Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (11 page)

“
Okay, okay,” Charlie
said. “I’m going to get some help. Hang on.”

“
I’m hanging either way,”
Razor said. “Ah shit…”

Charlie’s phone cut out.

“
Razor?!” Charlie looked
at the disposable phone. It was out of minutes. He threw the phone
against the wall. “Fuck!”

Hearing Charlie, Pete came running from the
kitchen. Nash and Teddy stuck their heads out the door.

“
What is it?” Pete
asked.

“
I have to go out,”
Charlie said. “I need…”

“
You’re not going
anywhere,” Pete said.

“
I have to go,” Charlie
said. “Razor…”

“
You’re not going out in
the middle of the night to see your drug buddies,” Pete
said.

“
God damn it!” Charlie
yelled.

Charlie jumped up and down with anger.
Unimpressed, Pete scowled at him.

“
You’re not listening to
me!” Charlie screamed. “I have to go!”

“
I’m not hearing anything
worth listening to,” Pete crossed his arms.

“
Okay fine. I wasn’t
exactly honest with Uncle Seth,” Charlie said. “I know I should
have been but I wasn’t. Now, Razor’s in trouble.”

“
Drugs or
alcohol.”

“
Murderer trouble,”
Charlie said.

“
Murderer?” Pete asked.
“What are you talking about?”

“
I need to call my Uncle
Seth and Aden and…”

Collapsing into himself, Charlie fell
against the wall. He looked up at the ceiling.

“
What is it?” Pete
asked.

“
Have you ever had the
feeling that you totally and completely screwed up but you didn’t
really know you were screwing up when you were screwing up?”
Charlie asked.

“
Yes,” Pete said. “I’ve
felt like that.”

“
I really screwed up,
Pete,” Charlie said. “You have to help me. Razor’s my best friend
and…”

“
And he’s
high?”

“
The guy hung him,”
Charlie said.

“
What guy?” Pete asked.
“You’re not making any sense.”

“
The guy, the murderer
guy,” Charlie said. “The one Uncle Seth has been looking
for.”

Pete looked at Charlie as if he’d lost his
mind.

“
Call Aden,” Charlie said.
“Call him now.”

“
You need to settle down,”
Pete said. “If there’s anything here, the adults will take care of
it.”

“
They can’t,” Charlie
screamed “I have to.”

“
Why?”

“
Because you can’t get
in,” Charlie said. “Only I can and now Razor’s going to die
and…”

“
Okay, okay,” Pete said.
“I’ll call Aden. But you’re not going anywhere until I talk to
Aden.”

“
I’m calling Uncle Seth,”
Charlie said. “Okay?”

Pete nodded. Charlie looked around the
hallway for his phone. It had shattered. He began picking up the
pieces.

“
Use mine,” Nash gave
Charlie his iPhone. “But if you break it, you buy me another one
with your own money. Deal?”

“
Deal,” Charlie took the
phone from him.

Charlie looked at the phone and shook his
head. Nash held out his hand and Charlie gave the phone back to
him. Nash found the number and dialed it. He gave the phone to
Charlie.

“
Hello?” Charlie said to
Seth.

“
Charles,” Seth said.
There was piano music in the background.

“
Sorry to bug you
but…”

“
You’re never bugging me,
son,” Seth said. “Did something happen?”

“
No,” Charlie said. “Well,
yes. How did you know?”

“
Delphie told me you would
stop lying to me when something happened,” Seth said. “Ready to
talk?”

“
It’s Razor, Uncle Seth,”
Charlie leaned close to the phone. “He’s hanging.”

“
Where?” Seth
said.

“
I have to show you,”
Charlie said.

“
I’m on my way.” Charlie
heard Seth footsteps and a door close.

“
Pete won’t let me go,”
Charlie looked up to see Pete’s face marked with concern. Pete
shook his head.

“
A police investigation is
no place for a child,” Pete said. “Aden agrees.”

“
I’m not a child,” Charlie
said.

“
They’re right,” Seth said
over the sound of his car starting.

“
But I have to show you!”
Charlie said. “You’ll never find it otherwise. You can’t see it
from the street or the path or anywhere. You have to know where it
is.”

“
Can you see it from
above?” Nash asked.

“
Yeah, probably,” Charlie
said. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

Nash pulled his laptop from his bag and
started typing.

“
I’ll be at the shop in
fifteen minutes,” Seth said. “But I’m picking up Delphie on the
way. If you lie this time…”

“
She’ll catch me,” Charlie
said. “Fair enough. Nash thinks he can help from here.”

“
Good thinking. Work with
Nash,” Seth said. “I’ll be right there. Don’t do anything
stupid.”

“
Like that’s possible,”
Charlie said.

“
We all lie, Charlie,”
Seth said. “Let’s just hope your friend doesn’t have to live with
the consequences.”

“
Yeah,” Charlie mumbled.
“Or die with them.”

Seth had already hung up. Charlie slid down
the wall until his behind hit the floor. He set down Nash’s
iPhone.

“
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,
fuck!” Charlie screamed and began to hit his thighs. Pete dropped
to his knees to try to help Charlie. Nash picked up his iPhone to
protect it.

“
What’s going on?” Teddy
asked.

“
I fucked up,” Charlie
said. “And my best friend is going to die because of
it.”

“
He’s gonna die because
you can’t go?” Nash asked.

Charlie nodded.

“
What if we figure out how
to be there and not be there?” Teddy asked.

“
What are you talking
about?” Charlie asked.

“
We can use the satellite
to help Seth and his guys find your friend,” Nash said. “We’ll be
there to guide them.”

“
How?” Charlie
asked.

“
First let’s see if Google
Maps can get us close.” Nash turned back to his laptop. “Sandy has
wireless. I installed it myself but we’ll need more bandwidth than
that.”

Taking the laptop, he ran downstairs.
Charlie, Teddy and Pete followed him closely behind. Nash found a
network jack and plugged in the laptop.

“
Ok where?” Nash
asked.

“
It’s kind of by where
Stapleton was,” Charlie said.

“
Streets?”

“
Smith road,” Pete said.
“Quebec. By the Home Depot?”

“
Past that,” Charlie
said.

“
Got it,” Nash
said.

“
That’s just a map,”
Charlie said. “I can’t find it by…”

Nash clicked a button and the satellite
image appeared. Nash dialed in to the closest view.

“
That’s it,” Charlie
said.

“
Where?” Nash
asked.

“
See where those old
planes are?” Charlie asked.

“
Right there,” Teddy
asked.

“
Ya, see that cement?
Those big pieces on the bank of the river? The entrance is under
there.”

“
I don’t see it,” Teddy
said.

“
Left bank,” Nash pointed
to what looked like a set of old cement sidewalk pieces. “I think
that’s Sand Creek.”

“
See you don’t have to
go,” Pete said. “I’m putting my foot down here. You boys don’t need
to be out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the
night.”

“
But how will we know what
happens?” Charlie asked.

“
You’ll just have to wait
until the morning,” Pete said.

The bell to the shop rang and Pete left to
get the door. Nash started busily working on the laptop.

“
Don’t worry,” Teddy
whispered. “We’ll be able to follow.”

“
How?” Charlie
whispered.

“
We might have borrowed
someone’s satellite access code,” Nash said.

“
Might?” Charlie’s
eyebrows went up.

“
Shhh,” Teddy
said.

Nash clicked a button and the Google
satellite image came back up on the screen. Seth, Delphie, and
Noelle ran into the shop.

“
Where is it, Charlie?”
Seth asked.

“
Right here,” Charlie
pointed to the spot on the Google Maps satellite image.

“
Good work,” Seth said.
“You kids stay here. I’ll drop by after I take Delphie home. If
you’re still awake, I’ll tell you everything.”

“
Ok,” Charlie said. “Sure.
That’s fine.”

Prepared for an argument, Seth squinted at
Charlie. Charlie smiled.

“
I don’t know what you’re
up to,” Seth said.

“
He’s not lying,” Delphie
said.

“
Don’t worry, Uncle Seth,”
Noelle said. “We’ll be right here.”

Seth gave them one last doubt-filled scowl.
He and Delphie ran out of the shop. The kids waved them
good-bye.

“
Do I want to know?” Pete
asked.

“
Not if you want full
deniability,” Teddy said.

Pete gave Teddy a long look.

“
Is it illegal?” Pete
asked.

“
Only sort of,” Nash said.
“But we won’t get caught. We have permission. Sort of.”

Trying to decide, Pete chewed the inside of
his lip.

“
Can I stop you?” Pete
asked.

“
Nope,” Nash said. Teddy
and Charlie shook their heads.

“
You’re not in
danger?”

Nash, Teddy and Charlie shook their
heads.

“
You’re not going to hurt
yourselves?”

They shook their heads.

“
You’re just going to work
on this computer?”

The gang nodded in unison.

“
I’ll make popcorn,” Pete
said.

Pete went up the stairs of Sandy’s salon to
the apartment. Nash opened the laptop and the children stared at
the image. Sensing movement, Charlie looked up to see Noelle slip
her hand into Teddy’s hand. They gave each other a goofy smile.

“
Do I have to be the dog?”
Charlie asked.

“
The dog?” Nash
asked.

“
Ted here is Fred. Noelle
is Daphne,” Charlie said. “I’m definitely not Velma.”

“
I’m not Velma!” Nash
said.

“
Right,” Charlie said. “So
you’re either Shaggy or Scooby and I don’t want to be the
dog.”

“
Shaggy’s kinda a stoner,”
Teddy said.

“
You’re kinda a stoner,”
Nash said.

“
He’s addicted to those
Scooby snacks,” Noelle said.

“
If the shoe fits,
Norville,” Nash said. “I think Scooby is cool.”

Charlie shook his head at them.

“
Sissy can be Velma,”
Noelle said.

“
Sissy’s going to love
that,” Charlie said.

“
Ooh look,” Nash said.
“It’s started!”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & TWENTY-NINE

Rut Roh

The gang leaned toward the laptop to watch.
Two police cruisers on each side of I-70 had shut down the highway.
A score of uniformed police officers appeared from under the I-70
overpass. With their hands on their weapons, they ran down the
embankment to the path. An all terrain vehicle with SWAT personnel
drove past the running officers. Jumping from their vehicle, the
SWAT team launched themselves up into the trees surrounding the
right bank of Sand Creek.

“
Wow,” Charlie said. “Did
you see…?”

He pointed as another SWAT vehicle flew down
the embankment from the direction of Smith Road.

“
Look,” Nash
said.

He pointed to at least twenty uniformed
police officers skulking through the old and rusted aircraft in the
salvage above the left bank of Sand Creek. Pete arrived with two
bowls of popcorn. He gave a bowl to Charlie and another to Teddy
before going upstairs to make more. Teddy pointed to the rusting
planes.

“
I’ve been there,” Teddy
said. “We played in all the old planes with Dad. It was a blast.
The place is under that?”

“
Some old military or
airport thing,” Charlie said. “I think people just forgot it was
there.”

“
Until now,” Noelle
said.

~~~~~~~~

Monday night — 8:45 P.M.

Middle of Denver, CO

“
Whatcha doing?” Alex
asked.

Her partner, Arthur ‘Raz’ Rasmussen was
sitting at the main dining room table peering at his laptop. He
glanced up at her, gave her a quizzical look, and turned his gaze
back to the screen. Alex looked over his shoulder.

“
What’s that?” Alex
asked.

“
I have no idea,” Raz
said. “I wanted to review that satellite and heat imaging before I
went to bed. When I logged in, the system said I was already
connected. This is what came up.”