Chapter 39
I had started to spend the weekend all alone in my little, old travel trailer on the hunting lease. Out there I had no phone service, no electricity and no worries. Being all alone was only the first part of my weekend plan that didn’t work out.
I had a swarm of visitors.
Saturday morning, I woke up with fire ants in the trailer, and moving into my sleeping bag! There was a brief battle, involving close quarters and hand to hand combat, followed by me scrambling out of the sleeping bag, and ending with me spraying insect repellent all around the base of the trailer, on the inside. Outside, I found the nest and it was a big one. It would have to be poisoned. I didn’t get to hunt that morning, because of the search for the nest, and I knew I also smelled strongly of bug spray.
If you’ve never been the victim of a fire ant attack, you’ve never lived where they live. Fire ants burrow into the ground at least six feet. They haul all the tailings from their deep delving up to the surface and build a mound. There may be several mounds above one enormous underground nest. They are opportunistic feeders, and they swarm by the hundreds, even thousands, when agitated. Every bite is slightly venomous, extremely painful and you can expect to be bitten multiple times. Small children, people with allergies and the elderly can be killed by them. They will kill and eat anything that doesn’t escape from them, whether animal, vegetable, or me and you.
Which is why, later in the middle of the morning, I was at the feed store in Henderson, getting supplied with fire ant poison to apply to the nest, when my phone rang. I had no cell phone service out at the hunting lease.
“J.W. this is Christine. Can you come over to the apartment right away?”
I could hear tension in her voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing is wrong, J.W. I just need you to come over and talk with Lori and me.”
I was alarmed. She knew I was going to be out at the hunting lease for the weekend.
“Well sure, Christine, but I’m in Henderson at the moment. I was planning to hunt later today. It will take me more than an hour to get there.”
“I was afraid of that.” She replied.
Why had she said she was afraid?
“Are you OK?”
“Yes, J.W., I just have a headache the size of an elephant. Get here as quickly as you can.”
She hung up.
On the drive to Tyler I rolled the conversation over in my mind. The first thing ringing the alarm bells was she had said she was afraid, then used the phrase “the size of an elephant,” Lori’s danger code. We had chosen it as the phrase Lori would use if she ever felt she was in danger.
The second thing confirming the alarm was Christine had called me “J.W.” She never called me J.W. Tony was the only person who did. Christine always called me John.
Calling me ‘J.W.’ might have been Christine’s way of telling me we were going to need Tony’s help.
Combining Lori’s alarm code, along with her other language, indicated she and Lori were in serious danger.
After a brief stop at my apartment, I drove to Christine’s apartment complex.
Tony met me just outside the parking lot, a couple of buildings away, and completely out of sight from Christine’s apartment building. There were police cars, two ambulances, a fire truck, and the armored SWAT vehicle parked there.
“Man, I don’t like this, J.W. I have guys in plainclothes observing her apartment. One of them went up the stairs and walked past her apartment. The door is closed, it appears to be undamaged, and all the blinds seem to be closed. With those reflective windows it’s nearly impossible to see into an apartment in daylight anyway. If Orlando has found them, he’s already inside the apartment. We don’t have a clear view of the doorway from down stairs. We haven’t been able to get a camera under the door. We have no idea what’s happening inside her apartment.” Tony was very agitated.
“Christine was clearly giving me a distress signal, Tony. They were in trouble when she called. I called back about thirty minutes ago, just to let them know I was on my way. She called me J.W. and urged me to ‘hurry over, before she loses her mind’. I’ve never heard her say anything like that, before today.”
“I understand, J.W., and I agree something is happening in there, but we don’t know for sure what the exact nature of the threat is.”
“Whatever it is, I’m going in.” I said.
“Well then, I’m going with you.” He replied.
“No. Whoever is in the apartment with Christine and Lori is expecting me and me alone. It might spook him if he sees two people coming.”
Tony shook his head. “You wouldn’t let me go in there alone, J.W.”
“We’ll play it the way it’s been presented. The people in the apartment are expecting me to be alone, so I will be. Tony, you can move in close and storm the place if there is any real trouble.”
“J.W., I have the SWAT team staged near the building and standing by, ready to go. If you don’t come out, with the girls, within five minutes, or if we hear shots or anything remotely suspicious, we’re coming in.”
“Thanks, Tony.”
“You’re welcome. Now don’t go getting yourself killed. This Orlando cat is stupid and he’s a dangerous dude. Once you’re inside, we’ll give you five minutes, J.W., not one second more, and then we’re going to come in hot. Try to keep Orlando, or whoever it is, from looking out the windows.” Tony instructed me.
“We don’t know for sure who is in there with them, but I’ll do my best.” I said.
“Good luck.”
“I don’t believe in luck.”
“Yeah, I know.”
I got back in my truck, and drove the short distance to Christine’s building. I parked just a few spaces away from the stairs leading to her floor. The parking space was directly outside her apartment. If anyone inside was watching for me, they would see me coming, but I couldn’t see them because of the reflective windows on the building.
I was still dressed for hunting. I had on camouflage pants and a similar camo pattern, long sleeve shirt. I was carrying my camouflage jacket, tossed casually over one shoulder. I was even wearing a camo print ball cap. I had on my beat up old field boots.
I looked like hundreds of men and boys all over the country who were dressed the same way every weekend, in hunting season. In this part of the south, because we only hunt on private land, we don’t have to wear blaze orange. Come to think of it, there are plenty of women who dress this way, or a variation of it, as well. At this time of year, a lot of us look like we belong in the cast of the TV show ‘Duck Dynasty.’
I trotted up the stairs as if I didn’t have a care in the world. When I reached Christine’s door, it appeared undamaged, but there was a very clear, dirty tennis shoe print, right by the door knob and key lock. On closer examination, I could see the door had not been kicked open, but there was something odd going on. Christine would never have allowed a dirty shoe print on her door.
I took a deep breath.
I knocked on her door with the old familiar “shave and a haircut” beat.
A moment later, Christine called out, rather casually, “Come on in, it’s open.”
I turned the knob and opened the door into the entrance way.
Down the hall, in the living area, Walter peered around the corner and smiled.
He was holding Mr. Tumescence, Christine’s cat.”
“Yeah, buddy, come on in.” Walter said.
When I stepped forward to go into the living area, something slammed into the back of my head, and the lights went out.