The Summer Job - 62. Dawn

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After getting to the bottom of the Allen case, Butler, Murphy and Daniels began to work their way through the other three boxes. In the first box they found Farmer’s files on forty-two Grayson students past and present.

All eight of the boys who were arrested the night before and six more were up front. Those who missed the bust including Doug Lambert.

Daniels had heard a lot about Doug. He was expecting a kid with horns and a forked tail. Looking at his file, Doug had two extremely high numbers. Farmer’s victimology index for Doug was the highest he had seen so far at nine point three. He checked all the boxes and Farmer had assessed him with Oppositional Defiance Disorder and ADHD. The second number that stood out was his IQ. Doug’s was tested at one hundred twenty-six.

Daniels muttered, “Well I’ll be damned.”

Murphy looked up from another file and asked, “What did you find?”

Daniels chuckled and said, “If you listen to some stories about Doug Lambert, you would think he was the devil himself. Farmer says he’s got Oppositional Defiance Disorder, ADHD, a genius level IQ and a severely alcoholic mother. He recommends foster care, but says: The current care model employed by CPS would be worse than useless in this case. Sending him to sing hymns and recite bible verses will probably make him homicidal.”

“I’ve got a very similar assessment with Jeremy Aubrey”, Butler said. “Farmer wrote: Jeremy is a good kid, but his home life is abusive and chaotic. He is a candidate for foster care but only with appropriate treatment. He’s big, angry, aggressive, has impulse control issues and hyperactivity. I’m managing his energetic ways through sports but, he really needs to see a good psychiatrist for medication and not the sort of ‘treatment’ CPS would provide.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa— stop the presses. I’ve got something here”, Murphy exclaimed. “Do you remember the traffic stop we had made tonight of a Richard Van Houten?”

Daniels and Butler had been listening to the radio and both nodded.

Murphy said, “He has a nice thick file here, and it has a post-it note in Farmer’s handwriting: read me. It turns out he only became a Van Houten after he was adopted. He was Richard Fuller. I remember that case but, did not know Farmer had anything to do with it. It was his first year at Grayson as Vice Principle- five years ago.”

Butler whistled and said, “That was the fall after he toe-tagged that Allen creep. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.”

Daniels grimaced and said, “It doesn’t get much uglier. We got a tip that the boy’s step-father was molesting him. We arrested the step-father for the sex charges and crystal meth. He’s not getting out any time soon and, his birth mother is doing a dime in the State Pen for dealing.”

Murphy said, “It looks like Farmer shepherded the boy through the foster care process like he had with some of the kids he met chasing Allen. This time he had a major run in with the new Director at CPS Emily Sturgis. She fought to control the treatment and custody of the boy, but the judge overruled her. There’s a note in the file that Sturgis told Farmer to do his job and teach and let her do her job. She would be making all the decisions about care, treatment and custody in these cases even if she had to get the State AG involved.”

Daniels said, “Politics.”

Butler said, “Big time. Emily Sturgis is a second level appointee. The Governor appointed her boss, the State Director of Health and Human Services and she in turn appointed Sturgis. If you run it up the chain of command, the official policy is to use faith-based programs where possible. County CPS Directors are in charge of executing those policies. That may sound like a good idea, but these kids need something a little more proactive than summer camp and Vacation Bible School.”

Murphy said, “That was Farmer’s conclusion as well. In his opinion, the state-sponsored care would only make these kids worse. He was trying to manage their behavior until he could come up with a better solution. Have we talked to any of the boys?”

Daniels said, “No. They lawyered up and, you’ll never guess who they’ve got.”

Butler grinned and said, “Who?”

Daniels grinned and said, “Miles Dannager.”

Butler and Murphy both laughed. The idea of a top-gun defense attorney representing the motley crew in juvenile lockup was absurdly sublime.

Butler said, “Well of course he is. Johnny Cochran wasn’t available. Does anybody else in this room feel like one of Farmer’s contingency plans just kicked in?”

Daniels shook his head and said, “Follow the white rabbit. At this point, we’re so far behind the looking glass, the rabbit is the only SOB in the room that knows what’s going on.”

Murphy said, “Something just occurred to me. You remember that last journal entry when Farmer said he had SEER training?”

Butler nodded.

“That’s not Army training”, Butler stated. “The Army calls that course SERE for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. I’ve had it and, it’s a real bitch. There’s only one group that I know of that calls it SEER for Survival, Escape, Evasion and Resistance.”

Daniels got it right away and said, “No way.”

Butler didn’t get it and asked, “Who?”

Daniels said, “The CIA trains fledgling spooks at a place called Camp Perry in York Country. Their SEER school is a modification of the way the Navy trains SEALS, and it makes the Army’s look like kindergarten.”

Butler asked incredulously, “Farmer was a Spook?”

Murphy said, “There’s a little six-year stint in his resume after college and before he became a teacher. He worked for the most notorious CIA front company in the world: Haliburton Global.”

Butler chuckled and said, “Well of course he did. What I’m still trying to figure out is why he killed himself. All of this would have come out in the wash.”

Daniels said, “Everything but the toe-tag on Jeffry Wayne Allen. A good case could be made for Murder One. He looked for the creep for six years.”

“I can’t believe any jury would have convicted him”, Murphy said.

Butler said, “I guess it’s like he said. He was fifty-something and wasn’t going to live out his life in prison. Are we satisfied that we know what happened now?”

Daniels and Murphy agreed. As soon as Deputy District Attorney Callahan was available, they would have a strategy conference and decide their next move.

“If you want a shower, it’s time to get up Doug.”

Doug Lambert woke to Farmer’s voice. The couch in Mr. Quinn’s man cave was so comfortable. He stretched and opened his eyes and was startled by the presence of a stranger with Mr. Farmer’s voice.

Farmer chuckled and said, “How do you like my disguise?”

Doug rubbed his eyes and got a good look. Mr. Farmer’s look had entirely changed. Farmer appeared to be much heavier and, his salt and pepper hair was all white. He was wearing a leather jacket, boots, old jeans and a ‘Born to Run’ t-shirt.

Doug said, “I never pictured you as a biker. It's cool.”

Farmer sat beside Doug on the couch and said, “We need to go over a few things. Our cover is grandfather and grandson going on vacation to the coast. When we get to our destination on Monday, we’re going to get on a 35-foot yacht and head out to sea.”

All Doug could think to say was, “Cool!”

Farmer handed Doug a wallet. He opened it and saw a school ID card with his picture and the name William “Billy” Bridges and, noted by the date on the card that he was already fifteen. He said, “This is really happening!”

Farmer said, “Yes it is. Now listen closely and remember. I’m your father’s father David Bridges. Your parents were tragically killed in a car crash last year and I have custody of you. This is what operator’s call a legend. It’s your backstory. You can go back to it if someone questions you, so you don't have to make it up on the fly. We'll add details to it, but it should do for now.”

Doug, now Billy, was excited by this and said, “It’s like having a story just in case you need one, right?”

Farmer said, “Right Billy. Remember to stay in character everywhere- stores, restaurants and even in hotel rooms because you never know who might be listening.”

Billy (Doug) asked, “Can I call you Pops?”

The grizzled looking biker Farmer now appeared grinned and said, “The more natural it sounds the better. Go with it. Now, take a shower and change. You’ll want to be wearing jeans on the bike. You’ve been here before right? Any fingerprints and DNA can be explained?”

Billy (Doug) replied, “Yeah. My pubes are probably still in Quinn’s drain, so it won’t matter. Come here. I want to show you something.”

Farmer followed the new Billy into Quinn’s bedroom where he showed Pops Quinn’s open safe and said, “I cracked it using a trick from the web about catching fingerprints with Scotch tape and superglue. I thought the cash might come in handy.”

Pops grinned and said, “That’s my boy. Those stacks are ten grand a piece. Reach in there and take two. We don’t really need it but, you might like to have some cash for the road.”

Billy (Doug) reached in the safe, extracted two stacks of hundreds and used his elbow to close the safe. Once the door closed, it latched shut with a solid sounding clunk. Billy put ten one hundred dollar bills in his wallet and handed the rest to Farmer to stash with their gear.

As he was headed to get his clothes for a shower, Billy (Doug) asked, “What do you mean we don’t need it?”

Pops (Farmer) said, “When Bitcoin came out in 2008, I saw it as a good, tax haven. I invested a hundred thousand in it and left it alone. We might spend it all if we bought and aircraft carrier and an attached air wing but, nothing short of that will really dent it. Best of all, Uncle Sam has no way to tax or track it.”

“We’re rich?”

Pops said, “I’m rich, and you are my beloved grandson. We’re going to have a lot of fun. Hurry up and get a shower. We’re going to leave out the back into the park, reset Quinn’s alarm and then call an Uber to take us to breakfast.”

Ten minutes later Billy was freshly showered and wearing jeans, sneakers and a polo shirt. After a little clean up, they departed Quinn’s house out the back gate and into the park. Pops (Farmer) pulled out his burner cell phone that had the Uber app set up. After dumping some trash, including Quinn’s alarm fob from the duffle bag, Pops summoned an Uber while explaining to Billy (Doug) what an Uber was.

It took five minutes for a nice college aged young man in a four-door Nissan to arrive and whisk them away to IHOP on the Interstate Frontage road. They had breakfast, left a generous but unspectacular tip and walked the short distance from IHOP to a rental storage unit Farmer kept under the name of Bridges.

He led Billy, who was now beginning to very much like the idea of a new start, to a storage locker. Pops took his keys out, opened the door and revealed a beautiful Harley.

Billy said, “Oh... oh man. No way!”

Pops stored his duffle with their few possessions, handed Billy one of the helmets and said, “No way without a helmet.”

Pops got on the big motorcycle, kick-started it, and it roared to life. Billy hopped on behind Pops. After a stop for gas, they roared off down the interstate headed south.