F
U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The
3rd Novel )
Secret Technology,
Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance
©
March 2018 Written by David Wicker
Please do
not reprint without permission
 CHAPTER 46 -
"Scant Is Arrested"
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This chapter is Rated: TEEN
While Tyr and Lilly had a nice evening meal and Stefani slept in rough quarters, Dev's parents were more than panicked to find the entire Merriwether household and house completely empty by morning ! There were no vehicles anywhere !
Where was their son, Dev who attended the party here just the other evening ?
Once again, they called the police. This time, however, they got someone besides Dempsey and his sidekick as they were immediately called back to Arkos since the leader of the underground institute was murdered and their services were needed there.
The two officers that did arrive were no-nonsense and honest. They wrote down all the notes they could about the last place Dev was seen, and with the help of detectives, pried open the door at the Merriwether's to see what was going on. The time was then 8:30am.
As suspected, there was no-one to be found, except for a teenage girl with her head slumped in the toilet. At first the police thought she was sick and drunk and passed out in the bowl, but closer inspection revealed she was dead !
An ambulance was then called in and they determined that the young woman had been drowned, right in the toilet. One of the detectives tapped his chin thoughtfully. He stated he knew a serial killer who used this method. Her name was Stefani Charteiris. A dangerous and murderous psychopath woman who vanished from a maximum security mental ward some years ago.
Apparently she was on the prowl again.
They also took pictures on the massive amount of masking tape stuck to the fixtures, a clear sign someone was being held in the toilet against their will. But was it the dead girl ? No, they checked her wrists and there were no signs of any tape on them.
But strangely also no other person was found on the premises, not even the owners. If Dev's parents were correct, where on Earth did the hosts of the massive overnight party go ?
One of the detectives went outside and investigated. He came back a short while later and explained that from the tire marks, all the guests did indeed drive away, not really in a hurry, but that the party was shut down early as, at least according to Dev's parents, they were going to party till 9am.
They were just getting ready to leave when someone was approaching the front door !
The police took positions behind the furniture with their guns drawn. It could be the woman that murdered the young girl in the bathroom !
But no, it was a teenager, a man, rather large for his size and the moment he stepped in, handcuffs were clapped on him. Then two of the officers identified themselves. One was John Carthey, the other was Marie Stenton.
The handcuffed stranger was then directed to sit on the couch to explain everything that happened. He said that he was Theodore (Scant) Merriwether, that the family had moved to a hotel in case the murderer returned.
He told the names of the people that arrived who claimed they were from the cable company and he described them.
"Dempsey ? Are you sure ?" officer John asked him.
Scant nodded. "Yeah, really big and muscular guy. Meaty beard, best way to describe him. And the woman was Stefani. She was really pretty but in a hard and sorta s****y way."
"Thought so." said one of the detectives who was still writing down notes in his investigative journal.
"What were they after ? Surely they didn't just come in and kill the woman in the bathroom without a reason. What about the masking tape we found on both sides of the toilet. Can you explain that ?"
Scant shook his head and lowered it to his lap but didn't say anything.
Then Marie came close. She jerked his head up to face her and yelled, "Look here, party boy, you're already in a lot of trouble for leaving the scene of a crime, capital murder at that ! We're talking some serious jail time ! If you don't come clean on what you know we'll be more than happy to drag you down to the station, lock you up and throw away the key !"
Scant's eye bulged in fear, "You can't do that !"
She narrowed her eyes at him, "Try me."
John held up a hand and silently relayed. That's enough. Let him speak.
Then he spoke to Scant, "Okay, relax for a moment, Theodore. Now think. You were telling us about the masking tape. Why is it there ?"
Scant realized there was no way out of this and sighed. "Look, it's just a game we do every year. We take some pleeb and - "
"Some what ?"
"Pleeb. Just a younger kid. Usually a grade-A nerd."
"I see ... Was it Dev you did this to ?"
Scant lowered his head. He was quiet for a long moment before he finally spoke, "Yeah. It was him."
John smiled. This started to explain things. "Alright. We're making progress now, Theodore. The woman in the toilet. Do you know her ?"
"That's Katrina. She was just a friend of the family, that's all."
"Fine. Do you know where Dev is now ?"
Scant raised his head up and faced the officer. "Now I'm being totally truthful. I don't know. He apparently got away from us. I think Katrina tried to help him earlier."
"Dev is not home now." John relayed. "In fact, his folks are terribly worried about him. Do you know any other place he might go to where he thinks he would be safe ?"
Scant nodded, "Yeah. Lilly, one of his friends was here too. She doesn't live far away." He didn't tell the police about drugging her. "Did you check over there ?"
"Do you know her address ?"
* * *
Scant shook his head. "Naaw, but I know she's not far from here. I know that."
"That's fine. Now back to the party. After Stefani murdered the girl. What happened then ?"
"They left. This Stefani really wanted to find Dev though, I could see that. She was awful creepy on this point. Once they were gone, we panicked. We told everyone that there was an accident and someone got really hurt, they had to all go home. They did."
"What time was this ?"
"About 3 in the morning."
"Continue."
"Well, once they were all gone, like I said, we panicked. I called my folks up and told them what happened. They came by, picked us up, and we're now staying at a hotel. My folks said they'd call the police the moment we arrived. You - uh - didn't hear from them yet ?"
"No, we didn't."
"Well I'm sure they called." Scant said defensively. "My parents aren't liars."
One of the detectives whispered, "Dempsey was operating the phone at that time."
John continued, "Yes. You mentioned Dempsey was here."
"Yeah."
"He's one of our officers we think is on the take. We haven't found anything solid yet, but if he was there during the murder, that definitely makes him an accomplice to Stefani. I think we have everything we need here."
"Am I under arrest ?" Scant asked.
John sighed. "Stay here and let me find out." He got up to talk quietly to everyone there. The medical team came in with a folding gurney to take away the body of the young woman. Scant seemed to be neglected. Nearly a half hour later the policeman went back to Scant.
"You realize the hazing you did to that boy in the bathroom was criminal. If he or his folks ever come forward on it, they could definitely have you and likely your whole family arrested for this."
Scant lowered his head and shook it gently. He understood.
He then removed Scant's handcuffs. "Alright Theodore. We're releasing you for now. Don't skip town. Go back and tell your folks what happened here. We may want to question each of them in turn so get your story straight. Right now our priority is to find Dev Borne. You said he could be at a friend's house, Lilly's. We'll check that out. Now get going."
With the handcuffs off, Scant couldn't move fast enough to the door and leave. He took off in his vehicle.
Outside, the detectives and police talked a little more. They brought up a computer map from the police car and saw where Lilly was living.
"Okay, let's check this out." They locked up the house and the two officers left. The two detectives also followed after them, and the ambulance went in the opposite direction towards a local hospital.
Back at Lilly's, Tyr called up her own Mother and said she was alright and wanted to sleepover at Lilly's. She didn't go in great detail about Arkos but that she did manage to escape with the help of Dev.
Naturally Tyr's Mom, Annie, called up the police to say that her daughter was found. This was relayed to the team already driving over and they were prepared to now talk to both young girls. Annie drove as quickly as she could to Lilly's. Once there she quickly talked to her daughter on what happened.
Then both Annie and Coraline, Lilly's Mother, talked in the kitchen about this horrible kidnapping business and what they could do in the future to prevent against it.
Many minutes later, the police arrived. A half a dozen cups of tea strewn out to the police and detectives later, they addressed the two young girls.
"We need to talk to each of you in turn, not together. One of you can go read a magazine or watch TV. We'll call you when we're ready."
Both girls nodded.
"You. You are Lilly Veneir ? Let's start with you first."
Lilly relayed how she went originally to the party with Dev and it was supposed to be his Birthday, but then later she saw Dev being dragged on the ground towards the bathroom. He was sleeping or unconscious or something.
She said she was yelling at the top of her lungs when two other guys dragged her into this type of "panic room" where she was drugged to keep quiet and watched "Polly Rocket" episodes all through the night.
She managed to escape and went home and then went into the basement to think.
"Just think. Think about what ?" Officer John asked.
"Stuff. You know ? Nothing serious."
"Fine. Then what happened."
"Dev and Tyr came by."
"So Dev was here after all. Where is he now ?"
"This strange woman came by and took him."
"Took him where ?"
"A carnival I think."
"You weren't invited yourself ?"
"Yeah, but I didn't like the way she looked so I decided against it. Pretty sure Tyr didn't want to go with her either."
"Was the woman Stefani ? Do you know who I'm talking about ?"
"Yeah, that high-class w***e I met earlier. No, it wasn't her."
Officer John quickly wrote down some notes in his pad. Lilly was sure keeping her answers short. "Anything else you'd like to add ?"
"Nope."
One of the detectives came forward and whispered in John's ear, "This story she is giving is too ambiguous. I think we'll get a much better picture from the other girl."
John closed his pad. "Okay, that's it for now, Lilly. Thank you. We may need to talk to you again. Go to where Tyr is. Swap places with her so we can talk to her now and corroborate what we have here. No cross-conversation between the two of you. Do it quickly."
Lilly nodded, got up and went to the other room where Tyr was. Tyr then entered the circle of detectives and policeman.
John started immediately, "Tyr, you were kidnapped a few days ago, correct ?"
"Yep." she said with a smile.
"Can you tell us about it and how you managed to escape ?"
END OF
CHAPTER 46
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