by Peter Grist
“This is nowhere near where they found the bike. That was over the other side, much closer to town.”
“That’s what I figured; it was a decoy, put folks off of where to look. None of this seems accidental or spur of the moment. It all feels, well, organised you know, pre-planned?”
“Yes, I’m afraid I do.” She replied.
They drove on in silence for a few more minutes before Ed asked: “How long was I out for back there?”
“About twenty minutes, you moved a lot, like you were having a nightmare. I didn’t want to try and wake you just in case, well you know, just in case…”
“Just in case it killed me? I think that’s supposed to be for sleepwalkers and I’m not sure that’s true, but thanks.”
“I didn’t know what to do, the train passed and I just sat there watching you, I was thinking maybe we should turn back but then you seemed to get calmer so I drove over the tracks and waited, you came round just after.”
“Twenty minutes? It seemed much longer, like real time you know?”
They fell back into silence as they drove higher into the hills. They passed a turning that Ed thought might be the one they needed but as they slowed he could see it was a newer intrusion into the trees. Looking up the turn he could see it lead to a cement base holding a cell-phone mast ringed by chain link fencing.
“Umph!” he grunted at the ugly erection. “That definitely wasn’t here last time.”
“That’s progress for you.” She replied.
After another minute and a half he saw the turn. “Here, here, go left!” he pointed excitedly at the small turn. She slowed and took the left turn then following Ed’s directions continued up into the hills.
With each fork in the trail the tracks got smaller and rougher. At one point they had to stop so that Ed could drag the dead trunk of a Buckeye out of the way. The Jeep rocked and rolled through the dips and troughs of the rutted track.
“We’re nearly there……Yes! That’s where I parked the DeSoto, behind there.” He pointed over to the right to an overgrown cutway. “Go up a bit further, we’ll stop where he parked the pick-up.”
She looked across at him. “A DeSoto? Do they make those things anymore? What were you doing in a DeSoto?”
He smiled ruefully. “I honestly don’t know, it’s the car I always seem to be driving when I have the dreams. I guess it’s because I learnt to drive in one, but really, I just don’t know.”
He pointed ahead to where the track got just a little wider. “That’s it. Stop over there.”
She pulled in to where he had pointed and cut the engine.
“We won’t get any further, even in this.” He said. “It’s through there.” Pointing towards the dense, overgrown woodland.
“How far from here?” she asked.
Ed looked at her; she seemed a lot less certain now, her resolve starting to crumble. He couldn’t think of anything to reassure her that wouldn’t sound patronising. He gently took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She gave him a lame, sickly smile that reminded Ed of Pinnochio in the poolroom on Pleasure Island after he’d had a large drag on a cigar that made him go green.
“Not far, maybe twenty minutes, depending on how overgrown it is.” With a last squeeze, he added, “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
“Ed, I don’t know if I can….”
“Yes, we can,” he interrupted with more certainty than he felt. He opened the passenger door and slid out of the car. As Linda exited on the other side Ed grabbed the spade and flashlight from the floor behind where he had sat. He then looked up at the sky, it was ablaze with pinks and reds as the sun offered a spectacular finale to the day. It wasn’t dark yet but it wouldn’t be long in coming. Handing the large Maglite to Linda, Ed said, “We’d better get going, I don’t want to be lost in the woods all night.” And with that, he set off across the track and into the undergrowth. Linda hesitated a moment longer, looking around suspiciously at the darkening forest, then blipped the remote central locking on the Jeep and headed quickly after Ed.
The going was easier than Ed had expected but still tough. He could make out the faintest hint of an old pathway made by either humans or wild animals. Where brambles grew thickly he hit them back with the spade, cutting a path through but spiky thorns and low branches still clawed at their clothes and exposed skin. Nothing was said until they reached the break in the trees where the stream ran down some fifteen minutes later. Ed walked to the bank and looked down. In the half-light, he could see that the stepping stones seemed just a little smaller but there was a lot less water flowing too. The stream was barely more than a trickle now.
“This is where I crossed, we’re nearly there.” He looked into Linda’s large brown eyes, gaining strength from the compassion he saw in them. He stepped closer to her and removed a small twig from her raven black hair, then gently stroked her cheek.
“Nearly there.” He repeated, more softly.
“I’m okay, let’s get going.”
He nodded, took her hand and led her across the brook.
twenty-two
The boy had been easy to take. Still dreary from sleep, he had put up little resistance. When the attacker had placed the gaffer tape over his mouth, Josh’s eyes opened in confusion but quickly turned to alarm when he saw the masked figure. Josh kicked and flailed out with his arms, knocking the Buzz Lightyear bedside lamp to the floor with a crash but a swift smack to the back of the boy’s head with the back of a hand quickly subdued him. The assailant dragged the boy roughly from his bed, holding him by the collar of his pyjamas.
“You make a single sound, try to run, anything, be the last thing you ever do. Understand?” Fear made the boy’s eyes nearly pop from his head but he did not respond to the man’s threat or look into the masked man’s eyes. The intruder shook him again.
“Understand me boy?”
The boy finally nodded meekly, still avoiding eye contact. He looked down at the floor. At that, the attacker twisted the boy around and bound his wrists behind his back with more of the strong tape. With a forceful shove in the back, he pushed the boy towards the door.
“Move!” he barked.
Josh stumbled into the hallway towards the stairs guided by the abductor’s hand gripping the back of his top. They made their way down the steps, through the house to the kitchen. Josh lifted his head only briefly to look into the living room, where he saw the body of Esther laying on the floor. The stranger frog-marched the terrified boy out of the backdoor and into the chill night air of the backyard. As the pair made their way from the house into the darkness, the small sharp stones cut into the sensitive underside of Josh’s naked feet making him jump and skip in pain. He stumbled and almost fell on his face; only the weight of the assailant grabbing him back stopped the child from slamming head-first into the rough ground. Half-dragged and half-pushed they got to the pick-up truck where the attacker man-handled Josh into the passenger side of the truck and got him to sit in the footwell, out of sight. From his pack, he took out a small cloth sack and placed it over the terrified boys head. Now that he couldn’t be seen, the man peeled up the knitted mask to reveal his pale, fleshy face, then started the truck, spun it around and headed away from the farm. When he had the bumpy farm track behind him and was on smoother blacktop, he pulled his cell-phone from his breast pocket, hit a speed-dial button and waited for a reply. The call was answered but no-one spoke at the other end of the line. The driver said just two words, “It’s done.” then hung up.
twenty-three
They were both panting slightly as they made the clearing. The last vestiges of daylight had bled away so that there was no colour to the sky but an inky blackness. Wispy clouds covered most of the stars that were already visible and the moon had yet to reach any height that would help the couple see. Linda switched on the flashlight and played the powerful beam around the area.
She guessed it was almost forty-foot square and was mostly moss and tufts of hardy long grass with the occasional fallen tree. The forest made a tall, almost impenetrable barrier around them. As they had entered the clearing the local wildlife had become silent but very soon the noise of crickets, cicadas and the occasional bullfrog could be heard. Most of the birdlife seemed to be sleeping already but the eerie soft hoot of an Eastern Screech-Owl added to the already tense atmosphere.
“Is this the place?” she asked quietly.
“Yes, I’m positive. When I first came here, in the second dream I had, I crouched over there behind that trunk.” He replied in little more than a whisper. He pointed to what was left of the husk of a large pine that was now barely a few pieces of bark, eaten away and rotted over the years. He took the flashlight from her hand and guided it across the ground. Tentatively he walked forward, panning left and right with the beam. Looking back at the tree line they had come from for guidance he stopped near the centre of the clearing.
“I think it was about here.” He offered.
“Well, it doesn’t look as if anyone has ever been here, let alone recently, which is good, right?”
“You mean whoever was doing this stopped at some point? Well, yeah, I guess so, or maybe they just found somewhere else to bury the evidence.” He handed the flashlight back to Linda then tried the earth with the tip of the spade, it gave way easily.
“Ed!” she exclaimed, stopping him from his exploration. “I’m still not sure about this, it feels, I don’t know, it feels like desecration, like we’re disturbing a grave, a hallowed place, it feels wrong.”
“We are digging a grave, but it’s not the one she should be in is it? This isn’t a cemetery, it’s a murderer’s hiding place and we need to be certain that Grace and the others are here. We can’t go to the authorities and tell them I had a dream, they wouldn’t believe it, and even if they did, we can’t prove who did it. I want to dig around here just about as much as you do, but we have to do this Linda. We have to know they are here and then find a way to trap the killer, then we can get them home, where they belong.”
They stood close to each other for support; the light on the ground offered by the flashlight enough to show the torment on their faces. Finally, she nodded acceptance and pointed the flashlight at the end of the spade. Ed looked at Linda for a moment more. The longer he knew her the more he liked her. He turned his attention from her beautiful face to the task at hand. Gently he coaxed the spade into the soft earth. By the light of the flashlight he worked his way around the area that he thought the girl was buried in. He took away the top layer of black soil and placed it to one side, ready to be put back in place, then he carefully dug deeper, making a pile beside the suspected grave. He didn’t know how deep the murderer had buried her but he guessed at least three foot down so that animals wouldn’t disturb the remains. The ground was soft and clay-like, each spadeful separated with a squelchy, wet noise. The soft, rotting black topsoil lasted for about eighteen inches before it became lighter in shade. Although it was better than digging in hard ground it was still back-breaking work and after a few minutes Ed was breathing hard but he continued apace.
“Stop! What was that?” cried Linda.
“What was what?” Ed looked around where he had been digging but could only see moist earth and ooze.
“There, just in front of your right foot, it’s covered over again but I am sure I saw something.”
Ed moved the earth around with the spade where she had pointed but still, he saw nothing.
“There! There! Right by your foot.”
Ed knelt down and moved some earth with his hands. They both gasped when they saw the bright red swatch of fabric. The colour was still vibrant and the small delicate yellow flower print was still equally as clear. Ed got the spade and shaved away another layer of the clay-like earth from around the fabric. The flashlight beam was quivering. He looked up to see that Linda was shaking uncontrollably, hugging her own body with her left arm. Ed was reluctant but he spoke to her.
“I’m sorry, I’m gonna need some help here.”
Ed stood and held out his hand, Linda took it and stepped down into the shallow trench. They both knelt down and began to move clumps of clay with their bare hands, not wanting to hit anything with the sharp blade of the digging tool. Within seconds they had uncovered more of the material which looked to be the bottom of a dress. It was Ed that worked his way sideways into the packed earth and discovered the limb.
“Oh my god!” exclaimed Linda. She fell back as she instinctively drew away from what she had seen. The palest of skin could be seen as Ed removed more of the moist earth. The patch of white skin became a thigh. They now worked together, moving upward towards the torso.
“She doesn’t look as if she’s been here for a week, let alone forty years, how can that be?” Linda asked.
“I guess the clay soil has preserved her”, he replied. He paused then added, “I think you should probably step out now, we’re nearly where the head should be”. She nodded, passed the flashlight to Ed then climbed out of the grave. She stepped a few feet away, turning her back on the horror in the clearing. It took just another minute of scrapping for Ed to find the neck and then moments later, the girl’s severed head.
“Oh dear god!” he murmured.
Between quiet sobs, she whispered “Ed, please hurry, I want to go?”
“I’m nearly done” she heard him say. He was grunting from exertion then it went quiet again. She turned back towards the hole in the ground just as he was climbing out. In the flashlight light she could see he held a piece of ribbon taken from one of the girls ponytails.
“Hold the light would you, I’m gonna cover her back over, hold this too?” He passed her the light and ribbon, grabbed the spade and gently started replacing the soil. The light strayed a little as she hiccupped with her crying but she tried not to shine the beam directly into the grave. When it was done Ed carefully put the topsoil back in place and patted it down with the spade. Linda’s tears had dried as he finished making the ground look as undisturbed as possible. He threw a few pieces of dead branches and leaves around the area they had dug. He took the flashlight back and swept the beam around, checking his handy work. He nodded to himself, reached for Linda’s hand and led the way back to the car.
twenty-four
It was fully dark as they made their way back to the Jeep so the going was slow. Linda blipped the remote and jumped in the passenger side.
“Could you drive, I don’t think I’m up to it?” she asked, offering the keys to Ed.
“No problem”. He took the keys, dumped the flashlight and spade in the back then walked around to the other side of the car. As he got in he noticed that the cell phone was flashing from its holder on the dash.
“You’ve got a message, your phones flashing”.
“Oh, it’s probably Esther seeing what time we’ll be back, I’ll give her a call and tell her we’re on our way”.
Linda picked up the phone, unlocked it and opened the waiting message. Ed looked at his companion in surprise as a huge sob ripped through her. She broke down in tears, the cell falling to the floor as she held her face in her hands. Ed picked up the phone and read the message: IF YOU EVER WANT TO SEE YOUR BOY AGAIN DUMP THE SALESMAN AND GO HOME BITCH.
“Linda?........Linda? Listen to me, phone home, see if Josh is there”.
She pulled herself together almost as quickly as she had lost control. Ed was realising that this woman was made of strong stuff, and now this, after the evening they had already gone through.
“Call home, make sure they’re alright, I’ll get us heading back”.
She sniffed several times but the look of shock in her eyes had now been replaced by a steely hard face, accentuating her pointed chin and high cheekbones. She took the phone back and keyed in a speed dial number as Ed adjusted the electric seat a
nd got the Jeep turned around to face back down the track. He let the 4x4 bump slowly down the rugged track, taking frequent glances at Linda’s silhouette in the darkness. She held the phone tight to her ear, her knuckles white from the grip. In between the squeaking of the springs as it bounced in and out of the ruts he could hear the faint electronic ringing of her home phone tainting the silence. He could picture the phone on the wall of the kitchen where they had sat just a day before enjoying chicken pie. The longer it rang, the more Ed thought the noise was mocking them. Finally, she rang off.
“Oh my god Ed, they’ve taken Josh, and probably Esther too. What am I going to do?”
“What are WE going to do, we’re in this together. We’ll get him back, I promise.” Ed sounded surer than he felt inside. He knew what this guy was capable off and inside he knew that if Josh had been taken it was very likely he was already dead.
“We have a big advantage here; he doesn’t know that we know who he is. We can find him and get Josh back, but I think we’re going to need some help. But let’s get back to your place and see what’s happened first.”
Linda said nothing but nodded in response. The ground had evened out a little as the tracks got wider. The Jeep had extra halogen lights fitted to the front which Ed utilised to good effect but he still drove faster than the conditions allowed. Soon they were back on to blacktop and he hit the gas hard, heading for Linda’s ranch house.
twenty-five
The Jeep came to a screeching halt outside of her home kicking up a spray of dust and gravel. Linda was out of the door even before the car had stopped, running for the front door; calling for her son, Ed was hot on her tail. The house lights were all off except for the living room. They burst through the front door, Ed calling for Esther, Linda calling for Josh.