just think we can do better…” He was getting choked up and had to stop talking.
“We’re with you sir.” James called out, and suddenly everyone was clapping and standing up. I joined them, and noticed tears streaming down Niti’s face. We surrounded George Loeffler and everyone was shaking his hand and patting him on the back. I was unmoved but I put on a good show with the rest of them.
When things settled down Mr. Loeffler left and John took over the meeting. He told us to brace ourselves for some trouble. He told us that the Resident’s Council was making certain demands regarding the GSA, and that there would probably be some changes coming. He reminded us of our responsibility to the community and to the Pierson family. Then he opened up the floor for suggestions on how we could do a better job of keeping Lakeview crime-free. I went first and said that we needed to secure the side-gate so you couldn’t drive around it. Everyone agreed. John said that gate and perimeter security had been one of the council’s main concerns and that we would be checking every inch of the fence around Lakeview to make sure it hadn’t been breached.
Then Franco spoke out. “We should have clearer policies.” He said. “For example if you’re called to someone’s house for suspected gunfire, the policy should be that we have to go in the house and look around. If the resident doesn’t want you to, you can say ‘sorry sir, it’s the policy’. That way you know there isn’t a psychopath pointing a gun at the person just out of view.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” I said. “Is that really what you think happened?”
“Okay smart guy, how do you think it happened then?” He asked.
“I don’t know.” I said. “But Junior showed no sign of distress when I was there. When he came to the door he certainly didn’t look like a guy who was being held at gunpoint. Maybe the first noise complaint really was just kids setting off fireworks. Anyway it was more than two hours before the two-eighty-six at my gate.”
“Oh boy, and you’re saying I don’t know what I’m talking about? Mrs. Mc Affie called in two noise complaints last night, and both times she said she heard two shots. Mrs. Pierson got shot twice and Junior got shot twice, and in between, you came and spoke to Junior and didn’t notice anything wrong. This Telano guy had to still be there when you came. If our policy was different it wouldn’t matter if the investigating agent was observant or not. We need to make the policy idiot-proof.”
I was about to answer, but John interrupted. “We’re off on an unproductive tangent here. We can’t write our policy to protect against armed home-invaders, we’d end up as some sort of occupying military force, and the people don’t want that-”
“No, I’m not saying-”
John had his hand up and Franco stopped talking. “Now listen, this conversation will go on, but this meeting has come to an end. There are strong feelings all around, I appreciate that, but we’re on the same team in this room, understood?” Franco looked at me and then back at John. “Now I suggest you all attend the prayer meeting and procession that’s being held this evening. Everyone’s gathering at the upper park at three. That’s all.” Everyone stood up to go, and Franco headed toward the locker room. I moved to follow him, but John was there next to me. “Come take a walk.” He said.
“I wanted to tell Franco something.”
“Ah, let him go.” He said. “What’s getting in a big argument gonna accomplish?” We left the guardhouse and I followed him up the street toward the parking lot. “I just wanted to let you know that no one faults you for this, Ben. Despite what Franco said. He’s just mad that you got promoted over him, that’s all. There was no way you could have known what was going on.”
“When Junior came to the door he wasn’t being held at gunpoint. I would’ve known something was up. Franco’s version is wrong.”
“Maybe so, but I think the police are working from the same assumptions. It’s the only scenario that really makes sense, but that still doesn’t mean it’s your fault. It’s easy for someone to criticize you after the fact, but they weren’t there. Maybe no one would’ve noticed anything was wrong. Who’s to say?”
“I’m telling you nothing was wrong. He was in his garage with his shirt off. He came out and told me it was kids setting off firecrackers. There was no way his wife had just been killed. He was too calm.”
“But it doesn’t matter because the official version becomes the version in a case like this. My point is that you don’t have to worry about being made a scapegoat by the Resident’s Council or Mr. Loeffler. I spoke with them. Your job is safe.”
“Thanks John.”
“Okay.” He said. “No problem. It’s the nature of the business, one day you’re a hero, saving a man’s finger, the next day you’re a villain. You’ll be alright if you don’t let either one go to your head.”
“John, this guy, David Telano. I know him. He’s an old friend of mine.” I said. “And he’s Freddie Divos’ nephew.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” I said. “Huge coincidence right?”
“That you know him?”
“No, that he’s Freddie’s nephew. David worked at his Motel too.”
“Did you tell the detectives?”
“Yeah, of course.” I said.
“And you told them about the pinky?”
“Yeah.” I said. “They wanted to know all about it.”
“Then we’ll just see how it plays out. Maybe there’s more to it than there seems.” He looked at his watch. “In the mean time just keep doing your job and don’t get distracted by all this. You’re a good agent Ben.” He gave my shoulder a pat like he felt sorry for me.
I thanked him again and stood there while he walked back to the guardhouse. On a tree next to me was a picture of Becky Pierson and underneath her picture it said ‘We will never forget you’ and had the years of her birth and death.
FOUR
As I drove Jessie to work the next day, a report came on the radio about the ongoing hunt for David Telano. I turned it off. The local news media seemed to be loving the whole mess, and their barely hidden glee was getting on my nerves.
Jessie worked at a place called The Parley Family Prehistoric Fun Park, or the PFPFP as its employees called it. It’s on Route 163, which goes through Shoreston and past Lakeview, and all the private boat slips. Anyone who wanted to have access to Lake Erie on that side of Sandusky Bay, had to take Route 163 and drive by the PFPFP, which was hard to miss with it’s three large dinosaurs looking out over the road. They had a T-Rex guarding the entrance to their gravel parking lot, and a Triceratops and a Brontosaurus on either side of the gift shop.
Behind the gift shop was the covered picnic area, and the Prehistoric Fun Park Tour, a paved walkway that wound around the hill, through various huts that held animatronic dinosaur displays. Each hut had it’s own sound effects, and painted backgrounds and lighting. The displays were progressively more and more elaborate, and the last one was very loud, and featured two T-rexes in a fierce battle. The mechanical T-rexes only had three moves that they repeated endlessly, but the background sky had been painted with gloomy clouds, and the sound effects and strobe lights simulated a thunderstorm. It was the grand finale. On the way back to the picnic area, tour groups went through a walkway, enclosed in chain-link fence, through the chimpanzee habitat. This was what elevated the tour above the level of a cheap roadside rip-off. There were four live chimps, and their habitat was larger than what they would’ve had at the Cleveland Zoo. It was full of plants and trees.
The chimps were probably the only reason the PFPFP was still in business. Most of the roadside attractions closed down after The Summertime Splash Zone water park and Put-Put Petey’s Minigolf Madness were bought by an investment group that turned them into one park. They’d also bought the adjacent lot and put in a roller coaster and a go-cart track. They renamed it Megapark! -exclamation point and all. Even with Six Flags Cedar Point so close they seemed to do good business and were crowded most of
the time. Megapark! wasn’t a destination, but it sucked up a lot of the spur-of-the-moment entertainment dollars around Shoreston and Lakeview. With something like that up the road, not so many people wanted to eat lunch in a giant crab anymore, or go to the Monsters of Lake Erie museum, with it’s bumpy slide that went down the tail of a Loch-Ness-like creature called Bessie. But for some reason Dinosaurs and chimps were still a winning combination, and the PFPFP was the lone survivor four years after Megapark! opened.
Jessie started working there as a summer job after her senior year of high school, and had accidentally stayed for six years. She was the only year-round employee, and Mr. Parley trusted her to run the place most of the time. He would only come in when something needed to be fixed, or if he was doing inventory or taking a deposit to the bank. He often told Jessie that if he didn’t have her he would’ve closed the place.
After I dropped her off I stopped at a gas station for a coffee before going into work. I thought that the murder-hysteria in Lakeview would’ve settled down after the prayer meeting and procession on Thursday, but it only seemed to have gained in intensity. There were memorial flyers posted on every available surface, and the schedule of events on the meeting house bulletin board showed a week full of memorials, discussions, support meetings, and grief