The Voice - Part 24

“Oh, I see you don’t know. Alex Barto was masquerading as Ronald Thompson. He had been getting handouts from Kepler as well.”

“No, that can’t be. I checked him out myself. He showed me his badge – had all the correct credentials. I cleared him to work on the case. His name was Ronald Thompson.”

Lance could feel what Amy was feeling. Humiliation for allowing a killer to work the case. “Amy, it’s okay. Any one of us could have done the same thing. There was a Ronald Thompson who worked for the FBI. He was working on a case involving theft of the time portal information.

“My guess is Barto had him killed and then he took on his personality. Not only was Barto guilty of stealing the time portal plans, but he was also guilty of murder. We can’t prove that, but it makes sense. I think that’s at least part of the puzzle.”

“Oh guys, I’m so sorry. I feel like I should resign. I can’t . . .”

“There will be no talk of resigning as long as I’m Chief of Police, Amy. Let’s just continue to piece together what we can in the least amount of time. A witness would be nice, right Lance? Find me one.”

The week dragged by for Margie. She was anxious to plan her wedding with Lance, but he was working overtime on the case. She had to accept it. This would be the life of a police detective’s wife. She spent the night looking through magazines and on the internet looking at dresses, flowers, reception possibilities, and anything else that had to do with weddings.

The excitement of planning a wedding lifted some of the sorrow from the loss of Peter. Still, there was a hollow spot in her life. Lance filled it as best he could. About 8:00 o’clock, Margie drifted off to sleep on the couch with thoughts of happily ever after in her mind.

Happily after ever soon turned to nightmares. She revisited that first dream so many years ago. Peter was being chased through the woods. Someone was violently beating him. Someone filled with hate. Someone with a purpose. She awoke to the sound of someone or something at the door. No one was there – only the wind.

Again, she found herself in dreamland become nightmare land. Peter’s face kept appearing before her – distorted, deformed, dead. The wind was blowing harder. She awoke again. A third time she fell under the spell of her subconscious. While dreaming she heard the door open. She heard a voice. It was Peter. She didn’t want to wake. She wanted to stay in his presence even though she sensed she was dreaming. But the dream wouldn’t wait. She sat up. The wind was blowing out of control. The windows were rattling. The door hinges were creaking. But yet she could hear a voice. Not able to make it out she stepped closer to the door.

“Mom, let me in. It’s Peter. I don’t have a key. Mommm!”

The dream ended and reality set in. On the other side of the door, stood a soaked to the bone Peter. The storm was raging outside, but inside a warm peace filled Margie’s heart. Could it be Peter was really back?

Peter, out of breath, broke into short, staccato sentences. “Mom. . . I know…what happened. I know . . . who attacked me . . . but there’s more.”

Margie listened for the next three hours as Peter revealed the mystery of Medford Alley.

“Peter, you need to tell Lance. This will solve the case,”

“But Mom, I murdered eight people in cold blood. Some the police don’t even know about – yet. I know it’s the right thing to do, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in prison, or on Death Row for that matter.”

“Peter, you didn’t murder anyone. The Voice did, and we have to make it known. The Voice is the one responsible for this. There’s healing for all of us, but we have to start somewhere. Just be truthful with Lance. I’m sure he’ll be glad to hear all you have to tell him.”

“I know. Go ahead and call him.”

“Lance – It’s Margie. Listen, I think your case has just been solved. Can you come over – like, right now!”

“What’s going on? I’ll be over, but fill me in first.”

“Not a chance, Buddy Boy. Just get over here as quickly as you can.”

Lance knocked. Margie shouted, Come on in.”

Lance opened the door. Peter and Margie were sitting on the couch.

“Come in and join us.”

“What in the world . . . “ Lance uttered.

“Lance, here is your witness. Peter can explain everything. Take good notes, okay.”

”Okay. Okay so, um, Peter, what’s this all about?”

Lance listened for the next three hours as Peter once again relayed information about his time on the other side of the portal. The early morning hours passed quickly. Lance looked at his watch – 3:15.

“Excuse me Peter, Margie. I want Chief to hear this, and he needs to hear it now.”

Lance dialed Chief’s personal number. “Chief - Lance here. You need to get over to the McClanahan residence right away. I have your witness!”

If Chief was out of sorts at work, he was doubly out of sorts after being awakened in the middle of the night.

“Fisher, who do you think you are calling me at this hour of the night? Whatever you have can wait till morning.”

“Chief, I’ll wait until you’re fully awake . . . I said, I have your witness in the Peter McClanahan case. You need to hear this testimony first-hand. I’m at the McClanahan’s interviewing the witness right now.”

“And just who is this star witness?”

“Peter McClanahan.”

“What are you talking about, Fisher. McClanahan’s gone. Quit playing your late night games. I’m going back to bed.”

“No, really Chief. Peter’s back and he can answer all the questions we’ve been wading through. I’m not kidding, but we have to act fast. I’ll wait here for you.” And with that, Lance disconnected the call and sat back to wait for Chief. He knew Chief couldn’t resist his curiosity.

A half-hour later, Chief arrived at 2124 Dawson Street. Seeing the lights were on, he still wasn’t sure what to expect as he rang the doorbell. Margie directed him into the living room where Lance and Peter were already seated.

Chief sat down without saying a word as Margie spoke. “Peter, will you tell the chief what you’ve just told us?”

Sure, Mom. I can remember it all now, Chief. I went through the time portal at Medford Alley. Just on the other side, I was grabbed. I fought back. He landed a heavy fist above my right temple, where the boot heel kicked me. I felt a terrible explosion in my head. Pain covered my entire being. Never had I experienced anything like it before. I swung back even though I couldn’t see. I must have hit him pretty good because he fell hard to the ground and that’s when the time element began to spin out of control. I could see the past as well as the future. Through my stay there I found out that the man who grabbed me was named Alex Barto.

“But It all began weeks before I was attacked. You see, Doctor Kepler discovered the FBI had created technology that would allow them to construct a time portal. He thought if he could gain access to the information he could construct a portal at Medford Alley, which he did. His thinking was that he could charge a high price for people to go through the door into the past or future. He also began to piece together what he called The Perfect Crime. He looked at pulling off this crime as a show of power. If there are two things Kepler wants, it’s money and power.”

“So Peter, what is the perfect crime?”

“I’m coming to that. The attack on me so many years ago was not meant to end in my death. It was meant, by Kepler’s careful planning to get me to the emergency room on that night. He hired Marissa Powers to wound me severely. Of course, she was Marissa Richards then.

“Marissa and Tara Johnson offered me a ride on my way home from Steve Watson’s house. I figured, ‘sure, why not?’ I should have been thinking why.” They were the popular people if you know what I mean. Why were they even talking to me, much less offering me a ride – a red flag I missed.

“Marissa parked across the street from the entrance to Medford Ally. They got some marijuana and cocaine from underneath the seat. They wanted me to do some with them – red flag number 2. I refused. That’s when Marissa stuffed a gun in my face and forced me to walk with them through the portal. That’s where they attacked me.

“The attack took place in a different time period. That’s why I had no recollection of it. That’s why Doctor Welch’s hypnosis didn’t work. During my attack and during each of the murders I existed in the future, not the present. So when Doctor Welch would take me back to those periods of time in the past, I existed fourteen years in the future, not your present or past. The future can’t be recorded with time regression hypnosis.

“Anyway, the girls yanked me out of the time capsule and threw me, unconscious in the woods behind Montgomery Park. The plan was to get Doctor Bonard to operate on me after the attack. Kepler paid him 125,000 dollars to plant a transmitter in my brain. The boot to my eye – that’s where the transmitter was placed. Only one wound to operate. Nobody would ever suspect the scar was also from surgery. Kepler is clever. The terrible explosion in my head – that’s when Barto smashed the transmitter in my brain. At that point, I was no longer under the control of Kepler. I was aware of everything for the first time.”

Chief had to ask, “Peter, Detective Marx has studied time portals. Are you aware that he has been with you on the other side at times?”

“Oh, yes. Now I know, but I was aware of absolutely nothing before.” Now to explain Kepler’s part.

“He is The Voice. He would speak to me through the transmitter. He would hypnotize me through sound. I thought it was all coming from my own brain. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Once I was under his spell, he would order me to kill.

He already had the victims picked out. Alex Barto would be on the other side of the portal to search out the victims, then he would radio back to Kepler. The Voice would lead me to them, and give me the direction as what to do next. The Voice was Kepler’s, but Barto monitored everything, sending information back to Kepler in your present.

After the murders, he talked me back through the portal. Without his direction, I would have been lost forever in the future. Barto was paid another 125,000 dollars for his part.

“Lance broke in, “Peter, tell Chief about the monthly payoffs to Barto, Bonard, and Powers.”

Chief interrupted, “Peter, how do you know all of this?”

“Just a minute! Barto – he’s one nasty person, but I got him under control. I used the same knife on Barto that I used to murder those other men. He knew what that knife could do. But I didn’t kill him. He’s still around for you and your men to deal with, but he told me a lot while I had him by the throat with a knifepoint jabbing at him. Okay, now the payoffs, like Lance said.”

“It was easy money for Bonard. Once he talked to Powers and Barto, they were on board too. Bonard threatened to expose Ke[pler’s perfect crime. The three cornered Kepler in his office one night as he was working late, and demanded 10,000 dollars be deposited into each bank account once a month. They promised Kepler that if he failed to pay once, they would reveal his plan, but that they wouldn’t go to the police. They would take care of him themselves, and in a not so pretty way.

“Of course, if they went to the police, they’d be incriminating themselves as well.”

Chief interrupted once again, “Peter, you admit to these murders?”

“Yes. sir. I do.”

“But it was because of The Voice, um, Kepler commanded you to do so?”

“That’s right.”

“Kepler is the murdered, not you, Peter. If you are willing to testify to the facts you just gave me in a court of law, I promise you, you will go free. It’s Kepler, Bonard, Powers, and Barto that we want. Marx tried to explain it to me once, but how ‘bout if you give it a go? How were the bodies found even on nights when it’s been documented that you were home?”

“Those men were murdered nearly fourteen years ago, Chief. They were, however, murdered in the future. According to Detective Fisher, I couldn’t be held responsible for a murder I hadn’t committed yet, but I did commit the murder - in the future.Oh, I know it's so confusing. Anyway. . .

“Since they were murdered fourteen years ago in the future, after fourteen years passed, the future became the present and their fresh bodies were discovered as being killed in the present. The present caught up to the future.”

“The best I can explain my telepathy is that when the present met the future, somehow it must have registered in my brain as a time they were murdered in the past, which was fourteen years ago in the future.”

“Okay! Okay! You have me going in circles. But Peter, this is an awful lot to expect anyone to believe. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Oh, absolutely. I’m not sure I understand it all.”

Chief added, “I have to make sure you’re telling the truth, and not just trying to cover up for your crimes. You understand that as well, right?”

Peter nodded. “There’s still something you’re not getting, right Chief?”

“Peter, how did you get back in this time period? You said Kepler led you out, but this time, Barto destroyed the transmitter. You couldn’t hear Kepler if your life depended on it. How do you explain that? Because honestly Peter, your story doesn’t line up.”

“Oh, okay. I see where you’re coming from. I could have been back to the present a lot earlier, but I knew this. Barto wanted his money from Kepler. I just had to keep my eye on him, and I knew he’d eventually lead me back in time. I watched him like a hawk and he never knew it.

“Any other questions from anyone?”

Peter waited a few seconds with no takers. “Good. It’s been a long trip. I’m going up to bed. I’ve been so looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again.”