Once Taken

by Blake Pierce

  Bill pushed the doorbell and also knocked sharply on the front door. No reply came for a few moments. Bill knocked again.

  “FBI,” Bill called out. “Is this the residence of Walter Sattler? We’ve got a warrant.”

  Again there was no reply, but Riley thought that she heard movement behind the door. Instinctively, she drew her pistol in spite of Bill’s reluctance to use guns.

  Suddenly the door swung open. A smallish man wearing pajamas stood inside, pointing a shotgun at them. Riley leveled her Glock at his face.

  “Put the weapon down,” Bill barked, drawing his own pistol.

  “Easy,” the man said, swinging the gun barrel back and forth between Riley and Bill. “Take it easy. I don’t want any trouble. I just want to see badges.”

  With their free hands, Bill and Riley displayed their badges. The man lowered his weapon.

  “Put the gun down,” Bill said again.

  “Okay. Jesus.” The man stooped down and put the weapon on the floor. Riley picked it up.

  “Hands on your head,” Bill said.

  The man complied. “I’m cooperating,” he said. “What’s this all about?”

  Riley’s heart sank.

  He can talk just fine, she thought. The man sounded as nervous as anyone might be in this situation, but there was no trace of a stutter.

  Still, she recognized the man whose picture they’d seen on the driver’s license. This was definitely Walter Sattler. There had to be a reason the evidence had led to him.

  Could they be dealing with two perpetrators working as a team?

  But no, that didn’t fit.

  Riley was getting ready to holster her weapon when a woman’s voice snapped her back to attention.

  “Walter, what’s going on? Should I call 911?”

  The woman was standing at the top of the stairs in her nightgown. She had curlers in her hair.

  “No, you don’t have to do that, Peg,” Walter Sattler said. “It’s the FBI. I don’t know what they want. Just check and make sure the kids aren’t scared. Go back to bed. I’ll handle this.”

  The woman went back upstairs. Sattler was still holding his hands where they could be clearly seen.

  Bill quickly patted him down for other possible weapons. Finding nothing, he holstered his pistol, but Riley kept hers drawn.

  “We’ve got a warrant to search the place,” Bill said, producing the document.

  “What if I don’t want you to?” Sattler said.

  Riley said, “You can take that up with your lawyer later on.” Turning to Bill, she said, “The basement seems the most likely.”

  Bill walked back through the house and disappeared.

  “What’s all this about?” Sattler asked Riley. “What are you looking for, anyhow?”

  “Do you own a white Ford delivery van?”

  Sattler looked completely taken aback.

  “What? No! We’ve got a Nissan station wagon. It’s back in the garage. Why, I haven’t had a Ford since …”

  His voice trailed off. He seemed to be remembering something. Bill came back into the room.

  “Nothing suspicious in the basement,” Bill said. “Should I check the attic?”

  “No,” Riley said. “Hold off a few minutes.”

  With a wife and kid upstairs, she knew that it wasn’t likely that the missing woman was a prisoner here. It seemed pretty obvious by now that Sattler wasn’t keeping anyone captive, at least not in this house.

  Sattler’s demeanor was much more docile than before.

  “Look, there’s been a misunderstanding,” he said. “Sit down. I think maybe we can sort this out.”

  Riley and Bill sat down with him in the living room.

  “Tell me more about this Ford van you’re talking about,” Sattler said.

  “I’ll show it to you,” Riley said.

  On her cell phone, she brought up the photo that Lucy had taken, alongside the security photo. She showed it to Sattler.

  “Damn it,” Sattler growled. “I thought I’d seen the last of that van.”

  “Please explain this to us, Mr. Sattler,” Riley said.

  Sattler took a long, slow breath.

  “Look, the guy you’re looking for isn’t me,” he said. “You’re looking for my cousin, Eugene Fisk. I haven’t seen him for years. What has he done?”

  “He’s a suspect in two murders and an abduction,” Bill said.

  Sattler’s mouth dropped open with shock.

  Riley asked, “How did he wind up with your van?”

  “I gave it to him nine years ago,” Sattler said. “I wanted him gone so badly, I didn’t bother to transfer the ownership. I just handed him the keys and said, ‘Drive away from here and don’t let me ever see or hear from you again.’ That’s what he did.”

  Sattler hung his head guiltily.

  “I know it wasn’t the right thing to do,” he said. “I’ve had second thoughts about it ever since. But if you knew Eugene … Well, I just wanted him out of my life for good.”

  Sattler stared across the room with an expression of shame and regret.

  “What can you tell us about him?” Riley asked.

  “Eugene was my mother’s sister’s kid,” Sattler said. “Her name was Sherry Fisk. I never really knew her. The whole family—my parents included—thought she was just trailer trash. Folks also said she was crazy.”

  Sattler paused for a moment.

  “Nobody knew who Eugene’s father was,” he said. “And I never really got to know Eugene—at least not as a kid. His mother was murdered when I a teenager. Eugene was ten, I think. I never heard the details, how it happened. It was one of those family secrets nobody wanted to talk about. They never caught the killer.”

  Riley was taking notes.

  “What happened to Eugene after his mother was killed?” she asked.

  “I think he was in a foster home,” Sattler said. “He got into some kind of trouble, and he wound up institutionalized for mental problems.”

  Sattler paused again.

  “They let him out when he was eighteen. I was in my twenties, married, getting a pretty good start in life. Like I said, I never really knew him when we were kids. But now suddenly he acted like we’d always been close. And he was …”

  Sattler shook his head.

  “Well, he was weird, that’s all. He could barely talk at all. It was so bad he’d sometimes write notes to you instead of saying anything. And he was needy. He was always hitting me up for money, hanging around for meals. It wasn’t just awkward. It was scary. It was almost like stalking. I just had this feeling when he was around …”

  His voice trailed off again.

  “Anyway,” he said, “that was when I gave him the van. And told him never to come back.”

  Riley took a moment to mull over what she’d just learned. Maybe there was someone in Hoxeyville who might be able to tell them more about Eugene Fisk.

  “Are your parents alive?” she asked Sattler.

  “No, I’m the last of the family. Except for Eugene.”

  “Where was Eugene institutionalized?”

  “It was at the Hoxeyville Psychiatric Center, right here in town.”

  Riley figured that would be their next stop. Surely they’d be able to learn more there. But maybe she could get one other thing from Sattler.

  “Do you have any pictures of your cousin?” she asked.

  “None that would show how he looks now,” Sattler said. “But I think I’ve got an old one …”

  He got up from his chair and opened a drawer. He rummaged around inside until he found a snapshot. He handed it to Riley.

  “This one was taken when we were just kids,” he said. “I kept it because it was pretty unusual for us to get together.”

  While Bill asked a few final questions, Riley stared at the photo. It showed two young boys. The taller one was recognizably Sattler. The shorter one was an odd-looking child, his features somewhat exaggerated.

  Even so, R
iley couldn’t help thinking …

  What a sweet smile he has!

  She couldn’t imagine what had turned that smiling little boy into a serial killer.

  Chapter 32

  Carla had no idea how long she’d been chained on the cot in this basement. The windows high up on the cinderblock walls were covered with cardboard, sealing out every trace of outdoor light. Whenever the overhead light was off, which it was right now, she was in complete darkness.

  She did know that she was hungry, soiled, and in terrible pain. She’d had nothing to eat during the whole time she’d been here. Sometimes the monstrous little man would loosen the chain gag from her mouth and give her a sip of water, and that was all.

  She’d long since stopped being bothered by her own stench. Her dignity no longer mattered to her. Her survival did.

  But so far, escape had eluded her.

  He’d cudgeled her with a chain when he first took her back in Albany. Now that the delirium from her concussion had passed, she was dazed and bewildered from pain and hunger. She’d sleep or pass out from time to time, then wake up with no idea where she was or what had happened.

  But she always managed to bring herself back to her horrible present reality. Clear-headedness was essential. There was a way out, she was sure of it. She thrashed a little in the darkness, rolling her body back and forth. She’d been doing that all along, whenever he wasn’t here. He’d wrapped the chains around her and the cot, but they apparently weren’t really fastened. Little by little, she had felt them loosening.

  Right now she guessed that they hung loosely enough for her to try to slip out of them. The straitjacket was yet another problem, but she’d deal with that afterward.

  Starting with her shoulders, she wiggled and squirmed so that the chains began to slip.

  But then she heard his footsteps. He was probably on his way down here. Now was no time to struggle with the chains. She let her exhausted body go limp.

  She heard the door open at the top of the flight of stairs that led from the house down into the basement. Then she was blinded by the overhead light. She shut her eyes, pretending to be asleep. She listened to the sound of his footsteps coming down the stairs.

  In a moment, she could hear his breathing as he leaned over her. She could feel that he was fingering the chains. As he often did, he started whispering to them—whispering so quietly that she couldn’t make out his words. It was as if she weren’t here at all, and the chains were the only living things in the basement.

  As a nurse, she’d dealt in the past with psychotic patients. This man was seriously mentally ill, and she knew it. He’d often go over to his worktable and stretch out other chains that he kept there. He’d carry on long conversations with them, sometimes pleading with them, sometimes swearing his loyalty to them, sometimes assuring them that everything was going as they wished.

  When he tried to say anything to her, he was always wracked by a hopeless stammer. But he could always talk perfectly to the chains.

  She breathed slowly and regularly, as if asleep. After a while, she heard his footsteps going back up the stairs and through the house. She heard the front door open and close. She opened her eyes. It was pitch dark again.

  She listened closely. She couldn’t hear any more footsteps above her. That must mean that he had left. Sometimes he went away completely for hours at a time, and that’s what she was hoping for now.

  Her whole body screamed with pain as she began to wriggle and writhe again. Like a moth struggling to emerge from a cocoon, she managed to make the coil of chains slip down along her abdomen. Soon she was free of them all the way down to her waist.

  Struggling against the straitjacket, she managed to sit up. For a moment she was seized by dizziness and she nearly fainted. But she recovered and shook and wiggled her legs until the chains slipped down to her ankles. She tucked up her knees and pulled her feet free.

  She was sitting on the edge of the cot, still bound by the straitjacket. Now it was time to deal with that problem. She’d been thinking about how to get out of it for as long as she’d been down here. She’d been unconscious when he’d put it on her, but he must to have done it in a hurry because he hadn’t pulled it very tight.

  She remembered seeing an escape artist on television demonstrating how to get out of a straitjacket. In her mind, she carefully went over the steps he’d used.

  I can do that, she thought. I will do it.

  First she relaxed and exhaled, making her body as small as possible. The straitjacket felt looser. Then she swung her outer arm toward the opposite shoulder. From that position, it wasn’t hard to lift the arm up and pull the restraining strap over her head and to the front of her body. She raised the buckle on her sleeve to her face, then opened it with her teeth. Then she did the same with the other arm.

  Now her hands were completely free. It was easy to unfasten the remaining buckles, stand up, and slip out of the straitjacket altogether.

  But free as she was, the pain was greater than ever, and she dropped back down onto the cot. Muscles that hadn’t been used in days were now in agony, and parts of her body were numb from the lack of blood flow.

  She shook herself all over, then mustered up all her willpower and forced herself to stand again. She knew that there was a basement door that led outside. There was also a stairway up into the house. The man who held her had come in and out both ways.

  Groping with feet and hands, she found her way to the back door. She fumbled around until she found the doorknob. She turned the lock on the doorknob and twisted it. The door didn’t come open. She felt around above the doorknob and realized that she couldn’t open it without a key.

  For a few long moments, Carla felt like giving up. To get out of the basement, she would have to go up through the house. She finally mustered up her courage to do that. She really had no other option.

  Dark as the basement was, she had a fair idea of how to get to the stairs. She staggered around until she found the banister and the bottom step. Step by step, she moved upward as silently as she could. When she reached the door at the top, it wasn’t locked.

  Carla pushed the door open and stepped out into the killer’s house. The cramped and dingy living area was silent. The killer must not be there.

  Carla’s weakness almost caught up with her then. She hadn’t eaten for days and dizziness nearly overcame her. But she gathered her resolve and moved across the little living room to the front door.

  When she opened the door, she looked outside into the dim light of day. She couldn’t tell whether it was early morning or evening. A white van was in the driveway—the same van the man had used to capture her. Beyond that, she saw another house just a short way down the road that ran by the house.

  That’s where I have to go, she told herself.

  But just as she moved in that direction, the nightmarish little man appeared from the other side of the van. He must have been puttering around back there, and now he stepped out just in time to see her. He was holding a bundle of heavy chains in one hand when their eyes met. She opened her mouth and tried to scream, but nothing came out.

  She turned back into the house and tried to slam the door to shut the man out, but he was too fast. He pushed his way inside.

  Carla called on all her resources now. Despite her pain or dizziness, she seized on whatever she could find to throw at him. She overturned a small table in his path. He dodged the table and came relentlessly toward her.

  She backed into the tiny kitchen and snatched up a heavy pan from a countertop. She swung it hard into the side of his head, and he dropped to his knees.

  She looked at him and sized him up, and she realized with a shock that she was more stout than he was. He was practically puny.

  Carla had never hurt anyone in her life, but now a primal instinct kicked in. She found her body flooded with rage, and she leapt atop her would-be killer. She tackled him to the ground, and was amazed to find herself stronger than he was. She land
ed on top of him and raised her fists and punched him in the face, again and again.

  The killer tried to fight back, but he couldn’t overpower her. Instead, he whimpered like a little boy.

  Finally, his face a bloody mess, he stopped moving.

  Carla looked down, stunned. She also felt the room spin, and as she reeled herself, she realized how weak and dizzy she was.

  She jumped off him, not wanting to touch him or be anywhere near him. She spit down on his face, stepped over him, and walked for the open door with a rush of relief.

  Suddenly, Carla couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t understand what was happening, until she heard him behind her and she reached up and felt a length of chain wrapped around her throat. She struggled and kicked, but this time, he was too strong.

  And in another few seconds, the world went completely dark.

  *

  Eugene dragged the woman by the neck back to the basement door. She was unconscious and heavy, and she fell down the steps. When he followed her down and looked closely, he realized that she was dead. He had broken her neck by dragging her that way.

  “Oh, no,” he gasped.

  Tears of grief and panic sprung to his eyes. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. He’d expected to keep her alive another week at least.

  He opened the back door, switched on the basement light, and pushed the body down the stairs. He saw where the chains that had bound the woman lay all around the cot. They were angry with him. He knew it. He had let them down.

  He thought maybe he could mollify them with a familiar gesture—by doing what he’d done to kill the other women. So he picked up his straight-edged razor and slit her lifeless throat. But it was no good. He couldn’t pretend that he’d done what the chains demanded.

  Now he would have to take her back to where he’d captured her, displaying her for the world to see. After that he needed to find a new victim, and quickly. The chains would make his life hell until he did.

  Chapter 33

  Checking into the motel had been rather tense.

  “Do you want separate rooms?” the woman at the desk had asked.