THE ROMAN LEE SERIES
"BENEATH DEVIL'S LAKE"
Thirty-Six
12:30PM
The single story run down home with peeling tan paint
was positioned on a corner of a dirt road.
A section of the eavestrough having been torn off left a string of old Christmas
lights dangling above an unkempt landscape.
Fast food bags along with empty energy drink cans were scattered on the
lawn. The address deceiving unless you
knew what you were looking for when searching for it. An older white Pontiac
parked in the driveway. We knocked on
the wooden front door a few times courtesy of a screen door missing its top
window.
A flash of eyes and teeth appeared briefly near the
top of the front door window. Lonnie put
his foot on the bottom of the screen door to brace it if the main door was
answered. Good thing he had done so the
door swung open and the dog hit the bottom screen bouncing back.
“Tiger get down. I said get down”
The dog immediately stood still as could be. A male in his 20’s answered. He had a slim build with neatly trimmed short
brown hair wearing a colorful pair of board shorts along with a printed shirt.
“Can I help you?”
I showed him my badge and ID.
“We would like to ask you a few questions do you have
a couple of minutes.”
“Sure, let me put my dog in the other room he’s not
too good with strangers.”
The door closed
and we could hear another one open and slam.
Lonnie looked at me all at once.
“Back door! Get the car now and get to the other side
of the block”
I ran into the neighbor’s backyard and could still see
the chain linked fence shaking where he had jumped over. I vaulted the fence and hit the ground
sprinting. Hearing the metallic sound of
another fence being mounted to my left as he had cut through another yard now
headed toward the street behind his house.
He made it across just before Lonnie got there.
“He’s going to the cemetery and try and make the
woods.”
He was already 20 yards ahead of me in the cemetery
running for his life. He stayed off the
little drives that weaved in and out between the tombstones and markers. I took off running after him. Playing basketball several times a week gave
me plenty of endurance to keep the pace. I eventually started to gain on
him. He was just a short distance away
from the ten -foot chain linked fence that separated the cemetery from the
thick woods. His breathing heavier and
now only a few feet behind him when he looked over his shoulder and went down
in a heap grabbing his foot. He had
stepped on the side of a grave marker and rolled his ankle.
“Why did you run?”
“I have some warrants and I didn’t want to go back to
jail.”
He was breathing hard and coughing trying to regain
his composure. We handcuffed him and ran
him through the system. He was telling
the truth. Brian Mates was wanted for
bond forfeiture along with breaking and entering.
“How long have you been contracting at Udrive?”
“A few months now since I got out the first time. It’s
the only job I could get.” “They don’t
run background checks and take a small daily commission from my fares.”
“Do you remember picking up a young woman with a pet
carrier at an apartment on Court Street?”
“My car still smells like piss and I can’t get the
smell out no matter what I do. She kept
apologizing the whole entire ride about the back seat. That dam cat had gone all over the cage
leaking out on my upholstery.”
Lonnie made eye
contact with him in the rear-view mirror as he drove.
“Where did you take her?”
“I dropped her off at that older Medical building in
the district.”
“How did she
pay you?”
“It was prepaid all I had to do was go and drop her
off.” “Who paid you?”
“I don’t know like I said it was prepaid. The corporate office might have it.”
“Do you remember if anyone met her at that building?”
“There was this guy standing there under the light
near the entrance.”
“What did he look like?”
“He had on this long white coat.”
“Did he look like a doctor or a lab worker?”
“It was kind of dark I’m not sure”
“Younger or older?”
“He was about my age I guess.”
We deposited Brian Mates into the county jail.
“Thought it was our guy for a minute?”
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