Ellen stated his name. “Only you would analyze our love making.”

  Quickly Dean swiveled his chair around. “But it’s all for you.”

  “Yeah right.” Ellen laughed when Dean’s hand gripped her waist and pulled her closer. “Now you got yourself all worked up.”

  “Not yet.” Dean pulled her into him. “I’m still in control.”

  Ellen’s eyes closed lightly when she felt the soft nuzzle of Dean’s head into her chest, brushing against her. His hands roamed slowly about her body. “In control?”

  “Yep,” he spoke softly. “Never know who can walk in.”

  “Dad.” Billy stepped into the office.

  Like a springboard, Dean’s hands ejected from the places they rested. “Yes, Bill.” He turned around.

  “Uncle Hal says he needs to speak to you immediately. It’s important.”

  “Oh, tell him to come in.”

  Nodding sarcastically as if tired of being the slave, Billy stepped out of the office. “Uncle Hal.”

  “Dean.” Hal stood in the office door. “I’m sorry to bother you.”

  “No. No problem. What’s up?” Dean asked.

  “Um . . .” Hal shifted his eyes to Ellen. “El, Dad’s not feeling well. He says he got sick from your puffs. Can you run over and make sure he’s all right.”

  “Joe got sick from my puffs? Oh I feel bad.” She walked across the office. “Sure, Hal. I’ll go check.”

  Hal waited until Ellen had left and he shut the door.

  Dean leaned back in his chair. “You got rid of my wife for a reason. What’s going on?”

  “This . . . this request may seem absurd, but there is reason, I assure you. It may be regarded as highly unethical, but Dean . . .” Almost with passion to his voice, Hal stepped to Dean’s desk. “There’s something I need from you.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  November 11

  Johnny Slagel never realized how much of a night owl his father actually was until he was forced to spend an evening with him. Frank finished his rounds late. Most of his security guards had been moved to the greenhouses for winter work and with the investigation, Frank was running behind. Not only did Andrea’s service make Frank behind schedule in his arrival at the Social Hall, but Hal’s abrupt politically correct snatching away the whiskey, sent Frank on a guilt frenzy Johnny spent half the night trying to dismantle.

  He wanted to sleep, but other things were vital, mainly getting in contact with George. It had been a week since he contacted him, a week since communications were shut down. He supposed George knew something was up. How could he not? But Johnny gathered George couldn’t even imagine in his worst nightmare what had happened. Little did Johnny know, on the other side of the country, George wasn’t worried at all. George basked in the fact then when he tried to contact Joe, no signal could go through. He rationalized it as some sort of repercussion of a blunder Henry committed when he hurriedly set up the communication center. It was a setback in the Beginnings communication world and, to the Society, any set back was a good one.

  Johnny had to get through. He hadn’t any idea where he lost the key to the phone’s lock, nor did he worry about it. A replacement was easy to get. He made two and opportunity to make that call was finally upon him.

  The sun wasn’t up. There wasn’t a guard and Johnny slipped into Joe’s office with ease.

  He rushed, but in a sense, didn’t panic. He turned the lock on the drawer that held the phone, smiled when the lock unlatched, and then opened the drawer.

  Salvation. In the case was the phone. So excited to have it in his reach, Johnny lifted it. He listened for outside sounds then removed it from the case.

  Every ounce of happy arrogance fell to the floor when Johnny powered up the phone. “Fuck,” he whispered out in total disgust. In his anger, he wanted to sail the phone across the room, but he couldn’t. He had to think of something else. But the more he looked down to the phone, the more aggravated he got over the simple message on the display, ‘Enter pass code’.

  ^^^^

  New Bowman, Montan
a

  The ‘ah’ was a replacement for thank you, as Hal only raised his eyes to the paper lowered to his desk. “Just what I have been waiting for. I need to know who is available to teach Wednesday. With my brother replacing me, I don’t want my men scholastically in disarray. I hate to do it but I may have to keep Frank in Shakespearian Drama. It might teach him a lesson, Elliott, don’t you . . .” Hal looked up to Sgt. Joshua Owens who stood before him. “You’re not Elliott.”

  “Did you want me to be?”

  Hal leaned back. “Where is Sgt. Ryder?”

  “He’s sick.” Sgt. Owens laid another paper before Hal. “He asked me very early this morning to take over his duties until this afternoon.”

  “He expects to be well in that time frame?” Hal asked.

  Sgt. Owens shrugged. “He doesn’t look good.”

  Immediately Hal stood up. “He has to be sick. He never calls off work.” He moved to the door. “I’ll be right back. Handle anything.”

  Sgt. Owens nodded a ‘sure’ and watched the door close. He thought to himself, handling things and filling in for Sgt. Ryder and the Captain would never be a problem if they taught someone else to do their job. No one ever really filled in for the two of them. They filled in for each other and that was it. Walking over to the Captain’s desk, he looked at the agendas laying there and all he could think of was ‘poor Frank’.

  Hal knocked on the door only once and when he didn’t receive an immediate response, with worry, he blasted in. “Elliott,” he called out.

  Wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, Elliott came from the kitchen with his coffee. “Hey, Captain.”

  “Didn’t you hear me knock?”

  “No.” Elliott shook his head. “Did you want coffee?”

  “No, I want to know how you are.”

  “Honestly?” Elliott shrugged. “Fine.”

  “Fine? So you’re feeling better.”

  “I feel fine. I’m a little tired. I got some extra sleep.”