Monday, 2 October 2000 (continued)
Blackthorne, Black and Munroe exit Penson Avenue before the SWAT
team arrive. Jane autopsies the body of Jack Renford. He had been
dead for approximately two weeks. The bowels had evacuated just
after death. His last meal was a beef burger that really contained
beef. It appears he was shot in the back by two .45 calibre rounds.
However, there is absolutely no sign of the bullets in the body,
and no evidence they were ever removed.
At 14:00 the SWAT team moves into the Jackson residence and all
hell breaks loose as the Jacksons fight back with an arsenal of
illegal weaponry. There is a fierce fire fight leaving seven of
the eight inhabitants of the house dead. No police officers were
killed in the operation.
Only Liza Jackson survived (she was carrying a .38 special). Richard
and Tom Jackson were killed while firing on police. Tom was carrying
a semi-automatic shotgun. Lola Jackson was caught in bed with Liam
Matombe. He opened fire on the police with an MP5 and she died with
him in the exchange. Two heavies Roy "Rosy" Black (illegally
modified mach 10) and Alan Rawal (.44) were also shot and killed.
A search of the house yields an M16, dynamite, further handguns,
ammunition in plastic lined wooden boxes and $300,000 worth of hard
drugs.
The police are jubilant, the locals are less happy. An angry mob
forms on the streets of the neighbourhood. It might have been contained
were it not for agent Harlow who inadvertently lost control of his
car and ran over a member of the mob. His car is turned over and
he is eventually dragged from his car and nearly beaten to death.
The mob attacks the Jackson residence and SWAT are forced to fire
on the crowd killing 37 people. Blackthorne orders Stone off the
scene. Eventually, the National Guard are called in who succeed
in rescuing Harlow from a private residence around 18:00. The unrest
is christened the "Birmingham Riots" and continues for
days. It is among some of the worst race-related violence Birmingham
has ever seen. The entire proceedings (including Harlow's car crash)
is filmed by CNN.
While this is happening Artemis Black drives out to more salubrious
suburbs to talk with Renford's widow, Lois and his son, Chuck. A
marshal (Bob Cates) is also present. Chuck immediately gives Black
the creeps. He is a forceful child who completely refuses to accept
his father is dead. When Black tries to talk about the matter to
Lois Renford, Chuck always interrupts and screams at him. Black
tries to talk to Lois privately in the kitchen, but Chuck tries
to kick his way in to get at them. There is something very odd going
on with this kid on a psychic level. The mother seems completely
cowed by the child.
Eventually Chuck's force of personality forces Artemis to flee
the house. He runs into the back garden where he falls into a grave.
A decomposing corpse is found in the grave covered in cigarettes
and flowers. As Black lands on top of it the corpse's eyes flick
open. Black runs from the house in panic.
In the evening agents Blackthorne, Stone and Munroe go over the
case. Nathan Harlow is in the hospital and will recover. Artemis
Black joins the group. He is complete denial about what has happened,
but Blackthorne sensed that something happened at the house that
completely freaked him out. Black doesn't mention the grave or what
he saw. He poo-poos the idea of going back to the house.
The agents visit a heavily guarded Liza Jackson in the hospital.
She knows nothing about the US Marshal. The only remaining lead
is to speak to the family, despite the objections of Artemis Black.
Blackthorne calls in a psychiatrist to evaluate Black.
Tuesday, 3 October 2000
Blackthorne, Munroe, Stone and an unwilling Black return to the
Renford residence. Black remains in the car. The three meet Marshal
Bob Cates and Chuck, and talk to Lois Renford. She maintains that
she last saw her husband on 1 October. As Blackthorne tries to inform
her this is impossible, Jane and Stone search the upstairs floor
of the house (looking for Renford's computer).
Chuck gets more and more restless with Blackthorne's questioning.
He maintains his father is not dead. Lois does not seem to notice
her son's behaviour as anything remotely odd. Suddenly two shots
ring out. Blackthorne has been shot in the back just as Jack Renford
was. Jane rushes draws her gun and rushes downstairs.
Once at the scene Jane is immediately bamboozled by Chuck and freezes
on the stairs. Stone quickly arrives and sees Jane with her gun
drawn and Blackthorne writhing on the floor, obviously shot. Neither
Bob Cates nor Lois Renford take any notice of these proceedings,
as if they do not see what is going on. Stone radios for Artemis
to come and help him. Artemis does come, but it takes him a couple
of minutes to get his nerve to leave the car. In the meantime Stone
stands off against Jane, he assumes Jane has shot Blackthorne.
Stone resists whatever effect Chuck has on people, which annoys
the child. Stone gets Jane to put her gun down. She is completely
out of it just like the US Marshal and the wife. Stone also talks
Bob Cates out of his weapon - Cates is unaware that anything is
amiss. Suddenly Stone hears a disturbance in the garden. Leaving
Artemis to deal with Jane, Stone exits into the kitchen and discovers
a zombie bearing down on him. Keeping his nerve he shoots it repeatedly
and it eventually falls. As this happens Chuck collapses.
An ambulance arrives to take away Blackthorne as well as the local
FBI. Artemis Black is interviewed by a psychiatrist who deems that
he is unfit for duty because he is too scared to enter the back
garden. Black returns to his hotel. This leaves Stone and Jane the
only agents left on the case. But Jane is still in shock from falling
under Chuck's spell. She is also sent home.
Alone on the case, Stone does everything he can to conceal all
evidence of the supernatural by tampering with the evidence. He
searches the corpse of the zombie and discovers an ID for drug dealer
Tic-Tac Loos. A little research allows him to discover that Renford
was searching for Loos at the beginning of the month. An autopsy
of the zombie eventually reveals that Loos was shot twice in the
back by a .45 calibre handgun - just like Renford and Blackthorne,
only in this body the bullets could be found.
Elijah "whitewash" Stone immediately takes it upon himself
to cover up this supernatural nonsense. He plants Renford's gun
in the Jacksons' house, thus implicating them as the murders of
Renford. He arranges things so that it appeared the Jacksons murdered
Renford and hid his body under the house in Penson Boulevard. Stone
explains away the shooting in the Renford house as Chuck playing
with his a gun. He later destroys the body of the zombie
Wednesday, 4 October 2000
Stone calls Blackthorne in hospital and tells him that he has changed
the evidence so the unbelievable truth will never come out. Blackthorne
seems to condone Stone's actions. Blackthorne recommends a psyche
evaluation for Chuck. Chuck is taken into a sanatorium where he
is destined to spend two months before being released. He has no
memory of the events of the past few weeks.
Later in the day the agents return to Wichita. Blackthorne is seriously
injured and must remain in hospital, although Harlow is able to
discharge himself a few days later. Stone takes some personal time.
Artemis has leave on psychiatric grounds.
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