Chapter 12

Chapter XII

Kurtis and Spacer were once again led to the computer room where the three treadmills stood.

“You don’t use this one?” Kurtis asked, examining a treadmill.

“That’s Al’s; it doesn’t have back-up power yet.  I assume he’ll come get it one of these days,” Pete replied.

Ruby saw in Kurtis’s expression, he wanted a ride.  Seeing it could anyone resist, she thought.

“The reason we’re back is to be sure you’re safe here.  The murdered man was watching your place.  We don’t know why, but if someone didn’t want him around…” Kurtis was interrupted.

Ruby interrupted him: “Oh my God!  If they were watching Sunday they may have seen Al.”

“Al wouldn’t kill anyone to keep his return secret,” Pete said.

“What if someone didn’t want anyone to know they knew?” Ruby thought aloud.

“We better put someone on the Johnson place, too,” Spacer said, taking out his cell.

“Too?” Pete asked.

“We came to tell you we’re watching your place,” Kurtis said. “If someone gets by us, scream real loud.”

“I hope you’re joking about the screaming,” Ruby said.

“You’ll find one, if you need it.”  Spacer assured her, knowing her screams were inhibited.

“It’s all right; I can scream,” Pete said, looking at Spacer, to remind him of their ride on the treadmill.

Spacer winced.

          “The murderer has to be part of the company,” Kurtis said. “They knew enough to turn off the power to trap Johnson.  Who would know that?”

Kurtis had moved to Pete’s treadmill and was examining it tenderly.

After a pause in which everyone looked to the others one at a time, Ruby said, “No one knew.”

They all looked at her.

“Pete and I were the only ones who knew until a few weeks ago.”

“Right,” Pete said.  “They didn’t know until we met for real.  Wilson never knew Al was in the computer.  We only shared that with Wells.”

“Why Wells?  A, a Maxwell?” Spacer asked.

“He knows computers and he wasn’t around when it happened,” Pete said.  “We thought it was on purpose, but it couldn’t have been.”

“If no one tried to kill Johnson, why kill Styles?” Spacer asked.

“Could it be unrelated?” Kurtis said, while checking out the treadmill monitor.

“Did Al tell you who Ms Styles was seeing?” Ruby asked.

“What makes you think she was seeing someone?” Spacer asked.

“A working girl turns away a nice looking, wealthy man like Al, away she must have some option that is holding her.”

“We’ll look into it,” Spacer said, “What makes you think she turned him way?”

Ruby shrugged.  Why wouldn’t Al tell them?

Kurtis caught the look.  “We didn’t ask the right question,” he said, still petting the treadmill.  “Is it really the two of you, or is something in here that makes the cyberspace thing work?” Kurtis asked.

After a pause Ruby said, “It may be just Pete.  I’ve never gone without him.”

“When I went without you I just saw myself on the monitor, except when someone was on your treadmill,” Pete said.

Kurtis’s eyes met Ruby’s and brightened with a, we-should-try expression that was so obvious Pete noticed.  Pete turned to Ruby.

“We could do trail one.  Nothing happens there and it’s quick,” Ruby said.

Kurtis looked eagerly to Pete for an answer.

Pete gave a heavy sigh, then said, “You stop and loose my Rumble and I’ll leave you there.”

Pete set up both treadmills and stepped back.  He and Spacer stared as their partners disappeared.

“Jesus, I’ve never seen that before,” Pete said, “I hope he’s more dependable than you are.”

“I really apologize.  I come on a crime scene and I… I never realized how centered I was,” Spacer said.

“I never realized how chicken I was.  I couldn’t come back while you were there, and I couldn’t go forward without you.” Pete checked his watch.

“Kurtis won’t give her a problem.  He’s the nervous type.”

Fifteen minutes later Kurtis and Ruby faded back into the room.

Leaving Pete’s and Ruby’s home, Spacer and Kurtis checked to be sure the stake out was in place before going back to the station to sign-out, after their long day.

“Nice lady,” Kurtis said of Ruby, “Reads people, too.”

“Didn’t take much to read you; way you were petting that treadmill I expected you to pull out a lump of sugar and say, ‘nice horsie.’  Hope you enjoyed the ride.”

“More than you enjoyed yours.”

“Oh, I scraped a sample of blood from the car on the treadmill trail.  I want to run it by the lab and see if it matches what we got from the scene.”

“You got blood from the treadmill?”

“I told you the car was parked in front of the house on the trail too,” Spacer said. 

Kurtis just stared in disbelief.

“Oh, I talked to Ralph.  We have to talk to Porter.  He saw Dieter last,” Spacer said.

Ralph hung up his phone and checked his watch.  He got in his car and drove to Christina’s house.  Christina was a policewoman.  She worked the graveyard shift.  Both, she and Dieter, liked late night work. 

When she answered her door at ten-thirty in the evening, she was surprised to see Ralph standing there.  He always called before he went to her home.

“You alone?” Ralph asked.

“Yes.  Why?” She let him in. 

In the lighted room Christina saw the despair on Ralph’s face.

“No!” she whispered.

“I’m so sorry, Christina – I had no thought there was a danger there.  We were just watching a couple of young people … It was boring work.”

“What happened?”

“The police called and told me.  I’m going to see them in the morning.  They’re going to talk to Porter tonight.  He was last to see Dieter…He was in the Jetta.  Just sitting there and someone shot him.” Ralph’s voice cracked.

Hearing his pain Christina yielded to her tears.  Ralph took her in his arms and they cried together in an uncustomary display of emotion on both sides.

The phone rang and Pete was right there to answer it.  He expected The Police to call Al and figured Al would call them.  He was right.

“Pete, are you and Ruby okay?  Spacer says they found another body on the treadmill,” Al said, as soon as he heard a voice on the other end.

“He found it on the treadmill, and get this, he takes out his cell and calls his partner, to tell him to find the body in the car in front of the house,” Pete replied; he then asked, “Al, did you do anything to the tread between Ralph and Porter riding it and getting it installed in our place?”

“I thought we might add more trails so I added a branch to work from.  It’s just on our treadmills.  The ones for the contests and mine.”

“That’s all?  Didn’t add a six, six, six to anything?”

After a pause that was too long, Al asked, “Why would you say that?”

“I was joking.  Seems like anything violent happens, near by, it ends up on the trail.”

“I wish you hadn’t said that.  The addition was sixth level, sixth command, six digits,” Al was whispering toward the end, then said, “I laughed when I wrote it.  God, I hope I didn’t open any gates.”

Pete laughed, “I’m sure it’s nothing.  I was just pulling you chain.”

“You flushed it.  Well, I just wanted to be sure you were okay, I’ll let you go.” Al had things to consider.

When Pete hung up Ruby asked him, “What was that about the sixes.”

“Six, six, six the number of the beast – The devil’s number.”

1226