[Superfreaks/ACRA] Superfreaks Season 2 #6
Martin Phipps
martinphipps2 at yahoo.com
Sun Apr 15 02:50:06 PDT 2007
Michael King, Mary Bailey and Frank Lopez: crime scene
investigators. John Phelps, Mark Johnston and Tom
Jackson: police officers. Jack Greenspan and Edward
Bailey: medical examiners. Alan Russell and Roger
Roeper: lawyers. These are the men and women who
are truly our last line of defense. But what about
the capes whose cases they have to investigate?
Should they be considered a help or a hindrance?
SUPERFREAKS SEASON 2 #6
"THE PHANTOM CYCLIST"
PART I
10:31 am
At the Commercial Bank of Pepperton, Lucy Lang
looked in her till and noticed a wad of cash missing.
She closed her windo and went to speak to the manager.
"There's some money missing in my till," she said.
"Are you sure?" her boss asked.
"Absolutely," she said.
"How much?"
"I don't know exactly how much."
"Then go back and count how much money you have in
your till and compare that to the amount of money you
are supposed to have there."
"Okay."
10:55 am
When Lucy was finished counting and checking, she
went back to speak to the manager to tell him the
results.
"There's one thousand, three hundred and fifty
dollars missing," she told him.
"Just like that? Gone?"
"Yeah."
"And you were at your window all morning."
"Until twen twenty when I noticed the money
missing."
The manager nodded. "Right then. You're fired."
"What?"
"Clean out your desk and go home."
"You can't be serious!"
"Do I look like I am kidding? One thousand, three
hundred and fifty is a lot of money and you're telling
me it was lost on your watch!" He leaned forward. "I
can't prove you stole that money. Not yet anyway.
But I can have you fired. Have I made myself clear?"
"Crystal clear," Lucy said and then went to clean
out her desk.
1:10 pm
"Can I help you?" Naomi, the receptionist at
Pepperton Precinct One, asked Lucy as she came in.
"Yes," Lucy said. "Can I speak to Detective Mary
Bailey?"
Naomi nodded. "Sure. She's in that office over
there."
"Thanks."
Lucy walked over to office Naomi had pointed out to
her, knocked on the door and went in when she heard
Mary tell her to.
"Lucy!"
"Mary! So this is _your_ office?"
Mary smiled. "No, actually it belongs to my boss
but he's away at a convention so I'm using it until he
gets back."
"Wow. So if your boss retires then this becomes
your office?"
"I suppose so. But he's not that old just yet. So,
Lucy, why are here? Is this just a social call?"
Lucy bit her lip. "I wish! I got fired today."
"At the bank? Why?"
Lucy sat down. "One thousand, three hundred and
fifty dollars got stolen from the bank today and my
boss thinks I took it."
"Why would he think that?"
"Because it disappeared from _my_ till."
"And you didn't see anybody take any money?"
"No. It's weird."
"It's not just weird: it's suspicious."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean whoever took the money had to have done it
so quickly that you didn't see him or even notice that
he was there. I think you must have been the victim
of a speedster."
4:35 pm
"Mr. Alda, I appreciate you coming here to speak to
me about this."
Gary Alda nodded. "Like I said on the phone though,
I never gave my super speed formula out to anyone."
Mary grimaced. "You say that and yet you had a
sidekick named Quick Kid back when you were Mr.
Quick."
"Right," Gary said, "but I never gave him my
formula: he was a mutant born with the ability to run
fast."
Mary raised her eyebrows. "If that's true then he'd
still have those powers. Do you know where he lives
now?"
Gary shook his head. "I never kept in touch with
Alan Barry after I quit being Mr. Quick. Last I heard
he had become a patient of Doctor Carlos Javier.
Maybe he can help you."
"Alright then. I'll go see him first thing tomorrow
morning. Thanks for your help."
"No problem."
9:45 pm
"We'd best get back to the precinct," Officer Mark
Johnston said.
"Yeah," Officer Tom Jackson said. "I'm beat."
Somebody suddenly ran in front of their squad car.
"Mark! Look out!"
Mark managed to swerve the car to avoid hitting him.
"Are you nuts?" Tom called out to him.
He appeared to be. "You have to arrest me!"
"Why?" Mark asked.
"I tried to mug somebody! But then HE arrived!"
"Who's he?"
"The Phantom Cyclist!"
PART II
9:01 am
"So who is the Phantom Cyclist?" Detective John
Phelps asked the suspect at Pepperton Precinct One.
"He appeared from nowhere on a flaming motorcycle!
And his head was on fire!"
"His head was on fire?"
"Yeah! And then he walked up to me and he looked
into my eyes and told me that I would feel the pain of
all those who I had made suffer! And I did! So I ran
off and found the police car and ran out in front of
it!"
John sighed. "Look, we can't hold you because we
never found the person who you say you mugged. Nor
are there any out standing warrants for your arrest."
"Nut I've been a bad man! Just because I never got
caught--!"
"Yeah, well, tell you what: you stay here and I'll
call a friend of mine, a Doctor Samuel Leonard and
maybe you can talk to him and maybe he will lock you
up."
"Thank you! Thank you so much! I can no longer
live knowing all the things that I got away with and
all the people who have suffered because of me."
"Yeah. Right." John shook his head as the guy was
obviously nuts.
10:02 am
"Hello, I'm Detective Mary Bailey of the Pepperton
Police. May I come in?"
"Yes, of course," the man at the door said. "You
don't remember me, do you?"
"Actually, I do. You're Scott Grey."
Scott nodded. "And this is my wife, Jean, and
that's our baby, Nathan. He was born just last
month."
"Congratulations. I'm actually here to Speak to
Alan Barry. Doctor Javier said he was staying with
you."
Scott nodded. "Yeah, but he doesn't like to stay
here during the day, not with the baby crying. He
likes to go play video games at the local arcade."
10:31 am
"Alan Barry?"
"What's it to you?"
"I'm Detective Mary Bailey from the Pepperton Police
Department."
"Okay."
"Do you mind not playing that game just for a moment
so I can speak to you?"
"Look, lady, I happen to not only have the high
score on this game right now but am way, way above the
second highest score. Why should I stop now?"
"Because it's important."
"I can talk to you and keep playing. You're not
bothering me: to me, it's like the game is in slow
motion."
"So you do still have your powers then."
"The powers I was born with. What of it?"
"Where were you yesterday at 10:20?"
"Right here in this arcade. Ask anybody."
"You didn't stop to run to the Commercial Bank of
Pepperton, steal some money and then run back before
anybody noticed?"
"Do you have any reason to think I did?"
"One thousand, three hundred and fifty dollars went
missing from the bank yesterday and all evidence
points to a speedster being responsible. Care to
explain that?"
Alan shrugged his shoulders. "Why don't you ask
somebody who actually was at the bank yesterday?"
"Okay," Mary said. "I'll do that."
11:00 am
"Excuse me! Excuse me! Detective!"
John sighed and turned to face the reporter. "What
is it?"
"I'm Janie Leland from WXPT News. What do you know
about the Phantom Cyclist?"
"The Phantom Cyclist?"
"Yes. What can you tell us about him?"
John laughed. "As far as I know, the Phantom
Cyclist doesn't exist: he's just the crazed imaginings
of a lunatic!"
1:02 pm
"Excuse me, I'm Detective Mary Bailey of the
Pepperon Police. Do you mind answering some questions
for me?"
"Make it quick. There are customers waiting."
"Did you notice anything suspicious yesterday
morning around ten twenty?"
"No."
"Are you sure? No sudden gusts of wind or anything
like that?"
"I said 'no'."
Just then Mary noticed something that broke the
case. "Excuse me, that clock, is it usually ten
minutes slow?"
The teller turned around to look at the clock on the
wall. "Oh that clock's been slow since yesterday. We
just haven't put it forward yet."
"What about your watch?"
"It's fine."
"And yesterday?"
"Yesterday my watch was also ten minutes slow as a
matter of fact but I reset it. What of it?"
Mary smiled. "Thank you. You've been a lot of
help."
9:02 pm
"Thanks for dinner," Janie Leland told her
boyfriend, Peter Storm. "I had a wonderful time."
"Are you sure you have to go?" Peter asked.
"Yes. Yes, I'm sorry. I'm just not ready."
He put his arms around her. "It's just that I've
got the hots for you."
Janie felt his body temperature going up. "You
certainly do."
"Oh no," he said, releasing her.
"What's wrong?"
"That isn't because of you."
"What do you mean?"
"You have to go. Now!"
"A moment ago you didn't want me to go. What's
going on?"
"Someone evil must be here in the neighbourhood.
Doing evil things."
"How do you know?"
Peter's head caught on fire.
"Oh my God! Peter!"
"I told you to go!" Peter jumped out of his window
and landed on the motorcycle he had left out in the
alleyway and sped off in search of the evil he had
sensed.
"Oh my God!" Janie swore. "Petey Storm is the
Phantom Cyclist!"
PART III
9:03 am
"Mr. Grey?"
"Ah, Mrs. Bailey! Alan told me you spoke to him
yesterday."
"Actually, Mr. Grey, I'm here to speak to you."
"Oh?"
"You were at the Commercial Bank of Pepperton
yesterday. You stole the money."
"No. Why are accusing me of--"
"Don't lie to me, Scott. The clocks at the bank
were all ten minutes slow after you left. You froze
time and walked in and out of the bank without anybody
noticing you."
Scott looked down at the floor. "We needed the
money. I just wanted to see if I could do it. I'll
pay the money back."
"That's not good enough, Scott. Somebody lost their
job because of you."
"At the bank?"
"Yes, at the bank. And she's a friend of mine."
"I'm sorry," Scott said sincerely. "Maybe I can go
speak to the bank manager and explain what I did."
"You can do that," Mary said, "but you're still
going to jail."
Scott panicked. "I can't. I have a son to raise!"
"You should have thought of that before."
"I just didn't think I'd get caught."
"Nobody ever does."
9:31 am
Peter Storm returned home to find his girlfriend,
Janie Leland, waiting for him.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"You saw?" he asked.
"Yeah."
Peter hanged his head in shame. "I don't remember
much after I transform."
"How did this happen to you?"
"When I was a kid, my father was dying of cancer and
a man came to me and said he could cure it. He cured
my dad's cancer alright but then he turned out to be a
daemon who now claimed the right to possess my body
and use it to battle evil as the Phantom Cyclist."
"That's weird."
"Yeah." Peter looked at her for a moment. "You're
not going to tell anybody are you?"
"Me? No."
"Because you _are_ a reporter."
"Right. Well, yeah, I was thinking of telling
somebody about this but I wanted to hear from you
first and, I'm sorry, but daemonic possession is not
the sort of thing WXPT reports on. I mean, it's just
way out there, you know?"
"Yeah, I know. I also know I have to live with it."
Janie looked at him sympathetically. "Hey. It's
okay. I'm here for you now." She walked up to him
and gave him a hug.
"I appreciate that. I really do."
9:58 am
"Hey, Michael, welcome back!" Mary said. "How was
the convention?"
Michael smiled. "It was fine. There was this guy
from Las Vegas who did an interesting lecture on
insects. You know, how you can tell how long a body
has been dead by the number of insects eating away at
it."
"Cool."
"There was also this weird guy from Miami there. He
wore his sunglasses every time he went out, even if it
was a cloudy day, and he talked really slowly. I
swear, after the lecture he went like this," Michael
said miming somebody slowly putting on sunglasses,
"it's time... to go... for lunch."
Mary laughed.
"And he was always squinting. Plus, he never looked
at you when he was talking to you. Almost never,
anyway."
"Maybe he has poor eyesight."
"Maybe."
"So how did things go with you and Lana."
Michael laughed. "So you spoke to Naomi then."
"You know Naomi. She's a real gossip."
"Yeah, well, I'll tell you what I told her: it's
none of your business."
"Hmm," Mary said, "so it was like that, was it?"
Michael gave her a sly smile. "Yeah. Exactly."
4:03 pm
John picked up the phone in his office.
"Hello?"
>>John, it's Susan. Katherine's gone.<<
"Gone? Gone where?"
>>That's just it! I don't know!<<
"Okay. Slow down and tell me what happened."
>>She just got back from school. She was standing
right in front of me. Then she just disappeared.
John, I think somebody has kidnapped her!<<
TO BE CONTINUED
Martin
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