Smoke Stack

by Andrew Gruse

  “In bed with my wife right after we just made fantastic love again.” Zack looked at Pigface. “Oh, I’m sorry. You wouldn’t know what it’s like to be with a woman, who doesn’t fight back, who isn’t a child. Hope I didn’t offend you.”

  Pigface’s smile left, and he growled. Anger and evil overtook his face. He stepped forward to grab Zack, but his cell phone rang. Pigface stopped. Zack realized that whoever called frightened the giant blob of ugly in front of him.

  The man answered the phone while his beady black eyes bore holes through Zack. “Yeah, I just gave him water,” Pigface said. “Yeah, ok. I’ll watch for it.” Pigface hocked up a gob of saliva and spit it towards Zack. It hit Zack’s chest. Pigface smiled. “Ok. I’m on it. If they find me, they’re all dead. Trust me.” He hung up and put the phone in his pocket. “I’ll deal with you later.”

  Zack said nothing. Pigface picked up the empty buckets and disappeared down the hallway.

  Zack heard nothing again. He closed his eyes and thought.

  That well water tasted awful, but it was acceptable. And at least he washed away my piss. Of course, I’m soaked again. He shook his head as he chastised himself. I let my emotions get the best of me. Goddamnit! I know better. That was stupid, stupid, stupid! Idiot. Think! You can’t let a bunch of pedophile small-minded inbred jackasses beat you. Well, they might not be inbred, but they definitely are pedophiles and jackasses. Smallminded is a judgment call. I’m sticking with that one. I shouldn’t have entered the forest last night, or whenever that was. Hell could have been two days ago. How long have I been here? All right, get it together, Zack. Think.

  Zack remembered reading a book while killing time overseas. A crime novel. He couldn’t remember the author’s name. He remembered the good guys getting duct-taped like he was. The guy used a steady outward pressure on his wrists to eventually weaken the inner bands of the tape to get free. It took a lot of time and energy. Zack tried once. Held the pressure for twenty seconds and released.

  Not a chance. I won’t be able to lift my arms if that even works.

  Then he remembered a video he saw on social media. A little girl broke out of a duct tape wrist hold easily. But she was able to raise her arms above her head.

  But that was the best way out. If he could wiggle his arms and shoulders enough to loosen the duct tape around his arms. He started to squirm. Zack raised and circularly lowered his shoulders and pushed out with his elbows tucked at his sides the same time he lifted his shoulders. There was no movement. Nothing. But it was worth a try.

  Pigface didn’t realize it, but Zack did: the water he threw on Zack just helped Zack immensely. Not right at that moment. Nor at the next hour when Zack got two more buckets of water thrown on him. Or the next hour. Or even the hour after that.

  Pigface was punctual. And none of them understood the basic chemistry of glue and water.

  CHAPTER 42

  The police Tahoe stopped short of the gate Zack had hopped over a couple of days earlier. Sheriff Orbison got out, walked to the lock, and used a large bolt cutter to snap the lock. He unhooked the gate and swung it open.

  Orb got back into the truck and looked down the dark and muddy road. The sun decided the hide and seek game wasn’t working and disappeared behind a thick blanket of gray clouds. The eerie forest in front of them gave Orb shivers. Bad memories filled his head. Even he stayed out of the woods.

  “Last chance, ladies, to stay here,” he said.

  “Where are your deputies?” Julie asked. “If it’s this dangerous, maybe we should have back-up?”

  “Sam and Frank are in town. Lou has off today.” Orb reached to a center console that held his police shotgun in place. He grabbed the Benelli M4 and set it beside him, ready to fire. “Just stay in the vehicle and keep your eyes open.”

  He put the vehicle in drive and slowly accelerated up the road past the Keep Out signs and onto the private property owned by the estate of Dick Miller. The tall grass and brush along and in the middle of the narrow road scraped the underside of the SUV. Orb crept slowly, barely above 5 miles per hour. A walking pace.

  “This place gives me the creeps,” Molly said. “They should burn this whole place and start over.”

  Orb said nothing, and Julie stared out the windows of each side with hopes she’d see a sign. But part of her hoped she’d see nothing. Part of her hoped Zack was just playing a cruel practical joke on her because of her ill-timed remark to him. Julie kept her phone in her hand. Any buzz and she would know. Maybe he was staking out Marvin or someone and went back to the house and will call to see where I am.

  They drove further into the forest. The road turned, and the entrance disappeared from sight. Orb slowed to a stop and scanned the area only to move forward. They saw the narrow trails through the saplings and underbrush.

  They saw boulders and mounds of earth and branches on the ground. There was nothing else to see. After several minutes they drove over a shallow hill and curve and exited the thick treed forest. Ahead was the house and barns of the Miller farm.

  Orb drove to the house but parked on the road instead of parking near the house. He stared at the dilapidated old house. An old farmhouse that time and the elements took advantage of.

  “That’s the house,” Orb said. “I haven’t been here in years.”

  Julie and Molly remained silent.

  Orb put the vehicle in park, grabbed the shotgun and opened the door but kept the engine running. “I’ll go check it out,” he said. “If something happens to me, get the hell out of here.”

  “What do you mean if something happens? What could possibly happen?” Julie asked. “This place is abandoned, isn’t it?”

  Orb nodded and stared uneasily at the house. Creepy was but one way to describe it. Scary was another, and Orb acted scared. Julie saw it, and so did Molly.

  The white siding was faded and rotted. Hardly any shade of white remained. The windows were dark, some busted, some with gray and dingy curtains on the inside, and some just showing nothing but blackness inside the house. The door hung on hinges that nearly rotted out of the frame and rested haphazardly in the doorframe.

  The roof had a hole in it, some of the shingles dangled precariously over the rusted and broke gutters that did nothing to guide rainwater anymore. Brush and sucker trees grew alongside the house, through the porch, and the yard was as unkempt as any field around.

  The dark clouds and light wind only heightened the aura of the abandoned farmhouse. Julie had seen less scary haunted houses in movies. This one looked evil.

  “It is,” Orb finally answered. “Unless you believe in ghosts.” He looked at the women in his Tahoe. “I’ll be right back.” He stepped out of the truck, adjusted his sheriff’s cap, and clutched the shotgun. After a deep breath of courage, he started towards the farmhouse.

  * * * *

  Two men watched the sheriff approach the house. One hid in the forest across from the road less than forty yards from the Tahoe. He saw the women in the vehicle. His orders were simple: do what he was told. He did that well. And if he got the text to say so, the bow and arrow in his hands would be more than sufficient to handle the situation in front of him.

  Another man hid inside the house. Risky at best. Stupid at worst. But he couldn’t allow an unwarranted search to uncover the secrets that lie beneath. He slipped away from the dark window into the darkness of the center of the house, near his escape route, if necessary.

  The sheriff slowly approached the porch. He stopped, listened, and looked around. The barn nearby creaked as the wind rustled a loose board on a wall. A metal wind gauge, rusty and crooked, twirled in the wind and added its own ghostly sound.

  The sheriff stepped onto the porch and looked through one of the broken windows. He looked at the ground around the door. He grabbed the handle and turned it, but it was locked though the screen door dangled on its hinges. Satisfied, the sheriff walked down the porch and hopped off to the ground beside the house.

  He
knelt and studied the earth around the house, perhaps looking for signs of footprints. He stood and continued his search along the side of the house between the house and the barns and disappeared behind the house.

  The man in the forest raised his bow and pulled back the arrow. At this range, with the bow he used, the arrow would shatter the glass but might not make a kill strike in the woman in the backseat. But the blonde woman in the front seat, the outsider, she had her window down.

  The arrow would pierce her skull.

  No worries there. He waited for the text.

  The sheriff reappeared on the opposite side of the house and peered through as many windows as he could. He did a check of the barn nearest the house.

  * * * *

  “Why won’t he go inside the house?” Julie asked.

  Molly looked at her. “Would you? That is the scariest house I’ve seen.”

  “Zack could be inside. He could be injured or unconscious,” Julie said.

  Molly leaned forward and put a hand on her shoulder but said nothing.

  Several minutes passed with no sight of Orb. He went inside the barn. A door opened on the side, and Orb stepped out. He looked around the area again slowly as he made his way back to the vehicle.

  He opened the door, sat inside, but kept the shotgun in his lap.

  “Why didn’t you go inside?”

  Orb shook his head. “There’s no sign anything has been out here,” he said. “No tracks, human, animal, car, truck, nothing.”

  Julie looked around and realized the rain the night before would have ruined any tracks. “He could be inside.”

  Orb put the car in drive and slowly crept the Tahoe down the road again. “He’s not inside there. Besides, we need a warrant to go in.”

  “Are you serious?” Julie almost yelled.

  “I’m sorry, Julie, but just because I am the law doesn’t mean I can break it.”

  “It’s called probable cause! Give me the shotgun. I’ll go inside myself!”

  Orb stopped the vehicle and looked at her. “Julie, I know how you feel. But listen to me, we are not breaking into that house. We’ll go back into town; I’ll call the judge at the county courthouse and ask for a warrant. We’ll have it by morning, then I’ll get my deputies and some county deputies for back-up. We’ll turn that place upside down and inside out. Ok?”

  Julie shook her head. She wasn’t satisfied with what she heard at all. Nor was she used to the lack of expediency. Her and Zack would have not only have been at the house but been inside while Michelle got the warrant from Ted.

  “What if he’s in there dying right now, and we can save him if we go inside?”

  Orb sighed. “I looked in every window. I walked around the whole place. There is no way anyone entered that house recently. Now let’s go get that warrant.”

  CHAPTER 43

  Zack sat against the dirt wall, reinforced and supported by plenty of treated lumber and metal poles, and wondered how long he had been left. He hadn’t gotten his water lately. Zack tried to shut his eyes but couldn’t. He thought he heard a murmur from down the tunnel but wasn’t sure.

  Zack heard shuffling, a door opening and closing. He heard a muffled voice. A distress call. But his mind could have been playing tricks on him. Zack struggled with his restraints but made no headway. And he knew he wouldn’t. Which is why he waited for his dousing sip of water.

  Until that happened, Zack knew escape was unlikely. And he wondered if his body would ever be found.

  * * * *

  Molly flipped channels on the television and sipped a glass of wine. Julie sipped orange juice. Darkness fell on Clyde. The mood of the town was ominous. Julie felt that anyway at the diner. As night fell, they grabbed a meal there, not just for food, they went with hopes to hear something. They heard nothing.

  The locals were frightened. A local boy had not been found. The rumor was he ran away, but no one truly believed it with the town’s painful and tragic history. The man hired to find the boy was missing. Over twenty-four hours passed, and the sense was he wouldn’t be found either.

  When Molly and Julie left, people looked at Julie with sorrowful looks. Not empathy or sympathy, almost apathy. Julie saw the defeat in the faces. Nothing could be done and somehow as tragic as it seemed, lady, the outsider, had to move on. That was the feeling she sensed. A curse on the town sucked in another victim.

  Julie’s phone remained silent. Michelle was either done for the day or just out of new information. Julie stared at the show on TV but had no idea what she watched. All she thought of was the time frame Zack operated under with a missing person. Seventy-two hours maximum. Find the person in the first seventy-two hours was the best chance. After that, the odds grew exponentially worse.

  She looked at the clock on the wall. Ten o’clock. Almost thirty hours.

  No Zack. She wouldn’t sleep that night.

  * * * *

  The next morning arrived slowly and painfully. Julie exited the shower, dried her hair, put on her clothes, and sat on the edge of the bed with the Sig beside her and her thoughts on what next.

  As if on cue, her phone buzzed. She looked at it and saw it was Michelle. She debated whether to answer. Julie took a deep breath and swiped. “Hey, Michelle.”

  “You sound tired,” Michelle said. “Something you aren’t telling me?”

  “No, there’s nothing.”

  Michelle paused. “I haven’t heard from Zack. Is he ok?”

  Julie tried not to give herself away. “Yeah, he’s fine. He’s just letting you and I handle all the details.”

  “Oh. Probably best. Is Zack nearby? He’ll want to hear this. I was up all night working on this. I even had to get Ronald the FBI Guy involved.” Her voice quickened with excitement. “Zack will love this. Get him on the line.”

  Julie hesitated. “He’s in the shower. You know how he likes his showers.”

  “Alone?” Michelle laughed. “How did you get out of that one?”

  Julie smiled. She would have gladly showered with Zack if he walked in. “It wasn’t easy. What do you have?”

  “Trust me, this will definitely put a kick in your step. Are you near a computer where you can print something off?”

  “I can be. Why?”

  “Because you’re going to want to print this. I got lucky. I didn’t think I would, but we got a transcript you will want to see. Get to a computer and log on right now! You two will be able to get the hell out of there after this.”

  * * * *

  Michelle was right. Julie printed off everything, read it, re-read it, and knew Zack had been right. “Holy shit,” she muttered. She picked up her phone and dialed a number. “Orb? It’s Julie. I have something you’ll need to see.”

  “More of that? Please tell me it’s legal.”

  Julie smiled. “It is. Come to Molly’s, but first, get William Bloom to the station. You’re going to want to talk to him.”

  Orb was at the house an hour later. He came to the stairs and rushed inside. “What is it? What do you have? Lou picked up Bloom, and he’s in the interrogation room at the station. This better be good because he’s already threatened me.”

  “Where do you want to start?” Julie asked and looked at Molly. Molly looked confused. “Orb, remember what Molly told you she saw at the school before it burned down?”

  “Yeah, two people she couldn’t identify and what she heard she thought was them having sex,” Orb said. “Again, I can’t do anything with that.”

  “Orb, we know it was Derek and Coach Weber!” Julie said.

  Orb shook his head. “That’s not what you said the other day.”

  Molly took a deep breath, looked at Julie for reassurance, and spoke. “I know what I said before, but it was them. I didn’t say for sure because someone has been stalking us, and I think it’s the person I saw in the closet watching Derek and Weber. I was scared, Orb.”

  Orb stared at Molly, unhappy with what he heard. “Marvin. That makes sense.”<
br />
  “Weber is PoohBear1775,” Julie said. “He’s been having a relationship with Derek through high school. We can prove it.”

  Orb shook his head, disgusted. “Molly, you should have told me right away,” Orb said. “Are you sure it was Weber?”

  Molly frowned. “No. But it was in his office.”

  “He has an alibi, Molly. He claims he wasn’t even in town.”

  “Orb, Marvin is obviously covering for him! Just have him brought into the station and let him sweat it out. Zack is missing because he’s looking for Derek. They could both be in danger. What are you going to do?”

  Orb shook his head. “Alright. I’ll have Weber brought in.”

  CHAPTER 44

  The inside of the interrogation room was small and dim. One bulb hung from the tall ceiling and illuminated the square room. One small six-foot-long metal table with three chairs was all that sat in the room.

  One chair, occupied by a life-long Clyde resident, faced the door with a one-way window to its left. William Bloom. He worried but hid it. Bloom had a spotless record, and they couldn’t have known anything about the plan. It was too well planned out.

  The school fire shocked the town and questions flew. How could it happen? Why us? What do we do now? Bloom faced those questions every day he left his home and sat at the diner, church, the store, even the local VFW. He met them and handled them as professionally as he was.

  He showed his deep concern. It was a shock, but they had to do what was best moving forward. The electrical fire was due to a faulty transformer. The electrical fire raced through the school. Time to move forward. Time to rebuild.

  The town cry championed by their champion professional principal. No one, in over forty years, ever thought a bad thing about Bloom. No one ever questioned his motive or results. No one questioned his resolve or spoken words now.