After following the BMW for about twenty minutes, the car turned off and entered a subdivision of middle-class homes. The nurse drove through the subdivision and then turned left onto a narrow paved road with thickly wooded areas on both sides. Jack slowed down and let her car gain more distance between him. There were no other cars on the road or neatly nestled homes to distract her from spotting him. There were no connecting roads he could turn off. He was like a sitting duck. He remained almost a mile behind her following very cautiously. Then the BMW turned right and disappeared. Jack saw brake lights so he knew that she hadn't turned into a road similar to this one. She had turned onto something smaller, like a driveway. Or she could have found a clearing and turned off to wait for him. Jack immediately pressed harder on the accelerator. The car bounced on the road like a toy, kicking up a dust cloud as it accelerated. He roared past where her car disappeared and quickly glanced to his right. It was a narrow opening in the woods - a driveway. He continued down the road for about a quarter of a mile and found a small clearing. He pulled the Jeep in far enough from the road so it was completely hidden. He turned it around so the vehicle faced the road for a quick getaway. He opened a small cooler on the passenger side and took out a white bag filled with several cheeseburgers and a small order of fries. He opened the bag, pulled two burgers out, and then grabbed a can of soda buried in a sea of ice cubes. His doctor had told him to stay away from fast foods because of the high fat content, but he figured a burger once in a while wouldn’t hurt. Besides, he felt fine. He picked up the Tom Clancy novel on the seat next to him and began reading.
Nightfall seemed to drop in quickly like a giant shroud that had fallen over the area and Jack could no longer read his novel without turning on the overhead, dome light. He placed the book on the seat and stared into the darkness ahead. He switched on the CD player and waited for the voice of Bruce Springsteen to bellow out the words to the song, Human Touch. Jack watched the road wondering how he would be able to stay up most of the night. When the last light of the day vanished, a small car roared out of the driveway and turned left heading away from Jack. Jack started the Jeep and accelerated; the tires kicked up a small plume of dust and rocks. He couldn't turn on the vehicle's lights for the nurse would certainly become wary of it. Jack drove as fast as he could desperately navigating in the dark. He kept the vehicle centered on the narrow road but it was difficult in the near total darkness. He opened the glove compartment, took out a small flashlight, and directed the narrow beam out the window to make sure he was on the road. He was sure the nurse would not notice the tiny light. He watched the two red beams of light as they bobbed and wiggled down the dusty road. He was about a quarter of a mile behind the lights, when they flashed brighter. Jack slammed on the brakes. Then the lights moved right and the car disappeared. Jack quickly turned on his headlights and floored the accelerator. The Jeep jumped forward and sprinted down the remainder of the road. Stones and dust shot out from his rear wheels.
When Jack reached the intersection, he quickly glanced left and saw the car's taillights. He pulled up behind the car and his eyes widened. The car was a silver Honda and not the nurse’s gray BMW. Jack turned around and raced back to where he first saw the BMW vanish. He drove past the driveway and pulled off the road about 300 yards away. He turned off the car, got out and walked towards the driveway. I broke down, he thought. That's what I'll tell anyone who comes by and asks. Then Jack started jogging. He often jogged after work to keep in shape - he believed that being in good shape was a power, a power over your physical environment and over others. He felt more alive when he could keep up with younger people and his triumphs made him feel that he wasn't getting old. The narrow road was quiet except for the constant sounds of chirping crickets. He took out his penlight flashlight and held it between his teeth as he jogged. The tiny beam of light bobbed on the ground before him, illuminating his way. Jack jogged for several minutes then stopped when he heard the loud crack of a tree branch snapping. He stopped and listened. He slowly moved away from his previous position to the side of the narrow driveway. There was a rustling in the brush nearby. The rustling continued and something whooshed across the road in front of him and vanished into the woods. He immediately switched on his penlight drawing the beam into the dark woods. Seconds later, a second whoosh blew past him and he moved the light up in time to see the large creature dance and sprint across the road vanishing into the dark wood. It was two deer. Jack took a deep breath and resumed his jogging.
About a quarter of a mile down the road, the woods cleared slightly and Jack had reached the driveway where the BMW had vanished. He jogged up the driveway; it was just wide enough for a small car. By now, he was breathing heavy and he hoped the driveway would end soon. Then a large black structure loomed ahead, blotting out the few visible stars in the night sky. It was an abandoned two-story storage shed. The gray BMW was parked next to the large doors. Jack stealthily moved towards the car. When he reached it, he looked at the license plate and confirmed it was the nurse's vehicle. Then he moved away and hid in the nearby underbrush. After a few minutes, the large shed door opened with a rusty squeak and Nurse Doherty came out. She opened her car door, took out a white plastic bag, and carried it into the shed. Jack thought he heard something that sounded like screams, but he wasn’t sure. She came out about a half hour later and took a yellow beach towel from the trunk. She wiped her face and the front of her shirt. Her hair was disheveled and wild as if she had just gotten out of bed. She wrapped the towel around her neck, got into her car and drove away. Jack waited a few minutes, and then approached the shed. The large door opened easily. The air smelled foul, pungent, like rotting meat. Jack used his penlight to examine the large room. The wood floor creaked as he walked and some of the floorboards were missing revealing the dusty dirt beneath. The floor had a large pentagram painted in the center of the room. Farther on was a crudely constructed table with a plywood top and two-by-fours for legs. It stood about four feet high. Under the table were several cardboard boxes. Jack approached the boxes and opened them one by one. The largest box contained red candles measuring about a foot long and three inches in diameter. Another box contained a red satin sheet, a silver chalice and two crosses. Another contained an old-fashioned brass school bell and a large dagger with a curved blade. The knife looked rusted, but when Jack picked it up, he saw that the dark color on the blade was dried blood. Then he saw several photos on the bottom of the box; he picked one up and gasped.
* * *
Linda awoke to the sound of wood creaking. She had heard it before when her jailers brought her food. Since they had brought her here, she had lost her voice and she had trouble thinking clearly. She struggled to hold onto a single thought and her attempts to think through ideas were extremely difficult. She figured they had placed something in her food so she hadn’t eaten the last two meals, but they gave her so little food she was constantly starving. Now she did not know if she could resist the food when it was placed in front of her.
Linda squinted when the single bulb overhead went on and then she heard the lock click open. The door slowly opened and it was the woman who brought the food. She handed Linda a soft white plastic enclosed tray with one hand while she held the door handle with the other.
"I got you something hot tonight," the woman said. "I hope it didn’t get cold."
"Thanks. A hot meal will be wonderful," Linda said as she opened the plastic tray revealing hot, steamy brown rice.
"I hope you like Chinese," the woman said.
"One of my favorites."
The woman opened the door wider.
"I like your hair pulled back into a pony tail. It accents your face and eyes," Linda said.
"I keep it this way for work. It’s a special braid that my grandmother taught me."
The woman turned her head to show the braid and Linda grabbed the ponytail and pulled it down as hard as she could. The woman was spun around and fell hard on her back. Linda smashed the ho
t rice onto the woman’s face as she hit the floor pushing it hard. The woman screamed in pain, but instantly lurched for Linda’s ankle and held on. Linda fell slamming her head into a large flat rock near the doorway. Linda kicked her in the face several times with her other foot, but she would not let go. Linda spun around on her back, grabbed the woman's hair again, and pulled it as hard as she could towards the floor. The woman screamed again, but did not let go of Linda’s ankle. The woman brought her leg up, hooked it around Linda’s neck, and quickly slammed her down to the ground. Linda lost her grip on the woman’s hair, and woman quickly moved on top of Linda and kicked her in the head.
"Bitch!" the woman said.
She took out a set of handcuffs and pulled Linda’s limp arm towards a rusty pipe that ran along the wall on one side of the small shed. She clicked Linda to the pipe and kicked Linda in the side.
"That’s what I get for being nice," she said and left.
Several minutes later Linda woke up to a pounding in her head and an ache in her side. She sat up and realized she couldn’t move her arm very far. Then she heard the creaking again and shuddered. The sound stopped and then started again. Linda sat perfectly still and listened intently. The sound moved to a different part of the larger shed, stopped, and then moved to a different area.
"Hellllllllllllllllllp!" she screamed but her voice was slightly louder than a whisper.
The creaking sound continued and Linda slammed the handcuffs down on the metal pipe as hard as she could.
"Clack! Clack! Clack!"
Then the creaking stopped. Linda tapped again.
"Clack! Clack! Clack!"
She listened. Nothing. Then she kicked the walls with all she had over and over until her foot hurt. The darkness seemed to swallow her sounds. She closed her eyes and her thoughts drifted to Carson and her longing to go home.
* * *
Jack was holding several photos when he heard something. He held his breath and listened.
"Tap, tap, tap."
He wasn't sure what he heard or that he heard anything at all. His chest hurt again.
"Tap, tap, tap."
It was very faint and he didn't know where it had come from. He dropped the photos back into the box and closed the lids. He moved slowly like a cat towards the door trying to prevent the floor from creaking as little as possible. Then something caught on his shoe. He jumped back like a cat and shone his light down by his feet. A woman's sneaker had entangled with his shoe. He moved the light towards the corner and saw the other sneaker in the corner along with a pair of men’s slacks and a shirt. He took a white cotton handkerchief from his back pocket and carefully picked through the clothing using the handkerchief like a glove. He searched in the pockets for anything that could identify the owner, and then he noted the shoe size of the sneaker. When he didn't find anything he got up, stuffed the handkerchief back in his pocket and slipped outside. His eyes darted around in all directions and he moved quickly away from the building. A small breeze began to toss the nearby tree leaves. The crickets were silent.
Linda stopped her tapping and listened to the wind rustling through the trees. Frustrated, angry, and filled with fear, she let all of her bad feelings burst out.
"Hellllllllllllllllllllp!"
Jack thought he heard something but he wasn’t sure. He thought it was a cat at first, but knew it was something larger. His chest tightened and he wanted to leave - he had plenty of information and he confirmed that the nurse was a member of the cult, but his curiosity peaked so he slid back towards the building and moved along its right side to the rear. He stopped at the smaller building hidden behind the main building.
Linda's throat burned and she withdraw into herself - the pain had overwhelmed her. She resolved that there was no hope. Her captors were going to kill her. She was going to die. She thought about never seeing Carson again and silently cried.
Jack looked at the single gray metal door to the small shed. He moved closer and gingerly grabbed the doorknob so it would not make any noise. He held the knob tightly and slowly turned it without making a sound. It turned slightly then stopped and Jack let go - it was locked. He moved slowly around the left side of the shed like a shadow - unseen, silent. The building was like the larger warehouse - no windows with walls made of unpainted cinder blocks. He looked around in all directions - he knew he should try to get into the smaller shed, but he wasn't curious anymore - he was scared, frightened of what might be in the shed. Suddenly, there was a rustling in the woods behind him - a crunching of dried leaves. Jack ran through the darkness back down the driveway. When he reached his car, he wasn't even out of breath. He slipped in quickly put the key in the ignition and drove off.
When he was close to home, he stopped at a convenience store and parked next to a lone public telephone on the right side of the building. He hated cell phones and vowed to never use or own one. He said they caused cancer and were harmful and disrupted human communication. He hated the fact that it was getting harder and harder to find a public phone. He was glad that this convenience store still had one and he used it gratefully. He placed fifty-five cents in the phone and dialed.
"Hello, Doctor Stokes, this is Jack. She's one of them all right, and I found the place," he said.
"Good work and thanks." Stokes said.
"I found some clothing with some blood stains," Jack said.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, a man’s clothes and women’s sneakers."
"Oh."
"There is one more thing. I found a lot of photos of children together."
Jack hesitated.
"And the children were nude."
Confrontation - Chapter 47
Homer Whitehead could not sit still. He paced back and forth from the living room to the kitchen. Martha, his wife, sat in her yellow flowered lounge chair with a Rosary wrapped around her hands and slowly fingered the black plastic beads while her lips moved slightly as if she were talking to someone. Homer glanced at her and walked into the tiny kitchen with its dark wood cabinets and dulled, cracked linoleum.
"How long are you going to say the Rosary?" Homer yelled over to her. "I think God has heard you by now."
"As long as it takes to rid the devils among us," she said. "And don't think you are going to watch TV down here. You go upstairs."
"I don't care about TV. I just can't get over what Jack found. I feel like going there and blowing them all away!"
"Never you mind. You let God take care of them and he will you know."
"Sure he will," Homer mumbled so she couldn't hear him.
The phone rang and Homer instantly picked it off on the wall.
"Yeah."
"Homer! This is Jack. Everyone's gone nuts! There are hundreds of people at the hospital and they're rushing in scared out of their wits that they will go to hell. Wilbur the mail carrier died an hour ago, his skin burned and bubbled, and it’s all over town. Every time someone dies in this town, people go nuts!"
"They should be hunting down the devil worshippers not hiding like cowards in the hospital!" Homer yelled. "Damn fools."
"I found out there are several more doctors and nurses involved in this devil thing."
"Really? Who?"
"I don't know yet. I'm supposed to meet this guy and he's going to give me the names."
"Sounds like a damn trap to me. You'd better not go alone. Talk to Doctor Stokes first and then figure out what to do."
"Ok."
Homer hung up the phone and dialed Stokes’ cell phone. It connected, but it wasn’t Stokes.
"Sorry, all circuits are busy," the recorded voice said. "Please try later."
"Damn!"
"Homer! How many times have I told you not to swear in our house?"
"Shut up old woman!"
He grabbed his keys on the counter and rushed into the living room.
"Where are you going?" Martha said as he rushed past her to the front door.
"Out, I have something to do."
"Don't you go chasing those people and getting into trouble," Martha said.
"No, it's something at the hospital."
"I'll be praying for you, Homer."
Absence of Faith Page 30