Chapter 5

Owl be waitin up for you til you get home son.

Kevin smiled as he looked at his reflection in the glass of the phone booth. But it wasnt his face that was smiling back at him.But Kevin didnt seem to notice it. He had a glazed over look on his face and he was totally unaware of his surroundings. But if you were to look closely at his eyes. In the small of his pupils, you would see Assumpta Fitzgerald. Soon those eyes would be taking him on a journey. Assumpta's father had been right after all, her trying to do everything a man could do, but better was the death of her.

Kevin seemed a bit less dazed as the fog around his eyes lessened. He sat unnoticed at the corner waiting for the bus to Cilldargen. When it arrived he was glad to see that the regular bus driver a man named Gerard wasnt the one driving the bus. This was some new fella she hadnt seen before. Kevin was amazed that he was the only one on the bus. At first he thought he was going crazy when he heard the small voice talk to him from inside his head. But when he recognized who it was he had a peace. In a way he felt like he was acting out a scene from one of his favorite movies. Only this time Spock wouldnt come back to life at the end he was afraid.

As the bus slowly moved down the road, the small brown owl flew through an open window. The bumpy road didnt seemto bother the owl one bit. He flew to the seat across from kevin. Kevin looked over at the owl, and smiled. Something inside him told him to treat the owl as a guide. He trusted the voice, so he would do what it said.

Ambrose Egan enjoyed his work. He enjoyed the prestige it gave him to investigate the little bit of crime that Ballykea had. But to him, going to all the expense of dusting for finger prints at Siobhans was not needed. But Brendan has insisted on it. The first thing Ambrose noticed was the deep tire tracks in the damp sod. He took a plaster cast, that he assumed would match up to the local milk man, and not anyone else. But still Brendan insisted he exhaust every effort in the search for his bike. Before this was all over, he would insist that Brendan buy himself a car. If Peter Clifford can learn to drive, then Brendan Kearney can also.

Donal put the pizza's in the ovens. He knew to make a profit they would have to have lots of product. So with his friend Liam, he had installed six abandoned ovens in Liam's small home. And in each oven they had four pizza's cooking. Liam still wasnt their, he had left Donal to do all the work of cooking the pizza's. That was their agreement, Liam would make the Pizza. And Donal would cook the Pizza. Donal didnt smell the smoke at first, he thought it was just a normal smell of pizza cooking. And when he saw the first signs of flames jumping from the ovens, he just assumed that Liam had gas powered ovens. And not electric. So he still assumed all was okay. He set the timer to turn off the oven after 30 minutes. Then he slowly was overpowered by smoke, and went to sleep.

Kathleen Hendley knew that any plan that Donal and Liam would have would turn to disaster, so she kept an eye on them. She was the only one on the street in front of Liam's house, and with the smoke pouring from the home she knew something was wrong. As she crossed the street, she saw flames leaping through the roof. She raced across to his home, and pushed the door aside. Through the thick smoke she saw Donal unconcious on the floor. She didnt see anyone to help her, and she was afraid for Donal if she went for help. She slowly dragged him from the burning house, and as she was safe outside a crowd had gathered to try to put the flames out. The home was a total loss, without supply of water, they really had no chance to put the fire out. Kathleen remembered her own fire and was glad she now had insurance. Liam arrived just as what was left of his home was destroyed by the flames. As Liam looked down at his unconscious friend he thought to himself, if you don't die from this, I'm going to kill you.

It only took the bus 45 minutes to get to the nearby town of Cilldargen. The owl flew to a nearby window ledge and waited for kevin to follow. As Kevin neared the owl he again flew a bit farther this time, still clearly visible in his line of site. He was sitting on the edge of the road. Kevin increased his pace so as not to lose sight of the owl. When the owl moved again, it was to fly to a nearby railroad car. Kevin could tell the train hadnt been there long, as steam still rose from the engine. Sitting inside a empty car in the middle of the train, the owl beckoned to kevin to join him. He wasnt sure if he should do this, but the voice inside him reassured him that it was okay. As he climbed into the railroad car he pulled shut the door. The only light came through a small hole in the roof. The noise from the train began to make kevin a bit sleepy, he leaned over and soon was asleep on the floor. As Kevin began to snore the owl flew over to the small patch of light on the floor. The he too began to rest.

Father Mac finally had time to get down to the church and clean out the remnants of the former priest. As he went through the papers that had once been Peter Clifford's desk, he found a photo of Peter, Padraig and Eileen's daughter. He smiled, if Peter had only known the truth, that he had only been so hard on him to prevent him from making the choice that he had made years before.

As darkness fell on Ballykissangel Padraig still had no idea his son was so far away. Being guided by a owl to an unknown destination. Since it was his turn to make Dinner he was busy cutting up vegetables, and dicing some meat to fry. He assumed Kevin would be there like always, just when he put the food on the table.

Two hours after Padraig was finished eating he began to get worried. Kevin was a good kid, and ever since Con O'Neill went back to the state school, and Enda's family moved back to England he hadnt had anyone his own age to get him in trouble.

Mossie Phelan had his target directly in his sight. Eamon Byrne was busy feeding his precious little sheep. He knew the thing Eamon cherished most was a certain sheep, called Mary. And he knew a butcher in Cilldargen willing to pay high dollar for such a specimen. Minutes later Mossie was climbing over the fence that kept Mary safe and sound. But he smiled to himself and said outloud, "It won't safe ya know." That one sentence proved to be his downfall, even though eamon's hearing wasnt as good as it was in his younger days, he still managed to hear him from his kitchen. He loved Mary like his widow he had named her after. And not anyone, not even a thief in the dark was going to take her away. He grabbed his rifle that he had used so many times to protect his property in the past. As the dark figure started to pull the sheep out of the pen, eamon took aim. He pulled his finger back on the trigger, and a load of buckshot leapt from the gun. And raced to it's intended target. Mossie Phelan's rear end. Eamon spat at him as he walked over him to close Mary's gate. Then he turned and said, "The Garda better take care of you this time, or I will finish you my self!"

Ambrose was woke from a dead sleep, with the sound of pounding on the door. He assumed to see no one there, the school kids seemed to have a great time banging on the door and then fading into a dark corner. He was surprised to see 3 dark figures before him, he flipped the outside light on, and immediately recognized Padraig and Eamon, but it took him a second to put Mossie's name to his face. He opened the door wider, and asked them to come inside. We'll sort this all out inside gentlemen.

Eamon was the one who got to speak first, after all Mossie Phelan was bleeding really bad, and with the doc soon on his way he would need to get his statement first. Eamon explained what he saw, and why he shot him. He is such a stronger man than me, but not stronger than my buckshot.

The pain now so great that it didnt take much to get Mossie to spill the beans about his massive crime spree. He even told Ambrose where he might find everything.

Padraig could be silent no longer, Mossie's silence about Kevin only meant to him that he had done something with his son. "Tell me what you've done with my son!" Padraig was getting more and more upset.

The mystery of all the stolen property having been solved.Ambrose didn't at first believe Mossie that he hadnt had anything to do with the disapearance of Kevin O'Kelly. But when the rest of Mossie's men were rounded up by Ambrose they too stated that they had nothing to do with kidnapping anyone. They were thiefs, not kidnappers.

A increasingly worried Padraig then said, "Well if you didnt take my son, where can he be?" He remembered the time that kevin had been led into the dark cave by Con O'Neill and was imjured. "We Have to find him Ambrose!" Padraig said with a now evident tear in his eye. "He's all that I have."

end chapter five