Chapter 72: Much Needed Detours

Early August, 1985

[When I shook Brock’s hand it suddenly became clear.

This was Sherman Leeman’s brother! Butch and Benjamin’s uncle.]

I knew I had to tread cautiously, even though it didn’t appear that Brock’s powers were very strong at all. Instead of trying to hang onto his hand, I let go politely. I took a chance and flashed Mary asking her to stay in my head.

It wasn’t necessary. She’d already picked up that vibe. I did keep my eyes locked on Brock, however.

During my two second communication with Mary it didn’t appear he picked up any of it. Even though he kept looking at me strangely, I got the idea that he and Sherman weren’t real close. The couple of flashes I’d gotten didn’t send up any red flags that he was in any way associated with the Mob, either.

I took a chance, flashing TJ and Janet about my discovery. I kept my eyes focused on Brock’s to see if he picked anything up. Even though I’d mentioned his name his facial expression never changed. I told Greg to pay attention to his driving since I knew he was looking through my eyes.

He chuckled, “Don’t worry my brother, we just stopped for gas so I’m not currently driving. Everybody is much more interested in what’s going on with you right now so we’re just gonna hang out here for a little while.”

I knew I’d used much more power to communicate with Greg who was nearly 500 miles away than I had with Mary or TJ. Brock’s eyes had a strange glaze to them suggesting that he may have picked up on at least some of that.

I told everyone we needed to go into ‘closed communication’ mode using the little icons in our heads. Once that was set I flashed Greg again but this time Brock’s facial expression didn’t change even the slightest.

I was getting the feeling that Brock might not be totally aware of his mental abilities. Not wanting to take any chances one way or the other, I suggested to TJ that he add Brock to the list of agents that we needed to be sent to Alaska.

TJ acted surprised flashing, “Are you sure about Brock, Charlie? Fred says he has been working with Brock for the last year or so and can’t believe Brock would be crooked. But then again, Tweedle, Deedle and Dumpling have been right under his nose the whole time and other that just not being very good agents, Fred didn’t suspect them either.”

I was hoping to glean some information based on Brock’s response to the orders. While admitting I could be wrong, I felt I just couldn’t take the chance.

Janet flashed that she had already been in contact with Deputy Director Hodgkins and the orders were being faxed as we spoke. She was going to make hard copies so that TJ could pass them out. Fred had been with her and came into the room carrying the hard copies of the orders.

Fred got everyone’s attention and passed them out. The three crooked agents’ response was predictable. When Fred informed them that they were to grab their ‘go bags’ and be prepared to leave within the hour they were at first panicked then extremely pissed off.

They knew that whatever was about to happen wouldn’t allow them time to contact their mobster friends

Brock’s reaction was somewhat different. He seemed to be shocked, but somewhat hurt. He kept looking at Fred for support but all Fred could do was shrug his shoulders in frustration. He quietly asked TJ if he could have a word with him in private.

I flashed TJ that I was nervous about that because if he was anything like his brother he could easily push TJ into countermanded the orders.

Either Brock was a good actor or just not guilty. TJ understood my concern. While Fred was trying to calm the three crooked agents down and get them ready to go, TJ consented that Brock should follow him into his office. He flashed me saying I should keep looking through his eyes but stay just outside the door in case I was needed.

We both needed to see exactly what Brock had in mind and what he might try to do.

I wished Mary and Sarah had been here with me but they’d done what I asked and went to visit Sarah’s boss over at the Tribune building.

I made sure TJ understood not to let Brock touch him.

When they went into TJ’s office, TJ went behind his desk and suggested Brock take a seat in front of the desk. A very nervous looking Brock took a seat then said, “Look Chief, I know you haven’t been here very long, but there’s some things I need to tell you. I think I know why Tweedle, Deedle and Dumpling are being assigned to Alaska on this cockamamie polar bear saving expedition. I’ve had my eyes on them for the last six months or more. I haven’t said anything to anyone but I HAVE been trying to accumulate data on them. I’m almost certain those three have ties to the Mob. It seems like every time we have a credible lead on any mob related crime by the time we get there everyone and everything has disappeared.

“I hope you and the Director don’t think I’m involved in any of the things I’m sure those three have been doing. If you look at my record, you’ll see I’ve had some decent success bringing down all types of criminals including those mob related. It’s just been the last six months where if any one of those three had been involved, no arrests were made. At least not with regards to the mob.

“I can’t explain to you how I know, but that new agent, Jack Jordan, isn’t who he says he is. One of the reasons I’ve always wanted to become a cop was because ever since I was a kid I could tell if someone was evil or not. Like I said, I don’t know how to explain it but I just can. When I’m putting cuffs on someone sometimes I get like a dream and know that there’s something they’re not telling me.

“I have a brother named Sherman who lives in Tucson, Arizona. For the last several years I’ve been going to this big ‘Jamboree’ they have up in Sedona, Arizona. They explore and talk about ESP and things of that nature. His two boys and my twins have always had fun taking these tests they have to see if they have any ESP abilities. They always seem to score quite high on those tests. Well, all except for my brother’s oldest boy, Butch, who says it’s all bull shit and he usually refuses to take them.

My twins, Bonnie and Bridget are very close to my brother’s youngest son, Benjamin. They’re all virtually the same age, being born less than a month apart. When they were just little we would put them together and they would laugh and giggle and play even though it seemed like they hardly ever said anything to each other. Butch always made a habit of teasing them, but usually just left them alone and went about playing with his other friends.

“I received a very disturbing phone call from my brother less than a week ago where he told me he believed both Butch and Benjamin had been killed by somebody named Charlie. He wouldn’t explain to me how he knew that since he said the murder happened not far from here out in the western suburbs somewhere. I knew he was calling me from Tucson.

“He wanted me to check into the circumstances of their deaths and report back to him. I’ll be honest with you Chief, I did some quiet digging on my own. The only report I was able to find had been filed by the Illinois State police. It only said that two young males had been found deceased, apparently having killed each other. The records had been sealed and supposedly since the next of kin failed to respond to claim the bodies they were summarily cremated.

“So I guess I’ll never know.”

I smiled when I heard TJ ask, “When was the last time you saw your nephews, Brock?”

“Well, Benjamin had been staying with us like he does almost every summer. He stays for three or four weeks before he and the girls fly back down to Tucson to go to this ‘Jamboree’ thing with my brother and one of the organizers of the event. The strange thing this time however, was that about a week or so ago, when I came home from work, Benjamin told me that he had to fly home for some kind of an emergency. He told me that I needed to drop him off at Midway Airport. He was planning to meet the girls in Tucson, then all of them were planning to ride up to Sedona with my brother.

“I haven’t seen Butch at all since last Christmas. Bonnie, Bridget and I always fly down to spend a week or so over Christmas break to get out of this godforsaken cold up here. Ever since my wife died of a brain aneurysm three years ago over Christmas break we’ve used that time to bond with the family.”

TJ said, “I’m sorry to hear about your wife. Did she have a history of blood clots or brain disease?”

Brock looked very sad, slowly shaking his head, “No, not at all. My brother operated on her for nearly 6 hours at the University of Arizona Medical Center. He was assisted by two of the best brain surgeons in the country. They said she died of a massive brain hemorrhage. There was nothing they could do to save her.”

I had a major flash at the same time Greg exclaimed in my head, “Oh my God Charlie! When Brad was putting me in that damn Tesseract one of the reasons I relaxed was because I had a vision that he had actually killed someone trying to do the same thing! Holy shit, I wonder if Brock has any idea that his nephew killed his wife?”

“I’ll bet he doesn’t, because I know that if someone killed Mary like that, nothing on God’s green earth could stop me from killing him. It wouldn’t matter if it was an accident or not.”

I was looking carefully through TJ’s eyes trying to ascertain that Brock was telling TJ the truth.

Not seeing Brock look away or down but only directly at TJ, I suddenly realized I had killed an innocent kid who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I flashed TJ a quick suggestion, then sat down to try and get my thoughts together.

TJ told Brock, “I’m very sorry about your wife. If there’s anything I can do, please let me know.”

Brock sighed deeply, “I know it’s probably out of your hands Chief, but this year I was planning on flying down to Sedona with the girls to spend some extra time with them. I have a feeling they’re not going to be able to go now, since I’m going to be stuck in Alaska.”

TJ looked at him directly in the eyes, “Brock, I’ll make you a deal. If you’ll fly with Tweedle, Deedle & Dumpling, making sure they get safely settled in Alaska I’ll see what I can do about getting you and your girls to Sedona in time for that jamboree. Would that work for you?”

Brock smiled tightly, “I’ll do that for you, under one condition. You tell me exactly who Jack Jordan is.”

I didn’t like the way he was looking at TJ when he finished saying that. It was a very leading question. Any answer TJ might give would reveal that TJ knew what my name really was.

Thankfully TJ didn’t rush into an answer.

“I’m not sure what you mean, Brock”, TJ said quietly, “if that’s not really his name then maybe I’m under investigation by the Director and this guy is checking me out too. The Director was very upset finding all the corruption both in Omaha and here in Chicago. It could be that he’s just covering all of his bases.”

TJ must have had a good poker face, as it appeared to me that Brock bought his answer.

Brock just nodded and said, “I appreciate anything you could do for me Chief. I know Bonnie and Bridget would be really upset if they don’t get a chance to go. They’ve had tickets for Tucson since before school ended. I’m not even sure they suspect anything may have happened to their cousins. I wasn’t going to say anything to them until I knew for sure.”

They both stood up and headed for TJ’s door.

When they got there, without thinking, TJ shook Brock’s hand. A cold shiver went down my spine when I felt, “I know there’s a lot that you’re not telling me, Chief. “

Seeing that TJ was looking directly into Brock’s eyes I pushed as hard as I could back to Brock, “and there’s a lot about your brother and your nephews, especially the oldest one, that you obviously don’t know. Just let it go at that for now, please!” With that, still looking through TJ’s eyes like a window, I gave Brock a slight mental shove that caused him to back unexpectedly into the door.

I heard the door rattle then I physically heard Brock say, “Jesus Chief, I’m sorry. What the hell just happened?”

TJ was shaking his head trying to clear the cobwebs, “I have no fucking idea! Whatever it was, I ah, certainly don’t want it to happen again!”

Through TJ’s ears, I heard Brock whisper, “Jesus Chief, it’s like I just had this really intense dream! I was just thinking that you probably know more than you’re telling me. Then all of a sudden, it was like I could hear you telling me that there’s some things about my brother and my nephew I don’t know and to just let it go for now. It was so damn real I could’ve sworn we were talking to each other! I sure as hell hope they have something to drink on that plane because I’m definitely going to need it!”

After hearing that last exchange my opinion of Brock softened considerably. Greg of course warned me that it could be a ruse but even he had to admit Brock seemed sincere. I was further convinced when Brock came out of TJ’s office and looked at the three crooked agents and said, “Come on guys, wheels up in 30 minutes. The sooner we get going the sooner we can get back. Just be glad they’re not sending us up there in January!”

He did give me a suspicious look but after hearing what he said I could understand it.

When he reached to shake my hand I made a seven-level decision.

Without hesitation, I quickly ‘pushed’ him a bundled vision. Figuring that he was going to spend at least seven or eight hours on an airplane I’d give him some food for thought. I sent him a packet so that he could see how the ‘Three Amigos’ had helped in Pittsburgh and Omaha. He wouldn’t actually see my image but many of his doubts and questions would be answered. If he had been playing us, then I may have inadvertently given him just enough ammunition to hurt us. On the other hand, if things went really sideways with Sherman he might just understand the truth.

Only time would tell.

TJ and Fred loaded up the four agents destined for Nome, Alaska and left for the airport. They would be taking the Lear that we flew in on. TJ flashed that they had a King Air that we would be using to fly back to Elk City, Oklahoma. He assured me that we would be there in less than four hours after we took off.

Hearing all that, Greg told us they were getting back on the road and estimated they still had a good 6 to 7 hours before they would arrive at Elk City.

It took about an hour for TJ and Fred to return from the airport. Mary and Sarah had returned from the Tribune building and were waiting with me. Sarah told me that Harry, her boss couldn’t wait for us to get back and hopefully convince me to design his dream house for him. We all knew that our future was very uncertain at this point so all she told him was, “I’ll do what I can, Harry.”

We decided to grab some lunch at the cafeteria before Fred chauffeured the five of us back to Meigs Field to get the plane ready for our flight to Elk City, Oklahoma.

If all went well, we should be there just a little before the rest of our family made it.

***

Brock Leeman’s POV:

I can’t believe I’m stuck here on a plane bound for Nome, Alaska; babysitting three Agents who should just be shot! I just know that one of the biggest busts against the MOB is going to go down and I’m going to be freezing my balls off stuck with my thumb up my ass. If I sound frustrated, then you’re reading me right.

In the last two months I’ve gone from hoping to be promoted to at least Assistant Section Chief of the Chicago FBI office to a damned babysitter. I’m not taking anything away from my friend Fred Callas. He and I have been friendly but have also been jockeying for position to take over at least the second spot when we heard that our Section Chief was going to retire.

Fred had the edge because of his help on a big case in Pittsburgh where two of our agents had been kidnapped. The bureaus involvement actually originated here, in the western suburb of North Aurora. Some young architect, scuttlebutt has it, uncovered a plot to use millions of dollars’ worth of stolen steel girders. The same architect somehow rescued his entire office from eight gang bangers who were masquerading as FBI officers.

Fred was already enroute to their location to collect evidence when it all went down.

The records were all sealed as to exactly what happened, but supposedly one of the kidnapped agents was actually a special civilian employee. Word has it we’ve used the guy for more than 10 years and it’s believed he is some kind of a clairvoyant.

Most people scoff at that idea but I take it seriously. You see, I know for a fact that my brother IS a clairvoyant and a very good one. However, on this particular case what got everyone’s attention was that there were supposedly more civilians involved whose abilities far exceeded ANY clairvoyant.

I don’t know if you’re aware, but when any cop gets kidnapped the odds of him getting out of it alive are very slim. Supposedly because of the incredible KIND of help these ‘Three Amigos’ were able to give, not only were the agents rescued but an entire corporate corruption ring and street gang were subsequently brought down.

The identities of all four of our ‘special friends’ are only known to a handful of individuals and they’re not talking. If that wasn’t enough, not long after, there was a supposed ‘Miracle’ that happened to two young teenage girls, where their near fatal injuries were miraculously healed. That led to the emergence of the ‘Invisible Man’.

The ‘Invisible Man’ made the headlines and news of every major outlet in the country. The Illinois State Police somehow even orchestrated an interview using pushing gestures and chalk. The interview outlined the fact that “Jonah” (The name of the ‘Invisible Man’.) was here to assist law enforcement in apprehending dangerous criminals.

The demonstrations were nothing short of mind blowing. This spirit or whoever he is has the ability to pick things up like a 20-ton truck as if it was a feather. The amusing thing is that his ‘trademark’ for when he thwarts a crime is to pull the criminals pants down around their ankles.

Another interesting thing about that is that just the week before, the Illinois State police busted another gang and a corrupt police department! It was believed that the ‘Invisible Man’ was instrumental in making THAT happen too.

That seems to be the first time he became involved in crime-fighting. Because all this went down in my backyard my brother was constantly pleading with me to get him all the information I could.

You see, my brother, Sherman, was involved back in the 60’s and early 70’s with an ESP group that the government was hoping could be used to create super agents. The government (CIA mainly) were hoping these ‘super agents’ would be able to communicate without using radios or words.

According to my brother, out of thousands who participated in the testing only five or six were found to have any clairvoyant abilities whatsoever. Of those, only one man whose name was Lenny Jorgensen, was ever found to be able to communicate telepathically and that was of course only with my brother.

My brother is convinced that the ‘Invisible Man’ could be Lenny.

Shortly after Lenny and my brother began working together, back at Area 51, trying to strengthen their ability to communicate telepathically, Lenny mysteriously disappeared. Within 24 hours of his disappearance, word came down that Lenny and his wife had been killed in a car accident and were burned beyond recognition.

My brother always made me promise not to reveal anything about the things he and I talked about. Anyway, that whole group got defunded when it became apparent they weren’t able to produce the type of results the government wanted. Sherman is convinced that he and Lenny COULD HAVE made it work.

You need to understand all of that, so that you might understand what just happened in the last week or so.

Not long after the Pittsburgh case was wrapped up, Special Agent Terrence Johnson, affectionately known as TJ, was announced as the new Section Chief of the Chicago branch of the FBI. My friend Fred Callas was moved into his second spot.

TJ’s work in the Bureau is almost legendary. It is widely believed that the clairvoyant that the FBI sometimes employees is closely tied to TJ.

Another case that the Chicago bureau was involved in, just before TJ became the new Section Chief was the kidnapping of Tribune reporter Sarah Reynolds.

The ‘Invisible Man’ once again saved the day when he rescued Sarah from the Mob. This guy, named Little Tony D’woplicksmi and his henchmen were attempting to use her to get their million-dollar yacht back that the Chicago Police Department had confiscated after it was found to be full of drugs.

Because of my brother’s intense interest in everything that had to do with the ‘Invisible Man’ that’s when he discovered that his old friend Lenny could be the ‘Invisible Man’.

It seems that on almost every case where the media had gotten involved, Lenny was always right there. My brother, Sherman felt sure that somehow Lenny had further developed his psychic powers to include telekinesis which is the ability to mentally move things. The incredible thing was, Sherman believed that Lenny actually had the power to fly! For me that whole idea was a stretch of the imagination. I personally believed that the ‘Invisible Man’ was some kind of a spirit. Thinking back on it however, that could be what Lenny WANTED everyone to think.

Anyway, I had no problem with TJ getting the promotion to Section Chief.

I knew that TJ had flown off two days ago to apprehend a crooked lawyer and his henchmen, who were representing a couple of mob families. They had been systematically strong-arming small businessmen into selling their businesses at less than rock-bottom prices.