Disappearance (28 page)

Then I hear something, the sound of a car coming up the road. When I peek out I see the worst possible thing, a cop car pulls up behind the black car.

"Oh, shit!" I close my blinds so they can't see me. I peek out the window to inspect what they're up to. My mind can't help wondering why they are here in the first place. We never have police officers on this street. Somebody must have called when they heard the gun shot.

I watch as the officer steps out of the car. My god, what will their reaction be when they see what's inside? The officer walks over, a bit more casually then I might expect. They only look in for a moment, and then turn around looking toward my house. I move away from the window as fast as I can, hoping they didn't see me. Damn it, did they see me? I'm tempted to take another peek out, but this would be stupid. I don't think they saw me, but I don't want to press my luck any more than I already have. I sit up against the wall hoping they just go away.

"Ding dong!" my doorbell rings. My life is over. I'm going to prison for the rest of eternity. What do I say? Do I lie? Of course I lie, but about what parts? Do I say I never even knew there was a dead body? Yes, that's it. I'll say I just happened to be peeking out and saw the cop car. Did they see me immediately close the blinds when they looked over? If so, that makes me look very suspicious. I'll just say I was scared.

They pound on the door.

Can I just ignore them completely, pretending I've been in bed this whole time? If I hadn't peeked out the damn window, I could have done just that. Now, I've convinced myself they saw me.

"Andrew, open up. I know you're in there."

Wait, how do they know my name? That voice, it sounds so familiar. I go to the door and open it. Deputy Vogul is standing there, looking calm and poised.

"Hey Andrew. Looks like we have a little situation on our hands."

"I uhhh..." Before I can say something that I'll probably regret, she interrupts me.

"It's OK, Andrew. I know you shot that man over there. I'm glad you did!"

"Wh.. what?"

"That's right, Andrew. I'm sure that's not what you were expecting to hear, but there's nothing to worry about. As long as you do everything I say, we should be OK. Hurry, though, we don't have much time. Are you willing to do everything I say?"

"Uhh yes, of course."

"OK, we need to get rid of this car before anyone sees it. I want you to get in and drive off with it. The keys are in the ignition. Now, fortunately, you managed to not break any glass or anything, so if you just roll the body onto the passenger-side floorboard no one should notice. Then, I want you to drive the car out to the reservoir." She then gives me a series of instructions on where to go from there. Apparently, Deputy Vogul has her own secret place, but hers sounds even more confusing and hard to get to than Abby's. She continues, "Once you're there, Andrew, I want you to take the lighter fluid and matches I give you and torch the car. Burn it all up. I'll come back at one o'clock to pick you up. You can let me take care of the rest. Got it?"

"Got it," I say.

"Now, where did you put the gun?" she asks.

"It's... uhh... it's in the kitchen."

"OK, I'll take care of it. First, lets get you that lighter fluid from my car."

I'm in total shock. I can't believe what this woman is doing for me. Something just doesn't add up. Why is she helping me? There's no time to ask questions, though. She's made that clear. We walk to the car and, out of her trunk, she gets a ton of lighter fluid and matches. While she's doing that, I work on moving the man into the passenger seat. He isn't that large, maybe weighing only 150 pounds, but I now have a full understanding of the meaning "dead weight." Under normal circumstances, I would be throwing up from the sight of his bloody body.
Are those his brains
? My adrenaline is in full force, though. I'm all business as I finally get him into the passenger seat. I pray nobody sees what I'm doing.

Deputy Vogul throws all the supplies into the car. "Get out of here, now! I'll see you later."

I don't even say goodbye, or thank you. I drive off as fast as this black car will take me.

I approach several cars on the way to Deputy Vogul's place in the reservoir. It's hard to look innocent but I do my best. I get stuck at a traffic light with a truck sitting to my left. If they look over, they'll most certainly see the body. I stare at them the entire time, but they never look back.

Once I get to the reservoir, I recite Deputy Vogul's directions over and over. It takes about fifteen minutes, but I finally get to where I think I'm supposed to be. There's no way anyone could stumble onto this place; it's way more concealed than Abby's.

It doesn't look like anyone has ever been out here, which makes me wonder if this really is the right spot. If it's not, I don't know where else to go, so I turn the car off and get the lighter fluid out of the backseat. At this point, I'm very worried I'm going to blow myself up. I've never set anything this big on fire in my life.

I dump all the lighter fluid onto and inside the car, exactly as Deputy Vogul instructed. I make sure to dump plenty on the body. I still can't believe I've killed this man. I don't even know him, never heard him say more than a few words. My only reason for doing it is because the woman I love told me to. I'm not even positive this is him. What was with Deputy Vogul's comment, too? "
I know you shot that man over there. I'm so glad you did!"
None of it makes any sense.

I take one of the matches out of my pocket and light it. "Here goes nothing." I toss it onto the body and run out of the way but nothing happens. When I look over, I see the flame went out. I should know now things don't work like the movies.

I light another match, and this time I carefully lower it down. It ignites and the fire spreads faster than I expect. It's not long before the entire car is engulfed in flames. I run far out of the way, thinking once the gas tank catches fire it's going to make a pretty big explosion. Sure enough, it does and the sound is so loud I have to cover my ears. Somewhere out there, I'm sure somebody heard this. Smoke fills the air too, something I hadn't thought of until now. If a park ranger is nearby I'm sure there's enough smoke there for them to want to investigate. It could be worse, though. I've managed to avoid catching any trees on fire. The last thing I need is to burn the whole forest down.

I watch as the car burns and burns. I think back to my favorite part of the plan Deputy Vogul told me,
"You can let me take care of the rest."

Deputy Vogul said she would pick me up at one o'clock. I check the clock on my phone; it's 1:03. She's late. Maybe I'm not supposed to be waiting here.

Twenty more minutes pass and I start getting worried. Did she forget to come get me? It would take forever to get back if I walked. I don't want to call anyone to come get me, being so close to the murder I've been covering up.

Right when I think I should start walking, I hear a car coming. It's a police car, thank God! Sure enough, it's Deputy Vogul who gets out of the car.

"OK, let's see how you did." We both walk over to assess my work. "Very good, Andrew. Very good. This fire should die down soon. Come on, let's get out of here."

We get in and I realize I've never been in the front of a police car before. There are so many gadgets and buttons, I feel like I'm in a cockpit.

"Andrew, you're probably wondering why I've been helping you," Deputy Vogul says. She doesn't waste any time getting to the good stuff. "You see, as I mentioned before, I've been on this case for over ten years. There have been several unsolved murders. Many, I believe, are linked to the same person. There's been a lot of debate about that within the agency. My personal opinion, though, is that there have been twelve murders over the last ten years that can be linked to someone they call the black car man. In reality, that number could be less or far more. After all these years, we've had very little to go on. We've never found any fingerprints or anything of that sort. Eyewitnesses claim to have seen him right before the crime was committed, or seen his car driving away. We also have some crappy surveillance footage, but we haven't been able to get a license plate number or make on the car. We've never had anything sustainable to get a good idea of what he looked like or what kind of car he was driving." Deputy Vogul takes a deep breathe, then continues.

"I've been working on this case almost exclusively, trying to find him. Nobody has ever made it out alive for questioning. Well, not until this time of course.

"I knew this was my best chance. I knew if I was ever going to find this bastard it would have to be now, because you managed to survive. I don't know how or why, but you did. Apparently, the black car man put too much faith into this Zach Jones guy. He obviously didn't get the job done. Anyway, I knew if I got too closely involved it would only scare him off. I've kept a very close eye on you these past couple days, knowing he might come after you. I watched you go to that gun store, well done. I didn't know why you were there, but I guess I know now!" she chuckles. "I was going to keep you safe, maybe even plant a gun in your car for added protection. I have to ask, how did you know he was going to attack you? How did you know about the black car man?"

"Abby told me. She said to kill a man in a black car and to not go to the police. She insisted I do it myself so I would have the element of surprise."

"Hmm, that's interesting," she says. "Well, I guess she was right about that! That's all she told you?"

"Yes, that's all she said. Kill the man in the black car."

"She never gave a reason why?"

"She said he was going to try to kill me," I say.

"Well she was probably right about that. You're very lucky, Andrew. I've put your life in terrible danger, and I very much apologize for that."

"No problem," I say. "It's worked out for the best.

"You're darn right it has. I spent ten years of my life working on this, each and every day dreaming of the day this man would be put to justice. Then it happens by a guy who didn't even know what he was doing," she laughs.

I give off a sheepish grin, and when I look over and see her giving a wide smile I start to laugh to. I'm not sure why; murder is the last thing on Earth that should be funny. There are so many thoughts racing through my head; something doesn't seem to add up from all of this.

"Can I ask you something?" I ask.

"Sure, go ahead" Deputy Vogul says.

There are so many things I want to ask her but don't know where to begin, so I say the first thing that comes to mind, "How do you know this black car man was involved this time?"

"Oh, you finally caught onto that, did you? It's simple. The black car man always leaves black hair near the body. Evidently, it's his calling card."

"Oh," I say. Thinking how strange it is someone would do that. I consider asking more details about that, but instead I ask what I'm really interested to know. "Another question, why did you want me to hide the body and burn all the evidence?"

She hesitates, which I know very well means she could be thinking of some story to make up. I listen to her, though, expecting the truth.

"Well, part of it is because I feel like I owe you for putting you in harm's way. Being involved with two different murder cases isn't something you want to deal with. A lot of bad things could go wrong, and it doesn't make you look any more innocent. You're a hero, Andrew, but unfortunately it would take a lot of work to convince a jury of that. It's simpler this way and a lot less paperwork. I'll tell the department I'm giving up on the case. They'll say OK because they've wanted me off it for quite some time now. Nobody else will get murdered, which is all I really care about. Eventually, it will be forgotten about."

This answer doesn't seem good enough for me. What about remorse for the families of the victims? I almost ask this, but instead drop the subject. The last thing I need is for Deputy Vogul to turn on me. She has my life in her hands.

"Do you have any other questions, Andrew?"

"Uhh, I can't think of any. Well, I guess where do we go from here?"

"Oh, right. So, now I'm going to take you to the hospital. I'm sure Abby will love for you to pay her a visit. I wouldn't mind seeing her and asking a few questions, but I can do that later. For now, what we're going to say is I stopped by your house because I had a few more questions. I'll just use some of the answers you gave me during our last meeting. Then, you told me you wanted to see Abby. And, since we are here to serve and protect, I gave you a ride to the hospital. How does that sound Andrew, pretty simple story?"

"Yep, thank you so much Deputy Vogul. I really can't thank you enough for all you've done."

"No problem. I'm really not a dirty cop or anything. I know it must seem like it. The same way you're not a bad person. Sometimes our actions don't align with our true selves. I've always thought that."

I'm not sure I agree with Deputy Vogul but I nod my head and smile. I do think Deputy Vogul is a dirty cop. There are so many lies, who knows what else she's covered up. If she's a dirty cop, though, I guess that makes me a murderer. For now, I'll just temporarily agree with Deputy Vogul's statement. I'm still a good guy.

When Deputy Vogul and I make it to the hospital, I ask her if there's anything else I need to do.

"Nope, Andrew. I'll take care of everything. You don't have anything to worry about." I love hearing her say that. We wave goodbye and she drives off. I think about how extremely grateful I am that she entered my life.

When I enter the hospital, there's a bit of a panicked reaction when they realize who I am. Questions stir up about how I got here, but when I tell them Deputy Vogul's story they buy into it right away and no more questions are asked.

I'm told Abby is starting to get better. It's something I've known all along but I act surprised. I'm allowed to go in and see her, and I tell her parents that if it's all right with them I'd like to go in alone. Before I do that something occurs to me.