“Whatever it takes to end this nightmare,” I said, “whatever it takes.
Chapter 7: Trailing Madness
1.
As we reached the outskirts of Cider Hill, I asked Steph if she was going to report this new information to Rademeyer, to which she shook her head.
“But it’s not new information, Jim. Rademeyer already knows. Now why would I bore him with details he’s already aware of?” The cheekiness of her grin told me exactly what she was thinking. “I say, we head to the school and keep an eye on him. We know he’ll be there and it’s a good a place to start as any.” I agreed as she turned the car towards the school, approaching it from one of the roads that ran adjacent to it on its western side. The road sat on the edge of a small hill, thus providing us with an elevated vantage point. We could see Clancy mowing the grass on the far side of the oval, cutting a strange myriad of shapes into the grass as he went.
“There he is,” I said as Steph turned the car off. After a few moments, she said, “I wish I had my binoculars.”
“You have binoculars?” I asked.
“Sure. They were my mum’s,” she said with a straight face. It took me a second, then I burst out laughing. Steph looked at me, surprised. “What are you laughing at?” she asked, and I realised she didn’t understand.
“What was your mum doing with binoculars?” She nodded, then giggled a little, as she understood.
“They belonged to her father, silly.” She looked around, first over the school yard, then the road behind us.
“What’s up?”
“Do you mind waiting here? My house is only a couple of blocks behind us. I can go grab them, and maybe some supplies as well.”
“OK, but don’t be long. Looks like he’s almost finished that patch and I don’t know if he’ll start another.” She agreed and hopped out, hurrying down the footpath behind us. I slid across to the driver’s side to look less conspicuous.
2.
I watched him, fascinated, as Clancy weaved in and out of strange patterns in the grass. It was like he was creating some amazing piece of artwork that only he could see. He had his shirt off and had suspended it from his belt. Every so often, he would pull it from his belt and wipe his brow with it, looking up at the cloudless sky as he did. Round and round he went, the remaining grass patch growing smaller and smaller. I figured he would finish in the next ten or so minutes and hoped Steph would be back by then.
She returned less than ten minutes later, carrying two bags, one in each hand. She hopped in the passenger seat and slung the bags in my direction. I took them and handed them back to her once she closed the door. She reached into the first and pulled out a brown leather case with a long brown leather strap. She popped the top and took out an old pair of binoculars. They looked like something from the first world war, but when I looked through them, saw they were in amazingly clear condition. With the binoculars, I could see Clancy close enough to pick out the beads of sweat on his forehead. She also took out two thermoses, two bottles of coke and a bottle of milk.
In the other bag, Steph had packed a loaf of bread, an entire length of salami, a jar of mustard, a whole sponge cake and a container of mixed nuts.
“Wow, were you expecting anyone else?” I laughed as she handed me the container of nuts.
“I wasn’t sure what you liked and I don’t know how long this will take.” I took the bag and put it on the back seat, returning the spyglass to my eyes. Clancy was walking the mower back to a small shed next to the main building, the patch finally complete.
“How are we going to follow him when he walks to wherever he goes after this?” I asked. It was a small town with very little traffic, and he would surely notice a car trailing him, regardless of his IQ.
“We drive from corner to corner for some of the time, other times, one of us gets out and walks. Although I would probably suggest you hop out. I have no doubt he would notice my uniform.” She had a point and wondered why she hadn’t changed when she was home. I figured it didn’t matter at this point and agreed with her.
3.
We followed Clancy for the best part of an hour as he made his way up Main Street. I had to get out a couple of times to follow, but Steph kept coming at just the right moments to scoop me up and continue behind him. He stopped at a couple of shops, one to buy cigarettes and another to buy an ice cream. Each time, he would come out of the shops whistling, throwing a set of keys in the air, then catching them triumphantly. He dropped them once, cursed, then picked them up. It was almost comical to watch him, and under different circumstances, maybe even funny. But our reasons for trailing this person were far from anything enjoyable and so we had our game faces on.
The further he walked toward the outskirts of town, the harder it became for us to follow. On one occasion he stopped to tie his bootlace just as I had jumped out of the car. I considered jumping back in but there was a woman walking her dog past and I didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to us. He took an insane amount of time to complete the task of tying the lace and in the end, I had to walk straight past him. I turned my
