Chapter 6
My world just stopped, I didn’t take a breath, I don’t think my heart even beat, I couldn’t hear a sound.
James put his hand on my shoulder, “Gabe, are you alright?”
I slowly took a breath, “is it Sam?”
He said, “we don’t know for sure, we just brought the body in, and the coroner won’t be able to tell us until morning. I have already requested the dental records. I’m sorry Gabe, but you have to prepare yourself for the worst, the body size and type do match Sam.”
His words hit me like a bat over the head, I pleaded, “but there is a chance that it’s not Sam, right?”
He nodded, “there is always a chance, I just don’t want to get your hopes up.”
I asked, “so what do we do now, just sit here and wait?”
James said, “well, as soon as it’s daylight, I will go with the tow truck to bring the car into our shop for more investigation and wait for the coroner to make a positive id on the body. I think you should go home and try to get some sleep.”
I stood and started to pace, “I can’t sleep, God I can’t stand this waiting, why can’t we just go keep looking for Sam?”
He said, “as soon as the sun comes up, we will resume the search. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but we are doing everything we can.”
I sighed, “I know, I just feel so helpless, and until I know for sure that Sam is dead, he is out there right now waiting for someone to find and help him.”
“I know and believe me we are all hoping for the same thing. I am going to get another cup of coffee, can I bring you a cup?” He asked.
I nodded, “yes please, that would be great.”
James walked back in the room and handed me a coffee, he said, “we did try to get a hold of Zach, but all we got was his voice mail, he hasn’t called back yet. What do you know about him?”
I took a sip of my coffee, “I don’t really know anything about him, all Sam told me was that he was here 5 years ago, and Sam came to visit and decided to stay. Zach’s dad got sick, and he went back to Philadelphia to take of him and met someone else.”
James sat next to me, “Gabe, what do know about Sam’s past, I mean before five years ago?”
I shrugged, “not too much, he never liked to talk about his family or his life before he moved here.”
He said, “yeah, that seems to be a common thread here.”
I asked, “what do you mean?”
He pulled out a notebook, “we can’t find anything before the five years that he has been here. There is no high school or college records, no job history, no financial history. It’s like he never existed before he showed up here.”
“I have asked Sam about that, but all that he will tell me is that his family was involved in some bad things. I have no idea what those bad things are, he just told me that he would tell me when the time was right, he just asked me to trust him.” I told James.
He said, “it sure seems like Sam may have been involved in those bad things too.”
I thought about all these things, I hated to admit it, but maybe James was right. It was really the only explanation. We discussed it until we saw the sunlight starting to shine through the windows.
Another officer opened the door, “the truck is on its way to pick up the car.”
I asked James, “can I go with you?”
He shook his head, “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”
I stood, “I can either ride with you, or I will follow you in my own car.”
James sighed, “you can ride with me, but you will need to stay out of the way and don’t touch anything.”
We arrived at the scene, there was a group of people around the burned car. Some taking pictures, some marking tire tracks and footprints. I stood next to the car as James walked over to get an update from the others on scene. I saw one of the cops pick up an object, put it in a plastic bag and hand it to James. He walked toward me, as he got closer, he held the bag out for me to see. He asked, “do you recognize this?”
I looked at the bag, again I felt like I was just punched in the gut, “yes, it’s one of the shoes Sam was wearing yesterday.”
I leaned back against the car, just to keep from falling to my knees, I asked, “this doesn’t look good, does it?”
James shook his head, “I’m sorry Gabe, but it doesn’t.”
I stood there for the next hour as they finished their pictures and finally loaded the burnt car on the back of the truck. James and a couple of the other officers were looking at an area that was about ten yards from where the car was found. I walked toward them, I heard James say, “it looks like there was a struggle right here.” He pointed to the ground.
Another officer said, “yep, I count at least three sets of footprints.”
James said, “that one looks like it matches this shoe.” He held out Sam’s shoe. “I want plaster casts made of all three prints. Take another walk about ten more yards out to see if you see anything else. I need to get back to the office to see if the coroner has made any progress yet.”
James turned to me, “come on Gabe, let’s leave these guys to finish up here.”
We rode back to town in silence, I was afraid to ask any questions. I knew I wouldn’t want to hear any of the answers, it was becoming clear that Sam was probably burned in that car.
We saw the coroner in the hall as we walked in, He said, “they sent us the wrong file, these records are for Sam Haynes, not Sam Hayes. I called the dentist who sent them, he said it’s Sunday and his file clerk is out of town for the weekend, and he can’t find the right ones.”
James rolled his eyes, “Jesus Christ, tell him to keep looking and tell him I will send an officer over to help him. Remind him that he will not like the way my officer looks through his files. Fuck, we don’t have time for this bullshit.”
The coroner turned to leave, James asked, “hey doc, did you have a chance to give the body a quick look?”
He said, “just a quick look, this is not official, but I think there were a couple broken ribs and a cracked skull. I have a feeling our body was dead before he was burned. I’ll confirm that and give you the full report before the end of the day.”
James said, “thanks doc.”
We went back to James’s office, he tried to call Zach again, still no answer. We went over a few more things that he had questions about. I reminded him about the stranger that visited on moving day.
He asked, “so you don’t know who he was, or what they talked about?”
I shook my head, “no, I didn’t hear any of the conversation and he left before I got outside.”
James said, “well, that isn’t a lot to go on Gabe, if you can think of anything that would help find this guy, we sure want to talk to him.”
As we were talking, the two officers from the scene came in carrying a bag with a tire iron.
James asked, “where did you find that?”
The other officer said, “it was in the area you told us to look, there was another struggle, it looks like the same shoe prints, we got casts to confirm. We also found a pool of blood, we think it will probably match the blood on this tire iron.”
James nodded, “get those down to the lab right away.”
The coroner stepped into the doorway, “oh, I would bet that that tire iron matches the indentation on the skull of our body. I’m still not positive that our victim was dead before the fire, but he was certainly unconscious. I think he was placed in the car before it was started on fire.”
James turned to me, “Gabe, I think it would be best If you went home, we have a lot of things to work on here. I will call you as soon as we confirm anything, please, I know it’s hard, but you have to let us do our job.”
I nodded, “ok, but please call as soon as you know anything. Please?”
He smiled, “as soon as I know, I’ll call.”
Mo and I walked out to my car, I sat there for a few minutes just trying to collect my thoughts. I started the engine and headed out of the parking lot, just as I turned onto the street, I saw the car that was at our house on moving day. I looked in my mirror, the car turned into the police station parking lot. I called James.
He answered, “Gabe, please I said I would call as soon as…”
I interrupted, “no, that's not why I'm calling, I just saw the car I was telling you about, he pulled into your parking lot.”
He asked, “the guy from moving day?”
I said, “yes, I know it was the car and I didn’t get a good look at the guy, but I think it’s him.”
James said, “ok, just go on home, I’ll go out and talk to him right now.”
Part of me wanted to turn around and make sure James got this guy, but I knew I needed to let the cops do their jobs. I went home and took a long hot shower, I dressed and fell back on the couch. I looked at the clock, it had now been 24 hours since Sam was kidnapped, God, it seemed like a year. I called our friends and informed them that the car had been found, I decided not to mention the body, still holding out hope that it wasn’t Sam.
My exhaustion must have caught up to me, I dozed off, waking about two hours later. I sat up and checked my phone to see if I had missed any calls from Officer James. I had no missed calls or text messages, I was half disappointed and half relieved. Mo hopped up on the couch with me.
I needed to get some air, “come on Mo, let’s go for a drive.” I put his leash on him and we started to drive around. I didn’t have a destination in mind, I was just driving around, but before I knew it, I was on the country road where the SUV was found. We got out of the car and just walked around the charred ground, Mo was sniffing around, and I was having a hard time keeping him under control. We got to the second area, where they had found the tire iron, I saw the blood pool and the footprints the officer had talked about. Mo once again jerked on his leash, he looked up and barked. I looked in the direction that he was facing, he kept pulling on the leash. I saw an old, abandoned barn about a half mile away, as I started to walk toward it, Mo pulled harder and tried to run. I said, “easy bud, I’m coming.”
We made our way to the barn, I noticed a few blood drops along the way. We got to the barn, and I started to walk around it, Mo had quit pulling and was sniffing around. He stopped just as I heard some voices. I found a door into the barn, there was a set of steps leading to the hay loft. The voices were coming from the opposite end of the barn. We went up the steps and started toward the voices, I heard voices change from talking to yelling and then what sounded like someone being hit.
I still couldn’t see anyone yet, I kept trying to quietly work my way to the voices. Suddenly I heard what sounded like several vehicles driving up and more shouting. Before I knew what was happening, I smelled smoke and seconds later I saw flames shooting up the wall and catching the hay in the loft on fire. I heard what I thought were gunshots and more yelling, I panicked and ran back to the steps that we came up. The dry wood and hay of the 100-year-old barn was perfect fuel for the rapidly moving fire. The smoke was filling the hay loft and Mo and I were finding it hard to find our way to the exit. I was still hearing yelling and one last gunshot. The flames continued to rise, and smoke was getting thicker.
Just as I was where I thought the steps were, I felt the floor below me give out and I fell to the ground. The fall knocked the wind out of me, and the smoke was filling my lungs. I felt myself getting dizzy, I frantically looked around to find Mo. I couldn’t see him and tried to yell, I took in another deep breath of smoke. Unable to yell, I started to cough, everything was starting to go blurry. I saw what I thought was light, I decided it was the door that I came in and tried to crawl toward it. The smoke was really starting to get to me, I knew I only had a few seconds to get out, I heard beams breaking and falling behind me. I was about to pass out as I looked toward the door. I saw a figure running toward me, he was holding a gun as he started to run toward me. I heard him yell, I couldn't make out what he said, another beam crashed down behind me. I tried to get up and run just as board from the hay loft that I had just fallen from come down across the back of my head and I blacked out.
