Deadly Stillwater

Ron grabbed Lich’s notepad and pen and drew a diagram. “I was just casually looking out the window – I was at a bit of a distance away from the vans, which were across the alley and to my right at maybe a forty-five degree angle.” Ron drew a line from his perch in the vacant house to the vans across the alley. “But something about the movement looked a little odd to me, so I went to the window.”

“What then?” Mac pushed, leaving his chair and taking a knee at the coffee table, looking at Ron’s diagram.

“I saw two men get out of the van on the left and get into the front seats of the van on the right.”

“What did they look like?”

“Big guys, easily over six feet. Big arms, shoulders, pretty defined,” Ron said, running his hands over his pecs and arms. “They’d done some weightlifting, I’d say, based on the way they carried themselves.”

“What did they look like?”

“Hard to say,” Ron said. “They wore baseball caps and sunglasses. I’d say black hair. They had darker complexions, maybe what looked like dark razor stubble.”

“That’s two men. Did you see anyone else?” Mac asked, looking up from the diagram.

“I didn’t.”

“Charlie’s told you what’s going on, right? Mac asked. “You know about the kidnappings we’re working?”

“Yes.”

“So did you see these men transfer a girl between the vans?”

Ron shook his head. “I saw them moving something between the vans, but I couldn’t make out what it was. It happened very fast, and the vans were kind of angled away from me,” he said, pointing to the diagram. “I could tell they transferred something between the vans, something that took two people. But I couldn’t see what and, at that time, I didn’t know about the kidnappings, so I didn’t really have any context for it.”

“Are the two men the only people you saw?”

“Yes and no. There was someone who jumped from the one van to the other, but other than seeing the blur of him jumping, I didn’t see anything else. I only really saw the two I described to you.”

Mac shared a look with Lich. Ron was on the level. “Anything else?” Mac asked.

“Yeah,” Ron answered. “There was one other thing about the big guys.”

“Which is what?” Mac asked.

“Did you ever see Forrest Gump?”

“The movie?” Mac asked, puzzled. “‘Stupid is as stupid does.’ ‘Life’s like a box of chocolates.’”

Ron nodded.

“Sure, what about it?”

“Remember the part where Forrest finds out he has a son? Then he goes and sits down in front of the television with the little boy? The way they’re sitting exactly the same, tilting their heads to the left at the same time as they watch TV. You realize they’re father and son. Brothers do the same type of things.”

“So you’re saying…”

“If I didn’t know better, I think they might have been brothers.”

“Brothers?” Mac asked, interested.

“Yeah. The way they walked, the way they swung their arms, along with height and physical appearance. It was very much alike, very similar. And then, the kicker was that before they both got into the van, they each crooked or rolled their neck to the left, like a nervous tic.”

“Let me get this straight,” Lich said skeptically, “you got all this watching them for a couple of seconds?”

“I know I saw them for just a few seconds,” Ron answered, nodding, “but the neck roll, the gait, you know it just… registered with me that they looked like brothers.”

“You think just brothers?” Mac asked, buying what Ron was selling. “How about this… could they be twins?”

Ron closed his eyes and stroked his bearded chin, trying to remember. “Maybe. It’s possible, I mean there were definite similarities between the two based on how they looked and walked. They were the same size. Complexion was the same.” He looked away for a few seconds and then nodded his head, “I think it’s entirely possible, but again, that’s based on just a few quick seconds.”

“So what happened after you saw them get into the van?”

“They pulled out and turned to their right, my left, went down the alley, and that’s the last I saw of them.”

“What did you do next?’

“I went back to eating my sandwich and then…”

“The van blew,” Lich said.

“That’s right,” Ron said, mimicking the explosion with his hands. “Then I hear sirens, so I bailed.”

“You what?”

“I bailed.”

“You fuckin’ bailed?” Mac was incredulous. “You see this and you fuckin’ bail?”

“There’s a reason for that,” Charlie interjected. “He has orders from me to avoid contact with the police at all costs.”

“Why?”

“It’s why I didn’t want Gerdtz and Subject here,” he answered. “Ron scouts for us. He’s unknown to my competition as well as the police. I want to keep it that way,” Charlie said. “I don’t want the authorities thinking I’m looking at moving into that area. I don’t want the police thinking I’m eyeing people up for a hit, because I’m not.”

“So why scout it?” Lich asked.