Descent Into Darkness

by Michael Cross

  At that Katja ran over and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and began to scream at him in Russian, while slapping his face to the point his nose began to bleed. I gently pulled her back and continued my interrogation, “So how did she die?” Adlan crying in desperation explained, “She was not supposed to die. She was beautiful and valuable. It was an accident! That pervert Meyers wanted to play like he had sentenced the girl to a hanging. He tied the rope wrong. She was not able to contract her neck muscles well enough while Meyers had his way with her. By the time Meyers was done she was dead.” Katja stood there listening and began to cry. She asked, “She died for that? I will kill this Meyers guy after I kill you!” I grabbed her and whispered, “Wait, please.” He nervously continued, “Meyers made me help him dispose of the body. That is all I had to do with it! These things happen sometimes! It wasn’t my fault!” Once he explained what had happened Katja fell to her knees and began to cry and call out Tamilla’s name. I looked at Adlan and shook my head, giving him a grin that must have conveyed the message he was not looking to obtain.

  When he began to struggle again I jumped onto his chest and stared at him. I asked, “Why did they set fire to my house?” He explained how they wanted to send a message to any “do-gooder” politician who wanted to take on their racket. I caressed his forehead and asked, “So who else is involved in this business deal – any local politicians or cops?” I suppose he felt like he had some power at that moment. He said, “You release me then. You do that I will get you the information you desire. Look, I am even supposed to meet Smith and Meyers this morning to do business and how to deal with Petra. I give you time and location and you can do with them as you please.” I demanded, “Who else is involved? Tell me if you want to live.” He refused to reply. In frustration I turned to Katja and asked, “Shall we let him know what asphyxiation is all about?” She glared at him, but this time she stood up and began to curse him and kick him repeatedly. He yelled at her in Russian which only seemed to intensify her brutality. He pleaded to me in English, “Get her off! My ribs, oh please I beg mercy, stop!” I cautioned her to stop and I stooped over him and whispered the address into his ear and asked, “Is that where they are meeting?” His eyes betrayed him. At that point I knew he had given me all the information I was going to get from him and so I stood up and asked Katya, “Can you hand me the sleeping bag, wire and light?” He screamed, “No! I beg you!” I asked, “One thing I don’t understand…you didn’t want her and I seeing each other yet you let your brother and two other men have their way with her? What’s up with that?” He whimpered, “That was just business. Please, please don’t do this!”

  Well, it was not easy to fit Adlan into the bag. He put up a desperate, violent struggle but I had put enough ties around his limbs to make sure there was no escape. He pleaded with us to spare him, and even as I zipped up the bag and began to insert wires into any potential openings I could hear his muffled screams through the cocoon he was snuggly fit into. At that I asked Katja, “Are you ready?” She displayed an angry look and said, “Wait just a second” and she stomped down on what was probably his groin area, which caused a temporary halt to his begging at least. We drug him over to the side of the cliff and I loudly gave him one last bit of information, “Adlan, you may have a few minutes of air in that bag so just think about what you did to Katja and her sister while you float to the bottom of the river!” The bag began to flop around violently, but Katja and I managed to pick it up. The twisting caused us to drop him though, and upon hitting the ground I heard a muffled shriek of pain. This ceased his struggles long enough for us to lift the bag again, but as we were about to throw him over the edge he began to scream again. I looked at Katja and in the faint light I saw her nod her head. I said, “On three!” and we easily caste him into the dark river below. It was as if we had the strength of two men since we propelled him further out than I would have imagined possible. The glow from the flashlight quickly disappeared as it sank into the depths along with Adlan.

  An eerie silence enveloped the area. I looked at Katja and she at me. I put my arms around her and held her tight. I gave her a gentle kiss and looked at her; the glimpse of her face in the moonlight was remarkable – she was so beautiful I lost track of the fact we had a lot more work to do. When I again kissed her she melted in my arms, but I could detect some trembling left in her body. We kissed more and I reached under her shirt to unfasten her bra, but she hesitated. She asked, “Is this the right time?” I replied, “I assure you it is.” And while she at first was quite reluctant, she eventually gave in and appeared to release the incredible tension she had been subjected to that night, as well as the past several weeks. What we experienced together on that chilly early morning heightened my determination to make sure I never lost her in my life. However, fate can sometimes play gruel tricks on us and our desires, and that became all the more evident in the events that would play themselves out before the sun rose on that new dawn.

  Chapter 19

  Katja soon fell asleep in my arms. The sandy area we had found was not that cold, even though a light fog was forming in the coolness of the air. I quietly got up and put the blanket on her that we had taken from the club. I was surprised she was able to relax since I was anything but tired. I put my clothes on and walked over to the edge of the cliff and thought back to other times and other victims. I laughed to myself as I thought about the Zagriev brothers, who were somewhere at the bottom of the dark depths of this huge river. Then I began to contemplate what must have gone through Adlan’s head when he realized what his fate was. I wondered if he was actually conscious by the time the bag sank to the bottom of the river, and what state of mind he must have been in. Oh well, I reasoned that he had deserved his fate.

  I looked at the moon and the glow it cast upon the waters. I felt an odd sense of connection to nature and the universe as I stood there in an almost hypnotic state, bathing in the moonlight. I raised my hands high into the air to the stars. I thanked God for everything I had, and for protecting us this far. I then said a prayer that we would complete the task before us, and that nobody would ever discover what we had done. The last thing I desired was to be in jail for murder.

  After an hour of reflection, and trying to figure out how I could integrate Katja, and maybe, just maybe Tiffanie into my family I still had not been able to come up with anything satisfactory. I reasoned that Matt might like the idea of four wives – it was, after all, few men who could boast four young and beautiful women to choose from each night. Of course I too looked forward to the variety of personalities and preferences such a unit would afford me. I believed Katja might be open to the idea, but Tiffanie…that was the difficult part. I sighed and figured once this was all taken care of I could figure out some way to guarantee success in my romantic objective.

  I walked over to Katja and gently awoke her. I asked her how she was doing and she shrugged her shoulders and hugged me. In the child-like voice I had almost forgotten she said, “I wish we could run away together and spend every moment with each other.” I caressed her back and asked, “So what is your fantasy?” We arranged ourselves on the blanket, Katja managing to wrap enough around her to keep warm, and she said, “I don’t know. Maybe we could get a little beach house in California and I could sell paintings and you could practice psychology.” I flirted with the idea. I said, “Well, I did take money out of the safe, but I am not sure how much is there. Maybe after we take care of the two cops we could check out some real estate.” She took my hand and squeezed it. She seemed really excited nodding her head. I smiled and proposed, “We could get married on the beach and be totally like New Age hippies. So, shall we drive down there tonight and start our new life?”

  Katja sighed and rolled her eyes, “Melanie, I love to dream, but you would not want to leave your family, would you? I could never rip a child’s mother away for my own selfish desires.” I came back to reality and smiled. She cared about my children’s needs. And while I do not b
elieve I would have left my family, hearing her put their needs first made me all the more determined to have her in my life. I only hoped she would be able to embrace my life choices.

  To get to the address where Smith and Meyers were hopefully meeting, we would have to drive to the other side of Portland and into the rural areas towards the coast. I calculated the house was about thirty minutes outside of Portland, so we decided we would drive both cars to a different location off the road and rest a couple of hours as it would be safer to get through the city and avoid notice from the police when the traffic was heavier. I drew a map for her just in case we became separated.

  We drove about twenty minutes and pulled off the road. Before going to sleep we opened the trunk and looked in the bag with the recordings, office papers, all three men’s wallets and wadded up money. We were shocked when we noticed that the money was almost all one-hundred dollar bills. We counted them and discovered we were in possession of twenty seven thousand dollars. We looked at each other and laughed. And we decided not to even open the wallets until we were done. Then I looked at the leather bag Katja had thrown her things into. It was open and I noticed the party dress she had bought before we had gone out with the Zagrievs. She sighed and said, “I guess I should toss this when I get a chance.” I put my hand on her arm and replied, “No you won’t. That dress cost a fortune and I associate it with you. Don’t you dare throw it away.” Katja smiled and asked, “Are you keeping everything Nazir bought you?” I replied, “Of course…why not? I earned it after all!” She sighed, “Earned it? We have been prostitutes you realize.” I laughed, “My dear I am a politician. What’s the difference except my profession usually does the screwing?” She finally laughed and looked at me inquisitively before asking, “So what if your husband asks who gave you these expensive things?” I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I will just tell him you bought them for me.”

  She seemed confused, and only then did I realize that I had blundered. I quickly tried to cover my true intentions, “I mean, he will obviously meet you someday – but I will tell him you are my new best friend. That will work, right?” She nodded and said, “Yes, I suppose that works.” She then asked something that caught me off-guard. She looked down and sheepishly asked, “Melanie, I don’t want to offend you but after all we have been through I cannot see how you could want to be with a man again.” I gently took her hand and said, “Katja, those were not real men we tossed into the river tonight, and neither are the ones we have an appointment with. Oh, and neither are the ones who spend their time gawking at naked women in clubs like the one we worked in.”

  She replied, “Maybe you are right, right for you, but you will never convince me that any of them are any different. Give them half a chance and they will always choose perversion over passion, sin over sanctity. Maybe it took this nightmare to learn that.” I was impressed with her insights – I so wanted to tell her everything about Matt, including the fact that he had resisted Nicole’s nagging him to take sexuality into more kinky levels, but I had to ease her into my world. All I said to her was, “My husband is really different.” She smiled and suggested we stop talking for a while and get some rest before taking our mission of vengeance to the two crooked cops.

  Once we awoke around 7am we quickly prepared to start the journey. We decided that we should take Katja’s car back to the apartment, leave the money and other items in that trunk, and use the BMW and ride together. We really had no idea what we would do with that car, but we could figure that out later, along with torching the club that evening.

  By the time we reached the apartment it was almost 8:30am. As we took off in Nazir’s car I assumed we would find Meyers and Smith and ambush them with Nicole’s 9mm handgun. There was nothing exotic or intricate, but our lives depended on it succeeding. Suddenly I heard Katja giggle while staring out the window. I asked, “What is so funny?” She looked down at her hands in her lap and made a prayer gesture, “I really liked our fantasy of the beach house. Maybe we can take a few days at some point and rent a cabin – you know…a little bite of our dream.” I said that I really loved the idea. During the long drive we talked about fun things, and never once did we discuss our month in the club.

  My heart began to beat rapidly as we came to the road we were to turn on. My map seemed to indicate we had a fifteen minute drive to reach the address – the moment of truth was near. The road soon turned to gravel and even in the expensive car we were driving it was an uncomfortable ride. Then I noticed a mailbox with the address we were looking for. I figured we could find a spot close by, park and then sneak into the area and wait to pounce. However, as luck would have it, just as we had barely passed the mailbox we noticed a large pond with a man fishing off a boat ramp. I brought the car to an immediate halt, backed up, and hid it behind some trees. Katja asked what I was doing and I asked rhetorically, “We are on an isolated road, so what do you want to bet that the man on the ramp is one of the cops?” She replied, “Ah ha, so we sneak up on him now?” I sat back and thought. Then I said, “No, absolutely not! I have a better idea – we get those party dresses on and go out onto the dock and greet the guy. If it is one of the cops, then the last thing he will be expecting is a woman with a gun. If not, then some guy will have some eye candy he was not expecting.”

  We quickly got out of the car and changed. I cautioned her, “Look, you are the one who is the focus of the meeting. So he will obviously be surprised to see you. Let me do the talking, okay?” Katja quickly replied, “Melanie, if they are meeting to figure out how to kill me, then what if he just shoots me right there?” I replied, “That is why I am here. He will focus on you and when I get him to lower his guard that is when I shoot, okay?” She replied, “Are you sure you can get him to lower his guard?” I put my arm around her shoulders and said, “You do exactly as I say and I’ll do the rest.” She agreed and we headed out to greet him.

  When we reached the dock he was reeling in his line. I whispered to Katja, “Act flirtatious and girly and try to make him focus on you.” I took her hand and we proceeded to walk out to him, “Hey there! Adlan told us to meet somewhere around here.” He froze a second and looked confused before replying, “Oh, Adlan’s here already? He wasn’t supposed to be here until after lunch.” The man was indeed Officer Smith. I was nervous he might recognize me in the daylight, but to that point it appeared I was safe. I replied, “He said something about getting an early start – he’s over by the house if you want us to head over there now.” Smith grumbled something about not ever getting a chance to be undisturbed while fishing and put his rod down. Then Katja, to my pleasant surprise, asked him, “How’s the water here? I have not been skinny dipping since I was in Russia!” Smith laughed, “It’s pretty cold right now but sure, go for it.” She giggled and asked, “You sure you don’t mind?” He urged her on, “Be my guest, please! And if you would like I have the cuffs from the other night.” I was worried how she would react to his sick request but she impressed me by giggling, “That might be fun except we don’t have a tube so I would not be able to breathe.” He shrugged his shoulders, “How long can you hold your breath?”

  She laughed as she started to take off her high heels and I took this as my opportunity. I walked over to the other side of the dock, just behind him, stuck my hand in the water, and said, “You are crazy, this water is freezing!” It worked – he muttered “Yeah, whatever.” and turned his focus solely on Katja, who was by this time slipping out of her dress. Once nude she jumped in and began to swim. I walked up to Smith, “You do realize what Adlan has in mind.” He replied, “Yeah. Real shame too. She has a perfect body for…” I laughed, “Adlan told me about the pool. Maybe we could do a repeat performance, but this time yank the tube out of her mouth and not give it back. Those last few minutes you could…well you know.” Smith grunted, “You mean…you think Adlan would let me do that?” I laughed, “Play your cards right and I’ll make sure you get to be the lucky guy…although I heard Craig is the one
who likes the suffocation thing.” His gaze was fixated solely on Katja as she was doing a backstroke and he began to take deep breaths. I wasted no time and pulled out the 9mm, took aim and quickly fired three shots into his back!

  Even with the silencer firmly attached, the sound of the gun shots seemed to startle Katja. She flew up in the water to see Smith collapse on the dock. She quickly emerged from the pond and rushed to my side as Smith lay on the dock making loud gasping noises as he was struggling to breathe. As he twisted around on the wooden planks Katja asked, “Are you sure he is unarmed?” I replied, “Look over at his tackle box.” Sitting next to it was a jacket with a handgun and his badge next to it. Katja immediately demanded, “Kill him!” I had no problem with that but I hesitated to fire a bullet into his head as he seemed unable to move his lower body anyway; his legs did not so much as twitch and I concluded that one of the bullets must have pierced his spine. He tried to crawl forward to get to his gun but I quickly retrieved it. I instinctively flung his revolver far out into the pond; a huge mistake as I immediately realized. Another gun would have doubled our strength. He looked up at me and in a faint, painful squeal asked, “What the hell?” Katja seemed to get really nervous, but I, strangely enough, felt totally in charge – maybe as calm as an assassin…watching him struggle and plead for help. I felt nothing but contempt and hatred for this man. I knelt down and asked, “Why did you burn my house down? What did I ever do to you?” He moaned, “You shot me! What are you talking about?” I shook my head, “Don’t recognize your state representative?” His eyes flew open and he began to cry, “It was Meyer’s idea, I swear!” I just stared at him as he begged, “Please, I need help! Please call an ambulance and I will tell you anything.” He began to gag and all of the sudden he coughed out a stream of bright red blood. He tried to speak but all that came out was a gurgling, “Please…please…help me!” Again, a repeat of the gagging and spitting out of blood – yet then his breathing was replaced by futile attempts to get air. Apparently the other two bullets had lodged in his lungs and he was drowning in his own blood.