Free Candy

Chapter Thirty Four

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Sheila turned the boat motor back on and headed for the ramp at the UW aquatic center. It wasn’t a public ramp, but it was the closest place that she could get the boat out of the water. Steven told Sheila to drive to his apartment building, confront Mr. Willis and get this matter solved once and for all. 

After they pulled out of the lake, and drove to the building, Steven saw Mr. Willis hiding underneath his VW Beetle. Sheila drove the amphibious vehicle right into the parking lot, squeezing between the parked cars. 

Steven jumped out of the boat and started pulling on Mr. Willis’s feet. The man was holding on for dear life to the undercarriage of the bug and he wouldn’t budge. Sheila pushed Steven aside so she could get a hold on one foot and help him pull. Once they worked together, they managed to drag Mr. Willis out from under the car. His face was in a rictus of fear and his eyes were staring straight ahead.

“Mr. Willis, we don’t want to hurt you,” Steven said.

“Speak for yourself Steven,” Sheila said.

“Whu...” was the sounded that barely came out of the man’s mouth.

“Seriously, we won’t hurt you. Who is the other man on the bridge?” Steven asked.

“Whu... whu... why?” came the question from Mr. Willis.

“Why? Because we want to know!” Sheila shouted.

Mr. Willis cringed in pain with every word that Sheila uttered. His headphones had been dislodged when he was pulled from his hiding place. Now the noises of the truck engine and the traffic from the freeway and all the voices were deafening.

“Why are you doing this to me?” he asked.

Gretchen called the police when they pulled into the parking lot and the cruiser had just pulled up.

“What the hell is going on?” the officer asked.

Steven and Sheila dropped Cecil’s feet and he skittered back under the car. They both turned around to see that the officer was pointing his taser at Steven.

“Whoa, don’t tase me bro!” Steven said, raising his hands.

“This guy has been vandalizing our boats and may even be connected to a homicide,” Sheila said with her hands raised.

“Let’s get everyone sitting down and I’ll decide what’s going to happen. Can you turn that motor off?” the officer asked Sheila.

Suzi reached over and turned the engine off, so Sheila just stood where she was.

“Are there more of you?” the officer said, trying to see over the gunwale and into the boat.

Suzi and Gretchen leaned over the edge and waved to the policeman. “Just us two,” Suzi said.

“You stay in the boat. You two sit on the bumper of my car. I’ll see what’s up with the mechanic,” the policeman said, pointing at everyone in turn.

The police officer knelt down and started talking to Mr. Willis under the car. It took a couple of minutes, but something he said made Cecil crawl out and sit down on the fender of the VW. The cop snapped a handcuff on Cecil’s wrist and pushed the other end onto the bumper support, just to keep the disturbed man in one place. 

He took statements from Sheila and Steven and then called the detective that Sheila had been dealing with. The cop had to flip to a new page in his notebook by the time he had written everything down that Gretchen and Suzi wanted to share.