by H L Bur
“Ma’am, you’re going to have to slow down. I can’t understand you, ma’am.”
“SEND AN OFFICER TO 1018 ELDERBERRY LANE NOW, STAT, ASAP!!” I slammed my phone down and took the turn onto Main Street too fast, almost colliding with a small blue Fiat trying to turn left. My phone rang almost immediately and I looked down to see Kyle calling me.
“Have you seen Quinn?” I yelled into his ear.
“Not since this morning, is everything okay?”
“I don’t think so. I think she’s in trouble.” I felt myself breaking down, but willed the tears away. I couldn’t bear to think about if anything had happened to her.
“Where are you?” Kyle asked hurriedly.
“I’m on my way to our house. I think she’s being held captive there.”
“I’m on my way,” he said quickly before ending our call.
I called Fletcher one more time and left a quick voicemail explaining the picture that I found as I turned off of Maple Way onto Elderberry Lane. Instead of curving around to the driveway, I went straight down Winterberry Lane, the little dirt road that dead-ended by the woods just west of our property. I drove to the small clearing where the trail that ran behind our house came out and I threw my car in park. I grabbed my little can of pepper spray from my center console, wishing I had my bear spray with me, and hopped out of the car.
I knew that Drachen Noire would be expecting me to come up the driveway, so hopefully this way I would catch him by surprise. I raced through the woods, scraping my face and arms on branches, not wanting to risk slowing down just to save myself a few bumps and bruises. With the fear and adrenaline pumping through my body, I sprinted faster than I ever could have done normally. As I neared the tree line that butted up against the back of our property, I slowed down to scan the area and catch my breath. It wouldn’t do anybody any good if I went bursting into the house only to keel over from lack of oxygen. I bent over and braced my hands on my knees trying to get air into my burning lungs.
I scanned the backyard from side to side, noticing nothing out of place. It was quiet with the exception of my labored breathing. I tried to think of my best plan of attack, but I was too wired to think rationally. I decided to play it by ear. I stayed low and jogged to the back of the shed on our property. I risked peeking a glance through the small window to make sure Quinn wasn’t being held in there. It was empty. I peered around the corner of the shed and found my next target, a giant maple tree with a trunk wide enough to cover my whole width.
I tried to position myself out of view from the house windows, and once again made my way forward, stopping behind the large trunk. Although my lungs were no longer burning and my breathing was somewhat back to normal, my heart still raced with the fear and anticipation of what I would find inside.
Truth be told, I had no idea when that picture was taken. It could have been anywhere between nine o’clock this morning and three o’clock this afternoon. There wasn’t even a guarantee that she would still be here. Shoot, what if she is at the sawmill and I just wasted all this time? I shook my head to focus. I had no time to worry about that and the quicker I made a move, the quicker I would know for sure.
Peering out from behind the large tree trunk, I surveyed my next target. I would stay as low as I could, hoping the line of trees on the east side of the property would cover me, then I would stop at the corner of the house and stay below the windows.
1-2-3-Go! I forced myself to move, running haphazardly to my next destination. I sank down below the windows, praying no one had seen or heard me. Okay, I could either sneak down the back of the house to enter through the back door, or I could swing myself up onto the wrap around porch to go in through the side door. The back way had a loose step and the screen door squeaked on it’s hinges, but I had a feeling Quinn was being kept in the front of the house, so I would be more exposed if I went in through the side door.
I had to make a quick decision, so I decided to take the back door. I could avoid the loose step and if I opened the door slowly, maybe the hinges wouldn’t squeak. Besides, if I went in through the back door, there was a chance I could find a more solid weapon on my way to the front of the house.
I took a deep breath and steeled myself. It’s now or never. 1-2-3-Go! I ducked low and made my way to the back porch. I easily skipped the loose board and landed quietly on the porch. Worried about the hinges, I decided to use a good old-fashioned remedy. I spit into my hand and quickly rubbed some into each of the hinges. Wiping my hand on my pants, I sent up a quick prayer and slowly turned the door handle. I realized at the last minute it would probably be locked. I cursed myself for not thinking of that sooner. But somehow, miraculously, the handle turned. I was suddenly thankful for the broken door latch from the break in this morning. My prayers were answered as the door swung quietly open. I slowly stepped inside, trying not to make a sound and gently eased the door shut behind me.
I heard voices coming from the front of the house. I crept up the hallway, my fingers trembling, acutely aware of how small and pitiful my little can of pepper spray was going to be against a six-foot something powerful mobster. My only advantage here was the element of surprise that I had somehow managed to maintain. As I neared the kitchen, I realized something was off. The voices I was hearing weren’t what I expected. I could make out a burly man’s voice, presumably Drachen Noire, but there was also a vaguely familiar female voice. I knew it wasn’t Quinn’s voice, but it still sounded familiar. That’s when I realized the voice belonged to Rose. Shoot, now I have to rescue two people, I thought. How was I supposed to pull this off? I then realized I hadn’t heard Quinn at all. Is Quinn even here? I asked myself, before hearing a slight groan that I quickly recognized as hers.
I knew how dire the situation was and had no time to dwell on ‘what ifs’. It was time to act. It was now or never. The small spade that I had set on the counter in the hallway earlier in the day was still there. I was suddenly thankful for my procrastination and messy lifestyle. I switched my pepper spray into my left hand and I slowly picked the spade up off the counter, careful not to scrape it against the wood to avoid making any sound.
My plan was set, I was going to throw the spade at Drachen Noire and then quickly pepper spray him. Hopefully Rose was in fair enough condition that she could then either run to save herself or, more ideally, help me fend him off while I cut Quinn loose. I sent up another silent prayer and made the sign of the cross across my chest. It couldn’t hurt, right? I braced myself.
1-2-3-Go!
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ξ
As I sprang around the corner, I made a quick assessment of the room. Drachen Noire was standing about ten feet away from me where the kitchen opened up into the living room, much too far for my little can of pepper spray to reach him from where I stood. Rose was standing next to him, arms folded looking angry, but the look on her face when I pounced around the corner told me she was surprised to see me. Past Drachen sat Quinn, tied to a kitchen chair in the middle of the living room. All of the blinds were drawn, which I assumed was to hinder the view of any passerbys.
I locked eyes on my target and chucked the spade towards his head. Although he was clearly startled, he easily dodged the flying object and reached for his belt. Realizing he was reaching for a gun, I quickly charged forward to get close enough to pepper spray him.
“Run, Rose!” I screamed.
I charged at Drachen and attempted to tackle him to the ground, although when I ran into him it was like running into a brick wall. His stance didn’t even falter from my impact. I staggered backwards at the collision, but was able to regain my footing. Without hesitation, I took aim and pressed down on my pepper spray. This time, he tried to turn away, but he was unable to completely avoid the cloud of potent spray. He immediately started coughing and rubbing his eyes.
Figuring I had only a few minutes at the most, I turned to where Quinn was tied up. I undid her gag and started working at her wrist bindings.
“Cady, wait! You’ve got it wrong!” Her voice croaked when she talked, probably from lack of use and lack of water.
“It’s okay, Quinn. I’m going to get us out of here.” I was surprised at how steady my voice sounded.
“No, Cady, it’s not what you think. He’s not Drachen. You have to get out of here. GO!”
“Quinn, I’m not going to leave you,” I said, still working on her bindings. “Besides, Rose is here and she’s unharmed. She can help.” I glanced up at Drachen to gauge how much time I had left. He had stopped coughing as much, but was still rubbing his eyes.
“Rose, help me with Quinn’s bindings!” I shrieked as I glanced up at her and noticed she was still just standing there, aloof. “Rose, what are you doing?” I was suddenly confused.
She stared back at me for a few seconds before folding her arms in front of her chest. “You really aren’t very bright, are you?”
“What?” I asked, truly confused. “Rose, what are you talking about? I’m trying to help you. I’ve been looking for you all week.” I was starting to think she had developed Stockholm syndrome already.
I decided to focus on Quinn’s bindings and then deal with Rose. That’s when I heard the click of a gun cocking. I glanced back up and froze. Rose was standing over me with a pistol pointed straight at me.
“Get up!” she barked.
“Rose, what are you doing? I’m here to help you!” I held my hands up in a defensive position and that’s when I saw it. From the angle that Rose was holding the gun, the sleeve of her shirt had raised up, revealing a small tattoo on her right shoulder. It was a black dragon with devil red eyes, wings spread wide, tail curled up ready to attack, and it finally clicked.
“Drachen Noire,” I stated matter-of-factly.
Rose threw her head back in a laugh. “Bravo!” She practically drooled with sarcasm and she hit her free hand against the butt of the gun repeatedly in mock clapping. “It’s about time you got something right.”
I glanced at Quinn who was taking in the scene in silence. I slowly rose to my feet, keeping my hands visible to Rose, in hopes she wouldn’t shoot. I had worked Quinn’s bindings looser, but I didn’t know if it was enough that she could wriggle free. Mystery Man - for he was once again Mystery Man - had pretty much recovered from the pepper spray, except for some red, watery eyes, and came to stand next to Rose, folding his arms over his chest. I now understood why Dawn was calling out Rose’s name before Gigi helped her cross. She wasn’t worried about her, she was trying to name her killer.
“But Rose, why? I don’t understand,” I pleaded with her to explain.
“I’m sure that’s normal for you, not understanding and all,” she quipped. She nodded at Mystery Man and he went and grabbed another chair from the kitchen and placed it next to the one Quinn was already tied to. Rose then gestured with her gun for me to sit.
“Okay, I will, but will you please explain this to me?” I hoped to buy myself some time until the police got here. Where are they? It seemed like ages since I had talked to the 911 operator.
“What is there to understand?” she replied indifferently. “My poor sickly mother cost us our family legacy. I found a way to get it back, so I did. It’s as simple as that.”
“By smuggling drugs?”
“Enough questions, now be a good little librarian and sit.”
I wasn’t a librarian, but decided to let that go.
“But what about Dawn? She was your cousin!” I took a tentative step toward the chair so she would think I was cooperating.
“Ugh, she was always such a thorn in my side.” She started pacing back and forth in the living room. “Always trying to take charge, always trying to be the boss. The problem was she was too stupid to be the boss. Her ideas were horrible and she would have gotten us dead or worse…thrown in prison. The final straw came when she tried to threaten me. Ha! Her? Threatening me? It’s laughable, really.”
“So you killed her?”
“No, no, I’m no killer!” She genuinely sounded shocked at the allegation. “But, I may have given orders to have her…” She lifted a finger to her chin in thought, “disposed of,” she settled on.
I wanted to ask her to differentiate between actually killing someone and having someone killed, but I didn’t think now would be the best time.
“And what about Sofie? You knew her since you were kids.”
“Enough chatter. Jake, let’s get on with it.”
Mystery Man, or Jake rather, took a step forward.
I instinctively took a step back, but relaxed slightly when I heard the distant wail of a siren. Fletcher, I thought. I could tell Rose had heard the sirens, too, by the slump in her shoulder and the pout in her lower lip. “Come on Jake, we have to hurry, our little detective friend is on his way to crash our party.”
Jake, Jake…Why did it sound familiar to me?
Jake grabbed my arm so quickly I didn’t have time to react. Before I knew it, he was binding my hands together behind my back. I kicked out behind me and landed a blow to his shin, but it barely fazed him. I tried to remember my self-defense training. I backed into him and forced my momentum forward, trying to fling him up and over my back, but with his weight against mine, it was useless.
“Ah, a feisty one,” he sneered in a deep raspy voice as he easily deflected my attempted blow.
He grabbed the bindings, which now held my wrists and led me through the kitchen towards the garage. I tried to jerk away, but he grabbed me around the waist. I flung myself back and kicked my legs up in an attempt to knock him off balance, but I was tiring quickly and was clearly no match for him. Rose opened the door that led to the garage, and there, parked inside was the black SUV with blacked out windows that had seemingly vanished in the days prior. Jake threw me into the back seat and I watched helplessly as he went back for Quinn. I tried to scramble up on my feet to jump out of the SUV when Rose appeared by the door with her pistol leveled at me once again. I slumped back as Quinn was hoisted up onto the seat next to me.
“Bind her feet, too,” Rose barked.
Jake obeyed and as he was tying the rope around my feet I remembered a safety tip we were taught in our personal defense class. If someone was binding your wrists or ankles, you were supposed to create extra space by pressing your hands or feet outward as they were tying the rope. This should allow for a little extra wiggle room for a better chance at escaping the restraints. I applied some gentle pressure between the sides of my two big toes, causing my ankles to push ever so slightly outward. If I hadn’t been so taken off guard earlier, I would have made sure to hold my elbows against my sides while Jake had tied my wrists. This would have created a false sense of compliance while giving me a few extra millimeters of wiggle room. These few millimeters could make the difference between escaping or not. I wondered if Quinn had remembered the technique.
I made eye contact with Quinn and she mouthed “cousin” to me. It took me a moment, but what she was trying to tell me finally clicked. I gave her a quick nod in understanding. Jake and Rose were cousins. Jacob Roberson. I thought back to the family photo of the Robersons at the sawmill. Joseph and Jacob were brothers, sons of Davy I believed. Although they had been older in the picture than Dawn and Rose, I still hadn’t recognized Jacob all grown up and mobstered out.
I could hear a car pulling into our driveway, but at that moment, the engine revved and Jake tore out of the garage like a bat out of hell. The momentum tipped me over and I slammed against the backrest. I shifted back upright in my seat and glanced back at the driveway to see Kyle running after us. I could hear the sirens getting closer. If Jake hurried, he might get far enough down the road to miss the police as they turned onto Elderberry Lane. He floored it and, as I had feared, just as we were disappearing around the bend in the road, I glanced back to see the red and blue sirens pulling onto our road.
Shit! I knew Fletcher and Kyle would try to find us, but who knew where these two psychopaths were taking us? I glanc
ed at Quinn again and she gave me a thumbs up from behind her back. I hoped that meant her bindings were loose enough that she could get out of them and also that she had some brilliant plan.
I turned my attention towards Rose, hoping to get some more information out of her. At this point, knowledge was our best weapon.
“So, is this a whole family affair or just you two?”
Rose whirled around in the front passenger seat to face us. “You don’t know what you’re talking about and if you have any hopes of living to see another day, you should probably shut your stupid mouth.”
Geesh, harsh!
This time it was Quinn who piped up. “Do Joseph and Katherine know about this, too?”
Rose glared at Quinn for a second longer than was comfortable (not that any of this was comfortable, mind you). She then rolled her eyes and started talking. “Okay, you two busybodies want to know the details. Why not? It’s not like you’ll be able to blab our secrets for very much longer anyway.” She laughed.
“I run the show, Joe and Jake are my right hand men, Katherine doesn’t know anything about anything, and Dawn was always in the way.”
“What about your grandfather?”
“What about him? He had horrible business sense and if it hadn’t been for my two uncles, he would’ve gone under long ago. Ever since our grandmother died, he’s been living out his days in lonely oblivion in his retirement home. Which, again, he wouldn’t even have if it weren’t for my uncles’ hard work to save the family from ruin.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. “You do realize that if he hadn’t fought for your mother’s life, you wouldn’t even be here, right?”
She pointed the gun straight at my head again. “If I hear one more snotty remark out of you, they will never find your body. Do you understand?”
I nodded my head in understanding. Meanwhile, my blood began to boil. This little black dragon was really starting to piss me off.