Phoenix and the Dark Star

by Gerald Pruett

  Willie pulled out his laptop from his hiding spot before opening his car door.

  As Winona and Willie were getting out of the car, Riley said, “We didn’t get the memo that Halloween came in June this year.”

  “June?” Winona playfully mocked as she and Willie were walking towards Brad and Riley. “Today’s October 31st, Rip Van Winkle.”

  “So I guess our weather is just an unnatural heat wave in October,” Riley said in a tone as if to play along.

  “Exactly,” Winona retorted with a slight grin.

  “So what is up with the costumes?” Brad questioned.

  “Let’s go inside,” Willie urged as he searched for the door key from his key ring.

  Willie found the key quickly, and as he opened the door, he gestured for everyone to go in before him.

  “Ladies first,” Brad said as he gestured for Winona to enter first.

  Winona shook her head with an amused grin before walking in first. Riley followed her in as Brad followed him in.

  As Willie entered he asked, “So, Brad, why are you two here?”

  Willie went to put his laptop on his desk when Brad said, “Riley and I quit our jobs this morning…”

  “You two quit your jobs?” Winona echoed incredulously.

  “I was serious last night about joining you,” Brad assured her. “Riley’s signing up too.”

  “Okay, what I’m doing is a non-profit gig, so I can’t afford to pay anyone,” Winona informed.

  “We’re not asking you to,” Brad retorted. “We’ll worry about our own way.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m serious about turning you in to the authorities myself if I catch you committing a felony.”

  “I’m not doubting you,” Brad said with a slight laugh.

  “If I even suspect that you have anything to do with a crime, I’ll be pointing the cops your way as a person of interest,” Winona said.

  “Will you relax, Winona?” Brad requested. “I’m not going to do anything for you to point the cops my way.”

  “Only time will tell,” Winona retorted before looking at Riley. Brad just shook his head with a grin. “And now, Riley, you’re planning on joining me?”

  “I am,” Riley said with conviction. “I want to help you.”

  “Alright,” Winona said skeptically.

  “So why the costumes?” Riley questioned.

  Winona and Willie told Brad and Riley about the live action role-playing game that was currently being played and who had organized it.

  After hearing what Winona and Willie had to say, Riley said, “If I knew what Conner looks like, I would stake out ‘The Crow’s Nest’ and report to you if he leaves the joint.”

  “We have a picture of him,” Willie informed.

  “Let’s see it,” Brad instructed.

  “Keep in mind that magic was the only thing that had captured those two vampires last night,” Willie said. “So if you two go to ‘The Crow’s Nest’, you two are to keep your distance from Conner.”

  “I have no desire on playing the hero,” Brad assured Willie. “Riley has a point though. ‘The Crow’s Nest’ needs to be kept under surveillance.”

  “Alright,” Willie said as he opened his laptop and waking it up from the sleep mode.

  Before Willie could do anything on the computer, Winona pointed out, “I do have Conner’s picture in my purse. So you won’t have to print another one out.”

  Winona was already going into her purse before Willie could respond with, “Alright.”

  Winona pulled out the picture and then held it out for either Brad or Riley to take.

  Riley took the picture while saying, “Thank you.” He and Brad then proceeded to memorize Conner’s face.

  After a short moment of Brad and Riley staring hard at the picture Winona assured them, “I know what he looks like, so you two can have that.”

  “Thanks,” Riley said before dropping his hand that held the picture to his side.

  Winona nodded with a polite grin.

  “Riley and I are going to get out there,” Brad said.

  “Just remember to keep your distance,” Willie repeated.

  “We will,” Brad said. “Let’s go, Riley.”

  Riley followed Brad out of the office. When the door shut behind them, Winona asked, “You don’t think that they’ll do anything foolish, do you?”

  Willie shrugged while saying, “I sure hope not.”

  “Me too,” Winona agreed.

  “Anyway, we can’t baby-sit those two,” Willie said before moving towards the filing cabinet. “So I’ll show you what I want you to do.”

  “Okay,” Winona agreed before following him over.

  Riley was the one who had driven to Willie’s office, and as he was leaving the lot, Brad said, “We need to do what we can to flush Conner out of ‘The Crow’s Nest’.”

  “And how are we going to do that?”

  “Don’t know, but we need to come up with something,” Brad said.

  Riley and Brad didn’t talk much during the drive to ‘The Crow’s Nest’, and as Riley was pulling onto the moderately crowded lot, Brad told him, “Go around back where the dumpsters are at.”

  “Okay,” Riley said before turning into the direction.

  Brad pulled out a cell phone and dialed it. When the phone was picked up on the other end, he questioned, “Nadine—it’s Brad. Do you still have that video that you had recorded last night? Okay, good. Send that to this phone. Okay. Bye.”

  “You have a plan?” Riley questioned.

  “Well, I’m hoping that Conner was buds with those two who were killed last night,” Brad began. “Now most likely, Conner believes that he can’t be killed, so getting that video to Conner should shatter that belief… not to mention rattling his cage.”

  “And how are you going to get that video to him?” Riley asked.

  “Nadine’s going to send me last night’s video,” Brad began as his phone chimed to indicate that he had received a file. “That’s probably it now. Anyway, I’m going to create some kind of disturbance, and as they come out to settle that disturbance they are going to find this cell phone.”

  “And how are they going to know to take that phone to Conner… AKA Dorrautis?” Riley asked.

  “Just watch,” Brad instructed. He then proceeded to record his voice while using the ‘voice memo’ feature on the phone. “Take me to Dorrautis.” He saved that file and then proceeded to record his voice again. “Play the video file.”

  As Riley was driving up to the dumpster and the delivery area, Brad told Riley, “Now I’ll set these two files that I had just created to play as alarm sounds.”

  Brad set his first alarm to play his first message within ten minutes. The second alarm was set to play his second message five minutes later.

  Once Brad was done setting the two alarms, he deleted the cell phone’s phonebook, and the incoming and outgoing call history. After that, he scanned the building from the top right edge to the top left edge.

  “What are you looking for,” Riley asked.

  “Surveillance cameras,” Brad said. “I don’t want my face showing up on one of them.”

  “You’re worried about surveillance cameras, but you’re not worried that you can be tracked after they get a hold of your phone and phone number?” Riley questioned.

  “Not my phone,” Brad informed. “I swiped it yesterday from Capt. Donavan.”

  “You stole our boss’s phone?!” Riley uttered.

  “Ex-boss, and he’s always misplacing his phone. So I figure I would have at least forty-eight hours of use before he realizes that he’s not finding this one.”

  Riley shook his head in disbelief before saying, “You know, you can’t pull that shit around Winona.”

  “Let me worry about what I can and can’t pull around Winona,” Brad insisted.

  “Fine,” Riley acknowledged. “So what kind of disturbance are you going to make?”

  Brad turned and looked at the emp
ty dumpster before saying, “I was going to start a fire in the dumpster, but it appears that it’s trash day in this part of town.”

  “When are the alarms set to go off?”

  “The first alarm will go off in about nine minutes, and the second one in about fourteen minutes.”

  “Change them to two and seven minutes,” Riley instructed.

  “Why?”

  “There are larp players out front, and I think we could simply toss the phone to one of them,” Riley explained.

  “With that plan, we can be easily identified,” Brad pointed out. “So that plan is definitely out.”

  Riley thought for a moment before saying, “Alright. I had bought fireworks two days ago for the coming Forth of July, and those fireworks are in the trunk. You might be able to do something with them.”

  “Can you open the trunk from in here, or do I need the key?”

  “I can open it from in here,” Riley said while reaching for the trunk release.

  Brad was opening his door at the time the trunk popped open. Brad’s door was left open as he moved towards the back.

  Brad got out what he needed from the trunk, and then shut the trunk.

  Riley sat in the driver’s seat and watched as Brad arranged the fireworks near the back door of the nightclub, and on top of a piece of cardboard. The cell phone that Brad had wanted Conner to have was left on the ground a few feet from the firework arrangement.

  Once Brad had everything in place, he set the cardboard on fire and dashed back to the car.

  After jumping in and shutting his door, he uttered, “Drive! Drive!”

  Without verbally responding, Riley put the car into drive and took off. Riley was just reaching the front of the building when the loud booms and the high-pitch whistling of the fireworks began.

  Brad gestured towards the restaurant across the street while saying, “Go there. We can get something to eat and watch from the window at the same time.”

  “Alright,” Riley agreed.

  The loud booms and high-pitch whistling were short in duration, and by the time Lotus and three other men—dressed as vampires—stepped through the back door, one after the other, to investigate the disturbance, the only thing left of it was a cloud of light gray smoke and the smell of burnt gunpowder.

  One of the men waved his hand in a fanning motion in a failed attempt to clear the smoke faster, and as the four scanned the area for any sign of the perpetrator, the cell phone began repeating, “Take me to Dorrautis-Take me to Dorrautis-Take me to Dorrautis…”

  The closest man to the phone picked it up and shut it off. As he faced the others, he said, “I think we are supposed to take this to Dorrautis.”

  “Where did you get that idea?” a second man jokingly questioned.

  “Well, the phone was saying…” the first man was only able to get out.

  “I’m joking with you,” the second man quickly assured him. “Apparently someone had created this ruckus so that we would find the phone and then take it to Dorrautis.”

  “Let’s take it to him,” a third man suggested.

  “Let’s go,” Lotus agreed before the four re-entered the nightclub.

  The first man handed the phone to Lotus as they were making their way to Conner’s table.

  When Conner saw that the four were approaching, he asked, “What was it?”

  “Someone set off fireworks to draw our attention to this,” Lotus informed while holding up the phone. “Someone wants you to have it.”

  “How do you know that?” Conner questioned.

  “Someone set it to chant, ‘take me to Dorrautis’, and it began chanting soon after we got outside,” Lotus explained.

  Without saying a word, Conner held out his hand to receive the phone. Once he had the phone, he began to exam its phonebook and features.

  Before Conner could get very far in examining the phone, it began repeating, “Play the video file-Play the video file-Play the video file.”

  Conner shut off the alarm before saying, “It appears that someone wants to show me a video.”

  As Conner proceeded to bring up the video, the others gathered around him to see as well.

  “I’m claustrophobic, people,” Conner hissed. “Back up and give me space. If this is something that should be shared, I’ll share it.”

  ‘Okay’, ‘Alright’ and ‘Sorry’ were what Conner heard as they backed away.

  Conner turned his attention back to finding the file and playing it.

  The video had sound, and everyone around Conner heard the vampires’ torturous cries as Conner watched. All pleasantness drained quickly from his face.

  “It’s sounds like someone’s being tortured,” the first man pointed out.

  “Dorrautis?” Lotus quickly questioned.

  In an unconvincing voice, Conner squeaked out, “It’s a practical joke.”

  “Those screams didn’t sound like anyone was playing a joke,” the second man pointed out.

  “It was a poor joke,” Conner insisted as he went to delete the video. “Distasteful, in fact. Anyway, did any of you see who might’ve left the video?”

  “The person was long gone by the time we got out there,” Lotus said.

  Conner nodded before saying, “I’ll be in the office.”

  “Okay,” Lotus agreed as Conner was already half way to the office door.

  Conner entered the office quickly, and as the door was shutting behind him, the second man shared, “I’m good at reading people, and his reactions to that video were as if his past had caught up with him.”

  “Yeah, well, whatever is on that video, he certainly didn’t want to share it with us,” Lotus pointed out.

  The nightclub office was small. It barely had enough room for a standard size desk, a desk chair, three guest chairs and a filing cabinet.

  A four-inch by fifteen-inch by thirteen and a half-inch desktop computer sat flat on the desk. A flat screen monitor sat on top of the computer. The keyboard sat in front of the computer as the mouse sat to the right of the keyboard. A high speed modem/wireless router sat to the right of the computer and a wireless printer sat on top of the filing cabinet.

  The computer was in screensaver mode, and once Conner sat down, he entered the password to turn the screensaver off.

  He then pulled up the security feed that overlooked the lot, and after a few clicks of the mouse, he was reviewing what had recorded just before the firework disturbance.

  Within a short time, Conner spotted Riley’s car on the recording. As he followed the car as it drove through the lot, he couldn’t see a good view of the occupants, but he did get a good view of the license plate.

  With several more clicks of the mouse and typing in a password, Conner hacked into the police database and entered a search for the license plate.

  Within seconds, a match was found. Conner smiled before saying, “Nice to meet you, Shawn Riley Patterson of Richardson Street.”

  Conner then searched for any information that the police had on Riley; however, the only data that came up were a few traffic violations and what the police had obtained when Riley took the job at a security company.

  When Conner couldn’t find anything more on Riley, he closed down the Internet programs, turned the screensaver back on, stood up and left the office.

  As Conner was walking towards Lotus and the others, he said, “You’re in charge, Lotus.”

  “Yes, Dorrautis,” Lotus said.

  Conner continued past Lotus and the others, and as if Lotus didn’t speak, Conner continued with, “I’ll be back.”

  As Conner hurried away, the second man said, “Something definitely has him spooked.”

  Across the street, Brad was the very next person in line to order food as Riley took the best seat available to watch the people’s comings and goings at the nightclub.

  Riley was only sitting there for a short time before getting up and rejoining Brad.

  Brad saw as Riley stepped up, and before Brad coul
d ask, Riley pointed out, “All I can see from this distance are faceless people wearing costumes—and a lot of the costumes look the same. So if Conner does decide to step out, I couldn’t pick him out from the others.” Brad pursed his lips. “We need binoculars.”

  “Let’s hope that vampires not being able to go out into the daylight is true,” Brad began. “And assuming that it is true, after we eat, we’ll go and buy a pair of binoculars.”

  Before Riley could respond, the cashier/waitress asked slightly louder than what she needed to, “What can I get you two today?”

  When Brad and Riley looked, the customer before them was stepping away with his food, and the cashier was looking back and forth at them.

  Brad and Riley stepped up to the counter before ordering.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Conner drove to Riley’s house, parked his car and stepped up to the front door. While standing at the door, Conner could hear and smell a woman and a baby inside the house.

  After determining who were all there, Conner placed his hand on the door beneath the doorknob and pushed hard, while breaking the doorframe at the latch.

  “What the hell?!” Conner heard Cynthia—Riley’s sister—say just before she came rushing into view. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Conner and demanded, “Who the hell are you?! And what did you do to my door?!”

  Conner ignored Cynthia, and as he walked closer, he demanded, “Contact Shawn in whatever fashion that you do and tell him to come home.” Cynthia gave Conner a confused look. “Don’t look at me as if you don’t know who I’m talking about.”

  “What do you want with Shawn?” she questioned while backing up.

  Conner was suddenly a blur of a figure as he dashed around to Cynthia’s backside, clutched her throat from behind with his right hand and grabbed her left wrist with his left hand.

  “Before I rip his heart out and show it to him, I want to know how he had killed my friends,” Conner whispered in her ear. Cynthia screamed, and—without killing her—Conner tightened his grip on her throat until she couldn’t scream. “Scream like that again and I’ll snap your neck.”

  When Conner loosened his grip, Cynthia uncontrollably coughed. Once her coughing fit was over, she insisted in a hoarse voice, “Shawn didn’t kill anyone.”