51: The Series

51: The Beginning Chapter 5 Part 1

Lindsay stopped by the sheriff’s department for a few minutes before she began the drive out to the Sycamore River, where things happened the day before. She had gone there so that she could call Amber and her parents to see how she was doing. Cat was, of course, already there when she walked through the door.

“Good morning, Cat,” she said as she walked in and looked around. “Where is everyone else at?”

“Good morning. Everyone has either left to go home or hasn’t made it here to the building yet,” Cat answered.

“Please tell me that there are people on duty, and they can respond to calls right now,” Lindsay said. She was unhappy that no deputies were in the office at eight o’clock in the morning.

“Max is still on but is working his way toward his house. Little Bob is on his way and should be here any minute because he was getting gas here in town about five minutes ago,” Cat said. “When Max is on the night shift and Little Bob is on days, you don’t have to worry. They usually overlap at least a half-hour to make sure they brief each other. Max only left earlier than normal because he has a meeting with someone this morning, and Bob is late because the power went out at his house last night and threw everything off.”

“It’s good to know I have people I can count on here. It has not been easy walking back into everything that has been happening since the old sheriff resigned,” Lindsay admitted. “Do you have Amber’s…?”

Cat was already handing her the contact information for Amber and her parents before she even finished the question.

“Thanks. Did they call after Amber was seen by her doctor?”

“I haven’t seen anything, but they might have. I think I need to add a few more people to the list of those who need to seek other employment,” Cat answered. She was very unhappy about something that had happened or someone who worked there.

Lindsay took the information and walked toward her office. She had to dig her keys out of her pocket to unlock the door. As Lindsay walked in, it was nice to see the stack of paperwork was gone. It was also nice to know that she had successfully resubmitted everything to the state correctly. At least, she hoped it was correct. She had passed on all the information she had collected to the other county officials. As they all started trying to contact the old sheriff and the chief deputy, they had been met with the same problems she had. They were gone. Their homes were empty, and all of their numbers had been disconnected. Even if they had not done anything wrong, they looked guilty of something.

Lindsay sat down and dialed Amber’s cell phone first. Every teenager she knew had their phones glued to their hands. Amber did not answer, which made her worry. The phone went to voicemail. As Lindsay waited to leave a message, she tried to think of what to say.

“Hi, Amber. This is Sheriff Gold. I was calling to check up on you and see how your leg is feeling today.”

She started calling the other numbers. Lindsay first dialed the home number, followed by the cell phone belonging to Amber’s mother, and both went unanswered. She called the cell phone number for Amber’s father last and hoped someone would answer. Thankfully, he did with what sounded like a very tired hello.

“Mr. Clark, this is Sheriff Gold. I was calling to see how Amber is doing this morning,” Lindsay said.

“Sheriff, I am so glad you called,” Mr. Clark said. “When we took Amber to the doctor, they cleaned the cuts and put in stitches. They gave her a tetanus shot and antibiotics and sent her home to rest. She was doing well, but then, a few hours later, she got sick. We took her to the emergency room, and they started running tests. She was having some strange reaction. They had to take all of the stitches out of her leg to help stabilize her and stop the reaction. Some kind of fluid keeps building up in and around the cuts. The doctor said he has never seen anything like it. The only thing he can say is it is not a bacterial infection, as far as he can tell. They are doing cultures but won’t have those back for a while.”

“Mr. Clark, I know this is a lot to ask right now, but would you be willing to have Amber’s doctor send me her report so I can see what kind of reaction she is having? We need to know if she is reacting to what cut her or if it is something that was in the water, so we know how to keep others on that river safe,” Lindsay told him.

“Of course, if it will help find out what happened,” he answered.

“Thank you. I hope it will,” Lindsay said, quickly giving him her office information to give to the doctor.

She quickly walked back out to the front desk. Cat could see something was wrong.

“Cat, Amber’s doctor, will hopefully send us some of her medical information. She had a reaction after she was treated by her doctor and is now in the hospital,” Lindsay told her as she walked by the front desk, heading to the door. “I am headed to the river to see if I can find anything.”

“OK,” Cat yelled after her as she walked out the door and got in her car.

Now Lindsay was even more concerned about what was in that river. The game warden had not found anything yesterday, but that did not mean something was not there. Her mind kept going through the different animals that could be in that river that were native to the area. The only one that she could even possibly think it would be was a catfish. They could be huge, but there had not even been a state record caught in the area, much less one big enough to launch a ninety-pound girl into the air and leave cuts like what she had seen the day before.

As she got closer to the river, she saw that there seemed to be a military training exercise going on. That was the last thing they needed. It would have been nice if they had notified her office that a road would be blocked. It was the only way to reach the place she needed to investigate.

She slowly pulled up to the roadblock manned by four armed MPs. She could see a lot of activity on the river through the trees. There were many people along the banks on both sides of the river and the road. That meant any evidence that might have been overlooked was destroyed or contaminated.

Lindsay stopped and rolled down her car window, but before she could say anything, an MP cut her off.

“Ma’am, you need to turn around now. This is a restricted area,” he said.

“Restricted area?” Lindsay asked. “May I ask why my office was not notified?”

“I am not authorized to give you that information,” he answered.

“Are you aware that there was a possible attack in the water on a group of teenagers yesterday?” she asked him.

“I am not authorized to give you that information,” he repeated.

Lindsay had a feeling that that answer was the only one she would get from the soldier.

“When will this exercise be over so we can continue our investigation?” she asked.

“I am not authorized to give you that information,” he replied.

“Is there another way to get to this section of the river?” she asked, knowing the answer was no but fishing for some information.

“No, ma’am. All roads leading to this section of the river and the river itself are closed to everyone until further notice for this training exercise,” the soldier answered.

“Thank you for that information, sir. Please have your commander contact my office as soon as possible.”

“Ma’am, I will pass on that information,” the MP replied.

Lindsay backed her patrol car into a driveway and turned around. She had never seen anything like this happen before. Training maneuvers off base occurred all the time, but closing down all roads leading to the area and blocking a river off the base without notifying her office was strange. She began the drive back to the sheriff’s department with more questions now than before.

She called the department on her cell phone because she did not want everyone in the county with a police scanner to know what was going on. She quickly told Cat about the military training maneuvers and that the area they needed to investigate was now off-limits.

“Can you please call Warden Sims and ask him to come to the department so we can talk and figure out what we can do from here? Will you also make sure Little Bob is there? I want him to be briefed on everything that is going on,” Lindsay told Cat.

Cat replied, “Yes, ma’am, I will call Sims now, and Little Bob is right here. I will make sure he doesn’t leave.”

“Thank you. I will be there soon,” Lindsay said as she hung up her phone.

Lindsay was beginning to regret accepting the position of sheriff. She drove back to the department, which seemed to take forever to her. As she pulled into the parking lot, she saw that pizza was being delivered and hoped she could throw some money in and eat lunch.

As she walked in, Cat said, “I already put some money in for you. I hope that was OK.”

“Cat, I could hug you right now for that,” Lindsay said as Cat smiled and handed her a paper plate.

Little Bob came walking up, carrying a plate piled with pizza. “Warden Sims will be here soon. He had something to take care of on the east side of the county first. He did say something about the river being shut down. What is he talking about?” Little Bob asked.

“Let me grab some food, then we will talk in my office,” Lindsay answered. “Cat, you may want to join us if you can. You can brief all the dispatchers about the chaos that shutting down that road and river will cause.”

Lindsay put a slice of pizza on her plate, grabbed a bottle of water, and headed back to her office. Little Bob and Cat were sitting in front of her desk, waiting for her. She walked in and sat down behind her desk. Lindsay placed her plate and water bottle on the desk, leaned back in her chair, and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She opened her desk drawer, pulled out a bottle of aspirin, and placed the bottle beside her food.

“If you wanted an appetizer, you should have said something,” Little Bob said, nodding toward the bottle of aspirin.

“That isn’t exactly what I am planning on,” Lindsay said as she took a couple of aspirin out of the bottle and swallowed them before putting the bottle back in her desk.

“If this job continues as it has in the past couple of weeks, you may want to buy stock in that because you are going to have a lot more headaches,” Little Bob told Lindsay with a grin.

“Keep making jokes, and you will be the next chief deputy for this department,” Lindsay told him.

“No, thank you,” Little Bob said, shaking his head. “I like the job I have now; thank you very much.”

Cat had been sitting quietly until Little Bob had said that. She turned and looked at him.

“Bob, you do realize that you are the day shift supervisor, and you are already doing the job of chief deputy. You are just doing it without the title or the pay raise,” Cat said.

“She’s right, Bob,” Lindsay chimed in. “Right now, I do need to find someone who can take over the position. In all seriousness, Bob, would you be willing to take the position of chief deputy? I have already written up our old chief deputy’s termination paperwork. If you want the job, it is yours.”

“I have to say the pay raise would be nice, but can I talk it over with my wife first? I don’t think she will have a problem with it, but I want to talk to her before I say yes,” Bob said.

“Of course, Bob,” Lindsay said. “I talked to my husband before I took this job. I would be worried if you said yes before talking to her.”

Cat tipped her head to the side, looked at Lindsay, and asked, “You’re married? I mean, I saw the ring, but I will admit I have worn a fake one a few times.”

“I am, and you have met him.”

“I have? When did I meet him?” Cat asked.

“Remember, Wren?” Lindsay said.

“That is your husband? You’re a lucky woman. I was going to ask him out, but I saw him kiss you. I felt it was probably a bad idea to go after the guy my boss is with.”

“That is usually a bad idea,” Lindsay said.