Hours had passed.
Jodi ate dinner at the Perkins restaurant next to the Motel 6 motel that night.
Donovan was not very hungry, so he bought some snacks from the 7-11 next to the motel and munched inside his motel room.
While they ate their meals, both Donovan and Jodi thought about their earlier meeting outside the Motel 6 by his car.
Later that night, both Jodi and Donovan relaxed in their rooms, thinking about their earlier meetings with Tiffany and Howie’s parents.
After Donovan drifted off to sleep that night, he had another dream.
In Donovan’s dream, he was a young lad and wore a Little League Baseball uniform for the Hawks.
He was on the pitcher’s mound practicing some pitches to the catcher.
Then he started up a wind-up, and when he was in the process of throwing the ball, he noticed that that young brunette girl was in the bleachers watching his every move.
His throw went way above the catcher’s head. The sight of this brunette girl in the bleachers instantly smote him. She was the same girl in his previous dreams, but she was younger. This was a dream of their actual first meeting.
Donovan woke up from his dream.
He lay in bed and could not get that brunette girl out of his mind. Why am I dreaming about her? He asked himself over and over again.
Then the more he thought about his thoughts started to drift off to thinking about Tiffany. He could not resist to snoop around, so he got out of bed and got dressed.
He rushed out of his room.
A little while later, Donovan drove his Buick to the police station.
He parked by the rear fenced in area off Thorndale Avenue.
Donovan got out of his car.
He scanned the area. The coast was clear.
He ran to the fence and started climbing it then scaled over the top and dropped to the ground.
Once he was inside the fenced area, Donovan ran over to Tiffany’s Buick.
Parked by the front entrance of the police station was a white 2012 Chevrolet Impala with a dented rear quarter panel on the driver’s side.
The driver got out, and it was Rock.
Then the passenger door opened and Christine Woodbury got out. She was a fifty-five married woman from Haneyville.
Rock and Christine both rushed to the front entrance of the police station. Rock immediately unlocked one of the front doors, and they rushed inside.
Back in the fenced area of the Sheriff’s office, Donovan creaked opened the driver’s door to Tiffany’s car.
He got a better view of the inside and saw it was filthy and it had a strong odor of mildew.
He sat down in the muddy front seat.
Inside the Sheriff’s office, Rock took Christine into his office and closed the door.
She took him by his hand and sat him down on his desk chair.
She dropped to her knees.
She unzipped his pants and lowered them down to his ankles.
“Just like those days when I was in high school,” she said while she lowered his boxers down to his ankles.
“You were a great cocksucker back then and are still a great cocksucker,” Rock said.
Christine smiled then started to give Rock a blowjob.
Back out in the fenced area of the police station, Donovan was still inside Tiffany’s Buick. He opened up the glove compartment door and checked it out. He found nothing of value, so he closed the door.
He got out of the front then pulled the front seat forward. He started checking out the backseat area.
Back in Rock’s office inside the police station, he was enjoying Christine’s blowjob. Then he heard a car door slam shut.
He got concerned and yanked Christine’s head off him and rushed to the window almost tripping over his pants and boxers.
He peeked out the window and saw Donovan climbing back over the fence.
Then he watched while Donovan rushed over and got inside his Buick.
“What the fuck is going on?” he said while he watched Donovan’s 1962 Buick Special drive away down the street.
“What’s wrong dear?” Christine said while she got up off her knees.
“We’ll have to do this another night,” he said while he pulled up his boxers.
“But I’m horny,” Christine said and then pouted with her arms crossed.
“Another fucking night,” he replied while he pulled up his pants.
After he got his pants back to normal, he grabbed Christine by her hand.
He rushed her out of his office.
Back at Ernie’s home, he sat in his living room. He sat on his couch and had his fourth Bourbon and water drink. The past events of finding Tiffany’s car and the visit by Jodi started up those memories of sleepless nights back in the 1970s.
Back at the Motel 6, Jodi was sound asleep in her room. She had a dream.
In Jodi’s dream, he was a young girl with brunette hair. She sat in the wooden bleachers of a Little League Baseball field. She watched while the Hawks warmed up for a game.
Then Jodi’s eyes widened the second she saw a blonde kid around her age on the pitcher’s mound. He was with the Hawks and was warming up with the catcher.
She watched while the blonde-haired kid started up a wind-up.
Then when he was in the process of throwing the ball, his eyes locked on Jodi’s eyes. The sight of that blonde-haired pitcher instantly smote her.
His throw went way above the catcher’s head. This was the same boy in her previous dreams, but he was younger. This was a dream of their first meeting.
Rock had spent the next hour driving around the streets searching Haneyville for that old Buick Special.
Then he pulled into the parking lot of the Motel 6.
He drove around and found Donovan’s Buick parked by a motel room.
He drove away and parked way down the far end of the parking lot.
Back in Donovan’s room, he was sound asleep in his bed.
Then a click sound was heard coming from his motel room door.
The door slowly opened, and Rock slipped inside the room. Rock quietly closed the door.
There was enough light in the room for Rock to see everything.
Then he spotted Donovan’s laptop on top of the small desk. He got curious.
Rock gingerly walked across the room and headed to the desk
Once he got to the desk, he opened up the laptop then immediately pressed the power button.
The laptop powered up and made the standard Apple sound. Rock cringed that that sound would wake up Donovan. It did not as all Donovan did was roll over to his other side.
Once the laptop powered up, Rock saw the items on the desktop. One item was a Word file titled “Murder in the Woods.”
He got curious and opened up that Word file.
Once it opened, Rock could tell that it was a manuscript once he saw the title page.
He scrolled down to the Prologue of the manuscript, and he started reading it.
What the fuck is this? He said in his head while he read the manuscript.
He got pissed then closed the Word file, deleted it then emptied the trash can.
He closed the laptop afraid to power it down, thinking it might wake up Donovan.
Rock then looked at Donovan while he slept in his bed.
He gingerly walked over to the bed.
He stood by the right side of the bed looking down at Donovan while he slept.
Rock reached inside his pants and removed his 9mm Glock. He aimed it at Donovan’s head and had fire in his eyes. He was ready to kill.
Then Donovan went into another dream.
In Donovan’s dream, a mysterious man escorted him and that brunette girl into the woods at night. That man wore coveralls and a ski mask and had a pistol aimed at Donovan and the brunette.
“Turn around,” said the mysterious man
Donovan and the brunette turned around.
“You’re a fucking coward,” the mysterious man said to Donovan.
“But you don’t understand,” Donovan pleaded.
“Fuck you,” the mysterious man replied then he fired off a shot.
The bullet penetrated Donovan’s chest. He dropped to the dirt.
Donovan shot up from his dream in a panic.
He looked around his motel room in a daze and got confused. He thought he was shot then frantically stated feeling around his chest. No blood was found. Then it took a few seconds for it to dawn on him that he had a dream.
But what he did not realize was that Rock was in his room with a pistol pointed at his head. Rock decided that a gunshot would add too much attention, so he left minutes before Donovan woke up from his dream.
Donovan glanced over at his closed laptop on the desk. He decided that his dream would fit in his story.
He got out from under his covers and rushed over to the laptop at the desk.
He opened it up and saw that the laptop was still powered up. He figured he forgot to power it down when he last used it to type in his manuscript.
He looked on the desktop and could not find his manuscript Word file.
He searched the laptop and still could not find the Word file.
He opened up Word.
He clicked on the Open Recent option in the Word program. He saw his Murder in the Woods as a recent file he accessed. He clicked on it. It came up as not being found.
“What?” he said while he started to panic. He frantically started searching all over the files of his laptop.
After ten minutes of frantically searching his laptop, he concluded that he must have accidentally deleted it. So he figured he would have to start all over again.
While it was still fresh in his mind, Donovan opened up a new Word file.
He started to retype his manuscript and this time, he planned on emailing him a backup copy to his email address.
Back at George’s home, he sat outside on his back porch. He had his third scotch and water drink in his hand. Like Ernie, the recent events of finding Tiffany’s car and the meeting with Donovan started up those memories of sleepless nights back in the 1970s.