Darkness Follows (4 page)

Max
stood on the Holloway’s front porch, waiting for Chief Crawley to show. He
turned his face upward catching the morning sun and enjoying the warm breeze
that drifted across the fields. 

At
what was to have been the end of his shift the night before, the Chief called
him into his office to discuss taking him off desk duty, and putting him out on
his first field assignment. While Max was surprised, he quickly accepted his
new position, and thanked the Chief for the opportunity. He was told that his
assignment was confidential, and that there were only three people at the
station who were in the know concerning the special task at hand.

Ever
since Max had finished college a year before, he had been stuck on desk duty at
the station in the quiet town of Dersten, Ontario, answering phone calls, and
filing papers. His parents told him he shouldn't complain about his place in
the office, and that he was just paying his dues. The police station in Dersten
only took one or two recruits a year.  Almost half his class had gone to
work for the OPP in other areas, and many were still out of work in Dersten, or
Camden, the neighboring city. Initially, Max had been proud to be hired onto
the Dersten Police Department, but soon he longed for a job working his own
beat. Although the day had finally come for Max to get out into the field, it
didn’t all play out as he had imagined.

Chief
Crawley filled him in, along with Officer Jenkins, who had been on the police
force for more than twenty years. Max was told the Dersten PD had taken two
girls into their Witness Protection Program. The fact that Dersten even partook
in such a program was a surprisingly well kept secret in such a small town. He
was told the girls were witnesses in a big ongoing investigation, and they
needed to be kept safe until they could find the perp.

The
file they had been sent from Toronto was small and they were waiting to receive
the rest. What Max had read lead him to believe Inspector Jones made the right
call sending the girls. They needed protection more than they could have known.

The
chief assigned Max the night shift; he would be stationed outside the safe
house. Max had spent the morning preparing, and going over the paperwork that
had been sent over that night, but as he waited on the Holloway's porch, he let
his mind wander. He wondered how the small town had kept the protection program
under wraps and tried to figure out who might also be in the program. His
biggest question was why the Chief had entrusted him with this duty instead of
one of the other eleven officers, ten of whom had seniority over him.

Max
saw the Chief’s faded police station wagon kicking up dust as it rolled over
the stony dirt road and pulled up the long driveway. Chief Crawley got out
slowly, and leaned against the car before making his way to the porch.

"Nice
day." The Cheif said and they both looked around at the fields across the
street from the house.

"Yes
sir." Max couldn't help but smile, and took a step back into the shade of
the porch as a sweet, aromatic breeze passed.

They
waited in silence.

*****

Charming.
That was the
word Aurina used to describe Dersten as they drove through the heart of town,
and Ryanne couldn't disagree. There were just two main streets that formed the
center of town, and they were full of shops, restaurants, banks, and a few
offices. The streets were well looked after, with hanging baskets attached to
the street lights, full of purple flowers Ryanne couldn't recognize. As they
passed the middle of Main Street, there was endless countryside in sight behind
the shops. Fields, and a few farms flashed by next, and the smell of manure
strengthened and faded as they drove on past a small road side diner.

Ryanne
had never heard of Dersten, and now she knew why. The welcome sign included the
town’s population of one thousand two hundred, and the closest city of Camden
they passed through reminded her of the ‘small towns’ she was used to back
home. They had been travelling north for so long that Ryanne wondered if they
were still in Ontario.

After
roughly thirty more minutes of driving, and one wrong turn, they approached a
dirt road, and turned right down Maple Lane. There were only two houses on the
lane that sat on the left side half way down the road. The first, the one they
turned up the driveway to, was a small yellow bungalow. The second beside it
was three times the size, and a two story brick house. To the right grew
beautiful fields of golden wheat and many pine trees stood across the street.

When
Ryanne saw one police cruiser on the road, and one in the driveway, and two
men, dressed in full police uniforms waiting for them, she knew they had
reached their destination. The older man, who looked at least sixty, wore a
Sheriffs hat right from the old westerns, and the younger, taller man with
short light brown hair, and aviators seemed to be looking right at her, though
the car windows were tinted.

“Come
on Rye.” Aurina poked her head through Ryanne’s window, and out just as fast.

Ryanne
noticed Aurina barely spoke on their nine hour drive. Of course, Ryanne knew
she was thinking about
David,
and their visit with
him, as well as their parents. Ryanne had been thinking about all that too, but
it wasn’t long before her thoughts turned to their future. She was picturing
tumble weeds rolling across
main street
when Aurina
brought her out of her day dream, and when she realized everyone was waiting on
her, she took a deep breath, and got out of the car.

*******

Finally
Max saw a black Ford Explorer come down the dirt road, first at a quick pace, and
then dead slow. Max smirked. City folk didn't want to get their vehicles all
dinged up; you could tell who was from the city by what they drove and the
speed at which they drove on the gravel roads. He stood almost at attention as
the car stopped behind the Chiefs, and the Chief seemed to relax even more,
leaning against the porch railing. The tinted back passenger window rolled down
and a small hand stuck out, feeling the
breeze .

Max
saw a well-dressed man and a short blonde woman wearing a pant suit step out of
the vehicle. The man opened the back door behind him. The first girl who
stepped out had shoulder length dark brown hair, and a tall lean figure. Max
thought she looked like a city business type with her collared long sleeve
white shirt, black dress pants, and high heels. He knew that one had to be
Aurina Patrick, the older sister, who worked as a Legal Assistant in Toronto.

Max
waited to see Ryanne come out the other side as Chief Crawley met with the man
and woman, shaking their hands.

"Chief
Crawley?
Inspector Jones.
We spoke over the phone last
night." Jones was well dressed and didn’t look much older than Max,
although dark circles surrounded his eyes. His hair seemed oily slick, with
lots of gel. Max shook his hand, admiring his suit. "This is Detective
Burrows."

After
Max shook her hand, he saw Aurina go to her sister’s side of the car and duck
her head in. When Jones went to introduce the sisters, and realized they
weren't behind him, his face went red. "I guess there's going to be a little
adjustment period for them."

"Don't
doubt it." Chief Crawley drawled. "Always is."

Aurina
stepped back, and Ryanne got out of the car. Her long auburn hair blew in the
breeze, and she was nearly as tall as her sister, which somehow Max hadn't
expected. She was dressed more casually than the rest, with a blue t-shirt, and
jeans. As the sisters approached, the men stood in silence. Burrows stepped
closer to the front door to make room for them on the porch, and began the
introductions.

"Aurina."
She said
shaking the Chief’s hand and then Max's. "This is my sister Ryanne."
When Max shook Ryanne's hand, her grip impressed him.

"Burrows
is
going to go for some take-out. The girls haven't
eaten in a while. We didn’t make any stops." Jones told them, and nodded
toward Burrows, who went back to the car and gave a quick wave before getting
in the driver's seat. "Should we go in and get organized?” Jones
asked. “Burrows and I can only stay for an hour or so, and then we have to
get back."

"O’course.
Ladies."
The Cheif opened the front door, and
Aurina and Ryanne stepped inside. Before Jones followed, he whispered something
to the Chief, and he shook his head as they both went in, briefly holding the
door open for Max.

The
Chief had explained to Max that the girls cover would involve their new next
door neighbor, Blake Holloway. Max was shocked at first. Blake owned a mechanic
shop in town, and rarely had any affiliation with the police. He had
volunteered for search committees in the past, but that was the extent that Max
knew of. It was convenient that he had the two houses on his property, one
being his own and the other his parents’ old place.

The
Patrick sister’s new identities would be as Blake’s cousins from Camden, coming
to stay for summer vacation in his parent's old house that stood beside his.
Blake and Aurina would be about the same age, and although word would spread
fast through the town, people would pay less mind to visitors than new comers
who planned on staying. Max thought it was a solid plan, but wondered if anyone
had considered keeping the sisters closer to the station in town. It had
occurred to Max they would be closer to safety and security there, and he
wondered if the Chief had thought of this.

Jones
told the Chief he would be sending the rest of the files on David Matthews and
Jeremy Evans over when he got back to Toronto. Max knew they were both
suspected of murder, and got the feeling they were planned extremely well to
have eluded the police for over three years now. If a man like Jeremy found his
way to the Patrick sisters, it was important they be prepared to protect them.
The town of Dersten had never seen a serial killer as far as Max knew, but he
had studied some, and thought he had a handle on what Jones and Burrows were
dealing with.

“Nice
place.” Max heard Jones say, but his voice sounded uninterested and doubted the
place impressed him.

Max
thought the set-up was a bit hasty, but regardless of whether he liked the
plan, it was his job to help carry it out. The Chief had been on the force for
practically his whole life, and Max was sure he had extensive experience with
the WPP. He knew what he was doing; Max put full trust in him. As he stepped
through the front door, he felt certain he was ready for the challenge.

After
meeting Chief Crawley and Officer Max, Ryanne's heart began to race at the
thought of taking a tour to see their safe house. When they walked in, she
noticed it wasn't fully furnished. The front hall was empty, and the floors
were dark wood. The living room and the kitchen were an attached open space,
separated only by a harvest table in the kitchen, and two couches in the living
room. The cupboards and counters appeared to have seen better days, but the
house had such character. Ryanne followed Aurina down the hall to the left and
saw three doors. The first on the right was a small three piece bathroom, and a
little further down, the two on opposing sides were bedrooms of equal size.

"I
call this one." Ryanne claimed the room on the left that faced the front
of the house. It had a small window, with a big closet and a bed with a big
blue quilt. Aurina went into the other room, which had a bigger window, but a
smaller bed and closet, and put her purse down on the nightstand.

"Now
that you've seen the place, could you girls come into the living room?"
Jones hollered down the hallway. Ryanne followed her sister to the living room
where Crawley pulled two wooden chairs around the floral patterned sofa and
love seat, forming a sort of circle. No one had taken a seat yet, and Ryanne
took a place on the love seat with Aurina sitting down beside her. Crawley and
Max each took a kitchen chair, and Jones had the sofa to himself. Ryanne
noticed the abundance of natural sunlight beaming in from the big bay window,
and the sun beginning to dip down past the pine trees behind the field, across
the street.

"You’ll
be staying in this house while you’re with us in Dersten." Crawley told
them after they all settled in. "Your next door neighbor Blake will be
your cousin, and you're both from the city, the city being Camden, the one you
passed just an hour’s drive south." Crawley nodded to Max.

"Blake
owns Holloway’s, an auto shop in town. You'll be meeting him later." Max said.
His voice was deeper than Ryanne would have guessed, and she couldn't pinpoint
where she got the impression, but he sounded nervous. Max looked back at
Crawley, who had taken a toothpick out of his pocket and put it in the corner
of his mouth. Ryanne pictured him sidling across Main Street with the tumble
weeds, as he chewed on it slowly.

"And
he knows who we really are?" Aurina asked and Crawley nodded.

"Blake
Holloway is the only person in town besides a unit of our police department who
knows your actual identity." Max told them. Ryanne noticed Max looking to
the Chief often, and if the Chief noticed he didn't let on. His attention was
focused on Jones.

"Here's
how this works girls," Jones told them, "Chief Crawley has experience
with this, and what he says goes. Your safety is his top priority, so try not
to give him trouble," Jones looked directly at Ryanne, but she didn't want
to give him the satisfaction of a reaction so she looked to her sister instead.
"These are your new I.D's for the time being. I don't know how it works
around here, but you shouldn't be going out often. Regardless, if need be, here
they are." Jones placed them on the table and Ryanne picked them up.

"They
have our real names on them, and birthdays.” Ryanne told him. She realized her
own birthday was coming up, and hoped they would be back in Toronto in time to
celebrate, with this whole mess behind them.

"Yes,
but not your real last name, or addresses." Jones told them. "It's
much simpler to keep those facts the same. You'll remember them much easier
this way." Ryanne noticed he had also given them a credit card.

"And
this is for?" she asked holding it up.

"There
is a thousand dollar limit on there. To be used for necessities and in case of
emergency." Jones explained as he handed a file folder over to Crawley.

"We
keep it pretty simple ‘round here," Crawley told them as he glanced over
the file. Ryanne noticed Max trying to see it as well, and when he saw her
watching he looked away quickly, blushing with a small smile. “You don't go out
without Blake or the officer assigned to you on watch. You don't stay out past
dark. You don't tell anyone who you really are, or where you're really
from." Crawley took his toothpick out, examined it, and put it in his
mouth again satisfied. "I'm sure the boys in Toronto’ll have this
situation rectified in no time." Crawley nodded toward Jones, and Jones
seemed to sit up straighter Ryanne thought.

"We
can't go out on our own?" Ryanne asked.

"Not
at this time."
Crawley shrugged, mildly apologetic.
Ryanne leaned back against the love seat and brought a leg up and under her.
She hadn't slept at all on their drive, and wished she was at her parents’ home
in bed. "We’ll have a rotation posted outside the house on watch every
night. Max’ll be here most often, and Jenkins too, you'll meet him soon."
Crawley looked to Max again.

"We
really appreciate this," Aurina told them all, and Ryanne cringed as she
realized she was speaking for the both of them. Ryanne didn't think all this
was necessary from the start. It seemed even the police chief in charge of
their security was more laid-back and didn't take this as seriously as Jones.
"Do you think there's a chance Jeremy could have followed us here?"
Aurina asked Jones.

They
heard a knock at the front door, and Ryanne felt Aurina’s leg knock her’s
unintentionally, startled by the sound. Max went to the door and let Burrows
in. She carried two large brown bags to the kitchen table, and Ryanne smelt
something greasy and good that woke her up out of her sleepy daze.

"No,
I don't think he followed us." Jones finally replied. “I think you girls
will be safe now, as long as you follow the directions given. The program
works, and it will work for you if you let it." Ryanne knew Jones’ eyes
were on her again, and it seemed Max noticed as well. He looked from Jones to
Ryanne. "Listen, Burrows, can you bring ours back to the car? I think
we'll take ours to go." Jones told them. Officer Burrows rolled her eyes,
and grabbed a bag bringing it back to the front door with her.

"Good
to meet you." Crawley stood, and shook Jones’ hand before Jones stood up
fully. "The girls are in good hands now, rest assured." Crawley then
went to the door.

"Right,"
Jones’ eyes shifted around the room, “oh, Aurina, here is my card again. If you
need anything,
remember
anything…."
Aurina took the card and held it awkwardly in her hands.

"Thank
you again." She told him, as he nodded making his way to the door. Their
attention was drawn to Burrows and Crawley, whose sounds of laughter were polar
opposites. Crawley had a deep chuckle, while Burrows squeaked like a mouse.

"Thank
you." Ryanne mumbled. She knew a lot of work had been put into this,
although she still wasn't sure it was needed, she thanked him just the same.
They all gathered at the front door to see them out.

"We'll
be seeing you girls again, to bring you home." Burrows nodded,
"Soon." At this she saw Aurina smile, and after they left, Aurina
went to the table and opened the brown bag.

"Anyone for burgers and fries?
I hope you'll
both stay," Aurina told them, “Burrows bought enough for the four of
us."

Max
brought the chairs back around the kitchen table, and Crawley removed his tooth
pick from his mouth again.

"I
guess a pre-dinner snack wouldn't hurt…" he shrugged as he went into the
kitchen, looking around under the counter "just won't tell Sheila" He
winked at Max and threw his toothpick somewhere under the sink.