Chapter 13 - Mack Jester

“We’re doing this for her and that’s the way it’s going to be,” I declared.

Jester finished off his second cup of coffee. “Look, we can sit here all day and tell each other our secrets or hit the road!’

I agreed as was done with his breakfast. I waved my finger between Kate and I. “We can check out and hit the road. You, Mr. Jester, I have no idea what you’re going to do.” I slid my plate forward and took a drink of orange juice.

Kate leaned forward and nodded at me. “I have an idea, Sam. Mr. Jester, I have a proposal for you. You can help us find out more about our killers by going to the different post offices here in Little Rock and ask questions about them, particularly a postcard they sent us from Little Rock. Surely some postal clerk knows something. We’ll give you their pictures to show around. You can call and tell us what you find out while we’re on our way to our next destination.”

“That’s the deal, Jester. Take it or leave it,” I said. I was fully prepared to walk away from the table and go check out.

Jester leaned back and thought for a moment. He looked my way and took another sip of coffee. “You have a deal, Detective Barker. I’ll do that and let you know what I find. What choice do I have?”

“Good choice, Mr. Jester. In return, we share our collective information. We’re traveling west on I-40 to Oklahoma City, then to whatever city is next,” Kate said.

“Amarillo, Texas,” I said. I wrote my cell phone number on the back of my card and handed it to Jester. I then reached into my briefcase and got a copy of our suspects’ pictures.

“So long as we have a deal here, we can head to OK City earlier than I thought. We received a postcard from there on Wednesday, telling us to finish the game on the road.”

“Sounds about right. They’re planning something, Mr. Riley. Be ready for anything.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out $700 and gave it to Jester. That should cover your expenses for your work. “Now here’s my proposal, Mr. Jester. Assuming you’re correct about everything you’ve told us here this morning, assuming-of course,” I said, pointing to Jester. “I think it’s a good idea for us to work together. You seem to know them just as much as we do. You follow us out west, stay a few hours behind to avoid suspicion. Do what you do best-linger and loiter. We’ll need you in some form or another the closer we get. We’ll cover your expenses, don’t worry.”

“I’d be happy to work together, Mr. Riley. It’s a done deal.” I shook his hand and we had a deal.

“Good. You call us when you know something.”

Jester shook his head.

“Well, we’re off to OK City. Shall we, Kate?” I patted Jester’s shoulders. “We’ll see you in OK City.”

Kate and I then left the table to go check out at the front counter. Kate walked over to the fountain as I checked out.

“Morning, I’m checking out of room 710,” I said, handing over the keys.

“Did you enjoy your stay at the Doubletree Hotel?” asked Anthony, the front desk clerk.

“I slept great, believe it or not. Say Anthony, this might be a weird question but have you been told of any strange or weird things happening in room 710?”

“No Sir, Mr. Riley. We haven’t had any complaints of things bumping in the night—well not paranormal at least. Other adult activities, three to four times a week upstairs. Yeah!” Anthony said.

“I appreciate your honesty. Good to know.” I responded.

“Did something strange happen in room 710 last night?”

“Well we thought we heard the bathroom door shut by itself and lights flickering on and off. My wife said she saw the chair being dragged across the floor towards the bed. I’m not complaining or anything. That stuff doesn’t bother me. It makes our stay much more interesting. It’s a beautiful place you have here. Very nice hotel. I’d definitely stay here again,” I said.

“Thank you, Sir. I’ll have maintenance check out room 707.” Anthony said. “Almost done.”

“Thanks so much. One more question, we’re going to Oklahoma City today. Do you know of any good hotels there?”

“Yes absolutely.” Anthony handed me a brochure of the hotel chains. “Any one of those hotels is top-notch. Great service. Great rooms.”

Kate quickly walked over to the counter and grabbed my arm.

“Thanks so mu—”

“We need to go now, Sam. Right now!!”

Kate pulled me away as I grabbed my receipt. “Bye, thank you,” she said to Anthony, as she and I power-walked away to the truck.

“What’s going on, Kate?” I asked, looking at her with curiosity.

“I’ll tell you later once we get going. It’s about last night. I think I know what happened.”

9:25 a.m.

Before leaving the hotel, I retrieved the recorder from my leather briefcase bag and set it in the drink holder. We traveled North on I-30 to I-40 West towards Fort Smith.

“Okay, Kate. What happened back at the hotel? I’ve never seen you that scared before?”

Kate sat quietly looking down at the floor and out the window. She didn’t look in my direction at all.

I focused on the road. I figured she was trying to make sense of what she saw, let alone if she should even tell me.

“You’re not going to believe this, Sam,” Kate said softly as she glanced over in my direction.

“What happened, Kate?” I offered my hand to help her with what she needed to tell me.

Kate took a deep breath and looked out the window. “I stood by the fountain in the lobby and looked down at the reflection in the water. Only it wasn’t me I was looking at. I saw the dark figure I saw last night by the table in our room. It was a woman I think. She had jet black hair and blood all over her face. She said something but I couldn’t hear what she said. That’s when I rushed over to you. It scared me when I saw her suddenly.”

“Really? That stuff usually happens to me. But I haven’t experienced anything since Wednesday. I believe you, don’t get me wrong but I don’t know what’s going on. Why are you suddenly seeing things and I’m not? I’d rather have them than you, Kate.

Kate looked flustered. “Thanks, Sam. I appreciate your support.”

“But at the same time, I don’t want you waking up in the middle of the night with a strange, scary person or dark shadowy figure staring right into your eyes. You don’t know what they want or how long they’ve been in your room, looking at you.” I said. “Wake up in the middle of the night with two red eyes staring at you from above the bed. No thank you! I don’t want that for you, Kate.”

“No, I don’t want that either but if I have to go through it, I’m glad I have you to help me through it. That’s a huge relief. I couldn’t do it without you, Sam.” She grabbed my right hand with her left hand over the middle console. I gently squeezed back.

“Do you feel like driving, Kate?”

“No. Not right now.”

“Okay. Well, do you mind listening to the recorder for a few hours or until we get across the state line?”

Kate nodded. “Sure. I can do that. My nerves are calm enough now without a Caribbean drink.”

I laughed. “I bet. I’ll call the Chief and let him know what’s going on. Tell him about our deal with Jester.”

“Okay, Sam. Tell him I said hello.” Kate pulled up enough strength to get herself in the mood. She was still rattled from the fountain reflection. She pushed play after putting the earphones in. The recorder ran for about five and a half hours the night before. Roughly the amount of time to OK City.

I dialed the Chief’s number.

“Hey Sam. What’s on the agenda today?”

“Well Chief, we’re on our way to Oklahoma City. Long stretch of highway to get there. I see why people fly.”

“Yeah, but that takes too much time in security and waiting on other people. Better to drive with your firearms and other things you can’t take on a plane.”

“Fair enough. Chief, do you know Mac Jester?”

Chief said the name sounded familiar but wasn’t too sure. “Who is he?”

“It’s Tidwell’s old partner when they were private investigators years ago. He somehow caught up with us in Little Rock at the hotel we stayed at. He left a note in my truck last night asking us to have breakfast with him this morning. I guess he knew it was my truck from seeing my license plate at Sanders’ funeral. That’s the only thing I can think of.”

“I had no idea Tidwell had a partner, let alone would have the fortitude to go after the killers. I assume that’s what he’s doing out there. Avenging Tidwell’s murder?”

“That’s pretty much our conversation over breakfast. He wanted us to go back home and let him bring in the killers himself but honestly Chief, he wasn’t in any shape to do so with all the cholesterol on his plate.”

Chief wasn’t surprised. “These PI’s think they’re the Captain America of law enforcement. What did you tell him?”

I informed the Chief of our proposal to work together and for him to follow the post office leads. “He’s supposed to call me later this afternoon. I told him to meet us in OK City.”

“That’s good, Sam. Give him something to do to help but keep him out of your way until you absolutely need him. He’s not a bad guy or out to stop you guys. He’s grieving more than anything. Keep that in mind.”

“I absolutely will. The least I can do is get him a hotel room tonight at the same hotel. He should get there while we’re out to dinner.”

“Sounds like a plan, Sam.”

“Thanks. Jester said he thought Riddle and Dockson were going out west to restart their cult again.”

Chief sighed on the other end. “Yeah, looks like it. They’re starting their cult huh? Well, that changes everything. They have no fear and nothing to lose. Understand that, Sam. You’re entering the lion’s den here. These cultists, you can’t reason with them or talk any sense into them. They’ll argue with a brick wall and walk away thinking they’re right. Be vigilant and watch out for each other, at all times. You don’t know how many there are or where they’re at. I wouldn’t put it past them to probably have a few spies watching you and following you. Be careful.”

“Absolutely, Chief. That’s a good insight. We’ll be careful.”

Chief asked how Kate was doing.

“She’s good. She’s writing out notes in her journal book thing. She said hello.” I didn’t want to tell the chief about the strange things happening to her last night and this morning. The last thing they needed was Chief being worried about Kate as much as I was about Kate.

“Good to know. Well, Sam, call me tomorrow and let me know. I’ve got some work to do here as well.”

I agreed and said goodbye. I would have to look up the cult later on when I wasn’t driving. Maybe call Savannah Rose and ask her to do some research about the cult? Or Lisa Wilkins and update her about their journey so far for her book? No sense in going into the lion’s den blind without warning and free of distractions. We stopped in Fort Smith for a quick lunch, got gas and continued on to OK City. Kate finished about two and a half hours of listening to the recorder and told me she didn’t hear anything. She continued after lunch.

About sixty miles from Oklahoma City, I got a call from Jester. “Mr. Jester, what’s the good word?”

“Hello Mr. Riley. I found the post office where Riddle sent the package. The mail clerk said she remembered seeing them there last week. She said they seemed all lovey dovey and happy together. I asked the Postmaster for a copy of their security footage and he said it would be a few days before they could send it to you in Bloomfield. I was also able to record the video on my cell phone that I can show you when I get to OK City in a few hours. I’m just over the Oklahoma line now,” Jester stated.

“That’s good work, Jester. I’m impressed. That will come in handy in our investigation,” I said. I looked at the brochure right quick. “Hey listen, we’re going to stay at The Grand Gardens Hotel tonight. We’ll get you a room there also. Just check in under your name. Meet me in the lobby around 10:00 tonight. We should be back from dinner by then.”

“I appreciate that very much. I’ll see you then, Mr. Riley.”

“Drive safe, Mr. Jester.” I hung up and focused on the road.

About 20 miles from OK City, Kate pushed rewind on the recorder. She listened closely as she held the plugs into her ears. She heard the closing of the bathroom door and the click of the lights turning on and off. She listened further and heard the table bump and the chair dragged across the floor to the bed. Kate nearly jumped in the backseat when she heard an ominous, raspy, creepy voice shout, “YOU TOOK MY CHAIR, KATE!!!” She gasped as she looked at me. “Whoa....that was freaky!!” She rewound the recorder a few seconds and played it for me.

I almost swerved into the left lane when I heard the screaming voice. “Holy shit, that gave me chills.”

“See! What did I tell you, Sam? I told you something happened last night.”

“Yeah it did. Are you sure you didn’t yell that out yourself? Talking in your sleep?”

Kate gave me a piercing, go-to-hell look. “No, Sam. I didn’t. Watch it!”

I smiled and laughed.

“You’ve made your point, Sam. I know you pretend to not believe me when you do, in fact.”

“Relax, I’m just giving you shit. What do you think that was?” I asked.

“I have no idea. Help me out here, Sam.”

I looked at Kate as my smile dropped into a serious look. “Kate, I can’t see or hear anything like I used to a few days ago. I would have said something if I did. I would have felt a spirit’s presence. I don’t know what’s going on. I think I may have lost my powers,” I said, in a calm manner.

“How do we go forward, Sam? I mean, I can certainly do without ghosts and scary spirits pulling their “boo” shit on me,” Kate stated.

“Well, Kate, since you asked,” I said as he pointed at her with his pinkie finger. “We go forward with you as the mayor of Ghostville.”

She thought for a moment. “I don’t want this, Sam. I’m not cut out for anything like that. That’s not me.”

“I don’t think that matters now, Kate,” I said. “It finds you, you don’t find it.”

“Well, I don’t want it.”

“No one ever does, Kate. It doesn’t care if you want it or not. It comes and stays.

“SHIT!!” Kate said as she looked out the window, defeated.

“What else is on the recorder?”

Kate put the earphones back in and tried to finish before we got to the hotel. She stared into the sunset as she pushed play. She heard the curtains being moved around, then heard papers shuffling on the table. The same ominous voice then said, “Celeste Morrison.” Kate put the recorder in the drink holder. “That last part was everything I heard last night before the recorder stopped. The curtains, papers shuffling and that same voice saying Celeste Morrison. We’ve heard that name twice now. Can’t be a coincidence, Sam.”

I watched the highway in rush hour traffic. “Her name again? Now we know Celeste Morrison is here with us. The question is, what does she want with us?”

“Great!! That’s all we need right now. Another goddamn ghost,” Kate said. She looked out the window and glanced down at the side mirror. She saw Celeste staring back at her, for a split second from the backseat. Kate quickly turned around but didn’t see anyone.

“What? What’s going on?” I asked quickly and sternly.

“I saw someone looking at me in my side mirror,” Kate said with frustration. Fuck! Now these things are following me. Why me? What did I do to deserve this? This has to be the universe’s way of messing with me.

I glanced in the backseat but also didn’t see anyone. “No one back there, Kate.” I thought I could escape it for a while but now she’s seeing things, I thought to myself as I passed a semi-truck. I’d rather have them back than have her go through one second of the things she’s going to encounter, even with or without a point to prove.