by Joe Conlan
It was after noon when Annie’s rumbling stomach reminded her she hadn’t eaten all day. She didn’t want to take the time from her search but had to concede that some nourishment for her body could help her think more clearly. It was time for a break anyway. She was exhausted and desperately needed it. The frustration of searching for hours and finding nothing would cause anyone mental and physical fatigue. She was fixing herself a turkey sandwich in the kitchen and still a thousand ideas were racing through her head vying for recognition. It didn’t seem much like rest. Her head was throbbing and felt like it was stuffed full of lead. Just when she was about to try to clear her mind of the chaos to give herself a moment of relaxation, one particular thought won over all the rest. She dropped the butter knife in the mayonnaise jar and raced to the staircase. She was so used to the creaking step as she climbed and descended the staircase that she almost forgot about it.
The steps were constructed of thin wood panels similar to those of a parquet floor. With a closed fist, she knocked lightly on the culprit step from one end to the other. When she reached the far right side, she thought she heard a change in the timbre of the rapping noise. She pushed down on each of the panels in that area. To her thankful surprise, there was one that was looser than the others. She rushed back to the kitchen to fetch a clean butter knife to use as a prying tool. Without too much effort, she was able to displace the panel. It was too dark to see what was underneath, so she was off again to the supply room to grab a flashlight. She flew back to the stairway and aimed the beam into the hollow space. The light reflected off of two keys set on a wood plank just below the center of the step. Annie celebrated this time with a victory dance. Unknowingly, her revelry was premature. If she had reached further into the hollowed space, the events that followed might have turned out dramatically different.
The dark and icy gloominess of the forest couldn’t diminish the excitement Annie was feeling as she tried the key in the padlock of the storage shed. Though she was wearing thermal underwear, a long-sleeved flannel shirt, a sweat shirt, a wool sweater and oversized parka given to her by the monster for outdoor exercising, the freezing gusting winds were able to penetrate through to her bones. With the wind chill factor, it had to be well below zero. After fumbling for several minutes trying to manipulate the key through her thick, wool gloves, the first padlock opened without any trouble. She repeated the process with the second with speedier success. Before she removed the chains, she memorized how it was looped through the padlocks.
Opening the shed doors, she was instantly taken aback by the number of nude photographs of her that covered all four walls of the structure. She hugged herself tightly, shivering not from the cold but as a result of what felt like a smack in the face by the insane obsession the maniac had for her. Quickly, she righted the ship, reminding herself there was no time for such concerns. She looked over the expanse of the large shed to see it was jam-packed with computer and construction equipment. It was already approaching 1:00pm. Considering the number of boxes in there, it could take up to four or five hours to complete the job. She had no idea when he would be back, but she was sure if things didn’t go her way, she could be cutting it close. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to search that long. Even if she didn’t find it here, she should still have time to write a note to the postman and place it in the mailbox. There was no use wasting time mulling over such things. If she was going to conduct a comprehensive search, she better get moving and fast.
Annie began her long and arduous task of going over the contents of the shed with a fine tooth comb. Though it was somewhat warmer inside, it didn’t offer that much relief from the bitter cold. At 2:00, she was forced to return to the house for a few minutes for some sorely needed warmth. Her fingers and toes felt like ice cubes or popsicles that had been in the freezer too long gathering a sheet of frost. It was all but impossible to flex them. As soon as she arrived at the cabin, she started a fire in the hearth and sat directly in front of it for ten minutes. Excruciating pain coursed through her extremities as heat and feeling returned to them. After the pain dissipated, she ran upstairs, put on two more pairs of socks and an extra pair of gloves. Since her boots would no longer fit, she found a pair of the monster’s snow shoes in the storage room and put them on.
By the time she made it back to the shed it was already 2:45pm. She decided she would give search until 4:00. For the next hour and fifteen minutes, she left no stone unturned. She searched above, beneath, between and inside of every object in the shed. She even tried to dig in the corners, but quickly came to the conclusion the ground was too frozen and he wouldn’t have gone to that trouble. In the end, the saw was nowhere to be found. Refusing to let it get her down knowing there was still plenty to do, she scanned the inside of the shed to satisfy herself she was leaving it as she found it. That done, she walked out the exit, closed the doors, rearranged the chains in their original positions then secured and locked the padlock. It was time to get back to the cabin to compose the note. In it, she would include her statement of Daniel’s innocence. Hopefully, if they never found her, it would be at least enough to reopen the case.
Annie had considered the monster could discover her plot. Really, her only hope was that his state of mind would still be distracted when he got home. She was going to try to tie herself back to the bed posts, though getting the last hand done would be next to impossible. Hopefully, she could convince him it snapped off. She had buried the excess twine cut from the one hand and two ankles in the snow deep in the woods on her way back from the shed. Thinking it through to its conclusion, the odds were he would realize the other knots weren’t his. Her best and only chance was that in his diminished capacity, he would believe she may have gotten loose from the twine, but there was no way she escaped from the locked bedroom after all the drugs he gave her. Then, just maybe, he wouldn’t check the mailbox. Whatever the case may be, she had no regrets she tried. If he killed her, at least she would escape the horror of his torture and abuse.
Once she repeated the process of warming her body at the edge of the fireplace, she went to his office, grabbed a piece of stationary from the desk drawer and contemplated how she would express her predicament to the postman. She wanted to keep it short, limiting herself to the most vital information. Whether it was a gift from above or simply the complicated way that memory works, as Annie collected her thoughts, she was struck by a sudden idea. She had been so fixed on the concept the saw was hidden in the shed, she never bothered to check the entire space underneath the step. Filled with a new sense of hope, she put the pen down, jumped up out of her chair, grabbed a butter knife and climbed the staircase to the offending step. She wasted no time re-dislodging the panel then reached in with her right hand feeling first to the right toward the wall. Her reward was a huge clump of dust. Next, she moved her hand toward the left and just as she attained the limit of her reach, her finger tips touched what seemed to be a cold, hard substance.
She forced her arm further into the hole and the extra inch she achieved allowed her to slip her fingers around the object and pull it toward her. When she abstracted the saw from the space, this time she let out a true victory scream. Fortunately for her, she blindly grabbed the instrument on its handle or she might have cut off a finger. It was extremely sharp. She was too excited to allow the dried blood stains on the instrument to make her sick. In order to ensure she didn’t contaminate the object any further, she laid it down on the step and ran to the kitchen to fetch two large freezer bags and the rubber gloves for dish washing. Before she touched the saw again, she put the glove on her hand then delicately lifted it between the tips of her thumb and forefinger. She placed her precious discovery in the bag, sealed it then put it in the second bag for extra protection and sealed it. She replaced the keys where she found them and put the wood panel firmly back in place.
Carrying the double-bagged saw to the office, she searched for a packet it would fit in. She found an oversized manila envelope that turned o
ut to be the perfect size. While preparing to write “For the Postman” on its face, Annie was unexpectedly but quite auspiciously afflicted by a fear she had overlooked to that point. She never considered whether she could trust the mailman to deliver her message. What if he thought it was some child’s prank and spilled the beans to the monster? She obviously couldn’t afford to let that happen. Her only other option was to send the envelope to a reliable person as if it were a normal piece of mail. It would take extra time to get a rescue operation together. In the interim, the monster could discover the missing saw and all would be for naught, except for the possibility of Daniel’s exoneration. It would certainly mean an unthinkable death for her. All things considered, Annie felt she had no choice but to go with the plan most likely to succeed. She began to write.
Dear Mom,
First, I want you to know that I’m alive and holding up as well as can be expected. I don’t have the time to write but a few lines. I’m being held captive by Damien Drysdale. As far as I know, I’m in a cabin somewhere in the mountains though I couldn’t even tell you if I’m in the U.S. I obviously can’t give you an address, but while searching through documents in his office, I saw a letter with the name Darryl Lee Presley. I’m hoping that’s his real name or at least an alias he used to buy the property. I pray that information will help locate me. If not, maybe they’ll be able to find me through the postmark on this letter.
I’m enclosing a piece of evidence I found which I hope will exonerate Daniel. Don’t unseal the bag. Please get it to Agent Christopher Frye at the North Miami Field Office immediately. Time is of the essence. Tell him the monster admitted to using the saw to murder Deborah Falcone.
Please hurry, Mom. I love you.
Love,
Annie
She wrote her mother’s address on the envelope, placed the saw and note inside and sealed it. She thanked God for the postage meter. In order to be safe, she set the stamp for $15.00. It would be devastating to go through all that trouble just to have the package returned for insufficient postage. She ran the meter tape through the machine then attached it to the envelope. It was now ready for mailing.
The sun had set leaving behind a moonless sky. With no lights on the property, it was as dark a night as Annie had ever experienced. The temperature had dipped to ten degrees below zero. The wind chill factor knocked off another fifteen degrees at least. The walk to the front gate would take about ten minutes if she could maintain a decent pace. Annie bundled up in the same four layers of clothing she wore to search the shed plus the oversized parka and three pairs of socks. She put the two pairs of gloves back on and added a scarf around her neck and a full ski mask to protect her face against the uncompromising cold.
Before she left the cabin, she grabbed a few extra batteries from the supply room for the flashlight. When she opened the front door, a blast of frigid air almost took her breath away. Telling herself it was almost over, she inhaled deeply, exited the cabin, closed the door and began the long trek to the gate. With the stiff breeze in her face, the walk to the mailbox was more difficult than she expected. Breathing was a chore. Placing one foot in front of the other was a battle. Several inches of new-fallen snow covered a solid sheet of ice that had frozen on the driveway surface. Slipping and sliding trying not to fall, Annie had to rest every two minutes or so just to catch her breath and replenish her energy. By the time she reached the last section of the driveway, she was exhausted.
Toward the front of the property the path to the gate was paved over a thirty foot wide ravine which ran parallel to the fence separating Shem’s land from the private roadway. The mailbox was located just outside the gate approximately twenty feet to the right of the driveway as Annie approached it. She couldn’t go beyond the fence without setting off the bracelet on her right wrist. This meant she would have to stand on the five feet of flat land between the ravine and the fence and reach with her left hand to place the envelope inside the box. Careful of her footing as she walked along the fence on the narrow strip of frozen ground, she chose an area that was flat and free of ice. Turning toward the mailbox, she reached through the iron bars marking the confines of her boundaries. Using the arm without the bracelet, she was able to open the cover without too much trouble. She placed the envelope inside with just as much efficiency. Like most challenging tasks in life, this one would not go off without a hitch. In the open position, the lid laid just outside of her reach. There was no way she could leave it open for the monster to see. She had to give it her best effort to close it firmly. Fighting her exhaustion, Annie positioned herself as close to the fence as was physically possible and stretched her left arm out to the limit. Just as her fingers were able to grip the lid, her right wrist slipped outside the boundaries of the fence. A jarring electric shock knocked her off her feet and sent her tumbling down the twenty foot ravine. If the electric shock hadn’t rendered her unconscious, the boulder upon which she struck her head when she came crashing to the bottom would have easily done the job.
Chapter 27
Traffic heading north on GA-15 had come to a complete standstill. Shem hadn’t moved an inch for the past ten minutes. Normally, he wouldn’t be bothered by such things, but recent developments were threatening to put him over the edge. Moments earlier, he had switched on the radio to see if he could get a traffic report. While scanning through the stations, he was interrupted by a loud pealing noise coming from inside his briefcase. Thinking it was his cell phone, he dialed the combination numbers for the lock to the case and opened it. Lucky for him he was already stopped when he discovered the real reason for the ringing or he might have driven himself straight into one of the large evergreens bordering the two lane highway. It was the alarm indicating that Annie went beyond the boundaries of the property.
After the initial shock, his first thought was that the pager had to be malfunctioning. He couldn’t imagine that Annie would be capable of freeing herself from the twine much less escaping from a locked room. She had ingested enough drugs to choke a horse. The only other explanation was that the machine must have administered an inadvertent shock. Either way, he wasn’t going to get an answer for quite a long time. The radio had settled on a station whose on-the-scene reporter was announcing from its traffic chopper that GA-15 would be temporarily closed for the next several hours. A semi-tractor trailer had flipped on its side and was blocking all lanes.
Any sense of nominal calm Shem had been maintaining after the past few days of nothing but trouble was gone. There was only one way to restore the peace and that option wasn’t available in the middle of a traffic jam. Having no outlet for release, Shem was near what most people would describe as pure panic. His ego was incapable of accepting he could experience such a state. In his mind, it was a temporary lapse of concentration. In reality, he was gradually losing his ability to think rationally. Controlling his stress over his ignorance of what was happening at the cabin was proving to be impossible. He allowed himself to consider all kinds of scenarios, the worst being that Annie had actually escaped. The idea organized a full-scale, no holds barred attack on his psyche. It became real in his mind, developing into an obsession.
His biggest fear was that she had been zapped and she was lying unconscious outside the cabin. All weather reports for northern Georgia and southeastern North Carolina were warning people not to venture outdoors due to the extreme cold. According to his estimations, the voltage of a shock from his bracelet would cause Annie to be out of commission for more than two hours. If his machine’s warning was accurate, she could be in serious danger of death from exposure. To be denied the opportunity of the climax he had been working toward for so many months was inconceivable. He racked his brain to call up everything he had ever read about exposure. The information he remembered brought no comfort. The length of time a body could sustain in extreme temperature varied greatly. There were cases where one hour of exposure to intense cold without proper protection proved fatal.
Waiting in this
traffic mess was nothing short of torture. He thought about making a U-turn in the median and finding an alternate route then abruptly changed his mind. It would probably take less time just to wait it out. He inhaled deeply in one of his typical attempts to hypnotize himself into a calming trance though he knew deep down there was no way to mentally prepare himself for what was to follow.
Six hours later, he pulled through the gates of his property, raced up the driveway and almost skidded into the front door of the cabin as he came to a stop. Every single light in the house was on. He rushed up the steps taking them two at a time to her bedroom. She was most definitely gone. He checked the rest of the house like a whirling dervish and still no Annie. She was not inside the cabin. There was no time to figure out how this could have happened. If she had miraculously escaped the room, perhaps she was able to remove the bracelet. He refused to consider that option.
He had built a global positioning system into the device. When he was within ten miles from the electric shock instrument, the GPS was able to provide him with information indicating its location within a range of twenty to thirty yards. It was now after 2:00 in the morning and if it was still attached to Annie, she had been exposed to the cold for more than eight hours. He rushed into the house to dress more appropriately for the search and grab a first aid kit and a sonar device he had constructed that would increase in volume as he approached the bracelet.