The Jester's Court

Chapter 7: Wait and See

On Sunday mornin', I woke up on the couch with a splittin' headache. Again. I stumbled to the bathroom and found the aspirin and popped more than a couple. Maybe I should think about goin' to the doctor about the headaches. Hell, maybe I should go to the doctor about the apparent sleepwalkin'. Or, rather, sleep Jesterin'.

Oh, wait. I don't remember last night. Surely the Jester wasn't active again so soon? And, if I was really the Jester, where was my costume? I think it was time to search my house. But, first, I needed to try and get rid of the headache so I could think straight. Caffeine, here I come.

I made my way to the kitchen and made some really outrageously strong coffee. Then, it was a couple of scrambled eggs with cheese and a little bacon– okay, a lot of bacon– and some toast. I flipped through the news channels as I ate, lookin' for Jester activity the night before, but saw none. Thank you, Jesus, I said silently. With caffeine and food, the headache was almost gone by the time I was out of the shower and done with my mornin' routine.

Now, I began to treat the search as if I was the perpetrator which, of course, it seemed I was. So, where would I hide a spandex suit, a jester hat, and a mask? I decided to do the obvious first and went lookin' in my dresser.

I pushed around in the clothes in my dresser and found nothin'. I really hadn't expect to; I'd have found it by now. Next was the closet. It wasn't just hangin' in there so I rummaged around in the floor of the closet and found nothin' but really nice shoes. I always had good taste in shoes, I had to admit.

I didn't find it in any of the boxes up high in the closet either. So, not in the most obvious of places. I was relieved. Not so much that I didn't find it, but that I didn't find it in an obvious place. The Jester didn't seem to be a stupid guy so far, just bold. That meant I'd likely need to search in more creative places.

Now, if I were trying to hide somethin', I'd have a hidey-hole. And, in that tucked away place, I'd have a locked box, preferably one without a key. The question was, where would the hidin' place be?

I hadn't checked the workshop. Technically, it was in a bedroom, so there was a closet. I headed into the room and opened the door and pulled the cord to turn on the light in the tiny, dark storage space. I saw a wide variety of winter coats. Sue had left most of hers. I felt a twinge of sadness about that situation. I'd have to give the house a once over to make sure she had all of her things.

Nothing suspicious was was hangin' with the coats, so I parted them to get a better look at the back of the closet.

Well shit.

Hangin' there on hooks on the back of the closet in broad daylight, or rather closet-light, was the Jester outfit. Not even in a locked box. I'd have to fix that and hope that my alter ego had the sense to follow suit. At least he was kind enough to use those replaceable hooks so as to not damage the wall. Thoughtful, that.

There was a little door access in the back of the closet; access to what, I didn't know. Not the absolute best hidin' place, but at least not hangin' practically out in the open. I searched Amazon for a lockable box and ended up purchasing a tool box with a combo lock. I figured if the Jester had access to my electronics knowledge while he was busy and I was not, he'd have access to the combo in my head.

Box ordered, I did the best I could with the outfit. That meant puttin' it in a tote I had layin' around and shovin' it behind the access panel.

I backed out of the closet on my hands and knees, havin' had to be low to get to the panel, and stood up. Apparently, that was a mistake. I suddenly felt dizzy and I crashed into my work desk, hangin' on for dear life. I was seein' double and the room swam before my eyes.

I managed to sit in my chair and wait for it all to pass. Yep, time to go see the doctor about the headaches and now this. Something wasn't quite right. I mean, what if I was drivin' and somethin' like that happened? Oh, wait. I was safe from that worry as my car had been dumped into a fuckin' manhole.

It took about five minutes to fully recover. I was afraid to stand back up, but, in the end, I didn't need to; a new, unfamiliar project, on my work desk caught my eye.

I pulled myself closer and took a look. It was an odd lookin' thing... it was like a circuit board with a card reader on it. Okay, it wasn't like a circuit board, it was a circuit board. I found at least a dozen blank cards in the desk drawer. I had no idea what it was.

But, it looked programmable. Now, I'd taken a programmin' course here and there, but I wasn't, by any means, what I would consider to be a programmer. I mean, I could if-then-else things as good as the next guy, but I was doubtin' those simple skills were the only skills needed to do this thing. Yet, here was evidence that the Jester seemed to be. Or, maybe, he was just better than me at findin' code on the internet.

If the thing was programmable, then he'd have had to program it with something. I went to the other desk and fired up my computer. I noticed that a VPN service started as the computer did. That was new. Apparently, he had the sense to at least hide his searches from pryin' eyes.

That didn't stop the browser from keepin' track. I looked at it and, sure enough, there was a history of all sorts of codin' and electronics sites. I went to one of the programmin' sites, but needed a username and password to access it. I was afraid of trying to hack it.

I didn't like not knowin' what kind of plans he had. And, I didn't have a way of tryin' to figure out what the device was without potentially giving myself away. The only thing I could think to do was to leave a note. It sounded dumb, but, what else could I do?

So, I wrote a note asking what the device was and tucked it, and the device, away in the drawer with the cards. I hoped the thing was as relatively benign as it looked. I mean, it didn't look like it was part of a bomb, though, what would I know about bombs? I was a robot kit kind of enthusiast.

The questions of the day: Now what? What did I do with myself? I could tell that I had decided to not turn myself in. I mean, like I said, I'd lose my job and I really loved my work, even if I did work for the hippy cop with the trademarked eye roll. She wasn't that bad. And I loved my I'm-not-gay-but-he's-damned-good-lookin' partner. Well, loved him in a bromance kind of way.

I didn't like my options. But, I truly didn't know what to do. I was in shock or somethin'. I finally decided the only thing I could do was wait and see.