CHAPTER FOUR
Sheriff Kevin Hunter
YEAR: 2012
“Hi, honey. So glad you’re home.” Kevin started stripping all of his winter gear as soon as the front door shut behind him. Sheryl, his wife, greeted him with a kiss on the cheek. “There’s leftovers in the fridge for you.”
Kevin glanced at the over-sized wall clock hanging in the kitchen as he fumbled with the mail. Six Fifteen. “Sorry I’m so late,” he said and tossed junk mail back on the counter one-by-one. “I had to bring one of the Valenti boys home. He and some friends of his were making trouble at the Cemetery.”
“Couldn’t you have called?” she said from the other room, though it wasn’t accusatory. “I waited on dinner for a half hour before I finally gave Justin cold spaghetti.”
Kevin dropped the rest of the mail on the counter and went into the dining room, wrapping her up in a hug. “Honey, I’m sorry.”
“That’s fine, Kevin,” she said, unconcerned. She looked up at him and smiled wide, squeezing him tight in her arms. “I’m just glad you’re home.”
“You ever think, I don’t know.” He frowned. “Maybe I should give up being a Sheriff? Take some 9 to 5 job at a bank or something? I could spend more time with you and Justin.”
Sheryl grinned. “It’s always been part of our understanding. You do good work, Sheriff,” she said with a nod. “Having a little less of your time is part of the sacrifice I make. You get to do the work you love, this city is well protected, and I get a husband that is happy and satisfied with his life.”
“I really do wish I could spend more time with you and Justin, though.” He sniffed her hair, treasuring the brief quiet moment he could have with her. “Where is he, by the way?”
“Up in his room, playing with his trucks or something,” she replied, breaking away. “I don’t know if he wants to speak with you, though.”
“Yeah,” Kevin said to himself, watching as Sheryl cracked open the dishwasher and started filling it with dishes. “You know, maybe I was too hard on him.”
“He’ll get over it. He’s only six. Go on. Kiss and make up.”
Kevin took off his sweater, as well as the badge stuck on it, and walked up the stairs to talk to his son.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Kevin knocked on the door to his son’s room, but no reply.
He opened the door. Justin was kneeling at the end of his bed, taking his Tonka trucks and smashing them into each other, like trucks were meant to be played with, of course. “Hi Justin.” His kid continued playing with his trucks, a fire truck and a garbage truck, without a smile on his face. The police car was off on its own by the dresser. “Well, hi dad,” Kevin continued on, putting the words in Justin’s mouth. “Glad you’re home. I missed you.”
Justin kept his mouth shut and continued with the silent treatment. Kevin walked over to him and squatted down to his level. “Hey, Justin. I’m sorry I yelled at you this morning. Work has been kind of stressful lately, but I shouldn’t take it out on you.” Be honest with your son like an adult, no matter the age, he figured. Justin paused and put his trucks down. “Do you forgive me?”
His son looked up at him, as cute as ever even when he was mad. Then he smiled wide. “Of course I forgive you, dad,” he said, wrapping his arms around Kevin’s neck. Kevin hugged him back, grateful that it was so easy now. Another ten years or so and he’d be having a much different conversation. Hopefully by then he learned a thing or two more about being a parent. It seemed like he was always playing catch up.
The cell phone rang then. Kevin had to get Justin to let him go and dig the phone out of his pocket. He noticed Justin pick up the police car and drive it up alongside the fire truck so the two of them together could take on that garbage truck.
He flipped open the phone. “Hello?”
“Sheriff. This is Deputy Wentworth. We just got a call from Mapiya High, South Campus. There’s been a break in.”
Kevin nodded, immediately switching back to the role of Mapiya’s Sheriff Hunter in his mind. “Okay, thank you Deputy. I’ll head right over.” He shut the phone, ending the call, and slid it back into his pocket. “I’m sorry, Justin. I’ve got to run out again. We’ll play together when I get back, though. I promise.”
“Bye dad,” Justin said, not looking up from his trucks. Kevin felt a pang of regret that goodbye seemed to come so easy from his son. Maybe he was too used to this kind of thing now.
Kevin ran down the stairs and picked his sweater up off the bench. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?” his wife asked, done now with cleaning up the kitchen. “You just got home.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said quickly, grabbing his gloves and ear muffs back from the box under the bench. “There’s been a disturbance across town.” He stopped to look at her, longing to just stay home. Another night wasted. “You know,” he said solemnly, looking down. “I am going to quit one of these days. We can be more of a normal family.”
Sheryl grinned and pulled his coat together to zip it up for him. “I don’t want normal. I want you to be happy making a difference in our city. Go be a good guy.”
“Hopefully this won’t take too long,” he said, slipping his sweater on. “See you when I get back.”
THE EVENT
Daniel Martin and Kelly Reid, two members of the school board, were already waiting for him near the entrance of the school when he pulled in. Deputy Wentworth, the one who called him in, was standing and talking with them. Apparently the need for emergency was over. Kevin shut off the car and the siren died down.
He threw on his earmuffs quickly as he jogged toward the school, his feet crunching down on the fresh layer of fluffy snow. The hippodrome, a covered building for an ice rink, stood out in front of the school, wrapped in a way by the school’s L-shape.
“Hey, Sheriff,” Daniel called out as he came near. Daniel Martin, short, balding, and bulging around the mid-section, was Director of the School Board. Kelly, younger, pretty and Assistant Director, stood close to him.
“You just missed him,” Kelly said, looking back over her shoulder at the school. “We were just telling the Deputy here. We saw him go out the back and run into the woods as we heard the sirens.”
“Sorry about that. Are you two all right?”
“We’re fine,” Daniel assured him with a nod. “Just fine. We’re just concerned about the school, at this point. Hopefully you can find who did this.”
“Thank you, Deputy,” Kevin said putting a hand on Wentworth’s shoulder. “You can go back to the station and finish out your shift. I can look into this.” He had come all this way already, he figured. Best to take a look when everything was fresh.
“Will do, Sheriff,” Deputy Wentworth said, excusing himself with a hand on the brim of his hat in a sort of salute. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Take care ma’am. Sir.” He nodded to Kelly and Daniel in turn.
“What are you two doing here?” the Sheriff asked.
“We, uh,” Kelly stuttered. “There was a meeting... of the School Board.”
Kevin looked behind them. The school was dark and there were no other cars in the parking lot besides theirs. “Where’s everyone else? Aren’t there six of you?”
“Um,” Daniel started to speak, but took a moment to catch his breath. Daniel wasn’t a skinny man and it looked like he had been running. “The others went home; we called in the break in. We’re the only ones that stayed behind, to talk to you and keep an eye on the place. We didn’t want to approach the thief. Safety reasons, you’ll understand. If he was carrying a weapon, well, I didn’t want it on my conscience if anyone got hurt.”
“Okay, I’ll want to talk to each of them in the morning,” Kevin said. “Did you get a look at the intruder? Would you be able to identify him?”
“Yes,” Daniel said forcefully. “Definitely.”
“Great. Is there anything missing? Do you want to show me what happened?”
The Sheriff followed Daniel and Kelly into the school to look around. The hallway was dark so he took out his flashlight as they walked. “We heard him first when he broke into this locker here. He rifled through the student’s belongings. It’s hard to tell if he took anything.”
“Who does the locker belong to?” Kevin asked as he shone the flashlight on its contents. A few textbooks and notebooks, a backpack hanging open, and some knick-knacks; nothing serious or out of the ordinary, at least not of the things left behind.
“I... I believe this one belongs to Jack Sweeny,” Daniel said, rubbing his chin. “I’m pretty sure, because I was talking to him at his locker just this morning. We could check the records for you.”
“You can do that later,” Kevin said.
“Next,” Kelly pointed down another hallway. “He broke into a science classroom.”
“That’s interesting,” Kevin muttered, following Kelly into the room. Kelly turned the lights on for him. There were books on the floor. At one lab station a beaker was overturned, and another one in pieces on the floor. The teacher’s desk was a mess. Nothing stood out that told him what the burglar was after.
“Well, I’ll come by in the morning. We can talk with the teacher and the kids. See if we can find out what he was after. That may give us a hint to who was searching for it.” Kevin pointed to the station with the broken beaker. “Can you find out which kids in each period use that station, as well?”
“Certainly,” Kelly said. She flipped the lights off as they left the room and headed back to the school entrance.
“Thanks for calling me. It’s good to have concerned citizens looking out for me.”
The blast of cold air hit him again as he stepped outside. It was early, yet, but it felt so late with the sun going down so early in the day now as they went into December. He smiled and shook their hands, anxious to get back to his family. “Thanks. You two get home now. We can take this up in the morning.”
As he turned back and prepared himself for the walk back to his squad car, the sky lit up like day time. He noticed the sun almost directly above and to the south before he sheltered his eyes from the blinding brightness. Daniel and Kelly bent over to do the same. The heat blasted them at the same moment and as he started to recover from the light he tore his earmuffs and gloves off, leaving them on the ground.
The snow was already beginning to melt at his feet. The sun was quickly occluded by a rush of dark swirling clouds. “Is that what I think it is?” he heard Daniel call out above the noise of a sudden stiff wind. The clouds were swirling together and reaching towards the ground. Anyone who grew up in Minnesota would recognize the tornado forming right before their eyes.
“Get in the dome,” Kevin yelled at the others. He ran with them to a side door of the hippodrome and waited anxiously as Daniel fumbled for the keys, all the time staring up at the sky. The situation felt more surreal than anything, like they had suddenly entered a dream. The clouds in the bright blue sky darkened, turning together even faster now.
Daniel got the door open and they scrambled inside. The building was made of brick, pretty stable, so they found a corner to squat down in. Hopefully safe enough, given such short notice. Daniel wrapped an arm around Kelly, who sat shaking in fear. “What’s going on, Sheriff?” Daniel wondered, as if he had any answers.
Kevin shook his head. “I don’t know any more than you,” he said. He would wait just a little while longer. Soon the sound of the wind outside started to die down and Kevin stood up. “But I’m going to find out.”