by Matt Hilton
‘I fear you might be wastin’ your time,’ said Po.
‘Perhaps, but we have to cover our bases.’
‘I think we should face reality.’
Tess set her teeth and breathed out the corners of her mouth, knowing exactly where he was going with this.
Po nodded regretfully at what was in his mind. ‘We should’ve taken Elspeth more seriously when she claimed she was being followed. We writ off that Decker guy and thought we’d left him in our dust. What if we missed another watcher and they followed us back here?’
‘What’re the chances?’ Tess challenged.
‘When I was out here earlier, I had the feelin’ I was being watched from over at those bushes. I should’ve trusted my damn instincts and checked things out.’
‘I’m relieved that you didn’t. Who knows what might’ve happened if you’d found somebody.’
Po subconsciously curled his fists, proving Tess’s point.
‘You could’ve walked into an ambush, you,’ Pinky added.
‘Maybe, maybe not. Whoever was out there we allowed Elspeth and Jacob to walk right into their arms.’
‘We can’t say that’s what happened,’ Tess asserted. ‘Besides, we didn’t allow anything. It wasn’t for us to stop Elspeth doing what she wanted, and couldn’t stop her leaving.’
‘F’sure,’ said Po, ‘but she wouldn’t have left knowing they were out here.’
Tess nibbled at a hangnail on her thumb. With the offending sliver of skin excised, she said, ‘Before we assume they were abducted I should still check with the taxi companies. We don’t want to jump to conclusions.’
‘You don’t suppose a Good Samaritan saw them, a woman and child out alone in the dark, and offered them a ride?’ asked Pinky.
‘It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility,’ Tess said, ‘but it’s doubtful Elspeth would accept a ride from a stranger. She’s on edge, paranoid with fear …’
‘Rightly so by the look of things,’ said Po.
‘So?’ Pinky posed the question also on their minds. ‘Do we call the cops, us?’
‘And tell them what?’ Tess had no intention of being contentious. She used to be a cop. A regular part of her job was following up on missing person enquiries, but in general they were as a result of genuine concerns for the person’s welfare. They had no proof whatsoever that Elspeth and Jacob had been abducted and in imminent danger. Elspeth was a grown woman, and mother to Jacob: she had the liberty and freedom to decide where and when they went if she chose. They could of course report to the police what Elspeth had told them about the abuse they’d both suffered at the hands of her husband and his family, and that others were allegedly being similarly abused over at the Moorcock family’s commune, but Elspeth had pleaded with Tess not to. In so many words she had intimated that if the police were involved, she could expect to be defamed, have her child taken from her, or – ultimately – silenced completely. Reading between the lines, Tess had concluded that murder had taken place on the Moorcock property, and that would be Elspeth’s fate if law enforcement got too nosey because of her. They’d talked about how Eldon Moorcock had ‘avenues of revenue’, meaning the ill-gotten gains of crime, and how he would react if his income lines were threatened. ‘I’ll speak to Alex about things, but respecting Elspeth’s wishes it’ll have to be off the record for now. She pleaded with me not to involve the police.’
‘What can Alex help with if it ain’t made official?’ Po asked.
Tess rocked her head. There were routes of inquiry blocked to her that Alex could access. Plus, it would be good to have someone in law enforcement in their camp if her suspicion about what Po wanted to do happened. Instead she told them about the burn wounds inflicted on Elspeth and her son by Caleb, and how she feared they were the lesser punishment she could expect if the police came sniffing around the Moorcocks. Pinky was disgusted, Po on the other hand seethed with cold rage.
‘Maybe you should keep this from your brother for now,’ he suggested. ‘Telling him makes him duty-bound to do somethin’. I’d rather we dug into this first before we get shut out of the investigation by the cops.’
‘What you really mean is you want to deal with Caleb and his family before the cops can intervene and protect them?’ Tess laughed at the fatality of his plan.
‘You make me sound like some kinda crazy vigilante,’ he said, and offered a tight-lipped smile.
No, she thought, you sound like a protective father doing what’s right to protect your kid.
‘Road trip?’ Pinky asked hopefully.
Tess squeezed one of his large knees. ‘I’ve some calls to make, and then we all need to get some rest.’
‘Then we’re going on a road trip, us?’
Tess looked up at Po, and he nodded, as it was already a given fact he was going to upstate New York.
FIFTEEN
He was itching to teach Elspeth a much-needed lesson, but for the purposes of transporting her and Jacob silently over state lines, Caleb had held off for the time being. Half an hour after grabbing his hostages, he’d rendezvoused with Darrell on the deserted lot of an amusement park a few miles north of Saco, having taken Route 1 out of Portland to avoid the tollbooths on the Maine Turnpike. They’d parked their vehicles distant enough from the park to avoid cameras and the attention of security patrols, and their hostages were quickly transferred from the pickup to the van. Behind them a fiber glass polar bear clutched an inflatable dinghy as it stood astride a faux mountain, as if about to launch itself down one of the park’s water flumes. Such a sight would ordinarily attract the wonder of a ten-year-old boy, but as they were quickly manhandled from one vehicle to the other, Jacob’s eyes had alighted only on his dad. Caleb had expected to see fear, a plea for pity, but instead Jacob only glared defiance at him. The kid had spunk, Caleb decided, normally an admirable trait, but not when directed at him. The boy’s open defiance was disrespectful, and Caleb wouldn’t usually entertain disrespect. Once they were back at the commune he’d show how easily defiance could be knocked out of him. For now he must refrain from anything that might attract undue attention.
Caleb intended riding home with Darrell, but the van was too cramped to accommodate him alongside the five men and their hostages. Instead he told Jeremy Decker to join those in the van, and he invited Darrell to ride with him in his pickup. Decker had enjoyed some rest, those in the van had been on the road for hours, and therefore Decker was designated as the driver. For the same reason, Caleb would allow Darrell to get some shut-eye on the journey back. He was still buzzing with satisfaction at recapturing his wayward wife, so was fully alert and ready to put hundreds of miles under his tires. Before hitting the road, he stood a moment at the open door in the side of the van: Elspeth and Jacob had been allowed to huddle between three of the guys from the commune. Eager to impress Caleb, the three young men aimed weapons at their hostages, a needless threat, when all it would take was a few words from him to guarantee compliance. ‘Don’t make me have to stop and beat some sense into you,’ he growled directly at his wife.
Elspeth wouldn’t meet his gaze. She cuddled the boy.
‘What the fuck is that?’
There was the faint jangle of a ringtone coming from under Elspeth’s clothes.
‘She’s got a cell phone. Goddamnit, didn’t anyone have the sense to search her?’ He was shedding the blame; he knew from when Elspeth was down at the pier that she’d summoned help via a cell phone. But why take the blame when it could be directed at somebody else?
One of the young men quickly jumped to it, pulling and tugging at Elspeth’s skirt, and he came out with a phone in his hand. He held it out to Caleb. Caleb grabbed it and inspected the screen. The cell was a cheap pay-as-you-go model. The number on the screen gave no hint of who was calling. Caleb declined the call. Within a few seconds the phone rang again: same number. He declined the call again, then dropped the phone on the floor and stamped on it several times until it was a broken mess of componen
t parts.
‘Who was that calling you?’ he snapped at Elspeth.
She didn’t reply, only buried her face in Jacob’s shoulder.
‘What are the rules about having a cell phone?’ Caleb clenched a fist, and it was all he could do to stop from climbing in the van and beating an answer out of her.
Her silence didn’t matter; he’d punish her later for her disobedience.
He also suspected who was at the other end of that call: fucking Villere.
‘Did you really think Po’boy could protect you?’ he said, smirking at how easily he’d shown that notion to be untrue.
‘Who the fuck is Po’boy?’ asked Darrell over his shoulder.
‘He’s some old flame of Elspeth’s. From what I recall, he was supposed to be some kinda badass ex-con from down south. They go way back. Maybe it was Elspeth’s plan to run back to him, open her legs and take up where they left off last time.’
‘Damn whore,’ Darrell growled.
‘Yeah, well, apparently Po’boy isn’t interested in you, is he?’ he asked, again directing his words at his wife. ‘He’s got himself a pretty young blonde, he wants no piece of a dried-up bitch like you. You’re mine, Elspeth, and you should be goddamn grateful you’ve got a man to look after you.’
He eyed her but again got no response.
‘You,’ he said to the young man who’d found the phone. ‘Check her bag and make sure there are no other surprises in there.’
The man set to as instructed.
‘OK,’ Caleb said, ‘we’ve wasted enough time here. Let’s get these two runaways back where they belong.’
He shut the sliding door, and went to the pickup with Darrell.
They set off, with the pickup leading a few hundred feet ahead of the van. Caleb looked for a route home that would avoid the major highways, despite it meaning more time behind the wheel. Darrell told him how he’d followed a half circle passing around Albany, through Massachusetts to Boston, then he’d cut up to Portland through New Hampshire. Darrell’s was the fastest route despite adding on many miles. Caleb had it in mind to cut a more direct swathe home, through Concord, Brattleboro and then hit New York nearer to Saratoga Springs.
‘Everything good back home?’ he asked Darrell when they were about an hour into the drive.
Darrell had fallen asleep, his head bouncing softly on his chest.
Caleb shoved him.
Darrell blinked awake. ‘Uh, whassup?’
‘I asked if everything was good back home.’
‘Yeah, everything’s in hand, man. Day or two ago we had to deal with a trespasser. Some A-hole thought he could come onto our land and shoot himself a buck or two.’
‘Hunter?’
‘Poacher.’ He grunted in mirth at the memory. He mimed ramming a blade upward. ‘To teach him a lesson, Pa had me open up his gut sack.’
Caleb jerked his head in reaction.
‘Then he had Randy put him outta his misery. Our kid bro shot him through the heart with his own arrow. Ha!’
Caleb sneered over at him. ‘You’re one bloodthirsty son of a gun, Darrell.’
‘Just exercising our God-given right to protect what’s ours, Caleb. Same as I drove all the way across country to help you do the same.’
Caleb reached out and gave his brother’s knee an affectionate squeeze.
Mid-journey they made a stop at a turn-off at the head of Harriman Reservoir in Vermont. There was a marina and boat hire shop, both still closed and deserted due to the early hour, but Caleb led the van down a dirt track hidden from view by stands of trees, towards the lakeside. There, they all graciously disembarked to empty their bladders and stretch their legs: Caleb allowed his prisoners to relieve themselves too, but under the constant guard of two of the men holding weapons. Elspeth found peeing difficult with AR-15 assault rifles aimed at her. Caleb enjoyed her distress.
‘Hike up that skirt,’ he ordered her, ‘so’s I can see you ain’t just stalling and wasting my time.’
Mortified, she tried to stand. She’d rather suffer the discomfort of a full bladder than be paraded before the lascivious gazes of her audience. She saw one of them darting a tongue over his lips, his eyes glassy as he stared intently at her. Caleb thumped a fist into the man’s arm, but not in punishment. ‘Hey! You’re making her uneasy,’ Caleb laughed.
He wasn’t laughing when he strode forward and grabbed Elspeth’s hair and twisted it, forcing her to crouch. He growled close to her ear for emphasis. ‘You do it here, or you don’t get to do it at all, y’hear? I swear I’ll fetch a hot iron and seal you up completely. See if you can open your legs for fucking Po’boy Villere after I do that to you. Now piss.’
‘I … I can’t.’
‘Then get the fuck back in the van.’ He threw her and she sprawled in the dirt. Her skirt rucked up around her waist.
‘Stop ogling her skinny ass, goddamnit,’ he now snapped at the leering men, ‘and get her back inside. Everybody done? Good. Let’s move, we’ve still aways to go.’
As the leering man moved to pick up Elspeth, Jacob intervened. He had stood silently, fearful and embarrassed for his mother, but seeing her debased, lying half-naked in the dirt, he threw himself at the man, swinging wildly for his face. His knuckles found the man’s eye socket, and then his mouth. The man grimaced in pain, but fired a quick glance at Caleb for permission before grabbing Jacob by the throat and holding him at arm’s length. Jacob kicked the man between the legs, and broke free as the man sank to his knees. The other gunman rammed the butt of his rifle in Jacob’s gut to drop him wheezing alongside his mother.
‘OK,’ said Caleb, ‘the fun’s over. Do what I said and get them back in the van.’
The men were none too gentle about following their order. Elspeth and Jacob were bundled into the panel van, and several harsh curses were cast at them before Jacob began weeping loudly.
‘You’ve raised a real firecracker there, Caleb,’ Darrell laughed.
‘Yup,’ Caleb grinned, ‘I’ll make a man out of the little crybaby yet. One day he’ll be proud to call himself a Moorcock.’
They drove through the rest of the night and the first hour of dawn. Life in the commune began early, but there were few of its residents around when the pickup and van pulled up on the area once utilized as a parade ground by the National Guard. Some of the original barracks had survived, long, low buildings that had been transformed into a communal mess hall, a school and a laundry. Other military buildings had been converted into family dwellings. The parade ground acted as a village square would to the residents of any other small town.
Caleb got out of the pickup. By now he’d been awake for almost twenty-four hours, and was feeling every missing minute of sleep. His eyes felt gritty, his brain wrapped in cotton wool. He lacked the energy for anger, or for doling out immediate punishment. ‘I can’t deal with them right now,’ he grumbled as Elspeth and Jacob were manhandled out of the van. All the menfolk looked pale and fatigued. ‘Put them in the cellar, then get some rest.’
SIXTEEN
The vintage Ford Mustang was Po’s preferred method of travel, but he acquiesced to Tess and Pinky in taking the bigger GMC for the trip. The Mustang was never designed to accommodate a person of Pinky’s girth, and besides, taking Pinky’s car there wouldn’t be an issue when it came to dividing up their time behind the wheel. Tess wouldn’t say that Po was overly protective of his muscle car, but there was no other way to say it: if they used it, he’d elect to drive all the way to upstate New York rather than vacate the driving seat. He parked it on the sloping drive outside Pinky’s place on Cumberland Avenue. Tess smiled at the notion she’d accused Po of being too precious over his car when it was still difficult for her to shake the idea that Pinky was living in her house. The upper story apartment, perched atop a curios and antiques shop, had been home to Tess for several years before she moved into Po’s ranch. She still occasionally missed her old place, and the chats she’d had with Anne Ridgeway, the el
derly but formidable owner of the antiques shop. Mrs Ridgeway was inside the shop, looking after a customer, when Tess and Po transferred their bags to the GMC at curbside. Pinky had already locked up, and was raring to go. He grinned at Po from behind the steering wheel.
Po didn’t share his enthusiasm. He was eager to get the journey started but he had fretted all night that they might be too late to help. It had taken some firm reasoning from Tess to convince him to let her follow up some necessary enquiries before they set off across the country for a showdown with Caleb Moorcock. She had used the connections she had made both as a cop and then as a private investigator to confirm none of the local taxi firms had picked up a fare in their neighborhood last night. One company admitted they had dropped a man a few blocks away from Po’s ranch, but she couldn’t figure how he was connected to Elspeth’s subsequent disappearance. She had rung several hotels and B&Bs in town but none had welcomed a mother and son last night. Also she’d inquired with some of the local social care services and homeless shelters on the off chance that Elspeth had sought help from them, but had equally struck out. Po understood they had to cover all their bases but each minute that passed had been a minute they should have been on the road in his mind.
‘Let’s do this, podna,’ he said as he commandeered the front passenger seat.
‘Just waiting for you to get your bony ass settled, me,’ Pinky replied with a wicked smile.
Tess climbed in the back, happy for now to be relegated to the cheap seats, as they had a long journey ahead and she fully intended stretching out. Last night it had been late before she had gone to bed, but Po’s tossing and turning had kept her hovering in the lightest of sleep modes, then she was up bright and early to conduct her telephone calls. She felt as if a solid eight hours of deep sleep wouldn’t go amiss, pretty much a similar amount of time they would be driving, but it was doubtful she’d even snooze. She had brought her cell phone, tablet, and even a lightweight laptop computer equipped with a mobile Wi-Fi dongle along to keep her mind busy during the ride.