but, mercury's not in retrograde!

by McCarthy, G. L.

  “Okay, well that was a very low cal lunch for me. Are you ready to head back?” Alex was motioning for both of them to follow her outside.

  “Right behind you.” Cyn was playing along but wondered why the secrecy.

  As the threesome emerged out the back of the cafeteria, Alex turned her back to the woods and told them about her encounter with the raven. She asked Frederick if he knew of any place on the school grounds, out in the woods, that had an old shed or cottage. Frederick didn’t know of anything, but then he never left the immediate area of school.

  “Cyn, are we all meeting for dinner tonight?” Alex wanted more input. She liked the way TJ thought when she had come up with the idea of checking with the other teachers regarding the first prank.

  “Well, TJ just called me back and I wasn’t sure what we were all doing, now that there’s been an accident.” Cyn wondered why Alex was thinking of food when she just passed on lunch.

  “Can you call her and see if she would be willing to go get Sam and Jessie and bring them to the Tea Room. I don’t want them driving my truck, as I’m sure Richard knows it and anyone other than myself driving it is in danger. I’ll call Sam and let her know about Dez. I should have called her before, but it just dawned on me.” Reaching for her cell phone, Alex called home and was relieved when Sam answered.

  “Sam, are you and Jessie okay?” Alex didn’t even think to say hello.

  “We’re fine. What’s happened?” Sam knew Alex wouldn’t call out of the blue with a question like that.

  “Dez was in an accident last night, just like in my dream. I’ve asked Cyn to call TJ and see if she can come pick you two up so we can all have dinner and try to figure out Richard’s next move. I know he’s trying to hurt me. I’m sure he blames me for losing his job here at school. The Sheriff is checking the accident sight and looking for any evidence that Dez was forced off the road. Please don’t drive my truck. He doesn’t know about you yet, I hope, and I want to keep it that way.” Alex hated having this happen while Jessie was visiting.

  “I won’t. But Jessie went for a drive about an hour ago. She was going stir crazy and there was no stopping her. She isn’t back yet.” Sam knew that wasn’t what Alex wanted to hear.

  “Dear Goddess, no! I need to call the Sheriff. I’ll call you back.” Alex could hardly dial the Sheriff’s number, she was shaking so badly. She would need to put it in speed dial.

  “Alex, what’s wrong?” Cyn had just finished calling TJ, who said she would pick up both women when she got off work.

  “Jessie took my truck for a drive about an hour ago and she’s not back yet.” Alex didn’t know what she would do if anything happened to Jessie.

  “Sheriff John.” The Sheriff was driving back to his office. He had found some interesting debris at the accident site and wanted to get it cataloged.

  “Sheriff, its Alex. I need your help. My friend, Jessie, is out driving my truck and I need to make sure she’s safe.” Alex didn’t know what else to say.

  “You drive the red F-1 pickup right?” The Sheriff had just spotted it in front of the hardware store.

  “Yes, that’s it.” Alex was hoping with all her heart that Jessie was antique shopping in town.

  “I just passed it. It’s parked in front of Carol’s. I’ll go back and follow her home. How does that sound?” He could hear the panic in Alex’s voice and hoped they could get Richard off the streets very soon.

  “Bless you. I’ll call Carol and tell her the plan. Thank you, thank you. But you don’t have to follow her home. I want everyone to meet at the Tea Room so they can all be briefed on what’s been happening and hopefully between all of us we can come up with a plan to catch Richard. Thanks again.” Alex felt as if a huge weight had been lifted. Thank Goddess she had Carol’s number in her speed dial. She ended her call to the Sheriff and hit seven.

  “Hey, Alex, I’m here chatting with your friend, Jessie. She’s quite a girl and has some great stories about you two. What can I do for you?” Carol waved at Jessie as she was just about to leave.

  “Don’t let her leave until the Sheriff gets there.” Alex made it short and sweet.

  “Jessie, don’t leave, Alex wants you to wait for the Sheriff.” As Carol finished her sentence Jessie quickly walked back and was wondering if something had happened to Sam.

  “Carol, Dez was run off the road last night and is in the hospital. I believe it’s Richard Greenway getting back at me for spoiling his fun at school. He knows my truck and he may try the same thing if he sees anyone but me driving it. We’re all meeting tonight at the Tea Room so keep Jessie in town and we’ll pick her up later. The Sheriff will brief you on the other details. I need to get back to class. Thank you.” Alex was going to be late, since the bell had already rung, but if she walked a lot faster, only by a few minutes.

  “No problem, Alex. She can hang here with me. Take care, bye.” Carol could only imagine how Alex was feeling right now. As she ended the call, her cousin walked in and he didn’t look too happy.

  Sheriff John told Carol and Jessie what was going on and showed both of them a picture of Richard. Carol recognized him from the other day when he purchased several items and paid cash. If she would have known it was him she would have called to let her cousin know he was back. Carol asked if she and Bob could be at the meeting and the Sheriff felt the more people that knew what Richard was up to the sooner they could get him behind bars. He was going to call ahead and have the banquet room in the back of the restaurant reserved. The police department had their annual Christmas party in that room and it didn’t have any windows. Privacy was a must for this meeting.

  Alex asked the girls to excuse her for a minute as she had a call to make. She needed to call Sam and let her know Jessie was safe and already in town. Leaving school right now was all she could think about, but then Richard would be controlling her again. When Sam answered, she was relived to hear that Jessie was all right. Alex told Sam for the first time that she loved her as she signed off. Sam felt a tear run down her cheek as she knew Alex was afraid of possibly not seeing her again and wanted her to know just in case she didn’t.

  Hanging up, Alex knew she needed to get busy with her class and hoped the afternoon would fly by. Of course, it didn’t but it gave her some time to think and rethink about the dreams. She needed to remember every detail. The answers were there; she just needed to see them. She could hardly wait to pick TJ’s brain on the surrounding area. If she knew all the best hiking trails she had to know about Old Woman’s Hill. Maybe they could set a trap using herself as bait. If Richard was in the woods around school, she could take a walk in the evening and maybe he would be just stupid enough to come after her. All those self defense classes would come in handy, although they weren’t much help against a syringe full of Ketamine. But this time she would be ready and backup would be close by.

  Chapter 31

  When the last period bell finally rang to signal the end of another long day, Alex was pumped. She was back in control and could hardly wait to share her idea of setting a trap. Knowing she would be in the minority on this one, she needed to make a strong case and reassure everyone she could handle it.

  Meeting Alex and Cyn at her car, Frederick asked if they could brief him tomorrow. He didn’t want Minnie knowing about any of this and he wanted to stay close to home and school so he could keep an eye out for Richard. Alex completely understood, and decided they would tell him everything when they arrived tomorrow. Cyn could see the change in Alex’s mood. She mentioned wanting to go by the hospital and see Dez after they had their meeting. Hopefully she could remember something and possibly the Sheriff would want to be present at the same time. As Cyn drove, Alex looked along the road hoping to see some small structure, but the woods were too thick. This area was perfect for hiding out. No wonder the whiskey smugglers during prohibition loved this area so much you could hide an elephant in those woods.

  Everyone arrived at the restaurant and they were quick
ly escorted to the banquet room. The Sheriff had been busy making copies of Richard’s picture. He had already put out an APB on him and all his deputies had been given a photo with his vital statistics on the back. The Sheriff had also told them to approach with extreme caution. He didn’t know if he was armed but he suspected he would be very dangerous if cornered.

  When Alex and Cyn arrived they found Sam, Jessie, TJ, and Carol already there waiting with the Sheriff. Alex didn’t know who to hug first, so she went for Jessie who was already halfway to her.

  “I was so worried. I’m so glad you’re safe.” Alex started to cry, as all the emotions she had pushed down came flooding back.

  “I’m fine, Alex. We’re all fine. It’ll be okay.” Jessie could feel Alex trembling.

  Sam joined them and put her arms around both women as Alex let go of Jessie and gave Sam the tightest hug she’d ever experienced.

  “All right, let’s get started and I’ll tell you what we know for a fact.” Sheriff John was ready to get the meeting rolling.

  The Sheriff had confirmed that the evidence he found at the accident supported Alex’s theory of another vehicle causing the accident. He had fresh broken headlight glass that didn’t belong to Dez’s truck, as well as fresh paint on the rear bumper of her vet truck. That supported Alex’s theory that Dez had been forced off the road. Also there were fresh tire marks on the side of the road and footprints which showed someone getting out of the vehicle and walking to the edge. The Sheriff confirmed it had a perfect view of where the truck had gone over. Then he told of the 911 call that had come in just before one in the morning. It was a man’s voice stating he’d witnessed a truck going off the side of the road at mile marker ten on North Fork Road - the exact spot where the tire marks were. The caller left a false name, but he was having the phone number traced to see who it belonged to. The Sheriff wrapped up his briefing with a promise to find Richard before he could hurt anyone else.

  “Thank you, Sheriff. Now, I have a plan on how we can catch him in the act.” Alex had given it a lot of thought and it fit the scenario from her dream.

  “Oh, no you don’t.” Jessie was all too familiar with some of Alex’s past plans, and knew she was going to put herself in harm’s way. “This little plan of yours has you as the bait doesn’t it?”

  “Yes, but I’ll have backup this time. Before you shoot me down, let me tell you what it is.” Alex figured Jessie would be her toughest sell.

  “All right, Alex, we’ll listen, but it better be a good and safe plan.” The Sheriff didn’t want to have to rescue her again.

  “One of the scenarios in my dreams was of Cyn falling during a hike. What I realized after going over the dream in my head again was that it happens at dusk. Then I remembered Cyn telling me of her plans to have a picnic/hike this weekend with TJ. If it’s at dusk, Richard will only be able to tell its two women going on a hike. He knows Cyn is shorter than me, but TJ is taller than the both of us. If I go with TJ on this hike, Richard will assume the shorter of the two of us is Cyn. Then, when he makes his move, we nab him. What do you think?” Alex was quite pleased with her plan.

  “How is he going to know where you two will be?” The Sheriff hadn’t heard about the raven conversation.

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Now don’t start looking for a straight jacket for me, but I had a visit from a raven. He/she sort of told me that Richard is in the woods near Taylorwood. It’s even possible that he has the school bugged, I’m not sure. So, we have a picnic in the gazebo, and then go for our hike.” Alex was ready for anything after that disclosure.

  “A raven told you this.” The Sheriff was thinking that she was right about needing the straight jacket.

  “In Alex’s defense, she does have a spirit looking out for her. I’ll state that as fact.” As Sam replied, Jessie agreed and the others looked amazed.

  “Really! Okay, so how do you get this information out to him, if the school isn’t bugged?” The Sheriff wasn’t so sure about this plan, but was willing to listen.

  “Good question. I hadn’t thought of that, but I was wondering if you have one of those gadgets that can tell if there’s a listening device around. If where Cyn, Frederick and I eat lunch is bugged then all we have to do is talk about our plans for the weekend. Richard would know this because we’ve been eating in the same place for some time now.” Alex watched a lot of movies and hoped he knew what device she was talking about.

  “We don’t have that kind of budget.” The Sheriff would love to have more gadgets, but this sort of thing didn’t happen that often.

  “I know who has one. The County District Attorney’s office. They have their offices checked every week. I’m sure Bob could have a tech check the school.” Carol had many a conversation with her husband, the judge, about what they had to go through to keep conversations secret, especially in cases where large sums of money were at stake.

  “Excellent.” Alex looked at the Sheriff and hoped he was as excited.

  “I’ll talk to Bob and bring him up to speed on what’s going on, but I’m not so sure I’ll mention who our informant is.” The Sheriff didn’t want it getting out that he got his information from a bird or a spirit. “Now if you’re done with me I need to get to work on a few things like tracking that phone number.”

  “Thank you so much. We’ll be looking forward to hearing what you’ve found out. Oh, and I was going to stop by and see Dez later. Did you want to be present?” Alex was glad in a way he was leaving so they could talk freely with just the girls.

  “Call me if she remembers anything about the other vehicle, otherwise you two have a nice visit.” The Sheriff was at the door and in a hurry to get on his way.

  After the Sheriff exited the room, Alex asked if anyone else was starving. Of course everyone was. Taking their orders, Ping put a rush on it and asked if anyone wanted something to drink. Alex requested five glasses of plum wine, a coke for TJ and the usual appetizers. Then everyone sat down, as Alex was ready to pick the brains of a few locals on where Richard could be hiding out.

  “Okay, TJ, I sort of included you in my plan without really asking if it was okay with you. Is it?” Alex realized she had put TJ in an awkward position.

  “Not a problem. I would love to help you catch this piece of slime. Did you say he was hiding out in the woods around the school?” TJ knew the area very well and had a good idea where he was, although she hadn’t been to the old hideout in years and years.

  “Exactly. Do you or Carol know of someplace in the area that he could be living in?” Alex looked at both women. Carol looked puzzled but TJ had a sly smile on her face.

  “I bet he’s in the old hideout, if he’s anywhere near the school.” TJ and several of the other local kids used to play in the old cabin back when they were younger that is, until the old Sheriff threatened them with jail time if they didn’t stay away. “It’s really cool because it has a trap door to a cellar with secret tunnels. The whiskey smugglers used it to avoid the law. We used to play there as kids, but the old Sheriff said we were going to get ourselves killed if it caved in, so we were banned. The tunnel runs from the cabin to the edge of the creek bed which ran along the road and a spot not far from the edge of the school parking lot.”

  “Creek bed and tunnel. Now that I think about it, in my dream the wolf was digging near a stream. I thought it meant something else. Maybe he was trying to show me where the tunnel was.” Alex missed the days when she could talk to Anna and have her tell her what she wanted her to do. This dream interpretation stuff was really hard.

  “Well, you can’t be roaming around the woods if we don’t know where Richard is lurking. If you only knew for sure if he was listening to your conversations at school.” Jessie didn’t want anyone to get hurt, especially if Richard decided he was trapped.

  “It’s been a long time, but I used to track all my brothers and cousins when I was younger. I can take a look around and see if I can pick up his trail. If TJ could show me where th
e cabin is, we might be able to find out where he’s put his car.” Sam was very good, especially at following her cousins as they snuck out to meet boys.

  “I can vouch for her skills at tracking. She was a real pain, back then.” Jessie spoke from experience as Sam had followed her and her boyfriend on more than one occasion.

  “I would guess if he’s watching the school he knows about that tunnel, but if there’s one coming from the stream that may be our way in. That might also be the reason Anna was showing me the wolf digging. It may have been partially buried. Do you remember how to get to that entrance, TJ?” Alex knew mentioning Anna’s name was going to bring questions.

  “Sort of. It’s been a while, but once I get down there I’m sure it will all come back to me. May I assume that Anna is your spirit guide?” TJ really wanted to hear the whole story.

  Yes, she is, and when we have a couple of hours I’ll tell you an amazing story about her. But first things first. If the Sheriff can have the school checked out tomorrow and we find the bug, we can have our conversation on Friday and hopefully set this trap. As far as telling Sam and TJ what to do, I’m leaving them to their own devices.” Alex knew Sam was a big girl and didn’t need her to tell her to be extra careful, although she would be doing just that later when they were in bed.

  “All right, but let’s make sure the Sheriff knows that Sam and TJ are going to be poking around in those woods. If his deputies are out there too, we don’t want anyone being shot accidentally because they think it’s Richard.” Jessie didn’t want any more accidents happening.

  “Jess is right. After I visit Dez I’ll call him with whatever information I find out and tell him about our plan. I just hope he’s in accord with it.” Alex could only imagine what the Sheriff would say about the latest idea.

  The food had arrived and it was a good thing, since the appetizers had been devoured for some time now. The group batted ideas back and forth as to what could be done if the lunch area wasn’t bugged. Short of having a shouting match in the gazebo, it was their only hope of baiting the hook for Richard to take. Carol felt so comfortable with all these women. She’d known TJ since she was a little girl, but never really talked to her. Alex had a good group of friends and Carol was very happy to be included as one of them. When dinner was over Alex asked Sam and Jessie if they were okay going with her to the hospital, otherwise they could catch rides with Cyn and TJ. TJ was going to stay close to Cyn, even if the dream didn’t show her having a car accident. Sam and Jessie wanted to stay close to Alex since they weren’t sure how she’d take seeing Dez in the hospital. Alex didn’t do well in hospitals, unless she was the patient. Otherwise she was likely to become ill.