The full moon pierced the night sky over the bustling city. As Roger satisfied his hunger, others focused their attention on finding the truth to the plight of the split couple. Det. Cleveland was on his way toward the sleeping beauty at Southern General Hospital. His trip back was similar to his drive in the opposite direction. However, he had the answer to his original question; Jane Doe was Lois Belkin. While this information was enough to solve the original case, it only answered part of the Belkin question—half in fact. He knew the location of Ms. Belkin, but Mr. Belkin was out wandering in the city building a rap sheet.
The glowing red “Emergency” sign burned into Det. Cleveland’s eyes. He slowed to pull into the parking lot as he grabbed his cellular phone and dialed his protégé, Charlie, back at the fort.
He answered on the first ring as he kept the desk phone positioned between his keyboard and his late night snack, a double-decker Buddy Burger with extra pickles. He knew it was Det. Cleveland on the other line even before a spoken word. Charlie was a “fly on the wall” back at the station, something he had perfected, and he would use the “buzz” to enhance his research for Det. Cleveland.
“Yello?”
“Charlie, I know the identity of our Jane Doe. She is Lois Belkin from Dietrich Road. I need to ask a huge favor. Could you pull up any information on other family members of the Belkin’s in the area?” Det. Cleveland rambled.
“Okay, where’re you at, man?” Charlie replied, standing up.
“I’m at Southern General Hospital now. Get back to me Charlie as soon as you have any information.
Charlie sat down and leaned in to his desk.
“Okay, okay. No problem. Hey. You gotta get this Belkin before he causes any more trouble.”
Charlie heard Roger’s name mentioned at the dispatcher’s desk about two hours ago after a call-in over the businessman’s car debacle. Now that the patrolmen had returned from Roger’s home with a report to the captain, Roger’s name was moving up on the list of fugitive priorities.
Det. Cleveland paused, and then hung up the phone. He pulled his sedan into a spot marked “Police Parking Only.”
As Det. Cleveland slammed his car door, a smaller and more compact door slammed across the city. It was Carol, another interested party thrown into the middle of her sister’s case, but for her, she didn’t know the brunt of the situation. The door she slammed was to the microwave oven as she popped in a TV dinner to satisfy a late-night craving.
Carol gave up on her voyage into the city, which turned her date with a baked black bean burrito into jury-duty with a three-cheese ravioli dinner frozen for nearly a year in the back of her freezer. Her husband, Robert, had phoned her about an hour ago and told her about a last minute overnight business trip to his company’s sister office. She knew he probably had this planned for a while, and his decision to call her at the last minute was due to her unwillingness to let work overwhelm him. He stopped by to pick up an overnighter, which was suspiciously already packed, and gave her a kiss on his way out the door.
Her sole companion for the evening was her beagle, Lucy. The dog was often her only friend when Robert was away and her sister had plans. Lucy had a calm and docile temperament and never acted aggressively. After all, she was ten years old, which was nearly sixty in human years according to Carol’s resources. She fed Lucy as soon as she got home from her unsuccessful trip into the city and now the lazy dog was basking in the warmth of the living room, letting her stomach do its work.
The beeps of the machine filled the kitchen, and then the device lit up and cooked her frozen dinner with its microwave radiation. Carol walked over to her kitchen window and looked out at the gloomy night. Clouds began to move in and steal the stars away. They moved quickly as one particular star caught her eye, and then, in a blink, a cloud choked the light from the distant luminary. A sudden feeling of loneliness overwhelmed Carol. For a moment, her lungs failed to respond to her breathing. It was a subtle feeling, but it was enough for her to turn and clutch her chest. She looked at a picture next to a magnet from Clearwater Beach on the refrigerator. Even though she was across the kitchen, the figures in the fuzzy four by six inch image were vividly clear. They were her sister and brother-in-law, Lois and Roger.
“I should call Lois,” Carol told herself.
All was silent in the lifeless kitchen, save for the hum of the microwave. Carol walked over to the cordless phone and dialed Lois’ number.
A few miles away through the shadowy night, the Belkin home stood dark and unconscious. Inside the master bedroom, the faint smell of Det. Cleveland’s aftershave swirled in the open room, most noticeable in the attached bathroom. The moonlight shined through the bedroom’s window, not yet victim to the encroaching clouds. On the nightstand was the picture of Lois and Roger in front of the Hoover Dam. The light from the moon glimmered off the glossy photograph paper. In front of it, sat the bedroom phone, the same one Lois used when Carol had called the evening before. Tonight, however, was much different. Roger was not in the room putting the final additions on his suit. Lois was not in the bathroom making sure blush was symmetrical on both of her cheeks. Instead, a barren room echoed with the burst of the phone. As the rings went unanswered, the noise seemed to intensify.
On the other end, Carol repositioned the phone to her other ear. She was on the third ring and was hoping to hear a voice instead of her place in the phone system’s black hole. Carol anxiously anticipated a click followed by Roger apologizing for being in the shower or Lois huffing after being preoccupied by a late night treadmill jog. However, none of these projected scenarios occurred.
The fifth ring echoed into her ear, and then the wave changed to a click. Carol stood on her heels, and for a moment she expected the voice of one of the two. Instead, she received the contrived voice of Roger.
Back in the deserted Belkin home, Roger’s voice traversed through the open space, bouncing off the cold walls. “Hello, you’ve reached Roger and Lois. We’re probably out and about, so please leave a brief message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.”
A loud beep followed as Carol responded, “Hi, guys. I haven’t heard from you since last night. Hope all is well.”
Carol hung up the phone and crossed her arms to control the knot that had tightened in her stomach.
“Where could they be? I hope everything is alright,” she whispered.
Carol pondered their location at this late hour. She looked at the clock. It was eight minutes after ten. Then, in a sudden burst, the beeps from the microwave stabbed Carol’s sensitive ears; her hand dropped the phone.
Chapter 15