With her resolve renewed Inga followed the woman out of the room, down a hall, and through the house. She then followed the woman down a set of rickety steps that seemed out of place for the very expensive, well-appointed home. You spend thousands, perhaps millions, on art and furniture and less than one hundred on a set of steps? Very odd, Inga thought, as she carefully placed a foot on each step before letting her weight go to each new step.
Inga peered into the vast room that made up the basement level. A room that certainly wasn’t big enough to make up the entire space of the basement held the usual items found in a basement: tools, broken furniture, a power tool or twenty. Then the woman pushed aside a part of the wall and stepped into a small bedroom.
The room was decorated as any other bedroom with two people in the room. An older woman dressed in a nurse’s white uniform, right down to the hats nurses used to wear and an elderly man. The woman was elderly, her hair white and her skin showing the evidence of age, but something about her eyes, about the way she held herself belied that age. The woman’s presence screamed danger to Inga and put the younger woman on guard. Inga also noticed the woman’s eyes widened in what she assumed was recognition when she saw Inga but the surprise was soon gone, replaced with a hard stare that seemed to be a natural resting look for the woman.
Inga stared at the woman for a moment then looked at the man resting in the bed barely clinging to life. This was the man that had made it his decision to ruin so many lives, and to change the course of hers. This fragile skeleton of a man, his skin like tissue paper, had appointed himself God and made decisions that led to murder and tragic deaths. Inga tried not to let her disgust and anger show through as she looked at the man, calling on years of experience as a reporter to keep her face bland as she looked at the skeletal frame of the man that had stolen her from her mother and sold her.
The slight frame of the dying man in the bed wasn’t what Inga had envisioned at all but she could see a slight gleam in his eye, a judgement that should not be there. Apparently he found her worthy because he reached out to her. A tube went into his throat, making it impossible for the skeleton in the bed to talk to her but he glanced at the woman and she started to speak.
“What can we do to help you Miss Parr? I’m Doctor Nelson’s nurse, you may call me Nurse Pracket.”
Ah, Inga thought, as I suspected, super-bitch incarnate. Inga hid her disdain for the woman behind a polite smile and held out her hand to the woman as she introduced herself.
“I’ve been assigned to investigate health services in the poorer areas of North Carolina. I was sent here first. Many people in town told me about Doctor Nelson and how wonderful he is so here I am. I suppose few would have the experience Doctor Nelson does with dealing with the medical needs of those in rural and poverty stricken areas like Doctor Nelson does.”
“Indeed, Doctor Nelson spent the better part of forty years caring for the needs of the community here. What exactly do you want to know?” Nurse Pracket asked, her hands still on the rail of the doctor’s bed, as if to protect him, or hold him in the bed.
“I have quite a few questions that could take some time to answer. I’d like to ask a few initial questions, if it’s alright with you, and then come back later with a film crew to interview the doctor properly.” Inga said surmising that Nurse Pracket was the guardian at the gate.
“That could be arranged, although Doctor Nelson no longer speaks. Let me just go get his lunch and then I’ll return to answer what I can for you. The rest will have to be written responses from me. Can you wait here for a moment?” The nurse asked, a gleam in her eye that Inga didn’t trust.
“Sure, do you need me to do anything while you’re gone? “ Inga asked, nervous about being left alone with the doctor now that she noticed the other woman had left.
“No, he should be fine, just talk to him. He won’t really respond but he knows you’re here.” Nurse Pracket said as she left the room.
Inga patiently waited, giving the woman time to get upstairs before rushing to the doctor’s side.
“I’m Inga Parr, one of the children you sold. I know what you’ve been doing, where are those other three women?” She asked quickly, not playing around now.
“Accck.” Was the only noise the doctor made, looking away.
“Come on, doctor, you could actually save three women this time instead of murdering more. You’re close to death; can you deal with three more dead women on your conscience?” Inga asked, hoping the cruel words would stir the man.
The doctor continued to look away but Inga felt his slight arm, barely more than a whisper of movement, as his finger pointed at another wall and his arm lifted a few inches from the bed. The talon at the end of his finger told Inga he wasn’t being properly cared for but she didn’t care at this point, the man was near death, the women she sought were being tortured.
Inga walked to the wall and though it wasn’t visible at first a press of the wall produced a door that pushed back, then slid within the other half of the wall. Inga pushed the door aside and stepped into a room similar to the sublevel she’d found within the hospital. Five beds separated by screens with a large office at the end. The office even had the same Plexiglas window spanning its front.
As Inga passed each bed she heard machinery working, beeping and low tones filling the air with noise guaranteed to keep patients awake rather than allowing the rest they needed. Each area with a bed in it was covered and Inga couldn’t see into them. She did count only three with noisy machines working, though, and that chilled her.
Inga knew those beds could hold the three missing women. She walked through the door leaving the comforting room, a bedroom the same as any found in any luxurious home with a fake window and curtains even included. The machinery couldn’t be hidden in that room or the room Inga now found herself in, however. This was obviously a medical facility.
“What are you doing in here?” A grating voice called from behind Inga and she turned just as something came swiping out at her head, glancing off of her temple but hard enough to cause pain and to stun her. Falling to her knees Inga looked up to see Nurse Pracket standing over her with a maniacal look in her eye just before her eyes blurred.
Chapter Twelve
Inga felt the world go blurry for a moment as she staggered and fell against one of the beds. She knew if she passed out, if she gave the elderly but still strong nurse the opportunity she’d be strapped to one of those beds herself, never to be seen again. The most horrifying thought was that she hadn’t bothered to let anyone know where she was going!
Inga struggled for consciousness, grasping onto one of the rails of the bed before pulling herself up. She turned around just as the woman made another attempt to subdue her, this time with a syringe filled with clear fluid. Inga knocked the woman’s arm away and managed to push the woman to the floor.
“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” Inga shouted at Nurse Pracket. “You’re what? One hundred years old and you’re still trying to abuse unfortunate women? You’re still trying to hide your secret? The doctor’s secrets?”
“I’m just a poor old woman and you hurt me…” Nurse Pracket began, adding a feeble shake to her head as she moaned, sitting up in the floor. She looked up at Inga with a mournful, pitiful look but then let the look drop away. “Not buying it huh? No, I expect not, your mother wasn’t one for being placated either. I took care of that, though.” The woman stopped speaking and a vile look of satisfaction twisted her face.
“You knew my mother?” Inga gasped, surprised by the woman’s quick change from pitiful to stern and the mention of her mother. Nurse Pracket was shrewd and cagey, Inga would have to remember that.
“Of course I did, we’ve been dealing with the woman for years, though your eyes are a different color. If your eyes weren’t brown you’d be the mirror image of her. And how she has plagued us! It’s hardly a shock you’re here now, doing the same exact thing, trying to ruin all of Doctor Nelson’s hard work.
The ingratitude! Saving you from a life of poverty and degradation and giving you a life of privilege and you throw it away to come back to this backwards place. I guess breeding will tell, after all.”
“Which one is my mother?” The words shot from Inga, a demand for the final answer to her question.
“Oh you haven’t figured that one out yet then? I’ll just hang on to that information for now then.” The woman tried to stand back up but Inga pushed her back down.
Inga didn’t want to be as cruel as the woman on the ground but giving Nurse Pracket any opportunity to come at her again would just be silly.
“No, don’t get up, stay where you are.” Inga demanded, picking up the syringe from the floor to get it away from the other woman. “In fact, scoot over there against that wall. No the empty part.” Inga ordered as the woman tried to slide over to a cart full of medical supplies.
Inga pulled out her phone, saw she only had one bar on her signal meter and pushed in the number for emergency services. The call connected and Inga gave directions, asked for the police and ambulances, and held the line open as instructed but told the woman her signal may disappear. It did after a couple of minutes and Inga put the device back in her pocket.
“You have a few more minutes to try and make up for what you’ve done what can you tell me about my mother?” Inga asked, sitting on the bed, watching the woman.
“Make up for what I’ve done? What I’ve done is save countless children from poverty and Doctor Nelson has worked diligently to keep the spread of the unworthy from taking over this area? Didn’t you see the fruits of his labor in town? Small families, few people of color, why even the government is saving money because of Doctor Nelson!” Nurse Pracket argued.
“And he made a pretty penny in the process too, didn’t he, selling all of those babies. No, what I saw in town was the result of low birth rates, a town on the verge of collapse. Empty buildings, closed businesses, and little, if anything, to bring the town profit. If you leave only the elite what purpose can a town serve? Did you people really not think any of this through? You didn’t save this community, you killed it!” Inga argued back, trying to use the logic that would make the woman see sense.
“But, crime is low; drug abuse is low, why we don’t even use nearly as many welfare resources as surrounding towns!” Nurse Pracket shot back.
“That’s because there’s barely anyone left! You’ve all but emptied out the town of people! And then there’s the emotional distress you’ve caused, the unjustifiable deaths, and the heartbreak of mother’s losing their children or losing their rights to have children! You two thought you were the final arbiter but you’ve done the exact opposite of what you wanted to do!”
“I beg your pardon, young lady. You have no idea what we were doing. We were doing what was right and what was best for this country. Doctor Nelson and his father saw that something needed to be done and they worked to change it and stop it. We have made not just this town but the country better.”
“No,” Inga replied, “all you’ve done is emptied it out of the one thing a vibrant town needs, diversity and people. You’ve destroyed it just as you destroyed the lives of the women that came to you for help. Now, please, which woman was my mother?” Inga finally asked, knowing she wasn’t going to make Nurse Pracket see sense.
“I’m not telling you." Nurse Pracket said, wrapping her arms around her chest and looking away from Inga. “Despite your current low behavior you were raised in a good family and are better than this. Knowing which woman was your mother might drag you back into that kind of lifestyle. No, you don’t need to know.”
“Well then, can you at least tell me what that “garden” was that the doctor tended to for so long?” Inga asked, remembering the words of the maintenance man at the hospital.
“It’s a graveyard, of course, where else were we going to hide the bodies?” Nurse Pracket said, before realizing she’d revealed something she perhaps shouldn’t have.
“And my mother? Is she in that graveyard?” Inga asked, hoping to catch the woman out again.
Inga saw that Nurse Pracket was done talking and felt furious but knew she could do little more to get the information from the woman. She wanted to force the woman to reveal the truth but knew she couldn’t do something like that. Besides, she thought as she looked up at the sound of rushing footsteps, the police were here now.
“We’re back here!” Inga called out, hoping the police officers would hear her, and waited. This wasn’t exactly how she’d planned all of this out but it was over now, at least.
As Inga watched paramedics take out the last victims of Doctor Nelson she realized she’d also saved three women. She was overwhelmed with sadness as she saw the emaciated forms of the women. Only Joan had known the same terror of being stowed away and tortured, as these women had been, but poor Anne was still tortured in her own way.
Inga gave her statement to the police, told them about the files she’d seen and where they could be found, and watched as both Nurse Pracket and Doctor Nelson were transported away from the house that had been bought with blood money. Doctor Nelson was being taken to a hospital and charged while Nurse Pracket was being taken straight to the local sheriff’s department. That part was done anyway, the perpetrators had been caught, but there were still so many unanswered questions. How many women had been murdered, how many children sold? Who was Inga’s mother?
Inga’s head started to spin, exhaustion, shock, and too many questions and people flitting around joining forces to leave Inga feeling overwhelmed. She rushed out of the house and to her car, leaning against the cool surface of the roof to try to ease the ache in her head. After a few moments she opened the door and started to get in.
“Miss? Miss Parr?” Inga heard someone calling out to her. It was one of the police officers, a women in her early 30s Inga had to assume. “Ma’am, could I ask you a question before you leave?”
“Sure, what can I do for you?” Inga asked, holding the door open and looking over the edge at the tall blonde women with pretty blue eyes. Inga thought she looked too sweet to be a police officer.
“Are you related to Bella Skaggs? You sure do look an awful lot like her. Like you could be her twin you look so similar.”
“Who?” Inga asked, wondering who Bella Skaggs was.
“She’s a model that comes from Louisa Falls, real famous lady. Her parents were Meg and Robert Skaggs, have you ever heard of them?”
Inga felt her world shift a little to the right, wondering if it could be true. “I’ve never heard of her but I’ll look her up. I’ve never really paid much attention to models but if I look like one I might have to start, huh?”
“You should, it’s amazing how similar you are. You’re just as beautiful as her too, ma’am. If you don’t mind me saying.” The woman blushed and then rushed off, leaving Inga wondering if she’d just found that missing puzzle peace.
She made her way back to Anne’s house, making sure the woman was alright before she went back to the hotel and got her laptop out.
Inga filled Anne in on what had happened and why she’d actually come to Louisa Falls. Anne’s eyes had brightened with joy as she listened wondering if Inga was indeed her Bridget, the name she’d given the child stolen from her.
“I still don’t know which of you was my mother but it was one of you.”
Anne looked at Inga more closely. If she squinted she could see features that reminded her of Jim, maybe even a little of herself, but there was nothing that screamed out to Anne that Inga was her child.
“We can always do DNA tests, if you’d like.” Inga offered, almost hopeful that Anne was her mother so she could still have a living mother. “But I don’t want you to hope too much. Don’t get your hopes up, I have no idea how this is going to work out.”
“No, I realize that. But you are definitely one of our children. Whether you are mine or Meg’s, or Joan’s doesn’t matter. And if you aren’t mine that’s fine, it just means my c
hild is out there somewhere and so is Joan’s and Meg’s. Poor Joan. I do wish there’d been something I could have done but I wasn’t in any state to help anyone, even myself, at that point.” Anne said, her wrinkled face sad and her eyes filled with tears.
“There was nothing you could do Anne.” Inga said taking Anne’s hand.
“Thank you for saying that, Inga. You’re a sweet child either way. Thank you.”
“So you’ll be leaving tomorrow I reckon?” Anne asked just before Inga left her.
“Yes, I’ll be heading back to Charlotte in the morning. The police don’t need me and I have to figure out how to turn this all into a story for work.”
“Oh how I’d love to get to see Charlotte once more, I so loved it when I was there. I imagine it’s unrecognizable from the last time I was there.” Anne said, her eyes smiling through the tears as she remembered her youth. “I wanted to take my baby there and start a new life. But it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Would you like to come and stay with me, Anne? I have a big old house that needs filling with the sound of people. You can come stay with me for however long you want to.” Inga offered, truly hoping the woman would agree.
“I might come for a visit. I don’t know if I could leave Louisa Falls now, it’s home. But I’d love to come and visit.” Anne replied, and Inga knew Anne really would come to visit her and that was enough, for now.
“I’ll see you soon then. Good night, Anne. And don’t lose my phone number. You call me any time you need or want to, you hear?” Inga said with a hug and kiss before leaving.
Thriller: Horror: The Cottage (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 12