Secrets of Apple Grove Ch. 03

"Thank you." I said. "Did Special Agent Muscone send you?"

"No sir." said Jefferson. He did not elaborate, and I did not need for him to. Jack's boss, the Deputy Director, was the man who was pulling these strings and extracting me from this very dangerous situation.

Things got even stranger. My luggage was transferred to Jefferson's car, and my cellphones inside their shielded box were also given to me. I went ahead and reactivated them and spent a moment responding to texts as Jefferson talked to his men.

The ride to Rome was uneventful, though I did see two Sheriff Department vehicles watching us as we drove. Once we got to Rome, the agents driving my mother's car turned south towards home, but Jefferson turned north.

"Must be an airport north of here." I asked. Jefferson looked surprised at my acuity, and just nodded.

"By the way," I said, "there was an E.J. Jefferson on my Police Force before he went to the City. Relative of yours?"

"Boss man told me not much gets by you." said Jefferson, grinning. "Yes sir, he's my cousin. Our father's are brothers. He spoke highly of you."

"Wish he'd stayed on with us." I said. "He's a good officer, and I hear he's doing well in the City." We chatted about Julius's cousin Earl for a few minutes.

Sure enough, we arrived at a small airport. I saw a gleaming Learjet with an Air Force ID number on the tail. It was not the same one that Laura had procured for Cindy and Teresa.

"The Deputy Director wanted you to fly in style." said Special Agent Jefferson. His agents had already given my luggage to the plane attendant, though I was personally carrying my laptop.

"Thanks." I said, shaking the agent's hand. "Say hello to E.J. when you next see him."

"I will, sir. Good luck."

As I boarded the plane, I said loudly "I'll bet Jack Muscone is hiding on this aircraft somewhere."

"You'd win that bet." said a voice in one of the seats in front of me. Jack Muscone stood up. "Sit down and buckle up, we're behind schedule." I sat down in the seat across the aisle from Jack and put on the seatbelt. Almost immediately we were taxiing out to the runway. We took off.

"Not a bad way to ride, eh?" asked Jack as we settled in for the trip.

"Sho'nuff." I said. "So, I take it we're going to go pick up Cindy and Teresa before heading home to wife, kids and dog."

Jack's beady eyes just looked at me, then he shook his head. "400 years ago..." he said. "Yes, that's where we're going. How in the world did you know? I know my boss said to keep this trip absolutely confidential."

"Oh, that one was too easy." I said, then changed the subject by saying "Did your guys find the fake computer with the homing device?"

"Yep, sure did." Muscone said, "but nobody was in the building when our guys got there. No fingerprints, either. Some guys in Sheriff uniforms were watching from a distance, too."

"Damn, Spaulding must've realized that the computer was bugged." I said. "Or else someone called in to him that your guys were coming."

"I think it's the former." said Jack. "We were monitoring the police and sheriff frequencies... as well as the cellphone towers in the area. Not a damn thing before the guys got there. We were already in Apple Grove, and moved in as soon as the computer was powered up. They might have had a device that alerted them to the signal."

I nodded. "That bespeaks some serious intelligence and sophistication behind them." I said. "Perhaps a Consultant of Crime was guiding Spaulding."

"There's that bee in your bonnet." Jack said, giving what was for him a grin. "And here I was, hoping you'd find some leads to Superior Bloodlines."

"Oh, I may have." I said. "And a whole lot more. All crossroads seem to lead to Apple Grove, USA. By the way, what did Sheriff Allgood say when you told him about the diamonds?"

"I haven't told him yet." Muscone said guiltily. I groaned.

"Oh, he is going to barbecue my ass, then." I said.

"Yes he is." said Jack. "He's called in a special crew from Salem, USA to do the barbecuing, too." I laughed at that one; Jack had made a funny.

Part 17 - Breach of Security

"Oh, it's so good to see friendly faces." Cindy stated as the four of us, herself, myself, Teresa and Jack Muscone, sat down to dinner at a restaurant in a town several miles away from Teresa's home town. We'd arrived in the very late afternoon, the sun beginning to sink towards the horizon. We met up with Cindy and Teresa, checked into the hotel, and then drove up to find this restaurant. Our eyes were peeled; we were not followed.

"Any new incidents?" I asked Cindy. She shook her head.

"No." she replied. "After we scared off those two, we've been keeping watch, as have the local police. Nothing unusual, no strange vehicles."

"And those would be easy to spot." Teresa said. "This town is just about dead. We two, and now you two, are the only outsiders for miles."

"Almost as bad as Apple Grove." I said.

"Worse." said Cindy. "So, how was your trip there? Find what you were looking for?"

"I think so." I said. "Did y'all hear about the diamonds disappearing from our Evidence Rooms?" The women had not heard, and so I told them what I knew.


"Nothing against Tanya," said Teresa, "but I'm surprised the Sheriff let you leave Town after Cindy and I came here."

"Yes," I said, "and it was the perfect time for the perps to strike and take the diamonds, such as they were." Jack grinned at that one, and Cindy caught it.

"Ahhhh..." she said, getting it. "Why do I suspect the perps didn't get the real diamonds, but fake ones? And that the real ones are in the possession of the FBI?"

"Not much gets by you, Crowbar 2." I said, in the form of a quotation I'd heard an awful lot.

"I'm not a Troy," Cindy said, "but Jack doesn't grin like that too often." We all laughed at that one, then began discussing the diamonds..

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Monday morning, April 13th. Teresa met up with her lawyer and they went to the Courthouse. Jack Muscone went to the airport, to use the sophisticated communications equipment on the aircraft. That left Cindy to guide me.

First we went to the property records area of the Courthouse, where Cindy looked up and noted the name of the person that had bought the lot from Teresa's father, through the lawyers, and then who had bought the property and currently owned it. The man's name was not familiar to me.

We then went to the Police Station, where Cindy introduced me to Teresa's Captain friend and to the rest of the Police Force that was there. Some of them had heard of the Iron Crowbar, and were somewhat agog that I was right there in their midst. Some good discussions about the now-resolved Silverfish cases as well as the two perps following Cindy and Teresa ensued.

About 9:30 we went by the Courthouse. Teresa and her lawyer were waiting in the gallery for their case to be called. She stepped out into the hall to speak with us.

"The lawyer says that the judge normally handles these little things pretty quickly. But he took an arraignment case of a couple of Illegal Aliens that were caught drinking and driving. But they have some high-priced lawyer representing them, and he's fighting every procedural step of the way."

"Tell you what." Cindy said. "There's something I want to show Don, and I can take him now while you wait. Call me on the cellphone when you're done."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We'd driven around to a road that led to a field. Railroad tracks ran north-south along the edge of it, and on the other side was another stretch of grassy field. On the other side of that field were the backs of houses of a subdivision. Our car was semi-hidden from those houses because the ground fell away from the railroad tracks to a farm drainage ditch that ran alongside the tracks. Cindy pointed out the house that was a bit larger, of newer construction.

"That's the house that was built on the spot where Teresa's burned out house was." Cindy explained. "And it's where I saw that woman that gave me that vibe. Maybe she'll show up in the backyard and you can see her."

I took out my binoculars and examined the house, seeing no movement. "Well, it's not like we don't have time to sit and wait, at least for a while."

"You got that right." Cindy said. "Once Teresa's father's funeral was over, this has been one of the most boring weekends I have ever experienced. This town really is dead. So, what can you tell me about Apple Grove."

"Not much, at least not yet." I said. "I'll be sure to include you in my meetings with the FBI guys when we get back. But my mother was right in asking me to go up and investigate."

"Oh, look, there's that woman." Cindy said.

A very pretty black-haired woman had come out onto the back porch/deck of her house. She was about my age, early 30s. As she cleaned up some children's toys on the deck, I took a closer look through my binoculars.

"Ohhhh, shiiii-iiiit." I moaned.

"What?" Cindy asked.

"Come on." I said. "I'll tell you in the car. We have to get out of here, now."

"Don, what the hell?"

"Just come on!" I almost roared. "Stop arguing or asking questions and get a fucking move on!" Cindy was shocked by my attitude, and I quite frankly was tired of her questioning things instead of obeying orders. I hustled her to the car. We moved out smartly and swiftly.

"What the hell, Don?" Cindy said. "Are you going to keep this from me, too?"

"Cindy..." I said, then breathed hard, calming myself. "Sometimes, Cindy, you need to just shut up and ask questions later, and this is one of them. What I'll tell you now is that you may have stumbled onto a Witness Protection situation. I'm not at liberty to say more, even if I wanted to, so don't ask... I'll tell you if and when I'm allowed to."

Cindy was not mollified, but some sixth sense must've told her that now was not the time and here was not the place. We drove in silence back to the Courthouse.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was 10:30am, and Teresa and her lawyer's case had still not been called. Teresa stepped out into the hall with us again.

"Sorry about this, guys." she said. "This is the same arraignment that has been going on all morning. The judge is being patient, but the lawyer for these guys refuses to waive the preliminary hearing, and has objected to turning these guys over to I.C.E. for deportation. So now the prosecutor has to lay out her case just to get to go to a Grand Jury."

"Let's go inside and watch." I said. We stepped back inside, where I nodded to the deputies in back and showed them my badge so that I could keep my gun while in the Courtroom. We listened for a few minutes as I made some observations. About ten minutes later, Cindy and I came back outside with Teresa.

"That lawyer," I said, "what firm is he with?"

"The local office of Gresham & Mason, P.C." Teresa said. "They've got a number of offices around the country, including our County and this one."

"Well I'll be damned..." I said. "Ask your lawyer if there is any way possible to squeeze your hearing in. I really need to get back home."

Teresa went in and asked the lawyer. He passed a note to the Bailiff, but the hearing continued.

Meanwhile, I found a seat in the hallway and used my personal iPhone's internet app to look up Gresham & Mason, the well-connected, politically powerful lawyers that had shown up very often in my cases. And I saw what I wanted to see... where their offices were.

"Apple Grove..." I murmured, seeing my hometown listed on their webpage.

"You must be the Iron Crowbar." said an old man that had walked up to me. My head flung up to see who it was.

"I... yes, and you are?" I asked.

"I was an Army buddy of your colleague's father." the man said. "I told her at the rest home about her father being in the military. I was surprised she didn't know, but she contacted the Army and they had a very nice funeral for him. Well deserved, too. Very well deserved."

"I appreciate you telling her." I said. "So what can I do for you, Misterrrr..."

"Oh, my name is not important to a man of your stature." the old man said, then looked at the door next to us. "Ah, I need to use the restroom here. One moment, if you please." He deftly stepped into the men's room that was just a few feet from my seat.

I felt something strange within my being. I got up and went into the restroom after the man... and felt even more perplexed. There were no other exits from the bathroom, no windows, no crawl spaces or doors in the walls or plaster roof. But the man was gone. There was no one besides me in that room...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I hardly had time to contemplate the disappearance of the old man, or even if he'd just been a 'dream within a dream', when my Police cellphone rang. To my surprise, it was Lt. Leanne Wisocky of the Apple Grove Police.

"Hey, are you still in the area?" she asked.

"No." I said. "We had to come home. Why?"

"Our receptionist at the front desk, the woman that gave you your cellphone when you left it on the desk... she didn't come in to work today. We went by her apartment, and it's empty. Her clothes are all gone, as is her car."

"Think something happened to her?" I asked.

"We don't know." Leanne said. "No dead bodies have turned up. She was always such a happy, bright person, seemed to love life. It's strange she'd just disappear without so much as calling in and letting us know if she was going somewhere. We just wondered if you had any ideas about it."

"No, nothing at all." I said. "If you know of any good friends or relatives, you might contact them to see if she's visiting them. Listen, I need to go. If she doesn't turn up in a couple of days, let me know and I'll make some contacts with the FBI and see if they can find something."

"Yes, you do seem to know the FBI guys really well." Leanne said. "Okay, so long. It was good seeing you again."

"You too... but it's too bad we didn't get to hook up again." I said, and I could feel her grin through the phone.

"We'll always have good memories of the past, Don," she said, "but I'm married and up here, and you have your life down there. The memories will have to do ya."

"Yep." I said. "Take care of yourself." With that, I hung up. I'd ascertain the status of that receptionist for my own curiosity, then let it go. I suspected she would never be seen alive in Apple Grove again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Okay, let's have an hour recess for lunch." said the judge. He perused the notes the Bailiff handed him. "Oh, yes, that will probation. I'll go ahead and squeeze that in now." The bailiff called Teresa's father's case up. The lawyer presented the forms, explained the intestate situation, and presented Teresa's claim.

"Yes, the petition is granted." the judge said. "Bailiff, have the Clerk give Ms. Croyle the documents needed to go ahead and take the contents of the safe deposit box, so she can get home while all this is processed."

"Thank you, Your Honor." said the lawyer. He scooted out of there, followed by Teresa. It took another 45 minutes, but she got the paperwork to go to the bank. Cindy and I took her there, where the bank president cornered me for the story of The Silverfish while Teresa took possession of her father's last remaining possessions on the face of the earth.

To be continued.

So, dear readers, what is going on? And who is the woman that gave Cindy the vibe? And who is the receptionist, and what happened to her? Clues have been given, in this and other past stories! And all answers... well, some of them... will be given in the next chapter!