by Margaret Kay
“Breach in three, two, one,” Lambchop counted down. “Go!”
Mother tried the handle. Locked. He stepped back, raised his leg, and kicked the door open. It exploded inward with a bang. Sherman entered first; gun drawn. Mother was right behind him. “Federal Agents!” Mother yelled at the man who sat by the fire, wielding a shotgun.
The front door crashed in as well. “Federal agents! Put the gun down!” Lambchop called.
“Drop the gun and get the hands up!” Sherman yelled.
The man had the gun aimed at them but swung it towards the front door as he fired.
Sitting on the bed in the room she’d been locked in several days before, Annaka heard a loud bang, muffled shouts, followed immediately by the unmistakable sound of a shotgun firing! Several other shots being fired from what she guessed to be smaller caliber weapons came next. She crouched down behind the bed, with her back pressed against the wall. She hadn’t seen or heard Patrick since they’d brought her here. She worried he had tried something stupid like trying to get away. She feared he’d just been shot.
“Annaka, Dr. Annaka Sanchez,” a male voice that she didn’t recognize called from the other side of the door.
Annaka summoned all her courage. She prayed it was the police, there to rescue her. “In here!”
The handle jiggled. Annaka knew the door was locked.
“Stay back,” the voice yelled. Then the door exploded open, his foot kicking it. He ran into the room. He had a pistol in his hand. “Annaka, are you okay?”
“Who are you?” She asked, pulling herself to her feet. This man didn’t wear a uniform. He was Hispanic, with black hair on the longer side. His eyes were dark brown, his jaw covered in a five o’clock shadow. His chest was broad. He looked solid.
“Federal agents,” Mother said, laying eyes on Annaka in person for the first time. “You are Annaka Sanchez, aren’t you?” Though he knew she was from the pictures of her, he’d viewed and memorized.
“Yes,” she confirmed. She stepped out from behind the bed.
Mother noticed that her feet were bare, no shoes or socks. “Where are your shoes?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. They took them when they locked me in here so I wouldn’t be tempted to try to run away.”
“They?” Mother asked as Lambchop also stepped into the room.
Annaka’s eyes swept over the black man who stood several inches taller than the unknown federal agent. “Can I see a badge and some credentials?”
The corners of Mother’s lips ticked into a grin. They both holstered their weapons and then both he and Lambchop pulled their badges from their back pockets.
She nodded, satisfied. “We were brought here by two men at gunpoint. Is Patrick okay? We’ve been separated since we got here.” She stepped forward, nearing the two men.
Mother and Lambchop exchanged glances.
“Annaka says two men brought her here,” Mother called back to Sherman and BT, who were in the main room.
“Got no sign of a second man,” Sherman confirmed. “I’ve got a cell phone though, powering it up.”
“Let’s back up, tell us about Patrick Keeling,” Mother said.
Annaka stepped towards the door.
“You don’t want to go out there yet,” Lambchop said.
“Why not?”
“Find something to cover the body with,” Lambchop yelled back to the men in the main room.
“Body?”
Mother stared at her for a moment before answering. “Keeling. He fired a shotgun at us as we entered. He’s the only one in the main room.”
“No, that isn’t right. Patrick was not holding me here. Two other men were. They came into the research station with a gun to Patrick’s head on Christmas Eve. I cooperated and did what they told me to.”
“I’m sorry, Annaka, but Patrick Keeling is the only person in this cabin. He sat out there with a shotgun and he fired at us when we came in,” Mother said.
“Maybe he thought you were them, coming back,” she suggested.
“Body’s covered,” BT’s voice came from the other room.
“Come in there with us,” Lambchop invited. He stepped back into the main room. Mother followed Annaka.
She stopped dead when she entered the room and saw the blanket covering something on the floor in front of the lit fireplace. It was saturated with blood. “Body,” she repeated. “Patrick? You killed him?”
“He fired at us,” Mother repeated.
“Oh, my God, you killed him,” Annaka stammered, her hands covering her mouth. Her eyes shot accusatory daggers at both men.
“He fired at us, Annaka. He kept you locked in that room. He’s the bad guy here. Not us,” Mother said strongly.
“Mother,” Lambchop said, his face telling his partner to bring it down a few notches.
“Mother?” Annaka repeated. “As in Mother Grunt?”
He smiled and nodded his head. “Danny, Danny Trio. It’s nice to meet you in person.”
Annaka felt her knees go weak, and the room began to spin. Next thing she knew, Danny caught her in his arms. He led her over to a chair at the kitchen table. He sat her so that she faced away from Patrick’s body. “How did you find me?”
“It’s what we do,” Mother said. “I knew you were in trouble because you didn’t finish your sentence in the chat screen, and you didn’t come back to the games for over a day.”
Annaka stared at him in disbelief. “There were two men. I don’t know them, have never seen them before. They came into the research facility on Christmas Eve. They had a gun to Patrick’s head. They made me make inaccurate updates to a report. Then they drove us here. We were blindfolded. I couldn’t see where we are. When they took us out of the car, they took the blindfolds off, told us we were in the middle of nowhere. They took my shoes and socks so I wouldn’t try to get away. Then they locked me in that room. The window in that room is boarded up good and tight. I don’t know how they thought I’d get away.”
“Slow down, Annaka. Take a deep breath,” Mother said softly, taking a seat beside her. “You’re safe. It’s over.”
Only then did Annaka realize she had spoken rapidly, and her hands shook. She clasped them together on the table in front of her and took in a deep breath.
Sherman brought a purse and a pair of boots with socks stuffed into them over to the table that he had found in the corner of the room. They were Annaka’s. Her coat and scarf were there too. It was hanging on the hook beside the coat she identified as Patrick’s. Annaka put her shoes and socks on, realizing she was cold. Then she went through her purse. Everything was there, except her phone.
Mother heard Lambchop’s voice. He glanced at him. Lambchop was on his phone. Mother figured out that he was talking with State Trooper Alfrejd. He gave him a synopsis of the events and the GPS coordinates of the cabin.
“What is the date today?” Annaka asked.
“It’s the twenty-eighth,” Mother replied.
“Four days, oh my God! I’ve been here four days?”
Mother laid his hand over Annaka’s. “It is perfectly normal to lose track of time when you are locked in a room that does not register sunlight.” He gazed over her face. Her lips were twisted, her mind obviously occupied in thought. “Did you have any interaction with Keeling or anyone else since you were brought here?”
Annaka shook her head no. “There is a swinging small door on the bottom of the door to that room.” She pointed at the door across the room. “They slid in food on plastic plates. There was a cup in the bathroom in there. I pumped water in the sink and drank it. I tried to talk to them through the door. No one would answer me.”
Upon hearing this, BT went over and examined the door. There was a one-way swinging flap that resembled a doggy door. It would allow things to be passed into the room. Between the flap and the boarded-up window, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to prepare the room. There had been planning involved in her kidnapping.
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�Can I go home now, please?” Annaka asked. “I want to take a shower. I want to sit in my kitchen and have a cup of tea. I want to feel normal.”
“Soon, I promise,” Mother said, giving her hands a gentle squeeze. “The Alaska State Trooper who is the lead investigator on your case is on his way.”
“This is Keeling’s phone,” Sherman said from where he stood near the fireplace.
“Where is your phone?” Mother asked her.
She shook her head again. “I don’t know. The man with glasses stomped on it and broke it when they came into the research office.”
“We will get descriptions of those two other men when the State Trooper gets here,” Lambchop said. He went into the kitchen area of the cabin. “Let me see if I can find some tea to brew for you.” He opened several cabinets before finding a box of teabags.
“I’d prefer not to have anything else from here, thank you,” Annaka said. “I slept a lot, wondered if they were drugging me.”
“Do you want us to run you by a hospital when we do leave here and have them run some tests?” Mother asked. “Where is the nearest hospital, by the way?”
“No, I don’t want to. I just want to go home. And it’s in Homer, South Peninsula Hospital.”
“I’m going to step out front and guard our entry point,” Lambchop said. “BT, Sherman, conduct a thorough search of the cabin.” He nodded to Mother, indicating that he was to stay with her. Then he exited the cabin into the late afternoon darkness, closing the door behind himself.
“Inspector Alfrejd is on his way, shouldn’t take him too long to get here. We’ll get you home as soon as we can,” Mother said.
“Thank you,” she responded. She forced a smile as she gazed over his facial features. She could see the likeness to his avatar.
Twenty-five minutes later, State Trooper Alfrejd arrived. Lambchop gave him a more thorough report than the synopsis he’d given him on the phone. He entered the cabin behind Lambchop, annoyed that these federal agents hadn’t contacted him before investigating the cabins in this target area that their office had identified and not shared with him.
“Dr. Sanchez, I’m Investigator David Alfrejd,” he introduced himself, approaching the table. His eyes though flickered to the blanket covering the body on the floor. “I want to start by taking your statement. But first, are you hurt at all?”
Annaka shook her head. “No.”
She answered all his questions, still not believing that Patrick was the one holding her captive. She gave a detailed verbal description of the two men who barged into the research office with a gun to Patrick’s head.
“Do you have a police sketch artist who can render drawings of the two men who brought her here?” Mother asked.
“No, we usually call in the FBI from Anchorage when that is needed.”
“We have one at our headquarters who can do it over the computer with her, if you’d like,” Lambchop offered.
Alfrejd nodded. The coroner arrived. Alfrejd turned to Lambchop. “I’ll need to officially capture statements from you and your men as well, but I think Dr. Sanchez should be escorted home.” He nodded to the body, which the coroner stood over, but hadn’t uncovered yet. “She doesn’t need to see this.”
“We’ll stay at her house with her. And of course, we will cooperate and provide detailed statements,” Lambchop replied.
Mother squeezed Annaka’s hands again. “Come on, we’ll take you home now.”
She came to her feet, feeling exhausted. The man named Sherman had her coat in his hands. He held it up and helped to slide it onto her. She followed these unknown men out of the cabin and slid into the center of the backseat between Danny and Sherman. She gazed out of the front window as they drove down the winding roads, finally recognizing an intersection. Shortly thereafter, they arrived at her house.
She dug through her purse and pulled out her house keys.
“Here, let me,” Mother said. He took the keys from her and walked with her to the front door. He unlocked it and then held onto her arm. “Wait, a moment.” Sherman and BT went in first, weapons drawn. “Just procedure to be sure it’s safe. I don’t expect anyone will be in there, but we just need to be sure.”
Glancing behind them, back at the SUV, she saw that the black man they called Lambchop stood, his gun also gripped in his hands. Then she noticed that Danny had his hand on his gun too.
“Clear,” Sherman called from inside the house.
Danny motioned her inside. She stepped in and glanced around, never so happy to be home. The small main room was crowded with all four men. She took the keys from Danny and hung them on the hook near the door where she kept them. She went to her stove, took hold of the tea kettle, and brought it to the sink, filling it with water.
“Would anyone else have a cup of tea?”
Three of the four men answered they would, including Danny. She put the kettle on the stove to heat the water and took four mugs down from the cabinet. Then she set all four boxes of tea bags she had beside the mugs.
Mother pulled one of the chairs out from the kitchen table. “Sit, relax,” he said.
She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a tray of rum balls. “My only Christmas baking this year. I brought a tray into work but kept this one for myself. Please, help yourselves.”
Mother popped one into his mouth. “Wow, these are potent!” He said with a smile after he chewed the spiked confection. “And really good.” He picked up a second ball and ate it.
Annaka ate one too and then sat at the table. She returned his smile. “I think the rum intensified with the balls sitting in the fridge for four days.”
Lambchop was on his phone, pacing near the front door. After he disconnected the call, he approached the table and ate one of the rum balls too. “We have maybe an hour or so until Alfrejd finishes up at the cabin and joins us here. I’m going to get my tablet and connect to the office. Annaka, are you up to working with our digital sketch artist to render pictures of the two men who brought Keeling into the office that night?”
Annaka nodded. “You better believe it. I will never forget what they looked like.”
“Miraldi?” Mother questioned.
Lambchop nodded. Mother thought he was on leave.
For the next hour, Annaka worked with a man named Tony through the computer. They started with the man who wore glasses. He used a digital program to adjust every facial feature, length, size, shape. He was even able to add the stocking cap the man wore. When they finished, they had a digitally produced likeness that was identical to the man.
Then they did the same with the second man’s appearance. A half hour in, State Trooper Alfrejd arrived. He didn’t recognize the likeness of the man with glasses. Lambchop promised they would forward the suspect’s pictures to him and his office.
Alfrejd reported that they completed the investigation at the cabin. Keeling’s body was removed and sent to the morgue in Homer. His phone and laptop were sent to the state lab in Anchorage. He’d share information with them when it was available.
“We’ll be protecting Dr. Sanchez,” Lambchop said.
“How much longer will you be onsite?” Alfrejd asked.
“Not sure. We’ll check in with our boss later this evening. I’ll let you know,” Lambchop said. They exchanged business cards.
“Good enough.” Alfrejd turned to Annaka. “I don’t think you are in any danger. I think those two men are long gone. It’s obvious to me that Dr. Keeling was complicit in your kidnapping. He may have even hired those men. That’s what my gut is telling me. I’ve been doing this a long time. My gut is usually right.”
Annaka stared at him in silence. She wasn’t sure if she believed him, but she nodded anyway. After he left, she finished the rendering of the second man. He was taller than the man with the glasses. His hair was a dirty blonde color. He had deep set eyes, a beard, and a mustache. He looked like a lot of the mountain men around here in the wintertime. He had more of a ruggedness to him than the
man who wore glasses. After she watched Danny log off the computer, she stood and stretched. “I should go into the lab.”
“Tomorrow,” Mother told her.
“My work, days of monitoring were lost. I’d been watching two of the belugas. They’ve wandered far outside their normal feeding grounds. I suspect it has something to do with the pollutants.”
“Aren’t their activities electronically monitored and recorded?” Mother asked.
“Yes, but we are monitoring ocean levels, weather, ground tremors, pollutant levels, changes in the nearby Grewink Glacier, all at the same time. Sometimes these shifts in the whale’s behavior are so subtle, without all the data being observed live, you can miss that there is a correlation. Last month, there was a calving of a big piece of the glacier in Kachemak Bay, just the other side of Homer. It wasn’t a particularly warm day and there had been no tremors or been anything measurable on the seismology equipment, but the whales knew. All the whales we are monitoring swam out of the inlet and away from all the drilling equipment right before the calving occurred.”