Penny's Pass the Story - Part 10

 

Jenny Padget grabbed her handbag and car keys, ‘Oliver, they’ll be coming for us next, we need to get the hell out of here, now!’ Hyperventilating she grabbed his arm, her block heels clattering on the floor and they fled.

 

Marindina took a deep breath. It was fortunate that he had recently applied a copious dollop of hand cream and his ultra disciplined approach to fitness meant that he was confident in his ability to break out of Oliver’s hastily fastened zip ties.

 

He slowly wriggled his hands free and took a few moments to assess the situation. It was true, he had no allies, nobody he could trust, not really and he smelt a rat. Instinctively he called his mother.

 

‘Mama?’

 

‘What, what is it Jake? Has something happened to you at work?’

 

‘Something’s wrong. I mean, I’m okay but I have this terrible feeling in my gut that something is rotten.’

 

‘Well, tell your superior, the sheriff. He’s supposed to support you.’

 

‘That’s the thing, I can’t. I think it’s him, not only him, Mama. This thing goes all the way to the top.’

 

‘Then you must go higher, go to The Lord. Ask him and he will help you.’

 

Marindina got into his vehicle feeling hopeless. He thought about calling Polanski but there was something about him too, something a bit too perfect about his features. It was almost as if he had been created in a laboratory.

 

Following his mother’s advice, he put his hands together and said a brief prayer. For some reason he imagined himself inside Amos Snodgrass’s lounge. There was only one thing for it, he made a hasty exit, speeding towards the old guy’s home and parting the crime scene tape. With Sheriff Milton out of the way, he was free to carry out a thorough assessment without interruption.

 

There was a strange smell about the place and it wasn’t blood, something else, like a spice but not one you would eat, perhaps something you would put into a perfume. He sat down in the recliner, the open cracks in the leather nipped at the skin on his wrists. Feeling that the chair might consume him, he stood up and sauntered over to a small bureau in the corner and opened the little drawer. It stuck halfway out and he had to yank it up and down, dislodging an old diary dated 1983.

 

He picked it up and flicked through. A photo fell out. It was an image of some astronauts, clutching their helmets and smiling. Marandina held it closer. The young man in the centre of the picture was handsome but hang on, could it be? ‘No!’ 

 

It was though, it was Amos, a young Amos looking bright, healthy and sane, the Roman nose, the dark eyes, a far cry from the scruffy old fellow who hung around the school. 

 

Just then, there was a sound at the front door, a slovenly shuffle. ‘Damn, Milton,’ Marindina whispered. He swiftly grabbed the diary and shoved it down the back of his trousers.

 

Gideon Milton froze and chuckled as he set eyes on his junior colleague. ‘I saw the car. What ya doin?’ he said.

 

‘I was just passing and I thought I’d stop by, take in the scene, one more time,’ Marindina was guarded and loathed to tell all about being tied up and how Jenny and Oliver had absconded.

 

It was clear his boss was in a funny mood and it made him uneasy. ‘What a coincidence,’ said Milton, fixing Marindina with a glaze, ‘me too. I’m looking for something, see, something…I desire.’

 

Marindina frowned and looked away. ‘The truth Boss?’

 

‘No, not today. I want to improve my lot. I’m sick of women and felons and…’ he grabbed at the thick layer of fat on his belly and said, ‘doughnuts. Can you help me, Buddy, maybe you could help me out of this?’

 

‘Out of what Sir?’

 

‘This…game or whatever it is. I’m just so greedy, I want everything but none of it makes me happy, I’m always on to the next thing. Please, you could change me, you’re different. You’re the best deputy I’ve ever had.’

 

‘No,’ Marindina shook his head, ‘not today. I need to go.’ He was frightened now. A part of him was annoyed too, he felt there was more to this crime scene and that Milton had come for something specific nevertheless he had the diary now and he was keen to study it in private. ‘I’ll catch up with you later, Sheriff, back at the station. I’ll get you a coffee or a green tea and something else, something healthy, a blueberry muffin maybe.’

 

He got back in the vehicle and drove a few miles down the road to a parking lot, took out the diary and studied it. There were some pencil drawings of strange men with oversized heads and a few of Jenny, photos too, Jenny in swimwear, in a nurse's uniform, and leaning back on a swing, naked except for a couple of pineapple rings resting like halos, framing her nipples. 

 

He flicked the pages and there was something else tucked inside, a hand-drawn map. It was local, of the woods adjacent to Hawthorne Elementary; an X marked the spot, somewhere near a lake and a cluster of Hawthorn trees. 

 

Wasting no time, he drove over there, parking a few blocks away to avoid being followed by Milton and running like a Power Ranger towards the woods. He’d never been to those woods before. All was quiet except for the birds. The X on the map led him to a half submerged building resembling a mausoleum. 

 

He pushed the door gently and entered. Inside were voices, men’s voices, a Scottish accent. 

 

‘Is someone there?’

 

Marindina held up his badge and strode deeper into the building. ‘I’m the deputy of this town,’ he said but instantly he felt weak, as if all the power had drained from him.

 

The man with the Scottish accent laughed, ‘Oh Marindina, come on in. We’ve been expecting you.’

 

There was a table, piled high with bank notes and something else, a sort of dark brown, gnarly matter and it smelled familiar. It took him a few seconds to place it and then he realised it was the same spicy smell from Amos’s place.

 

‘I’m so confused.’

 

‘I know, you must be, it’s understandable Pal. Have a seat, it’s a wee bit cold down here in the burrow, the hub as we call it. I’m Sel by the way, Sel Tickman and this is my friend, Jack, Jack Seville.’

 

‘Your name is familiar, were you ever in the…’

 

‘The Police? Yes I did a stint there once, not that I was into law and order,  it was simply about infiltration.’

 

‘It’s always about infiltration,’ said Jack.

 

Marindina felt his guts drop and tightened his super fit buttocks to avoid anything escaping as a result of the extreme stress he was under. He didn’t know what was going on but there was no point radioing for help, no point messing about with this lot and he wasn’t sure he’d ever see Marcie or his mother again.

 

‘I know where you’ve been,’ said Sel, ‘and what led you to come here. Do you have any questions?’

 

Jake Marindina rubbed his hands on his thighs and inhaled sharply. ‘Did Amos Snodgrass really go to space?’

 

The two men eyed each other, ‘He’s good,’ said Jack, ‘better than Sheriff Milton.’

 

‘I’ve always thought I was better than him.’

 

‘He’s nothing, not even human,’ said Sel.

 

Marindina’s hands went up to his face protectively. ‘What do you mean?’

 

‘He’s an alien, a wee green man. We gave him the worst of human traits, to blend in as it were. Why do you think his head keeps on growing, his skin can’t even keep up. Most of the police are simply alien drones sent in by the higher powers, the politicians too.’

 

‘I knew it!’ Marindina’s mouth dropped open, he scratched his head. ‘I mean I knew something was off, in the police. I felt it in my gut.’

 

Sel grinned and for a split second his pupils seemed to narrow like a cat or a lizard. ‘Ah gut feeling, that’s because you’re a human. You won’t get far in the force because you can’t be manipulated, you won’t play the game.’

 

Marindina stretched out his hand across the table and fondled some of the gnarly matter, lifting it up to his nose and inhaling it.

 

‘Be careful with that,’ said Jack Seville, ‘you’re not used to it.’

 

‘What is it?’

 

‘It’s Black Rot.’

 

‘A drug?’

 

‘More than a drug,’ said Sel, rubbing it on his face so that black dots clung like freckles on his nose. Those botanists died because they were asked to analyse it and they knew too much.’

 

‘Where is it from?’

 

‘Space. Amos Snodgrass and the other guys on the secret space mission, they brought it back, along with what they saw up there,’ Sel leant across the table and once again, his eyes changed, the pupils narrowing to black slits, ‘trauma.’

 

‘I just,’ said Marindina shaking his head in dismay, ‘I just can’t imagine Amos up in space.’

 

‘Amos was a unique guy, an artist, an engineer, he could charm the birds out of the sky when he was younger. All those astronauts we picked changed after the space mission. It was an experiment of sorts, to get some humans on our side but it failed. We either had to kill them off or pay them off.’

 

‘With fake money?’

 

‘It didn’t matter. They were never going to spend it, they were defunct. Amos became a pathetic creature, a shadow of the man he was. He couldn’t talk about what he’d seen, there are no words for it, see.’

 

‘But he had some…what’s it called again, Black Rot?’

 

‘Yes, we let him keep some. God knows what he did with it.’

 

‘He used it as fertiliser on those blueberries he grew in the garden,’ said Jack with a laugh, ‘and that old crone Kat Gable ate them and became a secondary drug addict. Do you know Kat Gable?’

 

Marindina pictured the rooster-like woman on her porch and shuddered. He needed to get out of there but he didn’t even know whether these men, if that was what they were, would let him leave. There was one more thing bothering him. ‘And the Pargets, Jenny, Oliver?’

 

Jack laughed. ‘Jenny was sent to fill Amos’s imagination with endless reels of her breasts, playing on a loop to distract him. She’d do anything for my wingman, Pavel. Those families, messed up and open to corruption, there’s one in every town, every village, every street, Gristleton, Cocksville Dean, Gulltown, Albert Square, Downing Street, Mornington Heights, Doone Valley. 

 

‘There’s a lot in The Gornals, Jack.’

 

‘I need to go home now,’ Marandina slapped his hands on his thighs and pulled a half smile.

 

The two men looked at each other. ‘There’s no point, Pal’ said Sel in his best Glaswegian accent, ‘no point in speaking. You know that, you’re an intelligent guy, too intelligent for the police. You’ll get nowhere.’

 

‘It goes all the way to the top,’ said Jack.

 

‘The president?’

 

The two men laughed. ‘He’s a plant, try the first lady, give her a closer look, and the rest are hidden, in the background, across the globe and beyond.’ Sel pointed up to the sky. ‘You’re a sensible guy. Walk out of here, go back to the station with that blueberry muffin for Sheriff Milton. He needs to keep eating to keep his head in proportion but one day it will topple him. Go back to your wife and kids, if you have any..’

 

Marindina suddenly remembered that Marcie had been drinking pickle juice recently. Maybe she was with child. He got up, left quietly. As he walked through the woods, he wondered about becoming a teacher.