Into the Unknown

By C.S. Michaels

Jake Bryant woke up dazed and confused in his motel room after a night of dinner and drinks with a woman. Before he knew it, he was accused of committing brutal murders in Omaha and all the clues pointed to him. With the help of a local reporter, he spends the next several days eluding the police while searching the streets of Omaha to find out who was behind framing him for the murders.
While searching for the killers, determined to bring them to justice, he must be careful or else he could become the next victim.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.S. Michaels
• Release date: Aug 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311320001

Book preview

Chapter 1

Jake Bryant lay in bed with his eyes closed, listening to the sound of the rain hitting the window as the thunder echoed in the distance. He had always liked the sound of a hard rain, so he was tempted to get up and open the window so he could hear the rain and thunder more clearly. The only thing stopping him was the massive headache he had so he decided to just lie there for a little while longer.

Opening his eyes, he tried to focus on his surroundings. At first, he didn’t remember where he was, which wasn’t unusual. Jake lived an interesting life, to say the least, so it wasn’t uncommon for him to wake up in locations that most people would never dare to sleep. He typically would go to sleep wherever he felt like it, many times just sleeping under the stars.

Lying on his side, he looked around and remembered he was in a motel in Omaha that he had called home for the last month. It wasn’t the best place he had ever slept, but it wasn’t the worst place either. At least it was keeping him dry from the rain that was pounding on the walls, windows and door.

Lying on his back, he stared at the ceiling as he tried to remember what had happened the night before, but he was coming up with a blank. He remembered going out with a girl he’d been seeing for the last week. Her name was Jackie Black. Every time he thought about her name, he laughed. He had given her a hard time when he first heard her name, saying it sounded like Jack Black, the actor, although she looked nothing like the actor.

He liked Jackie and they got along really well with one another. She had long, brown hair that was cut in the latest style that some movie star had made popular. She was tall, almost six feet, and thin. Wearing her glasses, she looked like a hot, intellectual college girl.

He had met her one day after work when he was sitting in a bar in midtown. As he was nursing a cold beer he noticed her sitting at the bar alone. Glancing over in her direction, he had caught her smiling at him. After a few more glances, she was still looking at him, so he finally got the nerve up to go over and sit next to her.

He had introduced himself to her and asked her if she was waiting for someone. She said she was waiting for a blind date, but considering the date was thirty minutes late, she wasn’t about to give that guy the time of day. She said it was her blind date's loss and Jake agreed the other guy was stupid for not showing up. She asked Jake to join her which he gladly did.

They hit it off and had been seeing each other almost every night for a week. They would go out for dinner or drinks and then end up at his motel for the rest of the night. She didn’t seem to mind staying in this dump with him; she just kept saying she liked to spend time with Jake no matter where it was which made him like her even more. A lot of women wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like this motel.

His throbbing head brought him back to the present. Thinking she probably came back to the room with him last night, he figured she might still be in the room with him. Jackie, where are you? Jake called out.

There was no response. The shower wasn’t running so she must have left already, he thought. That was normal. Although she didn’t mind coming back to his motel, she usually left early in the morning so she could go home and change before going to work.

He continued to think about the events of last night. He remembered her coming to the motel after he was done with work and then they went to dinner and drinks at the Old Market, which was an area in downtown Omaha that had bars and restaurants. Even though it was always crowded, Jake didn't mind because he really liked the atmosphere.

Jake tried to force his brain to think back to last night, but he could barely remember what he had eaten or drank. He felt like he was hung over, which would be highly unusual, because he usually didn’t drink much so he could keep his wits about him in case there was trouble. He always limited himself to just a couple of beers so he couldn’t imagine that he would have had more than that. He had given up hard alcohol years ago because that messed him up and always made him go looking for a fight.

Jake sighed and figured he might as well get up. He sat up, swung his legs off the bed so his feet were on the floor and sat there for a second with his head buried in his hands. He really felt like crap, he thought to himself. Walking over to the bathroom, he turned on the faucet, filling a Styrofoam cup with water. The water was cloudy, but he had drunk worse so he chugged it down hoping to clear out the cobwebs.

Brushing his teeth, he stared at himself in the mirror and noticed he was still wearing the clothes he had on the night before. That was surprising because if he and Jackie had come back to the motel, he knew they would have undressed before climbing into bed. He must have gotten so drunk he couldn’t even get undressed.

He was starting to worry about Jackie now. Knowing they had gone out last night, he couldn’t remember if she had come back to the motel afterwards or not. Walking over to the phone, he dialed an eight to get an outside line then dialed her cell phone number. It went directly to voicemail so he hung up the phone.

He was really worried now because she always picked up her cell phone. In the week they had known each other, she always answered when he had called her. Then again, he had only called her a couple of times so maybe she just happened to answer those two times.

Deciding to take his mind off how he was feeling, Jake turned on the TV. He was flipping through the stations when he landed on a local station that had Breaking News, flashing on the screen. There was a woman reporter in front of a house that was swarming with cops. The first thing Jake noticed was how beautiful she was. She had long, straight blond hair and a slender body. She was wearing a nice black pant suit with a white blouse that looked terribly expensive.

Good morning, this is Shawna Williams reporting live from West Omaha, the reporter said.

Jake sat on the edge of the bed wondering what had happened but knew it was something bad because of all the cops milling about. We are standing outside of Ron and Judy Darwin’s house, she continued. According to a source close to the investigation, there have been two people brutally murdered inside of this house.

Jake had no idea who they were, but they must have been rich people because the house in the background was huge. It was a large two-story house that was made of brick. It had a circular drive with a black wrought iron gate around the entire property. The gate wasn’t really meant to keep people out. It was more decorative than anything else.

Jake just shook his head in disbelief. He never could understand why people lived as lavishly as they did, often wondering if they lived like that to show off their wealth. There were a lot of other things that Jake would prefer to spend his money on rather than a huge house. But everyone had different priorities, he knew.

The police haven’t confirmed who the two victims are, but according to one source they have reason to believe it is Mr. and Mrs. Darwin. From what we’re being told, the police think it happened early this morning.

The camera zoomed back so they had a clear picture of the house. Two people were pushing a gurney which had a black canvas bag, obviously concealing a dead body. A minute later, two more people came out of the house pushing a second gurney with the other dead body.

The camera focused on the reporter again. As you can see, they’re removing the bodies now.

The TV flashed to the anchor sitting behind a desk. Shawna, have the police said anything about the motive? he asked.

The police aren’t saying much at this time, Shawna replied. I was told by an anonymous source it looked like it was a robbery that had gone terribly wrong. That’s all they’re saying so far.

Do the police think these are related to the Strasburgh and Hansen killings? the anchor asked.

I asked the police that question and they’re not confirming or denying it at this time. However, it seems to be similar to those slayings as well. The Strasburgh’s and the Hansen’s were very affluent like the Darwin’s. They were also found dead in their homes in an apparent robbery. Although we don’t know all the details at this time, the murders do seem similar in the fact they were brutally murdered and then robbed.

The reporter saw a detective walking out of the house so the camera followed her as she quickly made her way to him. Excuse me Detective, she said. Have the crime scene technicians found anything that would point to who may have done this? Is this related to the Strasburgh and Hansen killings?

I can’t comment on an active investigation, the Detective said, clearly agitated about being bothered by the reporter. He quickly made his way past her and walked away as the camera followed him then settled back on Shawna.

As the reporter continued talking about the murders, Jake decided he was in no mood to watch such depressing news, so he turned the TV off. He stood up and walked around the room for a few minutes, trying to clear his head. Normally he would go for a run, but the way he was feeling there was no way he was in a mood for a run today.

He decided a shower would do him some good, so he started taking everything out of his pockets, placing the items on the night stand. As he was taking the change out of his pockets, he dropped a quarter onto the floor. Slowly bending down to pick up the quarter, something under the bed caught his eye.

He inched closer to the bed so he could get a better view then saw what looked like a knife. He was about ready to reach for it when he noticed there looked to be blood on the blade. Alarm bells started going off in his head. Deciding he better not touch it with his hands, he went to the bathroom and grabbed a hand towel.

Walking back to the edge of the bed, he bent down and using the hand towel he grabbed the knife by the handle. He stood up, examining the knife closely. It definitely had blood on the blade and he was reasonably sure it was his knife. Patting down his pockets with his left hand, his knife wasn’t in any of his pockets so he knew this was his. He always carried his knife with him, so he had no idea how the knife ended up with blood on it and how it found its way under the bed.

One thing was for sure, blood on a knife was never a good thing. He knew he needed to get rid of it as fast as he could. First though, he took the hand towel and wiped off the knife because he knew his prints were on the handle. He wasn’t sure if the blade had his prints on it, but thought it did so he wiped that down too.

Now he had a knife that was obviously used for some kind of malice and he had a hand towel with blood all over it. He knew he was going to have to get rid of both of them in a location that could not be traced back to him. He thought the best solution was to go for a walk and dispose of them in a garbage bin somewhere far away from his motel.

As he was contemplating what to do with the knife, there was a knock on the door accompanied by a woman’s voice. Housekeeping, she said.

Jake looked at the clock on the night stand and saw that it said ten seventeen. He was shocked that it was so late in the morning because he never slept that late. He was always up around seven in the morning no matter what time he went to bed. The lateness of the morning would explain why housekeeping was at the door.

He would just tell housekeeping to come back later. As he walked over to the door, he heard several other voices outside. In the month he had been there, he had never seen many people at the motel, let alone heard people talking. Another alarm went off in his head as he knew something wasn’t right about the situation.

Thinking about what to do, he decided he didn’t want the knife in the room any longer than it needed to be, so he walked to the bathroom. There was a small window about five feet off the floor. The window was only two feet wide and two feet tall, but it would do. He would be able to toss it out the window and retrieve it later when it was safe.

Opening the window, he looked outside and saw there was nothing but brush below. That was good. With luck, the knife would land in the bushes and stay hidden from view. Jake’s room was on the second floor of the motel so he might be able to throw it and have it land in the bushes below. He put his arm out the window and threw the knife and hand towel as far as he could.

Looking out the window, he could see that the knife landed in the brush off to his right. The towel had just floated down to the ground, landing several feet closer to the motel than the knife did. Feeling better the knife wasn’t in the room he decided that he would wait until night and then go get the knife and rag and dispose of them.

There was another knock at the door. Housekeeping, the maid said again. After closing the window, he walked over to the door, looked through the peep hole, saw the maid and then opened the door.

All of sudden several men that had been hiding on either side of the door pushed the door open, rushing inside, grabbing Jake. Three of the men pinned him to the floor, forcing him to lie on his stomach while someone had a knee in his back. There was a hand on his head pressing his right cheek on to the nasty carpeted floor.

Jake could see several people swarm the room. Even though his face was pushed down into the carpet he could see the people were wearing wind breakers that said Police and Swat on the back of them. At first he wondered why they were in his room and what they were looking for, thinking it must be a case of mistaken identity.

Then he thought about the knife and started putting this whole scenario together. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that there was a bloody knife in his room and now the police were looking around. Thankfully, he had wiped off the knife and thrown that out the window. He had an uneasy feeling about the knife and how it got into his room. Somebody had placed that knife there and Jake had gotten rid of it just in time.

He could see the officers looking around the room, trying to find something. As he was watching them, his mind was racing trying to put everything together. His lack of any kind of memory from the night before was starting to make sense as he suddenly realized he must have been drugged.

That would explain why he was feeling the way he was and why he couldn’t remember anything from the night before. He knew it wasn’t because he drank too much alcohol. Even if he had a lot to drink, he still would have remembered most of the night, but he couldn’t remember anything after leaving his motel and he hadn’t had anything to drink before he left the motel.

Someone cuffed his hands behind his back and someone else started reading him the Miranda rights. Once they were through with that, they pulled him up and sat him on the bed. A burly guy of middle age, with muscle that had turned to fat from years of working behind a desk came walking over to Jake.

Stopping in front of Jake, he looked down at him. You are being detained for the murder of Ron and Judy Darwin, he said. We are taking you down to the police station for questioning. Do you acknowledge that your rights have been read to you?

Jake was more than a little confused now. At first, he had no idea who Ron and Judy Darwin were. Then he suddenly realized they were the couple that had been murdered that was on the news. The reporter had said that she was reporting from West Omaha, but he had never been to West Omaha, so he had no idea what they were talking about. Jake wanted to believe this was a case of mistaken identity, but the bloody knife told him otherwise.

Do you acknowledge that your rights have been read to you? the officer repeated himself.

Jake nodded his head as he looked at the burly man that must be charge. We have a search warrant to search your room, the officer said.

The officer held up a piece of paper, but he didn’t give Jake time to read it before he put it back into his shirt pocket. Jake looked around as the police officers were opening all his drawers, looking under the bed, trying to find something. Luckily, the blood on the knife had been dry so Jake didn’t think there would be any blood on the floor. At least that’s what he hoped. If they found blood underneath his bed, that would be awfully difficult to explain.

Jake thought it best that he didn’t say anything at this time. He needed to think and at that moment he didn’t want to say anything that could be misinterpreted. The officer that showed him the search warrant asked him if he wanted to say anything. Ignoring the cop, Jake just continued looking forward trying to digest what was happening.

Finally the officer gave up asking Jake questions, understanding that Jake wasn’t going to say anything, so the cops roughly jerked him to his feet. They took him out the motel door and started walking him to the police car as the rain pelted down on them.

As they were getting him into the back of the police car, he saw several news vans roll up to the parking lot. Jake’s first thought was that he was not in a very good situation and he was going to need a good lawyer. Unfortunately, he didn’t know any good lawyers.

His second thought was that someone had set him up and framed him for murder.

Chapter 2

After they arrived at the police station, the police officers helped Jake out of the back of the car, and marched him into the police station through the driving rain. As they entered the processing center, they were soaked from the rain, dripping water onto the tile.

As he was being led to the counter, Jake was starting to shiver from the cold. Wearing an old pair of shorts and a t-shirt, he was soaked to the bone. Just the walk through the parking lot was enough to soak him from the driving rain. He was hoping they would give him some dry clothes before they threw him into the cell.

The police officers had already searched his pockets back at the motel room, so they didn’t repeat that. With his hands still handcuffed behind his back, one of the officers unlocked the cuffs and cuffed him again, this time with his hands in front of him so it was easier to take his fingerprints.

After taking his fingerprints, they asked him his name, birth date and other pertinent information. Jake continued to give them the silent treatment so they eventually led him to another room where they took his mug shots. Jake thought about trying to look as mean as possible for his mug shot, but then decided it would be better to give a big smile like he didn’t have a care in the world.

After the pictures were complete, two police officers led him to an interview room. As Jake entered the interview room, he stopped and looked around the cold, dreary room. The walls were a light gray color that went from the tiled floor to the ceiling with no windows anywhere. Jake saw a metal table sitting in the middle of a ten by ten foot room. There was one chair on one side of the table and two chairs on the opposite side. One of the officers gently pushed Jake and told him to sit in the far chair.

Jake walked around the table and sat in the single chair, resting his hands on the table as he sat facing what he assumed was a one-way mirror. The officers left the room, leaving Jake alone staring at himself in the mirror. Jake knew there were detectives behind the mirror watching to see how he behaved so he decided he wasn’t going to give them anything to watch.

So far, he hadn’t said anything to the officers so now he was sure they wanted to make him as uncomfortable as possible. Knowing they were probably going to make him sit there for a while, Jake tried to get comfortable in the metal chair which was proving difficult. He had heard that it was a tactic the police officers used so the detainee would be more willing to talk just so they would be moved to a more comfortable place. Jake didn’t know if it was true or not, but he wasn’t going to let a little bit of discomfort affect him.

For an hour, Jake sat there staring at the mirror, not moving. His mind started to wonder and he thought about the last couple of months and how he had ended up in Omaha. Jake had spent the winter in Minneapolis which wasn’t a bad place, except for the cold and wind. It had been a long, cold winter which seemed like it would never end.

Not only was the weather cold, but the wind was brutal. The air temperature would dip below zero, but the wind would make it feel ten times worse. With wind chill, it often got to twenty below zero or worse. According to the newspapers, it had been the fifth coldest winter in Minneapolis’s history. So much for global warming, Jake had often thought.

Since Jake didn’t normally own a lot of clothes, he had to invest in some winter clothing. He had purchased two pairs of long johns, two long sleeve shirts, one sweatshirt, a big heavy winter coat and a cap for his head. Adding a pair of gloves, he was set to take on a winter in Minneapolis.

It was the most clothes he had ever bought at one time, but it was a necessity if he was going to live in Minneapolis. Luckily, he was able to keep the costs down by going to a thrift store. Jake liked to buy his clothes at thrift stores, whenever possible because he could buy a lot and not spend much money.

He could never understand why people would waste their money on new clothes and pay hundreds of dollars when they could just go to a thrift store and get the same amount of clothes, albeit slightly worn, for less than thirty dollars. He was sure that didn’t appeal to many people, but it certainly worked for him.

As the calendar turned to April, Jake had thought the winter was finally over and was looking forward to spring. He had heard spring time in Minneapolis was a great time. At first they had a few days in the seventies and the weather finally felt livable. But just as he was enjoying the spring time weather there was a storm that dumped eight inches of new snow on Minneapolis.

Right then, he decided he didn’t want to spend any more time in Minneapolis so he packed his backpack and prepared to take off to a new location. As he packed, he decided he certainly wouldn’t be coming back, at least not in the winter time.

Knowing there was only one direction he wanted to go, he headed south. He didn’t really have a plan when he left Minneapolis. He never did. For the last year, he just went wherever he felt like going, when he felt like going. Enjoying the feeling of freedom, Jake would travel around the country and live wherever it suited him. Packing his clothes into a backpack, he would just hit the open road.

He always made sure to take his money with him, which ranged from four dollars to four thousand dollars, all of it in cash. Luckily for him, he had about thirty-five hundred dollars when he left Minneapolis. It had been an extremely snowy winter so he had made a lot of money helping with snow removal. He was paid in cash which was the method he preferred.

He never used banks, so he just carried it in his backpack. It wasn’t the safest way to carry his money, but he liked having it with him at all times. Plus, he didn’t want to go through the hassle of opening up a bank account and dealing with a paper trail.

He always hitch hiked with truckers because it was a cheap way to travel so when he started traveling south he found a trucker that took him to a truck stop outside of Des Moines and then found another that took him close to Omaha. That particular trucker stopped at a truck stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa and Jake started walking west. He crossed the river into Omaha and decided to check it out.

After he found a cheap motel, the one he was staying in now, that was close to downtown Omaha, he decided to pay for a room. It was rundown and had about thirty rooms. It had a sign in the front that said daily, weekly and monthly rates, so it was perfect for Jake.

There were two floors, each with fifteen rooms. The doors opened directly outside as there were no indoor hallways. The motel was an ugly purple and white and Jake soon discovered the décor inside matched the outside. After walking inside the motel, Jake assumed the room looked exactly as it had in the seventies. Jake didn’t care about the appearance of the motel, all he cared about was that it was cheap and it had a bed and the motel met both of those criteria. He was a simple man and that was all he required.

It had a double bed, a table, and two chairs around the table. There was a TV stand across from the bed with a twenty year old television on it. There was a closet with no door and a bathroom with a small sink, a toilet and a bathtub that had a nasty brown ring around it.

He’d been staying in that room for a month now and the only thing he worried about was bed bugs. He had even pulled the sheets back and inspected them just to make sure there weren’t any bedbugs. To his relief and surprise, there weren’t any bugs, at least none that he could see. So, he unpacked his backpack, putting what few items he had in the drawers and settled into his new home.

He had found a job that paid him under the table to do some construction work. It was hard work, but the pay was good so he didn’t mind. After meeting Jackie, he had a beautiful woman that he enjoyed spending time with and everything seemed to been going great.

Now he was sitting in an interview room, arrested for murder.

Chapter 3

A man walked into the interview room and sat in one of the chairs across from Jake. He was dressed in a cheap dark blue suit with a red and blue striped tie. He was Caucasian with jet black hair that was starting to go gray on the sides. A beer belly was starting to show, making the suit buttons strain against his ever expanding bulk.

By the way the man carried himself, he gave the impression he had been a detective for a long time. Jake knew he was going to need to be careful with what he had to say because this detective had probably investigated a lot of murders and would know ways to trip someone up.

Rather than staring at Jake, trying to intimidate him, the man tried the nice tactic. My name is Detective Martin, he said. Do you know why you’re in here?

Jake shook his head no, although he knew he was arrested for murder. He just had no idea how he could have been mistaken as a murderer. One of the reasons Jake hadn’t said anything was because he was still trying to gather his thoughts. He wanted to know where this interrogation was going before he said anything.

I see that you’re going to remain silent, is that correct? Detective Martin asked.

Jake nodded.

That’s your right. You’re being held in connection with the killing of Mr. and Mrs. Darwin. We have one witness that said they saw you walking from the Darwin’s house and we have another witness that said they saw a knife with blood on it in your room.

Jake smiled as it started making sense to him now. That would explain why they were looking for the knife in Jake’s room. Someone had called the cops and told them they saw the knife which was total crap. It had to be someone that worked at the motel or it was Jackie. He didn’t want to let himself believe it was Jackie because it made no sense why she would do that to him.

He dismissed her as the culprit and started thinking about someone that worked at the motel. Could they have entered the room, grabbed his knife and used it to commit murder? It was possible, but why would they do that? He guessed so it would implicate him and the real murderer would be free. But why would they pick him to frame? Either it was someone at the motel or it was Jackie, but both options didn’t make any sense to Jake so he was going to have to continue thinking about it.

The detective sat there, saw Jake smile, waited for him to say something. Jake still refused to talk, so