• Chapter 5

    A friendly visit, Ron questioned, he doesn’t even know we’re coming? I doubt that he’d buy what we got to say.
    All lights went off in the vehicle. It was total darkness as Ron felt a shift to the right while he noticed the cruiser going into a driveway. The sound of gravel was almost inaudible.

    Now or never, I guess. Ron said to himself as the deputy shut the engine off. The smell of marijuana was rather present. Neither had expected to smell marijuana in this area, knowing who lived around here.
    “Let me tell you something,” Mike said, “I’ve been through here, and never have I smelled this. I mean, I know what it smells like, but I have never smelled it through here. Something is going to happen tonight, more than expected. For now, you do not smell anything! Understood?”
    With a thought of being a smartass, Ron stayed quiet, a lie to if the people, “I have a cold,” as an excuse, “my nose is all messed up.” That was the cover up to the people that lie ahead in their tracks. Ron and the sheriff knew the smell because as teenagers they did it once or twice and it became an addiction to them.
    The addiction was no different from smoking cigarettes, it’s hard as hell to quit; and when you started it again, it hit much worse than before.
    Around the perimeter was not much to be seen other than fencing of the house. Behind the house was a hill filled with trees, through the trees the moon could be barely seen; though it had given off a little light to see the ground that the two walk on.
    The house that they walked to was rather a trailer than a home. Though in this area of Ohio, there wasn’t much difference.
    A light or two was seen standing in a couple of windows. Though, no room lights were seemed to be on. Ron and the deputy knew that they were in there, whether they’re sleeping or not.
    When Ron approached the front door, he knew that someone was in the house.

    Ron had the belief that the tiniest movements within a house sent vibrations through the perimeter and who is on the outside could feel them, though not directly notice. From a rat scurrying through cabinets, to a person walking in the house; Ron would feel that something is moving. He wasn’t wrong either, someone or something was in the house.
    The deputy slowly walked around the area and studied it. The marijuana seemed to not come from the house, it was somewhere close though. The scent seemed to grow stronger and stronger every second the two took a breath. Ron did not know if Steve ever did drugs, he never acted or looked like that kind of person. Though, many of things have proved that things “out of the ordinary” do happen.
    To the deputy this wasn’t another check-up on a useless case. The area was known for some of the stupidest cases to ever evolve for the nation to know. Back at the District of Columbia, the “Tri-State area” would most likely be on their “Wall of Shame” on Capitol Hill. The area was well known for the famous “Duct Tape Bandit” when a guy tried to rob a liquor store with his head wrapped in duct tape, though all got a laugh out of it. Even the store clerk that was working at that time did also get a laugh out of it, luckily though nobody was hurt during the “event.”
    The deputy slowly walked around from behind the trailer. His pistol was aiming ahead of him cautiously while his flashlight in his left hand guided him through around the dark area. He searched every window for light but only two in the front were seen. The lights though were not bright enough to reveal anything past the window on the inside.
    The deputy turned around the corner to the front of the trailer and observed that Ron had slowly wondered underneath the trailer. What in the hell is he doing? The deputy wondered. The deputy had seen many weird things happen, this wasn’t one of them. He got the general idea of what Ron was searching for, but Ron a lot of the time was hard to predict, his life was full of exploration and nothing to regret. That is, before this night. Right now that was out of the picture, about the past.
    The deputy walked up to him and whispered underneath the trailer so quietly that it was almost inaudible.
    Ron obviously could not hear him. He looked towards the deputy and said “Someone is in there, though they’re sleeping because I don’t feel any movement. So I think that it’d be best if we wait until later on today when they’ll be awake.”
    Linkson grabbed Ron’s feet and dragged him from underneath the trailer. “What are you thinking?” His ignorance was obviously noted by Ron. “Just because they’re sleeping allows them to have their privacy?” Linkson was noting about the time when he was a little boy. His parents decided to have a party and he had to stay in his room the whole time. After the party was over, his mother had went missing.
    His father called the police department and they ran a thorough investigation. It was a harsh winter that year, snow had fell from the sky for six days straight; all of the county roads were covered in so much snow the people had the emergency crews come and get them. Not many people were allowed to travel in those harsh conditions in fear they would slip off the road.
    The police finally identified the man who was possibly the person that took his father. As a religious town, they were not to wake up a man for his punishment; nor were they to wake up a man in any circumstance.
    The next morning the police went out to find the guy that was suspected to have taken his mother; he was gone. Snow was still steadily falling and the temperature had not helped at all. He was to never see his mother again. The case was never closed, but it was never looked at after that.

    Linkson snapped back into reality, realizing he was hurting Ron by twisting his left leg.
    “Let go of me you son of a b***h!” Ron jumped back up to his feet. “Do you think this is some kind of joke? Listen to me, I want to find out who this guy is before we sit around the donut shop and drink coffee. Not right now is the time to play your foolish games.” Ron had also noted the night he graduated. Ron never recalled it to anyone about that incident, nor did he want to.
    Deputy Linkson had never expected for Ron to snap at him like that. He didn’t see why either, guess some things are best left alone.
    The deputy walked up onto the steps of the trailer and knocked on the front door hard but respectfully five times. He waited and tried to sense anything moving or if he could hear anything. Still came up with nothing. So he knocked again five times hardly and loudly.

    Still no response, for a moment.
    Then a noise was heard from inside the trailer. It sounded like someone walking at the moment, a couple of moments after that, it was noted to be someone walking around.
    The light in the living room turned on and then the noise crept around to the front door. A slow hesitation was noticed, then the person unlocked the door. At first, it was barely cracked so the person could see who was outside.
    The person studied the deputy on Ron. Then opened it fully.

    The man looked rough. Around six feet high, thin and full of hair; the hair on his head needed a major cut. Looked like he hasn’t shaved in a very long time!
    “Eh… What do you want?” The man said, still half-asleep. It was apparent to Ron and the deputy that the man had been sleeping. Still keeping his eyes away from the flashlight the deputy had brought with them.
    “Steve?” The deputy said. “Sorry to wake you up in this un-pleasant hour.” Trying to be polite in a respectful way, though there was no polite way to wake a man up from his sleep. What had to be done, needed to be done.
    “Hey, no big words man. Just get to your point. What do you want?” He didn’t want to talk, he just wanted to know what’s going on.
    “There’s been a murder tonight.” The deputy paused, seeing if he could get a response from the man. After a long pause, “We believe you may have some information on who this person may be?”
    Steve was exhausted, plus he had been drinking a little too before he had went to bed.
    Clearing his thoughts and trying to hold the alcohol from being noticed he turned on the lights on the inside. At first he tried to hold back from the lights then he adapted to it and looked in. “Come on in.”
    Ron and the deputy are about to receive more information than they ever expected. What lies ahead was never part of the plan.