The Beast in the Bone

by Blair Lindsay

  But he was sure now it wouldn’t come to that. He waited to be certain no other emergency vehicles followed the fire truck, and then he ran onto the road, swinging right to follow it.

  Thirteen

  Climbing back up the basement stairs was an adventure in choking air hunger that Keller imagined must be similar to scaling Everest’s upper slopes.

  She kept as low as she could under the growing smoke, crawling and gasping, taking shallow breaths of what useful oxygen might be left in the air as smoke and nausea warred for control of her gag reflex. She vomited twice on the ascent, nothing left in her stomach but thin bile, and each time the heaves drove rusty spikes of agony into her brain. Would her skull just pop? Burst like a blister under pressure?

  Below her, the frantic screams from the trapped girls urged her on.

  Finally Keller’s hand slapped hard against the hallway floor and she hauled herself up and onto it. She still wasn’t sure what level she was on, but maybe it didn’t matter.

  Sure, it doesn’t matter till you’re trying to get out.

  First things first, her hindbrain insisted. Find the key, then back to the lock. Seems right. Saves lives. Best do it. Easy concept for an undamaged mind. In her concussed and oxygen-starved brain, every decision seemed to take on the aspect of a complex puzzle.

  The hallway was clogged with smoke halfway down now and her hair prickled with the blistering heat in the air above.

  Get out. You’re dying…. It’s not your fault if they don’t make it. You tried your best…

  No.

  She dredged up some hidden reserve of strength and scrabbled like an insect up the hallway, the laminate flooring stained and sticky with things she didn’t want to know about, and back into the room where she’d left Pigpen. He lay still on his side, dead to the world… or maybe just dead.

  She slapped at his pockets and located the tangle of keys under the layer of flab spilling over a leather belt that looked a perfect fit for the welts she’d seen on the girls.

  He moaned as she grabbed the keys, and she shrieked when his hand closed over hers, surprisingly strong. He was fighting to open his eyes, to focus on her.

  “You… don’t…”

  She smashed at his face with the heel of her hand, a violent jab whose savagery surprised her. His head rocked back and blood spurted from his nose, and she lurched away as his grip slackened, clutching the keys so tightly they stung the palm of her hand.

  But the pain was good. It gave her something to focus on amid waves of vertigo and disorientation. She crawled back up the hallway under churning clouds of smoke, every breath searing her throat. By the time she found the stairway again, her eyes were watering and her vision blurring. She clawed her way into the shaft like a wounded animal retreating to its lair, then fell, tumbling down the stairs.

  Fourteen

  “Wake up! WAKE UP!”

  Keller rolled onto her side, gulping hard against a heaving stomach. It seemed now that nausea had been a part of her life forever. Would she never be done with it?

  Focus.

  She got to her knees. Pigpen’s keys were still clutched in her hand, their imprint stamped in her palm.

  “Let us out, let us out!”

  The girls reached their fingers through the links like penitents seeking communion.

  Two large concussions came from overhead as Keller crawled toward the cage, and she guessed these were portions of the roof surrendering to the fire. She got to her knees in front of the cage and held the keys up in front of her, but everything was a blur.

  “Give them here.” The older dark-eyed girl took the keys from her. “I’ve seen him use them.”

  She sifted through the dozen grimy keys and selected one with surety, levered it up into the padlock, and twisted. The lock sprang open. She yanked it out of the hasp and tossed it away and the three girls spilled out of the cage, sobbing and shrieking. The oldest girl helped Keller to her feet.

  As a group, they turned toward the stairs just as an explosion sent a gout of fire rolling down toward them. Keller turned her back to the flame and pushed the trio away from it, spilling them onto the floor amid curses and frightened shrieks.

  The youngest, the blonde girl, struggled out from under Keller and ran for the stairs. Keller snatched at her and missed, but the dark-eyed girl caught her and yanked her back.

  “Let go!” the blonde screamed. “We gotta get out of here!”

  “Can’t get out that way, little sister,” the dark-eyed girl said, looking Keller over. “You’re a paramedic?”

  She nodded. “Ash Keller.” She looked around, squinting. Her vision doubled off and on, as though she were watching a 3D movie without the special glasses. “There another way out of here? Back door? Windows?”

  “Would’ve been out already if you weren’t so fucking slow.” The blonde glared at her.

  “Shut up, Staci,” the dark-eyed girl said, gazing at Keller. “Staci here hasn’t figured out that fucker beat you up.” She clapped Staci gently on the back, and the girl’s expression softened as she took a second look at Keller. “I’m Robin,” the dark-eyed girl said. She put a hand on the shorter girl’s shoulder. “Kayla.” Her eyes narrowed. “There was another girl up there…”

  “Teela!” Staci half shouted at the reminder, her eyes wide. “Did you see her? Is she okay?”

  Teela could only be the girl Keller had heard raped and strangled. Robin was watching her intently and she met the girl’s gaze with a quick shake of her head.

  “Don’t worry about her. We gotta get out of here,” Robin said, her face grim. She pushed them all toward the basement wall opposite the doorway. “That’s our way out.”

  As she drew closer, Keller made out a window set deep into the concrete just below the ceiling, painted black and covered with dirt and cobwebs. She judged it—with blurred vision—to be about two feet across and a foot high. She might not fit but the girls would, she was sure.

  “We have to smash through it,” Robin said. She darted into the space behind the furnace and returned holding a ragged broom. “Stand back.” She didn’t wait for a response. She set herself below the window and slung the broom like a spear, smashing the tip against the window. The glasses cracked, then shattered as she pounded at it.

  A sweet tang of cool night air and the distant sound of sirens wafted through the broken window. “Let me clear out the glass.” She grabbed the broom from Robin and levered it around the sides of the window, raking as many of the residual shards out of the frame as she could. They were all going to wind up with lacerations, but at least the girls would live to complain about them.

  She looked at Robin. “You first. I’ll—”

  “No fucking way. I can—”

  “No.” Keller shook her head and regretted it immediately, touching the wall to steady herself. “Don’t argue with your paramedic. I boost you out first. You can help me get the other two through. Now.”

  Robin looked her up and down. “You can barely stand, woman.”

  She wasn’t wrong. Keller’s vision was increasingly fogged, the pain in her head was literally mind-numbing, and her chest felt thick and heavy, as if insects were building a nest inside it. Most concerning, her wrists were so torn up that she wasn’t sure she could climb.

  “We don’t have time to argue.” Keller coughed, crouching and locking her hands together.

  Robin shook her head but placed a foot onto Keller’s clasped hands and levered herself up the wall and into the window well.

  Keller heard grunts of pain and knew Robin was enduring numerous cuts and slashes from the glass shards still in the frame, but the girl never hesitated, wriggling through the window like a snake.

  As soon as she was out, Keller grabbed Kayla and, arms shaking, lifted her up as well. Kayla protested as the glass cut into her, but Robin dragged her through without mercy. Keller boosted Staci next and stumbled as she did, nearly sending them both crashing to the floor, but soon the other girl was
out too.

  “Hurry up, Paramedic Lady.” Robin reached through the window as far as she could.

  “Yeah, yeah. Hope I fit.”

  “Every goddamn woman thinks she’s fatter than she is,” Robin said. “You’ll fit. Now come on. This house isn’t going to be here much longer.”

  “All right.” Keller leapt up and grabbed the lip of the ledge. Her wrists blazed and she willed strength she didn’t feel into her trembling arms. But the strength went out of her before Robin could get hold of her and she was falling, slamming onto the floor, her head cracking against the concrete. The pain was all-encompassing, a black hole spreading across her vision.

  As if from miles away, she heard Robin swearing.

  Then the other girls began to scream. “No! Don’t! What’re you doing?”

  Hands gripped Keller’s arm and she was being pulled to her feet, Robin’s voice in her ear. “Come on, now. Stand up.”

  “Get out of here,” Keller said. “Don’t—”

  “Save your breath.” Robin guided her below the window, shouting up to the other two. “Get ready to pull her through!”

  “Same as before, but you step on my hands.” Robin mimicked Keller’s earlier stance.

  Keller steadied herself on the wall and stepped into Robin’s clasped hands.

  “Push!” Keller said, and as she stepped up, she felt Robin heaving her upward. Suddenly she was up into the window well and the other two girls were grabbing her forearms. Sparks of pain in her chest as they dragged her across the broken glass in the frame. Then her belt caught and sharp fire pierced her abdomen.

  “Pull, bitches!” Robin yelled, and the girls yanked on Keller’s arms so hard she thought her shoulders might dislocate. The crackling of the fire above them was more like a roar now and she knew at any second the wall might collapse and kill them all.

  Abruptly, she was free and the girls were dragging her across the grass, the dew wet and cold against her skin.

  “Get Robin…” A shout that came out more like a whisper.

  She rolled to her knees and crawled back to the window, but Robin was already halfway through and Kayla and Staci dragged her out as well. Together they picked Keller up under the arms and ran with her. They didn’t stop until they were many yards from the burning house and then they collapsed again, the two younger girls sobbing with relief as they hugged each other.

  Keller met Robin’s gaze and whispered, “Thank you.”

  Robin shook her head and clasped Keller’s forearm. “You said it, sister.” But her eyes were uncertain, no hope there, as if being free again was going to take some getting used to.

  The first of the fire engines rolled into the yard, the screaming siren resonating in Keller’s skull. She was thankful the driver killed it as the pumper rolled to a stop. A well-drilled crew descended from the vehicle and yanked pre-connected lengths of hose from the truck as the driver engaged the pump, but the house was a roaring inferno now and Keller saw the firefighters were preparing for a “surround and drown” operation, setting up hose lines at equidistant points around the structure and running jets of water fog in high arcs over the fiery structure.

  “I’m glad it’s burning.” Robin caught Keller’s eye. “Were they both inside?”

  Both?

  Keller shook her head and the action nearly caused her to pass out. She lay back in the grass and felt the dew soak through her shirt, the tendrils of moisture tickling at her wounds, reminding her she was still alive.

  More sirens in the distance, growing louder. To Keller they sounded like wailing ghosts, ready to welcome newcomers to their ranks.

  Fifteen

  Too late.

  The Fixer stood in the shadows of the trees near his car and watched as flames engulfed the house and firefighters spilled out of their trucks to begin applying water onto what was clearly a lost cause. There were too many witnesses now for him to exact any influence on events, but there was no need either. Nothing could possibly survive the fire.

  Then he saw her—saw them—illuminated in the garish red–white strobes of the fire truck.

  Jesus fucking Christ.

  They were alive—all of them—the paramedic and the three girls clustered around her, embracing each other like they were a family, for God’s sake.

  Sweat broke out over his brow and he blinked rapidly.

  Calm down. None of them saw me. Heard me—maybe—from a room away, were aware of me. But never saw…

  The Fixer sometimes assisted one of Hunt’s flunkies with captures, guiding the other men to carefully chosen targets. As with tonight, he would sometimes make deliveries, but only once the girls were secured and blindfolded.

  It was still a fine fucking mess. He gritted his teeth. There was no choice now. He had to disappear.

  Sixteen

  Keller knew the medics who arrived from Drumheller—Gene Bergner and Maya Kinsley on Two Alpha Forty-Nine—as people with decent reputations. Both Advanced Care Paramedics. Bergner always seemed a little full of himself, confidence superseding competence in Keller’s estimation, but Kinsley balanced him out, a cool assertive presence and a kind patience that might have come from raising a son with Down syndrome.

  They’d parked a hundred metres south of the burning farmhouse on the main road, well upwind of the smoke and flying embers. Keller helped shuffle the three girls into their unit, though Staci and Kayla looked worried when she didn’t climb in after them.

  “Hey, little sister.” Robin settled on the bench seat in the back of the unit. “Lots of room here.”

  “I’ll be right here,” Keller said. “Not going anywhere.”

  She turned as another ambulance came out of the darkness, its emergency lights painting the girl’s faces by turns blood red, then pale white.

  This turned out to be Two Alpha Forty-Six, crewed by Sarah Roberts and Mike Evans, ACPs as well. They parked behind Alpha Forty-Nine so that the two patient-care areas were facing one another. Mike was a short, balding veteran and Sarah, a tall redhead who was forever talking about her next triathlon. Both were horrified at the sight of one of their own bloodied and battered, but Keller was firm with them.

  “The girls first. Check with Forty-Nine and see if they need help. If they’re okay and you get around to me, here’s the deal: I’ll let you start an IV and bandage anything bleeding. No C-spine immobilization and no drugs except Zofran. I’m pukey as fuck.”

  A strange thing to say. This was her chance to get some high-grade, non-lethal opioid in her system and spend the rest of the night in a blissful state of Cool Smooth. And her body was prickly with wanting some.

  Why not?

  Then she realized why not… She wasn’t off-duty yet. In her mind, she wouldn’t be off until the girls were taken care of. More than that, though, she just couldn’t work up any desire for what was in the narcotic pouch clasped to Evans’s belt.

  “Physician, heal thyself,” Evans said with a smile and a glance at her bloodstained clothes. The message was clear: Let yourself be taken care of.

  Roberts echoed this, nodding to the other ambulance, where Bergner and Kinsley were assessing the girls’ injuries, applying bandages, taking vital signs. “They’re fine, being well taken care of. Let’s take a look at you, okay?”

  Reluctantly, she lay back on the stretcher, breathing easy, and felt the pain in her skull recede by a magnitude. She’d been running on adrenalin but now even that was gone. She felt used up, as if it would take a superhuman effort to rise again.

  Evans placed an oxygen mask on her face, watching the oxygen saturation sensor they’d clipped to her finger. “You’re a little high on carbon monoxide. What say we see if we can take care of that?”

  Keller wanted to laugh. I think I prefer fentanyl. “Sure.”

  She tried to relax as the two peppered her with questions. Allergies, medications, and, inevitably, What happened?

  After she brought them up to date on the events of the night, she watched Roberts’s
eyes brighten and take on a little of the pain she herself was feeling. The woman nodded for Evans to go into the other unit and help Bergner and Kinsley, then levered the doors halfway closed. As they shut, Keller saw Robin looking at her, face blank and hopeless. She didn’t look like a woman set free. She looked like one still awaiting an opportunity to escape.

  “I have to ask if you were you sexually assaulted,” Roberts said once they had a modicum of privacy.

  “I don’t think so, no.”

  “But you were unconscious for a while.”

  “I kind of wish I was now.”

  Roberts smiled. “I’m going to take a look at the cuts on your chest and abdomen now. Get them bandaged.”

  “As long as there’s not too much nudity.”

  “I’ll try and keep my clothes on.”

  Keller laughed. Roberts was taking a chance, had sized her up as maybe appreciating a little humour right now instead of comforting words. She helped unbutton what was left of her bloody uniform shirt and lifted her undershirt, wincing as Roberts examined the deep lacerations below her collarbone and across her chest and belly, all courtesy of her trip through the window. She was grateful to have Roberts rather than Evans doing this, but it was bad enough to have any colleague examining her. Someone she might have to see again, work with someday.

  “Looks like you don’t have any glass lodged in the wounds.” Roberts ripped open some sterile dressings.

  “Lucky me.”

  “Yeah, you should buy a lottery ticket.”

  “Smartass.”

  Roberts shrugged. “Actually, Evans is the smartass, but I’ve won best-supporting smartass the last two years.”

  “Got to keep trying, right?”

  “Words to live by. I’ll thank you in my acceptance speech.”

  Roberts taped sterile dressings over the worst of the lacerations and pulled the blankets back over her, then attended to her wrists. “Doc’ll have to stitch some of these up. You remember your last tetanus?”