Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 20:39:02 -0500 Reply-To: LNagy10434@AOL.COM Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: "Lawrence E. Nagy" Subject: THE JOURNEY OF JEREMY KELLER part 4/? Following is the next part of my Highlander Universe Story. It follows new chacters, but may meet up with familiar chacters in the future. This is a work in progress, any and all discussion, comments and critique are most welcome and appretiated. Enjoy Larry lnagy10434@aol.com PS: If you like this story and want to check out my few other posted works they are: alt.startrek.creative archives: THE VIGILANTE PROJECT FULTON (unfinished) HLFIC-L archives: HIGHLEAPER (unfinished QL/HL crossover) THE JOURNEY OF JEREMY KELLER "The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday" Part 4 It was an old house in one of the more affluent parts of town. The local police were able to gain access once agent Ropper found the place. It was difficult to find, they had to track every receipt in Newbury's house. One receipt finally led them to the security company who led them here. The house was an old seaman's home with large rooms and porches wrapping around both floors. On the roof was a classic widows walk. The lawn looked like it had not been mowed in weeks and the rest of the gardens were totally unkempt. Inside, the house was completely closed up. The furniture was covered and most of the utilities were turned off. "What are we looking for." one of the detectives said as the crew slowly fanned out in the house. "Anything that will give us a clue as to who Greg Newbury was and who may have wanted him dead." Anita said as she walked slowly into the parlor. There was nothing unique or personal in the house until the team searched the basement. Half of the basement had been bricked up and a large locked iron door was the only way in. "Well ma'am, what do we do now?" Detective Fischer asked. "That's easy." She then produced a large envelope from her purse. In it were a number of items from Newbury's house, some of which were keys. The door opened on the third try, revealing a vault of personal items. One wall had a large collection of high school year books dating back to the twenties. There were stacks of old photo albums in another area. The center of the room held racks of paintings, each painting carefully wrapped and catalogued. To one side, was a collection that looked like it was recently accessed, dozens of swords stood in a wooden rack, only their hilts showing for easy access. The rack of swords was not only dusted but cleaned and well maintained. It did not look like it was in a forgotten storage vault, but in a well kept museum. There was one empty slot at the top of the rack and several empty slots together on the bottom. One of the detectives reached for a sword but agent Ropper stopped him. "Please don't touch anything, I want these swords dusted." "Dusted, what do you expect, to prove Newbury was here? We can already do that." Detective Ficsher said. "No detective, I want to see if we can tie these swords to anybody else." She then looked at the rest of the room. "Well, it looks like this room should be able to tell us everything we ever wanted to know about the Newbury family." Just then Agent Ropper's cellular phone rang but cut out as soon as she answered it. "They'll call back. Detective, get a print team down here, lets see what they can come up with." The phone rang again as she climbed the stairs out of the basement. This time the connect maintaned. "Agent Ropper?" said a familiar voice. "Yes, sir." "They've found Newbury's car, your tickets will be waiting for you at the airport and a fax is transmitting now. Good Luck Agent Ropper." "Thank you, sir." Three airports and a long rode trip with an agent from the regional office later, Anita Ropper arrived at the scene. It was in the middle of nowhere, a lonely two-lane road and a tall bridge over a wide river. Rescue and emergency equipment lined the road on either side of the bridge. Food service and other amenities were also set up near the bridge for the workers. After parking at the end of the line, Anita and her new partner approached what looked like the command center. Sheriff's deputies and state police officers gathered around a van talking to a man in a diving outfit. One of the older men saw the two approached and came out to meet them. He went directly to the tall clean cut young agent, a well tanned healthy young man. "Agent Ropper I assume." he said holding out his hand. "I'm Sheriff Bigalow, I'm in charge of this operation. Your people alerted me that you'd be coming." "To bad they didn't describe me." Anita said. "It would have saved you from looking like a fool." The Sheriff looked at the short black woman standing next to him. He swallowed hard once then forced I smile "Sorry about that ma'am, my mistake." Anita shook the Sheriff's hand and said "No problem Sheriff, I'm used to it." she then indicated her partner "This is Special Agent Bateman our office liaison for your district." The two exchanged greetings then Ropper spoke up again. "Well, what do you have? The report said that you had the guy we were looking for." Bigalow looked a little defensive "Not exactly, what we have is the car. We just assumed that the body would be in the car." "What exactly do you mean Sheriff" "Let me show you." The Sheriff then escorted them to the bridge. He pointed out the hole in the bridge fencing and the large crane mounted on a barge two hundred yards down stream. "That boy was really flying when he went through the bridge, my deputies swear they thought he was actually going to make it across." The Sheriff lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his thinning gray hair. "Damnedest story I've ever heard, they said he was shifting gears right up to the end. What a way to commit suicide." "You mean he _is_ dead." "Of course he is, nobody could have survived that crash, especially at those speeds. His body must of washed out when the door popped open." "So you don't have a body?" "Not yet, its just a matter of time. We're already dragging the river below the car, we'll pull him out soon, I'm sure of it." "How long before they bring the car up?" Agent Bateman asked. "We've got a cable on it now, it should be coming up any minute." Soon, the red bumper of the Z28 broke the surface of the muddy water. The whole care was soon hanging from the crane. The front end was folded and bent up, the roof was dented and the front tires were blown. The driver's side door was open and the car's trunk was popped. Ropper turned to the Sheriff, "Tell everyone to stay away from that car till I get down there and look at it." "You want to go down there now?" Bigalow asked in disbelief. "They'll be bringing it over here right away." "Sheriff, the more we move the car, what little evidence that is left could be lost. Now that car and the barge stay right where they are at until I can inspect it, is that clear." Ropper spoke in very hushed clipped tones so that nobody but Sheriff Bigalow and Agent Bateman could hear her. "Very clear." The Sheriff said and quickly turned toward the bank and flagged down one of his men in a small fishing boat. Water continued to spill from the car as the three approached it on the barge. Anita looked under the car and into the open door. She then signaled the operator to lower the car to the deck. "Sheriff, did your divers search this car or in anyway alter its condition?" "Absolutely not. We may seem to be hicks, but my people are absolute professionals." "Then you may as well call off your dragging operations." "Why is that?" Ropper pointed to the trunk and the keys hanging out of the lock. "I don't think a dead man would have cared what was in the trunk." "That's impossible, no one could have survived that drop." Ropper then pointed to the interior. The seat belt had been cut by a very sharp instrument. "And look at the damage to the door." she said pointing to the inside panel of the driver's side door. The plastic interior panel had very distinctive foot shaped dents in it. "The way this thing landed would have wedged the doors shut. He had to force his way out." "You mean after kicking his way out of the car, the man took the keys, opened the trunk, retrieved something and swam away?" The Sheriff asked in disbelief. "It certainly appears that way, doesn't it?" After returning to shore, Agents Ropper and Bateman met with the rest of the officers. "Well, what did this man look like?" The men all looked at each other rather sheepishly. "Ah, ma'am, we never saw him." "He was in the car the whole time and nobody approached him since your bulletin said armed and extremely dangerous." Ropper tossed her pen up in disgust. "Agent," one of the men volunteered "I was on the bridge when he went over, I think he was white." "Well, that really narrows it down." =========================================================================