Teddy was quite excited about his having found the Powell car parked in the back of the Ethan Allen Motel. He was carried away with his find. Ed had offered one hundred dollars for anyone spotting the vehicle. Teddy had earned the reward, but went looking for more. He wanted to impress Ed. After Teddy had located the car he decided to go one step further. He would get a look at this Powell fella. If Ed wanted a description, then Teddy could step up to the plate, “Yessirree, and hit one out of the park.”
Teddy had approached the motel’s night clerk with a story that he had noticed that one of the guest’s car had a flat tire. He just wanted to get word to the person, so they could get it taken care of bright and early in the morning.
“A traveling person doesn’t need to be surprised by bad news,” offered Teddy.
“I guess you’re right,” said the night clerk as he wrote down the number of the license plate and description of the car Teddy had offered moments before.
“I guess you’ll let him know in the morning,” said Teddy.
“Yeah, I’ll leave a note in their box and I’ll slip one under their door later, when I go off shift.”
“Do you mind if I help myself to a coffee?” asked Teddy.
“No, go right ahead.”
Teddy sauntered over to the continental breakfast table and poured himself a cup of coffee. While he was making himself the coffee, he watched the night clerk place a note in a numbered slot, Powell’s room. He now had Powell’s room number.
“Thanks for the coffee,” said Teddy as he left the motel.
The night clerk waved his good-bye.
Teddy headed straight for his truck. He pulled it around back and parked it a couple of spaces down from Powell’s car. He was planning to wait until morning to get a look at Powell, when the motel’s back entrance door opened and was propped open by a man using a small box. Teddy quickly left his truck and headed straight for the now opened door. Motels usually lock their doors at night, so that only guests may enter or exit using their passkey.
A guest was apparently getting up extra early to head out on the road. Teddy passed him on the stairs. The two men avoided eye contact, each for their own reason.
The motel is usually quiet at this time of the morning. It was nearly five in the morning. Teddy slowly approached the room he believed Powell was staying in. He reached the room and stood still at the door. He put his ear to the door and listened for any sound.
He heard a man’s voice. It was then followed by a woman’s voice. He shuffled his feet at the door. He tried to appear like he was trying his room key for the benefit of the motel’s security camera located at the far end of the hallway.
Teddy heard someone’s feet padding across the floor heading towards the door. He broke to his left and ran for the stairs.
He heard a woman call out, “Hey, wait up,” only he wasn’t going to wait.
Once out in the parking lot, he ran for his truck. He had to get away before anyone could get a good look at him. If Ed knew what he had tried, Ed would be furious. If he could make a clean getaway, Ed would never have to know.
Teddy pulled his truck out of the motel’s parking lot and headed straight for Ed Townsend’s house.
Ed was pleased with Teddy’s information. He pressed a couple of fifty dollar bills into Teddy’s sweaty palm.
“Ain’t you going to check it out first?” asked Teddy.
“No need, Teddy. I have a good idea what he’s up to. Besides, he’s probably still sleeping. He doesn’t know we’re on to him, does he Teddy?”
“No...No he doesn’t, Ed. I mean, how could he, right?” answered a plainly nervous Teddy Hawkins.
“Now Teddy, make sure you take your medicine today. You’re looking a little tight, so get some rest. Remember, I don’t want to have to come and get your ass out of the slammer again anytime soon.”
“I’ll be okay, Ed, I promise.”
Teddy left and climbed back into his pickup truck. He adjusted his Montreal Expo’s baseball cap and then backed out of the driveway. His mind was now on the stray cat he had picked up at the Town’s dump yesterday and what he was going to do to it.
Ed watched Teddy leave.
The scum that life serves up, thought Ed.
Ed went back inside. He had some planning to do. First up would be to contact Samuel and bring him up to speed on what Ed’s uncovered so far. Ed knew he had no choice on this. Moloch had chosen a new leader and a new leader it was. It didn’t matter to Ed who the leader was, only that they get the job done. Ed’s years of police work had programmed him to respond to the pursuit in a matter of fact way. His altered state, Kratua the master torturer, was one impatient devil. However, even Kratua recognized the importance of landing the Powell male and therefore didn’t push Ed to hard. They both would have their satisfaction before all of this was over, of that they were both certain.
Korie pulled the covers off of Aaron. She had opened the curtains to their widest position.
“C’mon, Aaron,” she said as she shook him awake.
Aaron rubbed his eyes with both hands in that little boy way, thumbs tucked inside clenched fists.
“What time is it?”
“Never mind what time it is. I think that whoever was following your mother now knows we’re here. We’ve got to move out of here, pronto.”
“All right, just let me have a moment in the toilet, okay?”
“Sure, but hurry, I’ve already packed for both of us.”
Aaron shuffled off to the toilet and closed the bathroom door.
Korie heard the toilet flush. In a moment Aaron emerged. He had splashed water on his face.
“Okay, I’m ready.”
They picked up their bags and opened the door. Korie looked down the hall to the left and then the right. The hallway was empty.
“Hurry,” she said.
They headed down the hallway, down the stairs and out the back entrance. They both headed to the car. Aaron started it up and pulled it around to the front of the motel.
“We’ve still got to check out,” he said.
“I know. You wait here. I’ll go,” she said.
She took her purse and ran into the lobby of the motel. Aaron sat in the car with the motor running. The morning was foggy and cool. Aaron had to turn on the windshield wipers. Directly across the large parking lot sat an eighteen-wheeler. Its engine was also running. Aaron thought he could see the trace outline of the driver sitting in the cab.
Is he watching me?
Aaron couldn’t be sure. Who was Korie talking about this morning? Who was watching? When and from where?
As his mind began to fill with nervous paranoia he spotted Korie running out of the motel’s lobby. She quickly entered the car.
“We’re all set.”
“Good.”
“Let’s go.”
“Fine, where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Me either.”
“Well, we can’t just sit here.”
“You’re right.”
“I’ve got an idea,” said Korie.
“Let’s hear it.”
“First, we’ve got to get rid of this car.”
“Why?” asked Aaron.
“Because earlier this morning I think whoever was watching us also knows what we’re driving. We need to dump this car today.”
“Well, according to the Vermont map, we’re only about thirty-five miles from Burlington. It’s Vermont’s biggest city. There must be a place we can get rid of the car. You know, maybe a car dealer or something.”
“Sounds fine, let’s go.”
Aaron looked away from Korie and back across the motel parking lot. He put his car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot onto the street. He turned left at the light and headed back to Interstate 89. In his rearview mirror, he noticed that the truck had also pulled out of the parking lot. Smoke was pushing out of the truck’s twin exhaust stacks.
Aaron took the entrance ramp heading n
orth on the interstate highway. For a few moments the truck was no longer in view.
Korie started to tell him about the incident outside their motel room door.
Aaron was only half listening. He pushed the car’s speed up to sixty-five. He was pulling away from the slower truck.
“You were having some kind of bad nightmare. You were sitting in that small straight back desk chair. I wasn’t sure if I should try to wake you up. You know what they say about waking someone up who’s having a nightmare? Anyway, when I touched you, it must have broken the spell that the nightmare had on you, because you sort of woke up. I helped you to bed and you were asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow.”
Korie continued to relate the morning’s event, but her voice began to trail off. Aaron could see in his rearview mirror that the truck had closed the distance between them. It was now less than a half mile away and closing. Aaron stepped on the accelerator and the car’s speed shot up to seventy-five miles an hour. Aaron looked back up into the mirror. The truck wasn’t closing anymore.
Aaron pulled to the left lane to pass a Volvo station wagon. He looked up to his mirror again and the truck was somehow now only a couple of hundred feet behind him. It was in the left lane and gaining.
Aaron griped the car’s steering wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white.
Korie noticed that Aaron was not really focused in on her detailed narration. He was perspiring and seemed nervous.
“Aaron, what’s wrong?”
“We’re being followed. It’s that big rig directly behind us.”
Korie turned around and looked out the car’s back window. All she could see was the massive grillwork of a Peterbilt Diesel, Roadway Special. The truck couldn’t be more than five feet off their rear bumper.
“Step on it, Aaron.”
“I am,” he answered.
Aaron had his car doing ninety-five miles per hour. He passed a couple of cars in the right lane so fast that they seemed to be frozen in place.
“He’s closing in again, Aaron.”
Aaron looked in the mirror and all he could see is the truck’s chrome grill.
One hundred miles an hour and the truck was still there. The two vehicles were flying along the left lane of the interstate. They were now in an area known locally as Bolton Flats.
“I’ve got an idea. Hurry, fasten your seat belt.”
Korie sat back in her seat and buckled her seat belt.
“What are you going to do?”
The truck’s horn blasted at them. It blasted several times.
Korie put her hands to her ears. The sound was both deafening and frightening.
When the horns stopped Aaron said, “I’m going to quickly pull into the right lane and put on my brakes. I’m going to just tap them hopefully enough so that the truck will shoot right past us. Ready?”
“Ready.”
At Korie’s ready Aaron smoothly pulled to his right and tapped his brakes. He was right. The truck driver couldn’t attempt a similar maneuver at that speed without loosing control of his rig. The huge truck and trailer shoot right by. Aaron was now behind the truck. As he kept an eye on the truck in front of him, Korie looked back along the highway. She immediately spotted a police car with its blue lights flashing racing towards them.
“Looks like we have more company,” said Korie.
Aaron glanced up into the rearview mirror and he too spotted the police car. He then returned his sights to the truck, which was directly ahead of him. The truck’s speed and Aaron’s by now had been reduced to sixty miles an hour.
“The truck driver spotted the police car, too,” said Aaron.
The State of Vermont police car pulled along side of the truck in the left lane. A voice could be heard coming from the police car’s loudspeaker.
“Please pull the truck over to the side,” and as if for further emphasis, “now.”
The truck put on its right turn signal and began to pull over to the right side breakdown lane. The police cruiser pulled to a stop directly behind the truck.
Aaron and Korie drove past the truck and cruiser as they continued north towards Burlington.
Several minutes later, they pulled off the highway and headed up Williston Road, into South Burlington. They stopped at a used car dealership named “Randy’s Dandeezs.” After some haggling, they sold Aaron’s car for at least fifteen hundred below its book value. After signing over the title, they signed the papers for the used car they were buying to replace the car they had just sold. Soon they were headed to downtown Burlington. They asked Randy to recommend a good hotel. Without hesitation he recommended the Radisson Hotel. Twenty minutes later Korie had rented a room for the two of them.
This room was on the seventh floor and had a gorgeous view of Lake Champlain.
Korie let Aaron have first dibs on the bathroom.
She laid out their clothes in the twin dressers. Aaron came out of the bathroom.
“Your turn,” he said.
“Thanks, I’m going to take a shower and then change clothes. Maybe we can grab some breakfast after.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll take a shower after you. I worked up quite a sweat racing that asshole truck.”
Korie headed into the bathroom and closed the door. She turned on the overhead heat lamp and room fan. She turned on the water and began to remove her clothes. In a moment she was standing in the shower and it felt good, real good.
She had been in the shower for several minutes. The warm water cascaded down her body. Her entire back muscles felt stiff from the tension of the morning escape and chase. She turned her back to the showerhead and let its warm spray caress her achy body.
Aaron sat on the edge of one of the two full size beds. He was channel surfing when he stopped on the local channel’s morning news. He turned the volume up.
“This is Brian Detmer, a good friend of the two missing hikers. He’s organized a volunteer search for the two young hikers that will begin to explore the Long Trail along Vermont Route 100 today. Tell me Brian, have the authorities given you any information that will help you in your search efforts?”
The young man with a couple days growth of beard wearing a tee shirt and carrying a backpack responded, “All we know is what has been already reported. They were last seen hiking on Camel’s Hump. We think they headed north from there, so we’re going to start at Camel’s Hump and spread out heading north.”
“Well, Brian, we wish you and the other searchers the best out there. This is Kathy Brown, reporting live from the base of Camel’s Hump Mountain on efforts to locate the missing hikers. Now back to the studio, Mark and Leslie.”
“Thanks, Kathy,” said the young woman sitting behind the television studio desk as she shuffled her papers. She turned to the male announcer, which was his signal to speak next.
“As our viewers know, every year several hikers get injured or lost in Vermont’s woods. We wish the searchers the best, and remind everyone watching to always let someone know your hiking route, and stick to it.”
“That’s a good tip, Mark. Well, now on the lighter side today at ...”
Aaron turned the volume down. He could hear the shower running in the bathroom. He reclined back onto the bed, closing his eyes for a moment.
After a while, he turned over on his side and looked towards the window and the rich blue sky beyond. The curtains on the floor to ceiling window had an intricate pattern to them. The pattern was a sort of pastoral scene. There were people picking flowers, hoeing in a garden and riding a wagon. His eyes focused upon a figure of a woman who was working inside of a white picket fenced in flower garden. She seemed to take on a three dimensional appearance. He looked closer, sitting up now on the edge of his bed.
The woman was wearing a long dress and a bonnet of the sort worn in the mid-1800s. She suddenly turned around and looked at Aaron. She was holding a flower basket filled with freshly cut flowers. This woman seemed to walk towards Aaron. She appeared to be able to ste
p out of the drapery’s pattern. She now seemed to be walking in the air. She came closer until she was standing in the middle of the bed next to the window. She couldn’t be more than two inches tall. Yet her weight caused a small indention on the beds surface.
“Aaron, don’t be afraid. I’m your great grandmother several times removed. I’m Sarah Powell.”
“This can’t be happening. It’s some kind of dream. I have a bad habit lately of having weird dreams,” protested Aaron.
“This is no dream, Aaron. We have been able to speak to you all along, but there was no need.”
“Who is this, we?”
“All of your ancestors. Your mother, her mother and so on, up to and including me?”
“I don’t understand,” he offered.
“Oh, we think you do, Aaron. It’s just that you’ve been blocking your powers. You will learn to use them as we have.”
“But you’re all dead,” he said standing up and pacing in front of the television.
“Yes, we’re dead.”
“So if you’re dead, then how are you here and where are you speaking to me from and don’t say those drapes,” he demanded.
“We Powells exist in a nether world. Our bodies have died, but our spirits live on in this in-between world. We are bound by our blood to fight on to victory over this Dark One who wishes to take on human form. We can not rest until we defeat him, no matter how many generations it takes.”
“What does this Dark One want with our family, couldn’t he find another?”
“Oh, Aaron, you have so much to learn. An evil agreement is a final covenant. This coven that has pursued our family is in a pact with Lucifer’s lieutenant Moloch. It is Moloch who must come forth upon earth in human form to prepare the way for Lucifer.”
“Why?” said Aaron, sitting on the bed once more.
Evil Agreement Page 15
