The Claw

Chapter 5. The Return Of The Claw

After the Kerry Greene funeral the community of Fred was in turmoil. Everyone in town was talking about it. Everywhere that Jane went people were calling her champ. Some would applaud her when she entered a store. She was surprised by the constant attention. People were talking to her about the incident with Alice.

She kind of enjoyed the attention though it soon began to become old. Most of the community was getting behind and supporting Kurt. When Kevin and Bobbie returned to Florida he was now alone.

Soon, the Howard's were having to deal with that person or creature making it's presences known again. The window was broken for a fourth time.

During their absence from town the window was fine. The Kerry Greene funeral had come and gone without any breakage. Now the attacker was back.

They called Jeff Darden again. After repairing the window he sat down with Clare and Jane for coffee and conversation. The window was conversed until it was beaten to death. They had said it all. Suddenly there was another crash. Clare and Jeff hurried to the window. No one was there.

Across the side street behind the row of evergreens they could see someone getting into a car. The car started quickly and left in a hurry. They watched as it made a right a headed south down main street. The car was a green color and large like an older Buick.

Jane was back on the phone with the sheriff. The squad car was there in a instant. Clare was sure it was a person with long dark hair getting into the car. Neither Jeff or Claire could be sure if the individual was a man or woman.

The police searched the South end of town and the two exits, M-66 and the Condensary Road. Neither search turned up anything. The green Buick had vanished.

Jane mentioned the incident with Alice Buttner. The Sheriff's office began an in depth investigation into Alice's address and the vehicle she drove. She lived North of town out near Rosa Lake. She could have gone South toward Ionia or East toward Carson City or even angled back around.

Alice did drive a large older Buick but it was maroon. Could the car have looked green through the evergreen branches? The police took her and her car to town. They parked the car in the exact location and then had Alice walk across the street. From the back of her head Claire believed it could have been Alice however, the car was definitely dark red through the trees.

Alice was probably not the person leaving the scene. Could they now take her off the list of suspects? The Sheriff decided to leave Alice on the list. Her hatred for Kerry and her run in with Jane made her public enemy number one. The other problem was that no one else came to mind.

The first time the window broke was a few weeks before Mr. Schultz funeral, then again a week later. Near the time of the visitation it happened again. Then everything was quiet for the duration of their visit to Florida. Not one window had broken during that time.

If the pattern had continued it would seem that there would have been breakage while Kerry was in the home. But her funeral had come and gone with no incident. What could the pattern be?

The attacks were not against the people coming into the home for services but the service providers. The police began going over the records of past funerals. They wanted a list of people that Claire and Jane did business with.

The suspect may be driving a green Buick and could be from the community or a neighboring one. They began a search of green Buicks in a radius of 50 miles. The search turned up 16 cars from 1985 to 2000 that were that color or near color of green.

Over the next few days each owners was contacted and the record of each owner was checked. When this search came up empty they began searching for persons that could have had access to those vehicles. Still the investigation was going nowhere.

It would seem that there may be a break but none came. The Howard's sent out forms for families to rate their services. Very few were returned and they where all offering high praise for services rendered. The Sheriff began interviewing people that had had dealings with the funeral home. The first search was the families of deceased loved ones then they went through the list of suppliers and past employees. This search was long and arduous with very little for them to go on. Soon the police decided to check for pranksters, young kids who were bored with nothing to do. Was it possible that a young person that had lost a grandparent or aunt or uncle might be upset. How about the loss of a parent?

This case was beginning to take valuable man hours and was not a case where lives were in danger. There was patrolling duties and other cases that garnered more time. A few of those involved murder or a personal threat to an individual. Still the community needed funeral services. If the place closed the nearest place would become Fremont. Now that was an angle. How about a competitor that wanted or needed more business? And again that angle soon dried up.

They were missing something but no one could figure out what. The man hours were needed elsewhere and the county just couldn't continue this investigation unless something changed. The Howard's were not happy about the harassment but as the Sheriff had explained that at least no apparent danger was involved. Clare was relieved about that himself. He could live with broken windows but if anyone touched lovely Jane the gloves would come off. He would challenge that person in the street. He knew that things could certainly get worse. As with all things, it would get out of control. Before this was done the community would go on a major ride. This investigation would become costly as the county spent unforseen man hours and dollars. The Howard's would be at the fore front of this entire situation.

But the perpetrator was no where in sight even though he was in plain view.