The beam cut through the dark, revealing a counter and an array of items which appeared to be concealed under plastic. At first blush her limited view inside the building reminded Ashley of a dry cleaner’s.
She flashed her beam around the inside of the store, looking for any clue as to what kind of business she was seeing. What was that?
Ashley caught a momentary glimpse of something that reflected her light as it danced in the darkness. She backtracked trying to find what it was. It was a pair eyes! Red eyes were glaring at her from the darkness inside the store.
Ashley stumbled backwards away from the store window surprised by the sight, her light losing contact with the specter inside.
“What the …” Ashley gasped as she gathered herself from her sudden start and again showed her light through the window.
That’s when she caught her breath. The sound of her phone broke the silence, making her jump. She hesitated for a second before answering. The surprise made her heart skip a couple of beats.
“What?” Ashley answered rudely.
“Well, if you’re going to be that way, I’ll just hang up,” Buddy said from the other end of the line, not happy with her abrupt greeting.
“Sorry,” Ashley replied. “I was just in the middle of something. What did you find out?”
“That’s more like it. Anyway, your friend did file a flight plan for both his flights,” Buddy began. “The first, as you know, was to Rock River. The second, well, you’ll never guess where that was.”
Not in the mood for games as she stood alone outside the store, her hands still shaking from the unexpected call, Ashley urged her brother to get to the point.
“I haven’t the slightest,” Ashley replied impatiently.
“Rock River,” Buddy revealed. “It seems your secret agent friend flew all the way back to drop you off before doubling back. Don’t you think that’s odd?”
“Are you sure?” Ashley asked.
“Um, I fly for a living,” Buddy replied with a sigh, a bit insulted she would question his expertise. “I’m positive. Your boy went back to Rock River. There’s no doubt about it.”
Ashley remained quiet for a minute, digesting what her brother just told her. Why would Jack fly back to Rock River? He had wasted no time getting in and out of the prairie town just hours before. Why would be feel the need to go right back, especially without her? Something wasn’t right about her new partner.
“Okay, thanks Buddy. I owe you one,” Ashley said.
“Yes you do,” Buddy agreed before hanging up.
Ashley stood contemplating her next move as a gust of wind came through, giving her a chill, the sensation helping make up her mind. She would come back tomorrow in daylight. The store was scheduled to open at nine in the morning. There was nothing else she could accomplish there tonight other than scaring herself. Her heart was still racing from her earlier scare. She would stop by the office to pick up the list of Jana’s calls and head home to get a good night’s rest before returning to the trail bright and early tomorrow. She had no plans to wait for Jack to return to town. He could join that program already in progress when he decided to grace her with his presence.
Ashley paused for a minute after climbing in her car and locking the door behind her. Perhaps she could find out what kind of specialties Zeb’s Specialty Shoppe dealt in by doing a quick internet search. Her curiosity was peaked as to why Jana would have come to the lonesome part of town just days before her death.
Pulling out her flip phone, she logged onto the internet – an unnecessarily difficult task on the outdated device. She waited impatiently while a search engine loaded on the not-so-smart phone. She was constantly catching grief from friends and co-workers who wondered when she was going to join the technological revolution and get a smart phone. She figured people spent too much time squinting at their little screens and her eyes were already bad enough. If she wanted to surf the web, Ashley figured she was rarely more than a few steps from a computer. There was no need to carry a mini-computer in her pocket and pay the ridiculously high access fees just to update Facebook twenty times a day.
Despite her philosophy, Ashley sat alone in her unmarked unit tapping her keypad, trying to find information on Zeb’s. However, try as she might, there was nothing that matched up to the business in front of her. It was as if the place didn’t exist. Were there actually still places that weren’t on the internet?
With her attention focused on squinting at her small telephone screen, she didn’t notice the man approaching her car from the darkness. When the man rapped on her driver’s side window, Ashley jumped, her heart skipping a beat for the second time in the past few minutes. She turned her head toward the sound of the knock and found herself looking into the wild eyes of a man glaring through her window.
She instinctively reached out to make sure her doors were locked. The bearded man, his hair disheveled and clothes unkempt, stood silently looking through the glass. Ashley, not knowing the intent of her surprise visitor, called out to him through the window.
“What do you want?” she asked. Her eyes finally focused on the man, her first impressions suggesting he was homeless.
“Can you spare a few dollars?” the man asked, confirming Ashley’s suspicion, allowing her to breathe a little easier.
Ashley was one of those people who would give panhandlers a dollar on the street even when she suspected they would make a bee-line to the liquor store. She figured it was on them once she made her contribution, worried that she could be turning down someone who was truly hungry. Ashley had a big heart, sometimes to her detriment.
Sizing up the man, finding him to be a minimal threat, Ashley fumbled through her console and found a five dollar bill. Perhaps he was familiar with the area and could be of some assistance. She cracked her window and waved the bill where the man could see it.
“Are you from around here, sir?” Ashley asked. The man nodded as he took the money.
“This place, Zeb’s Specialties, what do they sell?” Ashley asked.
“Animal suits,” the man replied as he eyed the five dollar bill she had passed him.
“Animal suits?” Ashley asked.
“Yeah, animal suits,” the man confirmed. “All kinds of animal suits.”
Thanking Ashley for the money, the man sauntered into the darkness from where he had come. He disappeared around the corner as she sat mulling over the cryptic description she had just been given.
“Animal suits ... whatever,” Ashley mumbled as she cranked her engine and headed toward her office. The trip was a waste of time.
She made a short stop at headquarters, ducking in just long enough to pick up Jana’s call list and grab the football game video she received from the principal at Rock River. She would spend the rest of her Tuesday evening like a football coach, watching the game film. Except in her case she wasn’t scouting the other team, she was scouting a killer.
Ashley had no idea how tired she was until she walked in her door. It’d been a tough few days. Could a two hour airplane trip leave a person with a case of jet lag even if they didn’t fly in a jet? Regardless, she felt like she’d been hit with a ton of bricks as she plugged in the video and collapsed on her couch, bringing the call list with her as some night-time reading.
Her first glance at the list was disappointing as most of Jana’s calls, both home and on her cell account were to government numbers listed under the catch-all heading ‘State of Texas’ giving Ashley no clue as to their actual identities. She figured the numbers were to other agents. One of the State of Texas numbers appeared on multiple occasions on both her home and cell accounts. Actually, scanning the list, it appeared Jana made calls to that number every day. Was she reporting to someone within the department? Ashley resisted the temptation to dial the number and see who answered given the lateness of the hour. Instead, she highlighted the reoccurring government number along with a couple of other contacts on the call list. She would call them tomorrow but
suspected they would be of little help since none of them were setting off alarms. Her training had taught her that a good detective leaves no stone unturned.
Disappointed with the call list, Ashley turned her attention toward the video which captured the football game as well as the happenings on both sidelines. She fast forwarded over parts of the film until she caught a glimpse of the familiar form of Pioneer Jake working the crowd from the sideline. There was nothing noteworthy as he behaved like any regular mascot. The brightly colored frontiersman cheered alongside the cheerleaders and interacted with the football fans.
Ashley struggled to hold her eyes open as the game film dragged on, Pioneer Jake coming and going on the sideline. Her couch was simply too comfortable, the soft cushions seducing her to slumber as she caught herself nodding off. She shook her head trying to fight sleep, a battle she feared she would not win.
“What was that?” Ashley asked, suddenly perking up. Something caught her eye on the video prompting her to reverse the disk, playing it back this time in slow motion.
At first Ashley didn’t quite comprehend what she was seeing, knowing only something wasn’t right when the film ran at full speed. At slow speed it became obvious – there were two Pioneer Jakes!
Ashley was frankly surprised she made the catch in her tired condition as the film provided just a glimpse lasting only a couple of seconds. On the tape Pioneer Jake could be seen waving his arms at the crowd, rooting for the Pioneers from behind the bench on the home side of the field. Then, just for an instant, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, there stood another Pioneer Jake at the edge of the bleachers, out of view of the crowd.
“There!” Ashley exclaimed as she froze the frame, capturing both Jakes in the same shot. “I’m not seeing things.”
Were there two mascots for the Rock River Pioneers? If not, why was someone else wearing an identical or at least near-identical mascot outfit?
Ashley watched the rest of the game film with renewed vigor, trying to find anything else out of the ordinary. There was nothing, aside from the brief glimpse of the two mascots. She never saw Jana on the tape. Something else that struck her as odd was the fact that Pioneer Jake remained on the field until the end of the game, disappearing from sight on a couple of occasions only to return and continue his cheering for the home team.
She assumed the murders happened during the game, the crowd noise masking the screams of Jimmy Granderson from underneath the bleachers. She suspected he didn’t die quietly given the evidence of his defense wounds. It was all too complicated to fathom with her tired brain, her shot of adrenaline from the discovery of the second Jake running out. Her eyes, heavy as iron, involuntarily closed despite her best efforts.
SEEING DOUBLE
“The killer was dressed as Pioneer Jake!” Ashley blurted out as her eyes opened. The morning sun had just broken through her window as the epiphany hit her. She had dozed off hours before but her mind continued working on the case even while she was asleep.
She sat in a half-awake daze for a moment trying to get her bearings, making sure she hadn’t dreamed of seeing the two mascots the night before on the video tape. A glance toward her television, however, confirmed it was no dream. The scene showing the two Jakes simultaneously was freeze-framed on her screen, likely burning itself permanently into her television. She paused to look at the still picture, rising from her chair to get a closer view of the screen. Pain immediately shot down her back as she rose from her awkward sleep. The corner of her couch was not near as restful as her bed.
Ashley rummaged through the video covers that lined her entertainment center. She enjoyed watching movies late in the evening but never seemed to find time to replace the disks back in their covers. Finding the cover in which the football video came, Ashley looked for the phone number the principal wrote on the video case.
“If you need anything at all, call me,” she recalled Principal Martin telling her during their talk at Nunley Stadium.
She was taking him up on his offer.
“Yes, Mr. Martin please,” Ashley said when the female voice of the school secretary came across the line.
“Sorry, but Mr. Martin is out of the office today,” she replied. “Schools are closed today for the funeral of Jimmy Granderson.”
Ashley found her patience thin. She had to know if she had stumbled onto a major lead and she wasn’t going to wait to talk to the principal.
“Maybe you can help me,” Ashley began. “This is Ranger Ashley Reynolds. I’m working on the murders there and had a question that you might be able to answer.”
“I’ll surely try,” the woman replied.
“Okay, this may sound weird but do you have more than one mascot that appears at football games?” she asked. “I mean, specifically, was there more than one Pioneer Jake uniform.”
“I can answer that for you, ma’am,” the secretary replied. “That was the one and only mascot outfit. Those things cost several thousand dollars apiece and we’re a small school system, so there’s no way we could afford more than one outfit on our budget. Plus, I personally know Jimmy Granderson was the only mascot. Actually, everybody around here knows that.”
“Thank you very much,” Ashley said with a hint of jubilation in her voice. “You’ve been more helpful than you know.”
It was as if the new morning brought her renewed vigor, beginning the day with what could be a crucial clue to the case. Now she intended to press her advantage by heading straightaway to Zeb’s and perhaps figure out why Jana paid a visit there in the days before her death.
Ashley hastily changed out of the clothes she had slept in the night before and headed for the mysterious store. In her excitement to pursue the lead, she failed to notice the car which fell in behind hers, pulling away from the curb across from her residence where it had sat waiting on her all morning.
Unlike Jana, Ashley was adept with directions. Her photographic memory allowed her to recall every twist and turn back to the storefront she visited the night before. By the light of day, the neighborhood, which had given her the creeps last night, seemed less foreboding. However, it was still not the most inviting place in Austin. Its old buildings were in a state of ill-repair and seemed more ready for a bulldozer than for paying customers.
Checking her gun and making sure it was ready to go, Ashley stepped out of her car. She pulled her shirt down over her sidearm and tucked the holster into the waistband of her jeans. She didn’t want to attract attention to herself. For all she knew, she could be meeting the killer face to face when she stepped into the store. Regardless, she wanted to see what she could see before she identified herself. She realized some people became less cooperative when talking to police.
Ashley walked up to the door. In the light of day she noticed the store looked more like a prison than a business given its security bars. At least it was open.
She threw open the door and stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes were wide in disbelief.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered as she looked around. She now understood what the homeless man had told her last night.
It was a store full of uniforms, its stock donning the walls of the business. However, much to her chagrin, they weren't just any kind of uniforms - they were mascot outfits! What are the chances, Ashley?
Ashley stood frozen in the doorway. Her body refused to move. She was overwhelmed by the army of costumes that guarded the room. Her first inclination was to walk away and perhaps let Jack come back to visit the shop of horrors that afternoon. She stood motionless. Her body told her to leave but her sense of duty told her to stay.
“Can I help you, ma’am?” a slight, bald-headed man asked.
He had been watching her strange behavior from his perch behind the counter, surrounded by a group of outfits. He wasn't sure whether to be entertained or concerned by the strange behavior of his visitor.
Feeling silly, realizing her actions were not befitting that of a Texas Ranger, Ashley force
d herself to take a single step inside the building even as her skin crawled.
“Um, yes, is Zeb here?” Ashley asked, clearing her throat and looking around. She half expected one of the mascots to come to life.
“Zeb’s dead,” the man said.
He laid down the magazine he had been reading and hopped off the high stool he was sitting on.
“My name’s Caleb," he said as he extended his hand. "I run the place now. Perhaps I can be of some assistance, ma’am.”
“The sign says Zeb’s,” Ashley said as she forced herself to take another step inside.
“Ah, I just haven’t gotten around to taking it down,” Caleb replied. “Zeb was my uncle. He died a few years ago. I took the place and I mainly do business online these days. We don’t get a whole lot of walk-in traffic. We do business now under the name Lone Star Outfitters.”
That explained his location on the seedy side of town. It also explained why she couldn’t find anything about the business the night before on her not-so-smart phone.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what is it you sell here?” Ashley asked as she looked nervously around the room.
Caleb shot her a broad smile and chuckled at her question.
“I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count,” Caleb said with a grin. Ashley’s face turned read with embarrassment at her stupid question.
“We specialize in mascot uniforms of all kinds, costumes for plays and theater and we even sell a few Halloween outfits,” Caleb explained.
Ashley stood silently, the wheels in her mind spinning a thousand miles an hour. Had the killer gotten a copy of Pioneer Jake from Lone Star Outfitters? Was that why Jana visited there?
“We are one of the largest retailers of mascot outfits and costumes west of the Mississippi,” he boasted. “Don’t let the building fool you. Our business is quite well-known online.”
Ashley sized-up the diminutive salesman. His eagerness to push his business told her there was little chance he was involved in Jana’s death. He was a salesman, not a killer.
Friday Night Frights (Jack and Ashley Detective series Book 1) Page 9
