JC: Ed Biggers
Part 5: Stasis
Chapter 5
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

Ed, Albert, and two FBI agents sat in the local bar drinking cokes 
and talking to the waitress. The woman, in her early fifties, had 
seen more men come and go through the bar in her lifetime of 
working there than most women ever met in their entire lives. The 
four men at the table were the strangest that she had ever 
encountered. Winking at the woman and the bored manner in 
which she had greeted them, Ed said, "You don't seem surprised to 
have a Druid in your establishment."

"Hey, you work in a place like this long enough and you see 
everything. A couple winters ago, one of the regulars had a 
breakdown and came in here wearing an evening dress claiming to 
be the homecoming queen. We used to have a guy that came in 
here regularly that dressed up like Robin Hood, just like you, and 
that's old news. A guy in a robe is nothing compared to that," 
shrugged the woman.

Laughing at the easy truth that she told, Ed said, "I just love small 
towns. They are so down to earth."

The two FBI agents stared at Ed in surprise, not knowing what to 
make of him. They had been warned to expect anything from him. 
Rich Martin, the second FBI agent, suggested, "Shouldn't we be 
asking questions?"

Looking at him, Ed replied, "We are."

"Two suits, a Ranger, and a Druid. I figure the suits are Feds. So 
what are you doing in our little town?" asked the waitress.

Sitting back in his chair, Ed took a sip of his coke before 
answering, "Trying to solve a murder of a Ranger."

The waitress was stunned by the revelation. Uncertain, she asked, 
"You mean the hiker that was killed was a Ranger?"

"Yes, I do," replied Ed as he watched her carefully. Her reaction 
was physical, as though someone had just punched her in the 
stomach. Her hands immediately went to her belly as if it were in 
pain.

"Don't tell me that it was John that was killed?" she asked with real 
concern in her voice. Even as she asked the question, she knew she 
didn't want the answer.

Albert answered, "Yes. The hiker was John Wilkins. He was a very 
good friend of mine."

"Damn. I really liked John. He was such a nice guy. Always had a 
kind word for me when he was in town," she said with real grief in 
her voice as tears welled up in her eyes. With the anger that one 
would expect from a person that discovered their lover had been 
killed, she said, "I hope you nail who ever did it."

"That's why we are here," replied Albert.

Ed gestured to a chair and said, "Please sit down."

Numb, she moved to the chair and sat down. Looking up at Ed, she 
said, "I don't understand how it could have been him. I saw him a 
couple days before they reported finding the body. He wasn't going 
anywhere near where they found him."

Albert asked, "Do you know where he was going?"

"I thought so. He said that he was going to examine some of the 
places north of town. He said that he had heard that there were 
some rare plants up that way. Something about natural grasses."

Albert perked up at that and asked, "Did you say natural or native 
grasses?"

"I guess it was native."

"That would be a find. Too many of the native grasses were forced 
out by the introduction of other grasses. I'm sure that he would 
head there in a minute," Albert mused intrigued at the idea that it 
was possible to find a patch of native grasses. Such a find would be 
extraordinary. Looking over at the waitress, he asked in an excited 
voice, "Do you have any idea where he may have heard that 
rumor?"

Scott interrupted, "We are here to capture a killer, not to seek out a 
plant."

Holding up a hand, Ed replied, "It may be the same thing. The 
Ranger went to investigate the plant and someone killed him."

Albert glanced over at Ed with a questioning look and then asked, 
"Are you suggesting that someone may have lured him out with the 
promise of a rare plant?"

"Not suggesting anything, except that if he heard about a plant he 
would have gone out there to investigate it. Something may have 
happened while he was looking for it," replied Ed. 

The waitress watched the conversation as she thought about her 
last conversation with John. Most of their talk was of a personal 
nature and his comments about his plans were an afterthought to 
let her know when she could expect him back. It wasn't that they 
were lovers; she was old enough to be his mother. She said, "I 
don't know who gave him that information."

The group was quiet as each of them processed the news in their 
own fashion. The waitress started to stand up to go into the back 
and cry when Ed asked, "I saw the most amazing sight the other 
day, an owl was walking across a field. Has anyone else mentioned 
seeing a walking owl?"

Surprised by the question, she answered, "As a matter of fact, the 
Bauer boys were in here talking about seeing a walking owl about 
ten days ago. Lots of folks were teasing them about that."

Ed smiled and said, "Thanks."

After the waitress walked away, Albert turned to Ed and said, 
"Smart. I never would have thought to ask about that."

"Who can see that and not talk about it?" asked Ed. 

"I don't know. I'm not sure that I would want to meet someone that 
could see a sight like that and not be surprised or amazed by it."

The two FBI agents looked at each other puzzled by the discussion 
about a walking owl. Finally, Scott asked, "What's all this talk 
about a walking owl?"

"We saw an owl walking across the field where we found the beer 
cans. It was a very odd sight," replied Albert. 

Looking directly at the FBI agents, Ed said, "Albert has spent more 
time in the wilderness than anyone else that I know. He has only 
seen that sight once. Now, if two guys are boasting of having seen 
a walking owl, odds are good that they saw the same one that we 
did. That places them at the scene of the crime."

The two FBI agents looked at each other and shook their heads at 
how these guys had managed the discussion. They had gotten very 
significant evidence without the person from whom they had 
gotten the evidence even being aware of what they had said. Not 
once during the entire discussion had they flashed any 
identification or let the waitress know that they were doing 
anything more than just looking around. 

"I guess the next step is to find out a little about the Bower boys," 
said Scott happy to have something that he could do.

"First, we have to find out how to spell their name. I'm not sure 
that it is B-O-W-E-R or B-A-E-U-R. From the way that she 
pronounced it, I would suspect the later," replied Ed. Responding 
to a call of nature, he stood and headed towards the restroom to 
empty his bladder. On the way to the men's room, he noticed the 
payphone with the small telephone directory sitting on a shelf 
below the phone. Smiling, he stopped and looked up the names. 
There wasn't an entry for Bower, but there were about twenty for 
Baeur. 

After relieving his bladder, he returned to the table and, as he sat 
down, announced, "It is spelled B-A-E-U-R."

"Okay, how did you find that out?"

"Looked it up in the telephone book. When we get to the hotel, we 
can get out a map and plot out the addresses of the Baeurs in the 
telephone book to see who lives in the right area," replied Ed. 

Nodding, Albert added, "The right person could go to the Sheriff 
and ask about them in terms of following up on a walking owl 
siting."

"Why don't we go directly to the Sheriff and ask straight out?"

Ed laughed and said, "You don't know much about small towns. 
Everyone knows everyone here. First sign that you are hunting 
someone, that person can disappear for months."

Leaving the bar, Ed and the two agents went to the hotel while 
Albert went to get a map of the area. The hotel was only half a 
block from the bar and even at a leisurely walk, it didn't take long 
for them to arrive at their rooms. It was an old style hotel that had a 
single story with the rooms opening to the front of the building. 
There were one and one-half parking spaces in front of each room 
suggesting that it often had more clients coming by car than rooms. 
Curtains that didn't quite close all of the way covered the large 
windows. 

Ed went to his room and moved a table away from the wall so that 
the four men could sit around it. Going over to the small table next 
to the bed, he opened the drawer looking for a telephone book. 
Instead, there was a Gideon Bible. Looking at it, he laughed and 
closed the drawer. Opening the drawer of the table on the other 
side of the bed, he found the telephone book. 

He opened the door to his room so that the others could join him 
when they had finished their activities in their rooms. He knew the 
two agents were reporting on the progress to their section chief and 
calling their wives to let them know that it would be another day or 
two before they would be done. The telephone in his room rang 
and he answered, "This is Ed."

"Hello, Ed. This is Howard," replied his intern in a cheerful voice.

"How's it going?"

"Fine. We had the entire high school band out here. Most of them 
were painting the outside of the house.  A number of the girls went 
in and gave the house a thorough cleaning. Leroy fixed the wood 
chairs by taking them apart and gluing the joints. One of the kids 
actually knows how to fix the cover on the sofa. He's bringing over 
a sewing machine tomorrow. We are going to a store in a while to 
pick up some fabric for the sofa."

Ed smiled at the happy tone of voice in which his intern reported 
the results of his day. It had been a risk, but he had put the student 
in charge of putting things right at the old ladies house. Leroy and 
Ling had stayed there to see what they could do to help, but it had 
been Howard's show.  He replied, "Smart move getting the band to 
help out. Did Leroy supply the money for that?"

"No. It was Ling who came up with the idea. I thought it was 
brilliant and went with it. She offered ten thousand dollars to pay 
for band uniforms and new instruments," answered Howard. He 
was quiet for a moment and then said, "Leroy has been paying to 
get the materials for the outside of the house. There were a number 
of rotten boards that had to be replaced."

This was the kind of effort that everyone in the family enjoyed 
working on, the chance to help someone that was weak improve 
their life. In a way, he wished that he was back there working on 
the house. The chance to fix something and make it better was too 
good to pass up without significant soul-searching. Going out to 
face down evil was so much more difficult and never seemed to 
bring him pleasure. He joked, "We are going to make a Druid out 
of you yet."

Howard laughed and said, "I had better get going now. I've got to 
get to the fabric store. They are keeping it open late for us."

"Okay. Call me tomorrow."

"Sure thing." 

Ed listened as the phone went dead when Howard hung up. It was 
interesting how miserable Howard had been hiking through the 
woods, but enjoyed the hard work of fixing up a house. He set the 
handset on the phone and returned to the table. Looking at it, he 
realized that there were only two chairs. The agents would have to 
provide two chairs from their room if they were going to work 
here.

Albert entered the room holding up a stack of papers that were 
photocopies of a detailed map of the area from the country records 
building. Shaking his head, he went to the table and started setting 
out the papers. Taping pages together, he reconstructed the original 
map. Looking up, he grunted, "They wouldn't let me take the map, 
so I had to photocopy it."

For Ed, this was another sign that it was impossible not to like 
small towns. Things were done in their own way and according to 
their own timetable. Fighting the system made you pushy. If you 
went with the flow, you could get tremendous things done. No 
matter what, the first step had to be winning the support of the 
locals. He smiled, "At least they let you copy it."

"Yeah, I guess that's so," grumbled Albert. 

Scott and Rich entered the room looking at the effort that Albert 
was putting into reconstructing the map. Ed said, "Why don't you 
get two more chairs and help Albert identify where the Baeurs are 
located?"

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go talk to the Sheriff for a minute. I figure that if 
those boys can kill someone, then they are well known to the law 
for other little indiscretions. I'll use the walking owl story as a 
pretext," answered Ed as he headed towards the open door. 

Walking down the street, Ed took a moment to get a flavor of the 
area. It was interesting, but even though a lot of the men wore blue 
jeans and caps common to the men in Arizona, the leather work 
boots and flannel shirts changed the look from cowboy to northern 
outdoorsman. Even little gestures emphasized the differences. At 
home, the men would stand, leaning against something, with a 
thumb hooked in the front pocket of the pants with the fingers 
spread. Here, the men stood with the legs spread and hands in their 
back pockets with their hips thrust forward a little. 

The Sheriffs office looked like every other Sheriff office in country 
settings. The deputy, standing behind the counter, did his best not 
to look startled at having a Druid walk into the office. Intending to 
make Ed wait, his effort was totally undermined when Ed said, "I 
saw the strangest thing the other day. It was a walking owl."

The Deputy burst out laughing and asked, "A walking owl?"

"Yep. It was a walking owl. Marched right across a field like it was 
a little soldier. I was at the bar down the road and heard that 
someone else had seen the same thing. I was wondering if I could 
track them down and ask them questions about it," replied Ed with 
a smile. 

"You must mean the Baeur boys."

Snapping his fingers as though he had forgotten the name, Ed said, 
"That's the name the waitress mentioned."

"Jack and Jake have a place north of town, but I wouldn't go out 
there if I were you. They don't take to strangers coming on their 
place. If you want to talk to them, I'd stay down at the bar. They 
usually stop by there around nine or ten."

Ed nodded, "Around nine or ten? I can manage that."

The Deputy leaned forward and said, "I'd catch them before they 
drink too much. They have a tendency to get a little mean after 
they've had a few. Half the time, they end up in here."

Laughing, Ed said, "Sounds like I should come by here in the 
morning before you release them."

The Deputy laughed and said, "I wouldn't want to talk to them at 
that time. They are usually pretty hung over and very nasty."

Frowning, Ed said, "Sounds like you don't like them much."

"Ah, it's not that. It's just they're always in trouble. They have a lot 
of relatives in the area," replied the Deputy in a confidential tone 
of voice. He looked around and said, "Their uncle is the local 
judge."

"Ah. It's like that in a lot of towns. I was the bad one in my town, 
but I didn't have any relatives. Still, I never did enough wrong to 
end up in prison and never did enough right to be an honest citizen. 
Then one day, wham, my world changed. Quit drinking and started 
walking the straight and narrow."

The Deputy looked at Ed taking in the robes and asked, "Is that the 
day when you became a Druid?"

"Nope. That was the day when I met John Carter," answered Ed. 

"He's the head of the Druids, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is."

For the next few minutes, the two men talked about Druids, the 
local town, and general topics of mutual interest. In the course of 
the amiable discussion, Ed learned about everyone who was 
important in the town. He understood the small town mindset well 
enough to understand how things worked around there.

The next morning, Ed and Albert were scouting around the Baeur 
farm. On two of the corners, were scratches in the fence posts that 
let them know the Druid had been there. Albert studied the marks 
and said, "Greenhouses with undeveloped land. That's strange."

"Why?"

"Well, I'd expect them to be raising hops, but you don't need 
greenhouses for that. This area was once the hops capital of the 
country. They still raise a lot of it around here." 

Shrugging, Ed said, "They might be raising rare flowers."

"I'd like to take a look at the greenhouses," replied Albert with an 
unusual intensity.

"Do we have enough to go to a federal judge to get a warrant?"

"No."

"Well, we do this legal. Don't go up there without their 
permission."

Frustrated, Albert said, "He was my friend."

In an attempt to calm Albert, Ed replied, "And we will get his 
killers. I want to make sure that once we get them, they stay got."

"So what do you suggest?"

"I suggest that we go talk to some men about an owl," replied Ed 
with a smile. Looking over at Albert, he added, "I also suggest that 
you write a paper about that walking owl. I'm sure that if you write 
a paper, that they might like to know that they are getting credit for 
being one of the first people to have seen it. Of course, that means 
they have to establish the time and place that they saw the owl."

Confused, Albert stared at Ed wondering why he would write a 
paper about a walking owl. The phenomena was well known and 
not worth a paper. Shaking his head, he said, "There's no way I 
could get such a paper published in a journal of national 
reputation."

Frustrated that he had to spell it out, he said, "Just promise me that 
you will write the article. I'll co-author it with you, if you get stuck 
on the material. I'm sure that a number of ecologists might be very 
interested in how a natural phenomena led to the capture of a pair 
of killers."

The light went off in Albert's head, as he understood the point that 
Ed was trying to make. Knowing about Ed's truth sense, he had 
just made it much more difficult for them to present the idea to 
Jack and Jake. Rather than leave it as things were, he said, "You 
know. There are several interesting aspects about the walking owl. 
There are a lot of people that don't know about them. I would 
assume that one of the more popular outdoor magazines would 
enjoy an article about Great Barn Owls walking through fields."

Ed smiled and nodded at the fact that their task had just become 
simpler. The two men left the corner of the property and returned 
to the car. With ease, Ed backed the car to the driveway to the 
house. Rather than drive up, they chose to get out of the truck to 
walk towards the house. As Albert fumbled with a tape recorder, 
they walked towards the house.

Before they were even halfway up the driveway, a thin man 
stepped out of the house with a rifle. Ed waved a hand and called 
out, "Hello. Are you Jack or Jake Baeur?"

"Who wants to know?" shouted the man back to him.

"I'm Ed Biggers and this is Albert Mandel," answered Ed in a 
voice loud enough to carry to the house.

Noticing the outfit of the Ranger, Jake wondered if they were here 
to question him about the Ranger that he and his brother had 
caught looking in the hothouses. Rather than just shoot, he asked, 
"What do you want?"

Albert called back, "I'm working on an article about a walking owl. 
I heard that you saw one and wanted to see if I could include your 
account in the article."

"You're here about the walking owl?" asked Jake surprised that 
someone believed that he had actually seen it.

"Yes, we are," replied Ed. The answer was near enough the truth 
that he had little difficulty answering in that fashion.

"Stay where you are. I'll get my brother and we'll tell you about the 
owl."

Ed shouted back, "Sure thing."

When Jake went back into the house, Ed turned to Albert and said, 
"They really don't want us to go near their place."

"You're right."

"Don't even try to get close to the house. In fact, I'd recommend 
that we suggest going out to the road. Remember to let them know 
on the tape that this is an official recording and will be used in the 
preparation of an article or other purpose for which it may be 
needed," said Ed as he thought about how entering it into evidence 
might be a problem. 

The two brothers finally came out of the house. Ed noticed that 
both of them were wearing pistols. The brother that had met them 
on the porch said, "I'm Jake and this is my brother Jack."

Albert smiled and said, "I'm Albert and this is Ed. I'm considering 
writing an article about a walking owl that we saw the other day. 
We heard that you saw one too and wanted to give you credit for 
having spotted it first."

Jack shrugged his shoulder as though disinterested. Albert added, 
"I'm sure after the article comes out that everyone in town will 
believe that you actually saw a walking owl."

The two brothers looked at each other and Jack finally said, "Okay. 
How do you do this?"

Albert held up the tape recorder for them to see. Pressing the 
record button, he said, "This is Albert Mandel. I'm recording an 
official version of the events concerning the observation of a 
walking owl. This tape will be used in the preparation of an article 
or for whatever other use is appropriate. I am speaking with Jack 
and Jake Bauer. Would each of you please identify yourself for the 
record."

"I'm Jack Bauer."

"I'm Jake Bauer."

"You spotted a walking owl. I need to know the day, the time, and 
the location."

As the brothers went through the details under the gentle probing 
of Albert, they admitted to being at the spot where the body had 
been dragged into the woods, drinking a beer, and spotting the owl. 
The date matched exactly what the old woman had said, but they 
claimed to have only been there about twenty minutes; long 
enough to have a beer and take a piss by the side of the road. 
Albert had led them back to the car to draw on a map where they 
had been standing and where the owl had crossed the field. They 
were very evasive about their reasons for being at that site, giving 
an excuse that they were driving along the highway and decided to 
take a break.

Leaving the Baeur farm, Ed turned to Albert and said, "Now we 
have enough evidence to get a warrant. They placed themselves at 
the scene of a crime."

Albert growled as he said, "The whole time I was talking to them, 
the only thing I wanted to do was strangle them."

Three days later, Ed, Leroy, Ling, and Howard sat in a car parked a 
small distance away from the house watching as four state police 
cars arrived at the farm. Several of the state troopers got out of 
their car and headed to the house. Shots rang out before the 
troopers had even made it halfway up the driveway. After that, 
total chaos ruled as the men ran for the nearest cover, which in this 
case were their cars. The police returned fire while scrambling for 
cover, not quite caring where the bullets landed only that they were 
in the correct general direction.

Albert ran to their car and knelt down behind it. The occupants 
climbed out of it in an effort to put the whole body of the car 
between them and the house. Visibly shaken, Albert turned to Ed 
and asked, "Is it always like this for you guys?"

"Occasionally," replied Ed shaking his head as bullets hit the car. 
In an attempt to find something to distract himself from his current 
situation, he fished the cell phone out of his pocket as another 
bullet struck the car. Looking as if he was about to faint, Howard 
put both hands over his ears. Dialing the number to the house, Ed 
waited for Cathy to answer the phone. When she did, he asked, 
"Does the rental insurance on our car cover bullet holes?"

"I'll have to check. Can I call you back?" answered Cathy as 
Howard screamed, "Why are they shooting at us?"

"Sure," replied Ed. Another shot followed his statement and there 
was the sound of steam escaping at high pressure. He added, 
"Whoops, they just shot the Fusion Engine."

"I'll call you back," Cathy sighed as she answered wondering how 
many executive secretaries had to get answers to questions of that 
nature.

Ed hung up and turned to Howard. With a smile, he said, "The 
suspects figured out that it was Albert and I that caught them. I 
wouldn't doubt that they would rather see us dead than the police."

"The steam has stopped, does that mean it is going to blow?" asked 
Albert concerned about the Fusion Engine. Even thought there 
wasn't a recorded case of it ever happening, movies always showed 
Fusion cars exploding in a minor mushroom cloud.

"It won't blow, it'll melt and that will stop the reaction," answered 
Ed with the kind of calm that comes for actually knowing the 
answer. He had asked that question several times of John and had 
come to understand how the Fusion reaction would fail once the 
metal melted and relieved the pressure. The Fusion Engine was 
one of the safest inventions in a long time.

Swearing, Ling turned to Ed and said, "If you would let me carry a 
gun, they'd be dead by now."

"What would be the fun in that? We'd miss all this excitement," 
remarked Ed with a wry smile.

Albert stared at Ed incredulous at his caviler attitude. Ling laughed 
and said, "Right."

A bullet exited the window above Ed, having entered through the 
roof of the car. The glass rained down on him. Pointing upwards, 
Ling said, "It's raining glass and there's not a cloud in the sky."

The unexpected humor from Ling made Ed laugh. He had never 
heard her make any kind of joke while things were dangerous. A 
shocked Howard, totally unnerved by the violence, asked, "How 
can you laugh and joke at a time like this?"

Ed looked over at Howard and asked, "Well. What exactly are we 
supposed to do?"

Giving a battlefield assessment of the situation, Ling answered, 
"We are unarmed and seventy five yards from any better cover. 
We're stuck here and have to make the best of the situation."

Almost as shaken as Howard, Albert sat with his back pressed 
against the tire front tire of the car. He asked, "So you make 
jokes?"

"Of course."

"What do you mean, of course?" asked Albert as another bullet 
ricocheted through the car. He flinched and felt his stomach 
tightened. Too much more of this and he felt that he was going to 
shit his britches. It was clear to him that Howard was in much the 
same shape as he was. 

Ed turned his head to look at Albert. Taking in his pale skin and 
the sweat on his upper lip, Ed replied, "It's a whole lot better than 
sitting here thinking about all of the bad things that could happen."

"You've got to be the bravest person I've ever seen," remarked 
Howard with awe in his voice.

"Brave?" asked Ed as he broke out in laughter. Shaking his head, 
he said, "I'm scared to death sitting here."

"Well, you sure look calm to me," replied Albert.

"I'm doing things to take my mind off the situation. I'm looking at 
the sky, examining the plants in the area, and talking to you guys."

Albert looked across the road and thought about what Ed had said. 
Perhaps Ed was right, it was better to put your mind to work on 
other things and hold tight. As he stared, it dawned on him that the 
plants that John Wilkins had been searching for were growing 
along side the road. He burst out laughing as he explained, "There's 
the grasses John was seeking."


