Brenda knew that it would be up to her to end tension between the boys.
“Bradley, how old are you?” she asked.
Bradley looked up to her and said, “I’m six.”
“You’re six! How neat. You and Adam will get along just fine when you get to know each other a little better. Sometimes it takes a little while for kids to get used to each other, but you two will be fine. You just need a little more time.”
“Fine,” said Bradley, looking up at Brenda. “As long as he sticks around.”
“Excuse me?” said Brenda.
Bradley put his head down, hiding his mouth from all four of them when he said, “He can go play in the grave yard again.”
“Okay Bradley,” said his mother. “Somebody’s overtired.” She went over and softly put her hand on the back of his head and guided him toward the door.
“Kids,” said his father. “They say the darndest things, don’t they?”
Brenda watched the neighbors as they made their way to the exit. “They…sure do…if you let ‘em,” she said.
Victoria turned around as Dan and Bradley made their way outside. “It was very nice to have met you. You sure do have a very nice family, and if you ever need an egg, some sugar, or anything like that, well, you know where we are. Stop by anytime.” She smiled again and joined her family outside.
CHAPTER 14
As Brenda was putting the finishing touches on dinner, Carter was catching up on the news on television and Adam was in his room. There was another ring of the doorbell, and Carter got up from the couch and went to see who was there. He opened the door and was not surprised to see that it was Evan. He couldn’t seem to get enough of this place, and Carter was game for getting some answers without letting Evan know anything about his concerns or suspicions.
“Evan,” he said. “What a surprise! You’re just in time for dinner. Brenda just roasted a chicken and we were looking for a fourth person to join us.”
“You don’t say,” said Evan, a pleasant smile on his face.
“I say. Now you come right in and join us. I hope you brought your appetite.”
“Oh, I can always eat. Wouldn’t know it…well…with my skin and bones and all, but I can stash it away. Always had trouble gaining weight.”
Brenda walked in the room and greeted Evan, and Carter told her of the dinner invitation that he had just extended him.
“We’d love to have you, Evan,” said Brenda. “I’ve got a giant roaster chicken that the timer just popped up on. If you give me a few, we can all be sitting up to the table in ten minutes or so. You sit here and watch the television and we’ll call you when it’s ready.” Brenda looked hard at Carter and said, “Honey…you wanna come into the kitchen and carve the chicken so we can get dinner going?”
Carter jumped up and headed into the kitchen. He knew that he was not very popular with Brenda after this last-minute invite, and waited for the lecture. He grabbed the carving knife and fork and started his mission as Brenda made her way back into the kitchen.
“That was nice of you to invite Evan and Skippy for dinner,” she said.
Carter smirked. “Actually, Skippy will stay in the living room while we’re eating.”
“That’s okay,” said Brenda. Then she followed up with a whisper, “He’s a little strange, but he’s harmless.”
Carter needed to whisper as well when he told her about his plan. “Tonight I’m gonna find out where he lives. We don’t even know where the guy lives. I just want to make sure he’s not a serial killer or anything like that.”
Brenda chuckled. “I said he was a little strange, but I didn’t accuse him of being a serial killer.”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” said Carter. “What I’m saying is that we don’t even know where he lives, and he’s always just dropping by. Aren’t you the least curious as to where he lives?”
“Fine…I’ll show you where I live,” said Evan. He had just walked into the kitchen to help, but got more than he wanted. He looked quite offended, and Skippy seemed to be aware of this as he hopped around looking up at him as if he wanted to hop into his arms.
“Evan,” said Carter. “We just don’t know where you live. That’s all there is to it. We think the world of you for all that you’ve done for us, but where exactly do you live?”
Evan said nothing at first, but just stared at Carter as if he had done nothing to make him feel better. “To be honest,” he began, “there ain’t been anybody at my house since my wife passed away.”
Carter began to feel like an ass about jumping to conclusions about him. “Evan, really, I didn’t mean anything by it. If that’s why we don’t know where you live, well, I will certainly accept that and respect your decision. From what you had told us before, it sounds like you lost a truly wonderful woman.”
“Wonderful does not even begin to cover it,” said Evan. “We were high school sweethearts. Heck, we went to the Prom together. I’ve known her since as long as I remember. She helped me to decide to go into Law Enforcement, and then took the long ride through my career. I just never been the same since.”
“You poor thing, Evan,” said Brenda. “How long ago has it been since you lost her?”
“Next month it’ll be seven years.”
“Seven years! Wow,” said Carter. “That’s quite some time ago. That’s a terrible tragedy. So you haven’t had anyone at your house in seven years?”
“About that, yeah. It’s just been me, and then Skippy came along. He’s been a great dog. He’s what keeps me sane. It’s so nice to have his company.”
“Sit down at the table,” said Brenda. “Let’s have some dinner and we can continue to talk.”
Carter and Brenda set the table with the dinner plates surrounding the roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. Adam was apparently hungry and ready to eat because the aroma drifted upstairs and gave him a warning that the dinner bell would ring soon. Once everything that should be on the table was on the table, they prepared to eat, but not before Evan announced that it would be his honor to say a prayer before dinner.
He looked around the table to make sure everybody was prepared to hear his blessing. He seemed to be so grateful that Carter and Brenda had blessed him with this meal, so he wished to make it up to them in the only way he knew how…through prayer. He clasped his hands together and bowed his head, then looked up briefly to make sure everybody, including Adam, was ready for his blessing.
Once he saw that everyone was ready and waiting, he again bowed his head, then began his blessing for the bounty before him: “Good food. Good meat.” Again he glanced up and saw that all heads were bowed, then put his head back down and finished it off: “Good God, let’s eat.”
Carter noticed that there was silence after that, and looked up to see that Evan was not only done with his prayer, but he was chewing his food. The rest of the family looked up and saw that he had said what he needed to say, so they too unclasped their hands and began to break bread.
“That was…very heartfelt, Evan…thank you,” said Brenda.
“Oh, not at all,” said Evan. “It was my pleasure to do it.”
Carter looked over at Brenda as she completed the rolling of her eyes. He could tell she was still on the fence about Evan. One day he’s okay, and the next he’s not. There was nothing steady about this man. He chewed his chicken with a vengeance, and Carter was concerned that he might even try to gnaw on the bones. It looked like it had been a while since his last meal.
“Delicious,” he said. “Compliments to the chef.”
“Oh, thank you for saying so, Evan,” said Brenda.
“My ple
asure. Nothing like a good ‘ol home cooked meal. Haven’t had a really good home cooked meal since my sweetheart used to bless our kitchen with her cooking. Now that girl could cook.”
Throughout the entire meal, every time a topic came up, Evan would bring it around to his lovely wife who had been killed by a hit-and-run driver. If they spoke about taking Adam to a carnival, Evan would intervene with his story about how his wife used to always win the large stuffed animals that everyone thought were impossible to win. Everything came back to her.
Naturally, it was a true tragedy for anyone to get over, but Carter could not get past the fact that Evan had told him that he ended up tracking the killer down and killing him because the cops couldn’t find him on their own. He knew damn well that if that happened to Brenda, and Carter felt obligated to track down and kill the person responsible because the cops couldn’t find anyone, then he would not bring up reminders 25 times during a single dinner party. In fact, he wouldn’t talk about her to anyone at all.
Once dinner was finished, Evan explained that he had to get going because every night he takes Skippy for an hour-long walk. He said it keeps both of them in very good shape. He first had to stop home to get the other leash which extended further. Skippy likes to venture away from him whenever they go on the longer walks. This was perfect for Carter. His mind began to formulate a plan to follow Evan home and see where he lives. Actually, he would also find out if Evan lives anywhere.
When Evan retired to the living room and began having small talk with Adam, Carter remained in the kitchen, saying that he was going to help Brenda with the dishes. He actually wanted to run his plan past Brenda to see how she felt about it. When he told her that he was going to follow Evan home, she was a little concerned. She looked toward the living room, and then turned to Carter and whispered, “What about the dog? The dog is going to hear you or smell you, and if you didn’t blow your cover earlier, then you will certainly do so tonight.”
“I’ve got that covered,” said Carter. “No need to worry. I’m gonna be so far back that there will be no way for either of them to pick up on me. No way. Believe me… I know what I’m up against. He used to be a cop, so he is programmed to be on the lookout. I will be so far back, otherwise, I would not do this, Brenda.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’m just worried. You really need to be careful.”
Once the kitchen was clean and they returned to the living room for a chat, it wasn’t long before Evan jumped up with Skippy and announced that he had to hit the road. He thanked them very kindly for their hospitality, and then he and the dog made their way out of the house and down the street as the sun was setting. From the time he passed through the door, Carter had his eye to the window and was checking on his progress and his speed, neither of which was great due to his age and health issues.
Moments later, Carter announced that he was going to walk off dinner, and he too went out the front door. He could barely see Evan up ahead, and wanted to keep it that way without losing him. That would destroy his plan, so he had to be strategic about the way he went about this sting operation. He was also going up against a man and his dog who made a career out of sting operations. He moved forward at what he calculated to be equal speed to Evan and Skippy based on his dealings with them up until this point. He could not go too fast, and he could not go too slow either. Those two scenarios would blow his operation to pieces, for the night, anyway.
He matched Evan step by step, keeping that great distance separating the two of them. Sometimes he had to stop and let Skippy do his thing, and Carter would have to stop and pretend he was resting so neighbors didn’t get suspicious of him. He was very curious as to where Evan would end up, but these delays made him impatient, which made it even harder to play it cool. Whenever he turned a corner, Carter’s task became more difficult because of houses and trees blocking his progress. He didn’t want to round a corner and run into Evan taking a break.
On the fourth corner, Evan turned and walked past a couple of houses and then turned into a driveway. Carter stopped in his tracks and wanted to just hang back until he knew for sure that this was the end of the road. Evan took the walkway to a side door, opening it with a key, and then he and Skippy disappeared inside.
Carter began to get a little nervous because he didn’t really know what to do with himself, and he was a sitting duck. There were houses on both sides and across the street. There were a lot of houses and they were evenly spaced. He didn’t want to be the creepy guy wandering the neighborhood and looking into windows at night. He didn’t want to be him, but then realized that it would be him if all went as planned.
Carter had been hanging out, strolling back and forth down the street, but he never took his eye off of Evan’s house. He didn’t want to get caught with his hand in the cookie jar. If everything turned out to be kosher with Evan, then he would feel like a complete ass. He heard the sound of a door being pulled closed, but Carter could not see anybody.
Evan rounded the house from the back and he was walking toward Carter, who was standing in a spot that was not visible from the house, but it would be soon. He was unsure of the path Evan would walk his dog on, so he needed to remove himself from the area.
He eyed the bushes and trees, but that would not be safe, especially with a dog that not only sniffs, but sniffed for a living and still works at his craft, just like his master. Their skills would be with them for life. He turned and decided that he just had to jog out of the area and return five or ten minutes later. He just had to make damn sure that the pair was well on their way. Dusk was settling in nicely, and the plan seemed to be flawless.
When he saw them moving down the street, he moved in on the house in a way that would not create suspicions from the neighbors. He walked along Evan’s street close to the line of trees. He then dashed into the trees and worked his way to the back of his house on a path that could not be detected by neighboring eyes. The back of the house was perfect because of the fences lining the properties. Sheds and trees sealed him off in a way that made it nearly impossible for neighbors to see.
He checked the back door and it was locked tight. He moved quickly to the side door and that was sealed off as well, but there was a wooden sign with a string hanging on a nail and painted on the front of it was The Markeys. The front door was the only door left, but it was visible to the neighbors, so that entrance was off limits.
Carter’s only option was to peek into the windows. The first window that he came to was at the back corner of the house, and it was darker than he would have liked, so he reached into his pocket and grabbed his mini-flashlight and carefully shined it into the house. He saw a bed, a couple of dressers and a closet. There was a small television with rabbit-ears on the dresser, but nothing stood out, so he moved on to the next window.
He turned the flashlight off as he carefully stepped over about five feet to the left and again shined the flashlight in and saw that he had made it to the bathroom. Off went the flashlight, and over he moved about ten more feet to the next window. As he raised his flashlight to the window, he heard a noise just around the corner. He heard Evan’s voice and the jingle of Skippy’s chain, and dropped down to the ground like a ten-pound sack of potatoes and curled himself into a ball. He heard the side door open and they both went into the house.
Carter waited right where he landed and didn’t move. He could barely breathe. All that he could think about was that damn sniffer that Evan took wherever he went. He was hoping to hell that Skippy did not smell the chicken on his breath and want to check it out. He was expecting Evan to go back outside, because that clearly was not an hour walk. It turned out to be a correct assumption. Apparently, Evan forgot something and had to return to the house to get it; of all the times for him to forget something.
“Come on boy,” said Evan, and then the jingle of
the chain diminished with each passing second. Once the jingle diminished completely, Carter returned to his feet and took a deep breath. He slowly made his way to the other end of the house, and slowly peeked around the corner to see Evan and the tail end of the dog getting smaller and smaller.
His mission could now resume, but he wanted to spend just a few more minutes checking out the house before hightailing it the hell out of there. Even though he originally had an hour to work with, Evan and Skippy were back within five minutes, so he did not feel safe at all the second time around.
Carter found a large window in back and shined his flashlight inside. He had more to work with in this room, and he moved slowly with the circle of light. He shined it on the couch, the little tan coffee table on one side, and then onto another television against the far wall on a very old cart with wheels. He moved the light up from the television and there was a portrait on the wall. It was a picture of Evan with his wife, and standing in front of them was a little boy.
Carter shined the light on the little boy who appeared to be about Adam’s age, but what struck him more was the fact that the little boy sort of looked like Adam. He looked hauntingly like Adam. Carter’s hand began to shake, making it difficult for him to shine a steady light on the boy who looked strikingly like his own son. He began to sweat and tried to convince himself that everybody has a double. The straight blonde hair was a match, especially the way it swooped to the left in front. His large round eyes were a match. His body shape was Adam’s and even the weight appeared to be to the pound.
Carter was against time, and forced himself to hold the flashlight on the portrait long enough to convince himself that the resemblance was uncanny enough that he needed to try to find a difference between the two boys to rule Adam out. However, distance prevented this. He knew that he had to move on, and that it had to be nothing more than a coincidence, but he couldn’t help thinking about the coincidence of Evan just happening upon his doorstep the day Adam went missing. Right as he believed he was able to detect a slight difference, but unable to put his finger on the difference, he knew that he had to move onward before he became a sitting duck. Evan seemed to have the uncanny ability to appear out of nowhere.
Desert Son Trilogy: Desert Son, Wayward Soul, Spiritual Intervention (Books 1-3) Page 57
